My First Paladin...what's best for a beginner?

[Archangel Manael]

I got a level 86 Summoner Necro that I'm pretty happy with. Got a Level 84 Fireorb Sorc that is pretty good too.

And since it takes about 200 runs to get from level 1 to 86....but 2000+ runs for leveling up in the 90s...I'm gonna create a new char :P

And I see lots of pals around which seem to have such an easy time killing stuff, not to mention 90% of the ladder level 99s are Pals.

Sooooo...I've got my eye on Hammerdin and Zealot.

And I'm looking at Blessed Hammer, Zeal and Charge. They all look pretty neat.

At level 24...apparently Conc gives +400% dmg.

BH is about 2K with synergies. So does Conc apply to BH? Cause that'd mean about 10K dmg for BH.

Charge with 1 synergy is like +1200% dmg that's nice.

Zeal is +400% dmg and 5 hits...sounds good too.


Soo...what do you advise for a beginner? Easiest Pal that kills all in it's path?

[flamingchen]

if you can get enuff crushing blow, a frostadin is pretty nice.

http://realmgaming.net/index.php?showtopic=1008

I'm dirt poor and my pally is adequetely in hell with fairly crappy gear (smoke archon plate, mosers blessed circle, guillames plate, sig boots+gloves, heavens light w/ 1 socket (shael) etc.).

A fanatic zealot would probably do pretty well too as long as he had resists and some decent crushing blow.

Hammerdins are kinda expensive, but I am poor so I guess its perspective.

[Smackin]

U rich? If so hammerdin is the way to go. Concentration only works at 50% effectiveness on hammers, so 400% conc is only 200% on hammers. If ur on a budget, telsladin is the way to go. All u need is a cresent moon PB and u can pwn anything thats not LI. Regular fanatic zealots are also very strong, given that u dont zeal anything when IM'ed.

[UberB]

Hammerdins can do 3k damage with no equipment. That's actually pretty decent and viable for untwinked play. They just benefit a lot from good equipment (3k to 10k+ damage).

[maiku]

I got a level 86 Summoner Necro that I'm pretty happy with. Got a Level 84 Fireorb Sorc that is pretty good too.

...

Soo...what do you advise for a beginner? Easiest Pal that kills all in it's path?

Highest damage for Hammerdins hovers around 15-16K damage, IIRC, with top notch gear. If you can get 8-10K, that'll be good already. Conc only works at half effectiveness on BH I think.

There are a couple that I'd say are fun and easy to play. Zealot requires some good gear, but makes a very good tank and damage dealer.

Frost Zealot is easier to play and very solid. Nice change from the usual Zealot. You make everything *sloooooooow.*

Holy Shock Zealot can deal out some incredible damage with a "Crescent Moon" and the proper gear, but has some more crowd control problems than a Frost Zealot would.

Conviction Zealot offers a lot of flexibility and power with the right gear. You have an attack for almost everything and very few things can resist you, because of Conviction. "Rift," "Voice of Reason," Gimmershreds, etc. are your top picks for weapons here. It's about crowd control and AoE spells from your weapons. :grin:

[flamingchen]

Yea, also frostadin can easily run away from dual immune monsters :D

[Hey]

Highest damage for Hammerdins hovers around 15-16K damage, IIRC, with top notch gear. If you can get 8-10K, that'll be good already. Conc only works at half effectiveness on BH I think.

There are a couple that I'd say are fun and easy to play. Zealot requires some good gear, but makes a very good tank and damage dealer.

Frost Zealot is easier to play and very solid. Nice change from the usual Zealot. You make everything *sloooooooow.*

Holy Shock Zealot can deal out some incredible damage with a "Crescent Moon" and the proper gear, but has some more crowd control problems than a Frost Zealot would.

Conviction Zealot offers a lot of flexibility and power with the right gear. You have an attack for almost everything and very few things can resist you, because of Conviction. "Rift," "Voice of Reason," Gimmershreds, etc. are your top picks for weapons here. It's about crowd control and AoE spells from your weapons. :grin:

It's actually 18k iirc, friend does 18k so yeah.

[Aien]

A fanatic zealot is pretty cookie-cutter for a paladin, so if you're looking for a good first pally, in my opinion, I'd go for that. Putting one point into smite makes that a versatile character, though I guess you could make that argument for any paladin. Even though you see so many hammerdins around, I think of that as a bit of a quirk build, so maybe good for a second pally, but to each their own.

[Archangel Manael]

I was actually even thinkin I could make it a MF Pal. The reason is, I'm building a MF Cold Sorc...and I just realized I'd be MFing with my buddy, thing is he has a Cold MF Sorc too...so it'd make it hard to MF in hell.

So I thought perhaps I could MF with a Pal..even solo pretty good.

So partially that's why I wonder what's highest damage/most killing/easiest Pal.

And no I'm not rich. In fact I'll be using MF gear, so I need highest base dmg without + skills.

[Hey]

I was actually even thinkin I could make it a MF Pal. The reason is, I'm building a MF Cold Sorc...and I just realized I'd be MFing with my buddy, thing is he has a Cold MF Sorc too...so it'd make it hard to MF in hell.

So I thought perhaps I could MF with a Pal..even solo pretty good.

So partially that's why I wonder what's highest damage/most killing/easiest Pal.

