This is not meant to be a rant but a sincere inquiry. I've recently made a paragon and have been playing it through part of the game, and while the profession is functional, I can't help but feel that there's a lack of defined purpose to it. Many skills seem literally useless, most have strange conditions and very few skills have obvious uses. I don't have any elites yet so that could easily be part of the problem, but I still think that the Paragon's potential power is too intangible and vague.
The problems I see with most of the skills:
Way too situational to fit into a regular skillbar. Examples: "Can't touch this!", Lyric of purification, Disrupting Throw.
Effects are too insignificant, or need too much attribute investment to be useful. Examples: Aria of Zeal, Energizing Chorus, "Brace Yourself!", Mending Refrain.
Durations are too short, or requirments too hard to meet. Examples: "Fall Back!", Blazing Finale, Natural Temper.
Basically, my feeling is that a lot of these skills would be fine if they weren't so watered down. Many of the skills that give some bonus on your allies' next attack would be perfectly balanced if they had been on all attacks for the (usually very short) duration of the shout/chant. The heals are not great, the energy management skills are usable at best, never great. I understand some of them were nerfed, but with a skill like Energizing Finale, I can rarely get it to yield more than 3-5 energy in its 20-30 second duration - hardly anything that makes a big difference. The spear skills are all rubbish, either crossing over eachother too much (how much deep wounds do you really need?) or with requirments that make it too impractical to use. If your party has trouble surviving, an extra Monk would be more beneficial than a defensive Paragon. If your party doesn't deal enough damage, an extra offense Warrior, Dervish, nuker, <insert other 10+ damage characters> would be bettert than a Paragon specced for command or spears. It certainly has its uses, especially in PvP where your team is built around the skills and know exactly how/when to use it. But in PvE, with heroes/henchs or players you're not familiar with, I just can't see how the Paragon can do anything well enough to be a valuable choice over another profession that suits the needs. The word that best describes my feeling about this profession is "flimsy".
I hope to be proven wrong and I'd love to hear your ideas on what works, because I obviously haven't seen what the Paragon can do that makes it worthwhile. What did I miss?
T
