Possible changes to help PLD

[lshumaker]

I was just thinking of some changes that might help PLD, and I decided to post them here to see what the rest of the community thinks. I know I haven't done much endgame content, so these changes are based more on what I've been reading on the forums. Please keep the conversation civil.

Damage mods: STR/MND changes to VIT/MND

Cover:
Stance ability. Only one stance may be active at a time. Nearby party members take 10% less damage from enemy attacks. AF enhancement: Nearby party members take 25% less damage from enemy attacks.

Divine Veil:
Divine regen is placed on the PLD as well. Otherwise, it is the same as it currently is.

Outmaneuver:
Stance ability. Only one stance may be active at a time. Greatly increases block rate and damage mitigated from blocks. Restores TP with each block. GLA trait: Adds MP restore with each block.

War Drum:
Instead of dealing damage, it greatly increases the attack of all party members (includes the PLD) in range. Generates massive enmity based on the number of allies affected.

Holy Succor:
Heals PLD and all party members near it. The AF enhancement remains the same.

Reprisal (note: for level cap rise):
PLD spell. Buff type. 20% of damage the user takes is dealt to all enemies nearby for the duration of the buff. Generates a large amount of enmity with each pulse.

Sacred Knowledge:
PLD trait (not GLA trait). PLD can block most magic attacks with a shield (applies to both autoblock and skills that force block).

Divine Defense:
PLD trait. PLD takes 10% less damage.

Edit: Edits are italicized

[Enfarious]

I was just thinking of some changes that might help PLD, and I decided to post them here to see what the rest of the community thinks. I know I haven't done much endgame content, so these changes are based more on what I've been reading on the forums. Please keep the conversation civil.

Damage mods: STR/MND changes to VIT/MND

^God Yes Please change those ...

Cover:
Stance ability. Only one stance may be active at a time. Nearby party members take 10% less damage from enemy attacks. AF enhancement: Nearby party members take 25% less damage from enemy attacks.

Divine Veil:
Divine regen is placed on the PLD as well. Otherwise, it is the same as it currently is.

Outmaneuver:
Stance ability. Only one stance may be active at a time. Greatly increases block rate and damage mitigated from blocks. Restores TP with each block. GLA trait: Adds MP restore with each block.

War Drum:
Instead of dealing damage, it greatly increases the attack of all party members in range.

Holy Succor:
Heals PLD and all party members near it. The AF enhancement remains the same.

Reprisal (note: for level cap rise):
PLD spell. Buff type. 20% of damage the user takes is dealt to all enemies nearby for the duration of the buff. Generates a large amount of enmity with each pulse.

Sacred Knowledge:
PLD trait (not GLA trait). PLD can block most magic attacks with a shield (applies to both autoblock and skills that force block).

Divine Defense:
PLD trait. PLD takes 10% less damage.

The rest, I mostly like.

War Drum change is still a must and that would work, though I think a +enmity on it would be nice too, maybe for duration 25% of affected pt members enmity is shifted to GLA/PLD?

Veil I swear somebody just missed a typo in their code, leaving PLD out of it's own regen ...

[Duelle]

War Drum change is still a must and that would work, though I think a +enmity on it would be nice too, maybe for duration 25% of affected pt members enmity is shifted to GLA/PLD?

I agree on the War Drum change as well. I think +Attack to everyone (including the GLA/PLD) and an enmity spike would go a long way. The question is how long should the effect be. I'd like to see the effect last for maybe slightly less than War Drum's cooldown, encouraging a GLA to keep it up as much as they can.

[Enfarious]

I agree on the War Drum change as well. I think +Attack to everyone (including the GLA/PLD) and an enmity spike would go a long way. The question is how long should the effect be. I'd like to see the effect last for maybe slightly less than War Drum's cooldown, encouraging a GLA to keep it up as much as they can.

With a enmity transfer from effected melees it'd be tough to not end up OPd with a duration much longer than 10secs. If it's a single enmity spike on use then I could see it lasting 30+ seconds.

