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No one knew the name of the Paladin that followed the Dark Wanderer. They just knew that the hordes of demons who plagued their villages began to retreat in fear wherever he went. And so it seemed appropriate that everyone called him the Dread Champion. It was almost as though the battle had been won before it even began.
But Nilson hadn’t been born with confidence. His paladin compatriots had actually begun calling him “Dread Champion” for a very different reason. Before any sort of battle—even friendly duels—the young warrior would break into a cold, nervous sweat. His anxiety would drive him to vomit, and he’d come out for battle pale and shaking. Yet somehow he drew power from his anxiety, and was always able to best any warrior in a head-to-head challenge. Eventually, Nilson outgrew his youthful anxiety as his strength and confidence grew, though none would ever call him arrogant or conceited.
* * *
Nilson stood in the Chaos Sanctuary, leaning casually on his sword. He looked down at it affectionately. It was a massive blade, forged many years ago, in a previous age when weapons were more powerful, carefully crafted with the runeword "Death". When Nilson had purchased the blade from a blacksmith and asked his assistance in installing the runes into its sockets, the artisan had shaken his head. “Waste of runes if you ask me. Sure, it’ll hurt, but it’ll be slow. You’d have to be Bul-Kathos to swing this blade more than once a week.” But the zealot had learned to swing it. Oh, he could swing it.
The Paladin tapped his foot impatiently, looking at the corpse of Lord De-Seis and his minions scattered about. The ground began to shake. It was about time. The Lord of Terror’s voice echoed through the sanctuary.
“Not even death can save you from me!”
Nilson looked down at the runes in his blade and began to shake with laughter.
The Concept
In Rawness’s giveaway I received the following beautiful stick of hurtiness:
I wanted to build a character around it. The only problem is it was a bit slow, and so the logical choice seemed to be a two-handed fanatic zealot. I looked in the Pat/Mat thread and saw that Zylo had done some similar characters, and PMed him regarding it. His advice was really helpful, so credit for any good parts of this build goes to him, and any shortcomings or oversights are my own!
I had fun with the 100% DS on my melee sorc, so I thought it'd be fun to do 100% DS and CB with this build, and with Death it was easy (almost unavoidable, actually) to reach 100% on both.
The Character:
Obligatory screenshot:
Hanging out on the plateau.
Bye bye Baal.
Damage with Zeal / Fanaticism: 13k-26k @ 5/5/5/5/10 fps attack (54k-108k dps) with 100% Crushing Blow
Gear
Amulet: Highlord's Wrath
Helm: Guillaume's Face, socketed with Jewel of Fervor
Weapon: Death Colossus Sword
Armor: Fortitude in Great Hauberk (+30 all resists)
Belt: Nosferatu’s Coil
Gloves: Laying of Hands
Rings: Raven Frost + Rare Ring (7% life leech, 3% mana leech, +16 str, +15 lightning res, +13 fire res)
Boots: Gore Rider
On Switch: Call to Arms Crystal Sword (+6 BO), Sanctuary Dragon Shield
Charms: Resists, AR
Skills - (hard points only)
Sacrifice 20
Zeal 20
Blessed Aim 20
Fanaticism 20
Pre-reqs – 1 each
1 point in Conviction and Vengeance
6 unused
Attribute Points
Strength: 105/154
Dexterity: 47/70
Vitality: 343/343
Energy: 15/15
Life: 2264 with CTA
Attack Rating: 7792
Resists: 75 Fire / 1 Cold / 80 Lightning / 1 Poison
This was the first time I’d gone minimal on the cold and poison, and though I was nervous about it, it worked fine. Ravenfrost dealt with the cold, and the poison was only dangerous when I was careless.
Relevant Breakpoints, Other Stats
Deadly Strike: 100%
Crushing Blow: 100%
Faster Hit Recovery: 5 FPS / 48% breakpoint (Perhaps I should have tried to reach the 86% breakpoint, but it never seemed to be an issue, and so I didn’t really think about it.)
Increased Attack Speed: 65 % for 5/5/5/5/10 Zeal speed, further IAS useless.
Merc – Ahsab, ct 2 NM Might Merc
Helm: Kira’s Guardian
Armor: Guardian Angel
Weapon: Reaper’s Toll
I really enjoyed this merc. I could be wrong, but I don't believe I ever had to resurrect him. Kira’s + Guardian Angel was Zylo’s suggestion, and it worked well for this character, since I wanted the monsters to mob me a bit with Zeal leeching. My last character (melee enchantress) used Delirium on the merc, which was nice for safety, but would have probably been a bit annoying for this character.
