A bit furstrated with my favorite class. The Paladin..some help.

[Torm51]

So just for the fun of it I assaulted Readrics Keep and went straight to the front door.  I always play on PotD so there is obviously a lot of bad guys.  One issue I have always had with my Paladin is the lack of being able to do ANYTHING if the frontline is somehow bi passed.  I obviously remedy this by having a melee heavy group but he just feel USELESS if the frontline is somehow breached as his damage dealing capabilities even when he is speced for some damage isn't very good and there is obviously no threat mechanic in the game.  The Paladin gets no knock down or any type of CC to try and help buddies disengage. I have re made my Paladin 100000 times and even if you have the Paladin with 20 PER in the early game and somewhat still in the late game his damage after FoD is neglible.  ACC is so average that even with a 20 PER its still so so.  If I was the AI I just wouldn't pay any attention to the Paladin and leave him for last.  My disengagement attacks do hit hard as I always have good might but it still wouldn't be enough if the AI made a concentrated effort at getting to the backline. 

 

That being said if my frontline is solid he is AWESOME.

Edited December 17, 2015 by Torm51

[Boeroer]

Readric's Keep comes early - every class that hadn't the chance to pick any +dmg or/and +ACC talents and has no inherent modifiers like rogue or cipher will perform like that. A chanter would have the exact same problem. A fighter would have more ACC, but also wouldn't do a ton of damage.

So I would say this is pretty normal. I always go trhough the front door in Readric's Keep and try to kill every hostile being because of all the loot (=money). When I have a tanky paladin I use chokepoints. I don't like that strategy too much but at this poinbt in the game the only thing a paladin does good is tanking and supporting, so...

 

A barb is even worse at this point. Hitting nothing, doing miniscule AoE damage if he hits and falling on his face all the time.

 

I find a paladin is doing ok melee damage with an enchanted heavy one hander and a small shield plus the generic +dmg-talents like Vuln. Attack and so on.

I even had two of these in the frontline. The encounters' durations go up for sure, but at the same time your buddies don't go KO a lot.  

[Torm51]

Readric's Keep comes early - every class that hadn't the chance to pick any +dmg or/and +ACC talents and has no inherent modifiers like rogue or cipher will perform like that. A chanter would have the exact same problem. A fighter would have more ACC, but also wouldn't do a ton of damage.

So I would say this is pretty normal. I always go trhough the front door in Readric's Keep and try to kill every hostile being because of all the loot (=money). When I have a tanky paladin I use chokepoints. I don't like that strategy too much but at this poinbt in the game the only thing a paladin does good is tanking and supporting, so...

 

A barb is even worse at this point. Hitting nothing, doing miniscule AoE damage if he hits and falling on his face all the time.

 

I find a paladin is doing ok melee damage with an enchanted heavy one hander and a small shield plus the generic +dmg-talents like Vuln. Attack and so on.

I even had two of these in the frontline. The encounters' durations go up for sure, but at the same time your buddies don't go KO a lot.  

I know it.  Chanter and Barb are worse off at that point as the Chanter isn't as sturdy as the Paladin and the Barb cannot hit a damn thing and is dirt napping.  I have beaten this game on the highest difficulty and on ToI but those Paladins in the early game have always given me a hard time.  I wish my Paladin was that effective in the early game.  I would LOVE to see the attribute points on those Paladins of Berath have though.  Are they higher level? cause they have ALWAYS been super tough and even a character with high Deflection gets hit A lot by them.  They are super tanks (they are Paladins) have a very good ACC (which Paladins usually don't have that early) and have Zealous Focus, FoD and LoH

Edited December 17, 2015 by Torm51

[Torm51]

I am trying to improve the early game experience as it is always a slog on PotD.  For a Paladin even a 20 PER (so +10 ACC) and ZF is not enough for him to hit consistently.  I end going one handed weapon only for my dps slot early just for the ACC.

[Boeroer]

I think the paladins in Raedric's Keep are of higher level, yes. But I don't know for sure. What also makes them hard to kill when you're of low level is their fat armor.

 

Fighters are good in early game, so are rogues. And ciphers, too. I see not much room for a paladin to improve at such a low level. He has Lay on Hands though, which is really good from the beginning - even more so with high MIG and INT.

 

Edit: forgot monks - really good at low levels, too. You can have Torment's Reach from the beginning, It really makes a big difference on low levels when you compare it to the things other classes can pick at low levels.

Edited December 17, 2015 by Boeroer

[Torm51]

Agreed monks at low level ( and all for that matter) are really good cause of tormen's reach.  They also aren't as soft as a rogue.

[mosspit]

I think it's just a balance thing. They are already plenty decent in the other categories of support, tank and dps. But yeah who knows, WM2 might introduce new awesome stuff like Sacred Immolation

[Nixl]

 

Readric's Keep comes early - every class that hadn't the chance to pick any +dmg or/and +ACC talents and has no inherent modifiers like rogue or cipher will perform like that. A chanter would have the exact same problem. A fighter would have more ACC, but also wouldn't do a ton of damage.

