Paladin Build

[Ultimate_Power]

I have never really played a paladin through before. (When I say through, I mean up to lvl 30) Either way, the zealot type of paladin seemed quite fun. So, I decided to make a layout of my paladin to be's skill plan. Here it is as follows:

20 Zeal
20 Holy Shield
20 FoH
20 Fanat.
20 Salv.
And 1 point to prereqs.(Not sure how to spell it; prerequisite?)
I hardly have any idea where to put my stat points or what gear to use. I have no clue what to use for gear. I could scrap up some good gear. This is the gear I had in mind:

Helmet:
Shako or tarn. or some pally helm.
Amulet:
A priest's amulet of something.
Weapon Slot One:
LightSabre and i have no clue what kind of shield.
Weapon Slot 2:
Some sort of Scepter w/ shield or some big-daddy 2 handed sword :D
Armor:
Heavenly Garb (Looks alright) or something better
Rings:
No clue; Raven Frost, SoJ, Bul Kathos ? Need help here.
Gloves:
Uhhhhh, advice would be great here.
Boots:
Same as above.

Mercs:
Maybe a rogue or a duo of auras with Act 2 mercs.

Thanks in advance for any help provided.

[BlackLightning]

I like your ideas, but you might be going overboard for some of your skills. For example, Zeal people usually only get to lvl 15 but usually to lvl 10, since you really don't need that much AR (Unless you can only hit Fallen :D )

As for rings, SoJs are good, but you might want some other stuff, like nagelring or somethin'. Or you could stick with BK.

For Gloves, your best bet are Chance Guards or FrostBurns, though they're expensive.

As for a belt (you missed this), you should use String of Ears, which is surprisingly good.

Boots: either war traveler, or the unique greaves (don't remember the name)

Hope you consider the ideas.

[WarBlade]

20 Zeal
20 Holy Shield
20 FoH
20 Fanat.
20 Salv.
And 1 point to prereqs.(Not sure how to spell it; prerequisite?)

Forget Salvation. You can do way better just by putting diamonds into shields. The people who actually like Salvation usually find that a single point is enough. My personal feeling is that a single point here is a point too many - each to their own I suppose.

On Zeal, most people only push the skill to the point where they get the 5 attacks. After that, Zeal investments only add Attack Rating, but if you have points to spare and really need AR, it's not a bad place to put the points. It makes sense for a dedicated Zealot to invest here anyway.

FoH? Hmm, this usually begs for Conviction and your character would otherwise have little use for Mana . . . Holy Shock would be a better choice. Put at least one point in Sanctuary once you hit Hell Level.

I hardly have any idea where to put my stat points or what gear to use.  I have no clue what to use for gear.  I could scrap up some good gear.  This is the gear I had in mind:

Helmet:
Shako or tarn. or some pally helm.
Amulet:
A priest's amulet of something.
Weapon Slot One:
LightSabre and i have no clue what kind of shield.
Weapon Slot 2:
Some sort of Scepter w/ shield or some big-daddy 2 handed sword  :D
Armor:
Heavenly Garb (Looks alright) or something better
Rings:
No clue; Raven Frost, SoJ, Bul Kathos ?  Need help here.
Gloves:
Uhhhhh, advice would be great here.
Boots:
Same as above.

Forget naming individual pieces - You'll probably have to cheat to get them and half of the above list can be easily topped by picking up random stuff in later difficulties.

Mods to look for: Crushing Blow and Cast Amplify Damage on Attack work extremely well on a Zealot. You can also capitalize on non-physical damage sources better than most other characters. +Skills have little value to a Zealot, so be careful about equipping them at the expense of other gear. Otherwise equip as you would any meleer: IAS, Resists, etc.

Mercs:
Maybe a rogue or a duo of auras with Act 2 mercs.

If you have PI problems, then a Rogue might be nice but Paladins shouldn't really have PI problems. Spearmen make good mercenaries for most Paladins.

