My hopes and dreams for PLD in ShB

[Big-Isaac]

Before I get into the real points, here's a pet peeve I would love to see changed:
1 redesign Goring Blade
Maybe this is owed to PLD and GLD being so radically different from each other in terms of theme, but GB being a PLD skill just doesn't make a lick of sense to me. You're this dignified holy knight all about chivalry and honor, but apprently you also like to go around gutting people? Of course poking someone with a pointy stick would realistically cause bleeding, but it doesn't seem like something a Paladin would specifically go for.
How to fix this? Well, renaming the skill and changing the DoT would suffice. Call it something like "Blessed Blade" or "Smiting Blade" instead and change the DoT from a bleed into a burn

Now with the nit pick out of the way...

2 a better way to spend gauge
IMO, PLD easily got the shortest end of the stick when they introduced the job gauges. Intervention is fun but extremely situational and Sheltron is pretty underwhelming overall. Either buff the effect of Sheltron (increased block strength on the guaranteed block, deflecting the blocked damage back, giving you a bubble equal to the damage blocked, or any number of other things) or give us another, more interesting way to spend gauge. Preferably both

3 diversify the rotation
Right now, PLD's rotation is split into 2 distinct modes - the combo phase and the Req window.
The problem is that those phases are static, which makes the rotation boring.
When playing PLD, you're going through a cycle of a GB and 2 RAs, then check whether Req is off CD. If not, you go through another cycle of combos, then check again. And if it is off CD, you use it and spam HS a couple of times.
There are just next to no decisions to be made here. IMO the job needs something to increase its interactivity and diversity.

4 do SOMETHING with the oaths
Sword Oath and Shield Oath are up there as some of the most boring skills in the entire game. They determine how you generate your underwhelming gauge, and SO also boosts the damage of something you have no influence over. Either remove the oaths from the game (along with the other tanks' stances) or give them effects that make them interesting.

5 change the way AoE damage works
PLD and WAR have the same problem in this regard - their spammable AoE attack is boring as sin. IMO, skills like Overpower for Warrior and Flash/TE for PLD should only ever be used to pick up adds/trash. For actual damage output, such skills should ALWAYS be inferior to AoE options that are woven into the job's mechanics.

[Aurelius2625]

They are already going to change tank stances, and are adding shield gap closer. Aoe seema to be on the list of choices, and pruning skills means consolidating to add more.

[Izsha]

They are giving a gap closer to pld? Source plz

[Enkidoh]

Before I get into the real points, here's a pet peeve I would love to see changed:
1 redesign Goring Blade
Maybe this is owed to PLD and GLD being so radically different from each other in terms of theme, but GB being a PLD skill just doesn't make a lick of sense to me. You're this dignified holy knight all about chivalry and honor, but apprently you also like to go around gutting people? Of course poking someone with a pointy stick would realistically cause bleeding, but it doesn't seem like something a Paladin would specifically go for.

Okay, this right here is the problem with your idea, you've completely misunderstood the entire point of GLA/PLD, you are not a 'holy knight' at all and never will be, you're just a spectacle fighter from the Colleseum who has equipped a fancy crystal that allows you to quickly master some elite sword and shield skills from the Sultansworn, the royal guard of the Ul'dahn sultanate (and they're not even holy knights either - their scheming, underhanded conspiracies throughout the PLD Job quests showed that), when the GLA Guild no longer had anything more to teach you. In this game PLDs are not 'holy knights' that wield white magic like in other FF games, you're closer to a generic knight than a holy one (in fact, the actual name for the Job in the JP version literally is 'Knight' not PLD).

Also Goring Blade was originally (in the 1.0 release of the game), specifically a GLA ability - it was one of the abilities dropped when the battle system was redesigned and Jobs added, only to be brought back in Heavensward as a PLD ability. And we'll probably continue to see more old 1.0 abilities gradually return (I'm hoping for Phalanx, Red Lotus and War Drum myself ).

Also with GLA/PLD's abilities being simplistic, that is the point. GLA/PLD is deliberately meant to be the 'beginner's tank' that is easy and simple to use with a basic ability set that anyone can pick up and master. That's not to say it's 'baby's first tank' though: it's more than capable of being a force on the battlefield, it all depends on the skill of the player. You could reduce the battle system to little more than "Press X to hit the enemy and O to defend" and you'll still get people who would muck it up. At the other end of the spectrum, they still want it to be accessable to new players so hence the more simple mechanics of the class/Job.

As the old saying goes: "a poor craftsman always blames his tools.."

[Kaedan]

Just piping in to support the poster above me. PLDs in FF14 are not holy knights. In fact, a lot of them are/were corrupt. They are just members of the Sultansworn.

If anything, their power comes from their loyalty, not from "holiness". And yes, in Japanese they are "naito" or "knight".

