With a sun paladin i did my first win with some ideas, whih i want to suggest here.
If you play a sun paladin you have versatile and defensive hero which doesn't have to fear much foes. You are fast if necessary, hard to kill, mighty in melee and non-melee range and doesn't even fear anti-magical abilities.
On the other hand you doesn't have many options again a mob. But mostly you should be capable to kill them one by one while the other only scratching you.
Tactical overview:
Melee:
You have first to choose between shield or two-handed. Imho shields are better because these makes it easier to survive. You can block, but more important is the bonus on Armor and more resistances. Nevertheless whatever you choose you get some mighty non-magical abilities which even works when you are silenced. And even when non-silenced: You need some melee options.
Non-Melee:
One of the great advantages of a sun paladin is the ability to work with non-melee enemies as a melee. For that you have three very different options:
- Rush. Like most other melee classes a sun paladin can rush against his foes. This talent is worth to unlock the Combat Techniques tree. Nevertheless there are better options.
- Wave of power. A great ability! It works like a ranged attack. You can attack every enemy in sight and do 150% weapon damage. This count as a physical melee attack. This will be your bread and butter talent because even if you don't have to fear melee range, it is better to kill enemies from afar than let them attack near you.
- Another great attack option is Path of the sun. You can make a path, go without time loss to your enemy, attack him and flee away after. Nevertheless Path of the sun gives you much more options so you shouldn't in general use it only for attacking.
Beside runes and infusions you have another potent ability for escaping. Path of sun gives you a path you can use to get away from your enemy. It is more precise than a controlled phase door. But you have to use it in time because it takes a turn. But since the path continues some turns you can use it before your attack, than attack your foe and fast run away. You can even sneak around a corner: make a path, go until you see around the corner and run back. No enemy can react because it doesn't take any time.
Further you got your great Celestial/Light tree. Here you have all you want: Healing, Damage shielding and status healing. Providence is one of the best skills in game! You lose one negative status effect per turn!
You got your Chants where the best are Fortitude and Resistance. With Fortitude your saves are nearly high enough until midgame and with Chant of Resistance you get siply less damage. Both is great.
And you have Thick skin and Armour training. Yes, you want to have as much armaour as you can get! And 15% resistance again all is still great. (It will be more with Chant of Resistance)
But the most important defensive feature of a sun paladin is Second Life. If your life falls below 0 you will be healed. It is like Blood of life, but you can use it again and again. There is only a CD, so you have to be carefully for some rounds after it has been triggered. On the other hand you will get this ability and for a long time it won't be used. Don't be angry. When the time comes, you need it, you will be happy to have it!
Attributes
You want to max strength to get damage.
After strength you need magic. There are several abilities which scales with magic.
As a sun paladin you are defensive enough. You don't need to max constitution. But on the other hand the other attributes aren't really important too. Take it after magic.
Your 4th talent should be dexterity. You can boost your crit chance better with dexterity than with cunning.
Skillset
Technique / Two-handed assault (Only if you use two-handed weapons)
You choose Two-handed assault if you want to do much damage. But that could be some kind of overkill. Even with shields you will be able to one-hit most of your enemies. Nevertheless you get some abilities to kill more than one foe with an attack. Whats more wave of power will be stronger with two-handed weapons than with shields.
Stunning blow (3-5/5)
More damage, stuns your enemy. Quite useful.
Fealess cleave(5/5)
Imho death dance is better. But without shields you want to get some attacks against mobs.
Death dance(5/5)
Best ability against mobs.
Execution(0-5/5)
This helps you killing foes you just injured. But if you have injured you enemy you can kill him. But you should be able to one-hit most of your enemies. So you don't need this talent.
Technique / Shield offense (Only if you use shield)
With shields you get more armour and mostly slightly more resistances. Nevertheless even attacks with shields are powerful enough to kill most of your enemies with only one hit.
Shield pummel(3-5/5)
nice melee attack which stuns your foes.
Riposte(1/5)
Some kind of useful if you use blocking frequently. But since we raise dexterity it scales very bad. Late game it can be set to 5/5 when points left.
Shield slam(1-5/5)
Damage and block in one turn. Useful if you use block frequently.
Assault(5/5)
This is the hardest attack with shields. If it hits one time, it hits with additional 2 crits. You want to enhance your crit bonus
This is your strongest shield attack!(This guide will be enhanced later)