Paladin is a decent class but they are under played because they don't offer much beyond endo that an armsman or merc can't do. I think giving them baseline buffs would go a long way to making them more desirable in groups/small mans and even solo. Hib has three baseline buff classes so I don't see any major issue with balance around that. It wouldn't make them perform much better than they already do, just give some nice utility and incentives to group them. Other suggestions such as major heals/celerity might tip them too far into the overpowered side of things (Which I'm happy to take!), and have more ripple on effects to other classes.
Nothing is going to get Pallies invited into a group quicker than base buffs. Gives templates a reason to have piety again (for conc) too, and a meaning for +chants skill.
Throw them a real rez (30%), an insta rez (10%, 15-min rut) and call it done.
baseline buffs .... that would only help the pala in small scale/solo enviroment and would greatly over power him.
the only solution i see is giving him celerity, but then reduce the dmg table again otherwise he is too OP in solo
Nothing is going to get Pallies invited into a group quicker than base buffs. Gives templates a reason to have piety again (for conc) too, and a meaning for +chants skill.
Throw them a real rez (30%), an insta rez (10%, 15-min rut) and call it done.
baseline buffs .... that would only help the pala in small scale/solo enviroment and would greatly over power him.
the only solution i see is giving him celerity, but then reduce the dmg table again otherwise he is too OP in solo
This is indeed the question. How to buff a pally and not make the class to OP in solo or pve.
He just has utility that can be covered by pots. It almost needs a rework of the class itself.
baseline buffs .... that would only help the pala in small scale/solo enviroment and would greatly over power him.
the only solution i see is giving him celerity, but then reduce the dmg table again otherwise he is too OP in solo
This is indeed the question. How to buff a pally and not make the class to OP in solo or pve.
He just has utility that can be covered by pots. It almost needs a rework of the class itself.
How much str/con/dex would baseline self buffs give the pally over combipot?
I would like the Paladin to follow some lore related abilities like
Cure poison, cure disease, and like someone mention a better Rez. Start by that and let see the evolution.
I just don't want the Devs to make the class with OP abilities like they did with the wizards, or the Stop ability for scouts.
We already have our handful of OP class from Alb.
I really don't think paladin needs anything. They already do good damage. They already have good utilities. They already have a crap ton of spec points AND autotrain.
If you can't find a use for that class there's a problem. If you're rolling a paladin and expect constant requests for pala in 8m you're fooling yourself. Most groups don't want melee in BG because they don't like to have to constantly heal. Ranged dps is hard to beat.
It's not phoenix fault daoc is built around ranged dps. When you can start boomeranging your 2h sword is when you'll get invites.
Baseline buffs would give such a minor increase in damage for solo that I really don't think it would be that noticeable. It would definitely help small mans and even some 8 mans.
Albion has buff issues because clerics have 5 spec buffs or 4 that are actually used. Albion also has necros that require more buffs than other classes.
I agree that paladins are solid and have some good utility, but they are not desired in groups because they don't bring anything that another class can't do better. If you want peels you can't really go past an armsman, and merc are nearly as good at it as pally while providing much more dps and stoicism.
A better rez would definitely help, rezzing anyone with 0% power 10% health is just a death sentence unless the fight is over.
Celerity would have too many ripple on effects on this server. Currently only reavers who invest heavily in RAs can get 6 levis in a slam, everyone would be able to with celerity. Although alb melee groups aren't very common, celerity would give mercs, armsmen and reavers a burst in dps that they really don't need.
Major heals would be nice, but I already despise fighting a hib group with two bards a druid and warden, its impossible to kill anything. I do not want to add another of those situations to alb.
Disease cure would also be great, especially if it was instant. Alb has to deal with the two realms who have non casted diseases so I guess it would work nicely that there is some counter-play there.
Baseline buffs would give them individually such a small boost, and from a group/small man perspective it would just be adding utility that they could pickup elsewhere but gives them some incentive to bring a pally.
Every tank on phoenix has det9 so no pally should be sitting a 40s Mez. I almost always twist body resist before a Mez anyway so they're usually still sub 10s. I really don't see that being a reason not to group a pally.
Paladins and Wardens should both get celerity. There's no reason for only one realm to get it at this point. There was a reason that was rectified later. There was no "different but equal" equivalent for celerity.
Giving them a reason to have Piety isn't a fix for the class. Some classes just have bad stat lines. The better fix would be to give them Str Con Pie as their main stats. Dex would be nice instead of Pie, but realistically asking for too much. But realistically, rolling celerity into Paladin and Warden damage adds would be the easier/better fix.
Worrying about how good paladins or wardens are solo isn't something you balance the class around in this game. They'll be slightly stronger against melee, which they're already strong against, and still lose to anything that can kite them.
Are midgard tankgroups the dominating the server and defining the melee-meta this server has?
Because otherwise that argument doesn't make sense at all and the only reason you listed is "just cause".
Why only say "there is a reason", why not actually name the reason?
Seems like all you have is the feeling that you want it, without having a real reason
You don't balance characters/realms around differences, and then in the end remove just the difference. That just creates imbalance.
And that's just looking at 8man balance, anything smaller and the issue is exacerbated, since you need 2healers in your group to utilize celerity. The first one is required to be a pac.