I was thinking of finally givign in and rolling a pally. But im somewhat undecided on what race to make and where to put my starting stats.

there are 4 stats that matter (listed in my biased view of how important stats are for an uthgard pally)
DEX: block rate (and parry too, but pallies dont have enough spec pts for much parry), shield weaponskill (should impact slam landing more)
CON: yay for HP
STR: increases encumbrance (primary use), weaponskill, increases dmg (tertiary because come on, pallies don't do dmg, espcially with them all being s/s spec)
QUI: swing speed (more important for slam speed than anything else, but it would matter if i ever went 2h)

I'd like my spec options to be more open (so that some day i could go hybrid spec if 2h ever gets decent here), but for now Uthgard seems very one hand weapon based. tanks are either dual weilding, or s/s. and it is probably expecting too much to even dream taht that might someday change.

That being said, there seem to be 3 "viable" options:
1) Highlander: the typical gold standard of pallies on live. high str and con. low dex/qui
2) Briton: 10 less str and con than a highlander, but gains 10 dex and qui
3) Saracen: missing 20 str and con relative to the gold standard, but gains 30 dex and 10 qui

my problem is that I want the con pts, but I dont realy care about the str given how uselss 2h is here. I want the dex, but dont really are about the qui. plus if for some reason my spec ever changed to a hybrid or 2h setup, missing out on str would be horrid.

If i were to do a KT analysis what importance leevl should i assign to the 4 stats?
my preliminary guess for a s/s tank was:
Dex: 8
Con: 7
Str: 6
Qui: 3

that would leave a score the races as follows:
Highlander: 1460
Briton: 1440
Saracen: 1470

Then for starting stats, given the 2x pt penalty for stat points spent over 10, i would benefit most from putting 10 pts each in dex/str/con. unless one stat is at least twice as important as the third most, in which case id be better off going 15/10.

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Anyways, i could use some insight as to how important each stat is for a pally on uthgard. the math after that will dictate what race and where i put my pts.

I don't know of any group that ever picks a pally as one of the first targets. So that makes the hit point debate rather unnecessary. And since you main job in RvR will be to guard , I would suggest Saracen. And even a Saracen Pally still has decent HP - but what really matters is your block rate and there I would go for as much dex as possible.

While I also see the point of not being able to really go 2h with a Saracen (not sure how pierce 2h dmg works - is that entirely str based or dex/str?), at the patch level the Devs are going for (1.69) I wouldn't consider a 2H Pally particularly viable anyway.

thanks for the input.

Twohand is 100% str based. even if you go 2h thrust.

I had a highlander and a briton pally on live (rerolled to make the broton so i could autotrain), but have NEVER even considered a saracen pally until now. but the way uthgard works its seeming like sensible option. but im so stuck in the highlander mentality that its hard to break from that.

In all fairness, Highlander pallies are quite common here - so I am sure it is viable. Just thinking that Saracen would be the better guarder, but at the end of the day you are the one who has to look at the char all the time. And if you prefer Highlander, well...

Saracene ftw

Why?
Well sure thing Paladin is abused as Block/Guard/Tankbot in groups - so Saracene is best choice for it.
If you go solo a high parryspec is recommended due to the fact you will mostly face dualwielders (NS/SB).
(Had a long talk to others that tried to solo on Pala and all expierenced that Parry is kinda most needed, since otherwise you don't have any defense against these classes)

In conclusion Saracene is the best choice whatever you want to do with your paladin... the 20 points Constitution won't help you at all and even if you take Highlander for more strength you won't deal damage ^^

OFC you have to go Thrustspec (half dex/str) if you still want to deal "dmg" (if you can speak about dmg on a Paladin )
=> 2Handed- and also Polearmdmg is strength dependend only - no matter what kind of damagetype your weapon has (refering to live expierence here - [well not mine but we just had this topic few weeks ago on ts])

p.s.: to steal rezzrps Saracene is best too!!!! faster castspeeeeed yay!

So assuming that I go Saracen...
10/10/10 starting pts into dex/con/str
OR
15 dex/10 Con and ignore str?

15dex 10 con

15 dex 10 con for pve
15 dex 10 qui for pvp

i can only say that saracen plate tanks really rock...u wouldnt imagine how often even good grps pick saracens as their first target, cause usually saracens are easy and "important" kills (sorc or caba, sometimes mins but thats it)...and distracting enemy tanks from the actual casters like sorcs or cabies is a fine thing i guess, as even 5 secs in which u are target may be important

!!!!
Indeed my Saracene pala always catched Nearsight from Keepcamping Elds in Thid

don't forget that female saracens are sexeh

If u r good, i d go Highlander 2h shield spec. 15str 10quick, afaik dex doesnt do much for blockrate on uth. U just swing ur 2h and switch instantly back to s/s, so u ve the dmg of 2h and the defence on s/s. Sure thats quiet tricky and needs some practice, but it is better dps for free.
Regards

pweet wrote:If u r good, i d go Highlander 2h shield spec. 15str 10quick, afaik dex doesnt do much for blockrate on uth. U just swing ur 2h and switch instantly back to s/s, so u ve the dmg of 2h and the defence on s/s. Sure thats quiet tricky and needs some practice, but it is better dps for free.
Regards

From what i've seen, most of paladin using 2H don't deal much than with 1H, their dmg were really crappy and in term of DPS it sucked hard
You'd rather be 1H, hits fast and bet on weapon procs.

Yeah, did the full hybrid, switch weapons every swing, thing on live before they added celerity. after celerity it got too crazy to do given that you could just about cap a 6.0 speed.

But as far as I have heard, 2h isnt worth speccing here. so swappign to 2h for each swing would cost me a ton of spec pts adn probably result in a decrease in overall dmg. the only reason I could see speccing 2h or hybrid on uthgard would be for the 27 seconds rear hinder at 39 2h.

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PS are you sure about dex not working right for block rates here? It seemed to be working just fine on my scout. when I popped a dex/qui charge and base dex pot, my block rates would shoot up dramatically.

More dext, more block.

They just underligned a bug, WS of attackers doesn't reduce blockrate of defender as it should be.