*My face when I have realised that Paladin is not as tanky as it looks on paper
**Credit for the picture goes to @Safarel. Thank you, man!
Foreword
I’ve had an idea to make a resilient and tanky Paladin caster for quite some time now. Obvious weapon of choice is Fire, however there are quite a few problems with this: first of all, by taking Aura of Censure we are missing out on huge damage boost from Divine Mandate, secondly, Paladin’s offensive spells aren’t exactly impressive when compared to Arcanist’s or Demolitionist’s arsenal. After quite a few hours of trial and error I have finally come up with something powerful and somewhat unique.
The Build
1.1.6.2 Update
Decided to revisit this unusual caster. And made it even more weird (and stronger)! Together with Acid component skill now cuts thru the hordes of monsters Guardian’s Gaze!
<<<< GRIMTOOLS >>>>*
**Craft for Stun Resist. You can use Titan Plating in Chest for deep Shattered Realm.
Igniting judgmental questions
Biting Blades on a Fire build? What in the meme?..
Credit for the idea goes to @thejabrixone. Biting Blades + Oathkeeper’s belt combo gave build the final push it needed. With all the conversions Fire damage on Biting Blades is higher than the one on Stormfire (from Seal of Destruction component). Plus BB have high weapon damage and hit twice so ADCtH is off the charts.
Why not double Light’s Oath?
Initially build had double Light’s Oath, but resists/heal/crafting bonus on Reign Ice and Fire outweighed extra skill bonuses and conversion from Light’s Oath.
What about Arcane Harmony pants? Blazeheart? Anderos’ Amplifier?
All those items have been tested before I came to this setup. And current setup is better on all fronts.
Gear/Skills/Devotions/Leveling
Itemization is built around supporting two build’s main damage dealers: Judgment and Rune of Kalastor. It also gives us neat converts to utilize Biting Blades. Build is very tight on skill points, so some sacrifices had to be made. Devotion map is classical Fire/Burn powerhouse enabled by flat resist reduction from gear/skills.
For leveling check out multiple leveling guides posted on this forum. This is the endgame build and it works as advertised after you equip all the gear/skills/devotions exactly as in Grimtools link above at level 100.
Gameplay
In Crucible build facetanks almost everything. However, you have to watch your cooldowns and be sure you are standing inside the Seal on hard waves.
In Shattered Realm you are fine as long as you can aggro abuse Boss chunks. If you have failed and aggroed few bosses, it’s better to die and try again so you can fight one or one, however, versus some boss combinations you can kite.
Stats
General with Ascension up
Magical (with Ascension up)
Biting Blades damage
Defense (with Ascension up)
Videos
1.1.6.2 Crucible Gladiator 150-170 5:58 run
1.1.6.2 Shards 75-76 11:02 run
Plasmodermic’s 5:21 Crucible run
SR 75-76 with a difficult boss chunk @76
In Conclusion
I want to thank @thejabrixone who gave me the idea to use Biting Blades together with Crimson Lotus belt. Also shout out to all the best builders from our little builders chat, you know who you are, guys, much love, your builds always motivate me to create something new.
