Hello, so I noticed the lacking of zealot guides so I decided to share some knowledge on zealots to try and help out anyone new to the class or an experienced zealot wanting to try out another setup. I have been making zealots since .09 so I know quite a bit about them. I tried to include all of the builds that I felt were worth mentioning. There is no #1 zealot setup just some setups work better against a certain setup than another may. This is a guide on a melee Zealot which is a paladin that uses zeal as its main attack.


Skills

No matter what setup you decide to go with skills will always be the same.

Zeal
Fanaticism
Holy Shield
Defiance
Sacrifice (maxed at level 96)

Defiance should be maxed before Sacrifice, because the defense bonus from defiance is more important than the damage increase from Sacrifice. If you decide to level above 96 than the remaining points should be put into blessed aim.

Stats

Strength: On every setup you only put enough str in to use the gear and no more.

*Note: It is a good idea to find out how much str you need to put in before you start dumping points in, or else you may waste a lot of points.

Dexterity: On most setups you only put in enough dex to get max block. Will explain on which setups you put extra dex and why you should.

Vitality: As much as you can spare goes in here.

Energy: Delete char and make a caster if you put points in here.


Also, blessed aim has a passive synergy to your attack rating. It provides a 5% Bonus to Attack Rating, per level invested.

Finally the important part, the gear. A zealot can be a very expensive character to make so be prepared to spend some fg on one.

TEMPLAR MIGHT SETUP

Weapon:ebotdz
Armor: +2 Ethereal Zod'd Templar's Might
Shield: Glitched eth exile ed/ar
Helm: Crown Of Ages (15% BASE DR, ber/ber'd)
Rings: 2x ravenfrosts
Amulet: Highlords
Gloves: Steelrends
Boots: Upgraded Gore Riders
Belt: 15% Damage Reduce Verdungos

*Note: In this setup you should put extra points in dex, even after getting max block. The reason is because this setup has a low ar in the 13-16k range. That may seem pretty low but I have used this setup and it does just fine vs zealots with 50k+ def.

Switch: +3 holy shield / +6 bo cta / Hoz ( You use hoz for the bonus to holy shield )

Charms: 37 32020s or dmg/ar/life charms
torch/anni



ETH VALOR SETUP

Weapon: ebotdz
Armor: +2 Ethereal Zod'd Valor (or Glitched Ber'd or Cham'd Valor)
Shield: Glitched exile ed/ar
Helm: Coa ber/ber 31 dr
Rings: 2x ravens
Amulet: Highlords
Gloves: Steelrends
Boots: Upgraded Gore Riders
Belt: 15% Damage Reduce Verdungos

Switch: +3 holy shield / +6 bo cta / Hoz

Charms: 37 32020s or dmg/ar/life charms
torch/anni


GLADIATOR'S BANE SETUP:

Weapon:ebotdz
Armor: Ethereal Gladiator's Bane Ber'd
Shield: Glitched eth exile ed/ar
Helm: Coa ber/ber for 31% dr
Rings: 2x Angelics
Amulet: Angelic
Gloves: Steelrends
Boots: Upgraded Gore Riders
Belt: 15% Damage Reduce Verdungos

*Note: You ber the gladiator bane even if you don't have a glitched one because it has a durability of 120 which lasts a long time before you will need to zod it.

Switch: +3 holy shield / +6 bo cta / Hoz

Charms: 37 32020s or dmg/ar/life charms
torch/anni


C/C Setup

Weapon: Ethereal Zod'd Death Cleaver
Armor: Leviathan chamd
Shield: Glitched eth exile ed/ar
Helm: Coa 80/30 (2x 40ed/15 ias)
Rings: 2x Angelics
Amulet: Angelic
Gloves: Steelrends
Boots: Upgraded Gore Riders
Belt: 15% Damage Reduce Verdungos

Switch: +3 holy shield / +6 bo cta / Hoz

Charms: 37 32020s or dmg/ar/life charms
torch/anni


Fort Setup

Weapon: Ebotdz
Armor: Fortitude
Shield: Glitched eth exile ed/ar
Helm: Coa 15% base dr ber/ber
Rings: 2x ravens
Amulet: Highlords
Gloves: Steelrends
Boots: Upgraded Gore Riders
Belt: 15% Damage Reduce Verdungos

Switch: +3 holy shield / +6 bo cta / Hoz

Charms: 37 32020s or dmg/ar/life charms
torch/anni

Shaft Setups

Shaft has 30% dr on it giving the zealot multiple setups to use while maintaining max or close to max dr. I will give a few of the setups that I found to be most effective.

