Discover everything you need to know about the Best Paladin build in Diablo IV: Lord of Hatred, including the skills and gear.
A Paladin Build in Diablo IV: Lord of Hatred is a holy warrior playstyle centered on sword-and-shield combat, Auras, and Faith-based abilities. You focus more on survival, sustained holy damage, and team support. Our best Paladin build can farm all areas and has powerful defensive utility and survivability. However, this setup is less effective in close range and requires Unique to Get Started. We include skills such as Falling Star, Holy Light Aura, Fanaticism Aura, and Defiance Aura in this setup to provide unique buffs and bonuses. Learn the best Paladin build in Diablo IV: Lord of Hatred, including the Talisman and how to play it.
Paladin Build Best Skills
Paladin is a holy melee and support class built around Faith, skill tiers, and aura stacking in Diablo IV Lord of Hatred. Paladin skills are split into 5 tiers, letting you spam attacks that generate Faith. Defensive skills keep you alive in harder times, and core skills are your primary DPS abilities. Aura skills make Paladin unique because they are toggleable abilities with pulse effects that occur every few seconds. Stacking 3 auras can boost damage massively, letting you dominate enemies. Below are the best skills to choose for the best Paladin build.
Paladin Best Skills
- Falling Star: Soar into the air with angel wings and dive down onto the battlefield, dealing 80% on takeoff and 240% damage on landing.
- Holy Light Aura: You and your allies emanate the Light, dealing damage 45% every 2 seconds to 3 randomly nearby enemies. Attack speed further increases this damage. Unleash 2 pure bolts of light, dealing 320% Holy damage to the Closest enemy and chaining up to 4 additional enemies before returning to you. When your first bolt of light returns, Heal for 12% of your Maximum Life.
- Fanaticism Aura: Spending Faith emanates power from you, granting you and your allies +125 attack speed and +4.8% critical strike chance for 3 seconds up to a maximum of 4 times. Weaken all nearby enemies for 4 seconds.
- Defiance Aura: Your presence reinforces you and your allies, granting 39% armor and 30% bonus on all resistance. You become unstoppable for 2 seconds.
- Advance: Advance with your weapon, dealing 10% damage.
- Arbiter of Justice: Ascend to the heavens and crash upon the battlefield as an Arbiter for 20 seconds, dealing 600% damage upon landing.
- Disciple: Casting a Disciple Skill with a cooldown grants Arbiter for 4.5 seconds. Wing Strikes gain Disciple skill benefits. While in Arbiter form, your Disciple skills deal 50% increased damage.
Best Paladin Build Gear
Choosing the gear for the best Paladin build in Diablo IV: Lord of Hatred is essential to survive longer, gain unique buffs, and dominate enemies. This setup focuses on survivability, sustained damage, and synergy with skills and auras.
Paladin Best Gear
Use the weapon that adds Holy damage scaling and modifies skill effects. I recommend the Qax rune to cast a skill other than a basic or defensive skill, to spend all your primary resources to increase your damage up to 100% for 1 second. You can also use Igni to store an offering every 0.3 seconds to cast a non-basic skill to gain the stored offering.
| Gear Slot | Equipment | Affixes | Effect |
| Main Hand | Sundered Night | Strength
Maximum Life Critical Strike Damage Vulnerable Damage |
Casting an Aura skill triggers a Consecration beneath you. You gain 160-200% Aura Potency while standing in Consecration.
2-5 to Aura Skills 1060-1142 Movement Speed 20-225 Cooldown Reduction |
| Helm | Heir of Perdition | Cooldown Reduction
Strength Armor Maximum Life |
Succumb to hatred and earn Mother’s Favor, increasing your damage dealt by 80%. Slaughter enemies to briefly steal Mother’s Favor from surrounding allies.
25% Critical Strike Chance 25% Lucky Hit Chance 25% Movement Speed 2 to Core Skills |
| Chest Armor | Shroud of False Death | Strength
Maximum Life Armor Resistance to All Elements |
When you would be dealt fatal damage, instead you Heal to Full Life, gain a Barrier for 100% of your Maximum Life for 3 seconds, and knock back close enemies. This can only occur once every 300 seconds.
200 All Stats 416% damage on next attack after entering stealth 1000 Maximum Life 13% Resource Generation |
| Gloves | Dawnfire | Cooldown Reduction
Critical Strike Chance Critical Strike Damage Strength |
Holy Light’s passive now deals fire damage every second in a small area around you. Each time an enemy dies within this aura, it increases its damage by +15% and burn area by +10% for seconds, up to 10 times. Activating Holy Light Aura refreshes this duration.
41.5-55% chance for Holy Light Aura to deal double damage. 11-128 Strength |
| Pants | Aspect of Hale Salve | Strength
Maximum Life Armor Resistance to All Elements |
Healing while at full life fortifies you for 0.5-1%. Maximum Life and grants 50% increased Armor for 5 seconds.
