TABLE OF CONTENTS
Vengeance Paladin Introduction & Overview
The Vengeance Paladin, also known as Avenger or Convictionist is a very strong melee build that can one-hit most enemies and demolish any Boss with a few hits. It has very high single target damage, good survivability, and is very easy to play with (basicly just click on enemy monsters). With Vengeance as its main attacking skill, it deals damage from all elemental sources, so no immunity will cause you any trouble. You will be able to solo anything and your party will benefit from your high level Conviction Aura.
🔸 Easily Soloes any game content in Player 8 difficulty
🔸 Hell Chaos run and Hell Baal run both within 2-3 minutes
🔸 Can solo Uber Tristram
🔸 Any Player8 Boss kill in seconds
🔸 Ideal for Hardcore
🔸 Easy and Beginner Friendly gameplay
The build can be geared in several ways for different purposes. In case you play hardcore making it super tanky is really easy! The only downside of the build is that you won’t deal area damage. However, even in player difficulty your single target damage will be really high. Avengers are good ladder starters, even in budget gear you will be able to kill monsters efficiently. In higher tier items you will even be able to farm Uber Tristram. Make sure to pre-buff yourself with Demon Limb’s Enchant skill to boost your attack rating.
Vengance Paladin Pros and Cons
Pros
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Cons
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Vengeance Paladin Gameplay
Playing solo: Solo play is straightforward with an Avenger, you will be able to smash just about any monster that comes in your way. If you enjoy solo games, this build is the right choice for you. Vengeance Paladins can be decent magic finders, in case you can afford an Enigma body armor, you can relatively quickly teleport to bosses by switching to your secondary Call to Arms + Spirit setup. You can also use Charge in combination with Vigor aura for movement. You will be able to deal huge amount of damage even in budget gear, so the build is a great choice for ladder season starts. Your attack rating won’t be super high, but a Demon Limb’s Enchant charges can help with that.
Playing in a party: In parties, members can take advantage of your auras. Normally you will be using Conviction as your primary aura, so any member that deals elemental damage will benefit a lot from your presence. The build performs best with an Act1 Cold mercenary equipped with a Faith bow. This way your mercenary will provide you and the party Fanaticism Aura, which boosts damage, attack rating and attacking speed. In defensive situations, Salvation aura can help your party’s resistances. In case you can afford an Exile shield, your party will also benefit from its defiance aura. Another benefit of a Convictionist is that you will frequently cast Life Tap on enemy monsters, allowing you and physial damage dealing characters to easily heal. Having mana steal on at least one of your items is also necessary for mana sustenance, the best item for that purpose is a dual leech ring.
Playing Hardcore: Hardcore requires the exact same playstyle as softcore. Since you will have +10% to maximum lightning, fire and cold resistances from the Resist Lightning/Fire/Cold aura skills, you will have very good survivability, as you can have +85% resistance for these resistances. By wearing a Hotspur, a Raven Frost and a Thundergod’s Vigor belt, or a Guardian Angel Armor setup, you will barely receive any elemental damage. Exile runeword also adds +5% to maximum Cold and Fire resistances, greatly reducing elemental damage taken. Physical damage can be offset by physical damage % reduction (Crown of Ages or Stormshield), Faster Hit Recovery, high defense, and you can quickly recover life via Life steal % or Life Tap cast on your gear, Make sure to always have Holy Shield casted, and try to get a Call to Arms runeword so you can buff yourself with Battle Orders, which will almost double your life and mana. One more way to protect yourself is by walking instead of running, so you preserve your defense while moving.
Vengeance Paladin Breakpoints
Note: Each second in the game consists of 25 frames or “ticks”. Your breakpoints decide how many frames it will take until you can attack/cast a skill/recover from a hit/ block a new hit.
Faster Cast Rate
- FCR only matters if you wear an Enigma and move by teleport. Aim for the 30% (12 frame) or 48% (11 frame) breakpoints.
