Paladin: Guide by Willriker/Part IV

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==The Quest for Your Artifact Gear ==
 
:I have said time and time again that Paladins are extremely lucky, in that they get the most useful artifact armor in the game! Not only that but the Paladin artifact storyline is actually quite good I won't spoil that part for you, so don't worry. I do not know if the storyline will get jumbled if you do some of these quests out of order.. so don't. But, Paladin artifact armor is quite difficult to get. This gear is extremely important, and I highly advise you to make very sure to attempt until you succeed. Therefore, I am going to include a guide to help you as much as possible in this endeavor. Note: if you have questions on the stats of the artifact armor I have it all listed in the corresponding slots in the equipment section on the previous page.
 
 
	-AF (Honor Sword)
 
Quest Name: Sharpening the Sword
 
Prerequisites: You must be at least level 40 Paladin.
 
The Quest: The NPC you need to talk to is Ailbeche. He is a little Elvaan boy located in the Parade Grounds of Northern San d'Oria. He needs a whetstone to sharpen a very old sword, and sends you to Ordelle's Caves to get it. Once inside Ordelle's Cave, head to (H-10). At this location there is a gapping hole in the ground. Do not fall in! You are to examine the ??? on the stalagmite behind the hole. Once you do an Earth Elemental will appear. You will not be able to kill this thing as a 40 paladin, but this sword is too good to level without. So enlist help before tackling this thing. Once it is dead you will need to examine the ??? one more time to receive the whetstone. It is a key item, so don't worry about dropping it. Next you will need to head back to Ailbeche. He will give you your Honor Sword. 
 
	-AF (Gallant Leggings)
 
Quest Name: A Boy's Dream
 
Prerequisites: Must be a level 50 Paladin and finished the quest "Sharpening the Sword"
 
The Quest: You will need to talk to Ailbeche again to activate this quest. He will want to catch a fish and get the treasure it swallowed. But first he will send you to meet his father, Exoroche, in the weapon shop in Southern San d'Oria. Next you will be sent to the Crawlers' Nest, you are to examine the ??? at (H-9), only to have a crawler appear. I hope you brought a buddy for this one, a very strong buddy, or a fully party. Once this crawler is dispatched you will get an item called a Giant Shell Bug. (Note: you can also buy this item on the AH, if you cant arrange this party) Bring the Giant Shell Bug to Ailbeche and give it to him. He will give it back to you and tell you about the fishing hole where the fish supposedly resides. Head over to Castle Oztroja, the second floor (H-9) and fish using the Giant Shell Bug. I highly advise High Level Help here… This fight isn;t easy. I'd also advise clearing out the room first, because your NM is about to spawn, and he has the name of Odontotyrannus. He is a pugil type monster. Once it is dealt with you will get the Odontotyrannus as an item in your inventory. It is now time to present the legendary fish to Ailbeche. Sadly he does not know how to clean the fish to see what's inside, and neither do you. But, he knows who does! That person is in the fishing guild house in Selbina. Head to an NPC there named Zaldon and trade the fish to him to find out what's inside. Lo' and behold he whips out a pair of Knight's Boots! No, this is not your Artifact Armor. Head to Prince Trion’s Room in Chateau d'Oraguille to finish the quest and receive your Gallant Leggings.
 
	-AF (Gallant Gauntlets)
 
Quest Name: Borghertz's Stalwart Hands
 
Prerequisites: Must be level 50 and have completed "Sharpening the Sword"
 
The Quest: The NPC to activate this quest is called Guslam and he is located in Upper Jeuno. More specifically inside the Durable Shields armor shop. He informs you of a legendary craftsman who made a pair of gauntlets who hid them in the worst places of Vana'diel. After accepting this quest you will be send to The Eldieme Necropolis to hunt down a coffer key which will work in that area. Once you have the key you will need to find the Treasure Coffer to use it on. And this is where you will have a problem. No body likes hunting Coffers, and neither will you. I guarantee it. Once you finally get the coffer and received “some old gauntlets” you can finally head back to Guslam. He will direct you to talk to Yin Pocanakhu in the Tenshodo shop (Lower Jeuno behind the Auction House) She tells you that she will accept 1,000 gil for revealing the locations of a toolbox. Now you will need to examine the ??? just outside the Duty Free Shop in Port Jeuno. You will receive a Cutscene involving the ghost of Borghertz. He will ask you to retrieve some “Shadow Flames” from the Castle of Zvahl Baileys. Once in Castle Zvahl Baileys head to the torches at (F-8). Once you do you will have to defeat Dark Spark! Almost everyone needs to kill Dark Spark, so getting help won't be too difficult. And make no mistake, you will need a full party with a High-level tank to take this thing out. Once Dark Spark is defeated you will need to examine the torch again to obtain the Shadow Flames. Now head back to the ??? outside the Duty Free Shop in Port Jeuno to get your reward!
 
 
	-AF(Gallant Coronet)
 
Quest Name: NA
 
Prerequisites: Paladin at least level 50 and completed A Boy’s Dream
 
The Quest: This one is rather easy but can take a while. Go to Garlaige Citadel and get a coffer Key. Once you get the Coffer key find the Treasure Coffer. Yes, it’s that easy. But coffer hunting sucks! And after the 7th real life hour I actually sent a tell to a GM asking him, “would you take my characters left nut for this coffer?” After the GM chastised me, my Coffer popped right in front of me not more than 30 seconds later. The lesson, stick with it, give up your left nut, and this coffer is yours!
 
