Quote:You should have at least an 85% attack rate

Quote:Hopefully this section will help you get started with an idea of what type of gear you need to play your Frost Crusader paladin.

Quote:Your goal should be a 15% chance to be hit. 5% is the best defense attainable.

Quote:Levels 13-18 are tricky because if you found adequate gear, you should be in act II by now, but if all you’ve found is crap (happens quite often), then chances are you’ll be in act I doing Black Marsh over and over until you get strong enough with your skills to overtake Anderial.

Quote:The Prayer aura flashes once every four seconds in v1.09 healing 2-21 hit points depending on skill level.

Quote:Traits and Abilities:
Paladins use holy magic as gifted by the High Heavens.

Quote:Dexterity reflects your character's agility. Your ability to defend against attacks and your success in hitting targets with your melee and ranged attacks are both determined by your dexterity. These attributes are expressed as your Attack Rating and Defense Rating:
Attack Ratings - The first field represents the Attack Rating for the action linked to your Left Action Icon, while the second field represents the action for the Right Action Icon. The higher the value, the more often you will hit in battle. Magical attacks and non-combat skills do not have Attack Ratings, and if these are selected in an Action Icon, that field will be blank.
Melee fighters need at least 50-75% Attack Rating to hit their targets reliably. If you are a melee fighter and your hits are missing too often, add more points to Dexterity or find (or gamble for) a Dexterity-boosting item. Additionally, you will have a better chance of hitting your targets if your character is a higher level than your target. Spend some time leveling up if you're having trouble hitting even after boosting your Dexterity.

MEAT,Dec 7 2003, 10:08 PM Wrote:but when I fought her, I forgot to get antidote potions and had invested into strenght instead of vitality (two stuipd, avoidable mistakes) and she promptly did away with me. 

...

Proof that I'm writing a guide to accomodate "everyones" playing style ;) .

Quote:I do not think that word means what you think it means. 
==Inigo Montoya==

• Amazon Basin; Those who helped me at
  <>
  
• Arreat Summit for their massive amounts of information
  <>
  
• D-Dave for the use of various formulas he collected
  <>
  
• Diabloii.net for their massive amounts of information
  <>
  
• Lurker Lounge; Those who helped me at
  <>
  
• Phrozen Keep; Those who helped me at
  <>
  
• Tommi’s Walking Paladin Guide for the best paladin guide in existence<>
  [st]
  Disclaimer
  
  Battle.net®
  ©1996 - 2002 Blizzard Entertainment. All rights reserved. Battle.net and Blizzard Entertainment are trademarks or registered trademarks of Blizzard Entertainment in the U.S. and/or other countries.
  
  Blizzard Entertainment®
  Blizzard Entertainment is a trademark or registered trademark of Blizzard Entertainment in the U.S. and/or other countries. All rights reserved.
  
  Blizzard North™
  Blizzard North is a trademark of Blizzard Entertainment in the U.S. and/or other countries. All rights reserved.
  
  Diablo® II
  ©2000 Blizzard Entertainment. All rights reserved. Diablo and Blizzard Entertainment are trademarks or registered trademarks of Blizzard Entertainment in the U.S. and/or other countries.
  
  Diablo® II: Lord of Destruction™
  ©2001 Blizzard Entertainment. All rights reserved. Lord of Destruction is a trademark and Diablo and Blizzard Entertainment are trademarks or registered trademarks of Blizzard Entertainment in the U.S. and/or other countries.
  
  
  
  FROST CRUSADER
  
  Contents
  I. Methodology
  i. Origin
  ii. Purpose
  
  II. Skill Discussion
  i. Offensive Auras
  ii. Defensive Auras
  iii. Combat Skills
  
  III. Attributes
  i. Strength
  ii. Dexterity
  iii. Vitality
  iv. Energy
  
  IV. Foresight; Prelude to Equipment
  i. Build #1: Damage Premise
  ii. Build #2: Speed Premise
  iii. Build #3: Universal Premise
  
  V. Equipment
  i. Block
  ii. Crafts
  iii. Faster Run/Walk
  iv. Hit Recovery
  v. Increased Attack Speed
  vi. Life and Mana Regeneration
  vii. Life and Mana Steal
  viii. Resists
  ix. Socketed Items
  x. Special Modifiers
  
  VI. Strategy
  i. Level Guide
  1. Level 1-6
  2. Level 7-12
  3. Level 13-18
  4. Level 19-24
  5. Level 25-49
  6. Level 50-74
  7. Level 75-99
  
  VII. Hirelings
  i. Act I Rogue Scouts
  ii. Act II Desert Mercenaries
  iii. Act III Ironwolves
  iv. Act V Barbarians
  
  IX. Experience
  i. Under Level 25
  ii. Between Levels 25-99
  iii. Above Level 70
  iv. Party Experience
  
  X. APPENDIX
  I REMOVED THIS SECTION TO SAVE ROOM IN THE POST
  i. Known useable Subclasses
  1. Avenger
  2. Charger
  3. Defiant (a.k.a Missionary)
  4. Fervour (a.k.a Firedin)
  5. Hammerdin
  6. Martyr
  7. Shockadin
  8. Smiter
  9. Undead Slayer
  10. Zealot (a.k.a. Fanatic)
  ii. Formulae
  iii. Tables #1-15
  1. Table #1: Recommended Attribute Totals*
  2. Table #2: Recommended Block*
  3. Table #3: Faster Block Rate*
  4. Table #4: Crafts; chance for additional affixes
  5. Table #5: Faster Run/Walk
  6. Table #6: Hit Recovery
  7. Table #7: FPS Table*
  8. Table #8: Regeneration Table
  9. Table #9: Recommended Steal
  10. Table #10: Resists
  11. Table #11: Useful Gem Modifiers
  12. Table #12: Crushing Blow Effects
  13. Table #13: Open Wounds Effects
  14. Table #14: Level Difference (Clvl 1-25)
  15. Table #15: Level Difference (Clvl 25-99)
  
  
  
  
  
  FROST CRUSADER
  “From arduous frozen wastelands they bring frost from the light!”
  
  “Freeze n 1: An interruption or temporary suspension of progress or movement v 1: Stop moving or become immobilized”
  
  Hello and welcome to the Frost Crusader’s (Single and Multiplayer) Guide v1.1. This guide is meant to provide you with the tools that will help you develop your Frost Crusader Paladin to his fullest potential, and have fun doing it. For ease of use I have broken down my guide into several chapters (denoted by their large bold heading), each with an introduction and text bulk relating to the chapter.
  
  Methodology
  
  “Methodology n 1: The branch of philosophy that analyzes the principles and procedures of inquiry in a particular discipline”
  
  In this section, I will attempt to explain the ideology of the Frost Crusader sub-class beginning with his possible origins and history, his purpose in the Sanctuary, and various reasons why the Frost Crusader is different from other paladin sub-classes.
  
  About Paladins: “Paladins use holy magic as gifted by the High Heavens. They maintain strictly ordered lives, constantly upholding the cause of Virtue and Light. They must never succumb to worldly temptations lest they risk being deceived into following ‘false lights’ - demons masquerading as Heavenly beings.” – Arreat Summit
  
  Origin
  
  From deep within the harshness of the freezing artic resides the champion of cold, the master of frost. Few have what it takes to survive an artic winter, but the Frost Crusader not only thrives on the cold, but also emanates its essence from deep within his will. Traveling from the artic reaches of Sanctuary, far beyond Haragoth, Frost Crusaders have been around since the age of paladins, seeking to destroy the evil of the world with their power of cold. By praying to the light, they gain the skills necessary to complete this task. It is from here that your journey as a Frost Crusader begins.
  
