Paladin Guide to Success

Discussion in 'Fighters' started by Maergoth, Dec 9, 2012.

  1. Maergoth Well-Known Member

    Basic Paladin's Guide to Success

    There is nothing more frustrating than not being able to look for something on the forums and be told exactly what to do and exactly how to do it. After a PM from an incredibly awesome scrub, I decided a thorough scrub guide from the #1 scrub around would be a decent idea. Roll film.

    Paladins right now are very polarized. You have to know exactly what you want to do in order to set yourself up for it. In AAs, in gear/stats, and in play style. This guide is geared towards alts, people who aren't in big super awesome guilds, and people who want basics. Everything is up for debate and situational. We're not wizards.

    First up is stats/gearing. Reuse speed is king, but hard to come by. Take it where you can get it. I would suggest you adorn for casting speed. It's cheap. The cap is 100%. Land yourself at around 80% solo. Make sure you're critting the content you're participating in (I'm not entirely sure about the number for the heroic content or easymode raids) Multi attack is the next stat to get up. The cap is 600, and you should strive to get as much as possible until then.

    This is the general order of things in terms of ease and usefulness. I prefer to cap things out one at a time, rather than trying to get everything at once. Start at the top, and don't work down the list until you've got enough.

    Crit Chance (Get it capped for whatever content you're doing)
    Reuse speed (Ability and spell reuse. Cap is at 100% total. This will affect your AAs)
    Haste/DPS (200 cap for both, 100-150 in each is the goal. Buffs add A LOT.)
    Casting speed (Easy to cap, helps everything along)
    *Crit bonus / Potency (Very rarely will you have to choose between taking these instead of other blue stats)
    Multi Attack (600 cap. Large quantities required)
    Ability Modifier ( Debatable, but pretty effective. 2-3k is a good place to be. Ability mod cap is per spell. +50% base value)
    Flurry/AE auto (Whichever you prefer. At this point, you're capped on all of the above.)
    Spell Double Cast (I haven't gotten this far yet. I chose to work on the above instead.)



    As for AAs, the entire ballpark spec is posted below. (ADORN/REFORGE YOUR ABILITY/SPELL REUSE FIRST) Details follow. The point assignments for reuse-based AAs are based on 70% reuse speed.. More reuse = less points spent there.

    In your crusader tree, Strength Wisdom Stamina is the way to go. Max out the group potency in wisdom, and max out the divine aura duration. 2 points in Crusader's Faith, because when Crusader's Faith is up, you're basically immune to death minus one-shots.

    In your paladin tree, I would DEFINITELY suggest you take Raid Armament and rez enhancement. We're amazing at rezzing ( Make a mega macro with 24 different rez macros. One for each member of your raid, and the top one blank for when you need to rez someone specific) Skip Holy Aid, Faith Strike and Crusade and *take a point or two out of ANYTHING that reduces reuse timer. Chances are, you're over cap on most of those abilities with any reasonable amount of reuse. If you still need points, take some out of Righteousness.

    In your shadows tree, enhance your diety pet on the first line instead of mana pool. CAST THAT ****, IT'S AWESOME. In the second line, only put 3 or 4 into rescue (It's probably capped on reuse. Reuse cap is 50% reduction (3 minutes can go down to 1.5, etc)) and put them into offensive stance. In the third line, Max out Valor in Battle, Knight's Stance, Phalanx and Cavalier's Call. In the last line, 3 or 4 into holy ground (Reuse speed, etc) and get everything but group heal and divine empowerment. You probably need to do this to get the stuff in the previous line anyway.

    In your heroic tree, this depends on what you want to do. The top line doesn't really matter. The second one does. KEEP 10 in REUSE. That's huge. Take the CRIT BONUS over the potency. Put 8 points in it for now. The next line depends on your build. Put 10 in Crusader's Faith. And put 10 in Stonewall (IF you're going down the left PRESTIGE line that adds more duration on it). Otherwise, put 10 in crit bonus and 8 in potency in the previous line. In the last line, Zealous Smite all the way.

    In the prestige tree, I recommend you go down the right side. Left side is one of those ultra-situational tools that you simply will not need. I even find it hard to use them outside of the most difficult encounters, and even then.. I have to convince myself that they were useful. The right side is incredible DPS. Harbinger of Justice is the highest dps ability we have access to, and you should use it every time you hit 60 increments with less than 4 targets around. If 4 or more, use Divine Territory. 4 is the magic number. Skip the 3 points in the hate gain/reduction thing.. and put them into the stamina hp increase in the middle. Take the consecrate power feed.

    IF you are put into a main tank position, or you find yourself having to deal with LARGE amounts of incoming damage, the left side provides very powerful tools for doing so. I switch back and forth. It's part of being a Paladin right now.

