OHB/Board Training Advice

[RaceCondition]

Looking for advice going forward with my level 67 human paladin. I group constantly, hence the Side by Side. I am a little lost on where to go between CM, MoC, and lores. What would you do from here?

  Skill Name                         | Current Current
                                     |   Bonus   Ranks
  Armor Use..........................|     250     150
  Shield Use.........................|     238     138
  Combat Maneuvers...................|     175      75
  Blunt Weapons......................|     236     136
  Multi Opponent Combat..............|     130      35
  Physical Fitness...................|     238     138
  Harness Power......................|     166      66
  Spirit Mana Control................|      90      20
  Spiritual Lore - Blessings.........|     136      38
  Spiritual Lore - Religion..........|     145      45
  Spiritual Lore - Summoning.........|      50      10
  Perception.........................|     114      28
  Climbing...........................|      90      20
  Swimming...........................|      90      20

Spell Lists
  Minor Spiritual....................|               7

Spell Lists
  Paladin............................|              40

Skill name             Mnemonic        Ranks
Combat Movement        cmovement         2
Specialization I       wspec1            3
Side by Side           sidebyside        3
Surge of Strength      surge             3

Available Combat Maneuver Training Points: 3
Unlearning Combat Maneuver Training Points: 11

Skill name             Mnemonic        Ranks
Tower Shield Focus     tfocus            4
Prop Up                prop              3
Block the Elements     eblock            3
Spell Block            spellblock        2
Protective Wall        pwall             2

Available Shield Training Points: 10

[neimanz1]

cms!

[Wesley]

Yep. CMs. You could also start adding dodge ranks as you can. It's not going to help a lot, especially with a tower shield, but it does add up over time.

[Jeril]

I don't quite understand why you have 3 ranks of block the elements and 2 ranks of spell block, are bolt and ball spells really that much of an issue for you? Seems like with a shield they shouldn't be. With you being grouped all the time I'd say either dodge, or more combat maneuvers if you feel like your AS is lacking. Maybe more MoC if you don't get enough open strikes for your tastes. You are above 1x in lores so I wouldn't touch them except to lower them if they aren't at any particular threshold at the moment.

[RaceCondition]

Thanks for the advice, everyone. Seems like dodge or CM is the way to go.

Jeril, 3 ranks of block the elements and 2 ranks of spell block came down to occasionally being hit by those spells and figuring I could do something about it. Also, I didn't see a real need for any of the other shield maneuvers. I could reallocate those points if I knew of better options.

[JackWhisper]

buy a better enchant shield. solves all problems.

[MrMortimur]

CM for more CMans you can learn and of course MOAR AS, 55 MOC is fun but might be overkill depending who and how often you group. Dodge can stay at 0x until cap without an issue. Lores are great but you having more than 1x is pretty spendy.

You might need more climb or swim depending on where you intend to hunt in the next 33 levels but as you unconvert from lores/armor you'll be able to catch up quickly when needed.

[Jeril]

This might be useful about shield skills: http://forum.gsplayers.com/showthrea...and-Dark-Elves

[RaceCondition]

This might be useful about shield skills: http://forum.gsplayers.com/showthrea...and-Dark-Elves

I suppose I could get sbash or scharge. Or shield mind? Honestly, I am not sure how useful any of those would be given the way I hunt.

I don't think any of the below would be useful based on your review:

Shield Push (push)
Shielded Brawler (brawler)
Shield Forward (forward)
Shield Spike Focus (spikefocus)
Shield Spike Mastery (spikemastery)
Shield Strike (strike)
Shield Strike Mastery (strikemastery)
Steely Resolve (resolve)
Phalanx (phalanx)

[time4fun]

I suppose I could get sbash or scharge. Or shield mind? Honestly, I am not sure how useful any of those would be given the way I hunt.

I don't think any of the below would be useful based on your review:

Shield Push (push)
Shielded Brawler (brawler)
Shield Forward (forward)
Shield Spike Focus (spikefocus)
Shield Spike Mastery (spikemastery)
Shield Strike (strike)
Shield Strike Mastery (strikemastery)
Steely Resolve (resolve)
Phalanx (phalanx)

This is super late, but as the other OHB-using Paladin (not many of us around, I gather), I'll say that sbash is a damn handy skill to have. Though personally, I use my CMAN for Feint and SBash to free up my shield points for the shield skills.

I'd say that where you go next is really a function of how you hunt (and with what). If you're a mace person, then more cmans for open ambush probably makes sense. But if your role in the group is typically to knock everything on its ass right away, then getting to the next MOC threshold may be your best bet. I see a lot of people suggesting dodge, but if you're using a tower shield then I don't know that I'd make that a priority. Dodge is VERY expensive for Paladins, and the tower shield really limits its impact at the lower rank levels.

Out of curiosity- what drove your lore allocation decisions? Are you tanking religion for the 1617 DS loss mitigation? What about blessings- what're you trying to prop up with that? I don't mean that as a criticism at all- I'm genuinely curious since I went such a different route.