Paladin

Paladin
 **Equipment** | -

The **Paladin** is a tank class in OrbusVR that gains advantage from taking damage. The Paladin is considered the easier and more versatile tank class for most content, but usually generates less aggro than a Warrior.

## Weapon Interface

File:Paladin-HUD.png

* Health: Don't let this drop to 0.
* Super Ability: Fills by hitting enemies with your hammer. For activating your super, see section Super Ability.
* Stamina: Dictates how far you can sprint/teleport.
* Librams: From left to right: Libram of Blessing, Libram of Healing, Libram of Power.
* Charges ("Pips"): Available charges.
* Cooldowns: From top to bottom: Plea of Protection/Divinity, Hammer of Retribution/Forgiveness, Charge cooldown, Shield

## Abilities

### Charges (Pips)

The Paladin has the lowest base damage in Orbus. Hitting an enemy with your hammer will deal next to no damage, unless you have a charge (called "pip"), indicated by the orbs to the right of the handle of your hammer. Generating, using and managing these charges is the core part of Paladin gameplay.

Up to 5 charges can be stored on the weapon at once. While having less than 5 charges, a Paladin takes 50% less damage from all attacks and DoTs.

**Gaining Charges**

Pips can be gained in two different ways:

* Raising the hammer in the air will call down a lightning strike and give two pips.
* Taking damage will generate energy proportional to how much damage was taken. Taking more damage generates more pips. Abilities that boost your energy generation will increase the amount of pips gained from the same amount of damage.

**Using Charges**

Pips are used for and consumed by:

* Increasing the damage of normal attacks (1 pip per hit)
* Ground Slam (3 pips)
* Heal/Attack from range (2 pips)
* Teleport using hammer throws (1 pip)
* Stunning targets with hammer throws (1 pip)

### Attacks

The normal attacks of a Paladin don't do much damage at all, unless the Paladin has a Charge on their hammer.

#### Ground Slam (AoE)

By hitting the ground with their hammer, a Paladin can damage multiple enemies near them. Three charges are needed to perform a Ground Slam.

#### Hammer Throw (Stun and Teleport)

The hammer can be thrown at an enemy; if there is a charge on it, it will stun the enemy for a short time and interrupt certain abilities.

* Drop your hammer in the enemy for multiple interrupts in quick succession (for example on Minotaur or Seamstress).
* This can be used to stunlock an enemy, even a boss, for quite a while (use a Sticky ring for a longer stun duration).
Efficiently stun with two pips by throwing the hammer through the enemy with quite a bit of force, then pull it back to stun again as soon as the stun wears off.
* When an enemy is stunned many times in succession, they will get stun immunity for a short while.

By pressing trigger on the weapon hand while the hammer with at least one charge on it is in the air will make the Paladin teleport to the hammer's location.

* The hammer can only be in the air for a short period of time, and can only fly up to a certain distance away before coming back.
* Pressing and holding the grip button while the hammer is in the air will make it fly back earlier.
* Dodging the returning hammer can make it overshoot. "Slingshotting" the hammer this way and teleporting to it can be used for overworld as well as combat mobility, to cross large distances quickly.
* Pressing trigger without charges on the hammer will make it appear in the Paladin's hand immediately without teleporting.

#### Ranged Heal/Attack

The *Hammer of Retribution* and *Hammer of Forgiveness* talents add the ability to damage enemies from afar or heal allies for the cost of two charges. The ability is activated by pointing at the target and pressing trigger, and has a short cooldown.

Hammer of Forgiveness doesn't convert the charges to healing - it takes a small amount of your health and gives it to the target player.

### Shield

 File:Paladin-Shield.png
By raising their off-hand high up in the air, a Paladin can use a temporary shield that absorbs 99% of all damage taken for 1.5 seconds. Energy and charges are generated as if the attack hit normally. This allows a Paladin to completely ignore some mechanics on certain bosses while also gaining advantage from it.

This ability has a cooldown of 12 seconds, indicated by the blue shield icon next to the handle.

### Librams (Books)

 File:Paladin-empower-icon.png | Libram of Power | Empower. Grants a buff for 5 seconds that will increase the damage of the Paladin's next attack, or the healing from their next Libram of Healing or Super.

