Aika Crusader Skill Build Guide

Class : Paladin
Role : Tank
Gender : Female only
Description : Has great defense and skills to keep monsters attacking it. Great for parties.

Pros and Cons of playing a Paladin:

In PvE
-Best defense of all classes, thus can take damage from more than one enemy
-One of the weakest attacks, but fast attack rate
-Only class that is able to solo dungeons at a later point during the game
-Needed in dungeon parties
-Good class for both solo and group play
-Costs a lot of money to maintain

In PvP
-Defensive role in Nation wars
-"Protect" as a good skill for 1vs1 pvp


PVE/PVP SKILL BUILD GUIDE


-Tier 1-

Shield bash - lv 1, 18mp, 12s cooldown; deals 26 physical damage and stuns for 3 seconds
Info: Deals minor damage and causes stun like it says. This is the starter skill, so the single point in it isn't removable. Great all around skill.
Recommendation: The one point you're forced into the skill is more then enough. The damage scaling is minor and it takes NINE whole skill points to raise the stun time to 4 seconds, not really worth it.

Recover - lv 4, 53mp, 2s cooldown, 2s cast; Heals for 116 hp
Info: It heals minor amounts of HP on yourself or a friendly target.
Recommendation: I ignored this completely as the 2s cast time for such a minor heal just didn't appeal to me. Maybe useful for early grinding, but the points are better in Transference or a defensive skill.

Divine Strike - lv 6, 41mp, 2s cooldown, 2s cast; deals 68 physical damage and decreases move speed by 15 for 6 seconds, deals 150% damage to Demons/Undead
Info: A ranged skill that slows the target decently for a short time. It also does some additional damage to Demon an Undead type monsters. Damage raises slightly each level and the slow increases by 1 point, effect time and Demon/Undead damage do not change.
Recommendation: Not really useful in PvE as you're a melee class. It can be useful in PvP if you're not in move speed enchanted gear and the target is running. I've never used it personally as any RM or DG that is decently skilled can take us out before we even get close. The 2s cast time doesn't help either, as it gives the target more time to run.

Provoke - lv 8, 32mp, 12s cooldown; Increases threat level by 1. Affects enemies within 4 meters
Info: Your main tanking skill, pretty much pulls all attention of mobs onto you until they either die, you die, or a DPS class deals enough damage to pull the aggro away. Repeat casting this often if you fear losing aggro. Threat level increases by 1 each level, range doesn't change.
Recommendation: I, myself, only have 10 points in this. It's been holding aggro well enough for me (even in LMW). This skill is useful even in PvP as it procs Divine Ward charges, shows the crossed swords above stealthed targets, and affects skills like Reflect Blow, Sidestep, etc.

Vanguard - lv 10, 75mp, 6s cooldown, 3s cast, 10 minute duration; Increases physical defense by 63. Increases magical defense by 49. Reduces dodge rate by 1.
Info: It's a self-buff that raises your defenses at the cost of some dodge rate. This skill is your lifeblood for early dungeons and most of your grinding. Defenses raise decently each level, dodge rate reduction raises by 1 every 3 levels.
Recommendation: I used this until the high 40s until I figured out, after talking to a more experienced pally, that the defense boost was pathetic for LMH and above where the mobs deal 400+ damage a hit (as 8 defense = 1 damage reduced, lv 50 Vanguard reduces ~57 phy damage and ~45 mag damage). Great skill for PvE grinding, but not for higher dungeons or PvP.

Transference - lv 12, 56mp, 2 minute cooldown; Adds 50% life leech for 20 seconds.
Info: A self-buff that adds a percentage of damage from your attacks to your hp for a time. Percent healed raises 5% and duration by 2 seconds per level (maxes at 100% leech)
Recommendation: You want at least 6 points (75% leech, 30s duration) in this, if not maxed. This skill is great for grinding as you can gather a few mobs and use skills like judgment and proc the heal once for each target hit. This is a life saver (and your cleric will love you) in dungeons too. PvP is slightly less useful (in mass PvP at least) but still nice for some survivability.

