If I wanted to use Conviction as my aura, what are good builds that would be fun?

[lextalionis]

What skills and items would be good to use with conviction? Conviction is a great party skill for PvM. But what would my little paladin do while everyone else is benefiting from my darn Conviction Aura?

The three that I can think of are:

Fist of Heavens -- Damage is fairly limited and not great
Vengeance -- Not a mass attack. Has good mana problems
Cleric -- Since you really don't need the meditation or prayer auras and you might use cleansing situationally.
Elemental Zealot -- I just think its so hard to amass enough elemental damage from items especially with the ramped hit points in Hell.
Something else? Conviction also helps with AR and elemental damage

[Prodigy]

vengeance is probably your best choice, you need a bunch of mana leech to curb that though :D

[lextalionis]

vengeance is probably your best choice, you need a bunch of mana leech to curb that though :D


I voted for Cleric. Not because there is a good synergy with points, but if you can't be a Hammerdin or Tesladin, then I think you might as well be good at something. At least clerics are good at killing Undead, with massive attack damage with Holy Bolt and Fist of Heavans. Plus they have healing power with Holy Bolt to keep minions and party members alive while their Conviction aura helps others to kill faster.

[lextalionis]

Vengence has sever problems with only being able to attack a single target. Having to be in Melee range when attacking. Mana problems, requiring very high levels of leech. The possiblity that creatures will be immune to 1/3 of your damage. And the fact that the amp in damage isn't as high as I'd like for all of Vengences short comings.

[Prodigy]

even if a monster is immune to 1/3rd (i think its 1/4th cuz theres fire, lightning, cold, and physical) youll still be dealing out quite a lot :D

[danc133]

What skills and items would be good to use with conviction? Conviction is a great party skill for PvM. But what would my little paladin do while everyone else is benefiting from my darn Conviction Aura?

The three that I can think of are:

Fist of Heavens -- Damage is fairly limited and not great
Vengeance -- Not a mass attack. Has good mana problems
Cleric -- Since you really don't need the meditation or prayer auras and you might use cleansing situationally.
Elemental Zealot -- I just think its so hard to amass enough elemental damage from items especially with the ramped hit points in Hell.
Something else? Conviction also helps with AR and elemental damage

Here is my take on it, and it gives you options. If you have or can trade for the runes an elemental zealot using the famine runeword will work. If you couple that with a tiamets shield you have plenty of elemental damage and plenty of LL. You would want some Holy shield with it tho to keep block up.

An option for an avenger is to boost the vengence damage with the synergies first which does 2 things, keeps the mana cost lower and ups your max resists. (1 point for every 2 invested when it's not active) You have fewer skill points to spare this way but it works. I recommend that you have a couple small cold charms to keep the chill length up. With 6 in vengence you only use about 5 mana per swing and can keep a second or more chill time in hell. The damage is virtually identical boosting vengence this way but alot easier to keep up with the mana. With the 6 in vengence you get an initial 100% on all three elements and can selectively boost the percent via synergies.

You can also build a thrower/dragoon hybrid with a good melee weapon on switch. The unique throwing axes have decent elemental dmg and mods and let you use a shield that a ranger cannot. You can do this in conjunction with the above avenger setup and never worry about the iron maiden curse again. A nice bonus to this is you can use vengence back off use no mana (since throwing is free) and leech back. Lacerator is nice for this as it has OW,PMH, and chance to cast amp dmg. The kicker is it has the replenish mod so if used situationally and then you switch back to your melee you never have to repair them either.

Just my $.02 worth any of these can work. BTW if your using conviction crescent moon poleaxe for your merc works great cheap runes and the static field triggers alot if you socket it in a fast weapon and speeds up the killing rate for any of the above. The nice thing is you can use it with a might or HF merc and if you get them some LL say from a helm they survive ok and are interchangeable.

[prion]

you can use it on a cleric, but I would recommend a +convcition scepter instead of spending so many prereq points to get it. I imagine many clerics get by with nothing in the offensive tree and to use seven points to get there...

You can have a scepter that gives you any 1-3 skills in the offensive tree, I would use those situationally.

As for FoH, I don't think Conviction will help you vs. demons and undead.

[lextalionis]

you can use it on a cleric, but I would recommend a +convcition scepter instead of spending so many prereq points to get it. I imagine many clerics get by with nothing in the offensive tree and to use seven points to get there...

You can have a scepter that gives you any 1-3 skills in the offensive tree, I would use those situationally.

As for FoH, I don't think Conviction will help you vs. demons and undead.

I'm sorry, I was wanting the Conviction Aura for a party skill. That's sorta the whole point. I like Conviction being there for my friends Sorceresses.

[prion]

sure no problem. I was just saying that I don't think it's particularly advantageous to spend the points to get there with a Cleric. I recommend an Avenger.

With a Cleric, you can use a +conviction scepter in conjunction with lower resist wand.

Avengers have all the problems you speak of, I don't deny that--but it would be nice to have a solid tank for your sorc friends also.

[holymage]

I say FoH!!

Why you ask?!

you hardly ever see FoH pallies out there....the funnest builds are the ones where your different from everyone else... :D plus the gear is probably easy to get.

