Paladin Guide and FAQ

[imac2much]

It's about time our forum had a nice little guide to help all the new players. I am trying to take a similar style and purpose as Awntawn's guide... however, unlike Awntawn I am only lvl 58 at the moment, so any contributions by people with more experience would be just dandy.

I see several similar questions being asked every week, and much to my chagrin many of them are given the wrong answers repeatedly. I'll try to do my best to show you what exactly a PLD is and can be... throwing away the myths and stereotypes while I'm at it. Also keep in mind that none of my advice is end-all, be-all... just my opinion after a few months of playing how to get the most out of your Paladin's potential.

Paladin's Role
Paladins have great defense, and have the second best damage mitigation in the game for any tank (2nd to NIN). Due to this, people mistakenly think that taking less damage is the Paladin's main role. Wrong! What makes Paladin different than other tanks (NIN, WAR) is their ability to take and keep hate better than those classes. A good Paladin/Warrior has several abilities at his disposal to accomplish this: Provoke, Cures, Flash, Shield Bash, Sentinel, Rampart, Cover among others.

The Race Question
Please note: The stat calculator is NOT a good way to crunch numbers and decide which race is better. Not only is much of its data incorrect but people put too much weight in stat numbers and theory.

Paladin is one of the rare jobs where all races can play efficiently. However, each will require a very different playstyle in order to be effective. The most important stats for a PLD are HP, MP and VIT. In this manner, Galka can be good PLD if they take care of their MP. Taru can be good PLD if they take care of their HP. The other 3 are somewhat in between. That's the general answer, but let's take this a little more in-depth.

Galka : As a Galka, your HP and VIT will be higher than any other race. This can be very significant at higher levels. VIT will reduce the damage you take (in addition to adding a little defense, read the stats discussion further ahead). Your higher HP will also help you survive those monster special skills that hit for 500-700 each. On the other hand, your limited MP will be a hindrance if you do not know how to use it intelligently. Wear some +MP gear (Holy Phial, Black Earrings, Astral Ring) and you might also want to bring along RSE gloves. A smart Galka will use macros to switch equipment from +MP to +DEF/VIT midfight after you have spent your MP on cures and flash. I also recommend taking up culinary guild so you can bring materials and make your own juice on the battlefield. The MP problem becomes much less pronounced after 41 when you have RDM with Refresh and 55 when you have BRD with Ballads 1 and 2.

Elvaan : The theoretically "ideal" race choice, and I somewhat agree. Elvaans have the 2nd best HP pool, have more MP than Galka, and 2nd best VIT. Their only disadvantage is low DEX and AGI, but these stats can be compensated easily with +acc or +evade gear generally. Many Elvaan PLD wear +agi earrings in order to avoid being crit so often as well. Their higher MND will help your cures, but this isn't really that important. Elvaans still do not have much more MP than Galka... Elvaans generally don't use +MP gear, so the Elvaans I've PT'ed with of similar level only had 40 MP more than me generally. Likewise with Galka, BRD and RDM will be your friend at higher levels. I suggest wearing some +acc gear, because hitting the enemy IS important to keep hate and build TP, but I usually see Elvaans wear RK belt instead of Life belt. (more on this later)

Hume and Mithra : I hate to group these two races together, but they are just too similar to do otherwise. They have good HP and MP, Hume has a bit more VIT, Mithra has some more DEX and AGI. Stats-wise, Hume is better because DEX and AGI just aren't as critical as VIT and HP. In practice, however, both of these races play almost identical (assuming similar equipment). MP won't be as much as an issue as Elvaan and Galka, so focus almost all your equipment on +DEF and +VIT.

Taru : The "underdog" of the Paladin races, and for good reason. Taru have laughable HP, and thus suffer the infamous one-shot syndrome. At later levels (40+), most monsters have one very strong single-target or cone skill that can take off 500-700 HP. Due to Taru's low VIT and HP, this can mean either instant death, or dangerously low HP after one skill. Tarus *need* to focus on +VIT, +DEF, and most importantly +HP equipment. An easily killed tank is a very bad tank. On the other hand, Tarus have a lot of MP to play around with, meaning they can cure a lot more and gain more aggro. .......In practice, this is not nearly as good as it seems. Without any Clear Mind job trait, Taru PLD take just as long as Galka PLD to regain MP. This means Taru will have to rest almost all the time, losing TP, and therefore not able to participate in renkei or use WS. This is no small loss, as a 300% Spirits Within WS (level 55) takes off 500-580 damage IGNORING DEFENSE depending on your HP. This is more than Raging Fists and Pentathrust does (plus is a guaranteed hit and will not miss like Sidewinder often does). A Taru PLD can still work, but it will be an effective tank in my opinion.

