Vindicator/Templar Guide (Update)
Hi all! This is an update of the Vindicator/Templar guide I wrote last year when the 1.10 patch was still new. Now after the first ladder season has ended and things have settled, I found that my first guide was outdated. I have changed my opinion about many things and I have also discovered new methods and strategies that can be useful to know when dueling with a Vindicator/Templar (V/T). This version is much more in-depth than the first guide ever was. It is also aimed towards the more experienced players, rather than the beginners even though I’ve tried hard to keep it simple. If you are new to paladins or PvP, then I suggest you read the FAQ and do some basic research before continuing.
INTRODUCTION
A Vindicator/Templar is a paladin who uses smite and fists of the heavens as his main attacks in combination with fanaticism and conviction. The majority have also incorporated charge as one of their attacks, which is a great skill that comes in handy very often. Consequently, a V/T can deal two sorts of damage, physical and elemental, which makes it versatile and suitable for PvP. There are many ways to make V/Ts and I would like to present the following two sub-variants, the smite-oriented V/T and the templar-oriented V/T (also known as a T/V). As its name implies, the smite-oriented V/T has a strong smite and is more of a melee build, while the templar-oriented V/T relies more on its FoH. Which one is better is debatable since they both have advantages and disadvantages. I’ve always made more smite-oriented V/Ts since they suit my playing style better, but I might try out a templar-oriented V/T in the future. Who knows?
SMITE:
Smite is one of the best melee attacks in the game since it ignores defense, cannot be blocked (except by dual claw assassins), and has knockback. This means that attack rating is irrelevant when smiting as you will almost always hit as long as your opponent is within your weapon range. Since smite is a shield-attack, the damage will basically depend on what type of shield you use, and not on your weapon. However, your weapon is also important since it determines how fast you can smite. Thus, if you use a slow weapon, you won’t be able to smite as fast as you would with a faster weapon, unless you use IAS gear to make up for it. Smite is capped at 6 fps and it’s the speed you should aim for.
It’s commonly believed that smite stuns (i.e. to put the enemy in recovery animation during which he cannot do anything for a short period of time) in PvP like it does in PvM. That is not true. Smite does not stun in PvP. If you get hit by a smite you will have “swirlies†but you won’t go into recovery animation (unless it takes more than 1/12 of your total life). Nonetheless, if you now get hit by another attack, like FoH, while still having “swirliesâ€, you will get stunned no matter how little damage you take. You should use this to your advantage when dueling. If you hit with smite, but your opponent runs/teleports away, you can switch to FoH and use it to stun with. Anyone who is stunned will be vulnerable to new attacks and the technique above is a good way to get a free smite off (e.g. use FoH to stun, then quickly charge in and switch to smite). This is one of the advantages of maxing smite since the “swirlies†will have a longer duration, thus giving you a longer time to try to put someone in recovery animation. Just be aware that damage from open wounds and elemental auras won’t cause stun to a “swirlied†person even though they do damage.
CHARGE:
Charge lets the paladin run up to an enemy and deliver a hit. All V/Ts can use charge since it’s a prerequisite to holy shield. It is a very useful attack and you should take advantage of it by using a high-damage weapon. Even though you will only have around 5,000ar, you will hit a lot more than your think. It’s also usually better to use shift-charge instead of running/walking since it’s a lot faster (i.e. press the shift-key and charge at the same time). However, this skill also has negative sides since it’s very buggy. For example, if you die while charging, you won’t be able to use it anymore. Similarly, if your holy shield expires while you use charge, you won’t be able to use it, but have to rejoin the game. What annoys me the most though, is “charge-lockâ€. That is, when you charge at someone and miss you will often freeze and can’t move unless you get hit. You can usually release yourself by using your weapon-switch key. However, sometimes when you are desynched, the weapon-switch key won’t work and you will have to wait a few seconds until the lock goes away by itself. You will find that charge-lock is very annoying and often ruins many duels. I doubt Blizzard will fix this bug so I guess it’s just something we have to accept.
FISTS OF THE HEAVENS:
Fists of the Heavens is an attack that deals lightning damage. It is auto-targeting, which means that you don’t necessary have to click on your opponent to hit, but just in the vicinity. It is relatively low damaging for being an elemental attack but can nevertheless be effective in combination with conviction. FoH has a casting delay which means you have to wait a second after having used FoH before you can use it again. Faster-cast-rate gear will speed up the casting animation a little (which means you will cast faster) but are not worth using on a V/T. Since FoH is an elemental attack, it’s easy for your opponent to negate it by simply using +max light resist items, such as Thundergod’s Vigor. The effects of conviction can also be negated by simply stacking light resist (that is, to use more light resist than necessary to hit max). So what’s so good about FoH if it can be negated then? The answer is because it forces your opponents to stack resist instead of using better items. For example, a particular WW barbarian who normally uses Stormshield and Verdungo’s would have to change those items to a 4 perfect topazed shield and Thundergod’s Vigor to have a chance to win. Thus, this barbarian has not only lowered his damage and life, but also reduced his DR, giving you a bigger chance to win. This was an extreme example, but you get the picture.
CONVICTION:
Conviction is an aura which lowers all of your opponent’s resists (except poison) by 5% per level. It is capped at level 25, so the most you can lower your opponent’s resist is by –150%. Because of this cap, it’s fairly easy to negate the effects of conviction, since opponents don’t have to stack as much resists compared to before when there was no cap. There is also another bug that lets a higher-level conviction cancel out a lower-level one. That is, if player A has a level 20 conviction and is dueling player B, who only has a level 10 conviction, then player A’s resistances will not be lowered when both player A and player B have their conviction auras on. Player B, on the other hand, will have his resistances lowered. I don’t think this information is relevant to PvP since in order to negate someone else’s conviction, you would have to use your conviction whenever your opponent had his conviction on. And, if you have ever dueled V/T vs. V/T, you know that it’s best to have holy freeze on when you are not smiting. Thus, don’t listen to those people who say that you should max conviction just to cancel out someone else’s conviction. It’s way better to stack resists and save those skill points for something better.
FANATICISM:
Fanaticism is the only aura you should ever consider using with smite. The reason is obvious since it not only gives the highest damage, but also increases your attack speed. I’ve seen a few V/Ts who use concentration in combination with the Beast runeword in order to get good smite damage. However, I wouldn’t recommend the use of Beast since you lose a lot of flexibility as you are stuck with your weapon. Besides, if you want to do as much damage as possible, you might as well use Redeemer or Astreon’s Iron Ward (explained later if you don’t know what I’m talking about).
SKILL ALLOCATION
Since you only can allocate 110 skill points at the most, (which is achieved at level 99) you cannot make a V/T with both a strong smite and a strong FoH. You have to choose which attack you want to emphasize. More smite damage or more FoH damage. It’s up to you.
COMBAT SKILLS:
SMITE (1-20 points): If you are making a smite-oriented V/T, you should max this skill, while the templar-oriented V/T will only have a few points here. If you’re taking the templar-route, then leave smite at base and max out the other skills before putting the remaining points here, which will happen after level 90.
HOLY SHIELD (20 points): A V/T must max holy shield since it’s the skill that will boost your smite damage the most. It also enhances your defense which is useful when dueling characters that rely on attack rating to hit.
FISTS OF THE HEAVENS (1-20 points): I frequently see people asking how to find the best split between FoH and holy shock. That is, the skill distribution that will yield the highest FoH damage for a particular number of skill points. The easiest solution is to max both skills in which case you don’t have to deal with this hassle. However, if you are making smite-oriented V/T, you won’t have enough skill points to max both FoH and holy shock, in which case you have to optimize. One option is to read strength_honor’s “V/T Optimization†and use his formula to calculate the best split. Another option is to use a skill planner. Your FoH damage will depend on the number of +combat skills you have, so if you change from one setup to another, your FoH damage might not stay optimized. Consequently, you should always optimize your FoH based on the setup you know you are going to use FoH with the most. I provided some FoH tables that you might find useful if you can’t find a skill planner. You can find them further down in this guide.
OFFENSIVE AURAS:
FANATICISM (20 points): Max this skill since it gives both IAS and enhanced damage.
HOLY SHOCK (1-20 points): See FoH.
CONVICTION (1 point): I know that many V/Ts put more than 1 point in conviction, but I wouldn’t recommend it since you don’t have enough skill points. If you choose to put more than one point here, you will sacrifice either your smite damage or FoH damage. Some people say that FoH doesn’t do enough damage without a level 25 conviction but that’s not true. A single point in conviction will usually lower your opponent’s resist by 80-100% and is enough to turn positive resists into negative. Also, many times, you won’t have time to lock conviction on your opponent, in which case a stronger FoH is preferred over a high-level conviction.
DEFENSIVE AURAS:
VIGOR (1 point): A V/T should always put one point in vigor. Some people will disagree and say it’s a waste but don’t listen to them. Vigor is one of the most useful auras since it allows you to move extremely fast when shift-charging.
MEDITATION (1 point): One point in meditation is a must. It’s the only aura that speeds up your mana regeneration. If you have a habit of shift-charging a lot, you will often find yourself low on mana, in which case meditation is crucial. Without mana you can’t do anything! Another nice feature is that meditation works in combination with prayer. So while you regenerate mana, you will also regenerate life. This life regeneration is not always appreciated by your opponents, but at least it’s better than mana potting.
SKILL POINT ALLOCATION SUMMARY:
The smite-oriented V/T:
Smite 20
Holy shield 20
Fanaticism 20
Conviction 1
Vigor 1
Meditation 1
Put the rest in FoH and holy shock
The templar-oriented V/T:
Holy shield 20
Fanaticism 20
FoH 20
Holy Shock 20
Conviction 1
Vigor 1
Meditation 1
Put the rest in smite
FISTS OF THE HEAVENS OPTIMIZATION:
If you are making a smite-oriented V/T, you will have to spend 80 skill points before you can put points in FoH and holy shock. The tables below show the optimal split (underlined) between FoH and holy shock for a level 95 V/T. As you can see, you won’t lose that much damage if you only have a few point offs. However, if you mess up a lot, you can lose more than 400 FoH damage. The table should be read like this:
Points in FoH / Points in holy shock: FoH damage (average damage)
+22 combat skills:
15/10: 2856-2941 (2898.5)
14/11: 2858-2947 (2902.5)
13/12: 2852-2944 (2898)
+23 combat skills:
15/10: 2966-3051 (3008.5)
14/11: 2973-3062 (3017.5)
13/12: 2971-3063 (3017)
+24 combat skills:
14/11: 3088-3177 (3132.5)
13/12: 3091-3183 (3137)
12/13: 3084-3180 (3132)
+25 combat skills:
14/11: 3203-3292 (3247.5)
13/12: 3210-3302 (3256)
12/13: 3208-3304 (3256)
11/14: 3197-3296 (3246.5)
+26 combat skills:
13/12: 3330-3422 (3376)
12/13: 3332-3428 (3380)
11/14: 3326-3425 (3375.5)
Notice that once you pass a certain number of combat skills (25 in the tables above), you will have to put more points in holy shock and less in FoH.
STATS
A V/T should aim for as much life as possible and the following way is the best one to allocate your stat points. If you can’t afford Enigma, you will probably have to put some points in strength.
