TL;DR I'm blown away by how strong my new BF 20 Pally (Vanguard) is.

The longer version...

I started DDO when the cap was level 10, but don't play a lot any more. Usually return once a year to play for a few months and see what's going on. A month ago I came back and, being fairly disappointed with my monk/pally/fvs twf warpriest, decided to reroll. When I say disappointed I mean that level 28 with mediocre gear I found myself being able to trudge along slowly but surely in EE content, clearing trash with relatively little trouble, then taking forever to kill Oranged names and ultimately usually dying to end bosses.

I decided to try out the Bladeforged Race as well as the new Paladin Vanguard enhancement line. I'm blown away by how much better it is than my TWF builds. Not only is it more survivable (which I sort of expected with using a Tower Shield), but it also does far more damage. At level 26 I started doing some EEs and found them trivial.

On the survivability side, I sit around 190 PRR vs my PJ builds 75 or so. This is without any sheltering items or trying to maximize PRR in any way. MRR I can't remember, but it's over 100 I think. BF obviously brings it's own healing to the table with a reconstruct SLA that (without getting good recon or repair items) hits for just over 500 healing. No evasion like many of my prior builds made sure to include, but doesn't seem to be a problem with the recent changes to the game. Of course Paladin's naturally end up with pretty good saves. I think mine are all somewhere near 60 without putting any focus on it (I know this is low, but like I said, haven't put any effort that direction).

Offensively, I'm just still shocked that this guy not only out DPSes my TWF builds, but that he does it probably 2x or 3x. I don't consider him super well geared, though he has a few nice pieces (T2 Thunderforged Bastard Sword and the Purple Dragon shield being the most important). A huge part of this is all the ways to stack +W damage to the point where I think I have 6.8[1d10], 13-20x3 crits, on my bastard sword, and even higher on the shield. Then of course you have zeal, holy sword, and even more crit range because I run in Crusader ED. Another big part is the quad boosts (melee power from KotC, melee power from vanguard, bladesword transform, and the bladeforged enhancement I can't remember), which all amplify through consecrate's +10% damage and then the massive boost from zeal of the righteous. I'm shocked when I see 3.5k shield bashes against non-stunned enemies. Another thing is something like passive +35% melee attack speed and doublestrike (or close to 90% doublestrike at the beginning of zeal), again without making those big focuses (though I'm sure I will try to increase them).

My build did make sacrifices because feats are very hard to work out as a pure pally, but I don't feel like missing some things hurt that much. I have these feats: addy body, THF, ITHF, GTHF, PA, Shield Mastery, ISM, EWP: Bastard Sword, OC, IC:Slash. So ya, I ended up spending epic feats on heroic ones and still missed Improved Shield Bash (so only 60% chance rather than 80%), Quicken (would have been nice for Reconstruct, but hasn't been necessary yet), and Blinding Speed (My Goatskin Boots or Jorgundal's Collar seem to make up for it). No I didn't take Tower Shield Prof because Master's Touch Scrolls work for that.

In summary, if you doubt the vanguard tree, I say give it a try. This is maybe the first time since mod4 that I've played a pure class character and I'm in love with it right now.