[Valardin]

If

anyone here is a Paladin, please respond.
I just wanted to know about being a

paladin (i know, im lvl 4, a long way from PAL, but you know....) I am on my second

character after (no offense to humes) dicovering that hume warriors.... they arent too

great, i lvld an elvaan war to lvl 4 in about 10-20 minutes, whereas it took me a day to do

as much as a hume, also, as an elvaan i find that i have the ability to EM and eve T

monsters with ease, and very easily get 100 exp per kill while soloing. I had a hame char.

for about a month and get him to lvl 17 and found out that he... well he sucked, so if

anyone has the slightest bit of input on being a paladin, please give me a little

information

[wizard]

hume

warriors dont suck...probably the difference is from after getting to level 17 you know how

to play better

[Wolfrage]

MY

MAIN CHARECTER IS A 53 DRG BUT I DID PLAY PALDIN TO LVL 14 (FARMING FOR GIL). PALADIN WAS

ANWESOME CHARECTER RIGHT OFF THE BAT. MY ADICE TO YOU IS TO GET TH EPALADIN ADVANCEDJOB

BECAUSE PALADINS (ESPCIALLY AT HIGH LVLS) BECOME AS NECESSARY AS A WHM. THEY ARE THE BSET

TANKS (SHIELDS) IN THE GAME. NO OTHER CLASS CAN TAKE BETTER DAMAGE. THERE ARE NOT ENOUGH

PALLIES IN THEGAME AT THE MOMENT SO ITS A GREAT CHOICE.

[Shikasa]

Well,

the PLD class is what got me going from the very beginning. I lvl'd my WAR so that he would

be well experienced for the PLD job...and 50 levels later i'm still loving it.

Just

remember that PLD's aren't about the dmg, that's why you depend on your evil counterpart

the DRK and other high damaging classes. Your main responsibility is to keep everyone in

your party alive, especially your beloved WHM's; any mages for that matter. With that being

said, focus your attention on Def and Agi + Vit as well (at least these are the 3 stats I

concentrate on the most - might be different for others depending on what character classes

they play). I consider these to be the most vital to a PLD. Also, don't neglect your foods

either. At low lvl's go with Boiled Crayfish, and as you advance go buy some Boiled Crab or

Fish Mithkabobs (gil willing of course). No PLD should be without at least some type of food

enhancers. This job class will seem a bit costly, as you'll have to keep your equipement

up-to-date at later levels for the tougher mobs, as well as keep a steady supply of foods

and be able to buy some scrolls on top of all that. Don't get discouraged though, it isn't

as bad as it sounds...just farm for gil every once in awhile and you'll be fine. You'll

probably face a lot of deaths early on, but that's the life of a PLD...sacrificing himself

for the good of the party.

Also check up on these types of sites to learn the

various styles of gameplay that other people implement....hate control, which is beneficial

to a PLD, what armors to use at certain lvl's, food stats, etc. I know it's helped me to

become a better PLD overall. So good luck to you, and welcome to the ranks of the noble PLD

class....safe journeys.

[Christina]

Being

a hume, I didn't find much problem leveling up to 30 with warrior to get the paladin job.

(Compared to leveling a white mage to 10, it was a cakewalk.)

I absolutely love being

a paladin and I'm glad I picked this to focus on because it just keeps getting better.

Being a hume paladin has a good MP advantage and a good balance of stats to get you going.



One of the best features though is the level of responsibility in a party. Being a

warrior/monk previously, I did do tanking, but was limited to what I could do without having

curative magic to help control hate. When engaged in battle, I don't have time to chat or

pay attention to what's going on in my linkshell...My energy is focused on keeping the

hate. From my first provoke until the enemy falls, besides just keeping hate, I'm keeping

an eye on who needs healing, skillchain, bombing or special attack that I need to break,

where the enemy is facing and if trick attack and sneak attack are going to be used to be

sure I have a provoke ready to pull off.

There's just so much more than being

someone's meat shield...not to mention we look awesome in our AF armor.

So if

you're looking for complete melee interactiveness...go for the paladin.

[Zaris]

Elvans and

Humes can be really good Paladins. After all the quest for the job is offered in Sandoria.

My idea is that whereas Humes hold higher MP than Elves, Elves can take the blows more

because of hightened Vitality, albeit the difference may not be too drastic. I've partied

with several elvan paladins in my younger levels and they have ups and downs. Go for what

you feel like. Note that Humes are not statistically curved at certain factors as all the

other races are (Vitality, Strength, Mind) and that really is the only weakness I find in

being a Hume Paladin. Sometimes I wish my INT factor could be rewired to Vitality or Mind

without that ugly blue minus sign next to that stat.

[Einmel]

Along

the way, don't be discouraged by people talking about how ninjas are better tanks. I let

that happen to me, and have put my level 22 paladin away for some time.

It didn't

at first, until a ninja showed me up at my own job. Eh. And by showing me up, I mean the PT

automatically said they wanted the ninja to be main tank over me. Nothing like being put out

of my job.

So I took a step back as a backup healer. ;/ It was quite humiliating, but

the exp was great so I stuck around anyway. There were 3 mages, (2 blm and 1 whm) and no one

really died. Though I was frustrated when they wanted me to provoke and they saw that it

still didn't get the thing's attention when it was needed (well duh, if I don't have hate

built up, a provoke isn't going to do the trick) but whatever, no one died.