Option #1

Weapon: Ebotdz
Armor: Eth upgraded Shaftstop
Shield: Glitched eth exile ed/ar
Helm: Visionary mod helmet (ar% per lvl) with 2 sockets cham/ber'd (+2 pally skills with + str would be ideal)
Rings: 2x Angelics
Amulet: Angelic
Gloves:High stat/def gloves (I used these to maintain as low base str that I could, you could substitute in steelrends if you want more damage)
Boots: Gore Riders
Belt: 15% Damage Reduce Verdungos

Switch: +3 holy shield / +6 bo cta / Hoz

Charms: 37 32020s or dmg/ar/life charms
torch/anni


Option #2

Weapon: Eth Death Cleaver Zod'd
Armor: Eth upgraded Shaftstop
Shield: Glitched eth exile ed/ar
Helm: Visionary mod helmet (ar% per lvl) with 2 sockets cham/ber'd
Rings: 2x Angelics
Amulet: Angelic
Gloves: 20 ias gloves with str/dex (Must be 20 ias to hit ias bp)
Boots: Upgraded Gore Riders
Belt: 15% Damage Reduce Verdungos

Switch: +3 holy shield / +6 bo cta / Hoz

Charms: 37 32020s or dmg/ar/life charms
torch/anni

Option #3

Weapon: Eth Death (Need to have 60 ias in setup to hit bp)
Armor: Eth upgraded Shaftstop
Shield: Glitched eth exile ed/ar
Helm: Coa 80/30 (2x 40/15 ias)
Rings: 2x Ravens
Amulet: Highlords
Gloves: 10% ias high stat gloves
Boots: Upgraded Gore Riders
Belt: 15% Damage Reduce Verdungos

Switch: +3 holy shield / +6 bo cta / Hoz

Charms: 37 32020s or dmg/ar/life charms
torch/anni

There are many other possibilities with the shaft setup, but I just listed the more common setups.


Strategy(lol)

Step 1: Make sure walk is ON (running lowers your block %)
Step 2: Hit ! and say go
Step 3: Click on opponent and hold
Step 4: Close your eyes and hope he dies first

Some info on gm dueling:

It is considered bad mannered to use life tap vs barbs and druids in gm melee duels. To avoid life tap the best shields to substitute in for exile is an eth alma negra or a stormshield.

Hope this guide has helped anyone out there who has wanted to make a zealot but wasn't sure what to use or someone just looking for another setup to try out. Hope to get some positive feedback, feel free to pm me if you have any questions. Thanks

Finally, a Zealot guide and not a Zealer guide... Seriously...

Anyways. I like how you posted different setups. Many of the "guides" only list one, which is never a good sign. Unfortunately, on small group of Zealots on my realm have strict no runeword, no non Paladin skills, no slow, and no lifetap kind of rules.

looks like a pretty solid guide to me.

JERSEY!

also, any sort of MOVING, is considered bm. finally someone who doesn't value gm over everything.

I see, wasn't really sure how in depth I should go without getting to realm specific. There are a lot of rules on east as well, although that's the first that I have heard of a no runeword rule.




lol thanks for the comment

Keep them comin

Very nice guide, reminds me of my last season Zealot, I miss it! By the time I can afford this type of char this ladder will probably be over, maybe I should consider a non ladder zealot?

*Also have to note I let an amazing 40ias/~400ed 2os eth repair zerker poof with my account.

Thanks and wow I would be in depression if I lost something like that lol. Non ladders always good since that's where all the hacked items still are.

solid well rounded guide

Thanks

Iso more comment.

Just all the old guides stolen off palapk.. nothing new here kiddo.

This post was edited by pauly. on Apr 16 2008 11:20am