I could even say if it just provided the same "increased enmity generation from ALL actions" that antagonize does being gla/pld only with a smallish attk buff for nearby party members. Duration 30 seconds.

The damage component is so weak now it might as well not be there so lose it and make the ability worth paying attention too again.

[lshumaker]

^God Yes Please change those ...



The rest, I mostly like.

War Drum change is still a must and that would work, though I think a +enmity on it would be nice too, maybe for duration 25% of affected pt members enmity is shifted to GLA/PLD?

Veil I swear somebody just missed a typo in their code, leaving PLD out of it's own regen ...

Sorry, I had meant for the enmity part that it has currently to remain the same. I'll change the OP.

[PiedPiper]

I have been trying desperately to convince myself pld is viable for endgame, and I think it is much closer with this patch. Honestly, I believe nothing so drastic as these entire reforms of abilities or damage mods is needed. I really believe that these two simple fixes would put pld on equal par with warrior:

Wardum: As it is, just make it 2-3 times as potent as it is now. This is based on the observation that if I, in +153 enmity, use wardum and flash, and my cotank (a war in dd and enmity gear of equal quality) blows, SC, I end up yellow/red to him. If wardrum was about 300% what it is, I would stay red over SC or flare.

This is just to solve pld's spike/initial AOE threat problem (Honestly our single target is mostly fine, its a little weak, but its manageable, I can hold miser off mnks hitting nearly 30k and this would make the single target just that last bit stronger it needs).

To solve the AOE threat upkeep problem (relying on flash and wardrum isn't that great since they are such long cool downs):

Make riot blade, exactly as it is now in terms of damage, combo bonus, and so on, area of effect. This will answer the endless calls to bring circle blade back without making PLD op. It would be very similar to what SC does for war. Its a tp move in an enmity combo that helps you hold the group, it obviously hits for much less than SC (again, i think its current damage is fine) though it can be used more often given enough tp. PLD would not thereby become some godly aoe dd (thus robing wars drgs and blms from their shining moments) but it would be able to at least try to hold threat in trash pulls in speed runs, which is where it is currently the weakest.

Justification of these two changes:
I really feel that pld's Boss threat is about fine, it could be a little better, and the wardrum change does that. The problem isn't with bosses, its with getting to the bosses. Examples are the sentry/sentry and piest room in early CC, the wasps/toadstool pull at AV's last gate, the imperial pulls in AV, and the wasp/lilly/toad pull in room two of AV. All of these are MUCH riskier at present with a pld tank than a war tank simply because pld can not put up enough aoe threat. The combined change of wardrum and riot blade suggested here wold solve that without making pld massively stronger than it is. Also, neither of these changes require any new mechanic such as a group threat transfer or new abilities be added, or even really a major change to an existing ability. These should be so simple they could be done in a hotfix there by making them that much more likely to be actually implemented. I really feel these would make pld essentially dead equal to warrior in terms of threat generation, leaving the two equally viable options of a tank with more survivability and group support and a tank with more damage.

Reason for changing riot blade rather than bringing back circle slash:
A) launch circle slash was really strong, i think it would be op now.
B) we don't need ANOTHER button
C) You coudln't possibly have its combo bonus be +emnity if they gave us another one, cus then we'd have so many it'd be totally broken
D) riot blade does kidna sound like its to deal with riots, which are crowd affairs.....
E) it is was recently overshadowed with the increase in damage to the other combo path, so it makes sense to buff this one.
F) By leaving riot blade as it is damage wise and not adding another combo in the form of circle slash, this change has NO EFFECT on boss threat, there by posing no risk to game balance with regards to bosses such as Chim Ifrit and Mistress while again making pld more viable for moogle and garuda (sisters tanking and all teh little minion moogle tanking).

If circle slash simply must come back, then it should combo off riot blade with like, +accuracy or something.

[MoarLegion]

Personally I'd be content with an auto-refresh trait. Even 10 mp every 3 seconds would help a ton.