Paladin: Guide by Willriker/Part II

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JOB ABILITES

 * These are abilities that you can activate; each has a duration, effect and a recharge counter. Almost every job ability a Paladin attains produces a nice Hate spike when used.  This is very nice indeed.  For more information on Hate and Job Abilities visit the section of this guide labeled CONTROLLING HATE.  This part of the guide has a description of the ability and suggested uses for the ability only.  Also Note that the Job abilities listed here presume that you have a Warrior sub-job (yes you will be subbing Warrior for about 99% of your career as a Paladin so I included the abilities you get from Warrior in this guide as well).  Job Abilities, which belong to the Paladin Job alone, have a (+) next to the name.

Invincible +
Level: 1 Recast Timer: 2 hours Duration: 30 seconds Effect: Makes the Paladin immune to all physical attacks
 * This ability is especially nice because of the fact that it draws the most amount of

Hate. In fact, it generates more hate than any other ability in the game. And due to the fact that you take no physical damage for the duration of this ability it also grants your party and extra 30 seconds to rectify a bad situation.

Defender
Level: 50 Recast timer: 3 minutes Duration: 3 minutes Effect: Enhances defense at the expense of attack (25%)
 * Some Paladins use this some don’t. I use this ability all the time.  The way I see

it, the number 2 priority of a Paladin is to take as little damage as possible. So when I see my damage swinging widely, indicating that I need more defense, I immediately turn to this ability. The down side to this ability is that is saps strength from your attack rating, therefore you will not hit an enemy very often. Thereby limiting the amount of tactical points you attain.

Berserk
Level: 30 Recast timer: 5 minutes Duration: 3 minutes Effect: Enhances attack at the expense of defense (25%)
 * The only time I would ever use this ability would be when I’m soloing enemies,

and even then only low level enemies. Paladin is not known for being a damage dealer, therefore any help you get at all to inflict damage upon an opponent make use of it. Do not get me wrong, if you use this ability in a party where you are tanking I will personally transfer servers and MPK your sorry ass.

Warcry
Level: 70 Recast timer: 5 minutes Duration: 30 seconds Effect: Raises Attack of party.
 * This is an ability that has many potential uses. Some Paladins keep this ability in

reserve mainly because it produces a nice amount of hate. However, by the time you gain this ability you will also come to realize that the almighty skill chain is what really kills enemies, not individual melee attacks. So, the use of this ability just before a skill chain starts is also a great idea. You will just need to work out a rotation with other members in party as to not waste this ability, because I do not believe this ability will stack with other Warcries.

Rampart +
Level: 62 Recast timer: 5 minutes Duration: 30 seconds Effect: Raises Defense of party members within area.
 * This is the ability I personally keep in reserve. When enemy makes a run at an

overzealous mage it comes in quite handy. Often times, ill grab the enemy’s hate right back before it even makes it to my precious mage let alone damage them. On occasion however it is warranted to use it just before a skill chain. Especially when your melee are a bit slow in the head and take forever to perform the skill chain, the less damage everyone takes is a good thing and will often mean the difference between an experience chain 4 or 5.

Shield Bash +
'''Level: 15 Recast timer: 5 minutes Duration: Instantaneous Effect: Damages target, chance to stun
 * This is one of my personal all time favorite abilities. Not only is the animation

cool, but it also carries a chance to stun an enemy. Thereby giving you a way to stop that devastating goblin bomb before he can actually toss it at you. At later levels this ability becomes almost useless in terms of actually stunning a target. But, it does generate a great amount of hate. I definitely keep this in reserve, especially when the enemy warrants me to use both Rampart and War Cry. Of course its always fun to run past a level 1 mob and one shot it with your Shield, not even breaking your stride in the process.

Sentinel +
Level: 30 Recast timer: 5 minutes Duration: 30 seconds Effect: Enhances Defense of Paladin
 * Sentinel, there is absolutely no reason to not use this ability. Not only does it,

increase your defense, but it also does not carry the draw back of Defender. Sadly, this does not generate an impressive amount of hate. I would highly recommend including this in your opening ritual EVERY fight possible.

Holy Circle +
Level: 5 Recast Timer: 5 minutes Duration: 3 minutes Effect: Defends party versus the undead
 * Often times you will notice that your presence alone will intimidate undead.

