Guide To The Zealot Paladin BuildNow that you know what skills to use and how to place your stats, its time to discuss the equipment your paladin will use. Alot of the items emphasize on increased attack speed (IAS) and leech life along with + to skills. You may also notice that the items I picked as the best happen to be really high ranking items which will be hard to get. With all the duping going around on battle.net its actually pretty easy to get some of these items I've discussed. But I've also included alternate items just in case you cant find item or you disagree with what I said. Also, I dont include any runewords, cube recipes, or crafted items in this list. I'm really big on any of that stuff. Weapon Best: Schaefer's Hammer Alternate 1: Baranar's Star Alternate 2: Lightsabre Alternate 3: Any Elite Class Rare Sword/Mace This was a hard decision of schaefer's hammer vs. baranar's star. But I had to go with Schaefer's. Schaefer's does the most damage on a one handed weapon as far as 1.09 (I've havent used the 1.10 Azure Wraith yet. It probably will beat schaefers). Schaefers also deals static field on monsters which will make them easier to kill. The problem with schaefer's is its pretty slow only being "fast." If you have a shael rune you might want to socket schaefer's with it. Another bad thing about schaefers is that it only spawns in 1.09 (I guess it has something to do with Max Schaefer leaving blizzard or some shit). So when 1.10 goes live, the "Legendary Mallet" unique will be replaced by Stone Crusher, a weaker weapon compared to Schaefers. Baranar's star isnt as strong as schaefers but its faster. It also does a great deal of elemental damage. Lightsabre is the fastest of the three and it also has ignore target defense which means it will hit monsters 95% of the time. Helm Best: Vampire Gaze Alternate 1: Tal Rasha's Horadric Crest Alternate 2: Crown Of Thieves Alternate 3: Rare Helm/Circlet With +Life/+Skills Vampire Gaze is argubly the most popular helm on battle.net. It has dual leech and Damage Reduced By 15-20% which can keep you in the running. Tal Rasha's helm also has dual leech even greater than Gaze (Tal Rasha's has 10% dual). Tal Rasha's also gives you some resistances obviously a great helm to have. Its not too hard to find either. Crown Of Thieves is an underated helm. It actually has some pretty good stats. 9-12% Life Stolen Per Hit, Fire Resist +33%, +35 To Mana, +50 To Life, +25 To Dexterity not bad at all. And if all else fails you can always gamble for a helm that has some good mods. Armor Best: Guardian Angel Alternate 1: Shaftstop Alternate 2: Griswold's Heart Alternate 3: Duriel's Shell Alkraine's Valor might be the "best" armor out there but there's no legit 1.09 valor out there.. period. I dont care what valor you have or how you got it. Its not real. With that out of the way, my favorite paladin armor is Guardian Angel. It gives you +1 to paladin skills along with increased elemental resistances which is really handy around hell and you can brag when you have 90 resist to all and your friends only have 75. Shaftstop is a popular armor around battle.net. Popular for its "Damage Reduced By 30%" mod that it has. Thats 30% not just 30. Thats alot of damage reduction. Griswold's armor is the easiest to find item in all of griswolds set. The set itself is nice for a paladin if you can friggin find it. It is probably the rarest set in the game. Griswold's armor has alot of defense and has 3 sockets making it very customizable. My last alternate is Duriel's shell, a nice armor with good resistances. Shield Best: Herald Of Zakarum Alternate 1: Stormshield Alternate 2: Moser's Blessed Circle Alternate 3: Any Socketed Shield With Perfect Diamonds In It Herald Of Zakarum is one of the class specific items for the paladin. And this shield has everything you need. Plus to class, resistances, +20 To Strength, +20 To Vitality, increased blocking. I dunno why everyone likes stormshield. It seems to be the best shield for every cookie cutter build out there. I dont really like stormshield but it has some decent mods so I placed it as the alt. 1. The best mod on it is "Damage Reduced By 35%." Just like with shaftstop thats a hell of a lot of damage reduction. Moser's Blessed Circle is a shield with good block, resistances, and 2 open sockets to put in whatever. If you cant find any of that, any good shield with nice blocking and resistances will do. Boots Best: Gore Rider Alternate 1: Sander's Riprap Alternate 2: War Traveler Alternate 3: Any Rare With 40 Faster Run/Walk People will probably disagree with me saying, "OMFG ZACH, WAR TRAVELERS R0X0R GORE RIDERS SUX0R!!!11." At least I think thats what they will say... Anyway I really like gore riders they 10% Chance Of Open Wounds, 15% Chance Of Crushing Blow, 15% Deadly Strike. That seems like a small chance but if you have zeal and you are attacking alot that chance seems pretty good. My alternate is Sander's riprap and before you bitch at me listen, sander's riprap is some nice friggin boots. They give +to str and +dex and 40 faster run/walk so you can get around faster. Dont let low defense fool you these are good boots. War Traveler boots is next. You can ask anyone why they are good. And if you cant find those any rare with good mods will do. Gloves Best: Lavagouts Alternate 1: Sander's Taboo Alternate 2: Laying Of Hands Alternate 3: Any gloves with 20% IAS You may notice that all the gloves I have listed have 20% IAS. Well you wanna be a fast paladin right? 20% IAS is the max on gloves and its exactly what you want for your paladin. Lavagouts have this and added fire damage with a chance to cast enchant. The enchant is high enough to rise your attack up +100 damage. There I go again with that damn sander's set again. Hey, I like this set. Sander's taboo has 20 IAS along with some + to life. Laying Of Hands has 20% IAS also and it has some good mods not great mods but good enough. If you cant find those, any glove (rare or not) with 20% IAS will do. Belt Best: Nosferatu's Coil Alternate 1: String Of Ears Alterante 2: Any Rare Exceptional/Elite Belt With Resistances Nosferatu's Coil is overlooked alot even by me. I had a string of ears for a long time until I realized how awesome nosferatu's is. It has more leech life than string and 10% IAS. Only problem is Nosferatu's is an elite belt and will be really hard to find compared to string of ears. Amulet Best: Marshal's Amulet (+3 to Offensive Aura) Alternate 1: The Cat's Eye Alternate 2: The Eye of Etlich Rather than looking and trading all over for Mara's amulet or something awesome like that, the best amulet you can get is just a marshal's amulet with +3 to offensive auras. They're pretty easy to find in cow games and gambling. You can raise up your fanaticism and everyone will be happy. The Cat's Eye amulet is for speed giving you a nice IAS boost and The Eye Of Etlich has + to all skills and some leech life. Rings Best: Raven Frost Alternate 1: Any Rare Ring With Leech Life Or Dual Leech Raven Frost gives you a shitload of AR and Dex, and being an AR freak I just love this ring. My paladin on battle.net has two of them. It also has the nice "Cannot Be Frozen" mod. I just wish there was a "Cannot Be Poisoned" mod... If you cant find those any dual leech, life leech, etc. ring will do. Sometimes Akara or Ormus will give you one as the quest rewards. |