STRENGTH base
DEXTERITY enough for 75% chance to block
VITALITY the rest
ENERGY base
Since holy shield gives an increased chance of blocking, it’s possible to achieve 75% chance to block with very low dexterity. Consequently, most V/Ts have high life compared to other paladin subclasses. You should have at least 2100-2400life (without CtA) at level 90+ with decent gear even though it’s possible to have a lot more life than that. My V/T has close to 2900life which I will reach in a couple of levels.
GEAR
Your gear will have a big influence on your success as a dueler. This game is definitely not all about skills. Gear plays an important role, and let’s face it, without top-gear, you will hardly discover a PvP character’s true potential. I know that not everybody is rich, but before you make a V/T, you should at least be able to afford 10 lionbranded charms (paladin combat charms). Without those charms your damage will suffer and as a result hurt your V/T’s effectiveness. Also, don’t limit yourself to one setup. You will be much more competitive if you keep alternative setups in your stash. I will cover a few setups I use later in this guide, but now to gear:
HELM:
There is only one helm for a V/T and that is the unique shako, Harlequin Crest. I’ve seen some V/Ts using Crown of Ages (CoA) but it is a bad choice in my opinion. CoA won’t give you any mana, and if you shift-charge a lot, you’ll frequently find yourself out of mana. It’s true that you can make up for it by using something like a SoJ, but then you lose life since most V/Ts use a Bul-Kathos’ Weddingband ring over a SoJ. All in all, you will have to sacrifice something, and in the end you are better off with shako. It’s true that with CoA you can use Thundergods’ Vigor and have 47%DR at the same time, but the life lost isn’t worth it. In that case I think it’s better to put 3 Ber runes in Griswold’s shield instead which would allow you to have 50%DR and Thundergods’ Vigor.
GLOVES:
There are only four good options in my opinion depending on your preference. Namely these:
Rare gloves
Crafted gloves
Bloodfist
Dracul’s Grasp
Things you should look for in rare and crafted gloves are increased attack speed (IAS), stats, crushing blow (only on crafted), life replenish, and resists. I think Bloodfist are awesome gloves and I would definitely use them over most rare or crafted I’ve seen. Dracul’s are another pair of good gloves. Say what you want about life tap, but the 25% chance of open wounds is what makes them good. There is another pair of gloves that can be useful sometimes, and that is Death’s Hand due to the poison length reduced and poison resist. Just keep a pair in your stash if you can.
ARMOR:
Chains of honor is a nice armor because of the resists and life replenish, but get your resists elsewhere, because nothing comes close to Enigma. It is unquestionably the best armor for a V/T and will save you a lot of life not mentioning the other mods. I’ve seen some people advocate dusk shroud Enigma as the best one, but I say, if you can’t keep your strength at base with dusk, then go for mage plate. It’s not worth to sacrifice life for more defense. If you can’t afford enigma, Shaftstop is the next logical choice. Duress isn’t a good option as default armor since you won’t be able to have full DR without Ber runes (unless you use Stormshield), and if you can afford Ber runes, then you can afford Enigma. However, if you use Shaftstop, then you should take advantage of the fact that you can switch armors. So if you decide to go with Shaftstop, then try to keep a Duress and a Guardian Angel in your stash and use them for duels when DR is not needed.
BELT:
There are only two choices here and you should have both in your stash. Namely Thundergod’s Vigor and Verdungo’s Hearty Cord. I know that it’s possible to craft very nice blood belts with open wounds you could use when you don’t need the DR. However, Verdungo’s beats most crafts by far because of its +vitality, and life replenish.
BOOTS:
I recommend the following boots:
classic rare boots with massive resists and stats
Waterwalk
Sandtrek
Gore Rider
Most classic rare boots are duped so if you are against using duped stuff, then go with Waterwalk or Sandtrek. Be aware that your resists will most likely suffer a lot. Gore Rider have some advantages and can be kept in stash as backup. However, classic rares are probably the best overall boots for a V/T.
AMULET:
Try to find something with +2skills, +life, and +res. Mara’s kaleidoscope is a good choice since it gives +2skills, 20stats, and good resists. Highlord’s Wrath is another good option when you need IAS and deadly strike (for charge). I also know people who use rosebranded amulets of the whale and are happy with those.
RINGS:
One ring should be a 20dex Raven Frost to prevent you from freezing when hit by a cold damage. The other ring slot is more open. Most people use a Bul-Kathos’ Weddingband ring for the +1skills and +life. Consider using a SoJ if you shift-charge a lot and find yourself out of mana frequently.
SHIELD:
Most people agree that an upgraded Herald of Zakarum (HoZ) is the best smiter shield in the game, but that’s not true. There is no best smiter shield or weapon. It all comes down to who you duel and the rest of your gear. For example, if you can’t negate an opponent’s conviction with an upgraded HoZ, then a 45 resist all sacred targe with four perfect topazes would without doubt be a better shield. For general dueling though, an upgraded HoZ is usually the best choice. These are the shields I would consider:
Upgraded HoZ
Non-upgraded HoZ
Upgraded Swordback Hold
Exile “elite paladin shieldâ€
Stormshield
Jeweler’s “elite paladin shield†of deflecting
Priest’s/Rosebranded “elite paladin shield†of deflecting and 2 sockets
A rare “elite paladin shield†with deflecting mods and 2 sockets
I’m not going to into why an upgraded HoZ is a good shield. That should be obvious. An upgraded Swordback Hold would make an excellent smiter shield since it’s a blade barrier, and blade barriers inherently have good smite damage. The advantage over a HoZ is the 50% chance of open wounds which is very useful many times. The Exile runeword makes good smiter-shields because of lifetap and its defiance aura which can come in handy many times. Just be aware that many people consider the use of Exile bad mannered. It also doesn’t have any increased chance of blocking, so if you plan on using Exile, be aware that you will have less life than if you go with HoZ. Stormshield was the default smite-shield when DR was capped at 75%, and it’s still a viable choice. I frequently use a Stormshield when I need DR. Most rares don’t come close to an upgraded HoZ (let alone a non-upgraded HoZ) and the only reason I would ever use a rare would be if it had two sockets. That would give you some flexibility when it comes to gear choices. I know that some people still are using rares to avoid cookie-cutter gear (i.e. HoZ), but is it worth sacrificing better gear just to be original? I take cookie-cutter gear any day. To me it’s about making myself as competitive as possible. If that makes me unoriginal, so be it.
WEAPON:
There are lots of good smiter-weapons around. And as I mentioned above, there is no best weapon. Besides, you shouldn’t limit yourself to only one weapon. Keep several options in your stash and choose which one to use depending on your opponent. Here are some alternatives I would consider:
Fury berserker axe/scourge
Kingslayer berserker axe/cryptic sword
Stormlash
Griswold’s caduceus
Redeemer
Astreon’s Iron Ward
Doom berserker axe/war spike
Lacerator
The fist two runewords give a good chance of open wounds and have decent charge damage as well. Stormlash is also a good charge weapon but the big kicker is the chance to cast tornadoes, since they will cause stun in combination with smite. Griswold’s caduceus is a pretty cool weapon since it has 3-4 sockets and thus can be customized. I don’t know who discovered that the +damage modifier on the unique scepters, Redeemer and Astreon’s Iron Ward, increase the smite damage, but the information was brought to the forums by Ragnarod. At first, it was believed that the +damage was added to the smite damage ignoring DR and PvP penalty, but it has later been proven wrong. The +damage modifier adds straight to holy shield and is then multiplied by enhanced damage. The final damage isn’t displayed on your character screen but it’s possible to reach 4.5k+ smite damage with Redeemer. Astreon’s, Doom, and Lacerator are usually considered bad mannered but good weapons nonetheless. Some rare weapons can spawn with very good mods like +2skills, 2 open sockets and IAS. If you can get hold of a nice rare, then socket it with Um runes. Obviously there are more weapons out there but the ones above are the best common ones in my opinion. I know many people still use hold Silence phase blade as the number one smiter weapon, but to me Silence isn’t a top choice anymore. I would only use Silence if I needed more resists or if open wounds wasn’t allowed (some people find open wounds cheap and compare it to poison). I have nothing against open wounds and use it myself since it’s very effective. Besides, WW sins rely on open wounds and I haven’t really heard anyone complaining about them. In any case, open wounds will help you a lot, but it’s up to you if you want to use it. The open wounds damage depends on your character level and the damage after level 90 is pretty impressive. Also note that open wounds ignores skills like bone armor and energy shield, which makes it very handy to use against characters who use those skills.
Below is a table with some common smiter-weapons and the IAS needed to reach 6 fps with a level 27+ fanaticism. The table should be read like this:
Base Speed/Type of Weapon/IAS needed
-30 Phase blade 10
-10 Caduceus 35
-10 Cryptic sword 35
-10 Caduceus 35
-10 Scourge 35
-10 War scepter 35
-10 War spike 35
0 Berserker axe 50
0 Mighty scepter 50
For example, if you decide to make a Kingslayer in a berserker axe, you will need to add 20IAS (the runeword itself comes with 30IAS) in order to reach the 50IAS required for a 6 fps smite (assuming 27+ fanaticism).
CHARMS:
I recommend that you get 10 lionbranded (paladin combat skills) charms before making a V/T, or else your damage will be very low. When I made my first V/T a few years ago, I only had 3 plain combat charms a friend gave me and went from there. Consequently, the dueling results back then weren’t very impressive and it’s easy to lose interest. For the leftover slots, I recommend life/resist small ones and an Annihilus charm.
SUMMARY:
I know that not everybody can’t afford to have backup gear in stash, so if you plan on only having one setup, make sure you at least meet the following at level 85:
My own V/T has pretty ugly resistances in hell difficulty since I usually don’t use Silence. However, I can up any single resist to 75% easily. As I said above, you will have an advantage if you use several setups compared to a single one. For example, there is no reason to have good resists when dueling a WW barbarian (unless he stacks poison). You will have a much better chance of beating him if you use open wounds, DR, and +vita gear instead of resist gear. I guess what I’m trying to say is don’t worry too much about resists. Just make sure you can up your resists whenever necessary.
The only time I recommend you to use some FHR is when you duel assassins since they will use their mindblast and traps to stun you a lot. When you are stunned you are unable to do anything for a brief period of time, depending on how much faster hit recovery (FHR) you have. I use 10% faster hit recovery (FHR) on my V/T which let’s me hit the 8 frame break point. Sometimes I don’t use any FHR at all. The reason is that I think FHR is overrated for a V/T since you can avoid being stunned by simply shift-charging or use smite which is uninterruptible. I also know other V/Ts on east that don’t use any FHR at all and do very well in PvP. Using FHR gear requires a sacrifice in life. I choose to use very little FHR, and have higher life instead, which I feel is more important.
The setup below shows what I would use on a V/T:
Ber’d shako
Bloodfist or 20IAS gloves with stats and resists
Enigma mage plate
15%DR Verdungo’s
rare boots with faster run/walk, stats, and resists
+2 paladin/all skills amulet with life and resists
20dex Raven Frost
Bul-Kathos’ Weddingband ring
Ber’d upgraded HoZ
Fury or Kingslayer berserker axe
On switch use a +1all skills shield and Call to Arms.
This setup will give you good life and 49%DR and works best against non-elemental characters. When you duel elemental characters, you simply switch to a good resist Sanctuary, Thundergod’s Vigor, and Hotspurs.
