Interested in playing a Shadow Knight or Paladin

[NirrtiXXX]

it is a burden not being able to bind affinity or gate, especially considering they have no running speed spells?

I would consider ranger but again I hear they are kind of unwanted in raids.

I am not necessarily looking for a solo class, but want something that can hold its own to solo small groups of blues when I cannot find a group. I know PAladins can heal themselves, Shadowknights can in a fight (though the lifetaps though both are extremly weak.)

[Swish]

Can "hammer out" of places at level 50 with the worker's sledgemallet.

Play whatever you think you'd enjoy - rangers make great pullers if you're into that, as well as being decent dps.

[KhanhDescending]

Ranger was my first character on EQ back in 2000-2002. I think I reached level 43 or so. It has a lot of utility, but ultimately was very frustrating. I was "decent in many things, but squishy as a melee fighter, and didn't seem to have a role. For fun I rolled a level 1 Iksar Necro, fell in love with the class, and never looked back. The necro gecko cruised easily to level cap, and had many exciting adventures in his guild.

I started P99 just recently, and am playing an SK. You can certainly solo small groups of blues. There can be downtime regaining health. I suspect this gets better at higher levels with improved taps, regen gear, vampiric effects, etc. I would think Paladin has an edge there because of heals. If you decide SK, consider the innate health regen of an Iksar/Troll for reducing downtime. I'm playing an Ogre and really like SK.

The lack of gate and bind has been strange. But not crippling. With patience I've gotten binds from friendly players. The abundance of druid travel services means SoW isn't hard to get. Tons of friendly players have helped me out. I just have to be careful when running zones, and watch everything. No magic gate button to escape with. Someday when I have better CC and feign death, travel shouldn't be a worry.

As Swish said, various items can ultimately help us teleport around.

I've never played a Paladin, but have read a lot on this site about SK vs. Pally. Seems the advantage for solo arguably goes to SK, due to fear/snare ability, higher dps, and feign death. That being said, there's an entire thread about Pally solo spots. So I'm sure it's doable with either, just a matter of technique and location.

You said you're not necessarily looking for a solo class, so I agree with Swish that anything would work. All the hybrids are great in groups.

[NirrtiXXX]

I guess i will try an SK first. Thanks.

[Tewaz]

Both classes are super viable on Red. Not worth it on Blue.

[Xaanka]

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

it is a burden not being able to bind affinity or gate, especially considering they have no running speed spells?

I would consider ranger but again I hear they are kind of unwanted in raids.

I am not necessarily looking for a solo class, but want something that can hold its own to solo small groups of blues when I cannot find a group. I know PAladins can heal themselves, Shadowknights can in a fight (though the lifetaps though both are extremly weak.)

SK's and Pal's are pretty unwanted in raids too. You want a token Paladin around for buffs but that's about it sadly. They're good classes on red, but most people who main one play a different class at raids. A good paladin can actually do a pretty solid amount of clutch patch healing in raids but they're under rated and inferior to just playing a priest. SK's don't really have much of a raid niche, they're best for pvp and group content.

No bind affinity kind of sucks while leveling, but it's not the end of the world later on. Don't mess up your OT outpost faction and get a worker's sledgemallet. Get pottery up for thurgadin gate potions. Vendor gate pots. Then there's even more teleportation potions/items you can farm if you're really serious about mobility. Pick a good bind and at 60 you'll have wizard friends who can TL you. It can be a little limiting because zones like Plane of Mischief suck to farm without being able to bind, but it's never a bad idea to roll a farming alt if you main a melee.

Both classes are annoying to level if you don't have jboots early on. You'll feel the mobility restrictions before higher levels when you have more options, unless you have a friend to babysit you with ports.

[Jauna]

Rangers are rather welcome in raids since Velious. Warrior tier damage and nice ATK or AC/HP buffs. They will never top the charts in damage but holy fuck they can do some nice damage since velious launched.

If Blue, paladin and shadowknight tanks are welcome in leveling groups over a warrior anyday. Both Knights since level 9 (can gnoll fang or orc belt/pad to this level) have Snap Agro. Paladins have Flash of Light which is Proximity agro (whoever is closest gets agro, and resists are also great agro) and Shadowknights have Disease Cloud which is also high agro. Rangers will be dps from start until finish kinda, at level 22 Rangers become pullers in popular outdoor zones due to Harmony (unrest, mistmoore, city of mist, karnors, etc) plus at 45 you can start root/rot/archery solo with Tolan's Bracer when groups dont need you.

Rangers at 50 they get a nice ac/ds spell, which stacks with your/mage/druid DS spells
At 51 they get a nice hp/atk spell which does not stack with paladin Divine strength. 75 hp I believe, vs the paladin 200 hp I think
At 60 they get an amazing group atk spell which stacks with everything
Rangers in "high end" grouping situations can also use DoTs for bosses and Jolt their agro down for added dps, however I think if in melee range is a DPS loss to cast the DoTs but an increase in DPS slightly when the target is still running to the group and you get the jump on them

Knights at max level however suffer from the lack of Defensive Discipline which sets them at the back of the bottom list of the scraping the bottom of the barrel list for raiding high end targets, but are alright in high end group targets

If Red however, i dunno because I forget it exists sometimes.

[Swish]

Don't roll a ranger on red, naw.

[thufir]

Later on you get access of a number of ways to gate out of things. OT hammer, raider skullcap, thurg pots are all easy enough to get. Earlier on you'll be at the mercy of porters, but there's always Dial. If your lack of runspeed bothers you, sow pots and jboots can be acquired.

Paladins and shadowknights are both group classes, non-raiding. On raids they have no real role, but they shine on the way up. So if high end raiding is your consideration don't roll pal/sk/rng. That having been said, that's a silly reason to pick a class imo.

[Trungep99]

Both can still get jboots, sow pots, WC caps, OT hammer, other pots for ports if needed.

Both solo well. Sk's can solo out doors better since they can fear kite and have a pet for a little extra dmg.

They both can take damage the same, sk's hold agro better, Paladins can offer stuns for extra support.

The late game life taps are actually useful, an extra 300 dmg self heal and nuke gives ok extra agro and gives your healer time to heal you against a heavy hitter, saved my life with it as a main tank in halls of testing , it gave an extra second or two for a slow to land and a c heal to land too.

If needed 39-50 Paladins can be a healer for a group if they have a side set of mana gear. I did it on live with my pally, I was healing my group in lower guk with much success when other healers were hard to find.