Sara's Guide to a PVM "Tridin" 
Welcome to my mini guide to a item based, reasonably budget friendly tri-elemental caster pally, aptly named the "Tridin". I'm currently running this pally through it's paces on Hardcore ladder at the loftly level of 88. Whenever I dust this pally off I get lots of "hey that guys pretty neat, followed by how did you make him". This pally is able to run all areas in the game with good kill speed and durability, but he particularly shines in areas with lots of undead monsters. With a small item swap he can even run your ubers and torches for you So how does it work?This pally uses Fireballs, Firewall, Hydra, Foh, Holybolts, Frozen orbs and melee type damage (zeal) all backed up by a hefty conviction aura to make those elemental's really sting.
Skill setup selection:
20 FOH
20 Holybolts
20 HolyShock
20* Conviction
5-10 Holyshield* ( I had 7 points in this)
1 RedemptionThe Remaining Points I'd dump in either Holyshield or Blessed hammer to increase your holybolt damage for undead domination. Foh's holybolt release just levels packs of undead monsters.
* Conviction - The goal here is a level 25 conviction. Since this build will have a good amount of +skills you can get away with fair bit less then 20 points in this skill.
* Enough to maintain max block with a minimal investment in Dex , I ended up w/ 7 hardpoints. I also suggest getting this right off.
Rough Character Goals for hell-thy play
Faster hit recovery. I elected for the 48.
This is the amount of frames it will take for your character to recover from an attack.0% - 9 frames
7% - 8 frames
15% - 7 frames
27% - 6 frames
48% - 5 frames
86% - 4 frames
200% - 3 frames
4680% - 2 framesI suggest heading for either 48% or 86% depending on your choice of equipment.
75 all res in Hell. The beauty of Conviction is you dont need to stack res, there are no monsters that will have a higher conviction level then you, so you'll never be subjected to monsters conviction. If you want to stack for lower res, then go for it!. Plan another -50 ish . I highly suggest adding some fire and light sorb. It does an excellent job at taking the pain off things like Gloams and many other fire spewing monsters.
70-75% max block from level 24 on. Here's the formula for you stat perfectionists Quote
Originally Posted by Ladvarian
As stated above it does increase the chance to block on the shield. Treat it as if it was on the shield itself for the formula. So yes you will need less dexterity for max block than other classes when holy shield is active. Here is a useful guide I found that explains the formula more if you or any one else needs further explanation. Don't forget to include all your plus items that will increase the level of holy shield and means less dexterity needed for max block.
Chance to Block
Total Blocking = [(Blocking * (Dexterity - 15)) / (Character Level * 2)]
Blocking = A total of the Blocking on all of your items. (E.g: Guardian Angel, Twitchthroe, Any Shield, Holy Shield)
[] = Round Down
Note: Blocking on shield shown in game is capped at 75% while it may actually be higher. For a true account of most shields blocking ability... Look here forUnique, Set, and Magical/Rare shields. (for magical/rare, add the Blocking % from the suffix to the base blocking)
Note 2: Block chance is divided by 3 after the 75% cap. You can't block more than 25% when running.
Example: A lvl85 Paladin with 100 Dex, Guardian Angel(20%), lvl20 Holy Shield (35%) and a Herald of Zakarum(82%).
Total Blocking = [(Blocking * (Dexterity - 15)) / (Character Level * 2)]
= (20 + 35 + 82 * (100 - 15)) / (85 * 2)
= (20 + 35 + 82 * (85)) / (85 * 2)
= (20 + 35 + 82 * (85)) / 170
= (20 + 35 + 82 * (85)) / 170
= (137 * 85) / 170
= 11645 / 170
= 68.5
= 68% Chance to Block
Faster Cast RateHere's the table, I couldn't suggest falling under 11fpa cast rate on Fireball, and strongly suggest hitting the 75fcr, 10fpa bp which if your following my build you'll have in the bag.
0% fcr - 15 frames
9% fcr - 14 frames
18% fcr - 13 frames
30% fcr - 12 frames
48% fcr - 11 frames
75% fcr - 10 frames
125% fcr - 9 frames * Conviction - The goal here is a level 25 conviction. Since this build will have a good amount of +skills you can get away with fair bit less then 20 points in this skill.