    Your AAs should look something like this:


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  2. Maergoth Well-Known Member

    War Rune (Red adorns) are pretty easy. I'm going to list the effects you should be hunting down. There may be equivalents on gear itself, or upgraded versions from newer content. They WILL NOT STACK. Obtain these effects in the following order

    Relentless Will - Base trigger chance and damage reduction

    Profane Madness - DPS, Haste, Reuse, Potency

    Dain's Legacy - Group potency buff (Only one needed per group. Might as well be you.)

    Winds of the Tundra - Same as above, basically.

    Rime Strike - Crit Bonus / Potency

    Total Annihilation - DPS mod / Strikethrough / Crit Bonus

    Glacial Deflection - AoE avoid while tanking adds


    Deity Information - There is no right answer for which deity you should choose. For tanking, pick Tribunal or Bristlebane. For DPS, pick Sol Ro or Rallos. They each have different benefits (I use bristlebane because death immunity with swindle fate and +20% max health and power from deck of cards)

    General CA/Spell priority - Precast holy ground if you're not tanking anything. Don't hit them mob with it to avoid gaining that one hate position. It's good to cast while jousted out for red text, etc.

    You can open up with encounter taunt and AOEs for multiple mobs (Faster cast/reuse if adds die slow, and higher damage/reuse if they're living for like, 5 seconds). If you have timewarp running, skip the encounter taunt, Doom Judgment, and hammer ground. If there are 4 or more mobs, use every AOE every time it's up. Charge up Divine Territory ahead of time and MAKE SURE its up for adds.

    Faithful Cry and Holy Strike for single targets (Both can be timewarped!) Harbinger of justice hits hard. You should be getting max charges for it every 10 seconds. Don't use it right before adds spawn.

    If you're NOT full charges of Harbinger of Justice / Divine Territory.. Zealous Smite. Every time. It grants 6 charges per group member (For some reason). And is great for building charges quickly. You shouldn't save it for this purpose or anything, just keep it in mind. Great to use right after emptying your charges.

    The more efficiently you use your harbinger of justice / divine territory, the better your parse will look. And with a good parse comes good aggro.


    Play styles vary too greatly to pinpoint. All I can do is recommend you check out some of my raiding videos.
    Maercast Game Streaming
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    There are a few little tricks I can recommend:
    1. Macro EVERY emergency or twitch-click ability with /cancel_spellcast in front of it. Intercept, Lay hands, ALL of your saves. It saves you the keystroke of hitting escape, or having to wait for a spell cast to finish.

    2. Make a mega macro for rezzing. You'll be the first to rez EVERY time without fail if you make that macro. Again, just fill a macro with rez spell casts, and input the name of every raid/group member. It takes a little maintenance, but it's worth it.

    3. SPAM AOES. When adds are due, stop worrying about DPS. Back into the center point of the raid, and spam Ancient Wrath. Adds tend to stick to people, and the only way to prevent that is to frontload your aggro and SNAP. Divine Territory works well for this. Coercive Shout is your friend. Ask for it.

    4. Use ACT. Make timers/triggers for tons of stuff. AOEs, red texts, time warp, whatever. It's a powerful tool.

    5. Aura of the Crusader works on everything it's supposed to. Don't be bad and argue it. If a CURABLE detrimental hits you and PREVENTS you from taking action, use aura of the crusader. Just twitch click it. Don't examine anything, don't even look. 9 times out of 10, you'll be all better. Effects that apply "No Hostile" and "No Beneficial" don't count.

    6.Become VERY familiar with the range of Holy Ground. Practice it in your free time. Lots of times an add will spawn and you'll grab the named with it if you're not careful. DO NOT run the mob around. Spin it away from the raid, yell at the main tank to grab it back, and don't do it again.

    7. Ward accumulation is a thing. If you're tanking and an AOE is due, and you're not sure if it's going to kill you, use Stonewall. Wards will build up on you while you're blocking and your chance of survival will increase, even if block chance doesn't DIRECTLY reduce AOE damage.

    8. If you ARE using the left side prestige and Faith, make absolutely sure you INTERCEPT the main tank EXACTLY when the AOE hits. You'll stoneskin his damage, and add it to your total reflect amount. Also stand in front of the mob for that.

    9. Smoldering Adornments of Avoidance. Best adorn ever, dirt cheap.

    10. Tinkerer tools are amazing. Overclocked Manastone, Defibrillating heart stopper. Buy them!

    11. Take Consecrate as your grandmaster. It's your highest DPS yield.

    12. If you're down the left prestige line and you use Devout Sacrament for damage reduction, IMMEDIATELY cast holy aid to try to refresh it. You can accurately assess the remaining time on the 12 second damage reduction by looking at the time remaining on Holy Aid. It's better than digging through your buff window. (Holy aid has a 25 second recast for me. When Holy Aid is half way into the cooldown, I know that my Sacrament DR is probably gone.)

    13. Don't worry too much about taunts. Click them when nothing else is up.

    14. When you have to use a save, use whichever has the fastest recast first. (Don't use Divine Aura if Stonewall will suffice, etc)

    15. Buy avoidance food/drink from the broker. It's usually treasured and crafted. Get the parry stuff.

    16. Put a " /auto 2 " macro on Faithful Cry. When Faithful Cry is down, it will activate your auto ranged attack. Saves you a slot on your hotbars, and makes it easy to quick bow a mob.

