Paladin question (new player)

I've just played for a couple of days, but of course I already love it. As always when i try new games, I picked the most mage-like class, and, you guess it, i'm an enchantress!

I like it a lot. I'm level 13 now and have just started worrying about stats and builds.

I've seen the term 'paladin/pally' mentioned several places, and therefore i have a couple of questions regarding that:

1. I guess a paladin build will focus mainly on str and then int. Is that correct?
2. Is a paladin build viable this early on, or is it just for high-level players?
3. What about spells? What to pick when? I guess spells like healing is a must have, but is there any other must-haves and don't-picks?

Sorry for the wall of text, but hope any of you more experienced players can help.

Best regards,
- Laeina

Hi! First of all welcome :)

I'll try to answer your questions as best as I can.

1. Yes mainly focus on str. Its up to you if you want to add the int afterwards for better heal and mana, but in terms of spell damage, dex seems to raise more.

2. IMO, the pally is best end-game. Early game the big advantage for me is range, kill before they get to you. They aren't much good early either cause there isn't much mana regen in gear, which would make you spam more mana pots than usual

3. End game, my mage has all the skills (though not are all level 5). But for a pally I'd find the debuffs most useful since you can't do much damage with spells. 1 revive is all you need.

I don't really want to just GIVE you a build per se, since making mistakes is the best way for learning. :) Best of luck!

Thanks for a quick reply. I guess I'll wait some levels trying out a paladin build then, but it sure sounds tempting eventually.

Btw, you say "Its up to you if you want to add the int afterwards" and i wonder "after what"? Is there a limit i should reach for for each level (or overall). When do i know i have "enough" strength?
Again thanks for great answers :)

Sorry for my generally broad answers, they might have confused you since your new :P

Uhm by "enough", since "pally" means a mage in strength gear (or a mage warrior), you only need enough str to equip your gear. If I'm not mistaken its 154 str for the Overlord/Jacob rift helm at level 50.

Since PL uses "Stat driven skills", eg. a bear's (strength based) skills will do more with more strength he has, a bird (dex based) with more dex, and same with mage for int.

Though recent calculations by extremely good players show that dex adds more damage to skills despite the stat driven skills. Since dex adds base damage and crit, in overall terms, dex adds more.

I never even knew about a pally until I got 2 45s (when 45 was cap), I mainly focused on pures. Tank for bear, dps for bird, and an int for mage. I learned about the game more which got me into the hybrids.

Hope this helps!

Oh, great, that was most clarifying! Have a nice weekend :)

Thanks! Any other questions, the forum community is always willing to answer. :)

It's nice to play a game with such a great community. Gotten lots of info already, both online and in the forums. Great!

You will chew through mana pots, till you get the str fear that has high m/s ie Thoth. A dex Mage is alot of fun in the mid levels, just remember it's a naughty paly that steals aggro from the tank, unless you are the tank.

what level are you now? i would be glad to help you. i have a level 22 char right now doing the tombs quest in balefort.

Great to see questions raised that I could have raised myself :D.

I'm just reaching lvl 46 with a paladin now - or actually I finally understand that my mage with Str is in fact a paladin !

An additional point is of course the damage. I am a bit disappointed that spells don't grow even further (when do we get a lvl 6-7 damage, devs ?:rolleyes:) ; but the fact is that you can't rely much on your weapon to kill enemies, especially bosses. I've equipped my paladin with a shield, and that makes it difficult to find a single-hand weapon doing more than 100. Having no shield makes you a weaker paladin - knowing that bosses in aoe3 have a slight tendancy already to kill you in one blow.

Furthermore, ideally I'd like to enter the middle of the melee to debuff / use area effect spells, then potentially retreat and fire from remote - but that isn't possible with a Str weapon.
So yes, please, give us fireballs with 400 damage :-P.