The Subjob Debate
Apologies to all you "cookie-cutter-haters" out there, but honestly there is only ONE viable subjob if you want to play effectively: WARRIOR. If you want to be subpar, go ahead and try other subjobs, but this guide is supposed to help you play your Paladin to its potential. A Paladin is meant to gain hate, keep hate, and take hate... this is not possible without Provoke. Defender is very useful, and Double Attack lets you gain TP faster. Warrior and Paladin's Physical Defense Up Job Traits *DO NOT STACK*.

Some people will argue that PLD/WHM will work...... well, there is a lot of myth associated with this claim. Many people see a WHM throw a Curaga or Curaga II and gain immediate hate and think : "this is better than provoke!" Keep in mind that curaga only gets a lot of hate depending on the TOTAL HP it cures... since WHM only cast it when more than 1 person is injured, it will cure a lot of HP. But if a PLD uses it when no one else is damaged, it won't garner nearly as much hate. Plus, Provoke is guaranteed every 30 seconds, whereas a PLD/WHM won't be able to gain the hate back if they run low on MP. Taru PLD/WHM can still be viable I suppose, but without VIT, HP, Provoke, Defender, I believe this would be a horrible tank (obviously I haven't teamed with one, since PTs should only have 1 tank). My LS friends who HAVE teamed with one such Taru PLD/WHM said it was the worst PT they have ever been in... the Taru couldn't keep hate very well, and died due to Sickle Slash one-shots 2 or 3 times, causing a few other people to die before escape was cast.

For soloing, THF is an incredible subjob. Yes, there are better subjobs out there for soloing, but I personally only solo when I am trying to make money. In this case, THF's Treasure Hunter, Steal and Gilfinder are just too useful to pass up. Before level 50, PLD/THF is superior to PLD/WAR in almost every way. Remember that WAR's Phys Def Up does not stack with PLD... so in that regard THF has more to offer: Sneak Attack, Gilfinder, Treasure Hunter, Evasion Bonus, Steal.

If anyone has other experience with varying subjobs (for soloing of course), feel free to contribute.

[imac2much]

The STAT Discussion
There seems to be a LOT of misconception on how Stats work in this game. I have garnered most of my information from Japanese sites and friends, then testing it out myself. I will start with the most important stat first:
VIT : VIT is much more important than some people will have you believe. The damage formula can be found on this site: http://www.moonlight.gr.jp/~el/ffxi/ab_calc.html.en
Basically, there are two checks depending on Stats: STR<->VIT check and ATK<->DEF check. Obviously, the STR and ATK are the attacker's stats, the DEF and VIT are the victim's stats. Anyway, STR-VIT has a linear relationship, meaning that the amount of damage decreased for every VIT will be the same regardless of how much VIT you have. ATK-DEF is exponential (curved), meaning that after you reach a certain thresholed (when DEF=ATK generally), you will start to see "diminishing returns". This means when you have low defense, a +50 defense boost will decrease the damage you take noticeably. But when you have high defense, a +50 defense boost will not change the damage you receive much, if at all. High defense is very easy to achieve thanks to several abilities and food that increase DEF by a percentage: Sentinel, Defender, Rampart, Boiled Crab/Fish Mithkabob, etc... so after a while, VIT becomes more important than DEF. At lower levels, however, DEF is generally more important. Also keep in mind 2 VIT = 1 DEF, which helps a small amount.

CHR : The jury is still out whether CHR really affects Provoke; hard proof is very difficult to achieve. Every JPN site I've been to has stated that +CHR affects Provoke; also, our AF armor increases CHR as well. One small test I did was this: I and a friend with less CHR would Provoke an enemy at the same time. At first I didn't have any +CHR gear and the enemy would switch to my friend after a few hits... but after I put some +CHR gear on (RK Belt, AF) the enemy stuck on me a bit more. These results are still inconclusive and I want to do more testing, but so far it does seem that CHR affects the effectiveness of your Provoke.

STR : STR will determine your max damage. This is not important at all, since you will never reach your max damage on monsters you are leveling from. 2 STR = 1 ATK.

