- Bolty published his findings in Diablo II: LoD Beta Report #1. (Block. (Dex - 15)) / (Level. 2) Block indicates blocking chance shown item, Dex indicates.
- I'd advice you to use a block chance calculator to get a rough idea of the amount of dexterity you want to have for your end-game build - but from memory my old hammerdin using a monarch shield (with a base 40% block chance) and lvl 20 holy shield (+35%) needed a total dex value of 175 (after bonuses from gear) to maintain 75% block in act 5 hell.
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Faster Block Rate (FBR) is a coefficient that increases the speed of Blocking. When the character. The calculation to find Effective Faster Block Rate (EFBR) is.
That's just the way it is. Diablo II has lots of hidden values like this. The best way I can describe it is that the value listed on the shield is a sort of modifer for your base blocking value when using a shield. The amount of dexterity you need to affect your chance to block changes with your level as well, so if you get enough Dexterity to have the maximum block rate at level 80, you may find your chance to block has dropped when you get to 90 if you haven't added any more Dexterity. Here's a pro-tip:Build your character however you want, but make sure you save one respec for when you have FULLY geared out your Pally. Equip your GG, and then respec. Find the item that adds to your attributes the most and build towards whatever requirements that item has.
Eventually, you'll equip it and boost your other attributes. Then, fill in the holes for STR and DEX so you can fully equip the rest of your gear.Put 100% of the other points into Vitality if you're a caster-Pally.My lv92 Hdin does 18k Hammer damage with a 68% block rate and 3.6k life. He solos Hell Baal and can easily solo all Ubers except for U-Trist, where he doesn't die easy but simply doesn't do much damage to the bosses.So yeah, Vit all when it comes to caster-Pally.
This depends highly on what you want your in the late game.In almost all cases, you want to hit the 75% block after holy shield (max block) by putting enough dex to get to that point.For smiters and hammerdins, you'll need the minimum strength requirement to wear all the gear you plan to wear. Any points left over should be dumped into vitality (though its arguable for a poorly equipped hammerdin to get some energy).If you plan to go melee oriented, such as a zealer or charger, you'll want some strength instead of all vitality (its a balancing act) for more damage.For both smiters and zealers, it helps a lot if you can find yourself a cheap wand has charges of life tap). Putting it on bosses and large groups greatly increases survivability. You can try searching shops for one pretty easily (I think on nightmare but its been a while).
Enough Strength to equip gear. Enough Dexterity to equip your weapon or achieve 75% blocking (Paladins should almost-always go for max block; holy shield leaves no excuse). All else Vitality. Nothing in EnergyThis rule will optimally cover about 99% of all possible builds in Diablo II. If you have all your gear ahead of time, you can spend some time with a calculator to figure out how much Strength and Dexterity you need, and just plug the rest in Vitality.
I typically do not bother with quite that much planning in a character, so I leave myself a little cushion (either extra points in Str or Dex, or unspent points) until the end of the game when my gear is finalized. (I also don’t like respecs.) Two Major ExceptionsThe only major exceptions to the above rule are glass cannon amazons (who will sacrifice some Vitality for extra Dexterity, purely for the damage) and energy shield sorceresses (who use Energy mostly in place of Vitality, though some Vitality is still absolutely necessary). Importance of VitalityThe reason for this rule is simple: opportunity cost. Vitality gives you Life, and therefore keeps you alive. Cellular pump control. It allows you to travel and fight more safely, and reduces the chances of being killed faster than you can react to whatever’s killing you (especially important on Battle.net due to lag issues). The damage you get from Strength is very minor compared to skill bonuses; the bonus from Dexterity isn’t any better but ranged amazons can safely drop some Vitality.
Strength: Obvious minimums, strong incentive to make them the maximumsBut of course, you do want to equip the best weapons/armor, which means you need Strength (even so, equipment with high Strength requirements have that fact counted heavily against them; equipping an Ogre Maul or Myrmidon Greaves requires a lot of forethought). Dexterity: To block or not to block, that is the questionDexterity requirements on most weapons aren’t too high (with bows as a major exception already noted), but blocking is an incredibly valuable option. If you are playing online then you should level-up ASAP. Levels 1-15 in Tristram, lvl 15-25 in the Tombs(end of Act 2), 25-45 normal Baalruns, at level 45 you go to NM, get to act 5 asap, level up till 75ish on NM baalruns, then go to Hell and repeat Baalruns till you have a decent level and somewhat of a decent gear.Concerning stat points: enough strength to equip all your items, enough dexterity to have 75% block with Holy Shield and all the rest goes to Vitality.
That's what my Paladin was when I played Diablo 2.But since patch 1.13 you shouldn't really care about spending points into wrong stats, you can always respec. You gain that possibility after finishing Den of Evil quest(the very first quest in the game). Even if you used all 3 of them(Normal, NM and Hell) you can always craft a respec potion in a Horadric cube.So try to achieve max block(75%), enough strength for all items(with good items you don't need to waste a single point into strength) and all the rest goes into Vitality. If you don't like it or if you need more strength for items you can always restat:).