Every time an enemy is intimidated they lose an opportunity to attack you. This ability will extend this attribute to the other members of your party as well. It sounds like it would be quite useful, but your parties will very rarely want to level off of undead because they are a bit over powered for their level. In short you will very rarely have an opportunity to make use of this ability. On a side note, when the next expansion is released I have a sneaking suspicion that this is about to change.

Cover +
Level: 35 Recast timer: 5 minutes Duration: Unknown Effect: Target must be behind you, you take damage instead of target
 * This ability has saved more Rangers than I can possibly imagine. When you

activate this ability you will need to target a party member. And if you are in between the member and the enemy you will take the damage for that member. This will not last forever though, so you will need to take this time to get hate back to you, not just stand there. As mentioned later in this guide, there will be times where your melee will gain attacks that will be more than your hate control can handle. And it wont be for one or two more levels until you gain access to a new piece of equipment/spell/ or ability that will allow you to keep hate again. Cover was MADE for this situation. So use it. A little hint though, have the melee run behind you while you’re busy fiddling with the buttons to activate the ability.

Provoke
Level: 10 Recast timer: 30 seconds Duration: instantaneous Effect: A nice surge in Hate
 * Use this ability in your opening ritual and use it every 30 seconds after that. This

is quite probably the single most important reason that you are sub-jobbing Warrior. Use it often, it will never let you down.

JOB TRAITS

 * All of these abilities are passive in nature. Meaning that they are always active and cannot be turned off/on. Please note that I have abilities gained from the Warrior sub-job here as well.  The traits that you again from Paladin alone have a (+) next to the title.  Also note that I did not include a description for most of the traits in this section if you can’t figure out what effect they have on your character you should be dragged off into the back alley and shot.

SPELLS

 * You will gain some defensive/curative/damage spells during your career as a Paladin. However, I must make one thing abundantly clear.  A Paladin is not known for having the mind points of a main healer.  He/she does get some spells, and is considered a decent backup healer in an NM/HNM environment.  But, in an experience party the limited amount of magic points a Paladin acquires must be rationed.  A Paladin must use his/her magic points towards the sole purpose of hate control.  Depending on your race you will have some magic points available to dedicate towards helping to keep yourself cured, but even then it will not be much.

This Spell list and all stats there in was found from this source: http://www.vanaguide.com/?action=spell&showtype=PLD

Spells

 * {| border="0" width="100%" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2"

