History

The Paladin was the third sword/heavy armor based class introduced. It was originally meant to be a combination of the Warrior and Priest, using a sword, tome, and heavy armor. However, the tome was eventually replaced with the seal and was stuck since then. To this day, the Paladin is one of the 3 healing classes, along with the original Priest and the Necromancer. Similar to the Knight and Warrior, but is separated by having access to an ability that is both defensive and offensive, but a smaller stat cap. A Paladin is one of the most useful classes in groups and teamwork, and plays a particularly big role in group healing and boosting. You can find his stats, caps, and averages here.

Equipment

The Paladin is one of the three heavy armor/sword classes, along with the Warrior and Knight. The sword provides Paladins with high attack power, and grows even higher during a seal boost, but at the cost of low range. Although the Paladin wishes it had longer range, the sword is enough to make him powerful and mighty. You may want to refer to this sword comparison guide for additional help.

The Skysplitter Sword/Sword of Acclaim are the main weapons for the Paladin, with high damage output. Great for use against larger enemies, gods, and bosses. Should be the go-to weapon for high damage output. The choice of whether one wants to use an Acclaim or Stone Sword depends on the situation. The Skysplitter or Acclaim almost always does higher DPS than the Stone Sword does, so if you're targeting a single enemy for more than a second, use Skysplitter or Acclaim over the Stone Sword.

The Crystal Sword has plenty of secondary uses. There are times when the regular range of 3.5 just doesn't cut it. The Crystal Sword comes to help you with a boosted range of 4.5, but at a lower damage output than the Skysplitter or Acclaim. Crystal Sword is great against dungeon bosses in certain phases, and can be used for mob control, whether in the godlands, or against the undead lair slimes. Because of the significantly lowered damage output however, the Crystal Sword has the least utility of any sword.

The Demon Blade is one hell of a sword. Although it is weaker than the Crystal Sword, it fires two shots, which does even higher damage than the Skysplitter or Acclaim if you can get both shots to hit. It's very powerful if you're daring enough to get up to point-blank range with the enemy, because the shots from the demon blade are slightly spread out. This sword goes nicely with the Seal of Blasphemous Prayer (Oreo), as it allows you to withstand any sort of damage for a moment.

The Ancient Stone Sword is an in-between of the Tiered Swords and the Crystal Sword. It does the most damage of any sword, has a lower rate of fire, and has a higher range than the Skysplitter or Acclaim, but lower than Crystal Sword. As stated before, the Stone Sword does not do more DPS than the Acclaim does in most situations. However, it still has a great utility by quickly dealing damage to a boss, with a few shots, and rushing back. A boosted Paladin can do upwards of 800 damage with a single shot! It is therefore best to use this sword when a boss has several enemies surrounding them dealing high damage, or if it is almost impossible to stay near a boss without taking a lot of damage. This sword also complements the Oreo seal, just as the Demon Blade does. Heavy armor helps a lot for a sword user, which absorbs the most damage of the three armor types. This allows Paladins to take many hits, making it easier to fight close range with the sword. That being said, the Paladin is the weakest in terms of defense of the three heavy armor users because the seal does not provide a defense boost like the shield or helm do.

