Lanceor's FoH Zealot Guide

As requested, here’s the guide for my homebrewed FoH Zealot hybrid! Please feel free to leave ideas, feedback or suggestions on how to improve the build or the guide!


What happens when you combine the martial prowess of a Zealot and with the evil-incinerating projectile spam of

Fist of the Heavens? You get a tanky, high-DPS melee/caster hybrid that can clear all content in the game – including the Ubers!

Gameplay

Much of the time you’ll be using FoH to clear the screen of demons and undead, and

Zeal to carve up whatever is left.

Holy Bolt can be weaved in while FoH is on cooldown or used on its own. Alternatively, you can dive straight into melee and use FoH/Holy Bolt as support skills.

Smite is your boss-killing ability.

In groups, you’ll excel at holding your ground in dangerous situations, giving your teammates an opportunity to retreat behind you and re-engage. Using

Charge, you’ll also be the one to chase down and eliminate lone monsters who escape your teammates’ kill zones.

Life Tap is the key to its melee indestructibility. Once it is active, nothing short of a 1-hit-kill should worry you. Crushing blow allows us to take big chunks off a boss's health bar even if our weapon is subpar.

Build Pros

• Both melee and caster
• Few problems with immunities; can farm all areas
• Expert Uber killer
• Very tanky at endgame
• Mass clearing of demon/undead crowds when solo
• FoH is strong without gear; great for ladder start/first character

Build Cons

• Clear speed is decent - faster than most melee builds, but well short of Javazon / Lightning Sorceress / Mosaic standards
• Lacks
  Teleport, impacting farming speed

No surprises here.

• Strength: Enough for gear
• Dexterity: Enough for 75% block with
  Holy Shield active
• Health: All remaining points
• Energy: Zero

Defensive Auras
1 point in

Salvation (used only for Ubers)
1 point in

Prayer (optional)
1 point in

Cleansing (optional)
1 point in

Defiance (optional)
1 point in

Vigor (optional)

Offensive Auras
1 point in Might (prereq)
1 point in

Blessed Aim (prereq)
1 point in

Concentration (prereq)
20 points in

Fanaticism

Combat Skills
20 points in

Sacrifice (synergy)
1+ points in

Zeal (all spare points go here)
1 point in

Vengeance (prereq)
1 point in

Conversion (prereq)
20 points in

Holy Bolt
1 point in

Blessed Hammer (prereq)
20 points in

Fist of the Heavens
1 point in

Smite
1 point in

Charge
1 point in

Holy Shield

With no optional skills, the core build can be completed by level 80. The optional Defensive Auras are for quality of life and can be skipped if you wish.

Zeal should be at a minimum level of 4 with +skills in order to have five attacks.


One of the great things about this build is that

Fist of the Heavens and

Holy Bolt need literally no gear to perform fairly well. Skill points are the only thing that affect FoH, and while Faster Cast Rate is nice to have for

Holy Bolt, you are not dependant on it.

I gear my FoH Zealot to survive and perform well in all situations without any gear swapping. This includes the hardest bosses in the game -

Diablo Clone and the Ubers. Three fairly easy-to-obtain items form the melee base for our build:

• Dracul's Grasp Gloves –
  Life Tap, Open Wounds
• Guillaume's Face
  Helm – Crushing Blow
• Gore Rider (or
  Goblin Toe)
  Boots – More Crushing Blow.
  Gore Rider also provides Open Wounds.

Only replace these if you have other gear that give you the same mods (Last Wish comes to mind).

The rest is essentially up to you! Although I’ll be giving some example setups, feel free to mix and match gear from the different lists and add your own favourite items to customise your FoH Zealot. More +Skills will increase FoH and

Holy Bolt damage. More defense and weapon damage will increase his melee prowess.

Gear Priorities

• Maxed resistances. This is essential for survival - especially with the Ubers.

For stronger melee:

• Elite Paladin Shield. You shield base determines your
  Smite Damage. All elite Paladin shield produce the same average
  Smite damage, with the
  Zakarum Shield notable for having zero spread. Higher level shields provide more Defense, but require more Dexterity for maximum Block, leaving fewer points for Vitality/Life.
• Increased Attack Speed to reach a 4-frame
  Zeal. With level 23
  Fanaticism and a
  Phase Blade, 10% IAS is all you need. For other weapons, use an IAS Calculator to work out how much IAS you’ll need.
• % Mana Stolen per Hit / % Damage Taken Goes to Mana / +X Mana after each Kill. These will reduce your
  Mana Potion usage. More for convenience than a necessity.

