[phacemeltar]

Originally Posted by Raev [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I think the Paladin class gets a bad rap because they can't tank the absolute toughest content, and the hive mind has somehow hypnotized themselves into thinking this means they can't tank at all.

Let's say you join a casual guild. Paladins can tank all of Hate. Paladins can tank everything in Sky except the Bee Queen. Paladins can tank all of the Ring War. Paladins can tank all of Kael except Derakor. Paladins can tank the Halls of Testing. Paladins can tank everything in Veeshan's Peak. Paladins can tank pretty much every Kunark boss except Venril Sathir. Now the really big Velious targets like Tormax, Yelinak, Dozekar, anything in NTOV? They will smoke you. But on the whole you can tank a huge amount of content and arguably do most of it better than a Warrior.

The key to tanking tough mobs as a Paladin is convincing your debuffers that no matter what they do, they will not die. Playing Enchanter in halls of testing with a Warrior tanking is a miserable experience. You either wait like 20s to tash, or you die every 5-10 dragons. As a Paladin, you should get a clicky to reset your cooldown and absolutely spam your aggro spells like Stun and Flash of Light. Once the Shamans and Enchanters in your guild learn that they can trust you, you can train them to move in and slow things in ~10 seconds. And a Paladin tanking a slowed mob will do way, way better than a Warrior with the unslowed version.

Also, Paladins are very good in groups. Don't think of yourself as a tank that heal. Think of yourself as a tank that can CC. Frog beating on the cleric? Root it. No monk? Get out that Charisma set and lull. Enchanter's pet skeleton breaks charm? Stun it. Monk pulled 5 mobs? Stun one, drag it away from the pack, root, repeat. Or use Group Heal to tank them all as the Enchanter gradually locks them down.

On the whole I think class balance is far improved in Velious. Druids, Shadowknights, Paladins, Rangers all got big improvements. Enchanters got toned down a bit with stun immune Dragons and Giants all over the place. Pure melee are probably still too strong, but on the whole it's much closer.

This is a great post