Of Zeal & Nostalgia

[That Canadian Fellow]

Of Zeal & Nostalgia

Ahoy SPF !

I must say, this has been a long time coming. After burning out on World of Warcraft for the third time, it seems appropriate for a bit of nostalgic recourse. So I'm back to Diablo with a vengeance, starting from absolute scratch on an unmodified install. In the very least, it should be an interesting trip down memory lane.

However, I do have one question for you peppered veterans:

I'm thinking of starting a paladin. Does anyone have a link to the cookie-cutter zeal build ? I checked through the forums & the PAT/MAT thread, but the information was either runeword inclined or dated. I'd like him to be Hell Baal viable.

Thanks in advance,

 

[sorcererbob]

Re: Of Zeal & Nostalgia

I imagine the last time you played was pre 1.10? Melee is... well, lets say insanely difficult for untwinked players. Without a big-hurty-stick you'll struggle immensely and for that reason I'm inclined to suggest to you to consider starting with a caster - they require much less gear to be viable.

The most highly recommended starting characters are a fishymancer (summoning necro) or a blizzard sorceress. The former is easier to complete the game with, the latter is better for magic finding.

If you didn't find anything helpful in the Mat/Pat thread, then I'd say you're out of luck - it's got pretty much all of the information you need on most build varieties.

 

[That Canadian Fellow]

Re: Of Zeal & Nostalgia

I imagine the last time you played was pre 1.10? Melee is... well, lets say insanely difficult for untwinked players. Without a big-hurty-stick you'll struggle immensely and for that reason I'm inclined to suggest to you to consider starting with a caster - they require much less gear to be viable.

The most highly recommended starting characters are a fishymancer (summoning necro) or a blizzard sorceress. The former is easier to complete the game with, the latter is better for magic finding.

Yes, I realize this. I've begun from scratch a few times, and a blizzard sorceress is usually my staple first character. Not familiar with 'Fishymancers,' nor even what the fishy bit could stand for :scratchchin:. I'm not too concerned with blowing through the game or item hoarding just yet. I don't remember what version I left during; synergies were implemented, however.

If you didn't find anything helpful in the Mat/Pat thread, then I'd say you're out of luck - it's got pretty much all of the information you need on most build varieties.

I clicked a handful of the links, but since they're alphabetically ordered, the ones I landed on were posted in 05'. I'm not sure what patch that would've been, but I figure some changes have been made since then. I'm just looking for an 09' PAT thread if anyone can recall a recent one.

 

[essojay]

Re: Of Zeal & Nostalgia

Welcome! As a Canadian, I just wanted to say I love your name. :thumbup:

 

[potter]

Re: Of Zeal & Nostalgia

Welcome!

Holy Shockadin (Lightning/Physical)
Holy Freezadin (Cold/Physical)
TeslaFroster (Lightning/Cold)

Holy Shock/Holy Freeze combination is most likely the easiest untwinked cookie-cutter zeal build as you're not relying on a high damaging weapon.
http://www.purediablo.com/guides/news.php?id=505 read this for more info

 

[That Canadian Fellow]

Re: Of Zeal & Nostalgia

Welcome! As a Canadian, I just wanted to say I love your name. :thumbup:

Wahay ! :alright:

Welcome!

Holy Shockadin (Lightning/Physical)
Holy Freezadin (Cold/Physical)
TeslaFroster (Lightning/Cold)

Holy Shock/Holy Freeze combination is most likely the easiest untwinked cookie-cutter zeal build as you're not relying on a high damaging weapon.
http://www.purediablo.com/guides/news.php?id=505 read this for more info

Thanks Potter, that would be something I've never tried before. Sounds like fun though, maybe I'll try the fully synergized Tesladin with zeal.

 

[UllaV]

Re: Of Zeal & Nostalgia

Thanks Potter, that would be something I've never tried before. Sounds like fun though, maybe I'll try the fully synergized Tesladin with zeal.

For untwinked Holy Freeze is safer, so I suggest freezealot.

Here is a guide. Don't look too much into the items it suggest as there are much more to be found. For example it doesn't mention Spirit in a high res all pally shield, which is pound per pound as good as HoZ.

