New Paladins, we are here to help! [Archive] - EQ2 Forum Archive @ EQ2Wire

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Excalibre33

09-21-2007, 08:37 PM

New Paladins, we are here to help!Here are the simple rules to this thread for keeping it constructive:(1) Only post if you are willing to help new Paladins or are a struggling new Paladin that needs help.(2) Trolls will not be feared and simply ignored with no response. (In extreme cases they will be reported)(3) New Paladins please take the time to read through this thread if you are struggling as we may have answered your questions earlier and at least see who is willing to help you through PMs or cross-server tells. (Keep in mind that players do leave the game so you may want to ask most recent helpful Paladins first.)(4) If you post an answer and, by some divine intervention, the world changes and your answer is no longer valid or is not generally accepted, please take a moment to update your post.(5) Alternative answers are completely one of my intentions in this thread. That being said I'd like to stay away from outright critisim or blatent arguments about what are only opinions. Facts need correction but, we can all give different opinionated, even indirectly conflicting answers drawing on our own experiences. Alternative answers will only help the thread by giving variety to the viewers.Please respect these rules as they are intended to help both those in need and the folks helping.Even if this thread is highjacked, I implore our champions to post their willingness to help.<hr />I have been flattered by the positive feedback I've received over the last few weeks and am happily inundated with PMs, emails and in-game tells from Paladins all over Norrath. A couple of days ago as I was replying to a struggling Paladin and simply copying from one PM to another and I had an epiphany... I stepped back and saw the big picture. Our struggling Paladins don't know where else to go and fear the flames of our board. I've been replying silently to many repetitive questions multiple times and have compiled quite the opus of collective Q&A for today's EverQuest 2 Paladin. I know that I am not uber by any stretch of the imagination but, I am quite happy with my Paladin and always willing to help others seeking the same. I traditionally recommend that folks seeking UBER help, ask our UBER champions but I have plenty of advice for our community that I would rather make public and not keep hidden in 1 on 1 conversations any longer. I do not fear the trolls and over the last few days have asked many of the Paladins who've approached me privately if I may share our conversations publicly on the boards. Most of them are happy to share in return for the help so, I will be posting some of these Q&As below. I invite other Paladins to compile helpful Q&A that they are willing to share, as well, ask and answer constructive questions.Paladins for Right, unit for a common goal. We are here to help.

Excalibre33

09-21-2007, 08:45 PM

<blockquote>I started my Paladin a few weeks ago and have been following your advice about soloing with a 2 hand sword in offense mode and grouping with shield to tank. Some Paladins say that defense stance and shield is dumb and i have seen that i can tank fine with 2 hand sword and off stance at 38th level. Is there any reason we need a shield and 1 hand weapon? </blockquote>Well you've honestly answered your own question friend. If you are tanking in offensive stance then DO IT! /wink...until you can't... then you have an arsenal in your bag to keep you alive.Paladins will focus on STR for their power pool (STA for health and WIS helps your power as well but that's another topic) You should be plenty strong enough at this level to carry an entire set of tanking gear and an entire set of DPS gear. Swap back and forth as you see fit. Not all encounters are the same. Your DPS really isn't very important at this point while tanking and unless you are twinked there won't be much difference between your damage output with sword&board or your 2hander. Keep in mind you get to use that shield bash with the board. I'd say until you can afford to perfect all aspects of your Paladin, focus on what your character does best and improve other things when the fundementals are covered.Keep in mind that although you can do, and excel, at many things... your Paladin is primarily a tanker first and foremost. You should be able to hold aggro with the worst DPS in your team as a tank in this combat system. Better DPS just makes it that much easier for you to ignore your taunts but, without major twinking you will not be impressive DPS. Leave the DPS to killers, leave the healing to healers... you are a protector... keep those enemies off of your team mates.A tanker should focus on keeping aggro and increasing their base health pool above all things, then next focus on improving their survivability through upgrades of gear and spells (such as your heals) to help healers keep that health pool full. When those fundementals are in good shape a tanker focuses on tuning up their DPS.A soloer focuses on DPS then survivability for longer combat and more difficult encounters.

Excalibre33

09-21-2007, 08:50 PM

<blockquote>I love tanking and spot healing. AA combos as i lvl? or what is a good AA spec to lvl to before re-specing.</blockquote>With tanking as your primary focus, I'd say as far as AA proggresion goes... you'll want to use your first AA on the KoS treetop then probably put a few points in Stamina as you get your first AAs until you can open up a couple of points in hammer ground as the AoE stun is very helpful... then I'd improve your healing line until you get 25 AA points for your first respec. Respec 1 on top & 4,4,6,8,2 in Stamina for Divine Aura. DA will be an awesome addition to your tanking arsenal and with the HP gains in this line you'll be very pleased with what your Paladin is capible of with just 25 AAs. I'd keep improving your healing line until you reach 46. Then it will be time for your next respec. Full Hero line with full Stamina line. You will be a really rock solid tank at this point and probably somewhere in your 40s or 50s in combat level. To sum it up, I like to up my healing line until I can afford to spec and entire line on a respec. I'd start with a base of 7 AAs in KoS going down Stamina 4,2 and up healling until a respec for full Stamina... up healing until a respec to full Hero... up healing until a respec to full Wrath... then up healing until you decide how you'd like your final spec to flesh out.

Excalibre33

09-21-2007, 08:56 PM

<blockquote>sword and board or 2h? still confussed on this.</blockquote>Get both. Niether will hurt and with a nice shield bash (requiring sword/board) a minimal quality 2hander won't improve your DPS enough to justify it until you are in your 50s at least or get a Legendary or better 2hander. Test it out and see what you like. I rarely touch my 2handers and just feel safe with a Legendary or better sword and board most of the time. Things you want to look for in an awesome 2hander are... Legendary+ with a long delay (3seconds+) that has a high damage rating.

