SailorMiniDoom's Guide To Paladin Player vs Player in DIABLO II
Welcome, this is a guide on how to PvP (player vs. player) with the Paladin class of Diablo II. First thing that needs to be covered is that Paladin PvP requires intellegence, now this is a attribute that most people on Diablo II do not possess. But never fear, even if you are someone with low intellegence this guide will teach you how to PvP with a Paladin and win!
Lets start with the basics, first thing you need to learn is what skills your going to want to use/train to get your Paladin into PvP condition. The first skill you need to know about is CHARGE. Charge will be your best friend and the skill that you use in most circumstances. You must learn to love charge and charge will learn to love you, so START LOVING. I'll explain later on in the guide why charge will be your best friend, but for now just take my word for it.
Next skill your going to want to use in PvP is Blessed Hammer. Blessed Hammer works great for taking out Barbarians and other Paladins who wish to tear you a new asshole. However, if you use Blessed Hammer against Amazons, Necromancers, and Sorceresses I'm going to personally log into your realm and kick you in the ass.
Another skill your going to need is Holy Sheild, Holy Sheild is for living longer. A higher chance of blocking means that charging Paladins will have a harder time hitting you, Barbarians Whirlwind might not drop you in one hit, and Amazons Homing Arrows won't totally own you. Therefore get HS, or else you'll regret it.
Next skill your going to need is Fist of the Heavens. Yes, I'm sure you've heard that FOH sucks the giagantic penis. And in fact yes it does. Its one of the WORST level 30 skills there is, the damage is pathetic. However, its the only ranged always hit attack you've got, so you must use it. However, if you max FOH you are an idiot, FOH is a finishing skill for when someone is running with LOW life, do NOT use it at the beginging of a duel you will burn all your mana and be a sitting duck.I'll explain the uses of FOH later on in this guide.
Finally, the last two skills your going to use are Zeal or Sacrifice, you need to have 1 point in both to get FOH and other skills so you can use whichever one dips your chips. There isn't any real reason to go more in depth with these two skills, so basically if you've got an Amazon, Sorceress, or Necromancer backed into a corner and you don't want to back off, slap on the concentration aura and go to it. Thats basically it, do not use these skills for anything else in PvP.
When you have all the PvP skills your Paladin needs, your skills should be as follows:
MAX Charge
MAX Blessed Hammer
MAX Concentration
Level 10 Vigor
Level 10 Holy Freeze
Level 1 Zeal
Level 1 Fist of the Heavens
Level 1 Holy Sheild
Next thing you need to know about is what auras your going to use. There is a toss up between which aura is the best to use in PvP but in my opinion the number one aura your going to use is concentration. Concentration at level 24 increases your damage by 405%, which basically means you do tons more damage than your base damage. Basically when you want to do an assload of damage or need a one hit kill with a two handed weapon, slap on charge and concentration and go to it. Got it?
The next aura your going to need is vigor. Vigor will be your best bud against Amazons, Sorceresses, and Necromancers. (And also running like a little bitch if the need should arise.) This aura makes you much faster, and you can close the distance between you and your enemy. Also it makes you charge a lot faster, so if you need to charge through something this helps. I'll explain the uses of Vigor further in the tactics section of the guide.
Finally, the last aura you really need is Holy Freeze. Holy Freeze works great for slowing down Amazons, Necros, and Sorceresses. Turn it on for just a second until they turn blue, and then slap on whatever aura you need for the situation. This should make your enemy much easier to catch and thus much easier to drop.
Another aura you can use, (although its brainless and considered bitch fighting) is thorns. High level thorns totally shuts down Whirlwinding Barbarians, and other Charging Paladins. However, you'll have to sacrfice your points in one of the auras I mentioned above, so I wouldn't recommend it. Necros, Amazons and Sorceresses, will fuck you over if your using only thorns.
Now that we are done with the basics lets move unto the equipment your going to need for your PvP Paladin. Your equipment should be as follows for maximum ownage:
Tarn Helm
Blinkbat's Form Unique leather armor.
Rare Divine Scepter with over 100 dmg (or close to it) that adds fastest cast, and +2 to all Paladin Skills.
Sigon's Guard Set Tower Sheild.
Eye of Elitch Unique Amulet
1 Stone of Jordan Ring
1 Fast Cast Ring with +to mana and resist
Treads Of Cthlon Unique Chain Boots
Magefists Unique Light Gauntlets
A 40% req 200+ dmg Martel De Fer.
Death's Guard Sash.
The only two items on this list that are an absolute must for PvP is BlinkBat's Form and Death's Guard. BlinkBat's form is light and it makes you run much faster. Pair that with fastest run boots,and vigor and your going to be the fastest person on the map. Death's Guard is also a must because speed is a must in PvP, and most fighters use something that adds cold damage. Once your frozen thats it, your dead, you might as well bend over and kiss your ass goodbye. Most of the other items in this list add to skill levels or missle defense, they are not a must but you'll do much better with them than without them.
Now that the equipment is over and done with, its on to the tactics part of the guide. In this section I will give a detailed explaination of how to deal with each of the classes and their known sub-classes, such as what skills you should use, what auras you can use, and if your fucked or not.
