Are Paladins really bad?

[ZosoPage]

Hey Guys,

Brand new to p99 here, and I am trying to decide on a character. Im down to a Paladin or a Cleric. Everything I have read says that Paladins are arguably the worst class in p99.

Are Paladins really this bad? Would I ever be desired as a Paladin? Would a Cleric be a "smarter" overall choice as a main character?

Thanks team

[Nibblewitz]

Clerics are more desirable in groups and at raids.

[skarlorn]

cleric is definitely a "smarter" choice in the long haul. but paladins are good in groups. they are pretty bad at solo.

[Nycon43]

Would go cleric given your two choices.

[Swish2]

Paladins aren't bad, but shadowknights are better.

[Tethler]

Those two have different roles even though paladins have "cleric spells". Pally will be tanking and cleric will be healing. I don't really think any classes are "bad", but many people on p99 put way too much stock in min-maxing.

[elwing]

Paladins are great, but you need to be aware that you will be less useful than a cleric when raiding, warrior tank better raid targets, your heal will account for little beside the free touch every hours, still great offtank, but sk and pal are less desirable in raid, that's a fact, both still have sone nice niche uses, and both are great to snap agro offtank things... Or rampage tank easier targets.

[Jauna]

Eh. When you get into your 50s you will start to feel the hybrid tank drag. Sure you are good at snap agro but eventually you are just a vessel for other people to fast track to 60.

A geared warrior will always beat you in damage, tanking ability and just being cool.
1-40 wurmslayers are an amazing thing for agro
40+ is when good proc weapons start to work
52+ is when they get evasive, and believe me that a Miss is just as much agro as a 500+ damage crip

Not only are you in a gigantic uphill battle in a 9 year old server where people have dozens of level 60 epiced out alts who can switch to at a moments notice you will never be.. needed. Your group heal is weak and big agro, your HoT is weak but kinda useful and your hp buff really isnt a huge deal since most will prefer SoN anyways since the 125hp diff wont mean dick to dps and most casters/healers hide anyways.

If you have zero ambition for end game, go paladin but if you wanna be a big dick raider then cleric.

[Raev]

Paladins are rather superfluous at level 60 here.

• Alunova overtuned every Velious raid encounter in an attempt to prevent P99's multiple overgeared zerg guilds from wrecking Velious on day one (needless to say, he failed). Knights cannot even rampage tank Vindi here.
• "Competition" forces everyone to zone pull raid bosses and kite adds, so there is no need for the Knight's traditional trash tanking job
• In theory something like a HoT crawl should be ideal for Knights, but in practice the mobs there are substantially overtuned as well (most quad when they should only double or triple) and Warriors can use the Bio Orb to generate almost as much hate (proc hate should be capped at 400).

So Paladins should be solid raiders on a classically tuned server where guilds crawl TOV and Kael and such. And indeed on TAKP knights are extremely popular.

Paladins are in my opinion a strong grouping class. If I were leveling a Paladin I would fill my friends list with competent (and fun!) Shaman and Enchanters, both of which work very well with the Paladin:

• Shamans will enjoy the Paladin's snap threat letting them slow immediately, stuns interrupting big nukes/heals (A shaman's nemesis is a wizard, since they can't slow spellcasting), +1K in HP buffs, and pacify splits keeping things simple most of the time. Throw in some sort of dps class and you have an excellent trio.
• Enchanters will enjoy the Paladin's snap threat even more (tash+slow is two big debuffs, and as a cloth class they can't just fire and suck it up), and stun on the charmed pet is excellent. Despite being the god class of EverQuest all the way through PoP, Enchanters have a tendency to die and a Paladin has more tools than other tank to keep one alive. Clarity means you can cast more. PAL/ENC plus any vaguely competent priest should wreck.

If you have a really good Monk/Enchanter/Cleric/Shaman, then a Warrior is best. They do the most damage, are the toughest, and have disciplines that really shine vs tough mobs. In an average group, you have a lot more options to keep things together with a Paladin. Also, Paladins are much less gear dependent, and most of their gear is cheap since few play them.

If you like the idea of a Paladin, I wouldn't let the naysayers scare you off unless you are absolutely certain you want to batphone/track/poopsock at 60. By the time you get there nilbog may have retuned things or tweaked the rules to favor knights a bit anyway. And if not, you can always reroll a Cleric or whatever.

[Haghar]

The journey to 60 is a long one. I've played many characters to above level 50 and Paladin was the most fun grouping experience I've had out of any of them.

Their ability to snap and hold aggro is surpassed by none in a 6 man group - and the roots/stuns/heals/LoH really give you the ability to save people in your group better than an SK, which IMO is the job of a tank (not doing damage).

If you're interested in being a very social player and being a leader in groups then Paladin is the right class for you.