Taunt Line (added v.1.51)

The Taunt Chant is an insta-cast spell that causes invisible "aggro-damage" to the mob. No real damage is afflicted, but the mob becomes angry with you and can aggro on you instead of other members. This has a fairly decent range (1350) and it is the only pulling ability available to the Paladin. However, it is on a 30 second timer, so use it well. This Taunt Chant will get widely used in a Paladin's career. It can be used in the middle of combat to help control aggro.

One important aspect of the Taunt line is that it can interrupt spell casters, interrupt archers, drop speed classes out of speed (when you use it, it will also drop you out of any speed buffs you have) and prevent a stealther from re-stealthing. This is very important in RvR and equally important in PvE. You can prevent a mob from casting if you Taunt them in the middle of the cast. They will then run towards you and forget that they can keep on casting. The same is true for any mob who is an archer. You can Taunt them and they will run within melee range. For RvR, the Taunt line works the same (except they won't run at you) but because it's on a 30 second timer you need to use it wisely.

Revive (Resurect) Spell

At 30 in chants the paladin receives the Revive spell, which can bring a dead realm-mate back to life. This is perhaps our most useful ability, as it can save huge amounts of time otherwise spent waiting for groupmates to release and horse back to their grave. Unlike the Cleric or Friar Resurect spells, our Revive brings the person back with only 10% health and no power. This means it may be better to let a Cleric do the resurection, assuming he isn't doing something better with his power like keeping ream-mates alive in an RvR battle.

Skills

Paladins are meant to defend those around them. In order to do this, we have trained ourselves in certain skills that allow us to do this effectively. These skills are detailed below and should be learned and used wisely.

Guard

The Guard Skill is a very useful and powerful shield skill in both RvR and PvE. The Guard skill allows you to block attacks on a specific person from enemies. All you have to do is select a player to Guard and activate the Guard ability. Whenever an enemy attacks that person...and you are nearby...then there is a chance that you will block that enemy. The best thing to do is to always Guard the person that gets the most aggro. In most cases it will be a 2-Handed Paladin.

Engage

The Enage Skill is another powerful shield skill, and the only of the four defensive skills with which you select an enemy to use. More desciption to come.

Protect

The Protect Skill is useful in PvE situations. When you protect somebody, you are trying to draw the Aggro off of them. Sometimes it works and other times it doesn't. You just select a player and Protect them and whenever they do anything that draws aggro sometimes you will see a "You distract [monster]" or something like that. Usually it is best to either Protect the one you are guarding or Protect your Clerics/Casters from getting aggro. In the case of an All Paladin group, the 1-Handed Paladin should protect the 2-Handed Paladin so that the 1-Handed Paladin can grab aggro every so often.

Intercept

The Intercept Skill is useful skill in any situation. Intercept allows a Paladin to take damage for another character when they are attacked by an enemy once per minute. This may not sound like a good thing at first, but when you are depending on a theurgist's bladeturn or a healers heals and they are about to die, it is important. Those weaker characters can not take as much damage as your Paladin can, and it also gives the added advantage of not interrupting their casting. Or how often have you been in a situation where a healer casts a spell on a tank just as they take the death blow? You can give those extra few seconds with intercept. The big limitation of this skill is that you must be close to the character for which you wish to take damage and you must have them selected to use it (i.e. you can not attack while targeting a friendly character). This can also be used in a group of Paladins to help distribute the damage and make refresh more effective. Learn to use it well, and you will be loved.

Styles

The choice of damage type is influenced by a number of factors, but two of these stand out amongst them. The first is the combat styles you will be able to use with the damage type, and so we discuss each of these in turn below. Second is the different resists or vulnerabilities the armor types have to a damage type. At the end of this section, we have given tables to show the different resists/vulns available by realm.

Slash

Slash is probably the most popular weapon base type for the paladin, at least partially because of the image of the sword-wielding knight in shining armor. However, the style is also good for more practical reasons. First, there tend to be more slash drops than other weapons, though this will matter less when Spellcraft is implemented. Second, Paladins autotrain in slash.

