- Jan 1, 2011
- 657
- 1,185
- 93
Patriarch Hekki-Lunta the Frost Zealot. Named after the Finnish Snow God. Well, at least the one from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. It roughly translates as Jack Snow. This was my first Zealot and I really like the class.
I also decided to go with the Ice and Fire theme suggested by Kitriara and hired a Fire rogue for my merc for the whole game. Enter Ithera. This also meant that I could use a Harmony bow at level 51 that has a lot of added lighting and fire damage or the Faith bow at level 67 that gives me fanatism. That level 15 fanaticism was a big factor in my choice.
Since this was my first Zealot In getting ready to build Heikki I carefully read two guides: Build your own Zealot by Kitteh and Frost Zealot by Kitriara. Kitteh’s is new and extremely detailed about all of the skills and mods. It is without a doubt one of the most detailed guides I’ve seen in 20 years. Kitriara’s dates from 2005, wasn’t really intended for single player, but still contains some great information.
However, they don’t really agree on equipment and in some cases I’m not sure I agree with either. I also disagree with the skill distribution to some extent, especially for a solo player. More on this latter.
Name: Heikki-Lunta
Class: Paladin
Experience: 1130640170
Level: 85
Naked/Gear
Strength: 104/153
Dexterity: 73/134
Vitality: 328/373
Energy: 15/20
HP: 1192/1363
Mana: 141/261
Stamina: 476/496
Defense: 18/3212
AR: 350/22659
Fire: 242/202/75
Cold: 184/144/84
Lightning: 191/151/91
Poison: 174/134/74
MF: 53 Block: 57
GF: 115
FR/W: 39
FHR: 12
IAS: 40
FCR: 25
Sacrifice: 13/24
Smite: 1/12
Holy Bolt: 1/12
Zeal: 20/31
Charge: 1/12
Vengeance: 0/0
Blessed Hammer: 1/12
Conversion: 0/0
Holy Shield: 1/12
Fist of the Heavens: 0/0
Might: 1/10
Holy Fire: 1/10
Thorns: 0/0
Blessed Aim: 0/0
Concentration: 0/0
Holy Freeze: 20/29
Holy Shock: 0/0
Sanctuary: 0/0
Fanaticism: 0/0
Conviction: 0/0
Prayer: 0/0
Resist Fire: 0/0
Defiance: 0/0
Resist Cold: 20/29
Cleansing: 0/0
Resist Lightning: 0/0
Vigor: 0/0
Meditation: 0/0
Redemption: 0/0
Salvation: 16/25
Helm: Nightwing’s Veil
Armor: Fortitude
Belt: Thundergod’s Vigor
Gloves: Laying of Hands
Boots: Gore Rider
Shield: Herald of Zakarum
Weapon: Heaven’s Light
Switch Lawbringer/Herald of Zakarum
Amulet: Mara’s
Ring: Raven Frost
Ring: Rare w/40 life/80 Mana/14 dex/65 AR/8% LL/28% fire resist
I played Normal and Nightmare at p/8 and Hell act 1 and act 2 till the tombs in the Valley of Kings at P/4. It was just taking too long to kill everything so I did the rest of Hell at P/1.
My initial plan was to max Zeal, Holy Freeze, Resist Cold and Sanctuary and put one point in Holy Shield and dump whatever was left into Sanctuary. However, As I cruised through Nightmare I began to think about all of the cold immunes that I was sure to find in Hell, plus the occasional PI/CI monster. The first thing I did was around level 74 was to quit putting points in salvation and put them into Sacrifice and then tried to balance adding points to each once they were the same. I think this more balanced approach worked well and it allowed me to be able to handle the CI without having to switch
For the PI/CI I only ran into 3 or 4 and I tried several approaches. First was to put Gimmershred on switch with all of its elemental damage and it works quite well. Second, I made a Lawbringer in a Divine Scepter as I didn’t have a three socket Caduceus. This was an interesting weapon as with zeal it easily cast decrepify, but the damage it does isn’t much. I also found the sanctuary knockback effect on the undead to be a bit much. Using it to cast decrpify and then switching back to the primary weapon does work quite well. I did use Lawbringer on Radiment in Hell on P/4 and he never knew what hit him. The third way I took care of the PI/CI was to stand in front of them and zeal away while Ithera hit them with fire arrows, plus Faith adds 120 fire to each arrow. This is the slower, lazy way, but the one I ended up using the most.
The big act bosses were not a problem at any level. The biggest challenge I had was Hell Ancients. Yeah, I died, once in Normal at level 7, once in Nightmare after killing Niltalthik and while clearing the rest of his level, and 4 times in Hell. Frankly, probably all of them were avoidable if I had been playing carefully.
Finds
Not much magic finds so I didn’t expect to find that much. I did find a +4 to all skills Arioc Needle, Bonehew, firelizard’s talons, Razor’s Edge, a Lo rune from Hell Duriel, A Pul rune in WSK and the Hell Forge dropped an Um.
I’ve got to give an honorable mention to the Grand Matron Bow with +3 to bow skills I found in the WSK. I give it honorable mention because it has 5 sockets.