  It is rumored that the religion of the Frost Crusader came about when a young paladin marched his army up through a dangerous terrain of ice and sleet to defeat a powerful demon that had been plaguing the northlands. After defeating this monster, the paladin and his men became trapped in the demons lair for over a week. Frostbitten and near death, many of the small army laid dead on the floor of the cavern, but the paladin continued to pray to the light. Eventually he was heard, and his great deed did not go unnoticed as the paladin became overcome with power over the element of cold. Not only did he resist it, but gave off its aura also! Climbing over the bodies of his comrades, the paladin eventually managed to break a hole in the lair and escape. After that, the Frost Crusader methodology spread quickly.
  
  Purpose
  
  Frost Crusaders promote the will of their deity from which their powers ebb and flow. They believe they are here to further their powers in this world, showing their strength of will and determination to be true to their cause of using Holy Freeze and defeating evil. Through their works, they advance in levels in which their deity grants them more and more skill at what they do.
  
  In Diabo 2: Lord of Destruction, the Frost Crusader is a great ally to have. His purpose is to slow down the enemy while dealing great damage to his foes, however he also relies heavily on his comrades at arms for support when dealing with cold immune monsters and their ilk.
  
  What Makes the F.C. Different: The paladin is a very flexible class with many sub-classes in it. Each sub-class has its own benefits and drawbacks, but there is no ‘general’ paladin class, or jack-of-all-trades. Eventually every paladin decides his destiny. The strength of the Frost Crusader is his ability to slow down and even freeze creatures not immune to cold. He deals cold damage with each aura pulse. The power to freeze is a very beneficial ability not only to the paladin, but to his party as well. Frost Crusaders receives additional cold damage to their attacks. Their drawback is a lack of major damage (such as with fanaticism) and cold immune monsters, and since most of their skill points will be used up, this class is slightly harder to play.
  
  Skill Discussion
  
  It is your skill choices that set your Frost Crusader aside from the rest of the paladin sub-classes. We will use this section to focus on his abilities as a Frost Crusader and his choices of skill selection. In each aura tree I have listed only those auras pertinent to making a Frost Crusader.
  
  Active Skills: Active skills must be selected on the right or left mouse button and “cast” to be used. Active paladin skills would include Zeal, Charge, and Vengeance. Holy Shield is also an active skill.
  
  Passive Skills: Passive skills are abilities that are always in effect when selected. Some passive skills need never be selected in the right or left mouse button because they are constant, such as a Barbarians Iron Skin. Paladins do not have any constant passive skills, but they have tons of aura selections, which are all passive skills.
  
  Synergies: Of note is how synergies work in 1.1; a lot of skills now have what is known as synergies. By investing not only into your main skill, but its synergies, you can increase your overall damage or improve other aspects of that skill tremendously. Quoted from the Arreat Summit: “Items that give bonuses to skills and skill levels will not add to Synergy bonuses. For example, an Orb with +3 to Fireball, when equipped, does not give any bonus to Firebolt,” thus you will only get credit for a slvl of 20.
  
  Aura Times: In patch v1.1, auras take effect on enemies and allies after just two seconds of being turned on. Pulses from auras, such as Holy Freeze, occur every two seconds also. After taking effect, an aura will last on an ally or enemy approximately two seconds before the new aura kicks in. Enemies will not be slowed down by Holy Freeze until the first pulse affects them, so if your fighting dangerous foes, a strategy you should employ is running a circle around your target mob until the aura takes affect, then go in for the kill!
  
  Offensive Auras
  
  Since our centre is the Frost Crusader, it is only appropriate that we start with the Offensive Aura tree, which hosts Holy Freeze. The offensive auras contain skills that add damage to your overall damage with the exception of Thorns. Some add an attack bonus and others add in damage per pulse. There are many useful offensive auras, however a Frost Crusader has no use for any of them. Placing skill points into other offensive auras defeats the purpose of a Frost Crusader, and lessens the amount of skill points you have to place into other vital areas.
  
  Holy Freeze: Your skill focus in the Offensive Aura tree as a Frost Crusader is Holy Freeze. As such, you will be dealing with the cold and its effects.
  
  Holy Freeze (slvl 18)
  Recommended Skill Points 20
  Prerequisites Might (slvl 1); Holy Fire (6)
  Synergy: Resist Cold (slvl 6)
  Recommended Skill Points 20
  Synergy Bonus +15% Cold Dmg Per Level
  Synergy Prerequisites None
  Synergy: Salvation (slvl 30)
  Recommended Skill Points 20
  Synergy Bonus +7% Cold Dmg Per Level
  Synergy Prerequisites None
  
  The Holy Freeze aura works by slowing down monsters a percentage of what they would normally move allowing you time to make additional attacks. Furthermore, it adds cold damage to your attack and delivers cold damage all enemies within the aura radius per pulse. The radius starts off small but quickly gets larger with more skill, as does the cold damage and slowing affect.
  
  Holy freeze has two synergies, Resist Cold and Salvation; both add additional cold damage to your total. At level 20 without a combat skill chosen yet, Holy Freeze adds a pathetic 185-190 cold damage to your damage and deals a mere 37-38 cold damage in its pulses. With its synergies maximized, Holy Freeze deals 998-1025 cold damage to your damage and 199-205 in its pulses. As you can see, it is important to maximize both synergies to fully reap the benefits of the Frost Crusader.
  
  One problem that will arise is the rather prevalent cold immune monsters in nightmare and especially hell difficulties. Fortunately, if your chosen combat skill is zeal or smite, you should be doing enough physical damage to deal with the cold immune without incident. If you choose vengeance, you should not have any problem unless the monster is also immune to another element, in which case you may have to switch to zeal to finish off the monster.
  
  Defensive Auras
  
  The defensive auras incorporate a multitude of useful non-aggressive skills such as healing, increased resistances, increased run/walk, etc., however only two of the skills are necessary for the Frost Crusader. Just one point into prayer can help stymie off the effects of poison. Vigor is also a one-point wonder that will help you run faster. Redemption is also great at one point, absorbing the bodies of dead enemies and giving you life and mana in return, not to mention the absorbing process makes it impossible for those baddies to get resurrected over and over again. As with the offensive aura tree, I wouldn’t recommend putting any points into Prayer, Vigor, or Redemption, despite their usefulness, because you could really use those skill points more effectively elsewhere and magical items can easily make up any deficiency you might be having with health or run/walk speed.
  
  Resist Cold: As a synergy of the Frost Crusader, you need to maximize this skill early on, however unless your in dire need of this skill before you acquire salvation at level 30, I would not bother ever using this skill.
  
  Salvation: Salvation helps give resistances to all party members, and since it should be maximized for Holy Freeze, it will provide a tremendous 108% resistance boost at skill level 20 to everyone’s resistances against cold, fire, and lightening. If you’re in a party, it is a great supportive skill when taking on bosses, however if you’re the tank, just keep holy freeze going.
  
