You may notice that in this guide I often refer to skill stats at their natural maximum level, slvl 20. Of course items can boost this level higher, and it takes time to get a skill to lvl 20 any ways, but it is a number best related to show a skills potential. As for technical information of all the skills, please refer to Blizzard's most excellent database of knowledge, The Arreat Summit. There really isn't a point to me copying number by number what you can find there. Besides, I'm low on ambition.
All character choices in Diablo 2 have their niche. The master-at-arms Barbarian, the trapping and martial arts Assassin, the elemental Sorceress, the spear and bow specialist Amazon, the undead leading Necromancer, the Druid with his magical and hairy link to nature... where does the Paladin fit in? He's sort of a jack of all trades fellow, with a combination of combat skills and area of influence. At the same time, he is a master of none of his abilities - Assassins and Barbarians are better one on one, Amazons are better with ranged weapons, and his spells can't compete with the Sorceress, Druid, or Necromancer. Yet he does have the advantage of having a plethora of various skills that allow him to hold his own in combat, and more importantly, the ability to make his allies stronger. With his auras, a Paladin can greatly amplify the destructive and defensive power of any party. The Paladin doesn't make parties, he makes PARTIES. You may be doing modest damage yourself, but by making allies stronger you thereby help them get kills, in return getting you and the rest of the party experience. Now that the Diablo 2 Expansion Set has made multiplay and difficulty modes much harder, a Paladin joining a game is a very welcoming sight.
There are two types of play in Diablo 2 - single player and multiplayer. Single play is where a lot of players seem to start, many of them moving online after successfully completing the game's story line. In general it's easier... and lonely. Even though, in my opinion, it is dull compared to the world of multiplay, it is an excellent place to start out to become accustomed to characters and skills.
Multiplay is truly what Diablo 2 was built for. Better items, harder enemies, companions of all sorts - good and bad. There are some characters that work excellent solo like the Sorceress, but many skills were designed with it's effects on other players in mind. In the Paladin's case, this is about 2/3 of his entire skill selection. Pallies are born and bred in the online experience. There are two variants of multiplay, open play (direct connection) and closed play (Battle.net). You can use single player characters in open play, but speed is slower due to game being hosted off of the game starter's computer. Play on Battle.net is generally fast, characters are continually backed up on servers to prevent problems, and no one can access your characters without your password. Even though Battle.net had problems when Diablo 2 first came out with huge online popularity, it has since almost quadrupled in server capacity. Oh yeah, did I mention it's totally free?
Lag - the bane of all who experience it. Latency is cause when one end of the server connection, 90% of the time your computer/ISP, falls behind and there is a delay between what you see and what is truly going on. With the delay of bad latency, staying alive is a bit challenging. A person with constant lag can learn to cope with a constant delay, but strategy goes out the window in favor of guessing where the enemies will be in a few seconds. It's terrible to be living in constant fear of what you are not seeing, resulting is a big loss of confidence in yourself as a player and strategist. With bad lag, not only is it difficult to play, but you lose the essence of a game that's built on rough and tumble action. There is a fine line between the dead and the living in Diablo 2... blurring that line with bad latency is a scary thing. Constant lag can be caused from a slow computer processor, not enough memory, a piddly video card, or just a plain unreliable ISP. Diablo 2 may not be the most visually impressive game out there, but the sheer amount of sprites and artwork in it can bog an aging computer to a crawl. When people complain about lag, it's almost always their end causing the problem in one way or another. Some lucky bastards out there have faster than 56k connection, like a DSL or cable modem, but that's not needed to run at a fast pace online. I use a 56k modem myself on a newer computer with a decent ISP, and I very rarely have any issues regarding latency.
If you are looking to reduce your latency, here's a few tips. First, check your internet connection to make sure it is running at a steady pace. There are a few sites out there that can measure this for you. Speeding up/slowing down of your action in game is a clue to this problem. Second, check your loading delay. If you take a waypoint into a new area and find yourself waiting a few seconds until you can see and move in the new area, you may need to upgrade your graphics card. Graphics, CPU, and memory are all related to this, but video takes precedence when loading new graphics. Third, if you have problems with jerky gameplay in general, you might just have a whole computer that's slow. No speedy internet in the world can save a slow computer! Now, where were we? Ahh yes, Paladins...
Most Paladins prefer a certain regiment of equipment, which I will detail here. Different skills and playing styles warrant change to this list, which you can find down in the skill playstyle section. With new uniques, sockets, elites, and crafted items, choices are even larger than before, so feel free to play around with your equipment and see what you like.
Weapon - A one-handed decent damage weapon. Axe, Sword, and Mace classes are preferred. There are even a few unique daggers and throwing weapons that can qualify as being of decent damage. Fast and Very Fast attack speeds are preferred.
