Rapid Smiting / Holy Cross Str Type Paladin Guide By Littleboynamedtrain

[BeforeMidnight]

I. Introduction

II. Equipment

III. Stats

IV. Skills

V. Notes

I. Introduction

Moving on to another Paladin guide, this time we’ll have more about the offensive capabilities of the pally. This is the second Paladin guide I’ve done so far because hell yeah, class mastery, and there really is more to it than just badass defense. And there isn’t a guide for it at all so here it is. Again, second to the series, who knows, I might make another for another type. Here’s me giving you the hint.

To you and your pals, read on and thank you for reading my guides.

II. Equipment

Headgear

Top

• Valkyrie Helm / Valkyrie Expansion Hats / Limited Edition Headgears – Limited Edition Headgears because on this type of pally, we value those stats like it ain’t always enough.

Card/s

• Kiel + Maya Purple/Forsaken Soldier/Gemini

Mid

• LHZ / Rune of Power / Lovely Ribbon Aurora – These have the same effects, just different looks.
• Emperium Aurora – Useful for more stats.

Card/s

• Kiel

Lower

• Paladin Ring of the Divine

Card/s

• Kiel

Armor

• Forsaken King Armor

Card/s

• Ghostring + Tao Gunka – Default
• Ghostring + RSX – Anti Knockbacks like Arrow Repel.
• Ghostring + Orc Lord – Reflect. Yes. Still.
• Ghostring + Puppetring OR Puppetring + Puppetring – I don’t know why I’ve put this in here. It’s really not that necessary but I guess for the sake of trying the Paladin in different heights. You’re still considered as a wall no matter what the build so considering that, it would still take a few more extra hits to take you down. During that ordeal, this might just work for whatever reason you think it’s for.

Cloak

• Forsaken King Cloak

Card/s

• 2x Skoll – Still my default even on this mode.
• 2x Deviling – This + GTB shield is sometimes enough to counteract against Biochemist Acid Bomb and Bolts.
• 2x Raydrics – In all honesty, I’ve never ever used this on any of my Paladins. But sure let’s add it in here.

Shoes

• Forsaken King Boots

Card/s

• 2x Fallen Bishop – On the previous Paladin Guide I’ve made, I’ve advised against using 2x FBH on the Paladin because it’s not a STR built Paladin anyway. It’s more of a HP/Reflect type and that was our priority. But for this, don’t be afraid to go 2x FBH because you just have more than average HP, you are pretty much easier to kill, so you’re going to have to spam an awful lot of seeds in faster speeds anyway to stay alive. It seems balanced now so make sure you’re making use of your SP too. Take out your shield and Rapid Smite people.
• Dragoon Wizard + General Egnigem Cenia – Wear this while chasing hit-and-run players. Whenever you’re in range of them to attack, switch to 2x FBH. If that’s too much of a hassle, then use it only for casual defending, and Martyr’s Reckoning.

Weapon

• Legendary Paladin Spear
• Odin’s Avenger

Card/s

• 2x Turtle General, Valkyrie Randgris, Skeleton Worker, Mao Guai – 2x TGs and a Valkyrie Randgris is mandatory. It’s up to you to choose between Mao Guai (Inflict 20% more damage on Ghost Property) and Skeleton Worker (Increase damage inflicted on medium sized monster by 15%, ATK + 15) on which you will use to compound onto your main spear.
• Metaling Card, Dragoon Warlord Card, Lord of the Dead Card, Valkyrie Randgris Card – These go to your utility spear. A Legendary Paladin Spear is enough to do the job. Strip + Coma + Dispel all in one. But of course it’s up to you if you prefer having more than 1 LoD card in there or more DW or Metaling.

Shield

• Frigg’s King Shield
• +10 Cross Shield – Refine to +10. Dropped by Incarnation of Morroc (Mob ID: 1919). This shield increases Rapid Smiting and Shield Boomerang damage by 30% (Frigg’s King Shield only does 15%, and to top it off, the Cross Shield weighs 50 points more than the Frigg’s), however, it also increases the SP consumption of skills by 10%.
  
  Use this only for going all out on attack. Watch around you and switch to Frigg’s immediately when necessary.

Card/s

• Usakoring
• Golden Thief Bug
• Maya

Accessory

• STR Belts
• VIT Belts
• Loki’s Seal with STR Runes (Rapid Smiting and Holy Cross)
• Asgard’s Essence with VIT Runes (Martyr’s Reckoning)
• Ring of Resonance (Blue Ifrit Ring) (Just-in-case Ring?)

III. Stats

There’s a pattern to follow when it comes to this certain build’s stat. What I am talking about is what or which offensive skill you’re going more of into. For example, I am more into using the Rapid Smiting skill for my STR Pally. Then what I’m going to do is wear my Valkyrie Helm/LTD Helm and adjust my stats according to that to get to the ‘divisible by 10’ thing bonus when adding stats.

On the other hand, if I prefer to use more Holy Cross, I’d use the specialized helm such as the Angel of Ghost helm here so I’ll wear it; adjust my stats again until it is divisible by 10.

Lastly, if I was going for a Martyr’s Reckoning pally, I’d wear the Halloween helms which boost my HP, and adjust my stats again accordingly.

These three patterns depend on these 3 headgears because yes, their stats and bonuses vary. Whichever of these you might use, the two others will just have to follow and adjust according to your chosen path.

After wearing your main headgear, put stats in this order: STR (until you decide where to stop around 290+), DEX (until you have a total of 150), AGI (until you have a total of 195 ASPD, unbuffed), VIT (until the rest of your stat points run out).

