Not yet updated for Alliance Eternal
Yes, I am aware that there has been another warrior revamp in GMS (and KMS, for that matter). However, I will need to go on and test out the changes before I publish any changes. I may not update this guide for Alliance Eternal at all, instead skip straight to Justice (which should be released when I finish my first semester of uni).
I will also keep the post-Ascension sections here for MSEA players if I feel a lot has changed.
Please bear with me.
Introduction
Part of me refuses to call this a guide, the other part is a realist, and this tiny fraction has no idea why I'm doing this.
This is both a guide and a collation of information I have gathered about my class. I can't credit specific people as I don't remember where I learnt this all from, but the credits mainly go to: Southperry, for it extractions; Hidden Street, for its database and hosting this guide; Basilmarket, for both the smart mature people and those seeking information; and other players, Paladins or not. This 'guide' may go into more depth than you will ever care about, so I'll bold the sections that are important. If you are new to this class or a completely new player, I suggest you read through everything but the mathematics at least once before making a Paladin.
(Note that Combat Orders is a third job skill which adds 2 to all other skills, excluding itself.)
The builds will take the form of:
Notable skill descriptions - This will go into more depth about some skills when I think the skill descriptions are poor (or incorrect, when you look at Combat Orders).
Skill builds - Both Combat Orders and non-Combat Orders reliant, if necessary. There will be one generalised for each, and they will be broken down and explained. Please remember that skill builds are flexible, so you do not need to follow this word for word. In fact, it is best if you personalise the builds. These skill builds are only for maximising training efficiency.
Training grounds - Training grounds, including PQs, for income, experience and items. Unfortunately, I haven't gotten around to finding any yet.
About me
Only because this is supposedly needed.
At the time of writing of the first draft, I am a level 135 Paladin in Windia. I've been playing for five years now, although I've only been a Paladin for less than a year. I'm not the strongest Paladin that ever existed; damage is not my primary concern in this game. As a result, this guide might come from an unfunded player's perspective.
Note to self:
- Skill comparison
- Training
- Equipment
- Mathematics
- Condense everything periodically
- Pictures
- Colour
About Paladins
Of the three warrior adventurers, Paladins are the most defensive. Accounting for all current classes during Ascension, they also may have the greatest survivability, possibly rivalled by Shadowers - hence why I call them the immovable wall. This comes from a plethora of defensive skills such as Power Guard, which halves the damage you take, and Guardian, which has a 40% chance to block any attack when maxed.
Paladins use swords and blunt weapons. Most Paladins will also use a shield and 1 handed sword/blunt weapon combo midway through third job to take advantage of Shield Mastery, which triples their defence. Swords are more commonly used because of they are faster and easier to obtain.
Like all adventurer warriors, Paladins lack a consistent mobility skill. Rush in fourth job can be used as one, but only when there is a monster in front of your character. They make up for their high HP and even higher defence, as well as the additional survivability from defensive skills.
Stat allocation
All to strength. There is no need for dex unless you plan to equip the level 130 and 140 sets, but if you can get your hands on those I'll assume you know what to do.
1 strength adds 1.2 defence. Though that might not seem like much, you'll eventually have defence in the thousands. This is the only class in the game which cares about defence (as in the numbers in your stat screen).
Skill Builds
An introduction to skill builds
Spoiler!It is essential to note that the skill builds are not rules. They are suggestions.
The skill builds from first to third job mainly assume that you are looking to maximise training speed. I do not actually expect people to follow it word for word, especially during third job. It is my assumption that you will learn enough about your class to make your own decisions during third job, as it is impossible to personalise skill builds for every reader (unless you all PM me and we have a very lengthy discussion).
First job: Swordsman
Spoiler!Notable skills
Spoiler!HP Boost: There is a glitch with this and Combat Orders, and this needs to be maxed or you'll be missing out on 4% HP.
Something to note with the first job skills is that your build will depend on your funding later on. Later in the game, you will find that you'll never use Iron Body, Slash Blast and Power Strike. In the long term, they are all quite useless (Iron Body would be the most useful, but defence is capped at 9999), so these skills need to be prioritised for the short term.
Skill Build - non-Combat Orders reliant
Spoiler!Level 10: 1 Power Strike (1)
This allows you to add to Slash Blast next. Throughout this game, most of your experience will come through attacking multiple monsters.
11-16: 3 Slash Blast per level (18)
17: 2 Slash Blast (20), 1 Power Strike (2)
If you find that you don't really kill single monsters too often, or would like defence first, add to and max Iron Body instead.
18-20: 3 Power Strike (11)
Stop at 11. Any more points would be a waste because you're likely not to use this skill again in second job.
21-26: 3 Iron Body per level (18)
27: 2 Iron Body (20), 1 HP Boost (1)
28-30: 3 HP Boost per level (10)
HP Boost is maxed last as it affects your total HP, so you won't be losing any.
Result:
20 Slash Blast
11 Power Strike
20 Iron Body
10 HP Boost
Skill Build - Combat Orders reliant
Spoiler!In all honesty, I believe this is a waste of time. First job is not important enough to warrant the need to max all skills; the only important skill is HP Boost. If you do want to max all your skills, then the build is as follows:
Level 10: 1 Power Strike (1)
This allows you to add to Slash Blast next. Throughout this game, most of your experience will come through attacking multiple monsters.
11-16: 3 Slash Blast per level (18)
17: 3 Power Strike (4)
If you find that you don't really kill single monsters too often, or would like defence first, add to and max Iron Body instead.
18-20: 3 Power Strike (13)
21: 2 Power Strike (15), 1 Iron Body (1)
Any more than 15 Power Strike is a waste for most people, as they don't end up using it too often.
22-26: 3 Iron Body per level (16)
27: 2 Iron Body (18), 1 HP Boost (1)
28-30: 3 HP Boost per level (10)
Result:
18 Slash Blast
15 Power Strike
18 Iron Body
10 HP Boost
Training grounds
Spoiler!Let me compile this all over again. For now, refer here. It may say post-Chaos, but it still works.
