First off, I'd just like to say thanks for all the information out there. Really useful for returning players like myself who aren't afraid to use search or google for most things. So a big thanks to all the veterans out there. Anyhoo, question time. Returning player like i said, and i decided to say hell with it, and start anew instead of figure out where i had left off with my necro. After some thought and research, i've decided to roll as a paladin. Now im still doing my homework and such, but i do have two questions that i dont think can really be answered by google. First one. From what ive read, leveling to 60-70 should be straight forward with a merc and twink gear. My question is from 70ish onward, are paladins self heals enough to cut it and roll with a caster dps merc, or do we have to get a healer merc and slow our roll? (i mean, moreso.) Just following the train of thought if we can keep ourselves on our feet, the merc can do most of the damage. Fairly certain im not the only one to think of this, but i havent seen the question asked anywhere. Second one. Few different posts ive noticed our job in raids is to help group heal to lighten the load on the healers, help cures, and offtank when needed. How up to date is that info? I only ask because my main was a necro, and for necros every raid is pretty much the same. I only ask these because i dont expect to meet many people leveling up, as i expect 99.9% of everyone to be capped and have thousands of AAs. So, just trying to do a little forward thinking is all. Plan for worst contingency, I.E. - cant find dps that want to group. It would be cool to meet people leveling up, maybe get with a guild so i got people to chat with. But yea.. been looking around and i think settling in might be a bit. Anyway, thanks for all the info veterans, for us returning players.
I am sort of in the same boat, I've had my pally going for a few weeks now, he's at level 90 at the moment. I normally box ranger in with a healer merc and then my pally with wizzy merc. Now that being said, there are times when I don't feel like boxing if I'm just doing something for my pally so I'll just go without my box. I keep the same wizzy merc and have no issues. If you are decently geared there should be no problem just rolling with wizzy merc, if you're gold and have auto grant aas enabled you should have no problem. As far as your second question, I can't really answer. I only did a little raiding with my pally back when level cap was 70-75. Back then I remember my role being off tank/ramp tank. I'm sure that offers little insight seeing as how level cap is now 30 levels higher. Good luck out there!
Been a long time, but from what I recall, I went with a healer merc. For a couple reasons. I didn't have enough AA's invested in the right areas to effectively tank mobs, self heal, and mitigate damage. Also I think when it comes to stuns, there is only 2 that run on separate timers that can be used, so chain stunning really isnt effective until about level 95 i think. as far as healing goes, again that requires alot of AA and higher level healing spells, (burst heals). So youll wanna go with a healer merc, and look for undead camps. I think I was doing Loping Plains, at level 78 or around there, lots of undead camps, and good exp.
Healing is definitely our biggest asset. We can off tank decently on some TDS raids, like arx2 and arx3. Others, not so good. I honestly think they need to improve our mitigation ability slightly, either in the form of a new disciple line, or possibly making improvements to our Armor disc. But, as far as healing goes, we do very well. parsing mid-to mid-high, and even sometimes as high as 3rd for healing. Splashes for area effect cures and healing is huge too, on the longer raids, we can heal for 15 million combined or more. Group heals, AA and discipline instant group healing is extremely valuable. Lots of utility, and expect to be very busy using everything. The more effective you will become as you learn how and what AA's, disciplnes, glyphs to stack and use and more important, the timing on executing those combinations to get the max benefit. Sorry gonna cut it short its late and i am tired. So this is a general overview.
As for the merc question, ill add this. I leveled before auto grant, So i only had around 1500 AA's at level 90, so I was more dependant on healing. its at about level 95, i think that we get "Quickened Stuns" one of our best AA's by far, this cuts the casting time on all stun spells in half, and we also get 3 stun spells that work on seperate timers, so stunning makes it much easier working with a wizzy burning and chain stunning a mob.