[Albion Child]

I agree that 20 points into zeal is overboard. Also...20 points into holy sheils may be overkill also. I would put just enough points into Zeal to get the max # of hits (slvl4???) and enough into holy sheild to get 75% blocking. This way you'll need to recast it more often...but the defense lost shouldn't hurt too much. (I have never found high defense to be important...or even helpful for that matter.) SInce you are using lightsaber, you will need a naturally high dex...so you will almost certainly have good blocking, and won't need to "waste" those extra points in Zeal because of naturally high attach rating due to high Dex. I would redistribute those extra points into such skills as:

Salvation- If you don't have high resistance from other sources, you should invest is this.
Charge- Pump it to use as a damage dealer, or just use 1 point for the knocback (stun?)
Vengeance- Though I now one point is almost always necessary for PI monsters, perhaps you should
invest more.
Paladins have LOT's of one point wonders to play with also.


As far as equipment-

Boots- I would recoment either immortal King's boots or Aldur's boots
Belt- String of ears
Sheild- Lots of good choices here, you got Herald of Zakarum, Stormsheild, or any 3 pdiamond (or UM) sheild----preferably a "paladin type" sheild with some skill bonuses
Helm- Shako is nice....I don't see any point to Tarnhelm though. Also look into Vampire Gaze, Rockstopper, Peasant Crown, Sazabi's Helmet, or the ORT/SOL runeword helm.
Armour- Obviously Arkaine's Valor Rox, but more realistically think about, Guardian angel, Shaftstop (for more DR%, or my personal favorite, Lionheart runeword armour (HEL/LUM/FAL) I think.
Gloves- Lava gout, Venom grip, Frostburns (Very nice if you are gonna use FoH alot due to 40% mana), Hand of Broc if you need leech, IK set gloves, Sanders gloves, and al lower levels you can use some good sets together (Death's glove and belt, Iratha's glove and Belt.)

For a good alternate, try collecting Sigon's complete set. With a good weapon like lightsabre, you can not only be hell viable, but surprisingly tough.

[Tommi]

If you play with FOH, you should also get Conviction. Slvl 15 is good for beginnings, and if you use FOH a lot (or if you use Vengeance), you may max Conviction for that use.

- 1 point in Salvation is enough
- 20 skill points in Holy Shield is good, if you have Herald of Zakarum, otherwise 11 suffices
- 4 points in zeal is enough to get a 5 hits.

Thus, I'd modify your skill allocations as follows:
4 Zeal (1 skill point may suffice, if you have enough skill bonuses)
20 Holy Shield
20 FoH
20 Fanaticism
15-20 Conviction
1 Salvation
1 Redemption
+ prereqs

Typically there is enough skill points to max only 4 skills, and anyways you want to complete the main aspects of your build long before level 99.

Cheers,

Tommi

[Logic_X]

Lets see.....there's a couple zealot choices...I have a couple of em to....(well....I've had a lot.....but i have 3 zealots I haven't deleted...rest of my pallies are other builds):

Here's what I find to be the most successful:

20 zeal (I use a cruel phase blade of evisc most the time over my cruel cad...either way i like to hit more)
20 fanat
1 salvation (I don't use it often enough to really suggest it...but it is nice vs. msle's)
20 Holy Shield (Use it for defense, not block....unless your pvp....i'd still max it then for more pts in vit/str)
1 point in holy freeze (this is nice for slowing monsters....not required)
then put the spare point in either : Conviction (can be at low level with a low level vengeance), Vengeance, or Smite (as these are good for things you may have problems with....explained later).

