Paladin Build Question!

[Zzabur]

Single player, players-1 and no twinking. I want to have an easy time on hell with a melee char (kind of impossible maybe?)


i have two builds in mind:

1- Zealot (max fanatism, zeal, sacrifice, holy shield, 1 vengeance and conviction)

or

2- Frost Zealot (max holy freeze, resist cold, holy shield, some zeal / sacrifice / salvation depending on AR, Leech and Damage needs)

Both will use a crescent moon phase blade (IF i can find the 3-socket blade an an UM rune) and blood items for crushing blow and leech. Wich one will fare better -kill faster- on hell diff? I'm worried about cold inmunes (the classic zealot will have a point in vengeance and conviction for phys inmunes; Ill go for 75 ias for the frost 'lot ...)

Wich one will kill faster? Will the classic zealot survive relying on life leech? Will the frost zealot fare well against cold inmunes with his physical damage?

Cheers,
Zzabur

[jb4479]

Either build is equally viable. Of course a pure Zealot is going to be able to kill a bit faster due to fanat.

As far as cold immunes, you can either go with a high damage weapon or use Holy Fire (provided you have enough on +skills or just go with vengeance. Personally I would use a high dmg weap with fire and you should be ok.

[Baajikiil]

Single player, players-1 and no twinking. I want to have an easy time on hell with a melee char (kind of impossible maybe?)

Both builds are equally viable as stated. Both will have stumbling blocks when meeting immunes, but should fair okay with their backup damage source. My frost zealot(HC ladder) has 16%(unmodified) leach in hell, and that is plenty with a might merc and lightsabre to keep him alive. I do have to use pots in bad situations sometimes though.

As for an easy time, I don't think it's possible for a melee pally without *very* good equipment to have a "easy time" of hell. It is certainly playable though.


Frost zealot is slightly easier to equip though; your main source of damage will be the holy freeze. The main problem is AR for a frost or shock zealot.

[Zzabur]

I already "sacrifyced" my frost lot to a cold inmune cold enchanted lightning enchanted fallen on nightmare act 1. I was not very happy with the build anyway.
Already started another (softcore this time) all i have on auras is a point in might.

I dont know what you think, but i find the classic zealot more fun, and he has more equipment choices (swings fast enough with almost any weapons, and ias gear DOES NOT drop in single player). More important, the build is easier, as you dont have to compromise anything. You can max sacrifice, zeal, fanatism and holy shield and still have some points left. The drawback is that i dont think he'll cut it through hell with mediocre equipment (all i can pretend is a crescent moon phase blade, but i dont think ill find the darn UM -not to speak about a 3 socket phase blade).

The frost zealot is fun, but he needs some ias (last time ias left me with mediocre resists) AND you have to loose something to have something else skillwise...

[Todd]

I brought a Fanat Zealot to Hell in purist single player. From that experience, I'd suggest the Frost Zealot instead. The pure zealot is just too hard to equip - mine struggled in Act 1 Hell for several levels searching desperately for a decent weapon. Finally, I managed to craft a ~%200 ED tyrant club, and that was just enough (at level 75) to slooowly churn through the monsters. Survival was only possible through liberal use of a Life Tap wand. And that was in Act 1 Hell, /players 1. I eventually gave up the build. It was well made, and even had some OK drops (got a Moser's for example). But without better gear, progress was just too painful to be fun. In SP, Crescent Moon is dream gear - I had tremendous rune luck with that character, but still never scored better than a Fal.