Paladin: Erudite or High Elf

[Vertiggo]

With velious around the corner. Steelsilk armor is solid pally gear. Also crustacean will be everywhere so strength and stamina won't be a problem

[Kennie]

Dwarf. No contest.

[Kevynne]

high elf best starting wisdom and also better melee stats than black people

[Salaryman]

erudites make the best paladins but you must deal with racism

[Tuljin]

If between Erudite and High Elf, Erudite is the better choice. Both races have low dex and after the Erudite +5 AGI both end up with 90 STA after point allocation and Eru has 5 more str than High Elf.

Mana pool is of little consequence for Paladin so the Wis on the High Elf isn't that great of a benefit. The high Charisma on High Elf is a great benefit, but 80 charisma base on Erudite really is quite good. If you really get into Paladin you'll find yourself Calming often and its even good idea to carry some charisma gear around.

Plus Erudite paladins are generally badass even if they are a little "gimp." I rolled a Dwarf mainly because I wanted a short tank, they just happen to also have the "best" stats and it kinda sux they're the min/max. They have very low charisma and I've done a ton of successful Calming with CHA gear on despite the low stats. The 25 or 35 extra charisma is significant and it makes a difference.

At the end of the day Paladin is less about stats and DPS and way more about knowing how to pull, , Calm, CC, turn mobs, heal, stun, interrupt casters, and how to be a versatile and effective. If I didn't go Dwarf I would have gone Erudite.

[pharmakos]

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

Mana pool is of little consequence for Paladin

that's not true. for a paladin, a larger mana pool is effectively a larger HP pool. it doesn't matter as much for most groups, but in oddball groups or when soloing having a large mana pool is important for a paladin.

[kaev]

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

that's not true. for a paladin, a larger mana pool is effectively a larger HP pool. it doesn't matter as much for most groups, but in oddball groups or when soloing having a large mana pool is important for a paladin.

Extra mana will hardly ever matter.

Extra mana may provide some benefit if shit goes sideways when you're at/near full mana, but that doesn't come up often as you just don't go around breaking camps with groups that are on the ragged edge of fail all that often. Extra mana may be of some benefit if you're at a camp with so much downtime that you sit around doing nothing most of the time, but choosing race for a tank based on the notion of sitting at some lootcamp all day twiddling your thumbs seems like a doubtful path to me.

Half-elf has very poor wis, and I assure you that it was NOT the mana limitation that made soloing my Half-elf paladin suck. Rather it's the "solo"+"paladin" part that sucks. A deeper mana pool would not have averted any deaths nor increased the glacial XP pace.

[Raev]

I can just see Xoquil sitting there, thinking "oh no, I might be mistaken for a min-maxer, maybe if I make sure not to get an epic . . ."

heheheh [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[williestargell]

Extra mana will hardly ever matter

I completely and totally disagree with this statement. Mana pool is very important to a paladin.

1) Soloing at low-mid level. You are going to be soloing primarily undead, and a good portion of the damage you deal them is from nukes. You are going to be self-healing. Standing toe-to-toe with undead is going to eat mana and if you want to clear a 3-4 mob camp on one mana pool you need it to be large (then sit and med while you wait for the 7 minute respawn. The main reason people say that paladins can't solo is because their paladins have no mana pool.

2) Grouping - even at mid-level group members ask for buffs. If your healer is a shaman or druid especially. Paladins are usually tanking and can't sit down to regen so they need a big pool to cast those occasional buffs and keep casting for agro. They are also going to spot heal.

3) Raiding - In kunark at high level paladins are just as good a healer as a druid (better even with LoH). They should be casting heals on raids. They will probably be asked for symbol by people that clerics don't want to waste mana on. In velious they have their own unique buff that stacks and everyone will want.

The high elf wisdom so far outstrips the other paladin races that they are the min/max choice imo. Moreso even in velious.

[Monty405]

As usual, take whatever you think looks best. After all you will be looking at him or her for hours.