Help me beat my friends!

[tungus]

Hi guys,

I'm more of a reader than a poster, but I've come here to ask advice from experienced paladin players. I play on bnet within a close knit group, mainly people I know from uni. Recently we've been pvping each other a lot, and quite frankly i sux!

My friends beat me with the following builds
a) Liberator - damn those hammers, and charge
b) trapsin - lightning traps =(
c) wwsin - that stun move is annoying
d) firesorc - so fast =(
e) IK barb - uses windwalk and is so hard to attack with leap attack!

I'm currently using the 1 point smiter/zealot build which was made because I seemed to have all the gear listed in one of these guides. However, with it I can't seem to win any duels, except against the assasins. We don't really trade with other people except within our own group, so noone has enigma, or any godly runewords or stuff (unless we found the runes through flukey forge!).

My character lvl 82

Helm: Guillames - have also shako
Armour: Durial - have arkaine and leviation are these better?
Belt: Verdungas
Shield: HoZ
Gloves: Draculs - we dont play any rules though I heard this is bad mannered
Weapon: Asteron - need one more rune for grief, can I use any 5s phase blade for this?
Ammy: +2 Maras
Ring: Ravenfrost + dual leech ring with resist all
Boots: Gore riders - This guy is slow!
Switch: CTA and that shield on switch

- 2 combat charms
- 1 offensive charm
- about 10, 20HP small life charms

Stats (with equip)
181 str
126 dex - 75% block
266 vit - using a couple +20 life charms
20 energy

60 stat points remaining - probably put in health unless I need str for arkaines

Resist:
49/66/75/63 - Ive heard about resist stacking, what exactly is this. I cant seem to get above 75?

Judging by the above selections, should I just rebuild my paladin into something more flexible, or is there something seriously wrong with my current paladin? I intend to use this paladin for pvm, and occasional pvp with my mates. Are there better paladin builds for this purpose and is the equipment I have suitable for that? Will grief make a huge difference? I've almost got my grief but it has taken me ages to get those runes!!! I really don't want to invest in something which I can't use for my other characters =( and that won't assist in pvm by much.

Thanks for all the help. Sorry I went a bit overboard with the details, but I need all the help I can get!

Regards.

[OmegaDreg]

resist stacking is as follows:
putting equip on so that you actually have more resist than the window shows. this way, say with the Sorc Cold Mastery, if you have equipment that will give you a total of 150 cold resist in hell, say the sorc has cold mastery at -75%, this still gives you 75% cold resist.

[Tastychiken_europe]

well you can also absorb em, i always did that to trapsins and well if a ik barb wins over you hes gotta be good or you suck my budget zealer never got beaten by a ik barb.

if you use guardian angel you can get higher resists, it gives you +15 max to all resists or something like that.

and well.. i would never use one of those one point builds. dont really know why but this might be the reason, a zealot (normal one) can still win alot of duels with gear that you find on your way to completing the game while builds like this require "nicer" gear.
try dueling a smiter with only exceptional uniqes vs a zealer with only exceptional uniqe gear. me and a friend did this and well.. it turned out the zealer won. but that might be beacuse of exceptional uniqes might be more favorable to zealots... well enough of me ranting builds depending on expensive gear..

i think you should try being a tad bm sometimes (they are your friends and well i think that they can take a lil ).

and well vs the libby... its one of the best duel paladins ever discovered i had one on budget gear and it were still one of the better ones in most pubbys...(characters ofc).
so ..gl.

[SirGalahad]

Good Question,

Sorry that no one answerd your question about the armor. People are slipping here. I hear that Shaftstop is good though, gives a %30 resist to physical.

Dueler builds can be very different from PvP, have you read any of the guides?

What I have seen some duelers do is specialize. That is have different gear for different opponents. For example, when facing the barb you could use Shaftstop, this might leave you with less resist from dumping the Duriels but that won't matter so much vs. the Barb.

If a lighting trapper comes in to a Duel game and starts zapping everyone, I bring out my Zealot with maxed lightning resist. His Lightsaber gives %25 lighting absorbe and the Thundergods belt adds more absorb.

Then just sit back and watch the light show.

[kingdryland]

You probably made the build I recommended for facing the ubers. Well the 1pt smiter is essential a full fanatic zealot (that goes to tastychicken-his char IS a zealot). So,for melee dueling, you should take a look at Stoutwood's pvp zealot guide.

From the classes that you listed,I think you should never lose to any IK barb,no matter what skill he is using. Ik barbs usually have low damage reduction,always range 2 weapon,lowish damage and no block.
Get a range 3 weapon,like stormlash,oath berserker axe or oath scourge etc and shift-zeal while you are standing, and you shouldn't have a problem.

