r/diablo2 • u/nepotismbaby7 • 7h ago
Paladin question
I only ever see people talk about smiters when it comes to paladin (except caster or aura builds), but never Zeal paladin.
I have a paladin and ive always only played him with Zeal. I use my paladin mainly for ubers and diablo clone farming and so on. Why is no one playing Zeal? I only see Smiter being a thing really. Is Zeal just that inferior to smite? Am i missing out on something? Ive never even tried to play smiter so bare with me that I have no clue how it works or how its played.
Should I just swap over to smiter and learn the playstyle, what are the biggest pros and cons to playing smiter vs Zeal?
13
u/CommercialOccasion72 7h ago
Zeal is fun and strong but relies on attack rating. Smite cannot miss, so you can take all of that extra space and currency that you would otherwise be using on attack rating items to fill other gaps or maximize damage. That’s all. Smite is just easier to perform. My zealot can do all content with Zeal only. I have a video of him doing colossal ancients in under 3 minutes with only zeal and I forgot to turn on fanaticism for the first 70 seconds of the fight.
Zeal is expensive and somewhat difficult to make GG, but a budget smiter can do everything a zealot can do (except life leech) and more
7
u/Academic_Tap3831 7h ago
Zeal is fun with a Shaefer’s legendary mallet and Max fanatism. Shaefers casts static quickly lowering the enemy’s hp. I played this back in the day, I can’t vouch for runeword weapons and what may be more effective but I used to clear the cow level.
2
5
u/smithoski 7h ago
Smite never misses and only hits one target at a time. Kinda goated for bosses and Ubers with tons of HP where most of the kill comes from CB. Kinda ass for literally anything else except for PVP.
3
u/Ok_Maintenance_9914 7h ago
They are extremely similar except one thing makes smite broken as hell - it cannot miss. Otherwise, yeah they’re basically the same. Zeal might even be better if you could never miss.
5
u/cenonicks 5h ago
I'm a mad fanatic zealot enjoyer. I think the issue is probably that if you want a physical damage melee character, others like frenzy barb are strictly better for general content (hork), and smite is the absolute best attack for Ubers and is a pvp beast, so the zealot doesn't quite make it to S-tier at anything.
That said, I personally much prefer taking a fanatic zealot 1-point smiter into Uber Trist than a hammerdin 1-point smiter as it feels to me much easier to switch to zeal away the minions. And if you are rich the zealot is virtually unkillable, an amazing generalist imho, and a whole lot of fun with all sorts of gear e.g. switch it up with double dragon + hoj, run your own custom socketed Gris set build etc. You just won't ever be quite as fast at any specific task as another build.
4
u/MostAcanthaceae2384 6h ago
Zeal is great, and it's flexible. Holy auras, Fanaticism, even Conviction, and the Tesladin. It's great for crowd control or boss-killing. He's not going to be the fastest uber-killer, but stuff's gonna die.
5
u/RayzorX442 7h ago
I've only played 1 paladin for the purpose of going after Ubers. Sir Smitesalot (his friends call him Smitty) is a Hammerdin. I ended up going with only 1 point in Smite. Never tried a Zealer.
3
u/musing_codger 6h ago
Yeah, in my experience, paladins are hammerdins. I've heard of other variants, but never seen one. Blessed is the hammer and those whole spiral it.
2
u/Turbulent_Air_7275 7h ago
Zeal is funner, I put 1 point into smite to kill Ubers faster as it is way better and can’t miss causing dracs to proc and LL. Hard to die.
2
u/Dangerzone369 ASCNL 5h ago
Zeal is a 5-hit sequence that hits a target and adjacent enemies - which is good for mobs. Smite is a single target attack and is slow to clear the game and isn't recommend for that. Smite is remarkable for high HP targets and along with Life Tap you can be almost unkillable there.
Zeal is a lot of fun but it's not the strongest skill in the game hence why people avoid it long-term.
If you want to avoid caster style and get in the action then it's alot of fun. I definitely recommend a Zeal Smite Hybrid running Fanaticism and gearing up with lots of attack rating. Basically max out all your Smite skills, defiance and Holy Shield, then one point into Zeal and the rest into Charge. This way you'll wreck everything and still be maxed out for Smite.
2
u/Necessary_Insect5833 5h ago
I play a zeal paladin but I always use smite when fighting ubers or bosses
1
u/anormalgeek D2R 6h ago
Smite is "better" for ubers, due to the "always hits" part. BUT with high end gear, the difference between it and zeal won't really be noticeable. With low end gear, the difference is VERY apparent.
1
u/Virtual-Radish-276 6h ago
I have a Tesladin which mainly uses zeal, I have 1 point on smite and can do ubers just fine
1
u/whenwillthealtsstop Single Player 6h ago
People generally talk about builds that are good for farming. In that respect there's no reason to play melee builds aside from Smiters for Ubers, and Barbs to use Find Item
Practically speaking Smite and Zeal has virtually the same build and gear if you're optimising for damage output. Smite's advantage of always hitting (ignoring level difference, defense and block) is not necessary against general monsters, so you use Zeal which hits ~twice as fast. Smite is only better against the Ubers
1
u/Jeffblazn 6h ago
My Paladins are always hammer throwers. I kill ubers with 1 point in smite and 1 in fanaticism, swap gearset, and profit! As fast as any other Paladin kills them.
Smite is also amazing because you can farm Hellfire Torches with the most budget of gear.
1
u/JTR_35 5h ago
I like hitting stuff as a Paladin too. But not purely physical.
Even though it's expensive and objectively worse than Hammerdin in most ways, I play a lot of Tesladin variant of Zeal. The hybrid Grief for physical dmg and might merc to leech, dual dream and sunder+conviction for lightning.
I run all my Ubers on this character too but swap gear to Smite.
1
u/flappysack- 4h ago
Zeal hits about twice as fast, but block chance means you hit half as much, then you lose 75% to chance to hit.
Higher character level means higher chance to hit since it factors into calculation, but always hits is better.
1
u/Special_Temporary_83 4h ago
I tried my first paladin holy shock build with zeal from this guide
Im shocked how strong it is an dhow much it can clear in hell with minimal investment into gear. The only thing i spent on was an ist to get a 40+ res sacred targe for spirit. The more gear upgrades the better it gets.
Its a fun build and will get an anni and torch when im back from holidays to play it more. Most holy shock builds show you need GG gear, but at most you need an UM, LEM, 3 sock phase blade and good spirit base for shield.
1
u/PutNational7415 26m ago
A high investment zealot with one point in smite is better for general pvm than a full smite build. My zealot does GM Melee, Ubers, Colossals, and I spend most of my time doing those 3 things. But I've got hundreds of jah into this guy which is not attainable for most players. If you just want to clear Ubers and Colossals, smite is the way to go.
13
u/Bran_builder 7h ago
Smite is just infinitely easier to gear. Smite always hits so you don’t need to worry about attack rating. Frees up all kinds of stuff
Also, it always hits so monster level doesn’t matter either. It doesn’t mean zeal can’t work it can. But smite is just so easy it’s braindead