Leveling Rotations and Tips for Paladin — Dawntrail 7.1

While leveling, you should almost always choose the gear with the highest item level. You can exchange Allagan Tomestone of Poetics for gear in Mor Dhona, Ul'dah, Limsa Lominsa, or New Gridania at level 50, Idyllshire or Foundation at level 60, Rhalgr's Reach or Kugane at level 70, and Eulmore or the Crystarium at level 80. Below level 50 you can find gear at merchants in Ul'dah, Limsa Lominsa, and New Gridania.

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• Use Spirits Within roughly on cooldown. Every other use should naturally be during the Fight or Flight buff.
• Use Expiacion roughly on cooldown. Every other use should naturally be during the Fight or Flight buff.
• Use Circle of Scorn roughly on cooldown. Every other use should naturally be during the Fight or Flight buff.
• Ideally save both charges of Intervene for the Fight or Flight buff window. Use outside of Fight or Flight only if needed to keep melee uptime.

• Use Fight or Flight on cooldown. At lower levels (before Requiescat), you can try to weave it 2/3 of the way into your global cooldown to fit an extra GCD in
• Use Fight or Flight on cooldown.
• Use Goring Blade inside of the Fight or Flight buff.
• Use Requiescat inside of Fight or Flight, and spend the stacks on 4x Holy Spirit.
• Use Requiescat inside of Fight or Flight, and spend the stacks on Confiteor → 3x Holy Spirit.
• Use Requiescat inside of Fight or Flight, and spend the stacks on Confiteor → Blade of Faith → Blade of Truth → Blade of Valor.
• Use Imperator inside of Fight or Flight, and spend the stacks on Confiteor → Blade of Faith → Blade of Truth → Blade of Valor.
• Use Blade of Honor after Blade of Valor.
• Fast Blade → Riot Blade → repeat.
• Fast Blade → Riot Blade → Rage of Halone → repeat.
• Fast Blade → Riot Blade → Royal Authority → repeat.
• Fast Blade → Riot Blade → Royal Authority → Holy Spirit → repeat. The Holy Spirit can be delayed to any point before the next Royal Authority if a ranged GCD is needed at a specific point.
• Royal Authority combo → Atonement → Supplication → Sepulchre → repeat. Use one Holy Spirit (buffed by Divine Might), at any point between each Royal Authority

• Use Fight or Flight on cooldown. At lower levels (before Requiescat), you can try to weave it 2/3 of the way into your global cooldown to fit an extra GCD in
• Use Fight or Flight on cooldown.
• Use Goring Blade inside of the Fight or Flight buff, and try to keep it roughly on cooldown. Try to use it on the highest-HP enemy.
• Use Requiescat inside of Fight or Flight, and spend the stacks on 4x Holy Circle.
• Use Requiescat inside of Fight or Flight, and spend the stacks on Confiteor → 3x Holy Circle.
• Use Requiescat inside of Fight or Flight, and spend the stacks on Confiteor → Blade of Faith → Blade of Truth → Blade of Valor.
• Use Imperator inside of Fight or Flight, and spend the stacks on Confiteor → Blade of Faith → Blade of Truth → Blade of Valor.
• Use Blade of Honor after Blade of Valor.
• Spam Total Eclipse.
• Spam Total Eclipse → Prominence.
• Spam Total Eclipse → Prominence → Holy Circle.

• Keep your gear up to date. The Main Scenario Quests generally prepares you for story dungeons with adequate gear. If leveling Paladin as an alt job, replace your gear often while below level 50. From level 50 onwards, every 10 levels allows you to buy a solid set of tank gear using Allagan Tomestone of Poetics (see above).
• Always keep Iron Will, your tank stance, toggled on.
• Grab aggro on trash mobs with Total Eclipse. Remember that despite the animation, it will hit all enemies that are around you when you press the button.
• Use Sprint before engaging enemies to get extra duration.
• Sprint early and often. It allows you to take less damage while pulling multiple packs in a row.
• Pull big. As long as you keep aggro and use mitigation there will be no problems. In dungeons below level 50, pulling wall-to-wall can be a bad idea if you and your healer are not adequately geared, but double and even triple pulls should be very doable. In most dungeons above level 50, wall-to-wall pulls are the norm.
• Aggro is very easy to keep. As long as your tank stance is on, a few hits from your AoE combo will get you a substantial aggro lead. Stray mobs can be identified via the enemy list (each mob that you have aggro on will have a flashing red square next to it) and pulled quickly with Provoke.
• Try to have a mitigation buff running during big trash pulls. At this level you only have Rampart.
• Try to always have at least one mitigation buff running during trash pulls, and try not to overlap big mitigations (i.e. Rampart and Arm's Length).
• Try to always have at least one mitigation buff running during trash pulls, and try not to overlap big mitigations (i.e. Rampart, Sentinel, and Arm's Length).
• Try to always have at least one mitigation buff running during trash pulls, and try not to overlap big mitigations (i.e. Rampart, Sentinel, Bulwark, and Arm's Length).
• Try to always have at least one mitigation buff running during trash pulls, and try not to overlap big mitigations (i.e. Rampart, Guardian, Bulwark, and Arm's Length).
• Reprisal has a low cooldown, use it early and often.
• Use Sheltron if your Oath Gauge is close to capping, if you have no other cooldowns running or available, or otherwise when you expect to be taking a lot of damage.
• Use Holy Sheltron if your Oath Gauge is close to capping, if you have no other cooldowns running or available, or otherwise when you expect to be taking a lot of damage.
• Hallowed Ground is your most powerful dungeon cooldown. You'll typically get two uses per dungeon run, so plan accordingly.
• Divine Veil can be used as personal mitigation during trash pulls. Boss fights rarely do so much party-wide damage that the party shield is needed.
• If there are enemies that use ranged attacks, either drag the melee enemies onto them or line-of-sight them so they run to you in order to let your party use their AoE abilities more effectively.
• Do not use Clemency most of the time. If you are correctly keeping aggro and using mitigation during trash pulls, there is almost never a need for Clemency, despite how low your HP may get and how scary it might seem. If your healer is unable to keep up despite using mitigation and you die as a result, then you can consider casting a few.
• In a pinch, Passage of Arms can be channeled for personal mitigation. However, this results in you doing zero DPS for the duration of the channel, which will typically result in more healing required overall, as well as a slower dungeon for everyone.
• When in a party with a White Mage, they will ideally be spamming Holy to both deal damage and stun the enemies. If you notice your White Mage doing this, save your mitigation for after the enemies become stun-immune.

Some job quests unlock important abilities and traits so they should be completed as soon as you reach the requisite level. Listed below are all class and job quests that unlock new abilities.

• Level 15: That Old Familiar Feeling (unlocks Shield Lob)
• Level 30: Paladin's Pledge (unlocks Spirits Within)
• Level 35: Honor Lost (unlocks Sheltron and the Oath Gauge)
• Level 40: Power Struggles (unlocks Prominence)
• Parley in the Sagolii (unlocks Cover)
• Keeping the Oath (unlocks Hallowed Ground)
• Big Sollerets to Fill (unlocks Goring Blade)
• Hey Soul Crystal (unlocks Divine Veil)
• All According to Plan (unlocks Clemency)
• This Little Sword of Mine (unlocks Royal Authority)
• Raising the Sword (unlocks Passage of Arms)