Olufss’ Avenger Auradin Guide =================== -Table of contents- =================== I. Purpose of the guide II. Overwiev of the Paladin III. Skills A. Combat skills B. Offensive auras C. Defensive auras D. Skill placement IV. Stat allocation V. Equipment VI. Charms VII. Mercenary VIII. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I. Purpose of the guide ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The purpose of this guide is to help readers build an avenger auradin. I will explain what items to use, stat allocation, skill point allocation, mercenary information and what charms to have in the inventory. This build is merely a suggestion and if you think that you should build the character otherwise do what you think is best. And by the way, this character is somewhat expensive to make, SO IF YOU CAN’T GET IT, DON’T SWEAT IT! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ II. Overview of the Paladin ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Paladin's skills range from passive-like auras, melee skills, and some casting skills. The Offensive Auras add damage, IAS, AR, and lowering enemy resistance. The Defensive Auras range from giving healing powers, faster run speed, and massive resistances. The Combat Skills range from casting to melee skills that do some of the most damages in the game. This build will focus on elemental damage. Pros: Can clear out rooms full of monsters very fast Can kill players in pvp relatively easy because you have enormous elemental damage Vengeance damages in both lightning, cold AND fire, so no enemy is immune (not counting uber Tristram) Vengeance has good attack rating boost combined with convictions defence reduction Cons: vengeance takes more mana points per level. (If you got mana leech, remove this:)) You dint have many/any points in holy shield :( ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ III. Skills ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The avenger auradin's skill points is balanced out in all of the three skill trees Combat skills: +=+=+=+=+=+=+ *note that you don’t have any points left to holy shield; it is not needed, but very useful. If you are going to use holy shield. I suggest removing some points from either resist lightning or salvation, and just put 1 point in it and let your combat skiller grand charms take care of you. Sacrifice ========= Required Lvl: 1 Effect: The Paladin's devotion is so great he enchants his weapon to add more damage at the cost of his own life. Always does 8% of the damage done, to you. If you have a weapon that steals life this skill is pretty decent. A good skill to max out for Zealots or Sacrificers but not for you. As soon as you get this skill leave it alone and forget that you ever learned it. 1 point as a pre-requisite. Smite (OPTIONAL IF YOU WANT HOLY SHIELD) ===== Required Lvl: 1 Effect: Use a shield bash that stuns, knocks back, and damages your opponent. Another useless skill for an avenger auradin. Obtain this skill then dismiss it entirely. 0-1 point Holy Bolt (OPTIONAL IF YOU WANT HOLY SHIELD) ========= Required Lvl: 6 Effect: Spawn a bolt of divine energy that heals your party members and damage the undead. Only damages the undead and no other monsters. Heals your allies but it does a rather low amount of life healed. A pretty crappy skill. 0-1 point Zeal ==== Required Lvl: 12 Effect: If surrounded by many enemies the Paladin will channel his inner power and strike all adjacent enemies with his weapon. Attacks many targets, max of five hits. Increases damage and AR. One of the Paladin's best skill but totally unnecessary for you. Just like Sacrifice and Smite, learn this and leave it behind. 1 point as a pre-requisite. Charge (OPTIONAL IF YOU WANT HOLY SHIELD) ====== Required Lvl: 12 Effect: Showing bravery and showing no weakness the Paladin charges fearlessly into battle. Adds a lot of damage, AR, and can be used as a way to get around. Charge cannot be used in melee range but will knockback if you are in melee range. Get this skill and forget about ever having this unless you'll use it as way to move around. 0-1 point Vengeance ========= Required Lvl: 18 Effect: Use the energies of past warriors to avenge their death by adding Elemental damages to your weapon. Adds a crap load of lightning, cold, and fire damage to your attack. 