You don’t need the best stuff on the realm to make a V/T, but you should try to get as good gear as possible in general. If you can’t afford the gear above, then I would suggest the following setup:
shako
Bloodfist
Shaftstop/Duress/Guardian Angel
Verdungo’s/Thundergod’s Vigor
Waterwalk/Sandtrek/Gore Rider
Mara’s/Highlord’s
Raven Frost
Bul-Kathos’ Weddingband ring
Upgraded/non-upgraded HoZ
Kingslayer cryptic sword/berserker axe
.
The only advantage with not having base strength is that you can switch armor. I would suggest having a few in stash depending on who you duel. For example, Shaftstop against zons and other V/Ts, Duress against necromancers and hammerdins, and Guardian Angel against sorceresses and trappers. Note that you need 20IAS to be able to use a Kingslayer berserker axe which means you have to either sacrifice Bloodfist or Mara’s. I’d personally use Highlord’s in that situation unless my resistances were really bad. With a setup like this and 10 plain combat charms you should be able to get at least 2000life at level 90+. Fill the rest of the charm slots with 20life small charms or small resist charms depending on your needs.
I alternate a lot depending on opponents, but in my standard setup, I have more than 4700life with CtA. I use combinations of the following gear. I would use more but I ran out of room:
Ber’d/Lo’d/15ias-27%light resist shako
20IAS crafted gloves with 3ll,15str,14dex,8cb,11life,and 26%light resist
Enigma mage plate
40vita-15%DR Verdungo’s
65life Waterwalk/classic rare boots with faster run/walk, stats, and resists
+2 paladin rare amulet with 16str,12dex,41life,15%resist cold, fire, light, and 20%resist poison
20dex Raven Frost
Bul-Kathos’ Weddingband ring
Ber’d upgraded HoZ/15ias-26light resist Stormshield
Fury berserker axe/Kingslayer berserker axe/+120dam 15ias-29light res Redeemer/+118dam Um’d Redeemer/+4-+76dam Shael’d Astreon’s/Silence phase blade
On switch I use Signon’s shield and Call to Arms.
In the inventory I got 10 combat charms with life and small life/light resist charms. I also got a 20 stat Annihilus charm.
PLAYER vs. PLAYER
To be successful at PvP, you need a combination of good gear, good connection, and skills. It’s easy to improve skills by just dueling, and if you like trading, getting good gear isn’t that hard given some time. If you type /fps or /framerate you will see how good or bad your connection is. Your ping tells you how long time it takes to send a packet from your computer to the game server and back again to your computer. If you have a bad internet connection, you will have a disadvantage since it will take longer time to execute a command compared to someone with good connection. I usually have a ping around 250-350 which is bad, and I’ve noticed that once it hits 450+ I can’t really duel. So if you want to get good at PvP, get a good internet service since it helps a lot.
It also helps if you use the keys close to your shift key since you will use it frequently to shift-charge with. I gave up on the F1-F8 keys a long time ago and use the following setup:
A – charge
Z – meditation
S – FoH
X – conviction
D – smite
C – fanaticism
F – vigor
V – holy freeze
F1 – zeal
F2 – vengeance (use frequently in PvM)
F3 – cleansing
F4 – teleport
F5 – battle command
F6 – battle orders
F8 – holy shield
It’ll take some time to learn where the keys are, but once you get the hang of it, it’s easy. I’m not saying you should change your keys to exactly what I use, but unless you have very big hands, you are better off using keys closer to shift.
V/T vs. ALL:
A V/T stands up well against most of the popular PvP builds today with a few exceptions. The strategies below are all based on my own experience and have worked well most of the time. There is obviously more than one way of doing things and my way might not be the best way for you. My strategies are merely suggestions. I would also duel a little bit differently if I had a templar-oriented V/T.
I know that some people will find my dueling strategies bad mannered since I use open wounds and holy freeze a lot. I also use +max resist items, absorb, and stacked resistances which is also controversial to many players. However, I don’t think I overdo it in any way. Let’s take hotspurs for example. Hotspurs gives +15%max fire resist and +45%fire resist. Let’s say you are dueling a fireball sorceress who does 20k damage per shot. If you have 75%fire resist, and get hit, you will take 833 damage which is, in my opinion, a lot for a smite-oriented V/T who many times has to get in melee-range. Now, if you use hotspurs you will only receive 333 damage per hit, which I think is more reasonable. Most elemental PvP characters are vulnerable to +max resist items and absorb only because they are so damage-focused that they just max out one single attack while ignoring viability. I guess it’s easier to accuse someone of absorbing than plan to how to make something better.
In any case, there is no point dueling if you negate your opponent’s attack, so if you enjoy dueling one-dimensional elemental PvP characters, then absorb moderately. Personally, I go after the rule that one piece of absorb and +max resists items is fair game. I don’t really mind if people go through the trouble of nullifying my FoH since I have two other attacks that can’t be negated
AMAZONS:
BOWAZONS: Bowazons don’t stand much of a chance against a V/T. A paladin can outrun guided arrows by just shift-charging and desynch often makes it very hard for the zon. Make sure you have full DR and a good charge weapon available since you will use charge a lot more than smite. Start out shift-charging closer to the zon and try not to have too many arrows trailing you. Good bowazons pack a lot of punch and can take a lot of your life in one hit. If you notice that you have lots of arrows trailing you, just shift-charge away until the arrows are gone before trying again. Once you are in the same screen as the amazon, switch to holy freeze to slow her down, charge in, and smite. Most zons choose to run away when you are up close but some zons will try to finish you off. If the zon continues to shoot arrows, then just smite her to death. However, if the zon runs, you have two options, charge or FoH. I always charge use charge in that situation. Rarely do I bother with FoH since I don’t want to give the zon a chance to fire more arrows. Open wounds helps a lot against a zon since you only have to hit a few times to reduce her life to 1. If you know the zon has only 1 life left, you can switch to holy freeze and let the aura kill her.
PLAGUE JAVAZONS: These zons does a great deal of damage over time, but are pretty easy to defend yourself against. Just make sure you have good poison resist and wear a poison-length-reduced item. Also, have cleansing hot-keyed since it will help a lot in case you get hit. Most plague zons I’ve seen use a bow while their opponent is outside their screen and javelins otherwise. Their tactic is basically to use plague javelin to drain their opponent’s life and then finish off with a bow. Start off the duel by circling the zon and wait for her to use the bow before charging in. Once you are in the same screen, she will most likely switch and throw a plague javelin at you before running away. Try to avoid getting hit by the poison cloud since it will hurt a lot. If you get hit, charge away and use cleansing until the poison is gone. Some plague zons don’t use a bow at all in which case you just have to shift-charge around and use FoH.
LIGHTNING FURY AMAZONS: This matchup is very easy since a V/T should have good lighting resist. Thundergod’s Vigor will significantly lessen the damage of their attack as well. I don’t even bother to avoid the lightning missiles, since they barely hurt. I usually just charge in and smite.
CS AMAZONS: This must be the most useless amazon subclasses ever. It’s basically a zon who will run up to you, poke with her javelin, and hope you will die in one hit. Just equip Thundergod’s Vigor and make sure you have 85% light resist and you should win this. Most likely you will be accused of overabsorbing since you won’t die.
ASSASSINS:
TRAPPERS: Dueling trappers depend a lot on how much resist you have because you will get hit. I use at least 85% light resist and the absorb from Thundergod’s. Start the duel off by shift-charging closer to the assassin but not in a straight line. Try to change directions a lot. Good trappers will hit you with mindblast and stun you with traps almost at the same moment you appear on other’s screens so you have to be very quick. I never bother to take out the shadow master, simply because there is no time. Just charge in and smite until you are locked in a series of mindblasts. When that happens, shift-charge away until the mindblast lock is gone and repeat. If you aren’t quick enough to get a few hits off before being stunned, you will most likely lose. Even with 90% light resist, you will take damage. Some trappers also have points in fire blast and those things can hurt. It will help a lot if you use open wounds since you won’t be able to hit a lot before having to retreat. Even though a paladin can shift-charge out from a mindblast lock, you should use some faster hit recovery. Aim for the 48% breakpoint if possible.
WW ASSASSINS: I think this is a very fun matchup. Good ones can be a challenge. Most WW assassins I’ve seen use bramble and have a high-level venom so having 75% or more poison resist is a good idea. A WW assassin’s tactic is to stun with low-level traps and mindblast and then either dragon flight or teleport to her opponent and quickly follow up with a whirlwind. I can say that if you duel a WW assassin with good gear and bramble, then don’t try to go toe-to-toe with her since she will most likely shred you to pieces. Be aware that an assassin cannot use dragon flight on someone who is not on the same screen, so try to take advantage of this if you are dueling a Bramble WW sin. I strongly recommend that you use open wounds in this duel. A fury berserker axe or scourge is one of the best weapons because of range and chance of open wounds. Try to connect with a charge and follow up with a smite when the assassin is casting traps or is moving around. I know that some people recommend using zeal instead of smite when dueling dual-claw assassins since they can block smite. However, I still prefer smite since I like the knockback and swirlies. Also, this is basic knowledge, but when you smite or zeal a whirlwind assassin (or barbarian), hold the shift key down so you remain stationary. Otherwise you will walk after the assassin and get yourself killed.
BARBARIANS:
MELEE BARBARIANS: This should be an easy duel since you will always be faster than the barbarian if you shift-charge. One tactic is just shift-charge around and use FoH. I usually use smite since it’s faster. Just be aware that a good barbarian can pack a lot of punch, so if you are low on life, just retreat and use FoH instead. This is a duel you should win. It further helps if you use a weapon with crushing blow and open wounds since most barbarians have high life.
WHIRLWIND BARBARIANS: It’s very hard for a V/T to beat a good WW barb. The barbarian can for example use Beast and eth BotD/Doom, teleport on top of you and WW away. If that would happen you will be at a disadvantage since the barb will have more life, deal more damage, and most likely hit more than you as well. The good thing is that it’s hard for a barb to have Thundergod’s, 50%DR, and two weapons at the same time. I certainly would not have any problems using lifetap against a barb who would teleport on top and WW away all the time. But even with Exile you would have a hard time unless the barb had horrible light resist. It’s imperative that you have full DR and use a range 3 weapon when facing a barb to prevent him from out-ranging you. I would recommend using a Kingslayer berserker axe since it comes with open wounds and crushing blow which helps when facing a highlife opponent.
DRUIDS:
WIND DRUIDS: This is one of the hardest matchups you will have. All winddruids I’ve met try to teleport on top or close to you and then blast you with tornadoes. Add to the fact that most winddruids use pets making them very hard to hit. FoH isn’t an option since it won’t be strong enough to break through the druid’s cyclone armor. The tactic I use is basically to take out the oak sage before charging the druid and follow up with smite. A druid who runs is much easier to duel since it won’t be hidden in a pack of wolves all the time. It’s possible to take out mediocre druids, but against the best you wont stand much of a chance.
MELEE DRUIDS: Easy duels. I’ve heard some people claim that fury druids that can take out smiters, but I never met one that come even close. Just treat them the same way you treat melee barbarians. Just be aware that they attack a lot faster and have more attack rating. Rabies druids are an exception. Whatever you do, try not to get hit in the beginning of a duel with a rabies druid since one hit could potentially kill you. I personally think pure rabies druids are kind of cheap, so don’t feel guilty by using Death’s Hand and cleansing. I haven’t really come across any good rabies druids anyway. The ones I’ve met try to hit me once and then run away hoping that I die. It doesn’t seem to be much skill involved in that.
