How good is a paladin...

[Mexlin]

...on the battlefield?

Im quite new to the game, but with my level 5 theurgist i decided to go to the frontier, and saw mainly paladins. They all seemed to rock so i made one for myself.

Up till now its a level 8 Paladin, with most points goin into 2 Handed and Chants.

My question is really - is it worth making a paladin (because i want to be on the battlefield more than the rest of the game ) or is there a better class to use on the battlefield?

Thanks

 

[old.Icebreaker]

Make an Armsman

Palas are easy to kill

----------------------------------
Icebreaker <Celtic Fist>

 

[old.chipper]

haha what a load of twaddle only reason to go armsman now is if u want to use polearm and crossbow

paladins are great m8 they own at pve and arent bad in pvp now. although still not as powerful as an armsman they can heal themselves add extra dmg and raise there af by nearly 200 if not over and if u twist these well youll own

 

[old.Pepsay]

and atually how good is the heal? 36 hit points?

 

[Arthwyr]

heal is 46 points - good thing is the damage chant now stacks with other damage chants or even damage buffs. The Hitpoints we got extra after the patch is a joke. Personlay i got 59 hipoints extra still not coming to the hitpoins of an armsman. However the resistance chants seem to do their job to bad you now have 9 chants of wich you can only use one at a time

Arthwyr
GM <Exiled>
LvL 50 Paladin

 

[starblade]

Must agree pally's r great. Had a diffcult period few months ago keeping chants maxxed for rezz costing me a slowdown on damage output but once past 29-31, she really started to 'blossom' And even tho people complain about pally having a sucky rezz, there are very few people turning down one in PvE or RvR (the fews that did had a good reason tho) since we mainly use pali-rezz & healer-heals up technique now.

Shield aura is great since the group takes a lot less damage in combat and when things turn for the worst, I can get agro rather easily by switching to heal (better one dies than the whole group).

On the battlefield however, it's still hard but that counts for every fighter I believe. We have no range attack at all so you can either charge and take em out before they take you or be a backup for rezz and keeping an eye on scouts / casters. I often go for the last one since lagg makes it hard to charge in and so I try to get the falles scouts n wizzies back up asap. Not many rp's but a very thankfull job and I rather go for the last one

(I could have typed a simple 'Yes, stick to it' but on break atm )

 

[Mexlin]

cheers for the advice guys - and ive also just read up on a few guides and decided im gonna make a pally

Get it to level 30 Chants for the ress spell, then put rest in 2 handed and slash See you all on the battlefield hehe

 

[-Wedge-]

Guys, you have to be fair against the guy...

A Paladin, just like actually any tank type class... Is dead most of the time before he reaches his enemy...

Armsman might 'own' in one-on-one, and might even be good in groups and RvR raids, but when it comes down to the large scale action in Emain... Tanks usually are the first to go down...

Although I do live longer the higher I get in level, basicly almost all other classes are able to kill you...

Caster vs Tank, Caster wins
(unless he's caught on suprise and you get a few lucky resists on roots/stuns/etc)
Rouge vs Tank, Rouge wins unless you have 42 in shield and are able to stun your enemy (assasins) or have 7 in shield for engage on archers... In the assasins case, you can win (by using slam)... In the archers case, he cant kill you (you cant find him either , so unless its a dumb archer, you wont be able to kill him)
Healers vs Tanks, depends a bit on the healer class, Midgard healers can be nasty (stun, instants, etc)
Tanks vs Tanks, dunno about paladin, as an polearmsman you can kill almost all equal con tanks... (I think you can kill all of them) But you need slam on some of them (hero's mostly spec in shield too, besides their spear, so they slam you then switch to spear and kill you)

So, Paladins/Armsman in rvr, well the idea is funny In actual pratice, you die more then you'd like... I'm not saying its no fun, hey I have loads of fun in RvR... But be ready to die loads more then other classes...

But as said, I like playing my armsman, I'm gonna take him to 50 this month... But (big battle-)RvR wont be as fun as it could till Purge comes... (and the other Realm abilities)

 

[old.Pepsay]

if an archer shots you then just /face. engage, run towards him... either he/she stays and fights and dies or runs away.

