The NEW Arcane Paladin Guide - Now With Extra Glitter!

You can find the cleaner, updated posting here: https://forum.projectgorgon.com/show...-Gear-and-More!

removed /10char

Third time's the charm :p

This is a detailed guide, that I think, will make the game a bit more new player friendly. Especially for those players, who don't like to explore much and prefer to be led by the game/guides. Great job/wip, Ashtalia.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grobyddonot

Third time's the charm :p

This is a detailed guide, that I think, will make the game a bit more new player friendly. Especially for those players, who don't like to explore much and prefer to be led by the game/guides. Great job/wip, Ashtalia.

Thanks! I'm still waiting to see if they can reinstate Ashtalia, but either way I will be continuing this. What is seen here is a barebones framework of what I want to get across and I will fill in more info as I go along.

I am grabbing some stuff from the wiki, so as always, it can change quickly, and I will do my best to keep up with it!

Good on ya mate for putting this back together, I'll like to throw in my two cents.

I am a sword/shield main, 85/89 at current, I have 1050 hours in the game as reported by Steam (I think that means I am qualified to give opinion as a veteran player ^.^).

Why did I pick sword/shield:

I picked sword/shield as my build ever since I started the game 4 years ago. I stuck with it for no particular reason (mostly sunken cost fallacy I reckon). One of the remarkable things about this game is that ALL combat skills are viable to the end game. Some are more annoying to level than others particularly if the player is doing a lot of soloing, but once they are at level 80, every combat skill combination will allowing them to participate effectively in a group run of The Wintertide (which is currently the highest level dungeon in the game at level 80) or Gazluk Keep (level 70 dungeon and equally hard or harder than The Wintertide). Every build will allow the player to do good damage and they will contribute something to the team.

What does sword/shield bring to the team:

1) Good consistent physical damage

Spoiler:

I can fairly consistently do the 2nd or 3rd most damage to the enemy in The Wintertide, as seen in the autopsy report post battle. This is not the most damaging build in the game, but it can sustain damage output better than builds that rely a lot of "epic attacks" which do huge damage but have long cooldowns.

2) Fairly solid tank.

Spoiler:

I am comfortable with being the puller/tank in Gazluk Keep and The Wintertide, confident that I can take a few hits before the mob is brought back within range of my team. Being sword/shield makes the player tanky enough that they should be able to solo the regular casino dailies (level 40-50 content) without the stress that comes with more "glass cannon" type builds. Between our stun, high armour (hopefully you are wearing metal or leather armour), physical damage mitigation, and Debilitating Blow's -10% enemy damage debuff, we are reasonably tanky.

3) Reliable unconditional stun.

Spoiler:

Stunning Bash is amazing, and one of the relatively few "unconditional" stuns on short cooldown. It helps a lot in soloing, as it mitigate a lot of damage that can come out of mobs, it helps the tankiness as well for the same reason. In team games I found that I can use Stunning Bash multiple times, the cooldown is so short that by the time the first mob is dead I can use Stunning Bash again on the second mob, so that effectively we are not taking damage from one mob. There is the possiblity of a second "conditional" stun through a boot mod for Many Cuts, which helps a lot in keeping one mob "stun locked".
Having a reliable stun also helps when fighting ghosts, in particular against Katarina in Dark Chapel.

4) Rage reduction.

Spoiler:

It is difficult to express into words how amazingly useful this is. The most damaging attacks enemy has is almost always their "rage attack" or "burst attack" (the one they activate when the purple rage bar is full). The combination of stun and rage reduction that comes with sword/shield means I can prevent one target from using their "rage attack", helping to prevent damage being done and avoiding some annoying mechanics. The best example is that I can solo the Winter Nexus and the Yeti Cave and so long as I carefully only pull one Ogres at a time, I can complete it without any broken bones.
My understanding of the damage mechanics is that the enemies "rage attack" when it critically hits is what can one hit KO some characters. By avoiding the "rage attack" I certainly found it helpful for survival.

5) Team buff to mitigate physical damage.

Spoiler:

Shield Team is amazing in that it allows me to give a fairly substantial buff to the whole team, I have found it useful to help lower level party members survive on regular casino daily runs.

6) Elemental immunity.

Spoiler:

Elemental Ward givens 10 seconds of complete immunity to fire/ice/electricity with 30 seconds of cooldown, and Finishing Blow can give the player 25% resistance for 10 seconds. This is useful again the Droaches in Dark Chapel in particular.