Gameplay
Best finds were Laying of Hands, RazorSwitch, Naj's Circlet, Darksight, Trang-Oul's Scales, Moser's, Blade of Ali Baba, and Kelpie Snare. No notable runes, really - Hel @ Hell Hellforge, Io @ NM Forge.
Lastly, many of the items I used in this build I received through giveaways and generous trades on this forum, so many thanks for these!
But Nilson hadn’t been born with confidence. His paladin compatriots had actually begun calling him “Dread Champion” for a very different reason. Before any sort of battle—even friendly duels—the young warrior would break into a cold, nervous sweat. His anxiety would drive him to vomit, and he’d come out for battle pale and shaking. Yet somehow he drew power from his anxiety, and was always able to best any warrior in a head-to-head challenge. Eventually, Nilson outgrew his youthful anxiety as his strength and confidence grew, though none would ever call him arrogant or conceited.
* * *
Nilson stood in the Chaos Sanctuary, leaning casually on his sword. He looked down at it affectionately. It was a massive blade, forged many years ago, in a previous age when weapons were more powerful, carefully crafted with the runeword "Death". When Nilson had purchased the blade from a blacksmith and asked his assistance in installing the runes into its sockets, the artisan had shaken his head. “Waste of runes if you ask me. Sure, it’ll hurt, but it’ll be slow. You’d have to be Bul-Kathos to swing this blade more than once a week.” But the zealot had learned to swing it. Oh, he could swing it.
The Paladin tapped his foot impatiently, looking at the corpse of Lord De-Seis and his minions scattered about. The ground began to shake. It was about time. The Lord of Terror’s voice echoed through the sanctuary.
“Not even death can save you from me!”
Nilson looked down at the runes in his blade and began to shake with laughter.
The Concept
In Rawness’s giveaway I received the following beautiful stick of hurtiness:
Code:
Death
Colossus Sword
HelElVexOrtGul
One Hand Damage: 180 - 487
Two Hand Damage: 422 - 839
Durability: 26 of 26
Required Level: 60
Required Strength: 138
Required Dexterity: 68
Fingerprint: 0xa0e9dccf
Item Level: **
Version: Expansion 1.10+
100% Chance to cast level 44 Chain Lightning when you Die
25% Chance to cast level 18 Glacial Spike on attack
Indestructible
364% Enhanced Damage
20% Bonus to Attack Rating
+50 to Attack Rating
Adds 1 - 50 Lightning Damage
7% Mana stolen per hit
50% Chance of Crushing Blow
37% Deadly Strike (Based on Character Level)
+1 to Light Radius
Level 22 Blood Golem (13/15 Charges)
Requirements -20%
EtherealI had fun with the 100% DS on my melee sorc, so I thought it'd be fun to do 100% DS and CB with this build, and with Death it was easy (almost unavoidable, actually) to reach 100% on both.
The Character:
Obligatory screenshot:
Hanging out on the plateau.
Damage with Zeal / Fanaticism: 13k-26k @ 5/5/5/5/10 fps attack (54k-108k dps) with 100% Crushing Blow
Gear
Amulet: Highlord's Wrath
Helm: Guillaume's Face, socketed with Jewel of Fervor
Weapon: Death Colossus Sword
Armor: Fortitude in Great Hauberk (+30 all resists)
Belt: Nosferatu’s Coil
Gloves: Laying of Hands
Rings: Raven Frost + Rare Ring (7% life leech, 3% mana leech, +16 str, +15 lightning res, +13 fire res)
Boots: Gore Rider
On Switch: Call to Arms Crystal Sword (+6 BO), Sanctuary Dragon Shield
Charms: Resists, AR
Skills - (hard points only)
Sacrifice 20
Zeal 20
Blessed Aim 20
Fanaticism 20
Pre-reqs – 1 each
1 point in Conviction and Vengeance
6 unused
Attribute Points
Strength: 105/154
Dexterity: 47/70
Vitality: 343/343
Energy: 15/15
Life: 2264 with CTA
Attack Rating: 7792
Resists: 75 Fire / 1 Cold / 80 Lightning / 1 Poison
This was the first time I’d gone minimal on the cold and poison, and though I was nervous about it, it worked fine. Ravenfrost dealt with the cold, and the poison was only dangerous when I was careless.
