Valkerie's Complete Guide to Paladin

This page is still under construction, all contained information may not be complete or correct. If you wish to participate in this you are more than welcome to, but please be objective and neutral.

THIS PAGE WAS UPDATED 20JUNE2011

- Prower



Foreword
To all ye receiving these gifts I bid you welcome. Greeting and salutations fellow player of Final Fantasy XI, greeting adventurers of all levels. I welcome you to the most in-depth guide guide to Paladin you'll find anywhere. Everything you'll need and want to know you can find here, everything. This is the definitive guide to Paladin.

This is the kind of guide you should read for an in-depth look into Paladin as it contains enough information to allow you to go from a snot-nosed green rookie into a battle hardened veteran. This is the kind of guide that will eventually save your hide from a really sticky situation in the future.

You may be asking how this guide book can be so important. Simple, the writer has tons of experience on the job. The writer has been playing Final Fantasy XI for almost 4 years and has spent almost the entire time as Paladin. The writer has learned from players that have been playing the game since the beginning. As a result of all the learning and on the job experience the writer has learned to read the tide of battle in most any situation. For those of you who are experienced you know what I speak of, but for the rest of you I've written this guide book for you.

This guide book is written in a manner that anyone should be able to understand. If for any reason you don't understand something I encourage you to seek me out and ask.

I may be reached on Asura under the character name “Valkerie” or through my POL mail at “nx_valkerie@pol.com”.

The Background Of Paladin
Paladins have been used for ages across every server. Being known as a "tank" or someone that recieves the damage for everyone else, Paladins have secured a spot in most any properly formed party.

More to come...

The History Of Paladin
Paladins (PLD) has been a part of Final Fantasy XI for a long time. Initially the game came with 6 jobs, but this was expanded with the Rise of the Zilart expansion and Paladin was born. Over time the job has been modified with enhancements and extra abilities and spells.

More to come...

What Is A Paladin
So just what is Paladin? You'll only need to ask this question once. Paladin is many things, and in the right hands of an experienced player can even be a jack of all trades. A Paladin can function as the damage receiver (tank) for the entire party, or can be a damage dealer or even a healer, whether you're doing power leveling or not. A Paladin is meant to hold his own in any situation. If you're in a party and the healer goes down you'll be able to support yourself for the duration of the fight. For those of you who question those last few sentences please continue to read. Really the main job of a Paladin is to tank (take damage for others), to take the damage for the party, but it can do more, this is where pure skill and experience comes into play. But we still haven't answered the big question, just what is a Paladin?

A Paladin is actually a combination of 2 jobs slammed into one very powerful package. The back story behind what a Paladin is states that it started out as San d'Orian Warriors who, through long hours of spiritual training, gained the ability to cast White Magic spells. Also through rigorous training these Warriors have mastered the art of defense and now specialize in it. So there we have it, a Paladin is basically a hybrid Warrior that can cast white magic and specialize in defensive capabilities, but is this all they can do? Not in the least. You see, a Paladin is more than just a tank, it's also a damage dealer and healer, as stated earlier, but we'll discuss later when we discuss the different roles a Paladin can play both in a party and solo. For know let's discuss why you should choose to be a Paladin.

Why Be a Paladin
As a Paladin of over 3 years I've got a lot to say bout the job, a lot of positive things. I've been in some of the heaviest and most difficult situations where the only thing that would ensure my survival was if I was at the top of my game and on top of everything in my domain. Paladin can be a great tool that, if properly mastered, can take you to the stars and beyond, but we want to know "why Paladin"?

The real question isn't "why paladin", anyone can sell their job to someone else. This is the type of job that takes to you and becomes part of you. Why Paladin? Why not, as Paladin you can solo some pretty tough mobs, including those pesky cactuar NMs. With Paladin you can go farther, outlast others, be the last person standing and in most cases, it gets the job done.

The How's Of Paladin
As said earlier I've got over 3 years under my buckle, 3 years of blood, sweat and tears. None of my skill came to me overnight, it took a lot of work. So just how do you do Pally? Well you'll have to know your weapons, know your equipment, know your accessories, know your job (the is the big one) and you'll have to know yourself (this is the biggest one). Why know yourself? You need to know you reaction times to certain events such as enemy TP moves. The difference in the time it takes you to do that Shield Bash or activate Sentinel could be the difference between life and death. Knowing your job means knowing what you have at your disposal. As a Paladin you have a great number of job traits, abilities and weapon skills. You just have to know what to use and when.

