PLD synergy issues

[Lyth]

I think there are two issues here, which are separate from each other. The first is playstyle, and the second is raid functionality.

PLD's playstyle is a function of several factors. It forms the foundation of our present tanking model. PLD's toolkit contains several skills that are essential for every tank (such as Provoke). It's also generally the first tanking experience that players are exposed to. As a result, every other tank job's identity is constructed by creating flavour differences between it's own toolkit and that of PLD's. The flipside is that PLD tends not to have a distinct identity of its own.

This is also a function of the lore behind the job. I think that a lot of people expect PLD to function as some sort of holy knight, in the same vein as the Ishgardian knights, Cecil from FF4, or Agrias/Orlandu from FFT. However, that was the route that DRK took, functioning as a knight-errant who uses a mix of spells and swordplay to fight corruption. PLDs are derived from bodyguards to the sultanate. The combat set is not designed to be flashy. Their job is to intercept blows and rout out intruders. If you want to give PLD an identity, you need to expand on these points.

The elements are there, for the most part. If you play PLD in PvP (where it's arguably the strongest tank choice), it not only has an identity, but it feels fun to play. It's strength doesn't come out of its mitigation (people are usually after softer targets), but instead from your ability to rescue teammates from trouble and interfere with your opponents attacks. I suppose another factor at work here is that you have more time to make use of skills like Clemency and Stoneskin, while the cast times attached to these skills in PvE often are prohibitive.

While PLD's playstyle determines whether people enjoy playing it, raid functionality influences what job you end up to bringing to raid. This is where issues like damage output, raid buffs, and mitigation come into play. This is a much bigger problem. Not everyone needs to like PLD. But everyone who likes playing PLD should be capable of raiding on it, without feeling like they have to switch. Likewise, people who flat out dislike PLD's playstyle shouldn't feel like they're forced on to the job to meet the mitigation requirements of a fight.

I can understand that people may feel that making PLD stronger defensively and weaker offensively may give it a better sense of identity, but this really isn't the case. It just leads to either an underpowered or an overpowered job that still lacks an identity.

[Lambdafish]

PLD's toolkit contains several skills that are essential for every tank (such as Provoke)

This is where I am curious about stormblood. With the way I envision the cross-role system, it completely rips current PLD apart, they will lose provoke, rampart, convaelsense, flash(?), and if I am correct - stoneskin, and protect. That is 6 skills that could be replaced with more interesting ones, and they would really need to in order to rebuild PLD as a more functional tank.