Paladin Stances (Textual Changes)

[Ulfric]

Textual Considerations:

Stance (4) Guarding Blade <Increase Hate, Parry>: "Soandso shifts their blade into a defensive position."
This really doesn't make sense, because one can use the stance with a hammer, staff, bare hands, etc.

Suggestion:
1) Change the name to "Merciful Guard" - The origin of this name is thematic to other Paladin related "Mercy" things. Additionally, since the stance increases hate generation and parry, it makes sense. In choosing to focus on parrying attacks (rather than say, riposting) the paladin is showing mercy toward foes. And mobs hate to be shown mercy.
2) Change message to "Soandso's guard becomes focused."

Stance (5) Cleansing Blade <Increase Crits>: "Soandso's weapon takes on a holy gleam."
Again, the same concern regarding the word "blade" for a stance usable with all weapons.

Suggestion:
(1) Change the name to "Holy Wrath" - Again, more thematic for paladins.

Stance (6) Stoical Will <Immunity to Fear, Charm, Mesmerize>: "Soandso gathers their will into a stoic shield."
Is it really the Paladin's will that protects him/her from mental influences? I mean sure, all the time spent praying in uncomfortable positions, and holding night time vigils may make a paladin stoic... in body. It is the paladin's religious conviction and purity that makes him/her mentally stoic.

Suggestion:
(1) Change name to "Mental Purity." This fits more in line with existing Paladin theme.
(2) Change message to "Soandso's eyes gleam with faith." or "Soandso's mind fills with religious fervor."

 

[luciferblack]

The only issue is that paladins can also be evil and pariahs... so those descriptions wouldn't fit all paladins either.

 

[donfolstar3]

I always thought Paladins were good/just first and holy/religious second, simply as a byproduct of their core values. In other words, they worship the Good/Righteous Gods because they, the Paladins themselves, are good not vise versa. For instance, if Althuna completely lost it and started doing some really evil shit a real Paladin would fight against her because good trumps deity every day of the week.

On the flipside if Marlow started baking cookies for the local PTA and lecturing jaywalkers Shadowknights would have none of that. They are self interested and malicious, only worshiping Marlow because his interests coincide with their own. That Paladins/Shadowknights on SoD can shift their alignment and still be considered that class is a limitation of the game engine, not seeded in lore or intentional.

Basically I like that you are suggesting these ideas but think playing up the inherent good/just aspects of Paladins over the more Cleric-y holiness would be good.

 

[donfolstar3]

I was trying to think of ways to play up the good/just nature of Paladins over the secondary holiness of them and it occurred to me that most Paladin stances are garbage or in need of some reevaluation. I will now copy and paste the stance list along with some commentary that will be viewed as whining by some who seem to think that having abilities that are fun or useful is not what this game is about:

1) Normal 1 The most basic combat style. Does not affect your combat in any way.
(2) Aggressive 1 Puts you into an aggressive stance, sacrificing avoidance for a 5% increased attack speed.
(3) Defensive 1 Puts you into a defensive stance, sacrificing 5% attack speed for increased avoidance.
:STANDARD

(4) Guarding Blade 20 Puts you into a focused stance, increasing both hate and parry. Very useful when tanking extremely hard foes or swarms of them.
:I use this stance and guess it is useful. No hard numbers to back this up, but it "feels" like a useful stance as is. "Guardian Stance" would probably be sufficient for what the OP was getting at.

(5) Cleansing Blades 35 Puts you into a focused state, increasing critical hits veruses all neutral or evil targets.
oes anyone have parser comparing with with 2 and 9? All I know is that it is a DPS stance that burns through the bar about as fast as 9 and doesn't do much difference overall. Maybe I am a bad Paladin for thinking this among other things, but it feels redundant and a leftover from before 9 was put in.

(6) Stoical Will 45 Grants the paladin immunity to fear, charm, and mesmerizing effects. Does not affect unresistable charm/mez.
:This stance has some uses and that is okay.

(7) Lady's Strike 55 Grants the Paladin an area of effect hate proc. Procs very rarely, does not generate much aggro, drains stamina fast.
:That is probably the most depressing thing I have ever read associated with a "game". Why does this thing have 3 downsides and no real upside? Maybe the wiki is wrong, but not from what I have seen.

(8) Banishing Strike 65 Allows the paladin to land one extremely(capped at 7500) powerful strike against an undead foe, best used with /s 5 for maximum damage. Exhausted for 10 min after use.
:Another stance just riddled with downsides. I guess stance 5 serves some small purpose in making this stance better but couldn't it just be better on its own? What is with that cap? For ten minutes of exhaustion you'd think Paladins could atleast HOPE for something better than below average wizard nuke. Paladins in general do some really shitty DPS so couldn't this situational and high cost stance get cranked up a notch and uncapped? Even then its use would be a toy more than anything, but atleast it would be a fun toy.

(9) Althuna's Fury 20 Empowers you with the will of Althuna granting increased damage at the cost of decreased mitigation. Requires a two-handed weapon to be equipped.
:Similar to 5. It seems like Paladins really only need one of these stances and this is the better one, but maybe there is some great reason behind the other stance still existing that someone will share with me so I can be slightly less bad.

I have a strange feeling I have typed something similar to this before and nothing changed, so holding my breath this time around. Anyhow, comparing these stances to the other "Knight" class I find Paladin stances wanting. Comparing stances 5-8 (the others are about the same) both get a situational and "okay" stance (P:6/Sk:5) and from there it is a devastating one sided victory for Shadowknights whose 6 is obviously great, 7 actually does something, and 8 is limited but haxx when it works.

* * * * *

Here are some off the top of my head for goons to nitpick apart and others to ignore for being unnecessarily enjoyable:

/s 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 9
:remain unchanged as they are all "okay".

/s 5
"Lady's Strike (or Awe-some Aura): Grants the Paladin an area of effect hate proc. Procs very OFTEN, does not generate much aggro, drains stamina MODERATELY."
:Changing Lady Strike's effect and level gives the leveling Paladin the chance to actually be better at AoE tanking than, say, a warrior using WW. The aggro generated would be low so useful at LVL35 but marginal by endgame. Though, at least it would be reliable so maybe used more than never.

/s 7
"Majestic Aura: heals you for a percentage of any amount of healing you deal" a Paladin mirror to the LVL55 SK stance but % based for balance.
"Peaceful Presence: extremely long range PBAoE calm spell" a Paladin mirror to the LVL65 SK stance.
"Divine Conduit: Paladin heals do something really amazing (???) for about two ticks which leaves you exhausted"
"Avenger's Wrath: While active Riposte's proc effect:Smite for additional damage." Riposte procs are something everyone is cool with, right?
"Althuna's Mercy: Divine Aura without the aggro loss. Reduced to 1 hp after the effect is over." Ripped off the old Warrior stance more or less.

/s 9
Either change Banishing Strike as described above (uncap/better damage) OR use one of those things from under /s 7