Sacrifice [1], Holy Bolt [6], Smite [1], Zeal [12], Charge [12], Vengeance [18], Blessed Hammer [18], Conversion [24], Holy Shield [24], Fist of the Heavens [30]

Sacrifice Required Level: 1 Prerequisites: None

At what price glory? By sanctifying his weapon with some of his own blood, a Paladin of Zakarum is able to increase his efficiency in combat by forfeiting a portion of his own physical essence. This sacrifice is a symbol of faith that even the lowliest Paladin must submit before the Light, in order that he may prove himself worthy of victory.

Effect: Increased damage at the cost of health.

Sacrifice allows you to do a large amount of damage without spending any mana. Paladins that focus in this skill and Auras (except Prayer), do not have to spend any points in Energy for increased mana, use mana items, or worry about using Mana Potions. This may be appealing for some Paladins.

The first thing to understand about Sacrifice is that the more damage your weapons does, the more life will be drained from yourself. It's possible to increase Attack Damage so high using Sacrifice, a good weapon, and Might or Concentration, that you will be losing huge amounts of life each time you hit a monster. If you plan on using Sacrifice as your main attack, you will have to balance the loss of life with items or you will have to use a lot of Healing Potions.

Items that "Steals % Life" work well with Sacrifice. Find a weapon and ring that steals life. If you can steal enough life per hit with high life stealing percentages or a combination of life stealing items, you can make up for the loss of your health and actually use Sacrifice attacks to heal yourself.

Items that Replenish Life can also help make up for the loss in life when using Sacrifice. It can, however, take a while to regain life such that Replenish Life may not alone be enough to make up for the loss of life. However, they can be used in combination with Prayer, Healing Potions, and Life Stealing items to make up for the time it takes Replenish Life to work.

The Prayer Aura can be a good skill to use with Sacrifice initially. You can use Sacrifice on the left Action Button, and have your Prayer Aura active healing you at the same time on the Right Action button. You will have to devote points to Energy to increase your Mana to support Prayer or use magic items that add to Mana. Later on you will probably want to upgrade to Redemption Aura which although doesn't help party members, can make up for Sacrifice hit point loss much faster and better than Prayer.

Be careful when using Combat Shrines. Combat Shines will greatly increase your damage, which will greatly increase the life lost when using Sacrifice. You may want to avoid Combat Shrines when using Sacrifice, or use them then switch to another skill.

Powerful Two-handed Weapons
By using Sacrifice and Might or Concentration at the same time with a powerful two-handed weapon, you may notice you will do a lot of damage. This looks very attractive at first glance. You may do so much damage that you can kill many monsters including Uniques in one or two hits. However, you may also notice that you are losing a lot of your life with each Sacrifice hit. At first you may believe this is caused by giving up the defense and blocking of a shield to wield a two-handed Weapon, but the increased loss of life is really caused by the increase in damage of your new two-handed weapon. The more damage you do, the more life you will lose. Another problem with high damage weapons when using Sacrifice is that you may be doing more damage to the monsters than you need to. A monster may die in one hit with a Two-handed weapon damage of 538 but 200 damage might also be all you need to kill the monster. The extra damage caused by your powerful weapon will cause increased loss in your life needlessly. Try finding a less powerful weapon. Although you will not kill the monster as quickly, you will be draining less hit points.

To make up for the life lost when using Sacrifice you will have to find the right balance between the damage of your weapon compared to the monsters, life stealing items, Potions, Replenish Life items, and Prayer.

Level	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20
Damage to Self: 8%
Attack Rating +%	20	27	34	41	48	55	62	69	76	83	90	97	104	111	118	125	132	139	146	153
Damage %	180	195	210	225	240	255	270	285	300	315	330	345	360	375	390	405	420	435	450	465

Sacrifice Receives Bonuses From:
Redemption: +15% Damage Per Level
Fanaticism: +5% Damage Per Level

Smite Required Level: 1 Prerequisites: None

The sword of a Paladin represents the might of righteousness and his shield symbolizes the strength of his faith. Both are tools he uses to mete out justice. Just as righteousness can give his spirit the fortitude to overcome the attacks of the unjust, so too can faith be a weapon to strike back at those who work to defeat him. To this end, the Paladin has developed several combat techniques that use the shield not only for defense, but also as an offensive weapon.

Effect: Shield bash that does damage and knock back.

• Smite always hits a target in range, so Attack Rating does not matter when using this skill.
• Smite does not work with Life/Mana % Steal.
• Smite is a weapon skill and thus is affected by Attack Speed (e.g. 'Fanaticism') and is not affected by Cast Rate (e.g. -of the Apprentice). Smite works with any "X% Chance to cast level Y (spell) upon striking" ability on your weapon.
• Smite does not receive added damage vs. undead with the Sanctuary aura.
• The Fire/Cold/Lightning damage added to attacks with the Holy-Fire, Holy-Freeze, and Holy-Shock auras do not add onto Smite damage.
• Smite can steal life with life tap cursed on target.
• Smite can also deal crushing blow and open wounds damage, but not deadly strike and elemental damages.
• Using Smite will reduce the durability of your weapon NOT shield

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Holy Bolt Required Level: 6 Prerequisites: None

The Paladin can learn to summon bolts formed of pure, righteous energies. These projectiles are vessels of life, bane to the undead, and succor to the faithful. At the battle of Taelohn Bridge, the villagers feared the day was lost when an army of the walking dead besieged them. Just as the battered militia was about to be overwhelmed, a small band of Paladins appeared. Wading through the rotting carcasses of the living dead and hurling spheres of pure Light that expelled the evil controlling the battling corpses while renewing the strength of the remaining villagers.