!width="15%"|Spell Name !width="5%"|Level !width="5%"|Cost !width="10%"|Cast Time !width="10%"|Recast Time !width="55%"|Effect creates a small amount of Hate. Hate. generates a fantastic amount of Hate. experience points. spell. that is, just don’t expect it to do very much at all.
 * - BGCOLOR="#ffdead"
 * - BGCOLOR="#e3e6ff"
 * align="left" |Cure
 * align="center"|5
 * align="center"|8 MP
 * align="center"|2 sec
 * align="center"|5 sec
 * align="left" |Cure’s the target for a small amount of Hit Points, Also damages undead. And
 * - BGCOLOR="#e3e6ff"
 * align="left" |Banish
 * align="center"|7
 * align="center"|15 MP
 * align="center"|4 sec
 * align="center"|20 sec
 * align="left" |Deals a small amount of holy damage to a target.  Also creates a small amount of
 * - BGCOLOR="#e3e6ff"
 * align="left" |Protect
 * align="center"|10
 * align="center"|9 MP
 * align="center"|1 sec
 * align="center"|5.5 sec
 * align="left" |Increases the defense of the target.
 * - BGCOLOR="#e3e6ff"
 * align="left" |Cure II
 * align="center"|17
 * align="center"|24 MP
 * align="center"|2.25 sec
 * align="center"|5.5 sec
 * align="left" | Heals a medium amount of Hit Points. Also generates a moderate amount of Hate.
 * - BGCOLOR="#e3e6ff"
 * align="left" |Shell
 * align="center"|20
 * align="center"|18 MP
 * align="center"|1 sec
 * align="center"|5 sec
 * align="left" |Targets magic defense increases a small amount.
 * - BGCOLOR="#e3e6ff"
 * align="left" |Cure III
 * align="center"|30
 * align="center"|46 MP
 * align="center"|2.5 sec
 * align="center"|6 sec
 * align="left" |Cures a target for a lot of Hit Points.  Also creates a great amount of Hate.
 * - BGCOLOR="#e3e6ff"
 * align="left" |Protect II
 * align="center"|30
 * align="center"|28 MP
 * align="center"|1.25 sec
 * align="center"|5.25 sec
 * align="left" |Moderately increases the defense of a target.
 * - BGCOLOR="#e3e6ff"
 * align="left" |Banish II
 * align="center"|34
 * align="center"|57
 * align="center"|4.25 sec
 * align="center"|21 sec
 * align="left" |Deals a moderate amount of divine damage to an opponent.
 * - BGCOLOR="#e3e6ff"
 * align="left" |Flash
 * align="center"|37
 * align="center"|25 MP
 * align="center"|0.5 sec
 * align="center"|45 sec
 * align="left" |Temporarily blinds an opponent, and GREATLY reduces its accuracy.  Also
 * - BGCOLOR="#e3e6ff"
 * align="left" |Shell II
 * align="center"|40
 * align="center"|37 MP
 * align="center"|1.25 sec
 * align="center"|5.25 sec
 * align="left" |Moderately raises a targets magical defenses.
 * - BGCOLOR="#e3e6ff"
 * align="left" |Protect III
 * align="center"|50
 * align="center"|46 MP
 * align="center"|1.5 sec
 * align="center"|5.5 sec
 * align="left" |Greatly raises Defense of the target.
 * - BGCOLOR="#e3e6ff"
 * align="left" |Raise
 * align="center"|50
 * align="center"|150 MP
 * align="center"|15 sec
 * align="center"|60 sec
 * align="left" | Removes KO’ed status of the target, also restores 25% of the targets lost
 * - BGCOLOR="#e3e6ff"
 * align="left" |Cure IV
 * align="center"|55
 * align="center"|88 MP
 * align="center"|2.75 sec
 * align="center"|6.5 sec
 * align="left" |Cures a giant amount of Hit Points, also generates the most Hate out of any cure
 * - BGCOLOR="#e3e6ff"
 * align="left" |Holy
 * align="center"|55
 * align="center"|100 MP
 * align="center"|0.75 sec
 * align="center"|60 sec
 * align="left" |Inflicts a decent amount of holy damage onto a target, well as holy damage goes
 * - BGCOLOR="#e3e6ff"
 * align="left" |Shell III
 * align="center"|60
 * align="center"|56 MP
 * align="center"|1.5 sec
 * align="center"|5.5 sec
 * align="left" |Greatly increases the magical defense of the target.
 * - BGCOLOR="#e3e6ff"
 * align="left" |Protect IV
 * align="center"|70
 * align="center"|65 MP
 * align="center"|1.75 sec
 * align="center"|5.75 sec
 * align="left" |Significantly Raises the defense of a target.
 * }

WHITE MAGE

 * Pld/Whm is nice for solo work. You gain stone skin, blink, more MP, clear mind, magic resistance, sneak, and invisible, not to mention at high levels you also get basic teleportation spells. If you need to sneak around to get something done, like a coffer or heading to any out of the way place, then subbing in White Mage is an excellent choice.  It would not be ideal for exp parties though.

RED MAGE

 * Pld/Rdm is also nice for solo work. You get many of the same abilities as when you have a White Mage sub-job but you also get Phalanx. All in all though subbing in White Mage would be more useful, with the exception of possibly ballista.

BLACK MAGE

 * As a Paladin the only reason you would ever use this as a sub is for the odd occasion where you are stuck somewhere and do not have a warp cudgel charged. Other than that, this really is not a good sub-job for a Paladin.

WARRIOR

 * Yup, now this is a sub-job for experience parties, Notorious Monsters and Hyper Notorious Monsters. In fact, if you show up to either one of these events without this sub-job do not get pissed off if they send you back to change.  There are just too many nice things you get with this sub.  Provoke, Berserk (not for party use), Defender, and attack bonus, double attack, resist virus, not to mention the additional hit points and Vitality it adds.  This is the sub-job you will have throughout your time on this planet as a Paladin.  So, learn to love it.  For those of you that want a little diversity, wait until the next expansion and cross your fingers that another useful Paladin sub-job comes along, until then you’re just going to have to concentrate on the good things you gain and sub Warrior.