Ruby Slash (2) - Your first anytime style, with only a medium damage bonus and a high fatigue cost. You'll trade this out for Uppercut in a few levels.

Cross Slash (4) - Use from beside your target. Low fatigue cost, medium damage, medium bonus to hit and a medium bonus to your defense. Combined with Bloodletter, this will be a mainstay for when you don't have aggro for quite some time.

Uppercut (6) - This replaces Ruby Slash as your basic anytime style, and will have to do until you get Amethyst Slash. Medium fatigue and damage bonus, with a small bonus to hit.

Enrage (8) - This is your taunt, used to generate extra aggro and get the creature you're fighting to face you. A properly placed taunt can make or break a fight in PvE, but with the medium fatigue, low damage bonus and a medium penalty to your defense you're better off using your Taunt Spell if you can.

Bloodletter (10) - Use after Cross Slash. This style has medium fatigue cost, high bonus to hit, medium bonus to your defense and produces a short-duration bleed. The damage on this style is only so-so, but the bonuses and bleed make up for it.

Reflect (12) - This is your detaunt, which reduces the aggro your target feels towards you. Medium fatigue cost, but gives you a high bonus to defense. Because of the defense bonus, the style is useful even in RvR, where the detaunt effect is meaningless.

Opal Slash (15) - Use after Uppercut. Medium fatigue and damage bonus, low bonus to hit. Causes a short-duration bleed. Uppercut / Opal Slash will be your default anytime combo until you get Cleave.

Riposte (18) - Use after blocking target (for yourself or when guarding someone else). Low fatigue, high damage, medium to-hit bonus and medium bonus to defense. An all-around good style if you spec in shield. Your default when soloing should now be Riposte for when you block, while alternating Uppercut and Opal Slash as your backup style.

Side Slicer (21) - Low fatigue cost and low damage bonus, and produces a short duration snare which slows down target attack and movement speed. Side Slicer does less damage than Cross Slash, so you may want to keep the Cross Slash / Bloodletter combination as your default side positional style unless you want the snare effect.

Cleave (25) - Use after Uppercut. Low fatigue, medium damage and medium bonus to hit. The extra damage and improved bonuses easilly out-perform the bleed effect from Opal Slash. Uppercut / Cleave should be your new anytime combination.

Amethyst Slash (29) - The last of your anytime styles, and one of the best weapon styles in the game. Medium fatigue, medium damage bonus and a high bonus to hit. Replaces Uppercut.

Befuddler (34) - Use after successful riposte. Medium fatigue, bonus to hit and damage. Causes a medium duration stun, which is nice, but if you spec high in shield you'll probably be using the shield-slam for that effect instead. Riposte/Befuddler with Amethyst Slash is a great combo for the slash-and-shield paladin who has aggro.

Back Slash (39) - Use from behind. High fatigue, medium damage bonus, high bonus to hit. A generally good style, and many would argue the last style that's worth the points.

Sapphire Slash (44) - Use after enrage. Low fatigue, medium damage, medium bonus to hit, high penalty to defense. Causes medium duration bleed. While the damage isn't bad on this style, the defense penalty and fact that it chains off of the low-damage enrage makes this one of the weaker styles.

Diamond Slash (50) - Use after Amethyst Slash. High fatigue, high bonus damage and very high bonus to-hit. Great damage, but generally considered to not be worth the spec points it takes to get it. Spend the extra points points on chants and shield/parry, and use spellcrafted gear and realm rank to get your slash skill up to 50+ instead.

Crush

Daze (2) - Your first anytime style. High fatigue and only medium damage. You'll be replacing this soon.

Back Crush (4) - Use from behind target. Low fatigue cost, medium damage and medium bonus to-hit. This style is also the first of many you'll receive with a short-duration stun effect.

Maul (6) - Your next anytime style, replacing Daze. High fatigue cost still, but high damage and to-hit bonus. Low penalty to your defense.

