Death?

[Rebellion]

I figure its not too hard to get a PT as a PLD, and tanking hasn't been 1/2 bad as a WAR, so I was considering leveling PLD/WAR. I realize PLDs are usually the first, if any, to die in battle, how often does this occur and should I let this turn me off from becoming a holy knight? Thanks.

Also, I should focus my equipment on VIT and DEF, right?

[Wayne]

If you are doing your job correctly, you will be the first to die. How often you die however generally depends on the skill of your party as a whole. If you understand your limits and don't over pull or fight beyond your means you shouldn't die except on those unlucky one shots. If death doesn't turn you off of war, then pld will be no different.

And yes def and vit are a priority. Then depending on race you have to adjust for mp etc.

[Voyager]

If you're worried about your deaths cutting down your lvling rate, the higher invite rate for Paladins more than makes up for it. If you are a good Paladin, you will nearly always be able to find a solid party, whereas most other melee classes can find themselves waiting hours, or even days before they get a party invite.

Harry Voyager

[Loial]

The frequency of deaths depends almost solely on the abilities of your party members. However, be prepared to get frustrated if you are in a lousy group to either A) die a couple times, negating experience gained... B) "regretfully" disbanding from the group in a manner that does not include "I'm leaving because you guys stink."

You also may want to do some research and see what you are getting into when fighting new mobs (Do they have burst damage attacks?)

[Grodo]

Well i get in good partys and no one ever gets kill unless a gob comes up and i take it and let the others zone

[Rhayn]

Truthfully, since I've formed a set party at level 52, I have actually died the least, except for perhaps our white mage. This is only due to the fact that our support mages are awesome though. Usually the party deaths are due to aggro while already fighting and the inability to control it or from massive AE, like a goblin in Gustav Tunnel dropping a bomb extremely early in the fight and doing around 850-900 damage to everyone, with Barfira up. Taru BLMs can't take that kind of damage if they accidentally get too close.

Outside of a very solid party though, it is likely that the paladin will be the first to die. If a support mage is slacking against high damage monsters (spiders with their Sickle Slash come to mind) and leaving you with too little hit points, eventually you might get one-shot killed. Also, if the party gets aggro we can't handle and has to run, usually I get hate and allow the party to escape while I either run a different direction or "solo" it. It's better that they can zone and come back with Raise (or Raise II ^^) than for lots of us to die and quite possibly disband. Paladins usually have the highest chance of living against aggro anyways because of the high defense.

Basically it boils down to the fact that in a good party, you probably aren't in much more risk than the other members, especially since if you go down, they are likely to quickly follow. However, if it is possible for you to prevent other member's deaths, even while greatly increasing your risk, a paladin is usually expected to take this chance.

I haven't had my seek flag up since around level 16 paladin (I've made all my parties.. it's a good way to avoid crappy ones), so I can't really comment on seek times. However, the fact that I usually have to be anon to avoid invites even when not seeking should be testament enough. At least on Bismarck and at my level, I'd have to say that BRD and RDM are the only to jobs more sought after for exp parties.

[janeping]

From Moogle's rating, I've been KO'd 276 times. At least 50 of those were used for "poor man's warp." I also have several other jobs rang from 11-mid 30s. So it's really not that bad imo. I can sometimes go days without dying, but then when things went wrong, I can die up to 3 times one day.

[Kurgan]

At level 37+ the hardest thing to find for your PT will generally be a good tank (all the 30+ WARs are doing adv job quests, and all the high levels have gotten their WAR subs as high as they need to go) and a good healer. Good PLDs are hard to find, and you're available for PT, then you will almost always find one. I'm in a static party, and I NEVER have my seek flag up, and I get /tells for invites almost every day.