DEX effects enemy critical hit rate so there is some use to this as a Paladin. There aren't a whole lot of cheap useful earrings for pld. A lot of plds at this level still use 1 Drone Ring. Personally as a PLD, I would rather take the hit but have 10 more HP, 1 more VIT, and 1 more DEX. Lower the mobs damage, critical hit %, and have a bit more HP which always helps as PLD. Especially Hume. Although that's an opinion not a fact, I think this earring does a good job for many Hume PLD's at this level. Even if you swap this for Merc. Earring I think that 1DEX 1VIT 10HP > 2VIT. I think this and a Hospitaler Earring would make a good combo if you happen to have this item. Again, an opinion.
This earring is *awesome* for PLD. Maybe in an HNM/kiting situation I would use Pigeon over this, but in any other situation the DEX & VIT are worth the lower HP bonus from this earring. Not to mention the exclusivity, maybe it's just me but I like it when people say "wow nice earring, where'd you get it?" Although I'm sure there are others, I'm the only PLD I've seen with this on my server, and it definitely makes me smile.
Furthermore, the Pigeon earring is selling for 200k last I checked; I paid 10k to do this ENM with two friends. So we got 2k exp a piece, and a lot of <fun> & <excitement> PLUS this earring. I'll stick to this over Pigeon all the way into end-game.
As far as this being viable to use @55 rather than Drone~ As someone mentioned below, it does come from a 60-cap ENM accessed through Oldton Movalpalos, so to get it at 55 would be rather tough. But it is definitely great for PLD 55+. Personally I use a pair of Drones for exp until my shield caps each level, then I switch one of them out for this. But for anything other than exp I always use this. Maybe partly because I like to show it off, but in my opinion it is a very good earring for PLD.
Looks like a solid earring for pld also. Any +hp is always good, same for +vit. Dex not so much, but still not the worst stat for pld to want to pump up. Would this be viable for pld to use at 55 over a drone earring?
It's not bad for PLD, but i'd say Pigeon Earring is better if you can afford it. HP over VIT for PLD, without crippling yourself of too much VIT and turning yourself into a defenceless stack of HP akin to a monk.
Good for thief? think about what you say before you say them. Maybe "ok" but not good.
If, and only if, you needed that extra dex this would give instead of the agi+3 from the drone earring for sneak attack purposes, then this earring might be worth the extreme hassle of having a macro to swap it out and then have another macro to put it back in.
Dex really helps with the amount of critical hits you do, having maxed dex, I can vouch for that.
Vit determines the max amount of damage that can be done to you per hit. Defense determines the average amount of damage you would take. This info is brought to you from a SE interview.
I hope some of this info is useful to you but by no means have I covered everything, many gear has it's uses when you combine every piece that adds to a stat, evasion for example, adds up a little at time, very useful for solo when it totals +30 or so, hehe. (my total is about 263 and every little bit more than I should have helps me more than you can imagine)
This *is* a good earring for a THF. Yes, Drone adds AGI+3, but if you are level 60+ and are using Assassin to split SA and TA up, then you want one set of equipment for TA that gives max AGI and one set for SA that gives max DEX. Very, very few earrings give DEX. This one does!