SORCERESSES:
FROZEN ORB/ES SORCS: Well-built ES sorceresses can take quite some damage and are tough to duel. Good ones are very hard to catch since they don’t enter your screen but orb you from a distance before teleporting away. Make sure you don’t remain still and definitely don’t stand in the middle of an orb since it will hurt a lot without stacked cold resist. Shift-charge around and try to get a namelock with FoH and then quickly switch to charge and smite. If you hit her with smite, but she manages to escape, try to hit her with FoH since it will stun (as long as she has “swirliesâ€) and give you an opportunity to charge in again. More inexperienced sorceresses will stand still a lot more giving you more opportunities to charge in and smite. If the sorceress runs out of mana, she can’t do anything, in which case you can finish her off with smite.
BLIZZARD SORCS: This is a hard duel if you don’t stack cold resist. I don’t have room in my stash for a 4xperfect sapphire shield, so my V/T has problems with blizzard sorcs. The strategy is basically to use FoH while avoiding her blizzards and other cold projectiles.
FIREBALL SORCS: A fireball sorceress is pretty much like an orb/ES sorc, but deals more damage. However, it’s harder for the sorc to hit since her attack doesn’t cover a whole area like orb. The tactic is pretty much the same though. I would recommend that you use Hotspurs for this duel.
CHAIN LIGHTNING SORCS: I haven’t duel many lightning sorcs, but the ones I faced were easy. Since chain lightning takes some time to cast, it’s easier to catch this type of sorc since she has to remain still for a longer time compared to other sorceresses. You will obviously need Thundergod’s Vigor for this duel.
NECROMANCERS:
BONE NECROS: You won’t be able to beat good bone necros, simply because they are too overpowering. Many pub necros use revives and a clay golem which makes them nearly impossible for a V/T to beat unless the necro is really bad. That is because smite and FoH are single target attacks and you can’t do much when you are chased by a teleporting necro with several revives and a golem that will slow you. You can try to take out the revives one by one with FoH but you will most likely run out of mana before you are able to even hurt the necro. Anyway, if the necro duels fairly, it will still be very hard to beat unless he has bad light resist. If your FoH doesn’t do enough damage, you have to use charge and smite. It will probably take at least a couple of hits to break the bone armor which is why I strongly suggest you use open wounds since it will do damage regardless of the bone armor.
POISON NOVA NECROS: I haven’t seen that many poison necros but the ones I’ve come across basically teleport close to use, cast poison nova, and teleports away to let the poison drain you life. Then they will finish off with bone spirits, teeth, or spear. Just make sure you have good poison resists and preferably a poison-length-reduced item as well. Theoretically, it should be pretty easy to kill them. Just shift-charge around, avoid the novas, and use FoH. However, even if you have decent poison resist, getting hit by one nova will take a lot of your life.
PAL vs. PAL:
These duels are usually the most fun in my opinion. However, the gap between the different builds is simply too large to make it balanced. A well-played hammerdin will have the advantage over any other build because of its massive damage, quick movements, and invisible attacks. In any case, I like V/T vs. V/T and hammer vs. hammer duels since dueling your own subclass is the most balanced duels you can get.
V/T vs. V/T: Most V/Ts have 49%DR since they use Ber’d shako, Ber’d HoZ, 15%DR Verdungo’s, and Enigma. It’s also easy for a V/T to have 75% resist all and 49%DR at the same time by just using Silence. However, sometimes it’s necessary to use Thundergod’s Vigor and still have ~50%DR when dueling other V/Ts (i.e. if they have good FoH damage). One option is to stick 3 Ber runes in a Griswold’s shield. But since Griswold’s shield requires higher dexterity than HoZ to have 75% chance to block, you probably would have to use 2 Raven Frosts in order to maintain your chance to block, unless you don’t mind putting some extra points in dexterity. However, sometimes you need to have 90%lightning resist in which case you would need to use a Lo’d shako leaving you 8%DR short anyway, assuming you use a 3xBer’d Griswold’s shield. The best choice would be a jeweler’s shield of deflecting, but since they are hard to come by, the most logical solution is simply to use a Stormshield. I know some people say that Stormshield is a bad smiting shield but trust me on this. I’ve successfully used a Stormshield in V/T vs. V/T duels for a while now. It’s not all about damage, but about flexibility as well. Besides, I only wear Stormshield, Lo’d shako, and Thundergod’s against templar-oriented V/Ts whose smite damage isn’t that great either. In any case, I wouldn’t recommend a templar-oriented V/T to use a Stormshield since his smite damage would be very low. He would probably be better off using a 4xBer shield and dual Raven Frosts or something.
V/T vs. V/T duels are fun even though charge locks, knockback, and desynch often have an impact in the result. You should adjust your gear to your opponent’s attacks to have the best chance to win. For example, if your opponent does over 5000 damage with his FoH it should be fairly obvious that Thundergod’s Vigor is the belt you want to use. In any case, I don’t think Thundergod’s Vigor is imperative when facing someone with a FoH of 2000 damage or less, but should definitely be considered when dueling someone with a 3k+ FoH. I know that some people use non-magical elite paladin shields socketed with 4 Lo runes on the switch in order to reduce an opponent’s FoH damage. I’ve never used them, and I don’t plan on it either, since switching isn’t always smooth with my ping. I can also imagine myself getting stuck in a charge lock and hit by a 5.5k damage FoH (the weapon switch key doesn’t always work when stuck). I know that some people are happy with their 4xLo shields but that’s not something I would use or recommend other people to use. Besides, you cannot use CtA at the same time.
The basic strategy is to try to find an opening in order to charge in and smite. If you know that you have a good life advantage you can try to go toe-to-toe with your opponent. Be aware of that even if you have a lot more life you can still lose a smite vs. smite matchup simply because of lag and knockback. It’s almost always safer to charge in and smite once or twice and shift-charge away. When you are not attacking (with charge or smite), have holy freeze on. Only switch to meditation when you know that your opponent is at least a screen away (not always easy to know because of desynch). Holy freeze will make it easier for you to dodge a charge or smite, and if you get hit by a smite, you will slow down your opponent’s attack speed and it will take longer time for him to hit you again, giving you more time to escape or counter attack. Always charge in with holy freeze in order to slow your opponent down before you smite. Even though aura stacking barely works now, your opponent will stay frozen a few milliseconds after you switch to fanaticism, and thus have less mobility and slower attack speed. If your opponent should shift-charge away with holy freeze on, don’t follow since it will lead to major desynch. If someone charges after you, simply switch to holy freeze and shift-charge away until he gives up, or you find an opening to counterattack with charge. Finally, if you duel someone who uses open wounds and you are not using it, you will be in a disadvantage. Your opponent will most likely hit once and then stay away from melee for a few seconds in order to drain your life. Thus, it’s good if you use open wounds yourself against those types of V/Ts.
V/T vs. ZEALOT: This is such an easy duel since the vast majority of all zealots are built for zeal vs. zeal duels. In order for a zealot to have a chance against a V/T, I think the following build would be a lot better than the usual click-and-hold build that focuses on defense:
Sacrifice 20
Zeal 20
Holy shield 20
Fanaticism 20
FoH 1 (for stun in combination with smite)
Holy freeze 1
Meditation 1
Put the rest in charge
Lo’d/Ber’d/Cham’d shako
20IAS gloves with light resist
Enigma mage plate
Thundergod’s Vigor/15%DR Verdungo’s
Gorerider
Angelic amulet
Angelic rings
Cham’d Stormshield/Ber’d upgraded HoZ/Ber’d upgraded Swordback Hold
Zod’d ethereal Death Cleaver
In the inventory you should have 10 combat charms with high life, 9 20life/11light resist charms, and a 20stat Annihilus charm. If that isn’t enough to negate conviction in nightmare, swap a combat charm for more life/light resist charms.
Expensive? Hell yeah, but this is what I think it takes to have a chance against a good V/T. A zealot like this would have good zeal and charge damage, and could use smite as well. It would also have as much life as any V/T and be much more balanced for general PvP. Anyway, since this isn’t a zealot guide, I won’t go into depth with this build since I doubt anyone but me would like to try it out.
Back to topic. Just charge the zealot and switch to smite. If the zealot should get lucky and get a hit in, you should probably shift-charge away and use FoH instead. Elite zealots could potentially kill you in a few hits so be aware. If you get tapped, just shift charge away and switch to cleansing until it’s gone. You could also use FoH since most zealots have very bad resists.
V/T vs. TEMPLAR: Pure templars are not suitable for Pal vs. Pal dueling. They are better off staying in pub games since all you need to do is to stack some light resist, put on a Lo shako, Thundergod’s Vigor, and a Lo’d HoZ and they cannot hurt you. So, what’s the point of dueling if your opponent can’t hurt you? No point really, but you can change that question to “what’s the point of dueling if you can’t hurt your opponent�
V/T vs. HAMMER VARIANTS: No matter what second attack a hammerdin chooses to have (if any), this is the hardest matchup for a V/T because:
There are plenty of hammer variants but the two most popular ones are the pure hammerdin and the liberator. People rarely make any distinction between those two since a hammerdin with a charge switch basically is a liberator. Anyway, it’s not the charge that you should fear, but the hammers. What you want to do is to be patient and try to avoid the hammers. Now, this is very hard to do since a shift-charging hammerdin will create invisible hammers flying around everywhere. If the hammerdin lacks light resist, then just stay away from him and kill him with FoH. However, should your opponent stack light resist, then the best you can do is to attack from the south and hope he will stay somewhat still. If you namelock a moving hammerdin with charge, you will follow him which usually leads to you getting hit. That said, you should never follow a hammerdin around. That will get you killed. I strongly suggest you use open wounds in this duel and try to get a hit in, and let open wounds drain some life while you retreat, and then, after 8 seconds, repeat. It can sound cheap, but what else can you do against 10+k invisible hammers?
V/T vs. CRUSADER VARIANTS: I haven’t seen that many pure crusaders. They mostly combine charge with another skill such as smite and FoH. Since charge is an attack that can do a lot of damage, it’s imperative that you have full DR gear on. A pure 2-handed crusader can potentially kill you in one hit. Basically what you want to against 2-handed crusaders is to prevent your opponent from charging by being so close to him that he can’t use his attack. Best way to take out 2-handed crusaders is basically just to charge them to death. Since they can’t block and have low defense, they are easy to hit. Just use charge until your opponent is dead or you miss. If you miss, just switch to smite. V/Cs can do as much smite damage as a V/T and have a pretty good charge damage as well. Basically duel a V/C like you would duel a V/T.
FINAL WORDS
Everything written in this guide is based on my own experience and what I think work best. I know other people who do things differently, which is fine, since there are more than one way to make a V/T. It’s up to you whether you want to follow my suggestions or not. Just know that I spent lots of time with this build. Both in 1.10 and before, so I think it’s safe for me to say I know what I’m talking about.
The V/T is, in my opinion, the most fun paladin subclass to play and I recommend that you give it a shot if you haven’t already. It’s a little bit harder to play than many other builds since it combines more attacks which can be rather confusing in the beginning. However, if you are into PvP and like new challenges, this could be the build for you.
Credit to all people who use to frequent USEast Temple.