Equipment:
Helm: 15%ias in either a Vamp Gaze (for dr%) or a Stealskull (has innate 10% ias, and 10% fhr) - both have dual leech. Stealskull's more if you're using a slower weapon.
Armor: I find the most success with shaftstop, although arkaine or corpsemourn, or anything along those lines would work too (i prefer the dr%)
Belt: Gotta love String of ears....there are a few ok alternatives....you could do goldwrap for ias, or that set belt with dual leech.
Gloves: I personally like my dual leech crafteds w/ crushing blow and mf :)....but yea....pretty much any gloves you like can work, preferably something with either leech, fhr% (bloodfist), or elemental damage (lavagout, or hellmouth are ok....lavagouts if you have a slow weapon)
Boots: Goreriders (for crushing blow and stuff) is a nice pair of boots....aldur's are good for +life and 40%r/w - i prefer nat's to them because of resists....crafted blood boots are also nice if you get good mods.
Rings: I usually travel with 1 raven frost, 1 bul kathos (5%).....but for tanking Diablo...nothin's better than 2 dwarf stars :). Blood rings are nice here too....pretty much any high life leech ring is nice :).
Ammy: I usually go with Highlord's.....but you could go with a crafted blood or safety depending on which you prefer. Mara's isn't really necessary unless you're really struggling with elements (I find 25% resists or higher sufficient for hell usually)
Shield: So far....Herald of Zakarum has worked best for me on zealots....SS's just don't provide enough defense when i'm fighting that I like (Hell cows = about a 15% chance to hit a lvl 83 paladin w/ SS and my defiance merc....about 6% with Herald....and that's not counting how much i block)
Weapons - many choices....if you're going blistering speed - it's easy to hit the bp's with a phase blade, any phase blade.
Scepters are nice for ok dmg, and +skills...a 290% cruel cadeceus = fun to play around with, expensive to repair.
Fast knives (aka fange knives and the like) are good if cruel since they use a formula like: (Strength + Dexterity) x 0.75 (.75% ed per point into strength or dexterity...i think that's how it'd read out....kinda tired atm...so not 100% sure, but i know it comes out to more than the strength x 1 method) to modify damage opposed to most melee weapons (excluding heavy hammers) which go with Strength x 1 (1% ed per point in strength) to modify damage.

I wouldn't recommend 2 handed weapons on a zealot unless you want to use it with vengeance (then i recommend something along the lines of a cruel thunder maul.....for the strength x 1.1 damage modifire (1.1% ed per pt in strength) - they can easily do 10k dmg with vengeance and fanat in fact that's what my glass reaver build is built around.....the only type of 1 handed weapon with this is a legendary mallet - and it's lookalikes i think have it too - this is why the elusive schaefer's hammer is so much better than it looks on paper).

Charms....well - +life, +fhr are your best friends, +max and elemental charms are also nice.

Merc: I like defiance, although if you're going for a high damage over survivability style, might works too - just be sure to equip either with good equipment (if defiance, get him around 9k defense w/ his aura on.....I do it w/ ias CoT, 3pul Griz armor, Eth Spire of Honor amn'd) with might you'll want a lot of life leech and ias (your aura provides some of it) along with good damage.

This will net you a decent result.

There are variants of this that are effective in different areas.....(I'm working on a guide to a few of them atm....currently focusing on the glass reaver build.....i'll unveil it when it's done if i remember to).

Hope that helped a bit.....

[NERDmanWhippy]

Also...20 points into holy sheils may be overkill also

Holy shield is great if you go with a HOZ, as the defense listed is what it modifies, and if you use HOZ, I reccommend high level of Holy shield after gear (at least level 16) as defense regulates how often you are hit versus the enemies ar....If you use a SS, Id not put more than a few in this skill, only to get to max block (saves on dex pts) b/c the Enhanced defense HS gives to ss is based on shield defense before the additional is calculated per clvl....I have had better luck with HOZ over ss, if not for anything more than a better block rate, more skills, Vitality boost and less of a chance to get hit from a higher defense rating, not to mention the resists that HOZ gives....Its a matter of personal preference there though....some prefer DR over a slimmer chance to get hit...best bet is to test your build, check damage from skills and try a few runs with each to get a good idea .....I do more dmg with Zodded Etheral HOZ over a 40% ed SS.....but that is just my build......(HOZ can have 2k+ defense versus the SS of 900 at the same HS level)

