Paladin (Diablo II)
From Diablo Wiki
The Paladin is one of the five original classes in Diablo II, along with the Amazon, Barbarian, Necromancer and Sorceress. He is a melee-oriented character, with any auras and abilites to augment his own abilities and stats or crippling his enemies. The Paladin is however not limited to close-range combat, as one of the most successful builds in the game, the Hammerdin, utilizes the skill Blessed Hammer for damage.
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[edit] Background
The Paladin is originally a warrior of the Zakarum faith, protecting the believers in a dangerous world and working to convert unbelievers. As of the events in Diablo II however, there has been a split in the Church, with the Paladins from Khanduras, whom the player belongs to, no longer serving the Kurast leadership, which has been corrupted by Mephisto.
[edit] Skills
[edit] Combat Skills
The Combat tree contains all non-aura skills the Paladin possesses, with three distinct paths.
[edit] Left Path
The first path is the melee skill path, which includes four skills:
- Sacrifice
- Increases your physical damage and attack rating,but drains a percentage of your life.
- Zeal (main attack skill of a Zealer)
- Increases you physical damage, attack rating and attack speed, but locks you in place until the specified number of attacks have been executed.
- Vengeance (main attack skill of a Vindicator)
- Increases you elemental damage and attack rating, but at a steep mana cost.
- Conversion
- Has a chance to convert enemy monsters to the players side for 16 seconds.
Generally speaking, Zeal and Vengeance are the two most useful skills in this tree, with sacrifice costing too much life and Conversion being outright useless for damage in later difficulties.
[edit] Middle Path
The second path is more magically aligned:
- Holy Bolt
- Fires a bolt that either damages an undead or heals a friendly player.
- Blessed Hammer (main attack skill of a Hammerdin)
- Fires a hammer that spirals out in a circle from the Paladin.
- Blessed Hammer is often called one of the most overpowered skills in the game, because although it deals magic damage, it ignores magic resistance and immunities for demons and undead, thus the only creatures that Blessed Hammer cannot damage in the entire game (excluding random Unique spawning with Magic Immunity) are the Wailing Beasts in Hell difficulty.
- Fist of Heavens
- Calls down a lightning bolt that causes lightning damage, and subsequently fires of several holy bolts.
Blessed Hammer is by far the most used skill in this tree, although it is possible to build Paladins focusing on the other skills.
[edit] Right Path
Lastly, we have the shield path:
- Smite (main attack skill of a Smiter)
- Uses a shield to attack an enemy, increasing the damage and stunning them for a short period. Shield attacks cannot miss.
- Smite is a very useful skill mainly used in builds aimed at beating Chaos Tristram on their own. It is however not at all as effective in dealing with lots regular monsters.
- Charge
- Charges an enemy and causes increased damage. Cannot be used in melee, range, and does not actually require a shield.
- This skill is often used in PvP.
- Holy Shield
- Increases Defense, change to block and Smite damage for a limited time.
- This is an activated passive ability, meaning it can be active along with an aura at the same time.
[edit] Offensive Auras
The Paladin's offensive auras either focus around increasing his killing speed, or decreasing his enemies stats and abilities.
[edit] Left Path
The first path focuses on raising the Paladin's offensive capabilities.
- Might
- Increases the physical damage of all allied players within range.
- Blessed Aim
- Increases the attack rating of all allied players within range.
- Concentration
- Increases damage similarly to Might, but offers a greater increase, and gives the players a 20% to have their attacks become uninterrupted.
- Fanaticism (main aura of a Zealer)
- Increases attack damage, attack speed and attack rating for you, while only increasing attack for allied players.
- Fanaticism increases damage for the player slightly more than Concentration does, but increases it less for allies than Might does. The attack rating bonus is less than from Blessed Aim, but in return no other skill offers the attack speed increase.
[edit] Middle Path
The second path focuses on inflicting elemental damage directly to monsters.
- Holy Fire
- Inflicts fire damage to monsters within range.
