BlackWinterDay
New member
Build Idea: The HoJ Fire N Ice Paladin
The Idea...
For awhile now I have been kicking around the idea of building a Paladin that uses the Hand of Justice runeword combined with Dragonscale, the unique Paladin shield. Why you ask? Because the Hand of Justice runeword grants a slvl 16 Holy Fire aura that can be synergized by putting points into Resist Fire and Salvation. Although a fully synergized lvl 16 Holy Fire may not seem like much, keep in mind that Hand of Justice also decreases enemy fire resistance by 20%, and our build is still free to run another full-time aura. Our shield for this build, Dragonscale, adds massive fire damage to our attack AND increases our fire skill damage by another 15%.
My first instinct was to run Conviction as my aura, as this would break a lot of the fire immunities I would come across in Hell, and make my fiery attack that much more effective. A better idea, I later realized, would be to run a fully synergized Holy Freeze aura full-time. Since I am already putting 20 points into Salvation (to synergize Holy Fire), I am already part of the way there. Also, having played a Meteorb Sorc through to Act V Hell, I have seen very few cold/fire immunes and all have been handled (albeit slowly) by my mercenary. Since Hand of Justice adds an incredible amount of ED to whatever weapon it is made in, I am confident that the odd dual immune will be easily dealt with using physical damage and a well equiped mercenary.
The Skills...
20 - Holy Freeze
20 - Resist Cold
20 - Resist Fire
20 - Salvation
10 - Holy Shield
4 - Zeal
7 - Pre req's
-----
101 Points Total (Finished by 90)
This build is accomplishing a LOT, and in doing so uses a lot of skill points. In fact, if you are not planning on leveling past 90 then you will have none available for the 1-point wonder utility skills you may be used to having. If you simply can't live without them, then you will just have to cut back on points spent in either Holy Shield OR your synergies. Most people would probably prefer to cut back on Holy Shield, and rely on +skill items.
Since Hand of Justice is not available until clvl 67, and Dragonscale not until level 80, the early strategy should be to maximize Holy Freeze and it's synergies first, and Resist Fire last.
The Items...
Weapon - If you feel like hitting a 4FPA Zeal, then you don't have much choice then to make HoJ in a phase blade. Even then, our build will require 40% IAS from the rest of our gear. Since 3/4's of this rune word consists of high runes, I would try to hold out for a superior phase blade with at least 10% ED.
Shield - Already decided for us by the nature of the build... Unfortunately, Dragonscale really sucks as far as shields go. No improved chance to block, and no faster block. Guess that means our armor has already been decided for us too?
Armor - Guardian Angel. Really, there is no other way to make up for the total lack of blocking mods on Dragonscale. Luckily, GA is an awesome armor choice that will also give us +2 to our skills and allow our max resists to reach 90 (95 in the case of Fire and Cold). We could do a LOT worse!
Helm - We've got a couple of sexy choices as far as Elite helms go. Nightwing's Veil will enhance our cold damage and give us +2 to our skills, but it lacks anything in the resistance department (unless socketed with UM). I would probably lean more towards Crown of Ages for +1 skills, DR, resistances and 2 sockets.
Rings - Since Dragonscale also gives us a bit of Fire Absorb, we can lose the standard Dwarf Star that many melee characters wear. Since we have no other CFB, we're going to want a Raven Frost for sure. A Wisp Projector with good lightning absorb would be a fine choice for our second ring.
Amulet - Just about everyone today uses Mara's here, and even though it's a wicked cool ammy we have to keep in mind that we still need 40% IAS. We could do that with jewels, but wouldn't we rather socket our gear with as many fire and cold facets as we can find? I would go Highlord's Wrath here. + skills, half of our IAS requirement, and Deadly Strike (HoJ already gives us 20% DS).
Gloves - Any gloves that provide the remaining 20% IAS needed to hit 4 FPA will work. I would lean towards Lava Gout for the added fire damage. Also, with Enchant firing every few minutes we will have a nice AR boost for those times with ITD doesn't work...
Boots - Haven't put too much thought into what boots our build would need, but Gore Riders with another 15% DS seem like an early favorite...
Belt - Since our Fire and Cold resists will already be maxed at 95%, how about maxing our Light Resist with Thundergod's? This belt gives us even more lightning absorb (we'll be laughing at those Gloams!), and some much needed Strength and Vitality too.
In Conclusion...
I want to be clear that this is not a build guide, rather, it is just an idea that I have been kicking around. But since my 40 minute coffee break NEEDS to end, I'm going to stop here and see what kind of feedback I get... Yeah, I know this will be an expensive build... So we had all better make MF sorcs and start looking for our gear!
