Holy Bolt v1.10 B2; Paladin xp factory

[Crystalion]

Edit: Yes, this is sort of antithetical to the whole concept, since by the time you'd have enough points to make BH a good killer, you're probably already doing Pindle runs.

I've tried the build two ways: HolyBoltman with HB/BH and HolyFist with HB/FoH.

I'm not ready to do a complete report, but the overview is...

HBman twinked to start life (was fun but not necessary as the key reallywas...) and rushed to undead spots;
played into the high 20s successfully (started Pindle runs as planned at 25 and got good xp)

HolyFist given all the misc. found by HBMan junk (no twinks), starting life as a level 33 (wanted to see the alternate build--both can converge, if you eventually max both synergies). HF was rushed as needed and leveled from 33 to 42 (players 1) in the Pindle area extremely rapidly. At 42 he sat around waiting for my Assassin to feel like doing the nm rush. He is still 42 and has been rushed through nm to act 1 hell (purpose was rush testing as well as access to nm Pindle). He appears to be a bit of a glass cannon atm for the nm Pindle area (I'll probably have to actually distribute some stat points).

Everything has been going as expected. To wit, given rushing to key undead areas, esp. Pindle, the Holy Bolt synergized damage output results in very fast kills/exp gain. When my (level 67 now and just starting hell) Assassin is able to rush him to hell Pindle we'll get a final verdict. (note, however, that at 40 he qualified to pass the nm ancients, potentially unlocking the hell hellforge (testing this is on my to-do list still)... so one use for the xp rush is already validated (though perhaps not as fast as some other xp rushing techniques--I still plan to publish some interesting things I've played with in that area).

But, to get back to your comments, one of the things I like about the HB paly, is that the concept only takes 64 skill points, leaving a lot left over for various thin but somewhat viable builds.

HolyFist has seen some non-undead combat (FoH lightning or HB to heal merc repeatedly) so he's not totally hopeless as is. But I find it rather funny that he has never used an aura (he doesn't know any) and his merc doesn't either (Barb merc).

He found a Sigon's Guard shield all by himself. I thought that was hilarious.