Building the Perfect Paladin

Warning:

Inner Ability

Monster Park Green Potion

Decent Speed Infusion

Base - 5%

Legion - 3%, 3%

Mastery - 42%

Links - 15%, 7%

DSE - 10%

Hyper Stats - 15%

Total = 100%

Cubing:

Gear Type /Stat Priority​ Reasoning​ Weapon

Secondary

Emblem Combined: Main: %Attack %Boss %IED Bonus: %Attack Paladins have a lot of innate %Damage: 25% from Elemental Charges and 32% from Elemental Force totals to 67% Damage.

Since %Damage scales additively with %Boss Damage, it means that Paladins will naturally scale worse with %Boss than other classes like Heroes and Dark Knights.

At the same time, Paladins are not too reliant on %Ignore Enemy Defence (IED): High Paladin gives you a natural 31%, along with the effective 50% from an enhanced Threaten, plus 10% if you use a Blunt Weapon.

The most important stat to aim for as a Paladin is %attack.

For Bonus Potentials, you want as many %attack lines as possible: All other lines are ineffective when obtained as a Bonus Potential.

Note: Emblems cannot get %Boss. Gloves: Main: %Crit Damage %Str Bonus: %Crit Damage Str/lvl %Str Attack %Crit damage is very powerful, and only gloves can get so much.

If you cannot afford to roll for %Crit damage, %Str is the next best option.

%Crit damage on glove Bonus Potentials are superior to the Strength boosters.

Flat Strength vs %Strength vs Attack depends on your stat ratios. Other: Main: %Str Bonus: Str/lvl

%Str

Attack The rest of you gear only has access to %Str.

Bonus Potentials on other gear can have %Crit damage, but not as much as gloves. As such, you should ignore the line.

Like previously, Flat Strength vs %Strength vs Attack depends on your stat ratios. Hat Training: Main: -2 sec CD This is a special case for training.

Factoring in the hyper point, this amounts to -1.4 second cooldown.

Incredibly useful for training.

Credits to reddit user /u/alostcause for letting me know.

Warning:

First Job

Skill Name 1-point? Level Priority Level up to: War Leap - 1 10 Warrior Mastery - 2 15 Slash Blast YES 3 20 Iron Body - 4 20

1-points first. Always.

Max War Leap ASAP to give yourself the most mobility.

Same reasoning applies for Warrior Mastery + 40% stance is helpful.

Slash Blast next in case of damage issues

Iron Body last as it does not help in the early game.

Second Job

Skill Name 1-point? Level Priority Level up to: Weapon Mastery - 1* 10 Weapon Booster - 2* 10 Physical Training - 3 5 Final Attack - 4 20 Flame Charge YES 5 20 Blizzard Charge YES 6 20 Close Combat YES 7 9

1-points first. Do not deviate.

Weapon Mastery to 5 is to unlock Weapon Booster.

Weapon Booster to 5 is to ensure that it lasts a decent amount of time.

Max out the rest in order for a good balance of stats and damage.

Again, if more damage is required, you can up the priority of Flame Charge and Blizzard Charge.

Third Job

Skill Name 1-point? Level Priority Level up to: Shield Mastery - 1 10 Divine Shield - 2 10 Combat Orders - 3 20 Lightning Charge YES 4 18* (20) Parashock Guard - 5 8* (10) Rush YES 6 8* Achilles - 7 18* (20) Threaten - 8 18* HP Recovery - 9 8*

1-points first. You may or may not be starting to see a trend.

Max Shield Mastery and Divine Shield first and you will become straight up unkillable.

You need 5 points in HP Recovery to level Combat Orders.

Max Combat Orders and it will make both Flame and Blizzard Charge on par with Lightning Charge damage wise + CO's general utility.

This is where things get tricky:

Once CO is maxed, you can leave skills 2 levels below the max, as CO will fill in the rest.

It doesn't really matter what order you level your skills from here.

You get to max out 3 of the 6 skills that you left 2 below max.

