Just wondering. Daybreak games does understand what TANK means correct? Now I have only played my paladin till 12th level and I understand that even on the progression server that is not long enough to know anything about the class but please save me some pain here. If I am NEVER going to be a TANK and at least half as tough as my fury then let me know and I will delete my NOT tank paladin but IF someday my paladin actually becomes something other than no cannon and sure as hell no tank then I will press on. I see all kinds of complaints of there are not enough tanks. Well daybreak, What a shock. Who wants to play a guy with puxxsy stamped on his fing forehead?
Ummmm yeah, Paladins are fantastic tanks. So maybe give us some examples of whats going wrong for you and we can try to help.
Some early on tips for a starting Paladin might help... 1) SWORD AND BOARD! - forget two handed weapons! 2) Mitigation is your friend! - as is block, gear for both. 3) You can heal yourself, cast them when they are up even with a healer in the group even a healer merc. That goes for your group heal as well! 4) Don't let mobs get behind you! Always move that they are in front of you.
All classes experience peaks and valleys in their power curves as they level up. While I can't speak to the specific peaks and valleys of the Paladin class, I have leveled 12 different classes (ten to end game) and each of them exhibited this behavior. Twelve hours of gameplay isn't a good indication of the capabilities of any class. If you get to level 30 or so and you still aren't satisfied, then try something different. We have 26 classes here, and it would be very surprising if there was a player who loved every class.
I've played a paladin for 12 years or so now, and I love it. I checked EQ2U and didn't find a toon named Gedadia. If you are playing under that name, open your character window and go to the EQII Share tab, and under "EQ2Players Options" make sure "Enable EQ2Players Updates" is checked. If we can look you up at EQ2U, we can more specifically advise you how to be a better paladin. First, what level are your combat arts? If you are just using the Apprentice spells that are automatically given to you, it's like using a pea shooter when you should be using an assault rifle. Check the broker for Adepts (or, for your best CAs, get Masters if you find them very cheap or when you get to around level 40) . Next, what kind of armor, jewelry, and weapons are you using? Gear "greys out" when you are ten levels higher than the gear level, and is then completely ineffective. Gear comes in levels, just as Combat Arts do. There's (in rough order of quality) Treasured, Handcrafted, Legendary, Mastercrafted, Fabled. If you harvest a bit as you wander around questing, save your rares and have a player crafter make stuff for you. You don't have to be a crafter. If you have the rares, many crafters will make it for you for the cost of fuel plus a tip. In general, Mastercrafted gear is better than most low-level Legendary or even some Fabled, but check out Handcrafted as well, it might be a big upgrade for you. Are you using a sword and shield? When you are tanking for a group, you'll probably want sword-and-board. At other times, a two-handed weapon might be better for DPS. Tanking 101 Preparation: To start with, before your group heads into battle, get your buffs from each member. Many classes have helpful buffs that make you more effective as a tank. Ask questions about what folks place on you so YOU know which buffs are helpful, and so you can ask for them later in other groups! Aggro: The job of a tank is to HOLD AGGRO. You are not there to deal damage to the foe really, you just have to hold aggro so it doesn't eat the rest of the group while THEY kill it. That being said, pretty much 1 point of hate = 1 point of damage. There's no way a tank is going to dish out the humungeous damage that, say, a wizard nuking can. So you also have other tools in your repertoire to help you get more hate than you can acquire simply beating on the foe. Some tank classes have stances that increase hate towards the tank. Paladins have a spell called Amends that lets you have a percentage of the hate of another member of your group. Some tank classes get hate by being hit. Read through your spells/combat arts, and see what each of them really does. All tanks have some taunts. Some have more taunts than others. When you pull, you start off EARLY on the mob. You want to get it hit once and taunted at least once as you pull. The hit establishes you on the hate table, and the taunting adds to the hate you have directed at you. Another trick is that some classes, such as Swashbucklers, can do a HATE TRANSFER. It's basically a buff that transfers some percentage of the hate they're getting to you instead. Ask members of your group to give you any hate transfers they've got. Selecting a Place to Fight: Another critical item when tanking is that you are the one who keeps the group safe. And it's your responsibility to position the group in a place that you can safely fight without getting adds, so you learn to pick a good place to fight in. Usually the way you've just come is clear of foes - presumably you killed them on your way in - but you kind of keep an eye out for adds or repops that way. Turning the Mob: However, the way your group is headed is full of foes, so it's a REALLY good idea to turn the mob after you pull it. This leaves you, the tank, between your group and the foes further in on your path, so that anything that wanders up will hit you first and not the lightly-armored healers or casters. You also need to turn the mob for the safety of your group. Anytime the foe ripostes, or does an AOE attack, if the thing is facing AWAY FROM THE GROUP, only the tank gets hit. Your healers need to focus mainly on healing the tank, so you want for JUST the tank to take damage if possible. And turning the mob is critical to allow your scouts to do the most damage. All the scout classes have flank or back attacks that usually do pretty high damage, so you need to allow them room to get in behind the foe. Finally, turning the mob(s) is a BIG help to you as tank. If you see the mob facing you, YOU have aggro. If you are looking at its hiney, you DON'T have aggro and need to switch to that mob and taunt and whallop until you get aggro back. The Fine Art of Body Pulling: A key tool to learn early on is the Fine Art of Body Pulling. At first, not many foes are SOCIAL. The higher in level you go, however, the more social mobs you are going to encounter, so you need to learn this technique early and get it perfected. When I say a mob is "social", that means if you hit it, it can call to its nearby friends for help. Then instead of having one thing to fight, you have the whole room trying to eat your face. To deal with this, the body pull is used. Instead of, say, lobbing an arrow or a taunt at the foe, you edge up until it JUST notices you. then when it does see you, you backpedal and it comes with you. Once you have it far enough away from its friends, you start taunting. Here's some info from a thread on the old forums two iterations back (http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/...d=Newbie&message.id=154977&query.id=0#M154977) that's helpful for all classes, especially tanks. This is the illustrated fine art of body-pulling...
Paladins are a fun tank class. Just gotta keep in mind how the class is built. They are the squishiest, and have the lowest dps output of all the tanks, BUT have the best aggro management tools in the game, and as you progress, your self healing capabilities will overcome that squishiness. Pally's also have pretty decent group utility, so just hang in there, it gets a lot better
Just wanted to say thank you for a great write up incase the OP does not return, very nice of you to take the time.