DARK KNIGHT

 * Yeah, it seams like it’ll work I am going to test this out and update my guide with the info. That’s what you get from other guides, I am going to tell you to just not bother.  When you sub Dark Knight you end up reducing a diesel defense to a moderate defense while making a shitty attack a moderate attack.  This equates to a warrior without a provoke.  In short don’t bother. I know, it’s a major let down.

RANGER

 * Two abilities really stand out when you talk about subbing ranger, wide scan and tracking. OK, so they are technically the same ability, so what?  I cannot tell you just how useful these are.  How many times have you spent an hour looking for some damn NPC only to have run past him 3 times cause he did not spawn on your screen as you ran by?  Nope you don’t need to worry about this anymore.  Or let’s say that you are heading to a new place to farm, the first time you go bring ranger sub and find where everything is. Then come back with a Thief sub-job to actually farm.  But for exp parties I would not recommend even thinking about it.

THIEF

 * There is a reason why I suggested leveling Thief to level 18, and use that as a sub while you level your Warrior job to 37. Once you have level 15 Thief you gain access to Treasure hunter (which increases your drop rate from enemies.), Gill Finder (increases the amount of gill dropped by enemies, Sneak Attack (just so you can actually do some damage at the start of battle), and Steal (hey, you can get lucky and it might work).  Like I said earlier it takes a Paladin entirely too long to kill stuff, and once you do, you better hope you get something, this will increase your odds significantly.

SAMURAI

 * The only time I can see you using this sub would be at some HNM fight where you know for an absolute fact, no doubt in your mind that you will not be tanking anything at all. In that case why not sub Sam?  If for no other reason than meditate, which will grant you TP just for standing there.  Your plan would be to help backup cure tank till you have 300% TP jump in use Spirits Within then jump back out so that others can do something similar.  Again only use this when you are 100% sure that you will not have to tank a single damn thing, got it?

DRAGOON

 * I need you readers to do me a favor on this one, if you see any Paladin subbing this just slap them. Thank you.

SUMMONER

 * Aside from the added magic points and auto refresh the gains from this sub really have no use to a Paladin. Your Blood Pacts would be useless and so would your summons for that matter.

BARD

 * You only get one song at a time with this as a sub-job. Would that be worth it? I say no, not unless SE makes the chocobo song a level where a sub-job has access to it :D

NINJA

 * Now this is a sub I can like! Dual wield, and utsi.  The only problem here is that you lose Provoke.  This just isn’t nice.  Now for soloing on the other hand this would work quite nicely.  Sure, you get one less shadow on utsinemi Ni, but who really cares, just think of the havoc a Pld/Nin can cause.  It is like combining the best of both tanking worlds, if it wasn’t for the loss of that damn Provoke. You see the main problem with the Ninja job is that it does not bring many Hate tools to the table.  Sure Paladin brings a lot of Hate tools to the same table but nothing in either job can replace Provoke.  All that being said there has been a recent movement for Paladins to sub Ninja during god/HNM fights.  These Paladins load up on the enmity gear and shed damage with utsi, along with having the HP to survive until they can get utsi back up.  It’s a great plan, even if it does sound like a Paladin trying to be a Ninja.

BEASTMASTER

 * The pets you would be able to bring to the table would be so gimped that this sub-job simply wouldn’t be viable.

MONK

 * More hit points more Vitality that’s pretty much what you get here. You do get a couple other things with monk as well, but I really don’t think them to be viable for any situation a Paladin would encounter.

WHAT IS HATE?

 * Hate, also known as Enmity, is a term used to describe how much distain an enemy has toward you and or toward people in your party. Whichever player carries the most Enmity is who the enemy will be focused on.  As a Paladin you are expected to develop an intimate relationship with this concept and learn how to manipulate it to your will.  This is how the Paladin becomes the single most important member of the party.  How well the Paladin can manipulate Hate control directly impacts how much damage other members in the party are free to do.  This intern leads to a mob that dies quicker, which leads to faster experience point gains. This is the single most important thing you need to know as a Paladin, and frankly I am shocked that not many guides discuss the topic, as it applies to the Paladin job with any real detail.