Weapon Choices
I tried a number of weapons on the journey and while crushing blow is nice speed kills.
I’ve never used swords in any of my melee characters, opting instead for maces, usually knouts and scourges. From my frenzy days I’ve got Passion and Passion in knouts and Oath and Voice of Reason in scourges. So, I decided to use them again on this journey. I also made Black in a knout and tried another Passion in a scourge.
Both guides mention Black, but I found it inferior to Honor and especially to a Passion knout.
As far as Voice of Reason goes, I’m sure that the main reason for choosing it is the -24% to cold resists. Maybe in a phaseblade it would be a great choice, but not in a scourge. It is too slow. I also found the ice blasts to be more cinematic than helpful. I used Oath till I could use Heaven’s Light.
I went with a Heaven’s Light. It was a very good weapon and would have been even better if I had been able to cube two Ruby jewels of fervor. I never got a second one and simply left in the two ED jewels I had dumped in it while using it on my Avenger. Frankly, without the level 15 fanaticism from the Faith bow I don’t know if I would have stayed with it.
Ok, until Duriel dropped a Lo, I didn’t have the runes to make grief so I couldn’t compare the two. Clearly for a Paladin a phaseblade is the way to go, but I'd also like to use it on a frenzy barb and the phaseblade and a berserker axe both reach the final break point. So do I stick with my self imposed no swords on barbs or do I break tradition.
Other gear comments
I never realized how good Sigon’s set is. You really don’t need to make any changes until at least level 30. Especially when you couple it with 3 pieces of the Angelic set.
I used an UM in HoZ, Fortitude, Mara’s, Laying of Hands and Thundergod’s to get my resists high and 90 on lightning (+5% from Fortitude and +10% from Thundergod’s) which I was very glad when I ran into Gloams in the Throne area in WSK. This way I didn’t need Guardian Angel to get above 75.
Mercenary
Helm Delirium
Armor: Treachery
Bow: Faith
Yes, I went with a fire rogue and I don’t regret it. I liked the idea of adding a fire attack to my zealot’s cold attack and the idea of adding a level 15 fanaticism to the zealot was more than I could resist. She did very well through Nightmare, usually without having to try and keep her alive. Hell saw quite a few deaths especially late in Act 5, but she is a viable mercenary as I’ve used a cold rogue with a number of other characters.
I also have started equipping all of my merc with a delirium helm. I love it when it casts confusion on a mob of monsters and is a great form of crowd control
The one issue I had is using treachery on her. I did it to get the 45% IAS, which definitely sped up her attacks. However, I did this late in Hell and wonder if this was not part of the reason for all of her deaths. She was really there for the fanaticism aura and to cast confuse. I think I lost sight of that as there are better armor to equip her with.
I also decided to go with the Ice and Fire theme suggested by Kitriara and hired a Fire rogue for my merc for the whole game. Enter Ithera. This also meant that I could use a Harmony bow at level 51 that has a lot of added lighting and fire damage or the Faith bow at level 67 that gives me fanatism. That level 15 fanaticism was a big factor in my choice.
Since this was my first Zealot In getting ready to build Heikki I carefully read two guides: Build your own Zealot by Kitteh and Frost Zealot by Kitriara. Kitteh’s is new and extremely detailed about all of the skills and mods. It is without a doubt one of the most detailed guides I’ve seen in 20 years. Kitriara’s dates from 2005, wasn’t really intended for single player, but still contains some great information.
However, they don’t really agree on equipment and in some cases I’m not sure I agree with either. I also disagree with the skill distribution to some extent, especially for a solo player. More on this latter.
Name: Heikki-Lunta
Class: Paladin
Experience: 1130640170
Level: 85
Naked/Gear
Strength: 104/153
Dexterity: 73/134
Vitality: 328/373
Energy: 15/20
HP: 1192/1363
Mana: 141/261
Stamina: 476/496
Defense: 18/3212
AR: 350/22659
Fire: 242/202/75
Cold: 184/144/84
Lightning: 191/151/91
Poison: 174/134/74
MF: 53 Block: 57
GF: 115
FR/W: 39
FHR: 12
IAS: 40
FCR: 25
Sacrifice: 13/24
Smite: 1/12
Holy Bolt: 1/12
Zeal: 20/31
Charge: 1/12
Vengeance: 0/0
Blessed Hammer: 1/12
Conversion: 0/0
Holy Shield: 1/12
Fist of the Heavens: 0/0
Might: 1/10
Holy Fire: 1/10
Thorns: 0/0
Blessed Aim: 0/0
Concentration: 0/0
Holy Freeze: 20/29
Holy Shock: 0/0
Sanctuary: 0/0
Fanaticism: 0/0
Conviction: 0/0
Prayer: 0/0
Resist Fire: 0/0
Defiance: 0/0
Resist Cold: 20/29
Cleansing: 0/0
Resist Lightning: 0/0
Vigor: 0/0
Meditation: 0/0
Redemption: 0/0
Salvation: 16/25
Helm: Nightwing’s Veil
Armor: Fortitude
Belt: Thundergod’s Vigor
Gloves: Laying of Hands
Boots: Gore Rider
Shield: Herald of Zakarum
Weapon: Heaven’s Light
Switch Lawbringer/Herald of Zakarum
Amulet: Mara’s
Ring: Raven Frost
Ring: Rare w/40 life/80 Mana/14 dex/65 AR/8% LL/28% fire resist
I played Normal and Nightmare at p/8 and Hell act 1 and act 2 till the tombs in the Valley of Kings at P/4. It was just taking too long to kill everything so I did the rest of Hell at P/1.