	-AF (Gallant Breeches)
 
Quest Name: NA
 
Prerequisites: Paladin at least level 50 and completes A Boy’s Dream
 
The Quest: There is no Quest. This is just a coffer run, like your AF headpiece. The only difference is that this is in Beadeaux. Please do not bother your high level friends to get this Coffer Key for you. They have lives too. It is quite easy to put together a skill up party for this, with you being the only one that needs a key, ideally. I must admit this coffer went incredibly easy for me. The Coffer chest spawned right near my skill up party. So basically it came to getting the key before someone opened the coffer. Which we did.
 
 
	-AF (Gallant Surcoat)
 
Quest Name: Under Oath
 
Prerequisites: Paladin at least level 50 and completed A Boy’s Dream.
 
The Quest: To activate this Quest you must speak directly with Prince Trion, in the Royal Room of Chateau d'Oraguille, to learn that there is a suspicion of a traitor in the Royal Guard! He will want you to investigate the mater. Now you must talk to Vemalpeau located in Southern San d'Oria (M-7), then to Najjar at the Bar in Southern San d'Oria, and finally to Ullasa In Southern San d'Oria (B-6). After all that you should’ve been told to get a Paint Brush. To get this Paint Brush you will need to head back to Castle Zvahl Baileys only this time you will need to get… you guessed it a coffer key. Then find the coffer the key belongs to, this will get you the key item Mique's Paint Brush. Now you need to head back to Vemalpeau again. Head to the second floor of his house to get another key item. Next person you will need to talk to is Exoroche, Ailbeche’s father, at the weapon shop. Now you will be instructed to head out to Davoi. Once there you will need to examine a well at (G-9) and defeat two Orcs to get a rare/exe item. Trade this item back to the well, quickly. Note: this is the hardest fight you will have to do for your AF. It will take 2-3 parties to defeat these 2 NM. That includes high-level help. Once done go and talk to Ailbeche once more in Northern San d'Oria. He will direct you to Maiden’s Spring (E-6) of Jugner Forest. After the cut-scene return to Prince Trion for your reward!
==HNM's and NM==
 
 
===How is it Different than an Experience Party?===
 
:In a party setting, your main objective is to help the party gain experience points faster and safer. You do this by using many abilities and equipping yourself with as many +enmity and damage reducing items as humanly possible. You also blow through your abilities (while trying to set up a pattern so that you will be able to use one properly timed ability each fight while the rest are charging.) You also keep an eye on your TP meter to help kill off an enemy with your other DD. You will also have the added benefit of SATA to help you conserve your abilities. In short, you are rationing yourself to kill multiple enemies, and timing your abilities so that one or two recharge during every fight in order to take as little damage as possible and therefore increase your exp per hour.
 
:In an experience party your equipment setup will also be either one of two possible combinations: VIT >> DEF >> ENMITY or some choose to go the route of VIT >>> AGI >> ENMITY. These two combinations of equipment are designed to get your Paladin to take as little damage as you can. This will lead to more experience per hour and a happy party.
 
:Depending on the NM or HNM you are up against your style needs to change dramatically. Many High-Level linkshells realize this and will give you some time to learn how they want you to tank the HNM’s or NM’s. You must realize that you are not trying to get a chain 5 or even a chain 6. You are fighting just one enemy. This means that you cannot let yourself slip into many of the habits you have built up during your 70-75 previous experience point levels. Your Abilities in a HNM/NM fight will be used only for the purpose of hate control! You have mages to help cure your sorry butt, but they can only do so while you have the hate! Its ok to take more damage (preventing less with abilities), they have MP they can cure you. Remember, if the main tank dies chances are that the whole alliance will go down with it, so exchanging the use of your abilities for hate control instead of damage prevention is absolutely warranted.
 
:Most fights your linkshell will be involved with will last 10-15 minutes, there are four-hour fights and there are five-minute fights. Once the Fight starts, if your link shell wants you to dominate hate, you will need to learn how to do so while rationing the abilities. You'll have to find a steady hate building ritual that lasts for up to 10-15 minutes. This ritual differs with each NM or HNM so I can’t give you a layout of how this is to go. Just keep in mind that once you use an ability it will take 5 minutes to come back. And also keep in mind that you will need to use your abilities to survive a 10-15 minute fight. So save these abilities and only use one or two when you feel hate starting to slip away. As for Spells, You are saving your abilities for when hate is slipping, so you have to get hate from somewhere. You have MP, and that mixed with all your +enmity gear will make for some nice hate control. The only problem is that you do not have a lot of MP… As a Hume Paladin I try to dance in the 100-200 MP range. Any less than 100 MP and I will only use flash for hate, but if I can get off a cure III with a good amount of MP left, make no mistake, I will. And then try to conserve MP, while casting a few spells to maintain the hate you built up before hand. A steady Flash, Provoke, and occasional Cure III will usually do the trick. 
 