Armor - High defense, big armor. Like the Barbarian, the general rule is bigger is better. You will usually want a few nice modifiers on it, like a couple resistances and Fast Hit Recovery. Now that you can socket your armor, adding gems for life and such is a great benefit. Remember, unlike patches previous to v1.08, DR does matter now in harder difficulties.
Shield - Being the blocking king, Paladins benefit from having their own unique brand of shields that get nice bonuses. Besides having +skills, they can either have a natural resistance to all, or increase your weapon's damage. All these shields have naturally high Smite damage too. Rare class-specific shields can have both. I recommend getting one that either adds a lot of resists or damage, or even a nice socketed one that you can make better.
Gloves - Decent defense, hopefully with a few nice mods like life leech or Increased Attack Speed. The gloves from Death's set and Sigon's set both add 30% IAS when used with another piece of the set, the most increase you will find on gloves. Additions to Strength and Dexterity are very nice.
Boots - As with any character, fast run/walk is always nice. Other than that, look for bonuses to STR and DEX as well as resists.
Helm - Normal helms are great for resists, a boost in defense, possibly even +skills. However, new circlets and Runeword helms can get a vast array of mods that aren't found on any other type of helms. Try to secure a nice one of these if you can.
Belt - Like boots and gloves, belts can get great bonuses to STR and DEX, as well as add life, resists, and an all-important place to store your potions. You'll want one with four rows of potion slots in later stages of the game. Set, unique, and crafted belts can get interesting mods.
Jewelry - Since you will probably be a frontline fighter, look for jewelry that adds lots of resists, leeching abilities, damage reductions and the like. +Skills is always nice too, but in most cases let the resists and leeching take priority.
Starting statistics: Strength - 25 Dexterity - 20 Vitality - 25 Energy - 15 Life - 55 Mana - 15 Stamina - 89
Each Vitality point = 3 life and 1 stamina Each Energy point = 1.5 mana
Each level up: +2 life +1.5 mana +1 stamina
Unless you use Vengeance or Fist of the Heavens, you will probably need no extra points in Energy. The natural 1.5 mana addition per level is usually enough to please. Besides Energy, all three of the other stats are important to a Paladin. Pump Dexterity as you need it based on your weapon and skill choices and the AR bonuses they give. Points into Strength and Vitality are equally important, try to keep these as high as possible. Too many newer players make the mistake of forgoing life in favor of a Strength offense, only to find themselves getting creamed in a few hits as the progress. Sure, Strength is important for landing strong hits, but without Vitality, you won't be alive long enough to kill much. Personally, I favor Vitality to be very close, perhaps just a bit lower than my Strength. Power means nothing to a dead man!
Shields and Blocking The Paladin has neither the huge hit points of the Barbarian or Druid, nor the dodging skills of the Amazon or the weapon blocking of the Assassin. What he does benefit from, however, is a naturally higher chance to block using a shield than any other class. All of the Paladin class-specific shields have a fairly good chance to block before Dexterity is calculated in. These types of shields can get some excellent bonuses ranging from skill pluses to prismatic resists to even increasing the damage of your weapon. Excellent stats, even Paladin specific stats, can be found on normal shields, but you'll have better luck finding a class-specific one. Holy Shield can be used to greatly increase this natural blocking, though remember shield blocking is capped off at 75%. You can even use Holy Freeze to reduce the amount of incoming blows, or Conversion to get something else to take hits for you.
The Attack Rating Dilemma Being a melee type character, you'll be wanting to keep your Strength and Vitality up in high numbers, but it's hard to keep boosting Dexterity with the other two. The Barbarian and Assassin benefit from masteries, the Druid's shapechanging, or the Amazon's natural nimbleness... how does a Paladin keeps those hits connecting? Luckily, he has a few ways to cheat out of raising Dexterity. Almost all of his Combat Skills add AR. Sacrifice, Charge, Vengeance and Zeal significantly raise AR; Smite has 95% chance to hit at all time. Blessed Aim and Fanaticism can add even more AR; Conviction lowers enemy DR, giving the same effect as skyrocketing your AR. Granted you'll never want to let Dexterity fall too low, but these skills will let you better focus on dealing more damage and staying alive. Whatever your method of boosting AR is, I recommend not letting your percentage to hit fall below 75%.
Divide and Conquer Paladins aren't the best at crowd control. They have very few skills that do mass damage, let alone affect a group. A group of Flesh Spawners or Fetishes can be hell for the unprepared Pally. It's best for a Paladin to rely on allies for help on the matter, but in lonely situations, leading an enemy or two away from the rest will greatly reduce the risk you put yourself into.
Flashing What better way to disarm the forces of evil than to show them the tightness of your buttocks? No, not that type of flashing. Flashing is a term used to refer to the residual effects of a Paladin's auras. If you use one aura then switch to another, you may notice that anybody else benefiting or hindered by it will linger on the previous aura for a few seconds before the new one takes effect, even though you will get the new aura right away. This is used probably the most with Holy Freeze and Conviction - flip on one of those two until it takes effect, then switch to an aura that benefits the Paladin's attack, switching back when the first aura is no longer in effect, and so on. It gets a bit tedious for some, but it's a handy trick. You can get creative with it too - Flash Salvation upon your party members before you switch to a damaging aura and smack a LEB, or use Vigor and then Charge at insane speeds before switching to Concentration or Fanaticism and letting the enemy feel the pain.