Cheers
Hi all! This is an update of the Vindicator/Templar guide I wrote last year when the 1.10 patch was still new. Now after the first ladder season has ended and things have settled, I found that my first guide was outdated. I have changed my opinion about many things and I have also discovered new methods and strategies that can be useful to know when dueling with a Vindicator/Templar (V/T). This version is much more in-depth than the first guide ever was. It is also aimed towards the more experienced players, rather than the beginners even though I’ve tried hard to keep it simple. If you are new to paladins or PvP, then I suggest you read the FAQ and do some basic research before continuing.
INTRODUCTION
A Vindicator/Templar is a paladin who uses smite and fists of the heavens as his main attacks in combination with fanaticism and conviction. The majority have also incorporated charge as one of their attacks, which is a great skill that comes in handy very often. Consequently, a V/T can deal two sorts of damage, physical and elemental, which makes it versatile and suitable for PvP. There are many ways to make V/Ts and I would like to present the following two sub-variants, the smite-oriented V/T and the templar-oriented V/T (also known as a T/V). As its name implies, the smite-oriented V/T has a strong smite and is more of a melee build, while the templar-oriented V/T relies more on its FoH. Which one is better is debatable since they both have advantages and disadvantages. I’ve always made more smite-oriented V/Ts since they suit my playing style better, but I might try out a templar-oriented V/T in the future. Who knows?
SMITE:
Smite is one of the best melee attacks in the game since it ignores defense, cannot be blocked (except by dual claw assassins), and has knockback. This means that attack rating is irrelevant when smiting as you will almost always hit as long as your opponent is within your weapon range. Since smite is a shield-attack, the damage will basically depend on what type of shield you use, and not on your weapon. However, your weapon is also important since it determines how fast you can smite. Thus, if you use a slow weapon, you won’t be able to smite as fast as you would with a faster weapon, unless you use IAS gear to make up for it. Smite is capped at 6 fps and it’s the speed you should aim for.
It’s commonly believed that smite stuns (i.e. to put the enemy in recovery animation during which he cannot do anything for a short period of time) in PvP like it does in PvM. That is not true. Smite does not stun in PvP. If you get hit by a smite you will have “swirlies†but you won’t go into recovery animation (unless it takes more than 1/12 of your total life). Nonetheless, if you now get hit by another attack, like FoH, while still having “swirliesâ€, you will get stunned no matter how little damage you take. You should use this to your advantage when dueling. If you hit with smite, but your opponent runs/teleports away, you can switch to FoH and use it to stun with. Anyone who is stunned will be vulnerable to new attacks and the technique above is a good way to get a free smite off (e.g. use FoH to stun, then quickly charge in and switch to smite). This is one of the advantages of maxing smite since the “swirlies†will have a longer duration, thus giving you a longer time to try to put someone in recovery animation. Just be aware that damage from open wounds and elemental auras won’t cause stun to a “swirlied†person even though they do damage.
CHARGE:
Charge lets the paladin run up to an enemy and deliver a hit. All V/Ts can use charge since it’s a prerequisite to holy shield. It is a very useful attack and you should take advantage of it by using a high-damage weapon. Even though you will only have around 5,000ar, you will hit a lot more than your think. It’s also usually better to use shift-charge instead of running/walking since it’s a lot faster (i.e. press the shift-key and charge at the same time). However, this skill also has negative sides since it’s very buggy. For example, if you die while charging, you won’t be able to use it anymore. Similarly, if your holy shield expires while you use charge, you won’t be able to use it, but have to rejoin the game. What annoys me the most though, is “charge-lockâ€. That is, when you charge at someone and miss you will often freeze and can’t move unless you get hit. You can usually release yourself by using your weapon-switch key. However, sometimes when you are desynched, the weapon-switch key won’t work and you will have to wait a few seconds until the lock goes away by itself. You will find that charge-lock is very annoying and often ruins many duels. I doubt Blizzard will fix this bug so I guess it’s just something we have to accept.
FISTS OF THE HEAVENS:
Fists of the Heavens is an attack that deals lightning damage. It is auto-targeting, which means that you don’t necessary have to click on your opponent to hit, but just in the vicinity. It is relatively low damaging for being an elemental attack but can nevertheless be effective in combination with conviction. FoH has a casting delay which means you have to wait a second after having used FoH before you can use it again. Faster-cast-rate gear will speed up the casting animation a little (which means you will cast faster) but are not worth using on a V/T. Since FoH is an elemental attack, it’s easy for your opponent to negate it by simply using +max light resist items, such as Thundergod’s Vigor. The effects of conviction can also be negated by simply stacking light resist (that is, to use more light resist than necessary to hit max). So what’s so good about FoH if it can be negated then? The answer is because it forces your opponents to stack resist instead of using better items. For example, a particular WW barbarian who normally uses Stormshield and Verdungo’s would have to change those items to a 4 perfect topazed shield and Thundergod’s Vigor to have a chance to win. Thus, this barbarian has not only lowered his damage and life, but also reduced his DR, giving you a bigger chance to win. This was an extreme example, but you get the picture.
CONVICTION:
Conviction is an aura which lowers all of your opponent’s resists (except poison) by 5% per level. It is capped at level 25, so the most you can lower your opponent’s resist is by –150%. Because of this cap, it’s fairly easy to negate the effects of conviction, since opponents don’t have to stack as much resists compared to before when there was no cap. There is also another bug that lets a higher-level conviction cancel out a lower-level one. That is, if player A has a level 20 conviction and is dueling player B, who only has a level 10 conviction, then player A’s resistances will not be lowered when both player A and player B have their conviction auras on. Player B, on the other hand, will have his resistances lowered. I don’t think this information is relevant to PvP since in order to negate someone else’s conviction, you would have to use your conviction whenever your opponent had his conviction on. And, if you have ever dueled V/T vs. V/T, you know that it’s best to have holy freeze on when you are not smiting. Thus, don’t listen to those people who say that you should max conviction just to cancel out someone else’s conviction. It’s way better to stack resists and save those skill points for something better.
FANATICISM:
Fanaticism is the only aura you should ever consider using with smite. The reason is obvious since it not only gives the highest damage, but also increases your attack speed. I’ve seen a few V/Ts who use concentration in combination with the Beast runeword in order to get good smite damage. However, I wouldn’t recommend the use of Beast since you lose a lot of flexibility as you are stuck with your weapon. Besides, if you want to do as much damage as possible, you might as well use Redeemer or Astreon’s Iron Ward (explained later if you don’t know what I’m talking about).
SKILL ALLOCATION
Since you only can allocate 110 skill points at the most, (which is achieved at level 99) you cannot make a V/T with both a strong smite and a strong FoH. You have to choose which attack you want to emphasize. More smite damage or more FoH damage. It’s up to you.
COMBAT SKILLS:
SMITE (1-20 points): If you are making a smite-oriented V/T, you should max this skill, while the templar-oriented V/T will only have a few points here. If you’re taking the templar-route, then leave smite at base and max out the other skills before putting the remaining points here, which will happen after level 90.
HOLY SHIELD (20 points): A V/T must max holy shield since it’s the skill that will boost your smite damage the most. It also enhances your defense which is useful when dueling characters that rely on attack rating to hit.
FISTS OF THE HEAVENS (1-20 points): I frequently see people asking how to find the best split between FoH and holy shock. That is, the skill distribution that will yield the highest FoH damage for a particular number of skill points. The easiest solution is to max both skills in which case you don’t have to deal with this hassle. However, if you are making smite-oriented V/T, you won’t have enough skill points to max both FoH and holy shock, in which case you have to optimize. One option is to read strength_honor’s “V/T Optimization†and use his formula to calculate the best split. Another option is to use a skill planner. Your FoH damage will depend on the number of +combat skills you have, so if you change from one setup to another, your FoH damage might not stay optimized. Consequently, you should always optimize your FoH based on the setup you know you are going to use FoH with the most. I provided some FoH tables that you might find useful if you can’t find a skill planner. You can find them further down in this guide.
OFFENSIVE AURAS:
FANATICISM (20 points): Max this skill since it gives both IAS and enhanced damage.
HOLY SHOCK (1-20 points): See FoH.
CONVICTION (1 point): I know that many V/Ts put more than 1 point in conviction, but I wouldn’t recommend it since you don’t have enough skill points. If you choose to put more than one point here, you will sacrifice either your smite damage or FoH damage. Some people say that FoH doesn’t do enough damage without a level 25 conviction but that’s not true. A single point in conviction will usually lower your opponent’s resist by 80-100% and is enough to turn positive resists into negative. Also, many times, you won’t have time to lock conviction on your opponent, in which case a stronger FoH is preferred over a high-level conviction.
DEFENSIVE AURAS:
VIGOR (1 point): A V/T should always put one point in vigor. Some people will disagree and say it’s a waste but don’t listen to them. Vigor is one of the most useful auras since it allows you to move extremely fast when shift-charging.
MEDITATION (1 point): One point in meditation is a must. It’s the only aura that speeds up your mana regeneration. If you have a habit of shift-charging a lot, you will often find yourself low on mana, in which case meditation is crucial. Without mana you can’t do anything! Another nice feature is that meditation works in combination with prayer. So while you regenerate mana, you will also regenerate life. This life regeneration is not always appreciated by your opponents, but at least it’s better than mana potting.
SKILL POINT ALLOCATION SUMMARY:
The smite-oriented V/T:
Smite 20
Holy shield 20
Fanaticism 20
Conviction 1
Vigor 1
Meditation 1
Put the rest in FoH and holy shock
The templar-oriented V/T:
Holy shield 20
Fanaticism 20
FoH 20
Holy Shock 20
Conviction 1
Vigor 1
Meditation 1
Put the rest in smite
FISTS OF THE HEAVENS OPTIMIZATION:
If you are making a smite-oriented V/T, you will have to spend 80 skill points before you can put points in FoH and holy shock. The tables below show the optimal split (underlined) between FoH and holy shock for a level 95 V/T. As you can see, you won’t lose that much damage if you only have a few point offs. However, if you mess up a lot, you can lose more than 400 FoH damage. The table should be read like this:
Points in FoH / Points in holy shock: FoH damage (average damage)
+22 combat skills:
15/10: 2856-2941 (2898.5)
14/11: 2858-2947 (2902.5)
13/12: 2852-2944 (2898)
+23 combat skills:
15/10: 2966-3051 (3008.5)
14/11: 2973-3062 (3017.5)
13/12: 2971-3063 (3017)
+24 combat skills:
14/11: 3088-3177 (3132.5)
13/12: 3091-3183 (3137)
12/13: 3084-3180 (3132)
+25 combat skills:
14/11: 3203-3292 (3247.5)
13/12: 3210-3302 (3256)
12/13: 3208-3304 (3256)
11/14: 3197-3296 (3246.5)
+26 combat skills:
13/12: 3330-3422 (3376)
12/13: 3332-3428 (3380)
11/14: 3326-3425 (3375.5)
Notice that once you pass a certain number of combat skills (25 in the tables above), you will have to put more points in holy shock and less in FoH.
STATS
A V/T should aim for as much life as possible and the following way is the best one to allocate your stat points. If you can’t afford Enigma, you will probably have to put some points in strength.
STRENGTH base
DEXTERITY enough for 75% chance to block
VITALITY the rest
ENERGY base
Since holy shield gives an increased chance of blocking, it’s possible to achieve 75% chance to block with very low dexterity. Consequently, most V/Ts have high life compared to other paladin subclasses. You should have at least 2100-2400life (without CtA) at level 90+ with decent gear even though it’s possible to have a lot more life than that. My V/T has close to 2900life which I will reach in a couple of levels.
