Allods Online

Paladin
Archetype
Guide

by Venoda (ign Demetreh)

Officer of the “Legends”. League ISA.
Copyright © May 23, 2010. All rights reserved.
Overview

Eh, Paladins. When you hear a word

"Paladin", first thing that comes in mind is the
holy warrior fighting to protect innocent using
his deity blessings.

Now, after that cheesy first sentence we can

say that Paladins in Allods Online are basicaly
that - holy protectors. It is very diverse class
and capable for fulfilling many roles, such as
damage dealing, tanking, healing. Pala can do
it all. Bad thing is, you can't excel in every
aspect, so you kinda have to chose what you
want to do. You can focus on tanking with
much less damage, or go for damage and
little healing, but you'll not survive as long as 1 Paladin fighting a Demon
tank. I will explain several builds in the Builds
chapter.

Why are Paladins so special? Thera are three thing you must understand before starting a paladin:
Barriers, Canons and Marks of Pariah.

Barriers

Barrier is the thing where Pala stores incoming damage for 10 sec. After that, barrier pops and you take
the damage. Fortunately, paladin has many skills with which he controls the barriers and the damage
stored, which can reduce/nullify incoming damage.

2 Barrier system

In the beginning you have one barrier, you get second on lvl 22, and third one on 40. Here is how it
works, lets say you have one barrier:

Paladin gets hit for 50 dmg. It is stored in the barrier. Timer on the barrier is 10 sec.

 If nothing else happens, pala will take 50 dmg after 10 secs.

 If you get hit again for 30 dmg, you will directly take 30 damage (because 30<50), and barrier
will still store 50 dmg from before.
 If you get hit again for 100 dmg, that damage will be stored in the barrier (100>50), and you will
take 50 dmg, and the barrier timer resets to 10 secs.
If you have two or three barriers, its the same, every new blow will be stored if barriers are empty, if
not, it will either replace currently stored dmg or inflict you directly, depending on amount of dmg
taken.

Thats why paladins are born to tank big bosses. Can absorb massive damage, sometimes two or three
times more than total health. In comaprison to warriors, palas are not good for tanking multiple mobs,
because of faster smaller attacks, and if you understood the barrier thingy, you will know why. ;-)

Canons

If you like healing (and with pala, trust me, you will :)), canons are the way to make it happen. They
represent items in your inventory that are spent when casting healing spell. They can be regenerated
using Solemn Prayer skill (or Penance attack). You can hold 10/20/30 canons in your bag depending on
skill level. Keep in mind that strongest Heal uses 6 of them. Strong healing skills come later on, so I
suggest that you focus on other skill untill lvl 25, when you'll get your first serious heal. Paladins can be
great off-healers, because of instant cast, massive full party heals, which can save your main healers life
more than once in a single battle.

3 Demon with 2 stacks MoP 4 Solemn prayer

Marks Of Pariah

This is sort of de-buff that you put on a target with some of your attacks. It stacks up to three times, and
many attacking abbilities rely on that - the higher the stack of Marks, higher damage. You'll have one
ranged and one melee skill that puts Marks, and many of them to "detonate" them. Those attacks will
be your main damage dealing method.

Weapons

Paladin can equip variety of weapons, starting all one handers, on lvl 10 two handed maces, and on lvl
20 two handed swords and axes, and sword & dagger combination. Only Kanians can use spears. What
weapon will you use is tightly tied to what you want to do with your paladin.

 Tanking - any 1h + shield

 Physical DD - 2h, mostly sword coz its a bit faster than axe.
 Holy DD - sword & dagger, coz its fastest possible attack needed for quick stacking of Mark.

Now that I've intrigued you with Palas' basics, I bet you wonder which race to choose? :)
Races

Paladins can be played by 4 races ingame, Elves, Kanians, Xadagnians and Orcs. They are all basicaly the
same, and only thing that differs is the racial skill. It is just one ability that you get by planing an elf or
orc, or whatever. :) I will explain those skills here.

Except racials, Kanian Crusader differs also - its only race that can equip 1h and 2h spears.

<- Elf Templar

Templars have "Pious Brand" skill, melee attack skill that does massive physical
damage, puts a Mark of Pariah on target, and increases wound complexity so the
target may very well resist first heal attempt. Only bat thing is, it has long
cooldown.

Kanian Crusader ->

"Crusader’s Strike" is their racial skill, and reguires 1h spear

to be equipped. Does melee damage and puts a DoT debuff
on target. This is only for tankers, coz no damage dealer will
equip 1h weapon.

<- Orc Reaver

This one I think is the best (although I play Templar).