Bludgeon (8) - Your taunt style. Unlike the taunt in other weapon types, the bludgeon style is actually a chain off of Maul. This makes it less useful, since usually you only taunt when you want to get a creature off of someone quickly. Luckily, paladins tend to rely on their enrage chant instead of taunt styles anyway. Medium fatigue, damage and to-hit bonus, with a medium penalty to your defense.

Bruiser (10) - Use after a successful Back Crush. Medium fatigue, damage and to-hit bonus, and produces a short-duration bleed.

Concussion (12) - Yet another anytime style. Medium fatigue and damage bonus, with a low to-hit bonus. Concussion also reduces your target's attack speed.

Contusions (15) - Use after a successful bludgeon. Medium fatigue, damage bonus and to-hit bonus, and produces a medium duration stun.

Blackjack (18) - Another style after Maul. Medium damage and to-hit bonus, with a short duration stun effect.

Protector (21) - Your anytime detaunt style, useful both for controlling aggro and raising your defense. Medium fatigue bonus and medium bonus to defense. Reduces your target's aggro to you.

Divine Hammer (25) - Use from behind target. Medium fatigue, damage and to-hit bonus.

Skull Breaker (29) - Use after target is blocked. Low fatigue, medium damage, high to-hit bonus, low penalty to your defense.

Side Crush (34) - Use from beside target. Medium fatigue, damage and to-hit bonus.

Bone Crusher (39) - Use after parrying target. Low fatigue, medium damage and to-hit bonus, medium bonus to defense, and produces a long-duration snare. Note that with its defense bonus, you are more likely to parry again after doing a Bone Crusher.

Body Masher (44) - Use after Skull Breaker. Medium fatigue, damage and to-hit bonus, and has a heavy attack speed buff effect.

Devastate (50) - Use after the Side Crush ability. High fatigue, high damage, high to-hit bonus and medium penalty to your defense. It also produces a long-duration stun. Great style if you can get off the side position, but costs a lot of spec points.

Thrust

This skill is used to determine damage and styles when using thrust weapons. If you are using 2Hed weapons, this line of styles will not be important to you. But if you are 1Hed, you should become familiar with the styles.

Thrust is a line many people say 1Hed Paladins shouldn't take for two reasons, which we disagree with. The first is that Paladins don't get any Dex as they level and thrust is based on Str/Dex. But for Paladins, who have Str as a tertiary stat, they only get one point in Str every three levels or fifteen points total. As this is then averaged with Dex only half of this goes towards influencing damage, or another way of looking at it is that at most a Paladin loses eight stat points to determine damage. Not enough to make any significant impact in the forumula.

The other reason is that there are evade keyed styles in this line and Paladins do not get evade as a skill, so they will never be useable. While true, there are a number of styles that are usable. One of the styles (Puncture) is the only anytime style available to Paladins that will cause a bled effect, which is good for interrupting casters and prolonging the time until a speed buff can kick in or a stealther can stealth.

Thistle (2) - This is an anytime style, with only a medium damage bonus and a high fatigue cost. You won't be using this style for long.

Ratfang (4) - Evade based. No further comment necessary for a Paladin.

Puncture (6) - Your second anytime style which will be your mainstay for a long time to come. This also has a medium bonus to hit and a medium damage bonus, but the fatigue cost is only medium. It also causes a light bleed effect on excecution.

Sting (8) - This is your taunt style to generate a little bit of extra aggro. It has a medium fatigue cost and in addition to the taunt effect, it also has a low damage bonus and a medium bonus to hit. One drawback to this style is it gives a high defense penalty for the next round.

Wolftooth (10) - Keyed of a successful Ratfang. In other words, unusable by a Paladin.

Bloody Dance (12) - The second in a chain following a successful Puncture. It has a medium fatigue cost, a medium bonus to damage, a medium bonus to hit, and a medium duration bleed effect. It also has a small defensive penalty to the next round.