Faster Hit Recovery
- Aim for the 27% (6 frames), 48% (5 frames) or 86% (4 frames) breakpoint.
Faster Block Rate
- You won’t need any additional FBR, as 2 frame will be your base block rate once you cast Holy Shield.
Vengeance Paladin Skills
Combat Skill Tree:
- 1 point to Sacrifice
- 1 point to Zeal
- 20 points to Vengeance
- 1 point to Smite
- 1 point to Charge
- 1 point to Holy Bolt
- 1 point to Blessed hammer
- 1 point to Holy Shield
Offensive Aura Skill Tree:
- 1 point to Might
- 1 point to Holy Fire
- 1 point to Thorns
- 1 point to Holy Freeze
- 1 point to Sanctuary
- Enough points on Conviction for the Level25 cap when geared
Defensive Aura Skill Tree:
- 20 points to Resist Fire
- 20 points to Resist Lightning
- 20 points to Resist Cold
- Rest of the points to Salvation
Vengeance Paladin Stat Points
Strength ► Just enough to be able to wear your items.
Dexterity ► Just enough to have 75% Chance to Block with Holy Shield activated.
Vitality ► Allocate all your remaining points to it.
Energy ► Don’t allocate any points to it.
You can re-stat your character by the quest reward of Akara’s Act1 Den of Evil Quest, or by using Token of Absolution.
Vengeance Paladin Mercenary
You should use an Act1 Cold Arrow Mercenary, equipped with a Faith amazon bow with preferably +3 to bow and crossbow skills. This way your character and the party will also gain the benefits of the Fanaticism Auras extra damage, attack rating and speed.
Vengeance Paladin Item setups
Ladder Starter Avenger Gear
Helm: Lore / Peasant Crown / Any helm with good survivability or +paladin skills
Amulet: Any amulet with +skill, +stats, +resists, +life / Saracen’s Chance / Atma’s Scarab
Weapon: Black runeword / Kingslayer runeword / Passion runeword / Oath runeword / Azurewrath / Lightsabre / Stormlash / Horizon’s Tornado
Switch Weapon: None
Shield: Rhyme runeword / Ancient’s pledge runeword
Switch Shield: None
Body Armor: Principle runeword / Guardian Angel / Duress runeword
Belt: String of Ears / Crafted Blood Belt
Rings: Any ring with useful stats like allresist, life, magic find, etc. / Raven Frost
Gloves: Venom Grip / Any gloves with 20% Ias and other useful stats like resists, life, etc
Boots: Goblin Toe / Tearhaunch / 30% FRW boots with additional resist/resists
Charms: Any charm with +skill, life, resist or FHR will help
Notes: Aim for 75% all resistances. You can use magic and rare items in any of your gear slots, and can also use them for your Mercenary.
Mercenary Gear
Helm: 3*Perfect Diamond socketed helm / Tal Rasha’s Horadric Crest
Body Armor: Any useful rare body armor
Weapon: Insight Polearm
Advanced Avenger Gear
Helm: Guillaume’s Face (Socket it with Um rune or 40% Enhanced damage jewel with other useful stats)
Amulet: Mara’s Kaleidoscope / Highlord’s Wrath / Metalgrid / Rare or Crafted amulet with +2 to paladin and other additional useful stats
Weapon: Grief phase blade
Switch Weapon: Call to Arms
Shield: Exile runeword ethereal paladin shield, try to get one with 40+ all resistances as base item / Herald of Zakarum (Socket it with Um rune, upgrade it if you have enough strength) / Phoenix paladin shield, try to get one with 40+ all resistances as base item
Switch Shield: Spirit paladin shield
Body Armor: Fortitude runeword in an elite light armor / Duress runeword in an elite light armor
Belt: String of Ears / Crafted Blood Belt with other useful stats like resists, life, etc
