Shattering Stars/Paladin

=Paladin= Paladin vs. Maat

Unlike experience points party, one does not need to keep Maat's attention to protect others. This is a one on one test of survival. It requires one to switch from offensive to defensive and back again. Be prepared, keep aware, and you should be victorious.

Testimony
After talking to Maat to start Shattering Stars he will ask you to bring him a Paladin's Testimony.

A Paladin's Testimony is dropped from the following:
 * 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



=Guides=

A Maat Fight Strategy
Time to show Maat who's the real defender of truth and justice! Mwa ha ha!! (Yes, I'm a paladin. How'd you guess?) Like white mage, some changes in equipment is in order here. You'll want damage dealing equipment instead of tanking but keep the sword and shield, you'll need them. Bring along an Opo-opo necklace, sleep potions, hi-potions, vile elixer or two, yagudo drink and meat mithkabob. Now, when you enter the arena, do the usual routine. Sleep yourself to 100% TP, drink your drink, eat your eats, cast your buffs and move in. Use Sentinel as soon as you engage Maat and then use Rampart when that runs out. Like warrior and monk, use your best WS right off the bat, use the icarus wing and then immediately hit Maat again with another WS to get some good early damage. But watch out! If he flashes you right away, hold off the WS until the blindness wears off. Now, duel Maat, healing yourself along the way and shield bashing him if he tries to cast Banish III. Maat will eventually use invincible, flash him and kite him when he does this. (don't disengage, that takes too long. Just push L3 to break targeting and run around the room) Just try to stall until Maat's Invincible runs out. If you get a chance to nuke him, do so but watch your MP. When his invincible runs out, now it's your turn! Activate your own invincible and fearlessly charge back in! Attack Maat mercilessly and take this chance to heal yourself up with items. (wouldn't it just rock if Maat used Asuran fists right now? Heh heh!) By the time invincible runs out, you should have another WS ready. Use it and hopefully it will finish him off. If it doesn't, hopefully you brought enough medicine to hold your ground until another WS is ready.

One Tarudin's Experience
I fought Maat at level 69, with capped sword, evasion, divine and enhancing magic skills. My approach was to boost attack and accuracy, as I needed to do as much damage to Maat as I could in the ten minute time limit. I was less worried about damage taken than I am when fighting mobs for experience points.

Gear I used:
 * Espadon +1 (+attack)
 * Musketeer Commander's Shield (+agility)
 * Happy Egg (+hp and +vit)
 * Blink Band (blink! +evasion)
 * Opo-opo Necklace -> Royal Guard's Collar (+attack and +accuracy)
 * Spike Earring (+attack)
 * Drone Earring/Hospitaler Earring (+agility / macro'd for enhanced Cures)
 * Byrnie (+attack +str)
 * Creek F Mitts (+str +hp)
 * Venerer Ring (+accuracy)
 * Jaeger Ring (+accuracy)
 * Psilos Mantle (+attack +accuracy)
 * Life Belt (+accuracy)
 * Feral Trousers (+attack)
 * Creek F Clomps (+str +hp)

Items I used:
 * Carbonara
 * Sleeping Potions(need 4 to get 100% TP)
 * Hi-Potions x10 (used 6)
 * Pear au Lait x2 (used 1)
 * Melon Juice x6 (used 3)
 * Icarus Wing

I had looked at vile elixirs (190K) and vile elixirs +1 (300K) at the auction house, and decided that I really shouldn't have to use those to beat Maat. I set up a separate set of macros just for the fight, leaving out anything I wouldn't or couldn't use.

Hands sweating, pulse racing, I checked and re-checked my gear, and headed over to talk to Maat. He teleported me to the Qu'Bai Arena in Fei'Yin, and I traded my testimony to the Burning Circle, tearing it in the process.

Once inside, I ate the carbonara, drank a pear au lait (since the carbonara added 150 HP), cast Protect III, Shell III, drank a melon juice to recover MP, then took 4 sleeping potions to get over 100% TP from the Opo-opo Necklace. Ready to go, I drank another melon juice and started running down the long hallway to the arena, where Maat was waiting in the center.

Maat greeted me with "So, you decided to show up. Now it's time to see what you're really made of, heh heh heh."