STR - 290+
AGI - (until you have 195 ASPD)
VIT - (the rest of stats)
INT - 1
DEX - 150 total
LUK - 1

IV. Skills

Offensive:

• Rapid Smiting – Primary offensive skill. Works especially well when you’re using a +10 Cross Shield with it.
• Holy Cross – This very much hurts given the right circumstances. The frequency of how much you can use this skill depends on how high your ASPD is. So that’s one of the reasons why we need 195 ASPD in this build.
• Martyr’s Reckoning – I don’t even have to explain.
  But just a note, according to my research department, Martyr’s Reckoning favors more HP than more ATK to deal more damage. If you ever wondered if using 2x Loki’s Seals is better when using Martyr’s Reckoning, then let me tell you that it is best to use 2x Asgard’s Essences instead.
• Shield Boomerang – You can get the most out of this skill when you’re linked. It’s a 2^nd to Rapid Smiting kind of thing.

Standard Defensive Skills:

• Endure – You’ll barely enjoy the non-stun-lock luxury time but hey, better be there than not at all!
• Guard – Basically, all kinds of Paladin have to at least shrug and guard off some attacks.
• Shrink – The use of this skill is useful when you’re not interested in fighting back. But if you’re in for the fight, I recommend you just turn it off. We don’t want to chase people while pushing them away at the same time.
• Shield Reflect – Basically, all kinds of Paladin have to at least reflect something back.
• Defending Aura – Very useful in the current meta, as of the time of writing of this guide. Shots fired. Pun very much intended. I’m sorry.
• Battle Chant – Still meant to bring x2s to your mates. And to remove strip statuses and stuff.

Supportive/Utility Skills:

• Magnum Break – Useful for the bonus ATK and HIT. Primer for your Spear and Shield.
• Gloria Domini – Deals a fixed 2000 damage as well as taking away up to 40% SP for each hit.
• Spear Quicken – This is a build where we actually need to have 195 ASPD so one might think this isn’t really that important. But sometimes changing your headgears might have a direct effect on how much ASPD you’ll have on a certain situation. For example, my Rapid Smiting headgear needs to be replaced with the Angel of Ghost helm for some reason, and so by doing so, my ASPD drops from 195 to 192.
  To keep it short, just use it.
• Smite – Can knock back enemies 9 football fields away.
• Berserk – Let your HP drop down below 25% and be granted with a LVL10 Provoke on yourself.
• Provoke – Provoke might increase somebody’s ATK, but don’t forget it also decreases their defense whoever you fancy casting it upon. I’m sure it makes at least a bit of difference to your DPS. Otherwise, prepare for some spankin’.

V. Notes

• Show up in fights wearing your HP gear. I mean wear your Halloween headgear (this is the only thing that shows but still…), your GEC boots, and your Asgards. Having the illusion of you having much, much more HP is often enough to tell them you’re not as easy to kill like the others. Not even counting the defensive buffs you can have anytime. This way, they’ll hesitate, and choose other people to hit instead. If that works, switch to your offensive setup, kill, and good luck explaining.
• I don’t have that much notes so I’ll just state and recap some of the obvious. Correct me if I'm wrong in any of them.
• In this guide I’ve shown you that a STR pally can have 3 (or maybe more) types of Headgear to use. So, if you know how to use it, the Battle Mode, put them in one of your skill bars according to how you like them in order. Easy switching, easy killing.
• Rapid Smiting is forced to stay as a Neutral property skill.
• Martyr’s Reckoning will always be Neutral.
• Holy Cross will always be Holy.
• You are able to carry up to 550 seeds in one go compared to our VIT Paladin that can hold 370 to 400, just to show you the difference.

P.S.

There have been a few edits and additions to the Full Devotion guide (Down below is my signature and one of the links there lead to the Full Devotion / Reflect guide, click on it to check it out). Everything I’ve changed will be listed so you can find them faster.

***Acknowledgments***

- LittleGirlNamedArya

- Kyle (Yatogami#) for the Cross Shield introduction

- Lu for pvp testing. Thanks to you as always.

- Jake too for pvp testing. #jakehelpfulman2k16andimnotevenbluffingorami?

- And of course a special mention to the rest of Rubicon for cheering on and believing the fact that Paladins aren’t wussies and are just for defending!

Edited March 29, 2016 by BeforeMidnight

[lights_of_purification]

Waw. Billie would be proud of you. N1c3 :th_no1:

[Nas]

You're not just tankie. You are the part of our family. Grats for a awesome guide.

[Rayray]

It seems you are new to the class as you only explained the general idea. Good Guide overall.

I would give a tip that one of your weapons should have thanatos card. Thanatos card works on holy cross, making you deal good damage using it. you play as a biochemist when you had that, spam Holy cross when you deal good damage, then use rapid smite when you don't(as rapid smite doesn't get affected by it).

I believe you made a typo up there, you say holy cross forces people to GTB, but I think you meant grand cross, as holy cross is a 2 hit physical attack.

[BeforeMidnight]

Edited the matter, thank you very much :>

As for the Thanatos card, we'll leave it up to them if they want to use it.

[niemono89]

Nice guide.

For me, full brute class for swordsman classes(lord knight) still were my favorite XD

Paladin can be hybrid tanker only :P

Lord knight+paladin=best combo of offender+defender :3

[Pixel]

n01c3 g01d!!!

[Yatogami]

GOOD JOB!! Wao I was credited :D

[Rayray]

Edited the matter, thank you very much :>

As for the Thanatos card, we'll leave it up to them if they want to use it.

Life is so much easier as an STR Paladin if you have it though.