Patriarch HaXOr-RayPatean: The Auradin

The year was 2007. With Thyiad and, um -- Hrus, I think, maybe it was still Cattleya -- bravely at the helm, a great eye takes watch over an unsuspecting forum:


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This deserves a ban.




Through out the years here at D2, hundreds of Paladins had come and gone. Zealots, PvP Smiters, Avengers, Abbots, Martyrs, 1.10 Fireballers (LoL), PvP Templars, Hammerdins, etc. -- only to fade from memory and fall victim to the squid.

Not anymore. The time for change was upon us. Against all odds -- not to mention the envy of his peers.....


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I hate you Ray







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I hate you too






....noble hero Ray Patean earned his place in forum history as Patriarch Malachi became the very first Auradin in the history of our great forum. With the release of patch 1.13, and the once impossible dream of high runes becoming ever closer to reality, I decided that I would follow in Malachi's footsteps, and thus HaXOr-RayPatean was born.

LCS capture

Patriarch HaXOr-RayPatean

(currently) level 91 Paladin

Health: 1407 base; 2425 after Battle Orders

Mana: 378 base; 589 after Battle Orders

Str 114 base; 153 with items

Dex 146 base; 172 with items

Vit 260 base; 316 with items

Enrg 15 base; 19 with items (rofl)

base attack rating 1095; attack rating after Enchant 4029

chance to hit Baal (Hell) 33%; chance to hit Baal (Hell) 55% after Enchant

defense 4929; 75% chance to block up to and including level 99

5 frame zeal @ 53% total IAS

5 frame hit recovery @ 66% total fhr

3% faster run (LoL)

-93% enemy defense/-150% enemy resists @ 13.3 yards

Combat Skills

Sacrifice 12 (15)

Zeal 1 (4)

Holy Shield 0 (10) [Holy Shield granted through a +2 staff mod on the switch weapon]

Offensive Auras

Might 1 (6)

Holy Fire 1 (6)

Thorns 1 (6)

Holy Freeze 1 (6)

Sanctuary 1 (6)

Conviction 20 (25)

Defensive Auras

Resist Fire 20 (22)

Resist Lightning 20 (22)

Salvation 20 (22)

All skills receive 1 additional point to the numbers listed above from Battle Command

The Auraquiptments

Hat: +11% all resist, +21% fhr, +24% magic find Dream Bone Visage

Amulet: crafted safety amulet: +2 Paladin skills, +12% resist all, +10% chance to block, +7% mana leech, and some other junk

Sword: 312% enhanced damage, 127 - 144 one hand damage Hand of Justice Phase Blade

Armor: +4 all stats, 849 defense Dragon Archon Plate

Shield: +8% all resist, +20% fhr, +24% magic find Dream in a 40% resist all Royal Shield base

Gloves: 1.07 Laying of Hands

Belt: +32 Vit/13% DR/+10 replenish life Verdongo's

Rings: 20/234 Ravenfrost on the left, 5% life leech/30% Fire resist/some other junk on the right

Boots: +2 Dex/+35% Lightning res/+22% Cold res/+21% Poison res/+10% fhr rare chain boots

Weapon Switch: +13 Battle Orders/+14 Battle Command/+2 Holy Shield war scepter

Charms

3x Captains grand charm, one with +12 life

1x Lionbranded grand charm

2x Shimmering grand charm of Sustenance (15/21, 15/31)

1x Shimmering grand charm (15), 2x Shimmering small charm (+5 each)

small charms with various resists and life

All the charms left me with just 3 open spaces in my inventory. This was absolute bloody Hell on a pack rat such as myself, but somehow I managed. Please Diablo, never again

The Mercenary

Vikhyat, Act II Desert Mercenary with a Might aura, equipped with:

beta Delirium Bone Visage

Chains of Honor Archon Plate

indestructible 1.07 ethereal Doom Great Poleaxe -- just like Jaedhann's


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@Friedbananananana: I rushed this character until he was able to equip the 4 main items. After that, it was easy going.




ROFL. Wuss

Although patch 1.13 introduced the ability to re-spect, Malachi never had this option, and I decided that H-RP should be dually bound by the same restriction. H-RP began his journey much like many of my previous characters, muling on a nice twink weapon and adding Sigons Steel items once you start to gain the strength. At level 15 I went ahead and equipped a 1.09 Raven Claw socketed with a Nef rune. The Nef turned out to be a bit overkill, as many foes died in one or two hits so the knockback never had a chance to trigger, haha.

H-RP's first real test came in the form of Normal Duriel. He absolutely refused to engage the mercenary, and instead insisted upon chasing me all over the chamber. At times I was having great difficulty and hardship trying to line up a good shot with the Raven, but persistence paid off and H-RP held serve. Duriel hath been slain.

