ShiKage's Big Bang Paladin Build

^I'll also testify that Ground Smash is a hell of a lot better than Slash Blast. Also the reason I did 1 SB -> max Power Strike -> max Slash Blast in 1st job. You'll be hard-pressed just to find 2 mobs in Slash Blast range without doing any luring. It's no longer possible to train on mobs that take you a lot of hits to kill because you need to be training on mobs that are your level, so mobbing is significantly worse than it was pre-BB (mob skills were buffed to offset this but it's not enough for 1st job, imo).

I thought mob counts were plenty fine to use Slash Blast, but I do agree that the amount of effort required to use it is rarely worth the time or grief.