  Combat Skills
  
  The combat skill tree has broad reaching abilities in the Frost Crusaders ability to deal damage. Like his Holy Freeze aura, the crusader must focus on one area of damage to reach his fullest potential but his options are plentiful. You should pick one form of attack, best suited for the style of play you desire. The best combat skills available for the Frost Crusader are Zeal, Vengeance, and Smite, not only because you have enough skill points to nearly maximize these skills and their synergies, but because they work the best with the Frost Crusader!
  
  Charge and Sacrifice seem like logical choices for the Frost Crusader but they are not because you cannot fulfill your synergy commitment with these skills, thus weakening yourself tremendously. Conversion also seems like a logical choice, however because of its lack of damage and minimal success rate at converting, this skill is a poor choice.
  
  Holy Bolt, Blessed Hammer, and Fist of the Heavens are very inappropriate for a Frost Crusader not only because of their method of delivery and conflict with the Holy Freeze aura, but because their synergy commitment is so far beyond fulfilling, that you will only be doing a small fraction of your potential damage if you take these combat skills!
  
  Smite: Out of the three suggested combat skills, smite is the hardest to master, and the most demanding in hell difficulty, but worth every moment.
  
  Smite (level 1)
  Recommended Skill Points 20
  Prerequisites None
  Synergy: (Indirect) Holy Shield (clvl 24)
  Recommended Skill Points 20
  Synergy Bonus Added smite damage
  Synergy Prerequisites Blessed Hammers (clvl 18), Charge (clvl 12), Holy Bolt (clvl 6), Smite (clvl 1)
  
  Using smite as your main combat skill works great in conjunction with Holy Freeze because not only is it a low level skill allowing you to be an effective paladin at low level, but it stuns enemies for a few seconds, going perfect with the freeze motto and allowing you more time to react to other dangers. Its damage modifier is on par with zeal, and the stun time is a nice trade-off for the faster attacks zeal provides. It doesn’t do quite as much damage as vengeance, but the attack animation seems to be very fast (attack speed is based on weapon speed) and the stunning ability makes up for this. Smite ignores the target defense, thus making enemies much easier to hit and leaving the need for an attack bonus (such as zeal and vengeance provide) out.
  
  Smite has no direct synergy however Holy Shield adds smite damage to your smite attack! All paladin shields do an average of 46.5 smite damage and a skill level 20 holy shield adds an average of 58.5 for a grand total of 105 smite damage. In comparison with the wieldable weapons of the same ilvl usable by the paladin when he would have a 20 smite and holy shield, this is on par with their average damage. Also, smite adds a further +300% physical damage to this.
  
  The biggest concern with smite is that it cannot leech back mana or life, thus it is imperative that you have no less than four points invested in zeal and some mana leech. Like zeal, the mana cost to use smite is fixed at two, making mana a very small concern. The second area for concern is cold immune monsters which can present a problem if your damage is too low with smite. If you’re having trouble with a cold immune, I’d suggest switching over to zeal and seeing if that helps.
  
  Zeal: Zeal is a very appropriate combat skill for the Frost Crusader and easiest to use, not to mention its every effective at low level.
  
  Zeal (level 12)
  Recommended Skill Points 20
  Prerequisites Sacrifice (clvl 1)
  Synergy: Sacrifice (clvl 1)
  Recommended Skill Points 20
  Synergy Bonus +12% Damage
  Synergy Prerequisites None
  
  A premise built on speed will find zeal comes natural because it hastens your attacks greatly and adds substantially to your attack rating and physical damage. Combined with the already slowed enemies, this makes for a perfect fusion of smashing. With your Holy Freeze aura and high physical damage, you should have no trouble with elemental and physical immunes. Should you choose to go with zeal as your main attack skill, one point into Holy Shield is all that is needed.
  
  Sacrifice is the synergy for Zeal, adding a whopping +12% damage per skill level! When both zeal and sacrifice are maximized at level 20, you will receive an additional 336% damage to your total damage. Without sacrifice, your zeal will do a mere +108% damage.
  
  There are no immediate problems with zeal that come to mind.
  
  Vengeance: Vengeance is a very powerful skill that adds a substantial amount of elemental damage to your attacks.
  
  With vengeance, you will be doing three times the amount of damage that zeal or smite does and have roughly the same attack bonus as zeal. You will be dealing cold damage, on top of the cold damage from holy freeze, which will virtually freeze monsters in their tracks; in comparison, with zeal you do attack twice as fast and with smite you stun enemies. Still, a vengeance combat attack build is very solid and makes taking out physical immunes easy. Should you choose to go with vengeance as your main attack skill, one point into Holy Shield is all that is needed.
  
  Vengeance (level 18)
  Recommended Skill Points 20
  Prerequisites Zeal (clvl 12), Sacrifice (clvl 1)
  Synergy Resist Fire (clvl (1)Resist Cold (clvl 6)Resist Lightening (clvl 12)
  Recommended Skill Points 10+/20/10+
  Synergy Bonus +10% Fire/Cold/Lightening Damage per skill level
  Synergy Prerequisites None
  Synergy Salvation (clvl 30)
  Recommended Skill Points 20
  Synergy Bonus +2% Elemental Damage/lvl
  Synergy Prerequisites None
  
  Vengeance has four synergies. Two of them are fulfilled with Holy Freeze, but there are two more and even by level 99 you cannot maximize the both of them! With most characters slowing down playtime at around level 85, you may never fulfill your full potential with vengeance. Keep that in mind when you play this build so your expectations aren’t crushed.
  
  While not necessarily a problem, there may be times when a monster will spawn with more than one resistance immunity. In this case, you may want to attack with zeal instead to deal with this type of monster.
  
  Holy Shield: Holy shield is not an attack, but adds substantially to your defense, blocking, and smite damage. Holy shield has a ton of prerequisites unfortunately, but is worth every used skill point! Zeal and Vengeance only require one point in holy shield to be effective, but Smite needs a level 20 holy shield.
  
  Holy Shield (clvl 24) – Zeal or Vengeance/Smite
  Recommended Skill Points 1/20
  Prerequisites Blessed Hammers (clvl 18), Charge (clvl 12), Holy Bolt (clvl 6), Smite (clvl 1)
  Synergy Defiance (clvl 6)
  Recommended Skill Points 0/?
  Synergy Bonus +15% Defense per level
  Synergy Prerequisites None
  
  Attributes
  
  A characters attributes are arguably one of the most important features in the Diablo game, allowing you to wield more powerful weapons, wear more advanced armor, use items you didn’t previously have the power or knowledge to use, and increase your overall performance in specific areas.
  
  Starting Attributes Each Point
  Strength: 25
  Dexterity: 20
  Vitality: 25 +3 Life; +1 Stamina
  Energy: 15 +1.5 Mana
  
  Hit Points: 55
  Stamina: 89
  Mana: 15
  
  Each Character Level
  Life: +2
  Stamina: +1
  Mana: +1.5
  
  There are four attributes in the Diablo game: Strength, Dexterity, Vitality, and Energy. There is a short section for each below, however there is one basic premise you must keep in mind: “balance!” If you don’t have enough strength to wield the items you need, then you’ll find yourself lacking the damage or defense necessary to survive. If you lack proper dexterity, you will find your block and attack rate suffer dramatically. Not enough vitality can spell one-hit kill for any class.
  
