Paladin or SK come LU24

[Janto]

<DIV>With LU 24 on deck I have my current Shadowknight that I was planning on turning into a Paladin. My big question was which one is better for tanking and PvE in end game stuff as my SK is still very young in the scheme of things. I dont care about PvP only about PvE grouping/soloing/raiding later down the road and how he would fare as a paladin vs a Shadowknight. Any reply's from paly's that have been there would be great!</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Thanks,</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Janto</DIV>

[Pathin Merrithay]

<DIV>Both classes can tank adequately in groups in the end game (Though SK agro control leaves something to be desired) so either works well in that regard. I've found that many SK's, upon reaching 70, tend to start working towards becoming something of a 'battlemage'.  Sacrificing defnesive arts/abilities in favor of enhancing their spell casting damage/melee damage. Paladins can attempt to do the same, but it works much less effectively.</DIV>

[Boethius_Permafrost]

With the way betrayal quests work, recently, every single spell is reset to apprentice 1.  I had a low level wizard swap sides recently.  Given that, I wouldn't touch this with a 10' pole.<div></div>

[Janto]

Thanks for the reply...Interesting on the battlemage idea however do SK's lack the solo survivablity I think a Paladin would have with heals or are paly heals not enough to keep you alive and lifetaps work just as good?

[khufure]

Pally heals help once in a while.  If there is 1 healer in the group or no healers I will pre-ward before pulling.  This can help quite a bit with initial aggro.  Unfortunately, heals for the paladin are really expensive power drains and frankly interrupt locks kill ya quick!<div></div>

[Silverpaws]

I just healed the Den tonight after our cleric went LD and never came back.  Finished the entire zone from right before the first named to the end with just me healing.Group make up:  70 Paladin, 70 Zerker, 68 Swash, 69 DirgeOur heals and wards arent the best, but at adept3 group heal, adept 3 ward, and master 2 single heal, it worked ok.  I also have flowing thought 22 with my back up gear, and a nice drink, so that could have made the difference.Anyway.. it was fun <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /><div></div>

[Seidhkona]

<blockquote><hr><font color="#ffff00" size="3">Janto wrote: </font><font color="#ffff00" size="3">Thanks for the reply...Interesting on the battlemage idea however do SK's lack the solo survivablity I think a Paladin would have with heals or are paly heals not enough to keep you alive and lifetaps work just as good? </font><hr></blockquote>Paladin heals are slow (and interruptable!) and they are power hogs.  If I am soloing, and need a lot of healing, I'm probably going to die.  If I am healing, I'm not doing anything to kill the mob.  And if the mob can interrupt or stun, I will never get a heal launched... you can try shield bash to stun then cast the heal, but the success of that depends on how long the mob stays stunned and which heal you are trying to cast... some take a while to cast!  And all the heal timers are fairly long. In a group, I cannot heal and tank at the same time.  If I am the only healer in a group, I can usually keep the tank warded/healed, and rez any other group members later. The healing works best if I am in a group with a healer and I am supporting the MT. Paladins have a buff that boosts MIT, and our wards help prevent damage that the healers have to fix.  And that extra bit of healing I can provide can make teh difference between success and a wipe. I also had a SK and betrayed with her at level 17.  The thing I saw that was most different about the SK abilities is the disease-based DOTs were "the gift that keeps on giving".  Paladins don't have anything that does that kind of damage over time, alas.<div></div>

[Rocksthemic]