-Tier 2-

Challenge - lv 17, 44mp, 6s cooldown; Deals 76 physical damage. Enemy focuses on player for 3 seconds.
Info: Deals a bit of extra damage and forces the target to target you for a short time (note that the focus effect doesn't work against other players). Damage raises some each level, every 4 levels adds a second of focus time.
Recommendation: I've only used a single point in the skill myself. Whether the extra damage and second of focus will make that much difference, I'm unsure. It's best used in dungeons when Provoke misses a mob or in PvP to proc DW.

Perseverance - lv 19, 80mp. 12s cooldown; Focuses for 12 seconds. Blocks 30% of damage for 3 attacks.
Info: Self-buff that reduces damage from the next 3 attacks by a percentage. Percent blocked raises by 3% per level, attacks blocks do not change.
Recommendation: Easily your best defensive skill. I originally had only 1 point in the skill, but i changed to max it. Quick-cast skill that reduces a percentage of attacks is nice. It has a decent cooldown too. Absolutely needed for dungeons for normal mobs and bosses. Useful for boss mobs (like Mike Jones) in PvE too. Great for PvP to escape from multiple targets or for survivability vs heavy hitters.

Enrage (Passive) - lv 21; Generates 8 threat points per action
Info: Passive skill that (supposedly) increases your threat with each action you perform (assuming this includes normal attacks on a mob). Points generated increases by 8 points per level.
Recommendation: I've heard that this skill doesn't work right, so i haven't used it. If we could get a test on this it'd be nice.

Benediction (Passive) - lv 23; Increases max HP by 65. Increases max MP by 45.
Info: Passive skill that gives an hp/mp boost. Adds 65 HP and 45 MP per level, maxing at 650 HP and 450 MP.
Recommendation: Not worth it. There is no scaling at all and it maxes at a minor amount. You can get better boosts from equip sets and gear reinforcement.

Martyr - lv 25, 112mp, 20s cooldown, 2s cast; Takes 30% of damage dealt to the target up to 1117 for 3 minutes.
Info: Targeted buff that transfers a percentage of damage dealt to the target to yourself, only transfers a certain amount of damage before it must be re-cast. Damage cap raises ~300 per level with decent scaling later and percent of each attack raises by 2% a level.
Recommendation: I've never used this skill, any info given on it would be appreciated. I presume it'd be best used on the cleric though.

Divine Ward - lv 27, 175mp, 5 minute cooldown, 2s cast, 10 minute duration; Blocks the next 2 harmful skills.
Info: Blocks the damage and any effects of a certain number of skills used by enemies. Number of skills blocked raises by 1 per level. (Note that even skills like Provoke and Insight proc charges)
Recommendation: Any Paladin without this maxed is a fool. This skill is what keeps you alive in mass PvP, this also makes dungeon bosses easier on the cleric for part of the fight. Definitely use this if you get jumped by an RM or DG (stun/silence them first if possible).

-Tier 3-

Judgment - lv 32, 199mp, 12s cooldown; deals 306 damage and silences all enemies within 4 meters for 3 seconds. Deals 150% to Demons/Undead.
Info: AoE skill that deals decent damage and silences enemies for a short time. Damage dealt raises fairly well, silence duration, range, and demon/undead damage do not change.
Recommendation: You want at least a single point in this for the silence effect. I recommend maxing though, as it's our only straight damage AoE and it deals nice damage. Excellent for PvE grinding and for dungeon mobs (silence seem to prevent range attackers like White Lion Musketeers from attacking for some reason). Great for PvP, use it on a group and that group has a good chance of dying and their targets surviving.

