Paladin

The Paladin - Leveling and Grinding

Well here we are, for starters the biggest issue with Paladins are the slow grind, given that we are basically going for one kill per monster.

So lets start with getting to Crusader first.

Disclaimer: Some of the names will be for CN or SEA.

*** A few tips *** 

Before anything else GRIND! until MAX stamina. I would recommend hitting 400 stamina maximum.

Save your reset stones for later use, you acquire free ones from the newbie bag at level 30 and 40. 

While grinding please consume your 5x / 10x exp (taken from Gardosen) Afterwhich, do all the story related quests on each map. Gives decent xp and a bit of zenny. 

I. Base Stats: 

1. 60 AGI first <-- this will help you survive most maps until Orc Village

2. 20 DEX <--- helps with hitting stuff 

3. STR rest of the points go here 

II. Base Gears: (The gears below are chosen because they are cheap)

1. Ebone Dagger or Full Black Dagger (Prontera Crafter)

2. Fox Bracer (Morroc Crafter) / Floral Bracer (Izlude Crafter)

3. Thief Clothes Craft (Payon Crafter)

4. Feral Shoes or Teddy Sack Shoes (Payon Crafter)

5. Coat of Dragon Scale (Geffen Crafter) / Muffler of Blue Eves (Boss drop) 

6. Clips / Flower Ring / Str Ring / Luna Brooch (All from Rifts)

III. Skills: (Dagger Types)

A. Thief 

1. Mirror Attack 10 

2. Hiding 10 

3. Envenom 10 

4. Improved Dodge 10 

B. Assassin

1. Double Armor 5 

2. Sonic Blow 10 

3. Sonic Mastery 5 

4. Advance Poison Research 10 

5. 10 Backslide

C. Assassin Cross

1. Enchant Deadly Poison 10

2. Slash 10

3. Advanced Hiding 5

4. 15 Remaining Skills Points (You may choose to either add Ambush 10 and last 5 points may go to Venom Dust) 

IV. The Cross Roads (Choose wisely or get to Rank C for a Ymir book) 

In hindsight, reaching Assassin Cross is a pain, since you will have to choose which path to take. Either you stick to your daggers or change to katar.

Based from experience, I would recommend to think about this when you reach job 20 Assassin Cross. This is because switching to early means you need to consider changing gear, skills and stats. 

Please do note, there is no difference between the two, they are both strong regardless of what you choose!

A. Dagger Types

I would say the only advantage of daggers in the beginning is that the investments are low.

Secondly you won't need to change any of your skills or stats, but you can further enhance it.

A few things to note:

- Daggers like all weapons suffer some size penalty: Small: None | Medium: 25% | Large: 50%

- Size penalties are calculated at the end of the attack formula, this means that any and all damage coming from a dagger when hitting medium or large is reduced respectively. (this part is for all you people who keep saying that Sandstorm or Desert Twilight removes it)

- Size penalties however can be removed by 2 things:

--Whitesmith Precision Stone 100% (can be bought in Exchange/Auction House)

--Whitemsith Skill Weapon Perfection (Love them smiths)

Note: DO NOT USE THE OTHER PRECISION STONE, the base one that removes 50%, it works on this premise;

i.e. if you are using a dagger and you are hitting large (which means you got 50% penalty) that stone will only remove 25% of the full penalty leaving you with 25% to deal with it.

A.1. Dagger Stats, Skills, Gear Progression

Stats:

99 STR 

70 - 80 AGI 

30 - 40 DEX 

Skills: (No Change)

Gear Progression:

Weapon: Holy Dagger IV / Dessert Twilight T3 or Sandstorm

Armor: Grand Thief Clothes IV 

Off Hand: Rose Princess Bracer 

Garment: Ancient Cape 

Shoes: Feral Shoes III / Staunch Shoes / Holy Heavy Boots or Holy Boots

Headgear (TOP): Cat Ear Beret / Baphomet Horns / Orc Hero Helm (if you can get it to +10) / Rudolph Antlers (Stormy Knight Drop)

Facegear (MID) : Nut on Head / Hockey Mask / Masquerade 

Mouthgear: Spiked Mask / Pipe 

Accessories: Power Rings / Rings / Matyr's Leash / Flower Rings T3

Back Gear: Devil Wings 

Tail: Fox Tail / Petite Tail 

Disclaimer: There are further gear progressions that can be done, but so far this will be the base template of it.

B. Katar Types

The best thing about Katar types is Crit and Grimtooth. I truly had fun doing this for a long long time. But alas, times do change, but if you do decide to go katar, please do not compare base attacks while on a Holy Dagger.

A few things to note:

- Katars like all weapons suffer some size penalty: Small: 25% | Medium: None Large: 25%

- Crit is Calculated as such 3 luk = 1 crit rate

- Size penalties are calculated at the end of the attack formula, this means that any and all damage coming from a katar when hitting medium or large is reduced respectively. ( I have no rants. Sorry!)

