How to make my Holy Fire paladin tougher?

Hi guys,
Some time ago (when rune budget wasn't so tight) I've decided to build HoJ / dual Dragon Holy Fire paladin as described at Maxroll - the only big difference is Gore Rider instead of tri-res Boots and worst double leech ring.

Although he's really an overkill on /p1 difficulty (totally good enough for me), I've noticed I receive a relatively a big chunk of damage and can't replace it with life leech, because enemies are dying before I can get to them - they still can hit me and I'm chugging potions.

I was hoping I can tranform him into "AFK/low focus character", which will be more self-sufficient - even at cost of lower killing speed. My first thought is to replace A5 dual Crescent Moon merc for A2 with healing aura, but later I thought, that solutions which work with Nova sorc won't be as useful in this case.

Do you have some ideas, how to increase his passive healing abilities, aside from switching auras? I will be grateful for every hint, thank you!

I have the exact same issue with this build. My solution is what you mentioned, to run damage reduction like Crown of Ages & verdungos, and run a Prayer/Cure/Insight merc. It's enough damage reduction and passive healing to make potion use rare, in my experience

A common solution worth trying is to run dracs for the life leech and Life Tap. I never liked this because 1) the life leech part still isn't good, 2) no ias on gloves makes it hard to hit the Zeal breakpoint, and 3) Life Tap doesn't proc enough for me

Maybe replace Dragon Shield with Phoenix? U will lose some lvls in Holy Fire aura but u gain neg fire resist and Redemption, since u r playing on p1, it might just work out?

1 pt in Redemption, switch to that for a quick full regen every so often, done.

On mine I use The Redeemer on my switch so when need health or mana almost instant full almost never use pots.this works for me

Schnorki wrote: 2 years ago

1 pt in Redemption, switch to that for a quick full regen every so often, done.

Call To Arms War Scepter with Vigor/ Meditation/ Redemption is the best way to deal with this while getting speed and mana regen, if needed on top. Bases are hard to come by and expensive but worth it.

Queegon wrote: 2 years ago

Schnorki wrote: 2 years ago

1 pt in Redemption, switch to that for a quick full regen every so often, done.

Call To Arms War Scepter with Vigor/ Meditation/ Redemption is the best way to deal with this while getting speed and mana regen, if needed on top. Bases are hard to come by and expensive but worth it.

Ohh snap I hadn't thought about getting a CTA with Vigor to run around quicker since I switch to Vigor all the time. Also would save me a couple points to put somewhere else. Thanks, will start looking for one.

I just made a Dragondin and had the same problem... compared to a Zealot he's quite squishy. Only 2k defense before buffs, even a rogue merc has higher defense rating, haha.

Act 2 Defiance Merc with Doom weapon helped a lot!

Along with CTA, Draculs Grasp, 23% lifeleech and some points into Sacrifice/ Zeal he is very stable. Need a dual leech ring now, for getting rid of mana problems.

azeroti wrote: 2 years ago

Ohh snap I hadn't thought about getting a CTA with Vigor to run around quicker since I switch to Vigor all the time. Also would save me a couple points to put somewhere else. Thanks, will start looking for one.

You and many more people it seems, as noone seems to have these for sale, like ever. It's all flails and crystals while the true CtA gems for literally any paladin are these, for auradins especially.
I had to roll both of mine. And all the previous with lower staffmods, too. Pretty happy with 5/6 +3 Vigor/+1 Redemption and 6/6 with +2 Meditation/+2 Vigor.

@DasNarf 13,5k+ defense with Holy Shield. I don't see a problem with defense. Sadly leech is worthless on dragondin. Your physical damage output is a couple hundred while the majority is in fire at range and even more fire in melee. Nothing to leech from. Tried MAEK but it doesn't work with aura pulses, only with actual sword swings.

as mentioned by one of the previous folks, Crown of Ages is one of the best options in your case. You will literally receive less damage. Depending on your status socket it with 2 Bers or 2 fire-facets

It may also be related to your playstyle. If you act as a zealer while not being one (i.e. instantly jumping into packs of fire res/fana mobs) than you might want to rethink your approach. When you play dragondin things should just melt down nearby, with almost no effort.