Now when I said know your weapons I was serious, and I'll give a short example. A long time ago a member of my linkshell turned me onto a sword that looked like an ordinary weapon, it was a Company Sword. What I didn't know about and was promptly informed of was the fact that the base damage increases by 2 for every 3rd member of a party for a max of 54 base damage for a party of 6. Know your gear. So what do we do with a sword like this. We use is, but not in any old situation. Personally I use it on hybrid setups where I need to tank and DD at the same time. Remember that a Paladin holds enmity from many things, one of them being the damage coming from your weapon. This makes your weapon twice a valued because it help hold hate and do some DD.

Equipment and accessories function the same way. But you can't just slip on any old piece of armor and expect great things. Remember, everything from actions to gear is conditional and situational. Choose your gear carefully, know what you're about to fight and gear up accordingly. Personally, I have probably 57 pieces of gear for my Paladin alone. 57 pieces of gear ranging from a DD setup to a tanking setup to an MP setup for PLing and everything in between. With a setup like that you can fill in lots of spots.

Tanking [Regular]
This will be what you do most of the time in any party, this is the nitty gritty of the job. This task calls for your tanking setup and the usual line of abilities. Provoke every 30 seconds, use sentinel to mitigate damage and maintain hate. Rampart is used for a small defense bonus and a good amount of magic damage resistance. Use cover to take the damage for others. Shield Bash to stop those pesky enemy TP abilities and stun the mob.

Tanking (In & Out)
This form of tanking is a wee bit controversial. Using In & Out tanking tactics you allow others to take damage if your damage taken is not easy to control. In other words the enemy hits too much or too hard and you offload a few hits onto other party members. This is not something you want to do often, continual use of these tactics may lead to your expulsion from parties. Only do this is you absolutely have to.

Backwards Tanking
This form of tanking involves you not facing the enemy. In this situation you may either be partially tanking or full time tanking. Either way you play it this will require a change of gear. When tanking backwards your shield will lose all usefulness. In order to combat this I recommend using an Earth Staff and am MP grip. An earth staff alone will make a big difference in the way you take damage using this method.

Distance Tanking
In this situation you will be far enough away from the enemy to avoid its primary attacks, however, you will incur all of the secondary attacks such as ranged attacks and special TP moves. This setup will almost always use Warrior as a subjob with the primarily used job ability being Provoke.

There's not a whole lot you can do in this situation other than provoking, healing and a few job abilities. The mages and damage dealers will take care of everything else, you just tank, purely.

This is also known as "Kiting", and most of the time you will be forced to deal with mages or rangers attempting to neutralize the monster. This can be difficult to compete with, so a full set of Enmity gear is suggested.

Damage Dealer
This is my personal favorite part. Many players have said that a Paladin can't do damage, but they haven't tried to _play_ the job. A Paladin is basically a defensive warrior with magic with the capability to do great things and because of that a Paladin can wear many sets of armor that a Warrior or Dark Knight can wear. In order to DD as a Paladin you need to first have your combat skills up to par with your level, combat skills affect everything on a weapon from damage dealt to accuracy to available weaponskills. Second you need to have a gear setup dedicated to DD.

Damage Dealing & Tanking
This task calls for a slightly different setup, it calls for a hybrid setup. You want mainly Damage Dealer gear (weapon, shield, armor and accessories) but your gear needs to be able to handle moderate to heavy tanking. With this setup you're allowed the ability to participate with the other damage dealers. With this setup be sure to coordinate weapon skills as to generate skillchains, this will assist in hate control.

Pure Tanking
This section applies to those of you who fight HNMs or very high level notorious monsters. Stack haste gear for your Utsusemi recast timer and use Tavnazian Tacos. Remember to macro in Enmity gear for Flash. Use Reprisal when you are being hit hard and/or fast and you and/or your healer is low on mana, or a monster uses Hundred Fists. Remember that using Sentinel -> Rampart -> Flash is an amazing amount of enmity generation.

Power Leveler/MP
This setup could end up costing a good bit of money. This task calls for an MP & Refresh setup. Now if we're going just for an MP setup than we can wear a lot of mage gear and get awaw with it. If we're doing power leveling we need a more dynamic setup. We need heavier sets of armor with enmity and MP+ stats, however if we're PLing someone on higher mobs you can use your regular DD armor and mage/MP accessories.

A Guide To Tanking & Enmity
By know you probably know what the term "tanking" means, but in case you don't it means to take the damage for the party. As paladin that's exactly what you'll be doing almost anytime you fight anything. Whether fighting individually or in party you will be taking the damage, at least most of the time. But how do you tank? Why do you tank?