GEAR
Your gear will have a big influence on your success as a dueler. This game is definitely not all about skills. Gear plays an important role, and let’s face it, without top-gear, you will hardly discover a PvP character’s true potential. I know that not everybody is rich, but before you make a V/T, you should at least be able to afford 10 lionbranded charms (paladin combat charms). Without those charms your damage will suffer and as a result hurt your V/T’s effectiveness. Also, don’t limit yourself to one setup. You will be much more competitive if you keep alternative setups in your stash. I will cover a few setups I use later in this guide, but now to gear:
HELM:
There is only one helm for a V/T and that is the unique shako, Harlequin Crest. I’ve seen some V/Ts using Crown of Ages (CoA) but it is a bad choice in my opinion. CoA won’t give you any mana, and if you shift-charge a lot, you’ll frequently find yourself out of mana. It’s true that you can make up for it by using something like a SoJ, but then you lose life since most V/Ts use a Bul-Kathos’ Weddingband ring over a SoJ. All in all, you will have to sacrifice something, and in the end you are better off with shako. It’s true that with CoA you can use Thundergods’ Vigor and have 47%DR at the same time, but the life lost isn’t worth it. In that case I think it’s better to put 3 Ber runes in Griswold’s shield instead which would allow you to have 50%DR and Thundergods’ Vigor.
GLOVES:
There are only four good options in my opinion depending on your preference. Namely these:
Rare gloves
Crafted gloves
Bloodfist
Dracul’s Grasp
Things you should look for in rare and crafted gloves are increased attack speed (IAS), stats, crushing blow (only on crafted), life replenish, and resists. I think Bloodfist are awesome gloves and I would definitely use them over most rare or crafted I’ve seen. Dracul’s are another pair of good gloves. Say what you want about life tap, but the 25% chance of open wounds is what makes them good. There is another pair of gloves that can be useful sometimes, and that is Death’s Hand due to the poison length reduced and poison resist. Just keep a pair in your stash if you can.
ARMOR:
Chains of honor is a nice armor because of the resists and life replenish, but get your resists elsewhere, because nothing comes close to Enigma. It is unquestionably the best armor for a V/T and will save you a lot of life not mentioning the other mods. I’ve seen some people advocate dusk shroud Enigma as the best one, but I say, if you can’t keep your strength at base with dusk, then go for mage plate. It’s not worth to sacrifice life for more defense. If you can’t afford enigma, Shaftstop is the next logical choice. Duress isn’t a good option as default armor since you won’t be able to have full DR without Ber runes (unless you use Stormshield), and if you can afford Ber runes, then you can afford Enigma. However, if you use Shaftstop, then you should take advantage of the fact that you can switch armors. So if you decide to go with Shaftstop, then try to keep a Duress and a Guardian Angel in your stash and use them for duels when DR is not needed.
BELT:
There are only two choices here and you should have both in your stash. Namely Thundergod’s Vigor and Verdungo’s Hearty Cord. I know that it’s possible to craft very nice blood belts with open wounds you could use when you don’t need the DR. However, Verdungo’s beats most crafts by far because of its +vitality, and life replenish.
BOOTS:
I recommend the following boots:
classic rare boots with massive resists and stats
Waterwalk
Sandtrek
Gore Rider
Most classic rare boots are duped so if you are against using duped stuff, then go with Waterwalk or Sandtrek. Be aware that your resists will most likely suffer a lot. Gore Rider have some advantages and can be kept in stash as backup. However, classic rares are probably the best overall boots for a V/T.
AMULET:
Try to find something with +2skills, +life, and +res. Mara’s kaleidoscope is a good choice since it gives +2skills, 20stats, and good resists. Highlord’s Wrath is another good option when you need IAS and deadly strike (for charge). I also know people who use rosebranded amulets of the whale and are happy with those.
RINGS:
One ring should be a 20dex Raven Frost to prevent you from freezing when hit by a cold damage. The other ring slot is more open. Most people use a Bul-Kathos’ Weddingband ring for the +1skills and +life. Consider using a SoJ if you shift-charge a lot and find yourself out of mana frequently.
SHIELD:
Most people agree that an upgraded Herald of Zakarum (HoZ) is the best smiter shield in the game, but that’s not true. There is no best smiter shield or weapon. It all comes down to who you duel and the rest of your gear. For example, if you can’t negate an opponent’s conviction with an upgraded HoZ, then a 45 resist all sacred targe with four perfect topazes would without doubt be a better shield. For general dueling though, an upgraded HoZ is usually the best choice. These are the shields I would consider:
Upgraded HoZ
Non-upgraded HoZ
Upgraded Swordback Hold
Exile “elite paladin shieldâ€
Stormshield
Jeweler’s “elite paladin shield†of deflecting
Priest’s/Rosebranded “elite paladin shield†of deflecting and 2 sockets
A rare “elite paladin shield†with deflecting mods and 2 sockets
I’m not going to into why an upgraded HoZ is a good shield. That should be obvious. An upgraded Swordback Hold would make an excellent smiter shield since it’s a blade barrier, and blade barriers inherently have good smite damage. The advantage over a HoZ is the 50% chance of open wounds which is very useful many times. The Exile runeword makes good smiter-shields because of lifetap and its defiance aura which can come in handy many times. Just be aware that many people consider the use of Exile bad mannered. It also doesn’t have any increased chance of blocking, so if you plan on using Exile, be aware that you will have less life than if you go with HoZ. Stormshield was the default smite-shield when DR was capped at 75%, and it’s still a viable choice. I frequently use a Stormshield when I need DR. Most rares don’t come close to an upgraded HoZ (let alone a non-upgraded HoZ) and the only reason I would ever use a rare would be if it had two sockets. That would give you some flexibility when it comes to gear choices. I know that some people still are using rares to avoid cookie-cutter gear (i.e. HoZ), but is it worth sacrificing better gear just to be original? I take cookie-cutter gear any day. To me it’s about making myself as competitive as possible. If that makes me unoriginal, so be it.
WEAPON:
There are lots of good smiter-weapons around. And as I mentioned above, there is no best weapon. Besides, you shouldn’t limit yourself to only one weapon. Keep several options in your stash and choose which one to use depending on your opponent. Here are some alternatives I would consider:
Fury berserker axe/scourge
Kingslayer berserker axe/cryptic sword
Stormlash
Griswold’s caduceus
Redeemer
Astreon’s Iron Ward
Doom berserker axe/war spike
Lacerator
The fist two runewords give a good chance of open wounds and have decent charge damage as well. Stormlash is also a good charge weapon but the big kicker is the chance to cast tornadoes, since they will cause stun in combination with smite. Griswold’s caduceus is a pretty cool weapon since it has 3-4 sockets and thus can be customized. I don’t know who discovered that the +damage modifier on the unique scepters, Redeemer and Astreon’s Iron Ward, increase the smite damage, but the information was brought to the forums by Ragnarod. At first, it was believed that the +damage was added to the smite damage ignoring DR and PvP penalty, but it has later been proven wrong. The +damage modifier adds straight to holy shield and is then multiplied by enhanced damage. The final damage isn’t displayed on your character screen but it’s possible to reach 4.5k+ smite damage with Redeemer. Astreon’s, Doom, and Lacerator are usually considered bad mannered but good weapons nonetheless. Some rare weapons can spawn with very good mods like +2skills, 2 open sockets and IAS. If you can get hold of a nice rare, then socket it with Um runes. Obviously there are more weapons out there but the ones above are the best common ones in my opinion. I know many people still use hold Silence phase blade as the number one smiter weapon, but to me Silence isn’t a top choice anymore. I would only use Silence if I needed more resists or if open wounds wasn’t allowed (some people find open wounds cheap and compare it to poison). I have nothing against open wounds and use it myself since it’s very effective. Besides, WW sins rely on open wounds and I haven’t really heard anyone complaining about them. In any case, open wounds will help you a lot, but it’s up to you if you want to use it. The open wounds damage depends on your character level and the damage after level 90 is pretty impressive. Also note that open wounds ignores skills like bone armor and energy shield, which makes it very handy to use against characters who use those skills.
Below is a table with some common smiter-weapons and the IAS needed to reach 6 fps with a level 27+ fanaticism. The table should be read like this:
Base Speed/Type of Weapon/IAS needed
-30 Phase blade 10
-10 Caduceus 35
-10 Cryptic sword 35
-10 Caduceus 35
-10 Scourge 35
-10 War scepter 35
-10 War spike 35
0 Berserker axe 50
0 Mighty scepter 50
For example, if you decide to make a Kingslayer in a berserker axe, you will need to add 20IAS (the runeword itself comes with 30IAS) in order to reach the 50IAS required for a 6 fps smite (assuming 27+ fanaticism).
CHARMS:
I recommend that you get 10 lionbranded (paladin combat skills) charms before making a V/T, or else your damage will be very low. When I made my first V/T a few years ago, I only had 3 plain combat charms a friend gave me and went from there. Consequently, the dueling results back then weren’t very impressive and it’s easy to lose interest. For the leftover slots, I recommend life/resist small ones and an Annihilus charm.
SUMMARY:
I know that not everybody can’t afford to have backup gear in stash, so if you plan on only having one setup, make sure you at least meet the following at level 85:
- 8,000+ def
- 1,800+ life
- 2,000+ displayed smite damage if you have a templar-oriented V/T
- 2,500+ displayed smite damage if you have a smite-oriented V/T
- 4,000+ FoH damage if you have a templar-oriented V/T
- 2,000+ FoH damage if you have a smite-oriented V/T
- 75% resist all (at least have Thundergod's and Hotspurs in stash)
My own V/T has pretty ugly resistances in hell difficulty since I usually don’t use Silence. However, I can up any single resist to 75% easily. As I said above, you will have an advantage if you use several setups compared to a single one. For example, there is no reason to have good resists when dueling a WW barbarian (unless he stacks poison). You will have a much better chance of beating him if you use open wounds, DR, and +vita gear instead of resist gear. I guess what I’m trying to say is don’t worry too much about resists. Just make sure you can up your resists whenever necessary.
The only time I recommend you to use some FHR is when you duel assassins since they will use their mindblast and traps to stun you a lot. When you are stunned you are unable to do anything for a brief period of time, depending on how much faster hit recovery (FHR) you have. I use 10% faster hit recovery (FHR) on my V/T which let’s me hit the 8 frame break point. Sometimes I don’t use any FHR at all. The reason is that I think FHR is overrated for a V/T since you can avoid being stunned by simply shift-charging or use smite which is uninterruptible. I also know other V/Ts on east that don’t use any FHR at all and do very well in PvP. Using FHR gear requires a sacrifice in life. I choose to use very little FHR, and have higher life instead, which I feel is more important.
The setup below shows what I would use on a V/T:
Ber’d shako
Bloodfist or 20IAS gloves with stats and resists
Enigma mage plate
15%DR Verdungo’s
rare boots with faster run/walk, stats, and resists
+2 paladin/all skills amulet with life and resists
20dex Raven Frost
Bul-Kathos’ Weddingband ring
Ber’d upgraded HoZ
Fury or Kingslayer berserker axe
On switch use a +1all skills shield and Call to Arms.
This setup will give you good life and 49%DR and works best against non-elemental characters. When you duel elemental characters, you simply switch to a good resist Sanctuary, Thundergod’s Vigor, and Hotspurs.
