Paladin Overview

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Paladin Overview

Last Updated:March 6, 2024|Change Log

The Paladin has a deep spiritual connection, so deep, in fact, that he is capable of unleashing heavenly powers upon his enemies. With a set of Defensive and Offensive Auras, the Paladin brings large amounts of utility to himself and his allies.

In the early game, Holy Fire is the go-to Aura that allows the Paladin to crush his enemies until Act 4 Normal. At this point it starts falling off, if he doesn't have access to decent gear.

This is where the all mighty Blessed Hammer and concentration combo comes into play. This combination clears the campaign with ease, requiring little to no gear to do so.

The Paladin also has Smite, the ultimate ability for killing the Ubers. It makes him capable of killing them using as little as 2 easily accessible items (Black and a Wand of Life Tap). Every other item slot is simply filled up with Resistances.

His biggest weakness is the lack of variety in strong early game builds, which he makes up with incredibly strong melee builds in the late game. These builds require a lot of gear to succeed, though!

Attributes

Every Character has the Attributes Strength, Dexterity, Vitality and Energy. At maximum Level, y Character has access to 505 Stat Points, which can be allocated into the Attributes. While Vitality only affects the Life pool and Energy only affects the Mana pool of your Character, Strength and Dexterity have additional uses:

Strength:
Generally, Stat Points are only allocated to this Attribute to wear your gear, however, Strength has an additional use: it increases the Physical Damage portion of melee attacks.

Dexterity:
Generally, Stat Points are only allocated to this Attribute to wear your gear, however, Dexterity has 4 additional uses:

It increases the % Chance to Block up to 75 while using a Shield.
The Attack Rating of every attack is increased, improving the Chance to hit your target.
Every 4th Stat Point into Dexterity increases the base Defense of the Character by 1.
On ranged builds, Dexterity increased the Physical Damage portion of your attacks.

Starting Attributes of the Paladin

Strength	Dexterity	Vitality	Energy
25	20	25	15

	Base	per Level	per Stat Point
Life	55	+2	+3 per Vitality
Stamina	89	+1	+1 per Vitality
Mana	15	+1.	+1.5 per Energy

Breakpoints

Breakpoints are an integral way to improve your Character's performance. For in-depth explanations on them, please check out our article on Breakpoints.

Attack Rate

Block Rate

Cast Rate

Hit Recovery Rate

Skill Trees

Structure
Every Character has 3 Skill Trees to allocate their Skill Points into. Each Skill Tree consists of a total of 10 Skills, and you can assign a maximum of 20 points per Skill. These Skills are placed into 6 rows, which represent the 6 Skill tiers. While tier 1 is available at Character Level (clvl) 1, the other tiers become available at clvl 6, 12, 18, 24, and 30.

Skill Points
Every Character gains access to 110 Skill Points (98 from Levels and 12 from quests).

Prerequisites
Not every Skill is available right away. The arrows on the Skill Tree show the prerequisites needed to obtain skills further down the Tree.
Example: You have to put a Skill Point into Prayer and Cleansing to gain access to Meditation.

Synergies
A lot of Skills have Synergies, which are Skills that passively boost the strength of another Skill. The main Skill shows how much a Synergy increases its power per Skill Point allocated into it.
Example: The base Magic Damage of Blessed Hammer is increased by a summed up multiplier which increases by 14% for each Skill Point allocated into Blessed Aim, and Vigor.

Build Guides

The Paladin has a variety of builds to choose from:

Paladin Leveling Guide
Zeal Holy Fire Blessed Hammer Concentration
Blessed Hammer Paladin Guide
Blessed Hammer Concentration Holy Shield
Smite Paladin Guide
Smite Fanaticism Holy Shield
Dream Paladin Guide
Zeal Holy Shock Holy Shield
Zeal Paladin Guide
Zeal Fanaticism Holy Shield
Fist of the Heavens Paladin Guide
Conviction Fist of the Heavens Holy Shield
Holy Fire Paladin Guide
Holy Fire Zeal Holy Shield

Griswold's Legacy

Griswold's Legacy is the Elite Set, which was exclusively designed for the Paladin. This Set mostly aims at melee combat. The Weapon, Helmet and Shield are all very rare, making the Set the hardest to collect. Long term, this Set becomes obsoleted by setups that focus on a combination of Uniques and Runewords.

Character Specific Gear

Every Character has exclusive items that only it can use. For the Paladin, these are Auric Shields. They can spawn with All Resistances +5-45 or with 10-65% Enhanced Damage and +15-121 to Attack Rating, depending on their Affix Level. In addition to the Auric Shields, the Paladin benefits from Staff mods on the non Character specific Weapon type "Scepters".

Base Items

Set and Unique Items

Lore & In-Game dialogue

In this section you will find the lore of the Paladin as well as the in-game dialogue he uses while travelling through Sanctuary.

Lore

During the mid-twelfth century, after the Church of Zakarum had gained prominence in the East, the Church decreed that the visions of Akarat would be spread throughout the known world in order to redeem the masses. Thus, the Church selected a group of its most charismatic and devoted priests and sent them on a mission to proselytize the people of the West.
Unfortunately, the Church had not prepared these men for the rigors of travel nor the hazards of the world. The priests who survived their missions recounted tales of harsh weather, inadequate supplies, attacks from bandits and even encounters with horrible monsters. To ensure the success of future missions, the Church set about training holy warriors, Paladins, to accompany and safeguard their missionaries. In practice, these "Protectors of the Word" proved to be more successful at converting the native peoples than the Priests that they were assigned to defend. Impressing the locals with daring deeds, powerful weapons, and martial prowess was far more convincing than the condemnations of a soft-spoken monk. However, once the Word had been spread to every major city of the West, the "Protectors of the Word" faded from public view.
Some decades later, Paladins were again called into service. During the height of the Time of Troubles, the Church commenced a second campaign of conversion. This time, however, the inconvincible were deemed evil. The Zakarum Inquisition spread through the lands like a tempest, laying waste to all suspected of demonic possession or corruption. Leading this crusade was a new generation of Paladins, known as the "Hand of Zakarum." These cavaliers of righteousness swept through the lands, expunging the taint of demonic contamination wherever they found it.
In the midst of this bloody crusade, a rebellion arose within the ranks of the Paladins of Zakarum. The rebels condemned the methods of the Inquisition, proclaiming that the new Order of Paladins should protect the innocent, and that the evil corruption was rooted in their forebear's failure. They resolved to fight the true source of corruption, the Three Prime Evils - Diablo, Baal and Mephisto. And so, these rebellious Paladins left their Zakarum brethren and ventured west.

Faster Block Rate	0	13	32	86
Block Frames	5	4	3	2

Faster Hit Recovery	0	3	7	13	20	32	48	75	129	280
Hit Recovery Frames	13	12	11	10	9	8	7	6	5	4

Faster Hit Recovery	0	7	15	27	48	86	200
Hit Recovery Frames	9	8	7	6	5	4	3

Paladin Overview

Attributes

Starting Attributes of the Paladin

Breakpoints

Attack Rate

Block Rate

Cast Rate

Hit Recovery Rate

Skill Trees

Build Guides

Character Specific Gear

Base Items

Scepters

Auric Shields

Set and Unique Items

Scepters

Auric Shields

Lore & In-Game dialogue

Lore

Act 1

Act 2

Act 3

Act 4

Act 5

Credits

Faster Cast Rate	0	9	15	18	30	39	48	75	86	125
Cast Frames	15	14		13	12		11	10		9
Action Flags	9		8			7			6