### Super Ability

The Paladin's super ability is called *Lay On Hands*. It heals a large amount of HP and will either give the Paladin a 50% buff to armor or can be used on other players, depending on the level 15 talent. It can also be empowered by a Empower Book for a large heal spike of up to 2.5 million, generating a lot of healing aggro.

The Paladin's Super is unique in that its activation requires a two-step process:

1. Activate the Super by pressing and holding both triggers simultaneously. A glowing orb will appear in your off-hand
2. Use the grip button of your off-hand to activate. With the *Generosity* talent, you can give the heal to another player by holding your hand inside of their body while pressing grip.

Every hit on enemies (even without pips) will charge the super.

## Surviving

In shard dungeons and raids, the enemies and bosses can hit like a truck, and it can be difficult to survive. A Paladin has a lot of tools at their disposal that enables them to stay alive even on very powerful enemies, but being conservative with the books and using too many stuns and kiting too much can cause them to lose aggro.

General tips for survival:

* Never have 5 pips. If you can't get rid of them fast enough, use Ground Slams.
* Only pull one add group at a time.
* Make sure you are familiar with the mechanics of the bosses, and know which attacks to take, which attacks to shield, and which attacks to dodge.
* Have a Musketeer or Bard that runs the full support build of their class.
* Communicate with your healer who is using their heal when, to not waste any heals.
* Keep an eye out for projectile attacks. They hurt a lot even in plate armor.
* Use your Shield and Plea of Protection to buy time for you to use an empowered Heal Book or for your healer to react.
* Stun the strongest enemy if you and your healer can't outheal the damage.
* If your healer is a Musketeer, they can Musky-tank one of the weaker enemies to take pressure off of you.
* Run in a large circle and kite the enemies around when everything else fails. Throw your hammer far and teleport to it to keep the enemies running.

## Holding Aggro

Keeping enemies focused on you can become difficult if you are playing with players that dish out a lot of damage, or a Musketeer that has to overheal a lot to keep everyone alive. A Paladin that has problems holding aggro needs to carefully balance between survivability and aggro generation.

Some general tips for holding aggro:

* Healing yourself counts as negative damage, and will generate aggro too. An empowered Heal Book will generate a lot of healing aggro (best used when holding 3 or more enemies), as will your Super (empower it for a crazy heal spike of up to 2.5 million), but only do this if you need a heal anyway or are sure you won't need it later.
* Your Heal Book (with the *Libram of Protection* talent) and your Plea of Protection give you a boost to energy generation. If you are sure you won't need them to stay alive, use these abilities as often as possible.
* Take off some armor, or use a set of lower-level armor (but keep your high-level weapon). You will take more damage, which in turn will give you more pips.
* Your Taunt Book generates some aggro too while giving a boost to Intellect and Strength, further increasing aggro generation from healing and attacks. You might need to save this book in case someone pulls from you.
* If you can't hold aggro and stay alive at the same time, ask your teammates to do less damage. A slightly longer fight is better than wiping multiple times.

### Boss

This is the main strategy for most bosses. May differ a little from boss to boss, as you'll need to adjust for boss mechanics.

1. Wait until you have 5 charges on your hammer and your charge cooldown ready (but don't raise your hammer yet).
2. Start by throwing in.
3. Use your Empower Book, then your Taunt Book and attack until you used up all of your charges.
4. Raise your hammer to get two more pips, use them to attack.
5. Use your Empower Book as soon as it is off cooldown to empower either your Heal Book or your normal attacks.

The Dungeon Troll and Dovregubben bosses take extra damage when they are stunned, and won't hit you to give you any pips. This is the strategy to hold aggro on those bosses:

1. Once the boss is stunned, collect as many pips as you can, while counting to 5-7 (depending on the boss and how fast you count - try to figure it out in an unsharded dungeon).
2. Use your Empower Book, then your Taunt Book.
3. Hit the boss with all your pips before it wakes up, then continue as normal.

### Add groups

Focus on keeping the small melee enemies and large brutes, as their attacks can't be dodged easily. Don't worry about holding the ranged enemies - the other players should be able to dodge the projectiles or use level geometry to their advantage and kill these enemies first while you entertain the melee enemies and build up aggro. Keep an eye out for stray bolts, these will hurt even in plate armor.