:Remember you are fighting just one enemy, chances are that there will not be another one coming up behind it. So you must ration yourself throughout the fight. Make sure you ALWAYS have something decent as backup and ration your MP. You do NOT want to run out of MP, if you run out of MP something very bad either just happened or is about to happen very soon…You will not be expected to Cure yourself, you have mages for that! You are expected to use your MP to secure the Hate though. It just happens that the MP used in this way often recovers HP as well.
 
:By this point in the game, I am sure that you have noticed your melees bring multiple sets of gear with them. You really have to do the same. But your gear will, of course, have a different focus. Where your equipment is concerned for HNM/NM you need to reset your priorities. You will be getting hit for a lot of damage, by a lot I mean 100-300 damage a hit! And in combination with that massive damage, you will also get hit for spells and weapon skills that can go well beyond 1200 damage. There is really no way you can get enough VIT to be able to reduce this to a much lower amount. Even with Koenig gear this will still be hard to do. Instead, you will need to focus on surviving these attacks with enough HP to buy your mages enough time to react. Therefore many Paladins decide to go for a different priority when choosing HNM/NM tanking gear which is something like this: HP >> ENMITY >> VIT. This priority simply reflects the job you need to perform in an HNM/NM situation. 
 
:NOTE: I have made a rather lengthy discussion on how your experience point gear will not work in an HNM/NM environment. The gear that is ideal for this environment is NOT ideal for your experience point environment for the same reasons listed above.
==What Craft Would be Best for the Paladin Job?==
 
:I cannot tell you how many times someone has asked me, "How do I make money as a Paladin?" Crafting is never a bad thing to get into. As mentioned before in this guide Paladins are not considered anywhere near the ideal job to farm with. Therefore we need to develop ways to make our gill. Crafting is a prime example of a way to do this. Since getting parties is incredibly easy for a Paladin, it won’t kill you to take some time out and go mining for materials. Hell, chances are you will get invites while mining! So this is definitely something to think about. Crafting is not the only way to make money, outside of farming. You also have options like clamming, fishing, logging, mining, harvesting, gardening, chocobo digging, and even Auction house camping. There are so many ways to make gill and or gather materials. Go try some and when you get bored try something else! That’s what these options are for. Make use of them!
 
:Note: This is not to decide which makes the most money, if you stick with it, this is purely a discussion on what types items the crafts make in comparison to what types of items a Paladin needs through out his or her career. An argument can be made that you should just go with what makes the most money and buy what you want with the proceeds. This is not that side of the argument.
 
===Smithing===
 
:Blacksmithing would be the best craft to support a Paladin throughout his or her career. After all, it makes many swords, shields, and armors. Indeed it does come quite useful. And nothing is quite as fulfilling as wearing a bunch of your own gear out to an exp party or a NM fight or even a mission. And for lower/high level characters this is a great craft for a Paladin. At low levels your character can probably HQ your own gear and at high levels people would be equally impressed with your signature on something like an Adaman Set. That and you can raise Paladin for almost no money at all, as long as you are willing to farm ingredients. This is a great choice.
 
===Goldsmithing===
 
:Goldsmithing is equal to Blacksmithing in terms of usefulness to a Paladin. Goldsmithing not only allows you to make your own rings and earrings, but also makes swords/shields that are as good if not better than Blacksmithing. The only draw back to Goldsmithing is that it is extremely expensive to level up to a useful point. That being said, I would advise you to level Goldsmithing first. No, this is not because I am a sadist… or trying to bankrupt you! If you find at one point that Goldsmithing is simply too big of a money sink to level, then you can switch to Blacksmithing and it’ll be like a walk in the park in comparison. Not only that but the best Blacksmithing Recipes require Goldsmithing skills. So it becomes a win situation.
 
===Cooking===
 
:I don’t care what job you have, your character will need food! This is a great craft to level simply due to that fact. Lets say that you level Paladin to 40 and decide it just isn’t for you. And now you go to become a Mage job. Well Blacksmithing and Goldsmithing will be of little use to you as a mage. But your Cooking skills will always come in handy. For this reason alone you may want to make the investment. As for Paladin we love the idea of Boiled Crabs/ Tavansia tacos, and Tavansia Salads for free.
 
===Bonecraft===
 
:Bone Working has extremely little use to a Paladin. Outside of about job level 18 it actually has no use at all to a Paladin.
 
===Leathercraft===
 
:Again this skill, in terms of usefulness of the items it makes is of little use to a Paladin.
 
===Clothcraft===
	
:There are so few items in this craft that would actually be useful to a Paladin that I don’t see what reason a Paladin would have to level it. Unless it’s simply for the money.
 
===Woodworking===
 
:Woodworking can make some very nice shields, but other than that not very much in the way of what a Paladin would use.
 
===Alchemy===
 
:Alchemy is a nice craft. Surprisingly enough, it makes weapons and armor on par with or better than Blacksmithing. It also provides some very useful consumable items that a Paladin uses every quest and every mission. And can build quite a reliable income off of all of this too. Not only that but if you are not adverse to taking some time and farming materials it can be one of the cheapest crafts to level! This would definitely be worth considering.
 
