How-To Guide: Paladin

Heavenly Knight: Paladin
Paladin, the epitome of the holy, chivalrous, role-playing game knight. The job with the overall best tanking specs in the whole game. It can keep hate better than any job in the game, and takes little damage per hit. Now, a lot of guides have been written for this job already, and they are really good. Why write a new one? Well, these How-To guides were meant for quick, easy-to-access information as opposed to reading the enormous guides written elsewhere. Paladin is also one of the best job classes in the game for showing the whole “Skill > Equipment > Race” factor. Since so many stats are useful, and every race plays the job extravagantly well, race has absolutely no meaning whatsoever. It merely means how the job’s played. Do you keep hate by healing yourself more, or dealing more damage? Do you prefer taking less damage per hit, or less damage as a result of evading and blocking? Equipment plays a larger role in this job, since the player will be taking damage for parties right from square one. Now skill. Skill is a huge part of this job. You have to know how to play the job, how to set a hate threshold, and how to control the entire party. If anything goes wrong, you have to be the one who dies. If you don’t like dying, this job is definitely not for you. '''Please note: This is only a guide. Please add anything if it is needed, and take away anything that is either untrue or not needed.'''

Hume

 * As a Hume Paladin, you can enjoy the very centre of both spectrums. You can both cure yourself and deal damage to keep hate since you have average MP, dexterity, and strength. You also take less damage both because of average vitality, and average agility (for evading, parrying, and blocking with a shield). HP isn’t left out either. With high Charisma, it’s more probable you can intimidate undead easier, and with moderate intelligence, you take less magic damage too. You can buff-up any stat to mould your Paladin into whatever you need, or whatever you want. Many Paladins are Humes, and many Humes are Paladins.

Elvaan

 * If you chose Elvaan as your starting race, you certainly can’t go wrong as Paladin. You find yourself on a much more melee and meat-shield end of the spectrum, since your agility and MP are fewer than most. 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. High Charisma means high intimidation rates on undead. Plus, there are few things as amazing looking as an Elvaan Paladin. May your armor shine!

Tarutaru

 * Don’t think just because Tarus are small they can’t be Paladins. This is far from the truth. As a Tarutaru Paladin, you enjoy the highest MP pool in the entire game, as well as an enormous boon to intelligence for resisting spells. Like Elvaan and Hume, Tarutaru have huge Charisma for intimidating undead. If that’s not enough, you have the second-highest agility in the game, so you avoid some attacks, block a ton, and can parry a few attacks now and then. Remember, Cures restore HP at about a 3.75x multiplier, so having a high MP pool eliminates the low HP pool. It also means you can keep hate very well. Just because you have low HP doesn’t mean you need a Cassie Earring. In fact, I’d suggest against it.

Mithra

 * No race touches a Mithra’s grace on the front lines. If you play this job-race combo, you’ll have the most fun with dodging, parrying, and blocking. Since Paladin’s biggest ‘thing’ is shields, you’ll be right at home. You can enjoy a nice MP pool, so you can keep hate and your healers less on the edge. You also have the highest dexterity in the game, meaning you can keep damage high, so long as you have a nice, high-damage sword. In a way of looking at things, Mithra is all-round like Hume, so you can adjust whatever you want for whatever situation. Your RSE hands and legs are amazing, giving you more MP, mind, and vitality- three great stats for Paladin.

Galka

 * Truly defining the ’meat shield’ of Final Fantasy XI. Playing this race would mean you have a huge load of both HP and vitality at your disposal, plus a moderate amount of agility, strength, and dexterity. This meaning, of course, you have no worry about damage taken, nor damage dealt. The single downside to this race is a smaller MP pool. However, with a smart use of MP and Auto-Refresh at Lv.35, that is hardly noticeable. Since all of your other stats are so great, you are more open to MP buffing equipment without worrying about losing out on anything else.

