PLD and sks

[Brian_]

That was not a Pld specific change, so it hardly can be considered to be part of their "major adjustment." That would be no different than saying that Whm's got more utility out of casting Stoneskin on a Tank because the changes to Vit/Str. Yes they did, but no one's calling that a "major adjustment," nor does it actually do anything to change the utility of the move. The fact is that DV (and Stoneskin) are still being used the exact same way they were before, just with the added convenience of self-activation and a slightly higher shield. It's still being used in the same instances at the exact same, scripted, times as it was before.

You need to take a step back and check your bias, dude.

Stoneskin went from a 1700~1800 shield on only the tank to a 2900 shield on only the tank.

DV went from a 1700~shield on everyone but the tank to a 2900 shield on everyone but the tank.

And you imply that there is no difference? There is a huge difference because DV has a much bigger scaling impact than Stoneskin.

When you judge any skill, it is always a matter of context. When judging DV, you compare it to other unique raid mitigation you get from the tank slot -- namely Reprisal and Path. While Path is still king, by shaving 20% off the recast of DV while buffing the shield by a huge amount, you make it a much more competitive option against Reprisal's 10% reduction with 66% up-time. Now, because you can have a stronger DV reliably available for enough hard raid-wide hits, the persistent effect of Reprisal isn't miles ahead anymore. This is especially meaningful in long fights with periodic hard hitting raid-wide damage like A7S and A8S that require precision and controlled responses.

Oath Swapping, as well, is simply more convenient. Before the change, good Pld's were prepping their swaps in time with Fight or Flight in order to get maximum potency. That hasn't changed. The only difference is that, as you said, we have a bit more flexibility in when the oath is swapped, and I do mean a bit, because it can only be delayed by a maximum of 2 GCD's before the first combo is lost and the total buffed potency is reduced. The thing is, assuming the Pld does their swap correctly and completes their full Fight or Flight rotation, then the total buffed potency is identical to what it was when a Pld did it correctly the old way. Nothing really changed, assuming you were doing it right before the "major adjustments" took place. Is it more convenient? Most definitely, but that's all it is. If you want to call that a "major adjustment," then that's your opinion, and you're welcome to it, but I don't see it that way. The fact that the actual utility of the move remains the same, and absolutely nothing about the way the job is played or utilized has changed, means that I don't consider any of those adjustments to be "major."

What has changed is that before, you were severely punished for small errors in planning and judgement. At times in content with RNG elements that throw off your GCD alignment, you are relying on intuition, feel and sometimes timeline to time your stance swaps. If you flubbed it, the consequences were bad. As such, you always needed to see the game a few GCDs ahead of where you were. The same situation exists with WARs and IB or 3FC Berserk windows but they had more leeway due to being able to adjust their stack alignment with RI, Vengeance, Infuriate, and Fracture. Now that swapping Oaths no longer breaks combos, you can get away with playing much more reactionary and in the moment rather than being very proactive about your swap timings. So yes, the way you play PLD has changed. The fact that you can't see it means you probably never really pushed PLD to that brink. Playing PLD before and after the changes, it feels like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders.

Regardless, I wasn't talking about any of those things in the first place. I was talking about Tp conservation, which has been a problem for Pld's since before 3.0. I never said that Pld didn't function in the 2.x content. I also didn't say anything about tank balancing in that content, either.

Your words:

It only took one patch cycle for them to decide on meaningful adjustments for Drk (the same can be said for War back in 2.1). Yet, Pld has gone from 2.0 all the way up to 3.3, and hardly any of it's longstanding problems have been addressed. That's pretty pathetic and inexcusable, in my opinion.

My words:

PLD was largely fine in 2.X. Again, you can complain about design but that's a separate issue from balance. PLD was the highest single target DPS MT and OT and had some very substantial advantages over WAR. Block with an i135 shield was much stronger than it currently is and it worked on meaningful attacks like Critical Rip, Revelation, Flatten, etc. Shield Swipe was at worst DPS neutral and actually worked for TP conservation. RoH was their only combo so threat never was an issue.

Most of PLD's most glaring practical issues didn't even emerge until the dust settled in 3.0. By that standard, it took SE the exact same amount of time to adjust both DRK and PLD. And, if you consider DRK's adjustments meaningful and PLD's not, that's just blind bias.

Conclusion: Stop being blind and forgetting what you've written.

This also has nothing to do with bias. It's a documented fact. Pld had Tp issues as early as patch 2.5 (technically, before that, as Dreadwyrm gear became available in 2.4). SE did nothing, quite literally nothing, to fix those issues until patch 3.2. By comparison, Drk had Tp issues in 3.0. Blood Weapon was patched in 3.07. It only took them 2 months to respond to that problem. Whereas, it took them almost half a year to do the same for Pld. The same can be said for War. The fact that they actually did a redesign at all on War is pretty telling of their impressive commitment to that job, but it goes even further, because they did such a good job of it that they were able to build on it without causing any issues at all. In fact, all of the most recent War adjsutments have been nerfs because they did too good of a job ... Now compare that to Pld, who has had nothing but a series of patch jobs spanning all the way back to the 2.x in a poor attempt to throw band-aids over it's deficiencies. It's appropriate that you mention enmity as "never" being an issue, because most of the 2.x patches were actually enmity adjustments to various Pld moves. Seems to me like SE considered that an issue... Regardless, the only bias I see here is very clearly on SE's side of the table, only I was going to give them the benefit of the doubt and call it an oversight ...

They had to redesign WAR because they were unplayable in the content.

In the meanwhile, PLD was the strongest tank of 2.X.

So, why are you expecting an equal response to two jobs on different ends of the balance spectrum? One needed help and required a committed fix. Desperately. The other made it through 2.X with flying colors. If PLD reaches the point that WAR was at before their redesign and SE does nothing, then you'd have a real argument showing SE's clear neglect. PLD is no where near that level.

Even when you shift the focus to 3.X and SE's quicker response to DRK's TP issues, that's because DRK's TP issues were much worse. And, you also act like 3.07 vs. 3.1 (where PLD got swipe changed and TP reductions to GB and shield bash and DRK got nothing) shows some blatant skew in favor of DRK. When I had to switch jobs to WAR as a career PLD for Gordias Savage I was mad. I also called out SE for their complete lack of action from 3.0 to 3.1 when the issues were very clear. But, with the actions they've taken since, to still think that they aren't trying would be delusional.

Also, enmity was never an issue to PLDs that knew what they were doing and were appropriately geared. The changes to enmity were largely to make tanking easier and enmity a complete afterthought.