Paladin is playable now! In this article, we'll show all skills available in the Diablo 4 Paladin skill tree and the best leveling strategy for this new class.
Diablo 4 Paladin Leveling Strategy & Guide
Diablo IV Paladin class is a legendary holy warrior returning from Diablo 2, known for bravery, resilience, and divine power. This class fights up close with weapons like swords, maces, flails, and shields, channeling celestial energy to strike down evil and protect the innocent. Paladins blend physical strength with sacred magic, allowing them to both defend and deal heavy damage. Players can unlock the Paladin with the Diablo 4 expansion Lord of Hatred, or gain early access by pre-purchasing. This class uses Faith as its unique energy and deals damage through holy and physical means.
One of the best paths to level up fast for D4 Paladin is to focus on Thorns damage for insane early-game scaling. The core strategy revolves using the Clash skill combined with Blessed Shield to apply massive thorns damage, which is further boosted by specific auras and passives. This way allows you to dish out high damage consistently, making leveling efficient and fun. You also utilize various abilities and passives like Fanaticism Aura, Juggernaut Oath, and Rally to increase survivability, resource management, and damage output.
1. Core Skills & Rotation:
Clash (Basic Skill): Your primary generator. Use this constantly on enemies. Its key function is applying your Thorns damage to the enemy you hit. Invest points here early.
Blessed Shield (Core Skill): Your main spender. Throw your shield after using Clash. It ricochets and spreads the Thorns damage applied by Clash to multiple enemies. Invest points here early. Rotation: Spam Clash -> Spend Faith on Blessed Shield.
2. Essential Supporting Skills:
Fanaticism Aura (Aura): CRITICAL. Its Active component Weakens nearby enemies. Crucially, one of its runes provides a 500% multiplicative Thorns damage bonus against weakened enemies. Use this active frequently on packs/bosses for massive damage spikes.
Rally (Valor Skill): Provides a significant burst of Faith and Movement Speed. Use this whenever you need resources to spam Blessed Shield or when moving between packs. Later, it helps reset Ultimate cooldowns.
3. Survival/Utility Skill (Choose One):
Consecration (Justice Skill): Provides healing over time and damages enemies within its area. Good sustain. Weakens enemies.
Fortress (Ultimate Skill): Makes you immune for 3 seconds and grants Resolve stacks over time to you and allies within its area. Provides strong defense and fuels passives.
4. Key Passive:
Coat of Arms: The recommended early Key Passive. It provides a strong, reliable 61%[x] multiplicative damage bonus. This directly amplifies your Thorns and Blessed Shield damage.
5. Essential Passives (Prioritize these):
Giant Slayer: Potentially the most OP passive. Significantly increases damage to Elite enemies and Bosses. Must-have.
Thorns-related Passives: Look for passives that increase your Thorns stat or Thorns damage (e.g., Retribution passives mentioned in the transcript). "Thorns and Thistles" was specifically noted.
Resolve Stacks Passives: Passives that generate or consume Resolve Stacks (like those granted by Fortress) provide significant damage bonuses. Prioritize these as they become available.
Critical Strike Damage: Passives boosting Critical Strike Damage are highly recommended for scaling your overall damage.
How to Play:
Run into a pack of enemies with Fanaticism Aura active to Weaken them and activate the huge Thorns multiplier.
Target an enemy and use Clash to apply your Thorns damage directly to them.
Immediately use Blessed Shield on that same enemy. The shield will ricochet, spreading the applied Thorns damage to nearby enemies.
Use Rally whenever you need more Faith to spam Blessed Shield or need to move faster.
Drop Consecration for healing/damage/weakening, or activate Fortress for immunity and Resolve stacks when in danger or against tough foes.
Repeat. Watch enemies explode from Thorns damage reflected via Blessed Shield, amplified by Fanaticism's active and your passives.
Diablo 4 Paladin Oaths
The Paladin Oaths system in Diablo 4 introduces four different holy paths that affect how you play the Paladin. Each Oath focuses on a unique style, some make you tougher and more defensive, others speed up your attacks, boost your holy damage, or provide strong support for your team. This system lets you customize your Paladin builds to fit your preferred role or change your style as needed. When you choose an Oath, you gain specific bonuses and abilities that enhance certain skills and playstyles. The Paladin can switch between Oaths depending on the situation.