Also,

when you do your paladin quest, invisible and sneak is very very nice to have. And try to

make it so that you have enough buffer so that when you get to that well, the notorious

monster that'll more than likely be there waiting for you, kills you AFTER you've gotten

your knight's soul. ;D

[Gilthanos]

I'm

an Elvaan Paladin obviously by my bio, and I've loved every minute of it. Soloing in the

beginning is alot easier due to the increase in defense, and as you were saying, taking on

toughs at the lower lvls were really easy. There wasn't much that could stand up to me in

W Ronfaure even at lvl 5. Healing yourself after combat and during combat was a HUGE plus

for me. It also slowed down the healing process afterwards. Later on down the road, people

are gonna be swarming you with invites because everyone needs a tank and paladins are still

the best tanks that there can be. Downside is that in order to be a good tank...you need to

spend alot of money to keep your armor and accessories up to date. Spells also cost a

pretty penny. But to me it is all worth it. Respect level is enormous as well. People

love seeing a high level Paladin walking around. Hope that this helps some.

[loial]

Just to

add to Einmel's comment:

I was grouping in Crawler's last weekend with my PLD, and

one member had to leave, and a 35ish Taru NIN/WAR (he was rank 10, so I'll assume he was a

JP).

Talk about humiliating. The THF would trick to the little Taru while I stand

there and hack away and just be useless.

However, the NIN could NOT keep aggro on

him. And, the one time he failed to get off blink... bam bam BAM dead.

Poor little

guy died 3 times that day. The mages and myself couldn't get off the cures fast enough.



At one point our puller linked a crawler and brought back two. I just kept one

crawler at bay w/ all the hate on me while we all hacked on the other one. I'd like to see

a NIN do that!

I think it is commonly accepted that blink-tanks can have a greater

"return" of XP but also carry a much greater risk. It's all balanced out.

[demix]

PLD are

what i'm hoping to become in 7 more levels but I am still unsure. Being the one to die

isn't really fun to me after dying so many times and deleveling at least 3 times. I have a

lot of respect for Paladins so maybe I will want that kind of honor as well and pick it =P

[Claritin]

I

really don't die that much... lvl 44 PLD and Sometimes I go days without dying a single

time.

Surround yourself with a WHM/BLM, RDM/WHM, BLM/WHM and you can't go wrong ;-)

You can even swap out the RDM or BLM with a BRD/WHM and still be really really safe.



The trick is not to let the group leader over look healing power.... you don't want

to be 100% focused on healing.. but having someone act as backup.

The big prob as a

PLD is taking weapon skill hits.
If you Cure III yourself.. WHM casts Cure III and a

backup healer casts Cure II you just gained like 450 HPs.... you are ready to take another

monster of a hit almost instantly.

Too many people think 1 healer is enough... it is

... but only if you have a RDM/WHM, BLM/WHM, or BRD/WHM to help out.. and it's better to

have 2 of them.

[loial]

As a PLD,

I insist the group leader either be myself, or the main healer. Usually I can gauge after a

few kills what the group can and cannot handle.

Considering that you, the PLD, are

on the frontline, its your a$$ on the line. I cannot stand when the puller goofs and brings

back 3+ mobs to the group rather than just taking the death himself. Or if he by accident

aggros something we just cannot kill. Mind you, I give pullers a lot of credit themselves.

If they mess up and we got a BLM to escape out, I'll grab all the aggro I can and take the

beating till we escape out.

Otherwise, as the PLD, you have to speak up if you are

not ready, or if you don't think others are ready. If you have a good main healer in the

group, they will hold the puller from bringing back other mobs. You are better off losing

the exp chain than dying.

But the bottomline is... you have to become numb to dying.

It is inevitable, it will happen. Whether it by your fault because you goofed on curing

yourself, or the main healer didn't heal you fast enough... you just have to bite your lip

and go at it again.

Your group will chalk you up as a good PLD and a good friend when

you do.

[Ivven]

Paladins,

ah how I love my job. Actually for a while I thought I might stay war/monk, and actually for

a while I almost switched back until I grabbed my GS and tossed it on my PLD, (I've got a

thing for GS I think)

Seriously though give it a few more levels, you might discover

you don't really like tanking, then again you might discover paladin is just the thing for

you, you've got lots of time yet. Paladins don't do great damage but we take damage

instead, and you must become very good and very fast at holding and grabbing agro.

Positioning in a group is often vital.

Hume's make good paladins, true their HP is

lower but they have higher mp, their vit isn't quite as high as Galka or Elvaan but they

can still make a good tank. Galka have impressive vit and staggering hp, but their mp is

very low and sometimes (unless you are a talented player) this can be rough when trying to

hold agro. I've seen Taru pld's a few times, high mp, low hp... this combo seems to work

well with a pld/whm (as the taru I'm thinking of was, in fact) but don't underestimate a

taru as pld either. Myself, I like to play Elvaan pld because I think they're rather made

for the job...they have lower mp than a Hume but higher than a Galka, and usually enough to

grab the agro relatively easy. They have good hp and good vit, the only down fall is their

agi is very bad (Elvaans don't have the best agi to begin with) however, a few equipment

modifiers help this problem.

Anyway those are my thoughts, so good luck whatever you

chose to do ^^

[Ivven]

Oh I

should mention, Mithra make good balanced pld's as well, I've never actually had the

chance to see one yet, but I know they're out there. They have a much higher mp and hit

rate than an Elvaan but hp and vit about the same as a Hume, just another thought.

[elixer]

I've

posted here like once before but I am a tarutaru 35PLD/WAR ^^ and yeah taru doesn't make

the best tank as everyone says but it's fun