Finalized V/T Guide!

[medicine_man]

I finally have it figured out, but it's ironic that I finally realize how to perfect this build now that my V/T attempt is lvl 73.

But back to business. For those of you who don't know what a V/T is, it is a Vindicator/Templar Paladin (Smite/FoH). This build does exceptional in PvP and is lotsa fun.
I will write a poor man's guide to a V/T if anybody needs it.
Gear:
Weapon - Silence Phase Blade or Berserker Axe
Shield - This one's a no-brainer, Herald of Zakarum
Helm - Shako or a nice rare circlet, Griffon's can also be used here
Armor - Enigma, make it a light armor
Belt - Verdungo's Hearty Coil, or Arachnid's Mesh, Arachnid's for casters and Dungo's for melee
Gloves - Lotsa choices here, Drac's, Laying of Hands, a crafted or rare, whatever your choice is it must have 20% IAS
Boots - Duped rares work well here, Treks are nice too, Gore Riders
Rings - Raven Frost and SoJ/Bul Khathos'
Amulet - 'Geddon Slippers if you can afford it, any decent rare, Resistances aren't essential here, look for +skills and other good mods, Seraph's Hymn works

Stats:
Strength - Enough for your Enigma
Dexterity - This depends on the weapon you use
Vitality - The rest goes here
Energy - None here

Skills:
Here's where I screwed up BAD.

FoH - Max
Holy Shock - Max
Fanatacism - Max
Holy Shield - Max
Smite - 1+
Conviction - 1+
...and prerequisites. With your extra skill points, you can get Vigor, or dump more points into Conviciton or Smite

Here are some numbers for you. You will do 3.6k FoH if you follow this guide, with 1.7k Smite damage. I know the Smite damage does not seem like a lot, but the attack is so fast it actually ends up punishing your foes big time.

Strategy:
You will basically be doing the same things, but I'll go over this anyways.

Sorceress'
Fire - Normally, they just sit there and spam FB, so sit back and drop a Fist. You might want to charge by them to get Conviction on them.
Lightning - These gals tend to try to teleport on top of you and zap you since 41k lightning damage is almost always a 1 hit K.O., so if they tele on you charge away and Fist them. If you're feeling ballsy, you can stand your ground and try to Smite her face in. martass2
Cold - If it is an Orb sorceress, use the same strategy used when facing a lightning sorceress, but you must Charge if you plan to melee. They have to be pretty close to hit you with the actual Orb because the ice bolts don't do too much damage. You can always get Conviction on them when they come in close, Charge away, and drop a Fist on them. Dueling Blizzard sorceresses is tough. If they lack FHR, try your luck at Charging in and Smiting them.

-I will continue the strategy section later.

[ducky01]

good guide but wouldnt a coh work better here?

[ArcaneSupremacy]

i think ur guide is more of a t/v than a v/t, since u place ur focus on foh rather than smite. technically, if u call this a t/v, ur skills aren't really screwed up.

there are more weapon choices than just silence phase blade or zerker. ie. kingslayer (crushing blow, open wounds, 30 ias). for gloves, i recommend bloodfist (40 life, 10 ias, 30 fhr). bloodfist + silence pb + fanat is already enuf to get 6 fps smite.

these are my skills at lvl 86:
20 smite
20 fanat
20 holy shield
10 foh
8 convic (i dont think i need that much tho, if i rebuild this char i'd move some pts over to foh and shock)
5 holy shock

my gear:
silence pb
dusk enigma
upped hoz (/w um. if i can get another ber id socket with that instead)
shako (w/ ber)
verdungos
sandstorm trek
bloodfist
maras
ravenfrost
bk ring (chosen over soj cuz i never run outta mana anyway)

after cta boost, my smite dmg is 3.1k, foh dmg 2k (which may not seem like a lot, but it seems to be working), 2.9k life, 18k def. i seem to have a hard time beating good bone necros, but a t/v would probably stand a better chance.

