Paladin Creation Guide by Joshmvii

Archetype: Defensive Fighter Primary Attributes: DEX, CON, STR Continents: All

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Paladins are the most defensive of the protective fighters in Vanguard Saga of Heroes. The Paladin's primary job is absorbing damage. The Paladin specializes in retribution with her rescues. She also has a secondary role in healing, buffing, auras, gifts and special attacks.

Dexterity, constitution, and strength are the Paladin's primary attributes. Dexterity helps the Paladin evade or mitigate damage. Constitution gives him plenty of life points and higher resistances. Strength enables the Paladin to do enough damage to keep the attention of enemies.

Building a good Paladin takes some careful planning at the character creation screen and requires you to learn a handful of tactics in the lower levels.

Selecting the Right Race

Paladins of all races start with the same attributes, but the choice of race can affect how many points the Paladin automatically gets placed into its prime attributes.

Starting attributes:

STR	CON	DEX	VIT	INT	WIS
35	50	40	35	25	25

Each character gets 20 attribute points (AP) per level, starting at level 10. 6 of your AP are placed for you automatically--one per attribute (STR, CON, DEX, VIT, INT, WIS). 4 points are assigned to attributes based on your race if you are not a human (humans are kojani, mordebi, qaliathari, and thestran). You can place 10 (14 for humans) wherever you want to within soft caps of 5 per level.

Additionally, characters get racial bonuses to their soft caps. These are called preferred stats and allow characters of a race to flesh out in a way that reflects the traits of the race. Non-human races get 4 bonus points to soft caps (usually two or three attributes only) while human races get 6, 1 for each attribute. Thus, a human can be more balanced, while a non-human becomes more specialized.

The table below shows the attribute scores at level 50 before gear and buffs for the Paladin based on the race selected. We've highlighted the best results for each of the primary attributes for you. It is possible to reach the soft cap for three attributes as a human, but those soft caps may be lower than those attainable by other races.

Racial Abilities

The other important factor to consider when picking the race for your Paladin is racial abilities. With their short durations and long recasts, racial abilities are less important than attributes in the selection process, but they can be used to pick between races that are otherwise equal. The racial abilities are listed below.

Thestran: Inspirational Commands
You will have 3 inspirational commands at your disposal: Inspirational Presence, Inspirational Wisdom, and Inspirational Tactics. Each command is a group buff that will add either 2% to mitigation, a 3% reduction to mana cost of all spells, or a 2% increase in damage. You may only maintain one command at a time, however you may have all 3 effects active at the same time. Recast is instant.

Human Ingenuity: + 10 bonus to all weapon skills, and dodge.
Crafting: +10 Ingenuity
Harvesting: +5 Lumberjacking

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Dwarf: Earthen Embrace
For 60 seconds, this ability will turn your body to stone. Along with removing all poison effects, you will mitigate 25% damage and become immune to movement impairing spells such as knock back, stun, and snare. Recast is 30 minutes.

Small Race: 2% bonus to evasion
Crafting: +10 Finesse
Harvesting: +5 Mining

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High Elf: Arcane Balance
This ability will take the cumulative amount of mana in a group, add 25% to that number, and evenly redistribute it to all members. Recast is 15 minutes.

Elven Wisdom: 2% reduction in mana cost
Crafting: +10 Reasoning
Harvesting: +5 Reaping

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Kojani: Spirit of Jin
This ability will immediately restore 45% of energy and hit points to the target. This ability has a diminishing effect on any target that has benefitted from this ability (used by another player) in the last 10 minutes. Recast is 30 minutes.

Human Ingenuity + 10 bonus to all weapon skills, and dodge.
Crafting: +10 Ingenuity
Harvesting: +5 Lumberjacking

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Raki: Planar Shift
While this ability is active, you will gain a 50% mitigation to all spell damage. Recast is 30 minutes.

Animal Reflexes: 10% bonus to run speed.
Crafting: +10 Reasoning
Harvesting: +5 Reaping

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Qaliathari: Swiftness of the Sands
For this next 10 seconds, you will evade all melee attacks and spells. Recast is 30 minutes.

Human Ingenuity + 10 bonus to all weapon skills, and dodge.
Crafting: +10 Ingenuity
Harvesting: +5 Lumberjacking

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Mordebi: Curse of the Ancients
This ability stuns the target for 8 seconds, and reduces the aggro range to 0. The target will not assist/aggro while stunned, and the effect does not generate any aggro. Recast is 30 minutes.

Human Ingenuity + 10 bonus to all weapon skills, and dodge.
Crafting: +10 Finesse
Harvesting: +5 Reaping

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Level 1-10 Tactics

In the early levels of the game, you are mostly getting introduced to your general area, and you’ll find a multitude of ‘newbie’ quests to complete to help you make some progress.  These early levels go by pretty quickly, and you will be able to solo through them without must trouble.  While Paladins don’t do the kind of heavy damage that makes some classes good at soloing, the Paladin can heal themselves and have decent buffs as well.  In spite of this ability to solo, it is a good idea to try to make some friends early, or at least get into a group.  You will find that in a group is where the Paladin really shines.

