Questions on Paladin Leveling: 20-30

[JCarrill0]

Also check out THIS Thread.

[tobor]

Oh yeah, holy can also do some limited "AOE farming", just don't pull too much at once. Divine Favor is extremely useful for that, and in general as well. Timed well, you can regularly use it as an "extra life" without invoking the longer cooldowns of the bubbles or just recover quickly without using too much mana. All three trees are viable for leveling so pick any one you like. Holy = better survivability, more efficient healing, Holy Shock. Prot = AOE grinding and tanking. Ret = single target damage and Seal of Casino.

Also on SotC, I went digging again, and some people on Allakhazam say that the damage penalty is actually 5/7 so about 30%. Some others say 0.6x which is what I remember but can't prove. Some posts on Allakhazam imply that there was a buff to it around 1.12, don't know if it was a major or minor one, sources seem to conflict on that. And yet another post implies that it was nerfed/fixed sometime after 1.12 but before 2.0. So I don't know the specifics but I believe there should be a damage penalty - of some sort, but definitely not one that stacks up the more you swing. ED had that and it was pure conjecture based on the vague wording on the spell. The issue has been brought up on Nostalrius' bugtracker but seems unresolved.

[Kazarak]

Update: I've been playing this toon on and off for awhile now when I get tired of getting ganked on my main. I'm up to level 24 now and really liking the Paladin's ability to not die.

For talents, I got Consecration for my first 11 points and I've been throwing my extra points into IBoM with the plan on getting ISotC. But honestly, I spend most of my time with BoW up and not BoM. I'm thinking about respecing and going straight Holy if I want to multi-pull.

For single target killing I find it's much more efficient to not use Consecration, use BoM and SotC and wade in. I hardly use any mana and either heal myself between fights or just bandage and push on.

For multiple targets, I use BoW, SotC and spam Consecration, but this usually leaves me OOM and half health, so I spend a lot of time eating and drinking.

I tried going sword and board with Aura of Protection to see if that helped with the damage mitigation, but I killed things so slowly that I ended up taking more damage from mobs hitting me longer and using more mana from having to cast Consecration more often.

In the end, I'm finding that for mid-20's, it's fastest to use Retribution Aura, BoM, SotC, a two-hander and single pull until I have to sit down. Having Consecration ready to go for multiple mobs is still a great ace in the hole, but it's too mana intensive to use for every fight.

[Kazarak]

I'm currently 29. I'm still focusing mostly on single target DPS while soloing as it seems more mana efficient in the long run. That has more to do with gear than anything else as I have a great zwei-hander from Gnomer and no decent one-hander: http://db.vanillagaming.org/?item=9449

Speaking of Gnomer, AoE tanking is balls! I was topping our DPS meters every time I pulled more that a single mob - and that's with a crap weapon. Consecration is an amazing spell - I can't emphasis that enough! The lack of a taunt was a pain though. I kept having to remind the DPS'ers that if/when they pulled agro to run into the light. It was fun tanking all the way through Gnomer as a level 27 Paladin with only a couple of wipes on the last hallway. And they doubted me!

For tanking, I normally popped SotC, and Consecration and just went to town. For bosses, it would be SotC, JotC as an opener, SotC, and Consecration.

As for soloing, the last half dozen levels have all been in Duskwood. That's another reason for the single target focus: It's hard to AoE farm level 27/28/29 skeletons and ghouls as a level 24/25 Paladin! Still, I could handle 2 or 3 of them at a time with Consecration and full bars; but I would blow my cool-downs, have to pop a health potion, and be OOM and 10% life by the end. That caused a bit of down time.

For soloing, I just kept SotC up, used Exorcism whenever it was available, and Consecration whenever I had adds.

For both tanking and soloing, pulling with Rough Dynamite was always helpful! Oftentimes I could get single pulls that I couldn't have otherwise gotten with just wading in.

Here's my current build: http://db.vanillagaming.org/?talent#sxxzZZxco My next few points are going into Seal of Command and Pursuit of Justice. After that I'll probably start working down the Holy tree. I also want to do some DPS comparisons between SotC and SoC when I get both.

[smilkovpetko]

I'm currently 29. I'm still focusing mostly on single target DPS while soloing as it seems more mana efficient in the long run. That has more to do with gear than anything else as I have a great zwei-hander from Gnomer and no decent one-hander: http://db.vanillagaming.org/?item=9449

Speaking of Gnomer, AoE tanking is balls! I was topping our DPS meters every time I pulled more that a single mob - and that's with a crap weapon. Consecration is an amazing spell - I can't emphasis that enough! The lack of a taunt was a pain though. I kept having to remind the DPS'ers that if/when they pulled agro to run into the light. It was fun tanking all the way through Gnomer as a level 27 Paladin with only a couple of wipes on the last hallway. And they doubted me!

For tanking, I normally popped SotC, and Consecration and just went to town. For bosses, it would be SotC, JotC as an opener, SotC, and Consecration.

As for soloing, the last half dozen levels have all been in Duskwood. That's another reason for the single target focus: It's hard to AoE farm level 27/28/29 skeletons and ghouls as a level 24/25 Paladin! Still, I could handle 2 or 3 of them at a time with Consecration and full bars; but I would blow my cool-downs, have to pop a health potion, and be OOM and 10% life by the end. That caused a bit of down time.

For soloing, I just kept SotC up, used Exorcism whenever it was available, and Consecration whenever I had adds.

For both tanking and soloing, pulling with Rough Dynamite was always helpful! Oftentimes I could get single pulls that I couldn't have otherwise gotten with just wading in.

Here's my current build: http://db.vanillagaming.org/?talent#sxxzZZxco My next few points are going into Seal of Command and Pursuit of Justice. After that I'll probably start working down the Holy tree. I also want to do some DPS comparisons between SotC and SoC when I get both.

You could use my SM tanking videos as example , it might answer on your questions .

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