I recommend: Lightning Charge, Parashock Guard, Achilles, as I prefer them to always be maxed on the off-chance that CO is not active.

Fourth Job

Skill Name 1-point? Level Priority Level up to: Advanced Charge - 1 10 High Paladin - 2 30 Elemental Force - 3 30 Heaven's Hammer YES 4 30 Power Stance - 5 30 Maple Warrior - 6 30 Blast YES 7 30 Divine Charge YES 8 30 Hero's Will - 9 5 Magic Crash - 10 10 Guardian - 11 20

1-points firs- ow okay I'll stop saying it.

Advanced Charge and High Paladin give incredible boosts to damage.

Elemental Force > Divine Charge because it gives 32% damage and brings all the other Charges to the same level as Divine Charge damage wise.

Max Heaven's Hammer to lower the cooldown.

Stance for quality of life grinding.

Maple Warrior as the last damage buff

Again, attack skills can be levelled earlier if the damage is required.

The rest of the skills are not used for training, so it's best to level them last. It doesn't matter which order you max them.

Essential Tier Blast - Extra Strike The greatest amount of damage you can obtain from a single point - 10% final damage on Blast. Threaten – Enhance Takes Threaten from 30% → 50% PDR Reduction. On bosses with high PDR, this is an insane amount of effective defence ignore. Heaven’s Hammer – Cooldown Cutter Necessary to drop Heaven’s Hammer cooldown to 9.8 seconds.

Your Choice Tier Blast – Reinforce Most people would say it’s core, and I personally run this, I just want it to be known that this works as 20% damage when using Blast, meaning that it stacks additively with %damage and %boss damage, making it much less effective than 20% straight final damage. Threaten – Opportunity Getting this would boost Threaten’s success rate to 100%, meaning you won’t be subjected to the RNG gods forcing you to recast this skill multiple times until Threaten gets applied. I’ve personally once had to use this skill 5 times to get the damn debuff onto a boss. Continually having to recast Threaten means less time spent attacking = less damage. Blast – Critical Chance I heavily recommend not relying on this point to reach 100% crit chance since it only affects Blast. It is possible to get enough crit chance via alternative sources to not require this while not negatively impacting your damage. Heaven’s Hammer – Reinforce Like the Blast point, it does not scale too well against bosses. Against mobs, Heaven’s Hammer will overkill pretty much any mob regardless of this point. Heaven’s Hammer – Extra Strike This is superior to the previous point against bosses. Adding an extra line is very powerful since it acts as a form of pseudo final damage.

Trash Tier Threaten – Persist This point is unnecessary and there are too many better alternatives for it to be regarded.

For reference, the Hyper Support Points that I run are:

Blast - Extra Strike

Threaten - Enhance

Heaven’s Hammer - Cooldown Cutter

Blast - Reinforce

Threaten - Opportunity

Essential

Blast: Bread and butter. If you were only allowed to choose 1, it will always be Blast; no exceptions.

High Priority

Divine Charge/Lightning Charge: If you can't 1-shot whilst mobbing, these will help. You may also find yourself in situations against bosses where you have to use your charges. Both are equal in power. It’s up to personal preference which one to pick (in my case, I picked both).

If you can't 1-shot whilst mobbing, these will help. You may also find yourself in situations against bosses where you have to use your charges. Both are equal in power. It’s up to personal preference which one to pick (in my case, I picked both). Heaven’s Hammer: Big chunk of burst that you can use in situations where your other skills cannot hit the enemy. E.g. when Magnus/Damien are in the air.

Optional

Final Attack: Assuming you only use Blast, it's the highest source of damage against bosses out of the remaining skills. Even so, it's still only ~1-2% of your total damage.

Assuming you only use Blast, it's the highest source of damage against bosses out of the remaining skills. Even so, it's still only ~1-2% of your total damage. Rush: You end up using this more than other skills when bossing. If you can invest into Rush without losing anything else, then go for it.

