In recent years, I've mained a cleric and a wizard. I'm back to my first love, a shaman. But I have been experimenting with both paladin and SK, to add to my ability to do things on my own once Gates of Discord unlocks, and relaxed truebox kicks in. But I've found that the old school advice of make one of each and figure out what works bets for you, still holds true. Go to the test server from the launchpad. Roll one of each, check the auto-grant AA button, and then take advantage of the accelerated XP rate. My personal observations, until level 51, SK has the clear advantage. They have access to a lot of their spell lines and decent DPS early on. Until paladins get combat innate buffs that affect undead and a decent amount of AAs, they will be at a disadvantage when comparing the two classes. But as a wisecracking combat ace pilot once said, "This is where the fun begins." Each class starts to become more powerful, each in their own right. It all boils down to play style, as well as other factors. Are you part of a static group of friends that meets regularly to play, and each person has chosen a class for group synergy? Are you boxing, and looking to put the best tank for the job and team? You can look at all the good advice given before my comment, but really only you can decide which class is best for you. I trust that you'll make the right decision.
Basically you are right, but I think that the devs do just not have the time for testing and balancing classes properly, and they always only balance things for the top end instead of also taking a view to the lower levels which are important for TLP servers, where half of the player crowd is. Class balance got promised but it has just not happened yet and I think that it never will happen as it is way to complicated and time consuming. All the devs can do is applying plasters, like they did in the last 20 years.
Cool story. Have fun on old raids. BTW, try looking at your rune proc 1her and learn about how it works.
Where is the lie? SK threat is better in almost all cases. Paladin threat is fine tho. SKs self heal better, which is hilarious. The biggest tanking thing Paladins have is that splash gets them on the hatelist of everything, which means rune procs and valiant and other heals can generate threat on stuff outside of LOS/range of normal threat.
This all depends on what kind of expansion gets released and what kind of situation you have to deal with the named mob. If there is any challenge at all, then absolutely no chance at tanking, healing and dps'ing a named mob with a rogue merc. --------------------- On a different subject, in my opinion, spot healing is a true art form if done correctly. It really is the paladin's hidden gem which the SKs can't compare. Unfortunately, the vast majority of paladins don't do it or are too concerned about the incorrect things like recast time or over-healing their group. Additionally it's a role that has no parse to compare, no gina trigger to tell a person they were kept from dying, and ultimately very little thanks or acknowledgement because 95% of players don't know it happens or how frequently it's done.
This. Should you really even be trying to compare tank classes with your limited experience? Playing a paladin to 104, war to 114, and just now getting your SK to 120 doesn't project a knowledge or depth of any tank class. I can't even remember what expansion took the level cap to 105 or how many years ago it was.
VoA expansion was a very good challenge for the group game. Every named mob had an ability which made them considerably harder then regular trash xp mobs. Most of those abilities had AE damage which could kill mercs and that forced a lot of people into grouping at least with a couple live people. RoS was fun and had a few challenges. Not every named was hard, but some would crush groups if they didn't know or prepare for the named mob abilities. I'm sure many of us died a few times to even select tier 1 named mobs (cockatrice stuns, succulent reverse DS, vampire drunk and aerial bombardment drakes). There have been other named mobs or expansions which present challenges. But not on a consistent basis. Xolok the Blind in Valley of King Xorbb (Rain of fear) will still kill random people at lvl 120 if they don't prepare for him correctly. NoS wasn't a challenge. Not for named mobs or for group missions. ToL had Shadow Valley and Basilica which had difficult names while people were still working from 116 to 120 and maxing AAs. Some others required pulling or CC, so the expansion was respectable when it was released and became easier towards the end. CoV had difficult group missions which required the groups to follow a game plan especially if you wanted to get the achievements.
Limited experience? I've played all three classes prior to my return. And at 103 you get your Harmonious spell line that just continues every expansion. Nothing changes from that point on. It's been rinse and repeat since level 100. If something were to change between in the way aggro worked, or aggro tools in the last 5 expansions, that would be a different story. But it hasn't. Same tools, just upgraded names and values. Limited experience would be entirely solo/molo or strictly single target. Which I never restricted myself to with any of the tank classes. They've mostly been grouped up (and not boxed). And as I've mentioned earlier in this thread (i believe it was this one), I've been able to lock in 2-3 on the pull without the use of AoE threat abilities (on the paladin). And grouping and leveling from 85-120 without being power leveled with all 3 tanks should suffice for "experience". The only thing I do not have experience in, is competing against other tanks (because I do not raid on live). But as mentioned: But that's not really the topic we're discussing. It's just aggro in general and how paladins "cannot" do it. Which is obviously false. None of the tanks have any issues with AoE threat in a group environment regardless of who's in the group burning. Aggro compared to the other tanks is another matter. And unless there's another tank in your group, then the discussion is null and void because I'm not fighting another tank for aggro. I'm competing against DPS...and to that, there is no competition.
