Tankadin?

[gekko]

After reading Gekko's post I began fiddling around with my paladin in Act 5 Hell. After making a char backup, I played around with the skill points and tried out the build. All in all, it's definitely a solid build. Using a Nord's Tenderizer I was able to survive rather well. As both of you have mentioned, Leech is incredibly important when using vengeance - 18% life leech wasn't sufficient in any tight situations. The +defense bonus of Holy shield is incredibly useful, not to mention the +% chance to block to gives. With around 8k Def and 70% chance to block, Hell was very much viable. It's a slow road, and big packs do cause problems here and there, but its definitely a fun build.

I'd put the build on par with a crushing blow zealot. A crushing blow zealot with a fast weapon can benefit much more from leech and stick around a bit longer, but it isn't nearly as fulfilling as slugging it out one swing at a time on an avenger.

Oh, and if you decide just for kicks to try out elite polearms or bows, I'll tell you right now they are not good ideas :lol:

Cheers,

Munk

When this build really shines is when you party with other characters. Sorcs and javazons in particular. Maxed conviction simply destroys enemy resistances. The majority of enemy immunities disapear, as well.

Like any melee based build, the power of this build is very much proportional to the equipment you have available. However, this build can handle itself even with fairly obtainable stuff.

Just for kicks though, it can be fun to consider this kind of success [amazonbasin]. 8% chance to be it, 75% chance to block, 95% resist all. Pretty darned near indestructible.

My avenger has nowhere near that kind of strength and none of the really hard to find equipment that that one has. I do have more points in vitality though, which helps.

Another piece of advice that I remembered: pick up any and all rejuvination potions you can, and cube them into fulls. This is really smart for any characters, but melee characters really need to remember it. One of the reasons I haven't died with this character is that I tend to keep one row of red potions and 3 rows full of full rejuvinations. And I'm not afraid to use them. Better to waste a potion than to die.

gekko