The Problem with Paladin

[FraenirVolsung]

All in all though, I'd ask the whiners to PLEASE WAIT and TEST the features before complaining it didn't "fix" anything. While this is not what I'd expect them to do, at first glance we can agree that something is at least attempted to be done.

Don't even waste your time telling me whatever argument you will invoke for believing this has fixed nothing until at least a bit later this week and some testing. I'll get back with my opinion on these changes once I've done some testing myself. Thank you very much.

You make a lot of great points. I really and truly hope that you are right, and after some testing and play time with the adjustments we can all say that SE nailed it or at the very least took steps in the right direction. I will gladly eat crow the first time someone actually asks me to come as a PLD over WAR. I think that's what us so called "whiners" are worried about.

In order for PLD to be useful it has to be the best tank for at least half the content in game. It has to excel at something. It's never going to be invited as a DD when WAR, MNK, DRG, and even BRD can out do it. It's never going to be invited as a healer/back up tank when WHM heals infinitely better. PLD is going to be invited because it is the best tank for the battle at hand. I love PLD, always have. I hope these changes are as great as they might prove to be after some testing. I look at the list of adjustments and don't see enough to turn PLD into the best tank for any battle. But like I said, I hope I'm wrong and I'll gladly eat crow the first time I'm asked to come PLD instead of WAR.

[Peptaru]

It just makes you use better sense and timing with your abilities. Unless you catch a rare occasion where you use an ability and its animation doesn't go off til 5 seconds later, it happens less often now to me, but it still happens. I like animation lock, it makes people pay attention to timing or die.

[Treach]

It just makes you use better sense and timing with your abilities. Unless you catch a rare occasion where you use an ability and its animation doesn't go off til 5 seconds later, it happens less often now to me, but it still happens. I like animation lock, it makes people pay attention to timing or die.

Have you done the cyclops in AV yet? That thing is practically impossible to avoid if you use even one ability, you pretty much have to be psychic to avoid 100 ton swing and he doesn't follow TP patterns like ifrit or chimera, can do back to back swings.

Can't wait for 2.0 and the promise of WoW equivalent server response time.

[Alerith]

Why do people rage over needing to shield block for the Phalanx > Spirit's Within combo?

Aegis Boon is a 100% physical block that you can use at will. Wait for a physical attack or physical TP move, pop Aegis Boon, recover the HP from it's effect, use Phalanx, use Bloodbath, use Spirit's Within.

With the new low cooldown on Spirit's Within and the already nice cooldown on Aegis boon, coupled with the non-existent cooldown on Phalanx, it's not bad, or hard, at all.

[kro]

The shortened recast times were definitely needed.

Spirits Within change was well done. Having that move whiff and waiting 2 minutes for an ability that was only good as moderate single-target spike damage was terrible. Increasing the accuracy and granting an enmity bonus will definitely make it easier to hold hate on bosses.

Cover I can actually see being useful in cases such as the Myrmidon Princess fight where WHMs get swarmed by ants. The recast timer makes it so that you can use it at least once every guard pop.

The whole regen effect on Divine Veil is just odd. It basically requires you to have a WHM to make use of it. If it simply granted the Regen effect on everyone around you upon activation, it would be much more useful in small groups that don't have a WHM. The guaranteed blocks almost certainly means that it will NOT completely negate physical damage. That's what Hallowed Ground is for. This ability would actually be good if blocking significantly reduced damage. Hopefully there is an update in the future that fixes this. Honestly, they should tack on the guaranteed blocks onto Outmaneuver and revamp this ability entirely to address either damage reduction or MP issues.

I don't think the buffs are enough to see PLD as the better tank in any endgame situation though. While it got some boosts to holding hate against single targets and some utility, it still has neither the tools to reduce damage nor the HP to survive against powerful attacks. MP is still a problem, cast interruption is still a problem, AoE tanking is still a problem.

I would like to see Holy Succor receive a faster cast time. Hell, they should make it instant cast. At least that would make it more likely that you land your heal before the WHM and actually receive the benefit of Cure enmity. It would also justify the poor MP efficiency of the spell, solve the cast interruption problems, and give you more time to focus on dodging enemy attacks.

PLD still needs some work.

[Evaddaragon]

Well I haven't tested it yet, but I don't see why "Blocks all physical attacks from the front" would mean it doesn't negate 100%, or else it would say "PARTIALLY blocks all physical attacks from the front". We do see the difference in our battle logs, you know it as well as I do.

And to those who say it can't work because it works like Hallowed Ground : It doesn't. Divine Veil would block physical attacks from the... wait for it... FRONT. Hallowed Ground blocks all physical attacks... from ALL angles. It's meant as a "oh-shit" ability, but it can also be used for... oh, I don't know, big AoE pulls ? Is it that hard to think outside the box ?

I'm really amazed at how many people can, just from reading a short paragraph, make assumptions that "it won't change" anything. These people sometimes are making me believe that, no matter what SE does, they'll still stick with their opinion.

Like I said again, could you please wait and test the changes before saying it's not nearly enough ? Is it that hard to do ?

And even if it doesn't "fix" PLD, at the very least I have to say that making these kind of changes merely two weeks after the patch is quite amazing on its own. We used to wait for months, sometimes years, to get such changes in FFXI.

[Peptaru]

I'm leaning toward it causing you to block all attacks as in: reduce their dmg based on your shield's mitigation.
We'll find out later.

[Alerith]

Hallowed Ground: Renders you impervious to physical attacks

Divine Veil: Blocks physical attacks from the front.

What do you block with? A Shield. Therefore, it will cause you to shield block for a solid 20 seconds. Not render you immune to physical damage.

[Peptaru]

Alerith you can't just go by help text. Aegis Boon blocks an incoming attack and restores HP in proportion to damage taken, except you don't take any damage on the hit AB procs on. If we want all text to be literal it would have to say "restores HP in proportion to damage mitigated".

This has nothing to do with whether I agree with you or not.

[Alerith]

Alerith you can't just go by help text. Aegis Boon blocks an incoming attack and restores HP in proportion to damage taken, except you don't take any damage on the hit AB procs on. If we want all text to be literal it would have to say "restores HP in proportion to damage mitigated".

This has nothing to do with whether I agree with you or not.

Indeed, but the game has to register the damage of the attack to justify how much it heals you for. If you still took damage but it returned that damage as HP, then the whole effect would simply be "Negates a melee attack used against you."

I suppose we can both be right and it's just an argument of semantics, but everywhere I see "Block" from SE, it refers to the action of intercepting an attack with your shield. (Not saying you're disagreeing, just stating my view.)