The Idea...
For awhile now I have been kicking around the idea of building a Paladin that uses the Hand of Justice runeword combined with Dragonscale, the unique Paladin shield. Why you ask? Because the Hand of Justice runeword grants a slvl 16 Holy Fire aura that can be synergized by putting points into Resist Fire and Salvation. Although a fully synergized lvl 16 Holy Fire may not seem like much, keep in mind that Hand of Justice also decreases enemy fire resistance by 20%, and our build is still free to run another full-time aura. Our shield for this build, Dragonscale, adds massive fire damage to our attack AND increases our fire skill damage by another 15%.
My first instinct was to run Conviction as my aura, as this would break a lot of the fire immunities I would come across in Hell, and make my fiery attack that much more effective. A better idea, I later realized, would be to run a fully synergized Holy Freeze aura full-time. Since I am already putting 20 points into Salvation (to synergize Holy Fire), I am already part of the way there. Also, having played a Meteorb Sorc through to Act V Hell, I have seen very few cold/fire immunes and all have been handled (albeit slowly) by my mercenary. Since Hand of Justice adds an incredible amount of ED to whatever weapon it is made in, I am confident that the odd dual immune will be easily dealt with using physical damage and a well equiped mercenary.
The Skills...
20 - Holy Freeze
20 - Resist Cold
20 - Resist Fire
20 - Salvation
10 - Holy Shield
4 - Zeal
7 - Pre req's
-----
101 Points Total (Finished by 90)
This build is accomplishing a LOT, and in doing so uses a lot of skill points. In fact, if you are not planning on leveling past 90 then you will have none available for the 1-point wonder utility skills you may be used to having. If you simply can't live without them, then you will just have to cut back on points spent in either Holy Shield OR your synergies. Most people would probably prefer to cut back on Holy Shield, and rely on +skill items.
Since Hand of Justice is not available until clvl 67, and Dragonscale not until level 80, the early strategy should be to maximize Holy Freeze and it's synergies first, and Resist Fire last.
The Items...
Weapon - If you feel like hitting a 4FPA Zeal, then you don't have much choice then to make HoJ in a phase blade. Even then, our build will require 40% IAS from the rest of our gear. Since 3/4's of this rune word consists of high runes, I would try to hold out for a superior phase blade with at least 10% ED.
Shield - Already decided for us by the nature of the build... Unfortunately, Dragonscale really sucks as far as shields go. No improved chance to block, and no faster block. Guess that means our armor has already been decided for us too?
Armor - Guardian Angel. Really, there is no other way to make up for the total lack of blocking mods on Dragonscale. Luckily, GA is an awesome armor choice that will also give us +2 to our skills and allow our max resists to reach 90 (95 in the case of Fire and Cold). We could do a LOT worse!
Helm - We've got a couple of sexy choices as far as Elite helms go. Nightwing's Veil will enhance our cold damage and give us +2 to our skills, but it lacks anything in the resistance department (unless socketed with UM). I would probably lean more towards Crown of Ages for +1 skills, DR, resistances and 2 sockets.
Rings - Since Dragonscale also gives us a bit of Fire Absorb, we can lose the standard Dwarf Star that many melee characters wear. Since we have no other CFB, we're going to want a Raven Frost for sure. A Wisp Projector with good lightning absorb would be a fine choice for our second ring.
Amulet - Just about everyone today uses Mara's here, and even though it's a wicked cool ammy we have to keep in mind that we still need 40% IAS. We could do that with jewels, but wouldn't we rather socket our gear with as many fire and cold facets as we can find? I would go Highlord's Wrath here. + skills, half of our IAS requirement, and Deadly Strike (HoJ already gives us 20% DS).
Gloves - Any gloves that provide the remaining 20% IAS needed to hit 4 FPA will work. I would lean towards Lava Gout for the added fire damage. Also, with Enchant firing every few minutes we will have a nice AR boost for those times with ITD doesn't work...
Boots - Haven't put too much thought into what boots our build would need, but Gore Riders with another 15% DS seem like an early favorite...
Belt - Since our Fire and Cold resists will already be maxed at 95%, how about maxing our Light Resist with Thundergod's? This belt gives us even more lightning absorb (we'll be laughing at those Gloams!), and some much needed Strength and Vitality too.
In Conclusion...
I want to be clear that this is not a build guide, rather, it is just an idea that I have been kicking around. But since my 40 minute coffee break NEEDS to end, I'm going to stop here and see what kind of feedback I get... Yeah, I know this will be an expensive build... So we had all better make MF sorcs and start looking for our gear!