  So how does it all fit together? I find the best strategy is a pattern placement of attributes per level advancement consisting of 2 Strength, 2 Dexterity, and 1 Vitality. This will ensure your block is at its necessary optimum, your ability to wield proper items is not hindered, and your life is high enough to survive most encounters. See Recommended Attribute Totals in the Foresight; Prelude to Equipment section.
  
  Strength
  
  In hardcore, you only want as much strength and dexterity as what is necessary to equip the items you need, putting the rest into vitality. This is why its important to look towards the future and assume you will get the items your after, even if you never see them (see Foresight; Prelude to Equipment). In softcore, after you fulfill your dexterity requirements, you should invest evenly into strength and vitality. There is a strength requirement on almost all the items the paladin uses.
  
  Investing into strength not only allows you to equip better quality items, but also increases your melee min and max damage with the following formula: Wpn Min/Max Dmg * (Str + 100) / 100.
  
  Deficiency Solutions: If your lacking the proper strength to equip items, there are several things you can do to fix this:
  • Amethyst Gems add strength to Helms and Armor and are relatively easy to come by through upgrading gems or trading.
    <>
    
  • Fal Runes add strength to all items, but are pretty difficult to come by. You can only upgrade them with a ladder character using the following formula: 3 Ko Runes + 1 Flawed Sapphire
    <>
    
  • Charms with strength are easy to come by and trade for. Small charms add 1-2 strength, Large charms add 2-5 strength, and Grand charms add 3-6 strength.
    <>
    
  • Crafted Blood Rings add strength and other nifty magical modifiers. The Sol rune is a little more difficult to come by for the craft, but can be found quite often in nightmare difficulty.<>
    [st]
    Dexterity
    
    You only need as much dexterity as is required for a 75% block. It is important to decide ahead of time what level your willing to play your character till, as this will ultimately tell you how much dexterity you need for a 75% block for that level. The formula for blocking is: Block * (Dex - 15)) / (CLvl * 2); blocking is capped at 5% minimum and 75% maximum. If you’re attacking or running, then your %block is reduced to 1/3 of its value.
    
    Investing into dexterity not only increases your block, but also increases your attack rate, melee chance to hit, missile damage, and defense rating with the following formulas, respectively: (Dex * 4) – 28; 100 * AR / (AR + DR) * 2 * alvl / (alvl +dlvl); Wpn Min/Max Dmg*(Dex+100)/100; [Dex/4]; melee attacks will never have less than 5% or more than 95% chance to hit. Defense will never less than 5% or more than 95% chance to defend against any foe.
    
    Deficiency Solutions: If you find your block rate is not 75% or your attack rate is a bit dour, there are several things you can do to fix this:
    • Emerald Gems add dexterity to Helms and Armor and are relatively easy to come by through upgrading gems or trading.
      <>
      
    • Ko Runes add dexterity to all items, but are pretty difficult to come by. You can only upgrade them with a ladder character using the following formula: 3 Lum Runes + 1 Flawed Amethyst
      <>
      
    • Charms with dexterity are easy to come by and trade for. Small charms add 1-2 dexterity, Large charms add 2-5 dexterity, and Grand charms add 3-6 dexterity.
      <>
      
    • Crafted Hit Power Rings add dexterity and other nifty magical modifiers. The Amn rune is a little more difficult to come by for the craft, but can be found quite often in nightmare difficulty.<>
      [st]
      Vitality
      
      In both hardcore and soft core, you need a lot of vitality to survive. You need to maintain an healthy balance between your strength, dexterity, and vitality and if you find yourself taking too much damage, you may want to skip the 2/2/1 method of skill placement for a few points into vitality until you feel comfortable with your health. In softcore, once you have met your dexterity requirements, you should place your skill points evenly into vitality and strength. In hardcore, once you fulfill your strength and dexterity requirements, you should place the rest of your points into vitality.
      
      Investing into vitality not only allows increases your life, but also increases your stamina.
      
      Deficiency Solutions: If your taking on more damage than you can handle, there are several things you can do to fix this:
      • Ruby Gems add dexterity to Helms and Armor and are relatively easy to come by through upgrading gems or trading. Skull Gems add life and mana steal to your weapons.
        <>
        
      • Io Runes add vitality to all items, but are pretty difficult to come by. You can only upgrade them with a ladder character using the following formula: 3 Hel Runes + 1 chipped diamond
        <>
        
      • Charms with life are easy to come by and trade for. Small charms add 5-20 life, Large charms add 6-35 life, and Grand charms add 5-50 dexterity.
        <>
        
      • All the crafted Blood items add health and other nifty magical modifiers. The Safety Ring adds vitality and requires an Amn rune.<>
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        Energy
        
        Energy is one of those funny things you never improve but its always improving anyway. You should not invest any points into energy! The more levels you gain, the more mana you will receive which will be plenty to support your mana needs.
        
        Energy provides mana, which gives your Frost Crusader the ability to zeal and cast his holy shield. While there are other skills available to the paladin that also use mana, the Frost Crusader does not utilize them consistently, thus they are not mentioned. Zeal is a very low mana costing skill requiring almost zero mana leech at higher levels to sustain. Holy Shield, on the other hand, does cost quite a bit more mana to cast, however lasts a good long time at higher levels. If you have any mana leech at all, it will be enough to sustain your mana needs, however if you lack mana steal, just keep a column in your belt filled with mana pots – you won’t use them very often!
        
        Deficiency Solutions: If spending more mana than you can keep up (usually only at low level), there are several things you can do to fix this:
        • Sapphire Gems add mana to Helms and Armor and are relatively easy to come by through upgrading gems or trading. Skull Gems add life and mana steal to your weapons.
          <>
          
        • Lum Runes add energy to all items, but are pretty difficult to come by. You can only upgrade them with a ladder character using the following formula: 3 Io Runes + 1 Flawed Topaz
          <>
          
        • Charms with mana are easy to come by and trade for. Small charms add 1-17 mana, Large charms add 2-34 mana, and Grand charms add 3-59 mana.
          <>
          
        • All the crafted Caster Items add mana and other nifty magical modifiers.<>
          [st]
          Foresight; Prelude to Equipment
          
          Quite possibly the most important thing to do before starting your Frost Crusader is to look towards the future and assume you will reach a level between 80-99 and have the best gear your looking for; this way, you are guaranteed to have the Strength and Dexterity you need, even if you never see these elite items.
          
          Why plan for the future instead of placing attribute points level by level? Once you reach levels upwards of 75, you will find experience comes much slower, which means less attribute points to distribute. You may find repetitious baal runs to be tedious and will probably never reach level 99. If you don’t have the strength and dexterity you need by certain item level requirements, you may have to wait a long time before you gain enough levels to fulfill your attribute point requirement. Also, chances are you will end up filling your inventory with unnecessary charms to compensate, negating extra room and damage charms. Finally, you may fill your sockets with items that add +strength or +dexterity, this isn’t a bad idea however with the cube recipe that removes the items in a socket
          
          With most melee characters, the general consensus is the more damage the weapon does, the better the character will do, but this is not always the whole side of that story. While not imperative, I consider it important for the Frost Crusader to use a one-handed weapon and a shield for blocking; two-handed weapons are best suited for chargers. With the Frost Crusader, there are three avenues to take on your road to equipping items: damage, speed, or universal. Your decision will irrevocably affect your build.
          