Weapon
Now, in terms of staves, you’ll only be using these from Lv.51 and higher. And in these cases, you’ll only be using three- the Earth Staff, Light Staff, and Dark Staff. The latter two being for power leveling (or other such purposes) only. The Earth (or Terra, its HQ cousin) Staff cuts down physical damage taken by 20%, and boosts vitality by 4 (5 with HQ). Now, although that’s great and all, keep in mind that with the use of staves, means the loss of damage, shields, and good weapon skills. However, with the weapon skill Spirit Taker, you can get MP back from dealing damage, and therefore can allow you to cure more and keep more hate. This weapon choice would probably be a lot more valid for Mithra and Tarutaru, who rely more on Cures to keep hate anyway. For the most part, unless you have Staff leveled from another job, it’s best just to keep with Swords.
 * Paladin is strange in terms of weapon choice. For the most part, you’ll be using a single-handed sword, but later on, in certain scenarios, staves are an alternative. Allow me to talk about swords first, and I’ll move onto staves later. You’ll be using a sword from Lv.1 to Lv.75. I can guarantee that. Swords have, in general, the highest damage over time, and mostly give really nice status boosts. In fact, your artifact weapon is a sword. Higher damage weapons are better for Paladin, though. Since you don’t get high base damage, hitting the monster for any damage is better than hitting for zero. Similarly, if you are a Hume, Mithra, or Tarutaru, you’ll be using Cure spells frequently. And since that means you won’t get a lot of hits in, the harder the hits, the better. Many swords are amazing early in the game. A Wax Sword plus 1 can last you from Lv.1 to Lv.11. After that, a Bee Spatha plus 1 can last you until 18. A Flame Sword at that level can last you until probably Lv.25 or so. The Centurion’s Sword and its higher quality versions are great for the thirties. Later in the game, a Gluttony Sword surpasses almost any other weapon. It’s a one-handed sword, but it’s got a huge damage and delay rating. It also gives +7 vitality.

Armor

 * Paladin gets the heaviest armor in the game. Fitting, since the job is the game’s only ‘true’ tank. Armor choice is really flexible for Paladin. Defense is always nice to have, but if possible, vitality can be useful too. Since Paladin is overall bad at avoiding hits, anything that reduces evasion to boost defense isn’t a bad thing. Coarse Leggings might be your best course of action until about Lv.15 unless you have Leaping or Bounding Boots. Until higher levels, though, there aren’t many boosts in equipment, so picking the highest defense ones can often be the best. At Lv.29, there is an armor set available for the only two meat shield tanks in the game: Warrior and Paladin. It is hands-down the best set of equipment in the game. It’s known as the Eisenplatte (Kampfplatte, HQ) Armor Set. Really, though, if you’re going to get the set, make some cash and buy the HQ version. It’s not a huge difference better, but it’s really impressive. The HQ version has a whole five defense as well as three agility and vitality over the normal quality one. For the most part, you want to pick up vitality-boosting equipment. Later on in the game, defense becomes slightly more important, so you’ll want to balance the two. If you’re new, keep in mind that equipment isn’t everything, and having the best of the best of the best doesn’t make you the best. However, if you can, having decent gear will always help.

Soloing 1 to 10

 * Personally, I found this to be one of the easiest things ever. Most jobs I take to Lv.10 are trivial, difficult, long, and just a plain pain in the rump. But seriously, in these levels, Paladin is just a Warrior with the ability to Cure itself without the use of a support job to do so. If you can, try buying a Wax Sword plus 1 and a Marine Shield. These two should last you until at least Lv.9. Getting to Lv.5 shouldn’t be a problem. Going outside and killing worms or the like until 3, and then anything decent challenge after that. Once you get Cure, it gets even easier. You might even want to go with something that boosts your MP, since even by that level, Cure will heal a 2-to1 ratio, give or take. At Lv.7 you get Banish. Unless you’re in a party that is using either Skillchain: Transfixion or Fusion and you want to magic burst it, I really don’t see a use. Though if you get into a fight with an undead, using it at the start will make your life easier. Don’t spam it, though. Also, remember to get Signet whenever you go outside!