You end up using this more than other skills when bossing. If you can invest into Rush without losing anything else, then go for it. Smite Shield: Same with Rush, if you can invest in this freely, do it. If you use Smite Shield as a training tool and it cannot 1-shot mobs, you can invest into boosting it. Do note that even if you double its damage, the bonus bind duration will be negligible.

Same with Rush, if you can invest in this freely, do it. If you use Smite Shield as a training tool and it cannot 1-shot mobs, you can invest into boosting it. Do note that even if you double its damage, the bonus bind duration will be negligible. Flame Charge/Blizzard Charge: Some people are adamant on alternating between 4 charges. If you are one of them, feel free to do so; I won’t stop you. It’s still a bad idea though.

Never Boost

Close Combat: Any boost to this skill will never amount to anything significant. It isn’t strong enough to 1-shot mobs in higher level areas even with maxed boost nodes.

For reference, my personal Nodestone arrangement is:

Blast

Divine Charge

Lightning Charge

Heaven’s Hammer

Final Attack

Rush

If you are confident in your funding and are able to max out your nodes early, follow the blue text.

If you are unfunded and unable to max out your nodes early, follow the red text.

Level Range​ # of Slots​ Nodes to Add​ Reasoning​ 200-204​ 4 ​ Spinning Hammers

Divine Echo

Blitz Shield

Rope Lift Spinning Hammers and Divine Echo are insane to your overall damage.

Spinning Hammers are especially good for both training AND bossing.

Blitz Shield is primarily to speed up your training.

At this level, training should be your number 1 priority.

Rope Lift solves the vertical mobility issue for every class without it. 205-209​ 5 ​ Boost Node A Boost Nodes are obviously essential. 210-214​ 6 ​ Boost Node B Second boost node. Nothing to see here. 215-219​ 7 ​ Boost Node C / Decent Speed Infusion Here we get our divergence. Unfunded players will need 3 boost nodes to realistically max our their skills.

Funded players can afford to just move on.

Decent Speed Infusion is because every Paladin loves attack speed. 220-224​ 8 ​ Decent Speed Infusion / Weapon Aura Weapon Aura is to complete all the essential nodes. 225-229​ 9 ​ Weapon Aura / Personal Choice At this level, unfunded Paladins will have obtained all essential nodes. 230+​ 10+ ​ From this point on, any extra slot is up to personal choice. From here onwards, previously unfunded Paladins may now be able to max our their boost nodes.

If you do, you can drop down to 2 and free up a slot.

Attack Speed +1 is the best possible Inner Ability for any Paladin.

is the best possible Inner Ability for any Paladin. Always, always aim for attack speed on your inner ability if you’re rolling for perfect stats, because every other line is very mediocre in comparison.

aim for attack speed on your inner ability if you’re rolling for perfect stats, because every other line is very mediocre in comparison. For the other two lines, %Buff Duration is good for extending the duration of your Elemental Charges, and flat attack is just good in general.

Prioritise %crit damage classes heavily . Jett, Shade, Hayato are all very important to have in the Legion.

. Jett, Shade, Hayato are all very important to have in the Legion. To hit 100% crit chance, you will need an S rank Night Lord and an S rank Marksman.

Buff duration is great for extending Elemental Charge duration, so Mechanics are a good choice.

Everything else is just any char that can benefit any STR based class.

%Crit Damage ALWAYS! It is far and away the strongest stat there.

It is far and away the strongest stat there. %Boss vs %IED is up to the ratio between your stats.

STR grid gives 5 STR, whereas the attack grid only gives 1 attack. It will take an incredibly messed up ratio for the attack grid to outweigh the STR grid.

Therefore go STR.

