Paladin Build Guide for Diablo 2 Resurrected Holy Fire Paladin. This is a Beginner Paladin Leveling Build that will comfortably get you through Normal, which is the first difficulty of D2. If you are looking for a Beginner Paladin Build, and aren’t sure where to begin, then this Guide is for you. Check out our Diablo 2 Best Builds for more builds for all classes.

Holy Fire Paladin Leveling Build

• Class: Paladin
• Skill Line Focus: Offensive Auras
• Build Focus: DPS
• Main Attribute: Vitality
• Difficulty Level: Normal
• Level: 1-40

Paladin Build Guide Diablo 2 Resurrected | Holy Fire Paladin

The Holy Fire Paladin focuses on the Holy Fire Offensive Aura, which does periodic fire damage to all enemies around you and adds fire damage to your melee attacks. We will also be using the Zeal Combat Skill, which allows us to quickly attack multiple times.

Combining Zeal with Holy Fire allows us to deliver very fast melee attacks that are enhanced with Fire Damage and melts through most enemies early on in Diablo 2 Resurrected. When fighting against large groups of enemies the AoE damage will deal with weaker enemies while you use Zeal to take down the bigger threats.

The Holy Fire skill is unlocked at level 6, allowing you to start putting together the Holy Fire Paladin Build very short after you begin Diablo 2 Resurrected. And, one of the best things about this Build is that most of your damage comes from the Holy Fire Skill, meaning that you won’t be dependent on equipment, which can be very limiting for a new player.

It’s important to note that, while very powerful during the beginning of the game, this Build will only remain viable through the first difficulty (Normal) and up to around Lvl 40. You can still run through Nightmare difficulty if you insist, but I wouldn’t recommend it as you’ll find much better options at that point in the game.

If you are a new player I strongly recommend you save the respec that you get from completing the first mission Den of Evil. If you do, you’ll be able to talk to Akara and respect your character into a different build once you reach Nightmare difficulty.

Paladin Build Guide Stats | Holy Fire

Most Builds in Diablo 2 Resurrected have a Stat distribution that focuses on assigning enough points into Strength to meet equipment requirements, enough Dexterity to reach max Block Chance, and then assigning everything else into Vitality to gain as much Life as possible. And while this is true for most Builds, it can be confusing to decide when you should assign these Attribute Points.

LEVEL 40 PALADIN STATS
STRENGTH	60
DEXTERITY	35
VITALITY	170
ENERGY	15

 

Strength: Strength is a requirement for most equipment pieces of the game. During your first play through, you’ll want to have enough points to slot the best equipment for each act.

• Act I: 35 Strength
• Act II: 45 Strength
• Act III – V: 60 Strength

From here you should only assign points into Strength if you find an Item that is worth the investment. If not, just assign the points into Vitality.

Dexterity: For most Builds Dexterity is important to increase Block Chance when using a Shield. Though Block Chance is not that important at the beginning of the game, Dexterity also increases our Attack Rating, which is essentially our chance to hit enemies. Since this is a melee build, we’ll want to spend at least a few points here to make sure our attacks don’t miss. Boosting dexterity to 35 as soon as we can will be enough for this build as we’ll be getting Attack Rating from our items later on.

Vitality: All remaining points should be spent here. Increasing Vitality will greatly increase your health pool, which is essential to stay alive against large groups of enemies. Vitality also increases your Stamina, allowing you to run much further without needing to rest.

Energy: No points required. This build uses very little Mana so you won’t have any issues here.

Paladin Build Guide Skills | Holy Fire

The Holy Fire Paladin is designed around two skills which are the Holy Fire Offensive Aura and the Zeal Combat Skill.

Holy Fire

This Offensive Aura periodically deals fire damages to all enemies around us and also adds a flat Fire Damage bonus to our melee attacks. The AoE is very useful against large packs of enemies while the flat Fire Damage allows us to deal with individual targets. Paladin Auras must be selected in order to be active, so you’ll want to have this active on your secondary slot at all times when fighting enemies if you’re using mouse and keyboard.

Zeal

This Combat Skill allows you to quickly perform multiple strikes with increased damage and Attack Rating, meaning they are more likely to hit enemies on each blow. If you are facing multiple enemies you’ll hit each of them one time, and while facing a single enemy all blows will land on the same target. Using this skill will make the Paladin attack much faster than normal, greatly increasing our damage output.

The amount of strikes will start at 2 and increase by 1 for each point we assign into Zeal for a maximum of 5 hits. This is an uninterrupted skill, meaning that once we use it we will have to wait until it finishes to be able to run or perform any other action, even if we already killed our enemies. For this reason, it’s important that we only assign 1 point into Zeal, as attacking many times may be counterproductive. This might be because we are getting surrounded by enemies and need to escape or because we can constantly be stuck attacking air because enemies are dying with only 1 or 2 hits. You can go for a 5 Hit Zeal build if you like, but I strongly recommend you stick with the 2 strikes and simply cast it as many times as you need.