Juggernaut Oath: This path turns your Paladin into a tough, durable tank. It raises your armor and blocking abilities, helping you survive heavy attacks while staying close to enemies. Juggernaut is perfect if you like using a shield and want to absorb damage for your team. Choose Juggernaut if you love shields, blocking, defensive skills (Shield Bash, Fortress), and being the frontline anchor.
Zealot Oath: The Zealot focuses on fast melee attacks and critical hits. It boosts your attack speed and rewards hitting enemies quickly in succession. If you like rapid melee strikes, especially with skills like Zeal or Smite, this Oath will suit your style well. Pick Zealot if your build relies on rapidly attacking with skills like Zeal and triggering critical hits often.
Judicator Oath: Judicator strengthens your holy damage and crowd control. It improves your ability to deal with demons and undead, making your holy skills like Blessed Hammer or Fist of the Heavens even more powerful. This path is great if you want to emphasize the Paladin’s sacred powers. Select Judicator if Blessed Hammer, Blessed Shield, or Heaven's Fury are your core damage sources, and you enjoy marking and detonating enemies.
Disciple Oath: The Disciple is all about support. It enhances your auras, healing, and utility skills, helping your group survive tough battles. If you prefer a supportive role, boosting allies and providing healing, this Oath is designed for you. Opt for Disciple if you focus on group support (auras, healing) or specifically want to build around frequently using Ascension skills and transforming into Arbiter Form.
Diablo 4 Paladin Skill Tree
1. Basic Skills
These skills are the Paladin's foundational combat moves, serving as the primary means for initial attacks and laying the groundwork for subsequent skill casting in battles.
| Skill | Explanation |
| Brandish | The skill invokes the power of light, and when used, it releases an arc-shaped attack. It is a basic arcane attack skill that can hit enemies within a certain fan-shaped range. |
| Holy Bolt | It enables the Paladin to throw a holy hammer at enemies. As a long-range basic skill, it provides a way to attack distant targets without getting close to them. |
| Clash | This is a combo attack skill using both weapons and shields. The Paladin strikes a single enemy by coordinating the use of these two pieces of equipment, suitable for close-up confrontation with individual enemies. |
| Advance | When using this skill, the Paladin moves forward while wielding a weapon. It not only helps close the distance with distant enemies quickly but also can play a role in adjusting the combat position during battles. |
2. Core Skills
These are the Paladin's main damage output skills, featuring more powerful attack effects than basic skills, and are the key to dealing heavy damage to enemies in battles.
| Skill | Explanation |
| Zeal | The Paladin attacks enemies at an extremely fast speed. While inflicting damage with the initial strike, it will immediately launch subsequent consecutive attacks. This skill is ideal for quickly overwhelming single enemies or groups of weak enemies with a flurry of hits. |
| Blessed Shield | The Paladin first blesses the shield with holy energy, then throws it at the enemy. After hitting the target, the shield can bounce up to three times. This characteristic allows it to damage multiple enemies in a row, which is very practical when facing groups of enemies. |
| Blessed Hammer | After being thrown, the blessed hammer will spiral outward. The spiral movement trajectory enables the hammer to cover a specific area and cause continuous damage to enemies within that area. |
| Divine Lance | The Paladin uses a heavenly lance to pierce enemies, and this skill consists of two consecutive stabbing actions. It is a targeted piercing skill that can deal concentrated damage to key enemies. |
| Shield Bash | The Paladin charges directly at a target enemy and then slams the area in front of it with a shield. It combines movement and attack, and can quickly approach the enemy and launch a surprise attack on it. |
3. Auras
Auras have both passive and active effects, and they can not only enhance the Paladin itself but also provide various bonuses to allies around them. They are crucial for team battles and continuous combat.
| Skill | Explanation |
| Fanaticism Aura | Its passive effect takes effect when the Paladin expends faith. It can provide the Paladin and their allies with increased attack speed and critical strike chance, and each effect lasts for three seconds. This bonus can be stacked up to four times. When actively activated, it weakens all enemies in the nearby area for four seconds, reducing the combat capabilities of surrounding enemies. |
| Defiance Aura | The passive effect of this aura continuously strengthens the Paladin and their allies, increasing their armor value and resistance to all types of damage, thereby improving the team's overall defense. When actively used, the Paladin becomes unstoppable for two seconds, during which they will not be stunned, knocked back, or affected by other control effects. |
| Holy Light Aura | In the passive state, both the Paladin and their allies can radiate holy light. Every two seconds, this light will automatically deal damage to three randomly selected nearby enemies, realizing continuous area damage. When actively cast, it releases two pure light bolts. The bolts first attack the nearest enemy, then can bounce and chain to up to four other enemies. When the first light bolt bounces back to the Paladin, it will restore a certain percentage of the Paladin's maximum health. |
4. Valor Skills
These skills focus on defense, mobility, and battle state enhancement. They help the Paladin control the battle rhythm and improve their own and the team's survival ability.
