by Savanja on Dec 08, 2004
"All Paladin. All The Time." is the warcry.
Chapter 1 - Paladin Guide - Credits - Basics
Chapter2 - Paladin Guide - Combat Art/Spell list
Chapter 3 - Paladin Guide - Method and Technique
Chapter 4 - Paladin Guide - Where To Hunt?
“I can solo anything until I die”- Liluk Ferox, Venekor
Many thanks, and vows of undying adoration to Liluk Ferox for sharing his thoughts and views on playing a paladin. Ten Ton Hammer depends on the players to share their expertise on their classes! I can only have so many alts ya know! ;) -Savanja
Unlike other classes, Paladins don’t have one specific role to undertake. Even though we are not classified as Hybrids by SOE, Paladins are exactly that. If you want to take your character to the next level and be all the Paladin you can be, then you must first realize that. We will never out perform the “pure” classes in tanking, healing or damage. However, we can become any one of those three by the drop of a hat if need be. And that is where Paladins start to shine and where if you’re good enough, you’ll be recognized as such.
This is not meant to be one of those newbie guides that you read to learn the class when you’re level 3 and still in the island. I’m taking the time to write this to help my fellow Paladins understand what we are and what we are capable of. The truth of the matter is you can go out and read a thousand guides on a class and it will never compare to experience. I’m attempting to lend my experience to everyone out there and hopefully this will answer some questions and clarify any confusions about Paladins.
First off, we will never be as good as a raid tank as a Guardian or a Berserker, so if your intent is to join a premier raiding guild with the purpose to be their main tank, then the Paladin isn’t for you. However, if you want to do some casual raiding then a Paladin can tank just fine. Also, when in healer mode we will never be able to heal for as much as other priests…although further in this article I will go into detail how I do out parse priests on raids in terms of healing. Finally, Paladins will never do as much DPS as mages and certain scouts.
So what are we? We are the jack of all trades but the master of none.
Alright, so you prefer to play by yourself and just like to solo with your Paladin. To be honest there are so many other better solo classes out there that if this is how you want to play the game you’re better playing one of them. However, some tips and tricks to surviving the solo life because no matter what your play style is, there will be a time when you’ll have to solo.
The mob difficulty will determine what your stance should be (offensive vs. defensive stance) and you should be wielding a two hander. For the first few seconds of the fight determine how much damage the mob is doing to you, from that you can establish if you need to chain ward yourself. The self ward while soloing is your greatest tool, however since the ward does cost a sequential amount of power, make sure that the mob you are fighting is fully eating through it. When soloing, maintaining power is the main concern because a Paladin’s heals can be very power hungry. Make sure you are using some decent player crafted drink before you go out of the city. Also, even though some find them very un-useful, go through your HO’s (Heroic Opportunities) as often as you can, and when possible finish them off with the Divine debuff since all of our attacks and spells are divine based (even our taunts!).
When it comes to grouping we can really start to come out of our shell as the dominate aggro holder. We have two skills that help us in tanking in groups, Amends (level 49, Atonement is the level 35 version and Redemption is the level 21 version) and Sigil of Heroism (level 52). When group tanking, amends usually goes on the highest DPS in the group, however I have had good luck when I’m grouped with a Berserker and putting amends on them, then letting them taunt as well. Sigil is great when you pull more then one encounter and need to pick up aggro on every single mob in the encounter. Also, when pulling an encounter with multiple mobs or more then one encounter, make sure to use your AE’s to keep and hold aggro.
When pulling make sure to body pull, because of things like social aggro if you try to bow pull or spell pull a single mob or mob encounter you might be surprised with what comes after you. Also, make sure you position the mob or mob encounter for the other classes in your group. If you have scouts that need a back for DPS make sure YOU turn the mob so they don’t have to run around to try to find a back.
For equipment make sure you are using a shield and a one hander. If you have multiple shields use the one with the highest protection and make sure you’re in defensive stance. While tanking you may need to heal yourself on occasion, again this is where the ward will come in handy. Don’t get in the mindset that while tanking for groups that’s your only role.
Tank Mode:
When it comes to being the raid tank you only have one job and that is to keep aggro. You can try to heal and ward yourself while tanking but you’ll soon realize that when trying to cast you’ll get interrupted and you will rarely get a heal/ward off. Also, while you’re trying to cast a heal or a ward this is time where you could have been taunting so you’re essentially lowering yourself on the hate list. This is where the huge debate over Paladins comes from. Sony in the beginning said that each fighter would be able to play raid tank just fine, however this is not the case. Yes a Paladin can tank most KoS raid zone bosses (there are some bosses that a Paladin just can’t tank) but a Warrior can tank them better.
