Quote Originally Posted by Freyyy View Post
WAR is just representative of how well every job in the game should be designed but aren't
Truth right here.

With Warrior it's clear the devs actually had some design goals: build stacks, switch stances, (nearly) all abilities should be useful as MT or OT. Even their "you-can't-kill-me" move has a second function of preventing knockback. It even gets good cross class abilities. The only problem warrior has is a UI issue with FC and Inner Beast not occupying the same button. Even still, it's easy to think of natural extensions to its ability set for the next expansion (your next move doesn't consume wrath, this move's crits generate extra wrath, etc).

Dark Knight has similar design goals but is implemented a bit worse: build MP, use dark arts, maintain darkside. DRK can't use its defensive abilities to build MP as off tank, but it does have some pretty good synergy within its ability set (blood weapon + physical off GCDs, Dark Dance + Reprisal + Low Blow, Dark Dance + Dark Passenger). Dark Knight has issues, such as Grit's high MP cost, but the only real hole in its gameplay is that it can't mitigate physical attacks as frequently as a warrior or paladin.

Paladin has no thought put into it. Stuff like Cover was tossed in there because "of course FF paladins have cover" without any reason to actually use it in a fight. They started to actually develop some gameplay in 3.0 but the cast time and cooldown of Clemency and Divine Veil respectively are way off. Goring/RA don't add to the capabilities of the class but were obviously needed. Sheltron is the only ability we got that I think is 100% fine, but it doesn't cover the gaping holes in the class.

I think posters like Kenpachi are right when they say that warrior doesn't need to be nerfed - for the most part. They certainly could reduce warrior's numbers a bit and they'd still be fine - I'm talking stuff like setting maim to 15%, though they don't really need to do this. They certainly should not touch how any warrior abilities function. Instead, they should focus on building ability interactions for dark knight and especially paladin. This involves fixing things like Shield Swipe, Bulwark, Tempered Will, Cover, Divine Veil, Clemency, cross class abilities, and adding additional effects to abilities based on our stance. This will create more complex gameplay - this is not a bad thing. Those of you who are super worried about paladin becoming more complex will likely be unaffected as these problems only show up on the high end anyway.

Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure the devs are just going to tweak enmity modifiers/damage numbers and call it a day. Paladin will continue to exist so that provoke/conva/awareness are provided to other tanks, and these problems will all show up again next expansion.