Budget Smiter shield

HOZ or Exile are obviously BiS, but I haven't snagged either yet in the current Ladder season. I'm running an FOH/

Smite hybrid, so I have dual Spirit, then a Black on switch. Anyone have thoughts on a good shield for smiting until I can upgrade, or is it still just Spirit? I took out DClone with the Black/Spirit combo, but the min-maxer in me is curious if there is a better budget option.

My first Smiter shield every ladder season is always a random 4 socket Paladin shield with 4 perfect diamonds in it - preferrably elite, obviously. The resistance automod on it is not super important thanks to the perfect diamonds, it will be plenty enough vs dclone anyway. Some ladder season I don't even change it (I usually do, but it depends on how much I actually end up playing that season). Another cheap option, which I sometimes use, is

Griswold's Honor - it has 45 all res, and it always has 3os so you can for example put 3 perfect diamonds in it - and you can usually trade for one for a perfect amthyst or something.

And I'll also add that Phoenix is the BiS for dclone killers if you have Grief - the off-weapon ED% on it works with

Smite, including Grief's +damage bonus. A fully geared Smiter doesn't need

Life Tap at all vs dclone (

Uber Tristram is a different story though). It's not exactly budget (far from it), just thought I'd mention it.

ShadowHeart wrote: 4 weeks ago

My first Smiter shield every ladder season is always a random 4 socket Paladin shield with 4 perfect diamonds in it - preferrably elite, obviously. The resistance automod on it is not super important thanks to the perfect diamonds, it will be plenty enough vs dclone anyway. Some ladder season I don't even change it (I usually do, but it depends on how much I actually end up playing that season). Another cheap option, which I sometimes use, is

Griswold's Honor - it has 45 all res, and it always has 3os so you can for example put 3 perfect diamonds in it - and you can usually trade for one for a perfect amthyst or something.

And I'll also add that Phoenix is the BiS for dclone killers if you have Grief - the off-weapon ED% on it works with

Smite, including Grief's +damage bonus. A fully geared Smiter doesn't need

Life Tap at all vs dclone (

Uber Tristram is a different story though). It's not exactly budget (far from it), just thought I'd mention it.

Good points. I always considered Phoenix for a Zealer, never thought to check it against Dclone. But that's high rune territory, I'll probably end up with HOZ or Exile before I build a Phoenix. I didn't even think of just using the Pdiamonds on a random shield. I just messed around in Maxroll for a bit, and it looks like, all other things being equal, that the Spirit would outperform the PDiamonds for DPS, and Spirit is so cheap, there's no sense in not using it. However I could use PDiamonds in a 2OS or 3OS if one drops before I get an elite 4OS pally shield.

RackAnewShoe wrote: 4 weeks ago

I didn't even think of just using the Pdiamonds on a random shield. I just messed around in Maxroll for a bit, and it looks like, all other things being equal, that the Spirit would outperform the PDiamonds for DPS, and Spirit is so cheap, there's no sense in not using it. However I could use PDiamonds in a 2OS or 3OS if one drops before I get an elite 4OS pally shield.

It does outperform a 4 pdia shield by a little bit (2 skills) but it lose out on resistances (41 less cold/light/poi res, 76 less fire res) which can be hard/expensive to get early on. So it depends on how budget are we talking about:)

Sanctuary works good, last Zealot build i had on SCL had that and cleared Ubers without much difficulty. The

Slow Missiles charges are underrated, makes a huge difference vs souls, succubi, and vipers in WSK and

Nihlathak temple halls too.

Lately I've been playing smiter/FoH hybrid build so I prefer Spirit for the FCR.

For me the choice is simple. While leveling a basic early choice would be a shield Socketed with P diamonds, Ancients Pledge, or my favorite a Rhyme, which only requires a

Shael

Eth and two socket shield, preferably a paladin shield with some resistances, and with the added 25% more resists you also get cannot be frozen. My top end game shield preference is an upped HOZ, socketed with either a P

Diamond or an

Um. I've tried all the top tier shields including an Exile in a 44% resist

Vortex Shield, but the HOZ is still my favorite. You can pick up a HOZ fairly cheaply in trades for as little as an

Ist.

BigD wrote: 4 weeks ago

Sanctuary works good, last Zealot build i had on SCL had that and cleared Ubers without much difficulty. The

Slow Missiles charges are underrated, makes a huge difference vs souls, succubi, and vipers in WSK and

Nihlathak temple halls too.

Lately I've been playing smiter/FoH hybrid build so I prefer Spirit for the FCR.

I've used Sanctuary in the past on a hardcore Sorc, but that

Mal is too expensive for me for a budget shield that I would plan on tossing.

