PLD changes

[Gserpent]

Trust me, I was that weird angry/depressed state when I saw that EW did fuck all about how bad most classes' down-sync experience is.

There is literally no justification for having ability progression laid out so poorly. At *bare minimum*, they need to revamp everything from 1-60 since that covers the free trial. Gap closers, AOE skills, etc. They need to create nerfed versions of spells and then add traits that improve them to current levels. Like give CNJ a 110 potency AOE water-themed spell at 15, and trait that to become Holy at 45. Stuff like that.

[Rithy255]

Wings are annoying to use Imo, I understand "just snap shot it" but it doesn't take away from it being a situational and clunky ability, I personally think that it will likely not be changed just because "pretty animation"

Its really not a matter of brain cells, I just don't think we should have to snap shot and cone position wings, it should have more general use, no other mitigation is like wings but that's not a good or unique thing it's just kinda a hassle more then anything.

[RobynDaBank]

The people against homogenization aren't always the same as those not wanting clunk or thinking.

[True-to-Caesar]

Idk about you guys but it seems these won’t really help much. I’ll give it a try after work but not very confident in the changes. That 2 min meta really sucks.

[SoraLuna]

Here I was hoping at the very least for the gap closer to **not** be unlocked at level 74...
That "rework" is just a pair-numbered patch tweak to me.

[Espon]

Sounds like things didn't change too much, but I'll reserve judgement after trying things out. I was expecting way worse.

Few things I noticed:

• Fight or Flight now affects all damage.
• Goring Blade is just a straight up heavy attack on a 1 min GD. Hope its animation has become more impressive.
• No more heal required for Divine Veil, yay! Sad that Passage of Arms did not change, though.
• Sheltron and Bulwark are exactly what I expected them to be.
• Looks like we now throw in a Holy Spirit after our single target combo, and Holy Spirit after our AoE combo.
• Magic phase is now always 4 hits. Confiteor and Blade skills are now used during Requiescat instead of after 4 Holy Spirits once learned.
• Clemency is still the same. I do not hate this and am glad it's still the same as it's one of the biggest draws to paladin for me. If you want a bit of extra healing during your rotation, you now have Holy Spirits you can use anytime after combos.

Might see some potency changes in 6.31. I'm not a theorycrafter so I don't know if this will result in more or less overall DPS.

[Bsrking5]

Why did all the tanks get a reduced gcd for tank stance and a button to remove tank stance? Was that really necessary?

[Lyth]

Why did all the tanks get a reduced gcd for tank stance and a button to remove tank stance? Was that really necessary?

I'll have to test it, but I think it was for weaving purposes. There's a slight delay in deactivating buffs that causes them to not function quite like a true oGCD and 'stick' (think old school Cleric Stance). The ideal is when you have two oGCDs to toggle between two stance states, like the old Deliverance and Defiance system. I think the new actions are designed to resolve this, but I hope they share a button.

Edit: I can confirm that it 100% is an improvement over the previous setup. And they share a button.

[Payadopa]

I don't like Divine Veil. Yet another bit of interplay between jobs gone.

[Reinhardt_Azureheim]

What I like:
- Bulwark is a nice re-addition
- Sheltron change is solid
- Veil working without spell healing
- Veil applying to self
- actually using Holy Spirit outside of Requiescat or having to disengage
- Holy Circle integration to AOE combo

Mixed feelings:
- Fight or Flight just being No Mercy now - figured could've been at least creative enough to make it a charge CD with short duration (think Rough Divide from GNB PvP) rather than a generic 60s CD
- Confiteor and Blade combo being Req-HS replacements rather than additions. Preserves Divine Might HS to stay relevant enough, but bugger me is the potency loss steep when you mess it up
- Goring Blade just plain... existing in this state.
- Clemency being unchanged but I resigned myself to this fate by now so okay I guess
- Passage works, but I kinda expected it to be like a 10-15y radius version of Temperance (i.e. mitigation aura with visible wings) with less duration to make up for mobility. Och, well...

The disappointment:
- they missed the perfect opportunity to axe Shield Bash or integrate it into the rotation, it still exists only to serve as Endwalker Derplander Roleplaying trash.
- Cover still being in the ultra nerfed state since 5.0, like jesus at least remove the gauge cost
- speaking of gauge, missed opportunity to make gauge generation interesting and/or decoupling mitigation from it and instead it being used for... Spells maybe.
- despite the increased prominence of mixing spells and weaponskills, still no trait to grant PLD (DRK, RPR) spellspeed equivalent to skillspeed and vice versa for RDM. I am getting really tired of them keeping skillspeed gear pieces to a minimum just to play into this nuance rather than giving us options

I'm still gonna look forward playing it, but man the shadow of disappointing job design keeps creeping on us since 5.0. First Warrior and Dark Knight, now Paladin. I really don't like this design philosophy.