Advice for a New Player

[Sir Percival the Gallant]

Greetings, everyone. I’m looking for some basic advice about character building. I’m playing a paladin, but since the advice that I’m seeking may be general, I’ve posted here rather than in the Paladin forum (a mod can feel free to move this thread if it doesn’t suit this forum).

I’m pretty much a new player. I’m currently in the Chaos Sanctuary in Nightmare Mode, and the going is getting really tough. I’m aware that the paladin isn’t perhaps the best choice for a beginner and that other classes ultimately turn out more powerful, but I’ve tried all seven and right now, the paladin is my favourite, mostly for aesthetic reasons. I read a few things about builds before I began playing, but mostly tried to figure out on my own. Anyhow, I’ve looked at some other paladin characters (in YouTube videos and such) that are about the same level as mine, and the differences are great, as others have characters with much, much higher stats and damage, and far better gear than I do. Clearly, I’m not building my character well, and I’m guessing there are some basic things about building such a character well that I’ve missed or don’t know about.

Right now, my character is about level 63. I’ve got 16 points in Zeal, 16 in Vengeance (I’m planning on increasing both to 20) and 20 in Fanaticism. Most of the other skill points I’ve spent are just to get the prerequisites for the skills I have, though I also have 3 points in Salvation. None of my equipment is particularly amazing, I’d say. Probably the most notable are a Nagelring and an Ancients’ Pledge (in a superior Akaran targe). Most of my other gear is unique (rune sword socketted with one damage-enhancing jewel, executioner sword, crown, demonhide gloves, mesh belt, mesh boots, and a second ring), except for my armour (lacquered plate) and amulet, which are simply magic. My character’s health is about 500, mana about 140, strength about 150, dexterity and vitality about 130, and energy something like 30 (someone recommended to me early on putting virtually no points into it). My resistances are pretty decent, I think (fire 64, cold 75, lightning 60, poison 72), though I haven’t yet found anything to increase my maximum resistances yet.

Anyhow, if anyone has any advice to improve this character, by all means. I’ve also considered restarting as a whole, though, if the character is really not worth it at this point.

[double]

You will have a tuff time in chaos with a melee char,Iron maiden will get ya over and over

[Sir Percival the Gallant]

You will have a tuff time in chaos with a melee char,Iron maiden will get ya over and over

Yeah, you can say that again. Usually I’m in the middle of a melee and then an oblivion knight waltzes in and casts it before I realise what’s going on, and I die a second or two later. The venom lords, especially the minions of the Infector of Souls, kill me a lot, too.

[Mursilis]

16 Vengeance
16 Zeal
20 Fanaticism

An interesting mix, it's doable but definitely not one of the more common builds. You may be able to get this build to work, but you'll need to start putting some points into Conviction. The idea here is that Zeal is the attack used in conjunction with Fanaticism and Vengeance and Conviction are used together. That way you aura helps out the attack to a great degree.

You will also want to think about getting at least a single point into Holy Shield, as that will increase your chance to block considerably. However that may be pushing things as you're barely going to have enough points to get all of your attacking skills maxed. Unless of course you decide on a two handed weapon.

With this type of build your weapon is the key to everything, you need the most damaging weapon you can find. Along with that I'd suggest some sort of ranged weapon for the Chaos Sanctuary, as ranged attacks aren't affected by the Iron Maiden curse at all. Barring that you're best bet is to lure the Doom Knights away from the Oblivion Knights, far enough that they won't cast IM on you. Then once the DKs are gone you can go after the OKs, as they won't cast IM on you when you are within melee range.

It's your first character, it is supposed to be tough and not quite built right. I think that's a requirement listed in the manual. I'd stay stick with this one, with some patience you should be able to get along, or worst off someone can Multiplay with you to get you past tough spots.

[omgwtfbbqpwned]

Are you playing on B.Net? A Paladin is never a good starter for B.Net... too expensive to gear to generate futher income. If you're going for a more "my own pace" type of thing, then never mind. If you want to get a character up and running as soon as possible, generate some wealth, and build new characters, you should probably consider restarting as a Sorceress.

[Sir Percival the Gallant]

16 Vengeance
16 Zeal
20 Fanaticism

An interesting mix...


Thanks for the advice. I’m definitely going to take another crack at Act IV. Conviction sounds like a good idea, and so does a point in Holy Shield. I’ll do that. And that sounds like a good strategy for the oblivion knights. They seem worse on some days than others.


Are you playing on B.Net? A Paladin is never a good starter for B.Net... too expensive to gear to generate futher income.

Nope, I'm playing on my own offline. I can see why a sorceress is a good starting choice for such games, though.

[Skarrie]

Played D2 as a single player the first two years before going online and I remember it as beeing a lot harder then the realms :yes: Here I have had lots of help from lots of players.
And indeed at the start it was real hard because I wanted to be a hard hitting barb. Like pala's not the ideal starters. But I checked all the builds available on this forum at that time which helped me a lot.
I remember switching to a Zealer Paladin and made it all the way to Hell Baal.

