Paragon in 4-man areas

Much as I dislike my Paragon (the only build that he can use that works in Imbagon, which is boring...), the time has come to slowly take him through Winds of Change.

Which of course involves some hard work in 4- and 6-man party size areas. Which, for a Paragon, is going to be a bit of trouble.

Paragons really suffer when they're not part of a full 8-man party. Energy management trouble (too few allies to get enough energy from shouts), DPS is needed (and Paragon DPS is a bit lacking), etc.

So, any suggestions what build to use?

P/Rt spirit spam. Beyond that, I don't know how many options a Paragon has to get through the harder 4-man content.

The only 4-men area you encounter is Minister Cho's.
I'd pick cruel spear, SoS rit with splinter, UA monk and panic mes.
P/R barrage/volley would be a good choice too. There are some builds for Keiran, that you can run. Don't forget SY! and/or There's nothing to fear! It will help you.

I used imba with sin support for HM WoC and managed to do the lot without too much fuss, not as easy as on my Rt, but not too troublesome.

Haven't started WoC on my para yet, but for 4 man areas I usually run imbagon with battle standard of honor to boost my spear's damage, a sos rit with splinter and A-rage, an ST rit with union, the interrupting spirit (dissonance?) and shadowsong, and an MM with aegis (or N/Me with hex removal if hexes pose a problem). Both rits also using some heals.
As I said, I haven't done WoC yet, let alone HM WoC... Just thought I'd share what I personally use.

In addition to the previously mentioned builds above, I'd also suggest:
P/R
-Strike As One (NM only cause of sub-par dps, OR you can try HM if you run with Fragility on a hero)
-Enraged Lunge (surprising dps, and my personal preference; don't forget Otyugh's Cry)
-Barrage (for 4-man areas works pretty o.k. too, but bow atk speed is a little slow for my liking; if you're running decent heroes, chances are they'll finish off the enemy mobs before you get off too many attacks; for best efficiency, run in 8-man areas where mobs are sizable and more capable of balling)
P/Me
-Cruel Spear-Epidemic
P/A
-Shatter Enchantment
-JS-WS-DB+YHTP! Spammer

There are many possibilities ;D
Energy from the P/R pet builds comes from Scavenger Strike+Zealous Spear, and possibly GFTE!.
Energy from barrage should come from Shouts, and possibly Glowing Signet.
Energy from Cruel Spear- shout/zealous spear.
Energy from P/A- Zealous Daggers+Shout(s)

Whenever I go Imba in a 4-man area I bring along "GftE!" for extra e-management. Or, if you're running with a lot of spirits, I suppose Anthem of Envy could work as well (though the activation time might hurt).
Otherwise, as has been mentioned, going melee is always an effective alternative.

Dual Rits (SoS+Rest hybrid with Splinter Weapon, SoGM Comm Rit) are pretty much the best DPS options for heroes. Third hero really depends on what you think you'll need and what you personally run; I'm tempted to say an MM, but with SY and TNTF you should be fine for defense so I guess a Mesmer or something for more targeted damage (which you'll need). You should be ok with something like Cruel Spear I guess, an Imbagon build probably won't help you as much since you want the targeted damage.
It's going to be slow going, but with the DPS options available to you there's not much you can do to help that.

Certain paragon shouts such as "Go for the eyes" has effect on minions and spirits. Which equals energy management. Also, I use "Find Their Weakness" and Spear of Fury to spike for about 100+dmg +20% health reduction, and I usually have a mesmer with ependemic, which spreads the 20% across the mob.

Spirit Spammer or just go /Wa and play as a less efficent one of those, seems Warriors are so incredibly self-sufficient without needing their secondary as it is that they are already incredibly useful party members to have in 4-man areas. The Paragon can pretend to be one and do alright.

Just take a minipet.

Even in 4-man areas, I still get 6 energy back per shout with a minipet.

Thats because in between your post and the previous post there was an update which made Paragons gain 2 energy for each ally affected by a chant or shout instead of only 1. That's probably the only fixing we'll ever seen for Paragon too now that the GW Live team are no more.

As for minipets, the majority of shouts and chants only work on party members and not allies, and so as a result don't return any additional energy from a minipet (or indeed a regular Ranger pet). There is a few exceptions though (GFTE, Anthem of Envy, and Crippling Anthem are the only three that come to mind).

Besides, either way, it still doesn't change the fact that the overall effectiveness and viability of many Paragon Shouts (and almost all Chants) is greatly reduced in a 4-man party as opposed to a 6-man or 8-man party.

EDIT: Oh, come to think of it Anthem of Weariness works on allies instead of just party members too, but it's still all very limited and there's far better options for causing mass weakness anyway (See: Necromancer, Elementalist).

http://www.gwpvx.com/Build:P/A_Dagger_Spammer

Deals ~55-60 DPS single target + AOE. Add in SoS, SoGM and RoJ or MM or Domination (Panic/VoR) Hero or N/Rt Resto with SS and steamroll PVE like it was nobodys buisness.