Excalibre33

09-21-2007, 09:03 PM

<blockquote>wen do u decide its time to spot heal vs the healer is just casting a spell with a long cast timer.</blockquote>Well... there are three healing archtypes Cleric(reactives) Shaman(wards) Druid(HoTs) each of these have two subclasses making a total of six official healer classes... why do I focus on the three archtypes? Well each healer class has a primary method of healing which is a maintained short duration spell (noted in parenthesees above). Keep an eye on the spells running on your Paladin and you'll get a feel for what these icons look like for each healer class and know when they are up or down. Your heals are actually faster than their direct heals in most cases and your ward not only helps them out but... your healing actually generates aggro! Especially your ward as any mob that hits it is going to be mad at you for warding their hit. AoE aggro is the key to your success... Entering a fight of multiple mobs wearing your ward is very helpful to keep their attention... that's what Paladins call "prewarding" which all Paladins figure out eventually and cast their ward prior to pulling most of the time... an AoE taunt followed by a ward is a great combo for keeping all the mobs mad and never even touching them... not that you'll have any proble in the Area of Effect damage department. On top of that your ward stacks with other wards and can even be cast on other players... so if you loose aggro and all of your taunts and hotbar is down you might find that warding the person getting hit will not only protect them but might just snap that aggro back to you.When a healer is not running their primary method of healing and falling behind to spot heal with long cast direct heals, then your team is struggling. If you sneak in a heal on youself occasionally it might keep your hp maintained enough for your healer to chain their reactives, wards or HoTs... and that's their most effecient way of healing you and maintaining power. Agian... your heals actually help your aggro so don't neglect them just because you have a healer. It's easy to stop casting a heal if you see your topped of with hp, and the reverse applys if your healers see you heal yourself when they are casting a long cast direct heal. Simply jump or press "esc" and you'll stop casting, interrupting your spell without spending the power. Healers get pretty proficient at this as they are always trying to conserve power and don't wan't to waste any on over-healing. They are rarely even looking at the mob and almost always glued to your little red bar. I have a 70 Templar (cleric), a 52 Defiler (shaman) and a 48 Fury (druid) so I've done quite a bit of healing and love getting a Paladin to tank for me. Most of the time the team doesn't realize how much the Paladin is healing themselves and as you build up you may find that you'lll be able to take stuff on without a healer in your team. A nice mechanical thing to note in the EQ2 combat system is when you are targeting a mob you can "pass through" benificial spells to the mob's target... if you are the tank that means casting a heal or ward on the mob during a fight actually tosses that heal or ward right back on you! ...so no need to goof with targeting just keep on bashing away. /thumbsup

Excalibre33

09-21-2007, 09:18 PM

<blockquote>new to eq2 and have mostly been soloing but I've been a tank in every game I played. Pointers?</blockquote>"/t Permafrost.Oisin <yourquestion>" if you ever need help & "/f Permafrost.Oisin" will help you keep track of when I'm online in your friends window.Let's see here...If your just starting out in EQ2, you'll inevitably be tanking in your 30s if you don't want to miss some of the best content in the game as you explore Heritage Quests. So contrary to most advise of the seasoned vets who will just grind through xp until their 50s, I'd suggest honing your skills in the tanking arena, right off the bat... learn how to "flip" mobs to prevent splash damage on your team mates. It's like driving a bus. Another thing to work on... you'll want to become an expert at proximity pulling (AKA: Bodypulling) to split up social mobs and only bring one encounter at a time. If you attack a mob near social mobs you will often bite off more encounters than your team can chew on. A heroic encount is intended to be killed by a team... if you bring more than one heroic encounter you're saying that you team can do more than one team's worth of killing. You'll begine to discover proximity pulling in zones like the Runney Eye zone in the Enchanted Lands. If you attack a mob in some rooms, you soon find that the entire room jumps on you... if you let that same mob "see" you and come running without anyone attacking, then you can pull it out of the social landmine for an easy kill.As a Paladin you want to do something known as "prewarding" before your pulls. Not only does it help mitigate that initial hit from the mobs but it also generated aggro for you right out of the gate. You'll figure it out... we all do. /wink

Mgunner

09-21-2007, 09:51 PM

Might I offer an alternate thought. Spot healing in a pinch is acceptable, but if your not focusing your paladin to be a outright healer, ignore all heal AA lines. Put your first points in KoS STA/INT until you get 8 points in spell and melee crit. Then work on getting Smite Evil and block from EoF trees. If your having healing issues, add a second one or get rid of the one you got because a paladin does not need to be healing while tanking. To many interupts on heals while tanking. The only thing most new paladins will need to do is cast their ward on themselves before combat and once in a while during and the occasionally emergency Lay on Hand spell.Make sure your Amends target knows exactly what Amends is. I can't even begin to tell you how many people who would ask what that is. Tell them their job is do not worry about holding back.

Excalibre33

09-21-2007, 09:58 PM

Absolutly Woz! Your advise is probably better than mine in most cases bigfella. I'm just getting back into the swing of things. /notworthy Here's what I tell my amends target their job is... and I quote... "Your job is to steal aggro! Do everything you can to get aggro without taking any away from me and the two of us will lock this thing down. You are my aggro. It's your fault if someone peels a mob of the tank. /wink"I typically recommend heals because there is a healer buried deep inside this tanker and they are hit on the hotbar more often then nessesary most of the time. hehehehe<hr />Alternative answers are completely one of my intentions in this thread. That being said I'd like to stay away from outright critisim or blatent arguments about what are only opinions. Facts need correction but we can all give different opinionated answers with our own experiences and that will only help the thread by giving variety to the viewers.I'm adding a blurb along these lines to the OP. /wink