The Problem(s) with Paladin

[Eagleheart]

yes I've used maddening potion before, and I've also successfully tanked as a pld even before the last patch, also the numbers only go so far, your calculations can't account for an individual player's skill, you can easily have a pld who tanks well, and a war who can't tank to save his own life.

Making the most of an inferior class is not the topic of this discussion. (O.o) The topic is what makes Paladin inherently inferior, and what can be done to address that.

Can you successfully tank as Paladin? Yes. Is it more trouble to do so? Doubly yes.

Where in particular does Paladin's specialty lay, and is it fulfilling its role in that specialty?

What are its inherent weaknesses and design flaws?

What can be done to amend said flaws?

A good case cannot be made for the efficacy of Paladin by saying that there are bad Warriors out there, and to be honest, saying that "the numbers only go so far" is tantamount to conceding the point that Paladin is inherently inferior to Warrior.

EDIT: In discussing this post amongst my LS (as I have been yapping their virtual ears off the entirety of the day with regards to formatting and presenting this thread) one of my LS mates remarked

"I agree that skill has something to do with the jobs the average player base all having the same issues with pld has nothing to do with skill but the design of the job"

I thought that a good way to describe the matter. ( O.o)

[SwordCoheir]

I posted this in another thread, but I thought I would post it here for all thoughts and purposes just to kind of help outline the disproportional superiority WAR has over PLD, based on some of the new developments from the 1.22a hotfixes.

Not that I don't give credit for SE trying to balance jobs, but something does come to mind that concerns me especially after having a chance to play around on WAR some. I can't really fathom what possessed SE to trade out the defense boost in favor for a parry boost on Rampage.

Most of us know that spamming Steel Cyclone religiously really kept it's defense effect from really building up and the disproportionate D-Lv factoring never really let the defense boost amount to much anyways. Now SE has essentially given WAR/MRD a direct damage mitigation boost which currently already had an edge on over PLD/GLA. After messing around in the Natalan for a few hours, I was pretty amazed by the ability to spam Overpower six or seven times in a row on more than a few occasions even though I was spamming Steel Cyclone on a regular basis.

Now trading damage in one form (Lowered Steel Cyclone damage) for another (Spamming Overpower) is one thing, but parry in itself offers more potential damage mitigation than Shields do. I wonder how SE intends to ever make PLD a viable tank when they keep inadvertently boosting it's main competitor in the process.