20 points; Max it ASAP! Blessed Hammer (OPTIONAL IF YOU WANT HOLY SHIELD) ============== Required Lvl: 18 Effect: Tap the blessed energies of a sacred, mystical, hammer-like relic and banish your enemies to hell. Summon small spiralling hammers that do 150% damage to the undead (note: they still hurt monsters and demons). One of the Paladin's most successful skills but just use it as a pre-req. 0-1 point Holy Shield =========== Required Lvl: 24 Effect: Enchant your shield with divine magic to enhance your defence, smite damage, and block %. One of the best combat skills. But to use it is entirely optional. You can choose between more damage or more defence and % block. I suggest putting 1 point in here and let your combat skiller grand charms take care of you XX points (XX is the points you choose to distribute.) B) Offensive auras +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ *Note that you should not put any points in holy shock, holy freeze and holy Fire. Except 1 point in holy fire and holy freeze for pre- requisites. You will get your auras from your equipment. Might ~~~~~ Required Lvl: 1 Effect: While in battle you call upon the powers of justice to add damage to your melee based attacks. Adds a low amount of damage compared to the other damage adding auras. Do away with this skill as soon as you obtain it. 1 point as a pre-requisite. Holy Fire ~~~~~~~~~ Required Lvl: 6 Effect: Use the purificating power of fire to burn your enemies. Will add fire damage to melee based attacks (not Smite) and the aura pulse deals a little bit fire damage every second. Crappy skill, we are getting our auras from equipment. Found on the "Dragon" and "Hand of Justice" Runewords. 1 point as a pre-requisite. Let your equipment take care of you. Thorns ~~~~~~ Required Lvl: 6 Effect: Use the powers of righteousness to retaliate on melee based attacks. Only works with melee hits not missile hits. You will still get hurt but you will also hit your opponent. Use when you think you are getting too hurt from a very strong monster. Does only 1/10th damage in PvP. 1 point as a pre-requisite. Holy Freeze ~~~~~~~~~~~ Required Lvl: 18 Effect: Using this aura the Paladin uses his powers to drop the temperature around him slowing enemies down and adding cold damage to your melee based attacks (not Smite). One of the crappiest auras ever. Adds very little damage and slowing down enemies isn't a very good effect either. 1 point as a pre-requisite. Sanctuary ~~~~~~~~~ Required Lvl: 24 Effect: Shine with blessed light that adds magic damage, damages the undead with the aura pulse, and knockback the undead. Just like Holy Freeze this is a very pointless aura that should totally be kept away from gameplay. 1 point as a pre-requisite. Conviction ~~~~~~~~~~ Required Lvl: 30 Effect: Using his determination the Paladin demonstrates his power; lowering the defence and resistances of his enemies. This Aura can break immunities of the monsters and lets you hurt monsters that would've been immune. Also lowers defence by a significant amount. The minus resistance has a cap of -150 but the defence reduction doesn't have a cap at all. A good skill for element based Paladins. This will be your main aura. 20 points; Max it! C) Defensive Auras +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= Resist Fire ~~~~~~~~~~~ Required level: 1 Effect: increases your resistance to fire While it's not a great skill on its own, it has three benefits: 1) Its a synergy for holy fire 2) It raises your max resists 1 resist for every 2 levels. 3) Its a synergy for vengeance Max it; not only will you now have 85 fire resist, but Holy Fire will be that much stronger. Resist Cold ~~~~~~~~~~~ required level: 6 Effect: increases your resistance to cold It’s not a great skill, and since we aren’t using holy freeze it sucks. But it gives synergies to vengeance. So you might consider putting one point in here as well. If you won't be using holy shield, and go for pure damage, I suggest putting 3 skill points here. 0-3 points Resist Lightning ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ required level: 12 Effect: increases your resistance to lightning While it's not a great skill on its own, it has three benefits. 