Paladin Build Guide - Titan Quest
Skill Trees: Defense and Storm
Primary Skills: Ice Shard, Storm Nimbus, Squall, Summon Wisp, Storm Surge, Battle Awareness
Important Stats: +Skills, -Recharge, Defensive Ability, Physical, Pierce and Vitality Resistances (others too but these 3 are most important)
Attributes: Strength to wear gear, Dexterity to wear gear and Intelligence for damage
The Paladin build in Titan Quest is a combination of Defense and Storm and is not a build that I would say is very friendly to beginners. If you're new to the game you should steer clear of builds which are hybrids between melee and caster as it's much more difficult to properly gear them and to distribute their Attribute Points effectively.
For this build you will be investing most of your Attribute Points into Strength and Intelligence with a little bit into Dexterity so you can wear gear. The only reason we are putting any points into Strength is to wear better gear that comes with higher Armor than the cloth counterparts. Once you have enough Strength and Dexterity to wear gear you are going to want to dump the rest into Intelligence for extra damage. Putting some into Health isn't a bad idea either.
As far as gear goes, you're going to want to gear like you are a Tank. Ice Shard is an ability that is really only good when you stand in one spot and spam it, hit and run with the ability is not very effective so you need to be able to stand in one spot and eat a lot of damage.
I recommend you get at least +4 Skills on your gear as well as at least 40% -Recharge. The -Recharge will be used for your Rally and Quick Recovery abilities, allowing you to keep them both up 24/7. This combination will give us significantly more survivability than we would normally have.
Also, having a moderate amount of -Recharge will allow us to frequently use Unyielding Phalanx, a very powerful Defense Mastery skill which can be kept up 24/7 if you have a good amount of -Recharge gear. This ability allows us to not be such a one trick pony with Frost Damage since the ghosts that are summoned with Unyielding Phalanx do Physical. Use this ability when you encounter bosses like the Gargantuan Yeti in Act 3 that have high Frost Resistance.
If you need help figuring out what -Recharge gear to aim for I recommend you take a look at my List of Gear With -Recharge Guide. The list is not a complete, but I compiled a list of all the items I had in my TQVault with -Recharge after months of playing since there was nothing similar online.
To play a Paladin, you'll want to keep Quick Recovery, Rally and Energy Shield on yourself at all times. I typically put them on 1, 2 and 3 or some other easy to remember button combo for you to hit constantly. Your Left Click will be Ice Shard and your Right Click is Squall. Typically what I do is drop Squall ontop of myself then spam Ice Shard on all of the enemies in melee range.
Unyielding Phalanx is a great ability to drop ontop of all bosses and that's basically all there is to playing a Paladin. Below I have included a list of all the abilities that you'll be using as well as a little bit of information about each one.
(Defense) Rally: When you take damage this should be the first thing you use to heal yourself, use potions while Rally is on cooldown. Rally will also provide you with increased Resistances as well as a bunch of other goodies, so long as you get the passives. It is typically good to throw a few points into this skill and its passives but don't max it.
(Defense) Battle Awareness: Long term buff that you'll want to use for a lot of survivability. Get the passives that go with it, especially Iron Will since that gives you 80% resistances to most of your Secondary Resistances (Sleep, Stun, Trap, Freeze).
(Defense) Colossus Form: Boss killing ability. Very long cooldown but you become insanely powerful (and big). When there are no bosses around to kill you can use this ability to run through maps like a giant and skip tons of enemies that you don't feel like fighting.
(Defense) Unyielding Phalanx: Added into the game during Atlantis and one of my favorite Defense abilities. Drop these ontop of a boss for tons of damage or a pack of enemies and they'll decimate them. This ability is important for this build because it allows you to be more versatile than only dealing Frost Damage. With some -Recharge gear you can get this ability on almost 100% up time.
(Defense) Quick Recovery: The best way I can think of to describe this ability is it's like a tanking cooldown. Pop this to take less damage from all of the enemies attacking you. Will only work against melee or ranged (physical) attacks. If you get enough gear with -Recharge on it you'll be able to keep this ability up 24/7.
(Storm) Ice Shard + Passives: Your left click attack and the main thing you'll be spamming the majority of the time you play this build. Ice Shard can shotgun enemies (meaning multiple shards will deal damage to the enemy if they hit him) so stand in the enemies face to properly use this ability.
(Storm) Storm Nimbus: Causes your attacks to deal more Cold and Lightning damage. Both of the passives will further buff your Cold and Lightning damage, one passive for each type of Elemental Damage. I typically only grab the Ice one since it buffs Ice Shards but the Lightning one will buff Squall too, so it's ultimately your choice.
(Storm) Squall: Your right click ability. If you've never used Squall before, it's one of the best abilities in the game. It's a targeted AE ability that does a lot of damage to enemies inside of it as well as reduces their Resistances and Damage. It has an added bonus of putting Impaired Aim on Archers which greatly reduces their chance to hit you.
(Storm) Summon Wisp: This is your Storm Mastery pet. Make sure you get the Eye of the Storm passive that comes with it as it'll greatly boost your damage when the pet uses the buff. Dumping a lot of points into Summon Wisp is typically not recommended until you're higher level and the Arc Discharge passive is only so-so.
(Storm - Optional) Energy Shield: It'll absorb some Ice/Lightning Damage and with the passive gives you Damage Reflect which is nice. I'm not sure if the Damage Reflect only works for Ice/Lightning or everything.
Other Tips:
- If you're struggling in Titan Quest and need some help check out my Best Leveling Abilities Guide, my Titan Quest F.A.Q or my Titan Quest Tips & Tricks pages for a lot of helpful info about this game. Additionally if you're curious what I think the Best Builds Are in Titan Quest check out that guide too. Last but not least you should consider getting TQVaultAE which is a third party program that nearly everyone who plays TQ uses.
- Curious what other sorts of gear you should get for this build? I have put together a long list of Overpowered Gear Combos in Titan Quest that you may find useful. The guide contains information for all sorts of build combinations and specializations; both offensive and defensive gear choices are included as well as Monster Infrequents you can farm for Best In Slot items for your characters.
- While leveling up I would recommend focusing either more on Defense and being a melee character or Storm and being a Spellcaster. This build won't be as effective until 40+
- If you need Vitality Resistance I recommend you carry an Apples of Idun Artifact on you to swap out to for bosses. To easily make Artifacts in Titan Quest use the TQVault Third Party Program, it's an amazing program and essential if you plan to play multiple builds in this game.
- You're going to be chugging Energy potions almost non-stop as a Paladin. Make sure you always have some on you as well as enough gold to afford this build