The one thing you want most from the expansion for paladins?

[VALKOR]

<p>While I'm sure we could all list zillions of things to change, as could probably every class, what is the one thing you most hope to see for paladins?</p><p>For me, I will be looking to see whether they finally gave paladins a 100% block/parry/riposte ability like those already enjoyed by all of the 5 other warrior classes.  I don't care if they modify Stonewall or add a brand new ability or whatever.  I just want to finally have one 100% invulnerability I can rely on like every other fighter has...</p><p>For those who haven't been following this forum, here is a quick synopsis:</p><p><span ><p>Guardian/Berserker: Dragoon's Reflexes (12 secs invulnerability)Monk: Tsunami (12 secs invulnerability)Bruiser: Impenetrable Will (12 secs invulnerability) (plus a 2nd one from myth click I believe)ShadowKnight: Shadowknight's Furor (15 secs invulnerability plus damage mod, SK is uninterruptable, added hate)Paladin: [no invulnerability]</p></span></p>

[Maamadex]

<p>There are still things I want from TSO. Most importantly Stonewall to be changed into something useful. Its a pathetic endline ability. I'd like something comparable to Furor. I'm somewhat envious of the buff sks get that adds 10 cast speed/reuse etc to group too, I forget the name atm. But I do agree, some sort of Tsunami type save would be nice, since we don't have anything except divine aura, which sks also get. And Divine Aura is not even remotely as good either. I'm not bashing shadowknights mind you, it just seems like Sony just gave us some lame aa's with TSO, I'd hate for that to be repeated. The bonuses and aas we got were mainly due to us being crusaders, not paladins.</p>

[VALKOR]

<p>I couldn't agree more.  I think everyone is justing hold their collective breaths hoping the expansion fixes their gripes.</p>

[Costa]

<p>I wouldn't compare the Warrior end AGI ability to what the others get. Yeah they get a 12 second immunity to melee damage but they can't do anything either. I think Divine aura is a much stronger ability as it makes you immune to ALL attacks less than 30% of your health plus you can still attack, heal taunt or what ever. The STA line for Crusaders also carries aa's worth specing for. The AGI line for warriors is pretty weak in comparisson although there are some usefull tools for a guard but nothing there a zerk really needs.</p><p>If there was 1 thing they could fix for the next expansion then i would agree fix stone wall so it is a 2 or 3 shot stone skin not a pointless 1 shot.</p>

[VALKOR]

<p>While not being able to do anything is certainly irritating, it doesn't really compare to the priest deciding which piece of the paladin to resurrect after the raid wipes.  I am certainly raid-biased in my thinking but when you know a massive flurry is coming in, the warrior can hit immunity and live through it (barring strike-through) while the DPS backs off for the short duration of the flurry (if they aren't already jousting).  And when every tank has the ability to deal with that problem except paladins, it sucks.  Just as warriors want better aggro tools, I want to see better massive damage management tools.  Hopefully, the expansion will come through on both and not just give us more of the same.</p>

[Costa]

<p>But thats part of what i was saying about the abilities. On my zerk the end ability of the agi line is not worth specing for but end ability in STA line for crusader is. If your getting a massive flurry then you'll be recieving multiple small hits rather than 1 massive hit so divine aura is perfectly capable with dealing with that. Imagine comparing the end ability in warrior agi to end ability in crusader wis. Its good for a few fights but not something you'd keep all the time. Now Guardian ToS is a complete immunity to the effects/attack it blocks. So in comparison the beserker is in the same boat as the pally in that they don't have a direct ability unless they specing down a pointless aa line to get a melee immunity, although zerk stone skin carries 2 blocks against melee damage.</p><p>The biggest problem we have is that the SK is given too many tools to deal with immunities with no side effects etc where as we have none at all or divine aura if you want to semi count it. Even our death prevent is a pointless ability if your healer can't get back on top as your stiffled/stunned for far too long to help assist with the healing.</p><p>So back to what i said before although a 2nd item as well is more triggers on stone wall and removal of control effect on our death prevent for next expansion.</p>

[VALKOR]

