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What's a good Paladin build in D2?

Vibalist

Arcane
Joined
Jul 21, 2008
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Denmark
So I started playing Diablo 2 again a few days ago, went with a paladin, but it's been ten years since last time and I can't remember much of anything. Do any of you guys have ideas for a good paladin build? Much appreciated.
 

Gregz

Arcane
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Jul 31, 2011
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Location
The Desert Wasteland
So I started playing Diablo 2 again a few days ago, went with a paladin, but it's been ten years since last time and I can't remember much of anything. Do any of you guys have ideas for a good paladin build? Much appreciated.

If I recall correctly, the Hammerdin with Enigma armor was the best last-game boss farmer.
 

Micmu

Magister
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ALIEN BASE-3
"Zealot" is your most basic fighter-paladin (max sacrifice, max zeal, max fanaticism, rest in mostly holy shield, some defiance and one point in some useful auras like salvation when you encounter fuck-all-enchanted-conviction bosses).
For attributes, put some points in strenght for gear only, some in dexterity to mantain 75% block chance with holy shield and decent to-hit chance, no points at all in mana and everything else in vitality.
Remember to WALK while fighting otherwise shield and armor will be useless. Paladin packs a punch but is killed much easier than barbarian with his ton of hitpoints.
You need a very fast weapon and a little mana leech to get him going. Life leech is super helpfull, too (as much as possible).
For harder difficulties (late nightmare and hell), you'll need a weapon with big elemental damage (like nord's tenderizer or baranar's star, etc) and crushing blow. Which can be a bitch if you're not into running down the same area/boss all over again to find phat lewt.
If I recall correctly, the Hammerdin was the best last-game boss farmer.
Stupidest build ever for permanoobs/bots/chinese farmers and definitely not fun gameplay.
 

Damned Registrations

Furry Weeaboo Nazi Nihilist
Joined
Feb 24, 2007
Messages
14,982
Freezing aura gets fucking ridiculous around act 5 normal as well. It slows even things that are immune to cold, and the slow the aura causes stacks with the slow from cold damage (which is added to your weapon) and the slow from %slow target (which can be added through various bits of gear.)

The result in enemies trying to attack you at 1 frame per second, dying before they finish their first swing. Even bosses get fucked this way.

I think the slow cap is a lot lower in hell so it doesn't work quite as well, but it's still pretty insane.

If you're going to use zeal a lot (I recommend it, less clicking) a flail is a great one handed weapon- it has range like a two handed sword and high base speed. Don't pick a shitty short range weapon like a mace or scimitar to use with zeal, you'll get fucked killing the nearest guy then whiffing swings at enemies out of reach.

Oh, and don't worry about cold immunes or the lower damage of cold aura vs others. Most of your damage comes from open wounds/crushing blow and you hitting 4 times a second. Enemy hp and resists are pretty much irrelevant, unless they're cold and physical immune, in which case just move on (they can't chase you with cold aura.)
 

Micmu

Magister
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ALIEN BASE-3
Freezing aura gets fucking ridiculous around act 5 normal as well.
Tried that, too. It becomes rather ineffective in hell and completely useless against monsters you'd need it most (frenzytaurs, argh!). It doesn't add that much cold damage to your weapon as, for example, holy shock/fire auras do, while fanaticism gives insane bonuses to your attack speed and damage you can't replace with items. For freezing effect you can get Act2 mercenary on Nightmare, but his aura, just like yours, is poor against hell monsters.

Anyway, if you're not really planning to play Hell, freezer is an easy build, too. Any build with zeal is.
 

SerratedBiz

Arcane
Joined
Mar 4, 2009
Messages
4,143
I am currently running a Holy Melee paladin by supermaxing Hammerstrike and Merkabah for damage and Lionheart for great defense. Also enough hard points in Colosseum to drop its spell timer at least to 7 seconds and some 5 in Rapture so I don't have to recast it every minute. Probably going to get Plague uberskill once I hit 90 and also max Blessed Life after the Black Road Challenge.

Oh, you mean vanilla Diablo 2. Your loss.
 