[InfiniDragon]

Okay, this right here is the problem with your idea, you've completely misunderstood the entire point of GLA/PLD, you are not a 'holy knight' at all and never will be, you're just a spectacle fighter from the Colleseum who has equipped a fancy crystal that allows you to quickly master some elite sword and shield skills from the Sultansworn, the royal guard of the Ul'dahn sultanate (and they're not even holy knights either - their scheming, underhanded conspiracies throughout the PLD Job quests showed that), when the GLA Guild no longer had anything more to teach you. In this game PLDs are not 'holy knights' that wield white magic like in other FF games, you're closer to a generic knight than a holy one (in fact, the actual name for the Job in the JP version literally is 'Knight' not PLD).

Also Goring Blade was originally (in the 1.0 release of the game), specifically a GLA ability - it was one of the abilities dropped when the battle system was redesigned and Jobs added, only to be brought back in Heavensward as a PLD ability. And we'll probably continue to see more old 1.0 abilities gradually return (I'm hoping for Phalanx, Red Lotus and War Drum myself ).

Also with GLA/PLD's abilities being simplistic, that is the point. GLA/PLD is deliberately meant to be the 'beginner's tank' that is easy and simple to use with a basic ability set that anyone can pick up and master. That's not to say it's 'baby's first tank' though: it's more than capable of being a force on the battlefield, it all depends on the skill of the player. You could reduce the battle system to little more than "Press X to hit the enemy and O to defend" and you'll still get people who would muck it up. At the other end of the spectrum, they still want it to be accessable to new players so hence the more simple mechanics of the class/Job.

As the old saying goes: "a poor craftsman always blames his tools.."

Yes, PLD is Knight (in most FF games, not just this one) but you really can't blame someone for assuming holy knight in XIV; the story says one thing but the aesthetic says something completely different. No generic knight is wearing armor with angel wings built into the metal (AF2), cherubs on the shields (AF3), making light wings with their magic powers (Passage) and literally having a move called "Holy Spirit".

They do tend to lean pretty heavy on the "holy" aspects of PLD whether intentionally or unintentionally, so I can see why someone would mistakenly believe PLD in this is supposed to be holy magic and smiting folks and all that.

(Also if they're gonna bring back 1.0 abilities they need Luminous Spire and real Riot Blade that looked like Terra's instead of that lame stab thing.)

[Marxam]

Would be cool if sword oath turned your shield into a copy of your main hand weapon though I imagine that's too much work for the FFXIV team to handle. Anyone who has played white knight chronicles on the ps3 knows what I'm talking about.

[Big-Isaac]

Okay, this right here is the problem with your idea, you've completely misunderstood the entire point of GLA/PLD, you are not a 'holy knight' at all and never will be, you're just a spectacle fighter from the Colleseum who has equipped a fancy crystal that allows you to quickly master some elite sword and shield skills from the Sultansworn, the royal guard of the Ul'dahn sultanate (and they're not even holy knights either - their scheming, underhanded conspiracies throughout the PLD Job quests showed that), when the GLA Guild no longer had anything more to teach you. In this game PLDs are not 'holy knights' that wield white magic like in other FF games, you're closer to a generic knight than a holy one (in fact, the actual name for the Job in the JP version literally is 'Knight' not PLD).

As already pointed out...
Hallowed Ground
Holy Spirit
Requiescat
Divine Veil
The animations of Passage of Arms, Circle of Scorn and even RA and (ironically) GB
Basically all of the PLD-exclusive armor

These aspects absolutely play into the holy aspects paladin has in most of the other FF games and thus are part of the job fantasy in FF14 as well. But if you so choose, you can remove the word "holy" from the part of my post you quoted and the message remains the same. Holy or not, I still think GB is out of character for the ideal of a PLD they present in the game. Honor, chivalry, duty... and gutting people, apparently.

Also with GLA/PLD's abilities being simplistic, that is the point. GLA/PLD is deliberately meant to be the 'beginner's tank' that is easy and simple to use with a basic ability set that anyone can pick up and master. That's not to say it's 'baby's first tank' though: it's more than capable of being a force on the battlefield, it all depends on the skill of the player. You could reduce the battle system to little more than "Press X to hit the enemy and O to defend" and you'll still get people who would muck it up. At the other end of the spectrum, they still want it to be accessable to new players so hence the more simple mechanics of the class/Job.

As the old saying goes: "a poor craftsman always blames his tools.."

It's an easy assumption to make, but I never actually said a word about complexity. I want the gameplay to get more interactive. Interactivity and complexity are not the same thing.
For example, RDM was noted as being very easy to play compared to other casters, yet its design is still more interactive than PLD, because there are procs you have to react to appropriately. Small decisions like that keep your brain engaged and allow you to still get something out of a rather simple rotation. PLD simply lacks that completely IMO.

[Niurok]

Make Req+HS and or Req+Clem~ crit for the duration of Req. Also RoH needs to hit 5x not just once since the player is swinging 5x. If anala's can get away with it then why can't the player? If the SB quest line in the arena has npcs using moves the player doesn't, then maybe the player should get them? I'm personally not a fan of drk or war since they seem to have unique buffs-skills that makes it that much more difficult for a PLD to out-threat. Especially since the 2 jobs seem to love tanking while in dps stances and since both seem to have an almost endless attack buff duration and not something on a cd.