Paladin
Paladin
The Paladin is the transcendent (rebirth) form of the Crusader, a holy knight who carries the Crusader's three-branch identity to its peak. On Vortex Legends the Paladin keeps the Bastion / Inquisitor / Holy specialization system and crowns each branch with reworked and custom skills:
- Bastion — near-impenetrable shield defense, a protective party aura, a chain of shield blows and a shield slam that breaks the enemy's guard.
- Inquisitor — a reworked holy nuke, a life-spending burst, a spear critical passive and an offensive party aura.
- Holy — healing echoes, self-sustain and a status cleanse.
The branches are a matter of priority, not a cage: skill points can be spent freely, so hybrid builds remain fully playable. The Paladin keeps every Crusader skill on top of the additions below.
Specialization branches
Bastion
The Bastion Paladin is the immovable wall of the party. It stacks the Crusader's blocking and reflection kit with an emergency stance that almost cannot be broken, an aura that keeps the whole group standing, and shield attacks that turn defensive gear into damage.
Shield Fortress
| Job | Paladin |
|---|---|
| Type | Supportive |
| Target | Self |
| Max level | 1 |
| SP cost | 80 |
| Cast time | 1 sec |
| Cooldown | 60 sec |
| Duration | 10 sec |
The capstone of the Bastion branch and the Paladin's emergency button. Planting the shield turns away almost all incoming damage and roots the Paladin against knockback, but it strips their defense rating, slows them to a crawl, blunts their attack speed and forces them off the Peco Peco. It does not block debuffs, and it turns an active Reflect Shield into a punishing trap for melee attackers.
→ Shield Fortress
Aura of the Guardian
| Job | Paladin |
|---|---|
| Type | Supportive |
| Target | Self and party |
| Max level | 5 |
| Cast time | 1 sec |
Projects a protective aura that restores the HP of the Paladin and nearby party members every second, healing far harder as an ally's health falls and adding a little defense to those in real danger. The Paladin pays a trickle of SP to keep it up, and only one aura can be projected at a time, so it cannot run alongside Art of War.
→ Aura of the Guardian
Shield Chain
| Job | Paladin |
|---|---|
| Type | Offensive |
| Target | Enemy |
| Element | Neutral |
| Max level | 5 |
| Cast time | 1 sec |
Hurls the equipped shield at one enemy for a rapid chain of strikes. Its damage is built from the shield's weight and refine level together with the Paladin's VIT, so the same gear that keeps a Bastion alive is what makes the skill hit hard. A shield must be equipped.
→ Shield Chain
Earth Drive
| Job | Paladin |
|---|---|
| Type | Offensive |
| Target | Enemies around the caster |
| Element | Earth |
| Max level | 5 |
| Cast time | 1.4 sec |
Slams the shield into the ground and shocks every enemy around the Paladin, leaving them with a shattered guard: slowed, more vulnerable to physical damage, and easier to hurt with the Paladin's own shield attacks. It is the Bastion's crowd option and the opener for its shield strikes. A shield must be equipped.
→ Earth Drive
Inquisitor
The Inquisitor Paladin closes out the Crusader's damage lines. The magical holy line ends in a reworked nuke, the physical line in a life-spending burst, the spear build in a critical passive, and the whole branch can push its party with an offensive aura.
Pressure
| Job | Paladin |
|---|---|
| Type | Offensive (Magic) |
| Target | Enemy |
| Element | Holy |
| Max level | 5 |
| Range | 9 cells |
The reworked end of the magical holy line. It crushes a single enemy with Holy magic and sears away a share of the target's remaining spirit, which makes it a strong answer to spellcasters. The cast cannot be interrupted and the damage is never transferred by Devotion.
→ Pressure
Sacrifice
| Job | Paladin |
|---|---|
| Type | Offensive (Physical) |
| Target | Self then melee |
| Element | Neutral (Holy under Providence) |
| Max level | 5 |
| Range | Melee |
The end of the physical holy line. The Paladin spends their own life force to empower a short run of strikes that pierce the target's defense and cannot be dodged, trading survivability for burst. Under Providence those strikes turn Holy.
→ Sacrifice
Art of War
| Job | Paladin |
|---|---|
| Type | Supportive |
| Target | Self and party |
| Max level | 3 |
| Cast time | 1 sec |
Projects a war aura that sharpens the attack power, accuracy and critical rate of the Paladin and nearby party members, draining a trickle of the Paladin's SP to sustain it. It is the offensive counterpart to Aura of the Guardian, and only one aura can be projected at a time.
→ Art of War
Deadly Edge
| Job | Paladin |
|---|---|
| Type | Passive |
| Max level | 5 |
A passive that sharpens spear strikes so the Paladin's critical hits land harder while a spear is held. It follows on from the Crusader's Spear Quicken and anchors the spear critical build.
→ Deadly Edge
Holy
The Holy Paladin is the holy healer of the group. It echoes its healing onto a marked ally, sustains its own spirit through long fights and cleanses harmful conditions from the party.
Beacon of Light
| Job | Paladin |
|---|---|
| Type | Supportive |
| Target | Ally (party member) |
| Max level | 3 |
| Range | 9 cells |
| Cast time | 1.5 sec |
The support capstone. It marks one party member as a beacon, and every Heal the Paladin casts on somebody else echoes a share of that healing onto the beacon. Only one ally can be marked at a time, and the mark cannot be placed on the Paladin themselves.
→ Beacon of Light
Sacred Plea
| Job | Paladin |
|---|---|
| Type | Supportive |
| Target | Self |
| Max level | 3 |
| Cooldown | 60 sec |
| Duration | 15 sec |
Channels holy energy to restore the Paladin's own spirit over its duration, at the cost of weaker healing while it is active. The healer's battery for long fights.
→ Sacred Plea
Purification
| Job | Crusader |
|---|---|
| Type | Supportive |
| Target | Self or ally |
| Max level | 1 |
| Range | 9 cells |
The branch's cleanse, carried up from the Crusader and taking the place of the inherited Cure. Each cast removes a single harmful condition from the target, working down a fixed priority list so the most dangerous one is lifted first.
→ Purification
Advancement
The Paladin is a transcendent class, the peak of the Crusader line. See Transcendent Classes.