Second job: Page
Spoiler!Notable skills
Spoiler!Weapon Mastery: Mastery refers to the proportion of your maximum damage range which becomes your minimum damage range. Swords and Blunt weapons inherently give 20% mastery. With this skill maxed, you will have 70% mastery. Having greater mastery allows you to hit within a smaller range of numbers, hence killing mobs within a smaller number of hits.
You may have noticed that in first job, your damage could go anywhere between, say, 500 and 100. With Weapon Mastery, it will instead be between 500 and 350. Of course, your damage will be much higher.
Final Attack: This is essentially a free hit, no animation whatsoever. If you hit a mob, then turn around quickly and Final Attack activates, you'll hit one monster in front of you, regardless of the skill you used.
The damage in the skill description means a certain percent of your damage range, not the hit you just did.
Weapon Booster: Increases weapon speed by two. More on this in the equipment section.
Power Guard: There are three things the description misses.
- First, it works against all monster attacks, ranged and touch, physical and magical. It does not work when walking into spikes, jumping/walking off really high places or walking into totem poles.
- Second, it reduces your knock back distance. This is not stance, but it's the closest you'll get to it for now. It is for this reason that it's maxed early; getting knocked back a smaller distance means you travel less overall distance when training. Think of it like this: you're going up a hill and periodically someone pushes you down. Getting pushed down a centimetre is better than getting pushed back half a metre.
Ground Smash: Some people hate it, some people love it. While theoretically weaker than Slash Blast on 6 monsters, it has the advantage of much greater horizontal and vertical range which is not dependent on your weapon - it has the same range whether you use a dagger or a polearm. This skill will not be maxed, because it is the least important.
Physical Training: This skill is also glitched. At level 8, using Combat Orders will not give you any extra strength or dex. Actually, I think it takes away strength and dex.
Skill build - non-Combat Orders
Spoiler!30: 1 Ground Smash (1)
This will most likely replace Slash Blast, unless you find that you're facing more than 4 monsters at once. Play around with Ground Smash; if you like it you can add to it after Mastery, if you don't you can leave it last.
31: 3 Mastery (3)
32: 2 Mastery (5), 1 Booster (1)
Booster allows you to attack faster. Generally 6 Booster is fine, but if you can live with more or less change the build.
33: 3 Booster (4)
34: 2 Booster (6), 1 Mastery (6)
35-38: 3 Mastery per level (18)
39: 2 Mastery (20), 1 Ground Smash (2)
If you don't like using Ground Smash, then add to Power Guard until it is maxed and leave Ground Smash for last.
The reason we won't add Final Attack here is because it barely helps your training speed. One free hit sounds nice, but it only hits one monster. Because you'll be fighting mobs, that one hit won't change the number of hits needed to kill mobs.
40-42: 3 Ground Smash per level (11)
We stop here with Ground Smash because it is the only skill that isn't used in third job.
43-48: 3 Power Guard per level (18)
49: 2 Power Guard (20), 1 Physical Training (1)
Physical Training now because the addition to your damage range helps more than Final Attack.
50-52: 3 Physical Training per level (10)
53-58: 3 Final Attack (18)
Of all the skills left to finish, Final Attack will help the most (though that's still not much). Threaten is impractical during training and Booster only lasts longer. Of course, if you like not pressing Booster every minute, you can add to that first. This build assumes that you're fine with 60 seconds of Booster.
59: 2 Final Attack (20), 1 Threaten (1)
Threaten and Booster can be swapped around here. Because PQs are now a popular training area, you will want to use Threaten for the bosses. If you don't plan on doing PQs, just finish Booster first.
60-65: 3 Threaten per level (19)
66: 1 Threaten (20), 2 Booster (8)
67-70: 3 Booster per level (20)
Result:
20 Mastery
11 Ground Smash
20 Power Guard
10 Physical Training
20 Final Attack
20 Threaten
20 Booster
Skill Build - Combat Orders reliant
Spoiler!This is not as pointless as the first job equivalent, as the aim here isn't to max all the skills. The Combat Orders build allows you to put more points into Ground Smash, which is the main attack for many people. It weakens other skills, such as Mastery and Final Attack, in the short term while increasing the damage of Ground Smash by an additional 42% (if you bring it to 18), also in the short term. This, in theory, makes it stronger than the previous build.
30: 1 Ground Smash (1)
Again, if you like it, 'max' it after Mastery. If not, leave it until last.
31: 3 Mastery (3)
32: 2 Mastery (5), 1 Booster (1)
Booster allows you to attack faster. Generally 6 Booster is fine, but if you can live with more or less change the build.
33: 3 Booster (4)
34: 2 Booster (6), 1 Mastery (6)
35-38: 3 Mastery per level (18)
39-43: 3 Ground Smash per level (16)
If you don't like using Ground Smash, then add to Power Guard until it is 18 and leave Ground Smash for last. If you want to max Threaten (which may be a good idea), leave Ground Smash at 16.
The reason we won't add Final Attack here is because it barely helps your training speed. One free hit sounds nice, but it only hits one monster. Because you'll be fighting mobs, that one hit won't change the number of hits needed to kill mobs, so you'll be training at the same rate.
44: 2 Ground Smash (18), 1 Power Guard (1)
45-49: 3 Power Guard per level (16)
50: 2 Power Guard (18), 1 Physical Training (1)
Physical Training now because the addition to your damage range helps more than Final Attack.
51-53: 3 Physical Training per level (10)
54-59: 3 Final Attack per level (18)
Of all the skills left to finish, Final Attack will help the most (though that's still not much). Threaten is impractical during training and Booster only lasts longer. Of course, if you like not pressing Booster every minute, you can add to that first. This build assumes that you're fine with 60 seconds of Booster.
60-65: 3 Threaten per level (18)
Threaten and Booster can be swapped around here. Because PQs are now a popular training area, you will want to use Threaten for the bosses. If you don't plan on doing PQs, just finish Booster first.
66-69: 3 Booster per level (18)
70: 3 Skill points left over
I recommend bringing at least Power Guard to 20. This is because it is the most defensive skill you have, and an extra 2% HP (during boss runs) could save your virtual life. If you really want to though, you can level Power Strike to 18.
