Paladin or Battle Cleric (Mystic or Inquisitor)

[Dragonlor]

<p>Hello all!  I know I am not the first to ask this, but I have been away for awhile and did not find a good recent fit for this question on the forums.  I have played a paladin before and they are an interesting class.  I like the armor and the fact that they use shield, sword/hammer, and spells to do their work.  They seem more active than some toons that are just pure button mashing of same 2 or 3 skills each go.  With that said, I have always found the Pally's DPS a bit lacking compared to say a SK or zerk and I unfortunately like to kill things at a decent rate (part of the fun for me).  I guess I am looking for a bit of both worlds...the utility (or some of it) of the pally with a bit better DPS.  Do battle clerics generally out DPS pallys (assume non-top of the line gear/not al masters and predominately solo play)?  For the battle cleric I am looking primarily at the mystic and inquistor since they are more melee oriented battle clerics (from what I have heard) than the warden.</p><p> Thanks!</p>

[SladeBlackstone]

From what I've seen, as long as you hold it to the melee healers, I would say it's about equal for DPS once you get past T3.  (Healers dominate in T2 and T3) I haven't seen past T6, and as I play on a PVP server I can't group with an Inq so I can't say much about that class...  past T6 I'm not sure, since I simply haven't made it that high yet.  Caster healers (Temp, Fury, Defiler) all have superior offensive abilities, some bordering on Wizzy DPS.As far as healing potential, all healers completely rock the paladin for healing while doing damage.  with Masters and Ad3s the gap may not be so large, but both druids I've grouped with have plenty of time to mix hots and still DPS, where Pally heals have longer casts for less healing.  However, Pallies can take the damage better, even considering temp/inq has plate, they don't take damage as well as a paladin...  This is a "your Mileage may vary" catagory, but I think it errs in favor of Healer.Downtime is where the paladin loses to healers.  Tank mana consumption is unstable and you'll burn through a pool of power extremely quickly trying to DPS and heal both.  You can learn to manage it but you simply don't burn as much trying to DPS with a healer.The only downside to healers is their low number of offensive moves, it seems like there's only 5 damage dealing moves for each healer and the recast timers are juggled such that there's gaps...I would say if you want to pick a new main, it's expensive but play each to the 30s or 40s and outfit them with good Treasured gear in T1~3, and for T4 go for Mastercrafted gear and just see which class you enjoy more.

[Luag]

maybe you could post in a few more forums at once?

[Dragonlor]

Sorry...sick (surgery reccovery) and bed rest at the moment.  Sorry for ruining <u>your</u> day with my plethora of posts as I fight boredom/madness.

[SladeBlackstone]

Pay him no mind...  this is a question where the more answers you have the better.

[Dragonlor]

Thanks Alent!

[Centioch]

Never ever ever ever ever ever ever will a "battle cleric" or any type of healer out-dps a paladin. (Unless paladin suck or have crappy gear and healer rocks and have awesome gear). For how to solo with a paladin, don't pull one mob, but at least 2 or 3... Cause you're primary dps spells are area of effect type, and u will kill 2 or 3 almost equally fast as 1.

[Zarkad]

<p>I play both an inquisitor and a paladin 70+, solo play as a Paladin means pulling tons of weak mob and AEing them down to be efficient and that's hard in RoK now. Inquisitor soloing on single mob is very decent and you can have about the same mit than a Paladin solo, you do dmg when you get hit and you heal yourself when you get hit so you have very low avoidance but you'll probably kill single mobs faster than a Pally, you'll be vulnerable anytime you have 3+ mobs on you, situation where the Pally likes to be to AE if he can stay up. My inqui doesn't run oop soloing, my pally does but he can train through harder stuff and probably kill the same stuff overall.</p><p> In groups Pally gives the option of tanking, OT, support, dpsing and  the inquisitor brings Healing or boosting group DPS and doing a bit of dps yourself, they can tank easy stuff but that's not a great idea. My inquisitor won't out-dps a pally, but he's using very very low power and boosts group dps while doing it, Fanaticism+Inquest on rogue! So he's not giving up his primary role while dpsing in a group or raid, and with gear swap removed i don't see how pally can switch from DPS gear to OT gear in a fight so you'll have to pick your role before engaging. </p><p> Both are very interesting to play at T8 you won't see much difference in soloing, so get the one you like to play most. Pick a tank/dps/healer or a healer/tank/dps from what you prefer, i did both but on different servers, paladin on pve, inquisitor on pvp so even if they have about the same capability it's a completely different experience when i play them.</p>