Build Introduction
The point of this leveling guide is to quickly take your character from 1 to 70 while using Divine Lance and prepare for your transition into the endgame. This guide will walk you through the skill point placement for levels 1-70 and give some insight on how each skill and modifier work together to create the synergies needed to be able to tackle whatever form of leveling you choose to take. We will also give some insight on Legendary Aspects, Affixes, Gems, and Elixirs we can utilize to accelerate our journey.
The Skill Tree has changed in the new expansion so passive nodes are gone and skills are now locked behind levels instead of the number of points placed in previous tiers.
Quick Navigation
Allocation of Skill Points
Below is the recommended order for spending your points as you level up. If you are missing skill points, complete the Season Ranks to earn the additional points as you progress your journey.
Skill Bar and Skill Tree Points
Advance
Divine Lance
Fanaticism Aura
Defiance Aura
Holy Light Aura
RallyIf you are unsure how best to use these skills read our Build Mechanics section after setting up your skill bar.
Wondering what comes after level 70 or which Paragon Boards to choose? Head to the Paladin Builds Page and choose an endgame build to continue progressing your character beyond level 70 and into the endgame.
Paladin Class Mechanic – Oaths
Paladins are able to devote themselves to one of four Oaths which drastically change your game play and give you access to some new resources that allow you to take your build even further. Each Paladin archetype is represented in the Oath system allowing players to choose between Zealot, Juggernaut, Judicator, or Disciple. For this build we will want to take the Zealot Oath.
Under this Oath whenever we attack with Zealotry Core Skills we gain a stack of Fervor for 2 seconds. Critical Strikes cause those skills to hit an additional time per stack of Fervor for some extra damage. Basic Skills refresh these stacks. Lastly, if you would gain Fervor while at max fervor, you instead gain some Fortify for 1% of your maximum life. This Oath allows this build to dish out massive amounts of damage with high attack speed and Crit Chance.
Gear, Stats, Gems, and Runes
When selecting your items, higher item power generally indicates stronger gear, but you also need to consider the affixes and effects that are relevant to your class and your build. When making gear decisions during leveling, keep an eye out for both the item power and specific attributes that complement that build.
Legendary Aspects
For general information on how to unlock the Codex of power, head to our Aspects and Codex of Power Guide. You can also imprint aspects onto items by visiting The Occultist in towns.
Listed below are all the aspects that are important to this build as well as what slot they are best placed in. However, you can move the slots around during the leveling process especially since early on some of these aspects can only be found via random drops and might not be on the most ideal slot.
| Gear Slot | Legendary Aspect | Aspect Power |
| Helm |  Aspect of Glynn’s Anvil | Your maximum Resolve is increased by 2 and you gain [3-4%] Damage Reduction per Resolve |
| Chest | Aspect of Interdiction | Gain [2.0 – 3.0%] Block Chance per Resolve stack |
| Gloves |  Aspect of Jacques’ Fervor | Each stack of Fervor grants you x[15-20%] bonus Critical Strike Damage |
| Pants |  Aspect of Valiance | Valor Skills generate [1-6] Resolve when cast. |
| Boots |  Ghostwalker Aspect | While Unstoppable and for 4 seconds after, you gain [10-20%]X increased Movement Speed and are Unhindered |
| Amulet | Revelator’s Aspect | Zealot Skills deal x[12.5-32.5%] increased damage. Doubled while at 3 or more stacks of Fervor. |
| Ring 1 | Virtuous Aspect | Using a Valor Skill increases your damage by x[40-60%] for 7 seconds. |
| Ring 2 | Aspect of Utmost Glory | While Healthy, your skills deal x[20-35%] increased damage. Double this bonus against Weakened enemies. |
| Weapon (1-Handed or 2-Handed) | Aspect of the Zealot’s Covenant | Additional hits from Zealot Oath deal x[100-120%] increased damage. Your Maximum Fervor is increased by 1 and its duration is increased by 2 seconds. |
| Shield (If using 1-Handed) | Bulwark’s Aspect | You no longer Dodge, but you gain [20-30%] Block Damage Reduction and 15%+ Block Chance |
Stat Priority and Tempering Affixes
During your leveling journey, you may stumble across items with incredible affixes. Tempering these items can provide you with a significant boost in power, so make sure you understand how tempering works!