Result:
18 Mastery
18 Ground Smash
18 Power Guard
10 Physical Training
18 Final Attack
18 Threaten
18 Booster
3 Skill Points left over
Skill build - Ultimate adventurers
Spoiler!Ultimate Adventurers were popular before Ascension, when Charged Blow was as strong as a buffed Power Strike (now, Charged Blow is much stronger). Because of the ensuing bandwagon, many older Paladins began to discriminate between normal and UA Paladins. Reasons for these attacks included "taking the easy way out", "being fake (somehow)" and "tarnishing the reputation Paladins had built up". I still find the last reason extremely ironic and hypocritical. Don't let the discrimination get to you; in my opinion, lashing out at your attacker makes you no better than they are.
Because you start at level 50 and have Soul Driver, ignore the fact that Ground Smash exists for now and max it last (because there's nothing better to add to).
50: 20 Mastery (20), 6 Booster (6), 20 Power Guard (20), 10 Physical Training (10), 5 Final Attack (5)
This is just a condensed version of the above non-Combat Orders reliant build, excluding Ground Smash. There is no reason to go for the Combat Orders build if you have Soul Driver, because Ground Smash is already useless.
51-55: 3 Final Attack per level (20)
56-61: 3 Threaten per level (18)
Again, Threaten and Booster can be swapped around here.
62: 2 Threaten (20), 1 Booster (7)
63-66: 3 Booster per level (19)
67: 1 Booster (20), 2 Ground Smash (2)
68-70: 3 Ground Smash per level (11)
Result:
10 Mastery
20 Power Guard
10 Physical Training
20 Final Attack
20 Threaten
20 Booster
11 Ground Smash
Training grounds
Spoiler!For now, refer here. It may say post-Chaos, but it still works.
Third job: White Knight
Spoiler!Notable skills
Spoiler!Shield Mastery: It adds 200% defence, i.e. it triples your defence. Defence is capped at 9999 in GMS though, and with enough strength you can get there. You only need a shield once you start adding to this skill.
Charges: You can use Fire and Lightning or Ice and Lightning, but not Fire and Ice. Other things to take note of:
- Lightning Charge is a secondary charge. Fire, Ice and Holy take priority over it because they are primary charges.
- If the monster is weak to Lightning (and Poison) only, use only Lightning Charge.
- If the monster is strong to Fire and Ice, dual charge anyway.
- You can only cast charges/have them active while using a sword or blunt weapon. So no, you cannot equip a Fairfrozen and use Ice Charge.
Combat Orders: This adds 2 to all skills except for those in the Beginner tab. Only fourth job skills can surpass their max level, as paradoxical as that sounds. For example, someone with level 30 Maple Warrior cannot add more to it, but if they had Combat Orders it would become level 32.
This skill also takes a while to cast, so jump forwards and cast it in mid-air or find a rope/ladder to use it on.
It does not work on itself. Combat Orders does not affect Combat Orders, no matter who's Combat Orders it is.
Magic Crash: It doesn't actually cancel all enemy buffs. What it does is cancel minor buffs, and prevents bosses from casting any buffs for the next twenty seconds. With three adventurer warriors and good timing, you could keep bosses in a state where they will never cast buffs. One very important thing is that it cannot be casted properly on a monster that has already been Magic Crashed. So if you see a broken purple seal on the monster's head and use Magic Crash, nothing will happen to that monster.
Charged Blow: It is this skill that made Ground Smash the most useless in second job; at level one it out-damages Ground Smash. The animation depends your primary charge. If you want to see Lightning Charge's animation you need to have Lightning Charge on only.
The stun from Charged Blow is not interruptible. For most classes, stunning a monster then hitting it again will remove the stun. This doesn't apply to Charged Blow.
This skill must be level 30 by the time you reach level 120. It is a prerequisite for Advanced Charge in fourth job.
Skill Build - Combat Orders reliant
There is no non-Combat Orders reliant build because it is extremely wasteful and impractical. All skills are important here and thus we will max them all.
Spoiler!70: 1 Fire Charge (1)
Fire Charge is used rather than Ice Charge because there are much more Fire weak monsters from now until 120. The freeze from Ice is useful, but the damage you take shouldn't bother you at all.
If you want, you can put one into HP Recovery just to save on some pots. It doesn't really matter.
71: 1 Charged Blow (1), 2 Fire Charge (3)
The toss up is really between 30 seconds of Fire Charge and a skill stronger than Ground Smash, or 40 seconds of Fire Charge and Ground Smash/Soul Driver. I recommend the former option.
72: 3 Fire Charge (6)
60 seconds of Fire Charge is usable for most. More if you need to.
73-81: 3 Charged Blow per level (28)
82: 2 Charged Blow (30), 1 Fire Charge (7)
Again, Charged Blow must be maxed.
Taking Fire Charge to level 18 increases your damage more than getting Lightning to 18. So we start with that first.
83-85: 3 Fire Charge per level (16)
86: 2 Fire Charge (18), 1 Lightning Charge (1)
This allows you to dual charge.
87-91: 3 Lightning Charge per level (16)
92: 2 Lightning Charge (18), 1 HP Recovery (1)
This is where the build begins to split. You will be level 100 when you max Combat Orders, which grants you 3% extra damage. Alternatively, you could go for a defensive build and begin to add to Shield Mastery.
Offensive build - Combat Orders first
93: 3 HP Recovery (4)
94: 1 HP Recovery (5), 2 Combat Orders (2)
Again. Combat Orders does not work on itself.
95-100: 3 Combat Orders per level (20)
101-106: 3 Shield Mastery (18)
While you could start getting Ice Charge, it is still quite useless. It continues to be rather useless until fourth job when you get Rush. Feel free to check the elemental weaknesses list on the HS Database - I hope you understand me.
107: 3 HP Recovery (8)
108-113: 3 Ice Charge or Magic Crash (18)
Ice Charge allows you to freeze, while Magic Crash allows you to...crash. There isn't much use for either of these right now, really.
