LLD101

[Saytun]

As 18 Zealots seem to be fairly common right now and its an easy build to get you started and still be able to wreck havoc in most pubby duel games i'll "try" to put together a basic starter guide. This is my first draft so I need constructive comments before I put together a final, bear in mind this is the basic build and although i'll mention the better items i'll concentrate on the cheap, easy to get items.
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Following and falling within current LLD101 guidelines this guide is for a level 18 Palidin using Zeal as main attack. Character will not have left normal difficulty but will have been rushed to act5 to make full advantage of all quests within that difficulty. The Den, Radament, Golden Bird, Lam Essans tome, Izual, Anya quests will help significantly so make sure this is included in your rush.

ITEMS
Helm:
3 Socket Mask (preferably superior) , filled with 3 x +15max jewels
3 Socket Crown (preferably superior), filled with 3 x +15max jewels.

Only real two options here to get as much damage out of zeal as possible, only thing to note is that the crown requires 55 strength and could possibly be your highest str req. item.

Jewelry:
Angelic Set Amulet and 2 x Angelic Set Rings.
At level 18 the AR bonus is 218 PER ring, +75 life, +10 dex, cant argue with stats like that when you include +12 replenish life, 20% damage to mana from the basic item stats as well.

Weapon:
6 Socket Military Pick filled with 6 x +15 max jewels, -10 weapon speed, around 7-100 damage if socketed well. Speed and damage.

5 Socket War Scepter filled with 5 x +15 max jewels, -10 weapon speed,
only 5 sockets on war scepters but if you can find one with great +skills this makes up for the one less socket, +skills to look out for +zeal/+might/+conc. Get two of these on same one and you've struck gold.

Clegaws Set Sword, socketed with +15 max jewel. -10 weapon speed,
Low damage, only one socket but one VERY interesting mod on it. 50% deadly strike, basically half your attacks will do twice the damage. Also a very cheap sword to start off with but still effective. Short on max jewels? this might be the weapon for you.

There are other options I see around such as war axes, crystal swords but they're slower and in my experience speed kills.

Armour:
Twitchthroe Studded Leather, filled with +15 max jewel.
+10 str/dex, Hit recovery, 20% IAS 20% increased blocking. Armour of choice for many of the Palidins ive encountered.

4 Socket Gothic Plate with 4 x +15max jewels. High damage but doesnt give the great bonuses of the Twitch and needs 70 str to use. Personally I dont like it but ive put it in here as an option.

Shield:
4 Socket Heraldic / Aerin / Crown Shield with inherent bonuses to ed/ar.
Look for 55%+ed / 100+ ar on these shield. Best being 65%/121 AR. Only consideration here is how much strength your going for, Crown requires 65 str and for many its too high to be beneficial over the other two. With twitch and +dex from items you'll hit 75% block with any of those three without putting any points in dex.

Gloves:
Deaths Set Gloves, 50% Poison resist, 75% poison length reduced

Belt:
Deaths Sash, VERY important mod, CANNOT BE FROZEN, without this someone packing a lot of cold damage will slow you down considerably. Combined with the gloves the set give +30% IAS, +15% resists.

Boots:
Cow King Set boots, +20 dex, fast run, fire damage.

Charms:
Look for some Fine Grand Charms of... Life/str. Rest fill with small charms of sustenance, 13-15 life on each. Some second mods to look out for are resists/ar.

Stats:
Level 1 Paladin starts with:
Strength - 25
Dexterity - 20
Vitality - 25
Energy - 15

with leveling up and +5 stat points from Lam Essans quest you'll have 90 stat points to use.

From items you'll receive +20 dex from boots, +10 dex from jewelry, +10 dex from twitch, +10 str from twitch.

Strength - 35
Dexterity - 60
Vitality -25
Energy - 15

60 Dex is enough to keep 75% blocking with Heraldic/Aerin Shield so no points needed here. Depending on your weapon choice you'll need 55 str for a war scepter or 49 str for military pick. If you cannot find fine gc's of strength I suggest pumping strength to meet the req. The rest of your stat points should go into Vitality.

Skills:
For a pure Zealot the usual skill setup would be.

7 Zeal
13 Sacrifice
1 Might

Points in sacrifice adds +12% damage to Zeal, Might only adds +10% damage. Most effective way to increase damage is therefore pumping sacrifice. 1 point in Might gives +40% damage but only increases by 10% for every point after. To hit 5 times with Zeal you need it to be skill level 4. More points add damage/attack rating.

With the suggested items above you'll be hitting a 5 frame zeal attack which is the highest available at level 18.

Tips:
Always WALK into battle, even more so vs chargers. Walking keeps your block at 75%, running cuts it by 1/3 and open for a few easy attacks against you.

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Well thats my attempt, now for comments from you guys before I tidy it up and do a final. Suggestions are welcome, "saytun your a noob, I PWN you! " isnt. This is a basic cookie cutter guide, I know it wouldnt necessarily do well against the likes of Matic and my lil pally, but this is how I started and you'll soon see where/how to improve it over time.

Throwing it open to the floor.....

Saytun

[Demon13]

Great guide Saytun, the alternate item setups helped alot. The alternate item setup is helpful for those of us who don't have much. Thanks man.


~ Demon

[Saytun]

the mentioning of +15 max jewels was just like the average jewel people look for , to start with 13-15's are decent enough.

[Arcane[hoh]]

edit.... death gloves only adds 50% psn resist ;D

[Saytun]

ooops, ok i'll change that, I was basing it on memory, always a mistake

[Arcane[hoh]]

great guide nonetheless, i wish i had somethin like this to read when i started out, although instead of this i had the help of you and some other LLD's

[Saytun]

And thanks for stickying it Voices, I found I was repeating myself too many times so decided to put it all down in a guide

[Demon13]

Hey, I had a question, if you decide to get a full norm-hell rush for him, should you put a point or 2 into concentration???

[B[x]]

a full hell rush would give you 29 skill points to play with.
you would go of course with 7 in zeal and 18 in sac.
that would leave you with 4 points. one point in might and blessed aim (for pre-reqs) and then 1 in conc (it's a level 18 skill so you can only invest 1 point in it). as for the last skill, i don't know.
another option would be to drop sac to 17 and then put one in smite and then one in charge to chase down those pesky runners or sorcs.

[Arcane[hoh]]

my pally has 4 zeal, 1 might, 1 charge, 1 smite, and 15 sacrifice. smite is just for getting charge, because my pally couldnt even kill andariel with his smite dmg. charge is useful to have for getting a first hit in melee duels and for chasing down runners, aka zons sorcs and necros. and ppl who try to run back to town

[Koshi]

saytun your a noob, I PWN you!














lol j/k . You forgot Sanders boots :p

[B[x]]

sander's boots are level 20.
who's the "pwnt noob" now, huh?

[Koshi]

[Saytun]

The zealot/charge hybrid is a bit tougher to make a good one so I kept it to the basic pure zealot build.

[ATOMICMAN]

not much harder just max might and get 1 in charge and 4 zeal, your damage will but much lower believe me, they work well when you duel higher lvls who like to run but you will die to pure zealer builds