I have a Paladin and a Shadow Knight as the two classes I've played to high levels on P1999. The Shadow Knight is my current P1999 main character. I have a couple other, lower-level Paladin alts (it's my favorite class, historically). Here are my feelings on the matter:
I duo'd with a Cleric (my wife played one) most the time on my Paladin. It's a serviceable duo for low-mid levels but it sort of runs out of steam past about 50 as monster hit point pools and damage output begin to scale much more rapidly than your own damage output. I consider Paladins a bit more specialized than Shadow Knights. Paladins make probably the best tank for experience groups in the game due to having massive tanking control, excellent ability to shut down casting monsters, and useful defensive healing ability. Beyond that, however, they're not in high demand for raids and aren't a stellar solo or duo class. If you want to tank for experience groups as your primary job in Norrath, it's a fine class and you'll like the cheap cost of equipment. Most players prefer something either more versatile or more focused on the end-game, hence the Paladin's lack of popularity.
Shadow Knights don't have as many defensive tanking tools as Paladins, but still perform the job adequately and either class tanks more easily than Warriors do for typical groups. In exchange for less control while tanking, Shadow Knights come with generally better versatility and more quality of life utility. They solo better than Paladins, make generally better duo partners (particularly at higher levels), get around more easily, and typically won't die as often. A Shadow Knight/Cleric duo would have an easier time duo'ing than a Paladin/Cleric duo past about level 50 or so, though it's still not an ideal duo.
The Cleric part of either duo forms a fine backbone for building larger groups and for getting guild invites, but as a pure duo partner it isn't so optimal a choice as a Shaman would've been. You probably already know that but I figured I'd mention it all the same.
Comparing the two classes in terms of relative power at various levels, I'd say the Paladin is at its best at mid levels, particularly the 30's and 40's. The Shadow Knight seems to come into its own at very high levels, 50+ and especially 55+. I enjoy Paladins as alts from 10 through to into the 40's, but I wouldn't care to level another Shadow Knight...just feels too weak until 50+. At 60 I consider the Shadow Knight generally the better class for typical conditions on P1999, but getting to 60 is a very long road, the majority of hybrids don't make it, and the Paladin feels stronger for much of the leveling process.
Danth
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