I have dual Spirit on main for FOH/

Holy Bolt. On swap I have Black and a my budget smiter shield.

mhlg wrote: 4 weeks ago

For me the choice is simple. While leveling a basic early choice would be a shield Socketed with P diamonds, Ancients Pledge, or my favorite a Rhyme, which only requires a

Shael

Eth and two socket shield, preferably a paladin shield with some resistances, and with the added 25% more resists you also get cannot be frozen. My top end game shield preference is an upped HOZ, socketed with either a P

Diamond or an

Um. I've tried all the top tier shields including an Exile in a 44% resist

Vortex Shield, but the HOZ is still my favorite. You can pick up a HOZ fairly cheaply in trades for as little as an

Ist.

Rhyme has always been my go to for leveling anything but Paladin. I can't believe I didn't think of using it for smiting until I get HOZ. That's probably the answer I'm looking for. I did Exile on my SSF pally back in the LOD days when I never had a HOZ drop. I recently got one on SCNL and it has been pretty nice. I'm not sure which of the two I prefer.

RackAnewShoe wrote: 4 weeks ago

BigD wrote: 4 weeks ago

Sanctuary works good, last Zealot build i had on SCL had that and cleared Ubers without much difficulty. The

Slow Missiles charges are underrated, makes a huge difference vs souls, succubi, and vipers in WSK and

Nihlathak temple halls too.

Lately I've been playing smiter/FoH hybrid build so I prefer Spirit for the FCR.

I've used Sanctuary in the past on a hardcore Sorc, but that

Mal is too expensive for me for a budget shield that I would plan on tossing.

I have dual Spirit on main for FOH/

Holy Bolt. On swap I have Black and a my budget smiter shield.

Suppose it could be considered expensive. I just grind

The Countess with a lightning sorc for 20-30ish runs and one usually surfaces.

Last build i had that used Snactuary was pure Zealot with maxed

Holy Shield and a few points in

Smite. Worked great for WSK+

Baal runs and

Nihlathak farming to deal with Souls and Succubi (

Slow Missiles vs those annoying fucks is a lifesaver).

With the build im currently running on HCL I wouldn't do the same because FoH clears out mobs from a safe distance and the FCR helps more. Plus Insight merc with Treachery and Bulwark and

Prayer aura gives alot of QoL and synergies to my current FoH/smiter hybrid I'm finding.

https://maxroll.gg/d2/d2planner/625gh0y7

^Lot of stuff (charms & merc mostly) needs updating/correcting there, but the gear is all correct, and its been working well so far through Hell difficulty

ShadowHeart wrote: 4 weeks ago

My first Smiter shield every ladder season is always a random 4 socket Paladin shield with 4 perfect diamonds in it - preferrably elite, obviously. The resistance automod on it is not super important thanks to the perfect diamonds, it will be plenty enough vs dclone anyway. Some ladder season I don't even change it (I usually do, but it depends on how much I actually end up playing that season). Another cheap option, which I sometimes use, is

Griswold's Honor - it has 45 all res, and it always has 3os so you can for example put 3 perfect diamonds in it - and you can usually trade for one for a perfect amthyst or something.

And I'll also add that Phoenix is the BiS for dclone killers if you have Grief - the off-weapon ED% on it works with

Smite, including Grief's +damage bonus. A fully geared Smiter doesn't need

Life Tap at all vs dclone (

Uber Tristram is a different story though). It's not exactly budget (far from it), just thought I'd mention it.

Afaik Phoenix is not good for

Smite due to the

Firestorm proc. Did this change recently?

vued wrote: 4 weeks ago

Afaik Phoenix is not good for

Smite due to the

Firestorm proc. Did this change recently?

This was patched in D2R patch 2.4 (ladder season 1, 3½ years ago). Procs with cast delay, like

Firestorm from Phoenix, no longer interrupt your own attacks. They did a major rework of casting delays (D2's version of cooldowns) in that patch. I've used Phoenix a lot as a Smiter in D2R with zero issues.

ShadowHeart wrote: 4 weeks ago

vued wrote: 4 weeks ago

Afaik Phoenix is not good for

Smite due to the

Firestorm proc. Did this change recently?

This was patched in D2R patch 2.4 (ladder season 1, 3½ years ago). Procs with cast delay, like

Firestorm from Phoenix, no longer interrupt your own attacks. They did a major rework of casting delays (D2's version of cooldowns) in that patch. I've used Phoenix a lot as a Smiter in D2R with zero issues.

Do you prefer Phoenix over HOZ in

Uber Tristram? I can see how the fire resist/absorb would help and

Redemption running full time is nice, but HOZ has so many goodies for pally. Even Exile gives me consistent

Life Tap Proc's so that I can swap out Drac's for crafted gloves.

Personally, I prefer Exile for

Uber Tristram for the added safety of the

Life Tap proc (it has a much more reliable proc chance than

Dracul's Grasp, and then I typically prefer 10 CB gloves over Drac's if I do have Exile). Phoenix is technically still BiS damage-wise, but it's not the safest option in

Uber Tristram.

