Long Time Player, First Time Paladin

hello people of the forums! :chuncky:

i was around a bit when the paladin and ranger came out, but i never really started playing them until a couple of days ago. i've decided to try and pursue paladin leaderboards for k/de ratio in pve. as i'm writing this post, i am at level 13 with 909 kills, 0 deaths. so far, so good *knocks on wood*.

a paladin i met recommended to begin dex and after a while start building on my str. i'm mostly dex/a lil str and plan on following their advice. atm, i'm using eagle eye bow lvl 10. at lvl 17, i will advance to purple forgotten bow. (i have a lvl 25 onyx bow set but idk how i feel about it)

my method is playing in private and doing campaign runs until i can no longer gain xp in said campaign.

i'll probably hold off buying a set just for my paladin until around balefort sewers campaign. i'm not really sure if i want to buy a L50 talon set or a L51 talon set. i'd prefer L51, but you could sway me on that. i think mainly for my sets, i'd want to go Lx1 instead of Lx0 (L51 vs L50, L61 vs L60, L71 vs L70) but i'm not sure how well they'd sell once i'm through with them. it's one of my most horrible traits, merching.

i have some questions i'd like to ask in hopes someone seeing them will answer:

1. str vs dex sets; which would you recommend?
2. how do you think i should buy my sets? e.g. a L50 talon set vs a L51 talon set? (i'm leaning towards L51 rn)
3. any merchs out there have a set they'd sell to me / also maybe buy from me once i'm through? (i'd say lease a set but i'm pretty sure that's how scamming starts :upset:)
4. should i even buy sets? / should i just mix-match items?
5. what do you recommend for my skills tree?

do you have any extra advice for me? even if it's just about being an awesome paladin in general? been a while since i tried something like this so i'm up for knowing anything that will help me along my journey. :eagerness:

1. dex because you will do more damage and kill faster vs being tanky but not hitting at all what so ever.
2. Totally up to you :)
3. A nice generous person may lend you a set or help you buy one just ask around.
4. Mix and matching until level 60ish is good.
5. up to you all i know is dont bother putting attributes into the "Brute Force" skill because all it does is increase dodge by 1-2% each attribute so its a major waste but max heal and buffs for sure.

Hope i helped somewhat , i have a 76 rhino myself and i rock 300 dex rest int which works out pretty well in pvm. Best of luck on soloing :)

I have some sets that I could lend, PM me.

^ boom <3