What a Paladin to do?

[Saxywoo]

After hearing that they pretty much killed the Paladin compared to what they were before, I thought that I would give it a try. I hadn't played one before, so I wasn't locked into a set way or mentality on how to play one. And thus, SaxyCoo was born. In character creation, I decided to go with the good old-fashioned look, tracing my roots back in time. If you seem me, I’ll very closely resemble my old tank mage from the original Diablo, also named SaxyCoo, down to the closest I could get with skin color as well. Standing there, with his mace and shield, ready to pound on anything that comes his way.

I first found it rather unsettling how few Paladins there were. I don’t know if it’s because I had gotten the patch downloaded early enough, or if the rumor was true that nobody wanted to play it because it got nerffed. There were quite a few people over in the ‘Din newbie area, but for the most part, they were all human priests.

I have found that the Paladin has a terrible defense, and that a monster my same level could easily take my health down halfway. The one good thing that can come from that is that I will become good at asking Holy Light (the healing ability). Now granted, I was stuck with the beginning equipment, which included a two handed mace. But to complete the look of my very much loved SaxyCoo from the days of old, (not to mention my experience crunch in D1), I had to switch to the mace and shield configuration. My defense was doing a little better, to where I could take on a monster a level higher than I was, but I would sometimes have to heal myself in the middle of the fight.

Though I am young (level 5), and I’ve played warriors in the past two pushes, I’ve found that the only halfway decent attacking ability is the Holy Strike, which may or may not help you. Holy Strike will add X to Y damage to your attack, unlike the fixed amount that is added by the warrior’s ability Strike.

You have the auras, which makes it helpful, since when you’re playing solo, you can take advantage of your own aura. That helped, though I was still getting pounded on in a mine in the newbie area. One thing that I think is interesting though is that you really do need to watch what you do with the ‘Din since you can’t just charge into battle with your mace swinging madly. Pulling is extremely important with the ‘Din now. I remember seeing ‘Dins in other pushes powering through mobs with no problem at all, taking on 2 and sometimes 3 monsters at a time. At least at this point in time, doing that for me right now would mean I’d be performing the rite of the unburied dead, destined to roam the lands.

I like the ‘Din, however. It’s a nice class, or so I think so far. I have noticed though that compared to a warrior, it’s got quite a few disadvantages. Those disadvantages definitely keep a ‘Din from being the “Tank” in a party, which puts it into a halfway point of being an attack and supporting party member. I can see that if there is a warrior in the party, you’re major point would be to heal, even if there is a priest in the party as well, and any additional damage you can dole out would be helpful, though chances are that it’s not going to be significant.

Now, as I’ve said before, I haven’t played the ‘Din before, which means that I don’t know how to play it. I do, however, also wonder that if some of you that have plated the ‘Din were to give me pointers, how effective they would be. I think that it would be interesting to collaborate with another ‘Din, who has played a ‘Din before, so we can compare notes, and see what has really changed, not only with being nerffed, but how that has effected how one should play. I would love to hear how the play styles have changed.

So the call is now officially open. Anyone want to compare notes? If so, PM me, and we’ll get to work on it.

-SaxyCorp

SaxyDoo (Night Elf Warrior – Level 13)
SaxyMoo (Tauran Warrior – Level 16)
SaxyCoo (Human Paladin – Level 5)

[JustAGuy]

I'm working on my third Paladin of the beta. He's level 5 (just started after the new download) and game play is the same. Unfortunately, they moved the might seal to an aura (along with others as well). This makes multi-paladin teams easier to manage, but a solo Paladin gets less benefit from his skills (can't buff his attack damage because it's an aura now).

The difference between Paladin play before and after the patch is tankability. Without as much defense, the Pally takes more damage, and as you mentioned, he can't take 3 mobs like he did before. It's a nerf, plain and simple. It's a nerf of the solo-paladin more than anything. I'm interested to see how he fares later in life.

I'm wondering if the Paladin was indeed overpowered before, and if this nerf was justified. For party play, sure, the Paladin is still useful, but for a guy who solos, like I do, it's not as easy as it was. Not to say that it was really easy before, but it sure isn't easy now.

[dabea93]

I would think pallys are everywhere. But I play B.Net so I may be wrong, But pallys are quite strong with the right gear. :ph34r: Add Hammerdins. I see many. Many properly built melee pallys are very good too.

[dabea93]

Wrong forum sorry. Wow.

[JustAGuy]

A-hah! I've played my Paladin up to level 12 now, and he's quite powerful. Moreso than before, actually.

I'm going to have to take back what I said about it being a nerf, and reserve judgement at this time. So far, they've actually improved him; it was a give a little take a little situation before. Crusader Strike is now critical to a Paladin's success, and I think the dev. team knows it.

