How the engine works
Holy Light Aura's passive is your damage. The unique gloves Dawnfire turn it into a Fire pulse around you every second, and each kill makes that pulse hit 15% harder and reach 10% further for 20 seconds, up to 10 times. So you walk into a pack, the first kills feed the next ones, and the pulse grows until it clears the screen. Attack speed makes the aura tick harder. Your buttons are all support: Aegis for block and Judgement, the aura actives, Consecration for hard fights and Falling Star to move.
Who it's for
Anyone who wants the most relaxed farmer in the game, with very few button presses. It is a speed farmer first. Single-target damage drops off once the Dawnfire stacks expire, so long boss fights are its weak point.
- Rating
- S to C-Tier
- Difficulty
- Very easy
- Key stat
- Ranks to Holy Light Aura
- Must have
- Dawnfire gloves
The bar
Three auras at rank 15, Aegis at rank 15, and two utility buttons. Nothing on the bar is an attack. There is no Key Passive here.
Rank 15 with Judgement Damage Bonus (+40% against Judged enemies), Rite of Judgement and Additional Targets. The passive is your damage. Press the active on cooldown.
Press — on cooldownRank 15 with Rite of Vengeance and Potency. Attack speed and critical strike chance, and attack speed directly raises Holy Light Aura's damage.
Press — on cooldownRank 15 with Rite of Prayer for healing and Resolve. Armour and all resistances, and the active makes you Unstoppable.
Press — when stunnedRank 15 with Faith Is My Shield, which applies Judgement. It carries your block chance and sets up the Judged bonus on Holy Light Aura.
Press — on cooldownRank 4 with Fortify, Weaken and Hallowed Ground. Drop it in tough fights and stand in it. The Fortify is what switches on Crushing Aspect.
ElitesA leap to get from pack to pack.
Press — to movePassives
There is no Key Passive here. Two other buttons can take the utility slots. Rally in place of Falling Star gives Faith and speed. Fortress at high rank in place of Consecration is the choice if you want more for bosses.
Oath
There are two ways to run the oath. Judicator builds everything around Judgement: Aegis applies it, Holy Light Aura deals 40% more to Judged enemies, Aspect of Proselytizing lets Judicator skills chain, and Firm Decree gives 30% damage reduction for 8 seconds after you Judge. Disciple instead keeps you in Arbiter form by casting Falling Star, and pairs with Arbiter-form damage tempers and the Ascension and Celestial Strife aspects. Take Judicator. It fits the shield setup on this page and needs nothing kept up by hand.
| Pick | What it gives you |
|---|---|
| Judicator oath | The recommended pick. Aegis, Holy Light Aura, Proselytizing and Firm Decree all key off Judgement. |
| Disciple oath | The alternative. Falling Star keeps you in Arbiter form, and you gear for damage while in Arbiter form. |
What to wear
Dawnfire is the build. Around it there are two weapon setups: a one-hander with a shield, which this page follows, or the two-handed axe Sundered Night.
Uniques
| Item | What it does | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Dawnfire | Gloves. Holy Light Aura becomes a Fire pulse every second, and each kill adds 15% damage and 10% area for 20 seconds, up to 10 times. Nothing replaces it. First choice to upgrade into a Mythic. | Mandatory |
| Griswold's Opus | One-handed weapon, worn with a shield. Critical strike damage stacks for each enemy hit, with a double-damage Lucky Hit at full stacks. In this setup Sundered Night is carried as a charm instead of wielded. | Core |
| Sundered Night | Two-handed axe. Casting an aura triggers Consecration beneath you and raises your Aura Potency. Wield it if you would rather give up the shield and have Consecration cast itself, which also frees Consecration's bar slot. | Variant |
| Leoric's Crown | Helm. It counts as jewellery, so it takes Soul Splinters and boosts them. Socket Anguish and Pain in it. It also has attack speed, which this build turns straight into damage. | Recommended |
| Squirt's Blouse | Chest. Up to 30 to 50% more damage while you are not taking damage, reset when you lose Life. | Recommended |
| Temerity | Pants. Overhealing becomes Barrier, which protects the Squirt's Blouse bonus. | Optional |
| Blood-Mad Idol | Amulet. You are always Berserking and take 200% more damage as Burning, in return for 80 to 100% more damage while Burning. A high-risk damage option. The variant that uses it wears Crown of Lucion in the helm. | Variant |
Before they drop
Before Dawnfire drops you can wear legendary gloves with an aspect, but that will not carry you far, so make the gloves your first target. The starter setup is Dawnfire plus all legendary gear: a one-handed sword and a shield, the quest seal with Practiced Technique, and the runewords Cir + Ceh and Cem + Gar.