As for armor, Ias Shaft works great for DR & life...some prefer a Valor for the higher defense & skills....the life mod on a 85ish Clvl char isnt much greater than Shaft if you ask me (at least the .09 valor)

Weapons are totally at your discretion, and like said, if Speed is what you want, get ANY phase or a Cruel Caddy....some use a Headstriker for the Deadly strike %, and then are free to wear what ever gear they choose then, knowing that they are always gonna get the DS mod...(this is a build Im looking at currently as its cheap, and No other LO or DS is needed really)...I personally prefer zerkers over phases just b/c of the Phase having a higher % Dex (I use HS to make up for low dex/increase blocking). Zerks are a load slower than a Phase/caddy tho, but do more dmg....

Ammy is usually a Highlords for the skills/ias/DS mod....I dont know of too many other ammys that will do as well as this for a fanatadin

Boots are the usual.... Travs or Goreriders....depends on how much str u want or if you want DS....I again prefer the Goreriders....

Gloves are Lavagouts, or if you can get IAS/Deadlystrikers do that...they make the difference....

As for a helm....the 2 obvious choices are The Vamp for DR & LL, or a Steelskull (same reason)....I know also that a Shako has good luck as well for the skills, life and DR....no Leech tho on the Harlequin Crest....

Rings are usually the standard LL ring (any over 5 to taste) and a Raven (for the Cannot be froze mod) ..... if you can get cannot be froze on any other gear, Id drop the raven for another ring with LL....Crafted rings w/ll are great b/c of the str mod they may have as well....I use a 9%LL/+4 str with no other exciting mods and have had great results....

A lot of the reason I use a lot of DS gear, is that I am Primarily a Charger, and use a LO/ETH CWP as a first weapon....I like to do double dmg to a cow with a level 30 charge ;)...usually results in one hit wonders

Mercs are again personal preference. Might, Defiance or HF are the obvious choices...if you like tanking and do insane damage already, try a thorns merc....The mercs need about 35% base ias to really do well (they will get 35% more from your fanat aura)...my merc uses a CWP, but im thinking about trying a dual shael Cruel Giant thresher...just to see the insane speed he can get....(if you can get ahold of a Honor etheral Giant thresher, your merc will own...there is no doubt about it)

Anytime you see me on, feel free to wisper me....I love my level 97 pally and am very sucessful in PVM and PVP with it (ever hit someone with a level 28 charge with a CWP pike in a duel, youd understand...so will they, esp when the 80% chance of DS hits). My gear and build is totally swappable to convert my pally over to a Zealot very easily.....I have yet to do it to test :)

J

*NERDmanWhippy

[Ultimate_Power]

thank you for all your help. It is really nice for such a group of excellent people to aid me. I have got a pretty thorough picture of my paladin to be.

However, i have a query. How does holy freeze and holy shock work?

[Logic_X]

First Holy Shock (as it's pretty easy to explain) - Holy shock is a lightning elemental aura much life Holy Fire.
Way it deals damage directly - Deals its damage on the Aura refresh check - this is every 3 seconds, or there about.
Way it aids your attacks - Adds lightning damage to your normal attack , this only effects the paladin using it, and can't be used while using fanat (since the aura refreshes on you as soon as you switch auras).
Damage increases with level, radius does not, and is thus a small radius, high damage holy fire basically.
This was thought to be a great skill for ranger class paladins, but is usually dumped for the ED% and ias% of fanaticism. This can be effective on elementalist builds of a paladin, but conviction is usually prefered for its effects on enemy resists.
This can be used decently with conviction because conviction wears off after a 2nd failed check (check if fail, check next rotation, if fail kill aura....thus meaning you can hit them on the first rotation check and switch back to conviction to let it pass the second check, and flicker auras as such)