Relevant Breakpoints, Other Stats
Deadly Strike: 100%
Crushing Blow: 100%
Faster Hit Recovery: 5 FPS / 48% breakpoint (Perhaps I should have tried to reach the 86% breakpoint, but it never seemed to be an issue, and so I didn’t really think about it.)
Increased Attack Speed: 65 % for 5/5/5/5/10 Zeal speed, further IAS useless.
Merc – Ahsab, ct 2 NM Might Merc
Helm: Kira’s Guardian
Armor: Guardian Angel
Weapon: Reaper’s Toll
I really enjoyed this merc. I could be wrong, but I don't believe I ever had to resurrect him. Kira’s + Guardian Angel was Zylo’s suggestion, and it worked well for this character, since I wanted the monsters to mob me a bit with Zeal leeching. My last character (melee enchantress) used Delirium on the merc, which was nice for safety, but would have probably been a bit annoying for this character.
Gameplay
This guy was a blast to play. He was super fast, and actually very tanky without a shield. I only had three deaths, two for stupid reasons. The first was in Nightmare, to FE (I think) Madawc. This exact same scenario happened with several of my characters: first time fighting the Ancients in Nightmare and I’m tanking them without problem, full life bulb. Suddenly I’m instakilled by Madawc. I reload them, and beat them the second time easily, Madawc never really doing any damage. It’s this kind of death that makes me scared of HC. I had a lot of life at that point (all points I could spare in Vit, with Battle Orders), but this destroyed me even with full health.
The other two deaths were just stupidity on my part. In Hell, I was poisoned really badly and walking around and I thought I’d TP back to town and talk to Ormus instead of using a Rejuv potion. I was dawdling around picking up some loot before I went through the portal and not paying attention to the quick drain, and the poison killed me before I walked through the portal.
The last death was just running into what I thought was a normal pack of blood lords, but turned out to be a physical immune, lightning enchanted boss pack.
Speaking of Physical Immunes, I had a point in Vengeance and Conviction for this purpose, but it was often easier just to stick close to the Merc and let his decrepify break the immunity. There were a few physical immunes that he couldn’t break, and the vengeance brought them down pretty quickly.
I tried several other armor options. In NM I used Treachery, but when I got to Hell, I was too nervous about Fade not proccing often enough, and I threw on Chains of Honor for a while for the resists. I eventually switched to the gear above when the lure of more damage from Fortitude and LoH became too great, and I reached max IAS with Nosferatu’s Coil and a Fervor Jewel in Guillaume’s.
I know I said my last Paladin was a bit boring, but this guy was anything but. He had extremely quick game play. And he kills bosses like none other. I played on players 8 through NM, and then did most of Hell on players 4-8. When I got to Act 5, my wife was out that night, and the kids were in bed, so I switched to players 1 and went ahead and made Pat real quickly, but I’m going to give some players 8 Baal runs a go.
The other two deaths were just stupidity on my part. In Hell, I was poisoned really badly and walking around and I thought I’d TP back to town and talk to Ormus instead of using a Rejuv potion. I was dawdling around picking up some loot before I went through the portal and not paying attention to the quick drain, and the poison killed me before I walked through the portal.
The last death was just running into what I thought was a normal pack of blood lords, but turned out to be a physical immune, lightning enchanted boss pack.
Speaking of Physical Immunes, I had a point in Vengeance and Conviction for this purpose, but it was often easier just to stick close to the Merc and let his decrepify break the immunity. There were a few physical immunes that he couldn’t break, and the vengeance brought them down pretty quickly.
I tried several other armor options. In NM I used Treachery, but when I got to Hell, I was too nervous about Fade not proccing often enough, and I threw on Chains of Honor for a while for the resists. I eventually switched to the gear above when the lure of more damage from Fortitude and LoH became too great, and I reached max IAS with Nosferatu’s Coil and a Fervor Jewel in Guillaume’s.
I know I said my last Paladin was a bit boring, but this guy was anything but. He had extremely quick game play. And he kills bosses like none other. I played on players 8 through NM, and then did most of Hell on players 4-8. When I got to Act 5, my wife was out that night, and the kids were in bed, so I switched to players 1 and went ahead and made Pat real quickly, but I’m going to give some players 8 Baal runs a go.
Lastly, many of the items I used in this build I received through giveaways and generous trades on this forum, so many thanks for these!