Valkurm 10-20

 * I wasn’t a huge fan of these levels myself. Parties are too uncontrolled, and hate isn’t really that easy to hold with only one cure spell and one job ability to do it with. Actually, when I was in the process of leveling Paladin after 10, it was during exam week, so I could only get on for 15 minutes or so at a time during breaks. Actually, I hung around in Konschtat killing worms. In about three hours’ worth of play time (and obviously using my Empress Band when available) I hit Lv.16 soloing the worms. Even ones that checked “Tough” were super easy. So, if for any reason you have a hard time finding a party, killing those can make your life better. Let’s move away from this, though. During your stay in Valkurm, you learn how to tank if you haven’t already. You’ll obviously be subbing Warrior through these levels too. Using the best defensive gear available really helps. Cure yourself whenever you can. It not only helps mages out, but gives you hate. Also remember to use Provoke every 30 seconds, even if you still have hate. Its enmity will stack. You may want to set your home point in Valkurm. Chances are, you’re going to fall at least once in these levels, and it can often be taxing trying to find a Raise. When you hit Lv.15, you get Shield Bash. It’s a very useful move that deals a miniscule amount of damage, may stun the target, and gets hate. Think of it as another Provoke if you lose hate to someone who really can’t take it. You also get Cure II by Lv.17. You’ll love this spell.

Mid-levels 20-40

 * These levels still try your patience with parties. Until about Lv.30, hate control is still a difficult task, but you’ll get over it. Lv.25 is when you learn a really neat job trait called Shield Mastery. It increases the chances of blocking with a shield, and will also give the user an interrupt-free cast if the shield is used when casting. On top of which, it gives you extra TP for blocking. It’s a cool bonus to one of your two A+ skills. At Lv.30, you get a new job ability called Sentinel. This is a really great job ability that can be used once every couple of fights and gives you hate, while simultaneously giving you a huge physical paling. Also at Lv.30, you get Cure III, which will seriously help your enmity control. With these two new abilities, you’ll be able to hold hate from almost anything if used properly. Five levels later, you get a very sought-after job trait called Auto-Refresh. What it does is gives you 1 MP/tic, alleviating a lot of need to time your MP use. Though slightly less useful with the resting buff given to Signet, it’s still a very prominent job trait. When combined with the Parade Gorget and Refresh, you get 5 MP per tic, giving you a near infinite supply of MP, letting you keep hate amazingly well. Also at Lv.35 you get Cover. Not enough Paladins use this job ability as much as they should. It’s great for when someone steals far too much enmity to take back, and there’s no way to get it without using Invincible. It allows you to take damage for a party member as long as you’re between that person and the attacker. So tell me, why don’t I see Paladins use this job ability at all prior to the mid-60’s? Anyway, at Lv.37 is when you get one of two of your most useful non-Cure spells. Flash (the other being Raise at Lv.50). It’s basically like a second Provoke, and your key to almost never, ever losing hate. If you have a Thief using SATA on you, you can almost forget about losing hate unless you need to. In fact, Flash opens up new possibilities for support jobs too. In normal party scenarios, Dancer makes a viable support job, allowing you to use your TP for other things than saving up for Spirit’s Within or the like. Though rarely, if ever, used in real party scenarios, Monk can be a useful support job once Flash is acquired. Though I would avoid using it under situations where your party has a ton of damage-dealers, it can still work, especially with a Thief in the party.