You don’t need the best stuff on the realm to make a V/T, but you should try to get as good gear as possible in general. If you can’t afford the gear above, then I would suggest the following setup:
shako
Bloodfist
Shaftstop/Duress/Guardian Angel
Verdungo’s/Thundergod’s Vigor
Waterwalk/Sandtrek/Gore Rider
Mara’s/Highlord’s
Raven Frost
Bul-Kathos’ Weddingband ring
Upgraded/non-upgraded HoZ
Kingslayer cryptic sword/berserker axe
.
The only advantage with not having base strength is that you can switch armor. I would suggest having a few in stash depending on who you duel. For example, Shaftstop against zons and other V/Ts, Duress against necromancers and hammerdins, and Guardian Angel against sorceresses and trappers. Note that you need 20IAS to be able to use a Kingslayer berserker axe which means you have to either sacrifice Bloodfist or Mara’s. I’d personally use Highlord’s in that situation unless my resistances were really bad. With a setup like this and 10 plain combat charms you should be able to get at least 2000life at level 90+. Fill the rest of the charm slots with 20life small charms or small resist charms depending on your needs.
I alternate a lot depending on opponents, but in my standard setup, I have more than 4700life with CtA. I use combinations of the following gear. I would use more but I ran out of room:
Ber’d/Lo’d/15ias-27%light resist shako
20IAS crafted gloves with 3ll,15str,14dex,8cb,11life,and 26%light resist
Enigma mage plate
40vita-15%DR Verdungo’s
65life Waterwalk/classic rare boots with faster run/walk, stats, and resists
+2 paladin rare amulet with 16str,12dex,41life,15%resist cold, fire, light, and 20%resist poison
20dex Raven Frost
Bul-Kathos’ Weddingband ring
Ber’d upgraded HoZ/15ias-26light resist Stormshield
Fury berserker axe/Kingslayer berserker axe/+120dam 15ias-29light res Redeemer/+118dam Um’d Redeemer/+4-+76dam Shael’d Astreon’s/Silence phase blade
On switch I use Signon’s shield and Call to Arms.
In the inventory I got 10 combat charms with life and small life/light resist charms. I also got a 20 stat Annihilus charm.
PLAYER vs. PLAYER
To be successful at PvP, you need a combination of good gear, good connection, and skills. It’s easy to improve skills by just dueling, and if you like trading, getting good gear isn’t that hard given some time. If you type /fps or /framerate you will see how good or bad your connection is. Your ping tells you how long time it takes to send a packet from your computer to the game server and back again to your computer. If you have a bad internet connection, you will have a disadvantage since it will take longer time to execute a command compared to someone with good connection. I usually have a ping around 250-350 which is bad, and I’ve noticed that once it hits 450+ I can’t really duel. So if you want to get good at PvP, get a good internet service since it helps a lot.
It also helps if you use the keys close to your shift key since you will use it frequently to shift-charge with. I gave up on the F1-F8 keys a long time ago and use the following setup:
A – charge
Z – meditation
S – FoH
X – conviction
D – smite
C – fanaticism
F – vigor
V – holy freeze
F1 – zeal
F2 – vengeance (use frequently in PvM)
F3 – cleansing
F4 – teleport
F5 – battle command
F6 – battle orders
F8 – holy shield
It’ll take some time to learn where the keys are, but once you get the hang of it, it’s easy. I’m not saying you should change your keys to exactly what I use, but unless you have very big hands, you are better off using keys closer to shift.
V/T vs. ALL:
A V/T stands up well against most of the popular PvP builds today with a few exceptions. The strategies below are all based on my own experience and have worked well most of the time. There is obviously more than one way of doing things and my way might not be the best way for you. My strategies are merely suggestions. I would also duel a little bit differently if I had a templar-oriented V/T.
I know that some people will find my dueling strategies bad mannered since I use open wounds and holy freeze a lot. I also use +max resist items, absorb, and stacked resistances which is also controversial to many players. However, I don’t think I overdo it in any way. Let’s take hotspurs for example. Hotspurs gives +15%max fire resist and +45%fire resist. Let’s say you are dueling a fireball sorceress who does 20k damage per shot. If you have 75%fire resist, and get hit, you will take 833 damage which is, in my opinion, a lot for a smite-oriented V/T who many times has to get in melee-range. Now, if you use hotspurs you will only receive 333 damage per hit, which I think is more reasonable. Most elemental PvP characters are vulnerable to +max resist items and absorb only because they are so damage-focused that they just max out one single attack while ignoring viability. I guess it’s easier to accuse someone of absorbing than plan to how to make something better.
In any case, there is no point dueling if you negate your opponent’s attack, so if you enjoy dueling one-dimensional elemental PvP characters, then absorb moderately. Personally, I go after the rule that one piece of absorb and +max resists items is fair game. I don’t really mind if people go through the trouble of nullifying my FoH since I have two other attacks that can’t be negated
AMAZONS:
BOWAZONS: Bowazons don’t stand much of a chance against a V/T. A paladin can outrun guided arrows by just shift-charging and desynch often makes it very hard for the zon. Make sure you have full DR and a good charge weapon available since you will use charge a lot more than smite. Start out shift-charging closer to the zon and try not to have too many arrows trailing you. Good bowazons pack a lot of punch and can take a lot of your life in one hit. If you notice that you have lots of arrows trailing you, just shift-charge away until the arrows are gone before trying again. Once you are in the same screen as the amazon, switch to holy freeze to slow her down, charge in, and smite. Most zons choose to run away when you are up close but some zons will try to finish you off. If the zon continues to shoot arrows, then just smite her to death. However, if the zon runs, you have two options, charge or FoH. I always charge use charge in that situation. Rarely do I bother with FoH since I don’t want to give the zon a chance to fire more arrows. Open wounds helps a lot against a zon since you only have to hit a few times to reduce her life to 1. If you know the zon has only 1 life left, you can switch to holy freeze and let the aura kill her.
PLAGUE JAVAZONS: These zons does a great deal of damage over time, but are pretty easy to defend yourself against. Just make sure you have good poison resist and wear a poison-length-reduced item. Also, have cleansing hot-keyed since it will help a lot in case you get hit. Most plague zons I’ve seen use a bow while their opponent is outside their screen and javelins otherwise. Their tactic is basically to use plague javelin to drain their opponent’s life and then finish off with a bow. Start off the duel by circling the zon and wait for her to use the bow before charging in. Once you are in the same screen, she will most likely switch and throw a plague javelin at you before running away. Try to avoid getting hit by the poison cloud since it will hurt a lot. If you get hit, charge away and use cleansing until the poison is gone. Some plague zons don’t use a bow at all in which case you just have to shift-charge around and use FoH.
LIGHTNING FURY AMAZONS: This matchup is very easy since a V/T should have good lighting resist. Thundergod’s Vigor will significantly lessen the damage of their attack as well. I don’t even bother to avoid the lightning missiles, since they barely hurt. I usually just charge in and smite.
CS AMAZONS: This must be the most useless amazon subclasses ever. It’s basically a zon who will run up to you, poke with her javelin, and hope you will die in one hit. Just equip Thundergod’s Vigor and make sure you have 85% light resist and you should win this. Most likely you will be accused of overabsorbing since you won’t die.
ASSASSINS:
TRAPPERS: Dueling trappers depend a lot on how much resist you have because you will get hit. I use at least 85% light resist and the absorb from Thundergod’s. Start the duel off by shift-charging closer to the assassin but not in a straight line. Try to change directions a lot. Good trappers will hit you with mindblast and stun you with traps almost at the same moment you appear on other’s screens so you have to be very quick. I never bother to take out the shadow master, simply because there is no time. Just charge in and smite until you are locked in a series of mindblasts. When that happens, shift-charge away until the mindblast lock is gone and repeat. If you aren’t quick enough to get a few hits off before being stunned, you will most likely lose. Even with 90% light resist, you will take damage. Some trappers also have points in fire blast and those things can hurt. It will help a lot if you use open wounds since you won’t be able to hit a lot before having to retreat. Even though a paladin can shift-charge out from a mindblast lock, you should use some faster hit recovery. Aim for the 48% breakpoint if possible.
WW ASSASSINS: I think this is a very fun matchup. Good ones can be a challenge. Most WW assassins I’ve seen use bramble and have a high-level venom so having 75% or more poison resist is a good idea. A WW assassin’s tactic is to stun with low-level traps and mindblast and then either dragon flight or teleport to her opponent and quickly follow up with a whirlwind. I can say that if you duel a WW assassin with good gear and bramble, then don’t try to go toe-to-toe with her since she will most likely shred you to pieces. Be aware that an assassin cannot use dragon flight on someone who is not on the same screen, so try to take advantage of this if you are dueling a Bramble WW sin. I strongly recommend that you use open wounds in this duel. A fury berserker axe or scourge is one of the best weapons because of range and chance of open wounds. Try to connect with a charge and follow up with a smite when the assassin is casting traps or is moving around. I know that some people recommend using zeal instead of smite when dueling dual-claw assassins since they can block smite. However, I still prefer smite since I like the knockback and swirlies. Also, this is basic knowledge, but when you smite or zeal a whirlwind assassin (or barbarian), hold the shift key down so you remain stationary. Otherwise you will walk after the assassin and get yourself killed.
BARBARIANS:
MELEE BARBARIANS: This should be an easy duel since you will always be faster than the barbarian if you shift-charge. One tactic is just shift-charge around and use FoH. I usually use smite since it’s faster. Just be aware that a good barbarian can pack a lot of punch, so if you are low on life, just retreat and use FoH instead. This is a duel you should win. It further helps if you use a weapon with crushing blow and open wounds since most barbarians have high life.
WHIRLWIND BARBARIANS: It’s very hard for a V/T to beat a good WW barb. The barbarian can for example use Beast and eth BotD/Doom, teleport on top of you and WW away. If that would happen you will be at a disadvantage since the barb will have more life, deal more damage, and most likely hit more than you as well. The good thing is that it’s hard for a barb to have Thundergod’s, 50%DR, and two weapons at the same time. I certainly would not have any problems using lifetap against a barb who would teleport on top and WW away all the time. But even with Exile you would have a hard time unless the barb had horrible light resist. It’s imperative that you have full DR and use a range 3 weapon when facing a barb to prevent him from out-ranging you. I would recommend using a Kingslayer berserker axe since it comes with open wounds and crushing blow which helps when facing a highlife opponent.
DRUIDS:
WIND DRUIDS: This is one of the hardest matchups you will have. All winddruids I’ve met try to teleport on top or close to you and then blast you with tornadoes. Add to the fact that most winddruids use pets making them very hard to hit. FoH isn’t an option since it won’t be strong enough to break through the druid’s cyclone armor. The tactic I use is basically to take out the oak sage before charging the druid and follow up with smite. A druid who runs is much easier to duel since it won’t be hidden in a pack of wolves all the time. It’s possible to take out mediocre druids, but against the best you wont stand much of a chance.
MELEE DRUIDS: Easy duels. I’ve heard some people claim that fury druids that can take out smiters, but I never met one that come even close. Just treat them the same way you treat melee barbarians. Just be aware that they attack a lot faster and have more attack rating. Rabies druids are an exception. Whatever you do, try not to get hit in the beginning of a duel with a rabies druid since one hit could potentially kill you. I personally think pure rabies druids are kind of cheap, so don’t feel guilty by using Death’s Hand and cleansing. I haven’t really come across any good rabies druids anyway. The ones I’ve met try to hit me once and then run away hoping that I die. It doesn’t seem to be much skill involved in that.
