Paladin Updates

[Arkine]

Yes for the love of god increase the block rate i'm better they don't wanna do it cause cnj/thm might be op with shields if that's the cast just get rid of them for those classes i wouldn't care if it fixes pld. I have been using buckler shield i can actually block like 1/100 hits while using it >.>.

I think the main problem with stats and block rate as it was in the past and its our evil friend Mr. Dlvl As long as they don't fix this guy, no matter what they do block rate wont be fix cause if a mob lvl is to high you never block anyway. I go fight a lvl 10 mob and i go afk 5 mins come back and my pld blocks 90% of the hits, fight a lvl 30 mob and its cut down to like 40% fight an mob on same lvl or higher it almost does not exist....

FFXI worked around this by having PLD's shield skill a gigantic A+ while other classes were between F (almost useless) to C (On WHM, also too low to matter).

That made Shield very unatrractive to all the jobs that could use them, melees and such had no use for an F class sub weapon when they could duel wield or use 2 handed weapons, and WHM used 2 handed staves or just went for shields with mage stats on them since they couldn't block for crap.

Now since we don't have skills for weapons in this game since the weapon you use dictates your class. (ass-backward concept, if it wasn't around we'd have WARs with 1 handed axes, MNKs with poles or ARCs with crossbows etc etc) we can always just take away one of the useless traits GLA has like Enhanced Physical Def which is 8, 10, 12 DEF and replace them with something like "Shield Mastery" :Block rate + % and get TP per block or something, since our only shield trait is a +10 (meh...).

Also, FFXI divided shields into 5 categories by sizes.

Size 1: Small bucklers that blocked alot but didn't block much, they were mainly used for fast hitting mobs that didn't do much damage just to stop them from interrupting your casting, oh yeah shield blocks prevented spell interruptions in XI, not sure about XIV. I'd say block rate around 75~85% on a PLD with high skill.

Size 2: Our equivalent to Targes, Round shields and lantern shields. block rate around 65~75% blocks more damage than size 1.

Size 3: Kite shields and maybe Hoplons, these are the balanced ones, the block rate and damage reduction was balanced and they just served as general purpose shields for almost any situation, blocks around 45~65% of the time.

Size 4: The large shields like Scutums they blocked most of the damage but had a low block rate, around 30% and required you to be very heavy on +shield skill gear, they had high DEF that added to your general DEF (duh).

Size 5: Reserved for Relic/Emp shields, they blocked almost all the time and most of the damage, they were almost impossible to get without dedicated shells helping their PLDs, and took 6months+ of dedicated work to get. (Aegis etc)

That was a great system, easy to understand and versatile, each shield had a size, Def and extra stats like STR/VIT/HP/Enmity and no Block rate/Block and all that cryptic nonsense.

Oh and the shields blocked often even if the mob was alot higher lvl than you but of course if the hit is hard you'll take alot of damage even if you blocked it.

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What I find irritating about all of this is that this scenario isn't new to SE, XI's PLD was a sad excuse of a tank, out tanked by NIN and WAR/nin since Utsusemi (Ninja spells, two of them, blocks 3-4 attacks, and can be rotated to achieve almost-invincibility) and the high damage output of those 2 jobs compared to PLD's almost pointless shield blocking (caused PLDs to use staves with -DMG taken % on them to tank) and poor MP management (PLDs wore Verm. Cloaks for its MP-refresh effect) and being an MP sponge compared to NIN-WAR that barely took damage and kept hate with damage.

Sounds familiar doesn't it?

SE solved this by greatly fixing block rate and damage taken, giving PLD auto refresh, introducing MP refresh accessories ( <3 Parade Gorget), A TP to MP ability (Chivalry) that at full TP filled your MP back to full but had a long recast, Shield Mastery that gave you TP when you blocked which was now often, Reprisal spell that added to block % and returned some of the damage taken to the enemy and then my favorite, a weapon skill that did light magic damage, and main modifier was enmity (capped at 750 damage, every time when you have max enmity), and they revamped its old abilities like sentinel (Was just Def boost, changed to -95% damage taken and that % dropped until the effect wore off) and rampart (added a magic shield to it) and shield bash was almost always a guaranteed stun and they all now added a generous amount of enmity when used.

PLD became the main tank for almost everything but it was balanced enough that a Half assed PLD would lose hate and get his PT killed, while a very skilled one would allow the rest of this PT to fight harder and end battles faster.

It just irks me that SE learned nothing from that experience.

/long posts ftl

[Alerith]

Size 5: Reserved for Relic/Emp shields, they blocked almost all the time and most of the damage, they were almost impossible to get without dedicated shells helping their PLDs, and took 6months+ of dedicated work to get. (Aegis etc)

Just an aside:

The Relic and Empyrean shields are separate size classes. Aegis was a Size 5 with a greater block rate and damage reduction than the others. Ochain is a Size 6 with a 99% Block Rate (100% depending on mob level and shield skill).