Am I wrong for wantin to use a 1h + Shied setup with my new Pally

[TheFishyOne]

The way I figure, Pallies generate threat through their spells as well as their weapon, so weapon ratio isn’t as important as on a WAR. Plus, since no PAL races can slam, having that shield will be great against casters, plus the stats from a shield can help with your mana pool.

I would still keep a 2her for soloing, but sword an board seems to have advantages when in a group.

What do you think?

[elwing]

Until damage cap is lifted, use 1hander and shield, just make sure to carry a 2hander to skill up as you level, having to catch a big skill gap at higher level suck... But to make it clear, with 2hander you will loose dps until the damage cap is lifted, at higher level you will probably be using both 1hander and 2hander, the later more than the former...

[Haghar]

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

do more damage with 2h.
So you take less damage as mob dies faster, and level faster.

This is assuming that the paladin's damage output isn't a negligible percentage of the group's total DPS, which it likely is. The job of a tank in a group setting is not to do damage, it is to 1) hold aggro while 2) taking as little damage as possible. That will result in healers expending less mana which will result in faster exp. It doesn't matter how fast you kill the mobs if you have to take frequent med breaks because of healers.

OP: Keep both weapon skills high as it is situational. Short on mobs in a group? Switch to 2h. Fighting a lot of casters that like to ice comet (Looking at you Lguk)? Use sword/board and utilize bash. Interrupting a several hundred point nuke is much more valuable than doing a bit more dps as a tank in a group setting.

[Jimjam]

You're a paladin. Failing to minmax is not the kind of wrong you should be trying to right.

Personally, I suggest the sword and board helps you visually identify as a protector archtype.

[Snaggles]

I have a couple 2h’s and a Sword of the Morning/shield. Generally I’ll use the SotM/shield in a group when the dps loss isn’t noticeable (mostly just for a change of pace). At lvl 50 the stun proc is awesome and easily mitigates more damage than the AC from the shield. That said, I have to cast way more FoL’s when using it (until it procs) than with a quality 2h. More white damage does equate to more aggro and a 16/27 is nothing to write home about.

Frankly though, with a pally or SK the nice thing is being able to make that call yourself since aggro isn’t a problem. Switch whenever you want in a group because it just doesn’t matter as much. With a warrior if you don’t pick the right weapons your dps teammates get pummeled and your chanter/cleric gets murdered.

Up to 49 you only have one stun, at 52 you have three you can cycle if you want. Bash is nice but not to be counted on later on.

[Nagoya]

I use Rod of Faith (http://wiki.project1999.com/Rod_of_Faith) and Shield of the Stalwart Seas (http://wiki.project1999.com/Shield_of_the_Stalwart_Seas) on my Paladin and it's working fine /o/ the weapon has a very two-handedesque dmg/delay at 24/32 (not so far from a http://wiki.project1999.com/Rod_of_Mourning for exemple) and the huge AC and stat and ultravision from the shield just evens out the Erudite as a playable paladin race hehe. To be able to Bash always without weapon switching shenanigans is nice too.

[Snaggles]

Another consideration is the Wurmslayer that leads on the SotM from about level 30-55. After that the damage bonus of the quicker 1h wins out.

It is about 20x more expensive than a Baton of Faith but might serve you well as a semi-2h. Just get a lammy or something for those early levels.

[rajax]

I can’t imagine for anything other then a full raid setting anyone is going to examine your character and actually tell you that you are playing your paladin wrong by using 1h+shield. There are plenty of times bash is vital, Shield stats are not meaningless. They certainly will offer some “advice” though if you are casting flash of light on a moving target or breaking mez and generally causing chaos.

Or put another way- with how easy it is to acquire equipment here lots of people use less then “ideal” gear just based on fashion and for solo/duo small group content a minuscule difference in dps will not really matter unless your focus is just efficiently reaching level 60. Some have argued knight class base attack skill or accuracy has become so low by levels 40+ they generate better threat with the increased swing speed of 1h and bash.

On the idea of a large race choice and slam for paladins I’ve read several times Paladin was an option for the Barbarian race originally (the “lore” has the origins of this race as some kind of incest spawn of the Marr twins) but dropped prior to release as the Tribunal was too brutal for paladins. I don’t have any interest in playing the EQ paladin personally but having a Barbarian one would make it a possibility.

[elwing]

Also the op talk about new paladin... At lower level you are clearly doing something wrong if you use a 2hander for a purpose different than to skillup until the damage cap goes off...

[Snaggles]

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

Also the op talk about new paladin... At lower level you are clearly doing something wrong if you use a 2hander for a purpose different than to skillup until the damage cap goes off...

Nathsar 17/30 plus 10 str = like 100p or free
Ornate Rune Blade 19/30 and looks badass = a few hundred pp
Poison Wind Censer 20/28 and trains ya for the baton of faith = 500 pp

Probably the most common Pally weapon I've seen for a player in the teens is a Green Jade Broadsword. For the same money I'd go Sword of Skyfire or the Nathsar.

It's entirely possible to never have a 1h/shield combo. While a lammy or jade mace will speed up life from 1-20 you're then stuck having to dump 50+ skill points into a 2h skill just to not suicide against green cons.