Hello fellow d2 players,


I got bored with hdin und have now respect to foh/smite but that does not feel right somehow (still missing a main weapon).

I have a problem with my main weapon cuz I don't want to loose fcr/breakpoint for teleport but also want to smash stuff 😅

Gear is atm pretty classic hdin stuff,
Hoto
Enigma
HoZ
Arach
Shako
Mara/raven/soj
Magefist
Sandstorm

Could make a grief PB or BA - I know it's BiS but it just seems the "boring best route to take".

Skill wise I'm also not really sure how to proceed. Atm I have
20foh
20 holy bomt
20 holy shield
18 skill points left

Just lvl 86 so 20+ points are on the reach to invest in another skill.

Have not skilled an aura yet, just 1pt in the main ones that are useful including fanatism.

Any input and inspiration would be appreciated.

This post was edited by wasserkrug on Nov 7 2025 11:22am

https://classic.battle.net/diablo2exp/items/elite/uscepters.shtml

Those 3 options ain’t bad

I mean, not as good as grief, but at least they maintain higher foh dmg due to +skills.

Something like Heaven’s Light with up to 73% CB if you socket it with 2 ber can make your smite very potent if you use it to take down bosses and tanky uniques, while you use mostly foh for density destroying.
You would need 50 total ias (including the 20ias on it) with lvl 27+ fana.

Or Aestron’s Iron Ward, also with innate 33% CB (53% with ber) and +4 pcomb.
Faster WSM base and 10% ias on it means you would need 25ias from gear with only lvl 20 fana

Thanks for your input, keeps me busy thinking and inspires the idea of how I can design my pala.

I really like your recommendations with the Scepters - for a reason I can't really grasp, I have not thought about them at all.

Im also looking at the option of using a warscepter with 2foh +2conv 5os to make cta in it and using this weapon for foh and 2nd slot would be for smite/zeal - this idea does not appeal me very much, because I don't want to switch between slots all the time (lazy and console playing) - but seems to be a valid option in terms of gear choice (shield slot variable - spirit, HoZ, Alma Negra).

Concerning the aura of use, I like to have fanatism on - supports my merc and I can smite right away without any hustle. Conv seems to be not needed, I played without all the time and demons and the like are melting like ice cream in the summer sun.
But this leads me to the question if it is reasonable to just max fanatism and ignore Conv totally or is it viable to let my merc use an infinity?

Atm I run with act5 merc plague/azurewrath combo and with my fanatism aura he basically turns into the main character

Also gear wise I struggle to get any ias into my existing equipment while even struggling to maintain the 75fcr cap.

This post was edited by wasserkrug on Nov 7 2025 09:02am

Why would you use conv on a build that deals exclusively magic and phys dmg?
Also no hit check required.

Conv lowers elemental res, which is a dmg type that you won’t be dealing (foh for pvm is all about the magic bolts dmg), while smite deals phys dmg.
Conv also lowers def, and smite always hits.

So max fana (your main aura), and use a 1pt redemption for your sustain.
You can assigne redemption on cta side and just quickly flicker it after killing a pack of mobs.

Aestron’s Iron Ward + 15ias/res jewel = 25ias
Then put another 15ias/res jewel in your helm = 40ias = max smite speed reached as soon as you have fana lvl 13+

Then if you want 75fcr…
Spirit 35
Arach 20
Then you can get the last 20 from many options:
Gloves
2x fcr rings
20fcr amy
1x fcr ring + 1x fcr amy
20fcr circ

This post was edited by SinsOfTheSun on Nov 7 2025 09:21am

Use a Zak spirit and grief

That's part of my initial question about which aura to use. In my memory FoHdin always used conviction because there was light dmg to bring to the enemy.

I already waived on the holy shock synergy for lightning dmg because I read something about it, not being efficient/skill points wasted.

Anyways, Dana is the way to go and I will try out/calculate how much I need to invest for hitting breakpoints and diversify any rest skill points to some other useful skills.

Thank you again for your help

+3foh beast is always fun, but needs to be divine/caddy.

It was my go to in legacy for hdin to, for wave 2.

Frees up aura, but won’t hit ias bps like you will with fan as running aura

Well it could easily hit the ias bp
with -10 WSM cady, lvl 9 fana, you only need 46 ias to reach max smite speed
There's already 40ias on beast, so you just need 10ias from anywhere else
Something as cheap as goldwrap or bloodfist would already be enough

Not a bad idea tbh, as you can make it in a +3foh cady

But then, even if you are saving skill points instead of investing in fana, after maxing out smite, holy shield, holy bolt, foh, you still have 24 skill points left
or 19 if you put 1 in redemption (could have it on beast cady too)
there's just no other skill really worth investing into...
maybe salvation if you are on budget and want to fix your res (but it ain't budget if you decide to use beast instead of grief just for style lol)
or defiance I guess, for buffing your def

So overall, you end up with same/less foh dmg (+3 foh base cady versus +3skill Heavens Light or +4 Aestron)
but you lose smite dmg (40% CB and lvl 9 fana versus 73% or 53% CB and higher lvl fana)

This post was edited by SinsOfTheSun on Nov 7 2025 11:17pm

I enjoyed theorycrafting around all this, keeping in mind the restriction of no grief allowed.
I hero edited a bunch of gear and played with it for a while...
Here's the final setup I came up with:
https://maxroll.gg/d2/d2planner/17bsq0ym

Pressing W to flicker redemption on cta side
Or could replace reaper merc by insight to not have to use redemption (but loosing smite dps)
Ubers were easy with minimal gear swap
General density destroying nearly as good as a pure FoH build
Very fun overall

edit:
The key part on that setup was to reach lvl 36 fana
This allowed me to reach max smite speed with only 20ias gloves (and the 10ias on Astreon)
So I could put a ber in weapon instead of a ias jewel

This post was edited by SinsOfTheSun on Nov 7 2025 11:14pm