Concentration or Fanaticism? Now that Fanaticism adds a bit more damage than Concentration, it is becoming the offensive Paladin's soup du jour. While Fanaticism has attack speed increase and higher damage increase per level than Concentration, it greatly lacks in range radius. Locked at 7.3 yards, you will only be able to help out allies who are within about 3/4 of a screen of your character. Not only that, but Fanaticism will only add a percentage of the total damage increase it offers the Paladin. It is more "selfish" than Concentration in this matter, but allies still get the speed and AR bonuses. At slvl 20, Concentration has the radius of 32.6 yards - meaning that your allies will benefit from your aura if they are about 3 or 4 screen lengths away. It is also the only aura that will boost the damage of Blessed Hammer. So what will it be, slightly more damage and increased attack speed and AR at the cost of radius, or a bit less damage and range to spare? You decide.
Stacking The auras that whirl beneath your allies feet are stackable. If two Paladins are in the same party, the party will benefit from both the auras in use. Even though the aura graphics rotate, others will benefit from both auras at the same time. This is the same for three auras, or five, or eight, it's all the same. Same auras do not stack, however. Two Paladins with Concentration will not result in double the Concentration, the game will instead switch between the two same auras every few seconds. Because of this, a party with multiple Paladins should take a minute to decide who will use which aura, preferably the one with the higher level aura keeping that one while the other person switches. Graphics that appear overhead like Curses, shrine effects, and War Cries do not overlap like auras, only one can be in effect at a time. Auras that do similar things are still different auras, they will stack. Fanaticism, Concentration, and Might all increase damage, but can still be stacked. This is the same with a Druid's Spirits in combination with Paladins or other Druids. Hypothetically, four people could take Might (max 230%), Concentration (max 345%), Fanaticism (max 373%), and a Druid's Heart of Wolverine (max 153%), and get a whopping 1101% damage increase in auras alone. Ouch, baby.
Most everyone will have a mercenary, which one is right for you? There isn't really any one best merc type, though some will work better with your type of character than others would. Remember, your aura's of choice will also be used by your merc, so take that into account when picking one.
Act 1 Rogues have a fast firing rate, and can dish out some nice damage while staying back out of danger. Choose between fire or cold arrow shooting ones. Both do about the same amount of damage, but the cold one benefits from chilling the enemy. A good merc if you don't want him/her in the heat of battle, but still would like some assistance in damage.
Act 2 Desert Guards benefit from the Amazon's Jab in conjunction with their spears and polearms, as well as supplying auras for you and your party. They come in three types: Combat (Prayer), Offensive (Blessed Aim), and Defensive (Defiance). At high levels, these mercs will switch auras to something even handier. Desert Guards have a very speedy attack with Jab, and can inflict quite a lot with a nice spear or polearm. They also have the highest DR of any merc, though they don't have the advantage of a Barbarian's Stun or Bash to keep away the hits. A Necromancer or Druid would really appreciate the Thorns or Prayer for their minions. Defiance from a Defensive merc would be a welcome addition to a melee fighter.
Act 3 Iron Wolves are goofy mages with speedy casting rates. They come in Fire (Fireball/Inferno), Cold (Ice Bolt/Glacial Spike/Frozen Armor), and Lightning (Charged Bolt/Lightning). Like the Rogues, they have the sense to (mostly) stay out of the heat of battle and cast their spells from afar. The Lightning version isn't used too much, but he does do nice damage and his Charged Bolt can cover a wide spread of the screen. The Fire one is used even less, as his Fireball isn't too strong and he needs to get right up to enemies to use Inferno... not the best thing for this physically weak merc. Most used is the Cold version, who casts Ice Bolt with an occasional Glacial Spike. Not too much damage, but the chilling and freezing of enemies from his spells are invaluable.
Act 4 has no mercs, though hiring out Tyreal and his angel lackies would be very cool.
Act 5 Barbarians are, well, Barbarians with Stun and Bash. They have higher damage and more hit points, but less DR than Act 2 mercs. These guys make great tanks for anyone, as well as dish out some hefty damage when equipped with a big sword. Because their Bash and Stun can respectively knockback or stun enemies, they tend to get hit less.
Most people out there prefer to use a hireling as a blocker, a way to stop and slow enemies so they are not mobbed. For this reason, the Act 2 and Act 5 melee mercs and the freezing Act 3 cold mages are hugely popular.
