Paladin:Basic Hate Guide

Paladin Basic Hate Guide A Basic Guide to Paladin Hate Control By Kukai Durandai

Note: This guide is based off of my own experience as a 62 Tarutaru Paladin. It is meant to be a short, simple, but informative guide for the beginner who wants to learn and the novice who needs to learn how to better handle him- or her-self on the field of battle. This also assumes a typical EXP party setup. Some situations will call for variations in your strategy. Please be flexible, and please listen to your party members requests. You are all in this together for a common goal.

Why is Hate Important?
There are lots of guides out there that define it in more detail. What you need to know is that this is the lifeblood of the Paladin job. Using hate techniques you will effectively keep the mob's attention on your heavily armored self and keeping it from killing the squishies in your party.

Hate Management Tools
Just about every Job Ability, Job Trait, and Spell you get is designed for one thing: to assist you in keeping hate. But each one has its own amount of hate-generating power. Here's the list in approximate effectiveness:
 * 1) Invincible
 * 2) Provoke
 * 3) Flash
 * 4) Sentinel
 * 5) Shield Bash
 * 6) Cure Spells
 * 7) Your DMG output
 * 8) Defender
 * 9) Everything else

Basic Things to Know

 * It is OK to heal yourself - in fact, this is great for generating hate!
 * The White Mage has your back - don't deplete your MP all the time
 * Think of Cover as Re-cover, as in use it when you can't recover hate right away.
 * Cure spells only give you as much hate as you cure. A Cure II for 90 HP gives you more hate than a Cure III for 10 HP.
 * Please don't use Berserk.
 * Please don't use anything other than Sword and Shield.
 * Please farm or do whatever and buy the BEST armor you can afford CLOSEST to your current level.

Two Basic Objectives
You have two basic objectives when managing hate:

Getting Hate
Get the mob off the other party member(s).

Keeping Hate
Make the mob attack YOU and only YOU. Seems simple enough, right? Without going into diagrams of the various party setups, I can simply tell you that this is much easier said than done. In some situations, this will be cake. In others, you will be fighting for every ounce of hate your poor character can muster. (Why do I hear snickering Rangers in the background?)

How it Works
In my experience, I see greater results when I stagger my abilities and always keep a trick up my sleeve if I need to grab hate really quickly. Here's how a standard, easy progression goes:

Provoke
Attained as PLD10/WAR05 Obviously you use Provoke first. This is the only macro I use, as it is on a 30 second timer (if you use another macro while the timer is active, it will discontinue the timer). That way I can use Provoke EVERY 30 seconds EVERY time it is up. Get the importance?

Flash
Attained at 37 Pretty much the same as Provoke, use it whenever it's up.

Cure Spells
Attained at Levels 5, 17, 30, and 55. When you get hit, Cure yourself. Timing is crucial. Press Magic, Cure, highlight yourself, and wait for the mob to attack you. Right as it strikes, hit the confirm button and cast cure. You should cast uninterrupted (barring any attack abilities or stun features). Remember, the more HP cured the better (regardless of which level of Cure you use). Just don't deplete your MP every fight and expect the party to let you rest. Oh and sometimes using Cure on a party member you can't grab hate from also helps (and adding Cover to that makes you look like a hero).

Sentinel and Shield Bash
Attained at 30 and 15, respectively I always stagger/alternate Sentinel and Shield Bash. Both are good for grabbing hate, but Shield Bash has the added bonus of stunning for a few seconds. Follow-up with a Cure III or IV and you get a nice hate spike. It's nice that Sentinel has a defense boost, but it's more important for hate-grabbing.

Damage Output
Your damage output definitely helps you keep hate as well. For this reason, a Paladin will typically get a Life Belt at level 48 (and ignoring the Royal Knight’s Belt), and, at level 55, save up 300% TP to unleash 400-500 points of damage with the Spirits Within weapon skill. Please don't think that means you can use Berserk or 2H Weapons.

Defender
Attained as PLD50/WAR25 I haven't had much success with Defender and grabbing hate. It's a nice DEF boost on those hard mobs, but for us weaker races it's less tempting to use for the decrease in atk power.

Closing Thoughts
I guess you could call this a rough draft, or work in progress. This is also my first work. Comments are definitely appreciated. Everything in this guide is probably pre-endgame, as I haven't gotten there yet. Remember, be flexible, be amiable, get EXP, make friends, and HAVE FUN. You’re paying for this game, remember? --Kukai47 04:06, 18 June 2009 (UTC) PLD 62, RDM 54, WHM 52, BLM 39, DRK 38, DRG 33, WAR 32