(New Player) Paladin Tank

[Akiba101]

Hey!

 

I finally got round to buying POE, big fan of other games of the genre. 

 

I've always enjoyed playing a Paladin in role-playing games, I love the idea of a Paladin Tank but am unsure of the stat distribution I should go with. Playing on HARD difficulty, I'm very much interested in a MIN-MAX approach, at the moment i'm doing the prologue with a distribution of:

 

M:10

C:15

D:8

P:10

I: 15

R:20

 

I took it off one of the other threads I read, I'm unsure about DEX and INT levels. Conversation, Will Defence and Aura Range aside I'm honestly not sure what advantages INT gives me. I feel some points in INT would go better towards CON or MIGHT. Additionally I'm unsure if it might be better if I dump DEX entirely.

 

Just looking for advice/thoughts anything would be appreciated.

 

Thanks

[Blades of Vanatar]

If you are going solo Int is not that great. Parties on the other hand will be enhanced big time by your Auras. You can dump dex but why? What are you looking to trade Dex for? Might or Per?

[Ymarsakar]

I recommend 15 might and 10 con, reverse that, because your lay on hands is another endurance pool, and might increases your lay on hands, which can be used 2 per encounter.

 

High might paladins are pretty fun because I don't need really large auras with a high int nor a high resolve for the conversation options that shortcuts through some quests. Dex can be lowered for a two handed weapon build, as it won't decrease the number of attacks substantially. 3-4 hits decreased by 10% is still 3-4 hits, whereas faster weapons can hit 9+ times in the same time period, so decreasing 9 by 10% is pretty noticeable in shorter fights.

 

The paladin abilities are also zero recovery, so dex would only slightly increase the animation movement frames. Dexterity or action speeds reduce the time of all animation cycles.

 

If you role play a main player paladin, you can get 6 deflection and 12 defenses. That's like 6 points of extra resolve.

 

INT increases the number of ticks for lay on hands, potentially increasing the total amount healed. As well as the size of your auras, which are modal abilities. There are items that increase your aura range as well.

Edited October 17, 2015 by Ymarsakar

[Nobear]

Welcome!

 

I will link this post I made and still stand by as far as paladin tank stats. Though, as Ymarsakar points out, there are some advantages to prioritizing Might over Con to the degree that he suggests. One thing I didn't justify in that post: the reason I suggest dumped Dex is that

 

1) A paladin tank won't be doing high DPS anyway, so he will get less mileage from DPS boosters as your DPS-focused party members will. Conversely, he will get more mileage from things that boost his tanking ability.

 

2) Even as DPS-boosting stats go, a paladin's abilities are mostly Per Encounter, so you'll mostly be limited by the number of times you can use them in the encounter, not by how little Dex you have. For instance, you'll only be doing two Flames of Devotion per encounter, whether you have 3 Dex or 20 Dex. Those two Flames, however, will hit harder with a bit more Might, and your healing will also be benefitted by Might.

[Vorad]

After toying around with paladin myself for a while and taking under account some of the advice I would suggest as already mentioned get max Might. The main reason being all your skills scale off might and since you'll be wearing full plate armor most of your damage will come from abilities and not from weapon swings so you don't really need any dexterity or even perception for what matters. Flames of devotion and Sacred Immolation(you could pick Scion of Flame to buff this since it will be your main source of dps in lategame) also you can run with some extra lore and spam scrolls for example Fan of Flames etc(or Maelstorm at lore 10 later on). If you choose moon goodlike(which I would consider) then your racial ability which is a really nice heal at 25%, 50%, 75% endurance benefits from might as well. If you plan to play with a group then having max intellect will benefit your party as well. If you go solo then you could run with base 10 intellect. Personally I haven't soloed on paladin I always play in group. So the main idea is build as defensive as you can but make sure to max your might since your abilities/scrolls benefit from that and that's where your damage as paladin will come from.

 

Group paladin, moon goodlike:

Mig 18

Con 15

Dex 4

Per 3

Int 20(vailian + racial = max)

Res 18

*In a party you'll be using the accuracy aura so the - accuracy from perception is not a big issue.

 

Solo moon goodlike paladin

Mig 19(+1 background)

Con 15

Dex 4

Per 12

Int 10

Res 18

*You could also pick a coastal Aumaua for a max 21 starting Might and some nice bonus vs stun and prone but you'll miss on the self heal both are viable I think.