A good pvm paladin? (in Hell)

[boubiyeah]

Hello all,

This is my first post in this forum, I played diablo2 when it was like version 1.1 or 1.2 (arround 2002), only in single Player too, its sure a nice game to kill time.

I made a paladin at first who would attack with Vengeance mainly; but people gave me bad advices ( like put some pts a bit everywhere haha) and my character got DESTROYED in Nightmare ActII (paladin was arround lvl 35).

Then I started a necro... The game was almost too easy. I finished the game in nightmare and then in Hell difficulty in the blink of an eye (didn't died once in both) having ****Y equips (no unique items at all) and at lvl 55 ( It had fire golem and Iron maiden and golem mastery maxed I think and it worked wonder all the time) Seriously there was no challenge.

Now I'm thinking of starting a new paladin and enjoy a melee pvm game (My Necromancer was never hit lol) But reading guides here and there, It seems the most powerfull paladin is the HAMMERDIN which I dont wanna play because its more like a spell caster to me.
Then I saw the Frost Zealot, seemed really fun... Until I saw some comment on how it is terrible once in Hell.( Maybe they are wrong? I dont know)

I dont want a build that kill things fast in Normal but can't do anything in Hell.

Sooooo my question isssss:

Is there a non-HAMMERDIN melee build for paladin that would allow me to kill things in Hell (even the bosses ...) ??? (As a note, all my stuffs will be self droped since I play solo, and I'm not sure I wanna bother with "frame calculation" optimizations, etc, etc)

sub question: The game seems to have changed a lot since the older versions... It seems its more difficult or am I wrong?

Thanks a lot for you answers!

[HCKull]

I suggest that you make a fanatic zealot.

4 points in zeal, 20 sanctuary, 20 fanta, 1 point in smite and 20 in holy shield are the core skills.

1 point in sanctuary, salvation, cleansing, vigor and redemption.

and pick a secondary aura like conviction to max.

You will need lots of crushing blow, life leach, cannot be frozen from your gear.

Max block with holy shield on.

Goreriders, Guill. helm and drac gloves are standard fair for zealots.

Read the "1 point smiter guide" for more details.

IM is a problem for these guys. Act 4 an Act 5 are very hard to do. Get a throwing weapon with lots of elemental damage and run conviction aura to clean out the OKs.

Always smite bosses.

[ambid]

I suggest that you make a fanatic zealot.

4 points in zeal, 20 sanctuary, 20 fanta, 1 point in smite and 20 in holy shield are the core skills.

1 point in sanctuary, salvation, cleansing, vigor and redemption.

and pick a secondary aura like conviction to max.



What the hell you are maxing sanctuary for?

The basic fanatic zealot build is:

20 fanaticism
20 zeal
20 holy shield
20 sacrify

There's no reason to max sanctruary.

Other than that, the advices seems okay.

Sad fact is, that almost all melee characters need more or less good items to competite in hell difficulty. Casters get away with not so good gear, due the ranged attacks.

[boubiyeah]

so the basic fanatic zealot is the best melee pvm paladin?

[flamingchen]

Holy freeze and tesladins are quite viable in hell, just need a fast weapon and some way to dish out crushing blow.

For frostadins:
max holy freeze
max resist cold
max salvation
max zeal
~10 pts holy shield
then: either max holy shield or max zeal

Tesladin (holy shock):
max holy shock
max resist lightning
max salvation
max zeal
~10 pts holy shield
rest: max holy shield or sacrifice

For both builds, crushing blow is what will really help make them shred through hell.

For weapons:
high: for a frostadin, heaven's light shael shael or shael ber or ber ber, depending on what you need. For a teslda, crescent moon phase blade is as good as it gets, with -35% light res, ITD, chance to cast static, ias etc.

Medium: Black flail/knout/scourge. 40% crushing blow, ias, str, AR, vit. great, and most expensive is an io rune, which you could trade for with your NM hellforge probably

low: crushflange. probably free, but its got 33% crushing blow, which works.

Others: Look for speed and crushing, maybe AR since you don't have fanat. Phys damage isn't too important.

Helm:
Guillames face is pretty cheap and comes with 35% crushing blow, str, 15% deadly strike. Good stuff. For tesladins, you could use griffins eye perhaps (though very expensive).

If you need resists, rockstopper is pretty good.

gloves: crafted with ias are probably the best (maybe some leech too), but laying of hands is sweet, bloodfists, etc.

armor: Guardian angel is great if you can fill up resists to 90@res. Duress is nice with resists and 15 crushing blow, duriel's shell has CBF, resists, life, smoke runeword has big resists, lionheart has life, resists, and a lil enhanced damage too.

Shield: HoZ is as good as it gets, though griz shield or 4 os elite pally shields with pdiamonds are great for resists.

Boots: Goreriders is the best, with open wounds and crushing blow and FRW. Goblin toe has more crushing blow, but no FRW

belt: can't go wrong with dungoes, string of ears and tgods are good too.

Rings: Ravenfrosts are good for AR, dex, CBF. angelic ammy+ring or 2x ring are good too if you have CBF already and need AR. Rings with leech, life, resists, or stats would be fine.