| Skill | Explanation |
| Shield Charge | The Paladin charges forward with a shield. During the charge, it can push enemies in the path backward. At the same time, the Paladin gains damage reduction during the skill's channeling process and inflicts damage on the enemies being pushed, integrating charge, control, and defense. |
| Aegis | When using this skill, the Paladin is surrounded by holy light shields. This not only forces nearby enemies to target themselves (taunt effect) but also gives the Paladin a 100% chance to block enemy attacks within four seconds, which is an excellent defensive skill for withstanding concentrated enemy fire. |
| Falling Star | The Paladin grows angelic wings, soars into the air, and then dives down to the battlefield. The skill causes damage twice: once when taking off and another when landing. It can quickly disrupt the enemy's formation and deal area damage to enemies at the landing point. |
| Rally | After activating the skill, the Paladin's movement speed increases by 20% for eight seconds. In addition, this skill can generate faith. The improved movement speed helps the Paladin flexibly move on the battlefield, and the faith generated can supply the consumption of subsequent core or ultimate skills. |
5. Justice Skills
These skills are mainly based on holy judgment and area control, capable of delivering punitive damage to enemies while also having healing or control effects, reflecting the Paladin's identity as an executor of divine justice.
| Skill | Explanation |
| Purify | The Paladin uses holy light to cover enemies, causing them to fall into a stunned state for two seconds. It is a quick control skill that can interrupt the enemy's skill casting or limit the movement of key enemy units. |
| Consecration | The Paladin is enveloped by holy light for six seconds. During this period, the skill can continuously heal the Paladin and their allies based on a percentage of maximum health per second. Simultaneously, it continuously inflicts damage on all enemies within the area covered by the holy light, achieving the dual effects of healing allies and injuring enemies. |
| Condemn | The Paladin uses holy power to pull surrounding enemies toward themselves after a short delay. After the enemies are pulled in, they will be briefly stunned and receive damage. This skill is suitable for gathering scattered enemies together to facilitate the release of subsequent area-of-effect skills. |
| Spear of the Heavens | Four holy spears fall from the sky and strike the battlefield. These spears cause damage to enemies when they land and knock them down. After a short delay, each spear will explode again, causing a second round of damage to enemies in the surrounding area, with strong burst damage capabilities. |
6. Ultimate Skills
These are the Paladin's most powerful skills, featuring extraordinary damage output or special powerful effects. They are often decisive in critical moments of battles.
| Skill | Explanation |
| Heaven's Fury | At the beginning of the skill's use, the Paladin gathers holy light and continuously deals damage to enemies around them. Then, the gathered holy light is released, and the released light will automatically track nearby enemies and continue to cause damage to them for seven seconds. It is a powerful continuous area damage skill. |
| Fortress | When casting this skill, the Paladin gains invincibility for three seconds. Meanwhile, a defensive area is created around the Paladin, and this area lasts for eight seconds. Whenever the Paladin or their allies stay within this defensive area, they can obtain two stacks of resolve every 0.5 seconds. These resolve stacks can further enhance their defensive capabilities, making the skill a core for protecting the team in tough battles. |
| Zenith | The skill summons a huge divine sword to slash the battlefield. If the Paladin casts this skill again, the divine sword will slash the battlefield once more. This second slash not only causes massive damage but also knocks down enemies hit for a short time, which can turn the tide of battle when dealing with large groups of enemies. |
| Arbiter of Justice | The Paladin ascends to the sky and then smashes down onto the battlefield, transforming into the Arbiter form that lasts for twenty seconds. The landing impact causes damage to enemies in the area. In Arbiter form, the Paladin's movement speed is increased; the evasion skill is replaced with Angelic Leap; and the wings on their body will continuously strike nearby enemies and cause damage, greatly enhancing the Paladin's comprehensive combat capabilities. |