SORCERESSES:
FROZEN ORB/ES SORCS: Well-built ES sorceresses can take quite some damage and are tough to duel. Good ones are very hard to catch since they don’t enter your screen but orb you from a distance before teleporting away. Make sure you don’t remain still and definitely don’t stand in the middle of an orb since it will hurt a lot without stacked cold resist. Shift-charge around and try to get a namelock with FoH and then quickly switch to charge and smite. If you hit her with smite, but she manages to escape, try to hit her with FoH since it will stun (as long as she has “swirliesâ€) and give you an opportunity to charge in again. More inexperienced sorceresses will stand still a lot more giving you more opportunities to charge in and smite. If the sorceress runs out of mana, she can’t do anything, in which case you can finish her off with smite.
BLIZZARD SORCS: This is a hard duel if you don’t stack cold resist. I don’t have room in my stash for a 4xperfect sapphire shield, so my V/T has problems with blizzard sorcs. The strategy is basically to use FoH while avoiding her blizzards and other cold projectiles.
FIREBALL SORCS: A fireball sorceress is pretty much like an orb/ES sorc, but deals more damage. However, it’s harder for the sorc to hit since her attack doesn’t cover a whole area like orb. The tactic is pretty much the same though. I would recommend that you use Hotspurs for this duel.
CHAIN LIGHTNING SORCS: I haven’t duel many lightning sorcs, but the ones I faced were easy. Since chain lightning takes some time to cast, it’s easier to catch this type of sorc since she has to remain still for a longer time compared to other sorceresses. You will obviously need Thundergod’s Vigor for this duel.
NECROMANCERS:
BONE NECROS: You won’t be able to beat good bone necros, simply because they are too overpowering. Many pub necros use revives and a clay golem which makes them nearly impossible for a V/T to beat unless the necro is really bad. That is because smite and FoH are single target attacks and you can’t do much when you are chased by a teleporting necro with several revives and a golem that will slow you. You can try to take out the revives one by one with FoH but you will most likely run out of mana before you are able to even hurt the necro. Anyway, if the necro duels fairly, it will still be very hard to beat unless he has bad light resist. If your FoH doesn’t do enough damage, you have to use charge and smite. It will probably take at least a couple of hits to break the bone armor which is why I strongly suggest you use open wounds since it will do damage regardless of the bone armor.
POISON NOVA NECROS: I haven’t seen that many poison necros but the ones I’ve come across basically teleport close to use, cast poison nova, and teleports away to let the poison drain you life. Then they will finish off with bone spirits, teeth, or spear. Just make sure you have good poison resists and preferably a poison-length-reduced item as well. Theoretically, it should be pretty easy to kill them. Just shift-charge around, avoid the novas, and use FoH. However, even if you have decent poison resist, getting hit by one nova will take a lot of your life.
PAL vs. PAL:
These duels are usually the most fun in my opinion. However, the gap between the different builds is simply too large to make it balanced. A well-played hammerdin will have the advantage over any other build because of its massive damage, quick movements, and invisible attacks. In any case, I like V/T vs. V/T and hammer vs. hammer duels since dueling your own subclass is the most balanced duels you can get.
V/T vs. V/T: Most V/Ts have 49%DR since they use Ber’d shako, Ber’d HoZ, 15%DR Verdungo’s, and Enigma. It’s also easy for a V/T to have 75% resist all and 49%DR at the same time by just using Silence. However, sometimes it’s necessary to use Thundergod’s Vigor and still have ~50%DR when dueling other V/Ts (i.e. if they have good FoH damage). One option is to stick 3 Ber runes in a Griswold’s shield. But since Griswold’s shield requires higher dexterity than HoZ to have 75% chance to block, you probably would have to use 2 Raven Frosts in order to maintain your chance to block, unless you don’t mind putting some extra points in dexterity. However, sometimes you need to have 90%lightning resist in which case you would need to use a Lo’d shako leaving you 8%DR short anyway, assuming you use a 3xBer’d Griswold’s shield. The best choice would be a jeweler’s shield of deflecting, but since they are hard to come by, the most logical solution is simply to use a Stormshield. I know some people say that Stormshield is a bad smiting shield but trust me on this. I’ve successfully used a Stormshield in V/T vs. V/T duels for a while now. It’s not all about damage, but about flexibility as well. Besides, I only wear Stormshield, Lo’d shako, and Thundergod’s against templar-oriented V/Ts whose smite damage isn’t that great either. In any case, I wouldn’t recommend a templar-oriented V/T to use a Stormshield since his smite damage would be very low. He would probably be better off using a 4xBer shield and dual Raven Frosts or something.
V/T vs. V/T duels are fun even though charge locks, knockback, and desynch often have an impact in the result. You should adjust your gear to your opponent’s attacks to have the best chance to win. For example, if your opponent does over 5000 damage with his FoH it should be fairly obvious that Thundergod’s Vigor is the belt you want to use. In any case, I don’t think Thundergod’s Vigor is imperative when facing someone with a FoH of 2000 damage or less, but should definitely be considered when dueling someone with a 3k+ FoH. I know that some people use non-magical elite paladin shields socketed with 4 Lo runes on the switch in order to reduce an opponent’s FoH damage. I’ve never used them, and I don’t plan on it either, since switching isn’t always smooth with my ping. I can also imagine myself getting stuck in a charge lock and hit by a 5.5k damage FoH (the weapon switch key doesn’t always work when stuck). I know that some people are happy with their 4xLo shields but that’s not something I would use or recommend other people to use. Besides, you cannot use CtA at the same time.
The basic strategy is to try to find an opening in order to charge in and smite. If you know that you have a good life advantage you can try to go toe-to-toe with your opponent. Be aware of that even if you have a lot more life you can still lose a smite vs. smite matchup simply because of lag and knockback. It’s almost always safer to charge in and smite once or twice and shift-charge away. When you are not attacking (with charge or smite), have holy freeze on. Only switch to meditation when you know that your opponent is at least a screen away (not always easy to know because of desynch). Holy freeze will make it easier for you to dodge a charge or smite, and if you get hit by a smite, you will slow down your opponent’s attack speed and it will take longer time for him to hit you again, giving you more time to escape or counter attack. Always charge in with holy freeze in order to slow your opponent down before you smite. Even though aura stacking barely works now, your opponent will stay frozen a few milliseconds after you switch to fanaticism, and thus have less mobility and slower attack speed. If your opponent should shift-charge away with holy freeze on, don’t follow since it will lead to major desynch. If someone charges after you, simply switch to holy freeze and shift-charge away until he gives up, or you find an opening to counterattack with charge. Finally, if you duel someone who uses open wounds and you are not using it, you will be in a disadvantage. Your opponent will most likely hit once and then stay away from melee for a few seconds in order to drain your life. Thus, it’s good if you use open wounds yourself against those types of V/Ts.
V/T vs. ZEALOT: This is such an easy duel since the vast majority of all zealots are built for zeal vs. zeal duels. In order for a zealot to have a chance against a V/T, I think the following build would be a lot better than the usual click-and-hold build that focuses on defense:
Sacrifice 20
Zeal 20
Holy shield 20
Fanaticism 20
FoH 1 (for stun in combination with smite)
Holy freeze 1
Meditation 1
Put the rest in charge
Lo’d/Ber’d/Cham’d shako
20IAS gloves with light resist
Enigma mage plate
Thundergod’s Vigor/15%DR Verdungo’s
Gorerider
Angelic amulet
Angelic rings
Cham’d Stormshield/Ber’d upgraded HoZ/Ber’d upgraded Swordback Hold
Zod’d ethereal Death Cleaver
In the inventory you should have 10 combat charms with high life, 9 20life/11light resist charms, and a 20stat Annihilus charm. If that isn’t enough to negate conviction in nightmare, swap a combat charm for more life/light resist charms.
Expensive? Hell yeah, but this is what I think it takes to have a chance against a good V/T. A zealot like this would have good zeal and charge damage, and could use smite as well. It would also have as much life as any V/T and be much more balanced for general PvP. Anyway, since this isn’t a zealot guide, I won’t go into depth with this build since I doubt anyone but me would like to try it out.
Back to topic. Just charge the zealot and switch to smite. If the zealot should get lucky and get a hit in, you should probably shift-charge away and use FoH instead. Elite zealots could potentially kill you in a few hits so be aware. If you get tapped, just shift charge away and switch to cleansing until it’s gone. You could also use FoH since most zealots have very bad resists.
V/T vs. TEMPLAR: Pure templars are not suitable for Pal vs. Pal dueling. They are better off staying in pub games since all you need to do is to stack some light resist, put on a Lo shako, Thundergod’s Vigor, and a Lo’d HoZ and they cannot hurt you. So, what’s the point of dueling if your opponent can’t hurt you? No point really, but you can change that question to “what’s the point of dueling if you can’t hurt your opponent�
V/T vs. HAMMER VARIANTS: No matter what second attack a hammerdin chooses to have (if any), this is the hardest matchup for a V/T because:
- Hammers do very high damage
- The damage cannot be reduced since it’s magical (except by using a safety shield)
- Hammers cannot be blocked
- Desynch will make hammers invisible
There are plenty of hammer variants but the two most popular ones are the pure hammerdin and the liberator. People rarely make any distinction between those two since a hammerdin with a charge switch basically is a liberator. Anyway, it’s not the charge that you should fear, but the hammers. What you want to do is to be patient and try to avoid the hammers. Now, this is very hard to do since a shift-charging hammerdin will create invisible hammers flying around everywhere. If the hammerdin lacks light resist, then just stay away from him and kill him with FoH. However, should your opponent stack light resist, then the best you can do is to attack from the south and hope he will stay somewhat still. If you namelock a moving hammerdin with charge, you will follow him which usually leads to you getting hit. That said, you should never follow a hammerdin around. That will get you killed. I strongly suggest you use open wounds in this duel and try to get a hit in, and let open wounds drain some life while you retreat, and then, after 8 seconds, repeat. It can sound cheap, but what else can you do against 10+k invisible hammers?
V/T vs. CRUSADER VARIANTS: I haven’t seen that many pure crusaders. They mostly combine charge with another skill such as smite and FoH. Since charge is an attack that can do a lot of damage, it’s imperative that you have full DR gear on. A pure 2-handed crusader can potentially kill you in one hit. Basically what you want to against 2-handed crusaders is to prevent your opponent from charging by being so close to him that he can’t use his attack. Best way to take out 2-handed crusaders is basically just to charge them to death. Since they can’t block and have low defense, they are easy to hit. Just use charge until your opponent is dead or you miss. If you miss, just switch to smite. V/Cs can do as much smite damage as a V/T and have a pretty good charge damage as well. Basically duel a V/C like you would duel a V/T.
FINAL WORDS
Everything written in this guide is based on my own experience and what I think work best. I know other people who do things differently, which is fine, since there are more than one way to make a V/T. It’s up to you whether you want to follow my suggestions or not. Just know that I spent lots of time with this build. Both in 1.10 and before, so I think it’s safe for me to say I know what I’m talking about.
The V/T is, in my opinion, the most fun paladin subclass to play and I recommend that you give it a shot if you haven’t already. It’s a little bit harder to play than many other builds since it combines more attacks which can be rather confusing in the beginning. However, if you are into PvP and like new challenges, this could be the build for you.
Credit to all people who use to frequent USEast Temple.
Cheers
