advice on a pally build

[Pucho]

advice on a pally build

I'm thinking on an "elementalist"
20 holy freeze
20 resist cold
20 holy shock(backup for CI)
4+ zeal
5+ holy shield
rest into salvation (or zeal, depending chance to hit)

ok, thats enough for skills, now I need advice in gear. I plan to get some CB/OW from guillaumes/blood belt
I need 72 (75) IAS to get a 4FPA zeal without fanatism, so I'm thinking in a shaelethshaelshaelethshael phase blade since I won't have any AR boosting skill, maybe 3shaels/3eths and 20 ias gloves
gore riders would be my best bet, but I dont have them, so probably goblin toe here
any suggestions about the rest?

 

[SgtTMan420]

well in my opinion i think that build will be weak unless u get the right gear which is hard on songle play. and i know with my zealot he has 11.2k attack rating and still has below 90% chance to hit monsther thats with lvl 21 fanta and 21 zeal. so i imagine your attack rating will be low and your attack speed will be slow unless you got some good gear. but thats just my opinion.

 

[MeBrutox]

Another suggestion for a weapon is, Heaven's Light

+(250-300)% Enhanced Damage
+20% Increased Attack Speed
-33% Target Defense
+3 to Light Radius
+(15-20) Life After Each Demon Kill
33% Chance of Crushing Blow
Socketed ((1-3))
+(2-3) to Paladin Skills

It needs 63% IAS to hit 5 framers per an attack (and 200 for the 4 framers, but 5 frames is good enough for the Storm Zealot).

If you have Highlord's Wrath, 20% IAS from gloves, and can get a even a 2 socket one, with 1 shael, and one eth, you will have 5 frames per attack, -58% to armor defense (-83% with 2 eths), and 93% CB (with goblin toe and Guillaume's Face).

Not to mention the plus to pally skills will increase the lightning/cold damage. And for additional damage, rather then loading up on salvation, you can also add points into sacrifice to increase the physical damage.

As a secondary weapon, Crushflange is nice to, the damage is low, true, but the additional crushing blow is sweet.

 

[Kaelor]

I built a pally around HF and dumped alot of points into HShield simply due to my past experiences using it. I found it to be a waste of alot of points because the slow effect on the HF reduces the amount of incoming attacks so much that added block wasn't much of a concern. With HF I found it much more acceptable to let my defense slack a bit and still get by, hence my regret at putting points into Shield. It does help against act bosses though since the freeze obviously doesnt work.

IAS is what you're looking for and if you can get a slow effect going on top of it, you'll be able to stand amidst a hell mob and not be bothered much. That extra slowing from a weapon also brings Fast packs down to a more manageable speed that HF alone usually doesn't reach. Hitting fast while they recover incredibly slowly nearly negates much need for blocking and only leaves you with manual dodging of ranged attacks you can easily see coming.

As mentioned, AR will be important. Big elemental damage means nothing if it doesn't connect, and more monsters struck means less attacks coming in.

20 points into HShock seems odd to me and I've never tried it so it may work out. 20 points for a switch skill simply to deal with CI might better be served by Vengeance which will deal with CI/LI but with the IAS you're going for you'll probably get by with pure physical alone on the Zeal. With that in mind you may want to only take the 1 point in Salvation, if you feel your resists are in need of it, and spend those points in Zeal (for AR) or Sacrifice (to up that physical and make CI/LI less of a chore). The synergy on Salvation isn't that great anyways.

 

[spiral55]

I agree for the most part with what Kaelor said. I'd skip that one point in Vengeance, though, and just zeal with a high elemental damage weapon (Lightsabre, Baranar's, Demon Arch, take your pick) when facing CI's. I've found this to be much, much quicker than using Vengeance, friendlier on the mana pool, and still ensuring you deliver plenty of crushing blow, which is the real killer in a frost zealot build.