For stronger FoH/

Holy Bolt

• +Skills. This is the only way of increasing
  Holy Bolt/FoH damage.
• Faster Cast Rate. Does not speed up FoH significantly (thanks to its 0.4 second cooldown), but is good for spamming
  Holy Bolt. The 48% and 75% breakpoints are achievable with the right gear, but 125% is difficult to attain without making sacrifices.

Example Gear Setups:


Gear Example 1: General Gameplay (expensive)

This is a well balanced melee and caster setup.

Zeal speed: 4 FPS
+Skills: 11
FCR: 55% (80-90% on swap)

Spoiler

Gloves	Dracul’s Grasp
Helm	Guillaume's Face
Boots	Gore Rider
Body	Fortitude	Melee damage AND faster cast rate!
Belt	Arachnid Mesh	+1 All Skills and 20% FCR
Amulet	Mara’s Kaleidoscope	+2 All Skills and resistances
Ring	Ravenfrost	Cannot be Frozen
Ring	Rare with FCR and resistances	Mana Leech as well if you can get it
Weapon	Grief Phase Blade	BiS for most melee builds
Shield	Upgraded Herald Of Zakarum	Among the best Paladin shields available
Weapon Swap	Call To Arms	If made in a Caduceus with Conviction automod, your 1 point Vengeance will become viable!
Shield Swap	Spirit	+Skills for Battle Orders.
Charms	The usual Annihilus and Hellfire Torch Combat Skills Grand Charms Resistance charms if needed	Swap Combat Skills charms for Paladin Aura ones for greater melee damage at the cost of less FoH/ Holy Bolt damage.

Gear Example 2: Tank (expensive)

Practically lightning immune, and other resistances are over-maxed. Exile shield means exceptional Defense and

Life Tap procs frequently. Good for Ubers, being the group’s tank and anywhere that has Burning Souls. My favourite setup.

Zeal speed: 4 FPS
+Skills: 6
FCR: 35% (70% on swap)

Spoiler

Gloves	Dracul’s Grasp, Laying of Hands or Steelrend	Because Exile provides Life Tap, you can swap Draculs' Grasp for something that increases your damage.
Helm	Guillaume's Face
Boots	Gore Rider
Body	Fortitude	Melee damage AND faster cast rate!
Belt	Thundergod's Vigor	Grants near Lightning immunity!
Amulet	Mara’s Kaleidoscope	+2 All Skills and resistances
Ring	Ravenfrost	Cannot be Frozen
Ring	Rare with FCR and resistances	Mana Leech as well if you can get it
Weapon	Grief Phase Blade	BiS for most melee builds
Shield	Exile in ethereal base with high resists	Lots of exceptional mods including Life Tap and Defiance Aura
Weapon Swap	Call To Arms	If made in a Caduceus with Conviction automod, your 1 point Vengeance will become viable!
Shield Swap	Spirit	+Skills for both Holy Shield and Battle Orders.
Charms	The usual Annihilus and Hellfire Torch Combat Skills Grand Charms Resistance charms if needed	Swap Combat Skills charms for Paladin Aura ones for greater melee damage at the cost of less FoH/ Holy Bolt damage.

Gear Example 3: Caster

This setup prioritises +Skills and FCR for

Fist of the Heavens and

Holy Bolt, while still maintaining respectable

Zeal speed and damage. Your weapon swap can either be the usual self-buffing or a Grief + Shield combo for stronger melee on switch.

