Pally newb q's

[AzB]

It's time for my pally life and I've never played a paladin. I'm actually into it a ways already and am enjoying it for it's strengths and adapting to it's weaknesses. I went with an evasion pally with 2 levels of rogue. Rogue I have experience with, and that part is working out fine.

But I have some questions about the paladin that I can't find clear answers for online:

Zeal: I had an item with melee alacrity before zeal was available, will zeal stack with the item? I tried equipping it and it didn't look like it stacked in the character screen, but it looked to me like it was a bit snappier on the dummy. Additionally, the hotbar button tooltip says 10% melee alacrity, the buffbar tooltip says zeal is giving 10% chance of double strike. Which one does zeal do? Both?

Smite: Smite is giving me problems getting it landed. I'm not sure if it's targeting or timing. I have a lot of experience with assassinate, but smite seems a lot more finicky. I've got the hotbar button mapped to the keyboard and am pressing it during combat. It seems more reliable if I stop swinging with the mouse button for a nanosecond before pressing the key, but again, it's hard to get to land every time. Also, the damage is all over the map. Sometimes I get 80, sometimes 300. I'm no math wiz, but adding up the numbers it seems like that's a pretty wide range for the calc. (Cha is 27) My normal swing damage is in the 80 average, so when smite hits for 80, it's like a completely wasted proc.

LoH: Will a devotion item increase the healing from LoH? I don't have an item to try, so before I go spend my plat it would be nice to know. I'm currently HotD, and it looks like 4 Loh is going to be max, is there any way to get more, items, feats, etc?

This is a TR, so will basically go to 18 and then TR so I'm not interested in EDs or endgame info.

Thanks!

[-Zyxas-]

1. Zeal is most definitely doublestrike. Your perception of swinging "faster" was because you were seeing more numbers at once.

2. Smite would only be the 300 hits. The others simply are non-hits that you thought were smites. The numbers don't pop up right when you attack.
Also, people have had some trouble with clicky attacks proccing correctly, so perhaps smite is bugged. The best way to test this is to do one swing at a time on the training dummy, not actually swinging but pressing the button for smite.

3. Almost 100% sure that nothing affects your LoH numbers except your charisma (mod), paladin level, and the target you're hitting with it (healing amp). Leveling up if not capped yet, switching to a pure build rather than a splashed build, equipping healing amp items, acquiring other amp buffs (paladin past lives, ship buff, glorious stand, some epic destiny abilities, enhancements for human/helf and monks) are your only ways to increase the healing. As a side note, Warforged are healed for a normal amount by it rather than 50%. I don't know about Warforged with more than 50% amp, but my guess is it changes the effective amp to 100% if it's actually lower.

[squishwizzy]

Smite: Smite is giving me problems getting it landed. I'm not sure if it's targeting or timing. I have a lot of experience with assassinate, but smite seems a lot more finicky. I've got the hotbar button mapped to the keyboard and am pressing it during combat. It seems more reliable if I stop swinging with the mouse button for a nanosecond before pressing the key, but again, it's hard to get to land every time. Also, the damage is all over the map. Sometimes I get 80, sometimes 300. I'm no math wiz, but adding up the numbers it seems like that's a pretty wide range for the calc. (Cha is 27) My normal swing damage is in the 80 average, so when smite hits for 80, it's like a completely wasted proc.

A smite on a crit rolls big numbers. A smite without a crit can almost be impossible to detect. As someone else said, CHR is your modifier on that. So, if you are going to rely on smites for your DPS, make sure you try to max out your CHR as much as possible.

Plus I think smites are only effective on evil creatures (I'm too lazy to look it up right now). Before you say, "duh", just let me say that I can't tell you how many times I've seen a pally toon I've run with expend their smites on something like a spider, dog or construct.

LoH: Will a devotion item increase the healing from LoH? I don't have an item to try, so before I go spend my plat it would be nice to know. I'm currently HotD, and it looks like 4 Loh is going to be max, is there any way to get more, items, feats, etc?

First, I believe you can spend AP for more LoH. I also believe that healing amp increases the effectiveness of LoH. If you're a pally, shoot for Human and get the healing amp anhancements that go along with the race.

Also, if you go Follower of the Soveregin Host, and take up Unyielding Sovereignty, that ability is like a LoH on steroids.

Going human gives you an extra feat, which is helpful.

[JonD]

Smite: Smite is giving me problems getting it landed. I'm not sure if it's targeting or timing.

One thing to note about Smite is that it goes off on the attack with the highest base attack value (i.e. the last one in your attack chain) so it may not go off straight away but in a couple of swings' time. If the creature dies, or you get knocked back, or the creature runs away a bit, or any number of other reasons why the creature can no longer be struck before the smite goes off, then it gets wasted. Yes, this is annoying. Especially as creatures always seem to be happy to stand there fighting toe-to-toe right up until you hit Smite and then they suddenly display this uncanny knack for running off just before the Smite triggers.

LoH: Will a devotion item increase the healing from LoH? I don't have an item to try, so before I go spend my plat it would be nice to know. I'm currently HotD, and it looks like 4 Loh is going to be max, is there any way to get more, items, feats, etc?

Devotion does increase the healing from LoH. I don't believe the source of the devotion boost matters, so devotion items should work. The devotion increase from the Paladin enhancements and the Exalted Angel ED certainly work.
Talking of which, as well as the enhancements, you can get more LoH uses through taking the Defender of Siberys line, and the Unyielding Sentinel epic destiny ability (which also causes your LoH uses to regenerate). As you're taking HotD and aren't interested in EDs, this won't help you but I thought it worth mentioning in case you change your mind. I don't believe there are any items that increase LoH uses but, with a new expansion later this year and (presumably) more named augments turning up at some point, this could change.

[squishwizzy]

One thing to note about Smite is that it goes off on the attack with the highest base attack value (i.e. the last one in your attack chain) so it may not go off straight away but in a couple of swings' time. If the creature dies, or you get knocked back, or the creature runs away a bit, or any number of other reasons why the creature can no longer be struck before the smite goes off, then it gets wasted. Yes, this is annoying. Especially as creatures always seem to be happy to stand there fighting toe-to-toe right up until you hit Smite and then they suddenly display this uncanny knack for running off just before the Smite triggers.

My personal favorite is when they crit you just as you're doing a LoH...like just about every time, all the time.

[EllisDee37]

I've got the hotbar button mapped to the keyboard and am pressing it during combat. It seems more reliable if I stop swinging with the mouse button for a nanosecond before pressing the key, but again, it's hard to get to land every time.

Try mapping the standard attack to your keyboard as well, removing the need for the mouse altogether.

This is done by an actual keyboard mapping; there is an "Attack" key in Options => Keyboard area where you can assign a key to attack.

(If you drag the "Attack" feat to a hotbar, that toggles auto-attack on and off.)