Build and Wpn questions...

[khoma]

Build and Wpn questions...

Making myself a paladin. Actually, made one, but messed up, restarting now

I'm thinking something like Zeal as primary DMG dealer, coupled with dual dream holy shock for elemental damage (this will work, right?). My problem is I keep running out of skillpoints. I need high level Zeal, Sacrifice and Lightning Resistance. So, thats 60 points. I'm unsure whether its worth spending points in Salvation for the additional 4% synergy bonus to the lvl30 holy shock from dual dream. It seems to me that those 20 points might be better spent on Holy Shield and its prerequisites no?

Another question is... fanaticism. It seems to add very nicely to Zeal damage. So now I'm deciding between grief phase blade and beast with innate fanaticism aura. Will +skills add onto the lvl 9 fanaticism aura on the beast? Will it be better to just go with grief pb, and spend the 20 points for fanaticism?

Am I simply better off forgetting about dual dream and going all out physical and trying for high crushing blow?

Final question, could someone point me to some guide explaining just what is so great about smite?

 

[SnickerSnack]

Re: Build and Wpn questions...

First, if you have Grief, then other sources of damage aren't really all that important.

Now, dual dreams works. You absolutely need a high level Holy Shield; you are a tank, so you have to be able to take hits. Running a pure fanatic zealot (max zeal, sac, fanat, holy shield) with dual dreams for some elemental damage will work fine, but as I said earlier it's not really necessary if you have the massive damage of Grief.

I think you will be disappointed (EDIT: this is wrong, see below) with the fanat aura from Beast, and no, +skills will not raise its level.

If you don't want to make a cookie-cutter zealer, then instead of maxing Sacrifice, put 10-15 points into skills to boost light damage. The only things you really need to max are zeal/fanat/holyshield.

It would be interesting to see how well you do with: Beast Phase Blade, Maxed Zeal/Sac/HolyShield/LightningRes, but you will need some other sources of IAS (EDIT: this is also wrong), like andariel's visage, highlord's wrath and/or some ias jewels in your armor and helm. EDIT: zealing a beast phase blade with level 9 fanat will give a 4 frame attack, the fastest possible.

To see why smite is useful, you don't really need a guide. Smite always hits; smite stuns; smite carries several nice mods with it, like crushing blow and life tap; +xx damage mods on the weapon get applied to smite damage (but not +max, +min, or +xx-yy); Smite is just about the best way to deal with bosses; Smite makes Chuck Norris run and hide. If those facts don't make it obvious, then I don't think anything will. Smite is terribly slow for large mobs of small monsters, so it's really only useful against bosses, uniques and champions.

EDIT: http://diablo2.ingame.de/tips/calcs/weaponspeed.php?lang=english

 

[BAMFSpecialOps]

Re: Build and Wpn questions...

Beast cant be made in a PB iirc

Why not think about running dual dreams, using a grief, and running convic as your main aura?

 

[SnickerSnack]

Re: Build and Wpn questions...

Beast cant be made in a PB iirc

That's correct. Beast in a War Spike will get a 5 frame attack, and one IAS jewel will get you a 4 frame attack.

Why not think about running dual dreams, using a grief, and running convic as your main aura?

Not a bad idea, but he can have conviction AND lvl 9 fanat if he wants to. His physical damage will be modest, but he will do large amounts of lightning damage very quickly. He could max zeal/sacrifice/holyshield/conviction and use a beast war spike and maybe with an ias jewel in his armor. The jewel would limit his armor choices though.

 

[khoma]

Re: Build and Wpn questions...

Thanks for your replies

The thing about conviction is of course that somewhere down the line I might be able to find runeword conviction for mercenary. Can't recall the name of it now, insight?, and I don't have the stuff for it yet. But eventually I'll find enough random stuff to trade myself the runes for it. And at that point I could be using grief PB, with level 20+ fanaticism and level 12 something conviction off my merc.

That german page is brilliant btw, thanks for that ) Not only attack speed calculator, but also a skill calculator that tells me that if I do max zeal route with sacrifice, zeal, fanaticism, holy shield and then add in lightning resistance I'll get an additional 1-5671 lightning damage on top of the zeal damage, from the dual dreams.

Of course, this adds up to 107 skill points spent... which Im not sure is even possible, can't recall really. But it's the general idea, might have to compromise on some skill, lightning resistance perhaps. But even with only 100 skill points spent (doable at lvl 90 i think) I'd be doing full zeal damage plus 4k+ lightning.

Gearwise I'd have to focus on resists I guess, since that always seems to be my problem in NM/Hell. Also, crushing blow will be cool considering the high attack speed of zeal/fanat/pb grief.

Edit: Do I require any additional IAS when using zeal(or smite) and a grief phase blade? That german calculator seems to think no.

 

[SnickerSnack]

Re: Build and Wpn questions...

If you have at least 2 points in Fanaticism and use a Grief Phase Blade, then all of your attacks will be at the maximum speed possible. If you use Conviction as your main aura, then you will need 35% ias from other sources to get the last BP.

With my zealer, I found that an act 2 merc really didn't add anything. He now uses an act 1 rogue with a Harmony bow. If you have the runes, use conviction as your main aura, and put Faith on a rogue. That's another way to get both auras.

Yes, resists are important. I can recommend some gear if you'd like. For crushing blow, use Guillame's Face.

 

[BAMFSpecialOps]

Re: Build and Wpn questions...

Snicker hit it, run convic yourself with an act 1 cold merc with faith. Not only will this help out your physical dmg, and your ias. Plus she will stay away from IM.