Why do people say SK's do more DPS than Paladins?

[Lune]

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

A lot of people still sleep on this for some reason. A tank who can grab instant agro, root, cast stuns for days, heal, paci pull, emergency LoH, emergency Soulfire CH, spam mana free heals, 90% rez, etc...

Like, are you kidding me? This is without question one of the strongest classes in the game. A good Paladin completely trivializes basically all groupable content, and turns what are typically the most dangerous areas in EQ (densely packed, caster heavy dungeons) into extremely safe environments for their group. There's simply no other class that is capable of carrying a group on his back like a Paladin can. SKs are kinda cool (great pullers, CoS is fun, etc...) but anyone who thinks they are even half the group tank a Paladin is... well, they're smoking something good. They're perfectly capable tanks in the sense that they can reliably hold agro, but beyond that the Paladin absolutely runs away with it in terms of the added utility and safety he brings to the group.

Let's not get carried away. In a realistic day to day group setting you're going to have a cleric that brings most of that utility. Ench is as good if not better at locking down casters, coupled with other utility and top tier dps, and undoubtedly has to be present for paladin to even function without constant medding. Lay hands and soulfire are good group and raid utility and wipe-stoppers, but there aren't enough Lucan's to go around to do it consistently in groups.

Paladins were probably the weakest class pre-Velious. End game velious they are certainly improved, but nowhere near one of the strongest classes in game. Enchanters, clerics, monks, shamans are just in a league of their own.