So I just came a cross sort-kinda-recent’ish set of experiments done on enmity generation.

It would seem that my notion of enhancing my damage as a Paladin is both on target, and not as critical as I originally thought.  I’ve come to this decision based on the simplification that curing myself allows for constant hate, and provoke is an ablative hate.

The above discussions also explain why it’s so bloody hard for me to control hate — particularly with Ardra and Darrian.  The act of pulling grants the puller constant hate advantage — roughly one-half the amount Provoke provides.  Since Ardra or Darrian are often the pullers in our parties (because they’re highly competent), they’ve started out with a huge amount of constant enmity, and just build it up with their spike damage.

Now that I have access to Cure III, if I can convince Red magi, Scholars, and Dancers to not heal me until after I’ve used Cure III, things should get a little easier. It would seem my pre-Flash opening strategy to keep hate off the big DD’ers is Banish, Provoke, Attack, Cure III.

I just need to work on my timing with Banish, and up my Divine skill.  I’ll also need to keep my swords at minimum delay to offset the big damage spikes Samurai and Thief players can cause.