Paladin Class Guide – Part 2

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Paladin Stats

Of 14 attributes that every Allods Online character has Paladin effectively uses nine. Of those nine four are considered very important for the class (Strength, Finesse, Expertise and Luck). Let’s see why.

If you open your spellbook and click “Abilities” tab you’ll see really cool ability that all Paladins have right from the start. It is “Strength of Faith” ability which makes all your spells depend not on ‘magical’ stats such as Intelligence and Perception but on the ‘physical’ stats such as Strength and Finesse. If Mage casts a spell its damage is calculated using his Intelligence bonus as damage multiplier. If Paladin casts a spell Strength bonus is used instead. It means that you can safely ignore all stats on which magic-users usually concentrate and still be able to use spells efficiently. That is really nice: less stats to think about and more points to put in the remaining stats.

Here is the short description of all stats that are important for Paladins:

1) Strength. Determines physical damage, spell damage and healing done by the Paladin. Very important stat no matter which build you use and what role you perform in the group. Nearly everything you do is affected by it.

2) Finesse. Determines % of enemy’s armor your physical strikes ignore. Important stat because most of your attack skills are physical. Most usefull when fighting with heavy armored enemies such as other plate-users. Good balance between Strength and Finesse is a must for any Paladin.

3) Expertise. Determines chance to miss with physical attacks and amount of spell damage the enemy ignores. If you miss you deal no damage so Expertise is really even more important than Finesse. Besides, it affects all your damage, not only physical one.

4) Luck. Luck is important for all classes and Paladins are no exception. Determines two things: chance to inflict critical damage or healing and chance to deal a glancing blow. Glancing blows deal only half of normal damage or healing so avoid them by keeping your Luck high.

These four stats are the most important ones. Keep them high and everything will be ok. Other stats’ importance heavily depends on your chosen build. Here are some examples:

5) Agility. The higher is yout Agility stat the better are your chances to dodge incoming attack. Dodging means that the enemy completely misses you and deals no damage. Important for tanks. All non-tanks shouldn’t pay too much attention to it. If you can kill the enemy quickly it doesn’t really matters how much damage he inflicted: just heal yourself and go on.

6) Endurance. Determines chance to recieve critical strike. Just like Agility it is important for tanks only. But tanks should maximize Endurance at any cost. If you tank with low Endurance you have good chances of constantly wiping entire party only because boss dealed two or three crits in a row.

7) Stamina. Determines amount of health. No comments

And the last two stats that Paladin needs to think about become important after 23 lvl when open PvP starts:

8 ) Willpower. Gives you some chance to resist control spells. Control is bread and butter of 1v1 PvP and control spell failure often means a certain death for the controller.

9) Rage. Increases the complexity of wounds done. Which means that it will be harder for enemy healer to heal them. If you fight against good PvP group with healer who is protected by other group members this stat matters. In ‘chaotic’ PvP (much more common situation) there is a small chance that your enemy will be healed in the middle of the fight.  So don’t pay too much attention to this stat.

Paladin equipment

Paladin can wear leather armor from the first level and plate armor after level 20. Paladin and Warrior armor have much in common: both give bonuses to Strength, Finesse, Expertise and Luck. Try to switch to plate as soon as you are 20 – additional armor points will make your life much easier.

Paladin can choose from wide variety of weapons:

1) From the start one-handed Swords, Clubs and Shields can be equiped (Spears also if you’re Kanian)

2) After 10th level one-handed Axes and two-handed Clubs become available

3) After 20th lvl you can use two-handed Axes and Swords and sword-dagger duals (according to Allods Archives, haven’t checked it myself).

Two most common combinations are: one-handed weapon plus shield and two-handed weapon. Let’s look at pros and contras. Two-handed weapon deals more damage per second but every swing also takes more time. Many Paladin’s abilities such as Crusader’s Blow are casted simultaneously with the next melee strike. So it will take more time to use them if you fight with 2-handed.One-handed weapons have lower DPS but strike more often. Shield itself give two bonuses: armor bonus and block bonus – small chance to block incoming damage with a shield.

The general advice is simple: use two-handed weapons to kill things quickly. If those things kill you instead – switch to 1h and shield to live longer and cast special blows more often. Some people even state that with right combination of abilities they can deal as much damage with 1h weapon as with two-handed. If you are the tank use 1h+shield for armor and block bonuses – your healer will thank you for this choice. In PvP against spellcasters two-handed weapons are awesome – Mages, Psionicists and Summoners die from several blows. If your enemy is Warrior or another Paladin – good shield will allow you to outlive them.

To be continued

In the next part we will talk about Paladin skills, talents and builds. See you!

Related posts:

1. Paladin Class Guide Part 4
2. Paladin Class Guide – Part 3
3. Paladin Class Guide – Part 1
4. Summoner (Necromancer) Class Guide
5. Allods Online Mage class Guide

Tags: Allods Online, Archetypes, builds, Classes, Guides, Levelling, MMO, MMORPG, online games, Paladin, Spells, Stats, Talents