Making Paladins better at element neutral targets

So I was checking out the skill changes on this server and overall I think there's some great additions.

Crunching the numbers it's easy to see that 175% fire should make Paladins absolute power-houses against fire weak targets (least on paper, haven't actually seen one).

However there's one glaring issue about the class in my opinion; Bossing. While many of the smaller bosses in game (Anego, Bigfoot, Crow etc) have elemental weaknesses the main bosses in game (Zakum and Horntail) does not. This reflects in Amount of Heroes and Dark Knights vs. Paladins

Now on 175% fire Paladin should still actually beat Hero dps on single target neutrals by a small marigin (1521% a sec vs 1431% a sec with ST). I'd still say Hero is a lot more useful as brandish is a 3 target skill and can therefore do some pretty nutty dps on on Zakum arms and at HT as long as there's more than 1 target to hit. You could slot in Paladin as a Single target attacker for your run but their dps doesn't quite hang with the 1 target specialists that is NL and Corsair.

Therefore I suggest the following change to the class:
Make fire element boost damage by 200% BUT nerf the damage multiplier on fire weak targets from 1.5x to 1.1x. This would make the class a lot more versatile and give them a distinct role as single target attacker for bosses. It wouldn't make thunder and holy element obsolete, as those elements would still be preferred on targets that are weak to those elements. Ice would be the preferred element for many ice weak mobs, as those are usually strong against fire. This would just make fire the go-to element for anything neutral (It should already be anyway) or fire-weak. Now the con would be that Paladin would not be as strong against Fire weak targets but I'd say overall it's a pretty good trade-off.

Here's how damage would change

Currently:
Neutral 175% damage, Fire weak 262.5% damage

With suggested change:
Neutral 200% damage, Fire Weak 220% damage

Also damage cap on blast should probably be raised to something like 299,999. It's pretty easy for a high levelled Paladin to hit 199,999 on elemental weak targets when using apples. Especially when you throw SE into the mix.

 

Yes they have recieved a significant buff, making them even better at what they do really well; attacking elemental weak targets. So the issue of being bad at neutral targets still remain, just not as appallingly bad anymore.
Paladin is in no way shape or form 'on par' with hero at HT or Zakum. They slightly edge them out on single target but get destroyed as soon as multitargets get introduced. Paladin should be compared against a Night Lord instead, who's main attack is also a single target skill. Against Night Lord they also get destroyed on single target (no surprise there). Paladin can however keep up with NL's on Holy weak and Lightning weak and straight out beat them on fire weak.

What I'm suggesting isn't necessarily a buff as it would also significantly nerf their damage vs. fire weak targets. Bit of a double edged sword but some quality of life and would make the class more attractive.

Good grinding doesn't necessarily have to exclude being able to boss well. There's already classes in game that do both very well. Also this change would not make them equal/better to hero in every way at all. Heroes would still be in high demand for their excellent cleave damage and overall do a lot more damage in a HT fight. This would just make Paladin be able to do one role well at bosses and be less crippled vs neutral targets.

 

Just an example of how a Paladin could look like at 180. Clearly not your average geared player but just showing it's doable and probably inevitable that you'll hit the cap at 200.

Helm: 17 Str, 36 dex
Eye: 5 str, 5 dex
Face: 10 dex
Ear: 13 dex
Necklace: 25 str, 25 dex,
Top: 25 str, 2 dex
Bot: 19 dex, 4 str
Cape: 11 attack
Shoes: 6 attack
Gloves: 16 attack
Sword: 131 attack, 15 str
Attack: 164
Gear bonus: 110 dex, 91 str
Base stats + MW20: 11 dex, 1003 str
Total: 121 dex, 1094 str
AP modifier: 51.534

Clean: 8451
Apple + echo: 14,149

Against some elemental weak targets (no defense):
Maximum theoretical damage with current version of fire element without SE: 222,846
Maximum theoretical damage with current version of fire element with SE: 274,844
Maximum theoretical damage with thunder element without SE: 191,011
Maximum theoretical damage with thunder element with SE: 235,580

So a lot of damage that could be lost there cause of the simple fact that Blast damage is a single line instead of spread across 2 lines.

 

NL can wash though. A well washed NL is pretty much playing on god mode with the insane avoid.

 

Yeah IMO it does. Besides that's only one thing Paladin got up their sleeve. He fails to mention that NL got 15 min apples, superior mobility, better damage sustainability due to high avoid and not falling off platforms as often. Let's also not forget due to the nature of being melee warriors simply take more damage and therefore needs better tankability.

Not sure how much, say 20 % defense reduction, would matter as the damage you lose from defense is rather negligible before Big Bang. Unless you make threaten remove a high % of all defense. Good idea either way.

 

Yeah god forbid not only Hero and DrK being the useful warriors at Bosses. Also I'm not playing a Paladin.