Paladin vs. Dark Knight

Dark Knight vs. Paladin

Here, we will discuss the various tradeoffs between picking Paladin vs picking Dark Knight.

The most obvious difference is that the Paladin gains a passive skill to increase their Defense while the Dark Knight is given a passive skill to improve its Physical Attack and Magical Attack. Because both transformations can train a passive skill to significantly improve their basic stats (and thus improve Physical and Magical Attack anyways), the benefit gained from the Physical and Magical attack bonus of the Dark Knight is less noticeable than the increase in defense a Paladin is granted.

However, one must always take into account the fact that the average player (due to the gameplay nature of Vindictus) will spend more time attacking than getting hit or defending. If the player is fond of dodging, then he/she would probably benefit more from an attack boost.

Another difference is that while both Dark Knight and Paladin have a first level skill that causes AoE damage to all targets in a very large range (Activated by using any Smash Attack), the Paladin's Grasp does slightly more damage than the Dark Knight's Steal, however Steal has the additional effect of adding a part of that damage to your Attack and Magic Attack. This translates into the Dark Knight being able to build up more damage than the Paladin the longer it fights.

One last related difference is the Dark Knight's Slow and Paladin's Petrification effect added to their Steal or Grasp respectively.

Specific Differences

1. +3000 ATT and +6 Balance vs +1500 DEF.

2. Steal/Slow vs Grasp/Petrify.

3. Fissure vs Conviction.

4. +200 SP to all allies over 2 mins vs +150 max stamina to all allies for 2 mins.

As of the release of 2nd transformation, DK is generally regarded as having the edge in combat due to being able to cap ATT more easily, Fissure being able to stun raid bosses, and +150 max stamina being more useful than a very small SP regen.