Diablo II: Avenger Skill Layout

An Avenger is a Paladin that uses the Vengeance skill to deal large amounts of elemental damage to his foes. The skill setup is as follows:

Might - 1
Sacrifice - 1
Smite - 1
Holy Fire - 1
Thorns - 1

At level six the character is utilizing the Holy Fire aura for added damage to all attacks. Starting gear is still in use and will be for some time, but monsters are not causing any dangerous situations.

Holy Bolt - 1
Zeal - 1
Charge - 1

At level twelve Zeal becomes available and gives added damage to all attacks, as well as the ability to hit multiple targets. However it does utilize mana and since mana leech is virtual impossible to find this early in the game the normal attack is still used often as well.

Vengeance - 1
Blessed Hammer - 1
Holy Freeze - 1
Resist Lightning - 7

At level 18 Vengeance, our main attacking skill, becomes available. However it is too mana intensive to use, and without the Conviction aura not as viable as the alternative. Therefore Holy Freeze is utilized to deal extra damage as well as slow down all monsters within melee range to give the character added defensive support.

Resist Lightning - 10
Holy Shield - 1
Resist Fire - 2
Sanctuary - 1

At level twenty-four Holy Shield becomes available. While it does help on the defensive end, it is far too mana intensive to utilize, especially with such a short duration period. Besides which with Holy Freeze active, blocking is not so important in Normal difficulty. We are pumping the synergies of Vengeance in preparation for Conviction becoming available. As a result progress will be slow due to using a single point Holy Freeze aura to deal all of our damage.

Holy Shield - 5
Resist Fire - 3
Conviction - 1

At level thirty we are ready to move to Vengeance as our main attacking skill, now that Conviction is available. The synergies will be pumped to increase its damage but also to keep mana usage as low as possible for as long as possible, since mana leech items are still rare. Holy Shield has been increased enough to make using it viable, if deemed necessary.

Conviction - 20
Resist Fire - 6

We immediately maximize Conviction as soon as possible. Here one must know what end equipment they will be using and how many +skills it gives. Since Conviction is maxed out at level 25 we do not want to add more skill points to it than absolutely necessary.

Resist Fire - 10
Resist Cold - 10
Holy Shield - 7

At level sixty-four all of the synergies are raises as far as necessary if you are planning on wearing as an armor Guardian Angel. Any more hard points will only increase the damage of Vengeance but not give any additional points to the maximum resistance of elemental damage. Since it is more skill point effective to raise Vengeance at this point that is what we plan on doing next. However if Guardian Angel is not going to be worn then here is where a decision must be made. Either go with Vengeance or stay on a more mana saving path and continue to pump the synergies. I choose to max Vengeance.

Vengeance - 20

At level seventy-nine all needed skills are maxed and damage output is as high as possible. From here the extra skill points can be used as deemed necessary. Vigor and Redemption can be gained as utility skills, Holy Shield could be increased for the additional defense and blocking or the Vengeance synergies can be raised for additional damage. All routes are useful, so the final determination is based on what the character will accomplish once he has solved the game.

Final Skill distribution:

Conviction - 20
Vengeance - 20
Resist Lightning - 10
Resist Cold - 10
Resist Fire - 10
Holy Shield - 7

Diablo II: Patriarch Methos

Methos is an Avenger, a Paladin that utilizes the Conviction aura and Vengeance as an attack to slay his enemies. Due to his attacking style, mostly elemental, no monsters will be immune to him. This will be a nice change from Atropos where lots of monsters became immune in Hell.

Methos started out fairly slow in Normal. I decided that the only piece of equipment I will twinkle until Hell is reached is his weapon. I wanted to keep things interesting but ensure that his killing speed wouldn't suffer terribly. Of course his main attack won't become viable until level 30 when Conviction is available, so until then he has to rely on a normal attack, or two swing Zeal. As such I was able to see some weapons I normally wouldn't have, such as the Brainhew, Ginther's Rift and the Rixot's Keen. For most of Normal though Methos weilded the Brainhew, which is a two handed weapon. As such he was unable to stand toe-to-toe with any monster packs. Instead he allowed his Desert mercenary to do that, while Methos picked away from the edge at the swarming enemies.

