What is the effect of defense?

[Feneant]

Hi,I will start by apologizing if this is beating a dead horse, the search tool is not very good on the forums.I have been thinking I might start grouping with my paladin more lately and I am not sure where to start.  I am not a raider so my equipment lacks a bit although it is still better than some as I spent a lot of platinum on tradeable items.  I have 10858 Hp self buffed (I dont have the HP increase AA) and 54% mitigation.  I can't get that higher easily though unless I get some rare drops.However between gear and AA setup, I have a base of 492 defense points and can get it to 498 easily if I buy the hardened clay bracer bringing it to 510+ with Resolute Faith and its upgrade if there is one (I can't find it) .  But what I wonder is does this do anything for me as a paladin? I know monks and bruisers raise avoidance as high as they can... is it something I should concentrate on increasing with items while giving up say melee crit?  It is sitting at 55.6% currently, is that respectable for someone wanting to tank?   If curious, my AAs are :Strength : 4/4/8Agility : 4/4/4/8Stamina : 4/4/8/1Intelligence : 4/4/8On the Paladin side, I have Wraths and Hero maxed.Would anyone be able to tell me if I am on the right track or if I should give up tanking and buy all +melee crit items to bring that to 80% and go dps <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />Thanks in advance.

[Meirril]

<p>Umm...paladins tank. Your a tank class. Even with 100% spell crits you won't match a real DPS class. </p><p>Avoidance is very desirable in RoK. However, sacrificing mittigation for small avoidance bonuses isn't a good idea. Sacrificig small amounts of +crit or +damage is perfectly fine. Make sure your trading agility for like amounts of +damage or atleast 10 point of agility per % of crit. Hopefully, you can find gear that gives you both.</p><p>Avoidance is nice, but it isn't everything. Don't sacrifice your ability to take a hit for more avoidance. Also a small avoidance bonus is worth loosing for a big improvment in DPS/HP/anything else that helps with tanking.</p>

[Valphine]

<cite>Feneant wrote:</cite><blockquote>Hi,I will start by apologizing if this is beating a dead horse, the search tool is not very good on the forums.I have been thinking I might start grouping with my paladin more lately and I am not sure where to start. I am not a raider so my equipment lacks a bit although it is still better than some as I spent a lot of platinum on tradeable items. I have 10858 Hp self buffed (I dont have the HP increase AA) and 54% mitigation. I can't get that higher easily though unless I get some rare drops.However between gear and AA setup, I have a base of 492 defense points and can get it to 498 easily if I buy the hardened clay bracer bringing it to 510+ with Resolute Faith and its upgrade if there is one (I can't find it) . But what I wonder is does this do anything for me as a paladin? I know monks and bruisers raise avoidance as high as they can... is it something I should concentrate on increasing with items while giving up say melee crit? It is sitting at 55.6% currently, is that respectable for someone wanting to tank? If curious, my AAs are :Strength : 4/4/8Agility : 4/4/4/8Stamina : 4/4/8/1Intelligence : 4/4/8On the Paladin side, I have Wraths and Hero maxed.Would anyone be able to tell me if I am on the right track or if I should give up tanking and <u><b>buy all +melee crit items to bring that to 80%</b></u> and go dps <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />Thanks in advance.</blockquote>80% melee crits? Think thats not possble of items on broker.

[Caetrel]

<p>If you are just starting to group now, don't worry about your dps.  Get Health and avoidance up at every opportunity and learn the ins and outs of Amends and aggro control in general.  </p><p>Once you have decent gear and survivability then start adding dps items.</p><p>Your AAs look fine but you may as well finish STR line if you are gonna put that many points in it.  4-8-8-2-2 STR is good, leaves enough points to full line STA and get max spell crits.  </p>

[Vain]

You could skip the hate gain in the STR-line all together as it shouldn't really be required.

[Feneant]

Well, I have grouped before, no one could solo a paladin to 80 unless they were crazy or something.Just wondering what to do to throw my hat in the ring again.  I much prefer playing DPS but there are usually always other caster dps LFG when I am so I figure I will just tank...

[Galithdor]

What everyone has said works well...dps is good but maybe make a profile for your dps and one for your tank...that might work well and will allow you to work in most situations <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Vain]

<p>For the most part, dps will make your tanking job easier. The higher you are on the parse (coupled with your amends target), the easier it will be to hold aggro, plus mobs will die faster so that means less time to worry about "tanking". Most zones/instances (save for the latter parts of RE2, maybe Sandstorm and the Sisters in Maidens and maybe a couple mobs in deep Seb or Chardok) will allow you to easily tank in offensive mode - your goal in instances like VoES and CoA would be to pull three or more mobs at a time (depending on the heals you have in group) and AoE the hell out of them. Raid tanking is a whole different story and will rely on your guild's knowledge and level of comfort with an encounter.</p><p>So group tanking or otherwise, your AA's should run the line in STA and STR and up to the Spell crits in INT. For Orange mobs, it can be debated that WIS line is a potential. You can forego AGI for the most paert, unless you are OT'ing avatars or VP adds. For the Pally tree, the Hero and Wraths lines are a given. After that you can play around - I put points in Support to get the cure (AoE aggro + timely self or group cures).</p><p>You'll want to swap some gear around when moving from easier fights into harder fights before switching out of offensive stance. Decent defensive gear will keep you alive, and maintaining your offensive stance will keep dps going. Eventually you will have to tank it right up and go into defensive with the tougher mobs.</p><p>For the most part, you will not be invited into a group as dps. Not because pallies can't dps, but because many pallies don't dps so well.</p>