As a reminder, tempering is only possible if you’ve found the tempering manuals while leveling.
Keep an eye out for the following stats that are beneficial for this build. We will list the most ideal stats and best tempering affix if you’re lucky enough to find the right manual.
| Gear Slot | Targeted Affixes | Tempering Affix |
| Helm | 1. Cooldown Reduction 2. Strength 3. Maximum Life 4. Resistance to All Elements | +[2-3] Maximum Resolve Stacks |
| Chest | 1. Strength 2. Maximum Life 3. Armor 4. Resistance to All Elements | +[2-3] Maximum Resolve Stacks |
| Gloves | 1. Attack Speed 2. Cooldown Reduction 3. Critical Strike Chance 4. +Ranks to Core Skills | Critical Strike Damage |
| Pants | 1. Strength 2. Maximum Life 3. Armor 4. Resistance to All Elements | +[2-3] Maximum Resolve Stacks |
| Boots | 1. Movement Speed 2. Strength 3. Resistance to All Elements 4. Armor | Movement Speed |
| Amulet | 1. %Strength 2. Cooldown Reduction 3. Attack Speed 4. Movement Speed | Critical Strike Damage |
| Ring 1 | 1. Strength 2. Attack Speed 3. Critical Strike Chance 4. Critical Strike Damage | Critical Strike Damage |
| Ring 2 | 1. Strength 2. Attack Speed 3. Critical Strike Chance 4. Critical Strike Damage | Critical Strike Damage |
| Weapon (1-Handed or 2-Handed) | 1. Strength 2. Maximum Life 3. Critical Strike Damage 4. Damage% | Critical Strike Chance |
| Shield (If using 1-Handed Weapons) | 1. Strength 2. Cooldown Reduction 3. Armor 4. Resistance to All Elements | Disciple Augments – Chance for Divine Lance to deal Double Damage |
Gems and Runewords
Gems
Listed below are the best gems to socket into gear for each slot type.
- Weapons:
Skull for more Physical Damage - Armor:
Ruby for more Strength - Jewelry:
Diamond for resistance to all elements
Runes
While leveling in Diablo 4, you may come across Runes, a unique gem that can be placed into an item with two sockets such as a helm, chest, pants, or two-handed weapon. Putting one Ritual Rune and one Invocation Rune into the same item creates a Runeword, which can enhance your gameplay and grant powerful boons. Ritual Runes generate Offering when the conditions are met, and once enough Offering has been met, the associated Invocation Rune’s effect will trigger. Here are some early rune suggestions for leveling if you’re fortunate enough to find them.
| Rune Name | Rune Effect |
 Cir | Gain 300 Offering: Cast 5 Skills then become exhausted for 3 seconds. |
 Gar | Requires 25 Offering (Overflow: gain multiple stacks): Gain 2.5% Critical Strike Chance for 5 seconds, up to 25% |
 Moni | Gain 100 Offering: Cast 2 Mobility or Macabre Skills |
 Qua | Restore an Evade charge and gain 6% Movement Speed for 5 seconds, up to 30%. |
Season 13
There are no specific seasonal mechanics in Season 13. Instead the Lord of Hatred expansion and all of its features are available to explore. These include:
- War Plans
- New Skill Trees
- Talisman Sets
- The Horadric Cube
- Echoing Hatred
For the full patch notes and to look through our Season Guide links will be provided here once the pages are updated.
Talisman
Lord of Hatred introduces Talisman Sets. The Talisman is a Seal and Charms are placed within. Charms have some general affixes from a limited pool and can have Set bonuses which can grant significant power.
For our Seal, we will want a Legendary Seal with +1 Charm Slots so we can access all six charms. During the leveling portion of the game this may not be easily attained so just use what you can until you can eventually get the +1 Charm Slot.
For the other affixes look for anything that adds bonuses while using the Cathan’s Dauntless Faith charm set such as damage reduction, faith generation, movement speed or resistances.