HOW DO I GENERATE HATE

 * First let’s differentiate between the two types of hate. First you have hate that acts like a fast spike of hate.  This type of hate, produced by your job abilities and damage, creates a massive surge in the amount of hate you possess, the problem with this stuff is that it wears off very quickly, and needs to be supplemented with something that will last longer.  This leads us to our spells, our spells create a much longer lasting hate, the only problem is that spells cost magic points and the use of excessive magic points leads to more down time not to mention that some enemies make it extraordinarily difficult to get a spell like Cure III off without haste or slow.


 * It is up to the Paladin to develop a ritual where he/she tries to alternate between Job abilities and spells. Many Paladins open with a ritual something like this: Provoke >> Flash >>Defender >> Cure III >> Provoke.  And from this point he tries to maintain the level of hate he/she has produced.   This usually occurs with the Paladin spamming Provoke and Flash as often as possible with the occasional job ability and Cure III as he/she thinks that the Hate they possess is beginning to wear thin.


 * Other party members can also grant you additional Hate through the use of Sneak Attack and Trick Attack. But, for this to work the enemy must be looking away from you, and you must be standing directly behind the enemy. An added bonus of this tactic is that it involves massive damage to the enemy.


 * What follows is a list of the Job Abilities, denoted by a (JA), and Spells, denoted by a (SP). Next to each JA or SP there will be a series of up to five (+). Abilities with five (+)’s bring the biggest amount of hate along with them, abilities with only 1 (+) bring the least amount of hat with them, and abilities with (NA) bring so little hate it really isn’t noticeable.  I remember seeing something like this else where but I cant seem to find it anywhere, and besides that person just gave his estimate on how much hate each ability gives, as a high level Paladin I will give my estimate instead.  Note: this is assuming a Warrior sub-job.


 * {| border="0" width="60%" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2"

!width="50%"|Name !width="10%"|Ability !width="40%"|Enmity
 * - BGCOLOR="#ffdead"
 * - BGCOLOR="#e3e6ff"
 * align="left" |Invincible
 * align="center"|JA
 * align="left" |+++++
 * - BGCOLOR="#e3e6ff"
 * align="left" |Defender
 * align="center"|JA
 * align="left" |+
 * - BGCOLOR="#e3e6ff"
 * align="left" |Berserk
 * align="center"|JA
 * align="left" |+
 * - BGCOLOR="#e3e6ff"
 * align="left" |Warcry
 * align="center"|JA
 * align="left" |+++
 * - BGCOLOR="#e3e6ff"
 * align="left" |Rampart
 * align="center"|JA
 * align="left" |+++
 * - BGCOLOR="#e3e6ff"
 * align="left" |Shield Bash
 * align="center"|JA
 * align="left" |++
 * - BGCOLOR="#e3e6ff"
 * align="left" |Sentinel
 * align="center"|JA
 * align="left" |+
 * - BGCOLOR="#e3e6ff"
 * align="left" |Holy Circle
 * align="center"|JA
 * align="left" |+
 * - BGCOLOR="#e3e6ff"
 * align="left" |Cover
 * align="center"|JA
 * align="left" |N/A
 * - BGCOLOR="#e3e6ff"
 * align="left" |Provoke
 * align="center"|JA
 * align="left" |++++
 * - BGCOLOR="#e3e6ff"
 * align="left" |Flash
 * align="center"|SP
 * align="left" |++++
 * - BGCOLOR="#e3e6ff"
 * align="left" |Cure
 * align="center"|SP
 * align="left" |+
 * - BGCOLOR="#e3e6ff"
 * align="left" |Cure II
 * align="center"|SP
 * align="left" |++
 * - BGCOLOR="#e3e6ff"
 * align="left" |Cure III
 * align="center"|SP
 * align="left" |+++
 * - BGCOLOR="#e3e6ff"
 * align="left" |Cure IV
 * align="center"|SP
 * align="left" |++++
 * - BGCOLOR="#e3e6ff"
 * align="left" |Protect
 * align="center"|SP
 * align="left" |N/A
 * - BGCOLOR="#e3e6ff"
 * align="left" |Protect II
 * align="center"|SP
 * align="left" |N/A
 * - BGCOLOR="#e3e6ff"
 * align="left" |Protect III
 * align="center"|SP
 * align="left" |N/A
 * - BGCOLOR="#e3e6ff"
 * align="left" |Protect IV
 * align="center"|SP
 * align="left" |N/A
 * - BGCOLOR="#e3e6ff"
 * align="left" |Shell
 * align="center"|SP
 * align="left" |N/A
 * - BGCOLOR="#e3e6ff"
 * align="left" |Shell II
 * align="center"|SP
 * align="left" |N/A
 * - BGCOLOR="#e3e6ff"
 * align="left" |Shell III
 * align="center"|SP
 * align="left" |N/A
 * - BGCOLOR="#e3e6ff"
 * align="left" |Raise
 * align="center"|SP
 * align="left" |N/A
 * - BGCOLOR="#e3e6ff"
 * align="left" |Banish
 * align="center"|SP
 * align="left" |+
 * - BGCOLOR="#e3e6ff"
 * align="left" |Banish II
 * align="center"|SP
 * align="left" |+
 * - BGCOLOR="#e3e6ff"
 * align="left" |Holy
 * align="center"|SP
 * align="left" |+
 * }