1)It's a synergy for holy shock 2)it raises your max resists 1 resist every 2 levels 3)It's a synergy for vengeance 15-20 points (depending on if you are going to use holy shield or not) Salvation ~~~~~~~~~ Required level: 30 Effect: increases all resistances This is a crowd-pleaser, as it raises all of your resists by a TON. It also synergizes Holy fire, holy shock AND 2% to each element in vengeance 15-20 points (depending on if you are going to use holy shield or not) D) Skill placement +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ 20 points into vengeance 20 points into resist fire 20 points into conviction 15-20 points into resist lightning 15-20 points into salvation 0-9 points into holy shield 0-3 points into resist cold 7-11 into pre-requisites (7 if you are pure damage, 11 if you use holy shield as well.) This is for an level 99 Pala with all skill quests done. So considering that will take time, put skill points into resist lightning and resist cold last. Or possibly holy shield (not recommended) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ IV. Stat allocation ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~Strength- Strength is what allows you to equip your gear. If you use dream/dragon in a vortex shield aim for about 150 strength – your equipment bonuses. But if you are going to use it in a zakarum shield for more block you should aim for about 142 ~~Dexterity- considering dream and dragon has low chance to block, only put enough points to wear your hand of justice phase blade (136) ~~Vitality- dump ALL excess points in here, you need it for pvp! ~~Energy- well, you might think "vengeance takes a lot of mana in higher levels, so I need much energy" well that’s wrong. DON'T EVEN TOUCH THIS STAT. YOU WON'T NEED IT, EVER! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ V. Equipment ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ **GLOVES** ******** For gloves, there's only one choice- you need Dracul's Grasp. The chance to Cast life tap allows you to fight and not die. \Dracul's Grasp (Unique Vampirebone Gloves) /Defence: 125-145 \+90-120% Enhanced Defence /+10-15 to Strength \+5-10 Life after Each Kill /25% Chance of Open Wounds \7-10% Life Stolen per Hit /5% Chance to Cast Level 10 Life Tap on Striking **BELT** ****** Verdungo's Hearty Coil provides tons of good stuff for you- damage reduction, Massive vitality boost, and a bonus to your hit recovery. Get it! \Verdungo's Hearty Cord (Unique Mithril Coil) /Defence: 125-158 \+90-140% Enhanced Defence /10% Faster Hit Recovery \+30-40 To Vitality /Replenish Life +10-13 \+100-120 Maximum Stamina /Damage Reduced By 10-15% **BOOTS** ******* Your boots need to be sturdy- they carry your feet! The boots of choice for an Auradin are sandstorm treks. An all-around durable boot, they'll take you Anywhere. \Sandstorm Trek (Unique Scarabshell Boots) /Defence: 158-178 \+140-170% Enhanced Defence /+20% Faster Hit Recovery \+20% Faster Run/Walk /+1-99 Maximum Stamina (Based On Character Level) \+10-15 To Strength /+10-15 to Vitality \50% Slower Stamina Drain /Poison Resist +40-70 \Repairs 1 Durability In 20 Seconds **JEWELRY** ********* + To all skills is very nice at an avenger auradin, so the bul kathos is very useful here \Bul kathos (unique ring) /+1 to all skills \3%-5% life leech /1-49 life (based on character level) \50 to maximum stamina As for your second ring, use a raven frost for some great bonuses- AR, dex, mana and Cannot Be Frozen. \Raven Frost (unique ring) /+150-250 to Attack Rating \Adds 15-45 Cold Damage, 4 sec. Duration /Cannot Be Frozen \+15-20 To Dexterity /+40 To Mana \Cold Absorb 20% For your amulet Mara’s kaleidoscope is very nice cause to the + to all skills, attributes and all resistances. \Mara’s kaleidoscope (unique amulet) /+2 to all skills \5 to all attributes /20-30 to all resistances It's time to figure out the equipment that gives auras! There are two different auras that you'll use- Holy Fire and Holy Shock. Holy Shock is granted by the runeword "Dream", found in helmets and shields. Holy Fire is in two runewords- "Dragon", found in armor and shields, and "Hand of Justice" (HoJ) found in weapons. When getting a shield, use dragon/dream in a paladin only shield that gives 40-45 to all resistances. \Dream (3 Socket Helms/Shields)- Io+Jah+Pul /10% Chance to Cast Level 15 Confuse When Struck \Level 15 Holy Shock Aura When Equipped /+20-30% Faster Hit Recovery \+30% Enhanced Defence /+150-220 Defence \+10 To Vitality /[Helm] Increase Maximum Life 5% \[Shield]+50 To Life /+0.625-61.875 To Mana (Based on Character Level) \All Resistances +5-20 /12-25% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ \Dragon (3 socketed body armor/shields)- Sur+Lo+Sol /20% Chance to Cast Level 18 Venom When Struck \12% Chance To Cast Level 15 Hydra On Striking /Level 14 Holy Fire Aura When Equipped \+360 Defence /+230 Defence Vs. Missile \+3-5 To All Attributes (varies) /+0.375-37.125 To Strength (+0.375 per Character