Act III was largely uneventful, for the most part. Swashbuckling through the jungle was its usual pain in the butt, but after dispatching of the Council it was time to go find Mephisto. Initially when I started this character I was hoping he could finish questing without suffering a single death, but sadly this goal never made it past Durance level 2. Without a shield and with minimal Fire res from Sigons I was vulnerable, and some n00blet Vampire dropped some Meteors before I had a chance to potion, and I died.

In Act IV the Raven was starting to loose a bit of its firepower, but it was still serviceable. However, trying to kill Diablo with a bow and arrows turned out to be quite the fool's errand indeed. I now have an even greater respect for teh Fisheh and all of his guardians, especially the bow and arrow variants.

After a couple of Bloody Foothills runs in Act V, I ditched the Raven and began adding more traditional Zealot equipment. Things like Butchers Pupil, Lionheart, String of Ears, Ravenfrost, Vamp Gaze, War Traveler, etc. as soon as H-RP had met the level requirements. After completing the Baal quest, I went ahead and leveled up to level 50 before I started Nightmare. H-RP only used 8 skill points in all of Normal, and 5 of those were pre-reqs to Conviction LoL.

Prior to beginning NM, H-RP got his next equipment upgrade. Back in patch 1.12 I was able to make a trade with Darkooo for a 1.07 eth Small Crescent, and after successfully making Oath and getting 316% ED, H-RP was rocking out one hand damage of 237 - 419. Pwn. This gave me a significant advantage over nearly all enemies I encountered in Nightmare. I only died twice with my Nightmare equipment set up, but both deaths it wasn't my fault. First Galeb Flame-a-nubby spawned Fire Enchanted and took me out when he axploded, and then some bugged Tomb Vipers in the Halls of Blahblahblah took me out after I zealed them into the ground. Overall Nightmare was such a breeze that I don't recall spending a single skill point. I killed Baal at level 74, with 210 unspent stat points and 73 - yes, 73 - unspent skill points. Prior to entering Hell I wanted to make sure that the 'core' Auradin build was finished, so I went ahead and leveled to 80 with Nightmare Baals before starting Hell.

Once I entered Hell, H-RP finally fulfilled his destiny and started fighting like an Auradin. Dual Dreams, Dragon, and Hand of Justice were equipped, and Conviction, Salvation, Resist Fire, and Resist Lightning were all maxed. As soon as I hit the Cloister waypoint, I decided to put questing on hold in order to run from 80 to 90 on /players 5 Pit runs. My end game amulet required level 89 was the main reason for doing this. I also wanted to add points to Sacrifice in order to boost my physical damage aspect. And finally, I was hoping to gain some sense of H-RP's survivability in Hell difficulty in the absence of Life Tap. I realize you cant really compare a devilkin and a bone warrior to some of the heavy hitters in Act IV and Act V but whatever. Between the Volcano on the moron's Doom, the Curses on Delirium and Dream, the Hydras from Dragon, and the occasional Holy Bolt from LoH, all the Pit runs certainly resulted in plenty of fireworks, and even the occasional low blow from the Pits themselves. IIRC, I only died 2x during the 10 level Pit runs, so I had deemed H-RP ready for Hell without having to ditch LoH for Dracs. Also, H-RP was pretty much destroying everything in sight offensively, so I decided to continue questing on /players 5 through out the rest of Hell.

As far as I recall, I suffered only 2 deaths after leaving the Pits to continue questing. The first was from Fanatic Dolls in the Durance while trying to cast Battle Orders (LoL irony) and the second was some n00blar Moon Lord in the World Stone Keep. I don't really know what happened there, one minute I'm zealing and the next thing I know I'm slain. >_< Overall I feel like H-RP is a very solid character and I had lots of fun with him. My only complaints are the lack of inventory space like I said before, and I think my Attack Rating seems a little low but overall I deem H-RP to be a great success.

Hellforges were Ith, Io, Lum. With only 48% mf finds were limited, but I did manage 3x Wizardspikes, all of which were socketed and traded to frozzzen LoL. I only managed a single HR while leveling in the Pits - a Lo rune - so return on investment has so far been marginal but I suppose that is to be expected.


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The LCS is all the damage. The Dreams add just over 7000 damage, and the HoJ/Dragon add just over 1500 damage. There isn't any hidden damage there, just the 1100+260ish pulse damage. Then all that gets helped from Conviction.

It's a thing of beauty




It is, Ray. It really truly is. Anyone wanting to see H-RP in action may do so in the following YouTubes:

The Making of an Auradin

Chaos Sanctuary and Diablo

fighting the Ancients (It really wasn't a fair fight ROFL)

HaXOr-RayPatean becomes Patriarch

/players 5 Pindleskin and Travincal run

/players 5 Pit run

Some of these videos turned out to be a bit longer than I had anticipated, but I think they all should still be watchable.