MND : MND and your healing magic skill will affect the amount of HP you heal for. Every Cure has a "soft cap" after which it is hard (but not impossible) to gain more HP. Cure 1 = 30, Cure 2 = 90, Cure 3 = 190, etc. MND also affects your enfeeblement resistance.

AGI : 2 AGI = 1 evasion and 1 ranged accuracy. Evasion is hardly important for a PLD... IT monsters will really only miss you when you cast Flash on them. AGI has better uses though: more AGI decreases the chance that a monster will Critical Hit you. As a result, several PLD wear Drone Earrings due to a lack of better earrings.

DEX : 2 DEX = 1 Accuracy. Accuracy is more important for a PLD than you may believe... hitting an enemy gains more hate than missing. There have been SEVERAL times (including last night), where a DRK or other teammate would gain hate at the beginning of fight before my Provoke and Flash refreshed, and the monster would only turn back to me after I hit it. Plus, this is a good way to gain TP. PLD can contribute in renkei just as good as other melee (though we have to sit between battles to regen MP). Piercing WS -> Seraph/Fast blade is Distortion, which is a very nice renkei against crabs, crawlers, pugils, etc. Guillotine->Vorpal is a nice Thunder renkei. Also, if you don't want to be in renkei, a 300% Spirits Within is a guaranteed 500-580 damage hit depending on your HP.

INT : Honestly this stat is not important for a PLD. I believe 2 INT = 1 Magic Attack, and it also affects your attack magic defense... but the difference is negligible in comparison to shell, bar-spells, etc.

Weapon Choice
http://www.ausystem.org/~aushacho/gbox/ff/skill-e.html

This is pretty simple. A Paladin should generally use 1hand sword and shield during level up PT's. The DEF, shield blocking, and shield bash are too important to give up in relation to a Great Sword, and the renkeis and WS are too good to give up in relation to a 1hand club. Great Sword is still handy when you are not in a level up PT, as there are some VERY nice PLD-ONLY GS out there. I'm personally not a fan of GS, so I don't use one. 1h Club seems deceivingly nice with the MP-gain WS... but they only give you about 17 MP, which is nowhere near as good as a Spirits Within or Vorpal Blade, or any other WS if used in renkei.

For soloing purposes, I use polearm. We get pentathrust at 56, which is just an awesome WS for weak monsters (get 50% TP back). Penta is pretty crappy in level up PT but very nice for gilfarming. I hear dagger is good for soloing as well due to Energy Steal and Drain, but my skill is not high enough yet to try this out (although I plan to skill this up when I have the chance).

One thing to note, apparently your skill rating will affect the *rate* at which you gain skill points. I was skilling up with a WHM in CN one time with polearm @ 125 and his club @ 150, and he was gaining more skill than me. Another time I was skilling up with polearm @ 130 and RNG friend with marksmanship @130, and his skill went up MUCH faster and frequently than me. This is good news to Paladin in some ways:

I used to think that a Paladin's high skill ratings in Shield (and Parrying less so) to be useless since we almost never reach the cap per level. But apparently not: we generally have more shield skill than any other job, due to our higher rating (meaning we gain points faster). Not terribly important, but good to know.

Job Abilities and Spells
Provoke, Provoke, Provoke! Provoke every 30 seconds to keep the hate (the +hate you gain stacks, obviously). Also throw some cures on whoever is being attacked (usually yourself) to get more hate. Shield Bash (level 15) and Sentinel (level 30) are good ways to gain hate... Usually it's better to only use 1 per fight since they have a 5 minute cooldown. Shield Bash is also very useful to stop monsters from using long-casting skill/spells (like ancient magic). Flash (level 37) is an incredible spell that gains a lot of hate. It has very little cast time but a long cool down, and it effectively blinds the enemy. Your other spells are generally not that important... I have Banish, Banish II, and Holy, and even with maxed Divine skill they do laughable damage. Banish is a nice way of pulling, however. You will also get Defender from WAR sub at level 50, which is a nice way to decrease damage at times. However, this will also generally cause you to hit for 0 now and then, meaning you won't gain TP. I generally only use Defender after I have a nice amount of TP.

Keep in mind there is a difference between JobAbility "spiked" hate and heal/damage "perpetual" hate. JA spiked hate causes a "spike" of aggro when executed which decreases automatically over time, while heal/damage hate will stay with you, only dropping as you get hit. So other than Provoke (which you should spam every 30 seconds), keep your other JA handy for when you really need the hate, like when BLM is casting a powerful spell or someone using a powerful WS and your provoke is not almost ready.

