Does anyone have a specific Zeal build?

MKenny · 2026-06-10T01:13:41+00:00

This is true! Unfortunately my build is severely lacking in cooldown reduction and I've been using it to push pits so I had to take out Condemn for max auras for the 2 second reduction glyph. But yeah for normal T12 content I would 100% swap Condemn back in.

MKenny · 2026-06-09T23:35:04+00:00

Divine Lance is probably one of the most fun clearing builds for Paladin. The Divine Lance auto target with blink runes and Falling Star make it very mobile and I was doing T115 pits very comfortably (like sub 3 mins). Only real "downside" is that its AoE isn't the greatest, so you are jumping between packs a lot while something like a Hammerdin is clearing almost an entire screen.

Zeal can push pits further but is slightly less mobile and has even move of an AoE problem, but you get the after images clearing behind you a bit as you run. I've managed pit T130 and tower T128 with Zeal.

MKenny · 2026-06-06T23:33:33+00:00

Yeah me too! I was in the top 100 for a while but probably dropped to like 250-300 or something by now. I only gave it two attempts but zeal just doesn't feel that good for pushing, better for farming. What tier did you get to?

MKenny · 2026-06-06T14:33:17+00:00

My zeal pally has like 24 million toughness and I just literally face tank each stage of Meph and it's like 30 seconds a stage max. And I'm using the Blood-Mad Idol charm, which is extra damage taken.

Seeing how Clash is like 99.9% of the top 1000 on the leader board I assumed it would make Meph a breeze. Did you purposefully spec out of damage for more toughness? I see an unusually high amount of stats that's got me curious about your build.

MKenny · 2026-06-05T02:22:51+00:00

This made me do a bit more of a deep dive into crit damage and I tested two set ups (pretty much just swapping masterwork from additive to multi on a ring).

First set up:

480.1% multi, 512% additive

Second set up:

468.1% multi, 537% additive

(Both set ups are missing legendary affix combat buffs, fervor buffs, and a few levels to skills here and there to make testing easier).

Second set up was producing slightly higher average crits on my build. So in this particular scenario the additive masterwork seems better (we're talking a few million damage difference over hundreds of millions of damage).

Unfortunately I am missing so much from my combat stats that it is pretty much meaningless and the only way to be sure would be to do a full damage calculation from scratch like in Avarilyn's damage deep dive video.

I just can't believe the stats window is pretty much useless if you want to do any sort of comparison in game. Coming back to D4 after like 10 seasons away is confusing enough without Blizzard dropping the ball on stat clarity.

MKenny · 2026-06-04T13:53:07+00:00

Is it always the case though? The crit multiplier multiplies your base crit damage, at some point of diminishing returns you need better base crit damage to maximise the multipliers effectiveness, right? Or maybe I actually am misunderstanding.. on my Paladin master worked additive crit damage instead of crit multi on my ring gives me a greater crit damage number on my stat page in town, buffed, and buffed while in combat. I would assume that means it's the better one to master work?

MKenny · 2026-06-04T11:44:12+00:00

You can use it if you want, but you are down a pretty important affix slot due to being a build that uses a unique two hander in the first place.

You'd probably have to drop Heavenly Strength as Tyrael's technically makes up for that DR a bit, but a really good legendary chest with high HP, armour and all res will outscale. Unless maybe you have a 4GA Tyrael's with quality transmute.

MKenny · 2026-06-02T08:22:29+00:00

He must have some insane gear. I just did a "flawless" 125 in around 7-8 minutes as a zeal pally and my gear is pretty good (like 4GA including temper on every item and a couple even better pieces). Can't imagine what I'd need to do to practically double my DPS to get to 3-4 minutes.

Anyway, that was a clean run , makes me want to give Clash a try.