Effect: Bolt of energy that damages undead, or heals friendly units.

Holy Bolt will not heal undead minions. Works on hires and on Golems and party members. Friendly Skeletons will not take damage from Holy Bolt.

Ignores the resistance of Undead. Increased Healing to non-monster characters.

Level	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20
Mana Cost	2	2	2.1	2.1	2.2	2.3	2.3	2.4	2.5	2.5	2.6	2.6	2.7	2.8	2.8	2.9	3	3	3.1	3.1
Magic Damage	8-16	16-24	24-32	32-40	40-48	48-56	56-64	64-72	74-83	84-94	94-105	104-116	114-127	124-138	134-149	144-160	157-175	170-190	183-205	196-220
Healing	1-6	3-10	5-14	7-18	9-22	11-26	13-30	15-34	17-38	19-42	21-46	23-50	25-54	27-58	29-62	31-66	33-70	35-74	37-78	39-82

Holy Bolt Receives Bonuses From
Blessed Hammer: +50% Magic Damage Per Level
Fist of the Heavens: +50% Magic Damage Per Level
Prayer: +15% Life Healed Per Level

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Zeal Required Level: 12 Prerequisites: Sacrifice [1]

A noble Paladin, fervent in his dedication to righteousness, can draw upon the spirit of that dedication to perform seemingly impossible tasks. When surrounded by his enemies, a Paladin versed in this skill sets upon his adversaries with the zealous fervor of many times his number.

Effect: Quickly attacks multiple adjacent enemies.

Zeal increases your Attack Rating, and allows you to attack multiple adjacent monsters. Additional points into Zeal increases Attack Rating and increases the number of swings per use of Zeal up to 5. Zeal allows you to take a lot of very quick swings at a monster while at the same time increasing your attack rating.

Zeal is uninterrupted.

Level	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20
Mana Cost: 2
Attack +%	10	20	30	40	50	60	70	80	90	100	110	120	130	140	150	160	170	180	190	200
Number of Hits	2	3	4	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5
Damage +%	0	0	0	0	6	12	18	24	30	36	42	48	54	60	66	72	78	84	90	96

Zeal Receives Bonuses From:
Sacrifice: +12% Damage Per Level

Charge Required Level: 12 Prerequisites: Smite [1]

In showing fear, a Paladin displays his lack of faith, and a faithless Paladin is less than a man - let alone a knight. This is vital in that when all else fails, it is faith that will carry the Paladin through to victory. Warriors of faith never shirk from combat, but rush forward with heads down and shields up, allowing their glory to carry them into the thick of battle to deliver the first blow.

Effect: Closes the distance with an enemy, delivering a bash on contact.

• Although Charge is after Smite on the Skill Tree, Charge does not require a Shield. You can charge without a shield with a two-handed weapon.
• You can also use Charge on the Left Action Button while having Auras active at the same time. When maxed, Charge offers more damage than Sacrifice. Consider getting Mana Stealing Items when using Charge to offset its mana cost.
• You can only use Charge on a Monster if you are already not in melee range. This is the one drawback when compared to Sacrifice. You will have to back away or select another monster that is further away.
• May be used to flee from fights or even dodge (outrun) projectiles (such as Diablo's Fire Nova or Undead Mages' Bone Spirit). May also be used to (very) rapidly traverse land.
• Sometimes Charge skill may stun yourself (you cannot attack and move but can drink potions) when attacking. This may continue very long until to your death. You can fix this by pressing the "W" key to swap weapons which should exit you from the stun.

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Vengeance Required Level: 18 Prerequisites: Sacrifice [1], Zeal [12]

When a Paladin undertakes a crusade to banish evil, he is permitted to call upon the just souls of past crusades. Thus summoned, the spirits of the honorably vanquished manifest themselves and lend their energies to the weapons of the Paladin.

Effect: Adds Elemental (Fire, Lightning and Cold) damage to all melee attacks.

The Damage bonus applies to all three elemental damages. At level 1, it would be +70% Fire, +70% Cold, and +70% Lightning (not Poison).

Poison is not included in the Vengeance Skill.

Monster resistances have the ability to reduce the additional elemental damage.

