Pally Is Almost Perfect

[Synestra]

Uh, probably because Dark Dance is 30% (Unless I missed a change at some point)

Aww shit my bad, remebered it wrong. But still i would like to see slight reduce on Blulwarks CD maybe 150 or 120 so you can always combine it with Awarness+Foresight, but if thats too much then they could reduce block % to 50% to compensate CD reduction. Also i would like to see Tempered Will as an 90-120s CD as its already pretty situational, its awesome when it works, makes add picking easier in last phase of seph ex for example.

[Synestra]

At the moment we're seeing blocks up to 33%?

Depends if its kite or tower shield, with thordans tower shield blocks were 28-29% and with kite it was around 23-24%. Both Bulwark and Shelltron are actually pretty good with towers as they have less block rate than kites, so you kinda gain more out from those skills when using tower shields.

[Lyth]

Also could anyone explain why Bulwark has 180s recast while being 60% chance while DD is same 60% with way shorther recast? is it because block is potentially stronger than parry? Also Bulwark is pretty damn weaksauce and unreliable for bosses, atm it feels more like filler CD for singletarget fights.

It's not just the fact that block is stronger than parry. It's also the fact that PLD is the only tank which has access to both. Even passively, PLD has an advantage over other tanks when it comes to physical mitigation, before you take into account factors like the unique str down debuff and Sheltron. Bulwark definitely has its uses against bosses - not all high damage moments in fights occur in the form of a singular tankbuster. Bulwark is great for softening up the rate of incoming damage, and by extension, facilitating stance dancing.

DD is an amazing skill, but I'd happily trade in the DA evasion element for a short duration physical damage reduction ability. That's the one thing that's really missing from our kit. The evasion is fun and gives a unique style to the class, but it also feels unreliable and doesn't have the best synergy with the parry part of the skill.

[eagledorf]

Aww shit my bad, remebered it wrong. But still i would like to see slight reduce on Blulwarks CD maybe 150 or 120 so you can always combine it with Awarness+Foresight, but if thats too much then they could reduce block % to 50% to compensate CD reduction. Also i would like to see Tempered Will as an 90-120s CD as its already pretty situational, its awesome when it works, makes add picking easier in last phase of seph ex for example.

For Bulwark to be balanced with Raw Intuition, it should probably have a 90s recast considering it also has a shorter duration and doesn't give a bonus perk like RI gives Wrath (on top of, you know, being random). Then of course Dark Dance needs a buff to match, maybe increased to a 40% parry rate or even higher. That's crazy obviously; they should nerf Raw Intuition, but I doubt the devs have the courage to do it so we'll end up with something bizarre one way or the other (unbalanced like we have now, or stupid like a 50% parry buff up 1/3 of the time).

[SpookyGhost]

Might be lower after every pld moved to vit acc

STR stopped affecting block/parry in 3.0. It's purely block rate/block strength on the shield now.

[Synestra]

Bulwark definitely has its uses against bosses - not all high damage moments in fights occur in the form of a singular tankbuster.

Yeah its good for "fluff" damage and its decent for that but if theres multiple adds that does physical damage it rocks, its just the recast that kinda ruins it imo. Its kinda PLD's signature skill as it involves shield so it would be nice to use it slightly more often.

Personally i love WAR CD's as not only they are multipurpose(defensive/offensive)but all of them have short to medium recast times, longest CD is 180 and its their "godmode" CD excatly same as Bulwark.

[Brannigan]

Where's my tower shield for this tier, SE? Low block power = go hit the showers. Low block rate = feelin' great.

Seriously though I don't like dropping Gordian for Sephirot just because of ilvl/stats. 22% or whatever can go suck a D. Bring back the beefy 30.

Regarding 3.2 paladin, I really wish they had made Clemency not interrupt combos. Also, it feels a lot weaker as a self heal than it did before 3.2 because our HP and boss damage went way up but Clemency stayed about the same, so it's healing a lot less of our HP percentage-wise. 2s cast is nice though. I haven't gotten beyond Midas 2 savage yet, but at least there and in 1 it's decently useful. Sephirot too.

Stance switching is better, but it'd be nice if Sword Oath had a short duration buff upon activation to help make up for the 0 potency GCD you spend switching into it.

It's nice that Veil had its cooldown reduced to something reasonable and I like that it gives a reason to sub Cure. It's also nice that the rebound heal from Divine Veil can trigger it. However, at this point, why does it even have activation requirements? I think they should possibly add something to this skill if future paladin improvements are required, like how it had a blocking component added in 1.0. Not saying that's what it needs, it's just an awkward skill right now. I think the only reason they put the heal requirement on it in the first place is because it was there in 1.0 and they didn't want to spend too much creative energy making paladin stuff.

