Lost Ark: Paladin Best Builds

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  • Blessed Support (PvE)
  • Holy Guardian (PvP)

Lost Ark's Paladin is one of two support classes that are available at launch for NA/EU audiences. Using the power of holy magic and a big sword, Paladins smite their opponents and empower their allies with potent boons. PvE groups can all benefit from a good Paladin player, and PvP groups underestimate just how powerful the Paladin can be.

In this build guide, we'll be going over two builds that will make your Paladin truly shine. One build is a support Paladin for PvP, while the other is a support/damage hybrid for PvP. For those who want a guaranteed spot in endgame raid groups or want to flex their holy magic on other players, these builds are for you.

Blessed Support (PvE)

Why Play This Build?

Become the ultimate support character with this Paladin build. You'll be focusing mostly on your Holy skills to provide a wide range of buffs. Allies will deal more damage, take less damage, recover their MP faster, and you can cleanse debuffs and provide shields when combat gets tough.

To maximize the uptime of your Holy Aura—the Identity skill you'll be using the most—you'll be using a few Punish skills and spec for the Blessed Aura Engraving, allowing you to project a powerful aura around your Paladin quite often. You'll be tanky, fighting alongside your allies, all while granting some of the strongest buffs in Lost Ark. There isn't a single group that wouldn't want a support Paladin by their side.

Skills

A support Paladin will be using quite a few Holy skills to buff their allies. Godsent Law debuffs targets, Heavingly Blessing will buff the damage of your allies alongside Holy Aura, and Holy Protection will grant debuff cleansing and some much-needed defense for your team. While the skills recommended below will work for just about all content, feel free to switch a few skills to better suit the content you're tackling.

Skill Details
Charge Description: Charge forward 6 meters and stab foes with your sword.
Executor's Sword Description: Rapidly swing your sword, launching foes into the air while counterattacking. Use the skill again to deliver a downward slash.
Holy Sword Description: Thrust your sword at the foe, emitting a stream of light out from your sword to deal additional damage.
Light's Shock Description: Unleash a light shockwave that deals moderate damage.
Godsent Law Description: Summon a magic circle of light, inflicting damage to foes in the radius for 2 seconds.
Holy Protection Description: Create a barrier for a percentage of Max HP for all party members within 24 meters for 6 seconds.
Wrath of God Description: Call forth the energy of sacred thunder to inflict damage to nearby foes.
Heavenly Blessing Description: Summon a Solar Guardian and inflict damage to nearby foes The guardian blesses all party members within a 24-meter radius. Damage received is reduced for 8 seconds.

Alithane's Judgment

(Ascension)

Description: Jump up and unleash a holy light that shines toward your target location. Inflict damage on surrounding foes upon landing and create a barrier for 80% of your max HP for all party members for 10s within a 24 meters radius of all party members.

Tripods

Charge Excellent Mobility
Shining Protection
Executor's Sword Excellent Mobility
Weak Point Enhancement
Executor's Strike
Holy Sword Positioning
Outburst of Light
Release Light
Light's Shock Swift Fingers
Light's Vestige
Godsent Law Shield
Wide-Angle Attack
Grace
Holy Protection Quick Pace
Purity
Vow of Light
Wrath of God Wide Thunderstroke
Faith
Express Fury
Heavenly Blessings Faith
Valor
Absolute Blessing

With this setup, you'll be able to buff the damage for your teammates, give them a shield, cleanse debuffs, and even grant them 70% damage reduction in a pinch. For general gameplay, Paladins don't have a typical rotation of skills. You'll want to maintain your buffs as needed. Heavenly Blessings and Wrath of God are your two most important buffs. Alternate between them; they do not stack.

Pop Holy Protection when your allies need a shield or cleanse. Godsent Law and Light Shock will debuff targets, so make sure that the Vestige debuff is active at all times by alternating between both skills. If things really go south, use your Ascension skill. And like any good support, ensure that your Identity skill (Holy Aura) is up as often as possible. Your blue skills will help fill your Piety Meter, allowing you to use Holy Aura more often.

For gems, you want cooldown reduction on just about every skill. Focus on Heavingly Blessings, Godsent Law, and Wrath of God first.

Recommended Stats And Engravings

Recommended Stats Primary: Swiftness
Secondary: Specialization
Engravings Blessed Aura
Expert
Awakening
Vital Point Hit OR Drops of Ether
Spirit Absorption OR Judgment (T1)

Swiftness will be your primary stat, reducing the cooldown of your skills while granting increased attack speed and movement speed. For your second stat, Specialization will buff the strength of your Holy Aura and assist with building up your Piety Meter.

