Guide to playing as a paragon
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[edit] Overview
Paragons are ranged support fighters, who specialize in Spears, and several forms of vocal commands, usually Chants, Echos, and Shouts. Paragons benifit from their primary attribute, Leadership, which gives them energy depending on party size when using their vocal skills.
In order to effectively play as a paragon, one must take full advantage of the Paragon's Leadership attribute, as they only have the minimum energy regeneration of 2 pips. However, effective paragons hardly ever run out of energy. The use of adrenaline chants/shouts, to gain extra energy with the leadership attribute, should be utilized. Also, because of the wide variety of chants/shouts, and the high armor of 80 (plus an additional 16 if including the shield), paragons can make avid healers.
Paragons go well with assassins that are in their party, as some shouts and chants add bonuses to critical hits, and up the chance of having critical hits. The command attribute, although practically useless in doing damage as a paragon alone, can greatly affect the outcome of any battle.
As a second attribute, the paragons work well with almost anything. The ritualist weapon spell can help individual party members, while the paragon's chants help the whole party. Mesmer as a second would help to regain lost energy so that more powerful chants can be used. Monk as a second, along with the motivation attribute, can make the Paragon an effective healer.
Again, the only drawback to playing as a paragon is the loss of energy, which can be avoided by the great use of adrenaline chants, therefore a paragon is almost a necessity in any party. This is the disadvantage of this class, too. A paragon on his own is weak compared to i.e., the Warrior which has several skills that make him quite independent.
[edit] Attributes
[edit] Leadership
Leadership is the Paragon's primary attribute. Whenever a Paragon uses a Chant or Shout, they gain 1 Energy for each ally affected, up to a maximum of 1 Energy per 2 ranks of Leadership. Leadership skills often relate to adrenaline gain, the Burning condition, defense or attack speed. It also includes Hexbreaker Aria, the only Paragon hex removal ability, and Signet of Return, the only Paragon resurrection skill.
[edit] Command
Command skills generally relate to offense (particularly buffs for physical attackers) or defense. Command also includes "Never Give Up!", which provides Energy to allies below 75% Health, "Never Surrender!", which provides Health regeneration to allies below 75% Health, and Song of Concentration, which prevents interruption.
[edit] Motivation
Motivation skills generally relate to healing or Energy management, however Motivation also includes a number of condition removal skills. Motivation Paragons mostly reduce the pressure on the monks.
[edit] Spear Mastery
All Spear Mastery skills are Spear Attacks. Spear Mastery skills can unconditionally inflict Bleeding and Burning, and can conditionally inflict Crippled, Deep Wound and, with the elite skill Stunning Strike, Dazed. Additionally, several Spear Mastery skills are unblockable, Disrupting Throw can conditionally interrupt, Wild Throw can remove stances, Spear of Redemption causes the user to lose a condition if it misses and Holy Spear inflicts area damage and causes Burning if it hits a summoned creature.
[edit] Equipment
[edit] Weapons
Paragons use spears and shields in combat. Spears, tied to Spear Mastery, are ranged one-handed weapons that have a relatively fast attack speed and attack approximately at spell range. Spear attack skills often inflict conditions on foes, and many are charged with Adrenaline. Spears are upgraded with Spearheads, Spear Grips, and inscriptions.
Shields, the primary off-hand of Paragons, are tied to Command and Motivation and provide 16 AL when max. Shields can be upgraded with Shield Handles and inscriptions.
[edit] Armor
[edit] Understanding the Profession
[edit] PvE
In PVE, the paragon can shine like no other. In PVE, paragons can use their chants and shouts without ever running out of energy. This is done by controlling the party so it stays within earshot, maximizing the usage of shouts and chants, and maximizing energy regain. At 16 Leadership, a paragon gains 8 energy for every shout or chant he uses, providing all 8 party members are within earshot. This can be formidably effective when the paragon uses a secondary profession such as elementalist, which needs energy for its spells. Although some shouts and chants cost energy, some of them are adrenaline-based. When the paragon is low on energy, he can use 2 or 3 consecutive adrenaline shouts to fill his energy back up, and keep buffing the party. In PVE, the paragon can easily become a shining leader and ally, increasing party-wide DPS and healing, coupled with spear attacks for added damage.
Even though the armor of the Paragon is quite strong, nearly as good as the armor of the Warrior, you should stay behind the Melee characters and use the range of your spear so that you are not getting any Aggro. A position in the Midline, between Monks and Warriors, is ideal for your Chants and Shouts, too, as they will affect all party members, maximizing the energy gain from Leadership. The short range on your spear will usually put you in the midline.
[edit] PvP
If you decide to play a paragon in PvP, remember that you grow stronger with the number of teammates. This makes you weak in the Random Arena and Team Arena as you cannot use your full potential, even though you still should not be underestimated.
In PVP, the paragon is equally as powerful as his PVE counterpart, but requires more management on the player's part. Since the paragon relies on his earshot range to use his shouts and chants, a party which runs off to attack random targets will be the paragon's poison. This, coupled with the energy-per-ally-within-earshot ability of leadership, can lead to an empty paragon and a mostly unwelcome presence. But, the paragon does possess a great utility in PVP, mainly his wide array of utility buffs. He can speed buff, mitigate damage and run himself, helping the whole party as support. A good team in PVP will always stay close to the paragon, in order to both make use of his chants and shouts, and to ensure the paragon himself stays healthy. A good team sticks together!
