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 Main Tanking, but what happens when you are not? that's where (Cover) 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, the main goal is to facilitate the accumulation of Block stacks when you Off Tank.

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?