I need detailed refreshers

[Zingydex]

So a high restances vengances baced paladin is a bad idea?

Would it make better sence to invest into smite?

Or it it completely back to the days of passive aura's that mearly help those who do the work to stay alive with the occasional holy bolt booster?

I did read all the offical documentation... gibberish as usual.  And I'm working my way through the summet, though not expecting any of it to be true mind you.

If I wanted a minimaly invasive mod to make some of the MP options into sp ones to experiment with, is there a recomendation.  Or is the best recomendation as always to simply dive into a ladder game and find out the hard way?
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Finding out "the hard way" about some of the nastier surprises in 1.11 is not my recommendation. If you want a mod with minimal changes, I'd suggest PlugY (Google-able, IIRC), since the only notable changes enabled by default besides the Bnet-only features are the shared stash and the ability to un-allocate skill and stat points (allowing you to fiddle with multiple builds with relative ease).

Melee paladins (well, melee anything) are much more vulnerable nowadays, with the sheer wallop monsters pack and the instant-death threat of Iron Maiden. Vengeance would be your best bet to slip under the IM radar, but don't count on it. Most melee characters need maxed blocking and/or a tremendous life pool to survive long at higher levels. Don't count on your defense rating to help; every monster that does enough physical damage to be a threat either ignores the number altogether or has an obscenely high attack rating.

If you're going with Vengeance, focus your points on Conviction and the four synergy auras unless you're loaded with mana leech. The per-swing cost of a high-level Vengeance will drain your mana in seconds.

Smite is mainly a boss-killing skill, in conjunction with Crushing Blow gear. Its value in general melee is limited.


A few monster bugs that bear mentioning, since Blizzard's too lazy to fix them:

- Gloam-type monsters (the ghosts that race around shooting lightning bolts) do abnormally high damage, especially the high-end ones.

- Most monsters that drain your mana as part of their attack will deplete the entire blue orb every time they connect.

- Should you venture into Nihlathak's Temple in Hell, beware the vipers in the Halls of Vaught. Their projectiles will kill you before you can blink.

- "Extra Fast" monsters are unaffected by any form of slowing. I learned that the hard way myself.

- "Fire Enchanted" monsters in Nightmare will occasionally one-hit-kill you when they die, regardless of how big your life pool is. Don't stand next to such a creature when it's near death if you can possibly avoid it. Funny that they bothered to fix this (sort of) in Hell, but not Nightmare.