When It comes to Paladins in D2, there are two dominant builds.
#1 is a Hammerdin.

#2 is a Smiter.

Of course there's some room for debate, but these are generally accepted as the first and second best PVM pally builds in Diablo 2. The third, slightly less effective build is probably a basic sword and board 1hand melee pally running grief, zeal, and fana.

So what else is viable?

Auradin - I leveled a pally up to 80, expecting to wear 2x Dream runewords, Dragon armor, and a Hand of Justice weapon. The plan was to create a hybrid dual-aura HF+HS pally that I'd run with conviction. Unfortunately, I've been told this build is bad. Everyone has said it's more effective to focus on one aura or the other. I could create a grief Tesladin and focus on fast melee attacks or I could wear 3x HF aura runewords and focus on melting everything down with aoe pulse damage. For whatever reason, neither of these builds sound super appealing to me. There are two other builds I'm considering instead.

FOHer - In a word, Fist of the Heavens is bad. It's slow, it's clunky, it's hard to aim and maneuver with, it's only useful in a few extremely limited scenarios. I've heard it can be good for clearing massive packs of undead mobs, like those in the Chaos Sanctuary, but even then it's not a spectacular build.

2hand Charger - I've heard this is mostly a pvp build. You equip a big, slow, 1-hitter-quitter, charge, and pray for the one hit kill against a sorc or necro. It sounds like a fun build, but realistically it's just not very good in PVM. Controlling charge is awkward. The minimum range limitation is a problem. Getting locked in a zeal animation with a big, slow weapon is excruciatingly annoying. It's just not great.

Of the three side-spec options, which is the best? Auradin, FOHer, or 2hander? Is there anything else that I'm missing?
Thanks for the advice!

Foh smite hybrid i would say is "offmeta" but really good overall, also u can make a case to use Astreons mainhand which is cool

20 foh
20 holy bolt
20 smite
20 fana
20 holy shield

Gear you can do your typical caster with some CB in there... probably 75fcr with enigma, spirit ST, gface, gores, etc.

This post was edited by KKIINNGG on Oct 29 2025 08:20am

Foh/hammer

Avenger
Beardin

Auradin was OP when it first came out because they could Stack the Auras... Example of what I done on LoD SP / P8, using Merc wearing dream helm and myself only using 2 dreams (forget about the other aura, it is a waste of time and useless now) ... open up you merc and character screens, take the Dream helm from your merc and place it on your character and put that helm back on your merc, now repeat this starting from your merc to your character again... I did this like 150x before playing.

My build is a Zeal / Smiter (switch weapons base points) Conviction Aura build and maxed out my lightning res for more damage (think that is the synergy)

Typical Griefpb, Enigma, dream shield & helm, typical Highlords ammy, Ravenfrost, (CbF) and Dwarf I think, maybe a rare, Aldurs boots?... more fire res and of course LoH, forgot my belt.

Switch is the Shield that gives you life tap if I remember correctly (did not want to use Lastwish) ... forgot what my weapon was on switch... of course store a life tap wand in your Chest in your inventory.

Sure you can work out the rest... I got the best IAS bp for Zeal, I may have used String of Ears for Life steal, any way the skills are practically 20 Conviction, Holy Shield (did not max out because with high Dex, can reach max Block if I recall), Lightning Res, max out Zeal last, just get to 5 points at start and use synergies to increase damage... think that is the gist of it.

Oh, you can use fortitude on this build and not enigma, you just have to charge to get around faster. Just like the old Charge in Hammerdins....

I doubt you can stack aura like that in D2r, they fixed up things in LoD ... this still works in v12 of LoD.

Well goodluck, hope info helps, you will have to clean up my mistakes when building yours...

Pangolin. Is meta

Another vote for foh/hammer

https://forums.d2jsp.org/topic.php?t=107252327&f=148

Dont be totally wussy, make 2h Zealot and use Holy Freeze aura.

IK Maul + IK Armor + IK Gloves + IK Belt + IK Boots + Guillaumes Helm + Highlord + Ravenfrost + Melee Ring

+350 Strenght

Be the Boss !!

e: Act 2 Might Merc with Bulwark + Treachery + Obedience

This post was edited by TR0LLFACE on Nov 2 2025 11:38am

Ppl just don't like auradins cuz they got bm'd by one the first time they played pvp. Auradin on pvm is easy mode, in pvp you have to build it just right for it to be good against better duelers but most ppl fail at making them and are trash. I like it just fine and don't mind the ppl that cry about it.