If you wait for one/two ticks of your aura damage then your char would normally be fine fighting the remaining mobs, given the suggested damage reduction.

p.s. as a suggestion, try moving and hitting mobs with Charge and using Insight on the merc. No Zeal or tele, just Charge. You would like it... At least I did

@trentor @Queegon @DasNarf @azeroti @Schnorki @Pipp @marl71 @d2rppa69

Hey guys,

Sorry for bumping a thread from three weeks ago, but I only recently had the time to go through your suggestions (read them all with great interest) and started gathering some of the gear.

I wanted to revisit the topic and get your opinion on an idea I came across on Reddit or d2jsp. Considering that I mainly play on P1, where just the aura alone clears the map pretty effectively, how about reducing the points invested in Zeal and Sacrifice and instead putting them into Holy Shield to increase total defense and reduce the dexterity required for max block? I'm guessing that the damage from the aura itself would stay the same, but the damage from Hand of Justice (which I mainly use against bosses only, because aura kills smaller mobs faster) would drop. I'd go with a merc using Prayer aura + Eth Insight, Cure helmet, and Chains of Honor (or Fortitude - not sure here).

Do you guys think this makes sense and it is worth testing? I'd really appreciate your feedback before I waste two Tokens for nothing

Thank you all in advance!

@Byczq

My first try was maximizing damage at the cost of Holy Shield.

This was a terrible idea!

So I respecced to max Holy Shield, 1 pt to Zeal and all the remaining points went into Sacrifice. Works much better now.

I would not recommend to use Insight on this build, because mana cost shouldn't be an issue. Put a point into Redemption or use a Redemption- Scepter (the right base can be made into a CTA!) on swap for refilling between fights.

As you are planning to kill with your aura pulses, there's not much damage to be expected. Just run circles around your enemies and you should be fine most of the time.

For the merc, I would give Defiance+Doom a shot. Or go with an Act 5 merc, these guys are formidable tanks. Plague/Lawbringer for high Cleansing, Lower Resist and Decrepify, Fortitude armor and some LL/DR Helm of choice (Gaze, Bulwark, Crown of Thieves, Arreats...).

I am using a lightning Iron Wolf with 2x Dream, Fortitude and Plague, because my paladin is quite tanky (23% life leech). This option would maximize your aura damage and Static Field is very useful for softening immunes and boss monsters.

DasNarf wrote: 2 years ago

I would not recommend to use Insight on this build, because mana cost shouldn't be an issue. Put a point into Redemption or use a Redemption- Scepter (the right base can be made into a CTA!) on swap for refilling between fights.

For the merc, I would give Defiance+Doom a shot. Or go with an Act 5 merc, these guys are formidable tanks. Plague/Lawbringer for high Cleansing, Lower Resist and Decrepify, Fortitude armor and some LL/DR Helm of choice (Gaze, Bulwark, Crown of Thieves, Arreats...).

I am using a lightning Iron Wolf with 2x Dream, Fortitude and Plague, because my paladin is quite tanky (23% life leech). This option would maximize your aura damage and Static Field is very useful for softening immunes and boss monsters.

I think it's valid point - as far as I remember, that could be Tesladin/Dreamdin, not Dragondin. BTW: is Prayer/Insight/Cure combo soild option for Tesladin with Enigma?

Right now I'm using double Phase Blade Crescent Moon + Andy + Forti on A5 Frenzy merc - I'm very tempted to try Lawbringer/Plague combo

Thank you for your help!

