hey everyone,

I just made a Human Paladin last night.  Got him up to level 9.  I got my other character on the server to buy a 2 H Sword for my guy and it does really well, but seems to miss a lot.  I guess this is because I'm such a low level.

I was wondering, what are the advantages of both. . .besides the extra armor for tanking.  I'm not much of a tank person myself, and i would rather be a damage dealer.  So, i'm guessing the obvious choice is the 2Handed Sword.  But, i would like to hear what you guys have to say. 

Also, any tips?  I'm used to being a Rogue so i'm trying to adapt to the paladin as best I can.  So far, i love it!

Thanks!

your going to have to decide how you are going to play the game. either you group up all of the time and act as a tank or your solo and you get a weapon with a solid damage.

consider this: when you solo, would you rather take little less damage but kill the mob slowly due to the low damage of a 1h weapon or would you take a little more damage but kill the mob fast? playing with numbers, i realised that i actually take less damage if i kill the mob fast with a 2h weapon than slowly with a 1h.

other things you need to consider are the stats that you get from shields. the way i play right now is i have both a 2h weapon and a 1h with a shield and i use them depending on the situation.

i suggest for you, however, is to use a 2h weapon at least till 40. (i used a verigans fist (lvl20 pally quest 2h mace.. insane weapon i tell you but hard to get) till lvl 36 when i went to SM and got a bonebiter.) after the bonebiter there are several ways you can go.. if you go for 2h there is the destiny sword, the truesilver champion, and a whole other stuff. you can also choose the sword of serenity from the SM quest and then hope for one of those bosses to drop the aegis of the commander shield and use those two.

I think 2 Hand Weapons are used agaisnt 1 Hand weapons based on Rarity of the item.

If you can get your hands on a blue 2 Hand or 1 Hand weapon early, either one is good.  What I have noticed about low end blue weapons early on is that most of the damage is fairly equivalent in comparison no matter if its 1 or 2 Handed.

At level 44 I still prefer to use my Sword/Shield combo because its nearly as much DPS as my 2H Sword, but I get a bonus of 1500Armor +Stats from my shield.

For 1H Sword I have: Sword of Serenity
2H Sword: None
2H Axe: Ravager

It realy depends mostly  on what talent tree ur gonna spec in. A retribution spec would be geared mostly toward 2hnd and protection would be geared toward shield/1hnd. holy is sort of a cross road but is IMO more a 1hnd/shield based talent tree. You can use either one anytime u want just have to keep skills high but if ur  speced in retribution and use 1nd/shield ur realy only weakening ur self.

I used a sword and shield till level 22 when I got Verigan's Fist. I think the quest starts at 20 but unless you have some higher levels helping you, you won't get it for a few levels. Anyways, use that no matter what at level 22, its the best weapon you'll see for a while then if you like the damage of a 2h, go to Gnomeregan around 30 and kil Thermaplugg and get his axe drop. I'm level 37, almost 38 and I still use the axe I got from Gnomeragen. Its 70-106 damage, +20 Strength +10 Stamina.

I was pretty diehard SWord and Shield but around level 35 I realized paladin's have great defense (I have 2 Protection talents, Imp Devo Aura [+25% Armor] and Toughness [+10% Armor bonus]) so you should compensate with hte solid damage of a 2h. However, I keep both on me incase a group needs a solid tank.

The final verdict is your playstyle.

If you're up to defense, I would rather do Shield/Sword paladin. It may give you an advantage to kill enemies faster without having problems with your HP