FOH/Smiter-Hybrid Leveling (Skill Prioritization)

Build from: https://www.icy-veins.com/d2/foh-smiter-paladin-build
This version that doesn't worry about lightning damage frees up quite a few skill points from

Conviction & FOH synergies, so it works well with

Smite as a secondary

I personally like to one-point-wonder

Redemption, even though it takes 4 prerequisites

The question is: once

Holy Bolt & FOH are maxed, what is the best order for topping up

Smite,

Holy Shield, and

Fanaticism? I don't think I found the same answer twice, from all the sites I checked haha

Is it straight forward, max one, max the next, max the last (and what's the order, if so?)... Or is it best to jump around and bring them up together? Or alternate two, and leave the third for last?

Like I said, couldn't find consensus, and doing the calculations (base damage, +% damage, attack speed, etc. Is beyond me hahaha)

Thanks as always, and GL out there!

It depends on your gear, on your playing style and so on.
For example, if you use smiter for Uber only then you can change gear for Uber. If you want smiter as backup for boss/immune then you don’t want to change gear. Your gear setup won’t be the same for both cases.
You want enough

Fanaticism to reach breakpoints.

Holy Shield is when you want more blocking.

Shooter wrote: 2 months ago

[..]
The question is: once

Holy Bolt & FOH are maxed, what is the best order for topping up

Smite,

Holy Shield, and

Fanaticism? I don't think I found the same answer twice, from all the sites I checked haha

Is it straight forward, max one, max the next, max the last (and what's the order, if so?)... Or is it best to jump around and bring them up together? Or alternate two, and leave the third for last?
[..]

If you're worried about the order of it, you're inherently still talking about leveling.

Typically, that's the one point in time where survivability might still be an issue which is why - personally - I'd go with 1 pt in fana +

Smite and then max

Holy Shield first. It does add to your

Smite dmg as well but first and foremost it massively boosts your defensive capabilities at that stage.

Similarly, smiting at that stage kinda sucks in general (thanks to typically still a lack of core smiter items). As a result you'll likely rely far more heavily on your merc while lvling than you do on your own

Smite dmg. And because of that, I for one would focus on

Fanaticism before

Smite next. Still offers you some offensive benefit but more than that it boosts your merc further.

Once that's done, finish up

Smite.

Adding to the above, realistically, you'll only use

Smite on bosses and stuff that isn't hurt by the FoH

Bolts which is a fraction of what you come up against. Another reason to focus on

Smite last and get the stuff that always helps first.

In your case, my order would be

Holy Shield first, then

Smite. I might even not consider put too many points in

Smite, as I might have other things to worry about when leveling, like

Resist Fire or

Resist Lightning.

In my case, as I level with

Smite, I maxed out

Holy Shield and

Smite first, then

Fanaticism, the rest points goes to

Holy Bolt & FOH. but as soon as I was done with leveling, I respec and put rest points into

Resist Fire and

Resist Lightning and become a pure smiter.

i would max

Holy Shield first but at least have a point in fana and then max

Smite leaving fanatiscm for last

Shooter wrote: 2 months ago

The question is: once

Holy Bolt & FOH are maxed, what is the best order for topping up

Smite,

Holy Shield, and

Fanaticism?

20

Holy Shield + 1

Smite makes more damage than 20

Smite and 1

Holy Shield.

Right now I am in the middle of hell and I do not use

Fanaticism at all. This is how I finished nightmare:
https://maxroll.gg/d2/d2planner/wkdkk0ka

I have a merc with

Cleansing,

Prayer and

Meditation to spam

Holy Bolt. You do not need

Smite for bosses. You can line up your merc and fire

Holy Bolt through the merc on the boss.

But my built is not 100% budget, because I have an

Shaftstop and an

Eth weapon for the merc. I use

Hand of Blessed Light and Sigon's armor,

Belt and

Boots for 50%mf.

20 HB & FOH & HS is a given.
OF course all requisites.

20 Fana, maybe even just 1 to

Smite.

1 point wonders in the utility skills aka Defensive tab.

Do not underestimate

Cleansing . Reduces your amp damage curse in Hell from excruciating long to a mere 6 seconds.

Last of all - why no

Redemption?

Thanks for all the input! Been away from D2 for a couple months--darn life getting in the way of my gaming haha--so I've been absent from here

I'll read through everything, and see if I can come up with a good summary

To clarify a bit, this Pally finished Hell difficulty as a FOH (with a couple points in the smiting related skills to bop Uber D when he pops up), and I wanted to min/max the rest of his points as they came up, to make him the best Uber runner I could while keeping him as a FOH farmer

Didn't really play much after this post, but am doing the same thing in season 9; new guy just reached Hell