The Fist of the Heavens Paladin is a great choice for Ladder season 6, which started on February 23, 2024. It is one of the most popular and powerful classes, a holy warrior who can wield a variety of weapons and auras to fight the forces of evil.
How to Build a Fist of the Heavens Paladin
To build a Fist of the Heavens Paladin, you will need to allocate your skill points, attribute points, and gear choices accordingly. Here are some general guidelines to follow:
Skill Points
You will need to put one skill point into each of the following skills:
• Vigor: This skill increases your movement speed and stamina, allowing you to travel faster and avoid enemies.
• Salvation: This skill increases your resistance to all elements, making you more durable against elemental attacks.
• Fanaticism: This skill increases your attack speed and damage, making it a great support option.
• Holy Shield: This skill increases your defense and block chance, making you more tanky and survivable.
You will need to max out the following skills in this order:
• Fist of the Heavens: This is your main damage skill, which summons a bolt of lightning from the sky that explodes into multiple holy bolts, dealing both lightning and magic damage to enemies.
• Holy Bolt: This skill increases the damage and number of holy bolts that are generated by Fist of the Heavens, making it more effective against large groups of enemies, especially undead ones.
• Holy Shock: This skill increases the damage and radius of the lightning bolt that is generated by Fist of the Heavens, making it more effective against single targets and bosses.
Attribute Points
You will need to distribute your attribute points as follows:
• Strength: You will need enough strength to equip your desired gear, which should not be too high, as most of the items you will use are light or medium armor. A good rule of thumb is to aim for around 100 Strength or less if you can find d2r items with strength bonuses.
• Dexterity: With your Holy Shield skill active, you will need enough dexterity to achieve the max block chance, which is 75%. This will depend on your shield type and level, but you can use this calculator to find out the exact amount you need. Alternatively, you can aim for around 200 dexterity or less if you can find items with dexterity bonuses.
• Vitality: You will need to put the rest of your points into vitality, which increases your life and stamina, making you more durable and survivable. This is your most important attribute, as it will allow you to withstand more hits and recover faster from damage.
• Energy: You will not need to put any points into energy, as your gear and potions will cover your mana. This attribute is not very useful for this build, as it only increases your mana pool and regeneration, which are not essential for your performance.
Gear Choices
You will need to equip your Fist of the Heavens Paladin with items that enhance your damage, resistance, cast speed, and magic find. Here are some of the best items for this build, along with some alternatives and budget options:
Weapon:
4-socketed flail or mace with Heart of the Oak Runeword
4-socketed sword or shield with Spirit Runeword
For a budget option, you can use any weapon with +skills, a faster cast rate, and mana bonuses, such as a rare scepter or wand.
Shield:
Herald of Zakarum
4-socketed sword or shield with Spirit Runeword
For a budget option, you can use any shield with +skills, a faster block rate, an increased chance of blocking, and resistance bonuses, such as a rare sacred rondache or Kurast shield.
Helm:
Shako, unique harlequin crest
Crown of Ages, unique corona
For a budget option, you can use any Helm with +skills, life, mana, and resistance bonuses, such as a rare diadem or circlet.
Armor:
3-socketed body armor with Enigma Runeword
4-socketed body armor with Chains of Honor Runeword
For a budget option, you can use any armor with +skills, life, mana, and resistance bonuses, such as a rare archon plate or dusk shroud.
Gloves:
Magefist, unique light gauntlets
Trang-Oul's Claws, unique heavy bracers
For a budget option, you can use gloves with a faster cast rate, mana, and resistance bonuses, such as rare chain or sharkskin gloves.
Boots:
War Traveler, unique battle boots
Sandstorm Trek, unique Scarabshell boots
For a budget option, you can use any boots with faster run/walk, hit recoveries, life, and resistance bonuses, such as rare mesh boots or Wyrmhide boots.
Belt:
Arachnid Mesh, unique spiderweb sash
Verdungo's Hearty Cord, a unique mithril coil
For a budget option, you can use any belt with a faster cast rate, life, mana, and resistance bonuses, such as a rare plated belt or Demonhide sash.
Amulet:
Mara's Kaleidoscope, a unique amulet
Seraph's Hymn unique amulet
For a budget option, you can use any amulet with +skills, life, mana, and resistance bonuses, such as a rare or crafted amulet.
Rings:
Stone of Jordan, unique rings
For a budget option, you can use rings with +skills, life, mana, and resistance bonuses, such as rare or crafted rings.
How to Play a Fist of the Heavens Paladin
To play a Fist of the Heavens Paladin, you will need to follow these general tips and strategies:
• Activate your Conviction aura, which will lower the enemy's resistance to lightning and magic, making them more vulnerable to your Fist of the Heavens skill. You can switch to a Fanaticism aura when you need to boost your D2R attack speed and damage or when you want to support your allies.
• Cast Fist of the Heavens on your enemies, which will summon a bolt of lightning from the sky that explodes into multiple holy bolts, dealing both lightning and magic damage to enemies. Try to aim for the center of the enemy group or for the most dangerous enemy to maximize the damage and area of effect. You can also use Holy Bolt to heal yourself or your allies, as it will deal damage to undead enemies and heal living ones.
• Use your teleport ability, which you can get from the Enigma Runeword or from the Teleport charges on some items, to move around the map quickly and safely. You can use it to escape dangerous situations, reach hard-to-access areas, or position yourself better for your attacks. Be careful not to teleport into a pack of enemies, as you might get surrounded and killed.
• Use your potions and charms to replenish your life and mana and boost your stats and resistances. You can also use some items that have charges of useful skills, such as the Call to Arms Runeword, which can be made by socketing a 5-socketed weapon with the runes Amn-Ral-Mal-Ist-Ohm. This Runeword gives you +1 to all skills, 40% increased attack speed, 250-290% enhanced damage, and the ability to cast Battle Orders, Battle Command, and Battle Cry, which will increase your life, mana, skills, and defense, among other bonuses.
Conclusion
The Fist of the Heavens Paladin is a powerful and versatile build that can deal massive damage with lightning and magic spells, break most immunities with a conviction aura, and support allies with a fanaticism aura. It is also easy to start with because it does not require expensive or rare items to be effective. This build is a great choice for Ladder season 6, as it can farm efficiently in many areas, especially the new level 85 zones, where it can find high-level loot and experience. If you are looking for a fun and effective way to play the Paladin class in Diablo 2 Resurrected, you should try this build.