It's been like over 10+ years since i've played d2 so please bear with me and my noob questions :)

1. if i'm a charger main, is zeal or smite better as a backup attack? (e.g. against ww barbs, druids, ww sins, necros boner prisoning so i need to tele on their ass, etc.). if i go zeal, i'll probably use edeathz + phoenix ST so my charge and zeal are pretty strong

2. as a followup to above question..
- if i go smite, is 1 pt in smite enough, or should I make a full on hybrid charger/smiter and max out smite + holy shield.
- if i go zeal route, how useful is the phoenix shield's firestorm ability? does it even do much dmg in pvp?

3. for my CoA, should i put in 2x ber ruin for the 31% dr (for a total of 46% DR with a verdungo's belt) OR just put 2x -15req/-15res jewels in the CoA (to use those extra stat points into vit)?


thx :)

This post was edited by imakemonies on Jan 20 2023 11:56am

smite, just use grief pb and 1 point smite is enough

Smite

Shako+ Ber

VT is best, but if u want nice charge and mix it up:

How about charge/zeal/smite/bow?

Grief ba + Pheonix 400ed/45@ // Eth Exile ST/45@ (mainly vs druids and assa, espesially if they are in team)¨
Cta 3hs + Spirit 35/45@ ///// Widowmaker and arrows.
Trang oul's
HL
Helm 2pala/20fcr/adds/2soc ChamBER // 20fcr/BERBERCham // Possible even 20fcr/BERBERBER
10fcr/ar/str/dex/mana/@ ring
Wisp // Raven // Carrions // Nature's peace // Relevant FCR RING(fcr/ar/dex/life/@/single res)
Dungo(main) / Arach(75fcr in combi with secondary fcr ring)
Gore riders
Enigma Dusk or whatever relevant base

Torch
Annie
3max/ar/life scs
life/5@ scs

Demon limb

Its basicly a Zeal/charge/smite/bow build. Bow is optional.
It has 48fcr on main gear, so its not as effective in hunting as regular 75fcr VT/Smiter. Its more slow paced and tactical based. So fun in another way.
Mine was on d2pk, asgard and D2lod.
So i had gear like bug belt, perfect stats, Grief of Doom Ba and SOP rw. But the build should work fine without that. Mine was skilled as mainly zealer, with charge and smite having a few skills each.
There are also ways of implementing coa to the build, if u dont want to tele forti works nice as well, but i would not recommend that.

The 400% ed from pheonix helps charge/zeal/smite in drastic ammounts, the 10max fire and 5max light res is very nice absorb, and the 28direct fire absorb is nice too. The attacks is no longer delayed by pheonix, and zeal prior to that buff did only get delays inbetween zeal series.

Smite: U get 15% ed each smite hardpoint. 20 x 15 = 300% ed, but we also have to account for the loss of smite skills via none skillers, 9 x 15 = 135. So a pure smiter has 35% more ED on smite. However we lack some damage from holy shield as well on smite, and spirit adds 2 skills to smite as well. But all in all we are very close to full pure smite smite dmg just by using pheonix.
Charge: U have a great charge damage, i usually killed 75% of 5k lifed paladins life in 1 charge hit. And those had 50% dr. Charge was relative easy to hit as well due to +2 range adder from BA.
Zeal: This maxed is epic damage vs none block chars. Less than maxed its still strong.
Bow: Well, u can get very high damage. If u swap to grief/pheonix side after shoting the arrows, but prior to landing them u will benefit from those 400% ed from pheonix and 20% deadly strike on grief. So it will deal major damage. Vs hammerdins or even smiters u can choose to use draculs for the OW and even LT.

U can also build it as VC + Bow. Mine did not even have bow, but i should have used that vs hammerdins. Smiters was easy, 1 charge hit and i could tank them EASY.

U can also use spirit for some setups, its already availeble from bo side.