Problems of holy (melee) paladin in mxl2017:
1. Insufficient survival options - 300k~ defense without any other layer of defense doesn't cut it with current incoming damage and while blessed life is awesome, the flat DR does not suffice as a compensatory mechanic and it is also available to casters that will not have the same issue of having to be in melee to deliver damage. (At the time of writing I have 15+19 in blessed life, it gives 38% dr/186 flat)
2. Related to the first point - The melee part of the spec doesn't actually get any higher survivability; my current gear setup lands me at 346k defense with standard melee spec spread (smaxed plague, incarnation, blessed life, 10pt colosseum, 34pt dragon heart, x pointed rapture depending on preference):
http://i.imgur.com/z7OMWOv.png Compared to the same gear as a standard unholy dude with smaxed stormlord/tainted blood:
http://i.imgur.com/2i42mA8.pngWithout any changes in gear and same approach to stat investment (all points into energy instead of all points into str), stormlord matches the life contribution given through the 1/4 base str->vit from dragonheart and with 4 base point less we lose 70k defense except this is a caster. We have no reason to stand in melee with this dude except for when we want to, the melee dude will make no effective damage from any distance beyond 5yd. Tainted blood also adds 3.5% hp/sec at 30 base points which effectively means that the unholy dude is probably tankier in most scenarios or at least equal to the holy variant.
3. The entire skill tree screams "spend your points into str" - retals only damage (magic damage added) scaling comes from 4% of base str per soft point and incarnation gives some really nice bonuses for the exchange of having to click solar flare every 6th second, it throws a massive 69% life leech and a 125% spell damage bonus together with 14-18k flat AR more or less removing the need for base dex. And this playerbase is inherently opposed to skill switching so I guess that is a good incentive to keep this interaction going.
4. The speed rework, holy shit - the SPEED REWORK, I do not think the dragonform morph is overpowered by any stretch of the word so how can it EVER become a thing that hand of god requires *1680* attackspeed with the morph to reach 7fpa? (395 attack speed for 20WSM which is the tepoz speed and then 265 for the 10WSM weapons which are holy lance and paladin 1hers). One guy argued that rapture fixes this so it isn't an issue but I'm not so sure about that:
(See my post on this
viewtopic.php?p=108657#p108657 here for the frame progression)
VoR has a horrible passive as holy (who cares about additional targets as a melee spec when the range isn't there in the first place - you are never fighting 15 targets within 4yd range, that is just stupid really), hoplites are the much superior summon for holy than scourges and demiurge vs rapture which both have merits in their own way.
I do not think light influence should be forced just to reach viable melee breakpoints for anything larger than a 1h weapon - 265as is already stretching it a bit too far in my mind. I personally played the most as light in the end, hoplites are actually ok for farming even 1pted and until recently I needed the skill ias from rapture to reach my breakpoints even with a decent amount of 10-15% as jewels - I currently dont need it for that though because I'm using the SSSU hand axe as my main weapon which is -10WSM.
5. Superbeast remains the godtier morph with actual 5fpa and 5 frame cast while dragonform has to settle for 7fpa/6 frame cast, while the hit recovery is much harsher as superbeast it is still a no contest between the morphs. Not certain if 6fpa is the solution here but the spec is as stated considered underpowered by the player base.
6. Why the fuck does the melee set (Cinadide's Craft) restrict solar flare? I was initially happy because friend of mine found the set ancient armor like 3 days into the ladder, then I equipped a second piece and realized that solar flare is flagged as one of the skills restricted by the 2set bonus. Sacrificing the bonuses of incarnation in order to get the dubious privilege of running a 40WSM weapon with 400max damage isn't really a viable tradeoff and the 400% EWD from the full set will not compensate for this. I will properly assess the set once I get the final piece I'm missing but seriously, it doesn't feel up to date with the current design of the skill tree and should be revamped to something people can consider using, especially as it uses two top end set pieces (set ancient and set hog) so it's not really realistic to find early.
7. Divine Judgment, the supposed new skill added in this patch and what is even worse is that it is supposed to be fixed in the midladder patch, "Fixed an issue with Divine Judgement damage delivery" - what is the point of this skill, what is the usage scenario and when should I want to use it, the damage takes forever to resolve and even on stationary targets retaliate feels equal (and that should never happen). Feel free to post the actual numbers for the skill and enlighten me why it is actually useful because in the current state of the game I really have to struggle to find myself using it over retal.
I think the solution is quite straightforward either way, add flat defense somewhere in the skill tree - can even make it reliant on base str like the rest of the tree in order to further drive home the point that it is one of the few raw str builds in the game. (One example could be 15-20 flat def per base point of str linked to either the morph or dragonheart, it wouldn't give balance tier defense but it wouldn't scale with skill level, rather scale with character charm/signet progression and stop scaling at a set point.
Consider revamping the speed tables for a already underplayed spec, in the two previous threads only one dude had actual constructive feedback with some other dudes memeing or just dismissing the spec entirely which is a boring way to approach the problem. I do not think it is unrelated that there has been no attempts at the paladin class challenges (except mine) even though there are like a million paladins on the ladder because two of them expect them to play holy melee and I get the impression that no one of note tried to play it properly.
Also make divine judgment actually do something, compare it to shit like stormblast family of skills or even crucify. I dare say I'm one of the only people that tried to use it this ladder and I can tell you, shit doesn't cut it in median endgame. I am technically a baby in terms of median progress - I only really have most basic charms but charm progression has been atrocious (jitan fight was circlekiting dudes with fucking whirlpool oskill poking to kill stuff, duncraig mobs had 27% chance to hit on the paladin and got him into hit recovery every time so that run took several hours etc etc and even with quite good gear he doesn't farm unformed land with any particular speed or grace). Not to mention that the single target is atrocious even with a 600max 1h weapon...
I welcome discussion/flames/whatever but surely the skill tree shouldn't just be filler content with the excuse that unholy is good.
![:-]](./images/smilies/icon_innocent.gif "Innocent"){kind=icon}
