[1a] Basic Notes on Skills:
FoH: Put this always on Left Click Hotkeys. If you left click near the opponent in "space" it will Auto Target the Opponent and Hit it. NL isn't necessary for Foh.
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[2] The Desynch Hammer Tutorial
Written By Jeebus666
This guide shall not be reproduced without written concent from me.
This is a step by step picture guide on how to perform and use desy hammers.
[1] What is Desy Hammers?
Its a technique that can be performed by any hammerdin varient for a paladin. This technique utlilizes Charge and either vigor or concentraion, and has the ability of making your paladin move faster than the d2 server can read and refresh on your opponents screens. Thus making you become invisible when moving. During this invisibility phase, if you cast hammers as you go, some of them will also become invisible.
[2] Why do i care about this?This is a great technique for pvp. You gain the ability of sneak attacks and much better movement. With a few hotkey modifications and practice, you too can make your paladin perform 100% better. I know this because my liberator never used to do this and i wasn't too sure how this was even done. Well it took some time and once i made the switch, i noticed that i was winning alot more then before, and getting killed alot less in pvp. This is also a great way to perform an offensive hammer attack.
Time for the step-by-step instructions
Step 1: Get your Paladin
Step 2: Press Escape Key, and go to Options
Step 3: When in Options, Go to Configure Controls
Step 4:When in Configure Controls, Change Hotkeys. Skill 1-8. Just click on the current Hotkey and press the coorisponding letters.
When all Hotkeys are Set, Hit Accept.
Step 5: Suggested Hotkey Placement.
Z = Hammer
X = Charge
C = Concentration
V = Vigor
S = Conviction
A = Foh
D = Teleport
Q = Smite
F1 = Holyshield
F2 = Battle Orders
F3 = Battle Command
W = Weapon Switch
E = Show Stat Screen
F4 = Meditation
F5 = Cleansing
B = Oak Sage (if necessary, pick another hotkey)
Note: Skill setup may vary, depending on preference and acutal paladin builds.[/SIZE]
Step 6: To Desy, Hold Shift Key, Then press X (charge) and Left Click, Your paladin should now be moving around the screen with charge on.
While in mid charge, Press Z (hammer) and Do not let go of shift or Left Click.
This will drop a hammer or two
Then immediately after, press X again for Charge, and repete this over and over.
This can be done with either Concentration or Vigor.
And remember, keep holding Shift key, and using Left click. Then just switch between charge hotkey and hammer hotkey for best results.
and use mana pots when needed
If you use Concentration, you may not be desy'ing every time you charge, but you could just be moving super fast.
If you use Vigor you will desy more often.
If you initially are using Vigor and Charge, Then when placing a hammer use conc. This will give you desy movement, and still maintain consistant hammer damage when attacking.
Inorder for hammer to maintain that 10k+ damage that we all love, you must keep on conc. So..... Its up to you which method or techinque you use with the auras.
Step 7:Get on the realms, and have fun with your paladin!
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[3] Class Specific Dueling:
Amazon:
vs. Bow
Do not Run, Do not Try to Desy. Running makes it worse and guided arrow will hit more. Instead, Teleport away, then towards the zon in a sparatic manner, large half circle, or zig zags. This will get u in close enough to do some sort of attack. Next in mid teleport, see what direction the zon is shooting the arrows from. Try to Teleport Either On the zon (to start hammering) or on the opposite side of the zon (to place an Foh). If you land right on top of the zon, it may start to run away from you, in which case you have Foh. Foh the zon once, it puts it into stun then proceed to teleport / hammer it. But keep in mind, do not Run around. Teleport only. If you must run, use Charge + Vigor and get away (3-4 screens away). Then Start in on your attack again using teleport. Dont be afraid to teleport away, then teleport back to attack. I do that often. Sometimes its to regroup your ideas and tactics and then begin again. With practice a Bow zon isn't that hard to kill.
If you find yourself still getting killed alot by this guided arrow zon, Try plan b. Put on a Grief phase or zerk, And some Dr (stormshield or coa) and telport untill you get close enough, then CHARGE them untill they are dead. Play with your gear to find out how u can get 75 or 125 fcr, Dr, skills and then you end up with a Judicator build also. Charge + Hammer + FOh + Smite. The zon wont know whats going on, most paladins are one dimensional, either they charge the zon, Hammer the zon, Foh the zon, or Smite the zon. But hardly ever do the usual amazon see a paladin use 4 Skills together. This also suprises the zon and makes you very unpredictable.
