Are Paladins really bad?

[Naerron]

If i were you i would play both and see which you like the most. Just be mindful that how a character is played in a group setting is much different than in a raid setting.

My 2cp on both classes.

Cleric: This is an essential class to the game. You will not have a hard time finding groups, especially 40+. You are a crucial part of every raid and will always be welcomed to any guild as long as you aren't a total smeagal of a person. None of your spells will own your bank account and you will find it easier than some to make it into those high value loot camps because you are needed most times. Also, your epic is super easy to do or buy.

The cons to a cleric (for some) is that they kind of do one thing, heal. You'll never tank or do DPS in a meaningful way. This singularity makes some people get burnt out, especially since at 39 you get the "complete heal" spell, and will likely be the spell you cast 75% of the time. It takes 10 seconds and cost 400 mana, the very best clerics in the game only get to 4500 mana range.

Paladin: This is a wonderful and dynamic class that is set up to be a tank, which they excel at because of their ability to heal and get instant agro with their spells. But even with that, they are sadly never a choice when it comes to raid tanking due to the amazing mitigation from warrior disciplines that are needed to kill raid targets. They also do not get to choose from the super beefy races like ogre/troll/iksar that have racial benefits that correspond to greater hitpoints or dmg mitigation.

In the end, pallys make amazing group tanks but like all tanks are very gear dependent and they have little use in the end game other than casting divine str on tanks or MTing a HoT raid.

The saving grace of the paladin class would be the release of luclinn and AAs that would allow them to be viable as a MT for a raid target, however, warriors really start to pull ahead too with AAs and itemization of luclinn.