Paladin: Erudite or High Elf

[kaev]

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

I completely and totally disagree with this statement. Mana pool is very important to a paladin.

1) Soloing at low-mid level. You are going to be soloing primarily undead, and a good portion of the damage you deal them is from nukes. You are going to be self-healing. Standing toe-to-toe with undead is going to eat mana and if you want to clear a 3-4 mob camp on one mana pool you need it to be large (then sit and med while you wait for the 7 minute respawn. The main reason people say that paladins can't solo is because their paladins have no mana pool.

Nope. The reason paladins solo poorly is that they do poor damage and have to tank every mob themselves. You don't have 7 minutes to med, because you can't kill the mobs instantaneously. Your damage output from nukes sucks donkey balls, and they are slow-assed casts so they get interrupted often (we're talking low-/mid-level you say) and trash your real damage output (i.e. melee.)

Also, the ONLY reason for a paladin to prefer undead as targets is while Unrest is level appropriate, and it has nothing to do with casting nukes. IVU lets you move around freely in the house and with some care Lulling you can get a steady diet of single pulls. Since 20-30 is also the level range where Ghoulbane is both fun and effective it all works out nicely (or it used to work out nicely, last time i looked in on it Unrest was pretty well wrecked as a legit 20-something dungeon by the PLers.).

2) Grouping - even at mid-level group members ask for buffs. If your healer is a shaman or druid especially. Paladins are usually tanking and can't sit down to regen so they need a big pool to cast those occasional buffs and keep casting for agro. They are also going to spot heal.

LOL NOPE. Where is this mana for buffs and heals coming from? You regen 1 mana per tick while standing, that's 10 mana per minute. Mana regen is the issue, not mana pool.

3) Raiding - In kunark at high level paladins are just as good a healer as a druid (better even with LoH). They should be casting heals on raids. They will probably be asked for symbol by people that clerics don't want to waste mana on. In velious they have their own unique buff that stacks and everyone will want.

Most common druid specialization sure seems to be alteration, how does a paladin compete with that mana efficiency? Druids get mana regen self-buffs that stack with the clarity line, how does a paladin compete with that? Lay Hands is a 72 minute cooldown, it's a gimmick with occasional glory that does not come close to countering the druid's advantages as a healer. It doesn't take a deep mana pool to spot heal the occasional non-Iksar necro and the two or three shamans doing all the work of buffing the raid, it takes mana regen.

The high elf wisdom so far outstrips the other paladin races that they are the min/max choice imo. Moreso even in velious.

As Tuljin points out, it's not even a single cast of superior heal, it has almost zero value. The high elf cha edge is helpful for lulling, which a paladin should be doing somewhat often while levelling. But the wisdom does nothing but make it a little easier to skill up any tradeskills you feel are helpful.