MMORPG.com Lineage II Correspondent Žygimantas Mockus writes this overview of the tanking role in Lineage II.

Unlike Dark Avenger who is a mix of a summoner and a tank, Paladin is a hybrid of a tank and a healer. He can be considered primary tank in parties and he has quite good healing abilities. Under rare circumstances, he can heal even better than a bishop. However, after 4 or 5 heals you will notice that you are out of mana so healing features should be used only when it's a must. One of the unique paladin skills is called sacrifice. This one can sacrifice a paladin's health for treatment of the other party members. Of course, the paladin's friends will get a smaller amount of HP than he sacrificed, but anyway, in real situations it's a true life-saver. The other very very useful skill is called shield stun (Yes, Dark Avenger has it too). Despite the fact, that this one does not do any damage on its own. The chance of stunning the opponent is the biggest, which gives a huge advantage over other opponents in both PvP and PvE. As far as self-buffs are concerned, let's look at skill called majesty. This one provides us P.def (always a welcome boost for a tank), but reduces Evasion approximately by 8. Of course, looking at their DEX rating we should understand that evasion is not a paladin's strongest point so it shouldn't bother players who play the class. Another noticeable self-buff is called Iron Will, which increases the Paladin's M.def and is very useful against nukers or nuking monsters.

Read Role Overview, Tanks 2 - The Paladin