I wasn't really sure where to post this but i wanted to post something about my class and why i enjoy playing a Paladin. So first off I've played a paladin since Oct 9 1999. I actually choose the class because One day I was in Crushbone on my wizard and saw a player seriously kicking some butt. Killing Orcs left and right attacking, buffing and healing like it was his job ... he stopped a freaking Emperor Crush train dead in its tracks and saved everyone the annoying corpse run that would have followed. So in seeing this I made a choice and said to myself I'm going to learn how to play like that some day. So I logged out of my wizard and went to create a new character, I didn't know what his class was just that he used plate armor and had a shield and mace and he was a high elf. So I went to select a race, highelf and found 2 plate classes, Paladin and Cleric. I choose a paladin created my character give him incredibly incorrect stats (Like most of us did back in the day) and there we had it. A High Elf Paladin level 1 tweeked with some fine steel and bronze one bad mofo. Well a week later i came to find out that the person i saw in crushbone that day was actually a cleric and he came to be the guild leader of the first raiding guild i joined. Now when i started out playing my pally i had no idea what to do. So i did what most of us would did around that time which was farm orc belts and lego shoulders to help level up real quick. Shorty after creating him i also came to find out that paladins were hard and not many liked grouping with them so i changed my focus on trying to always group to helping lower level players with quests and leveling. It was funny to me i always associated paladins with chivalry and those who are hero's and in a sense i ended up playing that role in a way. I was helping players in need not looking for anything in return and just having fun with my class. In doing this i ended up making friends with all the different classes and learned how to play a roll that was needed for me at the time. 2 man teams were my big game. Paladin and Wizard, Paladin and Druid, Paladin and Cleric, Paladin and Mage, Paladin and Bard, Paladin and Enchanter, Paladin and Shaman, Paladin and Rogue, Paladin and Monk, Paladin and Ranger, Paladin and Necro, but never paladins and Shadow Knight they were the bad guys. In all this time i keep to understand how i fit in with all the other classes. Whether i would tank, getto mez, pull with pacify if i could, blind for kiting, spoke for kiting and heal some what. I traveled from Faydwer to Odus and back. Stopping at all the spots and truly learning how to play a paladin, i would sneak in to bad guy city's, explore areas i had never been before and had a lot of fun doing it and in my adventures i meet a ton of people. I had a great reputation and was always someone who would help with anything. And the best part is that people knew if they asked for my help we would accomplish our mission. So with that this is how i play a paladin. I look for what i can offer and what needs to be done and i do that ... no more no less. And to me that is how Paladins should be played. Anyway if you have stories like this please feel free to write them i would love to hear other stories. Zebarathe of E'Ci
Thanks for sharing your story Zebarathe, very paladin like. Wow at the lego pads, I remember doing everything I could to make room for those while having extremely limited bag space back then. The first server I ever played on, Prexus, had some extremely good paladins. In the early days, there were two I would always run into that would make me think, ok, I think I really want to make a paladin now! Chronnos was one of the paladins(later found out he was part of the EQ Dev team) and Cove was the other. Seeing them in action with weapons like Soulfire and Ghoulbane I thought was very paladin like, in addition to the cool factor of seeing characters running around with swords on fire for first time. One day, my group and I were sitting in the commonlands tunnel which was where trades and auctions occured. We heard that whoever could kill a paladin in a duel, would get 15k plat(I can't recall who the paladin was, but it was one of above two). My husband was bragging in group that he was about to have a ton of extra platinum for us. We all were certain he's going to win, we even took off some of our items so he would have the very best he could in some slots! Fast forward, my husband is slain and we're all shocked. My paladin was made shortly after
Great story. I had something similar with my time as a paladin. My main was a mage and I always liked paladins so I rolled one as an alt. My mage had a steady group of an enchanter, a necro, druid, warrior, and bard. My paladin fit right in as an off-tank/off-healer. Having more free time than the rest of the people in my play group I went and learned to navigate all the zones and acted as a travel guide. I'd walk newbies around the world and protect them through dangerous zones on both of my characters. I got to know so many people this way who I would go on to group with over the years, until they or I left EQ. It was a lot more personal and rewarding to me than "10pp for port!"
Neat story, thanks for sharing it. I also started out as wizard, high elf too back when Shadows of Luclin had just came out, or just before it I don't remember. I did have to use the old graphics, so it was probably before. Yes I remember those Crushbone days, I befriended a cleric and I still remember her name. I stayed on my wizard till 65 though; I loved to break stuff those days. I remember being extremely jealous of necromancers and their kiting abilities. I remember the first time I bought the plane of hate port and the adrenaline pump I experienced the first time I ported up there. Unfortunately I couldn't get any of my friends to go up there with me. It was not until much later when the guildleader who happened to be a ranger was looking for that one rare epic piece drop, corrupted shatterstone or something, that I got to go up there. Paladins are definitely cool, get them a great 2 hander late in the game and they are menacing and can do the job of two toons honestly.
