2013-05-29, 07:07 AM
Paladins:
First off, I note there's an error with Page Order, where the max enemies hit says 2, it should read 8.
Might write some more about other classes if people like this piece.
Also, what is it that Paladins want from patches, because it's obviously not damage.
First off, I note there's an error with Page Order, where the max enemies hit says 2, it should read 8.
Spoiler
Defense
I think having 3x the defense of other Warriors is pretty steep, especially when it all comes from a single skill, and that Warriors already have such high defense to begin with. I think capping defense shouldn't be something so obvious for a Paladin. They should have the highest, but they shouldn't automatically be 9999.
I would recommend a progression through the job levels, such as Elemental Charge also giving +10% Defense per charge, for +50% in 2nd job, and weapon mastery giving some +defense instead of accuracy. I want to say accuracy actually does do something, but it's so insignificant, no one would notice unless they leveled two identical characters where one had high accuracy and one didn't.
As such, in 4th job, there would be an additional +50% from another skill, perhaps Paladin Expert, replacing its flat bonus. After this, it would be +150% Defense, leaving room for more defense from possible 5th job if more is needed.
Parashock Guard lowers the Paladin's defense to boost ally's, which I feel fits strongly with a Knight theme. Seeing the Cleric specialized skill, I think this should have some added benefit with more party members. Perhaps additional attack for each party member, as well as higher defenses for the party, such as 5% per player while keeping the defense sacrificed static. This would promote party play more so, as well as making the bonus more significant when doing large parties, say at a boss, compared to duo-ing a PQ or party play, so the Paladin is actually benefiting everyone. I think +20% defense is on the low end and wouldn't really change the number of potions used at non-%HP-damaging bosses, though this may be scaled so other Warriors don't get too much defense? Perhaps some +Guard back to the Paladin with party members too, since halving his own is a big cut out of defenses, but the +Guard for party members is pretty sweet.
Offense
I'm under the impression that Lightning Charge's "When not stunned" refers to unstunnable monsters, rather than when stun fails, so that Divine Charge actually benefits vs bosses in this regard.
Flame Charge should definitely get a bonus from Divine Charge's seal to make cycling better.
I think as a solution to the Charge progression would be to change the number of hits of earlier and later charges.
Currently, the damage will be:
Factoring other total damage from skills:
Flame Charge/Blizzard Charge:
140 * (3 + 2) * (1 + 0.55 + 0.60) = 1505%
140 * (3 + 2) * (1 + 0.55 + 0.60 + 0.40 + 0.50 + 0.15) = 2240%
Lightning Charge:
250 * (3 + 2) * (1 + 0.60) = 2000%
250 * (3 + 2) * (1 + 0.60 + 0.40 + 0.50 + 0.15) = 3312.5%
Divine Charge:
405 * (3 + 2) = 2025%
405 * (3 + 2) * (1 + 0.40 + 0.50 + 0.15) = 4151.25%
So while Lightning Charge is currently close to Divine Charge, when you include the bonuses from Blast, Elemental Charge, cycling, and not to mention boss damage, it scales significantly in favour of Divine Charge because of the way +damR% works. Short of increasing the base damage of older charges with progression, which I believe requires a new skillID, I believe that changing the number of hits would alleviate this problem. Adjusting the +damR% would only be beneficial to the generally unfunded, whereas those with moderate to large amounts of +Boss% will go back to Lightning + Divine spam. If the lower charges got +hits from skills rather than +damR% and their damage were scaled to 405%, it would allow it to scale back to Divine Charge's damage in the end, i.e. 2nd job 405%x1, 3rd 405%x2. Even having them with different hit counts at 4th so that Flame/Blizzard get a bigger boost (1 + 2) = 3x, whereas (3+2) = 1.6...x would be better than the current scenario. This is at the cost of missing more often at early job levels though.
I think the offensive buffs to skills is more than enough to offset the loss or lack of weapon attack. I think they should stray away form Expert giving +30 watk, and vary it up. It should be more core class oriented, in this case +DEF, with specific bonuses like for Swords vs Blunt Weapons. If you have 100% Critical Hit Rate (the case where crit damage adds the most damage), the +10% Crit damage is a 1.035x bonus in DPS. As such, enemies with more than 41% defense after ignore would benefit from the Blunt Weapon. So in the case of 100% defense, you would need ~59% ignore before you beat the BW bonus with Sword, and for 300% defense, you'd need 86% total ignore for Sword to be better than BW. This ratio benefits BW with skills such as Sharp Eyes, and potential that adds critical damage. Paladins don't actually have 100% critical hit rate though.
(1-x*0.95)/(1-x) = (1+y * (0.6+0.35)/2)/(1+y*(0.5+0.35)/2), y = 0.55
https://www.wolframalpha.com/
With Blast + Hyper Critical, Paladins have 55% Crit rate, meaning they'd need to reduce defenses past 30% for Sword to be better than BW. For 300% Defense, they'd need 90% Defense Ignore, or 80% before Threaten - Ignore Guard is included for Swords to beat Blunt Weapons.
