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.

[Danth]

Folks who think Paladins need a large mana pool as part of their normal function have likely never played Paladins very much. There are a few cases where a large mana pool makes a real difference, but they're the exception, not the norm. If you want more mana for some reason, buy some wisdom gear that you can swap on. Most of the class's bread-and-butter spells--Flash of Light, stuns, etc--have a low mana cost. Even the heals are individually sort of low mana by the time the Paladin gets them. As others have said, mana regen is the main limitation.

If you're a raiding Paladin and you're regularly called on to heal so much that you feel like you need to wear high-wisdom armor, then it can help--but you've already lost. Congratulations: Your guild thinks you're worthless. Hope you enjoy your life as an unimportant tertiary healer for the other fluff folks your guild doesn't care about. If you stick it out, maybe you can even look forward to being your guild's one high-level Paladin for casting Brell's in Velious! Then you can loot uncontested class rots so you can cast Brell's even better! Joy of joys! Or go join a guild that'll actually utilize the class as a tank/offtank, for which you don't need a huge mana pool. Optionally just make a new character like most Paladins do.

If you have a short attention span, here's the short version: Mana is something you gain with gear if you want it, typically for very specific situations, and not something you worry about at creation.

Danth

[Pint]

Damn I love paladins but you guys went to town on those long ass responses lol. I will agree that the 12 mana diff between dwarf and high elf is negligible but I would say that with velious coming up as a paladin having a large mana pool and solid resists will be your best bet. I had good success keeping my dps grps alive during beta.

Also high elves are fucking lame regardless of which class you're playing, erudites are baller and I'm not just saying that bc they're black.

[captnamazing]

inclined to agree with Pint here

[Ulriche]

Honestly, if I could do it again, I'd have done Human, Half Elf (which I did originally), or High Elf. The key is what you put your points into. Humans will be most well rounded. Half elves have crappy base wisdom but you can put points into it. This becomes especially more valuable if you get into AE grouping to get from 51-60. Healing Wave of Prexus is a mana drain but will save your AE group. Tunare is the only viable diety unless you just love roleplaying. Easy epic.