 
==Paladin vs. Ninja (not my opinion but the debate itself)==
 
:When The Rise of Zilart Expansion Pack came out it inadvertently introduced a new tank job into FFXI. This new tanking job was the Ninja. Since people now had two jobs with the ability to tank in an experience point/NM and an HNM environment, the natural thing for people to do was compare the two jobs to see which was better. The impact of this often-heated debate has permanently changed the FFXI environment. This is basically how the debate started and the results of that argument.
 
:The Paladin’s job, as detailed above, is to maintain hate control while taking as little damage as possible. He minimizes the damage he takes through the use of curative magic and heavy armor. He also has the job of controlling the hate in any situation. He can keep hate in almost any environment. In fact if a member died in a party that member either did something incredibly stupid or there was a slacker of a Paladin in the party.
 
:This is not to say that Paladin does not have its down side. Having a Paladin in party means that he will need people to heal and maintain him. A silenced and paralyzed Paladin is not useful at all. Not to mention that he gets hurt! A Paladin gets hurt and does not have the magic points to allow himself to main cure himself, he only has magic points for hate control which does restore some HP in the process. As soon as a Paladin uses his MP to main cure himself he might as well kiss his experience points per hour ratio goodbye.
 
:The Ninja takes a different approach to tanking an enemy. A Ninja forgoes the heavy armor of a Paladin and focuses on letting “shadows” take the damage that the Ninja might otherwise receive. A Ninja gains two “spells” which allows the physical damage done to the Ninja to be negated. In place of a loss in hit points, a shadow, gained from the ninjutsu spells Utsusemi: Ichi and/or Utsusemi: Ni, is lost instead. This means that in theory a Ninja can get by with just a support healer. A lesser mage can come in and take the place of the main healer, thereby opening another spot in the party up for another DD member. A Ninja can also make enemies weaker to certain elements, thereby increasing the damage of skillchains and magic bursts. These are the main advantages of a Ninja in an experience point environment. An extra Damage member in a party, mixed with a weakened enemy, means that enemies die faster! In short, this equates to more experience points per hour.
 
:In contrast, a Ninja has very limited tools to control hate with. And many would, and have, contend that what good is being able to take no damage when you can’t hold the hate of an enemy. This means that having a Ninja as the tank in a party can lead to big experience point gains, or a lot of deaths. Melee members really have to watch their damage output around a Ninja. And having a Thief, or at least a thief sub-jobbed melee, in the party is a must have to aid in hate control. Also, having shadows are nice, but they do run out. One Area of Effect spell of skill and a Ninja loses all of his shadows in one swoop. 
 
:This is not to say that one job is better than the other. It just means that they accomplish the same task in two different ways. And therefore both jobs bring two different skill sets to a party. Anything a Paladin can tank a Ninja can also tank. Anything a Ninja can tank a Paladin can also tank. They just do so in different ways. Sometimes the skill set a Ninja brings to a situation will make the fight easier. Some times the skill set a Paladin brings to the table makes the fight easier. It all depends on the enemy and the over all set up of the group you are with. Don’t worry there are plenty of enemies in Vana'diel to go around.
 
 
===The Debate Shows What Paladins Truly Have===
 
:As a result of this extensively long and drawn out debate a trend began to emerge. The Paladin undoubtedly brings a safer environment to be in. A Paladins skills for controlling hate are unmatched by any Ninja. This may lead to a little slower experience gains per hour with a Paladin, but something really messed up has to happen for there to be a death or let alone a wipe-out of an experience party under a Paladin’s watch. That and the melee finally get a chance to see what kind of damage they can really do!
 
:Why do I put this argument before you…? Well, I believe that before you get into a job you should know what is expected of you. You should know above all else what the single most valuable thing that your chosen job brings to a situation. Remember, as you choose to be a Paladin, this argument is still fresh in people’s minds. They will have preconceptions of your chosen job. You must show them that we indeed control the hate of an enemy like no other, but we can also get comparable experience points to any ninja out there. I cannot prove people right or wrong by myself, I need you to help. And THAT is the main purpose of this guide as a whole. To help prove that A Paladin is just as versatile and effective as any other job in the game.
==The DD Paladin==
	
:The Myths: Paladins cannot do damage. Don’t even try. Your job is to get hit not to hit. It is time to smash those myths to pieces RIGHT NOW! A Paladin can DD. He might not be the worlds most outstanding DD ever known to mankind, but he can be about as respectable a DD as a Warrior. This is a hell of a lot better than people thought we could do.
===Experience Parties(Before Endgame)===
	
