Dream Zealot Paladin Build Skills for Diablo 2 Resurrected

Note that you will be investing skill points in either Fanaticism or Conviction. Both have pros and cons and depend on your gear. No skill points are to be allocated to Holy Shock either, as the Aura will be provided by Dream instead.

1. 1 point to all prerequisites
2. 20 points to Sacrifice — Synergy for Zeal, required
3. 20 points to Resist Lightning — Synergy for Holy Shock, required
4. 20 points to Zeal — Main damage skill, invest in Sacrifice first for more damage or Zeal for more Attack Rating, required
5. 20 points to Salvation — Synergy for Holy Shock, required
6. 1+ points to Holy Shield — Temporary defensive buff, required
7. 20 points to your Aura of choice ( Fanaticism or Conviction) — Secondary damage Aura, required

The Dream Zealot, also called the Tesladin, which is an Auradin variant, is essentially a Zealot that focuses on Lightning damage rather than Physical.

The Dream Zealot is an endgame build, as it depends upon having two Dream items, a shield and a helm. Without those two items, this build does not function. You can start as a Zealot and transition over to a Dream Zealot once you obtain those two items. It is also an expensive build to make viable, but it is quite strong once the expensive items are obtained.

The way this build works is Holy Shock becomes your primary source of damage. However, you are not using Holy Shock yourself. Your two Dreams are supplying an on-equip level 30 Holy Shock. You boost the damage of Holy Shock through Paladin skill synergies ( Resist Lightning and Salvation). Conviction is the primary Aura of the Dream Zealot, but Fanaticism may work as well, especially if your Mercenary has Infinity.

One major drawback of the Dream Zealot over the classic Zealot is a slower Zeal attack sequence, unless you have the expensive gear to make up for your lack of Fanaticism. Due to the 'Next Hit Always Misses' bug, animation interrupts like blocking and stuns will cause every subsequent swing to miss during the following Zeal animation sequence.

Zeal can be maxed out with low priority as a Dream Zealot, as the Physical damage provided by additional points is not essential. The Tesladin can also be altered to use Vengeance as a main hand skill rather than Zeal. The benefit of doing this is most obvious during the mid-game phase, before you achieve your high-end gear pieces, allowing your Paladin to become a support chracter through Conviction to benefit party members. This variant is not particularly viable as a solo build, however, due to the lack of area of effect damage.

The following section discusses how many attribute points should be allocated to each of the primary stats.

Enough for gear — Mostly dependant on the shield used. If using an Ethereal Vortex Shield, this is 138 Strength. If choosing to use another shield with lower Strength requirements such as Herald of Zakarum, then 103 Strength for an Archon Plate is most likely necessary. This number always changes based on the gear you are using however, so make sure to always double check the Strength requirements of each piece of gear you have as well as how much Strength each piece will provide once equipped.

Enough for max block — Between 130 and 170 Dexterity total is usually enough to reach the 75% maximum chance to block. For a typical Paladin wearing the Herald of Zakarum and using a fairly high level Holy Shield, 130 Dexterity should be enough. Always check your Character Sheet however, where you can track your current chance to block as you allocate Dexterity.

Everything else into Vitality — 250+ Vitality. Every excess attribute point should be allocated to Vitality, as long as you can meet the Strength and Dexterity requirements of your items by the time you wish to equip them, as well as the 75% maximum chance to block.

Nothing — allocating stat points to Energy in a final build is universally considered sub-par for almost every character due to the widespread availability of Mana Potions.