Beta 3 Paladin Feedback

I was walking around not in combat with it at my side and it was randomly discharging.

I’ll look into #3 but as others have said, might just be that the radius is too small right now. We’ve also noticed the “hit a mob on accident” thing and I’ll see if I can imagine a workaround for that.

On the being lacking in tactics front, the tanking classes are kind of like that when you’re not tanking group content, because if we make them have a ton of stuff going on all the time it’s basically going to be impossible to do all that and then also tank a boss and move it around the room and doge the stuff on the ground, etc. It definitely feels like there’s more to do (to me at least) when you’re doing something other than just fighting a 1v1 enemy or letting things hit on you to see how long you can survive. So maybe try it out in a dungeon run and see if that changes your opinion.

That said, I think you could in theory make the same claim for the warrior…just hold your shield up and then do Provoke repeatedly and you’re done. I assume high level warriors doing end-game content would of course object to that simplification of the class but that’s how it can be perceived when you’re first playing it.

All that to say, I don’t think the class is perfect as-is by any means,but I’m not sure adding a ton of additional mechanical complexity is something we want to do on a tanking class. I’m more interested in finding a balance of (while tanking group content) “when should I use up my energy and when should I save it?” and that type of thing.

It’s not the size of the AOE, I was charging up 5 orbs and doing it right on top of the mob. I’d see the melee hit number and that’s it.

I quite enjoy the paladin, but i think what he’s saying is that, compared to other classes, there is more downtime involved with the paladin (just sitting there doing nothing). basically i find myself holding my hammer in the air while spamming all 3 buffs on cd because there’s nothing else to do. (simply due to how low dmg the basic attack does without charge)

I think this issue could be fixed by increasing the base attack damage so that it is actually worth swinging during downtime.

Fair enough! I didn’t realize exactly what you were trying to get at. Hopefully it gets fixed.

It doesn’t need a ton of complexity… just give it a few orb consuming moves (hammer slam, teleport, melee attack, and make the librams consume an orb as well so players aren’t just spamming them) and have the player have to chose instead of just spamming everything. Also, the player should be able to choose if an orb will be consumed attacking, instead of it being a natural thing (like holding trigger consumes orbs when attacking vs no trigger does normal attacks).

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right now it isnt worth using normal attacks. they dont do anything.

I think this is good. Are you considering letting fit into a role beyond just tanking when talents are added? Like i mentioned in my previous post, perhaps a half DPS, half buffing class?

from the post i saw earlier, it seemed like the talent tree let you switch between doing more damage and taking less damage… it sounds like you could theoretically have a dps paladin if the talents increased damage and decreased threat.

So the hammer slam, teleport, and melee attack already use up orbs. The librams also originally did as well but I didn’t know if that was too much or not reliant on that one mechanic.

Regarding the normal melee attacks doing nothing/lots of downtime, one thing I wanted to avoid with this class was the Warrior situation where people were having to just swing super often and stressing out their shoulder and whatnot. So I was going for more of a less often swinging, but more damage each attack type of idea. That’s why I’m not sure it would be a good idea to let you “empower” your melee attack versus a normal one, if we do that then it’s right back to swinging 3 times/sec or whatever to get maximum throughput.

The librams were added to give you something to do in-between those moments but again if we tie it into the orb mechanic that’s even less time you’re spending actually swinging your hammer.

Anyway, just to give everyone some idea of the thinking behind the current design.

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What about adding a mechanic where every 4 major/large swings grants you an orb? That way you’re not just standing there doing nothing a majority of the time.

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i almost think it would be kindof cool to allow someone to hold up their hammer longer and have it charge more, as well as making it so while you have your hammer up, you wouldnt absorb damage? this way you would need to time when you are holding your hammer up. and have the benefit of being able to get more charges that you currently do.

Either that or give us one more energy generating option. and then put the librams on energy as well.

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Putting Energy Gates on top of also having cooldowns is a dangerous balance to play unless its done properly. Personally, I’d prefer one or the other, not both.

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That’s how most spells/skills work… they have a mana/energy cost, possibly a cooldown, and possibly a cast time.

Weak spells typically have no cooldown while stronger spells do.

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I’d tend to agree, if the paladin started with an energy pool, but it doesn’t.

Most things that have a resource cost and a cooldown have a starting resource pool and a base regeneration of the pool, the Paladin has neither, which can lead to balance issues, from what i’ve seen.

I kind of like the idea of the holding the hammer up but it makes you vulnerable…sort of like a reverse warrior shield…you have to do it specifically in-between attacks or something? Or maybe a quick thrust is still instant and doesn’t make you weak but holding it there for like 0.5 seconds+ does?

I also at one point had an idea playing off the AoE and reactive nature of the class, maybe the Paladin has some kind of counter-attack concept? So like every time you get hit there is a chance it triggers a counter-attack opportunity which is indicated somehow on the monster, and that’s like an attack that does extra damage, so that way you have to be paying attention and it breaks up the same-old-same-old nature of the class a little bit more. And if you’re in a situation where 2+ things are attacking you it gives you a reason to spread out your attacks a little more.

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what about something like if you manage to time an attack during a certain part of their animation, then you deal extra damage? that would make it interesting

yes. this makes sense, as you are literally holding your weapon in the air like an idiot while ppl are attacking you. if noone was attacking you then you would be free to hold it there as long as you want, but it would be dangerous to do that while a boss was pounding on you.

I am LOVING the Paladin class so far (level 3 only). I wish the ground-smash attack and lightning calling dealt damage (they don’t seem to?), and I wish that the hammer-raise could be adjusted so that those of us who have fans/lights above us won’t accidentally hit them (I hit the chord underneath within the first 15 mins of playing, in the middle of a hectic fight).

It’s supposed to but it definitely seems broken right now, I am investigating.

Glad you are enjoying it!

I will second that idea to adjust hammer-raise height. I have a stupidly low celing in my VR-room (we are talikng 2m tops, and I am 1.7 myself).
So for now I will either crouth to “raise” the hammer, or play sitting down :stuck_out_tongue:

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