Pal VS SK end game

[Loadsamoney]

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

True, nukes are probably a bit better for Paladins. But yeah as long as Undead can be fear kited, there's little reason to use your Undead Nuke on an SK. Honestly I only use the Undead Nuke to increase Evocation lol, since it is one of the only spells a Shadowknight gets that has Evocation.

Both SK's and Paladins get the same Undead Nukes, so they are equal in that sense.

Also, this is speaking from personal experience since I use this one zone for the bulk of my characters leveling career, but from 20-50 my Pally's Ghoulbane was an absolute monster against Paineel guards. It slaughtered them by the score, left and right. I stayed until 51, when the Guard Captain himself no longer gave tenable experience.

Whether Ghoulbane continues to outperform Sword of the Morning after 50 is another matter though.

[DeathsSilkyMist]

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

Also, this is speaking from personal experience since I use this one zone for the bulk of my characters leveling career, but from 20-50 my Pally's Ghoulbane was an absolute monster against Paineel guards. It slaughtered them by the score, left and right. I stayed until 51, when the Guard Captain himself no longer gave tenable experience.

Whether Ghoulbane continues to outperform Sword of the Morning after 50 is another matter though.

Yes, if you are talking about playing at a low level, Ghoulbane is great. But it falls off once you get 50+. The ratio on the weapon isn't great, and the nuke proc is less impactful at higher levels.

I do agree Paladins are better at fighting Undead at low levels with a Ghoulbane when compared to Shadowknights. But you lose that advantage as you level up and get better weapons.

[socialist]

Their core role is the same: tanking. They perform this more or less the same in raids, there's no meaningful difference between them in terms of survivability and aggro generation. There is a difference during the leveling process where the paladin suffers from getting their first stun at level 30 and the next at 49, and having to use the godawful Flash of Light a lot while shadowknights have smooth sailing from start to finish; but once you're at the endgame, both are equal tanks. For a level 27 exp group, SK is a much, much better tank than paladin, but you did put 'endgame' in the title.

Utility is where they differ. Paladins bring a useful buff (if not necessarily high-impact) and Soulfire, as well as situational emergency healing. Shadowknights bring the ability to help pulling (some guilds never use this, others do) and considerably better DPS when they don't need to tank. The latter isn't terribly important, but as a knight, you'll often have no other duty than witlessly swinging at a mob's ass and it's kind of nice to be able to do as much damage as possible. It's not that SK DPS is way higher than paladin, but it is higher. Still kinda low, though.

Soloing is decidedly in the SK's favor. While a very well-geared paladin can do some worthwhile soloing in select places, it's not much and it's barely worth the effort. SKs can fear kite, even in some dungeons, and it's genuinely pretty decent. Doesn't reach the heights of necros and chanters, but it's good enough to be worth doing if you can't find a group or don't want to commit to one. In my opinion, the endgame of EQ consists of raiding and soloing, so in my mind, it does matter how good a class is at soloing. Why else are you getting all that awesome gear? To look good in EC? SKs can solo some pretty impressive stuff, like non-raid dragons and such, while paladins are just kinda bleh, maybe you can facegrind skeletons in Howling Stones with full raid gear.

And then there's the luxury factor. Paladin gets a 90% rez, which is super convenient once you have it, but you get it at level 59 when you're almost done with leveling and it becomes more of a thing you can offer to other people than something that helps you significantly. It's nice to have in groups, but if you're looking for endgame input, how much are you still grouping? Having healing spells is very nice when you're just running around doing random shit, because while an SK has some options for recovery with lifetaps, it doesn't hold a candle to the ability to just heal yourself directly. SKs have feign death and instant invis, as well as both regular invis and IVU, which is a huge benefit for casually dicking around in the afternoon when nothing's going on. FD really is the best soloing ability in the game by far.

At the end of the day, if a raid had none of either class and could pick only one for their raid, they'd take a paladin just for Divine Strength. If there's already a paladin in the raid to cover that, I think SKs are better simply because they do have the ability to assist with pulling. They make great taggers and can temporarily take over if all the monks are dead and awaiting rez, just to keep things moving along. The ability to offtank a flurry drake and then smoothly deliver the aggro over to a warrior at any time is very convenient. Paladin is only better if there aren't any already there. In theory, you could bring multiple paladins who all brought a fully charged Soulfire along, but is this a thing that ever actually happens? SKs stack better, even if neither class is one that people will want multiples of in any situation.

SK pulling is underrated. Some guilds don't bother to use it, and it isn't necessary for some cutting-edge guild that has cleared everything a million times; but for a raid that isn't just doing a routine clear of content they know in and out, a puller with three FDs and a pet and instant invis definitely has advantages in certain places. There are cases where an SK is the best puller for a given encounter, it's just that people are lazy and have monks do it, and top guilds always have veteran monks with prayer beads and whatnot. For a less seasoned guild, it's genuinely good to have one or two SKs. There's also value in seamlessly tagging a mob out of a kited swarm, bringing it to the warrior, and feigning it off before running out to get the next. But it is a bit niche, it's not something you use everywhere.

[Naethyn]

SK is good at vp pulls, tanking non flurry ntov trash / halls of testing, and has low competition for upgrades on raids.

Pal is good at soulfire saving raids, casting one of the best hp buffs in the game (divine strength), tanking non flurry ntov trash / halls of testing, and has low competition for upgrades on raids.

[Elizondo]

Paladin for sure

Better soloers too

[bricke75]

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

Paladin for sure

Better soloers too

I've never seen a paladin solo'ing named in Chardok. Just saying.

[Crede]

Originally Posted by bricke75 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I've never seen a paladin solo'ing named in Chardok. Just saying.

That’s situational. It really depends on whether or not FD is needed. Pally will dungeon crawl much more effectively and they are better suited to handle most situations. I’d give the pally the edge 95% of the time.

[Tunabros]

paladins more useful in raids

can i have a DS pls =D

[Toxigen]

its paladood

a soulfire is more valuable than an army of SKs

[Jibartik]

Paladin, but a quest to wear and use SK Armor and weapons.