Stabbing with a Vengeance: The Ghostflame Paladin

Have the irresistible urge to just stab things? Your efforts to make a Poison Dagger Necromancer always turn out to be unsatisfying? Try the off-meta Ghostflame Paladin!

Problems with Vengeance:
1. Ridiculously mana-hungry. Most build guides suggest an Insight wielding mercenary to address this issue.
2. Single target. Some type of crowd control is needed for large mobs.
3. Attack Rating of Vengeance is mediocre at best.
4. Attack Speed needs to be bolstered. Without the attack speed boosts from Zeal and Fanaticism (you will be using Conviction to enhance damage), you must get Attack Speed elsewhere.

The appeal of Vengeance is that the multi-spectral damage makes monster immunities a non-issue. You can kill everything.

The rarely-found, and even more rarely-used, Ghostflame Legend Spike goes a long way towards solving all these problems, with the help of a few other readily available synergistic items. The strategy here is to steal all the mana we need rather than being reliant on our (all too frequently suicidal) mercenary.

Mandatory Equipment:
Ghostflame Legend Spike
Crescent Moon Amulet
Guardian Angel Templar Coat

Both Ghostflame and Crescent Moon have a max mana steal of 15%, giving you 30% total. A couple of other mana-stealing items can easily get you in the neighborhood of 40%, which seems to be enough to let you stab to your heart's content without ever worrying about mana again. While the Ghostflame only generates about half the damage of an eBOTD Berserker's Axe with Vengeance, solving the mana problem is big for QOL.

With your mercenary options open, crowd control, damage, and survivability can be optimized to your liking. I use a Frenzy Barbarian with Sazabi's set and a Lawbringer. The survivability of the merc is great, and the Sanctuary Aura helps where you need it most - dolls and gloams. The Decrepify proc just adds even more crowd control. Other crowd control options include a Manic Pixie Dreamgirl, Act 2 Holy Freeze, etc.

The Ghostflame has ITD, so your Attack Rating is only a problem with monsters/bosses where ITD does not apply. For Baal, I use a fast off-hand weapon with Crushing Blow (like Heaven's Light with 2x Shael) and Smite him down. Most of your low-health monsters such as gloams, ghosts, and Hell Temptresses go down in one stab.

I have 45% attack speed, which seems adequate. The Ghostflame is a -10 base, and I have some 20% IAS crafted gloves, a Jewel of Fervor in my rare Circlet, and Nosferatu's Coil to get there.

The Vengeance synergies ( Resist Fire, Resist Cold, and Resist Lightening) when paired with Guardian Angel will give you max resistances of 95% for Fire, Cold, and Lightening. Poison will be at 90% max resistance. When you are a single-target melee attacker, it really helps to be tanky!

Skills:
Vengeance: 20
Resist Lightening: 20
Resist Fire and Resist Cold: one at 10 and the other at 20
Conviction 20 (or enough to reach max with +skills)
Holy Shield: 1
Salvation: 1
Prerequisites: 1

You can achieve these around Level 90.

Other gear I am using includes: War Traveler Mirrored Boots (Damage), Raven Frost (CBF), and Dwarf Star (Survivability, esp. Travincal).

Anyway, this was my solution to: "Hey, I found this weird item - There must be some way to use it". It's only a C tier build but thought it was something fun and different.

Have you think about Act 1 with Faith instead of Act 5 (for Fanaticism)?
You can even add Delirium for crowd control

If you deal double damage with Breath of the Dying (that has 7 ml),
you will stole almost the same mana with your Ghostflame (that has 15 ml) considering only the weapon,
and the double damage will give you much more mana from the other ml sources (like Crescent Moon)

So Breath of the Dying + Crescent Moon will in the end give you more mana than Ghostflame + Crescent Moon.

In other words, you should look at "physical damage" * ml and not ml alone

Vaprrs wrote: 1 year ago

While the Ghostflame only generates about half the damage of an eBOTD Berserker's Axe with Vengeance, solving the mana problem is big for QOL.

And if you don't need IAS on weapon, Death (with its huge deadly strike) will give you more physical damage per hit than Breath of the Dying (and has 7 ml too)
But... remember that the deadly strike will not increase your elemental damage.

"Have you think about Act 1 with Faith instead of Act 5 (for Fanaticism)?
You can even add Delirium for crowd control"

That would be the Manic Pixie Dreamgirl Merc I was referring to.

"you should look at "physical damage" * ml and not ml alone"

You make a good point, however I am SSF. I have found a Zod rune but am still trying to find an Eth Berserker's Axe. I've found an Eth War Spike, but really the damage on that isn't that much better than the Ghostflame when socketed with an ED jewel. The ITD and magic damage on the Ghostflame make it deceptively good, similar to a Lightsaber. I hope someday to be able to test and compare with BOTD as you suggest.

Death is way cheaper ( Vex + Gul) than Breath of the Dying (with up to 385% ed)
(but again, if IAS on weapon is not required...)

Glad i kept the perfect Ghostflame i found yesterday Think i'll give this build a chance

fredkid wrote: 1 year ago

(but again, if IAS on weapon is not required...)

I think the slow attack speed from Death can be frustrating if not playing a skill increasing attack speed like Zeal, Frenzy or Fury: Skill (where Death is BiS).

I love off-meta build ideas like this. Truly it's one of the things that makes this game so special.

Just a follow-up on the build: after a year, I still haven't found a proper eBOTD base. RNG Gods can be cruel. I'm only lacking 10 items in my grail quest, but no sign of an Eth zerker Axe. I tried a Death Ettin Axe, but didn't find it to be any better than the Ghostflame. With the Death, I one-shotted more, but also sometimes whiffed because of no ITD. I carry on stabbing with the Ghostflame.

I have found a use for this build in sunder charm hunting. The 95% lightening resistance is good for starting off the run with the gloam easter egg to get the 4200% magic find boost. After resurrecting your Merc, the two of you can drop a shard and clear away until a Herald appears. The high resistances and spectral damage of the build generally allow you to prevail in the Herald battles.