Zeal speed: 4 FPS
+Skills: 16
FCR: 75-85%

Spoiler

Gloves	Dracul’s Grasp
Helm	Guillaume's Face
Boots	Gore Rider
Body	Skin of the Vipermagi socketed with IAS Jewel	+1 All Skills, 30% FCR, Resists. The IAS Jewel is needed for Astreon's Iron Ward to reach the final Zeal breakpoint.
Belt	Arachnid Mesh	+1 All Skills and 20% FCR
Amulet	Mara’s Kaleidoscope	+2 All Skills and resistances
Ring	Bul-Kathos' Wedding Band or Stone of Jordan	+1 to All Skills
Ring	Bul-Kathos' Wedding Band or Stone of Jordan	+1 to All Skills
Weapon	Astreon's Iron Ward (+4 roll) socketed with Shael or IAS Jewel	+4 Paladin Combat Skills. Also decent for Zealing! Swap this with a Heart of the Oak or other caster favourites for 125% FCR if you don't intend to Zeal with it.
Shield	Spirit in an Elite Paladin Shield base	+2 to All Skills, 25-35% FCR
Weapon Swap	Call To Arms	If made in a Caduceus with Conviction automod, your 1 point Vengeance will become viable!
Shield Swap	Spirit	+Skills for Battle Orders.
Weapon Swap Alternative	Grief Phase Blade
Shield Swap Alternative	Upgraded Herald Of Zakarum	Among the best all-round Paladin shields available
Charms	The usual Annihilus and Hellfire Torch Combat Skills Grand Charms Resistance charms if needed

Gear Example 4: Less Expensive
For a well balanced, Uber-capable FoH Smiter using easier-to-obtain items.

Spoiler

Gloves	Dracul’s Grasp
Helm	Guillaume's Face
Boots	Gore Rider
Body	Duress Skin of the Vipermagi	Crushing Blow, Open Wounds, Resists +1 All Skills, 30% FCR, Resists
Belt	Credendum, Immortal King’s Detail, String of Ears	Or use whatever Belt you have that's useful.
Amulet	Metalgrid, The Eye of Etlich The Cat's Eye if you need IAS Magic/Rare with Paladin Skills/Stats/Resists
Ring	Ravenfrost	Cannot be Frozen
Ring	Magic or Rare with Resists and/or Stats
Weapon	Hand of Blessed Light, Azurewrath, whatever gives you the best DPS
Shield	Spirit in an Elite Paladin Shield base	+2 to All Skills, 25-35% FCR, Resists
Weapon Swap	Any sceptre with useful automods such as Cleansing, Meditation or Vigor
Shield Swap	Herald Of Zakarum or Spirit	For buffing Holy Shield
Charms	The usual Annihilus and Hellfire Torch Combat Skills Grand Charms Resistance charms if needed	Swap Combat Skills charms for Paladin Aura ones for greater melee damage at the cost of less FoH/ Holy Bolt damage.

Gear Example 5: Budget
The goal here is to allow you to tackle act bosses and

Diablo Clone with easily obtained gear. Prioritise resistances (especially Fire for

Diablo Clone) and Crushing Blow. I would probably not attempt the Ubers at this stage though.

Spoiler

Gloves	Blood Gloves	Easily crafted with a Nef rune
Helm	A socketed Helmet with Ral/ Ort/ Thul runes for resistances
Boots	Goblin Toe	Crushing Blow on a budget!
Body	Smoke	Lots of Resists
Belt	Magic/Rare with Stats, Life, Mana or whatever you need	Or use whatever Belt you have that's useful.
Amulet	Magic/Rare with Paladin Skills/Stats/Resists
Ring	Magic or Rare with Resists and/or Stats
Ring	Magic or Rare with Resists and/or Stats
Weapon	Strength runeword, Lightsaber, or whatever you have gives you the best DPS
Shield	Paladin Shield with 4 Perfect Diamonds	A cheap way to get resists!
Weapon Swap	Wand with Life Tap charges	Lets you manually cast Life Tap before your can get Dracul’s Grasp
Shield Swap	Anything with high Resists
Charms	Annihilus. If you don't have one and you're on softcore non-ladder, get a free Anni here. Skills, Resistances, Life... whatever you have.

Your mercenary choice won't make or break this build, so pick whichever you find most useful.

• The Act 1 Cold Arrow Rogue Scout is the one that I've had most success with. Her elemental ranged damage is good against both stragglers and nondemon/undead physical immunes. With a Mist bow, she provides incredible crowd control and is tankier than you’d expect.
• Act 2 Desert Mercenaries are a favourite of many because of the Auras that they provide. The Might aura synergises very well with this build, increasing your melee damage.
• Act 3 Iron Wolves are the only mercenary that I don't recommend. They are the only one that doesn’t benefit from your
  Fanaticism aura.
• Act 5 Barbarians now have a dual-wield variant, allowing them two use two that provide auras or other abilities; Lawbringer plus Plague is a good combination.