Defense
I think having 3x the defense of other Warriors is pretty steep, especially when it all comes from a single skill, and that Warriors already have such high defense to begin with. I think capping defense shouldn't be something so obvious for a Paladin. They should have the highest, but they shouldn't automatically be 9999.
I would recommend a progression through the job levels, such as Elemental Charge also giving +10% Defense per charge, for +50% in 2nd job, and weapon mastery giving some +defense instead of accuracy. I want to say accuracy actually does do something, but it's so insignificant, no one would notice unless they leveled two identical characters where one had high accuracy and one didn't.
As such, in 4th job, there would be an additional +50% from another skill, perhaps Paladin Expert, replacing its flat bonus. After this, it would be +150% Defense, leaving room for more defense from possible 5th job if more is needed.
Parashock Guard lowers the Paladin's defense to boost ally's, which I feel fits strongly with a Knight theme. Seeing the Cleric specialized skill, I think this should have some added benefit with more party members. Perhaps additional attack for each party member, as well as higher defenses for the party, such as 5% per player while keeping the defense sacrificed static. This would promote party play more so, as well as making the bonus more significant when doing large parties, say at a boss, compared to duo-ing a PQ or party play, so the Paladin is actually benefiting everyone. I think +20% defense is on the low end and wouldn't really change the number of potions used at non-%HP-damaging bosses, though this may be scaled so other Warriors don't get too much defense? Perhaps some +Guard back to the Paladin with party members too, since halving his own is a big cut out of defenses, but the +Guard for party members is pretty sweet.
Offense
I'm under the impression that Lightning Charge's "When not stunned" refers to unstunnable monsters, rather than when stun fails, so that Divine Charge actually benefits vs bosses in this regard.
Flame Charge should definitely get a bonus from Divine Charge's seal to make cycling better.
I think as a solution to the Charge progression would be to change the number of hits of earlier and later charges.
Currently, the damage will be:
Factoring other total damage from skills:
Flame Charge/Blizzard Charge:
140 * (3 + 2) * (1 + 0.55 + 0.60) = 1505%
140 * (3 + 2) * (1 + 0.55 + 0.60 + 0.40 + 0.50 + 0.15) = 2240%
Lightning Charge:
250 * (3 + 2) * (1 + 0.60) = 2000%
250 * (3 + 2) * (1 + 0.60 + 0.40 + 0.50 + 0.15) = 3312.5%
Divine Charge:
405 * (3 + 2) = 2025%
405 * (3 + 2) * (1 + 0.40 + 0.50 + 0.15) = 4151.25%
So while Lightning Charge is currently close to Divine Charge, when you include the bonuses from Blast, Elemental Charge, cycling, and not to mention boss damage, it scales significantly in favour of Divine Charge because of the way +damR% works. Short of increasing the base damage of older charges with progression, which I believe requires a new skillID, I believe that changing the number of hits would alleviate this problem. Adjusting the +damR% would only be beneficial to the generally unfunded, whereas those with moderate to large amounts of +Boss% will go back to Lightning + Divine spam. If the lower charges got +hits from skills rather than +damR% and their damage were scaled to 405%, it would allow it to scale back to Divine Charge's damage in the end, i.e. 2nd job 405%x1, 3rd 405%x2. Even having them with different hit counts at 4th so that Flame/Blizzard get a bigger boost (1 + 2) = 3x, whereas (3+2) = 1.6...x would be better than the current scenario. This is at the cost of missing more often at early job levels though.
I think the offensive buffs to skills is more than enough to offset the loss or lack of weapon attack. I think they should stray away form Expert giving +30 watk, and vary it up. It should be more core class oriented, in this case +DEF, with specific bonuses like for Swords vs Blunt Weapons. If you have 100% Critical Hit Rate (the case where crit damage adds the most damage), the +10% Crit damage is a 1.035x bonus in DPS. As such, enemies with more than 41% defense after ignore would benefit from the Blunt Weapon. So in the case of 100% defense, you would need ~59% ignore before you beat the BW bonus with Sword, and for 300% defense, you'd need 86% total ignore for Sword to be better than BW. This ratio benefits BW with skills such as Sharp Eyes, and potential that adds critical damage. Paladins don't actually have 100% critical hit rate though.
(1-x*0.95)/(1-x) = (1+y * (0.6+0.35)/2)/(1+y*(0.5+0.35)/2), y = 0.55
https://www.wolframalpha.com/
With Blast + Hyper Critical, Paladins have 55% Crit rate, meaning they'd need to reduce defenses past 30% for Sword to be better than BW. For 300% Defense, they'd need 90% Defense Ignore, or 80% before Threaten - Ignore Guard is included for Swords to beat Blunt Weapons.
Might write some more about other classes if people like this piece.
Also, what is it that Paladins want from patches, because it's obviously not damage.