Paladin Adjustments (new patch)

[Armando]

Maybe it's because of my lack of exposure to endgame, but I have no qualms with these changes. I'm just happy to get them. Everyone else has pointed out the usefulness of almost everything, but I just thought of something that made me giddy.

No interruption on shield blocks? Now PLD/RDMs can get off Blink/Stoneskin mid-fight with a bit of luck.

[Rai]

Sentinel
The effect of Sentinel will be changed from an increase in defense to straight damage mitigation.
Also, all actions taken while Sentinel is in effect will generate additional enmity, allowing the paladin to more easily gain and maintain an enemy's attention.

I just thought of this,

Guardian: Reduces enmity loss while using Sentinel

umm, looks like a group 2 Merit ability just became useless. Not that I think any PLD meritted it. Can we get a new one to replace it?

[FranckKnight]

No its not the same, it still works.

Sentinel : Boost enmity for OTHER actions while active. Basically Provoke, Flash and damage will do extra enmity.

Guardian : Reduce enmity loss. When you get hit you lose a degree of enmity that seems to be a ratio of the damage vs max HP (or current HP?) you have. Guardian reduces the Enmity loss.

Basically, put both together and you GAIN MORE and LOSE LESS Enmity at the same time, making it even easier to keep hate.

[Rai]

They are different but they seem to have both been created to solve the same problem. Sentinel and Enmity and maintaining a balance. There is overlap between the two therefore one is not needed.

And booth adress enmity, which is not the real problem with PLD. MP consumption is the real problem.

[lionx]

Really? I am only lvl 51 at the moment with PLD and well..with Auto Refresh and Parade Gorget, and if you add on Refresh alone, you get back a whopping 5MP per tick in general(with no songs or cor rolls). With Regen i didnt have to worry too much about using MP as well...end-gamewise maybe...but since when does it matter as much about MP Consumption anyway when you are a PLD by then? Its gonna hurt just about no matter what except now Sent and Rampart can help that.

I would also expect ToA monsters to not hit so hard...at least the exp ones...but i have no experience with that just yet. However with MP Refresh as good as that...i dont see why MP Consumption is a problem..? I could probably get a DD set and backup heal pretty well if i was to get into a merit pt.

[Khevn]

YES TIME TO GET MY PLD GEAR BACK!!!!



I'm so happy ; ;

[Celeal]

IMHO, MP is not a problem if and only if RDM or COR or BRD is there. What I am trying to say is PLD in traditional exp. setup usually forced into PLD + refresher + healer structure. PLD tank in party missing a refresher or healer would usually having a tough time. No only PLD wants refresh, healer wants refresh too. When we factor in the MP usage for PLD in order to be functional, which includes PLD's MP and healer's MP, it is a significant amount out of entire party's MP consumption.

IMHO, the update is target for PLD endgames.

[Davitron3000]

IMHO, the update is target for PLD endgames.

I would agree with this.

I forget that not everyone does endgame and I tend to look at all updates with a "how can I use this in an HNM fight" mentality.

[Pteryx]

Maybe it's because of my lack of exposure to endgame, but I have no qualms with these changes. I'm just happy to get them. Everyone else has pointed out the usefulness of almost everything, but I just thought of something that made me giddy.

No interruption on shield blocks? Now PLD/RDMs can get off Blink/Stoneskin mid-fight with a bit of luck.

As long as we're talking PLD/RDM, which I've been duoing and trioing with at low levels (I'm up to PLD31 now)... my previous use for Sentinel was a "running out of MP" panic button. The change in Sentinel, however, will completely alter my usage of it to being something I hit at the start of a fight in order to let me strengthen my early hate gain -- maybe I won't have to wait for 37 to be able to get enough early hate to allow my my DRK friend to go all-out! A shame the timer on it is so bloody long...

As for the change to Rampart? About bloody time! Magic defense has been a big weakness of PLD; this doesn't merely plug that hole, but actually gives us a defense against AoE magic that NINs can only dream of! -- Pteryx

[dirtyclown]

Epic win. I can't wait for this update, I'll finally have a reason to use my JAs other than for gaining Hate.

[Raydeus]

Maybe it's because of my lack of exposure to endgame, but I have no qualms with these changes. I'm just happy to get them. Everyone else has pointed out the usefulness of almost everything, but I just thought of something that made me giddy.

No interruption on shield blocks? Now PLD/RDMs can get off Blink/Stoneskin mid-fight with a bit of luck.

For high level stuff I think /nin would work better unless you are fighting monk kinda mobs, in those cases /rdm pwns them because of Phalanx + Bio II (if you don't need to sleep the mob) + Shield + Blaze Spikes because it cuts damage by a lot while dealing some nice extra damage.

Soloing (which I do a lot) going back to no interruption with shield blocks will be a great help, I usually use Flash followed by Stoneskin (Blink isnt worth casting in the middle of a fight) and have a pretty good success rate.

Although there are times when the mob goes through my crappy evasion, and even though the hit gets blocked by the shield and only does 1 damage it would still manage to interrupt me, which really really sucks.

Now it's gonna take a lot more for a mob to interrupt you, and the Phalanx effect from Sentinel will boost the potential even more. I just wonder if Sentinel will stack with Phalanx (spell), if it does it's gonna be awesome.

[Loial]

IMHO, the update is target for PLD endgames

I would disagree with that. PLD end-game are fine the way they are. The shield block change months ago + Auto-Refresh is good enough for end-game tanks. The ability to mitigate damage directly with a shield rather than by defense was huge.

I think this stuff is designed to help leveling PLDs... and end-game PLD are going to reap the benefits as well. I can't think of many times when I've said "Gee, I wish I had more hate tools or better hate tools." I can see how these changes will boost a leveling PLD since our ability to keep hate does not scale well versus melee damage in regards to "exp mobs."

But, end-game mobs are not exp mobs and the damage output is much lower. Hence why holding hate is usually a non-issue.

[Celeal]

With the shield-prevent-interrupt update, I am wondering would that make PLD more capable for PLD to solo at mid levels as Sword + Shield and PLD/NIN?

Just to imagine PLD/NIN casting shadows during battle while solo:
1. The shield proc rate of mob range from easy prey to tough
2. Using a size 1 shield on easy prey to tough mob, we can expect even more proc
3. With Flash as backup for casting shadows
4. Evasion + parry on easy prey to tough mob should be decent

With high sword skill and high base STR, the time of battle should not be too long for mob range from easy prey to tough.

If Auto-Refresh and shadows can cut the downtime... that needs to be tested.

On bad situation (link, etc), PLD/NIN can use 2hr and scroll of instant warp.

[Vair]

This is gonna be great.

[JP_Ikari]

Agreed with Loial, I mean we never really needed this update. Maybe the cries of some PLD's were heard by SE. But I'm still iffy on how Sentinel works (gains enmity with any actions you do vs already have enmity upon using it). And I think Loi nailed on the head by saying any end-game PLDs would reap the rewards here far more than some normal joe-PLD that's leveling out there. Sheesh, guess me leaving for 1 month and 1 week made it far more funnier than it should be.

JP