Paladin Leveling Guide
Last Updated:July 6, 2024|Change Log
This Paladin leveling build melts foes by launching a blazingly hot javelin. Javelin paired with the Holy Trail node is used both for clearing and single targets thanks to its huge AoE and dps. We also throw Volatile Reversal into the mix and achieve amazing burst damage against bosses.
The Paladin is not afraid of fighting in melee range and can take a few hits thanks to his large amount of recovery skills. In this build, we take advantage of Holy Trail scaling both it's damage and recovery with Healing Effectiveness through Path of Judgement. Holy Aura is also an incredible defensive tool which provides a lot of resistances as well as endurance.
Overall, the Holy Trail Paladin is an amazing leveling build, as it provides both insane damage and recovery. It also scales really well into the end-game as you gain access to more Healing Effectiveness. This combination makes Paladin leveling a breeze.
Check out the Campaign Guide for an in depth breakdown of the campaign.
- Immortal
- Easy Gearing
- Insane Damage
- Clear all content with 1 button
- Requires Aiming
- Has to Respec 1 Skill
- Heavy Buff Management
- Can't Spam Damaging skill
Gameplay
As we level the power of skills evolve, with some becoming stronger while others get weaker. To account for this, we transition from a setup that is optimized for early game to one that is more suited to tackling endgame content.
Early Setup
Use this setup until you have 5 points in Javelin.
- Rive is your single target and clear ability. It summons Summon Forged Weapon that scale with your weapon stats.
- Use Lunge to move quickly through the chapters.
Final Setup
You want to farm Exiled Mages for a chance at getting Gloves with Experimental Ward per Missing Health. This enables Healing Hands to generate Ward and boost your defense massively.
- Use Javelin in front of you so monsters can walk on Holy Trail and die as you move forward.
- Use Vengeance when Javelin is on cooldown or if you are low on Mana. It also procs Healing Hands, healing you massively.
- Use Volatile Reversal and Holy Aura to boost your damage. For Volatile Reversal you need to be close to enemies.
- Use Shield Rush to move quickly through the chapters.
Key Leveling Notes
- Keep your character at the area level by killing monsters.
- To use this guide, you need to maintain at most a 5 level difference with the area.
- Press C to open the character sheet to find your level and TAB to find the area level.
- Only collect loot that serves as an upgrade.
- The loot filter reveals many items that might not be an upgrade for your character.
- If your inventory is full, stick gear with high value affixes in your stash and sell the rest.
- Don't sell gear that has high value affixes to a vendor.
- Instead, keep it to use later or destroy it with a Rune of Shattering or Rune of Removal.
- Always get the best weapon you can.
- Weapons are a core part of your power and getting a higher level base boosts your damage significantly.
- Early on, you can buy them at the
Gambler NPC in the Council Chamber town and in the End of Time town. - After level 40, they don't sell you higher item bases.
- If you want to enter the Monolith of Fate early, unlock all the passive points and idol slots from quests first.
- By the time you complete chapter 7, you will be ready to tackle the Monolith of Fate content.
- Crafting is powerful and important for enhancing your gear.
- Press F and place your item in the crafting interface to level up its affixes and craft new ones!
- Adding health or vitality on a few empty affix slots can increase your HP by a significant amount!
If you need help with crafting, check the Beginner Crafting Guide.
Skills and Passives
Passives and Skills provide powerful effects that dictate the playstyle of a Class and its Masteries. Remember that you can allocate Passives in the first half of any Mastery regardless of the one you chose.
Click on the Arrows at the top and on the Bar at the bottom to see Passive and Skill Trees Progression
Gearing and Side Quests Step by Step
Itemization is a vital aspect of your journey in Last Epoch. While prefixes and suffixes matter, what sets Last Epoch apart is the power of item bases. Many items have potent implicit attributes that can rival or even surpass modifiers.
Level 1 to 10
Items
- On Warrior's Bastard Sword of Conflagration prioritize Chance to Bleed on Hit and Chance to Ignite on Hit. DoT damage in the early game is really high.
- Mighty Silver Ring of Deflection is the best source of movement speed early on.
- Blighted Sunrise Emblem of Deflection provides damage important early on.
- On Vital Leather Boots of Deflection, prioritize Movement Speed and Increased Cooldown Recovery Speed to enhance your mobility.
Side Quests
- Storeroom Sabotuers for 1
Passive point. - Evacuation Quest for 1 Passive point.
Items on planner are for displaying item bases and affixes only. Ignore level requirements.
Level 11 to 25
Items
- Start equipping Idols with Vitality, any type of resistance, Health, Health on Kill, Chance To Bleed On Hit, Chance To Poison On Hit and Chance To Ignite On Hit.
- As we transition to Spell damage after 5 points in Javelin, you want to equip wands like Blighted Birch Wand of the Zephyr or Ritual Stake and shields like Guardian's Cavalier Shield of Deflection or Heater Shield.
- Cleric's Gold Ring of Deflection provides significant elemental resistances, outshining other options at this level.
- Cleric's Heretical Script of Deflection provides extra Void Resistance for Chapters 2 and 3.
- Avarice gives you a decent chunk of elemental resistances and leech.
Side Quests
- Erza's Ledger Quest for 1 Passive point and Avarice.
- Don't talk to the Gambler NPC before completing this quest, otherwise you can't get Avarice.
- The Upper District Quest for 1 Passive point.
- An Ancient Hunt for extra
Idol slots. - The Lesser Refuge Quest for 2 Passive point.
- The Corrupted Lake Quest for 1 Passive point and extra Idol slots.
Items on planner are for displaying item bases and affixes only. Ignore level requirements.
Level 26 to 40
Items
- You want to start farming Exiled Mages for a chance at getting Gloves with Experimental Ward per Missing Health. This enables Healing Hands to generate Ward and boost your defense massively.