Our 2hour Invincible does 2 things: reduces all physical damage to 0 and garners a huge amount of hate. However, keep in mind that you have to be on the monster’s hate list first to get any hate at all. An easy way to do this is to cure whoever it is attacking then activate the 2hr.

Do not underestimate Cover! Keep it macroed, and let the person know that they are being covered so they can move behind you. This is very useful when you have the ancient-spamming BLM or a RNG using sidewinder without utsusemi. The drawback is that you will get hit 100% of the time when you are Covering... you can not block with the shield or parry when using this (unless of course, the monster is attacking you instead of the person you are covering). You gain Rampart at level 62... from what I hear it's a nice way to gain hate as well.

FYI we get 4 Physical Defense Ups: level 10 gives 10 def, level 30 gives 22 def, level 50 gives 35 def, level 70 gives 47 def according to sites I have been on. -spells, etc.

[imac2much]

Equipment Guide
This will not be a step-by-step detailed analysis of every different weapon and armor available. Instead, I am sticking to Awntawn's method and will just point out certain steps where you should upgrade, as well as pointing out what some ideal equipment is.

Weapon : Your first major upgrade will be the Centurion Sword at level 30. It has some nice ATK and ACC bonuses. Next, you REALLY want to get Hunting sword at level 34. It does noticeably more damage than any previous sword. It also has a longer delay, but in return you get more TP per swing. Finally you'll be dishing out some decent damage. At 42, you should upgrade to the AF weapon, Honor Sword. At 50, go for Tactician Magician's Espadon, which is similar to the Hunting Sword (big damage, long delay). At 57 you should try to get the Gluttony Sword for good damage and VIT+7. Some people use this even at very high levels, although I've seen many PLD who upgrade to Espadon+1 at 66.

As for non-sword weapons, there are some very sweet PLD-only Great Swords at 40, 55, and 59. However, I am not a fan of GS, and thus tend to stay away from them. For non-xp PT or gilfarming, I use polearm... the greatness of pentathrust on weak enemies is not to be underestimated (50% TP return is oh-so sweet). I have zero experience with clubs and staves as I stay away from them, but someone else may want to give their opinions on these. But remember, sword+shield is still the best combo for leveling parties.

Shield : Straightforward due to lack of options. Just get whatever has the best defense. Kite->Heater->TK/RK Army Shield -> Royal Guard Shield. I want a Charging Shield but it is Rare/EX and the NM that drops it is level 65-70+....

Body/Gloves/Feet/Legs/Head : This is the bulk of your armor and also the pieces you will upgrade the most frequently. The general path for early levels is leather->scale->lizard->beetle->chain, though beetle can be skipped. At 30 be sure to get Centurion equipment for some very nice defense and stat bonuses. At 40 get Iron Musketeer (IM) and Ryl Squr equipment. If you can't afford all that, at least get IM armet (helm). At 45 upgrade your body armor to brigandine. At 50 get IM cuisses and cuirass. You don't necessarily have to upgrade your gloves, feet, and helm since you will get the AF pieces for those slots soon (see later section). At 55 you might want to get Ryl Knight Chainmail until you get your AF body piece at 60.

Neck : At first, Justice Badge is a nice, small bonus. At level 26 you should upgrade to Holy Phial (DEF 3, MP+9, MND+3). This will last you a very long time. At level 55, Elvaans tend to get the Sandorian CP collar (Royal Guard's Collar, DEF 6, ACC/ATK+4), and other races tend to get Iron Musketeer Gorget (DEF 7, HP+15, VIT+1). As a Galka, I'm sticking with Holy Phial until I can upgrade to Darksteel Gorget at level 67.

Back : Again, straightforward. Just get whatever has the best defense. At level 28, Wolf Mantle+1 gives a nice DEF boost as well as elemental resistance. Earth Mantle (level 30ish) gives DEF and VIT boost. At level 55 you should get your country's CP mantle (if you are Bastokian or Sandorian).. this is EX and can't be bought/sold in AH. It costs 24k CP and requires rank 6. If not, you might want Beak mantle+1 at level 58.

Waist : Go for either VIT or MP. If you want MP, wear a Friar's Rope... if you want VIT, wear a Warrior's Belt+1. Regardless, at level 48-50 you have a choice again: Life Belt (ACC+10) or RK Belt (DEF 5, all stats except VIT +2). I have both and personally I prefer Life Belt. The ACC bonus is very noticeable, and every hit you connect with will give you some enmity, as well as gaining TP. At high levels, keeping the hate is just as important (if not more important) as taking the hits. According to a JPN site, as of latest patch 1 weapon skill level = 0.9 Accuracy, so Life Belt is equivalent to 11 weapon skill levels in terms of accuracy.