Special Thanks

Just like Malachi, HaXOr-RayPatean would never have been possible without the help of all of our friends here at the Forum. I would like to recognize the following individuals for their great contributions to H-RP's success:

• nulio for trading several HRs greater than or equal to Ohm and for the 11/15 jewel

• frozzzen and Pyrohemia for a Jah rune from Pyro's PvM giveaway

• Pyro's 1.11 LK map for the Exile base. H-RP never actually used this shield, but who wants to make a separate video just for an Exile???

• kestegs for trading a Ber rune

• Zaliqai for trading a 1.07 eth polearm for the mercenary's Doom and another 1.07 polearm for a beta Crescent Moon

• Pijus for trading the 13/15 jewel

• Nightfind for trading the 1.07 set bramble mitts. Absorb FTW

• scrcrw for trading dual Lo runes and a Ber rune

• frozzzen for trading the 2 Shimmering Grand Charm of Sust.

• Jaedhann for inspiring the moron to equip the filthy hax Doom polearm

• NagisaFurukawa for the 40 all resist Royal Shield base for Dream

• And last but not least, the iconic Ray Patean for bringing the Auradin to Single Player for countless future generations to emulate and enjoy

Final Thoughts

Now that H-RP is standing tall at Patriarch, who will be next in line to carry the torch? Your throne awaits you, is there a hero among us who dares brave enough to claim it?


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You, Sir, are crazy. Crazy as in mental. Crazy as me being green with envy...but watch out: one day I'll do that in HC - and then I'll start dueling in HC with him

Congrats though!




Master Grisu, you must embrace your destiny. You are the Chosen One. The fate of our forum now rests squarely on your shoulders.........do not disappoint.

I hope you enjoyed the Pat thread, Thank You for reading, bai bai |||Hax! Wait, no. I mean: nicely done.

I'm happy to see my runes put to excellent use. Only your choice of amulet makes me sad, the 20 IAS from Highlord's would have been enough for 4fpa Zeal. Just saying...

For the record: I did something similar in HC a year ago.|||Heh, looks rilly nice.

Tho I'd expect more from an LCS beefed up with a bunch of high runes - only 10k? jeez<_<

(while I clearly understand the effectivenes of the char because of conviction and all such bla bla bla).

Also, lol at Diablo vs bow.|||Cangrats on the Patriach, and ... Wow - nicely done! Awesome CTC items/effects - made some sweet vids.

@Vulpine - love the MLP reference. |||Enjoyed the curse castings!!

Nice Pat and good write up!|||I actually did spend quite a bit of time debating whether or not I should go 5 frame or 4 frame Zeal.

With my current amulet, I've got maxed resists, max block all the way to level 99, and of course the 5 frame Zeal.

If I switch the amulet for Highlords, I'll keep max lightning resist, but I'll loose out on some Fire, Cold, and Poison. Additionally, I need the +10% chance to block and +2 to Holy Shield boost in order to maintain max block, up to level 99.

I just ran the numbers again, and it turns out if I loose the +10% chance to block from the amulet, I'll need 18 more hard points in Dex - as long as I can hit the level 10 Holy Shield breakpoint elsewhere. I'd probably need to add another Lionbranded charm to do so. Once I hit level 92, I'll have enough stat points for the required Dexterity. If I can still hit max block and keep max resists, I just might go ahead and add the Highlords for the 4 frame Zeal.

But, honestly -- I'm an absolute n00b when it comes to Paladins. Will the 4 frame Zeal really be that much of an advantage over the 5 frame? How much of an effect would it have??

And since I haven't really had a chance to get a better Baal map yet, I spent the afternoon just LoLing around in Trav and I found a 5/5 Lightning Facet. Pwn |||Niceee. I used a Dreamer to run baal HC in the MFO this past winter and he was pretty solid. I always wanted to try him with the Holy Fire aura as well... (envious!)

Nothing more fun than using a character that exudes wealth out of every orifice!|||"How much of an effect would it have??"

A 20% increase in damage. I'd say that's pretty significant. Attack speed is pretty much the most important thing on melee characters in most circumstances as far as I'm aware. Spending a few more points in Dex seems like a pretty fair trade-off.|||i'm a bit hurt you didn't include me in your acknowledgements|||very nicely done! Always cool to see a char walking around with a king's ransom equipped.



one query though; I thought auras from equipment had to be equal in slvl to stack? Just thinking that if so, the 'Dragon' is redundant... unless the hydras are a big deal for this guy or something.