Strength Maximum Life Armor Faith per Second |
| Boosts | Wildbolt Aspect | Movement Speed
Strength Armor Resistance to All Elements |
Every 3.5-1.5 seconds, distant enemies are pulled in to you and take 15% increased damage from you for 3 seconds. This effect cannot occur while you’re in stealth. |
| Amulet | Aspect of Celestial Strife | Movement Speed
Cooldown Reduction Critical Strike Chance Strength |
While in Arbiter, kills grant 1-1.5% increased vulnerable damage, up to a maximum of 50-75%. |
| Ring 1 | Aspect of Ascension | Critical Strike Damage
Critical Strike Chance Cooldown Reduction Damage % Strength |
Casting a Skill that grants Arbiter form increases your damage by 5.7%, stacking up to 10 times. All stacks are lost when leaving Arbiter form. |
| Ring 2 | Aspect of Holy Punishment | Critical Strike Damage
Critical Strike Chance Cooldown Reduction Damage % Strength |
Holy and fire damage are increased by 40-60%.
Strength Attack Speed Critical Strike Chance Cooldown Reduction |
Best Talisman
The Talisman is a separate power board where you socket special items called Charms and Seals to modify your build. The Seals are placed in the center slot of the Talisman and unlock how many charm slots you can use. Charms are socketed into the Talisman slots to give stat boosts, skill bonuses, and special effects.
Certain Charms belong to sets, and equipping multiple pieces gives set bonuses. This is powerful because it adds an extra power layer, enabling deeper build customization, making your Paladin setup more powerful. Instead of constantly replacing gear, you adjust charms for your playstyle.
Set (2): Gain 55% Aura potency
Set (3): Your Auras skills gain all of their upgrades. Your Aura skills no longer take Faith to cast.
Set (5): Gain Conviction Aura. Increases the damage nearby enemies take from all sources by 0.5% per skill rank you have in all your aura skills.
Below are the best charms to add to the Talisman for unique effects in Diablo IV: Lord of Hatred.
- Beru of Iron Conviction
- Fer of iron Conviction
- Linta of Iron Conviction
- Mlor of Iron Conviction
- Phoba of Iron Conviction
- Griswold’s Opus
Paladin Paragon Board
The Paragon Board is the endgame progression system you unlock after finishing the main leveling path. This is a huge passive tree for the Paladin that adds stats, boosts Holy damage, unlock powerful legendary bonuses. You earn Paragon points after the level cap and spend them on the board instead of skill points. You start with a Starter Board and attach up to 5 additional boards.
Paladin Paragon Board
The further a board is from the Starter Board, the higher the stat requirements become. Each board has Glyph sockets, requiring you to insert Glyphs to boost the nearby nodes. Make sure to include rare or legendary nodes in your Paladin build for strong bonuses and a unique passive effect per board.
- Resplendence: Grants 0 bonus to all magic nodes within range. After casting an aura skill, the activate coolown of every Non-Aura skill is reduced by 2 seconds.
- Arbiter: For every 5 Willpower purchased within range, your Arbiter Wing attacks deal 0% increased damage. You deal 3% increased damage for each second you’re in Arbiter form, up to 18%.
- Spirit: For every 5 Willpower purchased within range, you deal increased Critical Strike damage. Critical Strikes increase the damage an enemy takes from you by 3% for 20 seconds, up to 15%.
- Judicator: For every intelligence purchased with range, your Judicator skills deal increased damage. Deal an additional 20% non-physical damage to elites.
- Challenges: Grants 140.4% bonus to all normal nodes within range. You deal 10x increased damage to elites.
Paladin Best Mercenary
Raheir is the best Mercenary to choose for this Paladin build because he’s a tank-focused ally and uses a massive shield. He specializes in damage reduction, taunts, and defense buffs. Our setup focuses on armor scaling, Holy buffs, and standing in melee range, and Reheir enhances that playstyle. Valiance is the best perk because it cancels heavy incoming damage and knocks down enemies.
Paragon Best Mercenary
- Iron Wolf’s Ward: When Raheir’s Valiance is triggered, he knocks back close enemies and taunts distance enemies for 4 seconds. The cooldown is reduced by 35%.
- Provoke: Raheir taunts enemies around you for 5 seconds. You gain 5% damage reduction for each target, up to 20%.
- Reheir’s Guard: Reheir grants you 15% armor.
- Shield Charge: Reheir rushed forward aggressively, dealing 110% physical damage and taunting nearby enemies for 4 seconds. Selecting a Mercenary core skill alters their wielded weapon and basic attack. Regeir bashes enemies with a tower shield, dealing 80% physical damage and fortifying you for 0.2% of your Maximum Life.
- Valiance: When you would be damaged for at least 15% of your current Life at once, Reheir comes to your aid to negate the damage, Knock Down close enemies for 2 seconds, and grant you Unstoppable for 0.5 seconds.
How To Play Paladin Build
The Paladin is a holy melee tank-DPS hybrid built around the Faith resource system, Aura, Holy damage scaling, and Shield-based survivability. You stand your ground and win fights through sustained holy power and aura stacking. Use Basic Skills and generate Faith to spend it on core skills. Activate Auras first, engage with Smite, cast Holy, main melee position, and use defensive skills when pressured.
How To Play Paladin Build
Make sure to use Falling Star and Flash of the Blade to ascend into Arbiter Form. Use Arbiter of Justice at the start of the rotation and then Consecration and Sundered Night to gain Aura Potency. Apply the Weakened effect to the enemies by using the Fanaticism Aura. Prefer using the Igni to summon the wolves during the tough encounters. The playstyle varies based on the variant you’re running in Diablo IV: Lord of Hatred.
