I'm making a VT Paladin.

I'm have trouble finding a affordable ST Pheonix and Spirit.

Would a Vortex pheonix and spirit be okay? Or does it 100% have to be ST?

for a smiter/foh using a vortex pheonix or any pheonix for d2 is the wrost items to use for a smiter or a smiter/foh..

phoenix has a 40% chance to cast firestorm on striking and it will interrupt your attack sequence.

just use ev exile on the smiter/foher

a better option is just a pure smiter they can kill anything(casters or melee ez just depends if your good or not) as people will just sorb your foh and laugh at you

I didn't know Phoenix was bad for a smiter.

I see a lot of guys use them.

I'll keep that in mind. Thanks for the advice

to be clear you are playing d2 legacy right if your playing d2r then it does not apply as they removed the firestorm interrupt and it would make the more powerful smiter vs a legacy d2 smiter build

as the guy above stated, they tweaked the firestorm to not interrupt smite anymore so its essentially the highest dmg shield

st just gives the best block. ull spend more dex for a vortex to get mb, its a bad base for block.

only advantage of vortex is high def and def doesnt matter for smite

Because people are dumb.