Legendary aspects
| Aspect | What it does for you |
|---|---|
| Aspect of Holy Punishment | Holy and Fire damage increased by 40 to 60%. Dawnfire makes your aura Fire damage, so this is always on. |
| Aspect of Proselytizing | Judicator skills have a 40% chance to chain, for up to 150% more damage. |
| Aspect of Redirected Force | Critical strike damage based on your block chance, doubled for 10 seconds after you block. This build is block capped, so it is at full value. |
| Crushing Aspect | More damage while Fortified. You get Fortify from Consecration, so keep it under you in long fights. |
| Firm Decree | 30% damage reduction for 8 seconds after you Judge an enemy. Aegis keeps it running. |
| Aspect of Interdiction | 2 to 3% block chance for each stack of Resolve. With enough maximum Resolve it can supply up to 100% block by itself. |
| Glynn's Anvil | +2 maximum Resolve and 3 to 4% damage reduction for each stack. It feeds Interdiction as well. |
The stacks run on kills
Dawnfire's bonus lasts 20 seconds and only kills refresh it. In a long fight with nothing dying, your damage falls back to the base aura. Keep moving between packs, and on bosses bring your own multipliers: Consecration for Crushing, and Aegis for the Judged bonus.
Stats, gems and paragon
Roll and masterwork toward these, in this order.
| # | Stat | Where you roll it |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ranks to Holy Light Aura | Wherever it can roll |
| 2 | Ranks to Aura skills | Wherever it can roll |
| 3 | Strength | Every slot |
| 4 | Attack Speed | Leoric's Crown has it built in. It directly raises the aura's damage |
| 5 | Critical Strike Chance and Damage | Rings, amulet and weapon |
| 6 | Cooldown Reduction | Helm, shield, amulet and rings |
| 7 | Block Chance | Shield, Aegis, Interdiction and paragon |
| 8 | Maximum Life | Chest, pants and weapon |
Hard targets
One cap: block chance. The build is meant to be block capped, and Aspect of Interdiction can supply up to 100% if your maximum Resolve is high enough, so raise maximum Resolve until it does. There is no other hard breakpoint for this build. Follow the order above.
Tempering & masterworking
Temper Holy Light Aura Potency on the amulet and +Maximum Resolve stacks on helm, chest and pants. If you take the Disciple oath, temper damage while in Arbiter form on rings and weapon instead. Masterwork in the same order as the stat list above.
Gems, runewords & Splinters
- Runewords: Igni + Ceh and Yul + Gar for the finished build, Cir + Ceh and Cem + Gar on the starter. The wolves from Ceh inherit Holy Light Aura, though not the Dawnfire pulse, so they are extra aura damage that follows you.
- Soul Splinters: Anguish and Pain in Leoric's Crown, where they are boosted, then Mother, Black Soulstone and Lies in your jewellery. Anguish is attack speed and critical strike chance, which is exactly what the aura wants.