Your AF Weapon

 * It’s a great weapon, I’ll tell you that. It has a high damage over time and simultaneously grants a nice bonus to both vitality and mind. Though, mind isn’t a super useful stat, even though Paladin heals itself a lot. Still, the only weapon of the level range that rivals it is the Grudge Sword and its Enmity boost.
 * Before you can start the quest, you have to have done the “Father and Son” one. After you do that, talk to Ailbeche again. Talk to Sobane in South San d’Oria twice. The first time you talk to her will be for a different quest, irrelevant to this one. Now, before you head down to Ordelle’s Caves, make sure you have some high level help. This NM is seriously overrated in difficulty. Most people say it’s impossible to kill unless you have 6-18 Lv.75s helping, but that’s totally untrue. Almost any Lv.75 can solo it, including yourself if you already have one to 75. The NM is an Earth Elemental named Polevik, who spawns after you touch a stalagmite in Ordelle’s Caves. Once defeated, touch the stalagmite again to receive an item. Talk to Ailbeche again to complete the quest. Congratulations! You’ve acquired your first of many amazing pieces of artifact equipment.

Mid-High Levels 40-60

 * With all but one job ability on hand already, and your artifact armor so close that you could just reach out and grab it, these levels are an easy breeze. You acquire a second of three tiers of Shield Mastery at Lv.50, same with Raise. At Lv.55 you get Holy. Please, never use Holy in parties. It’s merely for show. It costs 100 MP and is completely useless, even with your mediocre skill level in Divine magic. Starting at Lv.50, you have to begin doing your limit break quests every five levels until the very end. These are really annoying and trivial, but what has to be done, has to be done. If it makes you any happier, your artifact armor is the best in the game, so it shouldn’t be a very big deal. Also, you get some of the easier coffers in the game to acquire. Even Castle Zvahl is easy, since all the coffer spawns are so ridiculously close. Just be sure to come with a map.

Your Artifact Armor

 * …Is the best thing that’ll ever happen to you. Seriously. It’s like… the embodiment of all things good in a set of equipment. Every piece is amazing, and every piece will last you until your final levels, and I’m not kidding at all. It even looks cool, if superior stats aren’t enough. Looking at your AF leggings (footwear), which are acquired at Lv.52 first. They have a really nice defense boost as opposed to a lot of other boots you could be wearing. They’re amazing for fighting undead. Not only do they give you +5 to charisma for intimidating more, they also boost your Holy Circle job ability’s duration, so your whole party can intimidate them for even longer, that is of course assuming you lose enmity. The best part about them, though, is their +10 Shield Skill. Like, holy crap! That’s at least two to three levels extra skill to your highest stat! It also means with Shield Mastery, more TP, less damage taken, and less chance of being interrupted. And if that’s not enough, a +15 HP boost just gives you icing on the cake. Next in your awesome line of equipment are your hand pieces at Lv.54. Again, a very nice boost to defense, as well as dexterity (for landing hits, and therefore keeping hate). They also give you a resistance to light, which should go without saying, seeing as how you’re a Heavenly knight. On top of which, they boost your enmity. You don’t need any extra boost, but wow, that really helps. Again, another boost to HP, just in case they’re not already good enough for you. Next is your AF head piece. This piece is really odd. It’s a circlet, yet it gives you like the most defense out of all the other AF head pieces in the game. It’s so tiny, made out of a brass-like material, yet it kicks so much rear. Like your last two, your Lv.56 headpiece armor will boost your defense and HP by a fair amount. This one boosts your mind, though, allowing for more accurate and longer duration Flashes, and slightly (if any) better cures. Of course, that’s not the best part. It also boosts your enmity by 2, and gives your Cover the ability to take magical hits directed at the target too. Your leg pieces at Lv.58 also have a huge defense and moderate HP stat, but give you a boost to agility (for evading, parrying, and further boosting your shields), and also give you some Enhancing Magic skill. I’m not really sure what the Enhancing skill is for, since the only spells Paladin gets in that category are Protect and Shell, which are totally non-reliant on skill. I suppose if you’re subbing White or Red Mage and power leveling with Stoneskin, it’d help. Oh yeah, and these leg pieces boost your enmity too. Now for the final piece, the body piece, the end-all be-all artifact piece for any tank. A whopping 47 defense, 20 HP, and 4 vitality. On top of that, enmity +2 again, and a boost to Divine Magic skill for more powerful nukes for magic bursting.

