Paladin strategies?

[Cutwolf]

My little brother has been playing his pally a lot lately and got him up to level 83. So, of course, I play it when hes not around because Pallys are supposed to be strong.

I had him spec it to be a Hammerdin.

So, right now I have 1582 life, 332 mana, 8.7k blessed hammer damage.

However, I totally suck with him. I usually run concentration aura but I have several problems:

1. I'm used to playing melee. I usually have leech and my life never goes down. However, hammers dont leech so when I take damage, I actually take damage. Same with mana - when I run out I run out. I have a bunch of replenish gear, but nowhere near comparable to leech.

Whats the strategy to keep your life and mana up? Potions? That aura that absorbs it from corpses?

2. What strategy should I use in solo Baal/Pind/Meph runs? Mostly Baal and Meph...what aura? Whats the ideal way to use blessed hammer (kite? run into a big group and start casting it)?

Anything else you guys might wanna add would be nice. I'm pretty twinked from trading stuff from other chars I had. HOZ (spirit in inventory), Enigma, maxed resists in hell, etc.

[koeraokse]

if you have max block your life shouldnt go down, because you kill everything so fast, put insight to your merc and that will get you enough mana...

:shocked:
*priit2

[Doctor Clock]

1.) Use Redemption after you kill each pack of monsters, or if your life/mana orbs are really low. Just a few corpses will fill up your mana, as well as giving you a nice amount of hp back.
2.) Yes, be sure to kite. You have a shield and a lot of life, but don't stand there getting pummeled by a bunch of Frenzytaurs. A hammerdin is a caster, so use that enigma to your advantage. The best defence is not getting hit. If you can teleport into a big group and mow them all down with your hammers, that is great, but you might have to use a bit of strategy from time to time.
3.) If you don't have a merc, get one, preferably a holy freeze one for some crowd contorl.

For Mephisto, I just run up to him, spam hammers, and drink the occasional health potion. Baal has a good deal more life, so you will probably need some crushing blow gear and liberal use of smite to bring him down quickly. Then spam hammers when he is low on life. I don't run pindle with my hammerdin. A hammerdin has to be relatively close to his enemies, which puts you in range for some powerful charge attacks from Pindleskin and his crew.