My initial plan was to max Zeal, Holy Freeze, Resist Cold and Sanctuary and put one point in Holy Shield and dump whatever was left into Sanctuary. However, As I cruised through Nightmare I began to think about all of the cold immunes that I was sure to find in Hell, plus the occasional PI/CI monster. The first thing I did was around level 74 was to quit putting points in salvation and put them into Sacrifice and then tried to balance adding points to each once they were the same. I think this more balanced approach worked well and it allowed me to be able to handle the CI without having to switch
For the PI/CI I only ran into 3 or 4 and I tried several approaches. First was to put Gimmershred on switch with all of its elemental damage and it works quite well. Second, I made a Lawbringer in a Divine Scepter as I didn’t have a three socket Caduceus. This was an interesting weapon as with zeal it easily cast decrepify, but the damage it does isn’t much. I also found the sanctuary knockback effect on the undead to be a bit much. Using it to cast decrpify and then switching back to the primary weapon does work quite well. I did use Lawbringer on Radiment in Hell on P/4 and he never knew what hit him. The third way I took care of the PI/CI was to stand in front of them and zeal away while Ithera hit them with fire arrows, plus Faith adds 120 fire to each arrow. This is the slower, lazy way, but the one I ended up using the most.
The big act bosses were not a problem at any level. The biggest challenge I had was Hell Ancients. Yeah, I died, once in Normal at level 7, once in Nightmare after killing Niltalthik and while clearing the rest of his level, and 4 times in Hell. Frankly, probably all of them were avoidable if I had been playing carefully.
Finds
Not much magic finds so I didn’t expect to find that much. I did find a +4 to all skills Arioc Needle, Bonehew, firelizard’s talons, Razor’s Edge, a Lo rune from Hell Duriel, A Pul rune in WSK and the Hell Forge dropped an Um.
I’ve got to give an honorable mention to the Grand Matron Bow with +3 to bow skills I found in the WSK. I give it honorable mention because it has 5 sockets.
Weapon Choices
I tried a number of weapons on the journey and while crushing blow is nice speed kills.
I’ve never used swords in any of my melee characters, opting instead for maces, usually knouts and scourges. From my frenzy days I’ve got Passion and Passion in knouts and Oath and Voice of Reason in scourges. So, I decided to use them again on this journey. I also made Black in a knout and tried another Passion in a scourge.
Both guides mention Black, but I found it inferior to Honor and especially to a Passion knout.
As far as Voice of Reason goes, I’m sure that the main reason for choosing it is the -24% to cold resists. Maybe in a phaseblade it would be a great choice, but not in a scourge. It is too slow. I also found the ice blasts to be more cinematic than helpful. I used Oath till I could use Heaven’s Light.
I went with a Heaven’s Light. It was a very good weapon and would have been even better if I had been able to cube two Ruby jewels of fervor. I never got a second one and simply left in the two ED jewels I had dumped in it while using it on my Avenger. Frankly, without the level 15 fanaticism from the Faith bow I don’t know if I would have stayed with it.
Ok, until Duriel dropped a Lo, I didn’t have the runes to make grief so I couldn’t compare the two. Clearly for a Paladin a phaseblade is the way to go, but I'd also like to use it on a frenzy barb and the phaseblade and a berserker axe both reach the final break point. So do I stick with my self imposed no swords on barbs or do I break tradition.
Other gear comments
I never realized how good Sigon’s set is. You really don’t need to make any changes until at least level 30. Especially when you couple it with 3 pieces of the Angelic set.
I used an UM in HoZ, Fortitude, Mara’s, Laying of Hands and Thundergod’s to get my resists high and 90 on lightning (+5% from Fortitude and +10% from Thundergod’s) which I was very glad when I ran into Gloams in the Throne area in WSK. This way I didn’t need Guardian Angel to get above 75.
Mercenary
Helm Delirium
Armor: Treachery
Bow: Faith
Yes, I went with a fire rogue and I don’t regret it. I liked the idea of adding a fire attack to my zealot’s cold attack and the idea of adding a level 15 fanaticism to the zealot was more than I could resist. She did very well through Nightmare, usually without having to try and keep her alive. Hell saw quite a few deaths especially late in Act 5, but she is a viable mercenary as I’ve used a cold rogue with a number of other characters.
I also have started equipping all of my merc with a delirium helm. I love it when it casts confusion on a mob of monsters and is a great form of crowd control
The one issue I had is using treachery on her. I did it to get the 45% IAS, which definitely sped up her attacks. However, I did this late in Hell and wonder if this was not part of the reason for all of her deaths. She was really there for the fanaticism aura and to cast confuse. I think I lost sight of that as there are better armor to equip her with.
Google