Rings: Raven Frost / Crafted or Rare dual leech ring with other useful stats
Gloves: Dracul’s Grasp
Boots: Upgraded Goblin Toe / Gore Rider
Charms: Annihilus, Hellfire torch, Magic Grand Charms (+1 to pala combat skills, try to get ones with +Life or +FHR), Magic Small Charms (with +all resistances, or +life)
Mercenary Gear
Helm: Andariel’s Visage or Crown of Thieves (preferably ethereal, socketed with Ral/Um rune)
Body Armor: Ethereal Fortitude or Treachery armor
Weapon: Faith Amazon bow with +3 to bow and crossbow skills
Magic Find Avenger Gear
Helm: Harlequin Crest Shako (Socket it with Ist rune)
Amulet: Magic Amulet with 40-50% Magic Find
Weapon: Grief phase blade
Switch Weapon: Call to Arms
Shield: Exile runeword ethereal paladin shield, try to get one with 40+ all resistances as base item / Herald of Zakarum socketed with Ist rune
Switch Shield: Spirit
Body Armor: Enigma Mage Plate / Dusk Shroud/ Archon plate
Belt: Upgraded Goldwrap
Rings: 2*Nagelring
Gloves: Upgraded Chance Guards
Boots: Upgraded War Traveler
Charms: Annihilus, Hellfire torch, Gheed’s Fortune, Small Charms with 7% Magic find (and also @all resistances if possible)
Mercenary Gear
Helm: Andariel’s Visage or Crown of Thieves (preferably ethereal, socketed with Ral/Um rune)
Body Armor: Ethereal Fortitude or Treachery armor
Weapon: Faith Amazon bow with +3 to bow and crossbow skills
Hardcore Avenger Gear
Helm: Crown of Ages (Socket it with 2 Ber runes, or 2 Um runes if you wear a Stormshield)
Amulet: Mara’s Kaleidoscope
Weapon: Last Wish Phase Blade / Grief Phase Blade
Switch Weapon: Call to Arms
Shield: Exile runeword ethereal paladin shield, try to get one with 40+ all resistances as base item / Stormshield Socketed with Um rune
Switch Shield: Spirit paladin shield
Body Armor: Fortitude Dusk Shroud or Archon plate
Belt: String of Ears / Thundergod’s Vigor
Rings: Raven Frost / Crafted or rare Dual leech ring with other useful stats / Wisp Projector
Gloves: Dracul’s Grasp
Boots: Gore Rider
Charms: Annihilus, Hellfire torch, Gheed’s Fortune, Magic Grand Charms (+1 to pala combat skills, try to get ones with +Life or +FHR), Magic Small Charms (with +all resistances, or +life)
Notes: Aim to overprotect yourself for situations when you get cursed with spells such as Lower Resist and Amplify Damage or get under an effect of an aura such as Fanaticism or Conviction.
Mercenary Gear
Helm: Andariel’s Visage or Crown of Thieves (preferably ethereal, socketed with Ral/Um rune)
Body Armor: Ethereal Fortitude or Treachery armor
Weapon: Faith Amazon bow with +3 to bow and crossbow skills
Max Damage Avenger Gear
Helm: Guillaume’s Face socketed with 40ED jewel with other useful stats
Amulet: Highlord’s Wrath
Weapon: Grief Phase Blade
Switch Weapon: Call to Arms
Shield: Phoenix Runeword in a 60+ Enhanced damage Paladin shield
Switch Shield: Spirit paladin shield
Body Armor: Fortitude Dusk Shroud or Archon plate
Belt: String of Ears
Rings: Raven Frost / Crafted or rare Dual leech ring with other useful stats
Gloves: Dracul’s Grasp / Steelrend
Boots: Gore Rider
Charms: Annihilus, Hellfire Torch, Gheed’s Fortune, Magic Grand Charms (+1 to pala combat skills, try to get ones with +Life or +FHR)
Mercenary Gear
Helm: Andariel’s Visage or Crown of Thieves (preferably ethereal, socketed with Ral/Um rune)
Body Armor: Ethereal Fortitude or Treachery armor
Weapon: Faith Amazon bow with +3 to bow and crossbow skills
