Effective paragon guide

''Note: this article is intended to provide guidance for experienced characters playing a new Paragon or experienced Paragons looking for additional options. If this is your first time playing Guild Wars, please see Getting started (Nightfall).''

The Paragon profession is only available in the Guild Wars: Nightfall campaign. Users of other Guild Wars campaigns will not be able to use this profession unless they add a Nightfall key to their account.

What is a Paragon?
Paragons are a hybrid support class. They sport the second highest armor in the game, ranged attacks, and shouts that give a variety of bonuses to teammates (or a variety of penalties to enemies).

A Paragon's Place
Most Paragons stand between the frontline (Warriors, Assassins, and Dervishes) and the backline (everyone else) usually with rangers. When enemies get through the front line, the Paragon is called on to body block, preventing the enemies from attacking the squishy characters.

Being a Paragon
In PvE, the Paragon's job is to support other classes and fill out holes in your group's roster. If a group only has one Monk, the Paragon would bring healing skills, as well as battery skills to assist the Monk. If a group is short on damage, the Paragon would bring some Spear Attacks. Paragons also look at their group's composition when choosing which build to play for that Mission or Quest. If the group has 4 Warriors, energy-replenishing skills like Aria of Zeal might be wasted. If the group has 4 Elementalists, Aria of Zeal would be extremely effective.

Attributes

 * Leadership: With only two pips of energy regen (2/3rds of an energy point per second), Paragons have to use Energy extremely carefully. Leadership returns energy to the caster after each shout cast. Note: the energy gain is capped at the number of allies within earshot, or the rank in leadership, divided by two (round down!). This means that Paragons almost always opt to have an even number of ranks in leadership (10, 12, and 14 are extremely common selections).


 * Spear Mastery: This, obviously, increases damage dealt with spears. After the rank required to use the optimal weapon (usually 9), the benefit of additional ranks is negligible next to increased ranks in Motivation, Leadership, Command, or the secondary.


 * Motivation: This tree has energy management and healing skills that help your entire party. Most Paragons invest heavily into this tree for its healing capabilities.


 * Command: This tree sports an odd assortment of abilities. For a variety of reasons, Command is the most neglected tree. The chief reason is that the Command skills are inferior until the skill trainer in The Desolation, or at least into Vabbi. Players who have played previous campaigns, and have level 20 characters for PvP, can alleviate this by unlocking skills with Balthazar faction, which will allow the Kamadan skill trainer to teach them.

Paragon Builds
Please note: The builds linked are untested and most certainly do not use the best skills. However, they illustrate the general archetypes extremely well. Currently, there are no "tested" Paragon builds. If you'd like to help, go to This Page
 * Battery Support: Their first responsibility is their party's energy. They use Aria of Zeal and Energizing Finale, then spam shouts to keep Energizing Finale returning Energy. Energizing Finale can be kept up on three or four teammates and rotated. This build archetype is extremely effective in helping teammates where energy limits their capabilities. Most Elementalists, Necromancers, and Mesmers are significantly more effective with the nearly unlimited energy that Battery Paragons can provide. Likewise, with fewer caster classes in the group, this build becomes less effective. In general, they carry a few healing skills and one or two spear skills for support damage, but have a heavy emphasis on energy management.
 * Healing Support: Their first responsibility is their party's health. Spike healing from Paragons is not very effective compared to Monks. However, they can keep the party alive from AoE damage as well as any other profession, and with Finale of Restoration up on the melee classes, they can significantly reduce the healing burden on the Monks. Like the Battery Paragon, they sport Aria of Zeal to help with energy and a few spear skills to help with damage, but have a heavy emphasis on healing.
 * Condition Support: Their first responsibility is dealing damage. These Paragons tab between enemy targets, applying Dazed, Deep Wound, Bleeding, and Poison to all enemies. In times of crisis, they can use support skills like "Stand Your Ground!", "Never Give Up!", "Never Surrender!", or Ballad of Restoration to keep their teammates alive.