Paladin Guide for Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen
Welcome, adventurers! If you’re drawn to resilience, protecting your allies, and wielding divine power to smite your foes, the Paladin in Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen is the class for you. This guide will walk you through the Paladin’s core mechanics, abilities, and strategies to help you become an indomitable force on the battlefield.
The Paladin is the embodiment of virtue and courage, channeling divine power to protect allies and vanquish darkness. With strong defenses, group-enhancing auras, and celestial abilities, the Paladin is a steadfast protector and righteous warrior. Whether you’re tanking, healing, or supporting your group, the Paladin brings invaluable utility and strength to any party.
Character Creation
Race
The Dwarf is arguably the best race choice for Paladins with their high Strength, Stamina, Constitution, and Wisdom. Elves and Humans are both decent choices, while the Dark Myr are the worst choice with their naturally low Wisdom and Strength.
Stats / Attributes
- Strength: Increases your melee damage.
- Constitution: Boosts your armor class and increases crowd control resilience.
- Wisdom: Increases Spell Crit
Core Mechanics
Paladins rely on two primary resources:
- Wrath: Powers divine abilities like Righteous Flame and Oath Flame.
- Readiness: Fuels techniques like Condemning Blow.
Additionally, Paladins generate Reckoning Points, which are used for high-impact abilities such as Edict of Celestial Authority. This system encourages strategic use of your toolkit to balance threat generation, healing, and damage.
Essential Abilities
Here’s a breakdown of the Paladin’s most important abilities for tanking, healing, and supporting:
Tanking Abilities
- Condemning Blow (Level 1): A basic strike that generates threat. Keep this on cooldown for consistent threat generation.
- Insight (Level 2): A single-target taunt that forces the enemy to attack you. Ideal for maintaining aggro during chaotic encounters.
- Light Guard (Level 5): A weapon-based block ability that parries the next physical attack, offering defensive utility without requiring a shield.
- Avenger’s Vow (Level 5): Generates 750 Wrath instantly but increases both damage taken and dealt by 10% for 10 seconds. Use it to quickly fuel Wrath-based abilities.
- Radiant Celestial Flame (Level 8): Deals Divine damage over time to enemies in an area around you while generating aggro. Be cautious, as it breaks crowd control effects.
Healing Abilities
- Faithful Strike (Level 1): An attack that heals you for some of the damage dealt and generates threat.
- Lay on Hands (Level 1): A powerful life-saving ability that completely restores the health of your target. Note: It has a 30-minute cooldown.
- Oath Flame (Level 4): A single-target heal that costs Wrath, providing flexibility for supporting your allies.
- Hymn of Devotion (Level 8): A passive aura that boosts all healing received by your group members by 20%, strengthening overall survivability.
Support and Utility Abilities
- Devout Strike (Level 1): Applies Disoriented to the target, a debuff exploitable by your allies for increased damage.
- Edict of Celestial Might (Level 5): Affectionately called “Yoink,” this ability pulls a target to your location. It’s great for repositioning enemies or stopping runners.
- Golden Aegis (Level 11): A self-only defensive cooldown granting 10 seconds of invulnerability to damage and crowd control effects.
Offensive Abilities
- Righteous Flame (Level 3): Applies a proc effect to all your attacks, causing additional Divine damage for 20 seconds. Excellent for burst phases.
- Smite on Death (Level 9): A nuke tailored to undead enemies, dealing heavy damage and generating Wrath.
- Lance of the Lightful (Level 9): Impales your target with celestial light, dealing Divine damage and stunning enemies below 25% health.
- Oath of Might (Level 10): Provides a Divine damage proc to all melee attacks, stacking with Righteous Flame for exceptional threat generation.
Playstyle and Tips
- Threat Management: Paladins excel at holding aggro. Use abilities like Condemning Blow, Insight, and Radiant Celestial Flame to maintain threat. Position yourself in front of enemies to maximize damage and threat generation.
- Healing and Support: While primarily a tank, the Paladin has strong healing capabilities. Use Oath Flame and Lay on Hands to support your group in emergencies.
- Crowd Control and Utility: Abilities like Edict of Celestial Might and Devout Strike provide excellent crowd control and debuff utility. Use them to reposition enemies or enhance your group’s damage output.
- Resource Management: Balance your use of Wrath and Readiness. Use Avenger’s Vow to quickly generate Wrath when needed, but be mindful of the increased damage taken.
Leveling and Group Play
- Solo Play: Paladins are durable, can handle solo content effectively, and might be the best solo class in the game. Use Faithful Strike and Oath Flame to sustain yourself during fights.
- Group Play: In groups, focus on tanking and supporting your allies. Use Hymn of Devotion to boost healing and Golden Aegis to mitigate heavy damage during critical moments.
Gear and Stats
- Weapons: Use a single-handed weapon and shield if you have trouble staying alive. Otherwise use a two-hander, especially for faster soloing.
- Shields: While not mandatory, shields like the Crude Kite Shield can provide additional defense. Note that Paladins currently lack shield-specific abilities, but this may change in future updates.