Ammy: Highlords is really good, but you can look for +offensive auras, resists, life, etc.

As long as you have enough resists, crushing blow, and life, these elemental zealots can do pretty well in hell without uber amazing gear.

[boubiyeah]

Okay. I think I will go with a frost zealot.

Still have to use smiter against bosses?

[flamingchen]

Yeah, just use smite against bosses. With more than 88 crushing blow with good gear, their hp from unblockable smite will go way down fast. Heaven's light has a -33% target defense which i believe works on bosses, so once they are down to a sliver you can just finish em with that.

Tesladins have more potential, with lots of gear that can have -light res and stuff like that, and you can get a act 2 holy freeze merc as well, but frostadins bring a bit more survivablity.

[boubiyeah]

When you say "knout, scourge : 40% crushing" how do you get those? Aren't those weapons normal weapons (no stats) found randomly?

(Yeah I'm a noob)

[ambid]

When you say "knout, scourge : 40% crushing" how do you get those? Aren't those weapons normal weapons (no stats) found randomly?

(Yeah I'm a noob)

Black "Thul Io Nef" runeword in flail, knout or scourge. (Figured the runes from top of my head, you better check them from arreat summit to be sure.)

[SyCoMiDgEt]

Wow 1 Pt Smite, I Hate That ****


Just Go All Out Man!
20 Zeal
20 Sacrifice
20 Fanat
1 Sanctuary
1 Cleansing
1 Meditation
1 Redempt

Rest In Definace And Holysheild(since you most likly cant afford Exile)

[ambid]

Wow 1 Pt Smite, I Hate That ****


Just Go All Out Man!
20 Zeal
20 Sacrifice
20 Fanat
1 Sanctuary
1 Cleansing
1 Meditation
1 Redempt

Rest In Definace And Holysheild(since you most likly cant afford Exile)

= 1pt smiter.

I don't really understand what you mean.

[flamingchen]

^^^^ yeah, I agree. Thats exactly the same build.

Except meditation isn't needed (you use 2 mana for 5 attacks), unless you want to make some spellcasters happy. Its not a prereq for anything either.

[AnimeCraze]

Wow 1 Pt Smite, I Hate That ****


Just Go All Out Man!
20 Zeal
20 Sacrifice
20 Fanat
1 Sanctuary
1 Cleansing
1 Meditation
1 Redempt

Rest In Definace And Holysheild(since you most likly cant afford Exile)You seem to have failed to realize that the 1 point smiter is not a build, but an idea and gear setup designed to crush the ubers. It can be applied to virtually any paladin builds. It's just that a all out zealot like what you have suits it the best. (AFAIK, there are some successful accounts on using it with a hammerdin, and they called it the vanquisher or something.)

[boubiyeah]

Question about gears:

Is it possible to get a 40% crushing blow RARE weapon ? Or getting it with the guy that forge a RARE for you in ActI ? (Would be an alternative to BLACK runeword)

Same question with IAs...

[Norrit]

Rare Items can spawn with up to 20% IAS on gloves and 30 or even 40% IAS for weapons. Unfortunately, No rare item can spawn crushing blow. You'd have to go to a crafted item recipe for that. Take a look here

http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp/items/crafted/blood.shtml

[flamingchen]

And crafted gloves can only get 10% crushing blow.

So stick to stuff like black, heaven's light, and others if thats what you are going for. But the guillames face+gorerider combo provides 50% crushing blow right there.

[boubiyeah]

i'm learning cool stuffs, thats nice :)

Another question: when your build is based on crushing blow, is it nessessary to have decent AR ? I mean is a crushing blow undodgeable?

[Gorgrims]

you have to hit to be able to proc CB "crush. Blow" yea. you can solve AR partly with charms, Ravenfrosts unique rings or perhaps "steelgrid" unique Amulet.

ignore target's defense works on normal monsters though, and thus u hit 95% of the time ( Im quite sure atleast )

[HCKull]

Oops, I meant 20 in sacrifice.

[HCKull]

A dreamer is way better than a tesladin.

Level 30 holy shock and lvl 25 conviction is awesome.

You break most LIs. Non-LI's have resists at -100 and there defense dropped by 90+ % (? I think).

Wear dream helm and dream shield.

Guill. Helm and Gorerider boots for 50% CB and DS.

Cressent moon PB is good inexpensive wp with lots ctc lightning attacks and -35% lighting resists.

ALternatively, use Grief PB for lots of phy. damage and better leaching.

Only problem with this buld is that Dream casts confuse which is nice, but will override your life tap.

[flamingchen]

Yeah, except you need dream for a dream build. And dream is expensive. If you have the cash, defeinitely go for it. But otherwise tesla is better.

As for AR, yeah, its pretty important. Some people use angelic ammy+ring for some AR. -33% target defense on heaven's light helps a bit too, but ITD on certain weapons is even better (you can always smite everything thats still alive)

[boubiyeah]

About the Black runeword, I just saw it adds the knockback effect... Isn't that a bad thing for a zealot?

[boubiyeah]

No idea? :-O

[ambid]

It is annoying againts normal monsters. But doesn't matter againts any big monsters or bosses, they won't get knocked back.