Seeing as I am a paladin, I will not proffess to speak with much knowledge about shadowknights. From what I understand about them though, they have a much harder time keeping aggro in group encounters because thier taunts are designed to build hate over time. Group encounters die too quickly for SK taunts to take full effect most times, or the group has to hold back dps at the start of the fight. In raids I know they get some decent dmg (well much better than a paladins anyway) and a very nice mitigation debuff which helps out a lot on the mobs. For paladins, there are of course 3 different areas to consider, and I will try and list the strengths and weaknesses in each area as I see them. 1) Soloing Paladins with the right gear can tank just about anything solo (within appropriate lvl range, of course) The caveat is that it takes us a VERY long time to do it. If you go to a spot with a slow respawn timer, not many wandering mobs to add and aggro onto you, and a chance of a named spawning every once in a while, it is the ideal paladin solo spot. With our heals, wards, and stuns, we can keep ourselves alive quite effectively. We will not do high dps, and mobs that heal themselves can become quite a bother if you don't interrupt or stun them at the proper time. But by and large, we can hold our own soloing, although it can get quite boring due to the length of time it takes to kill mobs. 2) Grouping Here is where paladins truly shine, imo. If you set your group up correctly (and I'm the type that always does the inviting and setting up of the group, rather than just going lfg and joining a random pick up group) you can do almost anything. My favorite group set up is still this.. Paladin, Cleric, Shaman, Enchanter, and 2 dps (note that when I say cleric, shaman, enchanter I mean that either templar OR inquis will do equally as fine in most group settings, same with defiler/mystic or illusionist/coercer) If you put your amends on the right dps and have your taunts at adept 3, you will have a very easy time keeping aggro. I have been in halls of fate and purposely seen how FEW taunts I could cast and still keep aggro. Most encounters I would have to cast one encounter taunt and one single target taunt the whole fight to keep solid aggro. We can tank any encounter that is currently designed for a single group effectively provided you have legendary or better tanking gear. In addition, warding yourself before the pull basically gives you 1k additional hitpoints. This is a nice help when you're pulling mobs. Our heals are a GREAT help sometimes if one of your healers go down, get stunned, or some other unforeseen disaster. There has been many times when I have had a healer in my group die to AE or adds, and I calmly rez them mid battle. All in all, I feel with our aggro control abilities, our healing, and our ability to tank that we are close to the ideal tank in group situations. 3) Raiding This is one area where many have different opinions of what the paladin class should be. Some feel we should be front line tanks in raids, some feel we should be dps, some feel we have very little reason to justify our spot in a raid. I myself set up in a swiss army knife type role. I am the second in line for tanking should the MT go down, or I am offtanking should it be required to offtank a mob. I know that my DPS is not going to turn the tide of a raid, so when I'm in a raid generally I am with Inquis, Mystic, Illusionist, Swashy, and wizzie or conjuror. I act as a hate dump for the wizzie and swashy (also can have assassin dumping hate on me instead of swashy) and I take a back up healer role. I help heal people that get hit by AE's, rez someone if they need it, ward the MT for additional help, and generally allow others to do what they do more effectively on a raid. My help won't show up in the parses all the time (although generally  I am in the top 5 in healing parses) But I know I am contributing healing, and even contributing dps by allowing the scout and mage dps in my group to go harder than they would be able too without amends and hate dump. Anyways, that is my take on the pally in all 3 roles. Any errors, omissions, or mistakes in tactics listed are mine. Thundaarr Unrest <Nightcap> <div></div>

[Ramglob]

Pally's for PVE.......IMO better tanks and better survivability for PVE purposes SK's for PVP........better killers and better survivability for PVP purposes  Yes I have played both classes Squiggy 61 SK nagafen <div></div>

[Silverpaws]

Back up healed HoF last night.  Killed everything in the zone to Sothis.  The main tank paladin even had a bad pull and got 2 groups, killing the inquistor, and I was able to keep the group up.  Paladins are good healers, you just have to know how to use your wards/heals/group heals and have plenty of flowing thought.<div></div>

[Terayon]

Im Looking at starting a Paladin (on DeLere) As I was looking at Races, I started to wonder If it was worth the trouble to betray from FP to Qey. Reason I say this, Is im a language nut I like to have all I can. Is that a valid reason?Also, Im very much into Asthetics, over Stats. However I want to know, Do Paladins get Stat Buffs, like STR/WIS and STA? Ive been thinking of; Kerra, Wood-elf,Halasian or mabye Dark-elf... I want to avoid a short race, Gnomes and rats are fine for mages scouts and healers, but just a personal thing i don't care much for short tanks.. hehe ( No offence to the runt races) On that issue, if you have a particular reason you enjoy a certain race please let me know, as I may not have looked at that race with that perspective, thanks.. sorry to dominate the OPs question.<div></div>