We both opened with Flash, so I didn't use Vorpal Blade right off the bat. I wanted to wait until I was no longer blinded to reduce the chance of missing and wasting the TP I had spent precious time getting. I had heard Maat hits pretty hard, so I wasn't too surprised to be taking 100-125 damage from each of his punches and kicks. I was a little dismayed that I was only hitting him for 35-50 myself though (critical hits around 90). After Flash wore off, my first Vorpal Blade hit him for 179, which was encouraging.

Maat opted to use Banish II on me three times. It was just as well, as it has a fairly long cast time, and did only 73 damage. At some point, I realized I hadn't used the blink band, and I still had my Opo-opo Necklace on, so I decided to use the blink band mid-fight. It saved me a few hits, so I suppose it was worth it. Maat used Maat's Bash twice during the fight, but one missed me.

When I got over 100% TP, I used Vorpal Blade again (193 damage), then used my Icarus Wing, just as Maat used Invincible, so I held back on using my TP. I decided to cast Holy on him while his Invincible was up, and did 99 damage for the 100 MP. I don't think that's something a non-Tarutaru PLD would do in a Maat fight, but I thought it'd be funny. Plus every bit of damage would help. When Maat's Invincible wore, my third Vorpal Blade did another 108 damage.

After 4 Cure IVs, a couple Flashes, and the Holy, I was getting pretty low on MP and used Invincible and started chugging hi-potions, trying to time it so I could get a hit or two in between potions. Then suddenly Maat said, "Hm. That was a mighty fine display of skill there, Tsakiki. You've come a long way..."

He seemed to give up after I had managed to get over 1700 points of damage in on him. The final total for damage had Maat basically kicking my butt for 2663 damage (two and a half times my max HP), but since I had regained 2000 with cures and potions, I was still standing. I did 1768 damage total to Maat, and the fight took 7 minutes and 32 seconds.

Things I could have done better: I should have used Rampart, I should have used a second au lait when the first wore off, I think I could have used Flash more, and I should have remembered my blink band and necklace change before I ran in and started fighting. I have heard that he doesn't use Asuran Fists until after 8 minutes, and that wouldn't have been so good. If not, I got lucky on what he decided to throw at me (Banish II, Maat's Bash). However, my only misses on Maat were when I was blinded by Flash (plus 0 damage swings when he used Invincible), so I think my +accuracy gear (and capped sword skill) paid off.

Alternate Strategy - Hume Paladin
I did something like the above strategy the first time I fought Maat at 68, and ran out of time. I just couldn't generate enough damage using Swift Blade, and that was doing more damage than Vorpal Blade was. I had an idea though so I waited to try him again until 69. At 69, Paladin's get access to the Great Sword weaponskill Spinning Slash. I also play Dark Knight, and in my upper 60's it's by far my most damaging skill, so I gave it a shot. Used my Mythril Heart I have for my DRK, and went in with mostly Attack gear. (Haubergeon, Amemet Mantle, Royal Guards Collar, Asaault Earring.) I did wear my AF pants and feet.

I went in with a bunch of Hi-Potions +3, 2 Pamama au Lait, 3 Yagudo Drinks, a Vile Elixir, and a Vile Elixir +1. I'd suggest Remedys if you can find them on the AH to get rid of your blindness for his Flash too .. I only found one so I used it on his opening Flash. For food I used Carbonera +1.

I'd heard that if you strip down naked before entering, it makes him weaker .. since I was going to sleep with my Opo-opo necklace anyway, I figured it wouldn't hurt to try. I have no idea if it actually made a difference or not. I went in wearing just my necklace, and as soon as I entered, cast Protect III and Shell III on myself. Ate my food and drank a Yagudo Drink and used an au lait to fill up while I was sleeping, slapped on my great sword and started sleeping. I put on my armor, including a blink band I'd bought just for this fight. After I was done sleeping, I popped my blink band and switched over to my AF crown .. it probably would have been just as well to keep the Blink band on.

