Paladin's unused skill rework

[TabrisOmbrelame]

Hello fellow Paladin.

Haven't you ever feeled that Shield Bash, Cover and Clemency are useless ? (Or at best, use in rare occasion ?). Well this post is here for that. Let's try to remake some of the skills that paladin have that can't be used through the entirety of the game, and make them in the line of what SE do (So we can give them good idea).

Therefore, here is the idea I have :

Shield Bash => Sacred Shield Bash (Lvl 66) (oGCD)

Potency : 300
CD : 60

What would be better than using your shield to slap the face of your enemy ? Well, a Sacred Shield Bash were your enemy will feel the warm energy of the Light clapping their cheeks ! Right in their face ! The idea behind that is not to add an other damaging oGCD, but to replace Intervene completely. Intervene is a Damaging gap closer that we must put through our burst twice in order to maximise our damage output. The downside of that are multiple. If you dash on your target outside of your burst window, you lose dps. Also, if you do use it in either way, you suffer from a slight animation lock, rendering you unable to move for a second. Sacred Shield Bash tend to remove all this problem, and allow Intervene to be transform into a Non-damaging gap closer, giving us mobility just like other fellow tanks.

Sacred Shield Bash could also become a Conal AoE (like the JcJ version) and deal 60% less damage to collateral target. We have a shield, let's use it in a good way.

Cover => Removed

That skill is absolute garbage to begin with. You take every damage your allie should take, but without any mitigation form (Not even your native 20%). And you can't mitigate through it, not even with Hallowed Ground. Also, cost 50 Gauge for poor effect. Let's remove it, their is no point in such a skill that only suicide your tank.

Clemency => Clemency (oGCD)

Potency : 1600
Can target allies.
CD : 60 Sec

I've always wondered why Clemency was such a DPS loss when you have Tank like WAR that heal themselves for a HUGE amount with no drawback at all, where we have to stop DPS AND spend 2.000 MP ! You may be saying that 1600 Potency is utterly broken. Shall I remind you that Equilibrium for the war is essentially 2200 Potency ? So, at the cost of 600 Potency, we have the ability to target allies with it. It make a huge burst of heal for a target (Especially good if your are an OT) but doesn't do anything else, keeping the essence of what Clemency is.

Shield Lob => Holy Spirit (Become the evolution of Shield Lob)

Let's be honest, Shield Lob is never used to pull boss because the Potency difference between Shield Lob and Holy Spirit is a whooping 300 Potency.

So, let's make Holy Spirit always instant but nerf it significantly when not used under Divine Might or Resquiecat, and still generate more Enmity. If used under Divine Might or Resquiescat, Holy Spirit will NOT generate more Enmity, but only the normal amount. With a base potency of 150, that allow it to be equal with the other Tank ranged option. Also, this way we gain a button because Shield Lob dissapear.

Please share your ideas and opinions on this post in order to rework some of the most useless spell the Paladin have !

[Rithy255]

I'm gonna go over what I'd change personally about PLD's kit, as I have some differing opinions, I disagree with removing cast times on holy spirit too i like the cast pull personally and dont think cover needs to be removed.

Removed - Healing on magic attacks, to compensate for adding a Heal per 1000, this should be a massive heal loss every minute but would let you effectively choose when you wanna use that healing.

Clemency - Stays the same, Every 60's you will get a gauge stack that lets you spend a use of ogcd instant clemency.

Holy Sheltron (and Intervention) - Merged with intervention, reduce the cooldown so you can still double mit, now the mitigation is 20% for 8s(no stacked effect) with a Regen of 200 potency for 18s, normal sheltron will have a 150 potency regen for 12s. (I also think other tank CD's shouldn't have stacked mitigations)

Cover - No longer costs oath gauge and cleanses debuffs on you and your target, both will not take any knockbacks.

Goring Blade - Removed from fight or flight, now is back to being a combo finisher skill, Goring blade will grant your next royal authority atonement and holy spirit stacks.

Shield Bash - OGCD stun attack, in a conel shape it has two charges on a 30s cooldown.

[Azurarok]

You never used cover + hallowed ground?

Also PLD already has a free oGCD heal to pass to allies with Intervention, for a total of 1000 potency. On a 10s~22.4s cooldown. Clemency's an emergency tool for when things have gone terribly enough that the entire party's dps is kinda cooked as it is.

[Xikaz]

Please don't just turn shield bash into another ogcd damage ability. I understand it is functionally useless in anything boss related but there's a lot of utility in having a spammable stun.

[AmiableApkallu]

"Cover" and "Clemency (a casted heal)" are what I would consider an integral part of a knight's/paladin's identity within Final Fantasy. (Maybe I'm leaning too heavily on Cecil from FFIV.)

If anything, the change should be to encounter design to give these actions an opportunity to shine -- or at least feel useful -- more frequently.

[Reinhardt_Azureheim]

Please don't just turn shield bash into another ogcd damage ability. I understand it is functionally useless in anything boss related but there's a lot of utility in having a spammable stun.

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).

[Praesul]

Tbh I'm fine with Shield Bash remaining as-is because it doesn't impact PLD's power budget at all, it's just kind of there. Like the devs essentially never have to consider whether adding X thing to PLD is too much just because Shield Bash exists. It's also not rotational, so it can kind of just.... Exist.

I wish more jobs had niche, non-rotational utility like it.

[Rithy255]

Please don't just turn shield bash into another ogcd damage ability. I understand it is functionally useless in anything boss related but there's a lot of utility in having a spammable stun.

Theirs literally no utility into having a spammable stun.

I want to use my shield as the shield class.

[Mercury_Grey]

Cover I have to use a good amount of times. I don't see why it would be remove, if anything using it during critical moments or saving the healer/caster who can rezz makes it so strong. What I see I believe it's an oath gauge spender. He'll sometimes I just throw Cover out for the lolz

[Carighan]

Are you really playing Paladin so restrictively that you don't use these skills? Weird.