Melee HC build

[arrunique]

My goal is to take a melee character through the whole game in hardcore. I did a werewolf in softcore with some of the best gear but it was difficult. In hardcore I don't have nearly the resources I did in softcore so this the gear will have to be limited to stuff that can be found in early nightmare. And some handmedowns from from other failed builds (that didnt die).

The only quests I plan to party for is normal duriel and all 3 chaos sancs/diablo because of iron maiden. If OB knights are rolled in worldstone I'll just restart.

This build will need maxed (or better) resists and the ability to deal more than one kind of damage. I'm not going to worry about double immunes since they are really rare.

I'm leaning toward paladin because I can get GA from a friend of mine but I'm open to suggestions. My last paladin was a conviction zealot who did fairly well but just didnt have one of the elite uniques necessary to make the build work. He got poked to death by a dark lancer(spearwoman?) in the frozen river.

Builds I'm thinking about:
Fanat/zeal paladin (is 1 in vengence enough to take PI?)
Melee assassin becaue you can buy good claws (tiger and fire?)
Frenzy barb w/ 1 zerk for PI
Bear druid (never played but considering the probs my wolf had I'm a bit gunshy)
Charged strike zon
And finally the really dumb idea "fists of fire" enchant sorc without a weapon

Any other ideas?