If you have access to early sky cloak and epic /sboz than ranger , if ya have access to only tunnel, pally

They are different enough classes with different enough job expectations that they are hard to compare.

Globally I consider the paladin to be the stronger class.

The ranger will be more dynamic. The spell kit is fun…sow, snare, root, animal fear, harmony, invis, levitate, EB. Outside fearing animals and bow rotting soloing stuff toe-to-toe will be a challenge.

The paladin is comparison is more lumbering, extremely durable. You will rarely die with LoH up if the zone is nearby. The spell kit while less exciting still very functional. The DW helm at 45 heals much faster than a fungi for 400p. With a reaver compared to a ranger with EC gear it won’t even be much (if any) behind in DPS.

Both classes are my mains. Love them both. The ranger is more fun. The paladin outside a few niche situations is definitely more capable. Especially on a budget.

Paladin is better in groups. Ranger is only really useful for harmony in outdoor zones and it's fairly niche in the few indoor zones that you'll use.

I'll say ranger is better for raiding, but both are kinda meh. Ranger DPS is pretty neat and they're good speedbumps.

Paladin solos better.

Raids desire at least one of either paladin or ranger, but neither are actually very good DPS.

I wouldn't even put ranger ahead of paladin in DPS end game.

Both can be useful in a clutch situation (soulfire vs weapon shield).

But the paladin ends up much more useful in the end.

Still, game needs more of both for sure.

Hard choice.

If you do make a paladin, tho, I cannot recommend dorf as a race because of the low CHA. The low STR for everybody else will be miserable at first, but that can be fixed with gear.

None of that matters for ranger. I picked wood elf for flavor.

Starting points should go into STA for both.

Rangers are the better pullers, or at least pulling more easily accomplished, particularly outdoors. But, even when confined to indoor zones, they have not only root but snare to stagger/park incoming mobs. They also used to have another advantage back when sneak pulling was still possible, being able to pick singles out of a train as long as they lined up the shot just right. That can still be done more or less, but outdoors using harmony.

With the xp penalty lifted and 2h bonus applied, both are perfectly fine for casual play. And both even have the ability to make clutch plays in the hardest raid content, with the ranger having Weaponshield and Paladin having Soulfire charges.

thats not true, ranger dps is fine ive done up to 118 on vindi

/GU Derakor the Vindicator in 132s, 175k @1326dps --- A Drakkel Dire Wolf 20k @161dps --- Knapsack 16k @121dps --- Ripqozko 15k @118dps --- Idrinkk 13k @109dps --- Rikyr 12k @92dps --- Trazzle 12k @89dps --- Gatitos 11k @87dps --- Logaluger 11k @85dps --- Jenssen 10k @78dps --- Torstein 10k @75dps

Good input so far.

What would be considered a reasonable starter budget?

Starter gear recommendations?

In my experience, Paladins will occasionally get asked to swap to clerics or rogues, while Rangers will not. I think that's pretty illustrative of the raid strength of each. Nonetheless, Paladins have a niche for sure with DS, back up soul fires, and the odd DA engage or ramp tank.

That said I'm having a blast on my paladin so far.

As for starter budget?

I mean ideally 70k+ for fungi (45k) + haste (13k) + weapon (10k) + tunnel gear (the rest) for both.

You could also do an 18kish version of ikky bp (9k) + haste (1k) + weapon (5k) + tunnel gear (3k).

If you can't afford either, consider some SCHW, a Jade Mace, banded / cheap tunnel crap and some 5/55 rings then go to town.

While a fungi is good for any class, casual gearing the paladin is far cheaper. The ranger doesn’t have an equivalent to the DW helm or BP so getting hps back is a pain.

Play the class you want to play. They serve very different roles, have different strengths/capacities. They also don’t feel similar, whether you are EC geared or BiS. If thinking you might die is a huge turnoff go with the paladin; if you get a rush for trying wacky stuff and not dying go ranger.