Gregz

Arcane
Joined
Jul 31, 2011
Messages
8,511
Location
The Desert Wasteland
So I started playing Diablo 2 again

+

I am currently running a Holy Melee paladin by supermaxing Hammerstrike and Merkabah for damage and Lionheart for great defense. Also enough hard points in Colosseum to drop its spell timer at least to 7 seconds and some 5 in Rapture so I don't have to recast it every minute. Probably going to get Plague uberskill once I hit 90 and also max Blessed Life after the Black Road Challenge.

Oh, you mean vanilla Diablo 2. Your loss.

= one more recommendation for Median-XL, since you've already played through D2 a few times and MXL is epic.
 

Micmu

Magister
Joined
Aug 20, 2005
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Location
ALIEN BASE-3
Is there a possibilty to tone down* the sick particle effects in this mod?
I was pretty much disgusted by some over-the-top effects in vanilla game that, especially in multiplayer, made very difficult to find your own mouse cursor on insane screen mess, let alone identify dangerous bosses. From all the footage I've seen from this mod, it looks like they took the effect madness to a whole new level.

--
* - reduce them by at least 90%
 

SerratedBiz

Arcane
Joined
Mar 4, 2009
Messages
4,143
Is there a possibilty to tone down* the sick particle effects in this mod?

I think that choosing DirectDraw in the D2VideoTest thingie gets rid of a lot of the graphical clutter, though I've not tried it myself.
 

Damned Registrations

Furry Weeaboo Nazi Nihilist
Joined
Feb 24, 2007
Messages
14,982
Well, amount of particle overkill varies from build to build. I'm pretty sure there's a lot that don't put out too much. Just don't expect to play a lightning sorc or pick up a bunch of %chance to cast on attack mods without getting a lightshow. Melee builds based on heavy damage few hits tend to not be too bad. Frenzy barb is basically like a D2 zealot for example, only with teh dual weild. Crucify assassin puts out a ton of projectiles but they're tiny little black darts so it's not so bad as long as they aren't all triggering lightning bolts.
 

dibens

as seen on shoutbox
Patron
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Dec 4, 2011
Messages
2,629
There are no good paladin builds, because paladins are gay.
 

coldcrow

Prophet
Patron
Joined
Mar 6, 2009
Messages
1,650
http://www.svenswrapper.de/english/index.html

Glide wrapper for D2. Fixes all gfx problems since D3D cannot into huge amounts of sprites.

Also, Hammerdin is not possibleanymore since blessed hammer was fixed. Or revert to an earlier patch.

Concentration is still the best Aura, damage wise, but you'd need to grind more for IAS gear. Another item depended build is Conviction + elemental dmg gear.
 

Jasede

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Jan 4, 2005
Messages
24,793
Insert Title Here RPG Wokedex Codex Year of the Donut I'm very into cock and ball torture
14 STR
10 DEX
12 CON
14 WIS
10 INT
16 CHA

Take Divine Might and possibly Divine Protection, buff with AoG and Eagle's, always use a Grace to get your +1 AC from Dexterity and enjoy your massive smite & Divine Might bonus damage. Don't forget about Taunt.
 

meh

Educated
Joined
Dec 31, 2010
Messages
349
14 STR
10 DEX
12 CON
14 WIS
10 INT
16 CHA

Take Divine Might and possibly Divine Protection, buff with AoG and Eagle's, always use a Grace to get your +1 AC from Dexterity and enjoy your massive smite & Divine Might bonus damage. Don't forget about Taunt.
Just go with cloistered cleric.
 

kingcomrade

Kingcomrade
Edgy
Joined
Oct 16, 2005
Messages
26,884
Location
Cognitive Elite HQ
Every time I try replaying Diablo 2 I end up playing Paladin with the same build: Zeal + Frost Aura
Just like every melee build in the game you need life and mana steal, but it's good and works well through Nightmare. I never cared enough to ever play past Nightmare.

Diablo 2 had such shit balance between builds. So many skills were just plain shit. Like, why would one play lightning aura or fire aura over frost aura? there's no reason
 

OSK

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Messages
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That's pretty much what my play through of D2 was: Zeal, Frost Aura, a flail and lots of life leech.
 

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