For those now in the know, auras are spells of influence that radiate from the Paladin. I use "spells" loosely, because they do not need to be cast, and cost no mana (save for one). Once you switch the aura into your right mouse button position, the effects of the aura will be in effect as long as that skill is selected. Even though only one aura may be used by any one Paladin at a time, there are a few beneficial tricks we will get into later. Skills are listed with level and skill prerequisites next to them.
Might - lvl 1 - prereq: none One of the first auras you encounter, Might boosts the damage dealt by yourself and allies. By the time you get it, there will not be large damage for this aura to boost, but it is still nice until later auras are available.
Good - Nice extra boost for early on.
Bad - Later auras do this much better.
Holy Fire - lvl 6 - prereq: none Heats the air around the Paladin, burning all within radius. While the damage it deals is not amazing, it's a pretty good skill for clearing out groups of low HP creatures like Quill Rats or Fallen in single player or small multiplayer games.
Good - Area of effect damage, sends little guys like Fallen and Fetishes scattering.
Bad - Low damage, even at high levels.
Thorns - lvl 6 - prereq: none Watch an enemy beat himself to death with Thorns, a handy skill that returns a percentage of damage dealt back upon the dealer. This is handy at about any point in the game, since larger baddies deal more damage to get returned to them. Particularly devastating at high levels, reaching 1010% damage at slvl 20.
Good - Kill enemies without lifting a finger! Great with minions.
Bad - You have to get hit for this to work. "Residual" effect on Converted (see Conversion).
Blessed Aim - lvl 12 - prereq: Might Boosts Attack Rating. Nice and handy for those fast little enemies, but for a person looking to climb this leg of the Aura tree, Fanaticism adds AR and a bunch more fun to boot.
Good - Hitting more is never a bad thing.
Bad - Other auras and skills negate this.
Concentration - lvl 18 - prereq: Might, Blessed Aim Adds damage like Might, but to a greater degree. Also adds a 20% chance of a monster's blow not interrupting whatever you are doing at the time. This is a great one for almost any party.
Good - Huge radius and damage at high levels. Melee characters in your party will buy you a beer.
Bad - Fanaticism adds a bit more damage. Does nothing for magic users.
Holy Freeze - lvl 18 - prereq: Might, Holy Fire Chill, baby. Make the world around you slo-mo with Holy Freeze, slowing enemies greatly. Excellent skill to slow down enemy attack speed and movement.
Good - Completely and totally unresistable. Not even "cannot be frozen" items will stop this aura. Devastating to monsters with fast attack speeds or in PvP.
Bad - Takes a good number of skill points to get the radius to a large range.
Holy Shock - lvl 24 - prereq: Might, Holy Fire, Holy Freeze Just like Holy Fire, elemental damage is dealt to all within your vicinity. Not much damage for a level 24 skill, right? Holy Shock also adds a huge amount of lightning damage to your weapon, making you an evil electroshock therapist.
Good - Adds scary lightning damage. Works wonders against physically resistant/immune enemies.
Bad - Pitiful area of effect damage. Only adds melee damage to the user.
Sanctuary - lvl 24 - prereq: Might, Thorns, Holy Fire, Holy Freeze Bounces back undead and does damage to them. Just like Holy Shock, it adds damage to melee attack, but only versus undead.
Good - Smack around undead like it ain't no thang. Knockback is nice. +Damage versus undead works amazing against physically resistant guys like ghosts.
Bad - Only adds damage to the Paladin's attack. Does not work on Boss type monsters.
Fanaticism - lvl 30 - prereq: Might, Blessed Aim, Concentration How many good things can come in one aura? From Fanaticism, you gain the damage of Concentration, the AR boost of Blessed Aim, and a bonus enhancement of attack speed that makes you hit faster than a rabid Chihuahua.
Good - Damage! Speed! AR! Kill, Paladin, kill!
Bad - Very small fixed radius of about 3/4 of the screen. Not too helpful for those allies any farther away than that. The +damage to allies is not as much as you recieve.
Conviction - lvl 30 - prereq: Might, Thorns, Holy Fire, Holy Freeze, Sanctuary Conviction sucks away any way for enemies to avoid your attacks besides blocking. Defense rating is drastically lowered to the point where even the minimal AR on your part will score a hit. Magic Resistances are also subtracted from to a huge degree, making you the best friend of elemental damagers everywhere.
Good - Makes enemies incredibly vulnerable to any form of attack, especially elemental damage.
Bad - Lots of prerequisites. Doesn't make the enemies hit any less harder.
Prayer - lvl 1 - prereq: none This is the only aura which drains mana. When in use, the Paladin and anyone around him will be slowly healed of their wounds. It doesn't heal too much, and isn't that great once characters get hitpoints in the multiple hundreds. Keep in mind that the more people being healed by you aura, the faster your mana will drain.
Good - Heals a good amount for low level characters.
Bad - Not that great later in game. Drains mana.
Resist Fire - lvl 1 - prereq: none Simple enough, it boosts resistance to fire.
Good - Protects against the many fire users in early Act I.
Good - Guards against cold users in mid-late Act I.