 * At the very least this chart can help you get a feel for what situation demands what type of an ability/spell as a response. A lot of paladins hold either War cry or Rampart back in reserve for emergencies. And use the second or two worth of hate that it generates to try to get off a cure III and rebuild hate from that foundation.


 * There will come an occasion where you have no job abilities left, and another party member decides to do something particularly nasty to an enemy. Rather than sitting there smashing your Provoke macro till it is charged again, do something that can get hate.  A great example of this is tossing a Cure II/Cure III/or Cure IV on the player with the hate of the enemy. I cannot tell you how many times this has brought hate back under my control.


 * A quick note on getting hate with a Cure. If you cast Cure and recover 0 hit points, you will get absolutely no hate out of it.  It will be wasted magic points in every way you can conceive of.  Some Mages Love to keep their tanks at 100% hit points.  This is nice in that you probably won’t die under this mages watch.  On the other hand, this is also bad because casting curative magic spells is a major component of a Paladins Hate building inventory.  And if you can’t use it due to the fact that the mage is keeping you at 100%… you won’t be controlling hate for very long.

SINCE HE/SHE GAINED THAT WEAPON SKILL I CANT KEEP HATE

 * Don’t worry, I truly believe that this is part of the game design. Square Enix has made this game so that the melee gain abilities that allows then to do extraordinary damage.  To balance this new ability, so the tank can keep hate, the Paladin also gains abilities and or equipment to help them deal with the massive surge of hate developed through these melee skills.

As you will discover, the only problem with this is that the abilities/spells/equipment that help you deal with those attacks always arrive one or two levels behind the melee ability. Personally, I believe that this makes for exciting game play. And this also serves as an opportunity to develop new rituals for Hate control. Often times, no matter what you do, you will not keep hate from these weapon skills until the next ability/spell/or equipment is gained. When this occurs politely ask the melee to promptly run behind you so you may use cover, you will take less damage than the melee counterpart, until you can get hate back under control. The melee in question will only have to come within a hairs width of death once for him/her to take your advice. You do not want to tell the melee to stop doing that weapon skill as more than likely it will lead to faster kills. Instead, you need to find a way to adapt.

CONTROLING HATE VS. DOMINATING HATE

 * In early levels, most Paladins take great pride in dominating the Hate of an enemy. And yes it is fun watching a melee do all he/she can to tear away hate from you, unsuccessfully you hope lol.  Dominating hate is quite an important skill to learn.  This is used quite often in early level experience parties and in some endgame Notorious Monsters as well.  The benefit of this tactic is that you are the only person taking damage, ever.  This allows for the conservation of magic points on the part of your mages, and allows the melee to do as much damage as possible.  But, as soon as a Thief reaches level 30, or your other melee reach level 60 and sub the Thief 30 job, you will need to change tactics to be able to accommodate certain party setups.  In short dominating hate becomes less efficient for experience point gains.