Reflect Blow - lv 34, 240mp, 20s cooldown; Returns 100% of one attack. Lasts for 20 seconds.
Info: Self-buff that returns a percentage of the damage from the next attack you take. Doesn't seem to proc on normal attacks and even non-damage skills proc it. Seems to only return half damage in PvP. Percent returned raises by 10% per level.
Recommendation: Either 1 point in this or none, though at 54 you could level it to return 150%. Kinda useless in PvE outside of boss mobs, but useful in dungeons vs mobs and bosses. Great in PvP vs RMs and DGs with their spike damage (If you get hit with Maelstorm against a DG, use it and laugh at them as they near one-shot themselves)

Deliverance - lv 36, All mp, 20s cooldown, 1.5s cast; Consumes all of your mana to recover targets HP by 100% of the consumed mana.
Info: Targeted heal that turns any remaining mp into hp (meaning if your max is 1000 and you have 600 remaining, it reduces your mp to 0 and heals yourself or a target by 600). Skills that reduce mp cost (Like Wind Pran buff Tailwind) do not affect this skill as it does not have a set cost. MP to HP conversion raises by 10% per level.
Recommendation: Decently useful skill. Useful if you need a bulk emergency heal. Not great for PvE, but nice in dungeons if your cleric is struggling (or is in danger). Nice in PvP if you can get it off, i usually use it after resurrecting for a quick 1-2k heal so i can get right back to defending.

Onslaught - lv 40, 521mp, 3 minute cooldown, 1.5s cast; Increases physical attack by 68 and move speed by 10. Also adds 60% splash damage to normal attacks. Lasts for 40 seconds.
Info: Self-buff that increases your damage and move speed (does not stack with Cleric's Haste) for a short time. also adds splash damage (enemies within a very short distance of your target take a percentage of damage dealt in addition) to your normal attacks. Physical attack raise increases decently per level, splash damage raises by 2% per level. Move speed increase does not raise.
Recommendation: Until 60 I'd say a single point is fine. The move speed is nice, but useless with a cleric, the splash damage is great for PvE and dungeons (the damage from the splash attacks procs Transference healing). It's nice in PvP for scattering a mass of enemies that are attacking a temple (all the damage popping up, no matter how minor, freaks people out).

Aegis - lv 40, 416mp, 3 minute cooldown, 1.5s cast; Increases physical defense by 893 and magical defense by 703. Adds HP recovery of 73 every 2 seconds. Lasts for 40 seconds.
Info: Self-buff that raises your defenses by a good amount and gives a small heal every 2 seconds, think of it as a super Vanguard but short term. Defenses raise pretty well and Hp recovery raises slightly per level.
Recommendation: This is a decent skill, but the whole defense system weakens it a fair bit. Nice for bosses to make it easier on the cleric and good for PvP if you need to heal and Transference is on cooldown. PvP, i hardly used it unless i was about to rush into a group.





-Tier 5- (Note that these skills require you to have become a Templar and require pieces of caelium for their use, i'll use PoC for pieces of caelium used)

Repentance - lv 51, 249mp, 40s cooldown; Draws a target within 10 meters towards the player and forces it to repent for its misdeeds and immobilizes it for 3 seconds. (PoC: 1)
Info: Pulls a target from a certain distance away towards yourself and binds them in place for a time. The pull seems to not work properly each time and the target may just get bound and not pulled. Bind time raises by 1 and cooldown reduces by 1 every level, range and PoC required raises by 1 every 2 levels.
Recommendation: THIS.SKILL.IS.AWESOME. This completely changes how distance enemies are fought, it drags the target towards you and prevents it from moving for a time. In PvE, use it to grab an annoying range enemy in your AoE grind. In dungeons, use it on a target you missed Provoke or is ranged (like those diambus in Zant Hell!) In PvP, grab an annoying rift camping RM/DG or pull a cleric from a group. For laughs, turn on PvP and grab an unsuspecting nation-mate!