114-119: 3 Ice Charge or Magic Crash (18)
120: 3 extra skill points
Defensive build - Shield Mastery first
93-98: 3 Shield Mastery (18)
99: 3 HP Recovery (4)
100: 1 HP Recovery (5), 2 Combat Orders (2)
And again. Combat Orders does not work on itself.
101-106: 3 Combat Orders (20)
107: 3 HP Recovery (8)
108-113: 3 Ice Charge or Magic Crash (18)
114-119: 3 Ice Charge or Magic Crash (18)
120: 3 extra skill points
Which do I choose?
Combat Orders is a party skill. If you plan on partying often, many people are expecting you to go through this build exactly as it is. What many people fail to remember is that no other class takes into account Combat Orders; at level 100, most classes will have maxed their core skills in third job and Combat Order's usefulness drops quite a bit for them. No one else thinks that they will always have Combat Orders and takes two off every skill in anticipation for it.
Shield Mastery benefits only you. It dramatically decreases the damage you take, and with more strength you will take much less damage. But again, it only benefits you. There's not much else to say about it.
My bias is clear. I've encountered people who have lashed out at White Knights because they didn't have Combat Orders at level 100. The only true supportive class in this game is Bishop, and even that is disputed. Remember that you do not play this game to benefit other people; mould your character the way you want to. I consider an additional 3% damage increase insignificant compared to increasing my defence three-fold. Other people see it differently. Don't rely only on my opinion to make a judgement. Ask other Paladins what they did and always ask for reasons.
Result:
30 Charged Blow
18 Fire Charge
18 Lightning Charge
8 HP Recovery
20 Combat Orders
18 Shield Mastery
18 Ice Charge
18 Magic Crash
3 Skill Points left over
Skill Build - Ultimate Adventurers
Spoiler!Because of the Charged Blow buff in Ascension, Charged Blow now outdamages Soul Driver when both are maxed; Charged Blow is approximately two times faster than Soul Driver and allows you to move through the map while attacking. For this reason the ideal UA build would be exactly the same as the build for normal Adventurer White Knights. However, if you prefer to use Soul Driver (for example, some maps benefit Soul Driver more than Charged Blow), feel free to max Charged Blow last. Just make sure that it is level 30. The end result is exactly the same.
Training grounds
Spoiler!For now, refer here. It may say post-Chaos, but it still works.
Fourth job: Paladin
Spoiler!Notable skills
Spoiler!Maple Warrior: This applies only to base stats.
Divine Shield: The cooldown starts once the skill first activates, so it is possible to keep Divine Shield up. It does not require a shield. It activates once you take damage - you can jump off high platforms and activate it that way if you want.
Guardian: This skill has priority over Divine Shield. That means that when you get hit, the chance of Guardian activating is calculated before the chance of Divine Shield activating is calculated, lowering the overall chance for Divine Shield to activate. When Divine Shield is active, Guardian may still pop up. This still counts as a block for Divine Shield.
Guardian also works like a MISS. Therefore, it is also glitched - you receive no invincibility frames against ranged/magical attacks and can take damage right after you block an attack.
Hero's Will: You need to do a quest to get this.
Advanced Charge: A few things to note:
- This is a skill book dropped from Zakum. It is untradeable unless you use Scissors of Karma.
- It is a passive skill. It raises Charged Blow's damage up to 720%, but it doesn't quite beat level 3 Blast.
- This is your most important skill. When a charge is active, it replaces Weapon Mastery and adds 74% mastery, bringing you up to 94% mastery across all skills.
- Because this is your most important skill, leave 10 points for it if you cannot get the skill book immediately.
Heaven's Hammer: You will have noticed that the skill description says you will do about 1000% damage to 15 monsters. This only applies in PvP. What it actually does is hit the damage cap (999 999) on 15 monsters unless a monster has a separate damage cap (it will hit that cap instead). This is independent of element strengths, weaknesses and immunities. If you use Ice Charge with Heaven's Hammer, the monsters you hit will also be frozen.
It also cannot kill, only bring monsters down to 1 HP.
Blast:
- I have no idea what Nexon means by DEF ignore chance. Whether it has a 21% chance to ignore all defence or it ignores 21% of the monster's defence is beyond me.
- There is a glitch where almost all your critical hits will be the same number. Blast just does something funny to those numbers, there's nothing wrong with them.
- The critical rate applies only to Blast, but applies to each hit of Blast.
- The instant death chance applies to each cast of Blast and Blast only.
Skill build - Blast First
Because Combat Orders can make these skills surpass their max level, there obviously isn't a Combat Orders reliant build. Past level 126 there isn't a defined skill build because it all depends on funding, what you want to do and what skill books you can get your hands on. This is a very hypothetical build, assuming that you will do one skill at a time and you have all the skill books you need. It is up to you to customise this build to suit your needs.
For many, this is the traditional post-BB build. It focusses on increasing your bossing (1v1) ability early, and evidently aims to make for efficient bossing. Some also believe that this is the UA build. Logically, if Charged Blow beats Soul Driver, Advanced Charged Blow will wipe the floor with Soul Driver. On top of that, Advanced Charge adds mastery to all skills. There is no UA build for fourth job.
Spoiler!120: 1 Rush, 1 Blast, 1 Advanced Charge
Rush allows you to create large mobs at level 1, and only increases in damage as you put points into it. That may sound good, but there are more important things to do.
Blast allows you to 1v1, if you ever need to. And it gives you a new skill to play around with.
121-123: 3 Advanced Charge per level (10)
Again, if you don't have the book then save up these ten points for when you do get the book.
124-126: 3 Divine Shield (9)
This gives you an extra 34 attack for only ten skill points, and saves you from getting hit (even if you only take one damage).
127: 1 Divine Shield (10), 2 Blast (3)
128-136: 3 Blast per level (30)
If you cannot get your hands on Blast 30, you can either save points for it or just move on until you eventually get the book. Those who choose to save the skill points are usually actively looking for the book, and not levelling as often. Those who push ahead tend believe that 20 Blast is sufficient, and see more use in Stance/Guardian.
