Vengeance Paladin Guide

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Introduction:
Before people discovered the strengths of Hammerdins, Paladins were mostly played as melee characters, foremost as Convictionist or Zealer Paladin. This guide informs about the convictionist, more precisely the Avenger. Avengers use the combination of the attack skill Vengeance with the combination of the Conviction aura, which dimishes enemy resistances.

Skills:
At level 90 we do have 101 skill points to spend:
20 Vengeance
25 Conviction (including +skills from your gear)
20 Holy Shield
1 Vigor
1 Redemption
14 Passage skills
Rest into Resist Fire, Cold, and Lightning

Our main skill is vengeance, we max this skill first. Secondly, we start maxing conviction up to level 25.

Why do I only put 25 points into conviction?
Conviction lowers the enemy resistances by -5% per point spent, starting at -30% level 1, but caps at -150%. Therefore, it’s not efficient to spend more than 25 points (including +skills from your gear) into conviction as it only lowers the enemies defense further, which is useless to us.

Why do I put points into Resist Fire, Cold, and Lightning?
Putting points in these defensive aura grants you two bonuses. The important one is each hard-set point grants you +10% extra damage to vengeance for this elemental damage.
The other bonus is passive and grants +1 max resistance for every 2 hard-set points into resist fire, cold, and lightning.

When do I start maxing holy shield?
Start by putting 1 point in holy shield at level 24 and start maxing Whenever you feel like you really need it!


Stats:
Strength: Enough to wear our gear
Dexterity: Enough to reach 75% block (maximum block chance)
Vitality: Rest
Energy: None, you’ll learn the drill…

Items:
What kind of items do we need? Everything with the following stats:
+ High physical damage
+ Attack speed
+ Manaleech & lifeleech
+ Cannot be frozen
+ Deadly strike
+ Crushing blow
+ Resistances
+ Life
+ Mana
+ Strength
+ Dexterity
+ Faster Hit Recovery

Budget Build:
• Vampire gaze helmet
• 3 socketed elite armor with Duress runeword – Shael Um Thul
• Lightsabre Phaseblade
• 3 socketed paladin shield with [email protected] + Sanctuary runeword Ko Ko Mal
• String of ears Belt
• Cat’s Eye amulet
• Raven Frost ring
• Rare ring with stats you’re missing (manaleech / lifeleech + adds you can get)
• Tearhaunch boots
• Bloodfist gloves

This build is super cheap, but it will do the trick! Vampire gaze offers you a lot of dual leech and damage reduction, lightsabre will be your weapon of choice. It’s a very fast weapon with even more elemental damage, which is quite useful to us. Duress is an excellent armor early on and quite cheap to build! If you still can’t afford the Um rune, try to build Lionheart (Hel Lum Fal) instead as a temporary armor.

Mid Tier Build:
• Vampire Gaze + Um or Nightwing’s Veil for more damage
• Ormus Robes 15/15/15 + Um
• Oath runeword – Shael Pul Mal Lum in ethereal cryptic sword 
• Herald of Zakarum Shield + Um
• String of ears Belt
• Highlord’s wraith amulet
• Dracul’s Grasp gloves
• Rare ring with dual leech + life + str
• Raven Frost ring with 20Dex / 200+ Ar
• Gore Rider Boots
• Call to Arms runeword (Amn Ral Mal Ist Ohm) + Bo Spirit (Tal Thul Ort Amn)
• Paladin Torch

This build is solid enough to lead a few people though hell difficulty by yourself already! There won’t be any enemies you can’t face, you will just shred your way to hell diablo. You’ll deal enough damage to one hit pretty much every monster you decide to click on. Ormus Robes will increase your Cold, Fire, and Lightning damage by up to 15% each!! It’s an excellent choice to boost your damage! Oath will grant you lots of physical damage as well as attack speed while being indestructible, which is the best mod possible for melee characters. If you ever had a non-indestructible weapon as a melee champion, you’ll know the pain of constantly going back to town to repair your weapon.

High Tier Build:
• Crown of Ages with 2x Rainbowfacette of your choice
• Breath of the Dying runeword (Vex Hel El Eld Zod Eth) in eth Berserker Axe
• Chains of Honor runeword (Dol Um Ber Ist) in elite armor base
• Highlord’s wraith amulet
• Verdungo’s Hearty Cord 40 Vitality, 15 Damage Reduction, and 13 Liferep
• Steelrend gloves 20 Str 60ed
• Exile runeword (Vex Ohm Ist Dol) in 4 socketed eth Vortex Shield with 45 all resistances 
• Bul-Kathos’ Wedding Band with 5% Lifeleech
• Raven Frost ring 20dex / 250ar
• Gore Rider boots upgraded
• Call to Arms 6/6/4 runeword (Amn Ral Mal Ist Ohm) + Bo Spirit (Tal Thul Ort Amn)
• Paladin Torch 20/20/5
• Annihilius 20/20/10
• As many 3 Max Dmg / 20 Ar / 20 Life or 20Life / 5res small charms as you can afford!


This build will add up everything you can dream of! Even in 8 player parties you will lead the way no matter what. There won’t be a single enemy in the game you can’t defeat. No monster will be immune to your damage, since you’re using almost every elemental damage source given by the game. You do have max resistances and superb damage!!

Mercenary:

Budget Build:
Act 2 nightmare difficulty defensive mercenary 
Vampire Gaze
Treachery runeword (Shael Thul Lem) in ethereal elite base armor
Reaper’s toll

Mid-Tier Build:
Act 2 nightmare difficulty defensive mercenary
Ethereal Andariels Visage with a 15ias / 30 fire res jewel
Pride runeword (Cham Sur Io Lo) in ethereal 4 socketed Colossus Voulge
Fortitude (El Sol Do Lo) in ethereal armor

High-Tier Build:
Act 1 bow mercenary with frost arrow
Delirium runeword (Lem Ist Io) in 3s elite armor helmet
Fortitude runeword (El Sol Dol Lo) in eth elite armor base
Faith runeword (Ohm Jah Lem Eld) in diamond bow


Gameplay:
There is only one thing you have to do: Click on the enemies!! Depending on your build you will just melt throw them like a hot knife through butter! There are some more items you can consider adding or switching in your build, foremost weapons: Last Wish (Jah Mal Jah Sur Jah Ber) in a 6 socketed superior Phaseblade with 15ed / 3ar or Grief (Eth Tir Lo Mal Ral) in a 5 socketed superior Phaseblade with 15ed and 3ar. Both are excellent options you should consider if you don’t want to use Breath of the Dying.