Difficulity: ****/***** (4/5)
vs. Charged Strike (CS)
If you can prepare before this duel, do so. Put on a T.Gods, Lo's and get 95% resist Lightning. This is manditory. It makes your life much easier. Now their silly lightning wont do anything to you. You can smite / charge / hammer / foh it and kill it. Its up to you how u attack it. Legit Farcast, or the Hacked Farcast, Once you get your resist on, this duel is a piece of cake.
If you dont have your resist on. Start praying. There are an overwheming number of Hacked Farcasters out there that will kill you if your not carefull. Since they love to use this hack, just fight back, use as much lightning resist / absorb as you want. If they whine and cry about it. Remind them of the TOS of battle.net about the "thou shall not hack" clause and be done with it.
Difficulity: */***** (1/5)
vs. Poison Javelin
Stay out of the range of the poison jav's and just sit back and hammer/Foh them to death. They should not get near you that often, and you can easily escape them. Foh should kill them fairly easily.
Difficulity: */***** (1/5)
Assassin:
vs. Lightning Trap
This can be a tricky duel if your not carefull. But usually you will prevail. Just like the CS Zon put on your Light resist if you can and prepare to stack them. Desy movement in and out of their trap fields and spam Foh at them. Usually it should take 3-4 Foh's to kill them. If you find a opening where they are running/or stopped mindblasting you. Just tele and hammer them. This usualy will kill them failry easily. If you still have difficulties, put on Greif / And Light resist (dr isn't necessary, they deal 90% lightning damage/10%physical from MB). Charge / smite them to death.
Trappers have great mobility, hard to hit somtimes and are crafty little characters. Beware of mindblast, it can lock you into stun and it cannot be teleporte out of easily. Instead, Desy with Vigor and Charge the OPPOSITE way she is facing, (ie; the direction the mind blast is PUSHING you) This will almost always get you out of mindblast and then you can go , regroup and plan your attack again.
Difficulity: ***/***** (3/5)
vs. Fire Trap
Fire Traps DO hurt, but they wont hurt you anymore if you put on your Fire resist stuff. Unlike the Light trapper, fire trappers main objective is to "stun" you so much that you simply cannot run / walk / teleport or move out of their stun locks. They use WoF and MB to stun you, and may cast some WoI to do damage. Beware and be alert, do not get caught in their stun locks, for you may not live. Foh is your friend here, Foh them from a distance. They are not as difficult as a Light trapper, but could prove annoying more then anything.
Difficulity: **/***** (2/5)
vs. Ghost/WW
Make Hammer fields, and keep moving using teleport. Just like a Bowzon or a Barb with WW, if you run you will get hit alot more. If you use your desy tactics you should be in good shape. Also remember to Foh along the way, Foh will kill them alot, as will your hammers. They should not win much if at all vs you. Now there is always an exception, but never the less, You have the definite advantage.
Their main source of damage is Poison from the skill Venom. You can use a Jade Tan Do Dagger if you want, this thwarts all poison damage and Makes you practically immune to a WW Sin.
Difficulity: */*****(1/5)
Barbarian:
vs. BvC
Similar to a bow zon, dont necesarly "run" around tons. Plan your movements before he teleports / leaps and trys to attack you with ww. If you see any puddles in BM, stand next to it so your back is facing the direction your being pushed back by leap. Spam hammers now, If he tries to tele / ww you he can only go in 2 directions, not 4+. So he has less of a target range to hit you. If he chooses to stand near you for a while, he will die by hammer. If he moves away to leap or w/e again, Foh him and move around a little incase your being pushed back. Regroup and attack again. If he pulls out a widowmaker, play a little more offensively but not tons. If you see him shooting treat it like a bowzon for a VERY short time. Then go back to playing like its a barb again. Hammers owns most barbs period. No way around it. WW is short attack range, hammers can be palced and you move to safety. But their damage is quite strong if you get hit, and it sometimes isn't easy to duel a good BvC. Thats why its a 3/5 stars.