Resist Fire

As previously mentioned, this skill synergizes with Holy Fire, and because we won’t be able to increase Holy Fire above lvl 20, assigning points into Resist Fire will passively increase Holy Fire’s damage.

Salvation

This Defensive Aura has no prerequisites so you’ll only need 1 Skill Point to unlock it. Salvation provides a huge boost to all Elemental Resistances, which can be great to get past some specific areas with annoying elemental monsters such as Chaos Sanctuary. Remember that you’ll need to have the aura equipped to be active, so you’ll lose the Holy Fire damage, meaning it’ll take you much longer to kill enemies when using Salvation. Salvation also synergizes with Holy Fire providing +6% Fire Damage per level, so you’ll also get a small boost to damage here.

Skill Distribution

For the Skill distribution we’ll want to max our Holy Fire skill and then unlock Zeal as soon as we can. Once we max Holy Fire we can further increase its damage by assigning points into the Resist Fire Skill and unlock the Salvation Skill for some extra defense. Here is a comprehensive guide on how to assign your stats early on:

LEVEL 40 PALADIN SKILLS
Level	Points Spent	Skill
2	1	Might
3	1	Sacrifice
4-5 + Den of Evil Point	3	Resist Fire
6-11	6	Holy Fire
12	1	Zeal
13-25 + Radament’s Lair Point	14	Holy Fire
26	1	Salvation
27-40 + The Fallen Angel 2 Points	16	Resist Fire

 

Early on you’ll place points into prerequisites for the Skills you need before picking up Holy Fire. You only need one point into Zeal to use it effectively, and then it’s back to maxing out Holy Fire. Once that’s maxed out you can take a point of Salvation for the extra Resistances, and then pumping Resist Fire will further improve Holy Fire damage.

Paladin Build Guide Runewords | Holy Fire

Runes are a special type of socketed item that will not only provide unique properties, but that can also be combined with other Runes to create what’s called a Runeword. Runewords can be formed by inserting Runes in a specific order inside certain types of equipment. The Item must be Normal Rarity, able to support the Runeword, and it needs to have the same amount of sockets as Runes are required. Note that some magical items have sockets on them, but even if you put the Runes in the right order the Runeword will not be created and you’ll essentially lose your Runes, so be sure to use Normal Rarity items only.

While Runewords are often referred to as End Game equipment, some of them can be crafted very early into Diablo 2 Resurrected, and should not be so hard to come by. If you are lacking a base, you can check with the merchants as they often sell socketed items, but make sure that they are Normal in rarity.

Runewords are the most reliable way to gear up your character while you advance through the game, so I strongly suggest that you take a look at the complete list on our Wiki and periodically check the runes that you have and the Runewords that you can craft.

Runes can be farmed by doing Countess Runs. The Countess is a Super Unique Monster that can be found inside the Forgotten Tower in Act I. Each time you kill her she will always drop between 1 and 3 Runes and their level will depend on the difficulty setting.

What Equipment To Use

Elemental Resistances are key when trying to survive in Diablo 2 Resurrected. Most enemies deal elemental damage and having high resistances will mitigate a great percentage of this damage. For this reason, I strongly recommend that you focus on equipment pieces that provide +Resistances during the Normal difficulty of the game.

You can check your current resistances by opening the Stat menu and looking at the bottom of the menu. Resistances cap at +75%, and ideally you’ll want to max all of them when you are reaching the end of Normal difficulty. Make sure to periodically check your equipment to balance them out and get them as high as possible.

Since loot is random, you won’t have control over the equipment that you get during early and even mid-stage gameplay other than creating Runewords. Having said that, there are some general guidelines on the Stats that you should be looking for on your items to make sure that your character scales up with the increasing difficulty.

Helmet

Nadir (Runeword): Nef–Tir Runes – Lvl 13. This Helmet provides a good amount of defense as well as +2 mana after each kill, allowing us to keep spamming Zeal.

Lore (Runeword): Ort–Sol Runes – Lvl 27. If you happen to come across a Sol rune then you can use it to craft this helmet which provides +1 to all Skills as well as +30% lightning resistance. Bear in mind that +1 to all skills will mean +1 hit on your Zeal attack.

Weapon

Steel (Runeword): Tir–El Runes – Lvl 13. This is the easiest Runeword Weapon you can craft early on as the runes are very easy to come by. Steel greatly increase our Attack Damage, Attack Rating and Attack Speed making it perfect for our build. It also provides +2 to mana after each kill allowing us to freely spam Zeal without having to worry about mana.

