Introduction

The Vindicator/Inquisitor is a hybrid paladin that uses high damage Smite (Vindicator) for close range and high dmg Holy Fire aura (Inquisitor) to tick opponent's life away and force them to play differently.

This build is very good in both BM and GM (depending what you consider to be GM) and should be able to beat any class depending on gear and play skill. It has some similarities with the V/T and has smite vs smite in stash. This build is pretty high cost so expect at least a few thousand FG worth of items. The cost has no real ceiling but you don't have to have the godliest gear to be a threat either.

It's much better vs all than any pure auradin build and you will easily beat the cookie cutter auradins, plus you enjoy all the benefits that an auradin may posess with none of the flaws. I chose this name to differentiate from the cookie cutter builds that you often see. It has a unique playstyle that requires a few hotkeys but is easier to play than a pure V/T. All else equal, the V/I can beat the V/T but it depends on play skill and gear since it's almost a mirror match, with the V/I being easier to pilot in my opinion. This is by far the best Holy Fire paladin build for PVP that I've encountered and I go way back to the glitch aura days, nothing comes close.

This is an update to a guide I've written in the past. I have changed the way I play quite a bit and have gone to more of a smite heavy approach. This is partially due to grief being banned vs zon in DFC and other formats. The previous version of this guide I had was really reliant on grief for smite damage and so I've adapted it to add more points into holy shield. As of this post this is my current build:

- On my current V/I (Morpheus) I'm lvl 99 and with main gear and cube bo I have:

4457 life
75 block
46 DR
86 FHR
95 FR/80 LR/75 CR/75 PR
230+all res
cbf
50 fcr bp

- The off screen smite dmg calc is exactly the same as smiter, 460% hf dmg from synergy
- in stash I keep dragon for when I want lvl 44 holy fire aura

cube bo

Stats
Max block and max life are the goal here so:

Strength: None. If you can't afford good enough +stat gear to equip everything I would say don't go for hybrid builds. You should be able to equip COA. Enigma in stash

Dexterity: Put the bare minimum to achieve max block.

Vitality: After you got max block put the rest in here.

Energy: None. Charging can use up a lot of mana so if you need more mana get it from charms/ring.

Skills

The goal with skills is to get the highest possible smite with the highest possible aura dmg from dragon, with a few 1 point wonder skills as well. Most of the dmg comes from Grief. This build is far superior to any cookie cutter auradin build vs a great number of match ups.

Smiter Skills:
Smite: Max
Holy Sheild: 19 pts (you can trim from hs or smite whichever you prefer)
Fanaticism: Max
Fist of the Heavens: 1 pt

Auradin Skills:
Resist Fire: Max (synergy for Holy Fire) +420% HF dmg
Salvation: 4 pts
Conviction: 12 pts (you'll get 25 with cube bo and +3conv HOJ caddy)

Other skills:
Holy Freeze: 1 point (good option to flash this vs smiters)
Prerequisites: 1 point

Gear:

Here's the fun part of the build, the gear!



Main Gear

Helms: CoA chamber
Armors: Enigma MP
Weapons: Grief PB/HoJ Caddy +3convic (this will give you lvl 25 convict on hoj side)
Sheilds: Dragon Sacred Targe +45 res/Pheonix with 45 res
Belts: Dungos
Gloves: trangs
Boots: Shadow Dancers
Rings: FCR rings
Amulet: 2pally/20fcr/life or dex
Inventory: Torch, anni, Pcomb lifers and 20 life/res sc (I like 4 pcombs and the rest 20 life/res)
Cube: 6bo CTA caddy with cleansing, arach, bk's

Stash:

Helms: fcr hats, berber coa, kiras, shako, 2x fire facet coa, 15 ias coa
Armors: Dragon Dusk Shroud
Weapons: Hand of Justice Ettin/Zerk, Grief Zerk (vs Barb/Sin/ HDin), 4x um gris caddy
Sheilds: Pheonix with +65% ED (smite vs smite), 35 fcr Spirit with +res (for tele smite), Exile,
Belts: Tgod's, String of Ears
Gloves: Trangs, dracs
Boots: Marrowwalks, Waterwalks, Tri res etc
Rings: Dwarf, Wisp, FCR rings, Nature's Peace, Raven,
Amulet: Ammy with tele charges, PLR ammy, cold res ammy

Match Ups

This will be somewhat brief but give me your feedback as I am always open to criticism. I would like to improve the build and guide as much possible.

