Templar/Avenger viable?

[Noite Escura]

I'm a noob on the online world and to the 1.09+ versions. So I started many different classes to play with their skills and learn. I have this Paladin that just made lvl 24. I spent a point in every skill available till now(except Conversion), but I want it to be viable and really didn't want to start from the scratch. So I thought of going FoH + Vengeance, since both can benefit from the same Aura: Conviction. That way I only need 60 points for them, and will have a ranged and a melle skill. I would like to know if there are any downside on this combo, and also if Salvation and Redemption are worth to put a point in them. Thanks in advance.

[mhl12]

you wont have enough skill points for foh + vengeance + conviction. Make sure you know about synergies and how they work. Foh benefits for holy shock and holy bolt. That's 60 points right there. Vengeance benefits from resist fire, resist cold, resist lightning, and salvation. It's impossible to combine both of them in classic and have the character be viable. You would have to choose one or the other.. not both.

[DougDadyUsWest]

Redemption and salvation are indeed both worth putting skills into. However, your build needs rethinking :) . In hardcore a salvation pally is welcomed into the CS runs with open arms, and Redemption is useful for restoring your life and mana after a battle, but with multiple pallies using it, or with a Necro around, it loses it's worth. I have stuck with drinking waaay too many potions most of my career.

Blessed Hammers are still the most powerful means of destruction in classic, BY FAR. You would max them and synergies at lvl 75 or 74 if I'm not mistaken, but since you have misplaced some skills, I think it would leave you a little off until mid 80's... they are a great way to solo through the game, starting from around act 3 normal where you first get them, to act 4 of hell mode, they can kill every monster. Even the immune to magic monster's in act 2 are mostly undead, and they still die to hammers.... now that I think of it, the pally can kill every monster :)

[Noite Escura]

You mean FoH is useless in Hell w/o synergies? Blessed Hammer was the other option I considered, using Zeal as backup, since both can benefit from Concentration. I looked down upon it because the Hammers are hard to aim and I think they don't work on tight corridors? Would be a viable option though, since i would need to max Hammer,Blessed Aim, and Concentration right? (Don't think I need more points in Zeal than the +skills gets me?)

[mhl12]

FoH is not really pvm skill. It's more usefull in pvp. It's already pretty useless in pvm b/c of the casting delay. It would be even more useless without its synergies.

For blessed hammer, you would need to max blessed hammer, concentration, blessed aim, and vigor. That's 80 points right there. I would not suggest zeal as a backup skill because you need a good fcr weapon. Most fcr weapons deal little damage. You would have to rely on blessed hammer as your main skill. If you want to have a backup weapon, I would suggest charge instead because of the knockback ability.

[Noite Escura]

Oh, I've checked now, Vigor boosts BH too and is much more useful. I'm beginnig to like your idea. Many thanks :)

[mhl12]

here's a classic hammerdin guide if you want to take a look: http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=341853

[Fearlessone]

FoH is not really pvm skill. It's more usefull in pvp. It's already pretty useless in pvm b/c of the casting delay. It would be even more useless without its synergies.

Groan. And here I thought there was an actual paladin who didn't want to go the deeply rutted blessedhammer route. He is considering it afterall...

I've seen a few paladins in late hell games use foh. They are worth it only if they are dealing with a large crowd of monsters. Also, they seem to usually accomplish only the lowering of monster hitpoints while someone else finishes them off. This is still a worthy path to follow. One of the types of monsters that I have seen them kill in 3-4 casts is the Oblivion Knight. That makes them extremely valuable in cs runs alone. Also, their aura makes it 2-3 times easier for either sorc or lightning zons to kill things off. Corpse explosion becomes a one shot deal.

Without the foh synergies, it would really only be providing the high conviction aura for party support, and perhaps a slow, tedious killing of mobs, which would be fighting against monster reheal. I would agree that vengeance would be too slow to be effective in 1.10 without major synergy input. Only perhaps with crushing blow gear could non-synergy vengeance/conviction do ok.

So I disagree with ur statement that its pretty useless pvm. Any foh'ers with experience care to comment ???

[Noite Escura]

Groan. And here I thought there was an actual paladin who didn't want to go the deeply rutted blessedhammer route. He is considering it afterall...
I already decided I will build a hammerdin from scratch and go for FoH or Vengeance with this char, working or not. I'm still to decide what path to take.

I've seen a few paladins in late hell games use foh. They are worth it only if they are dealing with a large crowd of monsters. Also, they seem to usually accomplish only the lowering of monster hitpoints while someone else finishes them off. This is still a worthy path to follow. One of the types of monsters that I have seen them kill in 3-4 casts is the Oblivion Knight. That makes them extremely valuable in cs runs alone. Also, their aura makes it 2-3 times easier for either sorc or lightning zons to kill things off. Corpse explosion becomes a one shot deal.

Without the foh synergies, it would really only be providing the high conviction aura for party support, and perhaps a slow, tedious killing of mobs, which would be fighting against monster reheal. I would agree that vengeance would be too slow to be effective in 1.10 without major synergy input. Only perhaps with crushing blow gear could non-synergy vengeance/conviction do ok.
The support Paladin seems to be the goal. The Avenger seems to be the best for spellcasters as it would tank the monsters. Either way its much mana consuming. Leeching with Vengance will only work for the Physical portion of damage that's right?

[Fearlessone]

Either way its much mana consuming. Leeching with Vengance will only work for the Physical portion of damage that's right?
Yes. No char uses mana more than my warcry barbs, and u just buy buttloads of mana from the vendor and fill up ur inventory with it.