Pvp smiter - Fort or Enigma? Exile or Hoz?

[DeusPaladin]

I'm attempting to make a well-rounded pvp smiter capable of dealing with (hopefully) the vast majority of character classes out there.

Currently, I'm using the following gear:

Crown of Ages (Ber Ber)
Maras
Perfect Phase Blade Grief
Vortex Exile with 30 to all resists
Fortitude (grants 120 life at lvl 83)
Perfect Verdungos
Raven Frost
Bul Kathos Ring
Dracul's
Shadow Dancers
pally torch and anni

switch: CTA and HOZ, and then switching CTA for ebotd zerker

strategy so far has been charge with ebotd zerker and hoz, and then switch to grief and exile when up close for smite

What I want to know is if I should remake my character and
- use enigma instead of fortitude
- use hoz instead of exile for smite
- scrap maxing out charge and focus my point elsewhere (or not use charge altogether, which means no more ebotd zeker)


My rationale for fortitude:
- the 300%ed applies to smite, as well as significantly beefs up my charge damage
- the 120 to life (at lvl 83) isnt that far behind enigma's life bonuses seeing as how enigma's 62 to strength translates into roughly 180 to life (1 point into vita = 3 life, and the 62 to str is instead invested into vita)
- 5% to max light resist. is this not the equivalent to 10 points to res lighting? arent the most potent casters ones who employ light?
- 30 to all res brings my resists to max

My rationale for exile:
- huge defense
- 5% to both max cold and fire resists.... again, isn't this the equivalent to a handful of points in resist cold / resist fire?
- MY exile contributes to all resist, so the resistances from hoz isnt something im missing out on entirely
- lifetap

to be honest though, i rarely cast lifetap in duels. it seems they kill me, or I kill them before I get the chance to cast it. is this another reason for using enigma? more life = more time to cast life tap before dying?


so, in sum, can someone outline what direction my pvp smiter should be taking and waht gear he should be using?

some specifics though:
should i invest my points into something other than charge after the essential smite skills are maxed?
should i use enigma instead of fort?
is there any reason why I should use hoz over fort?
is there a better option than dracul's for gloves?

note that i intend to scrap my ebotd zerker which i was using for charge because it's too much of a pain to switch my ebotd+hoz with my cta+spirit everytime i need to use my cries... unless of course ebotd + hoz was a good idea. in which case, i need to be told lol

[Timmy]

Use enigma, telesmiting/chainlocking is essential in some duels. Maybe you could trade your exile for a ST exile for better blocking? :) Also maybe socket your CoA with a 15/15 jewel + ber instead of Ber Ber.

[zzzackkk]

The life from fort isn't boable and the life you gain from investing points directly into vit is. This means that Enigma Will generate more life.
Enigma will increase chances of desyncing when charging because of the added 45% frw.
Why EBotDz? I'm pretty sure grief deals more damage even though it's not on the LCS. And if it's because of range, I'm pretty sure charge ignores wep range, not sure on this though so wait for more info on that.
Smite deals massive consistant damage, so the added damage may not always be needed. But you may want to just have enigma in stash as switch gear to help chase down casters or fleeing characters.

I would choose HoZ over exile anyday, and this is why...
1) Not everyone and their sister uses it.
2) It doesn't have lifetap which is considered BM in most cases.
3) It offers more damage due to having more skill points thus a higher holy shield and smite.
4) It has more res, which is never bad.
5) It has a higher block rate.
6) It offers more life, because it saves you points that would normally be spent in dex to help achieve max block.
7) Has an open socket, which can be used to fill any holes left in your character.

Exile does have some benefits, such as more defense and the increased max res, but the increased max res can be useless if you don't overstack your res.

The 15/15 Jewel in his help wouldn't help him because he doesn't need the extra IAS because he's using a Phase Blade.
Hope this helped some.

[Timmy]

The life from fort isn't boable and the life you gain from investing points directly into vit is. This means that Enigma Will generate more life.
Enigma will increase chances of desyncing when charging because of the added 45% frw.
Why EBotDz? I'm pretty sure grief deals more damage even though it's not on the LCS. And if it's because of range, I'm pretty sure charge ignores wep range, not sure on this though so wait for more info on that.
Smite deals massive consistant damage, so the added damage may not always be needed. But you may want to just have enigma in stash as switch gear to help chase down casters or fleeing characters.

I would choose HoZ over exile anyday, and this is why...
1) Not everyone and their sister uses it.
2) It doesn't have lifetap which is considered BM in most cases.
3) It offers more damage due to having more skill points thus a higher holy shield and smite.
4) It has more res, which is never bad.
5) It has a higher block rate.
6) It offers more life, because it saves you points that would normally be spent in dex to help achieve max block.
7) Has an open socket, which can be used to fill any holes left in your character.

Exile does have some benefits, such as more defense and the increased max res, but the increased max res can be useless if you don't overstack your res.

The 15/15 Jewel in his help wouldn't help him because he doesn't need the extra IAS because he's using a Phase Blade.
Hope this helped some.

A 15@/-15req jewel. It allows him to stay on base strenght while having 46 dr with an exile ( or max DR if he chooses to use HoZ with Ber ) and CoA providing +45 res.

[Mongdengee]

Enigma > Fort in just about all situations except for maybe melee duels. Ive used both and the greater mobility enigma provides is imo superior to the extra dmg fort provides. Also the biggest reason most people wear enigma is for the str bonus so you dont have to pour a ton of pts into str to wear CoA and such. Which means more pts into vit and more life :)

Exile and HoZ is more preferance than anything. Both have their benefits but my smiter only uses hoz in duels just because life tap procs way too often with exile and im only into gm duels (pretty much after 1-3 hits i get a life tap proc). If you dont care about bm then exile is pretty sweet vs melee while hoz is overall a more complete shield and does better consistent smite damage than an exile.

[DeusPaladin]

Thanks everyone for the help so far.

I'm thinking I'm going to hold onto Exile because I find a great deal of the opponents I'm fighting in duels are other paladins as well as barbs.

As for Fort versus Enigma...

Doesn't the 300% ed from fort apply to the 400 damage from Grief? If so, isnt that a huge amount of damage worth holding onto - especially for charge? Is Enigma or Fort better against casters? Isn't charge the best way to take them out, therefore making Fort better for casters (not only for the ed, but also for the max light res and 30 to all resist)?

I'm assuming Mongdengee is right when he says Exile is better against melee. So basically my next dillemma is determining if Fort is better versus casters...

[BAMFSpecialOps]

The 300%ed does get added to the smite dmg, but not the direct +dmg from grief. Enigma is almost a must against casters, the FRW/tele from Enigma is too good to give up, telesmite/telezeal is very effective in almost every duel not just against casters.