DPS Mode:
To excel in this role a Paladin really needs other classes to help, IE Dirge, Troubador, Illusionist, etc. If you’re in a raid where they’re heavy on DPS classes chances are you won’t be grouped with another class that can help your DPS. In any case pull out your best two hander and get yourself in offensive stance. It’s best to get a two hander with a bit of a longer delay if you have a choice. The key strategy here is to use a combat art or a spell in-between each auto attack to obtain optimal damage. If you have strength or intelligence equipment this is the time to put them on to attain higher auto attack damage.
Healer Mode:
Paladins can parse as high as any non-MT group healer on the raid. Yes you read that right, feel free to reread that again if you need to. My role on raids is to be DPS on trash mobs and go all out healer mode on the named. Since the ward is how I do about 60% of my healing (I use ACT as my parser) and it is power intensive I have separate gear that I use specifically for healing. Keep in mind that a Paladin gains more power from strength then wisdom and then try to get all the flowing thought gear you can, this will really help for the longer fights. Keep the ward on the main tank as often as possible, since I’m talking about 74+ x4 mobs the ward pretty much gets eaten in half a swing, so I sometimes have to chain cast the ward. Also, the single target heal is a Master II choice, if it looks like your role on raids might be to heal I strongly encourage that you take this choice. Additionally, your KoS and EoF AA’s will really help mold you into a decent healer because of the heal crits and casting timers. With heal crits and improved casting timers and a reduction in the ward recast timer I’ve been known to out heal parse everyone except the main tank group defiler zone wide in zones like Deathtoll and Freethinkers. Being a serious raid healer is possible it’s just not an easy task to take on and most people will laugh when you speak of it.
KoS Crusader Tree:
You really can’t go wrong in any of these lines; it all depends on what kind of Paladin you are. There are lines specifically for the tank type, DPS type and healer type but then there opens up another possibility of being the support Paladin. The Wisdom line is very beneficial to your group members and the idea of the support Paladin furthers in your EoF lines. Some lines can cater to two types of Paladins, IE the Intelligence line has both heal crits and spell crits so both the DPS Paladin and Healer Paladin would find use in them.
EoF Paladin Tree:
This tree will let you go deeper into your chosen path.
Wrath Line= DPS
Hero Line= Tank
Heal Line= Healing
Support Line= Support
The majority of Paladins take the Hero/Wrath or Hero/Heal lines, the common theme being the Hero Line. Looking at this specific line it is probably our best AA path out of both the Crusader and Paladin lines. Since blocking is the only thing that checks against epic mobs adding an increased percentage to block is just awesome.
While in group vs. group or even raid vs. raid PvP your only job is to tank, take the hits and taunt as much as you can. Since Paladins have some of the best tools for holding aggro in PvE group content, it’s only natural that this carries over to PvP. When charging another group or raid in PvP combat, first hit your area taunt then follow that immediately with Sigil of Heroism. This will make it so a lot of people are locked down on you instead of your healers or DPS. Also, if it’s a long fight make sure to keep on reusing this method as a means for locking people down. If there is a specific person that is causing trouble don’t be afraid to toss a rescue on that person to keep him on you. If possible, put your amends on the mage in your group. Usually the first target will be a clothy (mage) and anything you can do to make sure that they live is imperative to success. In Addition, make sure to use your AE’s as much as possible with Consecrate and Doom Judgment you’ll be able to put out a lot of damage in addition to taking it.
Paladins aren’t so hot when it comes to solo PvP because we lack the burst damage to kill anyone and the burst healing to keep ourselves alive against certain classes. Brigands will attempt to keep you stunned locked so you can’t do anything but stand there and die. However, when facing other DPS classes like Brawlers and Summons your ward is your friend again. When fighting a non-melee class make sure to take out a two handed weapon but keep in defensive stance because of the resist boost. The longest fight you’ll ever have is fighting a druid, so if you have a spare hour or so then feel free to engage. The shortest druid fight I have ever had was against a Fury and it lasted 50 minutes with me coming out of it alive. When you’re in a fight like this it’s all about the power so you need to conserve. Also it’s about knowing when to ward and when not to ward, if the druid isn’t casting many spells and basically just auto attacking you, don’t waste the power to ward yourself, however when you see them start to cast a hostile spell(s) that’s the time to toss it up. Additionally, a little trick that I’ve found when fighting druids is when you engage do not heal or ward yourself, let them try to burn you down, let them see you go from green, to yellow to orange and waste all their power, when you hit red then do a lay on hands and that’s when you start the fight. By that time they would have wasted a big chunk of their power where as you wasted hardly any giving you the clear advantage of the fight.
Additions, subtractions, comments or suggestions regarding this guide should be posted to the message forums or please e-mail me directly.