Game Mechanics My suggestions on Paladin

I'll start off by saying I think the paladin rework was a step in the right direction for paladin. Current paladin feels much more fun and viable than pre-rework did, which is very nice.
That having been said, I think there's a few things that could have been done in the rework to flesh out paladin more. Here's my thoughts on what should happen:

1). Revert the damage nerf on Emboldening Cry.

Let me explain. Emboldening Cry's damage buff used to be a separate ability in the fallen archetype called Ragnorokrr which gave a 10% damage bonus to everyone in war scream's range and increased the mana cost of war scream. In the rework, it got combined with Emboldening Cry to make the ability we know today, but the damage buff is 8% now instead of 10%.
I can understand why they might have thought it would be necessary, as the mana cost increase is no longer there, but to be honest, it just felt lame. But more importantly...
In a rework that made paladin more focused on buffing allies, why is one of the changes nerfing his buffing potential? It was originally a fallen ability whose only requirement was war scream, any archetype could take it back then, so why nerf a damage bonus that is now less flexible now than it was back then?

Just put it back to 10%, it was fine before, I can't think of a reason why it wouldn't be fine now.

2). Get rid of Second Chance and replace it.

AKA why brink of madness is objectively better in every way. Please for the love of Bob remove this ability and replace it with something that isn't BOM electric boogaloo. Its removal has been long overdue.

First off, temporary invincibility to allies when I... die? Are we forgetting that I'm a tank? Or that heavenly trumpet just... exists? My entire role is to take pressure off of allies by drawing aggro and giving support. If I'm doing my job properly, that invincibility does virtually nothing at all.

Second, there's no cooldown on BOM. SC on the other hand, has a cooldown so long I could unironically leave my computer, make and eat dinner, come back, and it's STILL not ready to be used again. Because BOM doesn't have a cooldown, it allows you to take far more aggressive positions to more easily take hits for your allies without a 10 minute timer holding you back.

I don't know what specifically could replace SC, but it should involve a buff you can give to allies in some regard. It doesn't have to be as insane as Heavenly Trumpet, I just think abilities should be distinct from one another.

3). Rework the Taunt Major ID and reduce Provoke's cooldown.

I'll admit increasing the cooldown on Provoke was necessary. I mean, c'mon, an 8 second duration with a 10 second cooldown is NOT balanced, ESPECIALLY when Taunt is involved. But I think the current 15 second cooldown is a bit much. I'd personally lower it to 12 seconds and rework Taunt, as I think current Taunt behaves more like a normal ID than a major ID. To be clear, 12 seconds is the cooldown of Provoke with Taunt, and last I checked, a majority of paladins use Taunt anyway, so the cooldown reduction wouldn't change much, as long as Taunt is reworked.
Cooldown reduction for Provoke is just lame and boring. I think major IDs should be more complex than a simple number change. Even if Provoke remains unchanged, Taunt NEEDS to be more unique.
Here's a few ideas as an example of what I mean:
- While Provoke is active, become resistant to knockback from attacks that ignore knockback immunity
- Manachism's cooldown is reduced while Provoke is active
- Gain temporary base damage resistance while Provoke is active

These obviously need tweaking as they are purely examples of what could be and there's several different directions it could go. Make Taunt something that fits Paladin's identity while being interesting.

That's all I think should be done to be honest.

 

add a poll

 

my bad, forgot to add one

 

I think we've finally reached a level of design for the Paladin where it feels like I'm actually involved in the gameplay and effective at my job so I see no reason to change it.
My criticisms for the Paladin back when it was introduced in 2.0 were the following: It did no damage, it was frustratingly boring, and despite being the "Paladin", the only special support ability it had is tied to bash and it depended entirely on how good your team's build is. Also rejuvenating skin took way too long to act and ally invincibility on death was a pointless node that had no reason to exist.
Every one of those criticisms has been addressed in a meaningful way.

The only thing I would change about it is giving it more damage somehow, but everything else is fine. Also I don't really get your hate towards Second Chance. It used to be 2 abilities but one of them (the invincibility when dying) was all but worthless so they combined it into one, and it's arguably one of the best abilities in the game just by existing on a tank, and if it had to be buffed in any way, I would say just make it possible for Fallen to get it given how much synergy they could share. Otherwise I just think it's fine how it is.

 

Just saw this. Apologies for the late reply.

My issue with second chance has mostly to do with the fact that it's an ability that's pretty tricky to use effectively as the only scenarios I've ever gotten it to proc were in situations where I was already drawing aggro with provoke, meaning the invincibility gets wasted. At that point it feels less like a support ability and more like brink of madness with a cooldown. I'll admit it's better than pre-rework second chance, but I wholeheartedly disagree with the idea that it's one of the best abilities in the game on a tank. It's an ability that rarely comes into play even when it's not on cooldown, because paladin is more than capable of taking hits without dying thanks to abilities such as Heavenly Trumpet and BOM. I haven't run SC for quite a while now, and I can't say I've even remotely noticed its absence in any situation, be it raids, world events, or just general wandering around the map.

Because of this, I think that despite the rework, it's a functionally outdated ability that could be replaced with something different.
It's also just a boring ability. Kinda like Luster Purge, but unlike SC, LP at least has some ok payoff, so it gets a pass in my book.