- Sentinel's Spiked Helm of Deflection is a powerful base that helps you fix your physical res when combined with Sentinel's Forge Plate of Deflection.
- Switch Cleric's Heretical Script of Deflection for Cleric's Mournful Pennant of Deflection as you won't encounter many void monsters until the end game.
Side Quests
- Hidden Gems Quest for 1 Passive point.
- The Sapphire Tablet Quest for 1 Passive point and extra Idol slots.
Items on planner are for displaying item bases and affixes only. Ignore level requirements.
Level 41 to 58
Items
- Infernal Opal Ring of Hope is going to help you spam your abilities more often.
- Infernal Spidersilk Sash of Life is a powerful base that helps you fix your cold res when combined with Vital Heoborean Boots of Remedy.
- Cleric's Solar Commandment of Purity provide significant damage bonuses for the build.
Side Quests
- A Heoborean Cure Quest for extra Idol slots.
- Liberating the Nomads Quest for extra Idol slots.
- After defeating the Frostroot Warden boss and completing chapter 7 quests, you have reached the cap of 15 Passive points and 8 Idol slots. You can dive into the Monolith of Fate or you can choose to finish the campaign for a reward of +1 to all attributes.
Items on planner are for displaying item bases and affixes only. Ignore level requirements.
Early Monolith
Items
Important At this point, you have access to most of the best item bases in the game. Your upgrades come from prefixes and suffixes on items instead of the implicits.
Here is a recap of the best item bases :
- Weapon : Crystal Wand
- Offhand : Carapace Shield or Mountain Shield
- Helmet : Augury Helm
- Body Armour : Forge Plate or Solarum Plate
- Belt : Spidersilk Sash or Praetorian Belt
- Boots : Heoborean Boots and Solarum Greaves
- Gloves : Plated Gauntlets
- Amulet : Bone Amulet
- Rings : Coral Ring or Opal Ring
- Relic : Argent Crest or Solar Commandment
Items on planner are for displaying item bases and affixes only. Ignore level requirements.
Monolith Progression
After beating the Abomination timeline boss and completing your first timeline, you have the choice to go between The Stolen Lance timeline and The Black Sun timeline. Go for The Black Sun timeline.
You want to do timelines on the right-hand-side of the Monolith progression as they provides more relevant Blessings for your character progression.
Level progression includes 1-10, 11-25, 26-40, 41-58 and Early Monolith, scroll to find the correct tab.
Paladin Uniques
If you are lucky, you might get a Rune of Ascendance while leveling. Use this first on boots to get unique boots such as Eterra's Path or Suloron's Step.
Keep an eye out for useful Uniques such as Devotion, Exsanguinous and Arboreal Circuit.
Gear Stats Priorities
Best Prefixes
- Level of Rive until you have 5 points in Javelin
- Level of Javelin, Level of Volatile Reversal, Level of Holy Aura, Level of Healing Hands and Level of Vengeance
- Fire Penetration
- Elemental Damage Over Time
- Damage Over Time
- Fire Damage Over Time
- Fire Damage
- Lightning Penetration
- Lightning Damage
- Vitality
Best Suffixes
- Chance to Bleed on Hit and Chance to Ignite on Hit until you have 5 points in Javelin
- Fire Penetration and Minion Fire Penetration
- Lightning Penetration and Minion Lightning Penetration
- Health
- Hybrid Health
- Fire Resistance, Lightning Resistance, Cold Resistance, Elemental Resistance, Physical Resistance, Necrotic Resistance and Void Resistance
- Health
- Chance to Chill on Hit
- Chance to apply Frailty on Hit
- Chance to Slow on Hit
- Armour
- Dodge Rating
- Increased Cooldown Recovery Speed
Idols
- Chance to Bleed on Hit, Chance to Ignite on Hit and Chance to Poison on Hit until you have 5 points in Javelin
- Fire Damage Over Time
- Shared Fire Damage
- Shared Lightning Damage
- Health
- Health
- Vitality
- Armor
- Block Effectiveness
Loot Filter
Loot Filters are critical in Last Epoch. Highlighting all the related valuable Item Bases, Affixes, Uniques and Idols is crucial to your character's progression. As your gear gets better, remember to hide the rules that are no longer useful to avoid screen clutter.
Link : Download Lootfilter
Learn how to load and make Filters with our Loot Filter Guide.
Summary
This Paladin leveling build shines in its offensive and recovery capabilities. It kills bosses in seconds and makes you straight up immortal, establishing it as one of the smoothest mastery to play during the campaign.
- Use Hammer Throw as your main damage skill until you unlock Rive. Then use Rive until you have 5 points in Javelin.
- Always use Javelin in front of you so monsters can walk on Holy Trail as you move forward.
- Use Vengeance when Javelin is on cooldown.
- Use Shield Rush to move quickly through the chapters.
- Use Volatile Reversal and Holy Aura to boost your damage. For Volatile Reversal you need to be close to enemies.
- When you switch your main damage skill to Javelin with Holy Trail, search for good staves like Sacrificial Staff at level 13.
- Cap your Physical Resistance early to make the campaign look easy.
What's Next?
Congratulations, you completed the campaign and your first 3 Monoliths Timelines! What awaits you is unlocking Empowered Monolith after pushing through The Reign of Dragons, Spirits of Fire, The Age of Winter and The Last Ruin Timelines and activating the beacon in the middle of them. Then you can dive into dungeons, empower your character further and test your limits at the Arena leaderboard.
Check out our Paladin Guides and find the perfect Paladin Endgame build for you.
Explore the Monolith of Fate with our Beginner Guide and learn how to farm Dungeons.
Credits
Written by Terek.
Reviewed by Dredscythe.