"Reaver's Cup" does great damage, and burns enemys'
mana/energy. Great for PvP.

Xadagnian Avenger ->

"Avengers war cry" can lower the damage taken by 50% for
whole party. Great for tanking (although I havent seen many
imperial paladins)

So, basicaly, I can say that are Elven and Orcish paladins intended to be damage dealers, and Kanians
and Xadagnian for tanking. It's your choice :)
Stats

Paladin is a energy using class, so - its important stats are Strength, Finesse, Expertise and Luck. Not
that other stats are less important, these are just your main offensive stats (in the builds chapter I will
explain how some of them may be ignored completely).

Lets discuss offensive, defensive and mental skills, shall we?

Strength, is your main damage modifier. Increases damage dealth by ?%. This stat has linear
progression, and will not be affected by your current level. It is also main stat that defines your healing.
Keep it as high as you can.

Finesse, defines the increase/decrease in damage affected by enemys armor. So it kinda has "zero"
point (increases damage by 0%), which depends of your level. General advice is to keep it over that zero
point, you dont want your physical damage damage reduced. Yes, I said physical, so holy damage
dealers can totally ignore finesse. As of physical damage dealers, it can increase damage more than
strength.

Expertise defines your miss chance. Missing can be painful, especially when using slow 2h weapon, so
for 2h try to keep it under 10%. If using paired weapons, that can be a bit more coz you will be striking a
lot more often.

Luck defines you critical and glancing chance. Critical means a lot more damage, and glancing blow is
50% less damage. Crucial stat for all palas, especially damage dealers coz with high enough STR and/or
FIN, you can crit to the moon and back. I suggest placing all your stat points here, and keeping your crit
chance al least a bit higher than glancing.

Defensive skills include Agility, Endurance and Stamina.

Agility is your chance to dodge incoming attack. For tankers, I would suggest to try (I repeat, try) to find
equipment with AGI stats, but plates in 90% of the cases come with END and STA, so you will likely be
forced to have low agility and skyrocketing endurance.

Endurance is your "receive a critical/glancing" chance. The higher is your endurance, more you will be
hit with those 50% weaker hits than with crits. YOu know what havoc can criticals do, so try avoiding
them by keeping END high enough.

Stamina is pretty straightforward - the more you have stamina, more health you have. Essential for any
kind of paladin.

Mental skills include Conviction, Willpower and Rage. These are not that important till serious PvP
gaming.

Conviction represents a chance to successfully use control abilities - Palas doesnt have such, so not rly
important.

Willpower may be useful in PvP because it increases chance to resist control abilities (Fear, anyone?).

Rage defines how much your attacks increase wound complexity. Wound complexity is the percentage
how much heals will be resisted. For example, in Raid vs Raid, your Pious Brand hits their tank, and he
has wound complexity of 80%. That means their healers' heals will be resisted by that percent.
!!! I wont be writing anything about caster stats (intelligence, perception, faith and wisdom). General
misconception is that inteligence will affect paladins Holy attacks and perception/faith how powerful
heals are. No. More strength, stronger heals. More expertise, less resisted. Don't forget that. !!!

Skill Tree

Here I'll cover all the skills in the skill tree. From the first look
you can see that they are divided into 3 categories - heals,
barrier control, and melee attacks.

 After you exit n00b zone, you will end up with 3 basic
attacks:

Crusaders blow - Melee skill, inflicts physical

damage and put a MoP on targer. Your main
attack, bind it to 1, coz you'll be pressing it like a
maniac. Lvl 3, unless going for Holy DPS build, then leave it to
1 freely.

Righteous Word - Ranged spell, inflicts holy

damage and puts MoP on target. This will likely be
your opener, used for pulls and killing fleeing
enemies. Instant cast. Lvl 1 is enough for all but Holy DPS.
Those players will must have rank 3.

Retribution - Melee skill, inflicts damaga, plus more damage for every MoP. Removes MoP,
and put a speed debuff on target. When going for physical, this will be your main damage
dealing skill. Also good when trying to escape coz of a speed debuff. Lvl 3, unless Holy DPS

 On lvl 5 you get second row of skills, which are:

Overcome - reduces damage in first barrier by 40/50/55% and by some ?? amound defined
by your STR, and inflicts the rest. That actually means - when using Overcome, you will
absorbe around 2x ?? amount. Great skill, will be using it a lot. 10s cooldown. Lvl 3
recomended for all builds.

Solemn Prayer - restores 10/20/30 canons which we, as you already know, use for healing. I
dont recomend taking any heals before lvl 25, so I would take it later on. Lvl it how much you
need :) 3 is a must for off-healer.