Bad - Only resists cold.
Defiance - lvl 12 - prereq: none An excellent skill that boosts Defense Rating to great proportions. Get hit a lot? Then get this aura!
Good - More DR is always nice. Good secondary/tertiary aura when multiple Paladins are in a party.
Bad - Only raises DR.
Cleansing - lvl 12 - prereq: Prayer A unique aura that purges the body of toxins. In short, it cuts down on poison's duration, and also the duration of curses. Excellent protection in areas with IM or MM casters, also against enemies with horrendous poison damage like the Queen Maggot and unique Unravellers.
Good - Less duration = less damage = less threat = happy people.
Good - Guards against lightning enemies in Act I/II. Nice against LEB's.
Bad - Only resists lightning.
Vigor - lvl 18 - prereq: Prayer, Cleansing, Defiance Run, Forrest, run! Anyone under the influence of Vigor will have their walk/run speed greatly accelerated. Excellent for clearing distance between distant waypoints.
Good - Saves time, sometimes lives when making a fast get-away.
Bad - Another one of them "here and there" auras.
Meditation - lvl 24 - prereq: Prayer, Cleansing Boosts the rate of mana recovery to ridiculous proportions. Even at slvl 1, Meditation will add an insane +300% recovery rate.
Good - May you never need to drink another blue potion again!
Bad - Unless you are fueling a Necro with too little mana or a Barb with a warcry disorder, you may not need this much.
Redemption - lvl 30 - prereq: Prayer, Cleansing, Defiance, Vigor Got Life? Redemption is a very cool little aura that evaporates monster's bodies and adds some of their life and mana to your own. Think of it as leech post mortem. Great way to get your life and mana back up to full before rushing into another battle.
Good - Leeching a dead enemy is so much easier than a live one. Not many points needed to be effective.
Bad - Only heals the Paladin. Keep in mind it evaporates bodies, potentially annoying any Necro with minions in the vincity. Lots of prerequisites.
Salvation - lvl 30 - prereq: none The ultimate in modern medieval magic resistance. Salvation will greatly boost resistance to fire/cold/lightning spells. Wonderful as an extra aura with multiple Paladins, or just to get that boost when fighting LEB's or Finger Mages.
Good - Not getting hurt. That's good, I think. No prerequisites.
Bad - Small radius at low levels, but diminishing returns at high levels. No poison resistance, but that's what Cleansing is for.
Sacrifice - lvl 1 - prereq: none A giant boost in damage. What's the catch? With each hit, the Paladin will take 8% of the damage he dealt. With life leech in Normal mode, this martyrdom can be made tolerable. Be wary of using a large weapon and having low vitality.
Good - Costs no mana at all. Nice damage addition for enemies with lots of HP.
Bad - 8% damage to self! Charge does more damage and doesn't have that nasty side effect.
Smite - lvl 1 - prereq: none Use your shield to smash in the faces of evil. Not much damage is dealt, but a nice stun period results, giving a period of time to get in some free hits. Oh, and Smite has a 100% chance to hit at all times.
Good - Stuns enemies, great for crowd control. Paladin-only shields Smite for more damage than other shields. Stun damage is irresistible.
Bad - Low damage. Takes high level to get a long stun time.
Holy Bolt - lvl 6 - prereq: none One of the few ranged attacks a Paladin possesses. A blue ball of light is shot out that has the ability to either damage the undead, or heal allied party members and minions. Logically, it will not heal undead allied minions, though it won't hurt them either.
Good - Unique ranged healing skill. Fairly humorous to watch.
Bad - Modest damage to undead, and undead only. High mana cost at higher skill levels. Will not heal Undead minions.
Zeal - lvl 12 - prereq: Sacrifice Give a Paladin Zeal, and watch him swing like a monkey on uppers. This skill will boost AR and send a volley of swings at surrounding enemies. Speed freaks love this one.
Good - Fast and frenzied bashing of enemies. Very low mana cost.
Bad - "Zeal Lock" - once swinging, you can't stop until the volley is over, leaving the Paladin wide open to take any incoming blows.
Charge - lvl 12 - prereq: Smite With a quick click of the mouse, a Paladin will take off at Flash rivaling speeds and slam into an enemy for huge damage. Works the best with high damage weapons. Spear class weapons are not recommended, because the long range on them makes charging at close distances impossible.
Good - Giant size damage, especially when buffed up by an aura or two.
Bad - 95% vulnerability to hits while in mid-Charge. Holy Freeze aura and Decrepify will make a Charger run slower than most characters can walk.
Vengeance - lvl 18 - prereq: Sacrifice, Zeal Fire, lightning, and cold all get fused into one big hit from the Paladin's weapon. Even though the graphic of the hit alternates between flame, chill, and zaps, you are really doing damage for all three at once. Because you are doing every type of damage but poison and Bone spells at once, a Vengeance user has no immunity to fear!
