Dwarven Warrior vs Dwarven Cleric vs Dwarven Paladin

[Cen]

I got p99 up and running. I actually stopped playing EQ in PoP, but after logging on a little test character it felt so familar and i'm ready to shove off.. except im going to start from scratch, and I really want to be a dwarf, even if its not the min maxing race of choice for.. well anything.

I want to be a Warrior, Cleric, or Paladin. I love to tank in groups, and heal. I was walking in the commonlands with my little test human to see if there was a big population in that old tunnel area, and I was happy to see there was. I chatted with a few people about this question, and wanted to ask it here. If you had the choice of starting fresh on one of those three classes for a dwarf, why or why not might it be a bad idea? From what I gather people told me:

Warrior will be not wanted because its not an ogre, and is only wanted for raids and never groups.

Paladin's are supposedly good in groups but bad in raids, and are not good in velious era, they mostly say.

Most people said be a cleric because you'll be useful everywhere, but don't be a dwarf, be a halfling or don't play cleric and go paladin :P But no, i'm being a dwarf!


What is your take on the decision? I only had played casters a long time ago, and never had a serious priest or melee fighting or tanking class so I wanted to finally relive the game and do it. (Specifically tanking or healing)

[backsteppin123]

Dwarf does fine with all 3 classes, we have a dwarf that has tanked every dragon in the game. You will just miss out on frontal stun immune and total min/max stats, which is nice but you can live without it. War is tough for 1st toon as it is very gear dependent. Paladins are great for groups while not so much for end game but are not for everyone as hybrids are jack of all trades master of none. Cleric is always great for finding groups and people will love you, eventually you will have xp rez as well. Might want to add that you will not be a top soloer class with all 3 so get out there and LFG but you could solo well enough to not just sit around. Just pick whatever you think will be the most fun. Stick with dwarf for that same reason. p99 wiki will have a lot of info for you to hop back in informed as well. Good luck!

[Jimjam]

Never had problems finding groups with my warriors on p1999. They are good in groups provided you can convince someone to root the mob for you (rooted mobs attack the closest player, so if you stand on it's toes you can guarantee being the focus of it's attention).

People might tell you warriors only can succeed as twinks, this isn't really true. Using the strategy above aggro isn't really a problem. Weapons are cheap in east commons and you can easily armour up on your adventures if you stick to Faydwer (maybe questing some crafted armour once you're sick of small bronze/banded).

However, from what you've posted it does sound like you may have most fun as a paladin.

[jolanar]

If you want to tank and heal and be a dwarf, seems pretty obvious Paladin is the choice.

[Trelaboon]

Dwarves are probably the 3rd or 4th best Warrior race so I don't know what people are talking about. I main a 60 Gnome Warrior and never had issues finding a group and with raid buffs, I'm every bit as capable as an Ogre Warrior minus the stun immunity, which isn't even that huge for a Warrior.

Paladin is fantastic in groups but definitely loses its luster at 60 when you're raiding. That being said, they sound perfect for you, if you like tanking and healing.

Cleric is the one class I've never played extensively because it bores me. I have no idea how someone can sit there and play a Cleric for so long but some people love it I guess.

Based on how you talk, I'd go with a Paladin. Even as a Warrior, you won't be main tanking really big stuff unless you're one of your guilds top Warriors, so you're just added DPS or on a disc rotation for decent sized mobs.

[Cen]

Thanks for all the advice. I made a test of all three. I actually like the warrior and cleric (though lacking in spells) I need to level paladin more but it's a bit off putting casting while meeleing together but I don't mind the spell gems on the cleric as just casting. I'm thinking down the line I'm going to have both a dwarf warrior and cleric both! My warrior os agnostic and I forgot if there's any benefit to brell on a class that could be agnostic or if agnostic is always best

[icedwards]

You'll miss out on the Dwarven cultural armor if you go agnostic. I'd recommend rolling Brell.

Cleric will be the easiest to level without gear, you can heal in rags after all. Great in groups and raids too. There really isn't a min/max choice for cleric imo. Halflings get hide/sneak, gnomes get invis BP, high elves get a plane of growth quest bracer, but you can't really go wrong on race choice.

Warrior is just going to be straight up difficult to level as a new character, no point sugar coating it. It's not impossible and you might find some helpful people able to donate some starter gear, so don't be discouraged if that's the way you're leaning. Paladins would be slightly easier because they can hold aggro with spells.

[JurisDictum]

Dwarves were the best Paladins in Kunark hands down. It doesn't really matter at the endgame of Velious though. You might want to put max starting stats into wisdom if you plan on raiding and getting very geared (it is possible that High Elf is technically "the best" for this reason...but only after a lot of really good drops).

Dwarves are have never been bad warriors. IDK wtf people are talking about with min/maxing stats and Ogres (must be from Kunark)...but a geared warrior always has max sta str dex etc..in a raid. For that reason race matters very little. There are a few encounters in Luclin where stun from front was considered a big deal....but I don't think it even matters in Classic. If you want to tank raids, Dwarf warrior is a fine choice. (Iksar is technically the best BTW -- AC/regen)

Dwarves are great clerics. But there its important to note they cant use the BiS cleric robe with Flowing Thought 3 on it (Sal`Varae`s Robe of Darkness). FT 3 doesn't stack with other FT 3 items however, and there is another item off Tunare that gives FT 3 called Golden Leaf Earring, which is BiS beside the FT 3 on it. So IMO its not a big loss...considering that robe will take you over a year of raiding to get most likely, its one of the most competitive items in the game. Percentage wise almost no one gets it in the end. So its probably better just to do the same thing with the earring (which int casters can't use) if you want the FT 3.

Other than that little nuance, Dwarves have always had excellent stats for Cleric. None of the classes were talking about here make a huge difference in endgame power you should note. The biggest difference in endgame power come from regen on certain classes usually. Otherwise, it really is not worth considering if you like Dwarves.

[Ezrick]

Dwarven Cultural armor makes any of these viable. It's easily the best in the game and makes Dwarf/Gnome/Halfling plate classes as viable as any other if not more so.

So much so for a cleric you could actually bring up that awful Cha score with bonus points and still have no trouble reaching high levels of Wis/Str/Sta.

Dunno who says Dwarfs are not the best cleric class. High Elves I suppose are considered better by some, but they have a HP disadvantage and can barely carry the armor they wear. Not at all the best when things go sideways and you need to tank for a bit until things get under control. Considering the Dwarven cultural armor has Str, Sta, and Wis on every piece (and HE has, wait for it, CHA) it becomes a no-brainer.

And, last, but certainly not least, have you ever seen a High Elf attempt a barrel-roll? Not pretty at all.

Krythen 56 Enc
Bigginns 50 War
Ezrick 40 Cleric

[Cen]

Well I have my dwarf warrior and cleric. Playing both for a little bit and will ultimately decide. I like the simplicity of the warrior, but I really want to play in some groups first. Managed to buy a bag with my scraping of copper pieces. The cleric will be very hard to get far quickly because there's so many spells to buy, but i'm enjoying them both [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.] Dwarves rock