 

[lofff]

- Pallys = preety good and ill prefer grouping with a pally (talking bout rvr, pallys own by far pve but we talking bout rvr) who can use dmgadd af and heal chants plus res ppl, they whine bout hps but they have almost same hps as armsmans... (mebbe 100hps difference) Only 2 things to say:

1- raise ur chants, doing a pally with low chants spec is a bit foolish... if u want 2h as main skill then rolle an armsman, chants are preety good (improved af, really nice dmgadd, instaheal...) and are tha reason to make a pally...

2- do NOT go 2h slash, pallys str cap is bout 160 @ 50 wich is preety low cap, (str is tertiary skillz) and 2h is manily str based so ur dmg will be preety gimped, go 1h and shield, ull get nice dmg (remember ull have dmg add) faster and 9sec stun from shields (42shield spec - slam, use any time) plus blocking may save ur ass (and ur guarded m8) more than once, also on rvr slash has lots a penaltys agaist enemy tanks... ill recomend crush if u go 2h, but ill go 1hslash if 1h (styles)


ill prolly make a pala on prydwen someday then ill prolly go:

44slash
42shields
46chants
3parry

hope it helps... cya and GL

 

[-Wedge-]

It's kind of different in higher level RvR

If an archer Critical Hits you, you'll be shot for 1/3 of your life... If he manages to get 1 or 2 more shots of before you engage, then you'll have around 50% ~ 60% life left...

Now, if your running up to a hunter, they have a nasty pike... You might win from an equal con, but higher con will probably kill you...

If not, they stealth away (normal practice), you lose your engage... They move to a place where you dont expect them, and bang another critical hit... This cat and mouse game continue's... and unless you run, your dead...

 

[old.LandShark]

loff: your punctuation keys; are they broken, or just hiding?

That said i agree with you

 

[lofff]

wedge's cat 'n' mouse

poor tin can

As a champ if he crits me ill be on 50% (if hunter crited) or 30% (if scout crited) then ill engage, if he gets another arrow on my arse before engage am preety done, (their only chance), then ill run on him and kewl with big hammer + dds(2 hits and dds will make it, rarely 3 hits). instadd (1500 range) instasnare (1500range) and stun from behind (LW lv50 style) wont let they run from me, and 3 instainterruptors (debuffs 1350range) will help to avoid him stealthing (if have to chase)

Only scouts who crit preety hard, and will slam + run when i get melee range may be a problem but usually they are preety done before slam (dd and 1 hit got em almost done) so they cannot run away and stealth before 9sec stun fades and another dd or snare lands on their arses.

of course, champs have no hp, champs are easy, just kewl tha slow caster in scale, but ... phear them

 

[-Wedge-]

We were talking about REAL tanks

Havent had one archer that shot me down to 30% yet, but that might just be because I'm a tin can

But since we have no DD's, no snare's, no nothing... We have no way of stopping an archer from running (if he presses sprint, you press sprint, then (if his stealth is high enough) will escape even without using speed ) ...

So, from a solo perspective, not much a tank can do against an archer... You'll be able to kick most melee classes (a hero might be hard) to their hiberian/midgard heaven... But any class that uses range, your probably the one with the trip to heaven...

Small group fights are fun though, but bigger battles (16+ vs 16+) your basicly useless, since those are mostly ranged fights... (And you'll be mezzed 75% of the time)

 

[sorusi]

Nope.. tanks arnt the ones whos going down 1st.. .. goes like this..

1. Both Sides engage eachother.
2. CCs start messing the enemys.
3. Mess stuck on one of the teams.
4. The team who messed the other start killing the damage dealers, mainly cloth users (wizzards,rms,eldritchs : btw: u cant tell an hibb caster from an archer if they both use staff ).
5. The tanks who are hard to kill are left alone.. being picked 1 by 1...

Pallys are viable cause of their ress... but playing one means u got to stand up for the team, not an solo class... only solo classes are those with stealth...

