Diablo 2: Resurrected — Best Paladin build for beginners and ladder resets

The Paladin can be a completely overpowered demon-stomping machine with the right preparation. Here’s what you need to know about the Hammerdin build.

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Diablo 2: Resurrectedis here, and many players — new and old — are experiencing the steep difficulty spike when combining skill choices, attributes, and gear. The Paladin is a favorite of many people thanks to his powerful auras, blocking ability, and high damage output, but it can be easy to spread your stats and skills too thin and end up with a build that can’t handle Hell difficulty. I’ve put together this guide for a “Hammerdin” that will take you from Act 1 in Normal difficulty all the way to Act 5 in Hell difficulty without much issue.

Early game and respec’ing your Paladin in Diablo 2: Resurrected

The Paladin is a great starting character, especially if you’re playing in a party. I would place him second to theSorceress, for which I’ve also written a beginner build guide. All allied players and their minions can take advantage of a Paladin’s active aura, which can boost damage or survivability. I’m focusing on the Hammerdin build in this guide, but the required skills don’t come until later in the game. For best effect at the very start of the game, the Zeal skill will be used in tandem with the Holy Fire aura.

Don’t worry about wasting skill points on skills you won’t use once you switch to Blessed Hammer (which gives the Hammerdin his name). Diablo 2: Resurrected gives one free “respec” in each difficulty when you complete the Den of Evil quest in Act 1. This move resets your spent attribute and skill points for reuse. You can save your respecs, even when advancing to the next difficulty level, giving you some flexibility in what skills and attributes you choose in the early game. These free respecs are valuable, and you should only use them when absolutely necessary.

The first 18 levels your Paladin sees will look something like this:

You will also receive some skill points from quests along the way. Focus these into Resist Fire or Holy Fire to increase your damage.

Once you hit level 19, it’s time to begin focusing your skill points into Blessed Hammer (main attack), Concentration (aura), Vigor (synergy), and Blessed Aim (synergy). These four skills are crucial for boosting a Hammerdin’s damage.

Continue using Zeal with Holy Fire as you level up the Hammerdin skills, at least until Blessed Hammer starts doing more damage. Focus on maxing out Blessed Hammer with Concentration not far behind, then alternate Vigor and Blessed Aim. You might want to sink a few extra points into Vigor early on to help with run speeds. Be sure to add a point to Holy Shield to boost your defense and block chance.

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You don’t necessarily need to use a respec once Blessed Hammer becomes available, but if you find that you aren’t doing enough damage it might be required.

Key stats for your Paladin in Diablo 2: Resurrected

There are a ton of terms and stats in Diablo 2: Resurrected, but as a Paladin some are far more important than others.Faster Cast Rate (FCR),Faster Hit Recovery (FHR),Resistances,Vitality,Dexterity, andFaster Run/Walkare all keys to a strong build.

Vitality

More points into Vitality is always better for a Paladin, as it adds to your life pool. Add as much as possible while still having enough Strength and Dexterity to wear your gear.

Dexterity

The Paladin’s Holy Shield skill adds chance to block, making it easier to reach max block (75%). If you’d like to hit max block, you will still need to add points into Dexterity. Cast Holy Shield with your preferred shield equipped, then open the character window and hover your cursor over your defense rating to see your chance to block percentage. Get this up to 75% for best results.

Faster Cast Rate and Faster Hit Recovery

Faster Cast Rate (FCR) determines how quickly your Hammerdin can get his hammers summoned. The more hammers spinning around, the more damage he’s going to do. Diablo 2: Resurrected plays a little trick here that involves “breakpoints.” You must hit a certain percentage of FCR in order to actually see a change due to how many frames it takes to display the animation. Here are the breakpoints for the Paladin.

The 75% breakpoint is definitely the minimum for the Paladin. Shoot for that and stretch for 125% as gear allows. Note that FCR only comes from equipped gear.

Faster Hit Recovery (FHR) — how quickly you can go in and out of hit recovery mode when struck — works the same way as FCR in terms of breakpoints. You get FHR from gear, and it’s crucial to surviving in Hell difficulty. Here are the Paladin’s FHR breakpoints.

Hitting 200% will be difficult until you reach the endgame, so shoot for 86% here. Look out for Grand Charms with 12% FHR to keep in your inventory.

Faster Run/Walk

Since the Paladin doesn’t have natural access to the Teleport skill like the Sorceress, he relies on his feet to get around. The Charge skill and Vigor aura can help speed things up, but adding Faster Run/Walk via gear and charms will go a long way. The more the better here.

Diablo 2: Resurrected Hammerdin skills

The Hammerdin is an extremely powerful build due to its reliance on Magic damage from the Blessed Hammer skill. There are few monsters in the game with resistances to Magic damage, allowing you to breeze through many areas without the assistance of other players or hirelings.