- Holy Freeze
- Inflicts cold damage to monsters within range
- Holy Freeze is not considered to be cold damage. As such, it both damages and slows Cold Immune monsters.
- Holy Shock
- Inflicts lightning damage to monsters within range.
[edit] Right Path
The third path focuses on lowering the monsters chances of defeating you.
- Thorns
- Causes all physical melee damage inflicted on the player and allied players to be returned to the monsters. Higher levels can increase the damage returned tenfold.
- Sanctuary
- Deals magical damage to Undead and knocks them back. Similarly to Blessed Hammer, skill skill ignores resists and Immunities.
- Conviction (main aura of a Vindicator)
- Reduced enemy defense and elemental resists.
- Conviction, like other skills, is capable of removing immunities, but only functions at 1/5 effectiveness when doing so.
[edit] Defensive Auras
The defensive auras aid the paladin and his allies directly.
[edit] Left Path
The first path increases the Paladin and his allies regenerative abilities.
- Prayer
- Increases health regeneration for the player and all allies within radius.
- Prayer is the only aura in the game that costs mana.
- Cleansing
- Reduces poison and curse duration of the player and all allies.
- Every point places in Prayer gives the same bonus while Cleansing is active, but without the mana cost.
- Meditation
- Increases the mana regeneration of the player and all allies.
- Meditation benefits from points placed in Prayer the same way Cleansing does.
[edit] Middle Path
The second path increases the Paladin's defensive statistics
- Defiance
- Increases the defense of the Paladin and all party members.
- Vigor
- Increases the Run Speed, Stamina and Stamina recovery rate for the Paladin and all party members.
- Salvation
- Increases the elemental resistance for the Paladin and all party members.
[edit] Right Path
The last path contains three specific resist skills, and a special aura called Redemption.
- Resist Fire
- Increases the Fire Resistance for the Paladin and all party members
- Passively increases the Paladins Max Fire Resist, even while the aura is deactivated.
- Resist Cold
- Increases the Cold Resistance for the Paladin and all party members
- Passively increases the Paladins Max Cold Resist, even while the aura is deactivated.
- Resist Lightning
- Increases the Lightning Resistance for the Paladin and all party members
- Passively increases the Paladins Max Lightning Resist, even while the aura is deactivated.
- Redemption
- Redeems dead corpses of monsters, instantly rejuvenating the Paladin's life and mana.
- Redemption is the only aura in the Paladins repertoire that only affects himself.
- The corpses that are used by the skill are removed from the game, and can as such not be used for Corpse Explosions, Raise Dead spells or similar actions.
[edit] In Diablo 3
It is unknown what heroes actually took part in the canonical version of the slaying of the Three during Diablo II, since Blizzard has so far only revealed that a band of heroes did it, and that the Barbarian as part of that group. It has however been argued that the Paladin could have been the one to smash the Soulstone in the final cinematic of Diablo II, where a hand is seen smashing both Mephisto and Diablo's Soulstones in the Hellforge using the Hellforge Hammer, although it is widely speculated that has always been the Barbarian's hand. If so, he is perhaps still alive when Diablo III takes place.
| Classes | ||
|---|---|---|
| Diablo III | Archivist (April Fools) • Barbarian • Monk • Witch Doctor • Wizard • Unknown | |
| Diablo II and LoD | Amazon • Assassin • Barbarian • Druid • Necromancer • Paladin • Sorceress | |
| Diablo I and Hellfire | Barbarian • Bard • Monk • Rogue • Sorcerer • Warrior | |
| Paladin Skills | ||
|---|---|---|
| Combat Skills | Sacrifice • Smite • Holy Bolt • Zeal • Charge • Vengeance • Blessed Hammer • Conversion • Holy Shield • Fist of the Heavens | |
| Defensive Auras | Prayer • Resist Fire • Resist Cold • Resist Lightning • Defiance • Cleansing • Vigor • Meditation • Redemption • Salvation | |
| Offensive Auras | Might • Holy Fire • Thorns • Blessed Aim • Concentration • Holy Freeze • Holy Shock • Sanctuary • Fanaticism • Conviction | |