Stronghold (Passive) - lv 55; Fortifies your stances and grants a 5% chance to reduce all damage by 10%
Info: Passive skill that gives a minor chance to reduce damage by a percent. I'm unsure if this is a chances to reduce damage for a short time or if it's just a chance to reduce a single attack. Chance to reduces raises by 1% and damage reduced raises by 2% per level
Recommendation: I'd say that either way it goes, if you have a spare point, use it here. Who knows, that 5% chance and 10% reduction may save you.

Blades of Aika - lv 59, 1,242mp, 3 minute cooldown, 1.5s cast; Summons an ancient relics to deal damage equivalent to 70% of weapon damage to enemies within 3 meters every second for 20 seconds. Deals 150% damage to Demons/Undead. (PoC: 3)
Info: Self-buff that deals a percent of weapon damage to enemies within 3 meters of yourself. Percent damage raises by 3% and duration raises by 1 every level, PoC required raises by 1 every two levels.
Recommendation: Why not? This seems like it'll be fun to use. Combine this with Onslaught and Transference for major damage and healing. Great for scattering attackers at a temple.

TANKING SKILL BUILD GUIDE



A lot of Paladins do not tank correctly. This either a). make your cleric very cranky or b). wipes your party. Do not underestimate your role in a party. Don't think "Oh, I'll just stand there and be a meat shield, clerics will heal me, damagers will do their damage, easy peasy." NO. As a lurer, you lead your party and you decide the risk you make your party face.


SKILLS


-Required Skills-

Provoke MAX - What use are you as a tank if you can't hold aggro? You must max this. Any lower and you risk your party members "stealing" aggro from you.

Transference Lv1[or higher] - A Paladin with Transference up is near indestructible. Heal yourself every time you do damage.

Perseverance Lv1 [or higher]– Lowers damage by 30%, self-explanatory.

Divine Ward MAX – COMPLETE skill immunity. VERY useful for boss fights where the boss uses painful skills.

Judgment Lv1 [or higher]– A 4m AoE that silences all mobs it hits. A Paladin’s weakness is magic defense, so make it so things can’t cast, even if for a few seconds. Combos VERY nicely with Transference. Full heal in most cases.

Reflect Blow Lv1 - COMPLETELY blocks and then REFLECTS the very next attack on you. Self-explanatory.


-Suggested Skills-

Vanguard MAX – Increases PDEF/MDEF. Self-explanatory. Only get this if you plan on doing dungeons from Lost Mines Elite and BELOW. Afterwards this skill is practically worthless.

Challenge Lv1 [or higher]- High-ish threat skill. Use it to gain aggro on stray mobs while Provoke is on cool down.

Onslaught Lv1 – Grants all normal attacks splash damage. Combos VERY nicely with Transference.

Defiance Lv1 – Grants extra threat. Useful for when you have over-geared damage dealers in your party for boss fights.

Aegis Lv1 [or higher] – Drastically increases your defense and grants a passive heal. Self-explanatory.

Stronghold Lv1 – Has a 5% chance to decrease the damage on you by 10%. (Any higher than this is not suggested unless you have a lot of extra skill points as it scales horribly)

Blades of Aika Lv1 – Basically a smaller, but stronger, version of Shadow Fall centered on you.


-Useless Skills-

Shield Smash [higher than lv1] – Main use is for stun, damage increase is almost unnoticeable. Waste of skill points and mana.

Recover – It is difficult to heal yourself with a 2s casting time skill mid-fight. That’s the cleric’s job.

Enrage – Possibly good in theory, but it seems to be not working correctly.

Benediction – Horrible bonuses compared to extra skill points used.



GEAR

-Armor-

To understand how to gear yourself, you have to understand how defense works, and luckily, it’s simple. 8 defense is 1 damage lowered; 800 defense will lower all damage by 100, 2400 will lower by 300, etc.
With that said, it’s not very significant. You should always get as much defense as you can, of course, but you should keep a lookout for damage resistances versus different races depending on the current dungeon you need to do (demons in Zantorian Citadel, human in Lost Mines, etc). Also, highly upgraded gear has HP/MP bonuses as well as raw damage reduction, so in some cases, highly upgraded lower tier gears may be better than higher tier gear despite having less PDEF/MDEF.

