Paladin: Reworking Niche Skills

[ThorinG]

In almost every discussion related to Paladin, Niche skills like (Shield Bash) and (Cover) are talked about with varied opinions, some are even viewing them as useless and calls for their removal.

i believe these skills can be reworked to be fun and engaging, and to some extent contributes to the (Shield Tank) fantasy, here are my suggestions:

1. Shield Bash: change it to an ability with a 20 Sec. cooldown, and in addition to the CD, to activate you will need 5 "Block" stacks, which are gained with every successful block.

2. Shield Smite (From PVP): an upgrade to Shield bash, stuns the main target only but damages all nearby targets in a cone aoe, similarly, it will require 5 "Block" stacks.

now my suggestion above will only work if you are MTing, but what happens when you are not? that's where (Covers) comes in:

1. Cover: acts similar to the SGE Kardia, you place "Cover" Status on a party member, blocking 10% of their received damage, block is not guaranteed and is affected by PLD Block rate.

2. Full Cover: same as the current "Cover" that we have, take all damage intended for the party member, lasts for 10 Sec. and is on 120 Sec. CD.

now i know that PLD has enough button bloat as discussed many times, but i believe there are many useful suggestions that were raised by others, to name some:

1. make the (123) combo a single combo button, and the (Atonement) combo on another button.

2. remove "intervention" and make "Sheltron/holy sheltron" targetable.

3. make "Holy Circle" a direct upgrade to "Holy Spirit", either a full upgrade or let "Divine Might" Transforms "H.Spirit" to "H.Circle".

let me know what you think?

[Raikai]

Agree with the 123 combo merge.

I've tried PLD for the 1st time leveling it all the way and found really weird that the 123 combo is separate, but the Atonement combo, which serves exactly to the same purpose is a merged button.

It's a bit controversial, but I think 123 combos that don't interact anything else, like creating branching paths, should probably be merged.

[Atreus]

I'd definitely like to see the shield be used for more than just passive blocks. I'd also like the identity of PLD to shift away from being this unlimited bladeworks caster thing. The Atonement combo is a good foundation for what the class should be. Shield bash and smite could absolutely be weaved in.

[Reinhardt_Azureheim]

I... kinda like these, actually. Here my take on the implementations if you don't mind.

Shield Bash & Shield Smite - Essentially you turned them into usable oGCD actions that extend beyond "press for Stun on demand but is awful for damage". The requirement of block stacks (amount can be adjusted/balanced) prevents excessive spamming (it should still have a bit of an internal cooldown like 5-10 seconds due to Bulwark + AOE packs) but is overall fitting well into the shield focus. Usually the "you have to block" means this would cement Paladin into Main Tank, but...

Cover & Full Cover - Cover being a "here is a chance this target receives a weaker version of my block, which I can guarantee with Bulwark" is an interesting spin without having to risk Full Cover i.e. taking their debuffs + full damage, which you still kept around (hopefully without Oath cost), so bravo on that! I REALLY like this.

Royal Authority/Rage of Halone combo merge - where do I sign that this happens YESTERDAY? Yes please. Same for Prominence (AOE) combo and all other basic combos. (or at least give me the OPTION to).

Merging Sheltron + Intervention - Hard pass. Intervention actually has a mechanic that creates synergy with you using Rampart or Sentinel/Guardian and I'd rather not that flavour go away. Furthermore, a merge of these two will inevitably lead to an internal cooldown of 1-2 seconds being added (see Oblation) to prevent rapid represses triggering multiple times by accident. This change *only* benefits players that do not macro their target mitigation to save hotbar space.

Holy Spirit -> Holy Circle - "I guess" but admittedly I prefer the split. Holy Circle is easier to use on a group of mobs as it its around you, but Holy Spirit is a ranged attack. You could make it a ranged AOE attack like Confiteor, but not sure how much I'd like this since you essentially "combo" it from Prominence.

