PLD - Did gameplay improved?

[aodhan_ofinnegain]

I've always been a PLD main here since ARR and I've just came back to game after 3yrs and I have to say PLD has improved, since you weren't around at HW you learn Clemency which is op af and allows PLD to cure itself for huge amounts, you can also now use Holy Spirit for magic dmg but tbh I think PLD should have more divine/white magic spells as it always seems odd that you only have 3, hopefully next expansion Total Eclipse makes the Job alot more fun now too as you can AoE big groups of mobs and you also get a nice animation skill called Passage of Arms which gives you 100% block-rate while reducing the dmg taken of everybody behind you by 85%.

Things to also note are that because the cross-class skill system has been removed PLD no longer can use Foresight, Bloodbath, Fracture Mercy Stroke, Cure, Stoneskin, Protect, Raise.

They have introduced a new Tank Role set of 10 skills which all tanks get but to me PLD lost out due to making the Rampart skill which was exclusive to GLA/PLD to all tanks now :/

The only thing I'm not really keen on is when I hear players saying that PLD is being made to be the go to OT now due to it's new support skills, as to me PLD always felt like it should be the MT due to having a shield and better dmg migration abilities, I'm not really sure how I feel about it as I haven't really done any of harder content yet in SB but it just feels odd-.-

PLD is a sultansworn, not a holy knight, it's white/ divine magic should be limited, but one final skill which upgrades Flash for damaging magical AoE will be perfect, as Total Eclipse spam takes a chunk out of TP currently but no way to offset, like you can in single target. (TP/MP consolidation will hopefully fix this). Also Passage of Arms only reduces 15% of damage taken by party members behind you not 85%, PoA isn't stronger than tank lb3 lol.

PLD didn't lose out on anything with the cross role being added it still has access to rampart, literally only WAR gained anything with rampart being added to the cross role, as before it only had foresight as equivalent, we still have access to awareness, provoke, convalescence as we always have, while gaining likes of ultimatum and shirk which has eased the burden of tank swapping.

So PLD fills the OT role better than WAR/DRK for a number of reasons, primarily, it's ability to generate aggro is just plain awful for the dps cost it sacrifices, compared to WAR which can have a slight dps gain with it's opener, and DRK is DPS neutral, to minor insignificant loss when pulling. PLDs toolkit, Cover, Intervention and Passage of Arms, all are ineffective or of limited use while MT. After the boss has been pulled you may organise a tank swap so you can be the MT but most high end duties will require both tanks to share the burden of tanking bosses, to maximise defensive CD usage.