Guide:Paragon

The Paragon is a versatile support profession that can fill many niches, capable of buffing or healing the entire party through Shouts, Chants, and Echoes as well as providing pressure through their spear attacks. Paragon attribute points are often spread thin, as every attribute contains beneficial abilities.

A Paragon can be highly adaptive, able to boost whatever the party needs (from damage, to buffs, to healing). To some extent Paragons are a jack-of-all-trades like the Ritualist: they have offensive, defensive, and healing skills all in one profession. So, a Paragon can be useful to almost any team. At the same time, Paragons require much more coordination and planning with their party's strengths and weaknesses in order to create an effective skill bar.

Paragon armor has a maximum armor rating of 80 (equal to a Warrior, although lacking their +20 bonus against physical damage), and 10 extra Energy. Paragons, like Warriors, have only 2 pips of base energy regeneration.

Leadership
"You gain one Energy for each ally affected by one of your Shouts or Chants (maximum 1 Energy every 2 ranks)."

The Paragon's primary attribute is also their primary source of energy management. It is simple and very effective in its function, but sometimes confusing for players that are new to the Paragon profession. Below is a brief summary of how it functions; skip the indented text if you aren't concerned with the details.
 * Basically, divide your Leadership rank by 2: this is the maximum number of allies that will be counted for the Leadership energy bonus. Each time you use your Shouts or Chants, you can gain up to that amount of energy if that amount of allies (including you) were affected. Note that you will always gain only 1 energy per ally; the energy return provided by single-target Shouts (like "Brace Yourself!") is always meager. Also, be careful to remember that Leadership only gives you energy if your Shout or Chant affects the allies around you: some Shouts and Chants only affect "party members", which excludes any Ranger pets or allied NPCs from contributing to that Shout or Chant's energy bonus.


 * As an example, let's say you have 10 Leadership and are in an 8-ally group consisting of you, 5 party members, and 2 Ranger pets. You can gain a maximum of 10/2 = 5 energy back each time your Shouts or Chants are used. If you use something like "Go for the Eyes!", and 8 allies (including you) are affected, you gain 5 energy. Now you raise your Leadership to 16; your cap on gain would rise to 16/2 = 8. If you use "Go for the Eyes!" again on those 8 allies (including you), you'll now get 8 energy.


 * Finally, staying at 16 Leadership, let's say you use Anthem of Guidance with your 8 allies (including you) in earshot. You gain 6 energy, because even though you had 8 total allies within the chant's area of effect, Anthem of Guidance only affects party members (which Ranger pets are not).

Leadership also improves the skills linked to it. These are typically powerful (granting benefits proportional to the number of party members or allies in earshot) and synergize well with other characters or secondary professions. Examples include Leadership's "They're on Fire!" combined with a Searing Flames Elementalist, or the adrenaline boosting skill Focused Anger combined with the Warrior's high-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 provides a Paragon's damage output. The main weapon for a Paragon, the spear, is a projectile weapon with the range of a shortbow, a small arc size, and a maximum damage of 14-27. Spears are one-handed, meaning they can be wielded with either a shield or a focus in the offhand slot.

Spear Mastery skills can inflict Bleeding, Deep Wound, Dazed, Burning, and Crippled. Combined with the ability to interrupt actions and end stances, a well-played Paragon can be quite threatening; spear damage is comparable to that of an axe or a sword. This makes them dangerous alternatives to Warriors in PvP, since it's harder to spot spears in flight than an axe warrior rushing in 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; in most party situations, however, dedicated nukers (usually Elementalists) are the preferred choice for damage roles.

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 two (the other being Command) Paragon attributes that appear as requirements on shields.

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, either with many shouts being used by the party or a Paragon willing and able to maintain the echo through the frequent use of short duration shouts and chants (like "The Power Is Yours!").

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 one of two (the other being Motivation) Paragon attributes that appear as requirements on shields.

Command skills are mostly buffs which increase the offensive and defensive capabilities of the Paragon's entire party. Offensively, it includes a variety of skills such as "Go for the Eyes!" (increased critical chance) or Anthem of Disruption (mass interruption); their usefulness makes them a staple of many Paragon builds. The on-next-attack quality of these skills also makes them beneficial for spike-oriented teams. There are also some targeted shouts like "Find Their Weakness!", which can further enhance a specific ally's capability.

The defensive side of Command includes armor bonuses and IMS; "Stand Your Ground!" increases the armor of party members (while they're not moving), while "Fall Back!" makes the entire party move 33% faster and heals them each second they spend moving.

Skills
Shouts: Shouts have no cast time, and affect party members within earshot. The Paragon uses many of them.

Chants: Chants are essentially shouts with cast times, 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: Echoes are duration-effects that interact with shouts or chants. The types are as follows:
 * Finales: provide an instant effect triggered when a chant or shout ends
 * Refrains: provide effects that are renewed whenever a chant or shout ends

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:

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.


 * Became very popular as the expansion Eye of the North came out, using it before Spear of Fury will give you more adrenaline strikes, as the condition is applied before the attack hits. This doesn't work with Anthem of Flame.


 * 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.


 * This skill, coupled with Anthem of Flame, can provide constant health regeneration for a low cost. It can also be sustained by GFTE.

Spear attacks

 * Popular for quick spike damage due to its low energy cost and armor penetration.


 * Popular in PvE as it gives the paragon more adrenaline, allowing him/her to use his/her adrenaline skills more often.

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.