Good - No immunity is safe. Chill time is also included in the hit.
Bad - High mana cost.
Blessed Hammer - lvl 18 - prereq: Holy Bolt Even though the sight of little bronze hammers radiating out from a Paladin is somewhat silly looking, it can be a devastating attack. By itself, the skill isn't too amazing, but Concentration (the only aura that will affect it) can make those little hammers painful. Also, the hammers are piercing, spinning until they get too far away from the Paladin or hit scenery.
Good - One of the Paladin's few ranged attacks. Works wonders when surrounded.
Bad - Even at max level, it's not amazing in damage. High mana cost, too.
Conversion - lvl 24 - prereq: Sacrifice, Zeal, Vengeance You can make your hit so scary, that it will temporarily convince a monster to help you fight. Any monster you hit, you have a chance to turn them into a temporary minion to aid in the fight.
Good - Nice crowd control, especially in Nightmare and Hell stages, where enemies do a lot of damage.
Bad - "Residual" effect: Any allies of a Paladin gain his auras, but once not an ally anymore, they keep that aura for a few seconds afterwards. In other words, your own auras will be used against you for a short time span when the monster decides he doesn't want to be Converted any more. Especially watch out when they have Thorns.
Holy Shield - lvl 24 - prereq: Smite, Charge, Holy Bolt, Blessed Hammer Life is a lot safer behind a nice big shield. Holy Shield can make that shield even bigger and badder. When activated, your blocking will increase, as will the DR and Smite damage of your shield. Remember that 75% is the max blocking ability.
Good - Blocking hits is something that all characters wish they could have.
Bad - Short time span in low skill levels. Only boosts DR of shield, not total DR. Will only work for the Paladin casting it.
Fist of the Heavens - lvl 30 - prereq: Sacrifice, Zeal, Vengeance, Conversion, Holy Bolt, Blessed Hammer The last of the Paladin's raged attacks is a blast from the sky that will kick some serious enemy butt. A big bolt of lightning will come down and fry the enemy for big damage, releasing Holy Bolts upon impact. This will only lightning damage demons and such, but shoot FoH into a pack of undead and the Holy Bolts will spread out and do some nice area damage.
Good - High lightning damage. Great for hordes of undead.
Bad - High mana cost. Only damages one target if not undead. Lots of prerequisites.
The beauty of the Paladin is that he is a jack of all trades. He is quite possibly the easiest character to adapt to difficulties faced. Even though the more experienced and intelligent players will switch auras as needed, most everyone has a set aura/attack combo that they primarily rely upon. Here is some of the more common combinations and specialties. Assume the mentioned skills are heavily invested in points, and their prerequisites only have one point each. Some of these playstyles may be referred to with a title, which I also include. I will also include a bit of info on equipment if you wish to make one of these playstyles, though feel free to do what you want with that. Of course, you can always come up with your own interesting combination, and I highly recommend experimentation, but here's what you will more commonly see.
About halfway through Normal mode, the growing Charge skill level coupled with a budding damage aura will make you a mean one-hit kill bastard. With Bonesnap unique maul or any other high damage/low prereqs weapon, you'll find yourself facing no contest until a ways into Nightmare. With enough Vitality, you can get away with using a two handed weapon for quite a while, though you might want to switch to a weapon/shield combo when the enemies start hitting harder than you can tolerate.
Strategy for a Chargadin is somewhat unique. For the most part, it is all about the offense. Because you are running around quite often, Defense Rating is not too major an issue since monsters always have a 95% chance to hit you when on the run. To reduce that vulnerable time when you are running yet still near enemies, I highly recommend fast run/walk boots of 20% or 30%. Charge with happy feet on, and watch yourself become a regular Speedy Gonzalez. A popular trick is "ping-ponging", finding a spot where you have a bit of distance between a few enemies and Charging between them. When faced with a singular enemy in an open spot, the knockback from your Charge will give you enough room Charge and Charge again. This technique is called "Charge-lock", because the time a monster spends reeling from one Charge is almost enough to be qualified as a stun, giving a good amount of time to just keep slamming into them until you hit a wall or they go kaput. This doesn't work against some bosses, but others, like Hephasto, can be bounced halfway around Hell and back.
A few funky side-effects can happen when a Paladin is in mid-Charge, most notably being on the receiving end of a Holy Freeze aura. When chilled, a Charger will run slower than most people walk, looking like the Roadrunner in slow motion. This leaves you very vulnerable of course, since you cannot stop charging until you hit your target or something big hits you. If you suffer from a poor connection and are playing on Battle.net, you have the possibility of creating "Charge monsters". This happens when a monster has already died on the server end of the game, but you plow into it, bringing it back too life with one HP ... and invincible. If this happens, stun damage with Smite or a Barbarian's Stun skill, or the area effects of Holy Fire and Holy Shock are the only way to off the bugged monster. Keep a shield handy if you lag a lot.
