[Hippie]

Paladins or: How I Learned to Stop Needling and Love the Sword

While you were doing drugs, I studied the blade. While you were engaged in premarital sex, I practiced the blade. While you spent your months at the gym, I used the blade. Now that the demons are here you're all unprepared. Except for me.

For I studied the blade.

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THE INTRODUCTION:

I'll try to keep this as short and organized as I may.

Now, for the real meat of the thread. Introductions and transparency are first; I've recently made a new character with a BK/Priest build. My intent with the build was, as I was pointed to, make a Mercalan paladin since the class combo is ideal for it. And while it sounds like it's completely feasible, the truth of the matter is that it is not. BK/Priest is not a holy soldier charging up his foes and striking true with a Mercalan holy blade. It's not about hurling light arrows about and warping to people with Hanging to slice at them while looking all badass and pure. A BK/Priest is nothing but a priest with armor hurling Holy Arrow/Needle/Holy Spark/Shine Ray over and over while standing completely still in their Sanctuary and Divine Showering you if you run away. And if you're that unlucky, Malmelo to rub it in.

The reason I was told BK/Priest was a horrible combo to deal with was not because it's a good combo, but because it's just about standing still, hurling the same 4 moves over and over with sheer DR/healing until you die. That is what I've found thus far from experience.

My aim with this thread is bring some awareness at the very least to how awfully streamlined BK/Priest is, and at the very most point out how painful it is to stat a tank basic hitter. I don't expect to get much achieved by posting this thread, but I want to hear everyone's opinions and hopefully throw a Hail Mary for a class combo that could really be fun to play.

What I care for, and what I hope everyone cares for when we're talking PVP setups is not which class outdoes which, which class counters which, if X is too OP or Y is too weak. What I care for is that builds are both PVP viable and fun to RP. What do I mean by this? A build is fun when you're both able to win and lose, not just lose constantly. And when you fight a fellow patrician roleplayerman, to be able to have that ammo to feed that RP by having a vast arsenal of moves and combos you can use to keep that RP spicy and come to a close but intense resolution at the end. That's one of the reasons I play this game, and it's one I sure as hell want to keep.

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THE PROBLEM AND THE SOLUTION(?):

The problem with BK/Priest, as in a BK/Priest that actually wants to swing a sword around, is Hit. A tank basic hitting build doesn't have it easy, as they need to focus STR, SKI, DEF, RES, VIT and LUC. Six stats to focus on is already a horrible spread, and the sole reason I could manage it on a similar build is by tuning DEF and RES both down to 40 in my other tank basic hitter, which is suboptimal if you ought to really tank, even more so proc Stalemate.

BK/Priest currently gets by using either a Forgrint or a staff with good scaling to yield high SWA and spam light spells over and over with a shield in the other hand to mirror guard with that nice 1M left. It's just horribly unfun both to play and to RP, imagine how the opposing party must feel. You have autohit classes like Demon Hunter and Kensei just running around the place, doing fun combos and keeping RP fresh by keeping it varied. BK/Priest? None of that. Offhand a staff and keep a sword in your main hand? Sure, but why use BK then? You're not playing a paladin at that point. Lord forbid you're actually even using that sword at all and not just spamming light spells too.

So, what's the solution then? The truth is, I don't really have a proper solution. I'm not a big brained PVPer, as I've only recently learned to build properly and my wee babby brain does not fully grasp everything there is to the system. But my wee babby brain does grasp RP, and that's what I care about the most in this game. I care for good conflict, a good fight that makes me either win or lose, but one way or another be satisfied that it was super fun at the end.

My proposed, short-term solution to a rather larger problem is the following:

Rework the Shine Sword.

The Shine Sword is as thematically close to a Paladin as you can get. You not only get light damage added to your basics, but you also get the ability to invoke yourself into becoming a Shine Knight. You don't get more Paladin than that. The Shine Sword as it stands now is an... alright weapon, not too bad, but not too good either. It could be repurposed, however, into adding another style of play to the BK/Priest repository.

My first suggestion is to swap the scaling around or change it entirely. 35% STR 70% FAI would make the STR scaling not so painful to stat, or perhaps 15% STR 90% FAI (though you would be encouraging a lot of priestly shenanigans with FAI scaling that high). The STR bears too heavily on the weapon by making it so you're not quite able to build proper SKI/LUC if you intend to also use spells alongside it or any Curate/Priest skills with it, really.

The second and more important suggestion is to make it Spelledge, applying only to Mercana domain. You can easily remove the +2 WIL +2 FAI stats from the weapon and replace it with the Mercalan Spelledge property, or the 50% light damage if it's really needed. It would make it a viable weapon not only to stat for Hit, but to use it in addition to Curate/Priest skills and the like. You're making the Priest stop holing up in his roundstart tile spamming Sanctuary, light spells and such in favor of a more aggressive playstyle.

It's a quick solution to an otherwise larger problem that is tank basic hitting as a whole, but this little tweak alone could spawn an entirely new playstyle out of BK/Priest.

Why not Moonblade or Setsuna? Moonblade's scaling is slightly worse than Shine Sword's at lesser 65% STR, 35% FAI with a subpar effect. Setsuna has slightly better scaling at 50% STR 50% FAI, but the STR still weighs down too heavily on it and it's effect is... alright, I suppose. Shine Sword by far both offers a more fun playstyle by allowing you to transform into a Shine Knight for style points and that sweet little +5 stats.

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THE CONCLUSION:

Or you can just, you know, not rework anything, leave things as is and call it a day. This is an entirely subjective post, seen from my perspective and not the grand scheme of things. Some haven't tried BK/Priest, some hate them, some love it as is, the whole deal. This thread is made with a quick solution in mind. There's a larger problem here that could be solved by a myriad of ways, but require far more effort and coding put behind them. Nevertheless, I would like to hear what everyone thinks about BK/Priest and the Shine Sword idea. Could be fun, could be not. Could be a PVP balancing mess, or maybe it does make BK/Priest a little more creative. I don't have the most PVP experience, so I trust others are more qualified to suggest better ideas.

Thank you for reading my ungapost.

[Perdition]

I don't even have a strong opinion toward shine sword one way or another but I'm here for this type of passion and energy.

[Autumn]

As mentioned in the thread, Shine Sword falls just short of being the ideal paladin sword, but fails currently due to paladins liking to be able to cast as well, I would prefer the 50% light ATK on hit to remain for the most part here.

[Snake]

It being a casting tool for Mercalan spells only would be nice.

[Shujin]

I wouldn't mind it getting the Mercala spelledge treatment.

It probably is fine as 70% faith 35% str sword as well, to be honest. It would make the weapon good hybrid and still not stronger than someone actually using a tome/staff in the casting department, just possible.

I think it would be cool.