          Table #1: Recommended Attribute Totals*
          Build Premise
          #1 #2 #3
          Min Strength @ 99 189 89 125
          Min Dexterity @ 99 154 136 132
          * Based on character build
          
          The following premises were established with uniques best suited for the build premise, not crafts or rune words . This is due to the requirements of the craft or rune words being based on the host items attribute requirements. Uniques have a much higher attribute requirement, thus are what should really be aimed for when looking towards the future in case you do find these uniques. Crafts and rune words will be covered in the Equipment section. Also, your choice of jewelry, belts, boots, helmets, socketed jewels, and charms are secondary to your Weapon, Body Armor, and Shield. Whatever you pick to fill these empty slots will not affect the general premise of the build.
          
          Build #1: Damage Premise
          
          The first avenue of perspicacity is damage over all else. The reasoning is sound and the method proven effective. It will work well with a Frost Crusader because of his holy freeze which, unlike cold damage, will slow all normal monsters, uniques, and super uniques by >54%. When slowed, the monsters will hit you less allowing you ample time to do damage and leech back life, not to mention dodge powerful oncoming attacks. Combined with a good defense and block rate, you have the option of running into a mob and making short work out of them.
          
          The Vengeance combat skill is best suited to the damage build because of its incredible damage addition. The damage build is best suited for bosses and small packs of powerful foes. A large mob of monsters can quickly overwhelm the damage build simply because he doesn’t attack that fast.
          
          Looking into the future, your damage premise will probably want the most detrimental weapon for the greatest amount of additional damage and the best defense. His selection is clear:
          
          Weapon: There are few one-handed weapons that deal the kind of damage build #1 is looking for. For scepters, Heavens Light and The Redeemer both have +skill items and attractive modifiers. For swords, the Frostwind does an incredible amount of damage and has a great attack speed, not to mention very attractive modifiers. But the most destructive weapon in the group goes to the Mauls with the Stone Crusher doing around the same damage as the Frostwind (minus the cold damage), with a whopping 40% crushing blow, amongst various other modifiers. If damage is the path of your choice, the Stone Crusher should be the weapon to set your sights on.
          
          Body Armor: With a high amount of life leech, 90-95% resists aren’t as important as a high block and defense rate. While the Guardian Angel is the best armor for paladins all around, a paladin based on the damage premise should be looking for high defense and modifiers that suit him best. Arkaine’s Valor has a high defense and fantastic modifiers including “+” skill; Leviathan has a huge defense and physical resistance; finally Templar’s Might has the best defense and okay modifiers but “+” skill. Overall, I’d recommend Arkaine’s Valor for build #1’s projection.
          
          Shield: Your going to need a good block rate, but more importantly, the right modifiers on your shield. There are only two choices for shields; Stormshield which has a very nice defense at high level, damage reduction, and other very attractive modifiers; and Herald of Zarakum which has an equally impressive defense, extremely high block rate which means less dexterity and more vitality, “+” skill, and other truly magnificent modifiers. Neither is a bad choice, but for the damage build, the Herald of Zarakum is the obvious pick to set your sights on.
          
          Build #2: Speed Premise
          
          The second avenue of perspicacity is speed over all else. When you freeze monsters, they attack much slower then they normally would, thus effectively making you attack >54% faster. Combined with IAS gear and you have the makings of a dangerous foe, or a powerful ally. Because your gear is dedicated towards speed, however, you will not do as much damage per attack, but over a volley of attacks. The monsters will die nearly as fast as with build #1 if not faster.
          
          The Zeal combat skill is best suited to the speed premise because of its incredibly speedy attack. The speed build is best suited for large mobs. While the rest of the party has trouble with large groups, the speed premise excels, taking out each and every foe in due time.
          
          Looking into the future, your damage premise will probably want the best FHR, FBR, and IAS he can get to increase his speed and keep him from getting stun-locked! His equipment selection is clear:
          
          Weapon: Scepters have a mid-range speed making them somewhat useful for attacking quickly, but the best bet amongst them is the Astreon's Iron Ward with a base speed of –10 (requiring 145 IAS to reach 4 FPS with zeal), +10% IAS, and some other great modifiers. For swords, both the Lightsabre and the Azurewrath have a base speed of –30 making them reach 4 FPS with zeal at 75 IAS, however the Azurewrath has a +30% IAS and fantastic damage modifiers too boot. For maces, both Horizon’s Tornado and Stormlash have a –10 base reaching 4 FPS zeal with 145 IAS, however the Horizon’s Tornado has a whooping +50% IAS, insane damage, and slows target also effectively increasing your speed against these monsters. If speed if the path of your choice, the Azurewrath should be the clear choice for you.
          
          Armor: While defense is important, it is not as crucial to the speed premise as IAS. So long as you have enough life leech and hit recovery, defense should not be a problem for you. This being the case, Twitchthroe is absolutely fantastic armor boasting +20% IAS and hit recovery, +25% blocking, and other modifiers. Crow Caw is worth mentioning with +15% IAS and hit recovery, and other modifiers. If you can find your IAS in other places (such as Sigons gloves), then I’d suggest that you use Guardian Angel for higher resists and “+” skill, otherwise Twitchthroe is the best choice for a speed premise build.
          
          Shield: The best and only choice of shields for the speed premise is the Herald of Zarakum for its extremely high block rate and “+” skill.
          
          Build #3: Universal Premise
          
          The third and final avenue of perspicacity is a combination of damage and speed. This is a universally good solid build all around, but you won’t be ultra fast, nor will you be doing massive damage. The universal premise focuses on the need for overall balance in a paladin, thus reducing the dependency of high damage and IAS gear. Your damage will not be as high as the damage premise, nor will your speed match the speed premise, but what you lack in theses areas, you make up for in power as you will have the most “+” skill items, and thus the most powerful aura.
          
          Any combat skill works well with the universal build. He will find his place amongst the monsters but may have a little trouble with large packs and won’t be able to take out bosses as easily as the first two builds. However, the strength of his slowing ability is legendary.
          
          Looking into the future, your universal premise will probably want the most practical equipment with the most “+” skill items. His elite selection is clear:
          
          Weapon: Of all the weapons mentioned in the first and second build, both scepters Heavens Light and The Redeemer are incredible weapons, but Heavens Light is slightly better with IAS, three sockets, and other useful modifiers.
          
          Armor: As I said before, Guardian Angel is the best armor for the Paladin. It will raise your maximum resists to 90% and with other items (such as Waterwalk boots) can be raised as high as 95%! It also has a high block, block recovery, and “+” skill.
          
          Shield: The universal build will want a Herald of Zakarum to support his conquest. This is without a doubt the best shield a paladin can get with an insanely high block, resists, strength and vitality, and “+” skills. A universal build truly couldn’t ask for much more than this shield offers.
          
          Equipment
          
          Now that you have an idea of what type of build premise you want to base your Frost Crusader on, there are some important factors we must take into consideration! Below is included several criteria that will help you make some critical decisions about the type of gear and modifiers you will want to use.
          
          Block
          
          When a character succeeds at blocking an attack, the entire attack was thwarted and the character receives no damage. Melee, missile, and some skills and special monster attacks can be dodged.
          
