Why does my Paladin only deal minimal damage?

[scott75209]

I have a level 16 Paladin that only deals minimal damage during battles. He averages 30-50 per attack and only rarely does he hit 100. Other Pallys that I run with usually hit higher on avg.

Here are my stats:
Race - human/male/lawful good
Str - 28+9
Dex - 20+5
Con - 19 +4
Int - 12+1
wis - 16+3
Char - 24+7
AC 48+2
Fort - 25
Reflex - 21
Will - 19
BRB - 16
fortication - 127%

Damage Reduction
1/-
6/Pierce, bludgeon

equipment:
Bloodstone
Charasmatic +4 cloak
Health +7 belt, Balance +3
Ring of false life
dexterous +6 gloves
boots of striding +30, balance +3
Charasmatic +6 ring
Ogre +2 bracers of sustenance +11
goggles of the eagle +11
helm of fortifying 25%

Weapons:
infectious war axe
+3 seekers great axe of improved destruction
+2 shocking burst kopesh of sun/ +1 densewood shield of fortification
+4 flaming kopesh of ghostbane
+5 greensteel greatxe
+4 holy burst falchion.

not listing the enhancements as I'm still trying to figure out the new tree so any suggestions you can make here would be appreciated.

thanks,

[unbongwah]

The bad news is pure pallies have poor melee DPS at higher levels compared to other melee classes. That said, there are various things you can do to improve yours:

Stats: you'll want high STR & CHA. Like-type bonuses don't stack, so drop your +4 CHA ring; it gives you nothing over +6 CHA cloak. Upgrade your +2 STR bracers; +6 should be easy to find. EDIT: if you have Shadowfell, you can farm the Skirmisher's Gloves (+8 STR).
Feats: at a minimum you should have Power Atk and Imp Crit:Slash; Cleave & Great Cleave are also must-haves, IMHO. If you plan to go S&B, the Shield Mastery feats provide +8% doublestrike. Ideally you also have the THF chain, but you probably don't have the feats to spare.
Enhancements: from KotC, you want max Divine Might and at least the first ranks of Divine Sacrifice and Exalted Smite. From your human tree, pick up Dmg Boost and maybe Action Surge if you can afford it.
Buffs: at all times you'll want Divine Favor (+3 to-hit & dmg), Divine Might (adds CHA bonus to STR), and Zeal (+10% doublestrike) running. You will also want to use Dmg Boost (and Haste Boost if you take a ftr splash) for tougher fights.
Weapons: if you're actually flagged for Shroud, a Lit2 falchion will be your best friend until epics. A SOS (http://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Sword_of_Shadow) is also excellent, but req's farming VON 6, which you've outleveled. If you don't raid, you could also try farming Eveningstar challenges until you generate a good ML:16 falchion; or an EGoF (http://ddowiki.com/page/Elemental_Greataxe_of_Fire) from Cannith.
Other gear: look for the best Deadly & Speed items you can find; goggles are a good slot for the former. I would farm up a ML:15 Ring of the Stalker (http://ddowiki.com/page/Ring_of_the_Stalker) for Seeker+Manslayer+Ethereal; the epic version will get you Ghostly, too.

[kmankowski]

Snip.

Shenanigans?

[Qhualor]

Paladins got Turbined.

At level 16 I would be wearing at least all +6 to stats, especially Charisma. Charisma is needed for smites and LOHs. The higher the better. I would also be wearing a wisdom item for sp and will saves. Paladins can have some very nice saves. Is that ring of false life a greater false life? Get rid of the goggles of the eagle and put something more useful there like wisdom. 100% fortification makes you survive more and healers won't scratch their head wondering why so squishy, but I'm scratching my head wondering how you have 127% fort. Are you Warforge? Seeker weapons do not stack with bloodstone. Is that a generic green steel? Plan on upgrading that to Min II or Lit II at least.

Sorry, but you need help badly :)

[Ralmeth]

I have a level 16 Paladin that only deals minimal damage during battles. He averages 30-50 per attack and only rarely does he hit 100. Other Pallys that I run with usually hit higher on avg.

Here are my stats:
Race - human/male/lawful good
Str - 28+9
Dex - 20+5
Con - 19 +4
Int - 12+1
wis - 16+3
Char - 24+7
AC 48+2
Fort - 25
Reflex - 21
Will - 19
BRB - 16
fortication - 127%

Damage Reduction
1/-
6/Pierce, bludgeon

equipment:
Bloodstone
Charasmatic +4 cloak
Health +7 belt, Balance +3
Ring of false life
dexterous +6 gloves
boots of striding +30, balance +3
Charasmatic +6 ring
Ogre +2 bracers of sustenance +11
goggles of the eagle +11
helm of fortifying 25%

Weapons:
infectious war axe
+3 seekers great axe of improved destruction
+2 shocking burst kopesh of sun/ +1 densewood shield of fortification
+4 flaming kopesh of ghostbane
+5 greensteel greatxe
+4 holy burst falchion.

not listing the enhancements as I'm still trying to figure out the new tree so any suggestions you can make here would be appreciated.