WW sins are better of course,just get good fhr vs the mindblast. Again,a range 3 weapon will cause them problems,but this time your opponent will block many hits. But their defense and life are much lower than barb's. Again ,this is a fight you can win. Both for barb and wwsin,use that leviathan together with verdungo and shako for good damage reduction. Sin will use venom too,so load up with psn resists.

Vs trapsin and sorc,you have to play the resist/absorb game and actually charge them. It is not that simple but reducing/negating their damage and then closing the distance to fight is a good bet. Fhr crucial again.

Vs liberator. Meh,sorry, perhaps if you get very high ar (angelics) and near 100% open wounds and hit and run.you stand a smallish chance. Liberators are far more capable pvp chars than zealots.

[MegaFlame]

Well your build doesn't sound like a dueler to me either. With the best of the best items you might beat the last 4. With stacked resists, good fhr, good defense, max block, good life you could stand a good chance against all but the liberator. Sorry, but IMO a liberator is one of the godliest duel builds of d2 and you might wanna make another character dedicated to pure pvp if you wanna beat that liberator.

[tungus]

cool thanks for the prompt replies! I'm probably going to remake my paladin into a liberator. Liberator seems to have all the stuff I want to do - leveling easy in PVM with hammers, and occasional PVP with charge+hammer. Will the +combat charms be more beneficial on a liberator than 1 pt smiter? And what do you guys think about spending those expensive runes on grief? My main concern is that the grief weapon won't be very transferable. For example if I were to give it to my other characters, it prolly wont benefit as much if i were to make COH instead by saving even more. My expectation though, is that grief will dramatically improve my PVP damage, but will not benefit PVM as much. Are their any alternatives?


Again thanks, im reading some of these libby strats right now and it sounds promising=)

[sorceressgod]

well, get a hammerdin at 125 fcr with 86+ fhr.

this is my hammerdin's gear:
- shako(with 15resists/15life jewel)
- enigma dusk
- wizspike
- spirit royal shield with base resists at 45.
- arachnids
- FCR/resists/mana ring
- BK ring
- maras
- magefists
- treks
- switch: cta/lidless


against liberator, if he doesn't charge too much, just play defensively. move at a spot and cast 3 hammers, then walk a small distances and cast another 3 hammers and so on.

against trapsin, i would prefer using another paladin - zealot/charger/smiter. my paladin has a fort armour(which adds +5 to max lite resists), so i just keep a tgods in stash handy, or if u are malicious enough, u can put on wisps too.

against WWsin, it's even more easier. if you are a hammerdin, just make sure u have block rate and 3k life; then play hit and run with the sin. if you are a smiter/charger/zealot(using grief), just charge up to her and smite her to oblivion.

if it's against a fire sorc... i would swap my maras with Nokozan Relic(adds 10% to maximum fire resists) and swap my BK ring with a dwarf star. and depending on how the sorc plays, defensive hammering or offensive play has to be deployed properly. but if you are up against a 200 fcr fb sorc; good luck lol.

IK barb are noobs lol. just say away from their WWs and play hit and run with your hammerdin.

[kingdryland]

Charging vs ww is not good idea,imo. A liberator ,if not properly prepared will have problems vs ww/trappers, because claws block hammers and traps stun btw. A grief zealot/charger/smiter can face the pure ww sin as if it was a weak barb. From experience,zeal works way better vs ww assassins than smite because claws block smite. They block zeal too,but zeal can deliver deadly strikes,elemental/poison damage and it is faster attack=more hits landing. A ww assassin will usually have low defense,so angelics aren't necessary. A highlord's/ravens/hsarus boots-belt setup can provide huge damage and 20k ar too. Using a range 3 weapon vs sin is a good idea too.

[Tastychiken_europe]

Charging vs ww is not good idea,imo. A liberator ,if not properly prepared will have problems vs ww/trappers, because claws block hammers and traps stun btw. A grief zealot/charger/smiter can face the pure ww sin as if it was a weak barb. From experience,zeal works way better vs ww assassins than smite because claws block smite. They block zeal too,but zeal can deliver deadly strikes,elemental/poison damage and it is faster attack=more hits landing. A ww assassin will usually have low defense,so angelics aren't necessary. A highlord's/ravens/hsarus boots-belt setup can provide huge damage and 20k ar too. Using a range 3 weapon vs sin is a good idea too.

i wouldnt suggest making the same char as him beacuse he is problably better then you with his liberator (youll learn though) and well he will have the advantage for quite some time.

i would suggest making a vanquisher or v/t since they are pretty good vs most off those chars (ive never had any problems vs. any ww sin except jordy and well.. he had venom + widov maker XD)