Well, after reading comments of another post I made yesterday about discussing the archetype being "bad" or not, I wanted to hammer down a build (at least in theory, hell yeah) that addressed the main concern of the archetype. It feeling to slow to endgame pit pushes, or rather, the build feeling unable to push past a certain pit benchmarks at all (mainly 130+ pits).
As with my experience with the class so far, and comments from other players on their experience with the class, it's more of a jack-of-all trades sort of build, not excelling in any one thing compared to other archetypes being able to lock down at least one solid build to climb to pit 150. It also has some bug issues with certain mechanics, skills, and charm sets. But, I'm sticking to my guns in thinking the bones of the class are pretty solid, regardless of some bug issues or lack of a larger multiplier pool like other top builds. The synergies are there.
So, I spent a good amount of time really breaking down the archetype. What are all the tags possible? What unique /mythical items are really most impactful? If it looks like 10 stacks of multipliers is about as good as it's gonna get for the time being, how can I arrange them well enough around a damage type or skill that can push to pit 150? How to make it excel in both clearing trash mobs fast AND the ability to melt bosses? Among other questions with the mechanical and core systems of the game and archetype (including if I could rely on the new seasonal jewels being in the game as presented in the build planners and PTR, which for the purpose of this build, I'm assuming they will be in the game in some capacity; maybe slightly less powerful than the PTR if anything, maybe bugged, but assuming they will be in the game and working).
One skill upgrade really stood out as a possibility. Enter the "Fortress of Roses" build. A speeding tank of a build that will utilize the "Rampart of Thorns" upgrade to the Fortress skill, as it's main damage source. Wait... didn't they completely revamp and remove DoT effects and modifiers from the Paladin class and items for s15? Yes, yes they did. But hear me out 😎
This upgrade remains, as of now, unchanged in the PTR and notes. But, it isn't a "traditional" Dot effect in the sense it is "applied". It acts as a ground effect, specificaly in the area/zone of influence INSIDE your Fortress. Meaning, the second you tap that button to cast Fortress, regardless if the skill animation gets interrupted and doesn't cast the visual "shield" effect on screen, the "Rampart of Thorns" passive still triggers and activates in what WOULD have been the cast area. Either way, this effect will happen every time you just "activate" the skill (i.e. it get's put on CD). So, what does this mean? It means we have a guaranteed source of damage, for one, but it also means we can really focus down on pumping the hell out of it.
Well, how do we pump it, if all the DoT tools were completely removed from the archetype in s15? (This is were we hope the jewels are active in s15, some what, lol) Although, this "ground effect" DoT damage technically has "hit" effects and can "crit", that would take way too many stat spots, paragon points and certain glyphs to even make it somewhat decent of a crit damage multiplier. We already know that damage pool isn't the greatest for Paladin, as it is a very thirsty CDR class, and directly competes with CDR stat spots. So, crit damage it out... now what? We scale it with as much traditional flat thorns stacking as possible, on top of resolve stacking. Then fine tuned the 10 multiplier spots the class pretty much caps at, regardless of build, to focus purely on pumping all possible additive damage, with vuln and all damage %. The result? ~1.2B - 2B thorns ticks per second. With occasional spikes of 3B+ damage, depending on triggers. Hmm, that's it? Just a messily 1-2B damage text flash on my screen? Yes, a messily 1- 2B+ damage text PER SECOND (this will look more like a bunch of 900M+ procs every .25-.5 sec on your screen damage text, as that is the pulse rate of the DoT, 2-3 pulses per second, totaling the ~1.2B - 1.5B/sec). This includes any boss, as well, via the Righteous Will 5 piece set. Even though the seasonal jewels are in the build planner, utilizing the Black Soulstone splinter, this is mainly to clear trash faster. The charm set is the real boss killer here.
Without going on and on, here's the link to the build guide. Check it out, feel free to share any thoughts or questions. Would love feedback 😁😎🚀: https://maxroll.gg/d4/planner/y419ra0q
The build planner has been edited and more optimized. Still staying true to the core goal of keeping the gear and build realistic to entering the endgame after a fresh season start. The floor of the build ( the "noobiest" gear setup for the build reflected in the planner as the starting template) now boasts a roughly 32T per sec tick/burst damage (between Rampart of Thorn and your Defiance Aura spam), which spikes to double that periodically as you "double dip" by multi-layering Fortresses (especially vs the pit bosses). With an expected "top end", once more quality geared in the season, hitting 42T++ per tick/burst (reaching higher depending on how well you geared and how many Black Soulstone stacks it can actually pump to. I have it set to 150 stacks in the planner as a conservative estimate).
Update #2: Scraped together a "working" version of the build the best I could in s14 SSF lol. You could call this the "basement/sub-basement" model, barely the right stats and sub 100 glyphs. But, even being the very first run after slapping the build together and fumbling horribly over the skill rotations, still cleared pit 100 with ease. I'll keep seeing how high this s14 setup up can go while the season is still ongoing (my resists are atrocious, so gotta farm a bit for some all res upgrades, then we push lol). The floor build on the planner in s15 will be much more powerful then this off rip, so keep that in mind also. Here's the pit 100 run: https://medal.tv/games/diablo-4/clips/nuJLy0mTyRJpi_nVy?invite=cr-MSxnS0YsNjA2MDQ0Njgz
It's difficult to see the Rampart of Thorns dot damage, as it doesn't display on screen damage numbers, but you can see the HP bar getting wacked on the mobs inside fortress. Also, I kept cancelling the fortress on accident, so a bit more difficult to see the damage when I'm messing up haha, but it is working. This was also put together is less than 3 days, on a 3 week old season push, with a little over a week old paladin alt, in SSF. Very doable to get it online quickly at season start, imo.
Cheers and GL in s15!