Why Is It Important?
Why is enmity important? Simple, a Paladin was designed by Square Enix to take damage, and it does that quite well. Tanking won't be your ONLY job, there are other roles which I will explain later on, but for now let's assume you're useless as anything except a tank (as you have yet to master other roles). And let's face it, who can operate a party without a tank? It's hard a crap.

As Just A Paladin
As just a Paladin you're limited on hate control, well... It's more like a system of delayed hate control. Let's discuss you as just a Paladin with no subjob. A no subjob Paladin still has a few methods of hate control in the form of job abilities, spells and some damage. Now how do we work these? Simple, heal the damage until you have control of hate then use your job abilities to maintain that control of enmity. Sentinel is a wondrous ability which with Valor Leggings can briefly reduce the damage you take to 0 and grab lots of enmity. Rampart is an AoE effect that grants X amount of magic damage resistance and grants a defense bonus for all effected party members. Cover also help to grab control of a mob by defending a party member from damage, however this only grab a small amount of enmity. Finally we move onto your 2 hour ability, Invincible.

Proper Enmity Execution
This part is as easy as 2 steps, grabbing hate and maintaining it. In order to grab hate you can use any combination of the below material. As far as keeping hate, heal yourself regularly and damage your opponent the best you can (the more damage the better your enmity is). All in all do everything in your power to keep control of the mob. Taking damage increases the rate of decay on enmity, so termed "Blood Enmity Decrease", so a constant stream of actions to ensure your hold is required.

Using Invincible
Before we discuss Invincible we need to discuss enmity. I'm going to be using a sliding scale as an example for this ranging from 0 to 100, 0 means no hate, 100 means full hate control. Paladins are tanks no matter where they go, if they act on a mob it generates X amount more of hate than any other job. This hate can be defined by a sliding scale. Let's say you're tanking a mob for your party and you use Provoke and a weapon skill, you've just generated X amount of enmity on the scale, let's say you generated 25 on the scale. If your enmity is low on the scale and you're forced to use Invincible your hate on the scall will take a big jump, say to 70. If your hate on the scale is already 70, however, and you hit Invincible, your enmity will actually drop to a number specified by the ability. This is how Invincible works, it makes you imune to damage for a few minutes and sets your enmity at a specified number on the sliding scale. I'll say that again, if you have high enmity Invincible will actually shed enmity.

Provoking
Now back to enmity control. A paladin can use the subjob Warrior and take advantage of the gained job ability of "Provoke". Provoke goads an enemy into attacking you and raises your enmity. You can even stack enmity from provoke time and again. Provoke is earned at level 10 if you are subbing Warrior. When in party as /WAR be sure to use this ability every 30 seconds to maintain enmity.

Healing
Healing is a big part of hate control, the more you heal yourself the more the enemy will stick to you like velcro. Also attempt to heal people around you. Try not to rely on your healer for all your cures, and remember to ask for Refresh and Devotion.

Flashing
Available at level 37 this short term spell temporarily blinds an enemy greatly lowering their accuracy and generating some enmity (half the enmity of a Provoke)

Sentinel
Attained at level 30 this ability greatly reduces the amount of damage taken for a short period of time. Using this job ability also moderately increases the enmity generation of all job and abilities until Sentinel drops.

Shield Bash
Attained at level 15 this ability uses your shield to stun an opponent by ramming it into them. Usage of this ability does generate some enmity but not much. This is recommended to be used against mage type enemies, especially black mages.

Defender
This is a general use ability gained from the use of the Warrior subjob. Attained at level 50 this ability lowers your attack rating in exchange for raising your defense rating by X amount. Use this when tanking and you'll see a small difference in the amount of damage you take.

Your Damage Output
Along with all the above is your damage output. This is considered to be under the category of hate maintenance. As a Paladin you won't do much damage to exp mobs, however the damage you do do adds up over time. That damage helps to maintain control of an enemies attention.

Tanking With Different Weapons
More to come...

Hume
The Hume is known across the game as a well rounded race that can do most anything, this holds quite true. Humes are strong and hardy with a good balance between INT and MND and have a decent MP pool. Their STR adds to their weapon skills in which more damage translates to more enmity. Their Vitality and Agility allows them to tank more smoothly with plenty of parrying. The balanced INT & STR affects their white magic and any stat-dependent gear they might be wearing, like the Dainslaif. Their MP pool allows for plenty of hate control and healing to keep them from getting into sticky situations in a party. Humer also have high Charisma whi affects you "Killer" effects such as Undead Killer.