The limitations of being sword/shield:

1) It is not a true tanking build.

Spoiler:

It is not a true tank in the sense that a true tank can stand there and face tank multiple mobs. The proper tanking skills in the game are cow, unarmed, or staff. I agree with the argument that shield and ice are not true tanking skills (it's a long and ongoing debate, refer to https://forum.projectgorgon.com/show...t-Tanking-quot). In MMO terminology I think the sword/shield build qualifies as an "off tank", I can take a few hits and stun enemy frequently enough that I will be fine, but I don't measure up to the dedicated tanking builds.
However like I alluded to earlier, I can fill in the role of puller/tank in groups that lack a dedicated tank, but I will have to pull carefully and our clear speed is slower than if a dedicated tank can do the pulling.

2) Limited means to set trolls on fire.

Spoiler:

This is a major annoyance in both Winter Nexus and The Wintertide, this build can use a mainhand shield mod to cause the Fire Shield ability to set enemy on fire, but I found it unreliable because it requires the enemy troll to hit me, which may not occur consistently, particularly because I am also trying to stun them every change I get. In game I rely on the Explosion Sigil skill to set trolls on fire, but likewise this is not very reliable, compared to having a Fire mage, Battle Chemist, Archer, or Priest in the party.

3) Limited self healing ability.

Spoiler:

This build doesn't have a dedicated healing skill at all, instead it relies on Push Onward and First Aid to provide healing, and I keep a stash of Bacon on me for healing. One can take on mods that allow Flashing Strike and Heart Piercer to provide some healing, but that will take away from mods that provide damage. Compared to say staff/druid or priest/shield builds which provides good self heals and excellent damage, this build is really lacking on the healing department.

4) Physical damage only, mostly slashing damage.

Spoiler:

Until the release of The Wintertide I would have said this is not a major issue. The fact that sword skills mostly do slashing damage allows one to benefit from Calligraphy skills that provide a nice boost to slashing damage. However the issue comes when one is facing Davlos's Astral Projection, a boss in The Wintertide, he is completely immune to all physical damage, so this build is not very useful when it comes to facing him and our role is limited to killing the Abominable Soldiers that spawn during that fight.

5) Cannot solo higher level dungeon mobs or bosses.

Spoiler:

Related to the lack of tankiness and lack of self healing, this build can't solo high level content. There are builds that allow one to solo a single Elite in Gazluk keep or event solo General Pask, a high level boss in Rahu, but this build doesn't allow us to do that.

My suggested equipment mods:

My current build (ideal mods assuming 7 mods max enchanted gold tier items)

Spoiler:

https://www.gorgonexplorer.com/build-planner/914

Alternative build with second stun from Many Cuts (ideal mods assuming 7 mods max enchanted gold tier items)

Spoiler:

https://www.gorgonexplorer.com/build-planner/915

I should point out that I am currently using found gold tier items (ie 6 mods instead of 7) and I am missing level 80 items in the mainhand and gloves slot, but I am managing pretty well despite not using the above theoretical optimal gear. Don't feel pressure that that you need to use max enchanted gear or even all gold gear. As Citan himself has stated, the game is balanced assuming you only have red tier gear, so only with 3 optimal mods out of the theoretical 7.

Shameless self plug
There is a list of project gorgon guides I put together a while ago, I updated it a month ago
https://forum.projectgorgon.com/show...-for-beginners

I think I'll stop here and let Ashtalia take it from here, feel free to copy and paste anything you find helpful in the main part of your guide. I just got a fresh reminder of why I don't post a lot on forums, typos and grammar errors are doing my head in ><

Lots of interesting info you gave, Chilton! I haven't made it past 50 yet in skill, so I'm more than happy to leave your thoughts here. As I go along, I'll compare them to what I find (as the game will change as the days go by).

Been a while! With the changes made to Shields, I'll need to go over this guide again and update it. But is anyone still interested in such a build?

I hate glitter...but I can't wait to play the game!

Hey folks! I know it's been a long time but came back to work on this guide.

I added some info under Gear, and fixed up the first post; mainly for Anagoge Island!

Added more info under Tips and Strategies, as well as new gear I found dropped from Gajin the Big-Headed

Added some basic maps to help newcomers find their way to Seribule after leaving Anagoge Island.

Updated the Shield section of the guide with more info on Tyler Green and how to get Favor with him!

Wow, ty so much for this. I am assuming everything is updated and what not, but im coming back from a 5 year hiatus or so.. And This is Perfect for me. You are an angel!