This will be the first paladin i will be building, as i am new to LS.

If someone could provide a brief guide/overview of
stat/skill distributions
equipment choices
and gameplay strategys,

id be much appreciative!

it depends on what u played with on samu/feeder

if u went for swords on samu u can still use them on pala
if u used daggers on samu prolly ur best option would be using clubs or axes now (which u might have used on feeder)

anyway, whether ur gonna use swords or clubs (or possibly axes although they're not as good) u should go full str and use a charm with str
about ur armor-that also depends on what u already have. if u have a set of str arms u used on samu/feeder - that's good, however if u need to buy a completely new set i would go for tanks if i were u as they're liked by ppl in cata and are good for pala's abilities

now, abilities:
pala makes a good meele/healer but u need some hybrid items or at least a decent set of heals for it to be working
since u've just started i'd advise u to go full meele cuz imo a hybrid wouldn't be of much use if it couldn't heal on its own - just my opinion

if u go full meele u should go for revenge (that's why tanks are good for pala) and multistrike i'd say, also 1-2 point(s) into powerstrike wouldn't hurt, i find that 10%/hit useful on bosses if u charge upto 200% and just w8 for one to appear

however if u decide to do a hybrid (it's not bad, just more expensive version) i'd go for revenge and healback, and after getting ~60-70% into each of them -> multi or powerstrike, personally i prefer ps

so i can use skills that arent paladin skills?

yes but they give u less % to get a charge

pala's skills - 20% each hit at 1lv
lower classes' skills (in this case ps/multi) - 10% at 1lv
higher classes' - 6% at 1lv

This post was edited by Leny on Jul 16 2011 07:54am

any1 know how to skill a paladin (str / dex) ?

in most cases it would be full str + a little dex later on to get a good ratio at higher lvls

the only exception would be a pala using polearms (not many of these) and possibly axes - although most ppl that use axes will have a set of daggers as well so they're be using dex items so they should stat str to get a good ratio

so if ur not sure what ure gonna be using go for str