Strength on a Paladin? Just as the title implies, I'm not quite sure how much strength I want on my hardcore hammerdin. Enough to wear ornate plate? 85 for GS?
I think people will answer you as low as you can. Or even to leave strength at base. You might wanna ask yourself if you wanna use Shard or not and how you will achieve that dexterity requirement too. You mostly put all your points in vitality. A good armor for a caster has 2 or 3 resists, faster hit recovery and life on it. I think a godly mage plate is what people try to look for. People don't value gold skin that much. It's heavy at 80 str and slows you down and doesn't give you fhr. But still 35 resist all doesn't sound that bad!
If it is your first HC character GS is not a bad idea but you shouldnt need to raise your base str to 80 with belt rings and possibly amulet giving you strength, it is difficult to know how high to put it but what ever you do do not raise your str past 80, certainly not high enough for an ornate plate. For hardcore you need as much life as possible and putting 170 into str doesnt leave you with much for vitality.
If you're just starting out and have no gear, then 45 Str is your best bet. But like Sebbie said, if you can keep it at base, then you're better off. - Akukami
I threw in as much as it takes for gs. Yeah, yeah laugh lolol gsnub, I get it all the time. To me it seems like the 35 resist is more important than 24 fhr and some life. And does heavy armor really slow you down? I never heard that before.
Yes, a heavy armor can slow you down, though I doubt anybody has ever noticed this slowdown unless they put on a heavy armor and a heavy shield and then walked around without vigor(which every hammerdin needs to max anyway). A Goldskin is a Full Plate Mail. And a Full Plate Mail slows you down more then a Ornate, kinda odd that. An alternative would be a heavenly garb, it has 10 res all, 15 energy, 25% regenerate mana, 216 defence and it's light, meaning no slowdown and only 41 str needed to wear. Combined with Iratha's full set makes for a very effective hammerdin. This will also allow you to keep your str near base, though Iratha's helm requires 55 str, you could resolve that with some str rings. Iratha's also gives 20frw on top of whatever your boots give.
