Paladin questionFollow

Paladins in eq2 will tank for groups, and do it well. However, you will never see a good raid using a paladin to tank. Guardians get that job.

Paladins in eq2 are tanks with some group oriented spells, some damage enhancers, some kind of fun abilities (ie horses). If the hitpoint allocations are anything like what they were in eq1 you will find that the vast majority of great armor is wearable by pallys, however you will always find that you have less hitpoints and armor than a guardian.

So do guardians fit my profile better?

Either guardian or paladin will fit your profile just fine. The guardian doesn't have any 'spells' strictly speaking, but they should have about as many total abilities (whether you call them combat abilities, spells, or whatever) as paladins. Both will be able to tank perfectly fine for a least 90% (probably higher) of the fights you will encounter.

The official EQ2 site now has some class guides available that give some good information about the classes and their party roles. They haven't finished, but here's a link:

Crusader

"The crusader is well suited for the role of the main tank. Medium armor and a good selection of defensive abilities combine for impressive results. They may be somewhat limited as a secondary tank due to their inability to deal significant damage, but can still put their defensive abilities to good use in this role. More than one crusader in the role of a secondary tank might stray into the realm of diminishing returns."

But it sounds like maybe you should go with brawler (monk/bruiser):

"A brawler makes a decent main tank, but suffers somewhat from his poor damage mitigation ability. A brawler makes a very good secondary tank, however, using combat arts like Defend to improve the tanking ability of the main tank, and at the same time delivering excellent damage."

This should also clear up some of the arguments as to whether all fighters are created equal re: tanking.


Edit: fix typos add link

Edited, Fri Nov 19 20:37:59 2004 by Huxli

I'm currently a lv 14 crusader. I tank when there is no warrior in the group (seldom is that the case) and when there is warrior(s) I help to protect the mage and preiest.Crusaders can deal a fair amount of damage and have both offensive and defensive spells, so I think it suits your wants quite well.