Finarfin wrote: ↑
September 12th, 2024, 15:23
Val the Moofia Boss wrote: ↑
September 12th, 2024, 15:16
Yes, a damage oriented paladin is possible. I have seen a greatsword wielding paladin before. For subjob you would either want warrior (for double attack passive and for the berserk ability which increases war damage), samurai (increased TP gain = use weaponskills more often), or ninja (access to dual wield).
You're a saint, because I really want to play one but @Kalarion said they are THE tanks of XI and then I was disappointed. Ok, so I'll keep playing Warrior, then unlock paladin and samurai since I do think using weaponskills often is good.
Paladins are not good damage dealers. This is not to say they can't do damage at all, just that (as
@J1M already said) their passives, spells and abilities are geared 100% towards damage mitigation and threat generation.
They do have the second highest skill cap with greatswords (Dark Knight has the highest). And Enlight is a ******* badass spell that gives +10 (!!!!) Accuracy. But they don't have any of:
- Attack-boosting passives,
- Attack-boosting abilities,
- good skillchain closers,
- access to debuffing/softening spells,
- access to attack magic in general beyond Flash (a very powerful stun) and Enlight,
- high natural attack-stat (STR, DEX) growth (which is used as a coefficient in most heavy armor melee dps weaponskills).
To get an approximation of these things you can sub a DPS class, like WAR (optimal) or DRK (not as good but Last Resort is the ****).
Remember that in Final Fantasy XI, stats and gear matter a
lot. Classes are not universally interchangeable. Only at the very highest levels of play (the big-daddy alliance fights and top-tier mission rewards) does gear start to mitigate the huge disparity caused by differences in stats, abilities and traits between optimal and suboptimal classes (E.G., between a SAM or DRK and a PLD).
Paladin having, say, 75 expected STR at level 75 vs. a Dark Knight having 90+ STR at level 75 (before gear) is an enormous performance difference. In terms of numbers, that 15 STR represents both an increase in damage
range (range is determined primarily on your raw STR, so the DRK's top damage possible is going to be higher) and in damage
consistence (15 STR gives ~30 raw Attack, which is used to calculate average damage per attack). And the 15 STR is going to feed into weaponskill damage coefficients, will influence choice of weaponskill, and so on.
Sure, the Paladin can do respectable damage and be brought as a DD in a group - when he's got an Algol or Balmung, an Adaman Cuirass, full Hecatomb gear, capped Haste and is using Hedgehog Pie for his food.
The same applies for other classes trying to fit themselves into suboptimal roles. Sure, a Dark Knight could be a respectable nuker in an experience group - with a full caster set, including a Blackjack or Demon's Axe. And so on and so forth.
