Smite - 1pt wonder or max?

General Discussion
1

I’ve built a dedicated Uber smiter/zeal as a 2nd Pally to take down Ubers and Uber Diablo.

I’ve always been wavering for my build on whether to max it or just put one point in and leave it to the +skills.

Here’s some notable bullets from wiki:
Smite can apply Crushing Blow and Open Wounds, but not Deadly Strike or elemental damage like fire etc. It doesn’t receive any extra damage from the Sanctuary Aura.

Three aspects are however very important to remember when using Smite

  • Smite is not affected by Attack Rating, so it never misses its target, regardless of defense and level of the target monster.
  • Smite does not work with Life/Mana steal. This is a major drawback in alter difficulties, as many melee classes rely heavily on life steal to stay alive.
  • Smite can however steal life through Life Tap.

I find myself using zeal to clear up to the organ bosses since smite is single target, but now that I have enigma, I could just pop that on and tele to the boss.

In either case, when doing pvm (many mobs) I use zeal and leave smite for just those tank and spank bosses. Given that use case, is there value is using another 19pts to max smite?

Each smite level grants +damage % and stun length. Stun is not applied to bosses and so we are left with the benefit of +damage%. But the whole point of smite is the uninterrupted never missing crushing blow and life tap application.

I fail to see how additional smite damage for ubering would be worth the points. I do not pvp, where I would expect smite levels would add much value.

Thoughts?

Side bar: I think you can hit max attack frames with only a few points in Fanaticism with +skill gear, so I also wonder if that is worth maxing.

2

1 point. All the damage is coming from Crushing blow.

As for fanat, the damage bonus is worth maxing this regardless of everything else.

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3

It depends what you want from it.

If you only want to proc CB you dont need to care. So in your case where you can 1pt smite proc CB and finish with zeal you dont really need the extra 19 points.

So put there spare points for maybe few seconds of saved time, thats it.

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4

For a dedicated Uberdin, I’d max it. But I don’t think dedicated Uberdin is really necessary anymore (maybe back in the day it was, but people figured out/realized 1 point Smite is really all you need). Points are already sparse for Paladin between Zeal, Holy Shield, Fanat, pre-reqs and utility skills (even Resist Lightning), and Sacrifice if you choose to invest more into Zeal for the other 99% of general play. But if your character is only designed for Ubers, then feel free to max Smite instead of Sacrifice (or whatever else)

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5

1 point unless you’re planning to use it as a primary skill in pvp.

6

True, for zeal the damage bonus from Fanatacism is ideal. Not much else worth putting points into unless it’s a combo character.

7

Oh, and if you ever play with groups, the extra everything for the other characters is amazing. My zealot is amazing with any summoner/ zon/ barb… they love it.

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