I'm a big fan of the classic Paladin archetype, a Holy warrior invoking the power of the Light to smite his enemies. I'm looking to have a similar experience in Rift so I've obviously come down to the choice of either a Justicar Cleric or a Paladin Warrior. For this character, I'm looking for mostly solo play with a bit of dungeon stuff so personal DPS along with survivability are important to me.
I'm fine with playing with a 1hander and shield, but am also more than comfortable with using a 2hander, considering that I play a Retribution Paladin in WoW. I know that warriors can block with 2handers via a Warlord talent so a Paladin/Warlord spec immediately appeals to me. However, I don't know how viable it is at max level. And while I have a lvl 30 Justicar cleric, the damage seems low and the healing seems even lower. I don't want to level all the way to cap just to find that the situation hasn't changed much.
Obviously I don't expect to have the dps output of a dedicated damage dealing soul, but I would like to be able to level with zero downtime while killing things at a moderate pace. I'd also like to be able to hop right into a dungeon to tank without changing out any gear. So I'm basically wondering, which does more damage: the Paladin or the Justicar? Which has better survivability? Which is more viable for end-game content? And just how viable is tanking with a 2hander as a Paladin? Any insight you guys could provide would help me immensely with this decision. Thanks in advance.
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