You can make a shank out of that. So paladins still rock.

SKs are fun but lack group utility. FD is the one real saving grace and the possibility of instant click invis makes life much easier.

Paladins are a strong class. Group utility is very good with roots/stuns/lulls/heals/buffs. Late game Rez, heal over time, and superior heal put the icing on the cake.

Both knights suffer low damage output but have excellent on demand aggro.

Properly twinked warriors are a lot of fun 1-30. 35-51 is a sorely rough patch where relative power dwindles for a class that lacks utility. From 52 onward power increases exponentially. Warriors only have utility in the form of procs/clicks but these options open up nicely from 50 onward (assuming the warrior acquires the items). Warriors put out respectable damage and are defensively unmatched. Very powerful class late game.

As for the OPs question ... that depends entirely on your perspective and what you like.

Paladin grp utility is minimal; virtually every group will have 1 or more who can do those things, and do it better because they aren't trying to tank at the same time.

I've never been in a situation where pally utility was make or break, but I've been in situations where a group wouldn't have worked w/o FD/snare splitting or fear/snare to shut down casters or snare to prevent runners. Also, being able to FD on a pull makes certain high-risk ventures low-risk.

I'm not knocking a paladin, I loved paladin tanks in a full grp as an ench and their buffs in a raid. To make a broad generalization, paladins are slightly better than SK in a lot of situations, SK is massively better than paladins in a small number of situations.

90% of the time only the player of the pal/SK will notice the differences, as the group only cares that you hold agro while they take care of everything else.

Op asks for the fun aspect, not which one will be better in groups/raid or whatever ... When grouped I think all three can be fun, but I can't see how a war could be more fun than a sk out of group... Instant invis, ivu, fd, fear, snare, pet... So much utility, the thing you can do solo are really great...

I can back up others in this thread. My Barb war is currently 31 and it sucks trying to get agro without clickies. staff of battle with 24% haste is ok and works most of the time kinda maybe. I hear it gets better with Frostbringer and WESS but level 40 seems so far away. low barb dex also kinda getting to me but damnit I love how they look. Plus that Zek human cultural armor

Now my shadowknight is level 26 now and Disease Cloud is no longer the agro magnet it used to be but folks tell me it gets better at 39 with Shadow Vortex and level 30 with damage cap removal.

As for fun, ShadowKnight. Snap agro(unless super twinks in the group, premature nukeulators and nuke happy chanters at any agro level), invis - nerfed CoS works at level 20, ogre/troll slam (slam levels up bash, and bash effects slam's damage and chance to hit) and the ability to solo with fear kiting and a pet.

@jauna
Disease Cloud never loose its role... Sure at 30 a single cast will start to be not enough against those twinked rogues... Just cast two... At 53 normally geared DC is still my main agro generator, due to the low mana cost, no problem keeping agro over 60 rogues and 60mnk with primals so far... Just need to chain cast dc for the whole fight now... When I am lucky to have clarity or a bard I can throw in other more mana costly but more useful spells in the mix but disease cloud is still the base of my agro, that and the low melee dps...

That's an entirely subjective question. What constitutes *fun* will be very different from one person to the next.

quick cast? Yes
decent aggro? Yes
low mana cost? Yes

Disease Cloud is still great aggro at 60 you just have to plan on casting it more often.

Sk will be more fun leveling to fifty. Once a warrior gets evasive disc he is awesome

SK seems incredibly strong to me:

• Clinging Darkness + Disease Cloud + Shadow Vortex means that when you want to tank, you can. Enchanters and Shaman and twink Rogues everywhere thank you. Meanwhile on a Warrior you are spending half the time watching the fungi/tstaff monk tank and talk to the group about amazing monk mitigation.
• SKs now get full defensive skills, which means they are nearly as durable as a warrior when they use a shield and better than said Monk regardless (at least until the Monk gets a full set of Dozekar loot).
• SKs can 'Dark and Park' split XP content easily, or use Stalking Probes/Skeleton pets and Steelskin for tough rooms. So you are at least as good at pulling as a Monk.
• SKs can lifetap back hitpoints when they are in trouble. Add in a pet and the occasional DoT and a cheap high-ratio Knight weapon and you shouldn't be THAT bad on the DPS meter.
• The SK utility toolkit is pretty good: invis, ivu, damage shield, levitate, see invis, snare, fear, cancel magic, ATK/AC tap, resist cold and disease.

It feels to me like SK should be stronger (and more fun) than both Warriors and Monks until the pure melee hit their stride with raid gear and key clickies. I guess the biggest problem an SK would have is mana regeneration, and if I had one I would be trying to make a long friend list of half-decent enchanters. Something like SK/MAG/CLR/ENC seems like it would fly through levels.

But I haven't actually played one, so who knows.