Hybrids Classic through PoP

a well played paladin is more than capable of filling the healer role and tank role at the same time in most cases from classic to PoP, and most especially starting in luclin where it starts to be trivial to stun lock mobs. frees up a group slot for another pure dps class.

I havent played a sk yet, prolly on the next server, but i find it hard to believe their agro is significantly better than a paladin. I had 0 trouble keeping agro any time i wanted it short of HT over SKs. even if it is, a paladins agro is more than sufficient for any group to not have to worry about ripping agro, so its pretty moot

I think paladin snap aggro is better until SKs get the Terror line. Even then I'd give the nod to paladins on aggro... slightly. SK, in my opinion, have better utility and that's why I think they are favored over paladins.

While SKs have higher overall DPS, at a huge mana cost that most ogre SKs cannot keep up with till they are heavy Luclin geared and AA'ed, from a groups perspective the SK can only heal himself, while the Paladin can heal everyone, including himself, while also providing symbols in case you don't have a cleric, but did bring a druid.

While SKs can pull themselves with FD, Paladins does Lulls, and both parties would be more interested in having a dedicated puller anyhow so that they could med between pulls. (This remains especially true till Luclin at the very least, as SKs that toy even just a little with their fire dots would be burning tons of mana to do this)

Paladins can also break mezzes better/safer and can build aggro on raids so the enchanters don't get hit. Snap aggro is also better/faster for Paladins to build.

People say they are the best group tanks for one reason only; The SK/Shaman box setup, where the availability of snare along with the SKs tankiness favours that combo.

From a purely threat perspective, there is not even a contest. SKs cannot keep up, even while burning their mana for dps. It doesn't matter if they have their terror buff line or not, it is not even a contest.

This doesn't really change for the lifetime of most TLPs, since the SK AE threat line doesn't happen till after years of playing.

There's some good info here - but there's another thing to consider: acquiring BiS items for each class.

So, after doing the TLP circuit like 5 times, here's what I've learned:

1. Everyone and their sister has a SK main early on. Unless you are a 100% Full-time raider, you likely won't ever get the 41% haste belt in sky or get your epic. Additionally, you will be fighting with probably a dozen others over PoFear armor. Generally speaking, SK-only stuff is also more expensive due to demand (kunark armor / Noct blade / etc.)
2. Tons of people main a ranger in classic so they can try and get the Clicky Haste Cloak. Again, unlesss you are a 100% attendance raider, you'll likely never see this cloak. Most people then main change from ranger to something else until late Velious when they switch back to prepare for the ranger godliness that is in Luclin.
3. No one plays a paladin. Like ever. After 2-3 clears, you'll see all of their gear rotting in the planes. Deepwater BP / legs go for league-minimum DKP on raids. You can have everything even if you are only like a 25% attendance raider.

1. Both Pallies and SKs are amazing tanks. Don't listen to anyone who tells you either sucks. Both have comparable agro generation (that far surpasses warriors) and if played to their maximum potential can hold agro off even the most die-hard dps. Both have their own group utility and are superb tanks in groups and for some raid bosses.

2. As previously stated by other posters, SKs are more offensively oriented and pallies are more defensively oriented. In most TLP settings, people prefer more dps and faster, so SKs suit that approach better but it doesn't mean Paladins aren't great.

3. If you are a solo player, paladin will be tough (as they have lower dps) and I would recommend SK. If you box other chars and have some dps, this matters less and paladins are fantastic. If you exclusively group with other people, again a paladin will be just fine as others will do most of the dps.

4. As per previous poster, there are typically less paladins so class-specific weapons and some armor is easier to come by. With either class you are still competing for plate with other users in most expansions which is typically very expensive relative to other armor types.

As someone who has played a paladin for 2 TLPs (and still currently playing one), roll an SK for group content or raid kiting. Roll a warrior for raid tanking.

This is according my knowledge from classic up to TBS.

SK vs PAL is like an 80/20. 80% of the time, SK is better. SK's have better threat (literally mathematically better). SK threat is also with instant casts as opposed to 1 sec cast stuns which means their threat can be cast while moving. Paladin threat is still better than warriors and there is never really a time when a paladin is going to be competing against an SK for threat, but the fact remains, SKs are faster at threat generation.

Harm Touch is amazing for securing kills. Having a pet for pet pulls and feign death is better than almost anything a paladin gets. Even the SK epic 2.0 dumpsters ours.

People like me that enjoy paladin, find that 20% I referenced earlier and lean so hard on it. Here are some examples;

• Brells.
• We have the best root in the game (at the time of this post).
• Able to keep a full group of dps alive through AEs that hit for around 30-40% of max hp.
• Extremely relevant dps on undead targets
• Stunnable mobs are pretty much free (looking at you Shei and Emp key mobs)
• Lay on Hands will save a raid/group way more often than HT will.
• Mass pulling + keeping aggro + sustaining hp without damage mobs (for PLing)
• Better Epic retelling ornaments.
• Most importantly - Literally no one expects anything from you!

If we get a new TLP I am torn between a Paladin, Monk or Bard for my main/raiding and having random box alts...This thread is selling me on Paladin mainly because I know i'd get Paladin specific gear really cheap...my luck is i'd get into a guild with 15 Paladin mains after having almost none on Agnarr, Coirnav and Mangler.

The majority of Paladin specific gear doesn't exist. Plate classes, as a whole, are often the most competitive on non-weapons. The paladin only weapons, and maybe the knight only weapons will be cheaper than average. But otherwise, you're going against raid-staple, gear dependent classes. If you want cheap gear, go monk. It's basically the opposite in that you'll pay through the nose for top weapons, but you can get dirt cheap visible gear.

This isn't remotely true until Luclin.

I played an SK on Agnarr, first melee I ever leveled over 17 years of EQ at that point, never had troubled holding aggro even with my groups all making me be puller so I never had mana. In fact every group said I was the best tank they grouped with on the server even though I was typically the lowest level in group. This was during Velious. I will admit that until someone told me to just use the lowest darkness spell...I had mana issues.

sks and paladins can both generate more agro than any exp group will ever need. its mostly just a pissing match between those two classes saying "no me" when it comes to "most agro." its largely redundant whichever class has the "most"

Absolutely this... if you're concerned about which knight to pick, dont base it on aggro. They both are more than enough.