Combat Tactics
Whether soloing or grouping from levels 1 to 10, you will find that Holy Strike will be your main staple.  As long as you have the endurance to use it, you can repeatedly use this attack.  At level 2 when you get Smite, you will use it for pulling and to finish off monsters when they try to flee at low health.  Smite also adds hate, so it’s not a bad idea to keep using it as soon as it refreshes.  At low levels, you’re not using much energy, so you won’t have to worry about running low.  Don’t be afraid to throw in some healing when party members need it.  Healing Touch is a good solid spell, and Lay on Hands is an amazing tool to use, and as long as you don’t use it on a Paladin, it is completely free to use once every five minutes!

At level 4, you will get Hammer of Judgment, which is when you need to get tactical!  This ability, like many combat abilities in Vanguard, does extra damage when you are flanking the opponent with another group member.  If you are not a D&D player, or are not familiar with flanking, it just means that another group member is on the opposite side of the monster from you.  Flanking simulates the weaknesses in a monsters defenses because they can’t watch what both people are doing at the same time.  

At level 6, you get a few new abilities to help you out.  Blessing of Vothdar is a nice little buff that adds +6 to strength.  It’s nice because you toggle the blessing on and off, instead of casting it and it having a set duration.  You also get Boon of Valus this level, which gives your weapon attacks a chance to do a little more damage each time.  You will keep this on all the time to boost your damage.  Devout Foeman is a nice ability that almost guarantees you will block the next attack your enemy does, but also lowers their hate toward you.  It is a nice ability if you are not the primary tank in the group and you’re just trying to let a Warrior or Dread Knight get the agro back, but if you’re the main tank of the group you won’t want to use it too much, as you will lose the agro to another party member like a caster, or a healer.  Finally, you get your first finishing attack this level, Hammer of Valus.  This attack can only be used after you have gotten a critical hit with Holy Strike.  Your Hammer of Valus button will highlight and you will see a green countdown bar, which tells you that you have 10 seconds to use the finisher.  It costs low endurance, and is a pretty powerful attack.  Like Hammer of Judgment, it does more damage when flanking.

 At level 8 you get a few new buffs, as well as a new special attack called Champion’s Might, which adds a short duration(40 seconds) strength buff to you when you use it, which is a nice boost.  You also get your first ‘taunt’ ability “Upbraid,” which increases hate against the monster you use it on.  You will use these abilities to keep the agro on you when you are the main tank. 
 Level 10 is when the class starts to get a little more complex, so we will wait for the next guide to delve too much deeper into tactics.  Below I will give a short description of some of the major Paladin features which they bring to a group from levels 10 and on.

Gifts of Virtue
Gifts of Virtue are special Paladin abilities that really define the class.  You may notice that your Lay on Hands ability that you get at level 1 uses 3 virtue points, but only when used on a Paladin.  The real Gifts of Virtue start at level 10, when you get Dictum of Valus.  This is a single target damage spell.  With the exception of Smite, Paladins don’t get ranged attack spells, so this is a good tool for situations when you really need to kill a monster that is trying to run, or just a big damage burst quickly.   You gain other Gifts of Virtue later, such as Zeal, which will makes all your special attacks hit twice, and Paragon of Justice, which gives you a huge boost to your stats as well as your accuracy and damage.  These abilities really define the Paladin, and using them at the right times to turn the tide of battle will be very important to being a successful Paladin.

Rescues
You only get your first rescue Protector’s Fury, at level 10, but it is worth noting because they are one of the Paladin’s best tools in combat.  When you use a rescue on your defensive target, whatever monster that is attacking her will be forced to attack you for a short period of time.  The duration is different for different rescues, and they do different extra effects, such as added damage, or healing your defensive target.  You will be using these abilities all the time in combat, so you will want to familiarize yourself with using them in group situations.

Make friends!
The Paladin is a great class in Vanguard.  They are nothing like Paladins have been in previous games where they were weak Warriors with weak healing spells.  They bring their own unique set of skills to the table in Vanguard, and along with their buffs, auras, and warcries, the Paladin really shines bright in a group.  You will be the protector of your party members, taking the brunt of the enemy attacks, as well as playing savior with timely heals.  There is little better than saving your entire group from wiping with a well timed used of Lay on Hands.  Have fun, and enjoy being a Paladin in Telon!

Other Paladin Resources at Ten Ton Hammer

• Paladin Class Guide
• Paladin Skills & Abilities (coming soon!)
• Know Your Role - Defensive Fighter
• Guide to Vanguard Statistics
  

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