Farming spec Paladin/Champion/Paragon

[Fionnna]

With Riftblade having some serious issues right now, I thought I would share a spec that has been working well for me as I try to find a way to do some farming/questing that doesn't use Riftblade.

The conclusion I've come to is that the Paladin tree makes a good substitute. In particular I was looking for something that would maximize Light's Decree by maxing the number of off-global cooldown abilities available. What I ended up with is this:

Level 50 http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=0c....Ehzzo0r0z.E0h

The following abilities are instant and off the global cooldown and will proc Light's Decree for a decent aoe:

Retaliation
Paladin's Reprisal
Disarming Counterblow
Bloodthirst
Turn the Blade
Frenzied Strike
Inescapable Fury
Face Slam

As a bonus, and particularily important for me as I hate playing squishy specs, is that Retaliation and Disarming Counterblow will heal you for 30% of their damage, and blocks refund 75% of weapon damage as a heal. You also have a full heal with Touch of Life, and a shield that can shield you for 1540 hps. In a real emergency you have an aoe fear in Battle intimidation.

As a quality of life thing you have two charges: Shield Charge and Bull Rush. Also of note, and I'm not sure if this is a bug, but sweeping strikes and mighty blow (and perhaps other aoe attacks) currently also proc Light's Decree.

With all the off-gcd and followup attacks, I'll often charge in and insta-gib something.

Here are the macros I use:

Single target AP builder
#show Retaliation
cast Retaliation
cast Paladin's Reprisal
cast Disarming Counterblow
cast Bloodthirst
cast Turn the Blade
cast Frenzied Strike
cast Inescapable Fury
cast Rising Waterfall
cast Face Slam
cast Sweeping Strike
cast Shield Throw
cast Aggressive Block
cast Path of the Wind
cast Power Strike

Single target Finisher
#show Strike Like Iron
cast Strike Like Iron
cast Deathblow
cast Punishing Blow

AOE AP builder
#show Light's Decree
cast Light's Decree
cast Retaliation
cast Paladin's Reprisal
cast Disarming Counterblow
cast Bloodthirst
cast Turn the Blade
cast Frenzied Strike
cast Inescapable Fury
cast Rising Waterfall
cast Face Slam
cast Sweeping Strike
cast Mighty Blow

AOE finisher
#show Strike Like Iron
cast Strike Like Iron
cast Scales of Justice
cast Light's Decree
cast Retaliation
cast Paladin's Reprisal
cast Disarming Counterblow
cast Bloodthirst
cast Turn the Blade
cast Frenzied Strike
cast Inescapable Fury
cast Rising Waterfall
cast Face Slam
cast Sweeping Strike
cast Mighty Blow

[Havors]

You have points in Deadly Strikes... but i presume your using a shield? wasted points. Theres a few instances of this.

Try this spec instead...

http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=1c...z.EG00zsMMzz.A

Best farming spec around in my opinion... i can take 2 mathosian packs at once and walk away with over 50%hp. The bonus is that the dps isnt bad so they go down pretty quick too. Ive got decent gear though.

[Bix]

Looks pretty horrible. Where does damage come from? Champion doesn't synergize with Paladin at all. Better to go into Riftblade.

[Yraen]

Heh, it's surprisingly similar to my build here: http://forums.riftgame.com/showthrea...low-Up-Spammer

It works, it's not as effective as other builds and has some serious power issues with all the off-GCD spam.

It was fun though, seeing the line of reactives stretching across the screen

[Cuts]

Champion has some really nice things that could add to one's DPS but by putting points into things like Deadly Strikes is just pointless. It would be better to max grim satisfaction and put a point in the kick. You're getting low on HP!: Kick, stun, think; that is if you need to.

The only thing I would use in Champion are the 2 "bottom tier" skills because it adds damage when you're using finishers which are your biggest damage abilities if you're using that build. Then you'll get 10% more strength which will increase your block, so that's a bonus right there.

Riftblade really, honestly, and truly is the only -good- thing to pair up with paladin if you're looking for damage because it's just simply the best with sword and board for damage since it does not rely on physical damage. Not only that, if you really want to go for some good and quick farming, use 51 riftblade, 15 paladin, and a 0-point Vindicator for "Break Free" or whatever it's called. That way you get more damage because of the 51 point ability, you deal more damage because of enhanced burst, and you have extra damage coming from Elemental Touch since you have to have it.

Then you can wear all tank stuff, a shield, and "Divine Defender" for a pretty decent shield proc and good endurance and not really have to worry about dying.

I went through the whole saga questline like this and did absolutely fine on the mobs w/ 50k etc.

If you still have problems with some of the higher health mobs, let's take 50k hp for example, you can easily just pop a "Rejuvinating Seed" and a health potion and you have no excuse for not being able to down that mob.

[Fionnna]

Thank you for the responses everyone. Let me clarify a few things:


Re: Points in Deadly Strikes

A brain-burp - they are actually floating points that don't matter where you put them - we're only trying to reach 21 champion for Bloodthirst and Frenzied Strike.


Re: Matching with Champion

There is a path through Champion that avoids 2hr. Champion has a lot of instant and off-gcd attacks, as does Paragon which is why I chose them.

Paladin is actually mostly physical damage and has some of the best instant and off-gcd physical attacks:
- Aggressive Block
- Retaliation
- Face slam
- Shield Throw
- Shield Charge
- Disarming counterblow

And with Light's Decree these plus Mighty Blow spam synchronize very well.

Looking at this there is an argument to be made that both Champion and Paragon match at least as well as Riftblade with the Paladin soul.


Re: Use Riftblade instead

Riftblade is slow and steady type damage - and wholly unfun imho. I prefer the instant and off-gcd insta-gib playstyle of Pal/Cha/Par,


In the end this spec just works. Try it and post your experience. Trying out specs is the most fun part of Rift and it costs almost nothing.

[Yraen]

You can do something like this to get a second AE finisher, without losing anything really
http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=0c...z.E0szoorhzo.A


Otherwise, the build would look like
http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=0c....E0szo0r0z.E0h


And yes, it works. It does have some power management issues, but it does work for what it is supposed to do.

[Soulsurfing]

had an idea a while ago for a champ/paladin/paragon farming build but upon testing it didn't seem to kill as well as riftblade. ill probably revisit it but would go 26 champ for bladefury. bonus of this build is it might be better suited to defend yourself should world pvp "gank" happen.

[Yraen]

had an idea a while ago for a champ/paladin/paragon farming build but upon testing it didn't seem to kill as well as riftblade. ill probably revisit it but would go 26 champ for bladefury. bonus of this build is it might be better suited to defend yourself should world pvp "gank" happen.

Need to stack block, parry/dodge, and crit for maximum effect off the reactives with this build.

[Fionnna]

You can do something like this to get a second AE finisher, without losing anything really
http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=0c...z.E0szoorhzo.A

I like this idea and am trying it out now. I read though your original post and we're thinking along the same lines - you beat me to it though :-P

Question for you: why did you take 1/2 Blood Frenzy instead of 1/1 Proper timing? Between the choices of:

A) Guaranteed crit on any ability/finisher on a 60 second cooldown
B) 50% chance to crit on a 30 second cooldown (and even then only after getting a killing blow) on one particular ability - Bloodthirst

Seems like A gives you more?