Bump

Bump

Wow this post has been going on for so many years!!! I love this!

This is a great guide, and thanks for putting it together. I played D2 at release and zealot was always one of my favorite builds. Thunking things 5 times in a second just feels good.

When I returned to D2R I chose to go:
Gface with @ jewel
Schaefer 128 with IAS and ED jewel
Highlords
HOZ with Um
Treachery
Nos
LOH
Dual Leech Ring
Raven Frost
Gore Rider

I also dumped remaining points into holy shield and smite, and I can handle Ubers without much trouble (small sample size). I stay in zeal mode for Duriel and Izual and switch to smite starting with Lilith and the Ubers. I switch to:
Tgod belt for Meph, otherwise Dungos
Heaven's light shael/shael
Dracul's
Dwarf Star swap for dual-leech

Guide has been very helpful and glad I made the investment in a zealer/smiter for Uber work.

Hey mate, im building the shaftstop with eDeath and i was wondering if its worth to get more ias from a 15/40 jewel in the shako or smth, i think im missing the last breakpoint with these items
eDeath
Shako
eth Shaftstop
Alma negra
angelic set
20ias gloves

lmk what you think

Guessing it’s for pvp and it’s a ba death runeword. You need 60 ias so for shaft and death to work I’d go

Coa (2x Ed/ias jewels)
Death
Shaft
Exile
Highlords
Ravens
Upd gores
Verdungos
Ias gloves

Ar/life charms

You could swap out shaft for an Ed/ias jeweled Levi and use angelics with a raven as well. You’ll have more ar with this setup so can go dmg/ar/life scs.

Or just swap the death for an eth death cleaver and keep the rest of your setup the same and just swap the alma for exile when dueling other zealots and keep the alma for conc barbs and furies since those duels are non tap.

Great guide, have read before and worth bumping.

Something about a high level zealer with top AR/def is appealing.

And I love the ongoing battle between zealers and conc barbs (I have a conc barb in d2r; and a zeal, actually; they share equip...)

Anyway; anyone ever tried a telezeal?

I once used a zerk barb to great effect, and loved it. I switched to whirlwind in the end because I was serious about PvP and it was just that bit more effective. That said, the zerker was more satisfying, and there was something great about having the ability to one-shot a necro through his bone armour. Smiters were an example of a build that completely pulverised me, of course, and a zealot would finish me even more quickly.

Something that never occurred to me at the time was the idea of a turning it into a conc barb. Never seen a teleconc in PvP... Overall it would be less damage, but then it's uninterruptable and your defence improves... Wouldn't be so vulnerable. OK, it wouldn't make a difference versus smite, but still.

Anyway, it then occurred to me (as it has in the past) that a telezeal would be superior still, but I've never tried it. Just a worse version of telesmite? Perhaps, or perhaps not? Zeal is blockable but hits quicker, and with more damage per shot, and it doesn't knock back the opponent. It also leeches, for example, from summons, and like smite is uninterruptable. Downsides; takes longer to finish hit cycle, subject to block/ar etc...

This post was edited by Strategist on Nov 2 2021 10:13pm

Thank you! I love that sharing equipment is built into the game now. Probably my favorite improvement in d2r. I haven’t really done a ton of telezeal myself but there is a good guide on one: https://forums.d2jsp.org/topic.php?t=71278931&f=87

Definitely need to go the budget option as visionaries aren’t really usable yet on d2r. Zerk barbs are fun. Zeal is better than smite vs vita casters but smite is of course better vs mb. In pub games they’re mostly mb though so zeal does have trouble but it’s still a viable option.

This post was edited by dark-soul on Nov 2 2021 11:07pm

Great, thanks, I'll have a read.