Paladin or Cleric?

[Rithm Fluffderg]

I got my Oathbound Paladin to level 10 and while I'm having fun, part of me is having a grass-is-greener moment with the idea that maybe Cleric would be *more* fun. I am quite a fan of casters, and while the Paladin abilities are neat, the Cleric's might be... neat-er?

I'm not interested in power level, unless Cleric happens to be underpowered. And I'd be playing them differently anyways, so it's not a matter of "which one is the better healer?"

Advice?

[Wolverine]

Well, level 1-60 might be fun to play a Cleric, but when the grind starts with level 61 and doing all those vigilance quests...

Or when you reach level 70 at last, and you have to go through the campaign areas Dread Ring and Sharandar, a Cleric will have a harder time then an Oathbound Paladin.

Not to mention Icewind Dale and Well of Dragons...

And your Oathbound Paladin skilled into Protection will be able to stand his ground and still be able to dish out some decent damage as well.

My personal "score", 3 OP with protection path but each with different feats, and only 2 DC, that i rarely play...

To satisfy the caster in you, try a Control Wizard, path Master of Flame and Renegade feats.

[Rithm Fluffderg]

I actually have a Scourge Warlock going, too.

I still think I want to do Cleric. I'm gonna be honest... if I make it to level 60 with anybody before getting distracted, it will be a miracle. And if I make it to level 60 with Cleric, then the further grind will be worth it.

[ytre]

DC - DO paragon for party protection and boss debuff and own dps boosts
DC - AC paragon for own survival and party speedup

top feat path of DC is simply two things: (too lazy to cast healer)
a) an OP booster build with gift of haste
b) HoT bonuses

middle feat path of DC is other stuff: (blindfolded on-demand healer)
a) untargetted heals delivery with gift of faith
b) burst heal bonuses
c) faster divinity building for more blue weapon mode spam

bottom feat path of DC is a beast (the pain in the back, help yourself not really a healer)
a) touch me for some DoT
b) DoT you for more debuffs
c) stay in range to so I make you weaker

middle + AC might be of OP survival competition
the rest is just too different
bottom + DO is a PvE party multiplier built to serve the top GS party members while those around 2k GS will hate you for "not healing" cause they can't shell the dmg to use the heal yourself astral seal for any greavious wounds.

also cast times... any caster = takes too long to deliver dps. and besides that. DC got no instant dps even when you pick the feats. before going dps you have to work fulltime rotations to build the weakness chain.

i'm DC - DO bottom...
insults in epics quite often from the freshmans.
just learn to quit when either no OP is around or ILVL of others below 3k it's gonna fail anyway. learn to recognize and make it fail quick and painless.

on the other hand there are friend requests from the high end GS desperate players looking for either dps or debuff with a touch of survival. when played right i'm the definition of "epic" cutting the completition times to a piece of cake.

yet solo endgame campaigns? hell no. i need buddy to carry both me and my companion through even the basic 70ish campaign stuff all the time before i'm full beast spec with half campaign boons in more beastly stuff and gs over 2.2k then i might have chance to survive not all of the basic campaign grind on my own.

[Rithm Fluffderg]

Maybe I'll just stick with Paladin after all.

[Wolverine]

Well, it's easy to get an Oathbound Paladin ready for the campaign areas, just buy rare armor from the AH, get the artifact main-hand weapon from Spinward Rise and the artifact off-hand weapon from Sgt. Knox, add a few rank 5+ enchantments... and you're good to go.

No real need for armor/weapon enchantments or a full set of artifacts/class sigils. You can pick up better armor from the Underdark vendor, better rings from demonic heroic encounters/skirmishes, and artifacts from seasonal events or campaign lair drops.

And if the rare equipment from the AH provides power, then the questing won't take too long either. And where another class might need a healer companion as support, you can use a damage dealing one probably the whole time.

As mentioned in another thread, try your luck with getting an epic companion from this year Winter Festival. Either from the gifts for free, or check the AH for cheap ones...