Diablo 2 Walkthrough -> Paladin
A natural leader, his auras make him a great partner for a Sorceress, and he's the most valuable player on the team. I'll try to explain his strengths as a great warrior in this article.
I do not claim that the development plan that I will present is the best - this is my experience that I want to share, and nothing more.
And I will not describe all the Paladin skills, since some of them are useless, and others we will not need in this method of leveling.
Skills
Zeal - The paladin deals a rapid series of blows to multiple enemies or a single enemy. If surrounded by multiple enemies, they deal one blow to each, but if there's only one enemy, they take all the blows. Level 1 provides 2 hits + a 10% attack bonus. Invest 4 points in this to reach level 4, which gives you 5 hits and a 40% attack bonus. In my opinion, there's no point in leveling this skill further; from level 5 onward, only attack increases.
Charge is one of the most powerful of the paladin's offensive skills. Run up and attack. Level 1 gives you +100% damage and 50% attack; at level 21, it increases damage to 600% and attack to 300%. Level this skill up to the max.
Vengeance - Adds elemental damage. It only takes one point, and we use it exclusively on Hell difficulty against monsters immune to physical damage.
Fanaticism - An aura that increases attack speed, damage, and attack. Very effective when paired with Zeal. At level 20, it provides +35% attack speed, +375% damage, and +150% attack. Fanaticism can and should also be used with Charge. Together, the total damage is around 1000%.
Holy Shield - Increases block chance, shield damage, and shield defense. Level this skill up to level 10, which allows you to achieve maximum block chance with a Dexterity of 100 or higher.
Holy Freeze - An aura that slows enemies within a certain radius. If you're leveling this skill, it should be at least level 10 or higher.
Tactics
We'll primarily use Zeal + Fanaticism to fight monsters, occasionally Charge + Fanaticism, and, even more rarely, Vengeance + Fanaticism. For all these combos, you'll need life and mana steal. The higher the life steal, the better, and a mana steal of at least 4% for Zeal + Fanaticism and higher for Vengeance + Fanaticism. Beware of bosses with Lithgning Ench., especially those with the Conviction aura.
Even with 75% Lightning Resistance on Nightmare and Hell, fights with such bosses can end disastrously if you use Z+F. Zeal + Fanatism speed up the Paladin to the point of impossibility, and they won't stop until they've landed their 5 hits. While we're attacking such a boss, we'll be receiving a steady stream of Lightning Bolts, and the faster we hit, the more we'll get.
So it's best to deal with the minions first, then use C+F to kill the boss. On Hell, you'll have trouble with monsters that are physically immune. In this case, using Vengeance won't be a problem for normal monsters, but bosses, especially Stone Skin, will be a challenge.
Using Vengeance against immune bosses will pose a stealing problem. Since these monsters won't take physical damage, there's no stealing from them. Stock up on mana bottles and crush these monsters.
Now about Charge. Charge is great for taking down guys like the Blacksmith, Consuls, Baal's Minions (the latter, of course), and all the other big bosses. Now about the principle: kill all the little monsters so they don't get dirty underfoot.
After the racetrack is cleared, click on the fat bastard with the mouse and don't let go until he dies. If you've cornered him and he's still alive, quickly switch to Zeal and finish him off until his brains are splattered across that very wall.
Features
It's simple here: Strength and Dexterity are determined by the weapon's requirements, everything else goes into Life. Nothing goes into Energy. Weapons with -20% or -40% requirements are preferable, so we have more points to invest exclusively in Life. The more Life, the less likely we are to die.
Equipment
The most important thing is a weapon and a shield; everything else is secondary. A good one-handed weapon is very hard to find, but a shield is a better option: kind Auntie Anechka will thank us for saving her. For normal play, a Broad Sword + two Tir+El runes is fine; finding something better won't hurt.
For Nightmare, you'll have to work a bit harder to find weapons. While playing Nightmare, I found the Unicum, an advanced saber with which I completed the entire Nightmare and even part of Hell. The saber is a fairly standard weapon: 30-75 damage, Very Fast Attack Speed +25% Increased, 50% Deadly Strike, Slowed Target by 30%, and a bunch of other goodies.
Weapons: Finding a weapon for Hell will be extremely difficult, as Hell weapons have a minimum damage of 100, and the more, the better! It's also preferable for the weapon to be Very Fast + Increased.
Shield: It should definitely have bonuses like Fastest Block Rate and Increased Chance of Blocking, plus a bunch of resistances. It's also a good idea to have skill bonuses and damage increases on the shield.
Gloves with Increased Attack Speed + Resistances, to agility or good unique ones.
Amulet: It is advisable to steal mana, prismatic, to skills or with damage reduction of 21 or more.
Rings: they should definitely steal life, attack damage, and resist, if available. A rare Zirklet or Coronet would be perfectly suitable as headgear. The same bonuses I mentioned for the amulet work well with headgear. A good Set or Unique helmet would also be a good choice.
It would be nice to have bonuses like Deadly Strike and Crushing Blow. I recommend looking for good gear from Mephisto. You can get some good gear in 15-20 runs.
Source: diablo2.pnz.ru.
See also:
Necromancer Skill Table
Sorceress (Witch) Leveling Up
Half-Life 2: Route 17