<p>Don't get me wrong - you are welcome to put fixing Stonewall as your #1 and a lot of paladins will chime in.</p><p>I agree as well but would actually prefer a bit more.  There are other threads by raiders doing the very final endgame TSO conent that have covered this, but when I say massive flurry I mean each hit does 17k to 24K after wards, etc.  Divine Aura answers with "Sorry I couldn't help there but your attack proc'd the bad guys thorns and I blocked that 60 hit points for you - hope it helps.'"</p><p>Divine Favor has actually saved me a few times on raids so I don't actually have an issue with it.  I don't mind being stifled because that is the penalty for not having stayed alive in the first place.  Consequently, if I have to have a stifle/stun with my immunity I'll take it though I too would like an explanation of why SKs get a fabulous attack endline that does damage via ripostes, damage spell increase, extra hate, and oh yeah provides 15 seconds of immunity without any side effects at all.  It's an amazing ability that I can't equal even using both my TSO endlines at the same time and that alone points out how weak they are (plus of course everyone else's arguments in other threads here).</p><p>Rather than having Stonewall block another attack or two, I'd rather have Stonewall become a full immunity like every other fighter and if I can't have that, I'd rather leave Stonewall crappy as it is and get a full 10-15 second immunity.  I could list a lot more I'd like to see but trying to obey my own injunction to just list one <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" /></p>

[Anurra]

<p>the only thing we are going to get are nerfs</p>

[Meirril]

<p><cite>Bazill@Nagafen wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I wouldn't compare the Warrior end AGI ability to what the others get. Yeah they get a 12 second immunity to melee damage but they can't do anything either. I think Divine aura is a much stronger ability as it makes you immune to ALL attacks less than 30% of your health plus you can still attack, heal taunt or what ever. The STA line for Crusaders also carries aa's worth specing for. The AGI line for warriors is pretty weak in comparisson although there are some usefull tools for a guard but nothing there a zerk really needs.</p><p>If there was 1 thing they could fix for the next expansion then i would agree fix stone wall so it is a 2 or 3 shot stone skin not a pointless 1 shot.</p></blockquote><p>50% of your health actually. Important distinction here, it is health not max hp. So lets just say the mob announces its going to use a flurry ability in about 3 seconds and you eat a crit melee double attack and that knocks you down to 5k hp. Most fighters are going to say "Oh crap!" and hit one of their abilities that will aborb a few hits or give them some immunity. You'd think that Divine Aura would be great for this...but your wrong. With 5k HP it will only block shots that do 2.5k damage or less. Yeah, our great damage blocking ability gets worse as we take damage. When we most need it, we can't rely on it. Even when we are at 100% life, really huge damage still gets through.</p><p>I like DA. I spec DA. I have tried using it in raids. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Personally I'd be happy if it reduced all incomming damage by half my max HP. That way it is always useful for those 10 seconds even on big damage.</p>

[VALKOR]

<p>I admit I haven't specifically checked the log to verify but the second part of the Divine Aura description says maximum health: "Will absorb all attacks when the amount is less than 50% of the target’s maximum health."</p><p>The problem is that when you are a raid MT, it is not unusual to get hit a couple times in a row for much more than half of your health.  And as I've stated ad naseum, every other fighter in the game can hit their 100% immunity while the raid is working out a strat or can just use their 100% immunity to bridge that one tough spot in the fight, especially if it can be predicted (e.g., tends to land when the AoE does, etc.)</p><p>My fear is that whoever is new to the class balance will simply look at a spreadsheet and see Divine Aura and mistakenly think Crusaders have an immunity and that SKs even have two (including the best currrently in the game).  Skimming through the boards, they'll see our immunity is 10 seconds and will toss us a cheap AA to increase the duration by 50%.  Rather than seeing that as a slap in the face (by extending the time during which Divine Aura can fail to protect the MT yet again), they'll actually think they are doing paladins a favor.</p><p>By all means give Guardians and anyone else who needs extra hate AA abilities so they can generate it, but then please turn around and give paladins a 100% immunity somewhere - AA, class ability, making Stonewall 10 second immunity, or whatever.</p><p>It'd be really nice to have something to look forward to in the expansion that will actually improve paladin survivability.  If you are going to improve everyone else's aggro while decreasing paladin/sk snaps, then it makes sense to improve the one area where paladins are weak, which is lack of a 100% immunity.  I would normally have included SKs but they've got an amazing one now, so fix something else for them.</p>

[Boli32]

<p><strong>NDA Lifted.</strong></p><p>Enjoy Stonewall.</p><p><img src="http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k313/krysla_havenlight/pallychanges.jpg" /></p>

[VALKOR]

<p>I was very pleased to see them come through on Stonewall.  The low duration is compensated by the fairly quick reuse.  I'm still mulling over the AA options but have played around with the Cavalier Cry in my raid tank spec and it does generate a lot of hate.</p><p>I've accepted that the paladin's Achilles' heel is going to be blocking/reducing incoming damage and so while I can be jealous of the 80% damage reduction or 20 second tsunami, I'm happy that we finally have something to use instead of nothing.  It pairs well with Divine Aura since one completely blocks only melee and the other blocks everything partially <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>