Paladin Oath

[Sqwall]

This is a thread to discuss the changes from Stormblood Oath gains to the current Oath gains made in Shadowbringers.

I love paladin and have mained it for a long time. When oath was introduced I thought it was a neat resource to use on w/e I need for any given situation.

Bulwark and then when Passage of Arms was given in StB, these were great ways to gain oath quickly as oath gains went off of blocking. Which I could spam Sheltron often for fast MP gains.

Shadowbringers comes out and one of the major changes was how Block mitigation was greatly reduced same with Parry.

Bulwark is removed.

And optimal way to gain oath was changed to sword oath, but sword oath was removed in favor of a trait.

Now we gain oath by just auto attacking with 3 oath spenders.

Cover is now changed to an oath spender, 50 oath with a LONG cool-down.

Sheltron is now bulwark for 6 secs, with a RNG mitigation amount added in ShB. 50 oath

Intervention basically works the same. 50 oath.

Now, with all of this said...does anyone feel like oath had become twice as important important? And I mean mostly because it's never going to be gained faster then your auto attacks and needlessly using oath can really hinder your defensive strategy.

Is this why we barely use Cover as it has a huge cost with a long CD? Am I using cover wrong? It's it mostly for off tank duties?

Does shelltron need to last 10 seconds for the massive cost of oath? Is shell tron fine the way it is?

Maybe I'm wrong here and paladin is fine, but would it hurt to have an oath spender for a DPS skill when i'm off tanking?

[bundythenoob]

I think sheltron should have a base duration of 6 sec (starting at lv 30), with a trait around the 60s making its gauge cost go down to 30 instead of 50. as for intervention, its strong enough to stay at 50, and cover should just not cost anything, but hey what do I know.

I think it would be cool if all the tanks got back its OT stance back to help boost their utility skills, and the PLD one could convert sheltron into an offencive ability (maybe bring shield swipe back :P) but that's asking for a can of worms to be opened, since people still have salty tastes in their mouth from the old stances, which is justified given how clunky PLD and DRK stance dancing was.

[Launched]

PLD is already the best tank. It doesn't need any buffs, it has enough mitigation for every fight.

[Ultimatecalibur]

Is this why we barely use Cover as it has a huge cost with a long CD? Am I using cover wrong? It's it mostly for off tank duties?

Cover isn't used currently due to fight design rather than its CD or gauge cost. Savage and EX fights are now designed so that the classic uses of Cover to cheese things do not work or that Cover is not needed because all jobs now have abilities (such as anti-knockback) they didn't previously have. Fights also lack mechanics, such as "healer/dps busters," that would make single target protective abilities useful on non-tanks

Does shelltron need to last 10 seconds for the massive cost of oath? Is shell tron fine the way it is?

Sheltron is fine the way it is. It is perfectly serviceable as the PLD's short cooldown. It is also currently the only tank short cooldown that can be stockpiled when it doesn't need to be used every 30 seconds.

Maybe I'm wrong here and paladin is fine, but would it hurt to have an oath spender for a DPS skill when i'm off tanking?

Yes, because that would turn the Oath gauge into a dps resource and make Sheltron a non-optimal use of the gauge even when MTing. Consider how much some complain about the TBN and that is DpS neutral when properly used just because it shares a resource pool with dps abilities.

[Vyrerus]

Yeah, you really can't add an offensive ability to the oath gauge, because if you did, then the optimal way to play PLD would be to never spend oath gauge on anything except the DPS move as often as possible.

[ItMe]

Yes, because that would turn the Oath gauge into a dps resource and make Sheltron a non-optimal use of the gauge even when MTing. Consider how much some complain about the TBN and that is DpS neutral when properly used just because it shares a resource pool with dps abilities.

Yeah, you really can't add an offensive ability to the oath gauge, because if you did, then the optimal way to play PLD would be to never spend oath gauge on anything except the DPS move as often as possible.

That's a solid point, and I feel it's one of the big reasons we also won't see an offensive move that uses SCH's fairy meter.