* Enough to maintain max block with a minimal investment in Dex , I ended up w/ 7 hardpoints. I also suggest getting this right off.
Rough Character Goals for hell-thy play
Faster hit recovery. I elected for the 48.This is the amount of frames it will take for your character to recover from an attack.
0% - 9 frames
7% - 8 frames
15% - 7 frames
27% - 6 frames
48% - 5 frames
86% - 4 frames
200% - 3 frames
4680% - 2 frames
I suggest heading for either 48% or 86% depending on your choice of equipment.Increased Attack Speed for Zealing.
A pally running conviction using a wep with no added ias will not be a supremely fast striker, however with a little bit of cleverness you can hit the 2nd fastest zeal rate which rocks for the FO procing.
Increased attack speed bp's on zeal
0 % 7
8 % 6
42 % 5
142 % 4
Highlords by itself is the 6fpa zeal, Ias jewel your Trang hat and Dragonscale and you'll get a 5fpa zeal. If you use a Faith merc you can get your ias covered here and pick up alot more damage with facets.
The Lootz
Broken down by the Have and Haves' nots
*Further in the guide I'm going to dissect your elemental output, and this is done using my characters setup which is balanced optimally for durability and damage. Keep in mind that the budget selection will have reduced damages.
Here's the Fun part, this is what makes this character so unique
Have's elite setup
Helm: Trang Helm , Fire Facet
Ammy: Highlords
Shield 1: Dragonscale . Ral'd or Fire Facet
Wep 1: Rift War Scepter
Armor: Coh
gloves: Trangs
belt: Trangs
boots: Goblin Toes (up'd or not, defense isnt to important)
Shield 2: Spirit Sacred Targe with 35+Base res (elite shield, I use Zak)
Wep 2: Hoto
Ring 1: Dwarfstar
Ring 2: Wisp Projector
Ring optional: Soj or Bk. More damage less durability. Make up your own mind.
Ptorch + Anni
Have Nots
Helm: Trang Helm
Ammy: Cateye
Shield 1: Dragonscale , Tiamat's or a 4 Socketed Pally res shield with random elemental "thunder" jewels
Wep 1: Voice of Reason pb.
Armor: Vmagi
gloves: Trangs
belt: Trangs
boots: Goblin Toes (up'd or not, defense isnt to important)
Shield 2: Spirit Sacred Targe with 35+Base res (elite shield, I use Zak)
Wep 2: Wizzy , Suicide Branch or Spirit sword
any flavor torch for the stats and res, Anni if your lucky
Break it down!
*Burning question number one
But, Sara, a pally with fireball/firewall, no syngery or fire mastery means the damage is pathetic! Plus how can you forget that they fixed the moonfall charges synergy bug. Go make a hammerdin you noob!
You know after heavily building around this, I can assure you his damage output is reasonably decent. It's not hammerdin damage, but what is?
Shield Dragonscale (Socket w/fire facet)
What about Rift ?
3 Part Trang set modsPartial Set Bonus
+18 To Fire Ball (2 Items)*
Regenerate Mana 15% (2 Items)
+13 To Fire Wall (3 Items)
Additional Regenerate Mana 15% (3 Items)
Trang-Oul's GuiseBone Visage
Quote
Defense: 180-257 (varies)(Base Defense: 100-157)
Required Level: 65
Required Strength: 106
Durability: 40
25% Faster Hit Recovery
Replenish Life +5
+80-100 Defense
+150 To Mana
Attacker Takes Damage of 20
Trang-Oul's Girth
Troll Belt
Quote
Defense: 134-166 (varies)(Base Defense: 59-66)
Required Level: 62
Required Strength: 91
Durability: 18
16 boxes
+75-100 Defense (varies)
Requirements -40%
Cannot Be Frozen
Replenish Life +5
+25-50 To Mana (varies)
+30 Maximum Stamina
+66 To Life
Cold Resist +40% (3 Items)
Trang-Oul's Claws
Heavy Bracers Quote
Defense: 67-74 (varies)(Base Defense: 37-44)
Required Level: 45
Required Strength: 58
Durability: 16
+20% Faster Cast Rate
Cold Resist +30%
+30 Defense
+25% Poison Skill Damage
+2 To Curses (Necromancer Only)
THE NUMBERS+20% To Fire Skill Damage (*FS)
Level 21 frozen orb 270 damage per shard (530-540's after conv)
Level 23 ish Fireball = 300 ish damage X *FS =360 or about 700 w/Conv
Level 20 firewall = 1300 damage per sec x *FS = 1600 w/conv about 3K
Level 20 Hydra = 148 avg damage per shot X *fs = 177 w/conv = 350 ish.
