Suggestion: Savage Blade Cleave

[Link594]

Riot Blade suffers the same issue, as you could technically cut Goring out to regenerate MP quicker, but I don't think the same applies as the drawback in not finishing the combo vs more MP is not as obvious.

I think maybe limiting the cleave to 2 additional targets and having it do 50 potency on cleaved adds while the original target be 175 potency might be enough to not warrent dropping the 3rd combo on aoe, but then Savage Blade is weaker on single target. Maybe you could raise the potency of Halone by 25 to compensate. I'm not sure how big of an impact this would have at lower levels though. I don't think missing 25 potency on Savage Blade would make it impossible for lower levels to tank though.

[Sapphidia]

I think my favorite suggestion I've seen is to Reintroduce 1.0's War Drum, which would function like a cross between Overpower and the old pre-3.1 Shield Swipe.

That is, War Drum would be an ability on the GCD, costing quite a bit of TP (probably 120 or so) which can only be used after a block. It would be a 100-150 Potency attack in a cone, with a 2-3x threat modifier. You'd only be able to use it tanking of course as it needs a Block to trigger it, but this would then further buff the use of Sheltron and Bulwark as DPS cooldowns. Your group AOE tanking would then be Flash and Circle of Scorn purely to grab initial hate once, and could then likely tank entire packs solely using War Drum as AOE threat in between goring blade cycling.

It's not really relevant to the thread, but if I was the dev responsible for Paladins I'd do the following balance changes:

- Shield Oath becomes available at level 30
- Sword Oath is -removed-
- Awareness has a baseline 20 second duration and the passive duration extension Trait is removed.
- The old awareness Trait becomes a Passive Sword Oath trait granting 50 potency auto attack procs permanently for the paladin even when in Shield Oath
- The Level 40 Paladin skill now becomes War Drum

These changes in my mind would fix pretty much ALL of a paladin's issues (bar maybe clemency being meh) - they'd gain Sword Oath procs in Shield Oath to increase their damage in tank stance without changing their damage when OUT of tank stance. They'd be able to drop Shield Oath to DPS without needing to interrupt combos turning Sword Oath on. They'd get their tank stance at 30 like the other tanks so Brayflox and Qarn arent horrendous to tank for new players. And they'd get an AOE ability that focuses on their ability to block. It would also be a small buff to Awareness as a Cross Class skill as its new 20 second base duration would perfectly match Raw Intuition and Dark Dance.

[Link594]

But why does PLD need aoe dps? It got through 2.x just fine without it, and many people even claimed it was a better choice for big pulls because of block, blind and Hallowed. Even now in 3.x it was the best choice for A2S MT, and it gained a decent amount of trash damage by being able to rotate Goring Blade under Fight of Flight. Tanks don\\\\'t need to have all the same aoe potential.

Because the Paladin isn't always in a group to have people kill things for him. I don't see why you would be against Paladin having some sort of cleave. If Flash did some minor damage I can understand, but it doesn't contribute damage to the enemy and it certainly won't help you if you're alone. Even if Flash did minor damage, I wouldn't want to spam an ability, I'd rather rotate a combo and push different buttons. Savage Blade even looks like a cleave and I think it would make tanking much more fun knowing you're slicing a couple enemies with one swing.

[IskarJarak]

2.0 we had cure/stoneskin/bloodbath/protect/sword oath plus all our cds
3.0 we have all of the above plus clemency... kinda op for soloing if you ask me...
protect while levelling is lol?!

[Shurrikhan]

2.0 we had cure/stoneskin/bloodbath sword oath plus all our cds
3.0 we had all of the above plus clemency... kinda op for soloing if you ask me

If they were all viable, sure, but only one of them, Clemency, actually is, and it drains almost half your mana, and can be interrupted rather easily.
In most cases you'd take more damage as a result of not blocking, dodging, or parrying while casting Stoneskin or Cure than you'd heal/shield for by casting it.

You also produce the least damage of any tank job, making your Bloodbath usage the worst among them. DRK doesn't produce any Bloodbath healing from their AoEs, either, whereas PLDs at least have Circle of Scorn, but at least they can self-heal from Dark Arts - Abyssal Drain for quite a bit.

So, no. Not even close.

[IskarJarak]

eh w/e, i think there are too many crybabies, but that's just me :P

[Jonnycbad]

FFXI PLDs could cast Holy.

Maybe a PLD-esque offensive version of Clemency, where we focus Aether on our blade but when we lift it up, it does 200 potency AoE in a burst around us (but cost as much MP as Clemency, meaning we can only do it like twice).

Could name it after the FFT ability "Divine Ruination" or FF6 General Leo's "Shock".

[Link594]

FFXI PLDs could cast Holy.

Maybe a PLD-esque offensive version of Clemency, where we focus Aether on our blade but when we lift it up, it does 200 potency AoE in a burst around us (but cost as much MP as Clemency, meaning we can only do it like twice).

Could name it after the FFT ability "Divine Ruination" or FF6 General Leo's "Shock".

Haha they could just lower the cooldown of Circle of Scorn to 15 secs or so to get a similar effect to that which you described but the reason I want a Savage Blade to cleave is cuz the animation looks like it hits everything in like a 180 degree radius in front of you.