Earrings : Not many choices really. You can get +MP or +atk at early levels, then switch to drone earrings when you can. The added AGI will reduce the chance of being critted by a monster. However, the difference is negligible (I have tried these) and I prefer the small boost in MP of black and bat earrings.

Rings : Aim for VIT rings at early levels. DEX, DEF, and HP rings are fine as well... honestly these won't make too much of a difference at low levels. Astral Ring/Electrum Ring are nice if you are Galka or Elvaan to get some extra MP. At level 50 you'll want some Phalanx Rings (DEF 10), but as you get higher level you'll notice that 10 DEF means less and less. At this point you'll probably want to switch to VIT rings (most high level PLD use VIT rings or Astral/Serket rings).

Ranged : I don't use any bow or anything but I notice some people do (for pulling purposes). I use Morion Talthum in the ranged ammo slot for the minimal MP boost (MP+3, INT+1).

Artifact (AF)

I had a lot of info written up here before I accidentally deleted my post (doh!!), but I realized that much of it is just regurgitation of what I read from Eriwilde's very handy site:
http://davidbowie.dyndns.tv/eriwilde...ob/index.html#

So check there first.

To go in depth a bit more.. these quests will take a LOT of your time. Coffer key hunts require a very solid PT or alliance, unless you have some high level helping you. The droprate is rather low (once we went 6 hours in Davoi without getting a single key) and then you have to find a coffer too. Finding a coffer is easy in some place, harder in others... for example, it's VERY difficult in Oztroja due to several high level THF's camping coffers for astral rings. Thankfully we don't require an Oztroja coffer :sweat: Even if you get lucky and get your key earlier, you better freaking stay and help everyone that helped you (I've met some people who yoinked and then went afk or just warped... very very lame). Here are the stats for our AF:

Honor Sword : level 42 sword, Damage 28, Delay 240, VIT/MND +2
Gallant Leggings : level 52 boots, DEF 14, HP+15, CHR+5, Shield skill+10, Enhances Holy Circle effect
Gallant Gauntlets : level 54 gloves, DEF 16, HP+11, DEX+3, Light Resist+10, Enmity+2
Gallant Coronet : level 56 helmet, DEF 24, HP+12, Enhance Cover effect (lasts longer, I think 20 instead of 10 seconds), Enmity+2
Gallant Breeches : level 58 pants, DEF 34, HP+15, AGI+3, Enhancing Magic Skill+5, Enmity+2
Gallant Surcoat : level 60 body, DEF 47, HP+20, VIT+4, Divine Magic Skill+5, Enmity+2

The added enmity means that every action you take will have more hate added to it, allowing you to keep aggro better... very very useful.

Crafting

The only crafting guild I am familiar with is Culinary... and honestly, I find it very useful for PLD. I don't do it for the money at all... in fact, I lose a lot of money raising my cooking skill. I don't tend to make my own fish mithka or meat mithka either (only save about 500 gil compared to buying a stack in AH, and if you somehow fail a synth you just lost 2-5k worth of materials). The two things I do cook regularly are boiled crab and juices. You will level off of crabs for a VERY long time in this game, from my experience at least. Of course at low levels there are thickshells, snippers and clippers. But at higher levels:
level 50-55 = Kuftal tunnel crabs
level 55-57 = Boyahda Tree crabs
level 57-60 = Terrigan crabs
I always ask kindly if my team would mind if I could get the crab meat, and they usually don't mind. (It's about time we PLD get some love... if a scroll drops, I always allow the mage get it if they need it) Bay leaves cost only 1.8k a stack, Fire crystals are 1.5k-2k a stack, and the other ingredients are super cheap... if you buy a stack of boiled crab in AH, it's as much as 6-6.5k in midgard, if you make it yourself it's around 3k... very useful. Also, with my cooking skill at 50, I make steamed crab every now and then (adds a bit more DEF and lasts an hour).

More importantly however, we can make drinks during battle. It's not very practical to bring drinks with you, since they don't stack. instead, you can bring 3 stacks of ingredients,then make them into 12 drinks that don't stack. Pineapple juices are the most cost efficient (water crystals are super cheap, and pineapples are only 62gil at npc), but melon juice and yagudo juice isn't overly costly to make either. Juice doesn't stack with Refresh, but in those instances where 1) you have BRD instead of RDM or 2) RDM is busy refreshing others, you can just bust out a juice and regen your MP. Perhaps I find this more useful since I am a Galka, but I think it would benefit any race since the rate we regen MP is the same.