@Byczq

Holy Shield has (pretty quick) diminishing returns, so check the skill levels for the sweet spot. I agree you don't need full Zeal investment--the physical damage you do is at most about 10% of your total Zeal damage

I checked on maxroll and with a standard build, and this Holy Shield change buys you 17 dex (although check with your own build). That's like 85 life after BO, so maybe not worth a token on its own

Prayer merc with Cure and Insight to synergize Prayer is a good approach if you hate using potions. You need CoH life leech for the merc to stay alive. But there are a lot of fun merc choices

If you are open to major changes, I've mentioned a few times here (not in a while I think) that my favorite dragondin build is hybrid with foh. Macrobioboi has a video. I run mine differently from his with a 2/20 Circlet and Phase Blade hoj--send me a message if you want to discuss

IMO, you would not get any significant benefit doing this change.

Basically, you Sacrifice dmg in the favour of some extra life. Not saying you should not try it - if your gut feeling is suggesting that than why not? but if you only do P1 runs not sure that life increase/phys dmg loss would be noticeable.

if you are open to more significant changes to the build, consider shifting towards Charge instead of Zeal + Insight merc (forti/andy or any other decent Cap. your merc would be merely an aura keeper to enable infinite Charge so it is not that important)

My 2 cents:
My build is a pure fire Dragon paladin. He deals ~450 physical damage in a total of ~9k, so 5%. After Conviction you are looking at 2,5%.
With 20 points in Sacrifice, I'd bump it to a whopping ~800.

Therefore leech is worthless and I'd rather put 20 points into Resist Lightning for the +10% max. The build needs lvl 79 without skillers to be completely maxed before that.

And as I said many times before in similar topics, my mercenary is Scorch for lvl 47 (lvl 49 would be max at lvl 97) Enchant because why not. No mercenary makes you noticably better and all but act5 Frenzy barb lag behind you. One Enchant and merc can be wherever. Plus the attack rating adds ~5% better hit chance against bosses as the defense after Conviction is still fairly high while my AR is terrible.

It's very simple, basically.

Don't get hit --> no need for leech. So high defense and maxblock helps a lot.

But you WILL get hit from time to time. There are attacks you can't block or avoid otherwise. So any form of healing isn't all but worthless.

Options are: Priest Merc, Leech, LaeK, Redemption, high regeneration (20+), Pots. Combine two of them and you should be fine. Remember that Laek/Maek doesn't work on aura damage, you must kill with your weapon!

I recommend using Draculs on a Dragondin. But it's a bit of a gamble sometimes, so additional leech doesn't hurt. 500 Damage and 20% leech leads to ~50 Life recovered per hit. This doesn't make you invincible like a zealer would be, but it helps surviving the timespan until Life Tap procs.

I am pretty sure Life Tap only works when u deal physical damage, so if your dragondin deals mainly fire or elemental damage? Your life leech from lifetap is still very low.

My dragondin have no issue surviving hell. Hasnt died yet and he has been doing lvl94 t-zones. He does Baal runs often as well. Just have to play carefully, let ur aura do 90% of the killing, and u melee the remaining. It takes 1-3 ticks to kill any type of normal/champion mobs in 1-3 ticks anyway. I wouldnt rush n play like a zealot.

Also , rejuvs are plentiful but yeah, cta in Scepter with Redemption helps alot

d2rppa69 wrote: 2 years ago

I am pretty sure Life Tap only works when u deal physical damage, so if your dragondin deals mainly fire or elemental damage? Your life leech from lifetap is still very low.

It is not.

You gain 50% leech (plus your normal leech added) and you ignore all drain or leech penalties your enemy normally has.

In numbers: Even if you do only 500 damage per hit, this is 5x (250+X) Life per attack at best. This is a lot.

DasNarf wrote: 2 years ago

d2rppa69 wrote: 2 years ago

I am pretty sure Life Tap only works when u deal physical damage, so if your dragondin deals mainly fire or elemental damage? Your life leech from lifetap is still very low.

It is not.

You gain 50% leech (plus your normal leech added) and you ignore all drain or leech penalties your enemy normally has.

In numbers: Even if you do only 500 damage per hit, this is 5x (250+X) Life per attack at best. This is a lot.

Fred mentioned here that it does effect only physical damage? 50% to return as life on physical damage?

skills/life-tap-t4107.html

Unless this is proven wrong and it has been tested?