Quote Originally Posted by Eagleheart View Post
(2. Offense
Paladin has no capacity to assist in speed runs, and its existing abilities are not sufficient for crowd control, even when not gunning for speed runs. Even Circle Slash was taken away.

Game is AOE-centric, Paladin has nothing for that. Cannot even use Foresight/Overpower, because Paladin is denied the capacity to parry.
I think it's wrong to take Paladin on an offensive route when it comes to adjusting their ability in speedruns. Rather make them more supportive in helping the party take down the enemy with the following abilities.

With the following abilities I would add the following:
Phalanx: 2% DMG mitigation (stacks up to 3 times) Duration 30 seconds
War Drum: AOE ATT up Duration 30 seconds
Flash: chance at Defense down, AOE Duration 20 second (or however long the MRD's Att down one last)

I think simply adding this kind of support to PLD would encourage parties to use them and at the same time prevent them from just making them a warrior with a sword if one were to just give them an AOE WS. The weird thing is when it comes to the GLA Flash and the MRD Provoke, the Provoke is a lot better since it's "enhance" effect grants an att down reducing dmg while sure flash can blind target, it's not a definitive boost like att down is. When you have attack down it's active 100% of the time til it wears off, with blind it may help you 5-75% of the duration. If they add a Defense down to Flash then it's effect would be useful for 100% of the duration since not only is it useful to everyone but it doesn't have a chance of helping you, once it's there it's there. It would also serve as a good parallel to MRD's Provoke, while they can inflict ATT down to a single target, a GLA can inflict an AOE DEF down.

Then you have War drum, an AOE that deals dmg with large enmity gains. It's called War Drum yet the name makes no sense for what it does lol. War Drum sounds like it should also include an AOE ATT boost to those in range lol.

Then of course Phalanx which is reduced to a single target attack that can only be used after blocking an attack. Doesn't really make much sense, with Phalanx it sounds like it should grant some sort of defensive boost so for 250 TP to add 2% DMG mitigation with needing 750 to reach 6% and then spending 250 for upkeep doesn't sound to bad imo. I mean to balance it out it could be that the Phalanx has to hit the target in order to gain the enhancement. So if you miss then you have to try and hit the target again before the duration wears off or else you gotta start all over again. It's kinda like the Dancer's steps which are used to enfeeble a foe but rather then enfeebling a foe this ability would be used to enhance your defensive abilities.