[Rueter_Reborn]

FoH is fun, expensive and terrible at killing groups.

What ever you decide, good luck.

[vknez]

the real fun is make pala bear with 6 sck 60 ias pb, dual dream guardian and put skills in salvation,resists lightning, holy shield and defiance

nasty damage, superb resists and blocking, excellent defense and 4 frame attack

my friend build this one on my recomendation and the build is nasty !!

[SSoG]

Elemental Zealot -- I just think its so hard to amass enough elemental damage from items especially with the ramped hit points in Hell.

An Elemental Zealot with Gimmershreds or a Rift runeword will kill as quickly as an Avenger. For real. The build is also complete with just 30 skill points (4 in Zeal, 20 in Vengeance, 1 in all pre-reqs), which leaves a BOATLOAD of points left over for customization. Plus, unlike an Avenger, there are no mana issues. Basically, a Conviction Zealot is superior to an Avenger in pretty much every way. If you can't afford Gimmers or Rift, Voice of Reason is just a very small step down, and is still pretty godly.

If you want style points, go with FoH, but you better have something capable of tanking for you- as a single-target spell with a timer, FoH Pallies have a nasty habit of dying a lot when they get rushed by lots of monsters at once.

[RimuZ]

You could always try SSogs charge/ conviction palla if you want something new :P

[Veilside]

If you're rich, and you have to be rich to make this.
Fire CtC zealot.
Destruction PB
Dragon armour
Phoenix pala shield (res automod)
Kiras, um'ed
wisp and carrion rings
Highlords wrath amulet
Dungoes belt
Dracs gloves
Gorerider boots

You'll need an act1 faith merc to hit the 4 frame zeal breakpoint
Skills:
20 points resist fire
20 points conviction
20 points holy shield
20 points Zeal
rest of points into vengeance.


I haven't tested that build out yet, the one I have uses a CoH and a different helm but it should still work extremely well.

[GalenDoUrden]

FoH is fun, expensive and terrible at killing groups.

What ever you decide, good luck.

What is up with the thread necromancy? The last post before yours was from over three years ago.

[MYK]

An Elemental Zealot with Gimmershreds or a Rift runeword will kill as quickly as an Avenger. For real. The build is also complete with just 30 skill points (4 in Zeal, 20 in Vengeance, 1 in all pre-reqs), which leaves a BOATLOAD of points left over for customization. Plus, unlike an Avenger, there are no mana issues. Basically, a Conviction Zealot is superior to an Avenger in pretty much every way. If you can't afford Gimmers or Rift, Voice of Reason is just a very small step down, and is still pretty godly.

If you want style points, go with FoH, but you better have something capable of tanking for you- as a single-target spell with a timer, FoH Pallies have a nasty habit of dying a lot when they get rushed by lots of monsters at once.

I really wanted to build a Conviction Zealot with the rest of the points thrown into FoH and stuff.

BTW, is there a reason to not use Baraner's?

[Kretschmer]

I like avengers. The biggest downside is the kill...one...thing...at...a...time approach, but it appears that you're grouping with AoE damage sorceresses so you should be fine.

The mana issues are all resolved at level 30 and redemption, though there's nothing wrong with carrying around a few blue potions to chug. If mana use is an obsession, leave vengeance at level one and pump the "resist <element>" synergies before the main skill.

[RimuZ]

I really wanted to build a Conviction Zealot with the rest of the points thrown into FoH and stuff.

BTW, is there a reason to not use Baraner's?

Well ehm... there are a lot of better choices :P

[SSoG]

BTW, is there a reason to not use Baraner's?

Yup. Baranar's = 301.5 average elemental damage. Gimmershred = 902 average elemental damage. Rift = 283.5 damage per Frozen Orb shard, and every time a FO triggers, you're usually going to hit with a dozen shards or so, making it 3402 damage per orb (or somewhere in that neighborhood). Heck, even Voice of Reason will deal much more elemental damage than Baranar's, and it's cheaper to boot.

[Elend]

Elemental Zealot is the best solution IMO.

This is the most accurate melee character in PvM with minimum skill points.
Try this: 20 Sacrifice, 20 Zeal, 20Conviction (this should be 25 with items), 20 Holy Shield. The rest secondary attack/customization if you want it.
Fast and accurate hitting charactrers should take the full advantages of the On striking, (On attack too) CB and OW mods. The weapons are also easy to find, and cheap. You can made through nightmare with a shocking/flaming #weapon name# of quickness - you can get one of these from vendors for little money. If you choose a weapon with decent physical damage, you can leach quite well, if you go for the lowest physical damage weapons you can zeal when IM-ed.
Also it is recommended a 50% CB and 50% OW. These are not reflected back by the IM curse, and are extremely helpful when facing with high-life opponents.
Later you should equip something like Branar's Star, Nord's Tenderizer, Frostwind, Demon Limb, Gimmershred, Stormlash, Rift etc.
It is nice to have a Life Tap wand on switch if leaching is troublesome.

Aim for a 5 frame Zeal (of course 4 frames if possible, without Fanaticism).

***

I made through Hell using Nord's Tenderizer with some Shocking wand on switch.

[xelnanga]

I say a Dreamer, or an auradin. Uber expensive, but uber gg in pvp and pvm if built right.