137: 1 Achilles (1), 2 Stance/Guardian (2)
At level 3, Achilles grants you 6.5% of your HP if you happen to get hit with a dispel and 1/1. If you don't see yourself facing any boss that can dispel and 1/1, feel free to ignore this one point for now. Another option is Maple Warrior.
Stance is a 94% chance to remain where you are after getting hit. Guardian is a 40% chance to block hits completely. Remember that you will already have Divine Shield, which is similar to Guardian in that it block hits, meaning that you don't move anywhere. Some people find that Divine Shield provides enough of a Stance effect and Guardian works well to compliment it, while others dislike Guardian's priority over Divine Shield.
Stance is the more popular choice.
138-146: 3 Stance/Guardian per level (29)
147: 1 Stance/Guardian (30), 2 Maple Warrior (2)
Most people are unlikely to add to both Stance and Guardian within such a short period of time. Maple Warrior is generally the next alternative, as it can increase your damage range by quite a large amount.
148-156: Maple Warrior per level (29)
What I fail to mention here is that Maple Warrior 30 is the rarest and most expensive mastery book. Don't expect to get your hands on it; 20 Maple Warrior will do for now.
157: 1 Maple Warrior (30), 2 Holy Charge (2)
The reason for such a late Holy Charge is because it is marginally better than Fire Charge, presenting only a 7.5% damage increase for 20 skill points. If you plan on fighting Horntail or Choas Zakum (or anything stronger) a few points into Achilles will serve you well. So will Hero's will.
158-163: 3 Holy Charge per level (20)
164-172: 3 Achilles per level (28)
Achilles becomes a popular choice for some, especially those putting off adding to Guardian and Heaven's Hammer. Hero's Will can be slipped in somewhere briefly if you plan on fighting Horntail somehow, but it is otherwise unnecessary.
173: 2 Achilles (30), 1 Stance/Guardian (1)
174-182: 3 Stance/Guardian per level (28)
183: 2 Stance/Guardian (30), 1 Heaven's Hammer (1)
Heaven's Hammer comes in very late because this build assumes you have the funding to render Heaven's Hammer useless in most scenarios or a waste of points otherwise.
184-192: 3 Heaven's Hammer per level (28)
193: 2 Heaven's Hammer (30), 1 Hero's Will (1)
194: 3 Hero's Will (4)
195: 1 Hero's Will (5), 2 Rush (3)
196-200: 3 Rush per level (18)
Result:
10 Advanced Charge
10 Divine Shield
30 Blast
30 Heaven's Hammer
30 Stance
30 Maple Warrior
30 Guardian
20 Holy Charge
30 Achilles
5 Hero's Will
18 Rush
Skill build - Heaven's Hammer first
This is commonly regarded as the build for the unfunded or for weaker players. Because of Heaven's Hammer's ability to constantly hit the damage cap, it does not get any stronger as the player levels. As a result, this build is not as straightforward as replacing Blast with Heaven's Hammer.
Spoiler!120: 1 Rush, 1 Blast, 1 Advanced Charge
Rush allows you to create large mobs at level 1, and only increases in damage as you put points into it. That may sound good, but there are more important things to do.
Blast allows you to 1v1, if you ever need to. And it gives you a new skill to play around with.
121-123: 3 Advanced Charge per level (10)
Again, if you don't have the book then save up these ten points for when you do get the book.
124-126: 3 Divine Shield (9)
This gives you an extra 34 attack for only ten skill points, and saves you from getting hit (even if you only take one damage).
127: 1 Divine Shield (10), 2 Heaven's Hammer (2)
128-136: 3 Heaven's Hammer per level (29)
137: 1 Heaven's Hammer (30), 1 Achilles (1), 1 Stance/Guardian (1)
Unlike the Blast build, I advise that you don't move on and add to other skills, and instead save your points if you can't get Heaven's Hammer 30. This is because Heaven's Hammer's cooldown drops by 10 seconds per level - while that might sound awesome, it's terrible once you realise that level 5 Heaven's Hammer almost has a 5 minute cooldown. By level 32, you will have 20 seconds, which is much more usable.
At level 3, Achilles grants you 6.5% of your HP if you happen to get hit with a dispel and 1/1. If you don't see yourself facing any boss that can dispel and 1/1, feel free to ignore this one point for now. Maple Warrior also works well.
Stance is a 94% chance to remain where you are after getting hit. Guardian is a 40% chance to block hits completely. Remember that you will already have Divine Shield, which is similar to Guardian in that it block hits, meaning that you don't move anywhere. Some people find that Divine Shield provides enough of a Stance effect and Guardian works well to compliment it, while others dislike Guardian's priority over Divine Shield.
Stance is the more popular choice. But if you don't care about Divine Shield's damage boost so much and just want to survive longer, Guardian is a good choice.
138-146: 3 Stance/Guardian per level (28)
147: 2 Stance/Guardian (30), 1 Blast (2)
At this point, many people have gotten much stronger - to the point where bossing becomes more frequent and Blast become necessary. Maple Warrior is still an option, but usually it is not raised past 10 at this point.
148-156: 3 Blast per level (29)
157: 1 Blast (30), 2 Maple Warrior (2)
Maple Warrior pushes your damage range up quite a bit, usually more than Holy Charge. What I fail to mention is that Maple Warrior 30 is extremely hard to get, so you probably won't be getting it past 20 at this stage.
If you see yourself at Horntail at this stage, you can start adding to Hero's Will now.
158-166: 3 Maple Warrior per level (29)
167: 1 Maple Warrior (30), 2 Holy Charge (2)
For 20 skill points, Holy Charge only adds 7.5% damage. Hence why it's here and not earlier.
168-173: 3 Holy Charge per level (20)
174-182: 3 Achilles per level (28)
Swapping Achilles and Stance/Guardian is fine; do them both at the same time if you want to. This actually assumes that the player has gone for Stance first and wishes to maximise the chance of Divine Shield activating.