Recommended equipment - a large damage weapon, two handed unless shield becomes necessary. I highly advise against spear and polearm class weapons, because the 5 space range of them makes it hard to charge at small distances; a bit of life and mana leech for sure; fast run/walk boots.
To be a proper Hammer launcher, the first thing you will need is the skills. Dose up on a few fast cast items after that, even a +mana after each kill item or two would be nice. Because you will do a lot of standing and launching, I would recommend Holy Shield to protect yourself when playing Sorceress. Redemption will fill you right up after each battle, should you put a few points in it. A nice way to get more damage out is to launch a few hammers, take a few steps, launch some more, and so on. This will make a chaotic mess of whirling hammers that is sure to hit anything following you. Oh, and getting a large mob to follow the hammer guy is expected. There is a lot of standing still in this job, so buff up that blocking and DR and Vitality. Beware of small spaces like Maggot Lair and the ice caves of Act 5, the small hallways will stop your hammers dead. With the increase in monster HP in Nightmare and Hell combined with the now lower benefit from Concentration, don't expect it to be a dominating skill in those difficulties.
Recommended equipment - scepter with +skills, fast cast and possibly +mana, not too small damage as you will need to resort to combat once and a while; fast run/walk boots; high blocking shield; various +skill items.
Be wary of latent connections when playing online. If you are behind the server, monsters will not line up on the server end of the game with the hits you are swinging on your computer, making you miss quite a lot. Another problem is "Zeal-lock", in which you cannot move until all 5 swings are completed. Thankfully the skill is now capped off at 5 hits as opposed to the 21 hits pre-v1.08, but even getting stuck missing 5 times in a row can open a Paladin open to a lot of incoming blows.
Recommended equipment - a very fast weapon. Flails, long swords, or big damage daggers work nice; Increased attack speed gloves. Normal IAS gloves add 10% to 20%, but Sigon's and Death's set gloves add 30% when coupled with another item from the same set; Any odd items like Twitchthroe or Goldwrap that add attack speed are also welcome, but not too handy when you need DR. Note: Attack speed is capped at 75% increase.
This is excellent crowd control because you are recruiting enemies to take the beating for you. The amount of skill points into Conversion is up to you, slvl 5 has a 25% chance to convert, slvl 9 has 33%. It's pretty downhill in return rates after that, you might not want to max it out. Thorns - get as much as you can, since that's how you are truly doing damage.
Downsides are many. Because your auras have a residual effect, monsters will continue to have your Thorns for a few seconds after they un-convert. This is the equivalent of casting Iron Maiden on yourself, but worse (more damage returned than IM). Watch your butt. Converted A.I. isn't the brightest either. They won't quite follow you like a Necromancer or Druid's minions, they will just stand around if nothing is in their radius of sight. Flying creatures seem to fare better, but you'll find out that some monsters are just dumb as posts. You'll have to use a small damage weapon to convert too, or even fists, because any HP you take away from them means the less they will have when fighting for you.
Recommended equipment - low damage weapon to convert with; the brains to notice when an enemy is using your aura against you.
Let's to a quick bit math... Let's say you hit with a 65-100 damage sword and have 125 Strength. With Vengeance, you do 184% individually of fire, cold, and lightning at slvl 20. Str = 125 65-100sword + (125str) = 146-225 physical damage after strength formula 184%fire +184%cold + 184%lightning = 552% combined elemental (146-225) x 5.52 = 805-1242 elemental 146-225 physical + 805-1242 elemental = 951-1467 total. 951-1467, that's what will show up on your character screen for damage. This is how much you would do is a monster had no physical or elemental resists at all. This is incredibly confusing number wise, and as it is, your hits will vary upon their natural resists in odd ways - like a 50% lightning resistant enemy would change the 552% elemental to 502%... and so on. Each hit you make requires enough math to make your 11th grade algebra teacher Mrs. Shingleheimer proud. And you know what? That's just Vengeance.
Combined with slvl 20 Conviction, how much are you really doing? Let's try this on a monster with no resists, using that same 65-100 sword with 125 Strength... slvl 20 Conv = -125 = monster with -125 resists. (1 - (-1.25)) = 2.25 times as much damage taken by monster. 552% x 2.25 = 1242% elemental damage 100% physical + 1242% elemental = 1342% total damage (146 to 225) * 13.42 = 1959 to 3019 damage That's just crazy. 1959 to 3019 a hit is a hella lot for a weapon that starts off at 65-100. Now any influx in a monster's resists will cause this equation to get crazy enough for NASA to launch into space with. On a side note, if you consider Diablo 2 is figuring stuff like this for hits from every single character and monster in return, it's understandable why a non-3D game like this will get so bogged down on a slower computer.