I ran to the edge of the circle, popped a second Yagudo drink, pulled out my weapon, and closed to use Flash. He kindly returned the favor and I popped my Remedy to get rid of it. When my blindness was gone, I used Spinning Slash, popped my Icarus Wing and did it again. My damage was in the 300's for both, so I felt pretty good about this so far. Followed my WS up by using Sentinel and just started hammering him. I'd intended to switch to sword and shield after using my 2 Spinning Slash's .. but it seemed like he was hitting me for the same numbers he'd done when I'd gone sword and shield the first time .. so I decided to stay with my Great Sword to put up bigger damage numbers. Sentinel wore, popped Rampart. As I'd get down to 50-60% life, I'd use Cure IV on myself to limit the time spend casting, but keep my HP's high. About 15 seconds after I used Rampart, he went Invincible. I've heard that you should kite him when this happens, but I just popped mine and we traded hits for 0 for a while. It gave me time to get a Cure IV off on myself and get back to full HP's. Invincible wore, another Spinning Slash and Maat was looking pretty rough. We hacked at each other for a little bit longer, and my MP was getting really low as were my HP's .. I was determined not to lose this, so I popped my Vile Elixir +1 thinking I still needed at least 2 more WS's to finish him. 2 hits after I popped it, my TP hit 100%, Spinning Slash, and Maat gave up. Apparently you don't have to do ALL his HP's in damage, just a lot of them. Had I know that, I might not have used the big potion, but a few lesser ones .. but eh, it was over .. and I was now a Maat Masher. ^^

One more thing, the first time I went into this fight, I expected to either win, or die. Winning I knew gave me a scroll of instant warp, death - I figured I'd Home Point .. I never expected to live long enough to run out of time. So since you're sub job doesn't matter, I strongly suggest subbing BLM if you can, or bring a warp with you in case you run out of time .. otherwise you're left standing in Fei'Yin .. alone .. no warp .. (thankfully at 68, nothing in there I ran past aggro'd me while I ran all the way back to the outpost in the Glacier). Just a note.

Elvaan Paladin - Strategy.
I did this fight as a 70 PLD. My setup was as follows. Sword: Macauhuitl +1 Neck: Shield Torque Earring: Mercenary's Earring Earring: Hospitaler Earring Body: Gallant Surcoat Hands: Gallant Gauntlets Legs: AF legs Feet: AF Boots Head: AF Head Shield: General's Shield Back: Knightly Mantle Waist: Life Belt Ring: Chyrsobery Ring Ring: Hercules Ring The only meds I used were 3 hi-potions and a mithkabob. I casted Protect IV and Shell III on myself. I went in and immediately flashed Maat. Then began to duel with him. I used Sentinel and Rampart and Shield Bashed him when he tried to cast Banish spells. I waited for Flash to wear before using WS. I used my Invincible when he used his. Maat did not use Asuran Fists when I fought him. I finished the fight with 63hp. Though it was a close fight, this proves that it is not necessary to have atk gear like Sniper rings, Optical Hats and Amemet +1 just to beat Maat. I did it with a pure Vit setup.

Galka Paladin - Strategy
I did this fight as a 70 PLD (may as well wait till then). My setup was as follows: Sword: Espadon +1 Neck: Opo-opo Necklace & Chivalrous Chain Earring: Drone Earring Earring: Drone Earring Body: AF Hands: AF Legs: AF Feet: AF Head: Blink Band & AF Shield: General's Shield Back: Templar's Mantle Waist: Astral Rope Ring: Ether Ring Ring: Astral Ring Ammo: Bibiki Seashell The fight itslef: Speak to Maat naked and trade the testimony. Enter the BC itself naked. Equip armour/weapons (inc. Blink Band & Opo-opo Necklace). Cast Protect and Shell. Drink Yag Drink, eat sole sushi. Take 4xsleeping potions till 100% TP. Change neckpiece to normal. Use Blinkband. Change headpiece to normal. Run in and engage. Vorpal Blade. Flash. Build TP to 100%. Vorpal Blade. Use Icarus wing. Vorpal Blade. Build TP to 100%. Vorpal Blade. Use the following as and when needed: Yagudo Drink, Hi-Potion +3 and Vile Elixir +1. Don't worry about talking too many of potions in, you want to win first time, right? You can always sell them back on AH afterwards. I'd also suggest adding as many actions as possible as macros (potions, equipping armour from naked etc), you should have plenty of room on two banks of macros and it speeds things up so much and helps prevent you selecting the wrong things through nerves. Maat didn't use Asuran fists on me, nor did he use Invincible, I guess I was lucky, but if he does use Invincible, kite him, but not just in a circle, head for the way you came in...he'll chase you up there. When it wears off, use Invincible yourself and re-engage him.

Galka Paladin - A Different Strategy
Wait a minute! Don't we already have a Galka Paladin guide? In fact, isn't it right above this one? Well, yes, that's true. BUT! I had looked at the information givin withing the other Galka Paladin strategy and couldn't help but think to myself "Wow, that's alot of MP+ gear!" Now, some may say MP+ is a must for Galka in general, but I am here to bring the other, non-MP+ information for Galka PLD in their Maat fight. (Please note: This gear is the gear I tanked with at the level I entered with (70). I did not switch any gear out of my usual rig and it worked fine.)