For our Charms, we will want to use the 5-piece charm set Cathan’s Dauntless Faith which will grant us the following bonuses:
- 2 Set: Zealot Skills grant Do or Die on hit, increasing your Critical Strike Damage by 2.5%X and Cast Speed by 0.4%+ for 2 seconds stacking up to 25 times
- 3 Set: Do or Die automatically triggers Rally every 6 seconds while at Maximum Stacks. Rally additionally grants 30% increased Damage Reduction
- 5 Set: Zeal Skills deal 200%X increased damage. Every 5 stacks of Do or Die you gain stores a Zealot afterimage and moving periodically spawns your stored Afterimages
For our sixth and final charm slot, we will want to use a Unique Charm. Specifically one with the power of 
Griswold’s Opus which will grant us its powerful bonus without having to actually equip the sword thus letting us benefit from another aspect and better affix stats.
Mercenaries
As you play through the campaign in Vessel of Hatred, you will unlock various NPC Mercenaries who can join you on your quest to slay demons. Each Mercenary has their own small talent tree that will give them bonuses and skills to help you. Additionally, you can assign a Mercenary that you don’t take with you as a reinforcement to jump in when you activate certain skills. Let’s take a look at how we want to set this up for this build
We hire Raheir, the Shieldbearer
- Core Skill:
Ground Slam - Core Skill Passive:
Raheir’s Aegis - Iconic Skill:
Bastion - Iconic Skill Passive:
Inspiration
Our Reinforcement Mercenary will be Varyana, the Berserker Crone
- Opportunity Skill: Skill Cast
- Reinforcement Skill:
Bloodthirst
Build Mechanics
Rotation and Playstyle
The playstyle of this build is fair straight forward. We want to attack fast and maintain Fervor and Resolve and use Divine Lance to chop everything around us. Here’s a quick rundown of our skills:
- Advance – Our basic skill, use this to generate faith and use its movement to dash in and get Fervor Stacks.
- Divine Lance – The big spender of the build. Will be used for a majority of your attacks.
- Fanaticism Aura – A passive damage buff giving us attack speed and crit chance. It can pressed to apply Weakened to enemies nearby reducing the damage they deal. Use when you’re in a tight spot.
- Defiance Aura – A passive life regeneration buff that also grants Resolve Stacks. An extremely great Aura that can be useful to help with Rally spam.
- Holy Light Aura – Large amounts of AOE damage with a nice active burst and Fortify.
- Rally– A supportive buff that restores Faith and grants movement speed. Spam this constantly to move between mobs as it stacks and we have lots of ways to regain health.
Fervor
Fervor is a resource gained through the Zealot Oath as well as some Legendary Aspects. This provides an attack speed boost and some skills gain even more benefits while you have stacks of Fervor. Basic Skills always refresh the stacks of Fervor you have and if you chose the Zealot Oath, hitting with a Zealotry skill do the same. We want as much uptime on Fervor as we can get.
Resolve
Resolve is a damage reducing effect. While we have any stacks of Resolve, we gain 20% damage reduction. Getting hit by an enemy removes one stack of Resolve no matter how big the hit was. You can hold a certain number of Resolve stacks, the default is 9 stacks but this can be increased through some Legendary Aspects, Unique Items, and Tempering.
Which Elixirs Should You Use?
Visit the Alchemist in any main town to craft helpful Elixirs that increase stats, and experience gain for 30 minutes. Make sure to forage plants and pick up the necessary crafting materials during your adventures; they randomly spawn around the world. We want to use 
Elixir of Advantage for the attack speed but any Elixir you have should be used for the extra experience as they all grant between 5 and 8% increased experience to help you fly to level 70 even faster.
Season Updates
For a comprehensive look at what’s new in Season 13, its mechanics and theme, new activities, and other changes, check out our comprehensive Season Hub. Since this is an entirely new Expansion, there are a LOT of changes this Season!
Difficulty & Endgame
Once you hit level 70 with this build, you will be ready to tackle harder difficulties as you transition into more challenging content. Make sure to pick one of our recommended Endgame Builds to continue the journey. Additionally, we recommend keeping your Obols until your reach level 70 then spend them on a weapon to help kickstart your preferred endgame setup!
- April 27th 2026: Guide updated for Season 13 & Expansion
- March 6th 2026: Guide created for Season 12.
- December 13th 2025: Guide created for Season 11.
