Chants  

Greetings!

I salute my fellow Pally below from Igraine. I, am also a Paladin, lvl 50, from Igraine.

I agree with most of what he says below except for the fact that he should point out that he is a “Defensive” Paladin. Defensive Pallys are great, my first Pally was a defensive one, but I only went 30 (Rez) in chants so I could have the points necessary to max Slash (ammy/ Diamond slash combo at 50 is arguably the best all around style in the game), get 42 Shield for the awesome Slam, stun and get a reasonable amount of Parry at 25. This worked pretty well for general leveling and PvE. Sword and Board Pallies are good for this, solo or group support. With the arrival of the Endurance chant, we were the most popular melee class.

Once at 50 things change. You are not 50 long before you realize something is missing. Up until this point you win most mob battles like you win most duels; attrition. You do, comparatively, pretty lame melee damage compared to other classes, while wearing the enemy down with your superior defense and almost inexhaustible endurance. This takes time. Time is exactly what you haven’t got in RvR.

If you go into RvR at 50 thinkin you are going to go toe to toe with other tanks and slug it out – your mistaken. While this might happen, rarely, most battles are over before you can twist 2 or 3 times. Contrary to most lower level belief we do not target opposing Tanks, we target opposing Casters. Any chance your group has of winning is based upon how fast you can kill the Casters. It is quite common to run right past and through opposing tanks in our mutual effort to get to and neutralize the Casters.

Talking to higher level pallies for a moment; we know that RvR battles make a defensive setup almost useless. Unless you personally like being an S&S Pally, then go right ahead and make yourself happy, but the golden rule of RvR is damage! As fast as possible. It is over almost before it begins, how much damage can you do and quickly? Our Chant? Yes they are useful, but not as useful in RvR where lvl 50’s shower each other with far superior buffs way above our chant capability. Our Battle damage add is useful, but way less then a Wizzys damage buff, our Shield chant is useful but much less then a clerics, etc. Refreshment? No time. The finest of all RA abilities available to Pallies may be FH. Certainly everyone respects that, an instant group heal. Get it as fast as possible at 50.

So what do we do? We don’t need to level, and except for looting for badly needed cash and quests, we don’t care about leveling experiences within the Realm. Well first of all I looked around. Most pallies coming to 50 are Sword and Board it’s true. As I have said before and written elsewhere, have you ever noticed that every NPC Pally in the game is 2H? 2H is also available to Armsmen, but why would they when they have Polearm, the most damaging melee force in our Realm? No I think 2H is specifically for Paladins, the same 2H that all out trainers are sporting. While you could certainly argue for S&S for leveling in Realm, once your done with leveling and given the requirements of RvR – go 2H.

Look at the sense it makes; as a S&S Pally you are starved for points between all your abilities. As a 2H pally you can finally (if like me and many others you didn’t) raise your Chants to 46 (me) or even 48 should you choose so and still have enough left to be very effective. Everyone knows that with items and equipment you can easily raise almost any attribute beyond 50. Especially in these days of SC. You only train in the actual ability to get its styles, not its benefits which are obtained by being that lvl. (fighting stlyes, shield, parry etc.)
Remember, your lvl in base damage style (slash, Crush, Thrust) sets your minimum damage. Your lvl in your specialty style (2H, Pole, LB, Crit etc.) sets your % of chance to do maximum damage.

Damage? Ha! 2H does approx. 3 times the damage of 1H Pally. There are regular reports of 2H Pallys who, if their Style damage coupled with their weapon procc and crit damage all hit together get 500 damage with one stroke!

Don’t change yet, try this little experiment; We all have spare spec points when reaching 50. Use a couple only to get the first base 2H style (Half Moon at lvl 2). The run up to the Pennines , S of Berks and kill Ash, for Ash’s one time drop. This gives you a great 2H weapon to experiment with (you’ll keep it). Next go hit some Ylws, then some Blues, keep a small record of the damage using your normal weapon. Ok, so set up another Q bar for the 2H, weapon damage procc and chants etc (more room on bar too, 1 will do). Then hit those same mobs again? If, like many of us, you have obtained a range of 2H weapons in your travels from Dsoldiers, AC etc. you can have some fun comparing. I used the brigands in Dartmoor for this, nice easy camp for chain pulls.

Tell you what you’ll find out, without the use of some super SC weapon, you’ll find you do as much damage AND sometimes more with 2H are you are doing with your massively trained 1H. This is the most basic 2H style and its damage is CAPPED by Mythic as a starter style! Mythic has constantly stated that you only need ¾ training in an ability to get full use from it giving you even more spec points to use. My ideal 2H spec? 39Slash (52 with items) 39 2H (Doubler last very useful style, 50 with items) 46 Chants and 25 Parry (34 with items). Although a fiend of mine prefers 44Slash, 442H. Make the choice you prefer.

There’s a lot more, Pallys can be as complicated as you wish to make them and definatley the most complicated melee class along with Infils, but I’ve bored ya enough.

Then beyond FH, forget blocking and other slow defenses – get MOA, Master of Arms ya! Swing that geart high damage weapon like it’s a dagger and wipe your enemies. Beyond saving 3.5 plat for your Armor, 1plt for your weapon – your ready to go! Assist your group and be a real force for Albion.

GL all, I wish you well.

Graywandir, lvl 50
The Lion-Hearted
Albion, Igraine

nope lol no point at all. I am only gonna take chants to 45 but some take it to 46 just for the dmg chant. there is really no point in taking it over 46 though

Resists boost your resists. For example mind boosts your resistance against spirit. So you would use this to help against mezz. Then say if you are at a Dragon raid, use heat resist to boost against heat damage. That is what the resists are for.

Kyros Dragoon
Tristan

For some reason the heal chant doesn't have an icon. Don't worry, it's still going strong. I almost always use this one alone to maintain the agro on me, and if i don't die or zone, it will stay on for hours. As for the low level guy that said his group wasn't getting the heal chant....they have to look at the upper text box to see it's effect, not look for an icon.

Cool name ;)

Is it like bards in EQ twisting songs?

Sorry to use an EQ example but I was curious.