thanks,

Hey there! Here are some tips to increasing the damage you do:
1) Get yourself a strength item. At your level look for a +6 or +7 item. In general, you want to get your strength as high as you can. Strength is your primary stat as a Paladin, and charisma is secondary, followed by constitution.
2) Take the spells Divine Favor (1st level) and Zeal (4th level), and make sure you always have these cast / running. Divine favor will add +3 to hit and damage, and Zeal will give you 10% doublestrike (i.e. a 10% increase in DPS).
3) Enhancements are key! In the Knight of the Chalice enhancement line, max out Divine Might (on tier 2). Keep this running at all times. It will add your charisma bonus to your strength score. Also in the Knight enhancements, max out Extra Smites and Exhalted Smite. Exhalted Smites are great to use on dangerous targets that you want to take out fast, such as enemy casters. Also take divine sacrifice (1st tier only is fine), and spam this in combat as soon as it's off timer.
4) As you're fighting two handed, look to use falchions as your weapon of choice. This is because they have a wide critical hit range, meaning that your smites and divine sacrifices have a higher chance to crit.

Please note that items that increase your stats, such as charisma, typically do not stack with one another. So your charisma +6 ring does not stack with your charisma +4 cloak. Instead, you only receive the benefit of whichever is higher. So you can sell the charisma cloak and use something else, or get a better charisma cloak (+6 should be easy to find) and get a better ring.

Are you fighting sword & board at all? I wasn't sure why you have khopesh as a weapon.

Lastly, what feats do you have? At your level if you're fighting two handed you should ideally have the following:
-Power Attack
-Cleave
-Great Cleave
-Improved Critical - Slashing
-Two Handed Fighting
-Improved Two Handed Fighting

Hope that helps!

[Teh_Troll]

Because it's a paladin.

[Postumus]

The bad news is pure pallies have poor melee DPS at higher levels compared to other melee classes. That said, there are various things you can do to improve yours:

Stats: you'll want high STR & CHA. Like-type bonuses don't stack, so drop your +4 CHA ring; it gives you nothing over +6 CHA cloak. Upgrade your +2 STR bracers; +6 should be easy to find. EDIT: if you have Shadowfell, you can farm the Skirmisher's Gloves (+8 STR).
Feats: at a minimum you should have Power Atk and Imp Crit:Slash; Cleave & Great Cleave are also must-haves, IMHO. If you plan to go S&B, the Shield Mastery feats provide +8% doublestrike. Ideally you also have the THF chain, but you probably don't have the feats to spare.
Enhancements: from KotC, you want max Divine Might and at least the first ranks of Divine Sacrifice and Exalted Smite. From your human tree, pick up Dmg Boost and maybe Action Surge if you can afford it.
Buffs: at all times you'll want Divine Favor (+3 to-hit & dmg), Divine Might (adds CHA bonus to STR), and Zeal (+10% doublestrike) running. You will also want to use Dmg Boost (and Haste Boost if you take a ftr splash) for tougher fights.
Weapons: if you're actually flagged for Shroud, a Lit2 falchion will be your best friend until epics. A SOS (http://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Sword_of_Shadow) is also excellent, but req's farming VON 6, which you've outleveled. If you don't raid, you could also try farming Eveningstar challenges until you generate a good ML:16 falchion; or an EGoF (http://ddowiki.com/page/Elemental_Greataxe_of_Fire) from Cannith.
Other gear: look for the best Deadly & Speed items you can find; goggles are a good slot for the former. I would farm up a ML:15 Ring of the Stalker (http://ddowiki.com/page/Ring_of_the_Stalker) for Seeker+Manslayer+Ethereal; the epic version will get you Ghostly, too.



Ubungo has good tips. At level 16 you can be doing a lot more damage with your paladin just with power attack, cleave, great cleave, deadly items, divine might, divine favor, zeal, and a tw0-hander with a high base damage. Green steel is good. If you don't want to grind shroud, you could also use Insanity (http://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Insanity) or any random loot L16 axe/falchion with keen 2 or vorpal on it.


Making these changes would literally double your damage output per swing, and you would see lots of crits in the 500 range. You'll take more damage, but you'll deal 2-4 times more than you did before. You can always turtle up with a shield to heal if you are taking a lot of damage, then switch back to the 2-hander to finish off the foe.


At level 20 get the EAGA (http://ddowiki.com/page/Epic_Antique_Greataxe) or the much easier to get EEGAoF (http://ddowiki.com/page/Epic_Elemental_Greataxe_of_Fire_%28Tier_1%29). My crappy, undergeared, first life L20 bladeforged paladin is averaging 120ish base damage + weapon procs per swing with the tier 1 EEGAoF. Crits can break 1000 when the fire procs.

[scott75209]

All great feedback. thanks!!

[Guartwog]

Because it's a paladin.

Eloquent as always.

[Postumus]

Eloquent as always.


Eloquent? I think you mean 'unoriginal.'

[taurean430]

I played around at levels 20+ with the concept of adrenaline smites. They are quite nice.

After trying numerous ideas to bring my pally into endgame, I've since given up. You can achieve respectable burst dps. The problem is that you still end up significantly behind every other build save tanks. Being able to survive anything does have it's perks though.

[LavidDynch]

he got the same problems with his barbarian. Guess you just have to learn how to play the game?