Pld's use of WS?

[Torisu]

I've been reading some of the posts on this board, and it seems that many of them state that high level paladins do such unworthy damage, they do not even bother to participate in renkei.

This raises 2 questions for me, first is, is there some WS paladins do use that has some good secondary effect such as stun?
And the second question is, even though the pal's ws are crappy, wouldn't it still be good for them to start a chain, adding another renkei effect, than just stupidly use their ws independtly?

[bside]

when i do the mobs who use some nasty attaks, such as goblins' bombs, i usually use flat blade to stop it. (flat blade has a stun effect.) in order to do that, i normally save the tp, even when others r starting renkei.

also, as for the 2nd question, yes, using the ws as a first one in renkei, when we have tp's, would increase renkei damage, thus means a lot. however, w/ a majority of renkei at my pld's lvl being incurve, 1h sword simply isn't fit to start renkei. (at 65 and beyond, things change, though.)

some pld's use spirits within with 300 tp, whose damage depends on the current hp, and increases as we have more tp, so they can have most damage out of it.

personally, when i fight mobs w/ whom flat blade isn't needed, i just use vorpal blade whenever my tp gets to 100, coz i'm gonna sit down after battles, and i just try to have more out of it. well, i know, the damage is crappy, but better than none. :spin:

[Arnda]

If you have Flat Blade, and the monster has a stunnable attack, save it and use it and Shield Bash (in my experience Flat Blade is better, esp. with more TP, but I don't often have much TP). Your goal is to keep people alive, and what better way to do that than to spare them 600-1000+ damage (count it up, a mid-level Bomb Toss or other AOE to 4-6 people honestly does do about that), or spare yourself a hit from a nasty one-target WS?

However, you don't always fight monsters with nasty specials, or with attacks you CAN stop (I've tried in vain to stop fly specials in Valkurm, hopefully I won't be bothering with THEM again for a while now that PLD is 20+). In that case, chain away with your party. Let them know, however, that TP is not exactly a hot commodity for you (unless and until somebody can keep you refreshed without sitting, which juice+refresh/ballad can do often), and rotate the chains and MBs to include you when you're ready and to exclude you when you're not.

Alternately, use WS when you have it for extra damage and hate. Like he said, better than nothing.

I'm fairly (read: somewhat) confident that in the post-40ish world you can maintain decent MP and TP alike in a good party (read: RDM or BRD), but your job isn't so much that as to do the tanking thing you always do. If you CAN skillchain/renkei, do it. If you're slowing down the chain with your TP gain, drop out of it; your MP is more important and there are usually chains aplenty without your help. If Flat Blade would spare you and others a lot of pain, use it (and SB!) over all else, because everyone hates the bomb.