- Talisman: there are two ways to run it. The Seal of the Diamond Mind with four pieces of Heaven's Radiant Fire and two of Cathan's Iron Conviction is the damage setup. All five pieces of Cathan's Iron Conviction give +55% Aura Potency at two, then auras that gain every upgrade, cost no Faith and give 30% damage reduction at three, and Conviction Aura at five. Take the Diamond Mind mix once you own the seal, and full Iron Conviction until then.
Paragon
Five boards in this order: Start with the Resplendence glyph, Relentless with Spirit, Castle with Exploit, Beacon with Honed, and Endure with Judicator. Level the glyphs in the order Spirit, Honed, Judicator, Resplendence, Exploit. Castle turns stacked armour into a damage multiplier, so armour nodes are not wasted.
| Glyph | Where and why |
|---|---|
| Spirit | Relentless board. Level it first. |
| Honed | Beacon board. Second. |
| Judicator | Endure board. Third. |
| Resplendence | Start board. |
| Exploit | Castle board. Last. |
Mercenary
Hire Subo and set Varyana as reinforcement with Bloodthirst. Her attack speed is direct aura damage. The alternative is Raheir hired, with either Varyana or Aldkin reinforcing, if you prefer him.
From fresh 70 to finished
You won't have the gear on day one. This is the order it comes together in.
Legendary gloves with an aspect will do for a few hours, no longer. Everything you do at this stage is about finding Dawnfire.
With Dawnfire on, the build works. Wear a one-handed sword and shield, the quest seal with Practiced Technique, and the runewords Cir + Ceh and Cem + Gar. Walk through packs and keep the stacks rolling.
Add Leoric's Crown with Anguish and Pain socketed, then Squirt's Blouse and Temerity. Swap the sword for Griswold's Opus. Raise maximum Resolve until Interdiction caps your block.
Upgrade to Mythics in this order: Dawnfire, Locran's Talisman, Leoric's Crown, Griswold's Opus, Squirt's Blouse, Temerity. Move to the Seal of the Diamond Mind with four Heaven's Radiant Fire charms and two Iron Conviction, and the runewords Igni + Ceh and Yul + Gar.
The rotation
The aura does the killing. Path from pack to pack without pausing so the Dawnfire stacks never run out.
Keep it up for block, and to Judge enemies so Holy Light Aura hits them 40% harder.
Press the Fanaticism Aura active, then Holy Light Aura's.
Drop it under elites and anything that does not die at once, and stay inside it for Fortify.
Leap to the next pack. Press Defiance Aura when you are stunned.
On bosses
This is where the build is weakest. With nothing dying, Dawnfire's stacks expire after 20 seconds and you are back to the base aura. Arrive at the boss with stacks if you can, put Consecration under it, keep Aegis up for the Judged bonus and press every aura active on cooldown. If bosses matter to you, swap Consecration for Fortress.
Strengths, weaknesses, mistakes
What it's good at
- As relaxed as the game gets. You walk and things die.
- Very tanky: block capped, with layered damage reduction from Resolve.
- Large area damage that grows the more there is to kill.
- Needs only one unique to work, and that one is not hard to find.
Where it struggles
- Weak single target once the Dawnfire stacks fall off.
- Does nothing without Dawnfire.
- Close range. Enemies have to be inside the aura.
- Consecration needs good positioning to pay off.
Mistakes that ruin it
- Stopping between packs. Dawnfire's bonus lasts 20 seconds and only kills renew it. Dawdling resets your damage.
- Ignoring attack speed. It looks useless on a build with no attacks, but it directly raises Holy Light Aura's damage.
- Forgetting Aegis. It is your block and the Judgement that gives Holy Light Aura 40% more damage.
- Fitting Crushing with no Fortify. It only works while you are Fortified, and here that comes from standing in Consecration.
- Mixing the two setups. Judicator goes with Aegis, a shield and the Judgement aspects. Disciple goes with Falling Star upkeep and Arbiter-form tempers. Half of each gives you neither.
Not for you? The other Paladin builds: Evade Hammerdin · Shield of Retribution.