[Supersnow845]

I’m not really seeing the point in cover vs full cover when basic cover is basically just intervene (unless you mean it lasts permanently like kardia which is just way too powerful because outside of recovery you basically have just given the shield healer permanent mitigation)

So I see that solution as either too powerful or just a weak equivalent to intervene

[Reinhardt_Azureheim]

I’m not really seeing the point in cover vs full cover when basic cover is basically just intervene (unless you mean it lasts permanently like kardia which is just way too powerful because outside of recovery you basically have just given the shield healer permanent mitigation)

So I see that solution as either too powerful or just a weak equivalent to intervene

Their Kardia-Cover is a 20%-ish chance to mitigate for 10% - its basically just adding passive fluff mitigation similar to how Paladin has it and the main function here is to facilitate blocks for the block stacks without hard-forcing Paladin to always have aggro to get those stacks reliably. It also gives the option to turn Bulwark into a mitigation that can be used for your target as it will guarantee the 10% block mitigation.

20% chance of 10% mitigation is a 2% net mitigation over an extended period, so hardly broken.

[ThorinG]

I'd definitely like to see the shield be used for more than just passive blocks. I'd also like the identity of PLD to shift away from being this unlimited bladeworks caster thing. The Atonement combo is a good foundation for what the class should be. Shield bash and smite could absolutely be weaved in.

Yes indeed, my suggestions aimed at focusing on the Shield identity if the PLD, and to some extent add some interesting gameplay mechanics at lower levels, before the bladworks.

[ThorinG]

I... kinda like these, actually. Here my take on the implementations if you don't mind.

Shield Bash & Shield Smite - Essentially you turned them into usable oGCD actions that extend beyond "press for Stun on demand but is awful for damage". The requirement of block stacks (amount can be adjusted/balanced) prevents excessive spamming (it should still have a bit of an internal cooldown like 5-10 seconds due to Bulwark + AOE packs) but is overall fitting well into the shield focus. Usually the "you have to block" means this would cement Paladin into Main Tank, but...

Cover & Full Cover - Cover being a "here is a chance this target receives a weaker version of my block, which I can guarantee with Bulwark" is an interesting spin without having to risk Full Cover i.e. taking their debuffs + full damage, which you still kept around (hopefully without Oath cost), so bravo on that! I REALLY like this.

Royal Authority/Rage of Halone combo merge - where do I sign that this happens YESTERDAY? Yes please. Same for Prominence (AOE) combo and all other basic combos. (or at least give me the OPTION to).

Merging Sheltron + Intervention - Hard pass. Intervention actually has a mechanic that creates synergy with you using Rampart or Sentinel/Guardian and I'd rather not that flavour go away. Furthermore, a merge of these two will inevitably lead to an internal cooldown of 1-2 seconds being added (see Oblation) to prevent rapid represses triggering multiple times by accident. This change *only* benefits players that do not macro their target mitigation to save hotbar space.

Holy Spirit -> Holy Circle - "I guess" but admittedly I prefer the split. Holy Circle is easier to use on a group of mobs as it its around you, but Holy Spirit is a ranged attack. You could make it a ranged AOE attack like Confiteor, but not sure how much I'd like this since you essentially "combo" it from Prominence.

Appreciate you input, your suggestions are great, I forgot about (intervention) synergy with other defensive abilities.

[Valence]

Replace Cover by pvp Guardian - with the pvp behavior as in, your mitigation/invuln blocks the damage. I know this would cause some exploits in pve, but what you call exploits, I call clever use of the kit and identity of the job. Design around it.

[ThorinG]

Replace Cover by pvp Guardian - with the pvp behavior as in, your mitigation/invuln blocks the damage. I know this would cause some exploits in pve, but what you call exploits, I call clever use of the kit and identity of the job. Design around it.

I think it will be interesting to see that, but referencing my suggestions i believe it will be a better fit to replace (Full Cover) with (PVP Guardian), since my reworked (Cover) is mainly for accumulating block stacks while providing passive mitigation to others.