[medicine_man]

Thanks for the input guys. Yes ducky, a CoH would work, but I prefer Enigma for the R/W and defense. With Silence giving +75 Resist All, resistances aren't a large issue, so that exludes CoH in my book. AznAvatar - I have found Silence to work best. When I built this character, I was shooting for a good middle ground, and I think I achieved that.

Instead of using a Phase Blade, you can use a War Spike. With Enigma's strength bonus, the requirement should be no probelm. You need 60+ dexterity for blocking anyways.

I'm a huge procrastinator, so I'll write the strategy section tomorrow. Hope this helps some people. Throw me a rep point if you liked my guide. :*)

EDIT: About Bone Necromancers... I think my build would do better than yours because of the higher FoH damage. I can also handle high defense melee characters because my Smite is very fast, and my FoH damage is high enough that they might change their gear to absorb me or whatever, making them weak to Smite. Like I said, middle ground.

[ArcaneSupremacy]

i still don't quite understand what u mean by "middle ground". ur build is clearly more "templar" than "vindicator", so it's a t/v. ur high foh dmg makes it easier to beat teleporting/running opponents, but ur low smite dmg makes it harder to deal with melee. 1.7k smite is obscenely low even as a secondary skill. a pure smiter or a v/t who stacks lightning resist would still be able to out-smite u. u'll also have a helluva time dealing with barbs.

btw...what's the point of using silence war spike over phase blade? they both have the same range, and phase blades are faster. if ur worrying about the dex req, remember that silence reduces reqs by 20% cuz of the hel rune. a phase blade would only need 109 dex.

as for the weapon choice, it really depends who u're dueling. against elemental dmg based chars u'll need silence, but against melee, the resists on silence become almost useless.

[medicine_man]

Well a War Spike has higher Charge damage, but forget charge, my build has FoH. I dueled with my screwed up V/T with 1.5k damage and easily took godly Zealots, Concentrate Barbs, and some WW Barbarians, so my Smite damage is adequate from my experiances. What weapon would you use against melee? It stay with Silence. If you read my whole post, I explained "middle ground" to you. You said "stack lightning resistances." THAT'S EXACTLY THE POINT! They exchange their normal gear for lightning resistant gear making them weak to Smite. I mentioned this above. And besides, unless they have unreal FHR, they wont escape the speed of my Smite. The damage IS enough, trust me on that one.

[ArcaneSupremacy]

even if they have 0 fhr, ur smite is not gonna knock a barb out of a WW, or a zealot out of zealing, or a smiter out of smiting. stacking resists and being weaker to smite does not mean ur smite is gonna wipe em out in one hit. if a smiter can stack resists and also top ur smite dmg, ur screwed. my v/t can maintain a 2.8k smite after stacking resists.

of course, u don't have to listen to me, so i'll keep it simple...wanna duel?


edit: i read ur post several times. i still don't understand ur definiton of "middle ground". forcing an opponent to stack resists and smiting them is simply using an alternate skill to exploit weaknesses...there's nothing "middle" about it. at first i assumed that "middle ground" meant splitting points evenly between smite and foh. i guess u had something else in mind.

[medicine_man]

Sorry for my absense from this thread.

My definition of middle ground is simple, this character can take both casters and melee characters. Sorry if I was indecisive about that. Sure, I'll duel you. And I might not be screwed. What frame is your Smite?

EDIT: I dunno what kind of Smite you're talking about, but Smite does not knock barbs out of their WW's.

[ArcaneSupremacy]

i am aware that smite does not knock barbs out of WW.

unless they have unreal FHR, they wont escape the speed of my Smite.

from that quote i assumed u thought that a fast smite meant ur opponent has no way of fighting back.

btw, my smite is 6 frames. phase blade + lvl 32 fanat + 6% ias = fastest smite.


edit: are u on uswest?

[Quiksilver]

that looks like a kool build i might try it

[medicine_man]

No, I'm East brotha. I'm also at the "fastest" Smite. I usually don't look at frames.

That's exactly what I meant. If I name-lock somebody and start Smiting, it is very hard for the opponent to get out. My faster R/W is high from Enigma, so right before they attack I hit them again.