:I am sorry to say that you will not be able to take a full DD role as a Paladin and still be able to tank the enemy. This much is true. It requires a completely different setup to be able to take the hits than it does to dish out the pain. However when the time comes where you are exping off an enemy which does not hurt you all that much and MP is not an issue you CAN AND SHOULD equip some DD gear. Adding to the pool of damage in any way will increase the rate at which the enemies die. And since you are taking damage just fine, why not help out a little in the damage department. Since you shouldn’t go over board in such a situation, I would advise a more damaging sword (keep the shield) a life belt, and some strength rings. Any more than that and you risk compromising your tanking abilities, but then again try it out. You can always sell excess equipment back. At any rate, you realy should start off all exp parties in a full tank setup, and as you judge your situation filter in some accuracy, attack and strength enhancing gear. A little bit will go a LONG way in the damage department for you.
:A little DD gear will go a long way. Its actually surprising how much an additional +10 STR and +10-20 Accuracy will do to you. Again in a regular exp you will not do the damage as a war, but you will be quite a lot more influential than you were before. In merit parties on the other hand… things are different.
===Merit Parties===
:In merit parties your role is different, completely different. You will be hard pressed to find a merit party which will want a Paladin to tank. At least not without a Ninja Sub job, but then it will be hard to keep hate, if not impossible. Therefore, unless you want to level a whole new job to merit off of you need to adapt to the situation. In a merit party they do not want people to take damage, therefore almost everyone will have a ninja sub job, and if they even bother with a tank it will be a ninja tank. The next interesting thing about a merit party is that, in large part, you will have a ton of DD in the party, with no black mage in sight. You will more than likely have a ninja as a tank, unless you are all going for a ninja sub job, then that is almost irrelevant. In short you will not be fighting IT mobs, instead you will be chaining VT enemies for insane chains, some upwards 100-200.
:In these types of parties it is not uncommon for a Paladin to go all out DD. A full attack setup is needed. After all you do not want to be a leech. You want to be a productive member. You must be a productive member. Paladins equip slightly different, in this situation I would advise you equipping attack, accuracy, strength equipment, and the most damaging sword you can find. Once fully equipped in a DD setup you will notice once and for all how versatile Paladin really is. In the equipment section I have added SOME of the pieces you will want to pick up, but not all. Please check the AH, and examine the warriors walking around. You will get a good idea about how to equip your Paladin from their equipment.
:At first, it was extremely hard to convince melee that a Paladin can work in such a setup. But a lot of great Paladins have worked very hard to dispel that myth. It only takes one Paladin with a bootleg setup to make 5 other people distain the idea of having a Paladin in their burn party. And if you have a bootleg setup, and joined 2 parties… you just made 10 people not like the idea of inviting a Paladin into the burn session. Sadly for every decently equipped Paladin there are 10-20 others which are indeed bootleg. And it is a very hard task to change public opinion in an LS, never mind server wide or even game wide. Please do not detract from their work and go in with a bootleg setup. We are currently making a name as an acceptable member in a burn party. So your life will be considerably easier now, but take the time and make a good setup. You won’t be the only one surprised in your damage output!
==Meriting your Paladin==
===What is a Merit, and How does it Work?===
:Well that question is a little outside the scope of this guide. But I feel like I need to go over in brief detail how the merit system works in FFXI before I go into how many Paladins look at these Merits. So this will be brief.
:Once you finally hit level 75, you can talk to the moogle near Maat in order to unlock the Merit System. Once you do this, you can freely switch from receiving Merit points to receiving Experience points inside your moghouse. NOTE: Due to a recent update, you are now able to switch between Merit and Experience points outside your moghouse.
:You gain Merit points just like you gain experience points. In fact, one experience point equals one limit point. 10,000 limit points equal one Merit point. You can hold up to 10 Merit point at a time.
:Many players never switch to merit mode. Instead, they max out the experience points at level 75 (43,999 exp aka 1 exp until 76) and let the game switch them into the Merit system automatically. This way if they die, the game will automatically switch them back into experience point mode. This allows them to never really be worried about deleveling from 75. 
:Once you have some merit points gained you can go to your moghouse, any will do, and exchange the merit points for various upgrades to your character. Personally, I Feel you should upgrade anything you think will be useful. But, I have added this section to the guide to fill you in on what many Paladins have found to be most useful. This way you have somewhere to focus your efforts.
===Hit Points / Magic Points===
:You can put merits into HP or MP. Each upgrade to HP/MP will reward you with 10 HP or 10MP. Most Paladins want maximum HP merits. You can add a total of 8 upgrades to HP or MP. So if you sunk all of the merit points necessary into HP merits in order to cap it out you would have +80 HP. Not only that but you’ll have +80 HP and not have to sacrifice an equipment slot for it either. 
:This will dramatically increase your survivability. I can only compare it to the day you first put on a Gigant mantle… The comparison is more than likely lost though. Most 75 Paladins aren’t looking at guides anymore.