Gear:
 * Espadon +1
 * Diamond Shield +1
 * Gallant Coronet
 * Gallant Surcoat
 * Gallant Gauntlets
 * Gallant Breeches
 * Gallant Leggings
 * Parade Gorget (Used Blink Band for shadows before engaging)
 * Knightly Mantle
 * Warrior's Belt +1
 * Jelly Ring
 * Chrysoberyl Ring
 * Drone Earring
 * Hospitaler Earring
 * Bibiki Seashell

Other Items:
 * Carbonara x1
 * Hi-Potion +3 x5
 * Hi-Ether x1
 * Icarus Wing x1
 * Yagudo Drink x2
 * Confidence +1 (If you don't KNOW you will win, don't go until you do! Rare/EX item btw :P)

Now, it's important to remember that you can access the Maat fight, if you have the Paladin Test that is, as soon as level 66. BUT, by far the best time for a Paladin to go is at level 70. Why is that you might ask? Well, prior to level 70 there is no actual advantage to fighting Maat over any other levels. However, at level 70 you get a little spell called protect 4, which is pretty much the best and only advantage level 70 has over 66, 67, 68, or 69. Which is more then can be said about the other mentioned levels.

Now, you've got your test, you've got your items, you've got you extra pair of underwear incase Maat uses Asuran Fists and you lose control of yourself. Now what? Well, there is this little rumour running around that if you don't wear any equipment when you head into the BCNM fight it might make Maat a little easier on you. Random lies someone made up made on no backed up evidence? Or, perfectly discovered wonder drug for Maat fights? Either way, it can't hurt to try! So go into the BCNM nekkid! If your going for a record, you might wanna make some equipment macro's to speed up the process. But if you're not, don't worry about it.

Well...what now? There are so many options who could possibly tell you what it is? Well, I can't, it's up to you. Use all the knowledge of Paladin that's in your skull from the past 70 levels and make yourself and other Paladins proud! But, I will give a brief overview of what I did in the battle and how it turned out!

I ran in after doing all my equipment stuff, shadows, icarus wing, the whole deal. I engaged and began the fight, he started to cast Banish III so I smacked him in the face with a Swift Blade and used Flash, Rampart, and Sentinel. Then it was just a bunch of back and forth smashing of the face for TP building and another Swift Blade. Of course, I cured where needed and tried to manage my MP and flash whenever he did. About halfway through the battle he used Invincible and I went to go activate mine but, d'oh! I had used it in be Besieged and it wasn't going to be up for another 15 minutes.

So there I was, looking like an idiot (thankfully no one was watching :P) and I decided to just stand there and take the beating (I was in my tank gear after all). This was also the time I used most of the Hi-Potions +3 I had gotten and the ether to get my MP back up for the rest of the fight. I got another Swift Blade up and he was almost down to 30% health (about when he gives up) and I was coming in for another attack when I really wished I had the extra underwear on me because I saw "Maat readies Asuran Fists"! My sword came down, connected, and he gave up. I was at this point crumpled in my chair thanking Altana that he hadn't gotten it off.

Overall, he was like an EM mob pretty much. Just be prepared, know how to be a good Paladin, and you should have no problem taking him down. No need for insane Atk+ gear or lots of MP+ or even anything other then what you tank with (unless what you are using is very bad in which case upgrade!) and you will soon be a Star Breaker!

Hume Paladin lvl 66 strategy
It might be stupid, but I fought and beated Maat at lvl 66. The first times I got owned. I used att gear instead of defense. But unless I got alot of attack gear (and I did not) the dmg I inflicted was still very low. And he was hitting me for 100 dmg+. At my first and second try everything was going fine. HP didnt get below 600. Then Maat said;'Apperently you were not ready for me yet, were you? Now go home, wash your face, and try again when you think you are ready for me.' After that he used a double Asuran Fists. The thirth time I used normal exp gear. Things were going better, but when he had like 30-35% HP left he used a double Asuran Fists /cry. At this time I was about to give PLD up, lvl WAR for an easy Maat fight and then lvl PLD again. Paladin.