 * First I will discuss the case of when a Thief reaches level 30. At this point the Thief job has attained two abilities, the first is Sneak Attack and the second is Trick Attack.  Sneak Attack allows the Thief to score a critical hit on an enemy, while Trick attack allows a Thief to transfer hate from an attack onto someone else and add even more damage to the attack.  The best part of these attacks is that they stack with each other and a weapon skill that is based on physical damage.  When this occurs you will no longer be the member of the party to Provoke an enemy first.  Rather, you want to take advantage of the additional hate the Sneak Attack and Trick attack add, so let some other party member grab the initial hate off the incoming enemy.  Your role is to run behind the enemy and allow the thief to perform Sneak attack and Trick Attack upon you as soon as humanly possible.  Not only will this give you a surge of hate that you didn’t need to work for, less ability uses equals less down time, but it will also tack on a hefty sum of damage onto the enemy, making for a faster kill.  This tactic serves as an introduction to the next tactic, which occurs at level 60.


 * At level 60 it will be quite common for one of your melee to sub-job Warriors and the other to sub-job Thief. The tactic will be extremely similar to the one above, just slightly more complex, especially for the Paladin.  Now you get the first Provoke back every fight.  By this time in the game you are expected to under stand hate control like the back of your hand.  Because your melee members will want you to BARELY keep enough Hate as to hold the enemy on you until the melee with the Warrior sub job starts the Skill Chain.  The melee with the Warrior sub-job will expect the enemy to Hate him more than the Paladin after he releases his weapon skill. And to be fair, you also want this to happen because the Thief is about to release a rather nasty combination of Sneak Attack/Trick Attack/and a high level Weapon skill which will close the skill chain while standing right behind you and the enemy, so you can get all that wonderful Hate!


 * This is what is meant by the term controlling hate. You can decide when it is let go, and when it is on you like a vice.  Sure the melee can perform some fantastic damaging skills but they will never reach their full potential of damage output without a skilled Paladin in the party that can toy with the enemy in a way that sets up his melee members with perfect situations on a regular basis.

WHEN SHOULD I YEILD HATE

 * Whenever you are in a situation where more than one tank is required it is perfectly acceptable to yield hate, and even expected. For example, many Notorious Monsters require an alliance of members to defeat.  In these situations there are often 2 tanks, one in front of the enemy and one behind the enemy.  Your melee will want to make the best use of their Tactical points as they can, so the will often Sneak Attack/Trick Attack/ Weapon skill off the tank standing behind the enemy.  You will more than likely lose hate to the other tank.  There is no embarrassment in this.  It allows you to refresh some magic points and regenerate some hit points while the other tank is getting the beat down.  That is until it is your turn to get Sneak Attacked/Trick Attacked/Weapon Skilled upon.  Losing hate to another tank is nothing to be ashamed of, but losing hate that causes non-tank deaths is.


 * Yielding Hate for an initial Sneak Attack/Trick Attack is also perfectly acceptable. It will speed up experience point gains.  However, if you are yielding hate and the melee that has the hate dies, hang your head in shame.  That is unacceptable.  It does not matter if the Thief took too long to get in his/her Sneak Attack/Trick Attack or not.  You still had a Provoke and Cure spells. This should never happen.


 * Yielding Hate to a melee for the purpose of closing a weapon skill with Sneak Attack/Trick Attack is also acceptable. In fact, if you can regularly do so your party will love you for it. Again, do NOT let that melee die.  You have plenty of tools to get that hate back after just one weapon skill.  If the second part of the Skill Chain misses, or even never arrives. You must get hate back. A death will cause more down time than a missed Skill Chain.

HATE CONTROL IS A TEAM EFFORT

 * If someone truly wants to get hate, they will be able to get hate. A spamming Black Mage, White Mage, and a Ranger are good examples of jobs that can do this.  Even Monks can generate a surprisingly large amount of hate.  At the beginning of a party, the other members will see how crazy they can go with you as their tank.  So try to keep yourself at a pace where you think you can handle at the beginning of each party.  Do not lay on the hate and waste all your abilities in the first 2 fights.  Your party will begin to think that this level of hate is what you are good for, and will damage the enemy accordingly.  The only problem is you just used all you abilities trying to impress you party at the beginning.  Good news it worked, now you have to try to get them to cool it down or hate will be all over the place.

EMNITY ITEMS

 * These items function is simple, they multiply the amount of Hate you gain every time you use an ability and or damage a target. Make these items a very close friend to you.  There is NO SHAME in wearing these items.  It DOES NOT mean you are a shitty Paladin.  What it does do for you is allow your melee to do more damage.  A lot more damage with out the risk of you losing Hate every 2 seconds.  The more damage your members can do equates to faster kills, and more experience points per hour.  So please use these items, it really aids a Paladin in all types of game play. Heh, with the exception of solo game play for obvious reasons.

