Diablo 2: Resurrected
Paladin - Level 90 Foher
Back in 1.14d, a Foher Paladin was probably viable only in PvP. With a huge delay and restricted damage, dealing with monsters was completely ineffective. With a few tweaks made in D2R, Fist of Heavens not only became a reliable spell but also made the Foher able to compete with one of the best Paladin builds in the game, the Hammerdin. However, as simple and straightforward as it may seems to build a Foher that's far from being the case. The complexity of this build relies on the creativity of the player and in order to make a fully optimized Foher depends on the purpose this build is destined for.Paladin - Level 90 Foher
Zeus... the father of all Gods and mortals, the ruler of Olympus has finally decided to take a visit at the Chaos Sanctuary. With his insane intelligence and devastating Lighting powers
the mere monsters of Chaos Sanctuary will surely bow before him unable to defend their Titan, Typhoon (Diablo)!
Positive
+ Doable at Players 8
+ Crowd Control
+ Multiple Auras
+ Plenty customization
+ High Survivability
- Maxed Resists
- High Defense
- Maxed Block
- High Health
- Restricted Farming Areas
- Restricted damage
What has changed in Fist of Heavens?
Along with some minor tweaks, there are three main changes that were done to the spell in order to improve its functionality.
- Casting Delay reduced from 1 second to 0.4 seconds
- Now damages Demons in addition to Undead
- Holy Bolts now pierce targets
How Fist of Heavens Works?
Fist of Heaven's deals two types of damage, Lighting and Magic.
The Lighting comes from the initial Lighting Bolt and strikes only the targeted creature. From the targeted monster, an amount of Holy Bolts will be released equal to the number of creatures nearby, one for each one of them regardless whether they are valid targets for the Holy Bolts or not. Unlike the Holy Bolt skill, the Holy Bolts released from FoH provide no healing. If the target is immune to Lighting, it will not receive the Lighting Damage but it will still release the Holy Bolts. If the Target is Undead or Demon it will only receive Lighting damage, the Holy Bolts that are released will target only the creatures around it. However, depending on the formation of the nearby monsters, the initial target may also get hit from the Holy Bolts that are released due to their ability to pierce now.
Stats
As usual, Strength is only needed to equip our gear. Regarding the Dexterity, it pretty much depends on the player whether maxed block is preferred or not. Since Holy Shield is part of our build aiming for max Block won't be hard. It's not essential but may prove useful to Hardcore players and those who want to farm at higher player settings.
Energy is also not needed at all so the rest points can all go to Vitality.
- Strength: None
- Dexterity: 150+
- Vitality: Rest
- Energy: None
The skill choices for this build are numerous and really depend on what goals we have with this character. Taking a look at the them it already seems a one way street by maxing Foh, Holy bolt, Holy Shock and Conviction. However, the whole strength of the skill comes from the Holy Bolts that are released from the Lighting Bolt. Therefore the Lighting Damage is basically useless as it only damages a single target. The Holy Shock Synergy and the Conviction Aura eventually are not to be considered the best option. This setup will mainly help you while questing but in order to create a fully optimized Foher, by following this path you are far from it. So if we decide to leave the Holy Shock with the Conviction path aside, there's literally a new whole build to discover which eventually ends up being a lot better. So which skill to use as a Main Aura?
Redemption is a nice Aura that can keep you constantly refilling your health and mana and is often considered a better choice than Conviction but other than it fails to add something more innovative to the build. Fanaticism is perhaps confusing you and the truth is that it can't help you directly. A powerful aura combined with a Powerful Mercenary can transform your hireling though into a killing machine. An Act2 Might Mercenary buffed by the Fanaticism along with an aggressive equipment will surely make good usage of the Aura. An Act 5 Frenzy Mercenary with Lawbringer and is another great choice for an aggressive mercenary while also providing some safety with Sanctuary and Decrepify. One point in Salvation will be enough to keep your resistances maxed and add some freedom to the gear. Holy Freeze is well known for its usage as it can provide great crowd control and safety. Sanctuary is an interesting skill to use if you are farming in Chaos Sanctuary while Vigor can would be great if Enigma was not an option. Honestly, any of these Auras seem a better option than Conviction.