Back to Conviction. Any Assies, Necros, Sorcs, or elemental Druids in your party will love ya. Any melee elemental attacks will singe the hairs of those Wampa looking suckers. The lowered DR will allow a Whirlwinding Barb or a Fending Zon to hit most anything in their way. Even though it's hard to tell from the character screen, Conviction makes almost any party a force to be reckoned with. One of the only downsides to using Vengeance is the large mana drain - 8.7 per swing at max level... and you are only able to leech the physical part of that damage. Remember that leech is reliant on weapon damage, so the bigger damage, the better you can maintain mana supply.
Recommended equipment - big damage fast or very fast one handed weapon; IAS gloves; Shield with high blocking and/or Holy Shield; lots and lots of mana leech.
Recommended equipment - a high damage weapon, you won't be using offensive auras to help it; as much high defense equipment that you can get your grubby hands on.
This would be a very devastating combination especially when fighting the undead. Keep in mind Horrors are immune to lightning. FoH does have a horrendous mana drain at 25 mana a pop, so you will need a lot of mana and mana regeneration to keep it up. Also, if you get a thrill out of death from above, a Sorceress can use Thunder Storm and do a lot more damage for a lot less mana.
Recommended equipment - +skill items; +mana per kill items; mana regeneration items.
After you beat the game the first time, you have the option to play in Nightmare mode, where monsters are harder and leech is cut to 1/2, and resistances are -40. Beat Nightmare, and you can play in Hell, where player resistances are -100, monsters are even harder, have a universal 50% resistance to melee attacks (cutting leech to 1/4), and most have at least one natural immunity to a type of damage. Experience is loss in Nightmare and Hell if you die - 5% and 10% respectively. Luckily you gain half that lost experience back if you retrieve your body without exiting the game.
"Normal" (non-unique/champions) monsters in Normal mode go up to level 40. Nightmare to 73(normal level +33). Hell to 90(normal level +66). Since you can earn full exp from kills if you are within 5 levels of the monster, it's safe to stay in Normal until 45, and so on. Since monster experience increases per person in game, you can sometimes go beyond 5 levels form the enemy and still get nice exp.
Inquiring minds want to know: Will my Paladin survive in Nightmare or Hell? There is really no yes/no way to put it. Are you high enough level to compete? Do you have enough life to stay alive? Is your equipment still nice, or outdated? Do you have the patience to kill things much stronger than their Normal counterparts? Do you have a secondary attack in case of monster immunities? There are so many variables, it's hard to give a straight answer. Really anybody with a good amount of life and a lot of patience can play in Hell, regardless of damage done. Casual players won't venture as far as Hell, but it's a burning matter for long-term and serious players. Some character skill combos won't make it as far as others, but for those who do here's a few tips. Try not to spread your skill points too thin as you will need the heaviest firepower you can manage. If you don't need a skill, don't put points in it (prerequisites set aside). Whenever you find yourself lacking in a resist or other stat, keep a healthy selection of charms in your inventory. Also, keep your life up... way up, without it you will die too quickly.
Perhaps bugs, perhaps "features", it's up to Blizzard to decide. Here's a few that come to mind regarding the Paladin...
- Monsters with knockback attacks, even knockback ranged attacks like Baal's blue V-bolt, will not always stop you from Charging like they did in the past. If knocked back now, the Charging Paladin may run in reverse until the knockback effect is done, then he will get forward momentum again until he hits. This also happens sometimes with the freezing blast attacks of ice creatures and Nihlathak in Act 5. It looks pretty silly, but in my opinion it's preferred to getting stopped in a rat pack of demons.
- Enchant is a piddly little sorceress spell that adds, even at max, 78-80 fire damage to an allies weapon. Get this, though - Concentration and Fanaticism seem to not think that is fire damage, and multiply it's damage as if it was natural damage added to your weapon. A simple 10-12 damage slvl 2 Enchant boosted a Paladin of mine with slvl 10 Fanaticism to about an extra 100 damage on his weapon. So if a Sorc is around, put in a request for Enchant!
- Fanaticism is odd. While the Paladin gets the full effect, allies get everything but the full damage percentage addition. They only get a fraction of it, though still a healthy amount. This is probably a feature, to keep it from being an incredibly powerful skill, but I will list it here anyways, since Blizzard does not note the skill as having the effect upon Arreat Summit.
Bolty - For putting up this guide and just being a nice guy! Dok - For deciphering the Vengeance/Conviction mathematics. CaptainWillie and NewJacks - For their spiffy proofreading abilities and suggestions. Blizzard - For obliterating my social life. The friendly nit-pickers who have helped clean this guide up. Anyone and anything who I have played a fun game with in the past.
August 12, 2001 - v1.2 - changed Vengeance/Conviction math. - added info on party effects of Fanaticism. - Noted monster levels in difficulties. August 05, 2001 - v1.1 - changed info on Sacrifice in later difficulties. - Act 2 mercenary auras fixed. August 04, 2001 - v1.0 - completed.
MissileToad plays on the USEast realm of Battle.net under the account name... uh, MissileToad! He can be reached at
. His own website is http://www.gorillapictures.net/. Thank you, drive through.
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