Zealot (how do I do this)

[Chillfactor]

Hey everyone, it's good to be back on d2 after a 8 year hiatus, but I've got to get ready for d3 right?

Anyway I'm building a zealot pally, I started with a hammerdin but I didn't want the cookie cutter build just yet. My only question is how do you get started with you have nothing? I'm reading all these guids and even the (cheap) builds still require having items that would take some serious time to find. How does this board recommend I go about acquiring some of the cheap stuff? Should I just build a sorc and start doing NM MF runs until I find the stuff I need for my pally? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

v/r,
Chill

[Kinky]

I'd say continue with the Hammerdin or build a Sorceress for some basic magic finding.
Then respec your Hammerdin to a Zealot once you have what you need.


-Kinky

[xreciae]

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say the opposite, play the character that you want to play, if it's a zealot then start with that.

For zealots it's fairly easy to start of from scratch
take whatever you can find in act 1, shop a 3os flail in act 2 and stuff it with topaz' and get a new one if yours is filled and you find bigger topaz'. Then when you are high enough lvl use orts instead, can be gotten quite easily from normal countess.

This should allow you to steamroll normal, and do the trick in nightmare. Here, start to kill the countess over and over and run bosses that you like. Gather up the low runes and sell them in packs. You can quite easily get items worth pul-um this way. And with the bug for andariel still working, go for her as well for one of the highest chances of a soj, and of course other nice items as well.

Also, dont forget to pick up whatever jewel you might find, as it is now worth about the same as a pgem on these forums, loads of crafters here

It won't be very easy in the start, but considering Paladins have such an easy time getting resists with their shields you should be able to build wealth quite easily this way.

[zahtar]

ok building new wealth:

First step: pgems
you can gather a lot from nm travincal and nm cows. The hellforge quest might give you an um. either trade that, or make Duress armr.

Second step: rune / craft packs

the most common packs are sprit packs (each including a hel) and cater amu packs
a) spirit packs: tal thul ort amn hel. you can trade 20 of these packs for 3-4 ists in the europe realm. So keep farming those runes!!! If u trade like 5-6 packs, the price goes down dramatically.

b) caster packs: ral + PerfAmethyst + random jewel. In the europe realm, 40 caster packs could be traded for 6-7 ists 2 months ago. not sure about now. Either way, they are useful and profitable in all realms.

trading spirit packs is what started giving me wealth. but i did the mistake trading like 3-4 packs. then i learned the large pack thing. the crafters don't exactly pay the value, they pay for the convenience too

[Kyonu]

Another good idea early on, you can try getting a nice hammer with decent IAS or Enhanced Damage, then get a perfect Sapphire + Amn Rune + Ort Rune, and it will make it a Nightmare version of the weapon. A cheap way to get a good weapon early on for building your character. (It has to be a rare weapon, so search for a rare Hammer)