Blizzard has introduced a new class in Diablo 4 with the Paladin out of nowhere, along with the new Season 11 and many changes. Not even half a day after release, the first players are already running through the highest difficulty and taking down bosses as if they were trash mobs.
What kind of build is this?
- On December 12th, the Paladin appeared spontaneously and is playable for anyone who preorders the new expansion Lord of Hatred.
- The new class comes with various playstyles, some of which are already known from earlier. One of them is a build that throws shields wildly and deletes bosses with it – like Captain America from Marvel. The streamer Rob showcases the build impressively in his video.
- The build is strong enough to farm the highest difficulty in the game just 6 hours after the release of the new season (and class) with ease.
Here you can find all information about Season 11 and the new season mechanic “Sanctified”.
This is what makes the build so strong: With the “Captain America” build, you throw Sanctified Shields at enemies, inflicting pulsating damage in the billions to all struck foes. You also have such high defense that you can hardly die.
You essentially stack as much armor and thorns as possible. The Paladin has two options to draw an enormous effect from these two values by combining various skills and attributes.
- the skill “Shield of Vengeance,” through which your Sanctified Shield pulses while throwing at the height of your thorn damage
- the central passive “Emblem” increases your damage by 75% of your armor percentage and an additional 50% of your block chance
- the legendary Paragon node Castle (or “Castle”) from the eponymous board, which multiplies your damage by a percentage of your armor
In the Moloch Oath, you have even more armor and defense, making it the logical choice for the build. The rest of the build then focuses on having additional multipliers for the Sanctified Shield and especially a strong resource generation.
An important item for this is the Unique “Mantle of Dread,” which increases your Moloch skills and their damage – but consumes resources. You counter this with the right runewords. You get the Mantle of Dread from Grigoire.
You can find Rob’s complete build with regular updates on d4builds.gg. The best builds can be found compiled in our Tier List for Diablo 4 Season 11.
“In less than 10 seconds the boss is dead. No Ancestrals needed”
The expert explains in his video that he hasn’t even come close to his limits with the build he played there. The gear and his Paragon are still far from optimized, and he will need to rebuild to push for the highest rifts.
Nevertheless, he has never farmed Qual 4 so easily in a season:
I have somehow three Vermachte items and I already one-shot bosses at Qual 4. Or I kill them in about 5 seconds. […] Paladin is crazy OP; I don’t think I have ever one-shot a boss within 6 hours after season start. […] In less than 10 seconds, the boss is dead. No Ancestrals needed.
Rob recommends searching for shields at the gambler, as there are two options that are particularly strong for the build, and the expert is not quite sure where to get them more reliably.
Together with the Paladin, several other changes have also been introduced in the game. For example, there is no area call anymore, but only seasonal ranks, which means you may have to make more effort at the beginning since the buffs you are used to are missing.
With the new season mechanic of Sanctification, you can create God Rolls yourself, almost literally. However, that requires a lot of luck, and you only have one chance at a perfect item per item.
The Paladin is just one of two classes included in Lord of Hatred. The second has already been teased by Blizzard, but there is still no information on what it will be. Fans are already speculating: Yesterday, the Paladin unexpectedly arrived in Diablo 4 – Players now believe they have already discovered hints about the second new class
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