But crushing blow is the way to go. That combined to the slow from HF is key to the victory.

Ulla

EDIT: And even though you are not restricted to single pass you will benefit by reading these two early play mf guides. They tell you how to get to those items you need for hell.

U

 

[Ziggyzug]

Re: Of Zeal & Nostalgia

Welcome to the SPF.

/kicks shins

+1 to the posted guides.
And if those don't do anything for you, think of zeal paladins like this:
20 zeal, 20 sacrifice, 1+ holy shield And add flavoring of one of the following Holy Fire/Holy Freeze/Holy Shock/Fanaticism.

 

[QED]

Re: Of Zeal & Nostalgia

I built a TeslaFroster recently and you can read more about it here. I had never built a Paladin before and the TeslaFroster was fun, albeit I had some expensive end game gear. If I started from scratch (or if I could respec), I would go the max Zeal and Sacrifice (with Holy Shock and Lightning Resist) simply because attack rating became an issue with my pure TeslaFroster build. Best of luck and happy zealing.:smug:

 

[omgwtfbbqpwned]

Re: Of Zeal & Nostalgia

Welcome fellow Canadian!

Best of luck with the Zealot.

 

[That Canadian Fellow]

Re: Of Zeal & Nostalgia

Managed some decent play time this weekend. Finished normal difficulty with the newly branded 'Slayer' Fellows -- a zealot using frost aura. Sitting comfortably at level 46 in Act 2 NM with nothing but smooth sailing ahead. Only real ouch factor came with low resistances, zeal lockdown & Diablo throwing his red lightning stream into my face.

onder:

Pretty good luck with drops so far, although I could stand for a better hurty-stick. Resistances up around 60 (with maxed fire) in nightmare thanks to Ancient's Pledge and a few other resistance pieces. Did the Council on /p8, as well as most of Baal, but Lister was just too much of a wrecking ball at that difficulty so I had to recreate and finish in on /p1.

:hammerhead:

I've been reading up on some of the MF marathons people have posted. Are 'The Pits' and 'The Ancient Tunnels' still the definitive source for high level items ?

 

[potter]

Re: Of Zeal & Nostalgia

Any level 85 area is a great source for high treasure class gear. But if you're going straight Frost-a-lot, then you should consider Ancient Tunnels. No natural cold immunes there.

 

[pharaoh1]

Re: Of Zeal & Nostalgia

Managed some decent play time this weekend. Finished normal difficulty with the newly branded 'Slayer' Fellows -- a zealot using frost aura. Sitting comfortably at level 46 in Act 2 NM with nothing but smooth sailing ahead. Only real ouch factor came with low resistances, zeal lockdown & Diablo throwing his red lightning stream into my face.

Stand on Diablo's toes, and the lightning will hurt you a lot less. It's actually a series of projectiles, very few of which will hit you at extremely close range.

As for resists in general, what I do is grab white and grey paladin shields, particularly in higher difficulties. Sometimes you will get a really nice resist automod (this can go up to a whopping +45 res all). You can then slap in perfect diamonds or perhaps a runeword, and any resists from that will stack with the automod. I have Exile in an ethereal elite shield (sacred targe, I think; it's on the other computer at the moment, so I can't check) with a +45 res all automod. It's awesome, if expensive. Rhyme, Ancients' Pledge and perfect diamonds are all cheap choices.

This reminds me of my b.net days. I had a paladin with Ancients' Pledge in a paladin shield with resists, and I dueled some random guy. Upon losing, and requesting to see what shield I used, he promptly called me a cheater. Me: "Uhh, you know non-magic paladin shields can spawn with resists, right?" Him: "Yeah." "And you know the runeword resists stack with them, right?" Him: "Yeah." Me: "So exactly how am I cheating with this shield?"

I've been reading up on some of the MF marathons people have posted. Are 'The Pits' and 'The Ancient Tunnels' still the definitive source for high level items ?

In Hell, yes.

 

[UllaV]

Re: Of Zeal & Nostalgia

^I second that and mention that if you have RWM installed Spirit in a +45 res all sacred targe is awesome with cheap runes.