          All shields have a listed block%. This block is different with each character class, but more importantly, it is directly effected by ones dexterity score (see Attribute section for recommended dexterity or Formulae section for a working formula).
          
          The first table is the Recommended Block%. It has a suggested amount of block based on the build premise you choose. Keep in mind that the more block% you have the less dexterity you require for a 75% block, which means more points into vitality!
          
          The second table listed is the Faster Block Rate%. A character will go into a block animation (during which time he can perform no other action but may still be hit) when he is struck and successfully blocks. Block animations lasts an amount of frames (1/25th of a second) equal to the Block Frame chart. If you use holy shield, your block recovery is so low, its really not worth worrying about, however if you don’t use that skill, it is important to strive for at least a 3 frame faster block.
          
          Table #2: Recommended Block*
          Item Build Premise
          #1 #2 #3
          Holy Shield (lvl 5) (25) (25) (25)
          Stormshield: (67) - - -
          Herald of Zakarum 82 82 82
          Twitchroe - 25 -
          Arkaine’s Valor 0 - -
          Guardian Angel - - 20
          TOTAL: HS (107) (132) (127)
          TOTAL: 82 107 102
          * Listed above is the recommended block% for each build premise, but there are no wrong choices. You might rather use different armor then that listed. Also, you may want to invest points into Vigor or a secondary skill such as Fanaticism instead of Holy Shield. Finally, you may never find a Stormshield or a Herald of Zakarum, but I think it’s important to think long-term.
          
          Table #3: Faster Block Rate*
          FBR Block Frames
          No Holy Shield W/Holy Shield
          0% 5 2
          13% 4 2
          32% 3 2
          86% 2 1
          600% 1 1
          * A character goes into a block animation if the opponent succeeds in the hit check and the character succeeds in a block check.
          
          Crafts
          
          Crafts are extremely useful for creating items with specific modifiers you need, such as life leech, added attribute points, and faster cast. The higher your level, the better your chance for more affixes and better quality affixes (see table below).
          
          Table #4: Crafts; chance for additional affixes
          Level 1-Affix 2-Affixes 3-Affixes 4-Affixes
          1-30 1-40% 41-60% 61-80 81-100%
          31-50 - 60% 61-80% 81-100%
          51-70 - - 80% 81-100%
          71+ - - - 100%
          
          Faster Run/Walk
          
          Faster Run/Walk is subjective to a diminishing returns formula. You will run faster with more faster run/walk even if it does not appear you are. There are no break-points for faster run/walk.
          
          I’d recommend getting an amount of run/walk you feel comfortable with, which is usually enough to outrun berserking monsters. This is above 30% faster run/walk with heavy armor on.
          
          Table #5: Faster Run/Walk
          Suffix Property Item
          Pacing 10% Faster Run/Walk Boots, Circlets(2)
          Haste 20% Faster Run/Walk Boots, Circlets(22)
          Speed 30% Faster Run/Walk Boots, Circlets(37)
          Acceleration 40% Faster Run/Walk Boots(51)
          Transportation 30% Faster Run/Walk, Heal Sta. Plus 80-90% Boots(65)
          Inertia 5% Faster Run/Walk SM Charm (36)
          Inertia 7% Faster Run/Walk G Charm (36)
          
          Hit Recovery
          
          The third table listed is the Paladin Hit Recovery FPS. Hit recovery is important for all melee characters because after taking a certain amount of damage, a character will go into a hit recovery animation which lasts an amount of frames (1/25th of a second) equal to the hit recovery chart. When surrounded by a mob of monsters, it is easy to get “stun-locked” (put into a perpetual hit recovery from being hit multiple times) which is why a low hit recovery is often a lifesaver! There are 25 frames of animation per second in the Diablo game. With zero Faster Hit Recovery, a paladin will have 13 frames of animation when he becomes stun-locked if using spears and staves or 9 frames when using any other weapons. I would recommend no less then a frame 6 faster hit recovery for any melee build, easy to achieve with charms (small-5, large-8, grand-12).
          
          Table #6: Hit Recovery
          Paladin HRFPS SpearsStaves OtherWeapons
          13 0% -
          12 3% -
          11 7% -
          10 13% -
          9 20% 0%
          8 32% 7%
          7 48% 15%
          6 75% 27%
          5 120% 48%
          4 280% 86%
          3 - 200%
          2 - -
          * A character goes into a hit recovery only when they take enough damage from a single attack to do more than 1/12 of their total life.
          
          Increased Attack Speed
          
          All characters have a base speed at which they attack with weapons (weapons include melee and missile weapons, spells, skills, and monster special attacks). This base speed affects your effective attack speed, which in turn affects your overall frames. Your attack speed animation is based on a 25 frame per second rendering, but is a complex formula to figure out (see the formula section for a detailed formula on FPS). The table above matches required attack speed on the left hand column with a weapons base attack speed on the top row. Most IAS is on weapons, but you can also find it on gloves, circlets, and the Shael rune.
          
          Table #7: FPS Table*
          Base Weapon Speed (Zeal)
          IAS 20 10 0 -10 -30
          0 - - 14 (7) 13 (7) 11 (6)
          5 - - 14 (7) 13 (6) 11 (6)
          10 - - 13 (7) 12 (6) 10 (6)
          15 - - 13 (7) 12 (6) 10 (5)
          20 15 (8) - 12 (6) 11 (6) 10 (5)
          25 15 (7) - 12 (6) 11 (6) 9 (5)
          30 14 (7) 13 (7) 12 (6) 11 (6) 9 (5)
          35 14 (7) 12 (6) 11 (6) 10 (6) 9 (5)
          40 14 (7) 12 (6) 11 (6) 10 (6) 9 (5)
          45 14 (7) 11 (6) 11 (6) 10 (5) 9 (5)
          50 13 (7) 11 (6) 11 (6) 10 (5) 9 (5)
          55 13 (7) 11 (6) 10 (6) 10 (5) 8 (5)
          60 13 (7) 11 (6) 10 (6) 9 (5) 8 (5)
          65 13 (7) 11 (6) 10 (5) 9 (5) 8 (5)
          70 12 (7) 11 (6) 10 (5) 9 (5) 8 (5)
          75 11 (6) 11 (6) 10 (5) 9 (5) 8 (4)
          80 11 (6) 10 (6) 10 (5) 9 (5) 8 (4)
          85 11 (6) 10 (6) - 9 (5) -
          90 11 (6) 10 (5) - 9 (5) -
          100 11 (6) 10 (5) - 9 (5) -
          110 10 (6) 10 (5) - 8 (5) -
          120 10 (6) 9 (5) - 8 (5) -
          125 10 (5) - - 8 (5) -
          130 10 (5) - - 8 (5) -
          135 - - - 8 (5) -
          140 - - - 8 (5) -
          145 - - - 8 (4) -
          * Nothing changed in IAS 95, 105, or 115
          
          Life and Mana Regeneration
          
          All the Diablo characters have zero life regeneration. They can acquire skills (such as prayer) or magical items that will boost this. Magical items that replenish life do it per second thus can be useful in large amounts (see table below). The Prayer aura flashes once every two seconds in v1.1 healing 2-21 hit points depending on skill level. A few life regeneration items can help offset low damage poison, but instead I recommend carrying healing and rejuvenation pots.
          
