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 Warrior •  Ranger •  Monk •  Necromancer •  Mesmer •  Elementalist •  Assassin •  Ritualist •  Paragon •  Dervish
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WORK IN PROGRESS
The Paragon has many uses throughout Guild Wars. A Paragon supports and buffs a party through Shouts and Chants. Many times, you'll find Paragons investing points in all attributes, as all of them can help. A Paragon has 80 armor, the second highest in the game, 2 Energy Regeneration, and 4 attributes. A Paragon can be highly adaptive, able to suit whatever the party needs, from damage, to buffs, to healing. Paragons in some aspects work much like Ritualists: They have offensive, defensive, and healing skills. This makes a Paragon useful for any team.
Attributes
Leadership
The primary attribute of a Paragon, Leadership is the Energy Management of a Paragon.
"You gain one Energy for each ally affected by one of your Shouts or Chants (maximum 1 Energy every 2 ranks)."
Basically, for every 2 ranks of Leadership, you gain 1 Energy for each ally affected by your Shouts or Chants. So, if you used something like "Go for the Eyes!" at 10 Leadership, and 7 allies were affected, you'd gain 5 energy. This is the main source of energy management for Paragons.
Leadership skills are typically powerful, granting benefits proportional to the number of party members or allies in earshot, and synergize well with other characters or secondary classes, such as "They're on Fire!" and Searing Flames elementalists, or the adrenaline boosting skill Focused Anger and the expensive adrenaline shout "Save Yourselves!"
Spear Mastery
"Spear Mastery increases the damage Paragons do with spears and the chance to inflict a critical hit when using a spear. Many skills, especially spear attacks, become more effective with higher Spear Mastery."
Spear Mastery is what gives the Paragon its damage. The main weapon for a Paragon, the spear, is a ranged weapon with the range of a shortbow. It can be wielded with a shield or focus item, making it the only one-handed range weapon except for the wand. Spear Mastery can also make your spears inflict Bleeding, Deep Wound, Dazed, Burning, and Crippled. Along with the ability to Interrupt and end Stances, this makes a Paragon far from whimpy. In fact, the damage is comparable to that of an axe or a sword. This makes them deadly alternatives to Warriors in PvP, as it is harder to spot spears in flight than it is an axe warrior rushing for a spike. In PvE, high amounts of spear mastery combined with a few choice attack skills such as Spear of Lightning can provide decent pressure, however in most situations nukers are better damage options than paragons. See Styles of Play below.
Motivation
"No inherent effect. Many Paragon skills, especially those related to Energy management or that inspire your allies, become more effective with higher Motivation."
Motivation is one of the 2 Paragon attributes that can be requisite for a shield.
Motivation skills serve to support the party with conditional healing, adrenaline gain, and energy management. Depending on the composition of the party, different types of Motivation chants may be employed. One popular tactic is to use the echo Mending Refrain, which reapplies itself every time a shout ends, to provide health regeneration to the entire party almost indefinitely. This tactic is typically employed in areas where there is constant or extreme health degeneration, where there are a lot of shouts being used by the party, or when a Paragon is willing and able to maintain the echo through the use of short duration shouts and chants. The effects of the many healing chants in motivation can be discerned using the rules for chant naming, as detailed above.
Command
"No inherent effect. Many Paragon skills, especially those that protect your allies or increase your tactical position on the battlefield, become more effective with higher Command."
Command is the other of the 2 Paragon attributes that can be requisite for a shield.
Command skills can be used to increase both the offensive and defensive capabilities of the Paragon's party.
Skills such as "Go for the Eyes!" are a staple of many Paragon builds. They increase the power of the entire team. A lot of anthems which increase the power of each party member's next attack are found in command; this makes it a good attribute for spike-oriented teams. There are also targeted shouts like "Find Their Weakness!" which boost attack power.
The defensive side of Command utilizes armor buffs or movement speed increases. "Stand Your Ground!" increases the armor of party members when not moving, while "Fall Back!" buffs the party's movement while healing them during movement.
Skills
Shouts: They have no cast time, and affect party members within earshot. The Paragon uses many of them.
Chants: Essentially shouts with cast times, chants are divided and labeled according to what is required to trigger their effects. The types are as follows:
Songs: Activate the next time any skill is used
Choruses: Activate the next time a shout is used
Anthems: Activate on the next attack skill used
Lyrics: Activate on the next signet used
Arias: Activate on the next spell used
Ballads: Activate the next time damage is taken
Echoes: Lasting and unremovable except for expiration, echoes interact with shouts or chants. Refrains are echoes which reapply themselves when a shout or chant ends. Other echoes enhance the effects of shouts and chants or prolong their duration.
Styles of Play
A Paragon can take on a few different roles, as well as be multiple roles. Here are just to list a few:
Degen Spammer
Having Blazing Spear, Barbed Spear, and Apply Posion on your skill bar can lead to massive health degeneration. Also, along with 4 different attacks that can inflict a Deep Wound, this becomes the most common way to play. Also, you can combine with Command to buff your party members as well as your own deadliness.
Focused Paragon
"Focusing" around the elite skill Focused Anger, you can charge high cost and low cost adrenaline skills quickly. At least 10 Leadership is suitable for maximum potential; this means weapon specialty can easily be boosted to 12. Spamming low cost energy skills like "Go for the Eyes!" and "Watch Yourself!" or high cost adrenaline skills like "Save Yourselves!"
Shouts, Chants, and Echoes
- A useful skill for most Paragon types, Aggressive Refrain provides 25% increased attack speed, providing the Paragon with its high DPS. The refrain is reapplied after a Shout or Chant ends on the player, so with careful management, the IAS can be sustained indefinitely. Even for Paragons whose focus is not on damage, Aggressive Refrain allows the player to quickly build up adrenaline for support skills.
- Popular due to its cheap cost, short recharge and Burning condition, Anthem of Flame is often used by Paragons to sustain Aggressive Refrain. This Chant also boosts damage from other party members.
- As a Shout, "Go for the Eyes!" has instant activation time. This allows the Paragon to achieve several things: instantly boost damage for all party members using attack skills, instantly gain energy from Leadership (GFTE has no energy cost), and to sustain Aggressive Refrain.
Spear attacks
- Popular for quick spike damage due to its low energy cost and armor penetration.
Utility skills
- Essential for builds that rely on adrenaline skills. Focused Anger allows for sustained adrenaline skill spamming, and synergises particularly well with skills like "Go for the Eyes!", which can be charged in several hits.
- Signet of Return acts as a useful hard res, improving when within earshot of several party members. The skill benefits particularly well when used in conjunction with "We Shall Return!".