The Convictionist

What is a convictionist?
The convictionist is a Paladin dealing mainly elemental damage. To increase this kind of damage he uses conviction, to deal the damage faster he uses zeal.
Because of the combination of physical and elemental damage the convictionist is a paladin who doesn't care about any immunes.

open wounds (ow):
Open wounds is dealing damage over 8seconds caused by a hit with a melee weapon (including bows)
Open wounds stack , one open wound per hit is max theres no cap but over 100% is useless.
Damage per second is given by the following:
Character Level 1-15: 25 * (9 * Character Level + 31) / 256
Character Level 16-30: 25 * (18 * Character Level - 104) / 256
Character Level 31-45: 25 * (27 * Character Level - 374) / 256
Character Level 46-60: 25 * (36 * Character Level - 779) / 256
Character Level 61-99: 25 * (45 * Character Level - 1319) / 256
Example: lvl 99 char: 25*(45*99-1319)/256 = 306,25dmg/sec*8 = 2450dmg over 8seconds

deadly strike (ds) and critical strike (cs):
Deadly strike and critical strike (cs) work the same way and stack but can't be triggered at the same time.
Deadly strike stack and has no caps but all over 100% is also a waste.
ds and cs give the chance to make double damage.
Real chance to do double damage = Critical Strike + (Deadly Strike / 100) * (100 - Critical Strike)
Example 1: 80%ds = 80%chance of double damage
Example 2: 80%cs = 80%chance of double damage
Example 3: 80%ds + 20%cs = 20+(80/100)*(100-20) = 84%chance of double damage

crushing blow (cb):
Crushing blow drain life of an enemy.
Crushing blow stack, has also no cap but more than 100% is useless.
Out of the calculation you'll see cb is more effective in a p1 game.
100% /( 2*(Amount of players+1)) = life drain in percent of CB
Example: 3players in a game and 90%cb Monster with 10k life: 100%/(2*(3+1) = 12,5% = 1250 life

Block & Faster hit recovery (FHR):
Block: Can be increased by the mod: deflecting (15/10 or 30/20) and dexterity (max block is 75%).
Block-Lock: This means that the char stops his attack to block the enemy ones. The Paladin blocks the attack, this is called block animation.
The length of such an animation depends on the faster block rate (FBR), which will benefit from holy shield. The higher the FBR the shorter the block animation.


Faster hit recovery:
Fhr means the time your char need to recover himself from a hit he couldn't block.
A Stun attack (losing 1/12 of the own life) is called a heavy attack and you'll lose the orientation (the actual stun).
The higher the fhr the faster your char will find the orientation again.


Resistance:
In Hell we start with -100% resistance, to reach 75%@all, we need 175% resistance from our equipment.
If your doing the anya quest you'll get +10% to all resistance , so you for 75%@all we "only" need 145% to all resistance from our equipment.

Attributes:
A paladin starts with these base attributes:

Per character level a paladin gets 2 life points, 1 stamina point and 1,5 mana points
Per point in Vitality a paladin gets 3 life points and 1 stamina point.
Per point in energy a paladin gets 1,5 mana points.
Strength is only for our equipment. The physical damage is rising by 1% per point (1,1% @ hammers), maxing it wouldn't be worth it.
Dexterity helps us getting max block and is raising the attack rating.
All left over stat points will be used in Vitality for a healthy boy.
Energy won't get even 1 point, because the convictionist will be able to leech his mana need.

Skills:
Combat skills:
Sacrifice: Synergy of zeal -20points
Zeal: Our main attack, but we don't need to max it. Per point Sacrifice we'll get a 12% damage bonus. From level 4 upwards is the maximum of 5 hits reached and we get a minimal damage bonus. -4+ with equipment for hybrid / 20points for physical build
Holy Shield: The Block booster. At lvl 16+ the block chance isn't rising constantly anymore. -16points with equipment / 20points for smite-hybrid
Smite: Only useful for the smite-hybrid build -0 or 20points
Charge: We move with charge like electric man. -1point

Offensive auras:
Conviction: The main aura of the Convictionist. It's decreasing the enemies resistance and defense. -25points with qeuipment
Fanaticism: Only useful for the smite-hybrid build -0 or left over

Defensive auras:
Resist fire/cold/lighting: every second point in on of these is passive lifting up your max fire/cold/lighting resistance by 1 -this is optional as much as you want
Cleansing: Decreases the time of poison and curses (very good for party play). Not a must -1point
Vigor: Increases the movement speed of the avenger and his party. Vigor+Charge is the fastest way to rush w/o enigma for us. Also not a must -1point
Redemption: Gets life and mana out of dead enemies (good party aura, don't use if summoner is in game ^^). Also not a must -1point
Salvation: The 4th and last synergy for vengeance, it does not increase the damage that much. -0-1point
Note: A pure convictionist is skilled out at a very early level. This allows us to create many ways of hybrids. The Smite-Hybrid is just one of many more.