High Levels 60-75

 * With your artifact equipment in hand, you’ll be the envy of all other tanks in terms of damage taken and enmity. It’ll of course make all party scenarios a lot nicer since taking less damage and boosts to everything else will mean less need for cures, and with all that enmity, you won’t ever lose hate unless a Black Mage spams spells or the like. The only real difference in these levels is your final job ability called Rampart. It gives the whole party a large defense boost (works well with any AoE or any problem with enmity), as well as gives the party a magic shield, meaning no damage or enfeebles from spells for its entire duration. If that’s not enough, it too gives a huge boost to enmity when used. Now you have, like, seven means of getting spike hate, PLUS with Cover, if you still can’t get it back, you can still take damage for the person you’re covering.

End-Game

 * Though rumors may be wrong, I heard that a team of Paladins with Aegis Shields were used to tank in the only group to ever take down Absolute Virtue. (Please add information about Dynamis, Limbus, Salvage, merit parties, etc.)

Warrior

 * Your main support job, giving you a number of beautiful boosts that can’t be ignored. First and foremost is Provoke, which gives you the means of tanking your first half of your game. It’ll be used all the way until Lv.75 with no questions asked. Unless, of course, you sub something alternatively. On top of Provoke, you get Berserk, Defender, and Warcry. Though I strongly urge you move away from Berserk in party scenarios, it can be used effectively as another means of keeping enmity, especially when timed right using weapon skills. Defender, however, boosts your already ludicrous defense by 25%. Warcry just gives you an eighth way of keeping hate, should you need it. At Lv.50, you get Double Attack, which is just a really neat-o job trait that helps with keeping your own damage and TP relatively high.

Blue Mage

 * Not one to be used in parties, but can be a great Lv.1-15 solo support job. With Pollen at Lv.1, it can make up for your lack of Cure until Lv.5. It also opens up a way to customize your stats and your spells. Though, after Lv.15, it’s not a very useful sub, since every spell you use is almost guaranteed to miss.

Ninja

 * A good late-game support job. Since you have so many ways of getting and keeping hate, losing out on good support job abilities and traits isn’t a big deal. It opens up the ability to use two swords and Utsusemi. Of course, when tanking, it’s always best to use a shield. Especially since blocking with a shield can alleviate interruptions with both Utsusemi and cures. It allows Paladin to be a really decent soloer later on. But never use it in early and mid-game party scenarios.

Dancer

 * Though still a relatively new job under testing, it’s been proven to be a great support job for both soloing and even partying mid-game. Since Flash is basically a Provoke, and Animated Flourish is basically half of Provoke, you don’t have much of a problem. It allows use of Sambas for a regen or refresh effect for everyone in the party (as long as they’re connecting hits on the monster), and allows use of Waltzes for curing oneself without being interrupted or use of MP. Since Paladins have low attack power, keeping hate through nothing but weapon skills can be trivial, so using Steps, Flourishes, and Waltzes can really help.

Monk

 * I’ve never seen a Paladin sub Monk for real party scenarios. And I really don’t know why. If the Paladin has Flash, he or she can totally grab enmity and keep it almost as good, if not better than with a Warrior support job. Though base damage will be lower, higher vitality and HP means more survivability. Also, taking less damage means a lower drop in enmity. Counter opens up enormous possibilities of not only completely avoiding attacks, but getting more enmity with the counter. With Dodge, you can avoid more attacks too. Though less useful, Focus can help for landing attacks. It’s a lot better when used with a multi-hit weapon skill to ensure damage is kept higher. Finally, Chakra. With your already enormous pool of vitality, Chakra can be another alternative for occasional free HP recovery. Boost gives a fairly large amount of enmity as well, so having that in place of Provoke every 15 seconds can help keep your already high enmity higher. Especially when you have all that enmity+ equipment, it can possibly even give Boost a higher enmity count than Provoke. If that’s not enough, it works on you, not on the target, so if your party pulls a link, you can get enmity on both targets at once.

