Holy Trail Paladin Build Guide
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Pros and cons
pros
cons
Build Overview
This build uses the unique Judicator to make the most out of the Holy Trail node on the Javelin skill. The build itself is very simple. You want to stack as much healing effectiveness as possible from your abilities and the paladin passive tree, because Holy Trail has a node that gives it +1 adaptive spell damage per 5% increased healing effectiveness.
The guide above has my current loadout, with which I easily clear +1100% healing effectiveness in combat, meaning that our holy trail is getting a massive 220 adaptive spell damage added to its base damage. You could push it even higher with higher tier healing effectiveness affixes on some of the gear, that’s just what I have currently.
The second challenge of this build is that with Holy Trail, Javelin has a lengthier cooldown. We get around that by having Lunge cast Javelin at the end, and by having 2 charges of Lunge. Lunge also has a reduced cooldown from our Sentinel passives, so we can effectively spam multiple Holy Trails very easily which greatly increases our damage output.
Holy Trail also heals you with its AOE, which means our healing effectiveness is also keeping us alive, so we don’t need any leech from other sources.
Playstyle
The playstyle for this build is easy. In maps, dungeons, or arena, you want to stay moving as much as possible, tossing Javelin into groups of enemies and trying to line them up with your Holy Trail. In Monos, you can choose to run past groups so that they cluster together more, and with slow on hit it’s pretty easy to kite around mobs, which is why we run the unique Atrophy, as well as its incredible damage over time penetration.
Against single targets and bosses, you’ll want to do much the same, staying mobile, keeping your Sigils up, and using Lunge to stack more instances of Holy Trail on the same target.
Keep in mind that you are heal tanking, and your strongest heals come from Holy Trail itself, so you want to try to position so that you are standing in your own Holy Trails to stay healthy and safe against strong enemies.
Important stats, most important to least
Uniques / Items
Paranoia is an interesting flex pick for this build. It has a major strength, which is making Lunge a skill that you can aim instead of targeting an enemy. This leads to a very cool interaction in this build where you can aim Lunge very close to your character, and they will still cast Javelin at the end of the Lunge, which basically lets you stay permanently at range while throwing out Holy Trails. The drawback of this item is that it increased Lunges cooldown, and you will generally lose damage because you will also procc smite on enemies far less often, but in certain boss fights where you can’t use Lunge effectively, like Lagon, it is a great option to have available.
Final Thoughts
This build has been very fun to play and come up with, and I think it is a very strong but fair build that isn’t likely to be hit by any huge nerfs in the near future. I hope that some of you will try this build out for yourselves and let me know your thoughts. Hopefully you enjoyed the guide, and leave any questions or comments below!