Direction

[EnzerFender]

Good day all,

Ok... I have studied all the classes hard to make a choice of which one I want to put all my efforts into for maxing out in every way and Paladin is now my final choice.

The paladin class seems to fit my goals of having a damage based versitile class that is more than just hack and slash only and if this were in real life I would be a paladin.

So.... I am hoping for direction here. I know there is a ton of solid information in this forum about builds and whatnot however I dont know what would fit me best.

The bottom line is that I want to be viable and needed for as many aspects of the game as possible.

What is the best build direction.
Do I go Pure Paly through level 20?
Do I multiclass and with what and how?
Whats more needed DPS or Tank or aux heal?
Dual wield or sword and board?

Or a much more simple ? what build do you recommend and why?

I do have 32 point build available as I read that this is a near must for paly so i ready for that. I do have many point available in the store as well.

All comments welcome and thank you!

Enzer Fender

[EnzerFender]

Good day all,

Ok... I have studied all the classes hard to make a choice of which one I want to put all my efforts into for maxing out in every way and Paladin is now my final choice.

The paladin class seems to fit my goals of having a damage based versitile class that is more than just hack and slash only and if this were in real life I would be a paladin.

So.... I am hoping for direction here. I know there is a ton of solid information in this forum about builds and whatnot however I dont know what would fit me best.

The bottom line is that I want to be viable and needed for as many aspects of the game as possible.

What is the best build direction.
Do I go Pure Paly through level 20?
Do I multiclass and with what and how?
Whats more needed DPS or Tank or aux heal?
Dual wield or sword and board?

Or a much more simple ? what build do you recommend and why?

I do have 32 point build available as I read that this is a near must for paly so i ready for that. I do have many point available in the store as well.

All comments welcome and thank you!

Enzer Fender

I should add that my reason for posting is to find what players with high reputation consider to be a solid paly builds with a point in the right direction to where the build information is.

[Gercho]

Good day all,

Ok... I have studied all the classes hard to make a choice of which one I want to put all my efforts into for maxing out in every way and Paladin is now my final choice.

The paladin class seems to fit my goals of having a damage based versitile class that is more than just hack and slash only and if this were in real life I would be a paladin.

So.... I am hoping for direction here. I know there is a ton of solid information in this forum about builds and whatnot however I dont know what would fit me best.

The bottom line is that I want to be viable and needed for as many aspects of the game as possible.

What is the best build direction.
Do I go Pure Paly through level 20?
Do I multiclass and with what and how?
Whats more needed DPS or Tank or aux heal?
Dual wield or sword and board?

Or a much more simple ? what build do you recommend and why?

I do have 32 point build available as I read that this is a near must for paly so i ready for that. I do have many point available in the store as well.

All comments welcome and thank you!

Enzer Fender

Hey, before anything else, if you havent read junts guide for paladins, read it, its great: http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=218542

The most comon paladin builds are:

Pure lvl 20 paladin dps: advantages, top tier dps, if your priority is max dps then the paladin capstone and trying to get DMIV is the way to go, never skimp on str. You have twf and thf versions, twf is the highest dps in paladin because many reasons that junts guide explains. (thf is more common between warforged paladins)

18pal/2rogue dps: you sacrifice some dps, but you get evasion and full umd easily, and some other minor advantages, its more versatile and more self sufficient than a pure paladin, but obviously you lose the capstone. All these builds use twf.

18pal/2monk finesse AC: Using the monk splash to get wis ac, feats and evasion, this build is gear intensive, with top tier gear gets a good AC, but sacrifices more damage to get that.

18pal/2fighter intimi/hate tank: The fighter levels get you 3 feats (including tower shield) and intimidate, can get a really high AC (but as allways, all the AC chars are gear intensive) Can get a decent dps in thf mode, i would say better than the monk build but lower than the rogue build.

The monk and fighter have some variations that could allow self healing, which is a great survability tool, but again they are gear intensive. Paladins cant try to be aux heal, but could be self sufficient builded right.

About whats more wanted? well dps is allways needed, tanks are only really needed in some specific situations, but all tanks have a dps option, is not that you are sacrificing dps completely. Some sacrify dps to get adaptability and be able to short man the quests, so that should depend on your preferences.

If its your first char, i would advice to go pure paladin, or paladin 18/rogue 2, because those 2 builds dont require top tier gear to be efficient, while the others do.

[sephiroth1084]

Like Gercho said, go read Junts' guide to paladins.

It should also be noted that paladins benefit tremendously from 32pt. build and having tomes available. That isn't to say that they can't be built as 28 pts., but it's a bit tough. For a DPS build, you could go for drow instead, which aren't difficult to get to (400 favor can be obtained in a day or two if you can group with some folks who can open quests on hard or elite, a week tops if not).

Tanks are fun to play, but DPS is definitely in higher demand, and is also much easier to build and equip as it requires fewer stats, less specialized gear, and much less raid/rare equipment.

[EnzerFender]

Like Gercho said, go read Junts' guide to paladins.

It should also be noted that paladins benefit tremendously from 32pt. build and having tomes available. That isn't to say that they can't be built as 28 pts., but it's a bit tough. For a DPS build, you could go for drow instead, which aren't difficult to get to (400 favor can be obtained in a day or two if you can group with some folks who can open quests on hard or elite, a week tops if not).

Tanks are fun to play, but DPS is definitely in higher demand, and is also much easier to build and equip as it requires fewer stats, less specialized gear, and much less raid/rare equipment.

Thanks Sephiroth and Gercho. I have read Junt's guide. Quite amazing actually. Junts guide is very detailed however I didnt see a specific guild for DPS.

I am starting this toon and am not sure what starting stats to go with. I am also curious what stat to dump into etc.

[Gercho]

A couple options for straight dps you can go lvl 20 paladin drow or human twf

if you go drow stats are:

str 15
dex 16
con 12
int 10
wis 8
cha 17
Level up points in str, at lvl 20 if you cant get a +3 cha tome put the last point into cha so you qualify for dm IV with a +2 tome.
feats are:
thoughness extend spell twf itwf gtwf iciercing (you are using rapiers) and power attack.
skills go to umd every level and some mix of jump and balance

if you go human you can go:

str 15
dex 15
con 12
int 8
wis 8
cha 16

you will need a +2 dex tome instead of +1 for itwf, the extra feat goes to ewp:kopesh, and of course ic: slashing not piercing, will be harder for you to qualify for DM IV depending on tomes you can put 1 or 2 ability points on cha and the others in str, skills the same. (if you are not qualifying for DM IV anyway put all lvl up points in str)

Those are a couple ideas for you to work with.
As you see, drow is a little easier to build for twf, but khopesh is a little better than rapiers... so its a close call between human and drow... you can build it with any race anyway, those are the most used for a twf paladin.