Hunting Paladins is for people whove taken one too many shots to the head from a giant Lostie. If crazy and stupid does not describe you, just forget about it. Anybody with a lick of sense would draw a straight line away from one of these things all the way to Alaska and follow it there. So, if youre like me, youll probably hunt Paladins. I was part of a group of seven or eight who took out a Paladin in Kings Row in the first week of March. For part of that fight, I was the only front man they had. But we took it out and some of us managed to not get zapped over to the hospital in the process. I dont know if theyll all be like this, but maybe my fight will help you fight them.
Forget the things Security Rating. Its a lot tougher than that, but Ill lay down dimes to donuts that it wont be the Paladin that will do the most damage to wannabe hunters. Paladins dont travel alone. The first time I saw one I thought it had some kind of stealth field, since its outline was so blurry. I was wrong. It didnt have a stealth field, it had a clockwork field. Paladins travel with a swarm of clockworks. These little doodads would be a joke if you caught one on its own, kind of like kicking your old aunts yap-dog. But Paladins have enough clockwork yap-dogs around them to fillthats right, I said filla street in Kings Row from side to side, across the sidewalks, up to the buildings, and still have to crawl and fly all over each other. And its not just one breed of yap-dog, either. There will be cogs, ossies, and teslers in that swarm. Most of the time, Id have to just stand around all day to get hurt by these things, but there were so many that they had me nickel-and-dimed down to almost nothing in no time, flat. To top it all off, Mr. Paladin is happy to hand out the hurt at the same time, but he wont be the major threat to anybody who wants to get in an mix it up close and personal, not at first.
Once you get to him, youll find out that the Paladin can do a lot of different things. First, he can hit, and hit hard. Most of you probably have never been hit as hard as a Paladin can lay out in a single swat. You walking armor cans will find out what this pain stuff the rest of us talk about feels like. Be ready to be pounded on. Second, he can shoot, electricity, of course, but hes got good range and its pretty high power. Third, he can throw down a cage that will send anybody into naptime at least once or twice. But most of all, a Paladin is tough. The worst part about a Paladin (after the swarm has been trimmed down) is that he can stand around and take everything a group dishes out for a long time and give it back with gravy.
But they can still be beaten. Im proof of that.
First things first: If you cant shoot from a distance or get the heck out of Dodge good and fast, do not draw hostile attention to yourself in this fight or you will be overwhelmed. Im talking to the Empaths. Your job will be to keep everybody else on their feet as much as you can, and you will be very busy.
At first, if you can, make sure your team has somebody who can lay down areas of injury, the bigger the better. The Paladin wont be hurt by it, but the swarm needs to be eliminated. Youll be happy you pulled the weeds before taking out the tree. The last thing you want is distraction. Until that swarm is gone, you risk losing people left and right to it. It will plink a walking tank down to nothing in no time flat. The worst part is that these clockwork yap-dogs are so piddly that they wont give you a thing for inspiration from taking them out. Youll have to fight the whole fight with whatever you brought to the party.
You will need a couple of people with distance attacks to keep the big guy busy at this stage of the game. They should be in a straight line on either side of the Paladin to trade off shots. While hes being distracted, close-in fighters can start to shave off that swarm, but you have to make sure that you can get out and back in whenever you need to. There is no dishonor in breaking off and regrouping in this fight, especially at this stage of the game. That also applies to the shooters. But that means youll need a smart team tactician, one who can see when its time to fall back as a group, and it also means youll have to actually listen to your tactician.
Once the swarm is gone, and I mean gone, not just trimmed, then its time to really concentrate on Big Man. Hell be the longest part of the fight. Once youre at this stage, get ready for a grind. Close-in fighters should try to rotate in and out, making sure that the Paladin is always occupied even though one of them is taking a breather. Shooters just have to keep shooting and dont bunch up! Support personnel should concentrate on keeping the close-fighters and the shooters doing as well as they can. Remember that it can be a good idea to fall back, but dont take too long to replenish. Paladins seem to regenerate.
Dont bother trying to stun or disorient a Paladin with something like Cobra Strike. Im not even sure they have minds to mess with (but maybe some of the mind-messing pros out there would have more luck than I did). If you can knock them on their butts, do it. They might be big and tough, but they still can be kicked off their feet, and thats a couple of seconds your team will have for free beat-down on the Paladin. The most annoying thing for a close-up fighter (after the Paladins toughness) is his electrical cage. If you cant resist being put to sleep, youre going to do a lot of napping. But its not always a disaster. If the shooters are any good, they will be able to keep the Paladin distracted after youve gone to bed and until you wake up. Every time the Paladin put me out with his sleep cage, he didnt bother to finish me off because my team was pulling his attention.
The good news is that Paladins can go down, and they dont seem to drop a pile of walking gears in the process. The better news is that you can cancel a lot of debt with one Paladin.