As in PvE, you should make sure to stay in the Midline where your Chants and Shouts affect the most teammates so that you gain the maximum benefit from Leadership. Try to constantly pressure the enemy monks from the distance while you use your skills to boost your team's offense and defense. If your team uses focused pressure, it's easiest to just take the calls and auto-attack the target using your spear skills as often as possible. This way you add to the pressure as you are rarely strong enough to kill a target on your own and you do not get distracted from keeping the shouts up. Of course when you get more experienced, you will know how to pressure a target on your own, allowing you to attack on your own.
Most probably your healers will both have Aegis so you should cast the Defensive Anthem in the gap between the second Aegis and the end of the recharge time of the first Aegis, as you would do with a third Aegis. This makes sure that your team is protected all the time, preventing enemy spikes. "Watch Yourself!" and "Shields Up!" should be used whenever they are ready as they boost your team's armor and in turn reduce the damage the monks have to heal. "Watch Yourself!" serves as energy management as it will give you free energy which you need for defensive anthem.
In most GvG you will play a defensive paragon.
[edit] Staying alive
A paragon can easily mitigate damage using a combination of his armor, weapons, and skill choice. Using his inherent 80 armor, Centurion insignias, a shield (bearing in mind that a 15 AL shield can mitigate attribute spread by having a requirement as low as 7 with an insignificant disadvantage of -1 AL) with +30 health and +10 AL vs the damage type you expect to face (usually fire, from skills such as Teinai's Heat, or slashing, if NPC melee breaks through your frontline), and a +30 hp spear with a "Strength and Honor" inscription can grant the paragon approximately 600 health and 100 AL after the cracked armor from Aggressive Refrain, which heroes remove quickly anyway. (Aggressive Refrain is used because it's supremely easy to maintain, triggering the bonus from insignias, and allows you to gain adrenaline very quickly for your shouts and chants.) Coupled with "There's Nothing to Fear!" and some form of healing anywhere in the party, the paragon becomes a veritable fortress, unlikely to be anything other than the last character to die in any given situation.
[edit] Playing in a Party
Playing as a paragon, you're one of the few hybrid support/damage classes. You can boost your team with your chants and shouts, and also deal significant damage with a spear. Paragons have one the highest unmodded DPS in the game. Many Paragon builds involve either healing or damage, and it's really up to personal preference to which is used. Paragons, however, should not be looked at as another monk class, because is it very difficult for a paragon to support a group as efficiently as a monk can. However, multiple paragons can make playing in even the most difficult areas seem easier.
[edit] What to Avoid
Avoid being alone at all costs. A paragon which has few party members within earshot can easily become useless and can therefore attract the bane of allies. The key to this could be to ensure you stay with party range at all times, with assassin skills for example. Whatever you use, the key is to stay close enough for the whole party to hear your battle cry.
[edit] Play Styles
[edit] Imbagon
Imbagon is a nickname for a series of Paragon / Warrior builds designed around the PvE skills "Save Yourselves!" and "There's Nothing To Fear!", using other skills to boost attack speed and adrenaline gain. Aggressive Refrain is a popular attack speed booster, and Focused Anger and Spear of Fury (accompanied by Anthem of Weariness) are common adrenaline gain skills.
[edit] Choice of Secondary Professions
Many paragons choose warrior as their secondary profession, as both classes have adrenaline-based and adrenaline-gaining skills. ("Save Yourselves!" is a major reason to choose this as your secondary profession.) Warrior shouts also synergize with the Leadership attribute.
In PvP, Paragons often choose Mesmer or Necromancer as their secondary profession for enchantment removal and utility skills.
Warrior: Adrenal skills and shouts have synergy with the Paragon profession. Commonly used skills include "For Great Justice!", "Shields Up!", "Watch Yourself!", and the PvE-only skill "Save Yourselves!". Warrior tends to be the most common secondary profession for a Paragon.
Ranger: Ranger offers little benefit to a Paragon primary.
Monk: Monk offers little benefit to a Paragon primary.
Necromancer: As with the Mesmer, enchantment removal is a big reason why you would take a Necromancer secondary profession. Consider Rend Enchantments and similar skills. In PvE, Blood is Power is useful for party energy support.
Mesmer: Mirror of Disenchantment is affordable with leadership and doesn't scale with attribute rank. Interrupts such as Cry of Frustration are also useful. Other choices include Power Leak and Power Spike, and may be superior depending on the situation.
Elementalist: Generally speaking, an elementalist secondary can, at best, only promote your own damage - whereas using those skill slots for paragon skills can boost your entire party's damage.
Assassin: Assassin offers little benefit to a Paragon primary.
Ritualist: Ritualist offers little benefit to a paragon primary.
Dervish : Dervish offers little benefit to a paragon primary.
| Guides for all Professions |
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Core:  Warrior •  Ranger •  Monk •  Necromancer •  Mesmer •  Elementalist
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Factions:  Assassin •  Ritualist Nightfall:  Paragon •  Dervish
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