The Prayer Aura
The main focus of this setup relies on the Prayer Aura which can also be combined with an Act 2 Prayer Mercenary. Prayer is an Aura that heals us over time and is a Synergy to Meditation and Cleansing. Using either one of these two Auras will provide us the healing Prayer does (depending on its level) in addition to the bonuses those Auras provide independently. The neat part about it is that it can combined with the Mercenary's Healing.
At first, it's interesting to know that when active auras from different players are at the same level they will stack with each other. So if your Mercenary is carrying a Level 18 Prayer Aura and you have an Active Prayer Aura at level 18 then both auras will work. However, if one of these auras is at higher level, then the stronger one will prevail.
Now, since Prayer Aura grants its bonuses to Meditation and Cleansing, having one of these auras active will grant you additional healing along with your Mercenary's Prayer Aura despite not being at the same level because now they are two different auras that provide the healing. So if your Mercenary carries a Level 18 Prayer and you are using an X level Cleansing Aura, you will get the healing of both your Mercenary's and your Cleansing's Aura.
The Runewords below provide an aura that can synergize with Prayer:
- Insight due to Meditation
- Cure due to Cleansing
- Plague due to Cleansing
The only "downside" to this stacking healing is that Prayer doesn't have diminishing returns. On the contrary, Prayer grants a lot better healing at higher levels which restrict the true potential of the Hireling since it is hard to increase the level of his aura. This is why you don't want to restrict all the "healing" gear to your Mercenary but must leave one vacant "healing aura" for self-use to stack it at greater numbers.
Prayer really shines at higher levels.
Below are some examples of the combinations you can do. We will assume that the Hireling's Prayer aura will be at level 18 which is the highest it can go without +skills and for our character it wouldn't be hard to reach a Prayer level of, let's say, 40.
At level 18, prayer heals 21 points.
At level 40, prayer heals 77 points.
Combo 1:
Mercenary: Prayer + Insight (Healing 42)
Character: Cleansing (Healing 77)
Total Healing: 119
A very easy and cheap combo which would grant us Meditation, Cleansing and *double* Prayer. Our build ends up with absolutely no mana issues and with a great passive healing. With Cleansing being our main aura, the curses would barely last a few seconds. Very convenient build to run at Chaos Sanctuary.
Combo 2:
Mercenary: Prayer + Insight + Cure (Healing 63)
Character: Redemption
Total Healing: 63
In this one we are throwing all the healing gear to our Mercenary which may not provide the best healing but allows our character to use an entirely different aura which opens up many new options. Redemption, Holy Freeze or Sanctuary are probably the best options. With Redemption active the Life and Mana will probably never go down.
Combo 3:
Mercenary: Frenzy + Lawbringer + Plauge
Character: Meditation (Healing 77)
Total Healing: 77
A great combination which grants us pretty much every aura. The Mercenary carries a high level Cleansing and a high level Sanctuary. Both Weapons have a chance to cast a curse but one overiding the other is not an issue since we are not relying on the Curses. However, if the Decrepify is the dominant one it's going to be a great help. For our Character we are using Meditation to keep the mana and the health regenerating.
Combo 4:
Mercenary: Holy Freeze + Reaper's Toll
Character: Meditation + Cure Runeword (Healing 144)
Total Healing: 144
We are using all the possible Auras for the Healing in our main character. This frees the Mercenary from his healing part and can be used for a different role. A Holy Freeze Mercenary with a Reaper's Toll will add massive slow providing extreme safety to an already tanky character. The only downside is that we are trading the +2 Skills from the Helm for the extra healing.
Combo 5:
Mercenary: Holy Freeze + Insight
Character: Cleansing (Healing 77)
Total Healing: 77
Similar to the Combo 4 but with a few Changes. We are replacing the Cure Helmet in order to maintain a helm with +2 Skills since damage is crucial for our build. This releases the Cleansing Aura from the Runeword which now can be used at maximum level as our main Aura. We are also switching the Hireling's Reaper with Insight. Eventually, we maintain all the necessary auras with a stronger FoH but lesser healing.
Combo 6:
Mercenary: Holy Freeze + Reaper's Toll + Cure
Character: Meditation (Healing 77)
Total Healing: 77
Probably the best scenario which to an extend, fuses the Combo four and five. The Hireling is a Holy Freeze with Reaper's to provide massive slow. We also use the Cure Runeword so that he also provides the Cleansing Aura. Even at Level one, the Aura will reduce the Curse Duration by 39%, something that is very convenient at Chaos Sanctuary. Now our character can equip a helm with +2 Skills to keep FoH as strong as possible. For Auras we are using Meditation with Maxed Prayer. The life and mana regeneration from these auras along with the Hireling's combo in addition to the best possible gear for Foh will create the most powerful version of a Foher.
