Can a paladin Tank ?

Originally posted by Lord.Bachus

Can a paladin Tank ?

 

Paladin can tank for sure. Depends of course on your build and what you want to do with one, but with their AC aura they can get a good AC for sure. I have a paladin/fighter who kind of tanked AC but went with intim, good melee and Damage reduction while blocking to make up for lower AC. With a high DR you can mitigate a lot of the incoming damage and not be a drain on the cleric for heals.

I was not so much referring to damage mitigation and armorclass, i wasmore referring to keeping agro, which is just as important as mitigation.

Originally posted by Lord.Bachus

I was not so much referring to damage mitigation and armorclass, i wasmore referring to keeping agro, which is just as important as mitigation.

I have played DDO for some months now and I still dont really know how aggro works, but if you put points in the Intimidate skill and use it to get aggro you should be fine. Also note that there is collision detection so you can stop monsters from getting to your casters/healers by for example standing in a doorway so they cant get past. Hold down shift for active blocking aswell.

Originally posted by Lord.Bachus

I was not so much referring to damage mitigation and armorclass, i wasmore referring to keeping agro, which is just as important as mitigation.

DDO is not your typical MMO with keeping agro and what not, because say a wizzard that has very low negociation skill will shoot something once and will grab agro instantly. then you have the intimidate that you need to get agro or high damage.

but like someone said. DDO is not purely your simple tank dps healer game. you have many other attributes that are usefull and/or usless in different circumstances. a rogue is useless in an undead dungeon but is extremely usefull in a dungeon with traps and secrets. ranger good for large open duneons etc... each class has its uses and abilities

Originally posted by Lord.Bachus

I was not so much referring to damage mitigation and armorclass, i wasmore referring to keeping agro, which is just as important as mitigation.

If you do not have a way to lessen incoming damage then your tank will fail. You need two things as a tank, A way to hold aggro and a way to lessen damage. You can go super high HP but the class that gets the most(Barbarian) is not at its best tanking. Keeping aggro is easy, intimidation last 6 seconds and has a 6 second cooldown. So any mob you lose after 6 seconds can be intimidated again. But with no AC or DR you are going to get hammered and become a drain on the cleric. As a paladin you likely have decent Charisma which is good for intim anyway.

As a tank aim for AC and aggro or mitigation and aggro. Intim is the best way to get mass aggro while high damage will get you some but intim gets everything in range much easier. Plus you can intim, pull to a tight place and shield up if needed lessening the incoming damage.

Keep in mind that DDO was developed off of the rules of Dungeons and Dragons, the pen and paper RPG game. It does not really follow the Tank/ DPS/ Healer concept that you see.

An interesting mechanic is that creatures do not stack on each other, and cannot run past one another. Like in real life.

DDO relies on actual combat formations and tactics, where your tanks actually block the way and your party needs to be cognizant of their surroundings. You need to fight the bad guys from a location that gives you a tactical advantage for your party's makeup. I.e., retreat to a bottleneck like a doorway that will physically prevent the bad guys from getting around your meatshields to hit your casters and healers.

I think some of the Tank / Heal /DPS features of your run-of-the-mill MMO are there, even if that was not the specific mechanical intent of the DDO class design. But DDO is different, keep that in mind.