Onward to Nightmare, which was very much the same as the end of Normal. Methos stayed on the outskirts of the monster packs while his mercenary tanked the mob. Due to being untwinkled, save the weapon, going is a bit slow and frequent trips to town are required to keep the potions stocked and the mercenary alive. My first death came fairly early in Act II, wasn't paying attention and misclicked to attack a monster. As a result Methos ran headlong into a boss pack and died very quickly. He's powerful, but fragile. Especially since Holy Shield hasn't gained many points and it's in use due to having a low blocking shield.

This theme held for all of NM until Act V, where Methos and his mercenary simply couldn't cut it anymore. Going was very tough and the merc died extremely often. As a result twinkling was allowed in Act V, as much as possible. This started right at the Ancients when I realized I couldn't beat them with my current setup. The merc died too quickly and Methos couldn't tank any of them. So all the endgear items that could were transfered to the character and he breezed through the rest of the Act. Some leveling was required on Baal's minions to reach level 77, what was needed to wear all the planned endgame gear.

Apparently I twinkled too much. After finishing off the end of Act V NM without much difficulty the same held true for the first four acts of Hell. Fully twinkled and set to hit the FHR breakpoint of 86%, Methos simply ran though everything. More often than not I didn't even realize I had killed a boss pack or two until I was looking at the dropped loot. Didn't matter what mods the boss had, nothing stopped Methos and his mercenary companion...especially when decrepify was triggered. Methos didn't even have any NDEs, besides one or two IM scares but even then he wasn't in jeopardy of dying, simply lowish on life (1/5 left). The main difference however is that Methos can tank anything with little fear of being overwhelmed instantly. With 75% block, a high FHR percentage and 90+ resistance to all elemental attacks he really is an excellent tank, which was the whole point of making him in the first place. As a result I am currently pleased with his durability.

The WSK proved to be quite the interesting place, and also the site of the only death in Hell for Methos. It was in the last level against both an Unraveller boss pack and an Oblivion Knight boss pack, with their associated Doom Knights. As per the norm, Iron Maiden was the source of the death due to my not reacting in time to stop attacking. I could have been running around with Glimmersheds and avoided the whole situation, but with a Demon Limb on switch (which was barely used) I simply didn't feel like stashing the item in the off chance I'd encounter OKs.

After that fight, and then the Fanaticism enhanced Lister pack the fight with Baal was anti-climatic. No clone, only a single teleport and zero returns to town to restock. Still, Methos was quite fun and now he's prepared to Baal run in multiplayer games.

Stats:
Level 82
Strength - 85(174)
Dexterity - 65(107)
Vitality - 320(345)
Energy - 15(20)

Life - 1162(1321)
Mana - 136(144)

Lightning Resistance - 95
Fire Resistance - 95
Cold Resistance - 91
Poison Resistance - 90

Skills:
Conviction - 20(25)
Resist Cold - 10(15)
Resist Fire - 10(15)
Resist Lightning - 10(15)
Vengeance - 20(27)
Holy Shield - 7(14)

Equipment:
Weapon: Baranar's Star (Shael)
Weapon(switch): Demon Limb
Armor: Guardian Angel (15% IAS jewel)
Shield: Herald of Zakarum (15% IAS jewel)
Boots: IK Pillar
Belt: IK Detail
Gloves: IK Forge
Helm: Kira's Guardian
Ring 1: Mandal Heal
Ring 2: Mandal Heal
Amulet: Mara's Kaleidoscope

Mercenary (Holy Freeze Desert Warrior)
Helm: Tal Rasha's Crest
Armor: Shaftstop
Weapon: The Reaper's Toll

Hellforge
NM - Lum
Hell - Ko