A few early level paladin questions.

[Wikfizb]

<p>I have had a paladin alt for a while, but previously I had not done much with him.  Now I have a convinced a friend to give EQ2 a try that I will (hopefully) be doing a lot of duoing with (who will be playing a wizard) and I thought a Paladin would be a good protective duo choice, so I want to dust off my old alt and learn (or re-learn) how to play him in a duo or small group role and I have several questions that some insight from veteran pladins might be useful to have.</p><p>Are there any "must have" AAs I should put above leveling (ie as a necro, its worth putting off levling and going straight for tainted heals as soon as possible), or should I just take what AA points I get from questing as I go and apply them as suggested in AA specific threads.</p><p>What are the current things to look for in gear (I probably won't be raiding, but I might be small grouping dungeons or heroicis)?  Is the following priortization roughly correct?</p><p>Str > Mit > Special bonuses (DA, Crit etc) > Sta > HP > Agi > Pow</p><p>Whn my main concern is gettign and holding agro vs non-heroic mobs, would I be better off as sword and board, or two hander?</p><p>What spells/CAs should I focus on getting to expert/master as soon as possible (taunts, defensive stance and the shield ally thing seem obvious, but am I overlooking other vital abilities?)</p><p>Thanks.</p>

[Tanna]

<p>Having 1 more aa is always better than having one less, that being said, no I don't think you should put off leveling to get AA at all. There are some really nice ones, crit chance, double attack, block chance, more DPS, 25% auto attack mod if using a shield. If you spend just an hour a day questing, even grey quest work, you can average a minimum of 2 AA a day or more, all the way up to 250 AA.</p><p>As far as gear goes, you want to have atleast two sets. One strictly defensive and one strictly DPS, sometimes you can find pieces that are a good mixture and can have their place in both sets. Mastercrafted armor is typically going to be your best choice up until around 80 where you'll start seeing decent drops/quest rewards. Things with %double attack and %crit chance look nice, but I would keep both around 80-85%, and wouldn't go any higher as you will max these two in groups easily.</p><p>You'll definitely want to use a 1h sword and shield, as an AA on the shadows tree gives us a 25% increase to 1h. Try to find one with a nice 6 second delay until you can get your fabled epic.</p><p>As far as skills to master first, I tend to master any buffs whether myself or group buffs, then stances, then combat arts/spells, and taunts last. Taunts are typically ridiculously expensive and pretty much worthless to master if you have amends and hate transfers properly assigned.</p>

[TerrorFirmer]

<p>Go down the strength line all of the way to the endline which increases casting, reuse, and recovery speed significantly.  That is a must have.  After that, work on wraths in your paladin line until you have smite evil.</p><p>Because you will be duoing, and not doing heroic content, defensive stats aren't really as important to you.  In the early levels you want to focus on any crit (nearly none in early levels, but there is crit in your AA lines), ability modifier, strength, and max hit points/stamina.  Pound for pound, though, +hit points gives you more than stamina would. </p><p>Because of the ease of earlier encounters, you could probably get away with having a two handed weapon with a big damage spread (large high end number, long delay).  You may want to keep a shield and sword, as well, for those especially difficult encounters.  Keep both on you just in case. </p><p>Later on you can focus on mit, avoidance, block chance, etc.  Leveling up, though, it is purely a dps fest, and slow and steady doesn't win the race. </p><p>Make sure that your amends spell is the highest level you can get it.  I don't think you can grandmaster it anymore, but you can certainly get the adept 3 and have it turned into a master with the research assistant.  It will be an invalueable tool for you later on when you learn to tank tough encounters. </p>