Paladin with G. Sword opinions?

[Elandur]

Im a level 21 Paladin now, and ive been using a Great Sword for my entire pld career. It seems to be working fairly well. I dont seem to be taking more damage than other Paladins.
From what ive been told, the more damage you do the more hate you will recieve, which im guessing is correct, as it makes perfect sense. And seeing as im doing more damage with a great sword than a 1 handed sword, that should help me hold the hate, at least a bit.
Is it differant at later levels or something?
Is it really worth it to take the few extra points of defense a shield gives you than the extra damage done? I know im far from a damage dealer, and thats not what i intend to be, but every extra bit of damage helps, especially since it doesnt seem to be much of a sacrifice.
Opinions? Flames? Advice? All is welcome.

[IchiTheKiller]

Your team will suffer later on when whm has to heal you far more too often and when they heal you, you'll lose that hate and get them killed. Also, youre party team may have a bad time chaining mobs for exp. I say you switch to sword and shield immediately

[Emrys]

I prefer sword and shield. Great sword is nice looking and seeing actual damage from a Paladin might be fun, but I hate losing Shield Bash and all that shield skill. I shield block pretty often. o_O;

[Kagi]

G sword is ok to use for anything other than exp. With a sword and shield you get a little more def, Shield Bash (for stunning gobbie bombs, ancient magic and other nasties, almost like an extra provoke -- if you're not convinced of its usefulness...), and added chances to block attacks completely with your shield.

Later on you will want to hit more often, not for more damage, because of your AF.

[Zelld]

Especially as an elvaan, you will need to connect more hits faster at later levels. as Kagi said, you want the sheild. with a 1hand sword, you will connect more and faster than wiht a great sword. ELV don't have the dext to use a great sword well enough in the midst of a exp pt.

when you are solo, or NM hunting, or what have you, go ahead and use the great sword. It is always a good idea to level both if you get teh chance, but the main weapon should be sword sheild.

[July]

Pick the situation. Exp party I always use sword and shield. But during raids or NM hunts I usually use my GS, especially if I'm in an alliance. I need variety damnit. But recently spirits within is my favorite ws so I stay with the sword. I love showing of my 500+ dmg with that move and GS has nothing that interesting right now..

[Elandur]

Hmm, im seeing some valid points there. Perhaps i will switch to a sword/shield combo as soon as i have the gil (im pretty poor right now, and i usually am...).
If i cant afford it, i will probably wait until level 28 and use my Kite shield and Gladius.
Or maybe i should just hit Yughott and hope i find a few pieces of gold ore and get new gear asap. And that way, if i get enough i can upgrade to centurion gear at lvl 30.

[Jaxon]

Another thing is when people see you using GS to tank in exp party it can generate some bad impressions as a paladin. Since most of the people expect a pld coming to bring 1h sword and shield, who knows next time they won't invite you when you flag up in jeuno. :sweat:

[Nanila]

Yes I've seen that before on my server. People stopped inviting Plds they knew to only use GS and nothing else in exp groups till they learned to stick with S&S.

GS is working for you right now because of your low level, later on it makes a big differance. You won't have any attack gear, and almost no acc gear, so your chance of hitting with a GS are slim to none against good IT mobs. You also seem to take longer to recover from a spell interupt when you us a GS, so that hurts as well. You lose the aggro bonus from sheild bash, another minus. You also take more damage since you have no chance to block with your sheild (you don't have one).

When you get the enmity gear, you need to hit more often, not for more damage. I use S&S only in exp groups, and GS for other stuff if I feel like it.

It's really hard to raise your sheild skill, I mean really hard. You'll probably never have it capped unless you've played forever. So it's best to start Asap with it.

[Artonis]

Originally posted by Nanila

It's really hard to raise your sheild skill, I mean really hard. You'll probably never have it capped unless you've played forever. So it's best to start Asap with it.

It's so true, I was using sword and shield my entire warrior career before I became a PLD, and it's still my lowest stat.

[Lyonesse]

Yeah, don't use Gsword in XP parties. Block and Shield Bash are invaluable.

However, you should keep Gsword maxed as often as possible since it's a very good weapon for PLDs that need to do damage on the odd occasion like Alliance situations or treasure hunting situations where you're not the main tank or even situations where you get 2 PLDs in one group (which is uncommon) O_o.

Just hit 150 with my Gsword a few nights ago and I'm doing fairly consistent damage. It's not quite up to the level of the other melees in my LS (since I have about 50 points less atk and the weapons are like 5-10 points DMG higher than my Gsword) but I've been keeping up nicely.

[Ryudoz]

When I started playing, I knew I wanted to be a PLD and everyone thought I was nuts. I even, as a WAR sacrificed the dmg of a great axe to use a sword and shield and it just got up to combat lvl 20. It's rediculously hard to get leveled up, but I find that I'm more adept with a shield than most (save a good PLD of course) and that it serves me well when I do use it. I switch off between that and GS as a WAR sometimes, but I know that when I become a PLD, it's S&S all the way.

[LordBiGGs]

yea, definitely sword and shield. i have a rather high shield skill since i played thf to 20 with a shield, war to 30 with shield, used a shield throughout my entire career as a pld, and help people a lot with coffer keys and such. at lvl 53 (shield is about 115) i usually block at least 5 times a fight, thats like 400 damage prevented. also pld's miss a lot so using a GS won't provide much hate and you will lose more hate through the extra damage taken. on top of this, pld's dont do much damage even with the GS and swing half as much.

i also think the emnity+ gear from AF will be more effective with a weapon you swing more often with, since you get the emnity bonus each hit. not too sure how emnity+ gear works though.

[FallenWing]

I personally switch between a sword and shield and a great sword. I do this so I can keep both levels maxed out. Also, some parties may need your great sword for a weapon skill. (Which has been the case with me many times) Plus different mobs may be wweaker against certain weapon skills. I just switch between both, in exp party or NM hunting. But when I'm in a party I always make sure its allright with the rest of the party for me to do so. Just go with what you like. You'll continue to enjoy the pld job that way. ^^

Fallen~

[Sanhime]

If you are doing anything besides xp PT, then use GS for fun whenever the situtation does not put you as the meatshield of the PT and/or put members of your PT in danger.