Low level paladin questions

[blazeofglory]

I'm a relatively new paladin 21pld/10war(hume) and i was wondering about a few things:

When should i switch to using cure II as my normal cure to keep hate?

For my earings slot: So far all I have on are energy earings because I havent seen much of anything better yet, should there be something I have in mind for future levels?

Vit or def? Right now I have + 8 vit (2x stamina rings. war belt+1 and royal footmen trousers) should i try investing instead in the rings that up defense or stick with + to vit rings?

Food: Right now I am using boiled crab bringing me to +12 vit. should i be using fishkabobs instead? and if so what stats do they affect (ive heard many people say they use them but i dont know what their affect is :dead: )

[csBahamut]

1) I didn't start using Cure II till around level 30. About when you get full HP cured out of the cure spell is when you should start using it. You don't want your MP to be going to waste and not healing fo the full amount.Basically, you want your cure spell to heal for more than the monster hits you for, and to heal for the most it can( Cure - 30, Cure II - 90, Cure III - 190, Cure IV - not sure yet myself).

2) There really aren't any good earring for PLD till level 30. At level 30, you can get the Warrior's Earring which adds +2 VIT. Then at 35, you can Get Drone Earrings( HQ of WIng Earrings I think). Drone add +3 AGL. You can either go two drone, or 1 drone and one warrior's earring. Of course, you can use what suits your play. If +HP earrings help you better, you can use those, but they're mainly used to HNM tanking.

3) I'd say stay with the VIT rings for now, and keep your body, head, hands, and feet with the best defense armour you can get. Rugal's PLD FAQ in this thread has a nice explanation about when to go for +VIT and +DEF. Basically, you'll need more +DEF at lower levels, and more +VIT at higher levels. This is because once your defense is above the enemy's attack, you get very little damage reduction from adding more defense. That's where adding more VIT reduces more damage.

4) Crab gives +21.9% def and +4 VIT, while fishkabobs give +25.4% def and +2 VIT. It's the same reasoning as about with these foods. The +def of fishkabobs are handier at low levels, and the +VIT from crab is handier at high levels. Both work just fine though. Only really crazy min/max - perfect stats PLD's will be obsessed with using the correct one. Use weither one that you like more.

I'd also suggest reading Rugal's PLD FAQ that's stickied at the top of the PLD forums. He gives all the helpful information you could ever really need as a young PLD.

[JP_Ikari]

Follow what cs just said, that's pretty much what you should (and will be) looking forward too in a couple of levels. Also, regardless with the +7VIT on the turtle shield, don't get it. Since the -Agi on it is so huge that you'll notice a big difference between with it, or without it. I used Cure II on certain occasions when I was from 21-26, but once I got to 27, I started to use it even more frequently. More heals = more aggro, but leave the Cure II's from the WHM's and just stick with Cure's. You want to grab aggro and also at the same time minimize your mana loss so that you can keep the aggro. Follow that and you'll do fine.

JP