Level) \+5% To Maximum Lightning Resist /Damage Reduced by 7% \[Armor] Increase Maximum Mana 5% /[Shield] +50 mana ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ *note that HoJ is best in a phase blade or a berserker axe for the attack speed and damage \Hand of Justice (4 Socket Weapons )- Sur+Cham+Amn+Lo /100% Chance to Cast Level 36 Blaze When You Level Up \100% Chance to Cast Level 48 Meteor When You Die /Level 16 Holy Fire Aura When Equipped \+33% Increased Attack Speed /+280-330% Enhanced Damage \Ignore Target's Defence /7% Life Stolen Per Hit \-20% To Enemy Fire Resistance /20% Deadly Strike \Hit Blinds Target /Freezes Target +3 The best combination is probably using dragon as shield and armor and dream as helmet. But if you don’t have enough resists/cant afford resist small charms you can use two dream and one dragon as well. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ VI. Charms ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ At all characters you need a torch fitting your player (in this case paladin) and an annhilus \"Annihilus" Small Charm /Required Level: 70 \+1 To All Skills /+10-20 to All Attributes \All Resistances +10-20 /+5-10% to Experience Gained \"Hellfire Torch" Large Charm /Required Level: 75 \25% Chance to Cast level 10 Firestorm on Striking /+3 to random character class skills (we need paladin :D) \+10-20 To All Attributes /All Resistances +10-20 \+8 to light radius /Level 30 Hydra (10 charges) Also you need grand charm skillers, called Pcomb in the realms. And if it has faster run/walk or + to life that would be better :D \Lion Branded Grand Charm X9 /+1 To Combat Skills(Paladin Only) Fill out the rest of the space with \Shimmering Small Charm of Vita /+3-5% to All Resists \+16-20 Life(varies) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ VII. Mercenary ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The ideal mercenary for the avenger auradin is the Act 2 Desert Mercenary. They have an aura as soon as you get them which could benefit you and your Party. Go with the Normal or Hell Defensive mercs so they give you a defiance Aura for more defence. You can buy a normal or hell offensive to gain might aura for more PHYSICAL damage. But since we are elemental. I would go with defiance. ======= Weapon ======= Some of you might think; "isn’t it best to get infinity for elemental damagers?" well, the answer is no. Because we already use conviction there is no difference using infinity. For this build there are no specific weapons, but this is good: \"Doom" /5 Socket Axes/Polearms/Hammers \Hel + Ohm + Um + Lo + Cham /5% Chance to Cast Level 18 Volcano on Striking \Level 12 Holy Freeze Aura When Equipped /+2 To All Skills \+45% Increased Attack Speed /+330-370% Enhanced Damage (varies) \-(40-60)% To Enemy Cold Resistance (varies) /20% Deadly Strike \25% Chance of Open Wounds /Prevent Monster Heal \Freezes Target +3 /Requirements -20% Preferably put it in an ethereal colossus voulge or an ethereal cryptic axe for more damage. Body Armor ============ There is no doubt, fortitude gives 300% enhanced damage which makes it the only armor in consideration. \"Fortitude" /4 Socket Weapons/Body Armor \El + Sol + Dol + Lo /20% Chance to Cast Level 15 Chilling Armor when Struck \+25% Faster Cast Rate /+300% Enhanced Damage \+200% Enhanced Defence /+15 Defence \+(1-1.5) to (99-148) To Life (1 to 1.5 life per character level) /Replenish Life +7 \+5% To Maximum Lightning Resist /All Resistances +20-30 (varies) \Damage Reduced By 7 /12% Damage Taken Goes To Mana \+1 To Light Radius *note that mercs cant break equipment, so make their fortitude in an ethereal sacred armor or so. Make sure they can have enough strength to wear it, but with andariel's visage he can use almost anything Helmet ======== There are two choices for merc helms: \"Andariel's Visage" Demonhead (preferably ethereal) /Defence: 310-387 (Base Defence: 101-154) \Required Level: 83 /Required Strength: 102 \+100-150% Enhanced Defence /+2 To All Skills \20% Increased Attack Speed /8-10% Life Stolen Per Hit \+25-30 To Strength /+10% to Maximum Poison Resist \Fire Resist -30% /Poison Resist +70% \15% Chance to Cast Level 15 Poison Nova When Struck /Level 3 Venom (20 charges) Or \"Crown of Ages" Corona /Defence: 349-399 (Base Defence: 111-165) \Required Level: 82 /Required Strength: 174 \+50% Enhanced Defence /+100-150 Defence \+1 To All Skills /Damage Reduced By 10-15% \All Resistances +20-30 /+30% Faster Hit Recovery \Socketed (1-2) /Indestructible