I know we got a review a few years ago, but I figured I'd see if we can get some group brainstorming on how things are going. Maybe it'll also help us come up with an idea for a 50th level spell.

Spells Used The Most (And that's great):
1602- This is one of our best spells, IMO. The fact that it now gives 3 seconds of RT is a huge game changer and was a welcomed development.
1614- This is our best spell hands down. The E/B/P effect is what makes it so important.
1630- Third best spell- critical crowd control. It also becomes pretty powerful if you bother to raise your spell ranks beyond 35/40.
1635- Second best spell (many would argue the best). Every other profession would kill for this spell.

Spells Used the Most (But still need help):
1612: The fact that Paladins can't make use of the warding spells in the 100s is just a crazy design flaw. The profession would be enhanced if we could (it would also make the spell infusion ability of 1625 a lot more robust). 1612 should give a larger boost to 100s CS than it does for 1600s. There's nothing to be lost here, and there's a lot to be gained. Give the profession some extra diversity.

Spells Used The Least (But It's Okay):
1604- This isn't a spell intended for regular use, and that's fine because what it does is very valuable.
1608- Also not something you use often, but the value (child tasks, swarms) is definitely there.
1615- This is more of a level thing. This is a critical spell for a lot of a Paladin's life, and then later- when you have more mana- you replace it with 1630. It serves its purpose well.
1620- This is a fantastic spell that isn't supposed to be used often (if the people around you are doing a decent job hunting)
1640- I wish there were a way to make it clearer to people how valuable a Paladin raise is, but otherwise it's a great spell and is used sparingly- at least in part- for good reasons.

Spells Used The Least (But that's not a great thing):
1603- This is a tough one all around. IMO, it's bad design that we have access to a spell list we can't use without another spell when we're using the armor we're expected to use. (this is, generally, a huge design flaw in Gemstone. I've never run into a single other game where it was expected that a profession not be able to use some of its spells) It's also just not feasible to blow 3 seconds in front of a room full of creatures just so I can use another setup spell. If 1603 were turned into a longer duration spell, it would actually solve for this design flaw. As of now, I rarely use it, and I always resent it when I do.

1617: The stance offensive requirement isn't accomplishing anything but making this unusable at most levels. Honesty, it should be lifted. Losing the benefits of 1609 and taking a DS hit constitute a sufficient trade-off. If a 17th level spell isn't usable at higher levels, something is wrong.

1619: There are a small hand full of situations where I welcome extra TD, but those situations are VERY infrequent. For the most part, Paladins don't wander around worrying about their TD. This is sort of a wasted slot. Perhaps consider swapping 1619 and 1603. Make 1619 a longer acting version of 1603, and then scale up the mana cost for 1603 as the TD bonus gets higher.

1625 (Spell Infusion): We've got two spells we can functionally choose from: 1602 and 1615. And 1602 doesn't have multi-cast. This is a great concept in theory, but it could be implemented more successfully. The 1612 suggestion above would help add 110 and 118 to the list. Add 117 to the list as well, and this ability becomes a lot more interesting. Honestly, I NEVER use this ability as is.

Noting up front that my paladin hunts as a duo with my empath since I'm sure that colors a lot of my opinions, though I'll also say they're slower than a duo with two players would be or a duo with one player who uses scripts.



Spells Used Most

1604 - Just because I also have a capped cleric.
1614 - A strong contender for my favorite combat spell in the game. Offers basically everything a paladin could want!
1615 - An amazing spell early and still great later when down to a single target.

1617 - I really like flipping between 1617 alone or 1617 + 102 to move my DS to wherever it needs to be while getting an AS boost. I also pushed to 2x Physical Fitness somewhere around the mid 50s to get higher redux to compensate--and it's worked out. At level 90 I've started looking ahead to post-cap goals and settled on pushing Religion all the way to 153 one day because of this spell along with 1614 and 1618.