Spirit (Runeword): Tal–Thul–Ort–Amn Runes – Lvl 25. This Runeword can be crafted on both Weapons and Shields. It increases both our damage, thanks to its +2 To All Skills and fixed elemental damage stats, as well as increases our defense, thanks to Faster Hit Recovery, Vitality and Life Stolen Per hit. Finding a 4 socketed weapon can be a little tricky, but stay on the lookout for Crystal Swords, Longswords and Broadswords. If you happen to play the Secret Cow Level, if you find any unsocketed of these types of Weapons, you can get a guaranteed 4 sockets from Larzuk by completing the Siege on Harrogath quest.

Scepters (Magical and Rare): Scepters are a Paladin Exclusive Weapon that usually come with +Paladin Skills on them. If you come across one of these that provide + Holy Fire and good stats then it’s a perfect fit for this build.

Shield

Ancient’s Pledge (Runeword): Ral–Ort–Tal Runes – Lvl 21. This shield provides a huge boost to resistances. If you can’t find an Ort Rune you can make one by combining 3 Ral Runes inside the Horadric Cube.

Spirit (Runeword): Tal–Thul–Ort–Amn Runes – Lvl 25. If you find the Runes and four slot Shield then Spirit is a great option as well. This shield provides +2 to all skills greatly increasing our damage and provides many defensive stats such as Elemental Resistances, +55% Faster Hit Recovery and Vitality.

Armor

Stealth (Runeword): Tal–Eth Runes – Lvl 17. This is by far the best armor that you can get early game. It allows you to move faster through the map, provides poison resistance and Faster Hit Recovery (FHR), which allows you to recover control of your character sooner after each hit. The FHR is very important, as it usually helps you avoid stun locks when surrounded by enemies.

Gloves

When it comes to gloves you’ll want to focus on defensive stats such as Life and Resistances. Some gloves also provide +Increased Attack Speed which are great for the build as well.

Belt

Make sure to swap your belt as soon as you reach Act 2 for the maximum amount of potions. Regarding stats, you’ll want to focus on Life and Resistances. Some merchants might offer magical belts with a lot of life on them, which are a great option.

Boots

You’ll want to search for Faster Run/Walk speed on your boots as well as Resistances and Life. Run/Walk speed is important to quickly navigate through the map so make sure to get it.

Rings

Rings can provide you with a lot of Attack Rating, as well as Min and Max damage. Other than that, you’ll want to focus on Resistances.

Amulet

Similar to the rest of the equipment, you’ll want to focus on Life and Resistances for your amulet.

Charms

You’ll find many Charms as you advance through the game. While having these in your inventory is great, they can easily occupy a lot of space limiting the amount of loot you pick up. Try to focus on +Life, +Resistances and +Damage as these are the more important ones for your build.

What Mercenary to Select & Gear to Use

Act 2 Mercenaries are the best choice for all Builds due to their Paladin Auras and the ability to equip Polearm Weapons. Being able to use Polearms is very important, because many powerful Runewords can be created on them providing various buffs or debuffing enemies. You can recruit this Mercenary from Greiz in Lut Gholein.

When it comes to selecting an Aura, you’ll want to select the Prayer Mercenary found on Normal difficulty. The Prayer Aura provides heal regeneration allowing you to survive longer without using Potions. Once you reach Nightmare difficulty, you can hire a Holy Freeze Aura Mercenary, which slows enemies around you providing great crowd control.

You won’t have a lot of spare equipment during the beginning of Diablo 2 Resurrected, but your Mercenary will also get the effect of the Holy Fire skill allowing him to hit very hard. You can equip him with any extra equipment you have or buy him a Polearm from a merchant. If you happen to spare some Runes, make sure to craft an Insight (Runeword) on a Polearm, as this Weapon will greatly increase your Mercenaries’ combat capabilities.

Final Tips

Doing a couple of Countess Runs will give you a lot of Runes that will not only be useful for this Build, but for any other character that you might make. Make sure to save all Runes that you find inside your Stash.

If you are having trouble finding a base for your Runewords, make sure to periodically check on merchants as they usually have good bases.

If you happen to find a good Unique or Set item that you like don’t hesitate to swap it with your current gear. I excluded all unique and Set items from this guide because there’s no reliable way of acquiring them early on.

I personally like to run my belt with Healing Potions on all columns, but you can also add Antidote Potions or Thawing Potions. Using these potions will not only cure their respective status effect, but also provide a +50 resistance to their corresponding elemental resistance.

Your Mercenary gets the full effect of the Holy Fire Aura, allowing him to hit really hard, so make sure to keep him alive by using potions on him. To do this, press and hold shift and then right click on the potion you wish to use. If you’re playing on controller, hold down the left trigger and press the appropriate button on the D-Pad.

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Stay tuned for more Diablo 2 Build Guides, and be sure to check out our Diablo 2 Resurrected Wiki for more information about the game!