Paladin Build Critique

[MalVeauX]

Hey all

I'm looking to recreate a paladin that I enjoyed in HC ladder, who was a varient of an Avenger. The old build looked like this:

20 conviction
12 resist fire
12 resist cold
12 resist lightning
10 holy shield
1 vengeance

He was fabulous and kept 95% res all through the game with his humble equipment. The level 1 Veng was my favorite part of the build as my main attack was a level 1 skill and I did fine through hell with it in full games. I did however notice my mistake and waste of dumping so many points into conviction since it caps so badly. Also, he wasn't the fastest thing out there so every hit counted and he didn't leach much life and mana back, just enough to maintain his attacks and holyshield, but I used Reds for problem situations for sure. He had no need for AR, but I'd like to change that this time.

This time around, I'm thinking about crossing an avenger type with a fanatic type build. I'm sure it's been done several times, but I'd like to give it a go and see how it fairs.

So this time, the build will looking probably like this:

20 Fanatacism
20 Vengeance
10 Resist Fire
10 Resist Cold
10 Resist Lightning
10 Holy Shield

The rest will be wherever I'd like, such as a passive AR bonus from Blessed Aim maybe. I'd really like a higher AR on this build to make each swing count. I plan on using something along the lines of an honor scourge perhaps. It's good one hand damage, very fast and has the important mods that I'd like. Also, its cheap and easy to aquire and make. I play often, but I don't trade or MF very much so I generally stick to easier items and still get the same effect, just with less flash as the big uniques and ridiculous runeword items. I'm the guy with the 112 resistance shield that is just full of diamonds with 3 socket life armors and resisance runes inside. Wearing crafted gloves, belts and boots, amulets and rings. I like making my own things mostly.

So hopefully this will work out nicely as I have all my low/mid/high level gear in order for the trek. My only questions really are how others faired with a similar build using veng with fanata. It's kind of a contrary setup considering the attack is elemental and the aura is for physical damage, but I wanted to have both this time instead of low physical and high elemental only. This time, I'd like a more half and half. So it will be end gaming with about 852% elemental damage and 373% physical damage, using about a 200 damage onehanded fast weapon. The damage isn't crazy, but its high enough for me to beat around in hell without problems (looking around 3600~4k area).

Thanks!

[MoUsE_WiZ]

I played this build:
Weapon: Gimmershreds
Other stuff: Guillame's, Gore riders, 40% ED Rhyme, IK Gloves/Belt, Gris armor with resistence runes, LL ring/ML ring, Atma's ammy
1 zeal
20 sacrifice
20 fanat
20 convic
20 holy shield
~5 defiance (pumping, currently level 87)

~1200 life, 10k def, 4k dmg with fanat/zeal, 3.6 with fanat/throw, 3.4 with convic/zeal, 2k with convic/throw iirc

He eventually got his forge solo, but venom lords had too much life for me to throwing axe them to death in reasonable time in the CS (can't zeal with IM around ^^), so he hopped on the cooperative play bandwagon at about there. Did fine on his own for most of A5 as well, needed to party for the ancients (was able to tank 2 of them just fine, but when all 3 started attacking at once his life started dropping too quick).
The other problem is the low AR...he really needs some AR, something like 50% chance to hit a lot of monsters when using fanat rather than convic, but that's mostly because he doesn't have any in his gear...I like to think that a couple of +100 AR charms would cure him.

Anyways, although the skill distribution is quite different, I'd imagine the basic game play of him would be quite similar, as instead of high elemental damage from veng I get it from gimmers instead, and although my elemental would be a bit lower than yours I think, using zeal instead of veng to deliver it probably offsets that difference.

[Illithid]

Why would you max two offensive auras other than for synergies. You can only use one of them at time so it'll be waste of valuable skill points. Select one, but not both. If you use fanat for ar, remember that not only ar counts when you attack, but enemy dr counts too. And conv lowers opponents dr quite a lot. Also conv lowers enemy resists A LOT (in some/most cases below 0), which is the most important part of an avenger. Usual avenger (like yours is) has about 8/10+ damage elemental, so your physical damage isn't important in the end (of couse your physical weap dmg is important while it is what determines how much damage your veng does). Thats why conv is a must to use almost all the times.
There is a way to use both conv and fanat at the same time, W/O putting any points in fanat. Beast-runeword (BerTirUmMalLum) has this mod in it:
Level 9 Fanaticism Aura When Equipped
So it'll use both of the auras at the same time!

So what to do with HC avenger? Is it good build? I'd say not just good, but the best build in HC. If you use Guardian Angel and Herald Of Zakarum, you can quite easily attain these bonuses:
95/95/95/90 Resists + some absorb
DR 10000+ W/ holy shield applied
Blocking 75 W/ holy shield applied
5000+ Dmg With decent weap

Hope this helped. Feel free to comment if I wasn't correct.

[Zavior]

If you are rich enough to get Ber, I'd suggest aiming for Jah and enigma too O_o

[MalVeauX]

Illithid:

Where you responding to my build or the person who listed a very different build under my post?

Just as an update, my character is level 75 now and works very well. I just entered hell and smashed through Act1 easy as pie. Currently (base points):

20 Veng
20 Fanat
10 Holyshield
8 Fire Res
8 Cold Res
8 Light Res

I'm using griz armor with runes for resistances, a 106% resistance shield, honor scourge, life/mana leech rings and ammies, sigons gaunts, belt, boots and an upgraded duskkeep helm with a res all jewel in it. He's maxed resistances close to capping at 80 each (79 right now until I get a few more levels for my passive res bonuses). Doing around 4k damage and swing extremely fast with about 7k AR. Blocking of course 75% and running around with about 1k life. So he definately has worked out and I really like the feeling of vengance with fanatacism instead of veng with conviction. Veng does much more damage with conviction, however, there isn't as much speed and less phyical damage to leech from to maintain the mana consumption of veng. The res auras add beautifully to the damage and my capps for resistances. Once my res auras hit 10, I'll sink the rest into holyshield for the defense bonus and have more room for more vitality in my later levels.

Zavior:

Not to be a smartass, but if you read my post, I really don't bother with trading and magic finding, so the chances of me having those two runes are the same as winning the lottery. It is obvious that over powered items would make a build stronger and that is not the kind of info any of us are really looking for. The question was how many others played a similar build and found it to be optimal and worthwhile. If you are refering to someone elses comment, then disregard this.

Thanks!