:All career Paladins put an emphasis on HP over MP. Not all Paladins go pure HP and neglect MP merits. But all end up upgrading more HP than MP merits.
====Attributes====
:Attributes increase the general statistics of your character. STR, DEX, VIT, AGI, etc. are all examples of attributes. You can place a total of 5 upgrades into attributes. The maximum you can sink into any individual attribute is 4 upgrades. (As per Koolaid.com)
:The merits required to max out an attribute is 3 > 6 > 9 > 9 = 27 merits.
:Most Paladins sink merit points into Strength, to increase there performance during merit parties. And other melee jobs they would be leveling. Many consider meriting Vitality to be a waste of time. Mainly because of the soft cap placed on the effectiveness of Vitality.
:Agility is tied to your evasive techniques. Parry, Shield, and Evasion are all tied to agility. And the current consensus is that +4 agility (once at 75 and in good tanking gear) will reduce more damage than an additional +4 Vitality.
====Combat Skills====
:This is a very broad category. All of the combat skills listed in your menu can be upgraded as well. Each merit upgrade you perform on a skill will net you +2 Skill in that technique.
:Everything is here, all of the weapons and defensive skills. Sword, staff, Shield, Parry, Evasion, Club, everything is here. You can use a total of 12 upgrades. Any weapon upgrade can be increased 8 times (until maxed). Any defensive skill can be upgraded 4 times (until maxed).
:For career Paladins there are two schools of thought on how to proceed here.
:#Maximize Shield and Sword Merits.
:#Maximize Shield, Evasion, and Parry Merits.
:In the first school of though, players believe that a Paladins Evasion and Parry are so sub par that any even maximum merits in those skills will yield little to no benefit. This and the fact that the game is severely lacking in +sword skill items will lead them towards upgrading their sword skill to increase their accuracy and damage dealt. But still they realize that even more +sword skill will not net in a faster HNM kill. These players feel that there is much more out there than just HNM, and that additional sword skill will aid them more in those endeavors.
:In the second school of thought we have the players who are trying to achieve the optimal amount of damage reduction possible. These players feel that melee jobs are boring, and have noticed that every time they pick one up… it’s never for long. So they have no interest in pumping out more damage than the next guy. They want to focus on taking less damage than the next guy. They acknowledge that Paladins parry and evasion skills are very bad, but feel that every little bit of improvement in those skills will help.
:But both side of the equation agree that Shield Skill is mandatory. In Fact, they will both say that Shield skill should be the very first thing you upgrade to maximum.
====Magic Skills====
:I don’t know of any Paladin that upgraded this (aside from the maximum merit guys). The only thing even slightly interesting in this category would be divine magic. But even then, it’s still only a slight improvement in effectiveness of Flashes. It’s pretty much the last thing a Paladin will ever merit.
====Others====
:This is the miscellaneous category for Merits. Here you will find certain things that really run the gambit of uses. Enmity Increase, Enmity Decrease, Critical Hit Rate Up, Enemy Critical Hit Rate Down, Spell Interruption rate down. 
:I am a firm believer that a player should merit as he or she chooses. There is no right or wrong answer on what you want to merit. But I must say that meriting in the Enmity Decrease category would be a mistake if you intend on tanking on Paladin. Otherwise, please pick and choose which you would prefer to merit.
:Again, this category slips into the same 2 schools of thought. Some Paladins won’t merit Enmity increase because they have a secondary job. That is understandable. But speaking as a career Paladin, the Enmity Increase is wonderful.
====Paladin Specific Merits====
Group 1 Abilities
:Your Group 1 ability upgrades simply enhance the abilities you have gained on the road up to level 75. There are a total of 10 upgrades to be distributed among your Group 1 abilities. Each ability can be upgraded a maximum of 5 times. 
:The merit costs to upgrade these, per upgrade, is 1 > 2 > 3 > 4 > 5 = 15 merits. As per Koolaid.com.
:For the most part each upgrade only reduces the cool down time of an ability. With the exception of merit upgrades to Cover. But for completions sake here is a list of the Group 1 upgrades.
:{| width="90%" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2"	 	
Name 	Effect 	Notes
Shield Bash Recast 	Recast time -10 sec 	Most don’t upgrade this unless they have definite plans on acquiring Aegis.
Holy Circle Recast 	Recast time -20 sec 	Most Paladins laugh at the thought of putting merits into this upgrade ;)
Sentinel Recast 	Recast time -10 sec 	This is pretty good if you intend on maxing out Guardian (a Group 2 ability).
Cover Effect Length	Effect Duration +4 sec	I don’t know about you but I always felt Cover never seemed to last long enough.
Rampart Recast 	Recast time -10 sec 	This is pretty good if you intend to max out Iron Will (a Group 2 ability).
Group 2 Abilities
:In a recent update, SE added new abilities to Paladin. Well to be more precise they added 2 new abilities and 2 new traits. Each JA or JT can be upgraded to a maximum of level 3. But, the maximum, total, number of upgrades you can distribute among all of these abilities is 6. This was intended to add a further layer of customization to your character. 
:You will not have access to these abilities just through simply reaching level 75. You need to sink merit points into these abilities in order to “unlock” them. Once you unlocked the ability it is only usable to your character while it is level 75. This means that if you enter a level capped area you will not have these abilities any more, well until you leave the level cap.
:If you remove all of the merits from a Group 2 ability, reducing the modification to 0, you will lose that ability.
:The merits needed to Maximize any Group 2 ability are 3 > 4 > 5 = 12 merits.