Difficulity: ***/*****(3/5)
vs. BvB
These guys are really pointless in reality. They excell at dueling other melee (except smite) and since you are neither melee nor another barb, you should have no problems, Refer back to the tactics of the BvC its the same principle. BvB will hit you alot less (only one weapon usualy and a SS, unlike dual axe BvC). Should be fairly easily to win (also since its BvB it has horrible resist, foh would kill it quickly)
Difficulity */*****(1/5)
vs. Singer (Warcry)
This barb deals physical damage and has the same cast rate as a sorc. Beware of its locks if you get hit. But usually this duel isn't a problem. If you get hurt alot, put on Dr. And problem solved. Refer back to basic dueling strats and bvc strat, should do the trick.
Difficulity */*****(1/5)
Druid:
vs. Wind
Windies are the Hardest for a mage to duel, hands down. The basic principle to killing one sounds great on paper, but actually doing it is entirelly differnet. The object is to kill wolves/bear then either teleport on it, hammer, move away, do it again untill dead. Or spam hammer and desy / teleport around, killing wolves and hopefuly hitting it. Sounds easy right? Its not. Its extremly difficult. Windies can just recast oak / wolves / bears as often as they want, The wolves take 99.9% of the hits if it lands near your hammers and will 99.9% of the time miss the druid entirelly. Tornadoes are physical damage, you may need Dr for this.
An alternative way to kill one is using Dr + Hammer / smite and charge. (oh yea, foh is useless unless you want to take out the oak). Setup a hammer field when the druid comes near you NL smite him. This turns into a 50/50 battle. Overall there is no Easy way for a mage to kill a druid. If played at your best druids win 60/40.
Difficulity *****/*****(5/5)
vs. Fire
Simiar to a Windy, but less dangerous and plays more defensive always. Not likely to move around tons because of the enormus recast rate on the attacks. For this get on Anti physical gear + Fire resist. You "should" be able to teleport / hammer him to death. Although i have not seen a "top notch" one of these since the days of .10 and a druid named FWI, if you see one, it probably will not be good and should be defeated easily. Use basic's of the mage attacks, and yes, volcano / arrmeggeddon hurts, dont be fooled.
Diffiulcity: **/*****(2/5)
vs. Wolf/Fury/Rabies
Its a wolf, its a melee, it can't teleport. = Hammer and Foh when necessary. No Troubles unless you somehow get hit....(yea they hurt if u dont have dr gear on)
Difficulity */*****(1/5)
vs. Bear/Fireclaw
Its a big fuzzy wuzzy Bear that deals fire damage. it runs slower then a wolf, looks awkward but will kill you if it hits you a few times. Just use hammer / movements and Foh. Should not be too hard.
Difficulity */*****(1/5)
Paladin:
vs. V/T
Aka Vincicator / Templar AKA Smite / Foh. If you have some stack on your mage, you will be fine, These guys generally have Low Foh and it will not hurt you too bad. If you want, put on stack / absorb but not necessary. These guys use grief weapons which means charge can kill too. Its mostly a melee character, Thus your hammer should take it out. Foh will Damage +Draw him either INTO your hammers or AWAY. If he comes into your hammers after you foh him, just head south casting hammers along the way (using desy +movement and /or teleport). If you notice Foh really lay the smack down on it, kill it with foh, But usualy you want a protective field of hammers so you wont get hit as bad. You should win this duel the vast majority of the time.
Difficulity: ***/*****(3/5)
vs. Templar
Aka Pure Foh. If your not prepared, this is deadly vs you. You need to get on Lightning resistance and over do it a little. Somewhere around 300+ Total LR from gear and charms IS necessary to take successive hits from a pure foher. The best way to kill them is 95% Max (with t.gods) and 300+ Stack. So after their conviction hits you, you still have 95% LR. Be cautious, they may whip out a grief, if you hop on top of them and start to hammer they may bust out a smite or two and significantly hurt you or even kill you. (thats leaning more towards a T/V build). But if you identify a pure Foher from a Mage/ V/t or T/V they are super easy to counter. Its really a one dimensional char built for 1-2 hit Ko's. If you stop that from happening. They are dead meat.