          Mana regeneration is not an important consideration for a Frost Crusader because you won’t be using that much mana, and if you have any mana steal at all, it should be enough! The more mana you have, the faster your mana will regenerate:
          
          25 * [ [256 * mana / (25 * 120)] * (100 + %Mana Regeneration) / 100] / 256
          
          Table #8: Regeneration Table
          Suffix Property Item
          Revivification Replenish Life +11-15 Amulets(38), Scepters(38), Circlets(38)
          Regeneration Replenish Life +3-5 Gloves(40), Shields(40),
          Regrowth Replenish Life +6-9 Belts(55), Rings(55)
          Regeneration Replenish Life +3-5 Body Armor(70), Weapons(70), Boots(70)
          Life Per Second = (25 * “+Replenish Life”) / 256
          
          Life and Mana Steal
          
          Other than weapons, circlets, amulets, rings, and even gloves can have life and mana steal. Life steal will dramatically help keep you alive by stealing life from monsters per hit you deal, thus allowing you more time to react to danger instead of having to hover your finger over the rejuvenation potion all the time. Mana steal is also very useful for recovering your mana spent from zealing, although not much is needed.
          
          Certain types of monsters cannot be leeched from at all, such as skeletons and objects (such as Fire Towers and Doors). In Hell mode, other monsters may be partially or completely immune to leeching, so always carry rejuvenation potions in hell!
          
          Table #9: Recommended Steal
          Steal Normal Nightmare Hell
          Life Steal 7% 14% 21%
          Mana Steal 3% 6% 9%
          
          Resists
          
          Your resists are extremely important for survival, especially in hell! The higher the better, but there is a normal maximum cap of 75% resistance for all difficulties. This cap can be raised with special magical uniques and set items that increase a resists maximum amount (such as with Guardian Angel). There is also a penalty too resistances in different difficulties.
          
          Much like shield blocking, I recommend no less than 75% resistance in all difficulties except in the first 1-30 levels in normal. With Guardian Angel, you will be allowed up to 90% resistances in hell. Almost all items are capable of holding resistances affixes.
          
          Table #10: Resists
          Difficulty Normal Cap Magical Cap Resistance Penalty
          Normal 75% 95% 0
          Nightmare 75% 95% -40
          Hell 75% 95% -100
          
          Socketed Items
          
          Gems, jewels, and runes can all be placed into sockets in armor, headgear, shields, and weapons. Jewels can have some great modifiers, but don’t base your build around finding jewels with specific modifiers because you wont.
          
          Gems: Poison damage from emeralds will pretty much stop a monsters healing (see tao poison for complete poison details). When combined with open wounds, the monster will be loosing a nice amount of hit points every second. Also, the cold damage from sapphires will slow down monsters (although I’m not sure how much of a percentage) above and beyond the holy freeze slowing (however I’m not sure if the added cold damage from holy freeze already slows monsters down or not). Some of the useful modifiers are:
          
          Table #11: Useful Gem Modifiers
          Gem Useful modifier
          Amethyst +strength in armor
          Diamond +resistance in shields
          Emerald +dexterity in armor; +poison damage in weapons
          Ruby +life in armor
          Sapphire +cold damage in weapons
          Skull +life and mana steal in weapons
          Topaz +magic fin din armor
          
          Runes: There are thirty-three runes you can find. A vast majority of them are very useful. I suggest searching the Arreat Summit for specific information on various modifiers.
          
          Rune Words: There are many useful rune words available. Write down the ones you like or print them out so when you find certain runes, you can make those rune words. Most of the lower leveled rune words aren’t too useful in my opinion (I’d opt for uniques, sets, or even gemmed gear instead), however the higher leveled rune words are exceptionally good.
          
          Special Modifiers
          
          The entire following modifiers stack, which means if you had a 15% open wounds and a 35% open wounds, you would effectively have a 50% open wounds. Also, they all have a 75% cap.
          
          Crushing Blow: This modifier is based on a percentage and if that percentage is rolled on any given attack, the monster looses an amount of life as listed on the table below. If your damage is greater than the crushing blow, your damage will override crushing blow. You still leech and stun-lock on baddies with crushing blow.
          
          Table #12: Crushing Blow Effects
          Monster Melee Missile
          Normal monster 1/4 Melee 1/16 Ranged Attack.
          Super Unique 1/8 Melee 1/16 Ranged Attack.
          Players 1/10 Melee 1/16 Ranged Attack.
          Hirelings 1/10 Melee 1/16 Ranged Attack.
          
          Deadly Strike: Deadly strike doubles your weapons damage on a successful percentage roll.
          
          Open Wounds: Open wounds causes “uncontrollable bleeding” in monsters. Its duration is approximately 8 seconds. Multiple open wounds do not make a monster loose double the hit points, but merely extend the duration. Monster will loose an amount of hit points based on character level; ex: a level 50 character will cause 100 bleeding dmg/sec.
          
          Table #13: Open Wounds Effects
          Clvl Damage per second
          1-15 25*(9*Clvl+31)/256
          16-30 25*(18*Clvl-104)/256
          31-45 25*(27*Clvl-374)/256
          46-60 25*(36*Clvl-779)/256
          61-99 25*(45*Clvl-1319)/256
          
          Slow Target: Because this skill works separately from cold damage and holy freeze, you can really stop a monster dead in its tracks. Slow target works by slowing the monster a percentage of his speed. In pvp, there is a 50% slowing cap.
          
          Strategy
          
          Your strategy should be to maintain a level of balance between your damage, defense, and health. Balance comes in seeing how you fare in a new area with your current setup and determining if you’ll survive or not. One sure thing is if you can’t kill a non-champion/unique monster in fewer than 5 attacks, you will most likely sustain massive damage when mobbed by this type of monster, which could lead to your death!
          
          Attack Rate: Your goal attack rate should not be unrealistic in lieu of the equipment you have access to. You should have at least an 85% attack rate against monsters of your level to ensure a well-balanced amount of hits dealt to hits received ratio. It’s easy enough to hit an 85% attack rate without any problems, but after this percent, you hit some serious diminishing returns and won’t be able to get a higher attack rate without some major equipment considerations. The highest attack rate attainable is 95%.
          
          Defense: As with your attack rate, diminishing returns make it near impossible to attain a great percentage of defense. With your holy freeze slowing down monsters by +55% at its peak, your defense is not as important as other things, such as your resists. Your goal should be 35% chance to be hit. 5% is the best defense attainable.
          
          Level Guide
          
          Having the foresight to see what items there are and the attributes scores you will need to equip these items is a great thing to do, however you must also focus on what’s available at your level. You can’t wield elite items at first level because of three things: Level restriction, Attribute restriction, you don’t have the item; the first two are the easiest to overcome with time, but the last one may require a few characters before you ever complete your paladin and you may never find the items you want in single player! So the best thing to do for finding good items is to magic find!
          
          Magic Finding: In each section below, you will find specific information on places you will want to treasure hunt, however not mentioned is to always kill super uniques and champions because of their increased chance to find magic items. You can find a list of them on the Arreat Summit.
          
          Unfortunatly some of the runes cannot drop in the current acts/difficulties for listed rune words at each character levels. They are there listed nonetheless to provide possibilities for battle.net traders and upgrades.
          
