Guide:Fist of Heavens Paladin v1.10, by Sint Nikolaas

Diablo II Strategy Guide Info:

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• Patch: v1.10
• Gametype: PvP
• Class: Paladin
• Specialisation: Fist of Heavens Paladin
• Author: Sint Nikolaas

Fist of Heaven

Who wouldn’t want to rain down punishment from above on his enemies? Welcome to the templar, we do just that. The templar is a paladin that utilises the Fist of Heavens skill in combination with the powerful Conviction aura to lower opponents resists. There are various builds that can be combined with the templar, however if you’re new to PvP (or don’t have nice gear) I suggest using the pure templar. Note that a templar is a caster, if you want to bash someone’s head in I suggest using another build.

The Fist of Heavens is indeed a caster skill. It’s lightning based which is a mixed blessing. Alongside your conviction aura lightning can do very nice damage, which can’t be block or avoided (well, it can be dodged be amazons). However it still is lightning so there will be people that can absorb or resist your damage. In fact most of them will, but don’t worry, most of them use GM rules so your attack can’t be nullified. (Which sadly enough is possible if someone uses BM gear to get his resists up to 95% with a lot of absorb.)

Stats

The stats are pretty straight forward.

• Strength – Enough strength to equip all your equipment. Take note that if you have strength from other sources you can include those (like strength charms). Don’t forget thought that once you use this strength you can’t take it off.
• Dexterity – Enough to get max block. You need it.
• Vitality – Every point you can spare.
• Energy – None.

Equipment

A first note on the gear is that you’ll need a lot of +skills. If you don’t have those you won’t do great damage (it will still be nice... but just not great). Also, even though you’re a caster, FCR a mod that normally is a must on casters, won’t help much. Fist of Heavens has a standard one second timer and the only good FCR does is making the casting animation shorter. Also note (and this is extremely nice) that you don’t have to target your opponent with Fist of Heavens. If you hover somewhere around your enemy or even just face him from the other side of the screen you target automatically and set your FoH off. This means that often you can cast FoH even before you see your enemy. Take care though, if someone has a few minions (wolves comes to mind with Druids) you do have to target the player as you will shoot down the wolves otherwise.

It is also important to know that you will be standing still while casting and that casting FoH is interruptible. This means that you have to keep moving. You can do that by charging around or by just walking. Charging has the added bonus that you can get close (to get your aura working on your opponent) and far away ver easily when needed. Just remember not to stand around when someone is pounding away on you.

Helm

• Harlequin Crest. This is a good pick as usual. Good life and mana while providing skills and DR. Most people have one of these. The skills make it stand out.

• Griffon's Eye. Extremely nice, but hard to get. Adds extra damage and extra negative resists. Very expensive to trade for.

• Peasant crown. If you have to. The fr/w is nice though. Mark the skill.

Kira’s guardian. Lacks the skill(s), but may open up a slot somewhere else with the great resists and the CBF.

Armor

• Skin of the Vipermagi. Gives a skill and good resists. Quite a nice armor.

• Ormus’ Robes. Nothing too special, but the extra lightning damage might help out. Bit more expensive and rare then the Skin though.

• The spirit shroud. Nothing other then a skill and CBF. Get a skin already.

Belt

• Arachnids mesh is made for this build. Rare and expensive. Don’t worry if you don’t have it.

• Thundergods Vigor. Normally only worn against lightning opponents, but you could opt for using it all the time because of the strength and vit.

• Credendum. Gives good returns for an otherwise nothing too special belt.

• Gloom’s trap. Not often used belt, but still quite nice.

Gloves

• Frostburn. A crapload of mana. Really nice.
• Bloodfists. Honourable mention. Chunk of FHR and life.
• Magefists. Some mana regenerate, you’re better of with one of the above.

Boots

• Sandstorm Treks. Hard to get, but very nice. FR/W and FHR alongside stats and poison resist.
• Waterwalks. Dex, life and FR/W.
• Silkweaves. Use these if you need more mana.
• Natalya’s boots. Best FR/W and dual resists are still good.

Rings

• Ravenfrost. If you don’t have CBF yet, then you’ll need this one. The dex will help you block.
• Stone of Jordan / Bul Kathos Weddinband. Both rare and/or expensive, both very good to have on this build. Probably the SoJ a bit better because of the mana but they just shine because of the skill.