Level	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20
Mana Cost	4	4.2	4.5	4.7	5	5.2	5.5	5.7	6	6.2	6.5	6.7	7	7.2	7.5	7.7	8	8.2	8.5	8.7
Cold Length	1.2	1.8	2.4	3.0	3.6	4.2	4.8	5.4	6.0	6.6	7.2	7.8	8.4	9.0	9.6	10.2	10.8	11.4	12.0	12.6
Elem Damage +%	70	76	82	88	94	100	106	112	118	124	130	136	142	148	154	160	166	172	178	184
Attack Bonus +%	20	30	40	50	60	70	80	90	100	110	120	130	140	150	160	170	180	190	200	210

Vengeance Receives Bonuses From
Resist Fire: +10% Fire Damage Per Level
Resist Cold: +10% Cold Damage Per Level
Resist Lightning: +10% Lightning Damage Per Level
Salvation: +2% Elemental Damage Per Level

Blessed Hammer Required Level: 18 Prerequisites: Holy Bolt [6]

The Visions of Akarat tell of a hopeless battle. Legions of the undead had laid siege to a small convent of nuns who were the keepers of a sacred relic, the Hammer of Ghrab Thaar. Suspended over a fiery chasm within the convent, the sisters knew the Hammer to be a powerful vessel of the Light and vowed never to allow it to fall into the hands of evil. With no weapons of their own, and no one to defend them, the nuns sacrificed themselves to destroy the hammer. Rather than let the undead despoil the church and the relic, they took the hammer and plunged themselves into the fiery chasm. At that moment, a powerful force of Light washed over the undead legion, striking them down where they stood. Since that time a well-trained Paladin is able to tap the remnants of this released energy, whirling a magical hammer to strike down his adversaries, especially the forces of the walking dead.

Effect: A summoned Hammer spirals outward, damaging enemies. The Undead take additional damage.

• This sends out a little glowing Hammer. The Hammer spins around you making a wider and wider turn until it disappears. Blessed Hammer has the ability to damage multiple enemies if it hits them.
• Does not ignore the immunity of monsters that are immune to magic
• Also receives bonuses from Concentration
• % Mana and Life Steal bonuses from items and weapons do not apply to Blessed Hammer.

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Conversion Required Level: 24 Prerequisites: Sacrifice [1], Zeal [12], Vengeance [18]

Through force of will and strength of steel, a noble Paladin with this skill is able to blind his enemies with the glory of the Light. After trading blows with the Paladin and facing the fire of righteousness burning in his eyes, an enemy will sometimes be struck with a divine epiphany and momentarily repent his past undertakings. So complete is the transformation, that the converted will turn to slay its former comrades.

Effect: A successful attack has a chance to convert the target to fight evil.

Player vs Player - This will not work on other Players.

Combining Conversion with Thorns makes a great way to get large numbers of monsters to kill themselves, however, once the Conversion wears off, your Thorns aura will remain on the monster for a second or two. If you hit the monster during this time (easy to do with Zeal) then you'll do massive damage to yourself.

Level	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20
Mana Cost: 4
Chance to Convert %	7	13	18	22	25	27	29	31	33	34	35	36	37	38	39	40	40	41	41	42
Duration 16 Seconds

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Holy Shield Required Level: 24 Prerequisites: Smite [1], Holy Bolt [6], Charge [12], Blessed hammer [18]

To a Paladin, the shield is a symbol of his faith. Particularly devout Paladins can channel their faith into their shields, bolstering its defensive value with holy energy. The purer his faith, the greater his defense.

Effect: Magically enhances shield to give defense bonuses.

Holy Shield increases Smite Damage for each point.

Holy Shield is not a Passive skill, it is similar to the Sorceress' Frozen Armor spells. To create a Holy Shield, cast the spell. It will last until it wears off which will be determined by how many skill points you have placed in Holy Shield.

Paladins who use Shields should consider this skill. Additional defense and increased blocking is always something to be desired, and this skill can still be used in combination with his Auras, and other Combat skills.

You may not want to use this skill in combination with the Thorns Aura. When using Thorns, you want the monsters to hit you so that they will be damaged by Thorns, however Holy Shield makes it more difficult for monsters to hit you.

Holy Shield is very useful to increase blocking on shields with low blocking. You may find a great rare, or unique shield with low blocking. The lack of blocking on the shield may make you think twice about using it, but with Holy Shield you can raise the chance to block and still use this shield.

Level	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20
Mana Cost: 35
Duration (seconds)	30	55	80	105	130	155	180	205	230	255	280	305	330	355	380	405	430	455	480	505
Defense +%	25	40	55	70	85	100	115	130	145	160	175	190	205	220	235	250	265	280	295	310
Successful Blocking +%	14	18	20	23	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	31	32	33	33	34	34	34	34	35
Smite Damage +	3-6	5-8	7-10	9-12	11-14	13-16	15-18	17-20	20-23	23-26	26-29	29-32	32-35	35-38	38-41	41-44	45-48	49-52	53-56	57-60

Holy Shield Receives Bonuses From
Defiance: +15% Defense Per Level

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Fist of the Heavens Casting Delay: 1 Second Required Level: 30 Prerequisites: Sacrifice [1], Holy Bolt [6], Zeal [12], Vengeance [18], Blessed Hammer [18], Conversion [24]

This spell allows the Paladin to summon the power of holy vengeance. Manifesting as lightning from the heavens, these bolts rain down from the sky, exploding into a thousand shafts of light that radiate outwards to banish the evil from the battlefield.

Effect: Lightning attack from the sky that releases Holy Bolts.