Something else to consider: cold damage charms. Each source of cold damage you have adds to the slowing effect. With a very high HF and a couple of cold damage charms, anything but CI's and frenzytaurs will be crawwwwwwwling.

 

[Pucho]

ok, maybe I should "rebuild" on paper:

20 holy freeze
20 resist cold
20 zeal (200% AR, 84% ED)
rest into sacrifice/HS/salvation/whatever I need then:teeth:

seems more convincent right?

 

[Kaelor]

You may want to let the Zeal and Sacrifice balance themselves as needed. As Zeal progresses, Sac eventually becomes a better source of damage as a synergy. If you don't need the AR, get Sac. If your AR is slipping, Zeal.
I wouldn't dedicate myself to 20 Zeal if I didn't have to. If you end up with +skill items Zeal will naturally enhance while you won't get Sac synergy with those plusses. It depends on what equipment you end up with.
I'm fairly certain you can skip Salvation entirely if you want to save a point. I wouldn't put more than 1 in it at the most if you have any +skill anywhere. Those points would be better served in Zeal, Sac or Shock.

 

[FrolfFreak]

Points in zeal for damage and AR is good, but here's an alternative you might consider. If you can get your hands on a demon limb, it'll offer nice fire damage against CI/PI, and its enchant charges will solve your AR problems nicely. Then you can leave zeal at around 4-5 (however many gets you 5 hits) and put points into Sacrifice for more physical damage or whatever else you want.

-FF

 

[MeBrutox]

ok, maybe I should "rebuild" on paper:

20 holy freeze
20 resist cold
20 zeal (200% AR, 84% ED)
rest into sacrifice/HS/salvation/whatever I need then:teeth:

seems more convincent right?

I would not use Salvation. As for the other skills, it depends on your equipment, for example if you use demon's limb or baranors star, a few more points into Zeal would help.

However if you go with an Eth socketed weapon (again, the heaven's light, is the best frost zealot weapoin, IMHO), add more into sacrifice for the extra damage.

Also, I always like to max HS, not only for the extra defense and block%, but also the increase in duration (I am lazy, and do not like to have to keep worrying about it dropping).

On my Frost zealot, I have the key to defeating hell, was crushing blow..get at least 90% and the physical damage will not matter.

 

[spiral55]

On my Frost zealot, I have the key to defeating hell, was crushing blow..get at least 90% and the physical damage will not matter.

The reason why I personally like to get good physical damage is simple: leeching. Even with the defensive benefits of HF, any melee fighter is going to get hit hard and often. I'd rather be able to leech that damage back than have to portal back to town every 2 or 3 minutes to refill on potions.

 

[MeBrutox]

The reason why I personally like to get good physical damage is simple: leeching. Even with the defensive benefits of HF, any melee fighter is going to get hit hard and often. I'd rather be able to leech that damage back than have to portal back to town every 2 or 3 minutes to refill on potions.

Very good point, life leech is great, specially with high physical damage. Which is why I love them Dracul's grasp.. Dang nice gloves, best in the game for a meleer (and even better for a zealot, as the life tap is always going off) IMHO.

 

[WhiskeyJack]

ok, maybe I should "rebuild" on paper:

20 holy freeze
20 resist cold
20 zeal (200% AR, 84% ED)
rest into sacrifice/HS/salvation/whatever I need then:teeth:

seems more convincent right?

Isn't this basically a variant of the frostzealot? :scratch:

you might want to check out the strategy compedium for builds- I think there is a frost zealot there, also, check out the stickied thread for builds in the paladin forum. The original build with HSk has been proposed as a dual element build for rangers, but I'm not sure about zealots. If shock interests you, check out the guide on tesladins, there are a few variants included in it to try out.

For damage, I would think adding first into sacrifice and then lvling zeal as needed. AR can be helped with gear/dex. HS is pretty much a must (unless you just want to use a 2 handed weapon for high damage). Can't comment on salvation- i know avenger builds use it for the synergy, but I'm not sure it applies to other elemental damages.

cheers,
WJ