There are two paths you can take:
• Start as a Zealot and become a FoH Zealot later or...
• Start as a

Holy Fire Paladin (or whatever levelling build you like) and respec to a FoH Paladin at level 30-35.

Levelling as a Zealot

This gets you into the build earlier. Zealots are however very gear dependent so it’s not recommended for a ladder start/first character. It will also struggle in mid-game until you start getting your endgame gear.

Levelling as a

Fist of the Heavens Paladin

FoH isn't available until level 30, so you won’t be able to start with it. I recommend starting with

Holy Fire and respeccing sometime after level 30. Once you put a few points into FoH, you will love its ability to wipe demons and undead off the screen. You will still need

Zeal as a backup skill for non-demons/undead.


What’s that one point in

Salvation for?
It’s to counter Uber Mehpisto’s

Conviction aura which inflicts a -125% resistance penalty on you. Activating this 1-point wonder negates

Mephisto's aura almost entirely. This will reduce or eliminate the need to fill your inventory with resistance charms, or

Sacrifice DPS gear to overstack resistances. Pre-casting

Fade from Treachery should be enough the keep your resistances maxed.

How do you deal with monsters immune to both physical and

Holy Bolt?
Thankfully, only a handful of monsters are naturally immune to both physical attacks and

Holy Bolt, and none of them are particularly strong. Most of the time, your mercenary can deal with them if they have decent elemental damage. In my opinion, the Act 1

Cold Arrow Rogue Scout is the best at this.

A popular choice is to equip your Desert Mercenary with The Reaper’s Toll whose

Decrepify curse can break many physical immunities. Similarly, equipping

Atma’s Scarab will allow you to proc

Amplify Damage. Keep in mind that either of these curses will overwrite your

Life Tap. A

Bone Break charm is another option if you can accept the 10-20% physical damage vulnerability, though I prefer my FoH Zealot to be as tanky as possible.

Finally, if you can get one, a

Caduceus with the

Conviction automod will allow your 1 point in

Vengeance to do respectable damage without any significant downsides. Smart players will know that you can make Call To Arms out of one!

Why only one point in

Smite?
Because one point is more than enough. We use

Smite because it never misses, not because of its damage. This is true whether we spend one skill point on it or twenty.

When smiting Ubers or other bosses, most of our damage comes from crushing blow. The actual damage from

Smite itself only becomes relevant when we get to the last sliver of the enemy’s health, so overall boss kill speed isn’t that far off from a fully maxed

Smite.

Why is

Zeal maxed last?
• Each point in

Zeal add 6% damage and 10% AR.
• Each point in its synergy

Sacrifice adds 12% damage.
• Each point in

Fanaticism adds 17% damage, 5% AR and attack speed.
We already have enough AR from

Fanaticism and our fairly high Dexterity, so more of it provides poorer returns than increasing our damage. And for enemies whose defence is too high for us to

Zeal, we have

Smite!

Did you come up with this build on your own?
I did, but a quick internet search will show that others have thought of it long before I did. As far as I'm aware, there have been no build guides for it, though the FoH Smiter is a very similar build.

I’ve been playing Zealots since 1.10 and even wrote a guide on dealing with physical immunes. When patch 2.4 was released, the FoH Paladin was being touted as the new Hammerdin. So naturally I built one… and came away slightly disappointed. That’s when I realised that the strengths and weaknesses of Zealots and FoH Paladins complemented each other almost perfectly.

How does it compare to a pure Zealot?
A pure Zealot will have about 3-4% more DPS and a higher Defense stat due to maxed

Holy Shield. While the Defense difference is noticeable, it won’t make or break the build. Level difference is a greater factor on whether you are hit or not and at high levels (92+) with good gear, neither build will get hit much by anything at all.

The biggest gameplay difference is that a pure Zealots will have difficulties with large crowds and physical immunes. FoH eliminates this problem entirely for demons and undead.

How does it compare to a pure FoH Paladin?
With the same gear, both builds will produce the same

Holy Bolt Damage. A fully lightning synergised FoH will one-shot most non-boss monsters affected by your

Conviction aura. Its casting delay of 0.4s means that defeating multiple non-demon/undead monsters is frustrating though. Lightning immune non-demon/undead monsters are more common than physical immune ones.