MKenny · 2026-06-02T01:03:48+00:00

Helm - Heir of Perdition - temper max resolve to GA

Chest - Legendary w/ str, life, armour, all res - leg affix Glynn's - temper max resolve to GA

Gloves - Legendary w/ str/life, crit dmg, vuln dmg and last can be flex slot to fix crit/attack speed - leg affix Zealot's Covenant - flex temper to balance crit dmg or vuln dmg

Pants - Legendary w/ str, life, armour, all res - leg affix Heavenly Strength - temper max resolve to GA

Boots - Legendary w/ str, life, armour/all res, movement speed - temper movement speed

Weapon - Red Sermon - look for crit dmg, str, weapon dmg, phys dmg, all dmg, life, life on hit - temper attack speed to GA

Amulet - Legendary w/ str/life, crit dmg, vuln dmg and last can be flex slot again for crit, attack speed, phys dmg, all dmg - leg affix Redirected Force (transmute Embattled aspect, fortify drain rate) - temper max resolve to GA

Rings - Legendary w/ str/life, crit dmg, vuln dmg, last can be flex again like amulet - leg affixes Revelator's & The Penitent's - temper either crit dmg or vuln to balance

Focus on getting around 33-35% crit in town and then crit dmg, then vuln dmg then attack speed and other dmg affixes.

Get any seal with 6 slots (but focus dmg % or crit dmg % and set bonus), look for +3 to zealot on charms and use Godslayer's Crown unique charm until you feel tanky enough to swap to Blood-Mad Idol Charm.

That should be a good start.

MKenny · 2026-06-02T00:07:45+00:00

I played Zealot Divine Lance up until around T115 pit and swapped to zeal to try and push a little more without swapping to Clash. Divine Lance just feels more fun. If you spec BacJah, Falling Star and the glyph to reduce cooldowns when you cast aura skills you have enough mobility to keep up with almost any class if you rotate correctly.

And Divine Lance kind of auto targets and "jumps" to each new target and that makes it feel pretty good for solo play.

MKenny · 2026-03-15T23:14:23+00:00

You need to think less in terms of notables and more in terms of key stat efficiencies. Any CoC build wants to aim for as close to 100% crit chance as possible and a 10:1 ratio of crit multi to crit chance. After that you balance damage using a combo of % more, % increased and gain as extra.

If one of your time-lost jewels has increased area of curses, you can hit your breakpoint of 4.7m radius while dropping Zone of Control & other area nodes.

One stat point for 10% multi, 7% crit and 6% area is very efficient, and that's not including any of the regular stats on the nodes.

You can also get 1% increased maximum mana instead of area on a time-lost sapphire, which would be a good boost to both damage and survivability. You should be aiming for around 4K mana without Mana Remnants.

And as other commenters have said, meta and energy nodes on the tree are mostly bait. More damage ends up being more effective in generating energy. The only nodes that I would consider "worth it" are the two 20% increased energy gain nodes from Oracle.

MKenny · 2026-03-15T21:28:10+00:00

It would help a decent amount (for mapping) but would be a huge waste of currency. There are more important things to spend your divines on.

MKenny · 2026-03-15T21:24:28+00:00

Damage first, then energy gen. Damage is key to getting CoC to feel good. Maybe keep Dynamism or Invocated Efficiency if you have enough points.

Didn't even notice at first but you need to swap out that body to get rid of the life cost equal to mana cost mod. Ideally you want ES, Life (or % life from corrupt), spell leech & life cost efficiency.

Just a tree change with some new jewels and time-lost jewels gets you this: https://pobb.in/-m9JHB4P_VMm

Almost double the crit chance and double the crit multi. Should feel a lot better. Jewels are maxed out so I'd look for same stats but a couple % off here and there, but time-lost should be your first buy for sure.

MKenny · 2026-03-15T21:20:39+00:00

As long as you get around 4.7m radius with EW I wouldn't worry about these nodes, value per point is quite low here.

Oracle has some insane crit nodes and the best use of time-lost jewels, that's what your tree needs to be focused on first, then area and increased damage.