WHAT SHOULD I EAT

 * In early game, pre level 10, food is not really a necessity, but if you have some gill lying around and want to put it to good use, then some meat mithkabobs will help you rocket through those lower levels quite fast, though to be honest early game Paladin is incredibly easy, I was able to get all the way to level 7 without having to stop and rest.

Meat Mithkabob Food Effects: (30 minutes, All Races)
 *  Strength +5 
 *  Agility +1 
 *  Intelligence -2 
 *  Attack +22%  (Cap: 60@272 Base Attack)
 * As a Paladin in a party, level 10+, you will need to start choosing food to enhance your defense and vitality. Early Paladin, pre 53, should make use of boiled crab.  You can make do without food until about level 32, but it truly helps. After 32 you MUST use food. I mean this, if you don’t believe me try tanking enemies in Garlaige Citadel or Crawlers Nest without it.  Around the time you get 200 Base Defense (defense without food), you can still use crab, but you may want to also consider shallops tropicale.  The +defense +vitality you get from these boiled crabs and oysters will help you take a lot less damage at this point in the game.  Remember, your second most important role as Paladin is to take as little damage and humanly possible, and food is a great way to help you do that.

Boiled Crab Food Effects: (30 minutes, All Races) Steamed Crab Food Effects: (60 minutes, All Races) Shallops Tropicale Food Effects: (3 hours, All Races)
 *  Vitality +2 
 *  Defense +27%  (Cap: 50@185 Base Defense)
 *  Vitality +3 
 *  Defense +27%  (Cap: 55@203 Base Defense)
 * MP +20
 * Dexterity +1
 * Vitality +4
 * Intelligence +1
 * Defense +25% (Cap: 100@400 Base Defense)
 * After level 53, a Paladin should switch to Tavansia Tacos or its three hour equivalent Tavansia Salad. These 2 items are gill/effect the best food around for a Paladin.  You will use this type of food throughout your career as a Paladin.  At first it may seem like the 3 hour food would be the better way to go, but keep in mind that if you are Knocked Out your food effects will disappear, that and if your party does not last 3 hours then this may not be the best choice.

Tavnazian Taco Food Effects: (30 minutes, All Races)
 *  HP +20 
 *  MP +20 
 *  Dexterity +4 
 *  Vitality +6 
 *  Agility +4 
 *  Charisma +4 
 *  HP Regeneration While Healing +1 
 *  MP Regeneration While Healing +1 
 *  Defense +25% (Cap: 150@600 Base Defense) 

Tavnazian Salad Food Effects: (3 hours, All Races)
 *  HP +20 
 *  MP +20 
 *  Dexterity +4 
 *  Vitality +6 
 *  Agility +4 
 *  Charisma +4 
 *  Defense +25%  (Cap: 150@600 Base Defense)


 * Once you hit about level 74 you will notice that most parties will opt to level off of T/VT enemies. The good news is that these enemies are easier and won’t hit as hard.  The bad news is that these enemies are easier and your melee will hurt it a lot more.  In your full Vit/Def gear you may notice that your Melee are taking hate from you.  The reason for this is rather simple, they are doing a lot of damage… and you are still doing almost none.  Go out and start grabbing some offensive foods.  The combination of foods like this and exchanging some of your Vit/Defense gear for more damaging ones will help you a lot even in the hate department.  In my experience I kept all of my Adaman gear (swapped in Royal Knights Leg and Koenig Hands) and turned all my accessories into a bootleg DD setup and saw my damage dealt double while the damage I took increase by about 7 per hit.  Not a bad trade, not bad at all.

Sole Sushi Food Effects: (30 minutes, All Races) Dorado Sushi Food Effects: (30 minutes, All Races)
 *  HP +20 
 *  Strength +5 
 *  Dexterity +6 
 *  Accuracy +15% 
 *  Ranged Accuracy +15% 
 * Resist Sleep 
 *  Dexterity +5 
 * Resist Sleep 
 *  Accuracy +15% 
 *  Ranged Accuracy +15% 
 * Enmity +3 

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