How does it compare to the FoH Smiter on Icy-Veins?
This is essentially the same build except for the emphasis on

Smite instead of

Zeal. They even play the same way – FoH to open,

Zeal to clean up,

Smite on bosses. An FoH Smiter’s defence will be higher as will

Smite DPS.

Zeal - your bread and butter for general gameplay - will output less damage.

How does it compare to a Vindicator/Templar or Templar/Vindicator?
These are old terms for PvP builds that use

Smite and FoH. A V/T emphasises

Smite damage while a T/V emphasises FoH damage. I don’t PvP so I don’t have an educated opinion on them!

I was tempted to give this build a cool sounding name like “Zealous Templar”, but “templar” has seems to have fallen out of use. Besides, it's immediately underestandable what an "FoH Zealot" is.



Thank you for reading this far! I’d also like to thank kingdryland for The 1pt smiter guide to Uber Tristram that he wrote back in 2006 – it’s what got me to start building Zealots.

Please let me know if you feel that this build or guide can be improved in any way – I’m sure that I will be continually evolving it based on the feedback that I receive.

In the meantime, please enjoy the build and customise it to your liking. I’d love to hear how you have built yours!

Reserved

Lanceor wrote: 1 month ago

What’s that one point in

Salvation for?
It’s to counter Uber Mehpisto’s

Conviction aura which inflicts a -100% resistance penalty on you.

-125% actually
(his

Conviction is lvl 20)

My first ladder class choice for all ladders since they made the changes to FoH.

only deviation i did for mine is 20 into

Smite instead of

Zeal since i never use it.

:edit: If anyone wants a stab at this i have some starter kit that can act as hand me downs. Just PM me.

Schnorki wrote: 1 month ago

Lanceor wrote: 1 month ago

What’s that one point in

Salvation for?
It’s to counter Uber Mehpisto’s

Conviction aura which inflicts a -100% resistance penalty on you.

-125% actually
(his

Conviction is lvl 20)

Corrected. Thank you!

Perfect! I have one humble advice, though: For gear example 2, you can change

Dracul's Grasp with any other convenient option, since Exile provides good

Life Tap proc.

basicnecromancy wrote: 1 month ago

Perfect! I have one humble advice, though: For gear example 2, you can change

Dracul's Grasp with any other convenient option, since Exile provides good

Life Tap proc.

You're absolutely right! In fact, I recently traded for a pair of Steelrends (enhanced damage and crushing blow)... then realised that I don't have enough strength to wear them. I'll definitely note it as an alternative though.

Thanks for the guide!

I've recently decided I want to come back and play some D2R again. I came across your build and it looks like fun, but I do have one question.

I'll be playing online, non-ladder on PS5, so the trading is basically non-existent. The starting gear in your guide seems pretty reasonable, especially since the Strength runeword isn't hard to make and provides CB (since I'd have to farm my own Goblin Toes). I guess what I'm wondering is do you think it is realistic to play your build, long term, as basically SSF?

If you have any suggestions on gear that I could maybe substitute or work towards that are easier to obtain, that would be super helpful.

Boki wrote: 2 weeks ago

Thanks for the guide!

I've recently decided I want to come back and play some D2R again. I came across your build and it looks like fun, but I do have one question.

I'll be playing online, non-ladder on PS5, so the trading is basically non-existent. The starting gear in your guide seems pretty reasonable, especially since the Strength runeword isn't hard to make and provides CB (since I'd have to farm my own Goblin Toes). I guess what I'm wondering is do you think it is realistic to play your build, long term, as basically SSF?

If you have any suggestions on gear that I could maybe substitute or work towards that are easier to obtain, that would be super helpful.

Luckily for you we have some very nice and reliable folks who can transfer items between PC and console.
Janet the Java can transfer between PC/PS/Switch
trade/cross-platform-trades-t1268736.html

Also

Perfect Gems are very valuable and are relatively easy to obtain! 20 perfect random gems will sell for an

Ist all day long. However Rubies, Amethysts, and Skulls are worth more than the rest. Perfect Rubies sell for 2 Random gems, Perfect Amethysts sell for 4-5, and Perfect skulls are worth 2.

