First of allThis build is only good because every slot is filled with high level runewords. It works best on 90+ characters because as it is a hybrid it is skill point starved. My character is 95 and only now am I getting close to max aura damage with -150 conviction. This is a PvM setup, not sure how great it is in PvP. If you adapt it for PvP, move the 20 points in Holy Bolt elsewhere.
If you are under level 85 and/or do not have the budget for this, worry not. All you need is 20 points into FoH and 20 into Holy Bolt to make FoH slap everything. I suggest using FoH with a 1pt Smite/Zeal build and the best melee weapon you can for a very powerful physical/FoH hybrid, or just pure FoH until you get the gear for this one.
2.4 buffs to this build:-Buffed Holy Shock aura by up to 100% depending on proximity.
We use dual Dreams so this is a nice buff
-FoH massive damage buff and the Holy Bolts are now effective on Demons.
Holy bolts pierce and send out a bolt per mob so if you have a lot of mobs you get a "shotgun" affect. The higher the mob density, the more value you get from FoH.
Why this is so good nowDream Zealers typically had insane single target damage but crap AoE past P1.
Dream Zealers also had a lot of points leftover and typically used those on the synergy Sacrifice and hard points into Zeal. This was a miniscule amount of damage. Now we can use those points and get screen clearing AoE with FoH.
FoH is a unique spell as it has a 0.4 casting delay, so increasing your FCR won't lead to more FoH's. We still want some FCR so that the spell finishes quick and we can teleport fast, but aiming for 75 or 125 like you would on a hammerdin isn't necessary. Paladins have very good cast frames.
The gameplay and synergy comes from casting FoH and then using Zeal or Charge during the cast delay, following up with another FoH if anything is alive (unlikely) or teleing to your next spot. You run in following your holy bolts and basically chew through everything, with massive physical + lightning damage to backup your FoH Holy Bolts.
Build:
20 FoH
20 Holy Bolt
20 Resist Lightning
XX Conviction until -150 res /w Battle Command
20 Salvation
You can put 1 point into Redemption, Cleansing Aura etc. instead of maxing Salvation if you prefer. You have salvation to swap into vs lower resistance curse & Mana is less of an issue with high Physical dmg and some mana leech now that mana burn bug is fixed. If you can find a CTA with Redemption + Cleansing in addition to FoH you are set.
Because people will discuss this and naturally want to compare it to HammerdinI want to give my 2 cents: the damage can be higher than Hammerdin, it kills bosses like Baal or Ubers faster, especially if you go with a Reaper's merc providing Decrep. Baal can die in one zeal given they all hit him & trigger DS/CB, hitting is easier at higher level and with conviction's -93% defense. Anything lesser dies equally we'll say because Diablo dies in 1 second to both specs & Crushing blow falls off with lower hp. It will also kill Undead and Demon in high density faster.
It is not as fast overall because it does not tele as fast. It can be safer due to the Confuse given by Dream and the fact that you can play safe and snipe with FoH. Also, since you have multiple attacks it can be more fun squeezing in melees for max damage or you can be an afkadin with auras killing everything. P1 just the auras will murder everything for you and P8 FoH really shines with the higher mob density.
About FoHOne thing to understand about FoH, given this is a guide, is that the lightning bolt from it is crap. We are focusing on getting as many + skills as possible to amp the Holy Bolt damage. The + skills also add to Holy Shield, Zeal, Charge, Conviction.
We use Conviction to help our FoH Lightning Bolt sure but mostly it is to maximize the Holy Shock aura and bonus lightning weapon swing damage. It can add up to 14k lightning damage to your Zeals. How?
Holy Shock Bonus Lightning Weapon Damage 1-7005
Assuming -100 Res from Conviction we can double this: 1-14011
In reality it is a lot more than this against resistant mobs because resistance scales exponentially, so stripping a Venom lord's 75 lightning res and turning it into -75 will cause him to take a hell of a lot more than twice the damage.
I also highly recommend turning on the active hotkeys. Buffering abilities helps this build a lot.
Gear:Weapon:
**Grief Phase Blade (at least 32 ias)
Shield: Dream Sacred Targe
Head: Dream
Armor: Enigma
Hands: Dual Leech gloves with 20 ias + 10CB if you can get them. Otherwise Laying of Hands
Belt: Arach
Boots: Gore Riders
Amulet: Highlords
Ring 1: Ravenfrost
Ring 2: BK Ring or Dual Leech + 10 FCR + @Res
**If you use a Faith merc you can use another weapon. Your own playstyle and preference allows you to do what you want here without changing the core of the build, so go nuts. Last Wish, Doom, HoJ, BotD are all good. Even a Caduceus FoH CTA or even a Caduceus Fortitude can work as a primary weapon!
The case for the Grief recommendation is that the physical damage is miles above any other weapon while requiring only 40 more IAS to reach your max Zeal FPA. It also opens up your merc options. Charges or Zeals 1 shot most mobs and it helps top your life/mana thanks to the leech on your gear and the big life/mana on kill from Grief (also, from Enigma). With a 32 IAS Grief you need 40 more IAS to reach your max Zeal Breakpoint. You get that 40 IAS from Highlords + Melee Gloves.