Class Category Additional Notes Demon Avenger Overall Free damage. Kanna Overall Free damage. Xenon Overall 10% all stat is not bad. Kinesis Overall More sources of %critical damage. Phantom Overall Necessary to reach 100% critical chance Beast Tamer Overall Same as above. Also gives some boss damage. Hayato Overall A bunch of free stats. Cannoneer Overall Ditto. Albeit weaker than Hayato. Mercedes Training All extra sources of exp add up over time. Aran Training Same as above Evan Training Same as above; though this one specifically is REALLY good if you can take advantage of the runes' bonus effects. Demon Slayer Bossing Free damage against bosses! Luminous Bossing Defence ignore is a good stat for end game bossing. Resistance Bossing Incredible for late game bossing. When maxed is 8 seconds of i-frames on respawn! Shade Bossing If you want to RNG the shit out of a boss. I've had two procs in a row once! Angelic Buster Bossing For those who like to have high burst in short time frames. If you use buff duration, this skill is better too.

Alright, let's get right into the most basic part of playing any class: the build!Countless Paladins are lost before they even begin; and how can I blame them when there's so much to keep track of?Well fear no longer! In this build section, I will run through everything you need to know when it comes to strengthening your character!I am assuming you have a at least a basic knowledge of the Maple basics, and common Maple abbreviations. If you come across something you are unsure of, please check out a beginner's guide to Maple that runs you though this info.Without further ado, let's get into it:It is incredibly important for Paladins to amass as much attack speed as reasonably possible to alleviate for the high delays of Blast. Sources for attack speed include:With these sources and a 1-handed weapon, you can hit the attack speed hard cap, reducing Blast's delay to 540ms. With a 2-hander, Blast delay will be 600ms.I also heavily prioritise reaching 100% critical chance. Reaching 100% is doable without sacrificing investments:As for general stats:Everyone's stats differ. As such, the ratios between different types of stats such as %stat, flat stat, and flat attack are all different. Thankfully, credits to reddit user /u/Masterobert, we have access to a Maplestory Stat Comparison Calculator . All credit goes to him, but thanks to him, we have a way of easily calculating how much each stat is worth. Seriously, say thanks to him if you see him.For anyone wondering what kind of stats they should be looking for when cubing their gear:Uh... This should be incredibly obvious, but in case it isn't: secondary stats are no longer required. Since our main stat is STR, all you need to do is pump all your AP into STR. If that's too much for you, just click the auto assign button and the game will do it for you!In my opinion, Paladin skills should be simple enough for you to know what to level and when. If you are really scared of messing up and want me to help you out, then I'll give a general guideline for each Job as to what level each skill should be and the priority in levelling them..These all tend to be attack skills, as you only need to put 1 point in them initially to gain access to them and additional levels only add damage.As always, every person has different levels of funding. If you find your damage lacking, you may increase the level priority of the attacking skills for yourself.Below, I’ll list the Hyper Points based on tiers of how essential they are. Ultimately, you will have to make some decisions based on personal preference.I actually run 4 boost nodes, totalling 6 skills that get boosted. It’s not a bad idea, since you will eventually have enough core slots to run more than 2 boost nodes.I’ll split this into essential skills, high priority skills, optional skills, and never-boost skills:This is a 'nodestone progression guide' of sorts. At level 200, you have 4 free node slots, and you gain another every 5 levels. Here are the nodes that I recommend you use at each level range.To be completely honest, pretty much every class follows the same hyper stat build. %Crit Damage, %Boss, %Damage, %IED are all the most important. %Crit chance is taken by those who need it to cap.When levelling, try to keep the essential stats around the same level, as the costs to level them increase exponentially. Keeping them around the same level is the most damage efficient.Same as with Hyper Stats, Legion is more or less the same for all classes. Some important things to point out:For the member bonuses:For the Legion Grid:Ah link skills. I feel that almost every class tends to use the same link skills. However, I guess new players may be more confused. If you can find a link skill guide somewhere, then I suggest you check it out. If not, I can include some of my recommended links.My recommended links will be categorised based on their use, whether it be for bossing, training, or useful overall. Do remember that we can only use 12 link skills simultaneously, so choose out of this list based on your needs. You can always change them once a day.