BeethovenBuild[1.11]-FoH Guide
1. What is a FoH?
2. What stats should I put points into?
3. What skills should I use points on?
4. What items will I need to make a FoH?
5. Basic Strategy!!!
This is a FoH guide I made for myself at the beginning of 1.11. I obviously needed to remake the guide because of Paladin Torches. Since Diablo 2 start I have never lost a FoH duel and I believe I have the best FoH build on USEast. I also believe this build has always been the best FoH build ever made.
1. What is a FoH?
FoH stands for “Fist of Heaven’s” referring to the only Paladin Combat skill that is obtained at level 30. Your basic FoH paladin will work hand in hand with the Offensive Aura Conviction. These two skills work well together simply because FoH is lightning damage and conviction will lower your opponent’s lightning resist.
2. What stats should I put points into?
If it were not 100% obviously you should make sure you have least amount of STRENGTH possible, the lowest DEXERITY possible that will give max block, and the rest of your points going into VITIALLITY. I am sure you all knew this but if you didn’t you do now…
Personally I like to get the DEXERITY at 136 for a Grief Phase Blade.
If your FoH character does not have 3,000 life AT THE BARE MIN you probably don’t want to make this character. My FoH has 4.6K life, but 3,00 should be enough to be decent.
3. What skills should I use points on?
This is the part that sets my FoH apart from the rest. As I said before I have the best FoH on USEast and not one FoH has beaten me since I started Diablo [ which was the first week of classic Diablo ] . Most people build their FoH the same way, so for myself to say mine is better there is obviously some key difference. I hope you enjoy this section.
Combat Skills
1 point in every skill
20 points into Fist of Heaven’s
You might be asking yourself… why doesn’t he max holy shield? The reason is this… Holy Shield has a limit of 40% added block. If you put 1 point into Holy Shield you should be able to max your block just as easy as 20 points into Holy Shield. Therefore you should be WASTING 20 points on nothing.
Offensive Auras
1 point in every skill [ that includes Fanaticism ]
20 points into Holy Shock
Enough points to hit level 25 Conviction with gear on
I know you are thinking to yourself and saying, “YOU STUPID SPAWN!!! WHY DIDN’T YOU PUT 20 POINTS INTO CONVICTION!! LAWLERZ”. Well the joke is on you, this will be explained later in the Basic Strategy Section.
Defensive Auras
This is the section of my guide that separates it from 99% of other FoH guides.
Resist Fire gets 10 points
Resist Cold gets 5 points
Resist Lightning gets 20 points
If you do not know how these Auras work please read this. When you place 1 point into a Resist Aura such as Resist Lightning it will raise your max lightning resist by 1% when the aura is in use. When the aura is not in use you will get half the increase for points spent.
So if you spent 20 points on Resist Lightning your resist would cap out at 85%. And when you turn the aura on lightning resist will cap out at 95%.
How to use these auras will be later explained in the guide in the Basic Strategy section.
4. What items will I need to make a FoH?
Main Gear
Weapon: FoH stick 25/-25 lightning, +3 FoH, +3 Conviction, etc…
This will allow you to increase your lightning damage from Fist of Heaven’s
Shield: Up’d HoZ with 5/-5 facet
This will allow you to obtain max block while increasing your lightning damage to FoH, etc…
Helmet: Griffon’s Eye with 5/-5 facet
This will Help your lightning damage and increase your BO level.
Amulet: Mara’s
I prefer Mara’s amulet because it helps your BO level, and you should have no need for Grim Neck, or Arm. Slippers for Dex. If you think about it… 20 points of dex is equal to 60 life plus BO bonus. I feel the BO bonus from plus 2 to all skills is a much greater gain in life.
Armor: Enigma
This will allow teleport, Damage Reduction, Strength Bonus, and 5% more life
Belt: Arachnid
This will help your BO Bonus for life, FcR, and your damage.
Gloves: Blood Fist
FhR and 40 life… with IAS to help your smite later on…
Boots: Soul Spurs or Treks
I prefer soul spurs but Treks are pretty good. You can’t go wrong with using Treks. If you use the Treks you will give the Break Point of 50% FhR on a Paladin.
Rings: I prefer Raven and BK… some people like 2x BK..
This is definitely an option you can pick on your own… But you know what I prefer…
Charms
Paladin Torch
Anni.
9x Paladin Combat 45 Lifers
10x 20 lifer 5% resist Small Charms
Gear from Stash.
Grief Phase Blade
Crown of Ages [ ber ber]
Dungo Belt
Kira’s
4x Sapphire Paladin Shield
Up’d Hoz [ Um ]
Thunder Gods
Snow Clash
Hot Spurs
Dwarf Star Ring
Raven Ring
Wisp Ring
5. Basic Strategy
You should have noticed I did NOT max conviction. Here is the reason… There is something called Conviction Glitch. This Glitch allows you to cancel out someone’s Conviction even if their conviction level is higher.
Normally a Conviction level that is higher will overtake a lower level conviction. But by using this glitch you conviction will always cancel their conviction out. Let us say you have conviction hot keyed to the “F” key. And you have level 25 conviction going again level 38 conviction.
If you rapidly press your F key, it will cancel out your opponent’s conviction for as long as you press the button. I don’t know why this work… but it does… it is a useful tool in FoH vs FoH…
Another bit of advice I can give you is this.
You should have noticed I put 20 points into Resist Lightning. This will give you amazing Lightning Resist, but it will also help your damage on Holy Shock. With all the facet you have placed in your gear, you should be able to turn Holy Shock on and have charge read as 16K to 20K damage. This will be able to kill a wind druid in 3 hits from a charge.
You should never lose to an elemental based character. If you are dueling a lightning character, you can just turn your resist lightning aura on. And you will have 95% resist with sufficient stack to survive any lightning hit.
You should also be able to dominate fire based characters as well. If you place Hot Spurs on your FoH, you will receive a 15% boost in your fire resist. This goes hand in hand with the 10 points you spent on Resist Fire. You should receive a 5% boost in fire passively from these 10 points spent. This means when you equip hot spurs on your FoH you will have 95% Fire Resist.
Using this method you should realize that you have 85% lightning resist. This means when you place Thunder Gods on your FoH you will have 95% lightning resist… you can use the hot spurs and thunder gods at the same time to receive 95% lightning and fire at the same time. While still being able to stack for cold resist or leave your conviction aura on…
For Cold damage dealer you need to turn your aura on and place the snow clash belt on your character. This will give 95% cold resist, but you may need a Kira or your 4x Sapphire shield you made depending on a Cold Sorc’s Cold Mastery level.
You also have those 3 absorb ring. These can be switched in for a BK ring.
You also have a Grief, Dungo Belt, and CoA with 2x ber in it. This along with your Engima will give you over 50% damage reduction and very powerful smite and charge damage.
Since you are using an Up’d Hoz, your holy shock is powerful with charge, and you have the fanaticism aura you should be able to take a Druid or someone using a lot of sorb.
If you have put all of this gear on, you will still have 5K to 6K FoH damage.
This is my FoH build for the most part. Not all of the strategies are placed in the guide but I feel if you built a FoH unlike this guide like most people do. You are wasting your time.
Please do not max holy shield. Have Fun!!!