183: 2 Achilles (30), 1 Stance/Guardian (1)
184-192: 3 Stance/Guardian per level (28)
193: 2 Stance/Guardian (30), 1 Hero's Will (1)
194: 3 Hero's Will (4)
195: 1 Hero's Will (5), 2 Rush (3)
196-200: 3 Rush per level (18)
Result:
10 Advanced Charge
10 Divine Shield
30 Blast
30 Heaven's Hammer
30 Stance
30 Maple Warrior
30 Guardian
20 Holy Charge
30 Achilles
5 Hero's Will
18 Rush
Equipment and maximising your damage output
An introduction? Probably.
Spoiler!The distinction between damage range and damage output
While there is more to Maplestory than damage, it still plays a large role in the game. For many, this game has become a fanaticism with doing the most damage as fast as possible. I'm not going to tell you how to play. But I will attempt to clarify some concepts which are now being used in a slightly pathetic way.
Spoiler!Damage Range
Spoiler!Damage range is what you see in your stat screen. It is dependent on four things: mastery, stats (primary and secondary), attack and weapon choice.
Mastery comes from two sources: inherently from weapons and from skills. Melee weapons (swords, axes, blunts, spears, polearms, daggers/cutters) provide 20% mastery. An additional 50% comes from Weapon Mastery in second job, bringing you up to 70%. Weapon Mastery is eventually replaced by Advanced Charge when a charge is active, giving you 94% mastery.
Mastery only affects your minimum range. The percentages represent the proportion of your maximum range that becomes your minimum range.
All classes have two stats, a primary and a secondary. For warriors, Strength is the primary stat and Dexterity is the secondary. The primary and secondary stat usually determine the requirements for equipping weapons, but this is not the case for normal warrior equips, which only require Strength.
Every 4 points of dex is equivalent to 1 point of strength. While both will increase your damage range, strength increases it to a much greater extent, hence the reason why a pure strength build is ideal.
Attack can be found from a variety of equipment. There's not much to say about it here, but the more attack you have the higher your damage range will be. Simple.
Weapon choice affects both mastery and attack. Certain weapon types provide a certain amount of mastery, as well as a certain attack multiplier which effects your total weapon attack, including those from skills, buffs and other equipment.
Damage Output
Spoiler!Damage output is the damage you do based on your damage range. It is based on three things: damage range, skills used and attack speed. It cannot be calculated in realistic terms.
The skills you use can be classified into two areas, buffs and attacks. Buffs can provide stats (e.g. Physical Training), attack (e.g. Divine Shield) or a percentage damage increase (e.g. Charges). Attacks do a certain percentage of your damage range, occasionally with extra effects such damage over time (don't worry about that) or stun.
In the case of Paladins, Charges provide you with a certain multiplier, somewhat like the weapon multiplier, across all skills. They increase your damage by a certain percent - hitting a monster with normal attack will do 100% damage, but using a Ice Charge will do 120% damage.
Attack speed is extremely important for warriors. The faster your weapon, the more attack points will benefit you. More on this shortly.
DPM and DPS
Spoiler!You may hear the terms DPM and DPS thrown around when comparing classes. DPM stands for Damage Per Minute, while DPS stands for Damage Per Second. There is little difference between them, DPM is just 60 times more than DPS. DPM and DPS also exist (for some reason) in two forms, a percentage form and an actual number. I can't say which is more accurate, because you can't just compare the damage ranges of two classes, but giving a class ideal equips is...idealistic.
What people tend to forget is thatDPM is calculated in ideal conditions. It assumes that the class has this amount of funding, used in "the best way possible", and is standing there attacking a target that does not move and does not push them around. In these scenarios, you do not need to rebuff, you will not die, the boss will not reduce all physical damage to 1 or send you out of the room, etc. DPM also generally assumes that you are facing only one monster.
Truthfully, damage per minute simply means damage per minute - the damage you can do in one minute. The name is thus misleading; people tend to only calculate damage against one monster per minute. Prior to Big Bang, many people said Corsairs had the highest DPM, while mages had the least. Actually, mages had the most - they could just spam ultimates and out-damage everyone. Against 15 monsters that is, not one. So when you see DPM and DPS, realise that this is probably against one monster unless specified. Not three. Not seven. Not fifteen. Just one.
So DPM can tell you who kills one monster the fastest in ideal conditions. That only applies to bossing, for some bosses. In no way does a higher DPM accurately and reliably tell you who can KS (kill steal) another person. In some cases, it can't even tell you who's a better bosser. Let's take a Wild Hunter and a Paladin to Pink Bean. The Paladin is going to have a much easier time surviving, although it would take longer to kill Pink Bean and its summons compared to the Wild Hunter if they survived. There is no use comparing damage between two classes if one or both cannot survive. DPM does not tell you who survives the longest.
Nor does DPM tell you who is the most mobile. Training consists of more than just doing damage; mobs don't walk to you for your convenience. It does not tell you who takes the least damage. Which class is cheaper. Which class attacks faster. Which class has more appealing skills. DPM simply tells you who does the most damage to one monster in one minute of a specified, ideal situation using ideal, specified equips. In reality, if I can call it that, you could see a Bishop out-damaging you. That simply means that that person has better equipment than you do. It doesn't mean that the charts are completely off and Bishops should be higher than Paladins.
That isn't to say DPM is useless though. The reason why I've put up arguments against it is because it is quite misused. There's nothing wrong about comparing the damage of two classes. But to say one class is worse than another - just in general, not in any specific area - is quite stupid. People tend to forget, and I hope you remember, that DPM is just an ideal. Don't take it personally when someone cuts down your class because it does less DPM than theirs. To be able to properly use the DPM charts you have to be extremely specific. Many people reading this will inevitably want to compare Heroes, Paladins and Dark Knights when bossing. Theoretically, Heroes are stronger. But, they need to get to about level 160 to reach their plateau in strength, skill-wise. Paladins can reach that at about level 140. I don't even know about Dark Knights, but I imagine it would also be about 140. But the DPM charts people will throw at you will probably assume that each character is level 200. How long will it take you to get to level 200?
