For Soloing: Paladin or Battle-Cleric

[Vagrant_Zero]

For heavy soloing what class gets the job done better: A Paladin or a BC (Cleric with a few lvls splashed in Fighter) and why?

[sirgog]

For heavy soloing what class gets the job done better: A Paladin or a BC (Cleric with a few lvls splashed in Fighter) and why?

Here I'll assume Paladin to be a typical survivable melee DPS build, and battlecleric to be a Clr19/Ftr1 build that takes the Fighter level at level 4. (There's not much advantage to taking the level at 4 rather than anything else, in fact 10 is probably optimal, but the difference is quite small, and taking it at 4 smooths levelling.)

Levels 1-7: The paladin; mainly due to their earlier access to multiple attacks and their resistance to the most deadly low level spell, Hold Person. The paladin is only just ahead, however, as the battlecleric's excellent self-healing makes up for everything except the Hold issue.
Levels 8-11: The battlecleric gets access to spells that puts it slightly ahead. It can cure all debuffs it suffers, protect itself from Holds and death effects, and has much better self-healing, while the paladin gets little.
Levels 12-20: The battlecleric becomes one of the best solo characters in the game, with the amazing spells Bladebarrier, Heal, and later Destruction, Death Pact and Implosion. The paladin continues to slide into mediocrity as a soloist.

[Bunker]

For heavy soloing what class gets the job done better: A Paladin or a BC (Cleric with a few lvls splashed in Fighter) and why?

If just between the 2 classes.....Choose Cleric. Both are capable of soloing up to cap but being a cleric will open more possibilities then a paladin would.

Swing over to the Cleric and also (Favored Soul) sections of the forums and look around at different build ideas. You also might be surprised to see some very strong pure builds of Paladin and Cleric.

Good Luck /cheers -Bunk

[Elsbet]

Depending on how well you build and equip your character, I don't think you could say either class is better for soloing. I have a friend that runs a paladin that could pretty much solo most content. I know clerics that do the same.

[sirgog]

Depending on how well you build and equip your character, I don't think you could say either class is better for soloing. I have a friend that runs a paladin that could pretty much solo most content. I know clerics that do the same.

Exceptionally well equipped Paladins can solo well at endgame, albeit slowly as they have no way to quickly slay a large pack of foes. However, they require a lot of great gear to get to this point - gear (like Shroud items, Chattering Ring) that they can't earn solo.

Poorly equipped clerics can solo well at endgame, and quickly. Bladebarrier still rocks if you only have a Greater Potency 6 item from the House D broker and a +5 Wisdom item.

[Vagrant_Zero]

If just between the 2 classes.....Choose Cleric. Both are capable of soloing up to cap but being a cleric will open more possibilities then a paladin would.

Swing over to the Cleric and also (Favored Soul) sections of the forums and look around at different build ideas. You also might be surprised to see some very strong pure builds of Paladin and Cleric.

Good Luck /cheers -Bunk

I've been considering a FvS build as well, but something that was heavy on the melee, low on offensive casting, and medium on the buffing/healing aspect. I've spent almost an hour in that section now and can't really find anything. I've seen a few FvS(17)/Pally(3) muticlass builds but they look like they're getting blasted by the forum gurus as inept builds.

Any suggestions? Basically, I want to play a class/combo that will mirror the retribution paladin from WoW. Strong but not amazing survivability, good but not top end melee dps, maybe 1 or 2 offensive spells for flavor, strong buffs and decent healing. Must be very good at soloing. What would you folks say fits that bill the best?

[bobbryan2]

Offensive casting is much more useful for soloing at end game than melee DPS is. That's not to say that a character that casts exclusively is better than one that can do both, however.

The key, for a soloist, is great balance. I'd do a cleric or favored soul... Either pure or a 2 monk splash... start with at least a 16 wisdom in either and put your level ups there.

Other than that, just use your remaining stats to shore up melee ability.

[sirgog]

Offensive casting is much more useful for soloing at end game than melee DPS is.

Not true, there's not enough shrines in many quests at endgame to kill all the foes you need to in a quest solo. I don't think you could kill one Prey on the Hunter frost giant without spending 200 SP as an offensive caster cleric; a battlecleric can stand toe-to-toe with them and need to spend about 70 SP on casting Heal twice.

Offensive caster clerics have a very hard time indeed with rednamed bosses with Evasion, which come up a fair bit on Hard/Elite settings.

Just looking at the Vale of Twilight quests, here's where an offensive caster cleric has trouble:

Running with the Devils: The rednamed eladrin cleric requires a full tank of SP to burn down, and he's harrd to kite through BB (to contrast, a battlecleric only needs to spend SP on him once he starts self-healing, I've soloed him and his adds with only 300 SP on Numot).

Rainbow: Turin-Palo is ridiculous on an offensive caster - practically immune to Bladebarrier, too many HP to burn down with Searing Light

Sleeping Dust: The last room will be very tough to do without killing spiders, as you can't use Bladebarrier. (The offensive caster will be stronger up to here, however)

[Thrudh]

Here I'll assume Paladin to be a typical survivable melee DPS build, and battlecleric to be a Clr19/Ftr1 build that takes the Fighter level at level 4. (There's not much advantage to taking the level at 4 rather than anything else, in fact 10 is probably optimal, but the difference is quite small, and taking it at 4 smooths levelling.)

Levels 1-7: The paladin; mainly due to their earlier access to multiple attacks and their resistance to the most deadly low level spell, Hold Person. The paladin is only just ahead, however, as the battlecleric's excellent self-healing makes up for everything except the Hold issue.
Levels 8-11: The battlecleric gets access to spells that puts it slightly ahead. It can cure all debuffs it suffers, protect itself from Holds and death effects, and has much better self-healing, while the paladin gets little.
Levels 12-20: The battlecleric becomes one of the best solo characters in the game, with the amazing spells Bladebarrier, Heal, and later Destruction, Death Pact and Implosion. The paladin continues to slide into mediocrity as a soloist.

Hey, if the cleric gets to multi-class, then the paladin should be able to as well...

A paladin with 2 levels of rogue can solo very well... evasion, plus the ability to UMD heal scrolls makes a big difference...

I have both a 17/1 cleric/fighter and a 16/2 paladin/rogue.... Both can solo just fine...

Both did well at the early levels as well... (The cleric will do better in the middle levels)