Well, use the other ring to make up for things you lack. Absorb against elemental opponents, resists if needed and stats if not. You might want to use a manald for the regenerate if you can’t think of anyhting else.

Amulet

• Mara’s Kaleidoscope with as much resist as possible. It’s hard to get though. Try filling this slot with anything you still need.
• Nokozan relic for extra fhr and to counter fire.
• Mahim oak curio for some all round action, stats and resists.
• Rares. Any rare will do. Try looking for skills, resists and stats. Seriously focus on the skills.

Weapon

• Heart of the Oak. However not everyone has a Vex lying around, nor does everyone want to spend it on a flail.

• Hand of the Blessed light. The skills makes this baby. The socket leaves extra options. Make sure you use it for something else than hitting with it since you won’t be doing that.
• Heaven’s Light. Another good option, though a bit more rare. This one might have an extra socket. Make sure you spend it well.
• Scepters. Other than those two you can pick any scepter or weapon that has +skills. Try to find the best one. Note that a rosebranded warscepter (+3) can outshine a good runeword or unique when put to use.

Shield=

• Herald of Zakarum. Hands down. This one has it all, skills, resists and stats.
• Stormshield. The only good this one does is if you use it against heavy physical hitters. However you probably won’t have the strength for it.

• Lidless Wall. Decent stats, but low blocking %.

• Spirit Shield Possible on any paladin shield since they have 4 sockets. Not great in the blocking compartment though.

Switch

What to put on switch? Anything with +skills. You want to pre-buff your Holy Shield with this one. So anything normally goes. However, since you’ll likely have HoZ on your main switch it’ll be hard to find something for your switch (unless you got two).

Building your Templar

Combat skills

• FoH 20
• Holy Shield 20
• Prereq’s 8

Note: charge is a prereq, but you’ll still use it in your duels!

Offencive auras:

• Holy Shock 20
• Conviction – This depends on how many +skills you have on your gear. You want to get this skill to level 25 after all your skills. This means that if you have +10 skills you only have to put 15 points in it, but if you have +5 or less you need to max it.
• Prereq’s 5
• Conviction will be your main aura, Holy Shock is just a synergy to FoH, you won’t use it otherwise.

Defensive auras:

• None.

If you level to a respectable PvP level (around 85 and above) this will leave you with around 3-8 free skill points. I suggest using these to get your defences up. Holy shield will let you deal with physical attackers, try to get cleansing to counter poison and either salvation (if you have only 3 points) or the single resist auras to counter those. Especially against blizzard sorcs and other Templars you’ll need the aura’s.

Inventory

Well, I hate to say it, but combat skillers are the best you can bargain for. They are limited and not many people will trade them, so try rolling them yourself. Even without a second mod they are worth their three slots. If you don’t have (enough) skillers, fill the open slots up with small charms taking care of your needs. This is where you can max your resists, take your FHR to the 86% breakpoint or get more fr/w. If you got everything just fill it up with life charms.

Stash

This is where you keep your buff gear and your stack gear. Since you’re a paladin you can use the paladin specific shields. They come with two auto mods, resists and damage. You will of course need the resists. If you can find a nice one with open sockets and good resists socket it with perfect gems to get a nice stack shield. This way you can counter people who use negative resists (this is also what people will use against you). If you don’t want to sacrifice your shield you can go hunting for jewels to make helms and armours filled with them. Jewels can get upto 30 resist for single elements.

A little strategy

Charge. Use the charge skill. A drive by is a nifty trick you might want to learn. You need to come considerably close for conviction to hit your opponent. Once he’s convicted (for a short time) you can get a FoH in. How to do it to use charge and instead for charging up to someone and back you just blast right past him hitting him with the aura in the process. You need to check the distance (as this will most likely be used against people you don’t want to be close to) and once you’re past quickly switch to FoH and target the ground back to you.

Namelock. People won’t like you for this.. but hey, an ear is an ear. Besides most people utilise it. Namelocking means you click someone’s name while he’s in your screen. Then if he moves away you can still hold down your button making you cast FoH right on top of him even though you can’t see him.

Targeting. Against single players (so no summoners) remember to just target anywhere near him. Don’t try to click his name (unless you want to namelock) but just click somewhere in his direction. You’ll be surprised (and pleased).

Keep moving. Seriously, don’t stand still for long. Doesn’t matter who your opponent is or even if his attack hurts much, keep moving. Every dueler out there is designed to kill you and lingering around isn’t smart.