Halone is still lackluster. It just doesn't feel like a vital part of the toolkit most of the time. A bit more useful in sword stance for hate/damage reduction, but it still feels crappy when you have to use it.

TP is going to continue to depend entirely on the fight. I don't see paladins having many problems with it for about 6 months because everything I've seen this tier has a lot of running around time not hitting the boss. Also, I'd like to see Cover's cooldown go down to like a minute because why not.

[Februs]

Starting in Shield Oath: Fast Blade > Fight or Flight > Riot Blade > Sword Oath > Circle of Scorn > Goring Blade > Shield Oath. Notice how you lose very little down time in the GCD between Sword Oath and your next GCD ability, making it better than what you are making it out to be.

Not quite. What you're suggesting assumes that the Pld swaps back instantly after they apply their DoT, but that is not optimal. To maximize their Dps, Pld's should be remaining in SwO for the entire duration of FoF (unless boss mechanics require otherwise). Swapping back immediately after applying Goring blade is actually a potency loss, because you are losing out on roughly 17 seconds of increased dmg output. For a full rotation of 30 seconds (FoF's CD timer), and assuming you are beginning your rotation with a FoF buff to your enmity, you're actually looking at using FoF at the beginning of a Goring Blade Combo to maximize potency. The rotation looks like this:

> SwO > FoF > Fast Blade > Riot Blade > Goring Blade > Fast Blade > Savage Blade > Royal Authority > Fast Blade > Savage Blade (FoF falls off here, at 20 seconds)> Royal Authority > Shield Oath (oGCD's are not included, because they are rotated in between GCD moves)

The reason it works out like this is because of the timing of a Pld's first use of Fight or Flight, which is typically used at the beginning of a Pld's enmity rotation to secure aggro. FoF's cooldown is 30 seconds. In that time, at a full 2.5 seconds, Pld's can use 12 GCD moves. That's four of their combos (2.5s x 3 =7.5s per combo. 7.5 x 4 = 30s). FoF will be back up just in time for the fifth combo. Meaning, to buff the entirety of a single Goring Blade combo and two consecutive Royal Authority combos, the Pld swaps oaths at the start of their GB rotation.

Circle of Scorn is not included in the rotation, because it's Cool down is actually 5 seconds faster than FoF, meaning that it's up one full combo in advance of FoF. A Pld could wait to pop it, but waiting 5 seconds to pop CoS every time FoF circles around will start to stack by the end of the fight, so it turns out to lose you more dps in the long run.

Enmity is also not an issue in this rotation. Pld's tend to use FoF at the start of their enmity rotation (Ie: Shield Lob > FoF > Fast Blade > Savage Blade > RoH > Fast Blade > Riot Blade > Goring Blade > Fast Blade > Savage Blade > Royal Authority / RoH depending on how much of a lead you need on enmity), thereby securing enmity at the start of the fight. Before 3.2, Pld's could hold enmity doing this no problem and were never at risk of losing hate when swapping to SwO during the duration of FoF. Given that enmity has been increased on both Shield Oath and Savage Blade post 3.2, Pld's should have even less trouble holding hate when doing this.

[Ultimatecalibur]

> SwO > FoF > Fast Blade > Riot Blade > Goring Blade > Fast Blade > Savage Blade > Royal Authority > Fast Blade > Savage Blade (FoF falls off here, at 20 seconds)> Royal Authority > Shield Oath (oGCD's are not included, because they are rotated in between GCD moves)

FoF is 30s long post 28. You can fit 2 Goring Blade and 2 Royal Authority combos into one FoF. If you really want to get the most out of Stance Dancing you would use this rotation:

Fast Blade > SwO > FoF > Riot Blade > Goring Blade > FB > Savage Blade > Royal Authority > FB > SB > RA > FB > RB > GB > FB (FoF falls off around here) > ShO > SB > RA

[Fernosaur]

FoF is 30s long post 28. You can fit 2 Goring Blade and 2 Royal Authority combos into one FoF. If you really want to get the most out of Stance Dancing you would use this rotation:

Fast Blade > SwO > FoF > Riot Blade > Goring Blade > FB > Savage Blade > Royal Authority > FB > SB > RA > FB > RB > GB > FB (FoF falls off around here) > ShO > SB > RA

What this guy said. You can fit two of your most powerful skill into FoF. You're not doing right if you don't do it like this. This... might not necessarily apply for your high enmity opener, though.