Equipment:
What should we look for at the equipment?
-High elemental Damage
-Max attack speed (google titan seal ias calculator for this calculation)
-Life leech
-Mana leech
-Can not be frozen mod
-High block chance
-Faster hit recovery (48/86 should be reached)
-Resistance
-Damage reduce
-Life
-Mana
-Defense
-Strength
-Dexterity
-Bit of physical damage (ow,cb for Smite-hybrid)

Example Equipments:

Expensive Smite-Hybrid:
Weapon1: Famine berserker axe
Weapon2: Grief phase blade
Shield1: Griswold's Honor 'um-2xrbf'
Shield2: Herald of Zakarum 'um'+upped
Helm: Guillaume's face 'shael'
Boots: Goblin toe
Gloves: Lava Gout
Armor: Duress
Belt: Thundergod's vigor
Rings: raven frost / dual leech ring
Amulet: Highlord's wrath
Charms: Combat skillers,elemental damage,Annihilus, Hellfire torch
5/5/5/5/10 Frames per attack/4.16 attacks per second - zeal
6 frames per attack/4.16 attacks per second - smite
90fhr (86cap)
75%cb



The Griswold's Legacy build:
Griswold's set has a high amount of sockets + good stats on it.
Socking the set with damage boosting items make this a very viable option.
Also Griswold's Redemption allow you to hit the max attack speed.

Weapon: Griswold's Redemption '4xshael'
Shield: Griswold's Honor '3xrbf'
Armor: Griswold's Heat '3xrbf'
Helmet: Griswold's Valor 'rbf+shael'
Belt: Thundergod's vigor
Gloves: Lava Gout
Boots: Infernostride
Amulet: Highlords wrath
Rings: raven frost/dual leech
Charms: Combat skillers,elemental damage,Annihilus, Hellfire torch
4/4/4/4/8 frames per attack/5.2 attacks per second
50fhr (48cap)

Cheap Smite-Hybrid:
Weapon1: Glimmershred
Weapon2: Black Flail
Shield1: Griswold's Honor '2xperfect diamond-rbf'
Shield2: Herald of Zakarum 'perfect diamond'
Helmet: Guillaume's face 'perfect ruby'
Gloves: Laying of hands
Belt: Thundergod's vigor
Armor: Treachery
Boots: Goblin toe
Amulet: Highlord's wrath
rings: raven frost/dual leech
Charms: elemental damage
5/5/5/5/10 Frames per attack/4.16 attacks per second - zeal
6 frames per attack/4.16 attacks per second - smite
50fhr (48cap)
100%cb (on smite switch)



Pure Convictionist:
Weapon: Famine berserker axe
Shield: Griswold's Honor '3xrbf'
Helmet: Nightwing's veil 'rbfl'
Armor: Duress
Gloves: Lava gout
Belt: Thundergod's vigor
Boots: Infernostride
Amulet: Highlord's wrath
rings: raven frost/dual leech
Charms: Combat skillers,elemental damage,2x5fhr,Annihilus, Hellfire torch
5/5/5/5/10 Frames per attack/4.16 attacks per second
50fhr (48cap)

The Mercenaries:
First of all theres no "perfect" choice between act1 and act 2 mercenaries.
Act 1 mercenary uses a bow what can give us an big advantage.
If your planing to use act 2 mercenary, the holy frost (nightmare defensive) is a pretty good choice.
Also the defiance aura (normal defensive, must be normal to reach lvl 18 aura = 240% enhanced defense)


Act 1 mercenary:
The hireling's items should have:
-Life leech
-High attack speed
-Resistance
-Can not be frozen mod
-Supporting aura

The best weapon would be faith because it allows the use of fanaticism aura while wearing = max attack speed on our convictionist, but also other weapons are valid.

Example mercenary act 1:
Weapon: Faith blade bow level 14-15 aura (-10 base speed)
Armor: ethereal Duriel's shell '15ias jewel' upped
Helmet: Vampire gaze '15ias jewel'


Act 2 mercenary:
The hireling's items should have:
-Life leech (>10%)
-Resistance
-High Attack speed
-Can not be frozen mod
-Damage reduce

Since we are using conviction, I prefer the holy freeze mercenary which is, who guessed, is freezing your enemies and making it easier to survive.

Example mercenary act2:
Weapon: ethereal Reapers toll '15/40 jewel'
Helmet: Vampire gaze '15ias jewel'
Armor: ethereal Treachery

is this a troll attempt?

no it's a guide of a very good pvm char.

tl;dr but wouldn't a doom ba be better with synergized holy freeze?

best build for elemental damage pvm build is probably

phase blade ( 6 x light rbf )
eni
arach
dream shield
dream helm
2 pala 18 fcr amu
ik gloves
fcr amu
raven
ik boots

Or if u wanna use conviction on merc and holy shock as main aura

phase blade ( 6 x light rbf )
eni
dungo
Spirit
Griffon ( 5/5 facet )
2 pala 15 fcr amu
lava gaut
fcr amu
raven + bk
gores

This post was edited by Jeebus666 on Sep 11 2011 04:10pm

pvm conv zealer is gg indeed man
even for start of ladder

people only look at lower the resists and chance for remove immune

no one ever thinks about how much defense it kicks off of a monster in pvm

you will always hit with a zeal

Also a very team friendly build for the start of a ladder especially.