Canon of Light - really useless. Dont take it, you will have much stronger heals later on, dont
waste your points.
 On lvl 10, third row brings us the following:

Challenge - intimidates the target and binds it to attack only you untill it deals 10/20/30%
damage of your total health before it can attack someone else. Very important tanking skill.
Can lock bosses to you and everyone is safe (but you :P). This can be useful to other builds
too, as it can save your caster from certain death. Also works in PvP. And yeah, its ranged. Tanks to lvl 3,
others lvl 1 or just skip it.

Condemnation - a really nice DoT spell that detonates MoP and deals holy damage every 2
secs. On MoP3, it is really powerful. Great tanking skill coz this generates a lot of aggro,
especially when using Crusaders Blow while Condemnation is active. Holy builds to 3, others,
including tanks, lvl 1 is enough.

Healing touch - Uh. I personaly have debated its usage for a long time now. It is healing-
over-time spell, lasts 12 seconds, and litterary heals you to your max health every time. But
you end up with a stun for 15 seconds. And friendly target (or you) must have health below
5% in order to cast. It is realy powerful, and helpful, but casting reqs are too much for me. If you want
it, lvl 1 is more than enough.

 Lvl 18 brings us more goodies!

Strike of Justice - paladin rushes to the target and deals ?? holy damage to target and stuns
it for 3/4/5 seconds, depending on lvl. It is the only stun pala has, great for both PvP and PvE.
I suggest taking it to lvl3 regardless of build. If you don't, lvl1 is a must. Generates more aggro
when Condemnation is active. (Also, this skill is a bit buggy, sometimes it will say "Can't find path". So
you just move a bit, and try again)

Purge Pain - removes all the damage in your first barrier without breaking it. That means
some big raid bos can hit you once for 4 times more damage than your total health, and you
can survive with this baby! :D I wouldn't invest in higher lvls, you will be using it only for large
criticals, otherwise Tenacity + Overcome does the trick. Lvl 1 here.

Tenacity - cream and butter of barrier management! Reduces first barrier by ??, puts it the
last in line and refreshesh the timer. Cooldown 4/3/2 secs. This will be used a lot. A LOT.
Great ability to roll barriers quickly. I would suggest to everyone lvl3, it is worth it (especially
whith 3 barriers, you roll them all in 6 seconds, while waiting for Overcome coodlown which is 10 secs).
Leave it to 1/2 ONLY if you have better things to spend points on.

 With lvl 24 comes first serious heal, Power of the Light. But lets keep an order:

Absolution - takes all the damage stored in all barriers and distributes them equally.
Refreshes their durations. For example, you have 100 damage in first, and 250 damage in
second. Absolution will give you 175 in both, with reseted timers. Neat, huh? Yeah,
sometimes. Thing with absolution is, it can really help you, or really screw you up. So if you use it, use it
smartly. Like when you have huge crit in third barrier, and dont have enough energy to roll
Tenacity+Overcome to it. Then Absolution will save your ass. And dont use it when having that large crit
in first barrier. Remove it with Overcome. Take rank 1 if you tank, otherwise you dont have to. Take it if
you have like 1 point and dont know where to spend it :)
 Power of the Light - finally. Good instant cast heal. Heals the most wounded member in
party for ??, then jumps to the second, and goes like that for 3/4/5 targets. Consumes 4
canons, cooldown 5 secs. Its not necessary to take it, but rank 1 should be enough to cover
for Light Nova's big cooldown. If you heavily off-heal, rank 2 is okay. Dont take 3, better take Light Nova
to 3. (Also, it says that it heals every 2 secs for 5 secs, but it doesn't do that. It heals only once, even if
you're doing solo)

 Last row, yummy! :D

Penance - detonates MoP, does greater damage for every MoP, and restores 4/5/6 canons.
This is a lifesaver. Restores canons with attack, you must take it to lvl 3 to cover up Light Nova
usage, also 6. Has big cooldown so use it as much as you can when you lack canons,
otherwise use other attacks. It is smart to use it right after healing yourself, to restore canons right after
their usage.

Light Nova - big-ass heal. Heals all party members for huge amount. Instant cast, 6 canons,
15 secs cooldown. This is what will be saving your healers and other casters in instances, coz
they dont have as much health and you will be healing them to a maximum almost every
time. Remember, strength defines amount, expertise chance to resist. Rank 3 everyone.

Talents

That was skills chapter, I hope you already have some plans in your head what will you take and how
will you play, coz now we move to Talents section, the "rubie thingie" you get after lvl10.

