General

Paladin Skill Build

[b]*Every build has been updated for Chaos. If you have any questions or suggestions, please post them.[/b]

[header]Introduction[/header]
I see several threads from Paladins asking about what skill they should get next. To answer those questions before they are asked, I'd like to present some skill builds for Paladins. There isn't necessarily a single best build, as different people have different tastes and play the game differently. Also, I won't go past level 160. By the time you're that level, you should know what you plan on doing and how to allocate the rest of your skill points. I don't recall seeing anyone that high asking for advice, anyway, so I don't feel there is a demand for it.

I'd also like to point out that these are simply guidelines. It won't mean the destruction of your character if you decide to do something different to fit your personal tastes. Feel free to pick one of these and tweak it to your liking, or just ignore these altogether and do whatever you want. Just do whatever you think will cause you to have the most fun.

When reading this, please pay close attention the explanations. The build layouts may look like a quick way to find out what to do, but the reasoning behind them and the alternatives presented have more value than the builds themselves.

[header]Builds - Part 1 - The Beginning[/header]
I'd like to start out by saying that, although most Paladins will follow varying paths, the first part of everyone's build should be about the same. So, rather than listing it several times, I'll type it up once. The Builds will be a continuation of this.

120: 1 Rush, 1 Advanced Charge, 1 Blast
121: 3 Advanced Charge (4)
122: 3 Advanced Charge (7)
123: 3 Advanced Charge (10 - Maxed)
124: 3 Divine Shield (3)
125: 3 Divine Shield (6)
126: 3 Divine Shield (9)
127: 1 Divine Shield (10 - Maxed), 1 Blast (2), 1 Heaven's Hammer (1)

Rush stays at 1 until you have no other options (somewhere around level 190). The horizontal range is the same for all levels, and it's main purpose is to move a boss around or get a group of monsters together so you can mob attack them. Advanced Charge is a Paladin's most important skill, [b]even if you're an Ultimate Explorer[/b]. It brings our Mastery up to an incredible 94%, allowing for wonderfully stable damage. Blast is our 1v1 attack. For lower levels, it's best used when fighting Papulatus or when fighting only 1 or 2 monsters at Lion King's Castle.

Divine Shield gives a nice attack boost when maxed and in effect. Since it only needs 10 Skill Points to get to max, it's good to have throughout the rest of your levels. However, some may feel like they would rather have more of their next skill instead. Currently, Divine Shield's Guards can be knocked away quickly sometimes, making it less consistent than more points into Blast.

Some people may forgo the 1 Heaven's Hammer at level 127. There are a couple cons to it: Blast waits another level to be maxed, and it has a long cool-down. Highly funded players may find it less useful than low-average players since it hits a fixed amount of damage, but it is rather fun to use in my opinion, and it hits for a nice chunk of damage if you've got 3+ monsters in your vicinity at Lion King's Castle. It works especially well on the middle platform since it can hit the top platform and the floor level. It's also great for Zakum arms.

[header]Builds - Part 2 - The Norms[/header]
These builds will be geared toward what is considered to be normal, or common. They are generally more useful and allow for more enjoyable gameplay in it's most popular forms.

[b]Straight Lion King's Castle[/b]
If you plan to grind here with all of your time, this is for you.

128-137: Max Blast
137-146: Max Heaven's Hammer
147-156: Max Power Stance
157: 3 Maple Warrior (3)
158: 3 Maple Warrior (6)
159: 3 Maple Warrior (9)
160: 3 Maple Warrior (12)

Heaven's Hammer is important to keep up good damage. If you don't have the money to buy Blast books, you can go ahead and start putting points into Heaven's Hammer. If Maple Warrior sounds useless or too expensive, you can go with Divine Charge instead, but it takes a while for the damage increase to be noticeable. Guardian is kept out in this build because it causes more problems than it solves (pushing monsters directions you don't want them to go and delaying the activation of Divine Shield).

[b]Some bossing, some LKC[/b]
If you like to do more than just kill Bearwolves, like go to Zakum or Scarlion/Targa, this may be a better fit for you.

128-137: Max Blast
137: 1 Power Stance (1), 1 Heaven's Hammer (2)
138: 3 Power Stance (4)
139: 3 Power Stance (7)
140: 3 Power Stance (10)
141-150: Max Heaven's Hammer
150-156: Max Power Stance
157: Guardian (3)
158: Guardian (6)
159: Guardian (9)
160: Guardian (12)

Both Power Stance and Heaven's Hammer are very useful at Zakum. Getting knocked back or off of platforms is very annoying for me, so I like to get some Power Stance before I go for higher damage at Zakum Arms. Heaven's Hammer is more useful than Power Stance at LKC, however. Between 137 and 156, you can mix these two skills up however you want and turn out just fine. Guardian is there for the bossing aspect of this. It only slows you down at LKC.

The next section may also have some good advice for you...

[b]Mostly Bossing[/b]
If you're after the adventure of fighting the tough guys more than grinding on the little ones, look here.