Beartooth (15) - Used after you parry an enemy, this style's fatigue cost is low. It produces a medium bonus to damage, a medium duration stun, and a high bonus to hit.

Tranquilize (18) - This is the detaunt style used to reduce the aggro you have generated. In addition, it gives you a high defensive bonus and has a medium fatigue cost.

Lunge (21) - This style can be used in place of Bloody Dance after a successful Puncture. It has a medium damage bonus and a high bonus to hit. The fatigue cost for this style is medium.

Ricochet (25) - Used after your target blocks. For a low fatigue cost, it causes a medium duration bleed and a high bonus to hit. However, it does give a medium penalty to your defense for the next round.

Pierce (29) - Used from behind your enemy, it has a medium fatigue cost. It also gives medium bonus to damage, a high bonus to hit, a medium penalty to defense and produces a medium duration bleed effect.

Liontooth (34) - Used after a Wolftooth, yet another you can't use.

Basiliskfang (39) - A style to be used from beside your target, it has a medium fatigue cost. For that cost, you get a medium bonus to your damage, a small bonus to hit, a small bonus to defense, and it produces a heavy attack speed reduction. All in all, a very good style to use after a Slam.

Wyvernfang (44) - Used after a successful Beartooth, you may not get the opportunity to use this much if at all. It gives medium bonus damage, a medium to hit bonus, as well as a long duration movement reduction for a low fatigue cost.

Dragonfang (50) - Evade based, too bad too, as this is a great style.

Two Handed

The two-handed skill is used to determine your damage when using any two-handed weapon, no matter the base damage type. This is considered one of the " advanced" weapon skills along with Polearms, Dual Wield and Albion's Critical Strike, as you must also raise your "basic" weapon skill to maximize your damage output. The two-handed skill determines the maximum damage, or the damage cap. The other skill, whether thrust, crush or slash determines the minimum damage for you can do, so to raise this skill will narrow the damage range and increase your average damage.

Half Moon (2) - Half Moon has a high fatigue cost and only gives a medium bonus to damage, but will remain one of your main styles until skill 12.

Double Back (4) - This style requires you to be behind an enemy to properly execute the attack. While difficult to do, it is much better than Half Moon, as it does the same damage, takes less endurance, adds a medium bonus to hit and causes a short stun. This if best used when someone else has the aggro and you can position yourself behind the creature, or before they have noticed you, if you can sneak close enough before the creature does so.

Rile (6) - As the name indicates, Rile will generate an additional amount of aggro when you use it on a MOB. In addition, it gives a low damage bonus, a small bonus to hit, and a medium penalty to defense for the next round. Forget this style. Two-handers generate enough aggro with their styles, taunt chants and heal chants to keep aggro focused on them without it. Plus, as your swings are so slow, the rile will often not come in time and leave you at a defense penalty for a long period of time.

Pacify (8) - You will find this style useful at times, as it reduces the aggro you have generated for the creature. As a two-handed paladin, giving up aggro will often be one of your more difficult tasks. In addition, this style also increases your defensive bonus for the next round, but does not cause any extra damage as a tradeoff. All told, the medium endurance cost will be more than worth it when you need this style.

Two Fists (10) - Finally, your first chain style arrives. This is keyed off a successful Double Back and gives a medium bonus to both damage and to hit. It also gives a short duration bleed, all for only a medium fatigue cost.

Bone Bruiser (12) - Your next anytime-damage style. Bon Bruiser has a medium fatigue and bonus to damage and a low bonus to hit. It also produces a medium duration snare (movement speed reduction) on your opponent. Replaces Half-Moon as your basic anytime damage dealer.

Onslaught (15) - Your first side-positional style, Onslaught has low fatigue cost, a high damage bonus and a medium to-hit bonus, and also produces a medium duration snare. Good basic style for PvE when someone else has aggro.

Fury (18) - Use after target is parried. Fury has a low fatigue cost, a medium damage and to-hit bonus and causes a light bleed effect. However, it also gives you a high penalty to defense.

