Worth going Paladin?

[Malianna]

hey guys, just coming back after years of being away. All my toons are very low level, so not really worth crying over if I did reroll [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Anyways, I did manage to get a HE paladin to 10, but I'm now heavily considering if its worth going forward. I do want to tank/ have a melee roll, but this will obviously be my main on here. currently full banded with some random jewelery etc.

Would a warrior or SK fit the bill better along the road, ranger maybe? (lol)

[captnamazing]

Paladins are strong and valuable tanks. They are great in small party settings and can even tank raids occasionally.

If you're starting from scratch, paladin will be slower, but I think it'll be easier. Having done a warrior as my main, i found the experience gruelling at best until I could start getting ykesha procs. (level 36). As a paladin, you have a slew of healing spells, stuns, root, and LoH at your disposal to stay alive when a warrior wouldn't.

You'll never be great, or even good, at soloing. However, you'll be an effective tank earlier, and you'll have more abilities... I'd recommend it.

[Estu]

Do it! Paladins are excellent tanks in standard EXP groups. They have some use though are not great in raids. They are underplayed on this server, so you'll be able to get gear for cheap.

[Rhambuk]

only read topic name.

Never, paladins are awful. This is my personal opinion I simply hate the paladin class, always have always will.

I never choose a paladin tank, I will never ask a paladin to group with me, I hate them.

[Gaffin 3.0]

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

only read topic name.

Never, paladins are awful. This is my personal opinion I simply hate the paladin class, always have always will.

I never choose a paladin tank, I will never ask a paladin to group with me, I hate them.

pretty much 100 % there, while they can tank decent and stuns and free heals from dw helm is nice later on, still not that wanted when looking for a tank, kind of like a last option tank if nothing else to get...

[Rhambuk]

I'd tank a monk, then a ranger, then a bard over a paladin....

[Tuljin]

paladin is awesome if you are a good player - they have the strongest cc and mob parking skills of all the tanks. you can root and stun as well as blind for snap agro. if you pull multiple mobs you can root them yourself, and if they're casters you can chain interrupt them and they won't cast a single spell.

i have done some awesome duos/trios that wouldn't be possible with other classes. if you have enough dps in your group you can be your own healer because casters wont rape you every time they come into play. i duoed ghoul am in lguk with 46 pal and 45 epic rogue thanks to stuns, interrupts, and sword and board (and the am not resisting all my spells :P)

paladin is awesome, you just have to be good at eq to get the most out of them - theres a reason so few people on the server play them [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[Danth]

Paladin's my favorite class in EQ, no question.

I disagree with Tuljin. I don't think learning curve has much to do with the Paladin's lack of popularity on P1999. The Paladin is no worse than average in terms of finesse required for competent gameplay. I think, rather, the lack of popularity stems from the class's relative lack of diversity: It tanks fairly well for experience groups, but that's about all it shines at. Otherwise, the Paladin's a mediocre soloist, a sub-par duo character for most duos, and has very little raid role. Other classes can tank adequately for standard groups whilst offering more desirability in other areas of the game. If all you care about is tanking for experience groups, then the Paladin will serve adequately. Most folks want more than that.

The Paladin's 40% experience penalty doesn't help matters any, either. All four of the hybrid classes (Paladin, Ranger, Shadow Knight and Bard) tend to run out of gas in the low to mid 50's; most of them never make 60. It also hurts their group desirability. With that in mind, if you're determined to make 60 and raid as a tank, I advise Warrior simply because it takes vastly less experience to get there.

Rhambuk sounds like a Warrior; his posts made me grin. There's some sort of unwritten social rule in EQ that Paladins and Warriors are supposed to hate each other.

My advice to the original poster would be as follows: Make a Paladin if your heart is set on it. If it isn't and you're less particular about what class you play, then pick something else. Most other classes will give you more mileage across a larger portion of the game. The Paladin's a specialist--dedicated to tanking for experience groups and particularly at shutting down spellcasters. It doesn't have the sort of broad, generalist adaptability that (for example) Monks have, hence why Monks are popular and Paladins are not.

Danth

[Rhambuk]

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

Rhambuk sounds like a Warrior; his posts made me grin. There's some sort of unwritten social rule in EQ that Paladins and Warriors are supposed to hate each other.

Danth

haha you're very close! My paladin hatred goes back to my live days as a rogue, knockback stuns pushing mobs behind me, paladin buffs overwriting my atk buffs, paladins that didn't understand agro mechanics and would just stunlock mobs making positioning horrible.

A warrior friend and I shared this hatred and a lot of it came from him but it stuck around for nostalgia sake. Down with paladins!

[Tuljin]

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

haha you're very close! My paladin hatred goes back to my live days as a rogue, knockback stuns pushing mobs behind me, paladin buffs overwriting my atk buffs, paladins that didn't understand agro mechanics and would just stunlock mobs making positioning horrible.

this is precisely why i mention learning curve when talking about why people don't roll paladin. in order to be good at paladin you need to have good tank AND caster skills. you have to properly turn and position mobs (and know when to stunlock and when to use blind) you also need caster skills to know how to lull/break up camps, root park/split mobs properly, how to use stuns (and bash) to knock out casters, and also knowing when to toss out heals, cure poisons/diseases, and when to use LoH (either on yourself or a party member) you have to keep an eye on the casters in your group in case they get agro and you have to stun the mob and root park him safely (or just tank it) to keep your casters safe, which is normally the responsibility of a caster.

most people when rolling a melee class don't even consider this dimension of gameplay. they instantly only think "dps" hence why you get an iksar monk rolled (which also carries a hefty xp penalty btw), a warrior maybe, and sometimes they think sk cause it "out dps-es" paladin, but when you start stacking dots on an sk you quickly see your mana bar drain to nothing and the dps really isn't that exceptional.

in my experience on this server most people who play casters don't really have the best situational awareness. i point my finger at clerics cause most of them on the server don't do a damn thing besides heal, they never throw out a single root or stun. if there isn't an enc in a group to AOE mez every single shitty pull in a very haphazard way, there is no CC and you'll just end up sitting at zoneline LFG. root cc is usually plenty of cc if you are single pulling casters, and if not you make sure you root casters out of LOS. with melee mobs root CC is just fine.

with a pal you can take matters into your own hands. after playing warrior for a while i got sick of relying on others to take care of cc etc. if get a good dps class with you and a third party member (doesn't even have to be a healer necessarily) and you will steadily and quickly move the xp bar without dying. this is another point - all of these hypothetical "best" class situations are assuming a good player behind the toon, which certainly is not always the case. not dying and keeping the bar moving is the key to xp, not getting nuked to 30% on every pull and waiting till that one time the cleric is a little bit late on the CH, the group gets screwed, and you end up waiting a while before the xp bar moves again.

so yes, learning curve/general difficulty of the class is a major reason why nobody rolls a paladin. nobody thinks about what pal is capable of - people either wanna crank out dps and FD to save their own ass without having any other responsibilities (monk and sk), or they just wanna sit on their ass and heal or OHSHITOHSHITOHSHIT aoe mez (cle and enc)

the main point is that a good knight is good because of skill, not because of min/max. a good paladin is extremely powerful in the hardest zones of the game (undeads in hole, hs, and seb) its just that you don't see many of them out there =)