What do Paladins do?

[ProSophist]

Ok so I'm new to the game but I'm not quite sure what they really do.

I understand it is a Str build Enchant, but what is their specialty? Are they more of a tank? Dps? etc.

Not sure if they are a sub-par version of a tank bear.

[Royce]

Tanking in this game isn't really about your armor alone. Paladins have armor enough that, despite lower health, they can stand in melee combat fairly well for a while using buffs and debuffs (BOV and Weakness are important for that, and mana shield as an emergency chute). However, they are not really able to provide the same services as a bear which has the skills (Beckon, Taunt, Stomp, stuns, etc.) to do what tanks should do in this game. To be honest, most paladins, since the level 40 cap when they became popular, have played basically like Int mages with heavy armor on. They take a spear poke or two at an enemy from time to time, but mostly run around spamming skills. This made sense since paladins were, at that level, able to have nearly the same mana regen as Int mages, and had much better survivability. However, that style of play IMO does not take enough advantage of the weapon DPS a paladin can provide, or the break armor proc of the weapon (spear) most used. Anyway, all that is changing now. At the new 50 cap, mana regen for Str gear is nearly nonexistent. It will be interesting to see if they continue to play like Int mages (wearing old level 45 gear with less armor but more mana regen), or if we'll see more playing like you might expect a paladin to play, wearing heavy armor with little regen and buff/debuffing, then fighting and healing on the front lines for periods alongside the tank and, and then ducking away when buffs run out to focus on more spell use (if mana is available). Sorry for that really long last sentence, and for probably giving way more information than you wanted.

[ProSophist]

So are they more of a melee or a range class AS OF TODAY'S CONTENT?
Can they be as efficient as any other class when it comes to PvE (leveling, item grinding, boss hunting) and PvP?
Are they extremely gear dependent?
Because the first thing that comes into my mind when I hear the word Paladin is basically somewhat of a tank/melee dps that provides buffs for the entire group. At least this is what I'm accustomed to. I don't know if the same thing applies to this game.

[jonboy]

More of an off-tank and yes they are gear dependant, STR gear with M/s ir Thoth


It will be interesting to see if they continue to play like Int mages (wearing old level 45 gear with less armor but more mana regen), or if we'll see more playing like you might expect a paladin to play, wearing heavy armor with little regen and buff/debuffing, then fighting and healing on the front lines for periods alongside the tank and, and then ducking away when buffs run out to focus on more spell use (if mana is available).

this decision is currently in my mind.

[Royce]

So are they more of a melee or a range class AS OF TODAY'S CONTENT?
In a sense they are entirely a melee class since there are no ranged weapons for Str. However, most paladins I see play only a bit closer to the mobs than an Int mage. So however, you want to interpret that.

Can they be as efficient as any other class when it comes to PvE (leveling, item grinding, boss hunting) and PvP?
Leveling a paladins is expensive. You will have virtually no mana regen until level 40. You will die less easily than an Int mage, but likely take more damage, so you will be spending more on both health and mana pots. Paladins have been, and afaik continue to be effective in PvP, though they are not the uber-class they were prior to stat-driven skills. PvP is mostly about skill crits, and buff timing, and paladins still fare much better than an Int mage.

Are they extremely gear dependent?[QUOTE]
Entirely. Str does virtually nothing for your stats except give you a bit of extra health, and allow you to wear Str gear. You will only have secondary points to assign to Dex (overpowered attribute and only one needed by every class) and Int (for a tiny bit of extra mana, and likely insignificant amout of regen, but also drives skill power a bit). I recommend no Int though. Anyway, point is all your regen comes from gear (this true of the game in general), and there is no good mana regen gear for Str until level 40 anyway. This is one reason many choose to level as Int then go pally at 40.
[QUOTE]Because the first thing that comes into my mind when I hear the word Paladin is basically somewhat of a tank/melee dps that provides buffs for the entire group. At least this is what I'm accustomed to. I don't know if the same thing applies to this game.

This is basically true, except for the tank part. Bears have several buffs to raise their armor and dodge while mages only have a single armor buff, and bears also have higher health, so paladins would never really be called tanks in this game IMO. Much of the rest is sort of right, but much of it is redundant with any other mage in the group. The two mage buffs for instance do not stack and last a couple minutes, so they don't need to be cast often for the group's sake (both contain shorter lasting self buffs though). A paladin can more effectively debuff since those skills have fairly short range, and a paladin can run right into the middle of the fray. I actually see more mages that waste their debuffs, using them out of range of any mobs, than not.

[ProSophist]

Alright so I'm planning on leveling as an int mage and prolly reset to a pally at level 40.

Are there any items that I should keep track of for a pally? Maybe some items that I MIGHT encounter while leveling?

[Arterra]

look for spears/tridents/lances since they give armor debuff proc, they appear at lv 35 onward. for pally you'd best equip either a djin spear of isis/thoth (isis is dodge and HP regen while thoth is +int and Mana regen) when you hit 45 to be useful in the new campaign AO3.
also just look out for croc gear, since they are your lifeline to mana regen in lower levels. not much, but some at least.

[Xcelerator]

Thanks for this thread. I had been wondering this also

[giayuan]

my main is a pally and if u want to be one, do it at lvl 40/45
the only reason i like pally is that u die less
also, u hav the power of REV mwahahahahhahahha
almost, not quite, a bear with rev
my bad, very far from a bear
as a mage, i noticed that as i play more dungeons, the bosses start 1 hitting me
dont "pallyize" for that reason
pallys can barely handle lesser djinn WITH health pots,
and we STILL get one hitted by ao3 bosses without armor pot or buff
and even with the armor pot, i still get damaged..bad..
Pallys pwned in ao2 though, sigh. memories

[jonboy]

Drive the ladies wild. :)

[Hodnett]

I was recently a Paladin and I leveled it from 1 to 20. When your a Paladin you have to buy a lot of potions. I decided to respec(You have to pay platinum for it and you can change your skills and attributes) it to mainly Intelligence instead of strength. It worked out and things are easier. When i get to about 45 i am going to respec it to strength because its easier at that level with weapons that give you more mana so its harder to run out...hopefully this helps

[jonboy]

Currently paladins are turning rapidly into dexmages I'm trying to resist the bandwagon.