Suggestion - Paladin Identity and new stance?

[Kosmos992k]

OK, so I've read many topics about the Paladin including Jspec07's longish (and well written) essay "What makes a Paladin". A lot of people talk about the Paladin's identity, what kind of tank is it, how does it compare to the others. I was thinking about this on my drive to work this morning, and over lunch I put my thoughts into words...

I came up with some questions and some suggestions that answer the questions.

TL;DR at the end.

First, our identity is based on our use of a shield, no other job uses a shield, SE has clearly elected to remove shields from WHM/BLM, leaving the shield our unique, special property. Coming into Heavensward the effectiveness of our shield was slashed, with no compensating increase in some other aspect of our performance. Warrior, for example, took no such hit to their performance So the question here is, why make the shield core to our identity and then greatly diminish it's value?

Next up, Sword Oath. This is meant to be our DPS booster, and the 50 potency increase to Auto Attacks is a nice boost. It carries no penalty for use, making me wonder why it's not our base stance, but instead needs to be switched into. So the question here is what is the point of having Sword Oath at all?

And last we come to our Cross Skills. We cross with CNJ.WHM, so you might conclude we would be something of a battle field medic. You'd be wrong though. A Paladin's cures are very weak compared to any healer, even Eos can do better. And, unlike Summoner (DPS) we cannot raise people in battle, so why even include Raise in your cross skills? Then there's StoneSkin and Protect, every healer has them, reducing our use of Protect to solo play, StoneSkin remains useful, but it is situational. So the question is, why give us cross class skills with CNJ only to hobble them?

So The Questions are;

• Why make the shield core to our identity and then greatly diminish it's value?
• What is the point of having Sword Oath at all?
• Why give us cross class skills with CNJ only to hobble them?

:Edit:

The changes to Shield Swipe help a bit with respect to the value of the shield, but I think that more needs to be done.

Having read some recent posts, and considered my own experience playing recently, I find myself agreeing that the changes to shield swipe have on balance actually resulted in PLD who previously used the skill very effectively now having some reduction in DPS, reduced enmity and even increased TP use based on the reduction in potency and the 15s re-use limitation, which just serves to make the shield even less effective.... Since the effectiveness of our shield was reduced so much, a compensating factor could be to make them effective against magic as well.

Without a change to Sword Oath, I see no point to it at all. Either make it a trait, and give us Shield Oath at the same time, or revamp Sword Oath. I'm thinking in terms of making Sword Oath an actual stance that we switch to, not simply the default stance that we have to remember to switch on.

So, I suggest making the increase in auto attack potency a trait, not a skill or stance. Disable it in Shield Oath, leave it enabled in Sword Oath and modify Sword Oath as follows;

• increase damage dealt by 10%,
• increase Skill Speed by 10%,
• decrease rate of enmity gain by 5%
• decrease block rate and block strength by 10% each

This would reflect the focus on Sword in Sword Oath, resulting in less defense and less enmity gain (as a balancing factor), but increased damage.
Edit : this stacks the old Sword oath and new together, which would be OP, so drop the current effect of Sword Oath, and change it to a smaller potency boost to all our attack skills - I haven't 'done the math' for this so I can't suggest a particular number. However the increase in DPS needs to be noticeable, but not in any way rival the output of a Warrior in their DPS stance.

Finally our cross class skills I think provide the opportunity for a greater change to the job. Introduce a new stance. The Oath of Solace. A paladin in this stance switches attention to the healing arts. While in this stance;

• Can raise in battle
• Interruption of spells (Cure, Raise, Protect, StoneSkin, and Clemency) is 50% less likely
• Cure strength is based on the average of the Paladin's MND and VIT Edit: or simply a mild boost to the Potency of cure
• Enmity gain from over healing is doubled.
• AutoAttack potency is reduced to 50% of base
• decreased block rate and block strength (10% each).
• Edit: Both MP and HP used (equal to the current MP useage) when Casting Cure as a balancing factor to prevent PLD sitting in this stance as a second healer in a party

As it does now, stance switching burns a cool down, the Paladin would effectively have 4 stances, Neutral, Attack, Defend and Healing.

My thought with 4 stances is that the Paladin can be a jack of all trades, plugging whatever gap is needed in addition to the times when they play MT. It would make them a very useful OT since in the OT Role, they can freely switch from attack to healing if the healers are in trouble, or one falls. If the MT falls the PLD can switch to their Defensive stance and provoke the Boss to grab aggro. Finally the modification of Sword Oath gives it enhanced value, but also a penalty for use giving it a defined purpose and leaving the Paladin the option of not using it, to retain their full defensive capabilities.

I'm thinking that this would be done by giving the basic Sword and Shield Oaths at level 30, and then at level 40, apply a trait to boost auto attack potency by 50, and add the Oath of Solace (Healer stance). This would also address the very frequent complaint that Paladins have to wait until level 40 to get their tanking stance.

One other thing I have wondered about is making the type of shield matter, since shields are important to our identity. Bucklers are so much lighter than other shields, we should be able to move faster with them. Scutum's are so bulky we ought to move more slowly with them. I'd like to see a Skill Speed modifier on the shields based on the type of shield. Bucker is +5%, Scutums are -5% and all others are neutral(+0%).

The TL;DR version;
The shield is core to Paladin identity. Changes to blocking diminish that. Sword Oath is pointless. The CNJ cross class abilities are lacking.
Three questions;

• Why make the shield core to our identity and then greatly diminish it's value?
• What is the point of having Sword Oath at all?
• Why give us cross class skills with CNJ only to hobble them?

Current Sword Oath effect should be a trait. Create new Sword Oath to increase dps and decrease defense. Shields can block magic. No change to Shield oath. Add new Oath of Solace - healing stance. Healing stance allows Raise during battle, increases strength of Cure, decreases DPS and defense. PLD would have 4 stance options, no stance, attack (Sword Oath), defense (Shield Oath) and healing (Oath of Solace). Size of shield has small effect on Skill Speed.

Make a virtue of the fact that the Paladin is really a master of no 'trade' by making them a jack of all trades based on their stances.