Crusader Strike before was pretty useless, it was considered by the engine to be an attack, so you either did Holy Strike, Regular Attack or Crusader Strike. With a slow weapon, it was practically useless. By the time you hit enough times for it to be moderately useful, the creature was already dead. Either that, or you'd be fighting something where the added damage from Crusader Strike was necessary to kill the beast, and when it comes time to Holy Strike him, you'd miss because of level dispairity. You'd miss, or you'd have missed many crusader strikes, leaving your Holy Strike doing less than optimal damage. Or, you'd just die because you were focusing on Crusader Strikes instead of Holy Strikes, and by that time, the higher mob just slapped you up into oblivion. The slower the weapon, the more frustrating a miss was with Crusader Strike.

Crusader Strike now is an instant cast attack. Even with massive mallets and two-handed swords, he swings right away. This is extremely important. It allows a Paladin to sacrifice a quick sword/mace & shield combo for a huge damage two hander, and partially ignore the damage per second/slow swinging aspect of the weapon. The bigger the damage the weapon does, the better. The Paladin can throw in quick Crusader Strikes in between the attack cooldown period. Granted, the damage Crusader Strike does by itself is negligable, but the number of attacks is impressive. You can throw in about three Crusader Strikes, each at about 8 damage, before your regular attack kicks in. That's 24 damage inbetween the regular attacks. Considering I do about 30-35 damage with my big mallet, that's a nice "free" bit of damage Crusader Strike affords. Add to it the 30 damage at max Crusader Strike gives, when Holy Strike connects, I'm looking at over 65 damage (at level 12, not bad says me).

The duration of Crusader Strike has been increased as well, so it's likely the mob would be affected for the duration of the battle.

The current strategy I'm employing has me taking on and taking out two or three mobs (three lower levels, two even level); crusader strike to start, and keep doing it until mana is about half, or the added damage is up to 30, then holy strike, then stun, then holy strike. That combination usually kills most even level mobs. Using the stun and seal of protection and divine favour, along with holy light, makes my Paladin extremely survivable and tankable. The only problem right now is mana. At level 12, he sucks mana down like there's no tomorrow. Since Crusader Strike is instant cast, throwing down 4 or 5 in a row can leave you with very little means to heal yourself or actually execute that Holy Strike.

Holy Damage and de-buffs now work on those Mechanical Watchers; thank god, since my level 12 Paladin wouldn't be able to kill many of them without Crusader Strike adding so much damage.

So in the patch, the Paladin lost buffs, lost hit points, mana and defense, but in turn got a very strong ability in the Crusader Strike/Holy Strike combo. He also got Seal of Protection earlier, effectively giving him two escape methods from any battle (divine favour is the other). I like playing this 'din more than the others I played!

[Saxywoo]

Is that the extent of how your playing style has changed? Or are there other things as well that have changed?

[JustAGuy]

My play style is, for the most part, the same. It's just a little different... Overall, the Paladin appears to be improved; in a group, I can gather aggro by attacking AND healing, and solo I can handle any monster 1 on 1 (I took out that elite Gnoll solo without any problems, despite me being level 11 and him 12+(11+?)) and 2 to 3 lower level mobs at once.

It was a bit more time consuming before to kill solo since I had to wait for the crusader strikes to hit or miss all according to the speed of the weapon. There's no more emphasis on a fast weapon, since Crusader Strike can get in attacks between cool downs. My old play style was to use a very fast weapon, and load up on crusader strikes quickly, letting other Paladins lay the hurt with a big mallet. Holy Strike was usually my finisher, and as I mentioned before, if I was fighting a higher level mob, a lot of times I would miss the finishing blow. Now, since there's no speed problem, I can load up on crusader strikes inbetween the natural attack cooldown period with a slow weapon, then hit him with the Holy Strike on schedule. Also, if the holy strike doesn't finish them, and they run, I don't have to wait X seconds to get that regular attack in, I can toss a quick crusader strike in to try and catch him.

I was playing yesterday with another Paladin of equal level, and we just decimated the quests. Unfortunately, I was in the experience "penalty" state of "tired" (It really does feel like a penatly) so I didn't get as much exp from kills as I would have liked. We were weilding the same weapon, and doing insane damage (max damage I did was 208 from a crit HS with +30 damage from CS, he did 216 -- these are level 12 Paladins here); we both split the load of Crusader Strikes being administered, and the Holy Strikes we would land dispatched enemies like it was going out of style. We blew through the quests in no-time; the two of us, killing one to three monsters two and three levels above us, or groups of 3 to 5 of monsters equal or lower level. It wasn't even fair, because if one of us happened to draw more aggro, the other guy would heal him and "Seal of Protection" him, or "Lay On Hands", or whatever was required. We only died when our Fist of Justice, Seal of Protection, Divine Favour, and Lay On Hands were recharging all at once and monsters just happened to spawn on top of us (which happened a few times). We were damn Marathon Men I tells ya!