[v392] Thoughts on The Paladin

[DigitalCrack]

Paladins need the same thing priests need.  A clear and distinct change of feel between Orders(deity's for priest).  I know they already have some talents that change the functions, slightly, of existing paladin abilities based on your order.  They should be way more distinct than that.  Each order could not only have variations of the base paladin abilities, but order exclusive active and modal abilities as well.  Like bleak walkers could have an aura that steals endurance from enemies and and gives it to friendlies affected by the aura.  Kind wayfarers could get an active, per encounter, ability that grants them freedom of movement and immunity to disengagement for a certain amount of time during combat you could call it "wanderer's spirit". 

 

In a completely different vein of thinking it could be cool to give paladins active abilities that are only usable when specific auras are active.  Like with zealous focus you could have an ability called "true strike" that hits every enemy with range of the aura without the possibility of missing but also without the possibility of hits being critical.   Just trying to give an example, not necessarily a realistic/balanced one, but something to help translate the idea of what I am saying.

[Luckmann]

Paladins need the same thing priests need.  A clear and distinct change of feel between Orders(deity's for priest).  I know they already have some talents that change the functions, slightly, of existing paladin abilities based on your order.  They should be way more distinct than that.  Each order could not only have variations of the base paladin abilities, but order exclusive active and modal abilities as well.  Like bleak walkers could have an aura that steals endurance from enemies and and gives it to friendlies affected by the aura.  Kind wayfarers could get an active, per encounter, ability that grants them freedom of movement and immunity to disengagement for a certain amount of time during combat you could call it "wanderer's spirit". 

 

In a completely different vein of thinking it could be cool to give paladins active abilities that are only usable when specific auras are active.  Like with zealous focus you could have an ability called "true strike" that hits every enemy with range of the aura without the possibility of missing but also without the possibility of hits being critical.   Just trying to give an example, not necessarily a realistic/balanced one, but something to help translate the idea of what I am saying.

 

I'd avoid offensive auras; I have the feeling that they'd be even harder to balance, because offence mechanically trumps defence 9 times out of 10, and with the nature of auras, the issue would be exacerbated by the number of opponents often outnumbering the amount of party members - and it'd scale by difficulty level, because one of the principal ways PoE chooses to increase difficulty is by adding or subtracting enemies in encounters.

 

With that said, I completely agree with both points. The first point could easily help solve core issues with the Paladin Class by means of the different Orders, and would be flavourful and meaningful in it's own right, to boot.

 

The second point could really make it interesting to have multiple auras, but with that, I'd actually make Auras a single Ability that gives you access to all three (or more) auras, and then you could pick the Abilities that are only usable with different auras. I'm not 100% sure how this'd all work out in practice, due to how the acquisition of abilities works in PoE (maybe the auras should be kept as separate picks, but also give you an ability that is only usable while the aura is on... further incentivizing picking multiple auras? Actually I think that'd be best and work well "out of the box" with the current system; or maybe auras should just give hard bonuses to multiple specific pre-existing abilities when they are on? Zealous Focus could make Lay on Hands instant, and Zealous Endurance could make Flames of Devotion Interrupt, and so forth).

 

Either way, I like the ideas.

[Shevek]

LoH should be 1/encounter in my book. Havent tested Paladin this build due to aura bugs. I hope they change it back.

[illathid]

I think giving the paladin a way to do more FoD per encounter would help a lot.

[cmergler]

If I am not mistaken FoD sticks until weapon gets changed or encounter ends? Have to take a look (talking about v392 bb here). Also LoH is 1/encounter, in case people still think of the old versions.

[Shevek]

Ah ok, someone mentioned it was 3/rest. I havent rested the paladin this build so I wasnt sure.