As of lvl10, you can go to your class trainer and buy a ruby, which can be spent in one of the three talent
grids. You start from center, and basicaly you make a path of rubbies to where you want to go/need to
take. That also means you will probably have to spend some on empty spaces too.

Rubies can be divided into 3 categories:

 stat boosts, which increase some of the stats by ??%. These

are generally good to have, but only stats that your build
needs.
 skill modifiers, which add some new ability to your existing
skills, making them better and more useful. Some skills are
not even worth taking without these modifiers.
 new skills, which act just like taking them in a skill tree.
Only here we have ruby grid. This is great sometimes coz
you can have ligher lvl skill at much lesser cost than in skill
tree.

Here I explain every talent you can get, which are a must, which are 5 Light Nova
good, and which one you shouldn't take :)
Crusaders blow grid
In this grid we have 2 stat boosts, for Strength
and Finesse. I advise taking Strenght all the
way in any case. Finesse if needed.

Modifiers we can add here are:

Gift of the light - gives 25% chance for

Crusaders Blow not to cost energy after
sucessful parry. If you tank, you might find this
useful. Otherwise, dont take it.

Rage of the Righteous - this has been a mystery for a long time now. Tooltip says it
increases critical stike damage of Righteous Word. But after some heavy testing, a large base
of paladin players figured it increases critical chance of Crusaders Blow. So if you are going
for physical dps, you will want this.

Atonement - grants 33/66/100% chance for Crusaders Blow to put a not so strong DoT on
the enemy. Damage isnt great, but it is along the way for the STR stats, so pick it up. Also
usable when breaking other players barriers and illusions.

Pious Anger - reduces cooldown on Crusaders blow by 10/20/30%. Crusaders blow is our
most used attack, but when we spam it fast, we run out of energy fast. So it’s not worth it.

Lust for revenge - increases movement speed for 30% for 3 sec after using Purge Pain.
Useless. It is clearly why, if you need speed boost, use potions. And only 3 secs. Not worth it.

Nonchalant - reduces the cooldown on Purge Pain by 10/20/30%. Like Atonement you will
pick it on the way to FIN stats. Makes you use Purge more often.

Righteous Cause - reduces cooldown on Penance for 10/20/30%. Make sure you take it if you
go for FIN stats, it is great coz you will want to use Penance as often as possible.

Only new skill in this grid is Shadowy Protection, which apsorbs large amount of shadow damage for
all party members. In this moment, this is useless, coz there are not too much shadow
damage dealers in game. Maybe after some more content, I dont know. Now, don’t take it.
Righteous word
As of stat boosts, here we have Conviction
and Agility. Refer to the upper part of this
guide if we need those? :) We don’t? Well
maybe AGI, but we can spend those rubies on
better things. Here we also have 3 more slots
Rage of the Righteous, from the first grid. I
believe that this is unfinished part of the grid
and I expect that talent to be fixed in one of the patches.

Modifiers:

Sword of the Just - reduces cooldown on Strike

Of Justice for 15/30%. Take it if you want to use
SoJ a lot, and you will want that if you are going
for Holy DPS

Justice - same thing, only for Righteous Word. Same story about taking them.

Chosen by the Light - grants Crusaders Blow 33% chance to reduce damage in first barrier
by 3/6%. Very small reduction, and wasting rubbies on Conviction along the way is not worth
it.

Divine Sentence - Grants Crusaders blow 5/10% chance for a knockdown. Again, too small
chance, but take it if you need AGI boost.

Faith's Grace - restores health for 15/30/45% damage in the first barrier when using
Overcome, but ca't heal more than 25% of total health. Very usefull for tankers, they'll be
using Overcome all the time, and more self-heals cant go wrong.

Pulse Light - removes 3/6/9% of damage from the first barrier every 3 secs. On paper this
sounds like neat talent. But practice says oposite. Take it when tanking, not in any other case.

Aegis of Faith - another tanker talent, reduces the damage taken by 5/10/15% after
parrying. Take it alont Pulse Light :)

Divine Antagonism - grants a 15% chance for Crusaders Blow and Retribution to put a
debuff on target, which increases your damage towards it by 5/10/15% for 6 seconds.
Physical DPS will mostly use Crusaders Blow and Retribution, so take it when you pick up
Rage of the Righteous.

Revenge is the new skill that this grid offers. It breaks the barrier and reflects 30/50/70% of
the damage stored. Only, it cannot exceed ?? damage, which is defined by your strength.
Great talent, make sure you take it with the Rage of the Righteous. Use it on larger amounts
of damage, just make sure that the unreflected damage doesnt kill you :)
Retribution
Here we have 3 stat boost rubbies,
and those are Stamina, Luck and
Willpower. Make sure to get all
Luck rubbies, and as much as you can of
Stamina. Ignore Willpower and
everything around them.