    17. Put an "equip shield" macro in front of Stonewall. It will take your two hander off, equip a shield and cast stonewall in one button. Great for when you've got a 2 hander on and need to tank in a pinch.

    18a. Amends the beastlord if you want to tank.
    18b. Don't amends the beastlord if you don't want to tank.

    19. Don't use Doom Judgment on Oligar.

    If you have any other questions or anything to contribute, go for it.
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  3. Maergoth Well-Known Member

    Also.. /sticky
  4. Daalilama Well-Known Member

    Nice walkthrough most I knew quite a few I didnt but my pally is just an alt but they are solid tanks. Still considering the headahces I had wading through eq2 flames and other fansite class forums its alot cleaner, more direct and gets the do A to get B through. Thanks.
  5. Maergoth Well-Known Member

    I miss the individual class forums :/
  6. Davngr Well-Known Member

    this should get a sticky. great right up!

    maybe i should say something politically incorrect to get some mod attention ...
  7. Maergoth Well-Known Member

    Runty nagger hassles.
  8. Sixgauge Well-Known Member

    I don't understand why since they have been dead for months and everyone just dumps threads in general fighter anyway.
  9. Wurm Well-Known Member

    Nice guide,

    I chose Marr as my Deity ages ago, while the benefits for Bristlebane you listed are tempting, I think I'll stick with Marr a bit longer.
  10. Kalderon Well-Known Member

    Realy nice guide, but i keep on marr ;)
  11. Maergoth Well-Known Member

    Marr is the obvious roleplaying diety, but it doesn't provide anything at all useful unfortunately. Tribunal is the way to go, for all around tanking (Two different means of damage reduction), and Bristlebane is the reflect / hero mode diety.

    As for the class forums.. a thread like this has no place in general fighter forums, especially without a sticky. Forums don't have to be active to be useful. That's like saying the Library of Alexandria wouldn't be useful because the Twilight series wasn't stored there.
  12. Wurm Well-Known Member

    I dunno, that 10 tick all damage reduced to 0% miracle has saved my and more importantly the raid's butt more than once when things have gotten crazy.

    I agree that the left side needs serious work.
  13. Maergoth Well-Known Member

    Oh, don't misunderstand. The left side is almost perfect. It provides huge survivability, situational DPS tools and utility. It provides damage reduction and stoneskins, effective against both large amounts of incoming damage and spike damage.The left side is the only reason Paladins are a viable class in raiding right now, and one of the best choices for main tanking.

    Unfortunately, there is very little content currently that demands such extreme amounts of survivability, and certainly not in content that this guide is tailored around. The people doing content that the left side is necessary or desirable in are more than capable of putting together their own set of AAs and metagame.

    Mithaniel Marr's stoneskins were good back in the day, but now there are so many little effects that just eat up the triggers. There is almost no situation in which 10 stoneskin triggers will save the raid. And certainly none that couldn't equally be obtained by either Bristlebane death immunity or Tribunal damage reduction / OG manawall miracle.

    If you're tanking adds, they will chew through stoneskin triggers with a large quantity of melee hits.
    If you're doing any fight from the past 2 expansions, every action you take will trigger damage on yourself via power cost and eat triggers.
    If you're tanking the named, if you're relying on a miracle to survive regular hits in ANY situation, there are other problems.

    The only time the Marr stoneskin is useful is for maybe soaking a death touch, or being applied in a really abstract manner (Coupling it with Stonewall and standing there doing nothing until it wears off, etc.)
  14. Wurm Well-Known Member

    My daughter is laughing her butt off right after reading your post because her dirge has Bristlebane for the meat-beast.

    She just said to me "Say good-bye to Aslan the Lion and say hello to Mooo!" :confused:

    Like I said it didn't come up all that often but I did use it more than once to take pressure off my healer when things went south for the MT group to let them get back up and into the fight and for him to snap the name back.

    And I meant the left (blessing) side of Marr's tree, not the Prestige line. I'm using the left side of the Prestige line ATM and I like it.
  15. Sixgauge Well-Known Member

    I dunno if it's like that, but OK lol.
  16. Pendragon New Member

    I can sum up Basic Paladin's Guide to Success with one word: Betray :D
  17. Daalilama Well-Known Member

    Haters gotta hate.
  18. Maergoth Well-Known Member

    I can't even think of a #1 guild that currently uses an SK as their primary offtank. WEIRD!

    Use restlessness stance and DPS, dirty shadowknight :p Leave the hard work to the capable crusader.
  19. Vonbek New Member

    The truth has been spoken! Pro tip: was intercept with Faith...ty boss never knew that!
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  20. Maergoth Well-Known Member

    Might want to sticky this, so I don't have to keep bumping it to avoid the PM's.