White Mage

 * A great support job for power leveling. With Auto Refresh and a Parade Gorget, you can have 2 mp/tic Refresh at all times. And with Stoneskin up constantly, you won’t take damage, so you can rest better. Plus, with all your enmity+ equipment (namely AF), you can keep hate better than any other power level in the game. Once your power levelee finds a target, just throw a cure on him or her, and then use Sentinel and Rampart and you’ll almost never lose hate.

Your Two-Hour Ability

 * I always say a job’s two-hour ability is basically like summing up the job in one or two words. White Mage’s, for example, heals everyone in the party full HP and relieves any status ailments. Your’s gives you insane amounts of enmity and makes you block all physical damage for thirty seconds. It’ll certainly allow you to save your party. If you use it while partying, you’ll almost be guaranteed to not lose enmity, so using it in a bad situation is a good idea. It allows you to outlast the monster while your White Mage cures you to full. Even if he uses Cure IV a bunch, you won’t lose enmity, so it’s okay. It can also be used if things look dire, you can use Invincible and then train the target away from the party. Since you won’t lose enmity, and since you won’t take damage for a whole 30 seconds, you can save your party’s life this way. A third use is to use Invincible if you get aggro while sneaking around, such as going around looking for the Aht Urghan Staging Points for example. If you get aggro, use Invincible, then pop a quick Warp Cudgel or Warp spell and get out before you get owned. Invincible is a great two-hour ability, and has uses both inside and outside of parties.

Job Abilities

 * Holy Circle is probably the most useful of all of the AoE intimidation abilities. It doesn’t do much, and it doesn’t have a long duration. However, it’s great in that it expands your “Undead Killer” job trait to everyone in the party for its duration. The only problem with it is you don’t usually lose hate anyway, so anyone else intimidating the target isn’t really going to be all that relevant. On the other hand, it does give a small spike to enmity. If you can’t keep hate by yourself, it might just give you enough to bring it back to you.
 * Shield Bash is one of my favourite job abilities to use. Acquired at Lv.15, it’s your second job ability that gives your shield yet another use. Dealing a tiny amount of damage, possibly stunning the victim, and giving you Provoke-like enmity, Shield Bash is a really useful job ability. On a five-minute recast timer, it can be used every one or two fights to help you get your edge back if you lose hate. Don’t rely on it to interrupt Freeze or Bomb Toss every time, though. As you go up in levels, your stun rate doesn’t change at all, so by Lv.75, it gets really lame. However, it will always give a ton of enmity. With an Aegis Shield, this job ability’s damage is almost as high, if not higher than your weapon skills, so can be used to get hate even better.
 * Sentinel, acquired at Lv.30, is another hate-grabbing, defense-boosting job ability that really does the trick. It actually gives the user Provoke-like enmity when used, and simultaneously gives the user a 90% defense paling. When I say that, I don’t mean if you have 100 defense, it’ll give you 190. When I say that, I mean, it cuts down damage taken by 90%. Say you’d normally take 100 damage from Goblin Rush. If you use Sentinel just in the nick of time, you’ll only take 10 damage. It’s a great job ability to use when timed properly. However, this paling wears off during its thirty second duration, and can only be used every five minutes. So, it may take some timing, but it’s a very useful job ability.
 * Cover is a hugely useful job ability, despite its random duration. It can last anywhere between 15-30 seconds, but can be increased by 4 seconds per merit at Lv.75. With a three minute duration, it can be used about once per fight too. It’s acquired at Lv.35 and is useful throughout the game. With that said, why don’t I ever see Paladins use this until the high 50’s, low 60’s levels? What it does is allows you to take all damage for a target party member for the whole duration. The only catch is, you have to be between the monster and the party member for it to take effect. Since it has a low duration, it’s best to place yourself before you use this job ability. This basically frees the party member for the whole duration, so other members can heal him or her, and you can hopefully grab hate with another job ability. With your AF head piece, the effect also covers magical damage. With your relic body piece, the damage taken with this job ability active will actually convert itself into MP. 20% to be exact. Also, the sword called Save the Queen will boost your Accuracy by 20 when under its duration.
 * Rampart is acquired at Lv.62, and is your last normal job ability. It gives all party members in range a defense bonus (much like Warrior’s Warcry ability). On top of which, it gives a huge boost to enmity, and also gives the party a “Magic Stoneskin” for its duration. This means that for a certain amount of damage, it will completely negate all damage taken via magic spells. Rampart’s defense bonus can also overwrite defense-down ailments if a monster uses one on you.
 * Chivalry is one of the best job abilities a Paladin could ever ask for. I suggest meriting it almost immediately once you get the chance to. The job ability gives an enormous boost to enmity, while also converting TP to MP. That’s right, it works similar to a weapon skill in that it converts all your remaining TP to MP. Using it at 300% TP will give the user approximately 150 MP. Meaning far less downtime, and even more enmity if the need arises. Apparently the stat mind also has a very tiny effect in this job ability, but don’t buff it up too much, since you’d need about 50 of it to boost the MP gained by 1. The job ability normally takes 20 minutes to reuse, but can be taken down to 15 with merits.
 * Fealty is like your own personal enfeeble Stoneskin. Basically, it will boost your resistance to all ailments by an enormous amount. This doesn’t just include White, Black, and Blue Magic ailments, either, this works for monster job abilities and the like as well. This basically eases your mage’s role in the party, and makes your life better. The job ability’s duration is a cool minute too. Though, its recast is 20 minutes, you can bring it down to 15 through merits.

