Paladins...is it as bad as they say?

[Bolty]

However, I read/gain information on the paladin class only to find people who gripe/whine about the class almost everywhere I go.[right][snapback]84179[/snapback][/right]

Well, remember that this is subjective. Go to the Blizzard forums for any class and you will see tons of whining and complaining.

Warlocks because the class remains ridiculously buggy, and the "uberpets" are teh suck.
Priests because the holy tree is so out of whack, because spirit isn't so great as a primary stat, and because they die in seconds in any group PvP.
Mages because itemization at the end game really supports melee at the moment more than casters, their frost effects just got nerfed, and that sheep bug.
Shamans because...well, they're morons. But I'm sure they have something broken somewhere. :)
Rogues because they really are the "easy mode" of leveling 1-60 along with PvP, and thus there are 10 billion of them and they can't get groups.
Hunters because of pet issues and a similar problem as rogues.
Warriors because ...uh, what do warriors complain about? They just got some lovin.
Druids because, being a jack of all trades, they are master of none and get relegated to healing much of the time.

...and Paladins because the role they thought they'd have when they created their characters turned out to be very different from their end-game role.

Paladins are beaten out in the tanking department by warriors, a class better designed to hold aggro and mitigate damage. But I think many people who rolled Paladins expected to be the "big guy" of a group, the invincible uber-tank who can self-heal and take a huge beating. In reality, they are backup healers, buffers, and main assists.

Add to that a simplified combat system that is so much less interactive than every other class, and you get some boredom brought into it. One of the reasons I always prefer casters in these games (Diablo, WoW, just about any RPG) is because they tend to be more complex - more choices to make in every fight. Take Diablo 1's warrior vs sorceror - the warrior's typical combat move is to walk up to a mob and click on it repeatedly until it dies, while a sorceror has to worry about mana, positioning to keep away from mobs, what spells to use, how to use each spell most effectively since they work in many different ways, etc. Blizzard did a great job making melee classes in WoW just as interesting to play as casters with the combat systems in place for rogues and warriors, but seemed to come up a bit short with the Paladin. Gameplay is just too...simple with them.

Group play with a Paladin gets a bit better, since they have more to keep track of - but ye gods, solo play on a Pally is just fall-asleep-inducing click-a-button-and-wait gameplay.

The best satisfaction with Paladins is soloing elites and laughing at them, because Paladins are so invincible. Sure, it may take 2 minutes to kill the mob, but they end the fight with full health...

Anyhow, this is from someone who's played every class to at least 20, but hasn't taken a Paladin to high levels, so take that with a grain of salt.

-Bolty