ShadowHeart wrote: 4 weeks ago

Personally, I prefer Exile for

Uber Tristram for the added safety of the

Life Tap proc (it has a much more reliable proc chance than

Dracul's Grasp, and then I typically prefer 10 CB gloves over Drac's if I do have Exile). Phoenix is technically still BiS damage-wise, but it's not the safest option in

Uber Tristram.

I stay with Phoenix and

Dracul's Grasp for more adrenaline which in turn burns more calories

vued wrote: 4 weeks ago

ShadowHeart wrote: 4 weeks ago

My first Smiter shield every ladder season is always a random 4 socket Paladin shield with 4 perfect diamonds in it - preferrably elite, obviously. The resistance automod on it is not super important thanks to the perfect diamonds, it will be plenty enough vs dclone anyway. Some ladder season I don't even change it (I usually do, but it depends on how much I actually end up playing that season). Another cheap option, which I sometimes use, is

Griswold's Honor - it has 45 all res, and it always has 3os so you can for example put 3 perfect diamonds in it - and you can usually trade for one for a perfect amthyst or something.

And I'll also add that Phoenix is the BiS for dclone killers if you have Grief - the off-weapon ED% on it works with

Smite, including Grief's +damage bonus. A fully geared Smiter doesn't need

Life Tap at all vs dclone (

Uber Tristram is a different story though). It's not exactly budget (far from it), just thought I'd mention it.

Afaik Phoenix is not good for

Smite due to the

Firestorm proc. Did this change recently?

Shouldn't be an issue otherwise I would think

Firestorm proc from

Hellfire Torch would also be an issue! Lol

BigD wrote: 4 weeks ago

vued wrote: 4 weeks ago

ShadowHeart wrote: 4 weeks ago

My first Smiter shield every ladder season is always a random 4 socket Paladin shield with 4 perfect diamonds in it - preferrably elite, obviously. The resistance automod on it is not super important thanks to the perfect diamonds, it will be plenty enough vs dclone anyway. Some ladder season I don't even change it (I usually do, but it depends on how much I actually end up playing that season). Another cheap option, which I sometimes use, is

Griswold's Honor - it has 45 all res, and it always has 3os so you can for example put 3 perfect diamonds in it - and you can usually trade for one for a perfect amthyst or something.

And I'll also add that Phoenix is the BiS for dclone killers if you have Grief - the off-weapon ED% on it works with

Smite, including Grief's +damage bonus. A fully geared Smiter doesn't need

Life Tap at all vs dclone (

Uber Tristram is a different story though). It's not exactly budget (far from it), just thought I'd mention it.

Afaik Phoenix is not good for

Smite due to the

Firestorm proc. Did this change recently?

Shouldn't be an issue otherwise I would think

Firestorm proc from

Hellfire Torch would also be an issue! Lol

No, they are different. The

Firestorm from torch is a diablo skill which does not have a delay.

But as it was pointed out, this changed some time ago.

why don't you farm consumables with your sorc to sell for decent items?
It's quite cheap to build a decent smiter

Pitach wrote: 3 weeks ago

why don't you farm consumables with your sorc to sell for decent items?
It's quite cheap to build a decent smiter

I've only been running a pally the last couple ladders (too many mules, not enough character slots, not enough play time to level two characters) and there is a point in time where I could use an inexpensive or easy to farm shield but haven't had good enough drops for trade. I'm thinking of running sorc next ladder for that reason.

oOKIWIOo wrote: 4 weeks ago

ShadowHeart wrote: 4 weeks ago

Personally, I prefer Exile for

Uber Tristram for the added safety of the

Life Tap proc (it has a much more reliable proc chance than

Dracul's Grasp, and then I typically prefer 10 CB gloves over Drac's if I do have Exile). Phoenix is technically still BiS damage-wise, but it's not the safest option in

Uber Tristram.

I stay with Phoenix and

Dracul's Grasp for more adrenaline which in turn burns more calories

Bonus for doing this in hardcore.

RackAnewShoe wrote: 3 weeks ago

oOKIWIOo wrote: 4 weeks ago

ShadowHeart wrote: 4 weeks ago

Personally, I prefer Exile for

Uber Tristram for the added safety of the

Life Tap proc (it has a much more reliable proc chance than

Dracul's Grasp, and then I typically prefer 10 CB gloves over Drac's if I do have Exile). Phoenix is technically still BiS damage-wise, but it's not the safest option in

Uber Tristram.

I stay with Phoenix and

Dracul's Grasp for more adrenaline which in turn burns more calories

Bonus for doing this in hardcore.

Check out this Stream from Schmuck (Offline HC Pally with absolute low lvl gear and 1500 life)

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