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Available after completing the quest A Knight's Test.
Paladins specialize in close-range combat, just like warriors. However, through long hours of spiritual training, paladins have acquired the ability to cast white magic spells, making them even more valuable on the battlefield.
Cover allows a Paladin to take hits in place of another player while working on regaining control of the target.
Highest Shield skill of any job, which when combined with the Paladin's arsenal of armor, Flash, damage reducing abilities, and cures, forms a formidable damage mitigation package.
Weaknesses[]
Relies on its relatively small MP for a good part of enmity generation and damage mitigation, limiting endurance when substantial curing is needed; less so than other common blink tanking jobs like Ninja. (Refresh and Refresh gear can help to alleviate the issue.)
Suffers from slower invite rates at the highest levels, when exp parties largely shift from a single full-time tank configuration to damage dealer only front line setups.
Race Selection[]
Final Fantasy XI allows players to choose between five different races, each with its own strengths and weaknesses in terms of stats. While certain races' stats are better matched to some jobs more than others, the differences are never so profound as to prevent any race from playing any particular job (except for Elvaans and Black Mage). All players can excel at any job they so choose, provided they have the skill and the equipment; the race selection is mostly an aesthetic decision.
With the second best HP and VIT stats, Elvaan is a good fit for Paladin, with the caveat of having the second smallest MP pool. Standard Paladin gear should provide sufficient boost to HP, VIT, and defense. Good MP management practices can compensate for weakness in that area, though some Elvaan players have been known to add MP gears at lower levels.
Galka's stats in HP and VIT are the best in the game, making it a natural fit for Paladin. However, the trade off is having the smallest MP pool of all races to work with. This makes MP gears a little more important to Galka than others, and makes good MP management mandatory.
With about average stats in HP, VIT, and MP, Hume is comparable to Mithra for Paladin, with slightly better VIT but worse AGI. Hume players often utilize additional HP equipment for harder fights, but otherwise mostly use normal Paladin gears.
With about average stats in HP, VIT, and MP, Mithra is comparable to Hume for Paladin, with slightly worse VIT but better AGI. Mithra players often utilize additional HP equipment for harder fights, but otherwise mostly use normal Paladin gears.
With lowest HP and highest MP of all races, Tarutaru Paladin faces greater danger with more curing power than other Paladins. Many Tarutaru players focus on HP equipment at all levels, even going as far as equipping gears to convert MP to HP.
Support Job Options[]
The choices listed here are by no means the only ones available, but their strengths are well established. Feel free to explore and try out different support jobs than those listed. (Note: For a Paladin at Lv.10 or below, the support job used really doesn't make a substantial difference, with the singular exception of /BST.)
Warrior is the defining support job for Paladin level 10 to 75, and every Paladin should have /WAR fully leveled. This support job provides spike enmity abilities Provoke and Warcry, along with improved defense from Defender. For damage dealing, /WAR adds Berserk and Double Attack.
Selected lists of abilities and traits granted by /WAR are below; see the Warrior page for the full listing.
While Ninja as a support job is of debatable utility before Utsusemi: Ni, PLD/NIN is very popular for soloing, merit party, and endgame use. Utsusemi: Ni and Utsusemi: Ichi provide impressive damage mitigation for tanking and soloing, while Dual Wield adds to damage output over time and Weapon Skill hit counts for damage dealing (when using two one-handed weapons).
Selected lists of traits and spells granted by /NIN are below; see the Ninja page for the full listing.
Thanks to innate Enhancing Magic skill, Paladin can take advantage of Red Mage's Phalanx, Stoneskin, and bar- spells for damage mitigation along with Magic Defense Bonus. It also adds to damage output with en- spells, Blaze Spikes, and Bio II (which also serves as damage mitigation). Though not efficient for EXP partying, PLD/RDM is a strong soloing combination.
While rare for group use in general, PLD/RDM excels in distance tanking Jailer of Love, utilizing high enmity spells such as Dispel, Sleep, Blind, and Bind in heavy rotation to supplement Flash and cures.
Selected lists of traits and spells granted by /RDM are below; see the Red Mage page for the full listing.
With White Mage as support job, Paladin gains Stoneskin for damage mitigation, -na spells for status effect removal, and many utility spells, making this a strong soloing setup. Additionally, the -ga spells make PLD/WHM useful to small groups lacking White Mage or /WHM, and enables PLD to function as a healer when the normal jobs for the role are unavailable.
Selected lists of abilities, traits, and spells granted by /WHM are below; see White Mage page for the full listing.
Paladin using Beastmaster as support job can solo much like a Beastmaster, charming pets to attack foes. This combination only seems to work well if the player's BST level is same or higher than PLD level, however, so those who elect to take this path should already have BST ready and be familiar with the way BST operate. In the hands of a skilled and knowledgeable player, PLD/BST will likely achieve the best exp/hour for a soloing PLD out of all possible support jobs.
Selected lists of abilities and traits granted by /BST are below; see the Beastmaster page for the full listing.
Dancer as a support job allows Paladin to use TP for something other than Weapon Skill (or Chivalry); Sambas allow HP or MP recovery for melees, Waltzes restore HP and remove status effects, Steps enfeeble enemies, and Flourishes function like Provoke and Gravity. As Sambas, Waltzes, and Steps do not need 100% TP to be used, PLD/DNC is an potent combination versus Colibri, which often wipe out TP before the 100% needed for Weapon Skills. It's also good for fast attacking monsters which tend to interrupt Cure spells, since Dances like Waltzes are job abilities, and activate nearly instantaneously.
PLD/DNC is now the standard setup for Campaign Battle, and is a widely used combination for soloing.
Selected lists of abilities and traits granted by /DNC are below; see the Dancer page for the full listing.
Hasso, Meditate, Third Eye, and Seigan are the key strengths of Samurai as a support job. For Paladin, this is for playing in the damage dealer role with a two-handed weapon, meaning either Great Sword (rank B; skill 250 at Lv.75) or Staff (rank A; skill 269 at Lv.75). Due to the detrimental effect of Seigan on spells' cast time and recast timer, this combination is ill suited for tanking.
Selected lists of abilities and traits granted by /SAM are below; see the Samurai page for the full listing.