Bone Splitter (21) - Used after a successful Bone Bruiser, Bone Splitter is the second style in your basic anytime chain. The style has a medium fatigue and damage, low to-hit, and medium duration snare.

Recenter (25) - Used after a sucessful Fury. Low fatigue, medium damage, low bonus to-hit, and a high bonus to defense.

Bone Breaker (29) - This is the third in your anytime chain (use after a successful Bone Splitter). Medium fatigue and damage, low bonus to-hit, and best of all a short duration stun.

Obfuscate (34) - Use after a successful Fury. Medium fatigue, damage and to-hit bonus, plus a heavy attack speed debuff for your target.

Doubler (39) - Your last main anytime style. High fatigue cost, medium damage bonus and low to-hit bonus.

Two Moons (44) - Use after successful Onslaught. Low fatigue, medium damage and high to-hit bonus, and a long duration stun to your target.

Sun and Moon (50) - The fourth and last in your anytime chain (use after a successful Bone Breaker). Medium fatigue and a low to-hit bonus with no other modifiers, but produces a heavy bleed.

Shield

As you gain skill in Shield, not only do you block/guard more effectively, you also gain the ability to attack with your shield. These attacks can be very strong, do high damage and even stun your opponent. The style the epitomizes the Shield spec line is the Slam style that you receive when your Shield skill is level 42. This style is an anytime style that has a long duration (9 seconds) stun.

Numb (3) - The Numb style is the first style that you get at level 3. This is an anytime style that does a short stun (1-2 seconds) and medium damage. It is a good opener for the lower levels.

Stun (8) - At level 8, you receive Stun. This is a reactionary style based on a block. This will end up doing more damage than Numb and it also has a short stun on it. This is an excellent style to have in your quickbar especially if you are guarding someone and block for them.

Disable (13) - You receive Disable at level 13. This is a side-positional style and is sometimes hard to get off. However, it has a longer stun than the previous styles and could be worth it if you are not the main aggro, which is highly unlikely if you are running the refresh chant.

Incapacitate (18) - This is one of the better lower level Shield styles at level 18. It is a reactionary style based on a block, but you also get a medium stun and some extra defense after you use it. If you are using the Stun style, you should now replace it with Incapacitate.

Paralyze (23) - At level 23 you receive Paralyze. This is a back-positional style and is very useful in the Battlegrounds when your enemies are trying to run away. You dish out some mean damage and a medium length stun which is effective in stopping enemies in their tracks. This is a must have in the Battlegrounds.

Bash (29) - This is the next reactionary style based on a block after Incapacitate. Although you lose the defense bonus, you gain more damage. If you are using Incapacitate you should replace it with Bash.

Mangle (35) - At level 35 you receive Mangle which is a side-positional attack. It is hard to get off, however, it is the first style you receive that has a long stun (9 seconds) which is only one second short of the best stun in the game.

Slam (42) - This is one of the strongest Shield styles and should be what you try to attain if you decide to use a Shield. It is an anytime style that has medium bonus damage and a long duration stun (9 seconds). This is an excellent style to use in RvR because it gives you an advantage. It's a great opener against casters or other enemies who like to run away. You can also use it near the end of a battle with someone so that they cannot run away as well. The only drawback is that it has a very high fatigue cost associated with it. You can only do about 3 or 4 Slams, unless you use the new endurance regeneration chant which at high chant levels will allow you to slam until you run out of power.

Brutalize (50) - Brutalize replaces Bash as the reactionary style based on a block. It has one of the longest duration stuns in the game (10 seconds, a second longer than Slam) and medium bonus damage. Furthermore, the fatigue cost is low, which means that you can do a Brutalize many times. Brutalize is an excellent style, but the main advantage of Brutalize over Slam is the low fatigue cost, which is less important now that we have the Endurance Chant.

Weapon Resists and Vulnerabilities (modified v1.52)

Realm Abilities (added v1.50)

More info to come. In the meantime, you can browse Mythic's list of realm abilities for the paladin.