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Well met, Paladin players! For all those pursuing the PLD job, you’ll find a pleasant amount of basic information and FAQs in our Paladin Basics Guide. Read on if you’re expecting to learn about unlocking PLD, Paladin Job Identity, trait and skill list, crafters and gatherers related to PLD, and link to other important Paladin info!
Paladin is a Tank job, one of the original nine jobs introduced in the game in 2.0 A Realm Reborn. PLD came out alongside Warrior as the only other tank at the time.
How to become a Paladin? Unlocking PLD:
First and foremost you need to have a Level 30 Gladiator, and have completed the L30 GLD class quest, “The Rematch”. After doing this you can unlock the actual quest to become a Paladin, “Paladin’s Pledge”, which can be found in the Gladiator’s guild, from Lulutsu (Ul’Dah – Steps of Thal).
You also have to complete a Level 20 MSQ, “Sylph Management”, which realistically should be completed by the time you’re looking to unlock Paladin.
Note that upon completing the Paladin’s Pledge, you MUST EQUIP the “Soul of the Paladin” to actually formally BECOME a PLD. Interestingly, in the old days, unlocking Paladin required L15 Conjurer – that’s no longer the case.
Rushing to or want to know how to unlock a certain class? Learn more:
FFXIV Job Unlock & Requirements Guide.
Paladin Playstyle & PLD Job Identity
If you’ve asked yourself, “Why play, try, or choose Paladin?” – here’s my attempt at selling you the PLD class.
The “Tank above all tanks”, Paladins are the el basic el beef personification of the MMORPG Tank. Like having both a physical melee and ranged magical component in your rotation? Godly defensive raid and personal utility skills? Read on.
PLDs are the de facto default tank choice IMO. While their DPS capabilities aren’t historically best among tanks, the sheer safety and utility of having one is a huge boon for your groups success chances. The ranged portion of their rotation can be extremely useful when you have to be away from your target.
Aesthetically and thematically, FFXIV’s PLD rumbles in as a strong representation of a TATANKA for those beef freaks out there. They give off that typical “Holy Knight” vibe, which many connect with. A bit of trivia? For nearly a decade now, they’re the only tank class with an actual shield…
What Crafters & Gatherers should Paladin level?
While it’s common in MMORPG’s to think you want to craft your own gear as you level up your PLD… I DO NOT RECOMMEND IT.
Leveling up your DoH and DoL jobs should be thought of as a different activity completely. To be honest, if you’re a newer player, simply ensure that you DO NOT OVERCAP Levequests (always have less than 100).
The only relation a combat job has to a crafter or gatherer class is “which classes do you need to repair your gear”? My advice, ultimately, is pretty much all or nothing – level up all DoH classes in tandem. As a separate project, level up all DoL classes in tandem (with the optional Fisher).
What’s the best race for Paladin?
Racial stats are (was?) a thing. However, I highly recommend not caring about it. The difference in performance between the “best” and “worst” race for you is not even 0.1%.
My advice? Pick for aesthetics. Will you stay the same job forever? If you change mains, will you race change? Ultimately, the difference is so microscopic that I cannot in good faith tell you that racial stats are an integral part of your character.
I won’t even link the Racial Stats Guide, as I haven’t checked up on this in a while – and I don’t want to cement the idea that the “best race” really matters.
Related Paladin Guides – Read More!
Here are a few useful links for you:
- General Leveling Guide for ALL combat classes / jobs
- Gladiator Basics Guide & FAQ
- Gladiator Leveling Guides
- Adding new links as we update them!
Upcoming Odds and Ends
Here’s a few things we’ll be adding on here in the near future:
- Adding a “links to further resources”, we’re doing a site restructure so once those links are set, they’ll go in here.
- Human-readable, newbie-friendly skill and trait list.
> I used to have the in-game skill list here, but I found it useless as the in-game one is better… I’d rather have a new player friendly rundown. - More descriptive job identity? Pics?
> I dunno… pictures of the job gauges? A gif of some flashy skills? - Feel free to suggest anything else via comment or socials!
Summary & Outro
Well that’s about it for a really, really basic guide that hopefully points some lost souls in the right direction, or answers some of your questions regarding Paladin.
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So I’m a newb to this game. Do you have to make two separate toons to get to the advanced jobs? Say I want to play a Dragoon do I have to level a lancer to 30 and a separate marauder character to 15? If so can these characters be on different worlds?
No, you don’t.
When you get your toon to level 15, you’ll be able to go another classes guild and start a really short quest that will allow you to switch to that class. Then you can switch between the two as you like.
You can max out all classes/jobs on one toon
It doesn’t work like that at all, lol. In the game your character is able to switch his class whenever you want, just change your weapon.
Wanna be a gladiator? equip a sword.
Wanna be a conjurer? equip a wand.
Wanna be a lancer? equip a lance.
your abilities change accordingly, as well as your stats, and your level for each class is stored… so… if you level your gladiator to 15, change to conjurer at level 1, level up to lv 2…. switch back to gladiator, you will b lv 15 again, switch back to conjurer, you will be level 2.
Don’t make separate characters unless you want to waste time lol, you can use one character for everything, and the game is designed in such a way that you’re meant to use one character for everything.
So… yeah, sword oath is useless.
It’s pretty good when you need to squeeze a bit of damage out. Not recommended for when you’re main tank, though.
nah man, i tested it. i was doing same amount of dmg whether i was using sword oath or shield oath, swd oath literally made no change to my dmg output :/
all it really does is help me lose hate if im too scared to take hits for some reason.
I should add to confirm that I was only observing auto-attack dmg.
I reached lvl 30 gladiator and lvl 15 conjurer but in my game lulutsu won’t give me the paladin pledge quest and it’s highly frustrating. Can any body help?
Im having exactly the same problem, my gladiator is lvl 30 my conjuror lvl 15. Quest is still red.
Have you completed the level 30 and level 15 class quests as well? I think that may have something to do with it.
Have you made sure to finish your Glad guild quests? 1,5,10…so on. Once you finish the lvl 30 Gladiator quest it should pop up for you.
You have to complete both quests classes (GLA till 30 and Conjurer till 15) when it’s done go see your GLA master and the paladin crystal quest will available.
You have to do the lvl 15 quest of Conjuror and the lvl 30 quest of Gladiator, not just reach the levels.
You dont have to comkplete the 15 CNJ quest. I didnt and im on my pally now.
Have either of you completed your level 30 gladiator quest first? This needs to be completed before she gives you the PLD quest.
You have to complete the lvl 30 quest rematch from gladiator trainer for quest to appear
No to my believe you too have to complete the lvl 30 quest of the Gladiator class, and the main story quest (lvl 20) Sylph Management (which is the main story quest ones have to complete before becoming any specific jobs)
I think there is a mistype in the “What’s the Paladin Style”. Sword Oath does increase melee damage, but the Shield Oath increases enmity.
Spirits Within uh? Nice reference XD
I think I’ll pick this job first!
Yes, haha. Not many people remember it is a reference :D shows y(our) age!
Gotta stick to your roots ya’ know lol
It was a Sword Weapon Skill in Final Fantasy XI also. Even when I played 5 years ago, nobody I played with seemed to realize it was a reference.
It was a good movie for sure
Paladin materia and secondary stats?
Lifefitness01,
Paladins have quite a bit of tools when it comes to mitigation, and by default use shields. The wisest choices would be to stack as much VIT (Improving effective HP), or +enmity. We will update materia sections across all classes/jobs very soon.