Valkerie's Complete Guide to Paladin

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This page is currently under reconstruction and will be published soon. Guide 2.0

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.

I've been playing Final Fantasy XI for 6 years and has spent almost the entire time as Paladin. I've learned from players that have been playing the game since the beginning. As a result of all the learning and on the job experience I've 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.

Background
Well there's not a whole lot to say here. The paladin job class has been with the Final Fantasy franchise since the beginning. The Paladin is a sacred knight, and acts as a counterbalance to the Dark Knight. Paladins equip heavy swords and armor, and use special swords that have been imbued with sacred power. They generally can use basic White Magic spells, and have the ability to Cover allies whose HP are low. Some games also give Paladins skillsets that emulate these abilities and expand upon them, giving them the power to strengthen and protect allies and attack enemies with holy-themed techniques. As Dark Knights wield the Deathbringer, the holy-sword Excalibur is sometimes associated with Paladins. Another common Paladin weapon is the Save the Queen.

Final Fantasy I
As the upgrade to the Fighter class, the Knight was the prototype for the future Paladin class and has more in common with them than later knights; specializing in swords and shields, having access to the strongest armor, and the ability to cast low-level White Magic.

Final Fantasy III


The Knight is a Job class in Final Fantasy III. It is gained from the Fire Crystal. Knights are mighty warriors who are experts in close-range combat. They are dependable allies who can defend themselves, as well as shield fellow party members during harsh ordeals. The Knight can be considered a powered up version of the Warrior job.

Final Fantasy IV
Cecil Harvey transforms into a Paladin on Mount Ordeals. As a Paladin, Cecil has access to low-level White Magic and will use Cover to protect weakened allies. Final Fantasy: The After Years

Cecil returns as a Paladin, retaining his skills from Final Fantasy IV. His son Ceodore Harvey similarly has White Magic and wields heavy equipment. During the game Kain Highwind becomes a Holy Dragoon, the Dragoon equivalent of a Paladin, giving Kain the ability to use White Magic.

Final Fantasy VI
Leo Cristophe is officially classified as a General. However, he equips heavy equipment, has a strong sense of honor and justice, and bears the Shock ability, all attributes associated with Paladins. Final Fantasy IX

Beatrix is a Paladin and is temporarily playable, as well as being fought as a boss. She has her own skillset, Seiken, which consists of some Sword Arts attacks, and can cast White Magic.

Final Fantasy XI
Paladins are an advanced job, and are popular tanks due to having several defensive skills along with strong armor. They can also cast White Magic. Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings

Basch is given the Paladin job. He uses heavy equipment and swords, and his skillset consists of abilities that protect and strengthen the party.

Final Fantasy XIII
Final Fantasy XIII does not have a Paladin job class; however, Snow Villiers is theoretically the best Sentinel in the game, which acts a bit like "cover", as Sentinels provoke the enemy and defend using guard abilities. Snow also has trademark names for his heavy coats, such as Save the Queen, and even a coat that is named after the job class, Paladin. Final Fantasy Tactics

Delita Heiral, Agrias Oaks, Cidolfus Orlandeau and Wiegraf Folles are Holy Knights; Folles' title is White Knight, though his abilities are virtually identical to that of the others. The Holy Knight skillset is made up of holy-themed attacks that can inflict status ailments on enemies.

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance
The Paladin job is exclusive to humans in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. The job is a strong attacker and can use abilities with the rare Holy element. Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift

The hume-exclusive Paladin makes a return in Tactics A2. Frimelda Lotice is a Paladin.

Knights of the Crystals
The Paladin class is obtained by completing the 04:Crests collection. It offers a minor boost to attack and a major boost to defense.

Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light
The Paladin job is usable in The 4 Heroes of Light, and focuses on defending itself and its allies.

Dissidia Final Fantasy
Cecil appears in this game as both a Dark Knight and a Paladin, able to shift forms when attacking. His Paladin form specializes in swift aerial sword combos and light-based magic attacks.

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 decent amount of magic damage resistance for you and anyone in range. Use cover to take the damage for others. Shield Bash to stop those pesky enemy TP abilities and stun the mob.

Tanking (In &amp; Out)
This form of tanking is a wee bit controversial. Using In &amp; 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 / Kiting
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.

Kiting is tanking while moving a large area, 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 &amp; 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. Ig going as /nin 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 -&gt; Rampart -&gt; Flash is an amazing amount of enmity generation.