Are Paladins really bad?

[Snaggles]

Are ___ really bad? You can fill that blank with "rangers, paladins, and shadow knights" on a raid level. If you're min-maxing then the pure classes put them to shame and they are left with a few buffs to add to the raid party mainly.

If you are looking for some means to solo, fun duos, and awesome grind group contribution they are great classes. For a first class your utility spells can make up for not having the best possible gear. For example...at level 45 you can heal for free with a Deepwater helm and they cost about 400p.

For your first class I'd probably go pure caster. If you can grind a necro or enchanter to 50'ish you will have a boat load of money to start the hybrid off right.

[elwing]

Yep, vindi and harder melee mobs are clearly out of the range of sk/pal... You can rampage at best, but you need to be lucky on the rampage procs...

[Nixtar]

My first character was a Paladin. I could not stand the idea to invest time in a character I don't want to play to gear up a character I want to play.

Started my journey in Qeynos and hunted many beetles. Then gathered a lot of pelts off rabid animals. Did this till lvl16 or 17. Earned me about 400 plat. Got some hp rings, banded, baton of faith. At lvl15 you are able to split with lull, so I did bandits in WK. Lot all the sashes and earn even moar money and kill any rabid animal that roams by (you have cure disease now so rabies won't bother you anymore). You can kill Scarecrows as well if Bandits are busy. Cleanse the UNDEAD!!!!

After that I journeyed to Mistmore (at lvl22) got to lvl30. By this time you should know if the Paladin is for you since you know have your stun, root, and FoL. A toolset which will make you the best snap aggro tank of them all. You can CC, you can save anyone who ends up getting attention, you will not plague chanters/bards with dots, and you can heal (which is useful for getting heal aggro if adds join the fight or after a stun).

Plenty of dungeons out there (especially kunark) house undead. Unrest, Kaesora, CoM, HS, etc.

If you keep at it and end up raiding you should accept you are a support tank. Control adds till enchanters sort them out, save them when charms break, spot heal DPS and the MT when things tense and you have a raid saving ability called Lay Hands. Meanwhile do as much damage as you can and step up if asked to tank trash.

Today I have some more solo friendly characters for a change of pace but the Paladin is the one I keep returning to. Like others have said Paladin (and cleric for that matter) is a social class. So find a party and inspire them with your righteous wrath and purge Norrath of evil! RAWR! (I even have a druid to act as taxi to get people moving :P ).

[trite]

Paladin is alright...it's just their role is extremely limited when raiding. They get a buff that gives people 200hp....that is their most important job. To cast divine strength. They have a few other niche roles , like picking up junk mobs and snap agroe on enchanter charm breaks, super weak dps. But a raid only ever needs one paladin. Honestly I always want 1 paladin on a raid, shadow knight is completely extraneous. Don't NEED any of those.

[24kanthony]

My SK is 9/0 in paladin duels.
Just saying...

[elwing]

@trite never saw the use of a sk in the pull team? That's a great addition to all the mnks... Niche use but don't forget the pet can be really usefull... Easy one way pull, safe and easy train are two of the main use...

[bigjeff100]

You're never going to be the best at P99. So make what you want to play! Choose your favorite race and class and slay! Paladins are not the WORST class, there is no worst class in my eyes.. Paladin's will be super fun to level all the way up to 60!! And you'll get awesome spells!! You'll be a find tank.. Super end game you'll realize you won't be called on as MT anymore, since warriors are better suited for that. But that doesn't mean you can't raid. You just won't be MT like you're used to.. Responsibilities just change. Play a paladin cause nobody else does, that's good enough reason alone! And be even cooler by making that Paladin an Erudite!

[ScruffMacBuff]

Like Atmas said I really like letting the paladins tank HoT. They can hold aggro while casting group heals on the other melee in their group to negate the AoE damage.

[24kanthony]

My guild always has a knight tank the green drakes (slowers) in HoT because they hold the aggro without the white dmg aggro and procs.
A paladin with his LoH, reaper and a soulfire is a super valuable thing to have standing next to the main tank during a big fight.

[jijii]

Are Paladins really bad?

yeah