Once you decide to respec — or if you get rushed through to Hell and power-leveled — you will have a glut of skills points to sink into your skill trees. Here’s a breakdown of the skills you want to use.

Redemption is an invaluable skill that lets you absorb dead enemies for life and mana. If you’re a solo player, switching to Redemption after killing a pack of monsters will keep both pools almost perpetually filled.

Concentration should be your main aura when casting Blessed Hammer. Blessed Aim adds a ton of damage to your hammers. The one point into Fanaticism is optional, but if you plan on using your Paladin to complete the Pandemonium Event you will want to use it with your Smite skill.

Leftover points can go into Holy Shield, but be sure to get at least one in there as soon as possible.

Best Paladin gear for Hammerdin build

Your Paladin will go through gear quickly at the start of the game as you find new stuff. Don’t worry about that; just use whatever fits best for the time being. Watch out for gear that boosts resistances, FCR, FHR, Vitality, Life, and Run/Walk. Anything with relevant +Skills is also recommended.

Early runewords for your Paladin

Runes and runewordsare powerful items that can give a new character a big boost. Try repeatedly running the Countess in Act 1 to find many of these runes.

Mid- and end-game gear for your Paladin

Diablo 2: Resurrected is a gear-driven game, with so many different pieces that you’ll spend a lot of time trying to figure out just what to wear. While everyone’s wardrobe will look different at the start of the game, end-game gear is usually similar across Hammerdin builds.

If you’d like to buff your Paladin before going out into battle, theCall to Armsruneword (Amn + Ral + Mal + Ist + Ohm) built into a crystal sword or flail is key. It’s expensive, but it grants you access to Barbarian buff skills.

For charms in your inventory, look out for resistances, FHR, life, mana, and MF.Gheed’s Fortuneunique grand charm will boost MF. TheAnnihilussmall charm (often calledAnni) andHellfire Torchare both end-game items that will take a lot of work to gain but will boost your stats considerably.

As for rings, you can check out theNagelringfor magic find, or any rare FCR ring with resistances and strength.Stone of Jordanis best-in-slot for a ring, andMara’s Kaleidoscopeis best as an amulet.

Best mercenary setup for your Paladin

A Paladin with even mid-game gear is perfectly capable of soloing Hell difficulty, but a mercenary’s help is always appreciated. An Act 2 mercenary hired from Greiz works best for the Paladin; I recommend the Defensive mercenary hired from Nightmare difficulty. This mercenary has the Holy Freeze aura active at all times, which slows down nearby enemies.

The Act 2 Defensive mercenary from Normal or Hell difficulty can also be good thanks to his Defiance aura. This grants you a ton more defense but doesn’t provide any crowd control.

If you’re not using the Redemption aura to refill your mana pool (or you seem to always be out of mana), theInsightruneword (Ral + Tir + Tal + Sol) in a polearm will give you the Meditation aura. If you have enough mana and just want pure damage output, theObedienceruneword (Hel + Ko + Thul + Eth + Fal) in a polearm is a strong alternative that isn’t terribly expensive.

TheTreacheryruneword (Shael + Thul + Lem) can be built into a three-socket body armor for rather cheap. It adds increased attack speed (IAS), cold resist, and a chance to cast the Fade skill which reduces damage dealt to the merc and raises his resistances. Later you can move into other armors, like an Ethereal Shaftstop or the Fortitude runeword.

Finally, the helms you should look out for areGuillaume’s Face,Vampire Gaze, orAndariel’s Visage. In the meantime, look for anything that boosts damage, resistances, or life steal.

Where to magic find with your Paladin

The Paladin’s end-game gear isn’t terribly generous with magic find stats, but you can tune accordingly with rare gear or other uniques.

A Hammerdin excels at clearing the Chaos Sanctuary and the River of Flame approach, two areas whereany item in the gamecan drop. Clear all three seal bosses then melt Diablo himself with your hammers.

I also enjoy running The Pit in Act 1’s Tamoe Highlands; just watch out for champion packs of archers. Pindleskin, Shenk the Overseer, and Eldritch the Rectifier are other unique bosses that don’t require much effort to reach, important for a character without natural Teleport.

If you’re still looking for a bit more knowledge, be sure to have a look at ourDiablo 2: Resurrected beginner tips and tricksguide. And if you’re having issues running the remade game on a PC that used to run the original game 20 years ago, check out our picks for the best laptops for playing Diablo 2: Resurrected.

More than a fresh coat of paint

Diablo 2: Resurrected includes the original game and the Lord of Destruction expansion pack, with all-new improvements and better graphical quality. It’s available now on all platforms.

Cale Hunt brings to Windows Central more than eight years of experience writing about laptops, PCs, accessories, games, and beyond. If it runs Windows or in some way complements the hardware, there’s a good chance he knows about it, has written about it, or is already busy testing it.