Paladin - Support Raid Build

Intro

Paladin is one of the 2 support classes. Difference between Bard and Paladin is where Bard skills provide allies with shields that have huge uptime while Paladin uses his skills to add damage reduction to all allies. Paladin has 2 identity skills, Sacred Executioner and Holy Aura. As a support Paladin you will always use Holy Aura as it gives attack damage buff and healing over time effect. Paladin has great countering capabilities with Executor's Sword and Holy Sword which both can be casted from distance. One disadvantage over Bard is that Paladin mana regeneration buff is much weaker than Bard's.

Skill Progression

• At 268 skill points you will remove Executor's Sword, Weak Point Enhancement from Executor's Sword and add Holy Sword, Release Light to Holy Sword
• At 284 skill points you will add Executor's Sword, Weak Point Enhancement back to Executor's Sword
• At 300 skill points you will add Charge, Shining Protection to Charge
• At 312 skill points you will remove Charge, Shining Protection from Charge and add Executor's Sword, Executioner's Strike to Executor's Sword
• At 328 skill points you will add Charge, Shining Protection back to Charge
• At 356 skill points you will add Light Shock, Powerful Shock to Light Shock
• At 356+ skill points you will be going for level 11 skills. Priority on Executor's Sword and Holy Sword, while adding Wrath of God and Heavenly Blessings as you unlock more skill points

Skill Breakdown

• Heavenly Blessings is used to give attack power buff to yourself and all allies within range while giving damage reduction and mana regeneration
• Wrath of God is a secondary attack power buff while also providing your with decent amount of identity gauge on hit
• Executor's Sword is your main counter skill while also providing decent Destruction and Stagger
• Holy Sword is your secondary counter skill that has bigger range but slower cast time. Use it if Executor's Sword is on cooldown. It has good stagger and decent identity gauge farm
• Holy Protection gives yourself and allies shield based on % of their HP, while also purifying the latest harmful effect. At the end of shield effect it also heals the target
• Godsent Law is used to protect allies with huge damage reduction right before they will get hit by a boss. Hitting this skill requires boss knowledge and keeping a constant eye on your allies
• Light Shock is used to apply party wide damage increase on boss, it has low cooldown and you can spam it
• Charge is your movement skill that allows you to move around with ease and avoid getting hit
• Alithanes's Judgment is your preferred Awakening skill as it is support oriented while the other one is more DPS oriented

Combat Stats

Support Paladin uses Swiftness and Specialization. These stats can be allocated differently depending on the playstyle and preference.

1. Full Swiftness with Specialization on necklace for lower cooldown, faster attack and move speed. This setup is recommended and preferred in all tiers of content
2. 1135 in Specialization and rest in Swiftness for 100% Holy Aura efficiency while also increasing the damage buff to 20%. To take full advantage of this setup you need to be in a premade team oriented raid to coordinate burst damage window with allies.

Runes

Runes will help you enhance your skills by giving extra bonuses. Support Paladin can use a mixture of different runes but the most optimal and recommended setup is as follows:

• Quick Recharge, 3 on Charge and Light Shock and they both have low cooldown and you can spam them to trigger the rune effect more often
• Focus, 4 on Holy Protection and Heavenly Blessings as these two skills are mana heavy and runes help you be less conservative with spamming them often
• Protection, 3 on Godsent Law to give yourself a shield as you need to stand still to cast the skill
• Wealth, 4 on Holy Sword and Wrath of God for more identity gauge farm
• Galewind, 3 on Executor's Sword for faster cast time into countering boss

Optional runes:

• Overwhelm, 4 on Holy Sword and Executor's Sword if you need more stagger for specific bosses
• Bleed, 4 on Light Shock to apply bleed effect and deal extra damage as the skill has low cooldown and you can spam it

Engravings

Engravings for Support Paladin are fully oriented on maximizing his support capabilities. There are few different setups of engravings you can go for, but the 3 main engravings always must stay the same.

Priority Engravings

• Blessed Aura is the support class engraving that synergizes with Holy Aura identity skill
• Awakening to reduce the cooldown of your Awakening skill, which means you can use it every 90 seconds, which will allow you to have a higher uptime of Holy Aura as using the awakening fully replenishes identity gauge
• Expert increases shield and heals efficiency of Holy Protection and Holy Aura. This is increased even more if allies are below 50% HP

Add-on Engravings

• Spirit Absorption increases Attack speed and Move speed which goes well with Specialization combat stat setup to supplement for missing attack and move speed
• Heavy Armor increases defense for higher survivability
• Drops of Ether generates Ethers that can be picked up by allies to grant Attack Damage, Critical Strike Chance, Attack Speed, Movement Speed, Defense or Mana Regen
• Vital Point Hit increases stagger damage done which will help with certain boss mechanics
• Judgment is your other class engraving that you only need to have on level 1 which will be enough for 100% Piety Meter gain and greater Holy Aura uptime

Gems

As a support you focus heavily on cooldown reduction gems while only using three attack gems.

Attack gems

• Holy Sword
• Executor's Sword
• Heavenly Blessings

Cooldown reduction gems

• Heavenly Blessings
• Wrath of God
• Holy Protection
• Holy Sword
• Executor's Sword
• Godsent Law
• Charge
• Light Shock

Cards

Cards are endgame system that help you maximize your character even further. Getting to the point where you can reap fully benefits of specific card set will take a very long time.

Paladin heals work off of their own HP, so increasing your HP with card sets is the most optimal and recommend way to setup. The two recommended card setups both give you 4% HP increase on each stage and you can mix and match these two sets to your liking.

Field Boss II

Farewell, Weapon

Gameplay and Rotation

As a Support Paladin you don't really rely on perfect rotation of skills, but more on knowing boss mechanics and paying attention where your allies are so you can shield and protect them in time

1. Use Light Shock whenever it is available to apply a damage increase buff to your party
2. Rotate between Heavenly Blessings and Wrath of God as these are your two attack damage buffs. Try to always hit the boss with these two skills to farm identity gauge. REMEMBER THAT THEY DO NOT STACK
3. Use Holy Protection whenever it is ready to shield and heal your allies. You can also be more conservative with this skill depending on your boss knowledge to keep it for specific boss attack or mechanic. Remember that you have purify effect to remove harmful effects
4. In emergencies use Godsent Law to protect allies from getting hit by high damage dealing attacks. It won't prevent 1-shot mechanics. Be mindful of your positioning as you are required to stand still while casting it.
5. Try to always move around front side of the boss and keep Executor's Sword ready to counter when the boss glows blue. Paladin has one of the best and fastest counters, plus you can also use them from safe distance too
6. Whenever your cooldowns are down, auto-attack to maximize damage output.
7. Use Charge as a secondary space-bar escape to avoid big attacks, reposition and move around helping your allies.

Summary

• Support Paladin is great at negating damage, by providing damage reduction buff and attack power buff, while also having a couple of shielding and healing skills
• Always remember to rotate between Heavenly Blessings and Wrath of God to maximize attack power buff uptime. THEY DON'T STACK
• Be ready and in position for countering bosses when they glow blue
• Use your awakening on cooldown to maximize Holy Aura uptime and efficiency
• Always spam Light Shock to apply damage increase buff on boss
• Don't focus on attacking and wasting Holy Sword and Executor's Sword. Use them during stagger mechanics or for countering bosses
• Be mindful of your positioning, always move around and stay on your feet. With high swiftness you can traverse the map with ease.