Weapon Swap:Weapon: Call to Arms in a Scepter with ++ to FoH
Shield: Spirit in a Sacred Targe
Your Weapon Swap is used not only to Battle Orders, but it is also an excellent caster setup. During your FoH cast delay, press either Holy Bolt or Teleport instead of trying to melee.
This setup is if you're in an area dense with Demons and Undead, such as the Chaos Sanctuary. Instead of using FoH -> Zeal, you will want to FoH -> Tele or FoH -> Holy Bolt continuously.
From this we get +6 to FoH (more damage than Hoto!) and a faster cast frame breakpoint. This makes a difference in P8 Chaos Sanctuary but definitely isn't necessary for the build, just more of a min-max thing.
AttributesStrength: Enough for gear. I get 103 after charms for Archon Plate Enigma and use up'd Gores etc.
Dex: Enough for max block after Holy Shield. You need 136 Dex for Phase Blades and max block isn't much past that if you're using a Sacred Targe. Be sure to include all of your Pally Combat GCs and factor in the Battle Command buff for Holy Shield.
Vitality: Rest
Energy: None
Charms:Pala Combat/Life GC for max FoH damage +HS +Zeal +Charge
Res/Life SC or AR + Life for faster boss kills.
If you can somehow get a bunch of 100 dmg+ Shocking Small Charm of Storms use those as Conviction will make these worth it but I never see these for trade.
For the Merc we have two choices.Choice 1 - Act 1 MercOptimal for P1, AoE (Fire), CC (Frost)
2.4 buffed the Act 1 Rogue. D2R fixed Delirium so that it no longer CTD's your game when it procs. They also gave us a 100% pierce bow, Mist.
The synergy is here:
Head: Delirium. Massive CC and when the Bone Fetish form procs she will rapid fire arrows and out-dps an Act 2 merc (see Worldstone keep Baal run video) on everything except bosses.
Armor: Treachery or 60/120 Life 4os whale chest if you're rich.
Weapon: *Mist in GMB or MB OR Faith in MB with 14-15 Aura roll.
*The bow choice depends on your weapon choice. If you went with Grief and don't need the IAS fron Fana, Mist is a way better bow due to the pierce.
Note: Act 1 Mercs can now equip Amazon bows and the extra skills synergize the Merc skills so try to use one.
She CCs better, does more AoE and ranged damage thanks to your -150 res conviction skyrocketing her magic damage. It's surprisingly good, especially comboed with FoH and Dream ticking everything down. She AoE freezes with pierce over and over.
Don't tele her into a pack of Death Lords. Throw her a juv if she's poisoned because there's no leech.
Choice 2 - Act 2 MercOptimal for P8, Bosses
For bosses and big single target damage use an Act 2 Merc. We all know what this merc can do, and it works great with this build.
You can choose between Might and Holy Freeze. Holy Freeze is great because you want to be as close to mobs as possible to have your aura do the highest proximity damage it can. Holy Freeze helps by making rambo-teleing into the middle of mobs relatively safe. Also, Decrepify and Holy Freeze slow will stack with Reaper's Toll Cold damage slow and your Raven Frost cold damage and the Arach belt slow. Bosses will be so slow they might as well be frozen.
Might is also a very high value aura. Since your merc has no other forms of ED this is going to double his character sheet hit damage. Then, we have Decertify boosting our physical damage by at least 50% as it provides a physical resist shred of -50. This will effectively multiply by at
least 50%, probably a lot more. This affects our Crushing Blow and Deadly Strike hits! Remember, resistances get more effective the more mobs have, so shredding 75% down to 25% will cause the monster to take a LOT more than 50% damage. Decrep can also break physical immunes, which is mostly helpful for helping our merc leech through anything.
Either way, gear is the same:
Weapon: Reaper's Toll (Ber'd)
Head: Gulliam's Face (Cham'd) or Delirium
Armor: Treachery
Act 5 merc might be good with Plague + Sanctuary but I haven't tested.
Other notes:
Tons of potential for Hand of Justice + Dragon setup by taking 3-4 pts off each aura skill but I tried it and it's more afkdin for sure but CBA not teleporting. I also missed mega physical damage from Grief.
Self-Fanaticism with Infinity Act 2 Conviction is suboptimal damage and even more-so with FoH, I did the math and playtested. It's better if you're farming lightning immunes, or have amp damage somehow, that's it.
Lmk if you have any ideas for improvement or found other fun builds, I am trying every setup I can think of on NL.
BTW if you read this far and don't know about getting ladder runewords on non ladder so you can't use Mist all you have to do is put the item in your stash and log into ladder. Poof, it'll become a ladder only runeword.
Next on the list to try is native Holy Freeze + Dual Dreams + Dragon, Hoj and Infinity merc for triple aura + conviction..
Edit: because some gameplay was requested I made a quick video guide yolo
Baal run with new Act 2 CC Merc
Baal run video here
Did not go for speed, as a matter of fact I am literally afk during portions to demonstrate Act 2 merc + aura lazydin gameplay.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwvQc5-jOBoThis post was edited by phantom_yyz on May 27 2022 06:59am
D2:R