Combo 7:
Mercenary: Prayer + Doom + Cure (Healing 42)
Character: Meditation (Healing 77)
Total Healing: 119
Another Combination that look similar to the last 3. Basically it trades the Reaper's to provide more healing while maintains all the necessary auras. Great healing supported by Holy Freeze.
Sanctuary provides great protection against Undead but in the end may prove unpractical for this build. It keeps knocking the Undead back while also spreading them away from each other. This is something we need to avoid to make sure the Holy Bolts hit as many targets as possible. Moreover, monsters such as Wraiths that can fly will be pushed beyond ground and will drop no loot. This completely negates the ability to farm at Arcane Sanctuary and to a smaller degree Chaos Sanctuary.
Digging it a bit more you may find many more combos. With a quick look, these are the ones that seem to shine. Unfortunately, as you can see there isn't a best scenario where you can stack everything and get the best possible bonuses. You are always trading something for something else. Obviously there is no "proper" build. The build will mainly vary on the area you want to farm.
Gear
Depending on the Skills that you will eventually use, your Gear selection will vary a lot but for the most part it usually relies around Enigma. Unfortunately, Enigma is a such a game-changing item that deciding to leave it behind will only slow you down in the end. That doesn't necessarily mean that this build can't stand without it it's just to point out that anything over Enigma will downgrade your character in terms of speed.
Without Enigma we really don't need any FCR items which leaves us some room to improve our damage. Charge is a nice alternative to cover speed. Also, without Teleport we won't have to constantly switch back and forth between Teleport and our main Aura which can be annoying. So using charge to move around with our main aura constantly active and delivering more damage is a very doable scenario both in terms of speed and strength especially for those who look something different.
Below are the Gear options that we have for both these scenarios. One for using Enigma and one without it.The reason to mention a gear without Enigma is because I find it an excellent alternative for anyone who can't afford it or don't want to use it. The build changes a lot and is much more flexible.
| Equipment | Without Enigma | With Enigma |
|---|---|---|
| Weapon | Hand of Blessed Light | Hoto |
| Shield | Herald of Zakarum | Spirit |
| Armor | Chains of Honor | Enigma |
| Helm | Shako | Shako |
| Gloves | Chance Guards | Trang-Oul's Claws |
| Belt | Arachnid Mesh | Arachnid Mesh |
| Boots | War Traveler | Rare |
| Rings | SoJ x2 | Soj x2 |
| Amulet | Mara's | +2 Paladin / 10% FCR |
The FCR items needed in the Enigma setup really cover many slots so we don't have much customization unless we are satisfied with the 75% FCR instead of 125%. The "no Enigma" setup on the other doesn't need to cover anything and ends up with more damage, greater resists and plenty MF without sacrificing any vital slot.
Attributes to aim:
- Faster Cast Rate: 125%
- Attack Speed: N/A
- Faster Hit Recovery: N/A
- Block Chance: 75%
- Resistances: 75%
With the way FoH works now, we have quite a few options in each act to help us counter the monotony of grinding the same area again and again. The more areas we can handle the easier it is to take advantage of Terror Zones. Terror Zones are always to be prefered due to their increased experience.
Act 1, The Pit - An relatively easy area which always have Demons and Undead.
Act 2, Arcane Sanctuary - Stable monsters which are all Demons and Undead. A good way to combine Rune hunting with Keys of Hate.
Act 3, Flayer Jungle - Great area to farm for experience due to the numerous Fetish. Don't forget to visit the Flayer Dungeon as well.
Act 4, Chaos Sanctuary - Most popular area. Crowded and rewarding.
Act 5, WolrdStone Keep - Not all monsters are always valid targets but good area nevertheless. Farm all the levels along with Baal.
Conclusion
The changes made in D2R definitely revived a very interesting skill. Being one of the highest Paladin Spells, it would be a shame for this skill not to have any real use. As described above, the customization you can have with this character really shines when combined with the creativity of the player. The spells will play an important role on how you eventually want to build your Paladin but one thing's for certain, Fist of Heavens is Resurrected and is stronger than ever!
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