I think alchemy would be another good guild to join... I am too cheap to start leveling a brand new guild, but making your own silent oils and prism powders would be very useful since we don't have sneak or invis.

Future Updates
I don't presume to know everything about the Paladin job. I have only been playing 2-3 months, so I am still a relative newbie. However, I hope that the information and advice I have provided will help aspiring Paladins as well. Any contributions from other people would be much appreciated... criticism is great, as long as it's constructive. I hope to make future updates to this as I learn and play more, including a FAQ section once I read over this forum more extensively or get asked more questions. Anyways, I'm tired from writing all this... I want to sleep but I'm at work :sweat: Hope some of this helps someone out there.

[imac2much]

General Leveling Tips
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This part is contributed by Kainzero. Many thanks and much respect to him/her ^^

My levelling guide, from Bastok:
Level 1-7
You could probably solo most things, can even take on evens and some toughs. Attack isn't terribly different from WAR, MNK, DRK... etc, plus you can heal yourself. Take skins or L1 RSE, doesn't really matter. At 6, you could probably head to the Fumaroles in SGustaberg, which is great for EXP.
Level 8-12
Buy your first equipment upgrade and head for Konschtat. Here, you will fight Rock Eaters, and there's two places they generally appear. One near Gusgen Mines, the other near the SAM Quest site. They are in opposite directions. These are your greatest source for EXP, as they are incredibly easy, you can easily defeat evens and toughs. If they're camped, too bad =\ you could XP off of saplings and wasps.
Level 12-16
Time to start PTing! Hit up a PT in Valkurm. At L12, you should be taking on Ambusher-level Gobs. At L14, Snippers give great EXP. Right now, you should notice that WARs seem to be just as good as you, they have versatility in weapons and do more damage, and take just as much.
Level 16-20
You have two options. You can either stay in Valkurm and take Snippers up to 17, then fight Leecher-Gambler-level Gobs and Pugils, or you can attempt to put together a Korroloka Tunnel PT. The latter is very difficult. Be sure to pick up Lizard Armor. Use Cure I to keep hate.
Level 20-24
Head on over to Jeuno and fear what most people fear. Qufim. You should pick up Beetle at L21. Find a good PT and chain Worms in the lake during the day till 22, then pick on Clippers, which are probably good till 24. On the flip side, if you're good at putting together PTs, there's an alternate levelling area in Champaign where you can chain beetles. At 23, you might notice a shift in your curing tactic to Cure II, if you haven't already.
Level 24-25
Probably the most excruciating pain in levelling. Get your chain armor on and head over to Qufim for Pugil chains. If you're lucky, there's an area across the Tower with plenty of Pugils, but if it's camped it could get difficult.
Level 25-28
If your PT is really in sync, check out Yhoator Mandragora. Otherwise, stick with their Yuhtunga Brethren till 28. You'll notice at 25, WARs get double strike, and seem to take slightly more damage than you.
Level 28-33
Yhoator is a gold mine. Mandragora are good 'till 32-33 ish, and there's Smithies/Pathfinders and even Lizards to kill at 31. If the area is too crowded (and it really was on Asura) try to put together an Altepa group and head there at 30. Beetles are good. If you remember your Beetle camping spot at 20, that place is excellent to camp Evil Weapons as well from 30-33. Once you hit 30, invest everything you can into Centurion/Royal Sq. Armor, and at this point, you will actually smile as you take a substantial amount of less damage than WARs.
Level 33-36
I did most of this run in Garliage Citadel. It was hell when it was crowded, but bats are easy, and same with beetles. If your RDM doesn't have dispel, beetles will destroy you. Watch your puller, there's lots of holes in the area. Cure III actually becomes a bit more viable than Cure II right now.
Level 36-38
Worker Crawlers in CN is the popular place to go. They don't hit hard and there are a lot to go around. Your DEF steadily rises.
Level 38-42
Gustav Tunnel did it for me, here. Bats are good till about 41. Flies are a bit dangerous, watch out for them, since Cursed Sphere is a threat. As far as Gobs, Poachers are the easiest, followed by the Reapers, and try not to get Robbers because they have insane evade. At 40, invest in Plate, and get the IM helmet for sure.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'll add a few things from my experience. I have a LOT of memory gaps where I can't remember where I leveled, so I'll mostly talk about my most recent leveling areas... sorry :sweat:
Level 30-34
I gained all 4 levels rather quickly in Eastern Altepa Desert. To get here, you go through the Zeruhn Mines in Bastok -> Korroloka Tunnel. Keep going west then at the very end take a left, and exit in Altepa. Fight spiders, then beetles, then possibly anticans.
Level 34-36
CN if you can stand the lag and competition. Spawn is plentiful but there are usually 3+ parties there... very very laggy.
Level 38-41
I believe I spent this time in Eldieme Necropolis fighting Lost souls. Bring cursna with you just in case... the xp was very good. Keep in mind that arrows and spears are craptacular against bones, whereas fists do good damage.
Level 42-48
I spent these levels in either East Altepa Quicksand caves (beetles, spiders, anticans) or CN again (hornflies, soldier crawlers, beetles).
Level 49-52
Garliage is great for these levels, though again it can be quite camped. When it isn't there are plenty of bats and beetles to chain, even for 3 parties.
Level 52-53
West Altepa quicksand caves... anticans and beetles once again.
Level 53-55
Now begins your crab camping. Go to kuftal and chain robber crabs... there are literally tons (enough for 5-7 parties to be honest) and several camping spots. This place was great.
Level 55-57
Crabs again, but this time in Boyahda tree (to get there, go NE exit of Meriphataud mountains -> Zitah -> Boyahda). There are 2 main rooms with knight crawlers and robber crabs, and each has enough spawn to happily accomodate 2 parties.
Level 58-60
Terrigan... this is where I am now, and honestly I don't like it. But oh well.. crabs again, along with pugils.

