EXP Party Guide - Paladin

CAUTION!

This article is only a guide. Information expressed in a guide is usually more opinion than fact and should be taken as such. Guides are written by players, based upon their experiences, successes and mistakes, and are meant to aid other players. However, there may be differing opinions than those expressed in a guide. Strategies and information in guides may not work for everyone.

Welcome to "HOW TO PLD".

Know your Role

In a nutshell, the Paladin is a supportive tank- They wear heavy armor/use a shield, hold the enemy, take the hits, protect their party, and open skillchains. Do not expect to be topping the damage charts as a paladin...that's for the party's damage dealers.

Your job is to hold the enemy as best you can, and cure/cover the DDs when they do take aggro. The DDs shouldn't have to hold back and/or sub NIN for higher DPS when partying with a Paladin. Except for RNG...RNG kinda needs shadows at higher levels, once they get slugshot/sidewinder.

Party Preparation

As a Paladin you want to gear for defense and vitality. Shields are important too. The basic sets of armor to look out for in your leveling process are:

• Scale set (lvl 10)
• Lizard set (lvl 17)
• Iron set (lvl 24)
• Centurion set (lvl 30)
• Cuir set (lvl 38)
• Royal Squire/Iron Musketeer set (lvl40)
• Alumine set (lvl 45)
• Mythril set (lvl 49)
• Royal Knight/Iron Musketeer set (lvl 50)
• Artifact armor (lvl 52-60)

Consider equipping accuracy/dex accessories (neck/belt/rings/earrings) outside of your defense building gear. Being able to hit the enemy generates hate plus gives you more TP gain for opening skillchains (more on that later).

From the early levels, the best subjob to use for PLD is WAR. It gives you provoke along with some extra VIT/defense/HP. At the later levels you could consider subbing NIN.

Consider carrying both a sword and club as well.

Consider leveling cooking to level 30 before embarking on your Paladin journey. Bring a pineapple juice making kit with you to your lower level parties. Refresh is great.

Bring seafood. You want to eat food that increases your defense. At the later levels you can bring Ikra Gunkan for both defense and accuracy.

The Hateful Healer

Mage/backline healers try to keep from getting too much hate from their heals. The paladin wants to do the opposite. Curing is one of your main tools in grabbing and holding the enemy's attention.

Between provokes, topping yourself off with cure gives yourself extra enmity and keeps you ahead on the hate list compared to the other DDs in your party.

When a DD/melee grabs the enemy's attention, starts taking hits, and your abilities are on cooldown, cure the melee to get some hate back. This also helps the healer out, saving them some MP.

The Protector

The Paladin protects their party: They do their best to hold the enemy, take the hits, mitigate their incoming damage, and cure the DDs/themselves to keep the enemy's attention and limit the party's downtime. Melee DD should not have to sub NIN for shadows when partying with a Paladin. Melee subbing /WAR, /THF, /SAM, /DRG, etc. instead of /NIN will substantially increase the party's overall DPS.

Paladins have many tools to keep the enemy's attention, to get it back if they lose it, and to cover anybody that does take aggro:

• Cures (lvl 5/17/30/55) - Your bread and butter. Cure yourself. Cure your DD during the fight and top them off a bit after the fight. Curing yourself and your party mates does 3 thing 1)Keeps you/them alive, 2) Gives you hate 3) Helps your party's healer save mp.
• Provoke (lvl 10 subbing WAR) - 30 second cooldown. First thing you should do when the enemy is lured to the camp. Use on cooldown but be mindful of saving it for the next pulled mob.
• Shield Bash (lvl 15) - Does some decent damage. Stuns the enemy. Gives the paladin a moderate amount of hate. Good to use when a party member gets hate. 5 minute cooldown.
• Sentinel (lvl 30) - Gives the paladin A LOT of hate. Also mitigates A LOT of physical damage. 5 minute cooldown...Same as DRK souleater and RNG barrage/other hate spiking DD cooldowns. Save for the hate/damage spikes to get hate back.
• Cover (lvl 35) - Get in front of the melee DD and use it if they have the enemy's attention. You'll take their hits for 15 seconds. You need to be in between your party/alliance member and the enemy for this to work. 3 minute cooldown...good to use on a melee after they close a skillchain you opened for them. Also good for backup if you are out of other abilities.
• Flash (lvl 37) - Now we're talking. VERY HATEFUL TOWARDS THE ENEMY. Flash + Provoke at the beginning of fights and you should be holding the enemy pretty well...unless your melee DD are crazy...(which isn't uncommon). Consider maybe "rotating" or "Spreading out" Flash and Provoke to maintain your hate at the top of the list in your parties depending on how crazy your the DDs are. 45 second cooldown.
• Defender (lvl 50 WAR sub) - Increases your defense and reduces enmity loss when you are hit. You lose out on some attack, but the less damage you take and enmity loss may make up for it. May not be necessary depending on your party/gear. If you're taking a lot of damage, use it.
• Rampart (lvl 62) - Another hate generating and damage mitigation tool (aoe mitigation for party members) . 5 min cooldown. Combo with Sentinel/shield bash/flash if your DDs are crazy.
• Holy Circle (lvl 5) - This actually does generate a bit of enmity. 10 minute cooldown...use as a fail safe?

It's a bit of an art in using all your available tools. Consider combining abilities and/or spreading them out depending on how hateful your DDs are. It really depends on your party setup/how geared they are. Don't panic if you lose hate and don't have other abilities available yet/on cooldown...it will happen. Just go back to the basics and cure the DD to keep them alive/get hate back. Your role in your party again is A) hold the enemy, then B) support/cure the DD that pulls hate, then C) open those skillchains.

The Opener

Paladin's don't do great damage on their own... But what they can do is set up a melee/SMN with opening skillchains for them to close. This also makes mages happy for more chains to magic burst on.

Paladins can consider the skillchain damage that the melee/SMN closes as their own (maybe even consider any magic burst damage from that chain, their own as well. Can't burst without a chain, right?).

Red Lotus Blade opens Fusion. Team up with a MNK WAR or SMN (Ifrit) for them to close it. RLB also opens Gravitation. Great for DRG (penta thrust) WAR, and SMN (Ifrit).

Shining Blade opens Reverberation, Liquefaction, and Detonation. MNKs WARs and DRKs will like it. RNGs can close with slug/sidewinder but good luck getting hate after that... let's just say the enemy better be defeated soon after that happens.

Seraph Blade opens Distortion! Very good for THF, SAM, DRK, WAR(Rampage), BST, and SMN (Shiva). Also opens detonation and reverberation.

Vorpal Blade is similar to shining blade but does a bit more damage.

Swift Blade opens Fragmentation and Darkness. THF DRK(Great sword) and MNK will love being able to close Frag. SAM WAR and DRK can also close Darkness from Swift Blade.

Savage Blade opens Light and Distortion! Good for pretty much any other melee to close (except THF/dagger and MNK/H2H...sorry THF and MNK...)

Club Vs Sword

Clubs have been buffed on horizon. And paladins have access to more clubs. Also Starlight is now obtained at level 13 which is a WS that restores some mp.

Clubs aren't a bad choice to roll with instead of swords. You get better mp management. But they aren't as DPS as swords. Clubs can also open a few skillchains though. Notably Distortion with Shining Strike, and Fragmentation with Skull Breaker.

Clubs can't open Fusion though so there's that. And using TP to restore mp instead of opening SCs may hinder your party's DPS. Really it comes down to your preference and what race you are playing as for better mp management. If you keep losing hate with club, try using a sword.