Pally

Hdin: not easy but if you play well you can beat a good Hdin
Smite or V/T: basically a mirror match with some nuance, beatable but playskill important
Auradin: phoenix is enough to counter their build but you can stack res, holy freeze and charge them down, smite foh telestomp
FOH: mostly easy but if they are good kiras with salv is enough stack, wisp/tgods helps also
Mage: hard match up but not impossible

Barb
WW: hard match up for barb, if they use doom you can grab dragon from stash and put them on a clock

Druid

Nado: one of the hardest match ups but aura kills their oak, bear is annoying but you just have to learn how to not click on it when smiting (my fav set up vs this is grief dragon dragon with tele ammy if you wanna stomp)

Fire Druid: by far the hardest match up if the rules ban you from using phoenix, otherwise you have 95 res with phoenix on. still hard but not impossible

Sorc

Blizz: can be a hard match up but with kiras, cold ammy, 1 raven 20/11's.

Others: use appropriate res and fcr

Amazon

Tele Bowa: grief is banned vs zon in DFC so I use 4x um gris caddy and smite to apply ow and tele away come back when they're low just ping with aura

Jav: smite makes this match up ez

Assasins

Trapper: ez match up

WW/hybrid sin:= really depends on the sin but usually i want tgods, spirit, max block, cbf

Necromancers

Bone Nec: go 125 fcr and nature's peace

Poison Nec: not as hard as bone nec but use plr ammy/boots and cleansing when psnd

This post was edited by Aurasmiter on Feb 10 2026 07:42pm

What about vs a hurricane druid using doom, nightwings, & having a conviction infinity merc. They do more cold dmg then physical.

Well merc is bm and nobody plays that build in gm pvp, im sure someone out there has made it viable i would have to test it. But I think if you stack cold res with 1 raven you should be alright.

30fcr.... Arach not even mentioned.

Some parts are nice, but overall the guide does not make the V/T as good as they can be.

If trapsin is considered ez matchup, then i wonder what type of assa you play vs? All they have to do is to constantly swamp abuse, your charge wont land, ur fcr wont help you.... It super annoying to play vs even with 75fcr/86fhr builds.

The reason why ele druid becomes hard in ur Match up list is because you lack fcr. Barbs are easely contrallable with some fcr as well.
Jav is easy because d2r people restricted all poison by rules.
A wwsin/hybrid should be way easier than pure trap for VT.
Bone nec is very easy with 75fcr.... but with 30fcr it becomes a messy duel where you lack control because of lacking in the fcr department.

75fcr is usually best vs all, even vs other smiters and barbs...

This post was edited by gel87 on Mar 12 2026 03:46am

Arach's in my cube as you can read in the guide. All your arguments about fcr are invalid because I have 125 fcr and 75 fcr set ups and I use them often. The build doesnt lack anything. Learn to count trangs +fcr rings and 20 fcr ammy is 60 fcr. 50 is plenty for pubs.

It's VT with better match up vs druid. I can use 75 fcr with Enigma or I can just put on dragon armor if I don't feel the need to tele. Druid can be hard depending on the pilot but I dont think VT does any better vs a good druid.

My first DFC match was vs trapsin which I won 4-0. Fought another trapsin who brought in a huge swap just because my build is hard for them. He won that match but I just would have to make some adjustments to make it back in my favor, he came ptepared.

This post was edited by Aurasmiter on Mar 12 2026 04:05pm

*prepared

it wont let me edit anymore

Also I have played vs a lot of the top current assasin players. Enigma, Moon, Rizal, Squiggs, usually hybrids do better vs me than trap. The fire aura is big problem for them and if they stack res and sorb I can swap to higher foh dmg. Most VT have problems vs trapper but the aura is a game changer in the match up. Those players I mentioned are better than me but I can still do well vs them. Ive only dueled squiggs a couple times and he was DFC champ. Moon beat me 4-1 in DFC but like i said he prepared well, theory crafting for 10 hours before our duel and he is a very good trapsin main, I have a plan for the rematch if we ever do one.

This post was edited by Aurasmiter on Mar 12 2026 04:52pm