Elvaan
Elvaan certainly can't go wrong if you wish to play as Paladin on it. You'll find that Elvaan are very hardy when it comes to tanking, this can be attributed to their increased defense and VIT stats, however, your MP and AGI stats are lower than the other races.

However, with the highest Strength in the game, that’s hardly a problem. You’ll also enjoy the highest Mind in the game to cap your Cures faster, and at Lv.35, Auto Refresh nullifies the low MP. Elvaan also have the second-highest of both Vitality and HP in the game, so taking damage isn’t difficult at all. But beware, because lower-end Intelligence means you are a little more vulnerable to black magic; however, you can very easily compensate for this with Shell spells and with a variety of high-level equipment. High Charisma means high intimidation rates on undead. On top of all that, there are few things as amazing looking as an Elvaan Paladin. May your armor shine!

Mithra
My personal favorite race as I am one. Nothing can beat a Mithra's ability to dodge and parry attacks with grace. As a Mithra you'll enjoy a healthy balance of HP and MP while complimenting it with decent parry and dodge capabilities allowing you to stand your ground in a fight. Your Vitality, however, will be a little lower, but not enough to notice. Adding to your capabilities are your Dexterity being the highest in game, with the assistance of a high damage sword, allows you maintain enmity and hate control through damage dealt. All in all a Mithra makes a very well rounded Paladin as does Hume in any situation.

Tarutaru
Just because they're little doesn't mean they're any less qualified. Taru Paladins are known for an MP pool that overshadows their HP pool, having the highest MP in the entire game. Like Hume & Elvaan Taru's... more to come.

A Guide To The Various Sub-jobs Of Paladin
Your choice of subjobs determines your style of fighting.

PLD/WAR
This subjob is good for fights where a mob hits too fast for Blink tanking to be feasible. Using Defender, Tavnazian Tacos, and a solid healer, /war is a good subjob for Kiting situations and backtanking due to Provoke.

PLD/SAM
Gods -.-

PLD/WHM
White mage sub-job is more for solo situations where the majority of your spells will be curing and some enhancing. Other than that I use this job for healing, power leveling and teleporting around to world. More to come...

PLD/RDM
As of June 2010 this job combination is no longer viable on the battlefield as a tank since Paladin has the ability to naturally cast Phalanx. Tranquil Heart also reduces enmity on all healing spells making hate hard to control.

PLD/BLU
I have yet to do this one.

PLD/NIN
This setup is used to tank 90% of the mobs in this game. With sub Ninja you get the benefit of shadows, which allows further damage mitigation and lessens enmity loss due to taking damage. The only time that a Paladin should not be sub ninja is if the mob hits too fast or if they are solo.

A Guide To Soloing
Soloing is one of the most vital components of playing FFXI. Soloing teaches you the basics of your job, when to use job abilities and timing for casting spells, which is the base of everything else except for holding enmity in a party situation. But just how do you solo an enemy? You can't just grab your sword and start attacking (Unless it cons too weak), you need to prepare yourself first. Let's discuss preparing yourself for a fight.

Now there's several ways to prepare for a fight and we'll discuss all of them. First we start with Subjobs, picking the right subjob for a given task. Next we talk about equipment, the right tool for the right job. And Finally we talk magic, somethigng that can save you heartache.

A Guide To Partying
More to come...

Staff
A staff is an excellent weapon to use for just about any situation, minus tanking. The main reason I say this is purely because of a weapon skill called Spirit Taker. When you gain the ability to use Spirit Taker you will have a virtually endless supply of MP. This is because Spirit Taker takes the damage dealt to a mob and converts it to returned MP. So if you do a 172 Spirit Taker you've just recovered 172 MP. I highly recommend geting and using this is you plan to kill mobs non-stop.

Great Sword
SKILL UP ONLY, Or proc'ing in Abyssea.

Shattering Stars (75 Cap)
I'll warn you on this one, it's not easy. Maat is truly a bastard. Unlike XP parties you'll be fighting one target (Maat) and do not need to worry about hate control, you need to worry about surviving. When you fight Maat he'll show up as a Paladin and will be level 70, you'll be hit for about 100 points of damage for every hit you don't block with a shield. There is a way I discovered to win this without using Invincibility, it's hard to do but can be done. We'll talk about this in a few, for now let's stick with the preliminaries.