-Weapon-

Ironically, the thing that will help make you a better tank more is not your armor, but your weapon. Your value in a party is your ability to hold aggression from enemies. You will hold aggro a lot better if you’re doing more damage. Look for Threat, PATK, Skill Attack, Crit Rate, PCrit Rate and Hit Rate bonuses on your weapon.



WHAT TO DO

First and foremost, you must familiarize yourself with the dungeon you are going to run. If you’ve never run a certain dungeon before, ask someone else who is more experienced in the party to tell you where the different mobs are or look up and see if you can find a map online.

RULE 1: Do not aggro more than you feel comfortable tanking. This is usually 2-3 mobs max if you are doing dungeons of your own level.

RULE 2: Double Tap. After you’ve lured a few monsters away from a group, Provoke and then Judgment right afterwards. Judgment is a very high threat skill in of itself, if you use both Provoke and Judgment right after, you will almost never lose aggro.

RULE 3: Use Perseverance and Reflect Blow EVERY TIME the cool down is over. This will make you a lot more durable as well as make the Cleric’s job MUCH easier.







TIPS

If you ever accidently lure too many, tell your party to stop attacking, while you gain all the aggro and run away as fast as you can. This will cause all mobs to reset to their initial positions. This only works if EVERYONE in the party stops everything they are doing.

You can also abuse the previous strategy to lure monsters when some are melee and some are long ranged. The best application of this will probably be in Lorik’s room in Lost Mines. Lorik, Watcher Vilander and Archmage Sedin are all standing in the same room and it can be quite difficult to lure just one. You can run into all 3 of them, then run away right afterwards. What will happen is, since Vilander and Sedin are long ranged, they are at a further distance away from you, while Lorik will be following you closely to attack. This makes it so you can run outside the aggro range of Vilander and Sedin very easily and cause you to just have Lorik left over.

Transference + Judgment/Onslaught are the best combo ever if you’re dealing with a large mob.

If you are unsure of a boss fight you can cast Divine Ward and wait 4 minutes for the skill to be off cool down so you can recast right after your first Ward wears off.

If you are ever being lazy and just running through a dungeon, you must lead the party as you are most likely the only one who can take all the random hits that come with running through large groups of mobs. Make sure everyone in your party is ready for the run and to countdown before you start. This would be a good time to cast Aegis/Pran Buffs. Transference + Judgment are very useful for running, as they both have no cast time. If the mobs wear you down, just pop off one of these combos and you’ll be at full HP again.

When using your skills with auto attack on, sometimes your character may “fail” to cast to skill and just keep on continuing. You can get around this in one of two ways. You can either turn off auto attack, or you can HOLD your skill hotkeys as opposed to just pressing them. I personally prefer the second option.

LEVEL 50 SKILL BUILD GUIDE






Tier 1

Shield Bash: The damage is insignificant, no reason to level it further. It does, however, give you a 3 second stun. This should be taken advantage of and used as much as possible!

Recover: You'll be letting your healers do the healing. Max this with 12 skill points and you'll have a heal that has a cast time of 2 seconds, only to heal 986 damage. A complete and utter waste.

Divine Strike: Now this is your bread and butter. There will be several times when people are running away, or you're engaging in a fight. It also works in one versus one. You use transference, your life leech skill. Smart players will run away so you get minimal HP recovery. However, you can get this off and do a good 400 damage or so, and slow them. It does physical damage, and from my experience the damage stacks with your weapon damage. With six skill points in it, the slow is just enough to make them walk.

Provoke: PVE skill, 'nuff said.

Vanguard: More defense? What more is there to say. It's kind of low at level 50, but goes from 455 to 713 in a matter of levels! It's a late game skill, but is just effective at level 50.