For Engravings, you want to get Blessed Aura to T3 as soon as possible. Expert and Adrenaline are also mandatory. Your last two slots are up to preference, but we recommend Vital Point Hit and Spirit Absorption for most players.

Engraving

Effect

(Level 3)

Blessed Aura With Holy Aura, damage received -20% and 2% of max HP restored every 1.5 seconds for all party members.
Expert Shield and Healing effectiveness on all party members +24%. If target's HP is 50% or lower, +12% additional effectiveness.
Awakening Awakening Skill cooldown -50%. +3 maximum uses.
Vital Point Hit Stagger attack effectiveness +36%
Spirit Absorption Atk./Move Speed +15%.

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Holy Guardian (PvP)

Why Play This Build?

A support class is just as impactful in PvP as in PvE. The Paladin's various buffs and solid movement skills allow it to shine in 3v3 arenas and other forms of group PvP content. It isn't the best in 1v1 PvP for newcomers, but good Paladin players can single-handedly swing a PvP game in their team's favor with smart use of their skills. You'll be able to keep your team alive from a distance, set up deadly combos for your teammates to capitalize on, and you'll deal solid damage as well.

Skills

This build uses most of the skills seen in our PvE build. For PvP, we replace Light's Shock with Execution of Justice to obtain a well-needed ability with push (knock-up) immunity. Our Tripods are also tweaked to make our abilities faster, provide more protection, and provide some better damage output.

Skill Details
Charge Description: Charge forward 6 meters and stab foes with your sword.
Executor's Sword Description: Rapidly swing your sword, launching foes into the air while counterattacking. Use the skill again to deliver a downward slash.
Execution of Justice Description: Hold the sword with one hand and quickly spin in position to damage your foe, then perform a crushing blow that inflicts additional damage.
Holy Sword Description: Thrust your sword at the foe, emitting a stream of light out from your sword to deal additional damage.
Godsent Law Description: Summon a magic circle of light, inflicting damage to foes in the radius for 2 seconds.
Holy Protection Description: Create a barrier for a percentage of Max HP for all party members within 24 meters for 6 seconds.
Wrath of God Description: Call forth the energy of sacred thunder to inflict damage to nearby foes.
Heavenly Blessing Description: Summon a Solar Guardian and inflict damage to nearby foes The guardian blesses all party members within a 24-meter radius. Damage received is reduced for 8 seconds.

Alithane's Judgment

(Ascension)

Description: Jump up and unleash a holy light that shines toward your target location. Inflict damage on surrounding foes upon landing and create a barrier for 80% of your max HP for all party members for 10s within a 24 meters radius of all party members.

Tripods

Charge Excellent Mobility
Shining Protection
Ambush Attack
Executor's Sword Excellent Mobility
Execution of Justice Bulwark
Strength Release
Light Explosion
Holy Sword Propulsion
Vital Point Hit
Condensed Energy
Godsent Law Shield
Wide-Angle Attack
Grace
Holy Protection Quick Pace
Robust Protection
Vow of Light
Wrath of God Wide Thunderstroke
Thunder
Light's Guardian
Heavenly Blessings Agile Cast
Perseverance
Heavenly Requiem

Your main goal as a Paladin is to stay between your teammates, referred to as "the pocket" by some. When your team is in trouble, use Godsent Law or Holy Protection to help them survive. Abilities like Charge and Godsent Law can be used to poke enemies, and Charge acts as a great movement skill when you need to reposition. Wrath of God also acts as a great AoE attack when you or your nearby teammates are getting purchased by multiple enemies.

Execution of Justice is your only skill that provides push immunity. Use it as a defensive skill when possible. The explosion aftershock can also knock targets into the air.

For combos, you have a few options:

  • Godsent Law -> Cancel on stagger -> Charge
  • Charge -> Wrath of God -> Holy Sword -> Heavenly Blessing

    • You can also open with Godsent Law into Charge
  • Heavenly Blessing -> Executor's Sword -> Wrath of God -> Holy Sword -> Charge -> Execution of Justice
  • Try to keep your Holy abilities up for when allies need it, but if you're in a 1v1 or need to output some absurd damage, feel free to use the last combo we listed. We also recommend that you use Sacred Executioner as your Identity skill in PvP; Holy Aura doesn't provide much benefit since Engravings don't work in PvP. This aura will make your Punish (blue) skills much easier to land on enemies.

    Recommended Stats

    Recommended Stats Primary: Swiftness
    Secondary: Endurance

    Swiftness is your primary stat for this build, enhancing your ability cooldowns while also granting movement speed. For your second stat, Endurance allows you to take additional punishment from enemies. Invest a few points into Domination to deal extra damage to staggered targets, who can be staggered by you or your teammates.

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