Paladin's unused skill rework

[Nero-Voidstails]

cover is so useful when a situation goes shit honestly I am a bit pissed that paladin doesn't have more support move well it could apply to also to all healers but point stand

[Metricasc]

I have a few pain points with some of these ideas. importantly a Paladin without Cover is just not Paladin. its the button that FF's Paladin heavily resolves around overall. Clemancy being brought to a 60s OGCD while sounds fine on paper, it destroys the fact that Clemancy is an on demand heal that is incredibly useful in a recovery scenario.

My Ideas;

I'd rather Shield Lob and Holy Spirit to be kept separate overall as both also serve a different use case despite HS generally winning out from it's higher potency. if anything, bump shield lob to 150 potency.

Cover is channeled and have a baked in 10%-15% mit into it for the PLD. gauge needed to stay at 50, but initially costs 10 gauge, but then every 3-4 secs, it continues to take 10 gauge until the button is pressed again to disengage the button or the oath gauge runs out. if either happens PLD gets back about 15% of the total HP from damage redirected from cover. the original target will still get the debuff.

want a shield based OGCD cleave. we have an old action that can be brought back for that purpose. Shield Swipe. make it a cleave, but also make it that it reduces the damage that enemies deal by 5% for 5-10 seconds so there is a reason you do want to use it.

shield bash, keep as a GCD. only added effect i would say is to make the potency scale from the melee mastery traits to make it about 300-340 potency in the end. and also to make the stun unscalable. (it will always be a 6s stun)

a system change would be a new trait that PLD learns upon learning Req called spell blade, the effect: the recast of spells are also scaled from Skill Speed effects. this change will make PLD to be more able to run at a more flexible GCD.

[Venks]

I really want cover to allow me to dash towards the selected Ally. It'd make it so much more useful in Alliances in giant arenas where the healer needs help, but I'm not close enough to use cover.

[Carighan]

I really want cover to allow me to dash towards the selected Ally. It'd make it so much more useful in Alliances in giant arenas where the healer needs help, but I'm not close enough to use cover.

Yeah like in PvP, it's such an awesome skill there. I wish they'd merge stun into the charge like in PvP, too. And make Shield Bash an active block where you raise the shield, if that blocks an autoattack you can bash which deals high damage.

[PyurBlue]

Hello fellow Paladin.

Haven't you ever feeled that Shield Bash, Cover and Clemency are useless ? (Or at best, use in rare occasion ?).

For me there is a massive difference between useless and rarely used. Useless is bad, rarely used is fun and interesting. It's a break from rigid rotations and following a script. In that sense I'd argue that the skills you're changing are well designed because you have to know when to use them to benefit from them. I'll admit that Shield Bash is a reach when it comes to real utility, but conceptually I think it's fine. Cover is an amazing skill, though it might have been nerfed too hard. It's fun to spot opportunities to use it. Clemency is an emergency or non standard party composition tool. Shield Lob is sort of like Bash, but it doesn't take MP so I guess there is that over HS.

[Seku]

They need to roll cover into holy shelltron and let you target other people with it so it can be used to transfer the damage to the paladin. Then allow for intervention to be the non-cover variation. Would make cover 100% better and kill a button. Not sure where people are using shield bash at, but I think the skill is pretty much dead. Since they are slowly starting to give tanks everything, I don't see why they don't steal from FF11 again and bring in reprisal from 11 and stick it to bulwark. Add a minor stun effect to it for normal enemies.

[YovelaLindswood]

We gonna have to duke it out in the wolves den pier if you're going after my cover. One of the most useful skills in the game. also the last thing I need is more buttons to press that do nothing unique like your shield bash on an already bloated kit.

[Rithy255]

I posted here earlier, I'm mostly going to talk about clemency but If any of you played Occult crescent and have done phantom knight Occult Heal (being 2500 MP while playing PLD) is actually a good example to make clemency more relevant for all types of content without ruining its utility and help for emergency situations.

If we lets say removed healing from Paladins magic attacks (maybe some other stuff too if its more self healing then before) but exchanged reworked Clemency to be a ogcd with a short recast that costs MP still (around the same amount should be fine) it becomes a tool where you have to manage your MP if you want good useage out of it, but can also be used as a emergency tool in exchange for ruining your burst if spammed to much. I actually think something like that for clemency could work very well.

[Reimmi]

No offense, the utility peaks in Deep Dungeon solo runs. Anything beyond that, Shield Bash is a trash ability. There is no realistic scenario where you want shield bash with its diminishing returns and tiny damage vs just Low Blow and blasting.

It should be a proper damage ability, maybe not one that stuns but one that has other benefits. Maybe a burst in oath gauge (+20-25).

Well, it doesn't need to get removed. Keep shield bash, add a new ogcd that is what OP suggested.
if you don't ever use shield bash, dont keybind it. There is nothing wrong with situatioinal abilities, in fact the game needs way, way more of them, if it's about new players being confused just add a tab at the bottom for the "situational" abilities in the spell book

[bundythenoob]

PLD does indeed need some changes to its kit, but the changes can only do so much if the overall game content is not allowed to hit us more often to compensate



Goring Blade as a combo ender needs to return at all costs, totally unacceptable to lose our combo yet WAR retains both of theirs

as others have said before, Cover needs to return to its former glory, and Holy Sheltron reduced to 30 oath would be a nice change too

Holy Spirit/circle need to be given to us early like how WAR gets Inner Release/Steel Cyclone in ARR content (why the other jobs' equivalents are also locked so late is beyond me. give us weak versions and buff them with traits later)