So I would say this is pretty normal. I always go trhough the front door in Readric's Keep and try to kill every hostile being because of all the loot (=money). When I have a tanky paladin I use chokepoints. I don't like that strategy too much but at this poinbt in the game the only thing a paladin does good is tanking and supporting, so...

 

A barb is even worse at this point. Hitting nothing, doing miniscule AoE damage if he hits and falling on his face all the time.

 

I find a paladin is doing ok melee damage with an enchanted heavy one hander and a small shield plus the generic +dmg-talents like Vuln. Attack and so on.

I even had two of these in the frontline. The encounters' durations go up for sure, but at the same time your buddies don't go KO a lot.  

I know it.  Chanter and Barb are worse off at that point as the Chanter isn't as sturdy as the Paladin and the Barb cannot hit a damn thing and is dirt napping.  I have beaten this game on the highest difficulty and on ToI but those Paladins in the early game have always given me a hard time.  I wish my Paladin was that effective in the early game.  I would LOVE to see the attribute points on those Paladins of Berath have though.  Are they higher level? cause they have ALWAYS been super tough and even a character with high Deflection gets hit A lot by them.  They are super tanks (they are Paladins) have a very good ACC (which Paladins usually don't have that early) and have Zealous Focus, FoD and LoH

 

Do you have a priest in the mix? I found a Priest made the Raedric fight rather easy with repulsion seal (AoE knockdown) and accuracy buffs early on, even on PotD.  At that early to mid level, Priest and Barbarian make a good pair, because carnage becomes far more consistent with Priest buffs.  What made the fight even easier, was that I got the firebrand glove for my barbarian from Defiance Bay.  The result was a lot of AoE fire damage via carnage.   

Edited December 18, 2015 by Nixl

[Torm51]

 

 

Readric's Keep comes early - every class that hadn't the chance to pick any +dmg or/and +ACC talents and has no inherent modifiers like rogue or cipher will perform like that. A chanter would have the exact same problem. A fighter would have more ACC, but also wouldn't do a ton of damage.

So I would say this is pretty normal. I always go trhough the front door in Readric's Keep and try to kill every hostile being because of all the loot (=money). When I have a tanky paladin I use chokepoints. I don't like that strategy too much but at this poinbt in the game the only thing a paladin does good is tanking and supporting, so...

 

A barb is even worse at this point. Hitting nothing, doing miniscule AoE damage if he hits and falling on his face all the time.

 

I find a paladin is doing ok melee damage with an enchanted heavy one hander and a small shield plus the generic +dmg-talents like Vuln. Attack and so on.

I even had two of these in the frontline. The encounters' durations go up for sure, but at the same time your buddies don't go KO a lot.  

I know it.  Chanter and Barb are worse off at that point as the Chanter isn't as sturdy as the Paladin and the Barb cannot hit a damn thing and is dirt napping.  I have beaten this game on the highest difficulty and on ToI but those Paladins in the early game have always given me a hard time.  I wish my Paladin was that effective in the early game.  I would LOVE to see the attribute points on those Paladins of Berath have though.  Are they higher level? cause they have ALWAYS been super tough and even a character with high Deflection gets hit A lot by them.  They are super tanks (they are Paladins) have a very good ACC (which Paladins usually don't have that early) and have Zealous Focus, FoD and LoH

 

Do you have a priest in the mix? I found a Priest made the Raedric fight rather easy with repulsion seal (AoE knockdown) and accuracy buffs early on, even on PotD.  At that early to mid level, Priest and Barbarian make a good pair, because carnage becomes far more consistent with Priest buffs.  What made the fight even easier, was that I got the firebrand glove for my barbarian from Defiance Bay.  The result was a lot of AoE fire damage via carnage.   

 

Defintiely had a priest and I defeinitely use the KD seal.  I won the fight for sure its just a struggle in the early game.  Even if you Knock down the Paladins they have Plate on.  Really heavy DR that early in the game is tough to beat.  But I won

[Raven Darkholme]

The paladins at Readrics are not tough because they do a lot of damage tho, but because they are hard to kill. Take away the priest who heals them and they are a lot less scary.

Also they are 2 paladins vs your one paladin.

[Kaylon]

In PotD all creatures have their stats artificially boosted, thus it's not possible to replicate them with a normal build at the same level.

[PrimeJunta]

Yeah, the paladin is one of those classes which only really comes into its own later. An aura + high defences + stacked fire damage + Lay On Hand + some other cool exhortation + usual combat talents adds up to a really nice all-around class, a tank which also does serious spike damage, buffs, and supports. 

 

But at early levels it's most definitely meh.

 

I usually defer Raedric's Keep a bit simply because before level 5 or so the fights are just tedious, very micromanage-y and/or I need to rest more than I'd like. But then it's also possible I just suck. (And yes, I also like to murder everyone for their armour.)