Recently, good news emerged regarding Diablo 4 Season 11: Paladin class, which will be featured in the second DLC launching next year, can be tried out in the current base game after pre-ordering. This has piqued the interest of many players regarding its gameplay style and build possibilities.
However, regardless of the season or expansion, the first thing you should consider after obtaining a new character is how to level it up to the maximum level as quickly as possible, ensuring you climb the leaderboards and access endgame content and higher-difficulty encounters as early as possible. This time, Paladin class is also included.
The latest DLC trailer for D4 indicates that this Paladin remains a powerful force against demons, possessing various active skills and auras. Therefore, during the leveling phase, you can follow the build ideas provided in this guide to create a powerful and effective Paladin build for the fastest farming and grinding.
Skills & Passives
Since Paladin is a character who wields a weapon in one hand and a shield in the other, we highly recommend using some classic and consistently effective build styles: Hammerdin, which focuses on dealing damage with a hammer, or Smiter, which focuses on dealing damage with a shield. Both of these builds have been proven effective by numerous Paladin players in Diablo II.
If you want to be more unconventional or better suit the game’s style, you can try focusing on Brandish, a new skill added to this class. Combined with Judgement debuff, it causes groups of monsters to automatically explode, allowing you to clear large numbers of enemies effortlessly. Alternatively, you can actively detonate it using Blessed Shield to achieve the same damage effect.
Besides hordes of monsters, Diablo 4, in its latest Season of Divine Intervention, has increased the difficulty of rare and elite monster encounters. In this situation, you can build your Paladin with Fanaticism, Defiance, and Holy Light Auras to enhance your damage capabilities. Meanwhile, utilize Falling Star to achieve rapid movement and exceptional agility.
For players who are not used to stacking auras, there are other options: you can forgo Holy Light Aura and instead switch to Arbiter of Justice, which can also provide you with incredibly high burst damage; or use Fortress to gain invincibility for half a minute. Below are some skills and passive abilities that we recommend, along with the points allocated to them.
- Cross Strike - Brandish - 1
- Shield of Justice - Blessed Shield - 1
- Fanaticism Aura - 1
- Rite of Prayer - Defiance Aura- 1
- Rite of Humility - Fanaticism Aura - 1
- Freefall - Falling Star - 1
- Judicator: Oath - 1
- En Guarde - 3
- Riposte - 2
- Righteousness - 2
- Heaven’s Fury - Enhanced Heaven’s Fury & Triplicate - Heaven’s Fury
- Righteousness - 1
- Master Craftwork -3
- Shining Armor - 1
- Giant Slayer - 3
- Judgement Day - 1
- Crack in the Armor -3
- High Charity -3
- Blessed Shield - 4
- Fanaticism Aura - 4
- Defiance Aura - 4
- Heaven’s Fury - 4
- Pacify - 1
- Resolute - 1
- Conviction - 1
- Courage - 3
- Discipline - 3
- Longevity - 1
- Renewal - 1
- The Best Offense - 3
Aspects & Runewords
Next, let’s look at Aspects and Runewords that are suitable for leveling up a Paladin build. It’s important to note that Paladin class is currently a reward for pre-ordering Lord of Hatred expansion, so its usable Aspects will be obtained by salvaging Diablo 4 items from dungeons in the new exploration area of Skovos.
Given this, in the current Season 11, you can only continuously farm bosses and specific gear in existing sanctuaries to obtain Aspects that can improve your damage output, increase resource generation chances, and reduce cooldowns. Here are some recommended options:
- Aspect of Firm Decree
- Aspect of the Indomitable
- Aspect of the Judicator
- Aspect of Holy Punishment
- Juggernaut’s Aspect
- Aspect of the Golden Hour
As for Runewords, this build option is a matter of personal preference and therefore difficult to recommend, but the Lith + Zid combination is always a safe bet: when you remain still for 0.3 seconds, you gain 25 Offering, and consuming an equal amount of Offering allows you to cast a copy of Spear of the Heavens skill, further increasing your damage output.
Alternatively, Cir+Vex Runeword setup will grant you 300 Offering after casting 5 skills. Subsequently, every 100 Offering consumed will increase all your skill levels by one for 10 seconds, which is very beneficial for dealing with elite and rare bosses.
Divine Gifts
Since Paladin has appeared in Diablo 4 Season 11, how could we not include some Divine Gifts specifically for this season? In this unique seasonal mechanic, the placement of the gifts you insert can provide you with different buffs and debuffs. Therefore, based on the effects of all Divine Gifts, here are some recommended options for different game content, along with their specific placement locations.
Helltide
- Purified: Essence of Pain
- Corrupted: Essence of Squalor
Kurast Undercity
- Purified: Essence of Screams
- Corrupted: Essence of Anguish
World Boss
- Purified: Essence of Sin
- Corrupted: Essence of Hellfire
The Pit
- Purified: Essence of Lies
- Corrupted: Essence of Shadows
To reiterate, S11 Corrupted Divine Gift will bring you some negative effects, such as increased challenge difficulty or reduced health. Please use it in moderation, otherwise you may end up losing everything.
Gear
Finally, let’s look at the gear available for Paladin builds suitable for leveling. To minimize hassle, it’s recommended that you choose gear with the goal of smoothly transitioning to an endgame build from the start.
For example, Supplication Unique Sword allows your Brandish skill to fire in all directions and return via Returning Light morph, effectively doubling your DPS. In addition, other unique items that can be placed include Seal of the Second Trumpet, Herald of Zakarum, Godslayer Crown, and Judicant’s Glaivehelm.
Of course, farming this precious Uniques early in the season is notoriously difficult, so here’s a suggestion: go directly to EZG.com to get ready-made Diablo 4 Season 11 Items for sale, which will save you a lot of time and effort spent grinding and struggling. The above is a leveling build guide for the new Paladin class in Diablo 4 Season 11.
Although the developers have stated that Paladin in the base game will be slightly different from the one in DLC launching on April 28th next year, and that all progress will not carry over, it remains one of the most playable classes currently available. After all, who doesn’t like something new? Enjoy the game!