Amazons
Amazons have been seriously buffed up since the version 1.04 patch. Against a high level Amazon you'll be looking at arrows that do 500-1000 hp of dmg per hit. The first thing you need to do is cast Holy Sheild while your still in town. This will make blocking homing arrows much more frequent.The first aura your going to put on is Vigor. Vigor will allow you to close the distance between you and the Amazon much faster. Run at the zon, but do not run directly at her, run to the left or right side of her so her homing arrows do not have a direct path to you. When you see the amazon get close and charge at her. Right before you make contact turn on your Concentration Aura and hope you hit. Unfortunatly charge has the accuracy of a blind moose, so you probably won't hit. However, you will spook the zon and she will probably start to run away from you. When you charge, charge once and only once, if you miss back off before you try again, do NOT just hold down charge and use it to follow an Amazon. Once the Zon starts to run turn on Holy Freeze and get her colded. Then just keep trying to charge her until you land a hit. Once you land a hit the zon should be low on life. If she is under about 20% finish her off with FOH. If she is over 20% charge again until she is under 20% and then finish her off with FOH.
Necromancers
Against all other character classes the Necromancer totally sucks. However, they have curses which can totally fuck Paladins over. Basically there isn't that much you can do against a high level necro. Necros usually fire out bone spirits, and these do roughly around 300 hp of dmg and they track you. In case you haven't noticed already this is not good. What your going to want to do against a necro is TRY to run along side him using Vigor, outrun his BS and charge in. Continue this tactic and do not turn on Concentration, you will be too slow and his bone spirits will catch you. Thats basically all you can do. If you do hit him, finish with FOH, don't try and keep charging. Also necros can use Iron Maiden which sends dmg you do back to you amplified. Use your weapon and charge with impunity, you won't do enough damage to kill yourself, but you will do enough damage to kill the necro. Finally, the other sub-class of Necros are Decrep Necros. These Necros cast decrepify, a curse which makes you charge slow as FUCK and seriously gimps your damage. Basically if your decreped your screwed, use FOH and hope he has low lightning resist and low HP, when your decreped go back to town and hang it up, usually its over.
Sorceresses
Unfortunatly there isn't much you can do against a Sorc either. A good high level Sorc will have high ass ice orb and teleport. Turn on Vigor and stay outside of the ice orb's range. Against a high level Soc you won't be able to charge through the orbs so don't even try. Make the Sorc come to you,and try and surprise her with a charge when she tries to teleport in front of you or alongside you. If you land a hit, finish her off with FOH. Don't try and keep charging your gonna get your ass kicked. If the Soc doesn't use teleport, you can laugh your little ass off cuz your gonna drop her like a toilet seat. Turn on Holy Freeze and use Concentration + Charge to mow her ass down. Easy huh? Too bad most Socs aren't like that :-(. There are also sub-classes of Socs called "lag socs" these Sorceresses cast Hydras or Firewalls and teleport around, in my opinion this is a very lame tactic to win PvP matches and if you have the computer and the connection not to lag, smack one of em down for me.
Barbarians
Ahh the Barby, what most people claim as the ultimate dueler.There are two basic type of Barbarians. Sheild Barbs and Lance and Pole-Axe Barbs. Barbarians are easy for you. 99.9% of all Barbarians use Whirlwind and Whirlwind only. Do NOT try and charge a Whirlwinding Barb, you will not survive it. If your a bitch fighter, just turn on thorns aura and laugh your ass off when they go to Whirlwind you and die. However, if you like to fight, turn on Concentration and use Blessed Hammers. Also, don't forget to turn on your Holy Sheild, it will help you a lot. Most Barbarians will not try to Whirlwind through your hammers, so they will try and do a leap attack. This attack amplifys the Barbarians damage a lot. But lucky for you leap attack also has the accuracy of a blind moose, so most likely they will not hit you.When the Barb lands he will be right next to you, and right next to a hammer. Therefore, you can proceed to laugh as your hammers tear him yet another asshole.
Paladins
These kinds of duels require serious intellegence. The first thing your gonna want to do is observe your Paladin opponent. What kind of auras does he favor? Does he use charge or blessed hammers? There are many different sub-classes of dueling Paladins. The first kind is a Charge+Concentration Paladin. There are two ways to combat this type, the first is to turn on thorns and laugh as he kills himself. Or you can use Blessed Hammers and create a circle of protection around yourself. Keep in mind that most Paladins will not charge through your hammers, they will tend to stay outside of the hammer circle and try to: let you burn your mana, or cast FOH on you. Once he starts using FOH, put on concentration and charge in and smack him down. Also, against all Paladins you will want to use Holy Sheild, it makes hitting you a LOT harder. The second sub class is Blessed Hammer Paladins. Who use Concentration + Blessed Hammers. Stay outside the Hammer ring and use FOH to slowly peck away at his life. There is also the occasional Paladin who uses nothing but FOH. Rest easy these Pallys have no idea what they are doing, just put on Concentration and Charge and beat them like a red headed step kid. Keep in mind that your also a Paladin, as I said before earlier in this guide, the Pally is the most versitle character, watch, learn, listen and counter attack.
I hope this guide gave you some insight into the power that the Paladin possesses, remember that all duels are unique and unexpected things happen, use this guide exactly as it was ment to be used as a GUIDE. Do NOT follow it to the letter always or you will get your ass kicked. Develop your own varations of these tactics and use them to win. I hope you enjoyed it thanks for reading.
-Sailor-MiniDoom Acc name: subzero3 USWEST
Email: Mk3@dur.mindspring.com
Please e-mail me with comments, questions, or suggestions you have about this guide. I will be happy to look at them.
This guide was written and editted by: Kevin D Arias - Watkins. This guide may not be reproduced in any way without my written consent. Therefore do not post this guide on your site and slap your name on it. If I find that you have been stealing my guide and posting it on other sites without my concent I will prosecute you to the full extent of the law, which also includes shoving one of my lady friend's 9 inch Platform shoes up your ass.
This page written by Kevin Arias-Watkins.
mk3@dur.mindspring.com