If you've already read the article on this event then you'll know that the fight takes place in Qu'Bia Arena. If this isn't you first Maat fight then you'll have to make your way to the arena youself, Maat will not teleport you nor will he for all subsequent fights. Before you can fight Maat as a Paladin you need get a Paladin's testimony.

The following mobs are known to drop Paladin's Tesimonies:

Antican Antesignanus (Level: 62 - 69) (Quicksand Caves) Antican Legatus     (Level: 72 - 74) (Quicksand Caves) Darksteel Quadav    (Level: 63 - 71) (Beadeaux, Qulun Dome) Orcish Protector    (Level: 69 - 72) (Monastic Cavern) Orcish Overlord     (Level: 75)      (Monastic Cavern) Overlord Bakgodek   (Level: 85)      (Monastic Cavern)

Once you have your tesimony it's time to get the necessities, so let's go over the checklist.

Icarus Wing Opo-opo Necklace Sleep Potions x4 Yagudo Drink x2 Hi-potions (Optional) Good, we now have the essentials to take on maat. Now let's look at what gear setup to use. Since Maat will be hitting you for around 100 damage when not blocked by a shield we can get away with a hybrid supportive-damage dealing setup. Now this is where you decide how to build that setup but I do recommend using yout AF1 feet, the +10 Shielding skill will come in handy. As for weapons and defense you can get away with using an Espadon as your sword and an Iron Ram Shield as your shield.

Great, we're all set now we need to get to the arena. If this is your first Maat fight then go to Ru'lude Gardens and trade your testimony to Maat, he will warp himself and you straight to the arena. If this isn't your first fight then you get the wondrous task to traveling to the arena by foot. Once you get to the arena you need to stop and go over your strategy and how you'll use your items.

When using items in a Maat fight you need to know the order you use them, otherwise you may screw yourself over. The Icarus Wing will be the last thing you use, I say this because once you use it you'll be prohibited from using any other medicine for awhile.With that being said, let's take a look at our tactic.

It's been long said that Maat's stats will reflect yours and that entering naked gives you an edge. I haven't seen a single shred of proof on this so enter with your clothes on. Now Maat operates like a Dynamis mob, he deals constant damage, casts 2 or 3 spells and has a 2 hour. He won't use any other job abilities other than Invincible, but if the fight goes on too long or if Maat thinks he has you he will use Asuran Fists and kill you in seconds. The only way to avoid Asuran Fists is to fight fight fight.

So how do we have the edge here, let's look at this from a chronological view. You arrive at the BC, whether teleported or not. Be ready, this is where one hell of a fight begins. You enter the BC wearing your Opo-opo necklace. Once you have control use all your sleep potions one after the next. The Opo-opo necklace will recharge your TP to 100 after 4 drinks, this will give the advantage of starting the fight with a weaponskill and will help avoid a timeout with Asran Fists, plus it hurts Maat some. Now before you actually engage Maat you need to use a Yagudo drink. Once you've done that you need to buff up and rest. Once you have a full hp and mp pool take the necklace off and put something on the supports DD/Tanking.

Ok we're ready to fight. Head forward to until you see Maat and bow to him. Engage him but be very conservitive with your mp. Flash Maat only if you really need to. Heal as normal and use Vorpal Blade when you have the TP. Try to counteract Maats moves, if he uses his 2 hour then you use Invincible. Once you're down to your last 500 hp use the Icarus Wing and slam Maat with another Vorpal Blade. By the time the fight ends you should have gotten 3-4 weaponskills off on him.

If you survived the fight the congratulations you can proceed to level 75, not to mention you're just won the 2nd hardest Maat fight. If you didn't win then you should have a good idea of how to beat him.

Either way that Shattering Stars for Paladin.

Merits
HP/MP Max out HP (If your not Galka)

Attributes Cap Vitality

Others Emnity 5/5 Critical Hit Rate 5/5 (crits higher emnity gain)

Combat Skills Shield 4/4 Evasion 4/4 Parrying 4/4

Magic Skills Healing 8/8 Divine 8/8 Enhancing 8/8

Paladin Merits Group 1 Sentinel 5/5 Shield Bash 5/5

Group 2 Fealty 1/5 (Does not need to be more) Chivalry 4/5 Guardian 5/5 (Godsend when Using Sentinel)

/Contributed From Lyndonn (Asura)

Final Thoughts
Well that was a lot to take in at once. I hope you return to this guide and reference it when making hard choices about equipment or the best way to approach a situation.

Apendix A (Enmity Tables)
http://kanican.livejournal.com/13848.html