 

[Mexlin]

thanks for the advice guys, ive actually just realised how crappy 2H is, if you miss 2 times in a row u can die easily against a yellow, and sometimes against a blue! Im gonna raise chants, slash and shield and a bit of parry. Thz again

 

[Addlcove]

Alternative pally

hi just wanted to lay down my 2 pence.

a mate and I decided to make a somewhat unusual pally where we would go ALL defense (more or less), final template is

50 chants
42 shield
35 parry
18 slash

we dont do much dmg but we can stand the distance, examples are

/4 man team/
2 pallys lvl 36
1 armsman lvl 34 (dmgdealer)
1 cleric lvl 33 (allround)

the 4 of us chained gobos for 2½ hour with only 1 death (due to armsman failure to hit sprint when pulling) (btw if anyones tells you that armsman was COAXMETAL its true)

gobos are red at 36 btw

------
another example

Solo in catas

I have taken down 2 yellows and 1 blue at once with my pala, all solo (1 polearm 2 swordsmen, if 2 polearms = pally dead )
having chants at own lvl and shifting all three shield/dmg/heal, makes it doable
-------

point is palas can solo as well as be a group char, if you are prepared to wait for the fight to end (can use up to 3 mins killing a high yellow)
---------------

oh btw forgot to mention, all examples are with NO downtime WHAT SO EVER! I dont use styles (shifting chants eats end anyways) and I dont have downtime when soloing catas at 37 (atm)

enjoy your pally, we will rule in the end

 

[old.Kladen]

Originally posted by lofff
44slash
42shields
46chants
3parry
[/B]

this is the best paladin template. so if u put more than 3 into 2handed i sugest u remake him.

2handed sucks in albion because u ahve to spec in 2 things unlike hibernia or midgard. so remake and get that template above. since i WAS a 2handed paladin my template is goofed up since i cant get 46 AND 42 sheild.

2handed stinks dont go for it trust me

 

[Eblessair]

About as good as a cabby..

 

[starblade]

Personally, I have nothing against my 2 handed pally.
(Yes I also played a s/s armsman and a s/s pally so I know advantages of both.)

Just dont go for the max damage weapons since yes, they are way and way too slow as two handers. If I ever reroll a paladin, it will be a two hander again cuz its reflects the style I like to play. Getting a high dex and good parry skill (especially in latest patch) is also nice.

 

[Arthwyr]

My lvl 50 specs

42 shield (50-52 with items)
40 slash (44 Items)
48 Chant (If you dont you miss out on 3 resistance chants and bess group AF Chant)
rest of the points are in parry

PvE is nice with it. Oh and lofff pala has about 200-250 Hps less then an armsman.

Arthwyr
LvL 50 pala
GM <Exiled>

 

[old.Valerik]

i've played my pally upto lvl 40, found it great in a group, i havent fully specced chants yet as i wanted to leave it till 40.5 so i could concentrate on bein the main tank in my small group. Found the damage very good with keeping my melee skills upto my lvl.

we had 2 x clerics, minstrel and a fire wizzy in our group so chants werent really my main priority at the time...

I know armsman do more damage/have more hits etc etc

but i found pally's enjoyable to play and i've done abit of rvr with him and as stated in the previous posts, it doesnt really make any difference what tank u are, if u get mezzed, nuked or just plain ganked...

btw i'm slash/shield pally and basically what ppl say about pallys are utter crap is either wrong or biased to whatever tank class they are

 

[sorusi]

Dont pick s/s... 2h is the way to go coz its more fun.. and thats what its all about ;-)

I might want to have a look at vnboards... (u might even find some non-whine post there)

http://vnboards.ign.com/board.asp?brd=20902


Have fun with your paladin

 

[-Wedge-]

Sorusi, loads of the battles in Emain are 'stand offs', either at the PK or at a wall...

In that case, the tanks are usually the first to go down because you have no range capabilities... So what you do is run into the enemies and die...

Are there better ways? Might be, but no one has given them yet... So charging is 'the best thing' as melee char (or just watch how the wizards/archers try to take down the enemies)...

The times that the wizards/clerics/etc go down before the tanks is in the smaller battles...

Anyways, these are a bit of my experiences... But in the end, a tank isnt all that 'great' in RvR... Purge will change a lot though..

 

[old.Ryzar]

you can describe a pala with just one simple word

sux (RvR-based)

...

 

[Eleasias]

Heh a thing I remembered from old beta times ...