:Ok! Many Players say that the Jobs which gained the most out of the added abilities are the Thief, Dark night, and Red Mage. However, it took me a little while of thinking about the merits themselves before I could conclude that Paladin should actually be added to that list as well.
:I know what you’re thinking, well what your thinking if you pay attention to forums, "Paladin only received one ability that is worth getting, and that is Chivalry." I would say that no, you are wrong. Every single ability in the update has a very nice impact on the Paladin Job.
:Without Further ado, Let me introduce to you the new abilities a Paladin can merit (upon reaching level 75): 
:
Name 	Type 	Target 	Effect 	Initial Recast
Fealty 	Job Ability	Self 	Grants a powerful resistance to enfeebling magic. Extra Merits: Recast time -2:30. 	20 minutes (Merit to 15)
Chivalry 	Job Ability	Self 	Converts TP to MP. Extra Merits: Recast time -2:30. This Job Ability converts 1TP to around 1.3 to 1.5 MP (it seems to vary slightly). It also has been reported to increase hate considerably when used.	20 minutes (Merit to 15)
Iron Will	Job Trait 	Passive (AOE) 	Adds a spell interruption down effect to Rampart. Extra Merits: Increase effect by 19%. 	Passive (Affected by Rampart recast)
Guardian 	Job Trait 	Passive (Self)	Reduces enmity loss while using Sentinel. Extra Merits: Increase effect by 19%. 	Passive (Affected by Sentinel recast)
:Let’s take this one at a time; I will attempt to fully discuss each of these traits/abilities. But first let me mention one thing, every ability that is essential to the Paladin Job is gained on the journey to 75. This is the same for every other job as well. Not one of these abilities will make or break you in an experience point party or an HNM scene. This is the same for every job in the game. These abilities are just the icing on the cake, and in the case of Paladin are excellent additions to the job.
:Fealty - This is actually quite a nice ability. In fact, I believe it to be the single most under rated ability that Paladins have gained. This will grant you a High Resistance to enfeeble. Not only that, but this will last for a whole minute at the first upgrade!
::Pros - It does not take long to become familiarize yourself with what to expect from certain enemies. I mean, there are certain things you just don’t want to happen... i.e. bind on Kirin, and Silence/defense downs and many other things like terrorize and petrification or even paralyze. Each and every one of these enfeebles has cause every single Paladin to die on multiple occasions. The only trick to this is knowing when to use it. But even this isn’t all that tricky. There comes times when Sieryu is giving you more trouble than it should, MP is running low on your mages, and you just have a feeling that your hate is not as solid as you would like it to be. Or you’re kiting Kirin, and you’re at 50% health. At these times if you’re silenced/bound/paralyzed it means a sure death... And that is the time to use this ability. Sure it might be wasted, But think of this as more of an insurance policy against disaster. Personally, I have yet to be enfeebled while this ability is active. And it has saved me from death on multiple occasions.
::Cons - The down side is that it has a 20 minute recast timer (it can be merited down to 15 min) and it does not generate all too much Hate.
::Recommendations - Only sink one upgrade into this. Just having it is enough to help you out. The reduced timer simply isn’t worth having as most fights don’t even last 15 minutes. Not only that but it has been shown that further upgrades do not increase the effectiveness of Chivalry. So there is no reason to assume further upgrades will increase the effectiveness of Fealty either.
:Chivalry - Now this is possibly the most famous of the merited abilities. It exchanges your TP for MP at a ratio of something like (1 TP) = (1.3-1.5MP) and starts out as a 20 minute timer (it can be merited down to 15 minute recast.
::Pros - The effect of Chivalry is instantaneous. It is rumored that the use of Chivalry also adds a considerable amount of Hate. Not only that but it makes using a staff for individual fights pretty much useless now. All of these effects are excellent. But let’s delve into the actual usefulness of this ability for a second.
::This ability has a couple of strategic uses, the first and most obvious is that it allows you to refresh your MP supply. Remember, if you have no MP... you won’t be keeping hate for much longer. But at BEST it has a 15 minute recast. So for 90% of your fights this will only be used once. For shorter fights you can actually TP up, Blow all your MP in one glorious Hate spike and use this to get your MP back.
::The second part of this ability is where its true power lies. Many Paladins are pissed off that they did not get a provoke like ability. Some say that having a Provoke like ability would severely over power the Paladin job. I would argue that this ability is 10X more potent than provoke, if used to make a massive spike of hate (at what turns out to be no loss of MP and being nearly invincible in the process due to CONSTANT Cure III and Cure IV spamage.)
::This one ability alone will come to be viewed as more important that even Dark Knights TP-Drain!
::Cons - well there are 3 cons to this ability.
::#When you use this ability you lose all of your TP, so no WS are available. This may be ok in an exp party... but more times than not, it wont.
::#If you don’t know what you’re doing, you can spike hate so high that no one can get the enemy off of you; hate almost as high as invincible. Depending on the enemy this can be a bad thing actually.
::#It will NOT free you from the need of Refresh.
::Recommendations - Get it first. It will help with both survivability and Hate (depending on how you use it). However, you might not want to fully upgrade this. There is a hidden goodie that would be far more beneficial to fully merit. Just having this will be enough, especially because more upgrades will not have a greater effect on the ability itself. Sure, you can merit it down to a 15 minute recast. But I would argue that a fight which will last 15 minutes.... will more than likely last more than 20 minutes. I.e. Fafnir and Kirin will both last more than 20 minutes; while Faust and Seiryu will both last less than 15 minutes. So what’s the point in the reduced timer, considering there is no added effect.
