PLD highest DPS tank single target

[Sarcatica]

The, "I are raider, thou aren't not" stance. Pld could use a work up to make it more competitive. Adding a sunburn debuff or something wouldn't shift the balance too much and would add a bit of incentive to use it for those classic DF plds who ignore flash because it's hard to understand its importance at first. Also, PLUNGE FOR LIFE!! \o/

PLD does need some changes but straight DPS gain is not the solution. SE needs to justify PLD being the 'tankiest' by a larger margin of all tanks, like what YoshiP said.

[Kitfox]

PLD does need some changes but straight DPS gain is not the solution. SE needs to justify PLD being the 'tankiest' by a larger margin of all tanks, like what YoshiP said.

I'd honestly prefer to see all tanks balanced equally for both offence and defence, instead of some of them having more one or the other.

[Lambdafish]

PLD does need some changes but straight DPS gain is not the solution. SE needs to justify PLD being the 'tankiest' by a larger margin of all tanks, like what YoshiP said.

Honestly I would rather them move away from the theme being of them being the "tankiest" job, as it's really hard to balance and at a point becomes irrelevant as all 3 tanks need to be able to survive. What I want is for PLD to become the support tank, something that fits even more thematically than tankiness. A tanky tank is very GLA, but a support tank, with it's cover, divine veil and clemency, is much more akin to a holy tank.

The OP is right that PLD needs SOME AOE damage, but it doesn't need a damage buff as such. What I would like to see is for PLD to get a holy shield ability in the future that gives a shield or regen when stepped in, and a small bleed if an enemy steps in, this means it can be used for support or DPS (or change it so that its ability is dependent on the stance the PLD is in like equilibrium).

Also, I am also in the camp for improvements to SwO, not to give it higher damage, but to make it a more interesting and fun skill, with OGDC added to promote stance dancing.

[Hammerhorn]

Im hoping that PLD gets something OGC like LIKE dark passenger or a trait that adds damage to flash , I feel the tanks are pretty balanced when talking about survival but PLD has been low man on the dps pole too long. Im mostly a raider and have mained PLD forever also i have all 3 tanks to 60. On the A5 savage stone sea sky dummy im doing 1170 with a 230 weapon thats with 39 sec to spare on the dummy and even still thats 200 dps less than our War. Dps matters in raid talk about fairness all you want life has not been fair to Paladin and since the tanks have equal survivalbility this is a issue that will put PLD last picked for raids. Will i quit PLD , nope cuz I play him beyond what most people know how but i want to see better things for him so i at least have a chance to compete dps wise with War and Drk - All Hail Halone-

[Sarcatica]

Current meta is MT able to flex both PLD/DRK depending on strats and composition. I am actually fine with this as they do achieve different things. It's just ironic that SE believes that every tank can clear any content albeit having the right comp to clear is way easier rather than changing. So it's both the community having to enforce compositions that suit themselves and SE getting the shorter end of it. Because you know, people like to play what's OP.

[Lyth]

The most important factor in determining tank dps is the amount of time that you spend out of tank stance. Your ability to stay out of stance depends mainly on the rate of incoming damage. In most fights, the bulk of the incoming damage (i.e. 40-70%) on a tank is in the form of auto-attacks, and to a lesser extent, cleaves. PLD has three unique advantages in this regard: block, Shelltron, and RoH.

The parry calculation thread from earlier this week showed that your shield provides about a 4% damage reduction advantage over the other two tanks in low parry configurations. When you combine that with 10% strength down from RoH and the additional damage reduction from Sheltron on cleaves, your incoming damage profile should be significantly smoother than a WAR or DRK. This gets converted into an offensive advantage by allowing you to spend less time in tank stance. This is where you can catch up with your dps.

Fights with magical autos are a bit of an equaliser of sorts, but they penalise everyone. DRK loses reprisal, and the main advantage that we're left with is DM. This is handy, but you need to burn a DA to power it up above 15% magical damage reduction, so it doesn't grant nearly the same passive advantage that PLD has in a physical fight with Shield + Sheltron (compare this to 23-28% damage reduction on a block). At the end of the day, all three tank jobs have to be more clever about their cooldown usage to stay out of tank stance in these types of fights.

PLD's main strength is in its ability to simplify fights, both for yourself and your raid group. HG is the most powerful tank cooldown in the game. In several cases, you can outright cheese mechanics with it. You can bypass tank swaps in fights like A7S by denying stacks. You can redirect stacks to yourself as OT using Cover. You can chain stun adds with the only on-demand tank stun move. You are the only tank with access to silence (wasn't DRK supposed to be the magic tank?) DV protects the raid from big AoE hits, such as every second Akh Morn in Nidhogg. It's an absolute joy to play in these fights.

It's easy to look at another tank job's advantages and want them for yourself. The important thing is to find one that you're passionate about and learn to push it to its maximum potential. I'd main DRK even if it was terrible (and it was viewed as such, up until Gordias arrived). If you can't say the same for PLD, maybe it isn't the right fit for you. Fix the player before the class.

[Destous]

snip

Sheltron shines against physical busters, in which case you're in shield oath anyway. Additionally, block rate is as unreliable as parry rate for damage reduction.
If you're using RoH, it means you didn't use RA; that's a DPS loss.
DM is better than relying on blocks because DM is player controlled instead of RNG controlled; also, DM is saved for busters and not for magic auto attack reduction.
HG is overpowered, and it sits at a 7min CD because of it; this inevitably means that you only get one HG per encounter while a DRK or WAR can easily get 2 uses (3 for WAR) out of their anti-death CD; it's not strictly an advantage for PLD.

PLD needs work mostly related to AoE damage, and to a slightly lesser extent it needs work on some of its underperforming CDs. Your example of using Cover to steal stacks in a7s exists in a bubble; and is arguably no more effective overall than hitting Provoke instead and getting the tank swap. It'd also be strange to leave a PLD as OT for any longer than is strictly required, especially if paired with WAR.

[Jonnycbad]

I don't see why they can't make Circle of Scorn a weapon skill and remove the DoT. It would lower our single target DPS a bit by losing an oGCD, but they could buff Spirits Within by 25 potency or something to compensate.

[Destous]

I don't see why they can't make Circle of Scorn a weapon skill and remove the DoT. It would lower our single target DPS a bit by losing an oGCD, but they could buff Spirits Within by 25 potency or something to compensate.

CoS works well as an oGCD skill. They could rework Flash into a wide cone that does 100 potency damage, and it would make a huge difference.

[Lambdafish]

CoS works well as an oGCD skill. They could rework Flash into a wide cone that does 100 potency damage, and it would make a huge difference.

I disapprove of this, Flash does need a rework, but making it LITERALLY overpower is not the right direction