PLD Requires more Skills

[karateorangutang]

But Ryu IS boring!....... The whole Street Fight is boring!.. There, I stated my personal opinion as a fact and you have to accept it!...... j/k

Holmgang is stronger than Tempered Will as it is WAR's version of HG. But that in itself is a problem. Holmgang is an ability that is trying to do too many things at the same time, something that makes it a bit iffy. Imo Holmgang should be useable without a target, maybe have it NOT apply the root on your if you have no target. I'm not gonna discuss its situationality. Holmgang is interesting because, like a lot of WAR's toolkit, it can be used as a choice. "Should I use it now and prevent a knockback" or "save it and prevent a death without using other CDs".

Cover had seen some good utility in the past. But Cover, IMO should also "cover" magical attacks. Most other games that have similar abilities (Aion Bodyguard and Tera getting between boss and party member and blocking) allow for magical damage to be transferred as well. This would increase its usefulness by a lot. Specially if PLD can, for example, cover the other tank and pop HG to negate damage from two targets (like the hands split in A3S).

The problem is, the devs can't design encounters where Cover or Tempered will are mandatory because that would literally shelf the other two tanks. Devs should, however, make niche uses (like T13 Earth Shakers) for these abilities. These abilities are, sadly, just situational and cannot have anything done to them other than changing them entirely.

As for PLD being "boring", that is a subjective thing, some people find it fun to 1, 2, 3 and pop a CD whenever needed. Others like complexity like resource management (Wrath/Abandon or MP). If PLD's "simplicity" is boring you, then it is not the class that you should be playing. I know there is also the aesthetic thing (Liking sword&board or knight in shining armor), but in the end you pick a class that already plays the way you like, not a random class and then demand it plays the way you like. Though, to some people, aesthetics are too important I guess.

Take me for example, I despise the two handed axe aesthetic and actually like dual swords, sword&board or spears. But the play style that I like is tanks that build up resource then unload (warrior rage in WoW in Vanilla/TBC, DK runes in Wrath) and pet summoning casters (In WoW I had a warlock alt and in Aion I had Spiritmaster alt). As a result I ended up playing WAR in the 2.xx series with SMN as my off-spec when content was solo-tanked. I thought DRK (a class I hoped would be a DPS anyways) would be a new favorite but it ended up a bust as it felt (to me) a lot like a PLD with an MP minigame. So ignoring aesthetics, I chose WAR until 3.0 came out, and now I'm a SMN main (again) because I hate being relegated to the OT spot. If I'm to act as a DPS, might as well play a full fledged one. WAR is my off-spec now and my second class to gear as I still enjoy tanking.

My personal story should be of no importance to this thread, but I mentioned it as a reference of how you should pick your class instead of picking the class that looks like what you like and then demand it plays the way you like. I wish monks could tank, that would be cool, also pugilists had the tanking abilities early 1.xx series, but you don't see me on the forums demanding that it does.

Yeah I wish I could put whatever aesthetic i wanted to on my tank. I play WAR now because I enjoy it's dynamic skill set, but I wish it looked more like gladiator does. I dig the middle eastern scimitar/buckler theme that gladiator gets at the beginning.

On the dynamics front, having cover block magic attacks wouldn't need fight redesigns, but it would allow for alternative strategies on fights with a single large boss. Fix the enmity on it's combo's. I think PLD still needs a way to get a regain effect, put it on tempered will while in sword oath. I agree with spooky that there should be a rework on how the slashing debuff works since so many classes utilize this type of weapon. Stackable up to 10% with everybody getting a 5% bebuff skill, although I admit this is a slippery slope, but just an initial idea.

I'd really like to see them only have one stance and get the other as a passive that when the active stance is turned on it deactivate the passive one.

PS Don't be bagging on my boy Ryu. He's got all sorts of cool characteristics about him... even if he is a karate Luke Skywalker. >.>;;