1h or 2h for pally

[Splorf22]

Propo I'm real curious what you do for a living now [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I also think your DPS findings will shift as you level up. Warriors have basically the same skills as Knights at 50 but have substantial bonuses at 60, not to mention triple attack and DW becoming better and better. At 60 I found that Snoogan with an Epic+RBB+VoG+Str was putting out 40 dps in HS South while Sakuragi under the same circumstances would be hitting 60-65. Of course the Paladin epic and haste belt are about 100x easier to get than the warrior ones.

Anyway I agree with Lorraine that the offense/defense balance is a lot different for hybrids that can maintain aggro with spells than melee that need damage and procs. In fact that's one of the reasons that I think warriors are so gear dependent. Hybrids can just stack AC/HP/Sta and hold aggro with a few cheap L1 spells and a rusty long sword. Warriors need that and good weapons/dex/haste. In fact, I've spent well over 1M on Sakuragi mostly to increase his aggro (Epic/Shissar/Belt of the Four Winds). Defensively there isn't much difference between that and a Sarnak Warhammer/Dagas/Runed Bolster Belt, but offensively my new config is probably 50% more hate and 25% more DPS.

Finally for the OP, my personal advice would be:

Sword of Skyfire (1-20), Baton of Faith (21-50), Sword of the Morning/Clay Guardian Shield (50-60), Epic (whenever you can get it!). I would definitely focus on getting the epic ASAP as it's quite easy for any casual guild.

[Nogdar]

It's all about being flexible and adapting to the situations.
Personally if I'm soloing/duoing/trio, I'll pull out a 2 hander, a pet and go for a dps setup. In a full group I'll use the ebon mace and a shield in raids I go for nocti + shield because I consider my dps to be irrelevant if I'm tanking in raids and go for an all survivability build.

Sometimes, the only goal is killing mobs as fast as you can, if you have healers with too much mana behind typically... Other times you cant to be all mitigation [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[Vallanor]

Originally Posted by Splorf22 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Finally for the OP, my personal advice would be:

Sword of Skyfire (1-20), Baton of Faith (21-50), Sword of the Morning/Clay Guardian Shield (50-60), Epic (whenever you can get it!). I would definitely focus on getting the epic ASAP as it's quite easy for any casual guild.

This is a tad off topic, but would you choose a Sword of the Morning over a Rod of Faith when going one-handed? In other words, does the stun proc on the Sword outweight the substantially higher DPS of the Rod of Faith? I suppose if DPS is really your goal, a Baton of Faith or Granite Face Grinder would make more sense. But if you want a mix of decent (in pally terms, haha) DPS and improved defense, I could see a Rod of Faith/Shield combo being a good choice.

[Nogdar]

Wow I love how EQ always surprises me with items I had never heard of before, this is a great fucking weap! Almost as good as the ebon mace, dps wise [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.] If you have access to all 3 weaps (this, the SOTM and a good 2 hander), I suggest adapting to the situation like I said in my previous post - i.e. 2 hander when solo/not tanking, Rod of faith when tanking groups and SOTM when tanking raids maybe? [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.] Although in raids most mobs will be immune to the stun I assume, so you're not gaining much defense wise.. But more aggro [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[Tecmos Deception]

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

This is a tad off topic, but would you choose a Sword of the Morning over a Rod of Faith when going one-handed?

I'd guess because Rod is very expensive and Sword is rather cheap. He also mentions clay guardian shield instead of sarnak battle shield even though SBS is obviously a better item [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[koros]

RoF is 15% more dps at 60, and you lose a 5 sec stun and 50dd proc, it's kinda of a toss up. In a group you're almost certainly not going to miss the 5 dps difference.

[Splorf22]

I was mostly going for cheap stuff. IMO it's better to spend 20k on the torn books and get that epic.