[Kensai]

awesome.

great guide, wasn't expecting it so soon. IMO, it would look a little easier if the equipment guide was based on levels rather than each indivdual piece.

Also, I was wondering something about end level equipment. Would the AF gloves still be useful at high levels? They don't seem too spectacular though +3 dex is always great and I assume that emnity +2 is the main reason. Is there nothing else better at that time?

[kainzero]

pwned my guide :sweat:

[Emrys]

This'll be very helpful for when I finally get to Pally ^^ Thanks!

[Somajan]

Wonder what's gonna be in your next installment.

[TheBruce]

About mind.

I'm not sure about this, but I've heard that it also mitigates weapon ability damage and special abilities like dimensional death. Not sure about this, but I wouldn't be suprised.

Nice guide tho, too much typing for my tastes. :sweat:

[Ginthaeriel]

Awesome guide!!!

Perhaps you could write in a little levelling guide while you're at it? For example, what subjob you should pick while levelling WAR... what you should expect to do to get invites at lvl x to y...

Also maybe you could post how the PAL should act in different types of parties? For example Awntawn's DRK guide had lots of strategies on what to do as a DRK/THF in a party with no THF and various different combinations of other types of classes... what to do as a DRK/SAM with a THF in the party... etc...

I heard that the GS's AOE WS "Shockwave" was really damaging and powerful and was great for farming. I also heard that the GS's lvl 225 weaponskill "Spin Slash" was also extremely damaging (if I remember correctly Awntawn actually did a four-digit damage figure with it). It'd be awesome if someone could write up a little "Greatsword" guide for the Paladin and how to use the GS to your best advantage in farming

[imac2much]

Kensai, that's true, but it would take a very long time to write up an in-depth equipment guide, since we PLD need to upgrade our armor as often as possible. It's more of a financial question than anything else. That's why I prefer to just give some basic advice on equipment. As for high end equipment... that's a very good question. I can't answer that for sure, because I am not that high level yet. However, I still see several level 65-70 PLD who wear full AF, probably for the enmity bonus. Some rich PLD do switch to byrnie for body armor... which costs about 1-2mil :sweat:

Thebruce that's pretty interesting, I've never heard that. However, it couldn't make that much of a difference since the PLD's I was with in Eldiemme (camping coffer keys of course) got hit just as much as me with Spriggan's Dimensional Death. It would make some sense since I know D.D. (jigenzan is it?) ignores standard defense.

Ginthaeriel, a leveling guide is a good idea. There are other threads in these forums that have one but I'll try to make one later with Paladins solely in mind.

