Paladin Guide

An up-to-date Paladin job guide is provided by The Balance.

Shadowbringers Paladin Guide

Retired Content

The subject of this article was retired or removed from the game in patch 6.0, and is no longer available to players.
Retired items may still be kept in inventory but can no longer be renewably obtained. Tradable items may still be obtained from the Market Board or directly trading with other players.
The information in this article is kept and maintained for historical purposes.
This is the Shadowbringers era guide. It is totally obsolete.

Your Basic combo is Fast Blade - Riot Blade - Rage of Halone (Lv. 26) (upgraded to Royal Authority at Lv. 60). This is all you need to do at level 50.
(lv. 54) - Your damage-over-time (DoT) combo is Fast Blade - Riot Blade - Goring Blade (Lv. 54). Goring Blade is incredibly powerful. Apply Goring Blade right as it is about to fall off your target.
- Use Fight or Flight (FoF) right before Goring Blade, possibly before Riot Blade if your skill speed is good enough - this will allow it to last long enough to buff two Goring Blades.
(Lv. 54) - Your single-target rotation is:

(Lv. 68) - Your Spell combo is Requiescat (Lv. 68) - Holy Spirit - Holy Spirit - Holy Spirit - Holy Spirit - Confiteor (Lv. 80). Before Lv. 80, replace the last Confiteor with another Holy Spirit.
(Lv. 68) - Your single-target rotation is:

During mob pulls, you should always spam your AoE combos as they do more damage with 3 or more enemies.
Total Eclipse - Prominence (Lv. 40) is your basic physical AoE combo for use with Fight or Flight. If you don't have Prominence, just spam Total Eclipse.
Spam Holy Circle (Lv. 72) under Requiescat (Lv. 68). If you have Requiescat but not Holy Circle, use Requiescat but return to spamming your physical AoE.

Always Be Casting (ABC) - minimize downtime and keep triggering GCD abilities without pause. Use oGCD abilities between GCD abilities without having their animation delay your GCDs ("clipping").
Learn your rotations as above. They're built on the basic premise that you want Goring Blade to keep ticking and maximize Fight or Flight (FoF) on it.
The PLD rotation is not situational and quite strict, which also means it's easy once you've mastered it.
Never trigger Requiescat and FoF together.
Use your oGCDs Spirits Within and Circle of Scorn as much as possible. Time Spirits Within to trigger during your FoF buff.
Intervene is your oGCD gap closer and free damage whenever you don't need gap closers.

Keep Iron Will on to generate enmity unless you are not the main tank.
Because of your shield, you are naturally slightly more bulky than other tanks, as you are the only tank smart enough to enter the field of battle with a tool to defend yourself.
Your unique life-saving cooldown, Hallowed Ground, is great for cancelling large amounts of damage from boss mechanics and large mob pulls.
Your large defensive cooldown is Sentinel. Use it frequently to reduce damage taken.
Don't forget to keep using Sheltron, which effectively reduces physical damage by around 20%. It's great for tankbusters and mob pulls.
Self-healing with Clemency can severely disrupt your rotation. Use it only if absolutely necessary (/slap a healer).
You have a lot of situational party savers:
- Cover (Lv. 45) can save a party member, but only if they're really close.
- Divine Veil (Lv. 56) turns into an AoE shield once you're healed, so it has to be used ahead of time (as you don't want to heal yourself).
- Intervention (Lv. 62) can help the main tank against a tankbuster.
- Passage of Arms (Lv. 70) protects your entire party behind you if you stay still, so it is mainly useful when the boss is away launching a big attack.