The purpose of this question is not to start a brawl. I've been away from the game for some years. I had a SK that I brought up to level 45. Since I started playing again, I've used a pally and brought him up to 45. I like the pally and forgot what gameplay was like for the SK. They're similar classes on different sides, right? What is the unique gameplay experience/ roles of a SK when compared to a pally. I thought I might just shelve that SK character if there isn't a major difference or advantage in gameplay. Thanks for your insights.
They are two sides of the crusader coin and either can be very good either solo or in groups. They do a lot of damage, single target or aoe, have good defense and can self heal. The SK is a little ahead dps wise, mostly because they life tap while doing damage instead of having to fit in heals between damage attacks, though their abilities tend to be more aggressive anyway. SKs also have feign death which can be very useful to get through what would otherwise be a fatal encounter, and their group escape can be a handy time-saver. My SK is 75 and my pally is 42, so I can't tell you how they compare at end game, but I do have a lot of fun with both. I level-lock a lot and am in no hurry to rush them to cap.
Thanks for your experience. I might shelve the pally and play the SK, since my style is more aggressive/ tank. I think necro also has tainted heals, which I recall to be very cool.
It's really a tossup. Paladins have Lay On Hands, which is a huge heal, and tons of AOE damage. (Although this is a Very Bad Thing when the raid mob charms the tank, who then heals the mob up 100%!!!) There may be some numerical min/max to it, but I think it's more about how you see that toon and how you play it. Of course, I selected a paladin as my primary character back in Ye Dayes When Rocks Were Soft because the class resonated with me, even though at that time they were pretty bad as tanks, mystics could out-damage a paladin, and scouts literally ran circles around us as we plodded along on Stumpy, our 20% run-speed fun-spell horse. So for me, the general lore and idea of "paladinness" counted most. YMMV. (Later I created a Teir'Dal SK, betrayed her when that involved doing it as a low level and dodging owl bears in Nek Forest, played her briefly as a paladin, then betrayed her BACK when Neriak came out. Both have good points)
Sigrdrifa, , Amazing advice. I'm sure you've seen huge changes in the pally class over the years. When I first started playing the game back when rocks were reasonably hard, the class had just been gutted and much ******** abounded. That pretty much colored my selection of the class back then. I personally resonate with the pally schtick, but now I think I have to make a choice since they are so similar to SK. I do love the pally heal ability and tend to fight my health down and them blast a heal to keep swinging. If I get my butt kicked enough with the SK, I'll be migrating back from the dark side pronto.
I have and play both. But the SK is pretty much dedicated to maintenance of self. Where the Pally can, share heals and rez. I mostly use my pally to powerlevel guildies. Lots of aoe's to use when pulling large groups plus heals, a group heal and a rez.
Pally end game is about major survivability, stuff aggro control, some dps, and dem clean rezzes in raids.. Sks keep them selfs alive and do damage and recover from wipes. Pallys generally are good and slowing down and preventing wipes.. Sk's are generally are good at quickly recovering from said wipes.. Most tanks, in raid settings, had fallen to monks as tanks due to strike through immunity... its is starting to come back around though with prestige abilities, kinda. And since both Crusaders can cast on the move, they're even more fun to play!! You will find however that in raid situations, they suffer a lot of duplicate class syndrome... people want multiple scouts, priests, and mages.. and usually 1- 2 tanks per raid. So, thus other classes get preferential treatment unless you are 1 of the 2 they already have. In group settings, it generally means you have not a lot of problems making a group to run content after you find a healer.... crusader + healer, fill in rest, have fun....generally.
It amazes me that people still think Brawlers have Strikethrough Immunity tied to their Defensive stance.
SK's are a ton of fun to level. As a new member to EQ2, I've gotten mine to 72 in a few weeks with minimal playtime. I went to SK because I wanted to play my Iksar SK from EQ1 and it's an awesome class. Great AoE dps for lvling fast, half your powers are regenerating health back to you, great damage mitigation and good threat generation.Very happy with my SK! (Although I might roll a more support class for Raid utility...)
I have rolled a pally and a sk only alts so hardest thing they will do is heroic instance's and personally I prefer the pally
Never said how it was since it has changed a little since GU64-present and also used past tense as quoted. Its vague on purpose since i didn't want to have to look up the patch notes.
I want to ask a question in this thread. My buddy is rapidly closing in on 95 as a Paladin. I wanted to get him going in Heroics as soon as possible and to begin raiding after that. Are both classes viable as tanks or off tanks in Raids? Can a Pally tank the new raids, like AoA or Sleepers if in all Drinal gear? Our tank in Vermin is a very well geared Zerker and I did a lot of raiding with 6th Legion (their MT is an SK) but have not had a single raid let alone a heroic with a Pally tank. Any input on this is most appreciated!
Pally's are considered 1 of the 3 Defensive tanks and as such they should take hits better than the SK or zerker. they are more dependent on agro from the DPSer that they have amends on. Pally's may not be as popular since they are the Defensive Crusader but they are very capable of MTing or OTing. the raid force that i raid with has a Pally MT, i MT on some named and he does most of the rest.
I like playing the paladin. You always hear about Amends but Sigil and Holy Ground are just as good or maybe better. My biggest complaint is how terrible most of the heals are. The big self heal + damage reduction is nice and LOH is nice but they have somewhat long reuses. The 2 single target heals and the ward are meh and the group heal is really terrible. They could go a long way just by doing something with the group heal. Make it heal 60% HP and triple the reuse or something.
Actually that's a lie, my biggest complaint is how weak Stonewall is. But the heals are RIGHT behind it.
-short answer is yes. Actually, all the the fighters can step in that roll if need be... though some fights are easier with some nuance of one of the fighter classes. i.e. aoe adds, mem wipes, etc..
Stonewall is weak? wow you learn something new every day... Stonewall is AMAZING with the short recast that start just as you klick it. With the duration gain. The only down side i feel it has is that you cant use it in reckless. But really can you explain why you feel stonewall is weak?
I MT as paladin, if needed ^^ (more like fearimmung ^^) I like em both, paly beeing more passiv and sk beeing more activ. Paladin do have more, to my opinion benefits to the raid from buffs (mitigration buff, prettsy usefull to cotontanks)
