[Conky]

Originally Posted by Loadsamoney [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Paladins get Superior Heal at 57. That puts them on the level of a Druid in actual healing ability, minus the mana efficiency. Torpor and CH are still ideal, but a Paladin can actually make a life-saving secondary healer when things get hairy. Superior Heal can bring someone back from the brink of death into fighting condition again.

Being Knights, Paladins and Shadowknights have the exact same natural mitigation, and their ability to generate snap aggro is about the same, although done a bit differently. Paladins use stuns for their aggro, SK's use dots and snares. End result is that Paladins are more defensive in nature, more self sufficient with their heals and Lay Hands, and are better against casters because of their ability to interrupt potentially devastating spells, while Shadowknights have somewhat higher DPS thanks to dots and their weak pet and so can end battles faster, and can also Feign Death if necessary, but generally won't survive as long on their own and really have no buffs or heals to support others with.

If I had to choose between one or the other for tanking, I would go with a Pally because of their heals and Lay Hands, generally makes them more self sufficient and able to survive longer in bad circumstances. Stuns are also a GREAT form of snap-aggro too, it's not building like an SK's dots, although Snare is very effective as well. But really, if you're tanking any sort of named Raid target, you really need a Warrior doing the tanking because of their higher mitigation and their disciplines.

Also, Paladins have, hands down, no contest, THE coolest Epic in the game, and it's one of the few 2h weapons that allows them to use Bash without a shield (the SK Epic does this as well, but is nowhere near as cool, and doesn't have any Armor Class as opposed to Fiery Defender).

Fear kite owns casters, FD out survives anything a paly can do, disease cloud best aggro spell for mana in the game, also bad circumstances should not happen with FD and life taps work very well in battle to keep you topped up. Not to mention, invis, pet, more dps, debuffs and can pick ogre for stun immunity or iksar/troll for regen. I like both classes and each have perks but dont sell SKs short.