Lets build a PvP Paladin
 

Underrated and underrepresented on both blue and red servers, the Paladin has sparked my interest as of late having discovered Stinktum's awesome post "In Defense of the Paladin" ( http://www.project1999.org/forums/sh...d.php?t=108428 ).

With the teams server coming following Velious, I figured there would be no better time to discuss a infrequently played class on what was historically, the lowest populated team. The Good team.

So, Paladins of Blue and Red, people who've gone head to head with Paladins in combat, and min maxers and number crunchers, lets discuss the PvP paladin

What races and deitys and stat allocations would you personally suggest on an item loot pvp server?

what are some hallmark paladin clickies, weapons, and quests?

what are the essential paladin tactics, spells, and techniques particular to Paladin pvp?

How moot is the Paladins root and stun line of spells rendered in an environment where your opponents stack resists?

And anything else you want to bring to the table.

Someone find Gink Pink epic froglok paladin of SZ to reply to this please.

Deity shouldn't matter too much.... dump all your points into stamina

the Deepwater Helm has a clicky that allows you to infinitely heal yourself, mana-free. the Deepwater Boots has an Endure Magic clicky, a buff that Paladins don't get innately. the other Deepwater clickies aren't all that useful supposedly, but i haven't gotten any of them yet myself.

the Paladin Armor of Ro quests are the classic armor quests for Paladins.... equivalent to, say Warrior's Crafted or Bard's Lambent. they are the toughest of the old world armor quests, though... lots of running around for each piece, and they're expensive (each piece requires two 100p platinum bars).

the Bracers of Ro from those quests are probably the best piece for a PVP Paladin... 5MR each bracer... two less MR than the 7MR JC'd bracers, but these pally bracers have 9AC too. all of the pieces from this set other than the Helm and the Boots have a resist of some kind... only the bracers are MR though.

then of course, there's also Soulfire / Fiery Avenger / Fiery Defender.... Fiery Defender is considered by some to be the easiest of the epic quests.

the best paladin tactic, for both PVE and PVP, is jousting. get a nice big slow two handed weapon. I use an Argent Defender, which swings only about once every 5 seconds. so what I do in PVE is root whatever i'm fighting, and only step into melee range for a swing every 5 seconds. turn off auto attack between swings, if you leave it on and accidentally get a "your target is too far away" or "you cannot see your target" message then you have to wait another 5 seconds for another chance to swing. if you're good enough with your timing you can even sit down for meditate ticks between swings. :) the timing can be tricky though.... leave your Inventory window open and watch your mana number to make sure its working.

the same general jousting tactic is also the go to tactic for PVP... its just harder to keep players rooted since they're usually decked out in MR gear.

paladins don't really get that many spells.... i've been deleting all the lower level spells i'm replacing in each spell line as i level up, and i only have 13 spells in my level 46 paladin's spell book. paladins only get 3 stuns (the second one is at level 49). they also, though, get Root and the Lull line, making them more suited for dungeon crawling than the other two tank classes.

and Paladin heals are almost as good as Druid or Shaman heals.... through many level ranges, Paladins use the same healing spell as Druids and Shamans... currently my 46 Paladin is using 270HP Greater Healing, the same that Druids and Shamans will be using until their low 50s. they're still not as good at healing as Druids or Shamans, though, even with the same heal spell.... due to the fact that Druids and Shamans can sit during fights and have a higher Meditate skill cap, and can pump out more Greater Heals more often.

Paladin's two main spells that you would like to use during PVP -- Stun and Root -- both do their save checks vs. Magic Resist, so during PVP combat Paladins basically become slightly weaker warriors that make up for it by being able to heal themselves. i've almost never been able to land either spell during PVP combat.

Erudites get a natural boost to MR and look badass in plate.

plus they get some pretty good Erudite only items.... Shield of the Stalwart Seas comes to mind

abysmally low STR might be a pretty big hindrance on a fresh server without an abundance of STR gear, though

That Shield is a Hate drop so it wouldn't do much good for leveling or PvP since you are going to want to joust so you wont be using a 1 hander and shield.

They do look awesome though....

I would think dwarfs have the best Paladin starting stats.

I really like that idea about rooting and moving in to range every couple seconds. Very neat!

they do have the best stats... but then you've gotta be short and ugly. regular sized people with flaming swords are just so much more impressive! =p

paladin is the only class that the strategy really works for. shadow knights don't get root, and rangers get root but i don't think it's typically worth the DPS loss from using a 2hander over dual wielding.

Half elves are by far the best looking paladins. Robocop helmet Ftw! I just suggested it because they are technically the best race to choose due to their stats (also somersault).

I could really only see the root and scoot method working on 40+ delay weapons as anything under 25 delay would be equal to or lower than the mobs innate delay. Wurmslayer + anything would be a good option but for pally's any 2hs would probably work.