Job Traits

 * Undead Killer is your first job trait acquired at Lv.5. It doesn’t do much except occasionally intimidate an undead-family monster. Intimidation works better than Paralyze, as it can also stop TP moves. It can intimidate any monster attack, magic attack, or TP move directed at you, allowing for the occasional hit saved when fighting such monsters. The chance of intimidation seems affected by your charisma stat.
 * Defense Bonus is a nice bonus to your already high defense. First acquired at Lv.10, it will boost your defense by 10, and by Lv.70’s fourth tier, by 48 defense. These bonuses do not stack, though, so subbing Warrior won’t benefit it at all.
 * Resist Sleep is first acquired at Lv.20, and goes all the way up to a third tier at Lv.60. Though the chance of actually resisting Sleep is quite low, it will also enormously lower the duration of the effect. This is seriously effective when the monster you’re fighting uses an area-effect sleep, and you don’t have hate. You’ll wake up really fast, and will be able to pull off all hate, and allow you to cure other members to wake them up too. The only time I can actually remember it resisting is when I was in Valkurm and saved my puller from a Bogy. As I was running to Selbina, it cast Sleep on me, but I resisted. Heh, it’s really cool how it says “Resist!” when that happens.
 * Shield Mastery helps your most useful combat skill in ways no other job trait does. It basically acts as a “Store TP” for your shield blocks, in that each tier will boost the TP you get from being hit by 1 each. Your first tier at Lv.25 gives you +1 TP, your second at 50 gives you +2, and your third at 75 gives you +3. On top of all that, it will completely negate interruptions when using spells, so long as you block with your shield. If that’s not enough, the job trait boosts the chances of blocking with your shield slightly.
 * Auto Refresh at 35 is a super amazing job trait that every mage wishes they had. It gives you 1 MP every three seconds for as long as you live, basically. Meaning you don’t have to rest as much, and curing yourself requires a lot less conservation of MP.
 * Guardian is a meritable job trait that simply lowers enmity loss when using the job ability Sentinel. Though it has its uses, this job trait isn’t nearly as useful as Chivalry or Fealty, the job abilities, and shouldn’t be merited unless you really have a difficult time with enmity. It’ll lower your enmity lost for its duration by 19% per merit, up to 57% fully. Sentinel gives you Provoke-like hate as it is, and it only lasts for 30 seconds, so it’s not a very useful job trait.
 * Iron Will adds a spell interruption-down effect to Rampart. Each time this trait is merited, you will have a 19% interruption reduction so long as Rampart is active. This is actually quite a useful job trait, though a lot lesser so with Shield Mastery. Its primary use, though, is the fact that Rampart is area effect for your party members. If something goes wrong, it will lower the chance they will be interrupted.

