Quick Build
- Recommended Build
- Spear-and-Shield Paladin, same core as Crusader
- Playstyle
- Durable frontline with the roster's best sustain and now a real AoE option (Gospel)
- Difficulty
- Same as Crusader — the new skills are additive, not a rebuild
- Primary Stats
- STR, VIT, DEX, AGI — unchanged from Crusader
- Primary Weapon
- Spear and Shield — same as Crusader
- Best For
- Crusader players who want more party utility without losing the self-heal identity
- Strengths: keeps Crusader's Grand Cross/Sacrifice/Devotion kit unchanged, adds Shield Chain as a real damage option and Gospel as a party-wide AoE utility tool.
- Weaknesses: still no Bowling Bash, Pierce, Spear Stab, or Brandish Spear — the same Knight-exclusive spear-attack skills this guide's Crusader page already flagged as never available to this branch stay excluded at the Transcendent tier too.
What Changes From Crusader
Paladin keeps every skill Crusader has — Faith, Guard, Smite, Shield Boomerang/Reflect,
Holy Cross, Grand Cross, Sacrifice, Spear Quicken, all of it, unchanged. Rebirth adds four
new skills (PA_ prefix): Gloria Domini, Martyr's Reckoning, Battle Chant, and
Shield Chain. Confirming the earlier Crusader finding still holds: Paladin's
tree was checked directly against this server's skill_tree.txt and does not
add Pierce, Spear Stab, Brandish Spear, Spear Boomerang, Two-Hand Sword Mastery, or Bowling
Bash — those remain exclusive to the Knight/Lord Knight branch, at every tier.
New Skills
Priority
- Shield Chain (requires Shield Boomerang 5) — a rapid multi-hit Shield attack, and Paladin's best new damage option. Cheap prerequisite for what it adds.
Party Utility
- Martyr's Reckoning (requires Faith 1, Guard 5, Devotion 3) — redirects damage from a linked ally to yourself, with a counter-damage component. A real tanking tool for parties, building directly on the Devotion (Sacrifice) skill you already have from Crusader.
- Battle Chant (requires Faith 8, Divine Protection 3, Demon Bane 5) — an AoE buff/debuff zone around you affecting everyone nearby, allies and enemies both. Situational, but a genuine party-wide tool Crusader never had.
Situational
- Gloria Domini (requires Faith 5, Guard 5, Smite 2) — a holy-element AoE nuke centered on yourself. Decent extra damage against Undead/Demon targets, secondary to your existing Grand Cross.
Equipment & Cards
No new weapon type is introduced by Rebirth — your Spear-and-Shield loadout, refine path, and card choices from the Crusader guide all carry forward unchanged. Prioritize any new equipment budget toward refine levels and Shield upgrades rather than a gear swap.
Party Role & PvM
Paladin's party identity gets stronger, not different — Martyr's Reckoning gives you a deliberate damage-redirect tool on top of the self-sustain (Sacrifice, Grand Cross) Crusader already had, making this the roster's most reliable off-tank/damage-soak option. Shield Chain gives you a real damage rotation to fall back on between defensive-cooldown windows.
Final 99/70 Build
- Stats
- Same endgame spread as Crusader, refined with your 52 Rebirth bonus points toward VIT/STR
- Weapon
- Refined Spear and Shield, same card foundation as Crusader
- Skills
- Full Grand Cross/Sacrifice kit from Crusader, plus Shield Chain and Martyr's Reckoning built out
- Playstyle
- Same self-sustaining frontline as Crusader, now with a real damage rotation and a deliberate tanking tool
Transcendent
This build's foundation, before Rebirth.