Holy Freeze - This is still fairly easy to explain, but some people don't get the specific mechanics.
What it does - This slows the enemy down, and provides a chance for "shatter" (chance to shatter an enemy upon death) - from my experience this chance increases with level.
Way it does it - This does not slow using cold damage (despite the name "holy freeze") It slows the enemies using an ability similar to the slow used with decrepify and can thus effect cold immunes where actual cold spells can't.
Does it aid my damage? - No, this does not boost your damage, it merely slows enemies down allowing you to either a) escape or B) slow them down enough to fight.
This skill is semi-external - and does a check system similar to other auras (example how thorns or conviction stays until it fails after a certain period of time, that's what this does) - the slow is very effective when mixxed with fanat basically increasing your hit ratio when compared to theirs.

Here's the ias layout for some common weapons (this is with Level 20 Fanaticism while using zeal since it's for a paladin):
This is the ias needed (this includes on weapon and off weapon ias, because both are formulated into zeal - and it already has base weapon speed and fanaticism taken into account - so this is how much you want from all your equip - including weapon - combined)

These are 1 handed....i can do 2 handed, but yea....this should be enough for now:

Legendary Mallet:
0% ias - 7 frames per attack - 3.5 attacks per second
3% ias - 6 frames per attack - 4.1 attacks per second
34% ias - 5 frames per attack - 5 attacks per second
120% ias - 4 frames per attack - 6.2 attacks per second

Devil Star/Ettin Axe/Seraph Rod:
0% ias - 6 frames per attack - 4.1 attacks per second
19% ias - 5 frames per attack - 5 attacks per second
86% ias - 4 frames per attack - 6.2 attacks per second

Berserker Axe/Conquest Sword/Battle Sword/Mighty Scepter:
0% ias - 6 frames per attack - 4.1 attacks per second
7% ias - 5 frames per attack - 5 attacks per second
60% ias - 4 frames per attack - 6.2 attacks per second

Cadeceus/Cryptic Sword/Legend Spike/Scourge/War Spike:
0% ias - 5 frames per attack - 5 attacks per second
40% ias - 4 frames per attack - 6.2 attacks per second

Fanged Knife:
0% ias - 5 frames per attack - 5 attacks per second
24% ias - 4 frames per attack - 6.2 attacks per second

Cutlass/Phase Blade:
0% ias - 5 frames per attack - 5 attacks per second
11% ias - 4 frames per attack - 6.2 attacks per second

Hope that helps.

[Striker]

Most monsters are affected by it, with a few exceptions. The Act 5 monsters that use Frenzy as their main attack (affectionately :rolleyes: called Frenzytaurs) are the ones that come to mind right away.

[Saga_Keeper]

Well I have an all around fun fun fun zealadin with tricks that can pretty much handle about any pvm situation.(msle PI is a toughy mind you)
prereqs aside this is how I divied them (he's 86 now... so it's sorta guess and shove I guess)
9 zeal
10 vengeance
20 holy shield
1 redemption(good for times when you have bodies and no life)
1 meditation(party aura, good for pi fighting where you can take with little threat as well)
1 salvation(good for corpse retrieval, party with zon situations etc.)
20 fanat
6 holy freeze
11 conviction

first off, if you go with foh, you can drop vengeance, zeal only needs to be 4 if that, holy freeze can be skimmped but I like the increased radius and it works well with foh...
SO let's say...

20 foh
15+conviction
20 fanat
11+holyshield
1+holyfreeze
1+smike(I'd say this is optional if you use hoz, can be good on a weapon switch though, and works great with fanat)
4+ (w/fx) zeal (and just pick up some ar charms if you're having issues)

You'll probably want a point in meditation for those times leech just isn't happening and you're just using foh like a silly guy to blast the kingts in the chaos sanctuary. Remption also helps if you want to free up leech gear in favor of mana regen, xx% damage to mana, and resist items...