Spells

 * Cure is the primary spell for any healing mage. You’re not a healer, and you’re not a mage, so why do you have it? Two reasons. One is the lesser reason for healing yourself and alleviating a lot of cures that your healer has to spam on you. Especially since you have Auto-Refresh at 35, you can actually outlast a lot of monsters when soloing or in a normal party scenario. Its second use, however, is a lot bigger. When healing oneself, you get about twice as much enmity than when healing another person. With that said, using your cures can seriously buff your already high enmity. Using them frequently will allow you to keep hate. Since they heal about 3.75 HP per 1 MP in general, Paladins with higher MP can potentially outlast those with higher HP (assuming they don’t get one-hit KO’ed). Paladin gets the first four of the five tiers of Cure. Only White Mages get the fifth tier, so you shouldn’t feel left out.
 * Banishes and Holy are fun to use and cool to watch. However, their damage to MP ratio is horrifically low. Even though you’re a Paladin with high Divine Magic and a ton of mind, these spells do horrible amounts of damage. They do have two functions, however. Banishes can be used to lower the weapon resistances on certain undead monsters, such as skeletons and ghosts. Holy, on the other hand, has a casting time of 0.5 seconds, and is quite powerful (but costs 100 MP, so use it wisely). With that said, Holy can easily be magic burst on Transfixion, Fusion, and especially Light skillchains to deal extra damage. I strongly urge you to not use Holy to magic burst in party scenarios, but it can be fun outside of parties, when just goofing off or doing stuff that doesn’t really require you to take a lot of enmity or cure yourself frequently.
 * Protects and Shells are a very useful line of enhancing magic for anyone. Though, your White Mage will most likely be using this on you, so you shouldn’t have to use it on yourself. In such cases your White Mage neglects owning these spells, you can use them on yourself. Protect boosts your defense and Shell boots your magic defense. Though you don’t get the final tier of Shell, you do of Protect.
 * Raise is a godsend when things don’t go the right way in your party. Let’s say for the sake of example, your only healer dies and he didn’t have Reraise up. You could Raise him yourself. Raise is basically like casting “Cure” on a fallen friend to raise his or her HP from zero to… something higher than that. Raising a fallen friend can benefit in two ways. One, it saves time from having to run all the way back from their home point, and two, it restores 50% of their lost experience points from being knocked unconscious. The downside to Raise (aside from its huge MP cost) is the fact that it will put its target into a “Weakened” status. Weakness cannot be removed and often lasts around 3-5 minutes. With that said, it’s generally pointless casting it on anyone Lv.25 or below, since they could probably make up their lost exp in no time.
 * Flash is a useful spell you get at Lv.37 that does two things. One thing it does is severely blinds your target so much that it has like 1 accuracy for its very short duration. Using it just before a monster uses a powerful attack can really save yourself a lot of damage, especially since it’s pretty much an instant-cast spell with 0.25 second casting time. The other, much more prominent use is for grabbing hate. The spell has such a huge enmity boost, it can be used in place of Provoke, easily.