you get 3 hydra's for 9 heads each shooting about twice a second which roughly equals 3186 damage per second or up to 6300 DPS after conviction
Level 32 FOH = 3312 avg damage or 6600 ish after conv
Damage on each melee attack:
Fire: 287- 596 avg = 441 x *FS =592 or 1K w/conv X5hits with zeal 5-6K
cold - none, or what's on a ravenfrost
magic -60-180 120 avg X 1(5) zeal cycle = 600 magic damage
Level 16 Nado ctc , AOE phy damage 221 avg damage
25% crushing blow.
With any 15% Ormus faceted with your trangs helm faceted you get a 45% fire skill damage boost. It would be tricky making up the res and stats from COH and your foh damage on switch would drop too. But you'd get
1885 firewall or about 3.7K DPS.
another 100 damage on Frozen orb's per shard
Melee fire damage to: just under 1300 per attack X5 hits 6500
Hyda = 3862 or 7.7K DPS
Foh becomes 3800 or 7600 w/convIve been a fan of FO for many years. It is one of the most powerful skills in the game. Even though the character screen shows that the dmg is very low you must remember that the dmg listed is for each shard FO emits. The FO carries 16 shards and releases an additional 26 shards when traveling.
Probably not worth giving up the coh mods.
Play style ftw here. Your walking around zealing stuff with frozen orbs/nado's spitting out, your sniping stuff with foh and casting fireballs, hydra and firewall to anything that even thinks about being immune to you. Lot's of AOE damage on this pally. None of it is wtf damage on it's own, but all the damage types quickly add up.
My pally has a level 28 Fireball and has a iasjewel in his trang helm instead of a facet. So your damage numbers will be even better then what I posted here. If you like casting use the facet, if your more a FO zealer use the ias jewel.
For ubering, swap off the trang stuff with the usual favorites , Gface/kiras/Rockstopper. Ditch the Rift for Astrons or your favorite cb/smite wep.
you wont need a meph conviction stack as yours will over ride his for you.The MercLots of options here but there is a few that really stand out for a conviction running pally.
Faith Bow Rogue cold/Fire
Pick up the ias needed to use facets in your gear for more damage. This merc will not die to IM or much in general.
Rift using A2 Merc Holy freeze.
Takes advantage of your Conviction aura and procs powerful FO"S. Throw a Nightwings on him and he will be a machine. Pair this with some life leach armor.
Harmony Bow using A1.
Gobs of elemental damage that get boosted. Vigor to help your goblin toe using slow walker move around a little better
Voice of Reason A5 Merc
A cheaper version of rift to get some Frozen orbs and Ice blasts. Adds a little more crowd control at the price of an A2 merc aura and a lower FO proc. Still a great guy to have on your side. Eth elite 2 sword ftw to help leach.
Crecent Moon Act 2 Merc
yummy static on a decent pokey stick at the cost of 1um rune is always hard to pass up .
Obediance Might Merc
This runeword has it all, massive 370-385% damage in sup bases. 40% Crushing blow , Res, defense and free level 21 chant. To make this extra nice you can borrow it to kill a couple monsters to get the fire and ar boost on the chant proc. This too will get boosted by the fire skill boost and conviction. It even lasts awhile.
The only drawback is the certain insta deeds when he's IM'd.
It should be noted that this pally is excellent for chaos, Mosulem, Ancients tunnels or any place with lots of undead monsters. Due to this, a act 1 Merc is pretty hard to beat.So look this over and give me some feedback and when it's good I'll see about adding to the guides bible page.
I hope this compels some people to try this fun tri elemental caster instead of a "hammer" as the numbers show Fireball is still a decent skill, though its the firewall that I love most.