New Player trying Pally
 

So I'm relatively new to the game. Friend got me hooked on it a couple weeks ago and I started a paladin for fun as my first ever character. I'm currently only level 23 and have bronze armor with tattered mantle for shoulders and a mountain death belt. A friend gave me a baton of faith as a weapon and have been using it. My jewelry include silver banded ring, jagged band, and brass earrings. My question is: as a new player with about 200 plat in bank now and currently leveling in Unrest, what should I be saving up for? Obviously armor upgrades would be nice as I have a pretty good weapon right now, but what would be a "short list" of things I should save up for over the next couple levels? Thanks in advance for any help. Cheers! :)

55hp rings will be best bang for buck.

If you can get your hands on some sands of ro I can make you a bp of ro. Send me a pm if you get a hold of some and I'll be happy to help.

Sands of Ro are often sold from gypsy vendors in Oasis, I've found them there multiple times. Get yourself that free BP of Ro!

I also have a mold for the gaunts ( i think it's gaunts.. not sure) but I only have one piece of melatite in the bank. So, if you can get me 2 sands and a melatite, well, there you go!

I rolled out a paladin alt to fool around with, but my main is only 29enc so I don't have a huge bankroll. I don't suppose someone has a shortlist of cheap weapons to buy? If I had about 200p to spend what weapons do I want? For example, do I want 1 good 1h for tanking for 80 and 1 good 2hb for soloing, then just train the rest of my skills with fine steel?

Paladins don't solo. Period. I played a paldin to 60 on live and have gotten to 57 here. Pure simple fact of the matter is if you don't have on about 400k worth of gear if not more You will not solo. Paladins don't have the DPS to solo. However, if you want to be a beast in a group and be very handy to have around and be able to wreck caster/undead mobs? Paladin is the way to go. A good paladin can make a group win a fight in ways that they'd fail with a warrior/SK. Sorry min/maxers. It's the way it is.

As far as cheap weapons go? A decent one (not the best) is a green jade broadsword or a sword of skyfire (before procs, when it starts proccing get rid of it) However, if you can get your hands on 800-1k get a sword of the mourning. The ro armor is excellent and fun to quest at the lower levels, I do suggest looking that up.

In game i'm Castyel or Triumphant. I love seeing Paladins on the server because there just arent' enough of them. People talk so much crap but they don't realize the pain paladins bring come Velious ;) Get with me i'll be glad to answer any questions anybody has.

Actually that is not exactly true. Paladins are fully capable of decent solo exp (and in some level ranges VERY good solo exp) as long as you know what/where and how to do it. It just takes patience (and later on, a Deepwater Helm, though the nerfed version will test your nerves).
Our class is more suited for group encounters though, where we will outperform warriors by a good margin (but then again so do shadowknights, they just simply bring a different area of skills compared to paladins).
In a server with not a lot of paladins, gear comes relatively cheap, and while it does matter what you have, you don't "need" to be in the 400k margin whatsoever. For example, if you have 1k to spend on a SotM, you'll gain a lot more if you purchase a Ghoulbane and a Baton of Faith.

Since you have the BoF and bronze, 5/55 rings should be your next purchase. After that, start picking up Ro or Deepwater armor.

+1 to the 5/55 platinum fire wedding rings. They're a great value. Also look out for the RO armor. I remember a few pieces of that being really nice. I think the boots have a good amount of HP on them. When you have some extra money getting a ghoulbane might enable you to do some effective soloing versus undead, but since you already have a BoF I'd put that on the back burner until you round out the ret of your gear.

While you might not be the best soloer as other people have mentioned, being a hybrid opens you up to a lot of non-traditional group configurations. Don't be like some players and always look for the perfect group dynamic. As a hybrid you're a pretty versitile class and you can really adapt your play style to meet the needs of the group. If you're having trouble finding groups look for players around your level and location and partner up. Most of the groups I got leveling up as a hybrid started as duos or trios.

Anyway, welcome to the game and server! Despite what you might read on the forums, I think you'll find most players on the server a friendly and more than willing to help out a new player.