most underpowered class in game?

[Fammaden]

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

Paladin lacks a well-defined role in raids as early Everquest just doesn't feature a lot of adds that need to be off-tanked during boss fights. Almost all raid bosses pre-Luclin just have the boss by itself, so snap aggro tanking doesn't have a whole lot of limelight on raids. LoH/SoulFire is useful in emergencies but tends not to have a huge impact on a raid as a whole. It's not like it's something that shapes the overall strategy of a ToV clear. Divine Strength is an alright buff, but again, +200 HP doesn't have a massive impact really. In groups, paladins are excellent tanks but suffer from the fact that their stun spells come too late in the leveling process. They have long cooldowns and you get the first one at level 30, then the next at 49, and it's not until you have two stuns that it feels comfortable. Flash of Light is horrible to tank with because blinded mobs act as if feared if the #1 aggro-holder isn't in melee range. Paladins are kind of unwieldy before level 49 for this reason, and if there isn't Clarity available to the group, using stuns for aggro means you will run out of mana in a chain-pulling group.

This entire section is almost completely misinformed. DS is an amazing buff that everyone wants, doesn't block worts like SoN, and is two velious BiS items worth of HP packed into one convenient buff. Soulfires are absolutely amazing in P99 raiding where quite often a minimal razor's edge engage is the norm, and even more pronounced now that reapers have been broken for almost a year.

In pre-Kunark and for much of Kunark (especially VP), pallies were the tank of choice on green, and continue to be for many of the fast dying 32hp Kunark dragons on both servers. Sanctification disc can be incredibly helpful for fast FTE engages on AE mobs as well.

All the benefits of paladins are also multiplied due to the fact that most raiding guilds can never find enough people willing to main one.