The relationship between strength, dex and attack
Spoiler!I don't see it used much now, but it's still nice to know this. There is a relationship between strength, dex and attack, and it can be approximated using this formula:
((Total Strength) + (Total Dex)/4)/(Total attack)
I hope you know what total means. Include every skill, every piece of equipment and every potion you normally use.
This is known as the strength-to-attack ratio. We ignore the dex component because it is insignificant. What is represents is this:
Every attack is approximately equivalent to this amount of strength, and this amount of strength is approximately equivalent to one attack. This ratio will change as you level and upgrade your equipment, and everyone will have a different ratio. You cannot say that by level 100, people will have a strength-to-attack ratio of five. I've seen people with ratios of eight. Thirteen. Even seventeen.
And why is this ratio important? It helps justify this entire equipment section. I don't want to turn this into a maths lesson, so accept what I say here and PM me on Hidden Street if you can't.
As your strength increases, each point of attack has a larger impact on your damage range. But conversely, as your strength increases, each additional point of strength has less of an impact. Because of the introduction of potentials and +%STR lines, one may find that they have 'saturated' their strength. This doesn't mean you have too much strength; rather, you don't have enough attack. Because you can get so much strength, attack usually becomes the limiting factor.
Knowing this relationship will hopefully let you plan the amount of money you will spend on equipment. People like saying, "Just get lots of +%STR and your damage range will go up". But too much +%STR and you've wasted your mesos; you're now saturated with strength, and every point of strength does less and less for you. On the other hand, attack is the limiting factor. It is much harder to get lots of attack, unless you're into buying hacked weapons (don't). Because of this, you cannot saturate attack at later levels (you can early on in the game). But that's not to say that one should just increase attack before increasing strength. Cost is always a factor, and there will be a point where increasing strength is cheaper and easier. Those points are not defined for everyone or the individual; it all depends on what you already have and what you can get.
With that said, there is no "optimal ratio". All the ratio represents is a relationship. A higher ratio means more strength for every point of attack. It is not as simple as saying, "That person has a high ratio, they must strong." All it means is that that person has a lot of strength compared to attack. They could be weak and have a high ratio. That just means that they've saturated their strength, and need more attack.
Equipment at earlier levels (10-70)
Spoiler!To many people, equipment at earlier levels simply consists of getting the most attack on everything. That doesn't always work, nor is it the best thing to do if you want to train quickly. Because I'm having trouble formatting this section, new players (whether this is your first character or first warrior) will need to read through this entire section from top to bottom. I can't find a way to put it neatly without confusing everyone, so I'll lay it out in order of level ranges.
Level 10-19
You are a swordsman, but that does not mean you need to use a sword. Use whatever you can find and equip, don't bother buying anything (you probably won't have the money for it either, and you need to save up). The same goes for armour - you don't need it because it's not going to help much, if at all. The defence you gain from armour is not significant in any way.
- The Andras Hat can be obtained from a quest once you reach level 18. It adds 12 STR, which is quite a large bonus. Chances are you will be using this until third job.
- Blue Ribbon Pig familiars (level 13) give 8 speed and jump while you're on Victoria Island. Granted you won't be leaving so soon, use it for the speed.
- Jr Boogie 1 familiars heal 15% mp every 10 seconds. While that isn't a lot now, just get three cards. Use them when you get the speed to replace the Blue Ribbon Pig familiar.
Level 20-29
- Bathrobe, which gives 10 ten speed. To get it, you need about 31k mesos. If you have to, start selling your HP potions or something. This is an incredibly useful piece of armour, one which I recommend you use until level 90 or so (seriously)
It doesn't need to be scrolled for anything. The main thing about it is the speed bonus - speed allows you to reach the next monster quickly, and travel quickly.
- Whitebottoms, which add 3 speed. These can be bought in Henesys, or gained via a quest in Kerning. Although 3 speed may seem quite useless (it is), these shoes can be scrolled for speed. To buy these scrolls, you'd need to find the scroll sellers in Orbis/El Nath, Ludibrium or Leafre and have 175k. If you don't have the mesos for it, don't bother.
Level 30-39
Again, there isn't much here.
- At this point, you will start adding Mastery and Booster. For Pages, these skills only work on Swords and Blunt Weapons, so logically you'll be choosing one of those. Again, choose whichever makes you kill mobs in the least amount of hits.
- Mushking Gloves are an option, adding 1 attack. That's not a large bonus, but you may as well.
- The Mushroom Kingdom medal gives one to all stats, as well as 100 HP and MP. In my opinion, the most useful thing is the MP.
- Although this is really equipment, you can now choose professions in Ardentmill. I strongly suggest Accessory Crafting or Alchemy (or both, if you have the characters and money). Both are extremely useful in their own way.
Level 40-49
- Get a new weapon, either by finding it or through Monster Carnival.
- If you can be bothered, get the Free Spirit Piercing (earrings) from Kerning Square Mall by completing the quests. They're not necessary in any way.
- If possible, the Icarus Cape (2), which adds another 10 speed. You might get it, you might not. Don't freak out.
- The One Who Touched The Sky medal, which adds 5 speed and 5 jump.
- Squishy Shoes or Soft Jelly Shoes from Kerning PQ. It may be hard to find people, so don't waste your time if there's no one there.
Level 50-59
- If you feel that it is really necessary or just want to waste your money, you can get a Zakum Helmet. But I think that you could live without this, since you're only gaining about 7 extra STR (3 STR and 15 DEX) for...a lot of money.
- The Japanese Map, if you can get your hands on it, is an extremely powerful weapon. It has the strength of a normal two-handed sword, but is faster than most one-handed swords. With booster, you will hit the speed cap. You can use this weapon all the way until 90 or 100 if you can find it. Finding it is the main problem.
Level 60-69
- Although it can be obtained earlier, the Broken Glasses from completing Ludibrium PQ 35 times are useful, and you'll probably have finished 35 PQs by this time.
- Nimble Ring I. This gives you 5 speed, and can be made via Accessory Crafting (or just find an Accessory crafter and ask them to make it for you). You can only equip one at a time.
- The Chryse Medal, if you have the patience for it.
