Please keep in mind that this guide is written in the context of my own personal experience with the game.  The Hellfire Torches and Annihilus are not available in single player mode, at least not at the moment; we'll have to wait and see if Blizzard changes their minds about this for Diablo II Resurrected.  The moderators who allow for the use of those items are not welcome on these forums.  Although we do not permit the use of Runeword Mod (RWM), which allows for the creation of ladder-only runewords in single player, I will provide a link to this mod in the 'Further Reading' section.  If an item requires RWM, the word 'RWM' will appear in parentheses next to it.  I'll also mention 'untwinked' gameplay, which is the term we use to describe the act of playing a character solely with items that character has discovered.

hqdefault.jpgSo, what is the best way to make use of this guide? In this section, we'll cover the fundamentals of zealot functionality.  This section is applicable to any zealot build, and we'll go over the key mechanics of the build, stats to aim for, and breakpoints for each of these factors.  Once you've grasped the fundamentals, you can choose a 'flavor' of zealot, specifically one of the following: physical, fire, lightning, or cold.  The following are some additional flavor-specific statistics that you should strive for, and these will be discussed in their own sections.

The goal of this guide is that, after reading it, you will feel confident in your ability to use a zealot for whatever purpose you choose to build your character.  I hope you find this guide to be informative; however, I will provide links to additional guides where appropriate to provide a more comprehensive overview of specific topics.  I am also happy to answer questions sent to me through the forums' private message system.

1.  Zealots – An Introduction and Key Mechanics Mechanics of Zeal D2R Items Xbox Paladin buy D2R XBOX Series runes Paladin Zealots – An Introduction and Key Mechanics

Using the 'zeal' skill, a zealot can send the hordes of The Burning Hells back to where they came from by repeatedly hitting them with a hammer and hitting them with another hammer and hitting them with another hammer.  When combined with an aura of your choice, Zeal can be activated by pressing the left click button on your mouse.  The nature of your zealot build is dictated by the aura you choose, and these options will be discussed in greater detail in the following section.

Zeal is a melee skill that has a faster attack speed than a normal attack when compared to a normal attack.  Damage and attack rating increase in direct proportion to the number of skill points you devote to zeal (see Table 1).  Starting at level one, zeal will strike twice per attack, with each subsequent hit increasing by one, until you hit five times per attack at level four.  The first strike is aimed at your target, and subsequent strikes will hit adjacent enemies if there are any nearby; otherwise, all subsequent strikes will be aimed at your initial target as well.  A separate chance to hit exists for each strike with zeal (and thus for each of the individual five).  Whenever Zeal is used, it will always cost two mana per attack, which is a volley of five strikes rather than a single strike.

Zeal is impervious to both the effects of enemies and the actions of the player.  This is significant because it means that zeal will not be interrupted by blocking, hit recovery, knockback, or stuning effects.  You can, for example, still block; there is simply no animation in this instance.

2.  Diablo 2 Resurrected Items PS5 Paladin Guide – Create Your Own Zealot! Mechanics of Blocking in D2R Runewords for sale!

If you're playing a zealot, you'll be right up in the enemy's face, hurling insults at their friends and making ridiculous faces to scare them away from your cause.  In response, they will attempt to scare you away by slapping you across the face with a club, claw, or bolt of lightning.  If at all possible, you should avoid this situation, and there are numerous ways to do so, the most important of which is to prevent those who wish to disfigure your beautiful face from succeeding.  It should be noted that mercenaries are unable to block.

In the event that an attacker uses any of the skills listed in Table 2 to hit a defender, the first thing that happens is a hit check, unless you are running in which case the hit check is bypassed.

In terms of notation, alvl represents the level of the attacker, dlvl represents the level of the defender, AR represents the attack rating of the attacker, and DR represents the defense rating of the defender.  An attacker's chance of hitting is always 5%, which equates to a 95% chance of hitting.

Upon successful completion of the hit check by the attacker, you will have the opportunity to block the attack.  A shield, a shrunken head (available only to necromancers), or an auric shield (available only to paladins) are the only items that can be used to deflect an attack.  Note: Since no one calls an auric shield an 'auric shield' (although they should, because it's a lovely word), simply refer to it as a paladin shield, or 75% of people will not understand what you're talking about and 87% will think you're a little strange.

Mimicry, projectiles (arrows and bolts), throwing weapons (javelins, throwing knives, throwing axes), and physical damage missiles are all things that you can defend yourself against.  There are two other types of attacks that you can avoid: the on-death explosion caused by a bone fetish and the explosion caused by a monster that has been enchanted with fire.  These are two very useful situational blocks to have on hand.

It is unfortunate that there are some attacks that are unblockable, some of which you do not need to be concerned about, such as lightning bolts, the explosion from molten boulders, the pulse damage from tornadoes, the impact damage from armageddon, and smite (when used by a paladin).  Although there are a few nasty exceptions, the most notable are corpse explosions (such as Nihlathak's), as well as charges from claw vipers and reanimated hordes.  There is a formula for calculating block chance, just as there is for calculating hit chance.

3.  Attacking at a faster rate

When playing untwinked, you should strive to achieve maximum attack speed, but this is not as important as it should be when playing twinked.  It is as simple as this: hitting harder means you will kill more things in less time.  There are a number of factors at play in this situation.  For starters, zeal attacks are significantly faster than standard attacks.  For the second time, every weapon has an attack speed; the base value is 0, values greater than 0 are slower, and values less than 0 are faster.  At level 20, fanaticism grants a 35% increase in attack speed.  Finally, you have attack speed built into your equipment. . Your speed, on the other hand, can be reduced by decrepify, holy freeze, and other spells.  The decrepify must be taken into consideration, which is especially important if you plan to run Baal.  Use of the attack speed calculator to bring all of these factors together is the most effective method of approaching this problem.

The best bases for speed, despite their low base damage, are phase blades, especially in the late game.  This is true for both the Grief runeword on fanaticism zealots (because the damage is primarily derived from the +XXX damage, which is independent of the weapon damage) and any runeword used on an elemental zealot, for which it is primarily intended to deliver the attacks as quickly as possible.  Berserker axes deal slightly more damage per unit of time spent wielding them, but they are slightly slower.  Speed is unlikely to be an issue on a fanaticism zealot, with the exception of Baal running because of decrepify, who may be forced to do so.  You will need to modify this to fit your specific needs.  Do you have a lot of resources at your disposal? Each build should have a weapon that is unique to it.  Is it because there aren't enough resources? A Phase blade has a broader range of applications.