Curious why is paladin's the least played class?

[Nixtar]

Paladins are made to group. Most people prefer twinking the shit out of their character and sail through the levels. In this regard there is no competition, SKs have way more utility and tools to survive alone. It is also much easier to navigate the world(invis, FD) as a SK.

In terms of the group tank though, Paladins are better than SKs. When things get messy, the Paladin heals, roots, and locks down mobs while a SK helplessly watches people die and FDs and lies in wait for the rest to come back. As for pulling, if you got a decent amount of charisma you can pull with about the same(or greater) chance of success as a SKs FD pulling.

Oh, and most people rather be the dark brooding anime villain than the shiny hero.

[fadetree]

As a Ranger, I can relate. I really like having a knight group tank, though, and Paladins maybe a bit more than SK's. I am not too fond of Wars for grind tanks.

[khandman]

Half-elf Paladin here.

So far so good [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[Shift]

thanks all to whom responded and left some opinions and knowledge on the table.

I definitely aware of paladins are the best tank for grouping, but

what about raids I don't see many paladins tanking raid bosses or end game content it's always warriors ;(

[Tasslehofp99]

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

what about raids I don't see many paladins tanking raid bosses or end game content it's always warriors ;(

This is because Paladins simply don't have the HP/AC that warriors have, nor the discipline abilities warriors get. The raid bosses at end game hit way too hard for a paladin.

My guild recently had the best geared paladin on the server (atleast I think?) attempt to tank Vulak'aerr in ToV. He literally couldn't survive more than one or two rounds of melee.

[Shift]

Originally Posted by Tasslehofp99 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

This is because Paladins simply don't have the HP/AC that warriors have, nor the discipline abilities warriors get. The raid bosses at end game hit way too hard for a paladin.

My guild recently had the best geared paladin on the server (atleast I think?) attempt to tank Vulak'aerr in ToV. He literally couldn't survive more than one or two rounds of melee.

Oh man that's sucks ;( so it's pretty much my paladin is a good off tank for raids. They are good to group with maybe i need to rethink on my main character then?

so it narrows it down to my warrior armorsmith or my monk kheen.

[tizznyres]

What I find ironic and comical is that during beta, and on very early live EQ, Paladins were wholly considered to be the "OP" class by many, for reasons you named and several others.

It is no secret that Paladins were confirmed to have an "epic" flaming sword from very, very early on, and despite the fact that the original "epic" version of quest was never completed, it still gave most players the image that Paladins were given an unfair advantage.

Back then, nobody (or very very few people) knew about hybrid penalties, and before extreme min-maxing and years of gear farming / raid experience, players actually VALUED the perks that Paladins offer.

Of course, on P99 with a large playerbase of min-maxers and raiders, most of which have had literal years to practice and gear up, it's pretty apparent why they aren't popular -- at least in Kunark / Velious era. I didn't get much chance to play P99 pre-Kunark, but pre-Fungi Paladins would also be much more appealing for new players, especially roleplayers / soloers.

[Danth]

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

Oh man that's sucks ;( so it's pretty much my paladin is a good off tank for raids. They are good to group with maybe i need to rethink on my main character then?

Paladins can and do main tank lower-end raids perfectly fine. This includes the clears of Fear, Hate, most of Growth, most of Sky, Kael arena, and all the other things lower-end guilds tend to do. It's at the middle tier where the hybrids start to run into problems: hybrids are so-so for Halls of Testing trash, and aren't going to be used for progression Derakor the Vindicator kills or things like that. Moving on, hybrids have little place or purpose at the high end. It wouldn't hurt to level your Monk or Warrior so you have them if you eventually need them, but for where your guild is today your Paladin should serve well.

I have two 50+ characters on P1999, one of which is 60. That's my namesake Paladin (now 54) and my Shadow Knight (60). Both characters satisfactorily perform the jobs I ask of them, and I'm not inclined to make anything else. I do not consider either of them "useless," however as a player I have zero interest in the high-end portion of the game. Rather, I happen to most enjoy the parts of the game where hybrids fare well.

In response to the person who compared Paladin popularity to that of Shadow Knights: Again, the SK is itself a rather unpopular class. Indeed, the populations of all three hybrid types (Paladin, Ranger, Shadow Knight) combined sometimes falls short of that of some of the individual most-played classes..

Danth

[Danth]

As an additional note, Paladins specifically do encounter a few unique problems during the Velious era, partly explaining their relative lack of popularity even versus other hybrids as well as why I switched classes some years back. Paladins pull with the Lull spell line, and as tanks much of their utility stems from their root spells (Enstill, mainly) and stun spells. Problem is, at very high levels in Velious none of those spells work very well (due to high resist rates) or at all (many Giants and all level 55+ creatures are outright stun immune). Paladins, while capable of acting as tanks for such content, are more suited to lower-level stuff than those sorts of areas. On top of that there's not much undead in Velious either, largely depriving Paladins of their modest utility in that area. There are quite a few areas in Velious where Paladins do well, but as a whole the expansion sort of plays away from the class's strengths.

Danth

[Raev]

Paladins don't get Defensive Discipline, which cuts the damage interval of a NPC in half. This reduces not only the raw amount of damage but also its variance, making it perfect for complete heal chains that must be timed to the worst case.

Because I am a massive nerd, I wrote a little tank simulator that picks the longest CH chain timing that gives a <1% chance of dying. Using parsed values for Derakor's max hit rate, attacks per round, etc, it recommends a 7s chain while Defensive and a 3s chain in Paladin mode. This means that a warrior requires less than half as many clerics! Add in the ability to pick a large race that caps stamina easily, the warrior class bonuses for HP and defensive skills, and the increased HP/AC on HOT armor and this might stretch to one third as many clerics.