- Size penalties however can be removed by 2 things:

--Whitesmith Precision Stone 100% (can be bought in Exchange/Auction House)

--Whitemsith Skill Weapon Perfection (Love them smiths)

Note: DO NOT USE THE OTHER PRECISION STONE, the base one that removes 50%, it works on this premise;

i.e. if you are using a dagger and you are hitting large (which means you got 50% penalty) that stone will only remove 25% of the full penalty leaving you with 25% to deal with it.

B.1. Katar Stats, Skills, and Gear Progression

Stats:

99 STR

70 - 80 AGI 

30 - 40 LUK

(oh no its the same shit as dagger only on luck @___@)

Skills:

a. Thief 

1. Improved Dodge 10 

2. Hiding 10 

3. Envenom 10 

4. Ambush 10

b. Assassin

1. Katar Mastery 10 

2. Sonic Blow 10 

3. Sonic Mastery 5 

4. Advance Poison Research 10 

5. 5 Backslide

c. Assassin Cross

1. Enchant Deadly Poison 10

2. Advanced Katar Mastery 10

3. Assassin Heart 10

4. Advanced Hiding 5

5. Add the remaining 5 back to back slide

Gear Progression: 

Weapon: Katar of Quaking T3 or Katar of Agent / Blood Tears

Armor: Tights T3 (Yes i used this shit till level 100+) / Staunch Armor / Ninja Suit 2 +5 (minimum) +10 (optimal) +15 (in your dreams)

Off Hand: Rose Princess Bracer / Vintk Bracer or Golden Ornament

Garment: Ancient Cape / Windwalker Cape

Shoes: Feral Shoes III or Advanced Feral Shoes +12 / Staunch Shoes / Holy Heavy Boots or Holy Boots

Headgear (TOP): Cat Ear Beret / Baphomet Horns / Orc Hero Helm (if you can get it to +10) / Rudolph Antlers (Stormy Knight Drop)

Facegear (MID) : Nut on Head / Hockey Mask / Masquerade 

Mouthgear: Spiked Mask / Pipe 

Accessories: Power Rings / Rings / Matyr's Leash / Flower Rings T3 / Fairy in Bottle (Best)

Back Gear: Devil Wings 

Tail: Fox Tail / Petite Tail

(Surprise MOST OF IT IS THE SAME SHIT AS DAGGER 0_o)

Note: Ignore def gears are listed there for your boss hunting pleasure!

V. Cards! Cards! Cards!

More often than not these are some of the questions i get on a daily basis. Lets start off by saying cards are segmented into the following categories utility, damage, and survival.

Now, the rule of thumb is that you always want your weapon to have the cards that deal the most to your target, but if you are broke AF like I am always. Well yeah stick to utility cards or cheaper versions of the damage cards. SO HERE WE GO!

Just to add, the cards are mostly the same for crit and dagger.

Cards: 

Weapon: Dessert Wolf / Minos / Hydras / Elemental Cards & their cheaper versions (please see below)

Head: Deviruchi / Mummy Star / Ant Star

Off Hand: Marc 

Garment: Whisper / Hyegun / Ninetails / Bapho jr 

Shoes: Male Thief Bug / Matyr / Ferus

Armor: Thara Frog / Argiope / Dokebi / Peco Peco

Accessories: Greatest General (Auto Attack) / Mantis / Kobold (Crit) / Zipper Bear Star / Horong

Elemental Cards are a must have, always make sure you carry either these or their cheaper versions:

Mandragora for Wind Targets

Vadon for Fire Targets

Menblatt for Earth Targets 

Drainliar for Water Targets --- Cheaper version is Flora for Fish Type

I would add peco egg cards, I KNOW ITS NOT AN ELEMENT, but it's nice to have when you go up against neutral formless monsters.

VI. Pets! Pets! Pets!

Adding this section for frequently asked question regarding pets. Pets are awesome and cute! The best part about them is that they give additional stats or bonuses to certain stats.

Dagger Types:

1. Deviruchi - Attack & Flee

2. Yoyo - ASPD

3. Babt Desert Wolf - Ignore Def

Katar Types:

1. Deviruchi - Attack & Flee

2. Baphomet Jr. - Crit Damage

3. Mandragora - Crit Rate

4. Yoyo - ASPD

VII. Grinding Tips

These are the spots I would recommend for grinding: 

10 - 30 Willows / Mandragora

31 - 40 Vadons or Goblins

41 - 50 Ants (cause who likes ants!)

51 - 75 Metallers / Mantis / Eggyra (katar) | Dustiness / Horong (dagger) 

71 - 90 Orc Archer / Orc Warrior / Stings / Anolian / Sky Petite / Earth Petite / Injustice (Katar) | Punks / Ridewords / Hunter Fly / Cramps (Dagger)

After 90 well.. I'm pretty sure you would have enough experience to determine where to go. 

Zenny Tips: 

Abuse kill ratio, this trick is determined by the number of kills you can make per minute. If you can kill above 20+ your should be earning enough zenny while grinding, at the same time, do not forget to sell materials that you may pick up in Auction House. 

The Secret to Power: Donate to your guild if and when you can and work on your guild buffs and guild runes Dagger types need Double armor and Double Attack Runes to unlock their full potential Katar types well.. you need to prioritize katar mastery runes and crit damage runes. 

Enchant your gears and Refine them.