Modifiers:

Departing light - increases received healing

by 3/6/9% after barrier brokes, for 10 secs. A
must for tankers, coz they'll be receiving
heals just when their barriers pop. Its near Luck rubbies so take it if you tank. Otherwise, there are
better things.

Wave of Light - ads Retribution a 33/66/100% chance to heal all party members for 5% for
each MoP (that means 15% when MoP is 3) of total health. This is a must for all who use
Retribution. Take at least lvl 2.

Holy Flare - makes Healing Touch put a buff on target to receive 20% more healing for one
minute. If you take Tealing touch, make sure you take this! And if you do, take Wave of Life on
lvl 3 as well.

Blessed Light - increases all your heals for 10/20/30%. Great for off-healers. Others may
skip it. (I personally, like strong heals, so I took those rubbies even though I mainly dps).

Punishment - makes Challenge puts a DoT on target. I wouldn't go there, damage is not
great, and there are a lot of Willpower rubbies we dont need.

Heightened Instincts - stacks up Heightened Instints "buff", which gives you 5% more
Endurance with each critical hit you receive. If you take any other damage, it stacks down.
Really useless. And you will have plenty of Endurance with plate armor so you won't be
taking a lot of crits.

Harbinger - straightforward. Increases chance of Retribution. Take it if you use Retribution

as your main attack. And you will use it if you tend to deal physical damage.

Revenge - different talent with the same name. Gives 200% more damage when your party
member dies. Excelent talent, all damage dealers should take it if have rubbies for it.
Two new skills here!

Preparation - combat resurrection, 3 sec cast and 15 min cooldown. Great when your healer
dies, your res can save whole party from dying when healer is back up.

Sacred Sunrise - main damage dealing skill for all Holy DPSers. It also detonates MoP, but it
has splash (AoE) damage. Thats the downside, you will pull a lot of mobs with it, but deal
great damage. Don’t take it if you tank, you will attract too many mobs that warrior should
take care of.

Builds

As I said in the begining, Paladins excel in tanking, dps, and heals. So basicaly builds roll around that.
And there are some hybrid variants that are also cool, but in games like this, you dont want to be jack of
all trades, and master of none. Take one aspect and maximise it, and leave the rest to a bare minimum.

So, for tankers, what is important? They need to hold aggro. So, Challenge, Condemnation and Strike of
Justice are important skills for him. Also, he needs to life longest, needs lots of Stamina and Strength
Need to know how to handle his barriers, so Overcome and Tenacity on lvl3. Also, he would go for
Faiths Grace and so on. Weapon configuration 1h + shield. Using Tenacity all the time is the key, and
Ovecome when ready. Here is an example of tank build:
http://allodsbase.com/en/talents#_28x3bsadqfx10o2kvy7pa7w6y5f4b3g

Physical DPS builds tend to carry 2h weapons, coz of great damage they apply. 2h sword is the best
option. Here we need to focus on Finesse, coz physical damage is absorbed by armor, and higher
finesse ignores armor. Also increase Strength, and take all rubies that increase critical chance of attacks.
Still take Light Nova for self-heals when necessary. Generaly you would spam Crusaders Blow till MoP is
on 3, then Retribution, and then again. Penance when needed. Here is an example:
http://allodsbase.com/en/talents#_29x3fs0difxfik1h8o20vy7w6ye4v51

Holy DPS (or Light DPS as some of the players call it) is very unique build. It rolls around only Holy
damage, and not dealing any physical. Thus avoiding all armor enemy has. Only holy resistance matters.
So in this case, we can totally ignore Finesse stat point, coz we dont need to penetrate armor - we
already have that. Here you should take cooldown reduction on all you Holy attacks (Righteous Word,
Strike of Justice), and Sacred Sunrise on lvl3. You would still use Crusaders Blow to stack MoP, but then
detonate with Condemnation or Sacred Sunrise. Here is an example:
http://allodsbase.com/en/talents#_28x1rs6davx10o20vy518aw3y6108jele96

As of healing builds, I personally believe that paladin should not make healing his main focus. Because
then it attacks will be less strong, and still we wouldnt be primary healers. So i suggest to incorporate
Heals with one of the three above posted builds:
http://allodsbase.com/en/talents#_29x3fs2davx11o2nvy413syc20o41kf10

Note: These builds are just examples. They are no “utlimate” or “best”. You can give it a bit of your touch
and liking to get exactly what you need.

Thank you, and I hope you will enjoy leveling your Paladin! :)