"nice to have a paladin in group but damn i wouldnt want to be one"

 

[- Pathfinder -]

The Paladin
Welcomed in every monster hunt, and laughed at in every PvP encounter, the poor Paladin has much in common with the SnBA, even if the paladin is a 2 handed one. Months of telling himself “I’m not crippled, I’m just a ‘defensive’ tank” has saved the last shred of his self esteem as he spends most of his time in the frontier either rezzing or waiting for a rez. They enjoy creating wild, frenetic lightshows by cycling through their chants as quickly as possible. In personality they range from “biblethumper who stops to pray loudly at the drop of a hat” to “Armsman with chants” with a very wide spread.
Typical Quotes:
“Have at thee! Hey stop! Come back here! Dammit!”
“Rez inc”
“What the heck does matter resist do?”
“Dammit, mezzed.”
“Need rez”

Enough said

 

[lofff]

Starblade.- 2h pally = gimped, low str cap = gimped dmg. If u wanna play 2h then roll an armsman, and u are wrong, 2h rocks RvR, slow weapons are tha best on RvR. Thing is: Slams owns also and alb 1h is not that gimped... (hib 1h is a joke) a pala will make bout 200 dmg per hit with a fast sword (dmgadd) Also parry = PURE CRAP @ RvR.

Arthwyr.- 46 chants gives u last heal chant last dmgadd and las afbuff. u will get only last afchant and 2 lastresistances boosting it to 48 which doesnt worth a shit. leaving it on 46 (when u get the things ull really use) and boosting slash from 40 to 44 improves ur dmg and gives u tha l44 slash style, after enrage, preety simple chain of 2 hits, preety good style. Bout hps: check ur items and stuff but tha palas i've checked got ~1400 hp and the armsmans ~1500 hp. Dont complain bout hps, armsmans/warriors/heros have ~1500 hps, pallys ~1400, thane/champion ~1100.

Surosi.- Again: 2h pally = gimp. (unless u gonna roll a gimp u shouldnt roll a 2h pala)



Pallys are not that bad... they have the problems of every tank on RvR, getting mezzed and stunned to death or chasing ppl till nowhere. And they have the problems of every resser on RvR, aye thats double problems. They have lots a advantages and imo are funnier than a simple tank (armsman/warrior/hero)

Mebbe that thread is turning into a 2h or s/s on rvr. Answer is 2h. but s/s well played is preety good too.

 

[starblade]

and u are wrong, 2h rocks RvR, slow weapons are tha best on RvR

Where did I say 2h was not good in RvR ? Just said to go for the 'lighter' delay weapons. There is a serious difference in 16.2dps @ 4.1 against 16.4dps @ 5.1.

When (new) peeps r rolling a pally and ask for advice, I think they can go for both as long as the spec is OK since I did fine on both s/s and 2h pally. So I would say : Listen to advice since it's usefull but if you want to go in a different direction, just remind yourself its your character and you have to enjoy it, not any of us in here Just congratulating them on a path that is not an easy one but then again, which is ? As long as you have fun at it, it's all that matters.

 

[tilde]

1h-shield slash is very poor in RvR, only benefit is shield-style SLAM. But believe me, its not that exiting running around and slamming ppl all the time

U wanna go 2h? Sure, if ur a pala - go for 2h-thrust(2h-thrust=75%str/25%dex) <- fits pala better then crush/slash (100%str).

As in this moment of DAoC, RvR is very fast - u may have noticed that healing is a difficult task, both for its range-limit and for its speed(hard to heal when tankX recieves 1k dmg in 3secs).


I've reconsidered, if u play 1h-pala MAKE SURE u got atleast 42shield, else u are truly gimped. U can go out there, guarding your armsmen and support them with chants and shieldstun. Option number2 who i believe is more viable, is that u guard your casters and healers and let them heal the pure tanks/nuke the invaders. And if u go 2h stay put to your group's pure tanks and support them with chants and attacks(combos for stun/snare etc)

---------
Lemme give u 2 good templates:

1h-shield:

46chants
42shield
39+crush/slash
rest in parry

---
2h

46chants (ppl tell u to go 36, but ur a pala not an armsman)
7shield (for engage)
50-2handed
35+thrust
rest in parry

----------

Oh, another thing. If ur protecting your casters, put guard and intercept on them. Poor assassin then

Dont ever think u can outdamage an armsman, we got 900wpnskill - they got 1200. Armsmen with good EQ can reach 1800-1900hp, we can reach 1400-1500, so dont think u can recieve quick dmg as much as they can.

Play the role of your character, you are a support-class your purpose is to protect your healers and casters. Armsmen are pure tanks, we arent.


Good luck!