128: 1 Guardian (1), 1 Blast (3), 1 Maple Warrior (1)
129: 3 Blast (6)
130: 3 Blast (9)
131: 3 Blast (12)
132: 3 Blast (15)
133: 3 Blast (18)
134: 3 Blast (21)
135: 3 Blast (24)
136: 3 Blast (27)
137: 3 Blast (30 - Maxed)
138: 3 Power Stance (3)
139: 3 Power Stance (6) *Read the explanation below before moving on from here.
140: 3 Maple Warrior (4)
141: 3 Maple Warrior (7)
142: 3 Maple Warrior (10)
143: 3 Maple Warrior (13)
144: 3 Maple Warrior (16)
145: 3 Maple Warrior (19)
146: 3 Power Stance (9)
147: 3 Power Stance (12)
148: 3 Power Stance (15)
149: 3 Power Stance (18)
150: 3 Power Stance (21)
151: 3 Power Stance (24)
152: 3 Power Stance (27)
153: 3 Power Stance (30 - Maxed)
154: 3 Guardian (4)
155: 3 Guardian (7)
156: 3 Guardian (10)
157: 3 Guardian (13)
158: 3 Guardian (16)
159: 3 Guardian (19)
160: 3 Guardian (22)

Get a small amount of protection in the beginning with Guardian, then go for damage. Since this type of playing is usually done more by the well-funded players, Zakum solos may start sooner. That's why the Maple Warrior is there before Power Stance really takes off. If you see yourself being in a good party at Zakum more often than soloing any boss, Heaven's Hammer might do you better than Maple Warrior. If all you're doing is bossing, keep in mind that Heaven's Hammer is really only useful at Zakum and Chaos Zakum. It might be helpful at HornTail if that boss wasn't glitched. It doesn't help much (if at all) at Von Leon, Papulatus, Anego, Bodyguards (including Grandpa, unless you can't hit him), or other area bosses.

These players should be doing fine at Lion King's Castle anyway, if they decide to go level up quickly, because the high damage will be good enough to compensate for the delay of Power Stance and the lack of a high level Heaven's Hammer. After 160, these players may want to start fighting Chaos Zakum or Von Leon. That usually means there will be a party of people involved, one of which will likely have Maple Warrior. If you see yourself going in that direction, you may want to skip some of that Maple Warrior so that you can have max Guardian during those fights at 160.

[header]Builds - Part 3 - The Weird[/header]
These builds don't usually revolve around the most efficient training or bossing, but toward individual player preferences. Since they're already straying from the norm, you can change these up as much as you like. Don't go with these on a whim, I must advise. If you feel like being different for a day, you might feel different later and regret messing up your build. Be sure of yourself before you follow these.

[b]Zombies and the Temple of Time[/b]
Hate People? Check this out.

128-134: Max Divine Charge
134-145: Max Blast
145+: Maple Warrior if you need more damage to 1-hit-KO mobs or Power Stance if you're damage is high enough for that. Then Guardian.

This is a rather uncommon path, but it does exist. If you would rather do some old fashioned training instead of having to join a party to level up, Divine Charge will help you take out some Coolie Zombies and Miner Zombies during those levels. After that, you can move on to the Temple of Time, where Divine Charge comes in handy on the Memory monsters. This build works fine if you're a hardcore (and I mean really hardcore) grinding machine and you don't want to start bossing until very late in your carreer. Divine Charge does work well on neutral bosses, like most of Zakum's arms and his bodies, but Power Stance, Heaven's Hammer, and Guardian are much more useful if you're going to go that direction.

[header]Member Submitted Advice[/header]
I'm not the master of Paladins, only an experienced one. However, I haven't experienced everything and I don't know everything. If you have any advice for your fellow Paladins, please submit it. I may not be able to read every post in this thread, but I'll do my best to include useful information that I come across here.

June 14, 2011: @Bojl mentioned that it might be better to max Blast before Divine Shield rather than after. There is good reason behind this so I explained the situation further.

June 14, 2011: @Viaje made some good points about the benefits of Heaven's Hammer at Zakum and LKC. These points are now reflected in the explanations.

[header]Corrections[/header]
If you see something blatantly wrong or incredibly stupid in this guide, please PM me about it in addition to posting in the thread. If something really needs to be changed, I don't want to miss it. [i]Please remember to always be constructive in your criticism, not insulting. If you're just being rude, I'm going to ignore you.[/i]

[header]Updates[/header]
[b]*[/b]June 14, 2011, 11:55 BT: Creation.
[b]*[/b]June 14, 2011, 13:57 BT: Added notes about Achilles and HH to "Mostly Bossing", elaboration of why or why not to choose DS in "The Beginning", some advice in the Introduction, and reasoning behind PS and HH in "Straight LKC".
[b]*[/b]July 7, 2011, 16:03 BT: Updated the LKC and LKC/Bossing builds for Chaos.
[b]*[/b]July 8, 2011, 14:00 BT: Updated the Mostly Bossing build and explanation and made a very small change to the Zombies/ToT explanation.