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

[JustAGuy]

I'll quote Bolty, because he summed it up pretty well.

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...
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That's a pretty accurate remark. Group play is a bit better than solo play, and solo play boils down to "Click... Wait... Click... Wait... Hey, seal of command triggered, that was nice... Wait..."

Party play is better; the fun comes from how far you are willing to go to keep your party-mates alive. Blessing of Protection on mages, blessing of kings/might/wisdom/salvation etc for whomever needs it, and heals and cleansing for those who need it. Heals and cleansing are not just for when a priest isn't around, either. My heals are low aggro, so I can toss a huge heal (with Divine Favor, it critically heals) at the warrior, saving the primary healer the aggro and mana. And, I fear not a polymorph (I use my insignia to get out of it, then cleanse all others).

My Paladin is 59 at the moment, and if these server problems would finally end I'd be able to cap him. He was 58, and I did a quest in Winterspring that called for me to kill an elite boss. Of course, he had friends. He was a 59 elite furbolg with a 57 shaman and 57 warrior type guarding him. I was able to solo them all, with not much of a problem. I used every skill in the repitoire to do it, but it was doable and I was never in any real danger of dying. I had a hearty laugh standing over their corpse pile.

Still, being practically invulnerable is balanced by horrible DPS. I've mentioned in another thread that a Battlegrounds Paladin is basically this: heal/cleanse bot, one stun gunner. That's pretty much it. Being practically invulnerable means you don't die a lot, but it's pretty much luck if you get can kill with any quickness. Seal of Command + Crit = I'm doing about 1000 damage in one swing, but that's VERY rare. Against level 60 players, crit'ing isn't frequent, despite my talents. Seal of Command doesn't trigger very often either, and I'm using the Ice Barbed Spear (the Alterac Valley reward spear for killing Korak) so it's a nice slow weapon.

Tal said it right; when I get in a fight, I just hope the random number generator likes me.

If you're looking for DPS, this is not your class. A very weak AoE, and no direct damage skills, i.e. click this button to inflict x amount of damage. Everything is, "Click for a roll... Hit? Miss?". In PvP, this is awful. In PvE, it's tolerable, since the A.I. is very predictable. It just takes a while. The redeeming thing is party play. Auras, buffs, seals and survivability (and ability to resurrect) make him fun for party play. Just don't let anyone convince you that you can be the primary tank.