Ability

His special ability is the seal, which gives healing and an attack boost to you and your allies. Unlike Priest and Necromancer's ability to heal, the healing of the seal is not instant, but rather gradual; the Paladin's seals dramatically increase you and your allies’ rate of HP restoration (about 28 HP/s) over a certain amount of time, increase your and your allies' maximum health (the health boost also heals you), and modify the attack stat (increasing the damage you deal by 150%). In essence, this ability is a mix between offense and defense, and should be used both ways. The seal can be used both offensively and defensively, though never wholly one or the other. Offensive paladins can use the seal to rush in toward small groups of gods or a single boss and attack vigorously while using the healing abilities to shrug off some damage taken. The attack boost helps greatly by giving the Paladin much more damage per second, (killing your enemies much more quickly and thus reducing the risk they pose to you and your group), while the healing boost can offset the damage taken by enemies. Defensive Paladins can back away from large groups, heal themselves when they're low on HP, and attack one enemy at a time. A skilled player will switch (and know when to switch) between partial offensive and partial defensive play depending on the situation. Offensive paladins should not be using their seals when you are facing easy-to-deal with enemies or gods such as the Beholder, Flying Brain, or Djinn (though with pets and the high max wisdom stat of the class it is easier than ever to spam one's seal and get away with it). Harder gods such as the Ghost God or Leviathan are more difficult for an un-buffed Paladin to deal with because the paladin has to bite a few shots in order to land hits. As such, the seal becomes more than a simple convenience and starts becoming strategically useful. Playing a paladin purely defensively need not be commonly used (a hybrid of offense and defense is often actually safer because you can mow down your enemies faster), but has its uses nonetheless. More specifically, it should be used when your HP is low, and/or if you want to back away from groups and focus on helping your allies instead. (Though again, unless you are in immediate danger/low on health/in a situation that requires specific group coordination it is more helpful to your allies if you aid in mowing down the opposition!) Keeping track of time is also key to using a Paladin. If you run out of healing or damage sooner than you expected, it can really ruin you when you're trying to avoid damage. Other than that, a seal is pretty simple and straightforward to use. The only thing you have to watch out for is to not waste your precious MP on healing small wounds or attacking easy-to-deal with enemies--if you need to use the seal defensively, try to time the uses of your seal for when they will help the most in recovery unless you have maxed wis and/or a high level MP-heal pet. To get the most out of a paladin without needing to worry about maxing your pet you should stock up on some wisdom potions: with the introduction of a wis-modifier to the seal, the stat not only regenerates your mana faster, it also increases the time, range, and hp-increase of your buff!) As you move up the seal's tiers, the time, range, and MP cost increases. The amount healed per second and damage increase stays the same, it's the duration and range of the effect that affect the Paladin, and other players around. There are 2 main seals to play with:

The Seal of the Holy Warrior/Seal of the Blessed Champion (Zseal/Golden Cookie) are both seals that give a healing duration of 4 seconds (6 with 75 wis), and have a range of 4.5 (6.75 with 75 wis), which is now standard for every tiered seal. Holy warrior has an HP increase of 55 (82 with 75 wis), while the golden cookie has an HP increase of 75 (or 112 with 75 wis). The Holy warrior seal has an MP cost of 85, while the Cookie has an MP cost of 90. This is recommended for helping your allies, healing yourself, and having a wide room of error for attacking.

The Seal of Blasphemous Prayer (Oreo) is an untiered seal that serves a different purpose than other seals. Oreo gives a healing duration of 5 seconds (7.5 with 75 wis), has a range of 5 (7.5 with 75 wis), gives a +4 speed boost, -4 defense and grants the user invulnerability to all damage for 1.2 seconds (1.8 with 75 wis), all costing 120 MP. While this shouldn't be used as your main seal, the invulnerability time is incredibly useful. (And the speed boost is useful for beating your friends to that event!) It is useful for charging in on a boss, taking absolutely no damage (for a short period of time, be careful), and rushing back. In short, if you're not abusing the invulnerability time or speed boost, don't use it. Certainly don't use it as a complete substitute for a tiered seal--always have a Gcookie/Zseal to switch to!