          Level 1-6
          
          The first 1-6 levels are spent running around picking up whatever you can find, equipping some items and selling the rest to vendors for repairs. Once you leave town, you will start off in the Blood Moor. The best place to get experience at these levels is Black Marsh, however you will most likly have trouble killing there for the first couple levels. I recommend taking your time through the first six levels, killing all the monsters you see and picking up everything to sell for gold.
          
          Best place to level: Black Marsh; start in Dark Wood and continue through Tomahoe Highlands.
          
          Good places to treasure hunt: Crypts inside Buriel Grounds, 2nd level of caves, Forgotten Tower.
          
          Notes: The most damage you’ll get at this level is from a 3-socket weapon with 3-chipped gems. There are no crafts or rune words at this level.
          
          Level 7-12
          
          The first six levels go by faster than you can blink your eye. From levels 7-12, you need to start paying more attention to your skills, attribute distribution, and your equipment. You may find there is equipment you need, but lack the proper strength or dexterity, or perhaps your taking too much damage and can’t do much of anything without more vitality. In any case, I recommend starting in Tomohoe Highlands and being pickier with your gear.
          
          Best place to level: Catacmobs; start in Tomohoe Highlands and continue through Catacombs.
          
          Good places to treasure hunt: Super uniques in Forgotten Tower, Tristram, and Inner Cloister.
          
          Notes: No crafts or rune words at this level.
          
          Level 13-18
          
          Levels 13-18 are tricky because if you found adequate gear, you should be in act II by now, but if all you’ve found is poor gear (happens quite often), then chances are you’ll be in act I doing Catacombs over and over until you get strong enough with your skills to overtake Anderial. If you can, try and make it to act 2.
          
          Best place to level: Canyon of the Magi; First do sewers level 2-3, then Arcane, then Canyon.
          
          Good places to treasure hunt: Anderial, Stony Tomb in Rocky Waste, Ancient Tunnels in Lost City, Tal Rasha’s false tombs, Duriel.
          
          Notes: Quite a few useful rune words become available with low-level runes; Malace, Steel, Stealth.
          
          Level 19-24
          
          By levels 19-24, if you have nothing else to use and haven’t found anything that great, make use of rune words, and the crafts with mana or life steal. While canyon runs will still provide a small amount of experience, you should really be in act 3 by now. So long as you’re balancing your attributes, you shouldn’t have any trouble with gear selection yet.
          
          Best place to level: Upper Kurast, Travincal.
          
          Good places to treasure hunt: Temples, and the second level of Dungeons and Sewers throughout the act; Duriel, Mephisto.
          
          Notes: Rune Words Holy Thunder and Kings Grace become available on Scepters and the runes are pretty low level, but of the two Kings Grace makes a formidable weapon worthy of consideration. Ancients Pledge, combined with the effects of a paldin shields bonuses, can be extreemly nice.
          
          Level 25-49
          
          Levels 25-49 become radically different because the way experience works takes a drastic twist! The best thing to do in multiplayer games is get a rush through act IV (avoid it all costs with a melee paladin) and start doing baal runs or bloody hills. If your single player, be careful in act IV of iron maiden and a current bug in 1.1 which allows oblivion knights to kill you in one hit.
          
          Best place to level: Solo – Crystaline Passage & Arreat Way (25-30); Nithal’s Temple (31-35); Worldstone (36-40); Multiplayer – Baal Runs.
          
          Good places to treasure hunt: Icy Celler below Arreat Way, Mini-Hell hideaways, Baal.
          
          Notes: Rune Words Passion and Crescent Moon become available on weapons, both very nice and both requiring mid-range runes whiche are harder to find! Lionheart, Gloom, and Stone – all amazing – become available on armors all requiring mid-range runes and some higher-ranged runes. Sanctuary becomes available on shields and requires two mid-range and one high-range runes.
          
          Level 50-74
          
          Levels 50-74 are pretty much a copy of character levels 1-49, running around doing the quests, magic finding the same areas, and going for the best experience areas. You should progress from Normal act V to Nightmare act V by the end of level 74.
          
          Best place to level: Solo – NM-Durance of Hate (50-55); NM-Chaos Sanctuary and Bloody Hills (56-60); NM-World Stone & Moo Moo Farm (61-75); Multiplayer – NM-Baal Runs.
          
          Good places to treasure hunt: Baal; NM-Countess, Anderial, Duriel, Baal; NM-Travincial.
          
          Notes: Rune Words Call to Arms, Hand of Justice, Breath of the Dying, Eternity, Fury, Beast, Famine, and Doom all become available on weapons and all require very high-ranged runes. Bramble, Chain of Honor, and Enigma become available on armors and all require very high-ranged runes. Exile becomes available on paladin shields and requires very high-ranged runes. Delirium becomes available on headgear and requires very high-ranged runes.
          
          Level 75-99
          
          After level 70, experience starts suffering from diminishing returns, meaning you start getting a lot less experience, however you will of just started hell so you really wont notice the difference until around character levels 75-85. After this point, gaining experience in multiplayer becomes a tireless race to hell baal and chances are you will become sick of it around 85 and stop playing that character. In single player, I don’t suspect to see characters above level 80 unless using players ‘x’ to simulate eight players.
          
          Best place to level: Solo – HELL-Canyon of Magi and Tal Rasha’s Tombs (75-80); HELL-Lost City, Chaos Sanctuary, Claw Viper Temple, & Worldstone (81-85), HELL-Worldstone (86-99); Multiplayer – HELL-Baal Runs.
          
          Good places to treasure hunt: NM-Baal; HELL-Countess; HELL-Anderial; HELL-Duriel; HELL-Travincial; HELL-Baal.
          
          Hirelings
          
          I don’t feel a hireling is vital for this build, however I would recommend an act II or act V hireling over the others. Here the benefits of each hireling:
          
          Act I Rogue Scouts
          
          These hirelings use bow and arrow for their weapon and have the best AI for avoiding enemies. They can fire cold or ice arrow, the latter freezing targets in place. Unfortunately when you dive into a mob, regardless of your holy freeze, the rogue scout will most likely die. For this reason, I do not recommend the rogue scouts.
          
          Act II Desert Mercenaries
          
          By far one of the most popular hirelings, desert mercenaries share paladin auras with you and your party, making them a powerful ally. Their jab spear attack is nothing to mock at and their hit points and resists are high. You don’t want to get one with Holy Freeze since you already have that aura; Thorns is a waste since the slowed monsters will not attack very often. The rest are personal preference.
          
          Combat Normal/Hell Difficulty: Prayer
          Defense Normal/Hell Difficulty: Defiance
          Offense Normal/Hell Difficulty: Blessed Aim
          Combat Nightmare Difficulty: Thorns
          Defense Nightmare Difficulty: Holy Freeze
          Offense Nightmare Difficulty: Might
          
          Act III Ironwolves
          
          These novice sorcerers have a pretty pathetic damage and low life but know how to stay out of the way of danger pretty well. They can use fire, cold, or lightening spells. I don’t recommend this hireling for the Frost Crusader.
          
          Act V Barbarians
          
          Barbarians do the most damage and have the most hit points, not to mention their two attacks adds nice damage additional and stuns enemies; a perfect combinatio