Difficulity: **/*****(2/5)
vs. T/V
Aka Templar / Vindicator AKA Foh / Smite. This is the opposite of a V/T. This focuses more on Foh and less on smite. If you can stop the Foh (like a anti templar setup) this is extremely easy to beat, the smite is watered down alot. So you can use your hammer fields, foh him to draw him in. But i would not reccommend Teleporting on it, smite will still hurt.
Difficulity: **/*****(2/5)
vs. Hammerdins
The name says it all. They cast hammers. Unresistable, unabsorbable, and they hurt alot if you get hit. Lucky for you, you have FOH! and they dont. Dont hesistate to use this often. Most Pure Hdins do NOT have Light resist and do not expect a paladin like yourself to even use Foh (after they see you casting hammers). This is a battle which takes much time to get used to dueling. The basic basic tactic is to "hammer in places they have not been in yet, and are moving towards". This makes the hammers "desy" and become IBH. Then when they go to that area in an attempt at better field position, they get hit once or twice. If they teleport alot, and try to teleport on you, just charge with conc on, and head south casting hammers. They wont win, Hammers fly out from the backside and they will get hit really easily. Like always, if you see any openings with FOh, use it.
This build can also compete with those competitive world of HvH duels that people love so much. It has the same hammer damage as those Pure hammer guys you see (which makes me wonder what do those pure hammer guys put the extra pts into????).
Difficulity: ****/*****(4/5)
vs. Zealots
Its melee, its zeal, they could charge / smite too....not a threat towards you by any means, you have hammers / and foh, use em, they wont last long.
Difficulity */*****(1/5)
vs. C/V
AKA crusader/vindicator AKA Charge/Smite. This build is great...great for killing other things besides mages that is. Hammer fields and they should not hit you hardly at all. Foh while inside the hammer fields. To damage +draw them in. Like all characters, the smite will hurt if you get hit. As will their charge. Just use the hammer / foh tactics and you should be fine.
Difficulity: **/*****(2/5)
vs. Mage
Not really something you see...since there is so little of this build around. But if you do see one, they will be just as suprised to see you, as you are to see them. Foh him as as "tester" if you see the foh hurt, he doesn't have resist. (HINT HINT).... If it doesn't hurt him at all, looks like you got a hammer v hammer duel to play. Treat it like a hammerdin for the most part. But beware of his foh. If you got some stack on, it should not really hurt you that bad. Its basicaly a hammer v hammer duel.
Difficulity ****/*****(4/5)
vs. Liberator
AKA Charge/Hammer/Smite. The charge / smite should not hit you if you play in a defenive manner. Treat it basicaly like a Hammer v hammer duel, just be aware of the charge / smite. if you get too open, your open for a HIT from his charge / smite and could die. Use Foh and Hammer to win. If you can make his charge/smite totaly useless you have the upper hand. And more then likely he will resist your Foh. Thus its a HvH duel all over again.
Difficulity ****/*****(4/5)
vs. Vanquisher
AKA Smite/hammer/Charge. Dont see many of these at all. Treat it just like a liberator, only a vanq's smite hurts ALOT worse.
Difficulity: ****/*****(4/5) (In theory, since i dont think ive ever seen one of these thats effective, reality for a vanquisher is about 3/5 or even 2/5.)
vs. Smiter
Its melee, its unblockable....dont get hit. You have hammers and Foh he just has smite (and charge). Hammer fields, Foh. Should not be too difficult
*Difficulity: **/***** (2/5)
Necromancer:
vs. Bone
vs. Poison
vs. Bone w/Revives/Skel
vs. Poison w/Revies/Skel
Sorceress:
vs. Fire Ball
vs. Blizzard
vs. Orb
vs. Lightning
vs. ES FB/Orb/Lightning
Overall Effectiveness (If played right) Compared to Other Paladins:
*****/***** (5/5)
Reason: Super big threats: (in order of difficulity)
1. Wind Druid
2. Bone Necros (Very good ones)
3. Bow Zons (Very good ones)
(NOTE: WILL FINISH DUEL STRATS LATER>>)
That means you can kill approx 98% Of all opponents.
This paladin is fully capable of killing anyone if played correctly and effectively. Ive tried just about all the paladin builds there are, and by far Mage is my most winningest Paladin ive ever made.
This post was edited by Jeebus666 on Mar 31 2012 06:25pm