* You can use your Shield on Bolts or Smash attacks to gain a bunch of pips.

**Three or more enemies**

1. Wait until you have 5 charges on your hammer and your charge cooldown ready (but don't raise your hammer yet).
2. Start by either throwing in or have someone pull the group towards you, depending on if there are other groups nearby.
3. Use an empowered Taunt Book, then Ground Slam.
4. Raise your hammer to get two more pips, then Ground Slam again.
5. Use your empowered Ground Slam as soon as you have 3 pips ready, and hit priority targets like Elites with single attacks.

**Two enemies**

Use the same strategy as for larger groups, but after establishing aggro, alternate direct hits (with pips) between targets and empower as needed.

### Regaining Aggro

Losing aggro just happens sometimes - especially Scoundrels and Rangers can deal some hefty and often unexpected spike damage. But don't worry, your Taunt Book will make it easy to get aggro back quickly. Save this book for emergencies, especially on bosses.

* Consider if you even need to chase after the enemy. If it is already at low health, it might die before even reaching the person who pulled. Not recommended on bosses.
* The person who pulled needs to stop hitting the enemy *immediately* and start running towards the tank. If they run away from you, you are allowed to shout at them and let them die if they don't come back.
* Make sure you have a few pips on your hammer, pull your Taunt Book, then hit the enemy with all your pips (if possible, empower) to re-establish aggro. The person that pulled should wait a few seconds until starting to attack again.
* If your Taunt Book is not available, use your pips to stun-lock the enemy until you can use it.

## Talents

 10
 15
 20
 30

* Plea of Divinity is supposed to be used *before* a player dies, but it can also be applied to a dead player. If the dead player then uses the "To Graveyard" button (not "Reawaken"!), they revive instead.
* Plea of Divinity does not give the resurrected player a revive timer.
* After applying Plea of Divinity, the glowing orb might not disappear from the player's hand and the Plea can be applied infinitely.
* Occasionally, both the Super Ability and Plea of Divinity will appear in the Paladin's off-hand at the same time, preventing them from using the Super.
	+ If Plea of Divinity is selected, applying the Plea to a player will fix it, using both the Plea and the Super.
	+ If Plea of Protection is selected, the Super cannot be used until the player changes classes or relogs.

### Full Tank

The most popular Paladin build is the pure Tank build that only focuses on staying alive. With all the defensive talents, this build is a damage sponge that can absorb *a lot* of damage.

**Talents**

* Blessing of Attack: Helps with aggro generation.
* Libram of Protection: Healing your teammates is the Support's responsibility, not yours.
* Defensive: 50% armor buff is a lot.
* Hammer of Retribution or Hammer of Forgiveness: This ability is rarely used, so use whatever you like more.
* Plea of Protection: 25% damage reduction is a lot, and can give you or your healer the time needed to use heals. The additional boost to energy generation helps with aggro too.
 Can be switched for Plea of Divinity to keep important people from dying in some raid strategies.

### Support Paladin

This build is almost never used as a main healer for PvE, as it cannot compete with the support classes, but is very valuable in team PvP because of its healing potential, mobility and survivabilty.

**Talents**

* Blessing of Attack
* Libram of Assistance
* Defensive
* Hammer of Forgiveness
* Plea of Protection: Due to the long cooldown time of Plea of Divinity, that talent is not suited for Battlegrounds (but can be useful for overworld PvP).

### PvP Assassin

By hitting an enemy player with all 5 pips, a Paladin can easily kill other players. This, in combination with excellent defense and mobility makes this Paladin a big threat in PvP combat.

**Talents**

* Blessing of Attack
* Libram of Protection
* Defensive
* Hammer of Retribution
* Plea of Protection

## Gear Enhancements

**Armor**

* Crit Damage
* Crit Chance

**Rings**

* Empowered
* Sticky

**Weapon**

* Unbending helps with survivability.
* Charged Strikes or Bleed as a secondary affix, Iceheart works too if running with a Mage that occasionally uses Frost spells.
* First Strike for offensive PvP builds.

## Tips and Tricks

* Move your books a bit up and to the side to make it easier to see the cooldowns without having to look down and make them easier to grab.

## Gallery

Orbus Paladin Pherosis.pngPherosis as a Paladin
## Orbus Community Resources

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