I would go for Health on Block and/or Ward on Hit: that helped me push farther as all the fast attacking/throwing/casting enemies become “allies”: they are either powerless or heal me / build ward and, in both cases, I get many bleed stacks from Penance. I probably crossed the 1000% increased physical damage multiple times, and when there’s a boss around, I vaporize it. Very satisfying.
By the way, I have a comfortable 2.7k health (triple Hybrid Health, and +17% on body armor) and I think that’s enough to reach wave 450, or maybe even 500 with luck? (no Frost Wyrm please, and I need to be super tight with the Skullen Pyromancers when I go on top of them so their fire attacks don’t touch me). When I died at 369, 382 and 390 it always was because of a bad decision:
passing by a pack of Void Touched that fired right when I was next to them
being too greedy with melees and gathering/circling them too early
I stand corrected on Taste for Blood. This ramp up is much, much faster than a katana. going through the math, the peak dps for a katana would be substantially higher due to greater # of bleeds applied but it will take between 7 and 9 seconds of continuous dps to reach those levels. I have not tried Arena yet because I am running monoliths continuously to fix my blessings. Got 40% chance for 30 ward on hit and 51% bleed chance (would like to improve both). Still working towards health on block. Also need to reroll helm, chest, belt and Relic.
I could use some new idols but have not seen a wounding large idol of efficacy in 100’s of monolith runs. RNG is killing me.
By the way, I should add “Chill on Hit” (Ending the Storm) on the list of interesting blessings.
If you’re looking for just one particular blessing, you will see it once every 4 completed mono (25.1% for all 3 main mono). Then, if you want a high roll, like above 75%, that’s 1 out of 16…
Now, I don’t recommend going to that extent until the game is released: you might burn yourself out (I hope I did not ) while there’s plenty of other builds worth experimenting (or different modes, like SSF to try to make the best out of what you get, getting the experience to know when you should go with a rather weak build that has good gear for it, or with a strong build that has inadequate gear, where is the line? But I digress, as usual ).
Anyway, welcome to the Taste of Blood club, and good luck!
I also made around 100 runs and I suspect there could be an issue with Idols drop chance. Haven’t got any single ornate idol for bleed + dmg. Has one from the storyline drop but this is very strange and annoying.
Volatile Reversal alone is enough when difficulty is not challenging, so when it leaves you at very low mana, it won’t be an issue.
I use Rebuke for mana in arena between 2 waves; but when I farm monolith, I replace it with Shield Rush to blaze through.
For leveling, start with Rive and go up/right for 3rd strike damage (and leeching) then finish with bottom for attack speed/crit. Vanilla Warpath on-hit damage is lack luster but I used it too anyway, and I recharge mana with Rive via the Time and Faith passive in the sentinel tree.
Bleed is more late game (passives are high in the Paladin tree and you need good idols/helmet/body armor affixes). I would start with Ignite instead, and if you have the 2 handed mace Pontifex (level 20 required), it’s an awesome start. No shield and going fire means some adjustments are needed. Go for:
passives at bottom of paladin tree (Conviction -> Majasa Firebrand -> Rahyeh’s Strength)
fire nodes in Holy Aura: +10% fire penetration, +12% ignite, +50% fire damage (get rid of the Physical damage node and the block ones)
fire nodes in Sigils of Hope: +24% ignite per sigil (drop block node + the one before, and remove 1 point from the armor node)
for Warpath, I recommend taking Zweihander Reichweite for +100% area if you use a 2 hander (drop movespeed and only put 1 point in the inferior Iron Reach node)
stay at 20 points in Sentinel, skip the whole Axe Thrower / Shield Breaker combo
wow this community is much more helpful then path of exile. i luv ya guys and gals and non-binaries. and since im a newb to the game i will just have to learn what is good for my leveling play style
Hmm… I wouldn’t recommend Paladin for new players. While it has fantastic tools to survive with poor gear, the damage is low early on (but can scale really really high), unless you’re really lucky with drops. So, if at some point it becomes too hard and you want to try another mastery, I would recommend to go with either Spellblade (firebrand + flamereave) or Sorcerer (lightning nova), farm with it, and come back later to unleash Paladin’s full potential
Good luck!
I was playing some kind of “fire paladin” … at my lvl 80+ i was around wave 90 +/- arena
I switched to your build ( at that is limited version of build because I dont have ideal gear for that , lot of room to improve ) and my first try in arena ended at wave 117
I am lvl 88 paladin now … so more pasives to put , more better items to get … Look promising
Wow! Smooth transition! I’m glad it’s working so well for you!
I started a Paladin in Solo mode (SSF) a week ago; He is now 74 but I have yet to make the switch from Ignite to Bleed. I think I will do that once I get the Bleed chance blessing.
I’m curious about the gear you had before the switch, and now.
Before the switch I was going for fire damage … I had unique katana as weapon and put it all in fire damage , it was good but compering to bleed DOT limited … after switch Im using basicly what is recomended , taste of blood axe for weapon and bleeding heart amu for defence , that work better then my katana combo …
yesterday I finished last dragon boss in endgame , I was able to tank all his damage even explosions with no problem and in arena Im clearing waves 130+ … now Im at lvl 91 but I will stop there … Im going to make Rogue when patch come live today
I am noticing substantial drop in dps on the test dummy since patch. None of this justified by the patch notes. Can anyone confirm they are seeing the same thing?
) while there’s plenty of other builds worth experimenting (or different modes, like SSF to try to make the best out of what you get, getting the experience to know when you should go with a rather weak build that has good gear for it, or with a strong build that has inadequate gear, where is the line? But I digress, as usual 