Level 70
- Nimble Ring II. You can equip both Nimble Rings if you want, because they are different.
As you can see, most of this revolves around gaining speed. Explorer warriors (only explorer warriors, it seems) lack mobility in any form until fourth job, so you need to get it yourself. Speed is more important than jump, and also much easier to get. It gets you to the next mob faster, and allows you to sweep maps at a faster rate. Attack and extra stats will also make you train faster, but speed is the easiest to get, especially for new players. Older/richer players should be able to get both speed and attack - attack being only a matter of a better weapon and possibly a scrolled work glove.
Approaching end-game
Spoiler!What is "end-game"?
Spoiler!End-game is simply a concept, just like perfection. It refers to the equipment you want to have by the end of the game - end game being anywhere from 100 to 140. Why is it important? To be honest, it's not that important for warriors as, for the most part, we do not require DEX for our weapons and equipment. I just thought it's a term you might like to know.
Potential - third tier
First, read this: http://www.hidden-street.net/forum/threads/46263-DA-POTENTIAL-SYSTEM-GUiDE
Spoiler!As it is stated at the bottom of the guide, the tier you should be aiming for is tier 3. It simply gives you a larger bonus.
If you didn't see before, not once did I mention anything about potentials for the early levels. Why? Because it's a waste of time. And additional 2% STR is not going to help you much. Even if you manage to get it, there is little chance you can sell that piece of armour. More reasons why you should be aiming for tier 3.
You may have also realised that I brought up Alchemy, but I never talked about it. Well, I'm going to now.
Alchemy allows you to fuse two of the same item. When fusing, these items have a chance to come out with a potential. This means that if you train at certain areas which drop warrior items, you can simply fuse them repeatedly. Find and fuse. Find and fuse. Keep fusing until you get %STR on your armour. This is particularly important if you don't have the money to buy armour and cubes for your armour.
Prioritising equipment
Spoiler!Towards "end-game", attack usually becomes the limiting factor. However, that's end-game. In mid third job, you want both attack and %STR. However, attack still takes precedence.
Attack>= strength>speed
Here I've assumed that you already have speed from other sources, such as shoes or cape or rings or whatever. You only need speed while training. If you need to get rid of 2 attack or 3% STR for an extra 5 speed, do so. If you have a thief to give you Haste, take off as much speed as you can to maximise damage. Simple.
Weapon
Weapon is always the most important piece of equipment in the game. It is the single largest source of attack, and attack is what you need.
Spoiler!
Swords vs. blunt weapons, one-handed vs. two-handed
The two weapon choices available to Paladins are swords and blunt weapons. They come in both one-handed and two-handed varieties.
When comparing swords and blunt weapons:
- The one-handed swords are generally Fast (5) and blunt weapons generally Normal (6), while their two-handed counterparts are generally Normal (6) and Slow (7) respectively. So in general, swords have the speed advantage.
- Blunt weapons and their scrolls are cheaper than their sword counterparts, but it generally takes more money to scroll a blunt weapon good enough to match a sword (due to the speed advantage, see below). This results in blunt weapons actually being more expensive than swords. On top of this, should you manage to scroll a good blunt weapon the resale value is lower.
- Swords are more popular, and thus more common on the market.
- There are no level 140 blunt weapons.
- Swords and blunt weapons have the same weapon multiplier.
- Blunt weapons are no longer effected by the slash:stab ratio (swords never were).
- Charge Blow's animation appears as a sword, while Heaven's Hammer appears as a hammer (obviously) regardless of weapon choice. Just saying.
When comparing two-handed weapons to one-handed weapons:
- The two-handed weapons have a greater weapon multiplier - 1.32 for two-handed swords, blunt weapons and axes. Their one-handed counterparts have a multiplier of 1.2. This effects damage range. To match the damage range provided by a two-handed weapon, you need 1.1 times more total attack with the one-handed weapon.
- One-handed weapons have a speed advantage over other their two-handed counterparts, while one-handed swords have a speed advantage over weapons from the other three categories. See below for more detail (yes, it needs it's own little section, it's that important)
- One-handed weapons can be used with a shield, which is advantageous.
-
Spoiler!Speed vs. attack
Spoiler!As far as one-handed weapons go, swords are usually Fast(5) and blunt weapons are usually Normal(6). The lower the number on the weapon, the faster the speed.
Obviously, faster weapons hit more often. But not so obviously, faster weapons are generally much stronger because of this. Why?
Attacking speeds vary from skill to skill, but I'll take the example of Blast:
Blast on Fastest(2) (Fast(4) + Booster) has a delay of 630ms
Blast on Faster(3) (Fast(5) + Booster) has a delay of 682.5ms
Blast on Fast(4) (Normal(6) + Booster) has a delay of 735ms
If you have a total of 150 attack using a Fast(4) weapon (including other equips):
- A Fast(5) weapon needs 12.5 more attack
- A Normal(6) weapon needs 25 more attack
If you have a total of 200 attack using a Fast(4) weapon (including other equips):
- A Fast(5) weapon needs 16.7 more attack
- A Normal(6) weapon needs 33.3 more attack
The more attack you have, the more attack you need to match a faster weapon. So at this point, most people are thiking, "Hey, maybe I should get a Fast(4) weapon". Alright, cool. The problem is the swords themselves (there are no suitable Fast(4) blunt weapons). The highest available Fast(4) sword is the Maple Pyrope, level 77 with 87 base attack. However, the Dragon Carabella is level 110 Fast(5) with 103 base attack. That's already 16 attack higher. Going higher than that, the Reverse Exectuioner has 108 base attack, and the swords only get stronger (albeit harder to find).
Conclusion/summary:
Faster weapons require less attack to match slower weapons, and benefit from greater attack. However, due to the level and base attack of the Maple Pyrope (highest Fast(4) sword) compared to higher levelled Fast(5) swords, Fast(5) swords offer a greater damage output when scrolled at an equal rate. The situation is worse for Blunt Weapons - most Blunt Weapons are Normal(6) with a base attack equal to or slightly higher than the equivalent levelled sword.