Ideas For a Paladin Rework

[Paladin4209]

I’ve been playing PLD since I first started the game and when in a recent post it was announced that changes may be made to the job due to it not fitting in with the 2 minute buff window, I figured I would put my own thoughts forward on how the job could be changed.

I think a big change that could be made to help PLD is to make Fight or Flight (FoF) a raid buff, instead of a personal buff for the paladin, that buffs all party damage by 3-5% for 20 seconds. Paladin is the tank with the most party mitigation and support tools and I think giving it a raid buff would further solidify PLDs job identity as the “utility tank” while also increasing viability in raids.

Another change I would make would be to reduce Requiescat from 5 stacks to 4. One of the main issues with paladin is that because Holy Spirit, Confiteor, and the new Blade combo are spells, PLD does not align properly with the 2 minute cycle unless you drop a GCD (usually atonement) from your rotation. This small change would help Significantly with that problem.

The finally change I would make would be to change atonement from a GCD ability to an oGCD. One of the reasons PLD does less damage than DRK and GNB during raid buffs is simply because they have fewer actions available compared to those two tanks. Making Atonement an oGCD would allow PLD to use more skills during a burst window to help with its DPS.

The way I would suggest implementing atonement as an oGCD is the creation of a “Sword Oath” gauge, that could hold up to 3 charges, similar to GNB. Then have actions like Royal Authority, Confiteor, Blade of Faith, Blade of Truth, and Blade of Valour each grant 1 charge toward the sword oath gauge.

Obviously, these changes would have to come with potency adjustments and probably changes to the DoT duration of Goring Blade and/or Blade of Valour, but I think these are the best changes that could be made to better fit PLD into the 2 minute burst window.

[Mithron]

What would be better than trying to force PLD into the 2 minute burst window is nuke 2 minute burst window and make every job more individual focused again.

[Paladin4209]

I do understand that not everyone enjoys the 2 minute window, but not fitting into that meta is the reason PLD is lagging behind right now. If they are going to rework it anyway, I’m merely suggesting a way that it could be done.

[MagiusNecros]

2 minute burst meta needs to die. Making every job play the same is not the way. All I'm seeing here is discount Gunbreaker. Turning FoF into a raid buff and Req into a 2 minute CD with all of their stacks and Holy Blade spells auto direct critting would be some funny crap.

I wager some people like Paladin because it doesn't care about the 2 minute burst.

[Paladin4209]

I fail to see how my suggestion is a discount GNB. I’m merely suggesting implementing a similar style of gauge for atonement while keeping the rest relatively the same. I do think I should have made it more clear that FoF should be 2 minutes and Req should be 1 since FoF is the raid buff in this scenario. I do like current PLD, but when you consider that sometimes my optimal rotation is to FoF 18 seconds before pull and I have to drop a GCD from my rotation to stay in raid buffs there is some awkwardness here that needs to be addressed and I think my suggestions do that.

[Oizen]

2 minute burst meta needs to die. Making every job play the same is not the way. All I'm seeing here is discount Gunbreaker. Turning FoF into a raid buff and Req into a 2 minute CD with all of their stacks and Holy Blade spells auto direct critting would be some funny crap.

I wager some people like Paladin because it doesn't care about the 2 minute burst.

Most PLD players I talked to dont want the job being the top damage and wanted it to be the bulky defense tank.
Imagine wanting that from the only tank who holds a shield.

The Job should be the fattest in defense, and yet we're trying to shove it into top DPS into a design that isn't PLD. Its kinda sad.

[Rithy255]

Most PLD players I talked to dont want the job being the top damage and wanted it to be the bulky defense tank.
Imagine wanting that from the only tank who holds a shield.

The Job should be the fattest in defense, and yet we're trying to shove it into top DPS into a design that isn't PLD. Its kinda sad.

I want big defence and big utility, I like having decent damage numbers, but if PLD was around Wars level of DMG while being strong defensively and having good utility I'd be very happy.

Right now Its funny how Pld is considered the offtank with janky somewhat useless utility lol, If people slapped big numbers on current PLD and kept how it is not that I wouldn't play it, but I've always wanted Paladin to be a strong "tank" a strong "support", Of course I want PLD to have viable numbers and not be far behind the DPS of DRK/GNB (or even war) but I don't think or want PLD to be top dps lol, I don't even think that really suits PLD as a job, suits Gnb, drk or even warrior way more.

Of course you can't just make PLD do bad damage because then it wouldn't really be used but if any tank should be the lowest damage but strongest defence/support it should be Paladin, I've always liked the Knight look so I'd pretty much play Paladin no matter what as long as the job is somewhat fun and viable.

[MagiusNecros]

Most PLD players I talked to dont want the job being the top damage and wanted it to be the bulky defense tank.
Imagine wanting that from the only tank who holds a shield.

The Job should be the fattest in defense, and yet we're trying to shove it into top DPS into a design that isn't PLD. Its kinda sad.

The high end players have made the game into a DPS rat race so they ironically don't want mitigation just enough to survive a raidwide or Tankbuster. If they did they would actually use Passage of Arms for the full 18 seconds.

I agree it should be the tankiest if played well. It's why Knight in FF5 is amazing for Physical Damage since "Guard" nullified/absorbed one physical attack. Which you could cheese with "Cover" to mitigate a lot of damage.

If it was up to me "blocks" should be 100% mitigation or at least 50% and Passage/Sheltron is your big boy mitigation skills.

If the damage is low then the defense should be high.

But you see the argument is always going to be that DPS is all that matters because if you skip a phase or kill the boss 20 seconds faster you mitigate a lot more damage.

[TabrisOmbrelame]

The high end players have made the game into a DPS rat race so they ironically don't want mitigation just enough to survive a raidwide or Tankbuster. If they did they would actually use Passage of Arms for the full 18 seconds.

I agree it should be the tankiest if played well. It's why Knight in FF5 is amazing for Physical Damage since "Guard" nullified/absorbed one physical attack. Which you could cheese with "Cover" to mitigate a lot of damage.

If it was up to me "blocks" should be 100% mitigation or at least 50% and Passage/Sheltron is your big boy mitigation skills.

If the damage is low then the defense should be high.

But you see the argument is always going to be that DPS is all that matters because if you skip a phase or kill the boss 20 seconds faster you mitigate a lot more damage.

Blocks 100% mitigation ? That is not viable because Paladin is the only tanks able to do that. You are literally making Shiltron equal Hallowed Ground, making paladin virtually invincible at almost all time. Even 50% Is a huge mitigation even stronger than any 2 minute cooldown available in the game so far.

Don't forget that Paladin is the only tank able to block AND parry. Paladin already have bigger defense because they will Block/Parry more often in total than other tanks who can only Parry attacks. Having paladin being the lowest DPS tank isn't exactly a bad choice. If Paladin was stronger than the actual DRK in term of DPS, nobody will play DRK because of Paladin's absurdity.

[MagiusNecros]

Because Atonement becomes a Glorified Burst Strike+Hypervelocity with your Atonement gauge. Reworking PLD IMO means changing it entirely not fitting it into a 2 minute 15 second burst window with FoF. If they are going to make a small change like that they may as well roll it out in 6.25.

Seems like you just want Atonement spam as a playstyle.