Ulla

 

[That Canadian Fellow]

Re: Of Zeal & Nostalgia

Stand on Diablo's toes, and the lightning will hurt you a lot less. It's actually a series of projectiles, very few of which will hit you at extremely close range.

As for resists in general, what I do is grab white and grey paladin shields, particularly in higher difficulties. Sometimes you will get a really nice resist automod (this can go up to a whopping +45 res all). You can then slap in perfect diamonds or perhaps a runeword, and any resists from that will stack with the automod. I have Exile in an ethereal elite shield (sacred targe, I think; it's on the other computer at the moment, so I can't check) with a +45 res all automod. It's awesome, if expensive. Rhyme, Ancients' Pledge and perfect diamonds are all cheap choices.

This reminds me of my b.net days. I had a paladin with Ancients' Pledge in a paladin shield with resists, and I dueled some random guy. Upon losing, and requesting to see what shield I used, he promptly called me a cheater. Me: "Uhh, you know non-magic paladin shields can spawn with resists, right?" Him: "Yeah." "And you know the runeword resists stack with them, right?" Him: "Yeah." Me: "So exactly how am I cheating with this shield?"
In Hell, yes.

Good tips, thanks.

I'll have to start checking the class specific shield more often then. I landed a really nice 3os one right at the end of normal, which is where Ancient's Pledge is right now -- but once I hit Hell I'll probably need a resistance buff again.

Whenever I find Sigon's it reminds me of my first Battle.Net log in. Some helpy helpertins all joined the game and gave my barbarian the full set just out of kindness. It was the first time I'd even seen a set piece being a level 12ish or so character at the time, so I immediately thought I was uber.

:nod:

^I second that and mention that if you have RWM installed Spirit in a +45 res all sacred targe is awesome with cheap runes.

Ulla

I do not have any mods installed currently. I'm hoping that 1.13 will include the ladder runewords on single player, but we'll see.

As an aside, I've made it to Act 3 Travincial before work crept up on me. I had to equip my Rixot's Keen from Act 1 normal to beat Duriel (25% crushing blow FTW.) I'm not expecting Mephisto to be much of an obstacle, as even on normal Duriel was more problematic for me. I'll probably farm Mephisto for a bit once I've beaten him, and hope for something better than my Ral Ort 2os Barbed Club hurty stick.

Doing about 670-1k damage currently, with 700HP & max resists on fire & lightning. Poison 40, cold 60ish.

:alright:

What would you say the optimum dexterity hard-point level would be ? I've let it fall behind up to this point because I don't want to overstack it, but I'm also suffering on block and AR at the moment (especially with might mercenary instead of blessed aim.) I'm still torn between going Holy Shield or full out offensive cold//physical, so I doubt max block is anywhere on the horizon for me in that respect.

 

[potter]

Re: Of Zeal & Nostalgia

Just to make an example, say you're lvl 65 and have a Protector Shield with 'Rhyme' in it. Which makes the block on the shield 70%.

HS-lvl  DEX
0       155
1       132
2       126
3       124
4       120
5       118 
6       117
7       116
8       115
9       114
10      113

With 1 point, you're shaving off 23 dex (that's 23 vitality points instead). The only annoying thing with a low invested HS is the duration. First point has 30 sec, every point after that adds 25 sec. A few +skill items and i'd say a 1-point HS is definitely worth it.

I use this calc whenever i plan for block:
http://diablo3.ingame.de/tips/calcs/block.php

Formula: http://www.purediablo.com/guides/news.php?id=551#Chance to Block

 

[pharaoh1]

Re: Of Zeal & Nostalgia

I'm not expecting Mephisto to be much of an obstacle, as even on normal Duriel was more problematic for me. I'll probably farm Mephisto for a bit once I've beaten him, and hope for something better than my Ral Ort 2os Barbed Club hurty stick.

Make sure you've got plenty of healing potions. You cannot leech from Meph in Nightmare or Hell difficulties.

If you can shop a wand with Life Tap charges, that will help a bunch. Life Tap does work on any non-PI enemy, since it's not true leech. Yes, this means you can use it against skeletons and other unleechables.