I suggest you read this guide in particular since it looks like your build could end up close to this looking at your skills at the moment.

http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=356928

[Sir Percival the Gallant]

Thanks again for the advice, everyone. I’ll definitely look over that build. Right now I think I’ll work at maxing out Zeal, though I’ll probably start work on Conviction next.

I managed to make it through the Chaos Sanctuary and into Act V yesterday, although I suspect the game was being gentle with me, since not once did an oblivion knight cast Iron Maiden on me. Just my luck, I guess. Otherwise, I managed to find a few new nice pieces of gear, but nothing amazing still. I’m not having much luck finding things with sockets, which is a pity because I’ve got a ton of runes in my stash.

[ravensmite]

fanaticism increases physical damage

i just wanted to note that because this, plus zeal, means iron maiden will pwn you

on the other hand, vengeance is elemental damage, which i think iron maiden does NOT affect.

conviction also does NOT affect iron maiden because you "amplify" damage not by increasing physical base but by lowering resistance

i think

[Nimbostratus]

fanaticism increases physical damage

i just wanted to note that because this, plus zeal, means iron maiden will pwn you

on the other hand, vengeance is elemental damage, which i think iron maiden does NOT affect.

conviction also does NOT affect iron maiden because you "amplify" damage not by increasing physical base but by lowering resistance

i think

Vengeance still does all the physical damage as a normal attack. And the last part is kinda misleading, because if you use Amplify Damage to decrease resistance, that WOULD affect IM. It's based on physical damage actually inflicted to the enemy's HP.

[Bob The Barbarian]

Greetings, everyone. I’m looking for some basic advice about character building. I’m playing a paladin, but since the advice that I’m seeking may be general, I’ve posted here rather than in the Paladin forum (a mod can feel free to move this thread if it doesn’t suit this forum).

I’m pretty much a new player. I’m currently in the Chaos Sanctuary in Nightmare Mode, and the going is getting really tough. I’m aware that the paladin isn’t perhaps the best choice for a beginner and that other classes ultimately turn out more powerful, but I’ve tried all seven and right now, the paladin is my favourite, mostly for aesthetic reasons. I read a few things about builds before I began playing, but mostly tried to figure out on my own. Anyhow, I’ve looked at some other paladin characters (in YouTube videos and such) that are about the same level as mine, and the differences are great, as others have characters with much, much higher stats and damage, and far better gear than I do. Clearly, I’m not building my character well, and I’m guessing there are some basic things about building such a character well that I’ve missed or don’t know about.

Right now, my character is about level 63. I’ve got 16 points in Zeal, 16 in Vengeance (I’m planning on increasing both to 20) and 20 in Fanaticism. Most of the other skill points I’ve spent are just to get the prerequisites for the skills I have, though I also have 3 points in Salvation. None of my equipment is particularly amazing, I’d say. Probably the most notable are a Nagelring and an Ancients’ Pledge (in a superior Akaran targe). Most of my other gear is unique (rune sword socketted with one damage-enhancing jewel, executioner sword, crown, demonhide gloves, mesh belt, mesh boots, and a second ring), except for my armour (lacquered plate) and amulet, which are simply magic. My character’s health is about 500, mana about 140, strength about 150, dexterity and vitality about 130, and energy something like 30 (someone recommended to me early on putting virtually no points into it). My resistances are pretty decent, I think (fire 64, cold 75, lightning 60, poison 72), though I haven’t yet found anything to increase my maximum resistances yet.

Anyhow, if anyone has any advice to improve this character, by all means. I’ve also considered restarting as a whole, though, if the character is really not worth it at this point.


Chaos tough in nightmare? Wait till you get to Hell ! <grin>

I play a zealor with maxed zeal and pretty close to maxed fanaticism. He deals out tons of damage and can kill Diablo (in Hell level) without even breathing hard. But, as you say, bring on the obliviation knights and he is a wimpering child. A couple of hits on an enemy while IM is on him will do him in every time.

So I have to switch from gear that helps him to tactics. As someone else mentioned, I lure away enemies in ones and twos and kill them, then lure away more. It takes a while, but eventually you'll kill every thing. If IM gets cast on me, I run and hide until it wears off or I can remove it thru CLEANSING. Whatever you do, don't make a physical attack on anything while IM is affecting you.

For my pally, the chaos santuary is the stumbling block of the whole game. There, more than anywhere else, the enemies which can do serious damage to the pally congregate. Worldstone keep can be tough, no doubt about it, but chaos is still the hardest because of all the OKs running around.

Hint: At levels lower than hell (because of enemy immunities) I sometimes cheat if I need to get my pally thru Diablo. I make the game with the pally, then send in the sorc (once the way to the sanctuary has been cleared) to deal with the minions. She does an admirable job with frozen orb and clears them in nothing flat. Natch, IM does not affect her attack. Then, when Diablo comes up ... or just before hitting the last seal (make sure it is one which does not bring in more minions) I bring back the pally. The pally is much stronger against Diablo than the sorc and will outlive her 10 to 1. Try to build fire immunity in the pally and see if you can't get a weapon which has cold as part of the attack. This slows Diablo a bit and saves me from having to chase the cur all over the santuary.