Paladin - to switch or not to switch - the facts
I've been reading up on paladins and how they "tank better" than pure mages but have "worse spell damage". There is a lot of information on just how to split stats, but not a lot on just how much better they tank, or how much worse their spells are. So, when I hit level 45 today I decided to find out for myself.
First, I am pretty new, so funding for this experiment was limited to cheap level 45 pink gear. I stuck with Thoth gear for both classes. First, I outfitted my pure int mage with the following:
Khafra Helm of Thoth
Dark Matter Staff of Thoth
Khafra Cloth of Thoth
All of this gear cost me less than 20k and looked like this:
http://i1126.photobucket.com/albums/...zees/photo.png
Then I respeced, dumped 142 points into strength, rest to int, and outfitted her with the following:
Mynas Helmet of Thoth
D'Jinn Spear of Thoth
Mynas Plate Mail of Thoth
Pharaohs Shield of Thoth
All of this gear cost about 15k and looked like this:
http://i1126.photobucket.com/albums/...ees/photo2.png
Comparing the two setups, the changeover to paladin increased my armor by 35, which was more than 70%. Base critical increased (by 5!). Hit was about the same. Dodge more than doubled. Health/Mana and regen rates came closer together. Not pictured, but spell damage fell 15-20%, depending on the spell (fire, lightning, heal). I do have those pics if needed. Overall DPS fell by 29%.
Of course, using different eq or stats can skew these numbers way out of range (I am trying to afford a Zuraz Shock Lance, for example). But (most) things even, these numbers show about how much paladins "tank better" but have "worse spell damage."