So I tried one last time, saving invisible for when he was going to use a double Asuran Fists again. Everything was going perfect. He missed a Maat Bash because of flash. Then he used Asuran Fists, I quickly hit my Invincible macro and the second Asuran Fists was 0 dmg. But he used another one, and another one, and onther one. I knew that, when Invincible wore off, I was dead. I put all my hope in one last vorpal blade, I used it when Invincible wore off, and it beated him. Still shaking I read what he said, and warped out.

A few things on fighting Maat on lvl 66.

Maat will rape you with Asuran Fists after a certain amount of hits, and when he starts his Asuran Fists rampage, you're dead. So you can either make sure you deal more damage, and keep youreself alive. Or make sure you survive long enough trough his asuran fists to beat him. Both are nearly impossible at lvl 66, and then there is the time. DO NOT sleep your TP to 100%. At lvl 66 you just dont deal enough damage to kill him in 10 min, if you first sleep to 100 TP. If you really want to beat him at 66, do it. But it is really hard, or you have to be really lucky. Good luck.

A very "secure" strategy (ie, hard to lose)
(by Valkyrian)

I'm now a Galka 70 PLD on Asura, and even though my way of doing things would be different than, say, a Taru, the same basic premise should work alright for other aspiring Paladins out there.

My first two times I fought Maat I was level 66. The first time I didn't fully know what I was doing and ate dirt. The second time I had timing problems with my Cures, and I died when Maat only had like 10% health left. I RR2'd myself with the hairpin, but ran out of time before I could get back into the fight.

This time, I went into my fight as a 69 Paladin with less than 100xp to next level. I did this because I had an experience scroll on me from an Escort Mission some friends and I had done. Some people may turn their noses up, but ya know what? I had it as a backup plan in case things went wrong.

I entered the battlefield without armor on (since I have yet to see conclusive evidence that Maat *doesn't* match your stats when you enter), and used /equip macros to quickly arm myself. I buffed, ate food, and had a Yagudo Drink. With my Opo-opo necklace on, I started to use 4 sleeping potions to get 100% tp. I made a mistake at this point since I had forgotten my sword was on the 3rd /equip, so I lost some tp there.

Once I was all set, I ran up to the end of the tunnel and used my Blink Band, then put on the rest of my battle gear and leapt into the fray.

Even with Paladin natural Refresh, a Yagudo Drink, and a Parade Gorget, you won't get back enough mp to justify keeping mp+ gear on once you've used it at the start of the fight. I had a 4th /equip macro which got rid of my mp+ gear, replacing it with vitality and attack items.

I've seen a lot of videos of Paladins fighting in 3rd person, and a lot of interrupted spells and hi-potions. I fight in first person so I can time it better - I think the only times I had anything not go off was when Maat used Maat Bash on me. I switched off using Hi-Potions and Cure III/IVs, using Swift Blade (Espadon+1 is great for this since Swift Blade damage is partially based off your Mind rating) whenever possible. After my third Swift Blade, when I was starting to linger in yellow hp but Maat was worse than I was, I used Invincible (he used his when he was about 50% hp). I realized at that moment that I had left my Vile Elixer in my Mog House, so I used the xp scroll. It had more or less the same effect, boosting my hp and mp (to full in this case). Having saved my Icarus Wing for last (worried about being medicated), I used it and blasted him with a 4th Swift Blade, and won!

I even made a video of it, and posted it (in two parts) on YouTube:
 * Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEXP_HxK0ms
 * Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjYk84Clt0A

Gear I used
 * Espadon +1
 * General's Shield
 * Gallant Coronet
 * Gallant Surcoat
 * Gallant Gauntlets
 * Gallant Breeches
 * Gallant Leggings
 * Chivalrous Chain (I also used a Blink Band before I ran in)
 * Amemet Mantle
 * Life Belt
 * Jelly Ring (Started off with an Astral Ring)
 * Unyielding Ring (Started off with an Ether Ring)
 * Coral Earring (Started off with a Zedoma's Earring ...yes I know it's a hard earring to get...took us months of ENMs, but definately worth it for a Galka who likes mp)
 * Insomnia Earring
 * Bibiki Seashell

Food and Sundries
 * Carbonara (I thought about using Tacos, but I didn't really need any more tanking stats)
 * Hi-Potion (Bought a Hi-Potion Tank, prepared 10, but only needed about 7)
 * Icarus Wing (Saved for the end, so as to avoid being medicated)
 * Yagudo Drink (Brought 2, wanted to bring 3 but I forgot to buy my third)
 * Vile Elixer (Yes, I know I used an xp scroll instead, but I was *planning* on using this...)