Paladins are similar to Bards and Enchanters in that they have the right tools to cover up other players' mistakes. They do this with their very strong CC in the form of roots and stuns. But at the same time, unlike Bards and Enchanters, they can also heal. Which means they can save your ass when you're one second from taking a dirt nap. Clerics theoretically have the same toolkit, but you can't really play a Cleric aggressively enough to take advantage of all those spells. The Paladin, in contrast, by virtue of being unencumbered with the duty of primary healing, is empowered to use those other nice Cleric spells (stun, root, blind, soothe) much more aggressively. Basically, a good Paladin should be able to take his entire group up a notch. He can turn a mediocre group into a good one, and a good group into a great one, and in a great group a Paladin tank will almost completely trivialize all groupable content. You have instant aggro, stunlocking, rooting, single pulling with soothe, healing, an instant emergency heal, an invuln and a rez. Seriously, with that toolbox at your disposal you can pretty much group with five blind monkeys and still somehow find a way to hold the group together.
Another nice perk of Paladins that I haven't seen mentioned yet is the humble Deepwater Bracer. It's a really amazing item in the right situation. Between it and your normally casted stun you can pretty much totally lock down casters. When I was leveling my Paladin on Red awhile back I was in the low 50s and still wearing mostly Bronze, but managed to snag a Deepwater Bracer. Because of that one item I was able to successfully tank in Chardok for a severely undergeared group. That would literally have been impossible with any other tank because of the constant nuking from all the casters. I mean, it's a 4 second stun with a 6 second cast. You can literally just spam it and the mob is stunlocked 2/3 of the time it's in camp. That's insane, especially in a place like Chardok where you're otherwise getting hit with Ice Comets and gravity fluxes all the time.
And of course, the Deepwater Helm. Mana-free heal something like 700 hp per minute. Not as useful in a full group situation but absolutely amazing in duos/trios, especially when paired with a Shaman or Necro, or when duoing with another melee.
The DW armor set as a whole is a really nice set as far as its clickies go. Definitely one of the top Kunark armor sets, with every piece besides the legs being very useful.
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