Transference: You max it by 48, with 100% life leech for 40 seconds! 40 seconds! This is guaranteed to keep you in the fight. Every damage you do comes back to you in HP! This works great in both PVE and PVP. It'll save you some pots. A little secret that I've learned, is that Transference also works with AOE's! Yes, that means your aoe silence skill will bring you hp for every target you hit! I can be dropped to 300 hp out of 4k while aoeing monsters. Transference, then aoe and I'm back at full HP. It really is one of your most important skills, especially for PVP. Sometimes you need heals, but your healer is busy with your teammate. Cut him some slack and use transference!


Tier 2

Challenge: Another PVE skill. The 'enemy focuses on player' doesn't work in PVP. The damage is really insignificant compared to even your normal attack.

Perserverance: Instant cast, 12 second duration. Basically reduces three attacks damage by 42%. Every 12 seconds, you can use this. It works on enemy skills as well, a wonderful way to reduce damage. All of your left over skill points end up going into this skill, leaving it at level 5.

Enrage: PVE Passive, 'nuff said.

Benediction: Now, HP/MP passives are always the best. But, in this case.. at level 50, maxing this would give you 455 hp and 315 MP. A single piece of level 48 armor has the potential to give you this amount. Totally not worth the skill points.

Martyr: Now, this skill is totally up to you. It really isn't worth leveling entirely. It can ONLY be used on your party, and has a 2 second cast time. A lot of the times you won't find yourself casting it mid-battle. I was going to go with the option of leaving it at level 1, 30% absorb 1117 damage. But decided against it and put the last point into Perserverance, giving it an extra 3% damage reduction. Entirely up to you guys on this one.

Divine Ward: Now, all I can say about this one.. it's our strongest skill, by far. It has a two second cast time, and lasts for ten minutes. The cool down is long as hell, but entirely worth it. At around level 60 or so, it can block up to 11 skills. Maxed, and it blocks 12 skills. Yes, skills. This means, with Divine Ward on, you block slows, stuns, nukes, everything! Nothing effects you until a total amount of skills has been knocked off of you. In one vs ones, this skill is an almost guaranteed win. You're very foolish if you don't level this up. A tip, don't use it going into battle. It's almost always wasted this way. Use it in the midst of battle. If you're being targeted, a simple stun for 3 seconds will give you plenty of time to cast. You're a paladin, you don't die. You'll hardly ever be spiked by the opposing team.


Tier 3

Divine Emission: Translation isn't confirmed, but this skill is by far one of your most useful. An AOE silence is just devastating to enemy teams. Instant cast, 12 second cooldown, 3 second silence with a big 621 damage is amazing. This will be your main DPS skill for quite a while, get used to it!

Shield Reflection: 100% damage reflect for one skill, 18 second cooldown, 20 second lasting duration. Instant cast. Very good! Especially if you time it right and reflect those nukes! Only one skill point is needed here, as the % increase in reflected damage isn't useful until much higher levels. Even then, I would probably keep this skill at level 1 seeing as how any attack takes away its effect.

Deliverance: Converts all of your MP into HP. Can be used both on yourself, and your party members. Cast time of 1.5 seconds. A great skill to save the day, really. As a paladin, you'll most likely always have just as much MP as you do HP. Using this skill can sometimes give a heal of 3k or more. It also works as a money saver, considering a lot of your grinding will be done with normal attacks, and mana will be useless here.

Defiance: For level 50 PVP, it isn't useful. Other things are of more importance. However, later on this skill is entirely useful. I might experiment with it at level 65+, but for now, going to leave it alone.

Onslaught: You can only put three skill points in it at level 50, and three isn't worth it. The only thing that goes up is the % in splash damage, which isn't very useful in PVP. The attack increase also goes up, but for two skill points you only get 22 attack increase. Just use this for the +68 attack and +10 movement speed increase. One skill point and one only.

Aegis: Truly a remarkable skill. Talk about adding 1k defense for 40 seconds. This skill I will max throughout all of my leveling even passed 50. Max this!!





Credits: Aika NA