Dwarf or High Elf for a Paladin?
 

High Str/Sta and Barrel Roll versus high Wis/Cha and cultural armor, and a good two-hander if I follow Tunare.

My vote is Dwarf just for the superior melee stats, which is the most important aspect of a Paladin (and their Wisdom is still above average, only their Charisma suffers), but what's the verdict?

P.S: I really wish Dwarves had Slam. They should with their huge fists and shoulders.

I think the last time this topic was covered in the forums, the general mood of the mob was that if you went High Elf and had access to gear (assuming blue server), everything into Wisdom was the way to go for the maximum returns on mana and gear flexibility. Same deal with Shadowknights -max Int for flexibility of gear and mana.

Green server is a much different ballgame and most folks simply wouldn't be able to stand a 65 base strength elf that's supposed to wear plate armor and carry junk. On Green, rolling a dwarf would be the way to go unless you are really, really dedicated for the long game.

I play on Blue, not Green. Well, I play a bit on Red too, but mainly on Blue.

I have okay gear but nothing exotic like Fungi or Hiero.

Why is cultural armor not listed for dwarves as well? The dwarven cultural armor is absolutely nuts for paladins no? Super high AC, str, sta, wis, and resists?

Is it? I didn't know. Maybe I'll go for that instead of Armor of Ro.

Oh. In that case, grab a partial set of crustacean shell armor with a Hero Bracer, other item slots filled with cheap to moderate price strength gear, and roll the high elf and enjoy the better spellpower without compromising anything with the free semi epic thrown in.

http://wiki.project1999.com/Natures_Defender

That's the Velious stage min-max option. If you can't stand the High Elf model, you can go Half Elf of Tunare and put everything into Wisdom instead and mix and match armor slot choices. Honest though, if you're on Blue there's no point to playing anything other than what you enjoy seeing on your screen the most.

Edit - regardless of what you roll, try to get a free http://wiki.project1999.com/Sword_of_Blessings early on by getting your paladin down in the dog area during a prime time weekend hunting hour set and leatherfoot raider skullcap out, or velium vapors.

The other consideration that's important to me is what two-handers other than the pre-epic, Fiery Avenger, and the epic Fiery Defender, can a Pally bash with. If Nature's Defender can't be bashed with then it loses points for me.

half elf, nature's defender.

unless your thing is getting slow claps for barrel rolls.

Doesn’t dwarf have extra magic resist? Very handy for avoiding being rooted or blinded when pulling. This advantage is doubled down on by the cultural armour too iirc.

Not sure if the cost of making cultural is really worth it on blue though. It might be worth doing some faction tags on kael giants so you can check Skyshrine on /who all for guardian farmers and scrounge their unwanted pieces. Some nice drops higher up there too if you find a necro farming a shawl.

If you're not a raider, hands down high elf with max wisdom.

Str and stm are fairly easy to comeby..esp if you start to get some okayish items.

Also the high elf cultrual which will carry you to 60 comes with high dex and charisma and wisdom.

Mt first paladin on p99 I went dwarf and str/stm/ 5 in agi...he was okay but my 2nd time around I went high elf wisdom build and its much funner.

To put in perspective at level 50ish he had the same manapool my semi decent raid geared dward paladin.

Hybrid power is contained within their mana pool.