Well that battery is safe with your current build. If you want to stick with 24 gauge build a single coil 13 wraps around a 3mm or 1/8" drill bit. Or if you want to stick with dual coils you'll new to use thinner Kanthal.
Here's a link to a great source of info for building coils.
http://www.steam-engine.org/
Plus one on the steam engine tool...you can play with all the different options and it will show you in theory how your builds will turn out with all the different gauges, wire types, number of wraps, diameter, etc....
Which atty are you using? The Paragon is a nice mech but maybe I spaced and misread but I didn't see an atty listed in your post? You're Samsung 25R is a solid battery for sure and good for builds down to .22ish no problem safely. My most common builds are a single parallel coil made out of 24 gauge wire with 5 wraps and an inner diameter of 1/8th in. or a 26 gauge dual parallel coil build around a 1/8th inch drill bit and I think it's 7 wraps for it to come out around .24 again. One thing you might try is getting your coils closer to the center post...you want your builds as close to the center of the atty as possible without touching the post with any part of the coil except for the leads. By making sure they coils are as close to the center of the atty as possible it will help keep the top cap and drip tip from getting warmer longer.
if you want a build closer to 1.2 ohms you're going to want to get some 28 or 29 gauge wire for dual coils and 26-28 gauge wire for singles...if you're using Kanthal anyways....Nicrome wires have lower resistance per gauge than their Kanthal counter parts. Steam engine can tell for sure but I know I've wrapped quick and dirty single coils around a 1/8th in drill bit with 7 or 8 wraps that come out to just under 1 ohm.
The reason I am asking what kind of atty you have is because if your salesman recommended to keep the resistance that high than it's probably an atty meant for flavor and not cloud chasing...I'm guessing it doesn't have a lot of airflow and all the heat from that thick 24 gauge wire is heating that thing up quick without the proper airflow to keep it cool. Atty's like that do better with 26-28 gauge wire or even thinner. On top of the steam engine link above I'll post my standard links I share to an Ohm's law calculator and three threads that contain the bulk of the basic knowledge all beginners need from coil building to ohm's law and battery safety. Hope this helps a bit...oh oh, I almost forgot...it's very important to make sure your coils are both even and that one doesn't have more wraps than the other and that they are secure in the base and that the screws holding them in didin't "pinch" one of the coil leads and cut it either partially or fully causing one coil to short and the atty to not fire evenly. This can happen quite easily, especially with cheaper clone attys and you wouldn't know the lead was pinched and cut if you didn't know what to look for or know to look for it in the first place because sometimes the lead will stay in place for awhile just by being pressed up against the post even if the lead is cut clean threw.
Anyways...here's the links...hope this helps a bit...I wish you the best of luck getting things figured out and happy vaping!
http://thelocust.net/ohm/ <-----ohm's law calculator
And the links below if you read threw them will give you a solid start and beginner's education in vaping basics....i know it seems like a lot at the beginning but once you start to apply and use the knowledge it's not a lot and becomes mostly like remembering common sense
http://vapingunderground.com/threads/new-sort-of-to-vaping-and-want-huge-clouds.57203/#post-342138
http://vapingunderground.com/threads/looking-for-the-best-sub-tanks-and-rda.73126/#post-428210
http://vapingunderground.com/thread...-sick-clouds-bro-thread-sticky-edition.78126/
PS...I almost forgot...most importantly...Wecome to VU! Hope you find what you're looking for here