A decent gear setup would be...

Weapon-Blessed Hand of Light/runeword (honor, kings grace, fury, silence etc. etc.), or even a good rare (w/+paly/combat skills) scepter with mods to FOH(+3 preffered) and perhaps holyfreeze/holy shield... maybe also some decent melee weapon that adds to your ar (barnars) ignores defense (lightsabre, also has lower str reqs by far) or -xx% targets defense (malice runeword etc.) if your scepter is lacking
Shield-Herald of Zakarum, hands down about as good as it gets if you use foh(+4 to foh, with up to 5 or so more from you scepter is already +9)
Helm-Shako sounds good, rare circlets can be awesome as well
Ammy-Anything with a bonus skills, such as maras (has good restis), rares, magicals(hard to get other useful mods, but +2 is+2) etc.
Rings-+skills via SoJ or Bul Kanthos is ideal
Armor-I'd really suggest a good resist Vipermagi
belt-good place to pick up cannot be frozen, deaths sash can do this, as can tal's blet
gloves-death's gloves go good with the sash (30 ias, 8% life leech, cannot be frozen, 15 res all, hard to beat, and also quite useful) or frostburn/ias depending on if you're at 4 frame zeal or not (there are numerous charts to help you with this around)
belt-silkweaves are hard to beat, but rares with perhaps high elemental and r/w would be best... you can gamble these with a level ~40ish character at a fairly reasonable price I'd think
Between Socketing and charms, you'll want to make 32% (iirc) faster hit recovery, as this is just another useful thing to have... and as for skill charms, combat charms help you out the most by far adding to holyshield, a bit to your foh, more on your zeal helps the ar and if you chose to use smite on a switch this will also help that out considerably as well (10 smite is a fairly reasonable goal in terms of usefulness... just remember to have an elite paladin shield for smite if you can, and a REAL fast weapon on the switch)
Just my take on the build... hope it's useful to you (all)
-Saga_Keeper

[Saga_Keeper]

Talking to myself, a few thoughts occured to me after I finnaly posted this. Smite is very useful to an foh build with lowish are because it always hits, also a good 4 socket elite paladin shield with a resist all modifier is great, the sacred targe is among the best since it has the highest base block% and lowest reqs (all elite paladin shields average the same smite damage effectively) and I'd just plop 4 diamonds in this sucker so you're covered on resists while smiting... and it's a good shield to have around if you ever make a devoted smite paladin as it can provide 100% res all, and a good hunk of damage as well.

[Logic_X]

While I am a supporter of FoH paladins ( I have a few pvm ones....which yes, is possible - I have a few versions of it, but only 1 present on the realms) I don't support the use of FoH on a zealot as it spreads your goals too thin imo....makes you more of a jack of all trades than a zealot.....And only class I've really seen that can pull off a Jack build successfully is the Necromancer, and very rarely a sorceress (rarely = I saw a melee tri-elementalist who could actually do decent damage once) - Paladins are better suited to the roll of precision damage w/ team support in my eyes... and if you plan on using zeal - I advise greatly in favor of any ring with life leech over a soj. That's just me though.

Smite is a useful skill for an FoH'er yes....but at best it will be secondary because there are simply too few points to make both of them go to their maximum, and most people who do that are FoH over smite in my experience.

Paladins are diverse...there are many builds...and yes, it is possible to hybrid almost anything, but if you're not careful you'll end up being able to do a whole lot of nothing instead of a little bit of everything.

Those are just my opinions though....don't know if they count for much here yet.

[Saga_Keeper]

That is VERY VERY true logic it's *very* easy to make a paladin that can't do much of anything. And a life leech ring (crafted for like 10% or so) in favor of the soj(s) could be quite a boon.
I feel *most* of the revised builds here accomidate that, and I should have thought to includ a life leech ring, heck bulkanthos would be great :P it'd help damage and zealing.
-Saga_Keeper