And no I'm not rich. In fact I'll be using MF gear, so I need highest base dmg without + skills.

If you can find an enigma, and some fcr items, Hammerdins are great. They don't do very well on speed without enigma though. Unless you vigor charge the whole way.

[Archangel Manael]

I'm a noob with Pals...so do Auras override each other like curses of necros?

Also...BH is basically those hammers that fly in a circle around the pal right? I've seen people do it in baal runs before. It seems to take quite a few seconds to get more and more hammers going around. Seems like a slow skill.

Do Hammerdins not use a fast, melee attack? Like Zeal, Charge or smite?

The hammerdin guides suggest Charge as a backup/support/secondary attack, as it uses Vigor as a syn too.

Question is...pure hammerdins...isnt killing with just BH slow?

[Doctor Clock]

Paladin Auras do not override each other. For instance, if you have two Paladins in a game and one has Fanatacism and one has Concentration on, you will gain the benefit from both. A single Paladin may only have one Aura activated on their skill tab, but any number of auras active via Items (ie, Beast, Insight, Last Wish, etc) at a time.

Blessed Hammer may seem slow in that it doesn't have the instant effect of say Blizzard or Frozen Orb, but a Hammerdin is actually one of the most powerful PvM characters in the game with only one enemy immune to its attack, Wailing Beasts in Act 3 temples. The beauty of the Hammers is that once they are cast, they will cycle around several times and continue to do damage for several seconds. The only time Hammerdins are slow are in very close areas, such as the Maggot Lair. Other than that, they kill everything quickly, both untwinked and twinked.

Charge really isn't necessary, even if you are going untwinked and solo. Again, the only place you will feel slow is in really small areas. For the most part, a PvM Hammerdin doesn't need to use melee skills as BH essentially kills much faster than any melee skill.

If you want a melee Paladin, I highly suggest a Conviction Zealot using either a Gimmershred, Voice of Reason, or Rift. They work very well, and are just obscene if you go the Auradin route.

[Archangel Manael]

Thanx for the input Doc. I think you pretty much convinced me to go with a Hammerdin. I'll get to work right away :)

*opens up Ragnarod's Hammerdin guide and gets into D2*

[Pukankite]

If you like playing ranged - start a Ranger or FoHer.

If you like playing melee - start a Smiter or Zealer.

If you like playing caster - start a Hammerdin.

On a scale of 1/10 , I'd value the Ranger being the most difficult [9/10] , and the Zealer being the easiest [2/10].

[Goodwolf]

I MFed on my Pally, who was a frost zealdin. He pwned. If you're doing low level training, do Trav runs, because lots of experience, easy kills, fast runs; and with MF, somewhat decent low to med items. Of course, as you get better, move up to Meph, Diablo, and Eldritch and the whip guy in act 5, using the second WP, again, fast runs. I did those to bout lvl 40, then owned Baal and started nightmare. Good low weaps to use: General's Tan do li ga, secondary: Rogue's Bow. My build was simple enough: Sacrifice for a few levels, adds to Zeal, 15+ Zeal, 10+ Resist Cold, adds to Holy Freeze, 20 Holy Freeze. You won't be doing too bad, and if you get decent gear, as mine was crap, you'll do even better. Dream would be pretty. :D

[Archangel Manael]

Well I went for the Hammerdin with a little twist thanx to my friend. We seem to be builing the same Pal.

I'm currently lvl 49 and in Act 2 NM. And this is how I'm doing things:

1. I maxed Sacrifice and have 2 points in Zeal. Sacrifice gives 14% each lvl to Zeal...while Zeal itself increased dmg by like 7% or something. With + skills I got lvl 5 Zeal with 5 hits. My Zeal now does 400 to 600 with the weapon I have. If I switch to a two hand axe, it does like 1000 dmg.

2. I'm following the maximum dmg Hammerdin guide to get highest Hammer dmg at low levels. So I put a 2 into conc, 2 into vigor, and 7 into Blessed Aim. I now have about 14 in Blessed Hammer...and with conc on it does about 600 dmg I believe.

Still, I use Zeal 90% of the time, because it kills much faster and I leech life and mana which helps a TON. I believe. Sometimes I switch to Hammers get them spinning till my life goes down a bit then switch back to Zeal to re-heal and get my mana back again.

Currently have 75% blocking with HS on.

And the hammers are really not owning at all right now. I dont think I'll be using them much until I get some FCR gear on. I dont think I have any FCR on right now.

Oh, and you might be wondering why put into Zeal on a Hammerdin?

Well, that was my friend's suggestion. And the final point distribution will look something like this:

Max BA, Conc, Vigor, BH = 80 points
Max Sacrifice and 2 into Zeal = 22 points
And the rest into prereqs and Holy Shield.

Of course, I probably wont ever go past lvl 90 :P

So that really means my Hammers will not be as powerful as a pure Hammerdin...as I will be only putting half the points into Vigor most likely....

But having both Zeal and Hammers is certainly worth paying the price :P

At least...it's working so far :P We'll see what happens in Hell huh? ;)

[zerotol]

well iam doing a frost zealot in hell in chapter one and i am stuck :rolleyes: , if u dont have a good gear you are going to have a hard time!

If u are going to do frost zealot , you should definitely max sacrifice for the psysical damage when immune to cold , when immune to both you you lighting (sloooow)

do note i play single player though