Good luck and welcome back to D2!

Knappogue wrote: 2 weeks ago

Boki wrote: 2 weeks ago

Thanks for the guide!

I've recently decided I want to come back and play some D2R again. I came across your build and it looks like fun, but I do have one question.

I'll be playing online, non-ladder on PS5, so the trading is basically non-existent. The starting gear in your guide seems pretty reasonable, especially since the Strength runeword isn't hard to make and provides CB (since I'd have to farm my own Goblin Toes). I guess what I'm wondering is do you think it is realistic to play your build, long term, as basically SSF?

If you have any suggestions on gear that I could maybe substitute or work towards that are easier to obtain, that would be super helpful.

Luckily for you we have some very nice and reliable folks who can transfer items between PC and console.
Janet the Java can transfer between PC/PS/Switch
trade/cross-platform-trades-t1268736.html

Also

Perfect Gems are very valuable and are relatively easy to obtain! 20 perfect random gems will sell for an

Ist all day long. However Rubies, Amethysts, and Skulls are worth more than the rest. Perfect Rubies sell for 2 Random gems, Perfect Amethysts sell for 4-5, and Perfect skulls are worth 2.

Good luck and welcome back to D2!

Appreciate the tips; the cross trading is something I'll definitely look into!

Boki wrote: 2 weeks ago

Thanks for the guide!

I've recently decided I want to come back and play some D2R again. I came across your build and it looks like fun, but I do have one question.

I'll be playing online, non-ladder on PS5, so the trading is basically non-existent. The starting gear in your guide seems pretty reasonable, especially since the Strength runeword isn't hard to make and provides CB (since I'd have to farm my own Goblin Toes). I guess what I'm wondering is do you think it is realistic to play your build, long term, as basically SSF?

If you have any suggestions on gear that I could maybe substitute or work towards that are easier to obtain, that would be super helpful.

With SSF, it's often more a case of "what do I have?" than "what do I need?" I've suggested some really easy-to-get items to build up the melee component, but once you get into it, you'll find that

Fist of the Heavens will be doing most of clearing for you until you're well geared up. Did I mention that FoH is strong even without gear?

Here are some more budget items I was considering for the guide but didn't make the final cut:

WEAPONS

• Heaven's Light with 2x
  Shael
• The Redeemer - +2 to Paladin Skills and +2 to +4
  Holy Bolt! Socketed with a
  Shael, it will reach the second last breakpoint for
  Smite and
  Zeal. A further 40% IAS from elsewhere will be needed to hit the last breakpoint.
• Cryptic Sword/
  Elegant Blade with 2x
  Shael or a
  Phase Blade with at least 10% IAS from anywhere - damage will be meh with such a simple weapon, but it will let you reach the final breakpoint in both
  Smite and
  Zeal, allowing for more chances to proc Crushing Blow or
  Life Tap.

HELM

• Lore - Get +1 to skills for an
  Ort and a
  Sol rune!
• Peasant Crown - an alternative to Lore

BODY

• Guardian Angel - increases you max resists, great if you have enough resistances from other gear.
• Arkaine's Valor +2 Skills and a helluva lot of defense... but lacks resists.
• Principle: +2 Skills. The 100% to cast
  Holy Bolt is quite entertaining, but doesn't do a great deal of damage even when fully synergised. Not worth a
  Gul IMHO, unless you have nothing better.
• Que-Hegan's Wisdom - Has FCR and +1 Skills. More of a caster armour.

SHIELD

• Sanctuary - A bucket-load of resistances plus some other goodies, but needs a
  Mal and 2x
  Ko to make.
• Griswold's Honor with 3 Perfect Diamonds

Overall, this build is great for SSF, though probably not /players8. It doesn't require anything fancy like Infinity or Sunder charms to be able to clear everything, and once you can get some

Life Tap, bosses will be a breeze.

Zeal won't be super strong until you get a good weapon, but it will be more than sufficient as a backup to FoH (much better than

Jab for example).

As an anecdote, my first characters when I restarted D2 were a Javazon and a pure FoH Paladin. They were very powerful in the right conditions, but would hit a brick wall whenever they encountered immunities. The FoH Zealot was what broke me out of the lack of gear = unable to finish farming run vicious cycle.