PLD changes; thoughts?

[Oextra]

Personally my only complaints are that cover is still pretty useless, and FoF should have stayed at 25s or they should've changed atonement's recast time to an unchangeable 2s, or at least 0.3s less than normal gcd recast. I really wish they threw 20-30% mit on Cover or something that would give players a reason to use it more often. The reduction to FoF is an annoyance because it now has the same problem as No Mercy, in that is not long enough for the burst, not comfortably anyways. Sure 2.4ish recast, you can squeeze all 3 atonements and holy spirit at the end, but it's super tight.

If the left FoF at 25s, this wouldn't be an issue. But as I think about it, if they instead just made atonement have a 2s recast, not only could you comfortably fit all of them in FoF, but you also wouldn't have to drop one after the burst window to make sure the rotation lines up.

[Curisu]

The PLD team on the Balance discord upgraded the rotation they think would be best:

<ld:803036604449030215> __**New rotation**__

**What's different?**
No dropping Atonements, no hardcast Holy Spirits, just follow a priority system during filler

**Why?**
Easier to learn (no need to memorize long loops), slightly higher rDPS, slightly lower aDPS. Overall it's about the same or slightly better, as well as just easier.

**Will update the Opener/Rotation section within a few hours**

https://media.discordapp.net/attachm...9574/image.png


Soo, Castadin is not the best anymore.
So you have the option 60sec atonement drop rotation.
120sec HS casting rotation.
Or this new one, just press everything and keep buff's on time, braindead rotation.

No significant differences (unless high tier optimization) and all three viable with not much difference.

[Ayche]

I do want a second combo (back).
Goring blade can stay as it is, just make give me Savage Blade back and let it lead into a new combo finisher.
For the sake of physical attack variety.

[Sparkthor]

I do want a second combo (back).
Goring blade can stay as it is, just make give me Savage Blade back and let it lead into a new combo finisher.
For the sake of physical attack variety.

This cannot append until the next extension because of animations needed to be developed (Paladin only got one old physical attack animation which is savage blade (2nd old aggro combo)).
Also add back a new combo imply this should be used. This would imply somes changes for Atonement. Maybe for 7.0 but not before.

[Ayche]

This cannot append until the next extension because of animations needed to be developed (Paladin only got one old physical attack animation which is savage blade (2nd old aggro combo)).
Also add back a new combo imply this should be used. This would imply somes changes for Atonement. Maybe for 7.0 but not before.

Sure, I am not in a hurry, the job is good enough for now.
Maybe two combos that generate different resources each. Let one create divine might and the other can create sword oaths.

[Rithy255]

This cannot append until the next extension because of animations needed to be developed (Paladin only got one old physical attack animation which is savage blade (2nd old aggro combo)).
Also add back a new combo imply this should be used. This would imply somes changes for Atonement. Maybe for 7.0 but not before.

Kind of like they already make animations mid expansion for the new content in the patch, almost like they gave Divine veil a updated animation to fit the changes... Not saying they "need" to make new animations for every ability but a lot of PLD's look bad and outdated to me. To name a them: Royal authority, Goring Blade, Intervention. I think it's clear they could likely make a few in the next few upcoming major patches.

[ForsakenRoe]

This cannot append until the next extension because of animations needed to be developed (Paladin only got one old physical attack animation which is savage blade (2nd old aggro combo)).
Also add back a new combo imply this should be used. This would imply somes changes for Atonement. Maybe for 7.0 but not before.

has it really been so long that shield swipe is forgotten

ShieldSwipe - Savage Blade - ShieldBash could look cool, and has room for 'upgrade SavageBlade into Atonement at 76'. Or put it on the end as a 4th GCD, to make it a 10s long combo, which matches Fast, Riot, RA, HS. Idk what a second combo would do now though. 'MP generator(this) and MP spender (RA>HS) combos is the only thing that comes to mind.

[Sparkthor]

Kind of like they already make animations mid expansion for the new content in the patch, almost like they gave Divine veil a updated animation to fit the changes... Not saying they "need" to make new animations for every ability but a lot of PLD's look bad and outdated to me. To name a them: Royal authority, Goring Blade, Intervention. I think it's clear they could likely make a few in the next few upcoming major patches.

Divine veil didn't get new animations but new VFX. And maybe some animations looks old (the same as VFX on them), but i think the winner in the category oldest animation is the Warrior Storm Path.

has it really been so long that shield swipe is forgotten

I indeed fully forgot this one. And I agree on your thought about a 2nd combo.

[ForsakenRoe]

Divine veil didn't get new animations but new VFX. And maybe some animations looks old (the same as VFX on them), but i think the winner in the category oldest animation is the Warrior Storm Path.

Path has got to be one of the crappiest animations in the entire game. #Bring Back Butchers Block

edit: Just been looking at things about PLD, namely Rin Karigani's 'clean loop' video. He has this very nice graphic to illustrate:



I see 24 GCDs, 7 of which are Atonements, in a pattern of 3, 1, 3 (or 3,2,3 with any amount of skillspeed). So i'm thinking, if we cut Sword Oath to just one stack, we'd move down to 1,1,1 and save ourselves 4 (5 with SS) GCDs. And what is 5 GCDs long? Fast, Riot, Royal, Atonement, HolySpirit. So maybe we can finally get rid of the weird unintuitive 'btw you have to purposely drop Atonements from your combo' thing. Also, if I could, I'd make Atonement not break combo, and have range to it (give it a VFX where a big spectral sword of light thrusts forward, so it is distinct looking from Riot Blade's animation), so that it and HS can both be used at any point before the next RA for versatility in peeling off for mechanics. Yeh it'd maybe suck to go to 'lmao spam 12345' but I don't see much difference between it and 'lmao spam 1234555' which is what we have now.

[Rithy255]

Divine veil didn't get new animations but new VFX. And maybe some animations looks old (the same as VFX on them), but i think the winner in the category oldest animation is the Warrior Storm Path.

PLD's Divine veil had no barrier animation on all targets, It didn't have that before, it also has a holy circle to indicate the area of effect.

Again they've clearly shown they can add animations to classes mid expansion, obviously they shouldn't put too much resources towards it but PLD should get some general animation updates, considering it's I don't know the Poster boy? a Job people might default to playing.

Animations are very important to how the class feels.