FFXI: The Best Subjobs For Paladin


Paladins are well-known sword and board bulwarks in Final Fantasy XI, capable of shrugging off even the hardest of hits.

With their incredible sustainability and utility, they don’t need to rely much on a subjob to keep themselves alive.

This allows them to freely choose and pick between subs based on whatever strategy they like most.

But which subs offer the most for a paladin? Let’s find out!


5. White Mage

This job used to be popular with a paladin, but over recent years, it has fallen into a niche subjob that’s mostly used if you’re going to be super tanking while providing heavy support.

Unfortunately, white mage’s Tranquil Heart trait can clash with the spirit of a paladin, due to the reduced enmity when healing.

But Divine Seal in conjunction with Majesty and Cure IV will often be capable of fully healing the entire party at once, while gaining massive amounts of enmity too.

This subjob allows paladins to get a nice bonus to their healing, with the added capability of being able to remove various debuffs with Erase or –Na spells, including Stona.

Picking white mage also bolsters a paladin’s defenses, with various utility spells like Stoneskin, Blink and Regen, AoE bar-spells. It also provides them with a safety net in the form of Reraise if they happen to fall in battle.

This job will also grant paladins some light debuffing in the form of Silence, Paralyze, Slow, Diaga, and Dia II. So there are plenty of benefits to consider.

They’ll also get access to the Magic Defense Bonus II and Auto Regen traits, which is only a single HP per tick, but remains helpful if a paladin happens to be under the Regen buff already, or is using equipment that has Regen on it.


4. Red Mage

Red mage is considerably more popular than white mage for a paladin build, because RDM goes a little further in bolstering a paladin’s already exceptional defenses, with added access to a wider range of magic.

It’s worth noting that with this subjob you’ll lose access to AoE form bar-spells, –Na spells, and Erase.

However, like a white mage, you’ll still be able to cast Cure IV, Aquaveil, Stoneskin, Blink, and Regen all the same.

Red mage will also grant Magic Defense Bonus II and Magic Attack Bonus II, in addition the Fast Cast II traits.

It also offers all the debuffing spells that a white mage offers, with additional debuffing black magic such as Sleep, Blind, Dispel, Bio, Frazzle and Distract. I think you can see why this is more popular!

This combo also features Ice Spikes, which is a handy way to indirectly inflict Paralyze on enemies that’ll most likely be hitting paladins.

And in situations where a paladin manages to run out of MP, Convert serves as a handy way to restore it too.


3. Dancer

Dancer has been a fantastic support job for paladins for a long time now, and was a majorly popular combination during the Wings of the Goddess era.

While those days are long gone, dancer still retains its intense usefulness to paladins who happen to be doing solo or low man content like Dynamis.

Access to Waltzes not only allow a paladin to heal without using MP, but also lets them remove status ailments across the party.

Plus Divine Waltz allows any paladin to wake up a sleeping party, if an enemy happens to use Sleepga.

Paladins are more than likely the first of a party to wake up due to being tanks, so using a Divine Waltz as soon as they’re hit can quickly return the fight to an even playing field.

And it’s noteworthy that Steps allow a paladin to provide some debuff utility, while Sambas grant a 5% job haste effect that benefits the entire party.

Using dancer also gives access to Violent Flourish, yet another way to stun enemies alongside Shield Bash. It definitely serves as an incredibly useful backup tool should Shield Bash happen to be on cooldown.


2. Warrior

Warrior used to be the obvious choice for paladin since it offered Provoke, which easily generated enmity.

With that being said, it’s still probably the second most common job a paladin will use in party content.

Like many other jobs subbing warrior, this is intended to be used for the purpose of inflicting as much damage as possible.

While paladins certainly aren’t the strongest in the game, it would be foolish to ignore their abilities to deal high amounts of damage (in the right gear).

And Berserk doesn’t provide too much of a penalty to a paladin, since they already have incredible defense in addition to a shield. So it can be used more leniently.

And with the addition of Warcry and the Attack Bonus trait, you can really put some extra oomph into your paladin’s weapon skills.


1. Blue Mage

This is undoubtedly the most common subjob that a paladin will be using nowadays.

Its utility is just too great to pass up!

The blue mage makes a paladin’s job as a tank substantially easier, especially in situations where you need to gather groups of monsters together as quickly as possible.

For starters, the blue mage’s Cocoon ability provides a whopping 50% defense bonus to the caster, allowing paladin’s already-high natural defense to climb to new heights.

You can also set Metallic Body if you need Stoneskin. Though it’s not as strong as traditional Stoneskin, a paladin’s high damage mitigation ensures that it’ll stay on for as long as possible.

You can set Blank Gaze, Geist Wall, Soporific, Sheep Song, and Jettatura for massive amounts of enmity generation, in addition to a paladin’s Crusade, Sentinel, and/or Flash.

Plus you can also add Healing Breeze to Sheep Song as a way to generate the Auto-Regen trait, and even set Refueling if there’s no outside form of Haste available.

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