1618 - Amazing for TWC. I couldn't play any other type of paladin after playing this. (Maybe I just love screen scroll? :P)
1630 - Another strong contender for my favorite combat spell in the game.



Spells Used Least

1603 - Other than 1630 typos, I've only cast this when I wanted to cast 108 and wasn't up to 200 armor use yet. It's an alright spell, I guess... wish it lasted 60 seconds when a paladin casts it, but I don't have any problem with it even now.

1607 - I really like the design of this spell and get good use out of it in a pinch. Not a frequent spell, but great when necessary.
1608 - Has its niche uses.
1620 - I don't need this, but a friend uses it a lot and I love it to death when I see it in action. Fun spell.
1635 - Same thoughts as 1607.



Decline to Comment (much)

1602 - I'm sure it's good, but I've never cast it.
1609 - Looks good on paper, but I'm not a shield paladin.
1619 - It's no Wall of Force and I haven't run into trouble with CS attacks, but maybe at post-cap that changes? Not sure. I've never cast this.
1625 (spell infusion) - No experience with it.
1640 - Great spell on paper, but I've never used it (and haven't even learned it) since I have a cleric.



Overall Thoughts

Being a paladin is awesome and my second favorite of the professions I've played. Sometimes even my favorite depending how I feel about empaths any given day. Other than maybe doubling the duration of 1603, I'm perfectly happy with every spell in paladin base as they are and can't think of any where I'm dying for them to be upgraded, merged, or replaced.

In fact, we're actually so powerful in combat right now that I'm not sure how a 1650 could convince me to sacrifice some redux to learn it--unless it wasn't a combat-oriented spell, anyway, but I don't think I like the idea of 50th level slots being used for other things. Talk about a good design dilemma to be faced with, though.

Surprised 1618 Was only mentioned once.... how else will I get weapons that have 5 independent flares!

Yeah the reason I don't use 1618 much is the setup spell issue. My setup routine is already:

1602
1614
1630
mstrike

Adding in the extra 1618 may provide value, but waiting 12 seconds to actually swing gets a little ridiculous.

"I kind of wish at least Judgement won't target players. Yes.. I did accidently kill people with judgement before and apologized for it." -- Falvicar

I just waxed somebody on Tuesday (gaming on the holiday) with Disruption.

It would be really nice if these could be made player-friendly (not just group-friendly) in the same way that Cone was.

I'll put in my $.02

1601- wonderful with lores, undervalued. one of the top 3 outside spells in game for spellburst areas for non-paladins.
1602- works wonders if used right. immediate 3 second roundtime makes it perfect for infusing in a weapon or casting at a big group for a mass slow effect
1603- i run this in reim only so i'm sure to get my cast off. (i'm that paladin that insists on chain class armor with padding being endgame for paladin, due to maneuver defense with overtraining armor and spell hinderance issues, but that's a different discussion).
1604- great before, much more useful now after w/p/s changes. i'd like to have some specifics of how this works with a bless on w/p/s on the wiki, if possible. would help to know what we need to offset the w/p/s numbers for a max bless.
1605-1606-1607-1609-1610-1611-1612-1613-1614-1615-1616-1617- perfect the way they are.
1618- wonderful. still a little mana heavy. maybe switch this with 1603 and have it increase mana costs based on lore benefits, and have 1618 last 1 minute with a flat increase of 3 seconds duration every rank after, maxxing out at 50 ranks. those that wanna be spell heavy will have the ability that way to lose hinderance, those that are more warrior based with less spell ranks will not have it as good.
SIDE NOTE: 1618 does not seem to work with UAC. there is no extra damage as far as i can see. a 101 endroll is 1 damage, whereas if i swing a weapon a 101 endroll is 16 damage.
1619- love this spell, but the duration could be a bit longer. it's pretty much useless on a day to day basis and probably my least used spell. if the duration were even doubled from what it is currently, i'd use it a lot more.
1620- love this spell especially with the most recent updates. i'd like to see a lore benefit to work in places where it now doesn't.
1625- complicated and wonderful. don't change bonding a bit.
1630- broken. this spell is a great crowd control spell- in theory. i find myself using 135 more often than this to tag large groups because of the targetting limitations. also when this spell makes a target kneel it does not cause RT. 1615 does, 1630 does not.
1640- Undervalued and awesome. I educate everyone i know about paladin raises.
1650- I CAN'T WAIT!!