:Iron Will - Believe it or not this ability is not as bad as it sounds. It adds a spell interruption rate down effect to Rampart.
::Pros - It is a PASSIVE JOB TRAIT, which means you don’t have to activate Iron Will itself; rather it is tied to Rampart. It is used automatically when Rampart is in effect. Not only is that but the key, most important part of this ability that Rampart is AOE. This means that the entire tank party/exp party gets this effect.
::It remains to be seen how this will effect a mage who is paralyzed by lets say Cerberus, but one thing is for damn sure, if you have a Nin buddy who is having troubles getting that Utsinemi back up and running, this will help him as well. Something to note about this ability is that it helps 5 OTHER people out. Therefore has a chance to be more useful than anyone else gives it credit for.
::Some have actually told me that, "I won't merit this trait, because it will only last for 30 seconds." I say... your entire agreement is not right.
::#Ramparts recast is 5 minutes and lasts 30 seconds. Therefore, during the time it takes to use Chivalry 1 time (and have it recharge)... You got to use Rampart 4X!!! The math is simply rampartX4 = 2 minutes worth of effect.
::#You can merit Rampart down in recast time. Thereby further enhancing this duration.
::Cons - "How useful is -Spell interruption anyway? Lets face it; no mages wear the stuff with -spell interruption." I'm one of those lucky few Paladins that actually experimented with things like Knightly earring and other -interruption items. I must say that it most definitely has an effect on getting off a sloppy cure, saving you the time it takes to recast it. And that was only with something like 15% interruption rate down. There is a reason mages put up Aqua veil for important fights. 
:Guardian - This ability reduces the rate at which hate decays!!! Huh!? Wait a minute... It took me about 3 days of thinking about this, in action, before I realized just how... BROKEN this ability actually is. Please give me a chance to explain, you've been with me this far lol.
::Pros -
::#This is a PASSIVE TRAIT and also improves as you merit it. (Something Fealty and Chivalry do not do) 
::#Not only that but it is linked to Sentinel. This is perfect. Sentinel ONLY EFFECTS YOU it is not AoE. Your mages won’t get this effect, and neither will the Nin sitting next to you ;).
::#Being linked to Sentinel, you get to abuse this every 5 minutes. (Can merit sentinel down to 4 minutes I believe) That's 4-6 uses per every Chivalry for a total of 2-3 minutes of reduced hate decay. O.o
::# Level 2 upgrade INCREASES this effect by 19% wow
::Lets look at how this ability is used. Flash -> Provoke -> Cure III or Cure IV -> Sentinel (with Guardian). Now for 30 Seconds the hate you generated from this routine remains relatively constant. Then, after 30 seconds what happens? Stack on another Provoke-> Cure III or IV -> Flash. Did you actually see what just happened? Did you just notice how BROKEN that shit is?
::If you didn't think about Hate... Think about how much Hate you just made in the first part. Then think about that much hate being relatively constant. Now think about that hate spiking up even further upward with the second routine! Now you’re starting to get how AMAZING this ability is.
::Ok, let’s take this to an extreme and work Chivalry into the mix. Let’s chose something that will actually damage you... like Seiryu. Flash -> Provoke -> Cure IV -> defender -> Cure IV -> Cure III -> Sentinel (with Guardian) -> Cure IV -> Chivalry (now you have full MP). NOT ONLY THAT, But you also have a HUGE amount of hate that remains static for 30 seconds!!! After that 30 seconds, you stack on another provoke, and another Cure IV and another Flash. Sweet lord!!
::Fully merited and used correctly this is quite possibly the single most important thing we got. I mean any job can spike hate. But this just solidified Paladin as the masters of Hate.
::Cons - Lasts for 30 seconds, and has a 5 minute recast (unless sentinel is merited), so you must use this often and wisely... other wise you are not using it to its fullest and most glorious potential. I know you can all hold hate off a BLM casting a Flare or Freeze. But with this ability it is EXTREMELY possible to hold hate from a BLM that just Freeze -> Flare back to back.
::Recommendations - This ability is more awe inspiring (in a hidden way) than all of the other abilities. I mean it’s not as flashy as lets say Chivalry. In fact, when most see you use sentinel they won’t even know your using Guardian. Not only that but it gets better with merits!! I highly advise maxing this one out.
:SE gave us what is possibly the best SET of upgrades of any Job.
====Review====
:There are certain things to focus on. Certain Merits that are considered so good that they are almost essential to the Paladins Career. Listed in priority these are:
:#Shield Maximum
:#Hit Points
:These are the things that will keep you alive. With these completely upgraded there is a very good chance you will survive an assault by anything on Vana’diel. Everything else on the list is completely your decision. But if you are going to be the main tank, max these. 
:Ok, HP doesn’t need to be maxed, but at least 5 upgrades ;)
==Disclaimer and Resources==
 
:Over the years if have read many of guides on Paladin. It would be wrong to say that my opinion has not been shaped by those readings. My problem lies in the fact that I have read so many guides that I can no longer remember where I got what facts from which guide. I went from my “own knowledge” during the writing of this guide. If there is some portion of this guide that seams very familiar that is the reason.
 
:Also, there is quite a bit of numerical data in this guide. All of the numerical data in this guide was not initially compiled by myself. I lifted it from these sites:
 
*Totalffxi.net
*Mysterytour
*Koolaid-ffxi.org
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