Strengths and Weaknesses

The Paladin's main strengths are the high attack power, healing, and group help. This is a perfect mix that allows the Paladin to succeed in becoming both an offensive and defensive threat. A Paladin doesn't have any "real" weaknesses, other than the terrible range shared by sword users. It does however, have to tank hits if it wants to deal hits, but the seal helps him all the more for this. It also has low Attack, and the lowest Dexterity stat in the game. This possibly makes it the cheapest class to max, excluding HP and Wisdom. The higher speed stat cap of 55 (introduced when the paladin was reworked) helps the class dodge in and out of harms way all the faster. One of the most common mistakes a new Paladin often makes is rushing in on large groups of enemies with no worry for death. Boosted healing does not equal invincibility! You must still dodge hits in order to stay alive, the seal simply helps take the sting off the hits you take. Do not make this mistake, unless you want to become a Ghost Paladin. Another common mistake is playing a Paladin like playing a Knight. A Knight is able to tank hits and stun enemies, more specifically event bosses. A Knight is able to run in, take a little damage, stun the event boss, attack, and retreat. If played correctly, a Knight is able to take down event bosses quickly and efficiently. A Paladin should not be played the same way, unless you have Oreo on. Paladins often die to event bosses, thinking they are like Knights, or have better tanking abilities than Knights. Paladins are able to land a few hits on an event, but that's about it, not tank hits. A fresh, unmaxed Paladin, like any sword user, is not that great. The averages are just too low for the Paladin to succeed in killing almost any boss, or even farm the Godlands, and do terrible in comparison to another class, such as the Wizard and Necromancer. The low range of the sword is the main cause, and bad range along with low stats do not make a good combination. However, Paladin makes for a formidable force when maxed. Thanks to the damage boost of his seal, a Paladin can do heavy DPS despite possessing a low Dexterity cap of 45. With a Speed of 55, he can run slightly faster than a Knight or a Warrior without his speed boost, and a Defense cap of 30 somewhat accounts for the seal's lack of a defense boost. Though the Paladin is still less of a tank than the Warrior or Knight, the seal's healing properties allow Paladin to recover from non-fatal hits far quicker than a comparable Warrior or Knight could without having to resort to using healing potions. On top of that, the Paladin shares the high HP cap of 770 with the other two melee classes, and has a high Wisdom cap of 75. These distinct properties allow the Paladin to fill the role of a damage-boosting Warrior and the damage-tanking Knight at the same time, but not to the full extent that either class does. A maxed paladin is preferred by many players as an abyss farmer because of the awesome combo of increased dps and healing ability--it's easier to rush straight through because you can ignore most of the shots of the abyss enemies if you time the use of your seal correctly. It does NOT, however, grant you immunity to death! Getting stuck in a corner with a swarm of abyss mobs attacking you is still as deadly as ever. And a small tidbit, using the pixie enchanted sword couple with a seal buff provides an amazing boost in dps as the 1.5 damage multiplier applies to all 4 shots!

Group Role

Paladins are important in groups, and are key if you want to crack the Mysterious Crystal. While a Priest can help large groups by providing HP instantaneously, a Paladin can help groups by providing HP even after they've taken hits. Large groups attacking can bring instant death to more enemies by boosting everyone's attack, which is especially important when attacking the Mysterious Crystal. The damage by the group are boosted even higher when coupled with a Warrior's helm boost.

Event and Dungeon Bosses

Paladins are especially important for other players to take down certain event bosses. Paladins are able to help Knights and Rogues in taking down event bosses, and even groups of players. A skilled Paladin can rise to the challenge of taking down an event boss himself if he is able to abuse the way skull shrines and cube gods shoot to where they predict the enemy will be. A good paladin (or any other class) should be able to make a skull shrine shoot behind itself, get in several shots, and back off. When fighting a cube god, the biggest problem are the cube's minions. Once the cube system is in a favorable position (far away from the cube god), a Paladin can walk in strafing, making the cube god shoot the wrong way until the cube system moves in on top of the cube god again. Because the paladin relies on its speed to manipulate the cube's shot pattern, never go in once slowed by a cube minion. Wait until the slow effect wears off and try again. Remember to never approach an event boss without your seal boost, as the Paladin has the lowest defense of the 3 heavy armor classes, without a defense boost from the seals. While Zseal/Golden Cookie can certainly help you while you're on low health, Oreo performs better by completely negating hits taken by the Paladin, but only for a very brief moment. The results of an ill-timed Oreo boost can be very bad, though. So be very careful using this strategy. In sprite worlds, a paladin maxed on defense can finesse because if the people that are picky and want to take the least amount of damage while dealing the most, it's best to go all in and damage limon from kissing distance (probably with a d-blade or something) with a boost while Limon is in its armored phase, because the boost ignored the armored status, while you are taking damage from limon at a very very slow rate, which is negated through your seal boost. Also, when rushing into a Cube God or Skull Shrine, remember to watch your HP, and strafe left to right constantly. If done correctly, the Cube or Skull will try to predict your movement but actually fire behind itself. Don't get overconfident, never stop moving, and play conservatively, eventually, you will be able to land hits and either kill it or get your soulbound damage in.

Summary

The Paladin has several applications that can be used on the battlefield that work to his advantage, if used correctly. Although it takes some experience and skill to use the Paladin effectively, it can be very good in the right hands. But, if you like to play a class that has high damage output, great defense, and a healing ability, then the Paladin is for you.

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