Here's the deal with GS. I only bothered leveling mine to level 100 or so, but ... the reason I don't find it very useful farming is that there's no good TP return WS. I could be wrong (is Crescent Moon multi hit?) but I don't think any of GS WS give back as much TP as penta thrust. When gilfarming, AE attack and straight up damage isn't as important as TP return, since I can use penta once or twice a battle. If I was gilfarming with a GS (such as tigers and golems in beacedine, orcs in davoi, etc), I would have to spend a long time gaining tp, then I would probably overkill an enemy with the huge damage. I'm sure GS is still very handy, since I see a lot of PLD's using them... but just not for me, so I can't really make a guide for that until I use one. Maybe someone else can write up about that (c'mon Thebruce, I know you use 'em )

I was considering doing that 'different party configuration' thing that Awntawn did but... honestly, we don't function that much different regardless of the configuration. We don't have a viable option of subjobs, thus basically all we're going to do is provoke, provoke, provoke, and provoke some more. The only minor differences are whether you participate in renkeis or not, and whether you let another melee provoke first so THF can fuidama behind you at beginning of battle. With some of my friends, they will get right behind me before doing something very damaging (sidewinder, ancient magic) so I can cover them in anticipation. But this is more of a person-by-person difference than a job-by-job difference.

[foobar]

Nice guide

Great job. This post should be made sticky.

Regarding the waist section, I'm not so sure the life belt is worth it. I know a lot of people use it because it helps you hit and supposedly gain aggro but come on, do we hit for that much anyways? Everyone I've asked seems to think RK is much better due to the defense (5 v/s 0) and the stat bonuses. I can't say for sure since I have not tried them both and it sounds like you have.

[imac2much]

It's really hard to come to a conclusive answer. Like I said, I use both and... well, here are some more concrete stories:
At 300% TP and near-max HP, I can use Spirits Within for a *guaranteed* 550-580 damage hit. With RK Belt, it takes me 3-3.5 fights to build 300% TP. With Life belt, it takes me 2.5 fights on average (middle of 3rd fight). Also, in some PTs I am included in the renkeis (when I'm with a DRK, we like to Vorpal Scythe -> Seraph Strike for Distortion), and it's good to know that I won't hold the renkei back. Sometimes I even get 100% TP before the other melees.

On the other hand, the DEF and stat bonuses of RK belt are hard to deny. Once I get gluttony sword, I will try RK belt again to see if the +7 +2 VIT will make much of a difference.

Keep in mind that, although most high level PLD I've seen use RK belt, I've seen several that use Life Belt as well.

It's really hard to decide. They're both nearly the same price on my server (RK belt 90k, Life Belt 100k I think... yeah midgardsormr's economy is messed up). I'm thinking at first Life Belt is better, but at later levels when VIT makes more of a difference compared to DEF (and we use WS like Vorpal Blade that give more TP back), I might switch to RK belt again. The experimenting continues

[imac2much]

Added a basic leveling guide with contribution from kainzero.

[TheBruce]

The RK belt doesn't have +vit to it. I have one atm and am really leaning towards a Life belt for exp purposes (for af3's/nm/hnm i'll stick with rk). Even with two madrigal's (bard accuracy) i'm missing quite a lot, and with the long delay on my gluttony sword, it starts to translate into lost hate.

Also, the vorpal blade is dependant on how accuractely you're hitting your target, I've had upwards of 500 damage against some exp targets, but against IT++ monsters i'll be lucky to get off more than 150 because I'm missing so much.

And when you hit 60 you'll most likely be in the renkeis because vorpal can combo well with most of the high level weapon skills.

On 2handers, I've tried and tried to get my 2hand skill up, but it really is such a pain because A. the delay on it is sooo long, meaing you won't get many hits to up your chances of a skill up. B. Obviously against any monster that gives skill ups your accuracy will be crap and you won't be hitting hence no skill ups.

Most exp monsters won't tax your whm's mana pool too bad so than defense isn't as important as amount of time to kill target. 2handers do more damage so theoretically monsters will die quicker. However, having that B skill is a very very big drawback. That 5 or so difference in the high levels is a huge difference between hitting said monster and whiffing on 75% of your swings.

But if you want to go 2hand, don't let people say sword/shield is the only viable option and your losing out on what a paladin is if you go 2hander. That is bs and at no times in your paladin career (unless your fighting goblins, but even than shield bash sux hard against them and rarely interrupts) can you not viably choose a 2hander over a 1hander. Especially if you use food and have up to date gear. You have tons of defense and cures that help mitigate the damage even more, so the 8-15 defense your losing from the shield and the shield blocking skill will not translate into that big of a difference (with exp monsters).