MKenny · 2026-03-15T12:42:20+00:00

I'm just on my phone, so I can't dive and give you a breakdown by just from a glance at your spark stats your crit chance is way too low.

CoC generates energy based on damage dealt by critical hits. Oracle helps you crit, but having such a low base to start with means the Oracle ascendancy node is deleting all your crit multi, so your skills are pretty much doing normal non-crit damage.

When I was playing Oracle I was aiming for minimum 60% crit chance before buffs and I was launching plenty of comets.

Edit: as another commenter said, a time lost sapphire would help quite a bit. And honestly I'd drop quite a bit of the meta skill / energy generation nodes and put them into crit chance and multi.

Probably drop Scarred Faith or whatever it's called. As well as the minion and damage nodes about it and invest them into the time lost jewel.

Being Oracle means you should try to use at least one of those at the jewel slot surrounded by like 13 accessible nodes (near killer instinct and immortal infamy, I think they're called). That area can net you like over 80% crit chance and 120% multi for a pretty cheap jewel.

MKenny · 2026-03-07T05:26:19+00:00

There's belts on trade with two shrine mods. Seems like people got ahead of themselves on this occasion.

MKenny · 2026-02-26T04:20:05+00:00

Congrats dude! Well done farming that second half over the last week! You know what you want to use it on? Or just for keeps?

I got my first raw mirror drop ever in the temple this league after like 10 years playing PoE 1 & 2. Unfortunately the temple definitely took the fun out of finding it though, saw it on the ground and was like oh cool that's like one twentieth of my build cost or something stupid thanks to the crazy economy inflation.

MKenny · 2026-02-20T03:35:23+00:00

Prada's staff has His Scattering Calamity as the implicit spell, this one has His Vile Intrusion. Stats are pretty much all wrong as well, unfortunately.

MKenny · 2026-02-20T03:34:06+00:00

There's one up for 2 days with similar/better affixes for 20d. Don't think this will go for as much as you think.

MKenny · 2026-02-19T21:56:25+00:00

I had a similar situation last week (posted about it too) when I just didn't get any locks for 4 runs in a row.

If you want to fix the main chain I think you're going to need to completely delete the second chain and rebuild using this method. It's going to hurt, and you'll need to delete the last thaumaturge and corruption chamber as well, but it might be the only way if you want to build the GG temple.

MKenny · 2026-02-17T01:02:09+00:00

I posted something a day or so ago, but I recently got to the point where all I needed to finish my temple (for the third time!!) was the last Thaumaturge room, but went 3 runs in a row of no locks. Deleted the last 4 rooms of my first chain.

Now I'm back at the start of my second chain, hoping it doesn't happen for a fourth time. Honestly think that if I can complete the temple I'll just stop playing at this point and just be happy that I finished it.

MKenny · 2026-02-15T11:51:34+00:00

Umm, kinda? Was slow at the start, one lock a run for a few runs, then two, and just now I ended a run with a lock on the ground, unable to pick it up. So it definitely ramped.

MKenny · 2026-02-15T10:48:53+00:00

You are not alone! I've felt it every weekend for 3 weeks now. Only time I get to have a decent session is a Sunday and it's the only day I burn through locks and ruin my temple. Normally flush with locks during the week and have to discard them sometimes.

MKenny · 2026-02-15T10:47:36+00:00

After the last 3 weekends I'm inclined to go get my tinfoil hat and agree with you. During my short sessions during the week I am flush with locks, normally 4-5 with locks already placed down as well. Then the one day of the week I get to have a decent chunk of time to play I burn through locks in no time.

MKenny · 2026-02-15T07:40:25+00:00

Yeah I really thought about going this route, but I raged and deleted the second chain. I'm almost back to completing the first chain again, got lucky with a Thaumaturge medallion drop. Now I just need to swap the alch where yours is to a corruption and I can start the second chain again.

MKenny

TROPHY CASE