~Nairdin

1601 - Fine
1602 - Fine
1603 - Would like this to be stackable or single cast with a longer duration. I pretty much don't use this spell.
1604 - Would like to see this have some kind of use. IMO, this spell is useless for the majority of a paladin's play life. Perhaps we could Consecrate gems to create paladin-only chrisms that work only with Divine Word?
1605 - 1617 Fine
1618 - Would like to see group members converted to the same Arkati get a 10% flare bonus and group members converted to the same pantheon get a 5% flare bonus. Would like this to have a longer duration.
1619 - Would like this to have a longer single-cast duration.
1620 - Would like there to see the functionality added for use when alive, even if it's self transport only
1630 - Would like to be able to hit more targets, and have the ability to target hidden/invisible targets. This spell is a 30th level spell and seems weaker than 518 (first spell I could think of that was similar).
1640 - Would like to see the base number of raises increased. With 0 lore, this is basically a 1x per day spell, which seems significantly underpowered compared to other 40th level spells.


Other thoughts:
- I'd like to be able to create Paladin only chrism gem equivalents. Noted my idea in 1604.
- Infusing spells into weapons just seems to be lackluster, I'd like to see that expanded upon with more benefits for a fully bonded weapon.
- Paladins are the only profession completely lacking a guild and this should be addressed, even if guild skills aren't being planned, we could at least have a place to hang out. Alternatively, since paladins are warrior/cleric hybrids, a partial membership to the warrior and cleric guilds would be nice (limit the number of skills you can learn from the warrior guild to 3).
- Paladins don't have much in the way that they can offer to other players. At its base level of utility, Divine Word is only 1x per day, and people prefer warrior armor adjustments, paladins pretty much have nothing to offer.
- I'd like to see paladins have access to more CMANs

Personal note:
I'd like to see paladins get access to Haymaker! I NEED to punch people in the face. (Insert strongly worded complaint letter here.)

~ The girl behind Debia

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www.ElanthianEvents.com
Find me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/angelofsharath

The girl behind Debia

1630 - ...have the ability to target hidden/invisible targets.

It already does. All warding spells do by default, but you only see the warding if the attack is successful.

>cast
You gesture.
You briefly close your eyes, and a faint colorful aura washes over you. A faint multihued light builds up and emanates from your hand before it takes the shape of an ethereal sphere!
A halfling brigand is forced out of hiding.
A blast of multihued plasma flares out from the center of the ethereal sphere, striking a halfling brigand!
CS: +386 - TD: +288 + CvA: -10 + d100: +31 == +119
Warding failed!
The halfling brigand is stricken for 29 points of damage!
... 10 points of damage!
Intense blast to the halfling brigand's eyelid causes it to sizzle and pop.
The halfling brigand is stunned!

The ethereal sphere vanishes from sight.
Cast Roundtime 3 Seconds.

The girl behind Debia

Paladins are the only profession completely lacking a guild and this should be addressed

Monks, rangers, and bards also do not have guild skills. It's not impossible that they ever will, but highly unlikely. Guild skills are not a good return on investment from a Development standpoint, especially when it's just for a single profession.

GameMaster Estild

>>Monks, rangers, and bards also do not have guild skills. It's not impossible that they ever will, but highly unlikely. Guild skills are not a good return on investment from a Development standpoint, especially when it's just for a single profession.

Forgot about monks, oops!

Rangers and bards have structures that they can at least hang out in. Paladins are left in the cold :(
A partial membership to the warrior and cleric guilds would be great, though!

~ The girl behind Debia

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www.ElanthianEvents.com
Find me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/angelofsharath