Idea of Mine

[xtrashcrapx]

Im a little bored with all the mainstream characters so i was going to go out on a limb and make a character a little different. I was thinking about making a zealot that doesnt use a weapon. Plz dont comment on the weirdness/noobness of my decision. i already know. Just a little experiment and something to talk about but wat i was wondering was if any one had tried something like this before. Now is when i start thinking out loud.

I need some help on deciding gear and stat placement. My first thought is crushing blow for gear. Rattlecage and goblin toe give the two biggest bonuses from armor/boots,(and i wont mention how cheap they are) but then i need life steal. Incedentally, is life steal affected by crushing blow? somehow i think not.

For stats, the only way I'm going to kill things is with damage, and since no weapon, lots of str? That would pull a lot away from vitality and since i will most likely be getting hit if i choose to go rattlecage/goblin toe it would probably be pretty detremental. Dex is pretty standard. I need max block.

Another thing that cropped up in my cranium is auras. At first i automatically thought fanatacism but now im wondering if there is a better choice? one skill i know i need with little life steal is redemption. a point there. how would a tesladin work for this? frost zealot?

Now that i got my thoughts out on print, the idea looks pretty doomed, but i wont give up hope and i hope you guys wont either and help me out with this. also please tell me if there is a link to a build like this. if there is im sorry.

[Diabolico x64]

This is usually called a "Fistadin". I don't know if there are any guides for this build, but look around and you may find one. Since you're not using a weapon, anything that gives +%ED would be pretty useless, like the Fanaticism aura. Elemental damage would probably be your best bet. I would go with a tesladin build, using Holy Shock for damage. If you have a couple of Dream runewords handy, you could make a weaponless Dreamer, using Conviction as your main aura (as well as the lvl 30 HShock from the Dreams). I'm sure it won't do much worse than a normal Dreamer would.

Good luck!

[Evrae Altana]

You can also use Holy Freeze as your aura. Less max damage than Holy Shock, but the damage range is more reliable, and the monsters get slowed down. Rattlecage is a good option for this build because it has that "hit causes monster to flee mod", which prevents you from getting swarmed too much.
I'd recommend using Guilliame's Face, which has 35% crushing blow. That along with Rattlecage and Goblin Toes should bring your crushing blow percentage up to a nice level.