Feelings on Endwalker paladin

[ItMe]

PLD looks neat.
I might main it.

[Tranquilmelody7]

They did pretty much everything I’d hoped they would do for PLD and then also made it a healer on top of that. So I’m pretty happy.

They didn’t really do much to shake up the rotation by the looks of things but PLDs rotation has been fairly solid so that’s to be expected.

They finally took the HP requirement off spirits within which is a nice QoL update, same with MP requirement on requiescat.

Only gripes I have with PLD are the same as shadowbringers but none of them are anything close to the problems DRK and GNB face. Things like shield bash and cover being mostly useless and veil not effecting the user. Veil I can live with since PLD got a truck load of self heals dumped on it. Shield bash I’d kind of like to see it made into an AoE so PLD could be an AoE stunner in parties without a WHM. Cover I accept the stormblood version won’t be coming back despite that version bringing PLDs iconic ability to the forefront but I’d just like to see the gauge cost removed.

I suppose you could also argue hallowed ground lost some of its benefits since the other tank invulns were also brought up to 10 seconds duration yet hallowed still has the longest recast. But on the flip side the long recast is still hallowed grounds only drawback.

Overall I’d say PLD is sitting pretty, WAR is up there with it, GNB could use some work and DRK really needs help.

What's wrong with Gunbreaker?
I think it looks great.

Personally I'm even more excited for the WAR changes than the Paladin ones, as it's the only tank that's receiving leveling adjustments.

[Beddict]

Very weave heavy is the big complaint I'm seeing now that Burst Strike is getting a Continuation proc. Double Down also wants to be in the No Mercy window and that might end up pushing the first hit of Gnashing Fang out. Absurdity had a good comment explaining potential issues with GNB in Endwalker.

[Absurdity]

It's looking just fine, except for one thing. They need to either combine Skill and Spell speed into a single substat already or turn the damn spells into weaponskills. This is arguably even worse on DrK since Blood Weapon has such a tight window (To the point where it is basically impossible to get 5 aoe abilities into the buff window), but Paladin suffers from it as well, especially now that your Confiteor combo consists of 3 extra spells that are all on a 2.5 sec GCD.

[Navnav]

Everyone is getting overhyped about PLD self-sustain. It is not as good as warriors healing. The main thing about PLDs healing tools, is that apart from one utility ability, none of those new heals are on demand, there will be many times yo uwill get the healing when you don't need it. Compare that to warrior who heals however whenever, and you cankind of see how it is overhyped. The vast majority of PLDs heals have pretty tight restrictions.

[aodhan_ofinnegain]

The simple fact that paladin is finally getting some passive healing at all, is what paladin mains are hyped for, since the last time there was self healing on paladin, other than Clemency, was Bloodbath back in HW. Also excluding Bozja.
So it's understandable paladin mains are happy that we're getting some degree of healing outside of Clemency.

[ArianeEwah]

I've yet to do raids under these situations, Rotations exist to set Reqs on away times.

You never know what the devs are gonna think of when they create the new raid. Either their "ranged attack no combo break" approach was to fix some old issues or we'll see a lot of disengagements in the upcoming expansion.
Req itself got buffed to 30s, so e.g. E6s wouldn't have such a tight rotation window as you can precast Req and keep the stacks until you start casting spells.
Is it an issue? Not really. Does it seem weird after they fixed the combo break issue? It somewhat does.
I would like to see ranged attacks on ALL melee jobs getting potency buffs (and for tanks reduced enmity generation accordingly). They are still worse than your combo actions, to the point they are not even worth rolling the GCD most of the time, regardless of the upcoming "fix".

This is one of the most broken abilities in the game, bringing it back to it's original would only solve skipping mechanics or possibly bring Pld for easy cheese. Out of Log/Speed runs it's still extremely useful for certain fights, it's only niche for lower tier groups.

What is its original version to you, ARR/HW (afaik it remained unchanged) or StB iteration? If its the latter without any cost, yeah, it would become overpowered. Otherwise... nah.
Correct me if I am wrong, but I'm certain there are barely enough situations where Cover is actually useful, and doesn't result in a mitigation loss (compared to e.g. Provoke+Sheltron or just Intervention) to fill the count of one hand (5) in the entire game - outside of casual content, such as dungeons, or f*ck-ups.
More than half of the beneficial uses in StB raid tier have been turned wasteful since ShB, because a. added gauge cost, and b. revamped tank stance. The only beneficial use of Cover in Omega I can still think of, is O11s which allows you to stay on the boss, and cover a ranged dps.
And if it's true, that Cover is only really useful once in 12 savage fights except for "for the lulz" and comfort moments, than that is what I would call "niche" indeed.
PLD doesn't have an additional mitigation tool like GNB, WAR or DRK. So, either add a mitigation effect on Cover or remove the gauge cost.

It's likely Paladin is going to run a faster SKS 0.02/0.03 extra vs GNB to stay aligned with 60s Burst Windows. Currently Pld skips 2 Holy Spirits throughout a whole fight to stay close on instant Trick Attacks. In other words going to skip an atonement instead.

Eh, I dunno about the faster SkS vs other tanks, that's probably still gonna depend on each fight.
However, I agree with the Atonement drop. If potencies stay on PLD as they have been shown during media tour, HS is gonna be again over Atonement. It's even more likely that Req first is the to-go opener in EW, thx to the insane potencies on the spell blade combo.

[aodhan_ofinnegain]

Eh, I dunno about the faster SkS vs other tanks, that's probably still gonna depend on each fight.
However, I agree with the Atonement drop. If potencies stay on PLD as they have been shown during media tour, HS is gonna be again over Atonement. It's even more likely that Req first is the to-go opener in EW, thx to the insane potencies on the spell blade combo.

If we do start with Requiscat opener, it will have to be pre pop Fight or Flight at ~15seconds, since we can't do the standard Requiscat opener, due to the Spell Blade combo being spells, otherwise, you would delay Fight or Flight's first use to ~45seconds into the fight, a minor thing, but still worth mentioning.

[Cabalabob]

What's wrong with Gunbreaker?
I think it looks great.

Personally I'm even more excited for the WAR changes than the Paladin ones, as it's the only tank that's receiving leveling adjustments.

Plenty of GNB threads out there that will go into more detail than I can, but essentially it has always been a weaving nightmare and they just doubled down on it and the current GNB burst rotation was pretty air tight and the new moves they added are just making it more convoluted.

GNBs defensive kit also lacks identity same as DRK, but unlike DRK the GNB defensive kit at least does a competent job which is why it needs help less.

[Undeadfire]

Correct me if I am wrong, but I'm certain there are barely enough situations where Cover is actually useful, and doesn't result in a mitigation loss (compared to e.g. Provoke+Sheltron or just Intervention) to fill the count of one hand (5) in the entire game - outside of casual content, such as dungeons, or f*ck-ups.

General speedrun raid fights with knockbacks you covered the Blm to prevent any means of interrupt on their GCD.
Warrior Of Light Speedruns Pld Covers the main melee DPS during Pyros, it's damage ticks would only tickle the Paladin.
E9S Cover the main tank for the Busters 1st hit and break tether instead of voking, the Main tank cooldowns will be shared to the Pld.
E12S you can completely ignore Big Lion if you intended the previous uptime strat called Billi uptime, current Max uptime strategy theres no need.. It got used to Cover the Black Mage unsure why.
E12S Part 2 Pld Covers the Ranged so they bait Somber Dance instead of them doing it.

In other words this ability can remove any attention to a mechanic on anyone, allowing Hallowed again will only end up breaking fights again.