I did a lot of testing, theocrafting,talked with MacroBioBoi and checked theamazonbasin for more information on that topic.
Things you should know for each Auradin: Pulse Damage:
Dragon, HoJ, Dream, Doom and Ice cast an aura separat on you.
Those auras DO stack!
Self cast or Item cast auras won’t overwrite each other.
Only items with the same aura type, increases the level of the aura.
Only hardpoints in synergies buff Holy Fire, Shock and Freeze.
Melee/Range Damage:
Different aura Types will add up to the Elemental damage buff (Holy Fire + Shock + Freeze = Fine)
The strongest aura of the same aura type will overwrite the Elemental damage buff of the weaker one (lvl44 Holy Fire + self cast lvl30 Holfy Fire = You only get the lvl44 Holy Fire Elemental buff)
Skills:
Max Holy Shock and Synergies, Offensive Aura Skiller, Sunder Charm
Gameplay:
Teleport, Stand still for 2-4 Seconds, perhaps punch a bit, repeat. You could skill into FoH and Holy Bolt, to spice it up, using CTA for casting them is an option.
Summery:
He’s the one with the highest pulse dmg, but compared to the other quite weak and really boring to play.
Dragondin (6135-7302 pulse dmg)
Summary
Gear 1
Gear 2
Gear 3
Helmet
3 faceted F R/W
Flickering Flame
2 faceted CoA
Amulet
Metal Gear
Highlords
Cat’s eye
Weapon
HoJ
Torso
Dragon
Shield
Dragon
Glove
Dracul’s
Dual leech Blood Gloves
Rings
Raven Frost + Bul-Katho’s
Raven Frost + Dual Leech Ring
Belt
Verdungus
String of Ears
M’avina’s Tenet
Boots
Gore Riders
Infinity Strides
Whatever
Offhand Weapon
CTA
Offhand Shield
Spirit
Merc:
Act 5 Merc: Plague, Crescent Moon, Lawbringer (when Plague is not available)
Act 2 Merc:Might, Reapers Toll
Act 1 Merc: Harmony
Consider Flickering Flame for Merc
Skill:
Conviction 24 (yes, even 25 is good against immunes monsters), zeal for melee dmg, sunder charm
Gameplay.
Run and Charge around (faster R/W is more fun), it has by far the largest AOE, you have to run conviction yourself, otherwise he sucks. Some even run him with a tele staff instead of CTA.
Summery:
The most fun of them all, especially with F R/W, variable Gear (MF, or survivability, or dmg), due to the large AOE he clear p1 cows faster than a javazon. IMO the 2nd best aura dmg dealing Paladin. Can do P8 with survival gear
Holy Fire Dragondin (6502 - 7769 pulse damage)
Summary
Gear 1
Gear 2
Gear 3
Helmet
2 faceted CoA
Flickering Flame
3 faceted F R/W
Amulet
+3 Offensive, F R/W
+3 Offensive, Life
+3 Offensive, 10 FCR
Weapon
HoJ
Torso
Dragon
Shield
Dragon
Glove
Magefist
Rings
2 Bul-Katho’s
Belt
Arach
Boots
Inferno Strides
Whatever
Offhand Weapon
CTA
Offhand Shield
Spirit
Merc:
Act 5 Merc: Plague, Crescent Moon, Lawbringer (when Plague is not available)
Consider Flickering Flame for Merc
Skill:
Holy Fire and Synergies maxed, Offensive Skillers with F R/W, zeal for melee dmg,
Gameplay:
Very similar to a regular Dragondin, deals more pulse dmg, but lacks in power against immunities, for that you have your merc.
Summery:
More expensive compared to the regular Dragondin and Fire Immune Monsters are very unfun for him, that’s why I ranked him lower.
Skill:
Conviction 24 (yes, even 25 is good against immunes monsters), zeal for melee dmg, sunder charms
Gameplay:
very expensive and not very powerfull, does more variable dmg but lacks in power, AOE isn’t as big, is independent from Merc, zeal for melee dmg
Summery:
Plays like a worse version of a Dragondin, not by much and is far more expensive, he is more about bragging, can do P8 with survival gear
Gameplay:
Teleport, wreck everything, repeat. Crescent Moon will allow better AOE dmg, Grief better Single Target dmg. Zeal is your main dmg source
Summery:
By far the strongest and best P8 Aura dmg dealing Paladin. He can even do Ubers with the right gear. 48 FCR Bp makes him traverse quite quickly, especially in dungeons. He is like a hybrid of a Zealer and Dragondin, with tele. Can do P8
Frostdin (1641-1654 pulse dmg)
Summary
Gear 1
Gear 2
Gear 3
Helmet
Faceted Nightwings
Amulet
Mara’s
Highlords
Weapon
Beast (Caduceus +3 Holy Freeze)
Faceted Azurewrat
Beast
Torso
4 faceted Armor
Enigma
Shield
Faceted HoZ
4 faceted JMod
Glove
Dracul’s
Laying of Hands
Rings
Raven Frost + Bul-Katho’s
Belt
Nosferatu’s
Arach
Boots
Gore Riders
Whatever
Offhand Weapon
CTA
Offhand Shield
Spirit
Merc:
Act2 Merc: Might and Infinity
Skills:
Offensive Aura Skiller, Sundered Charm, Holy Frost and Synergies Max, Zeal for dmg,
Gameplay:
Similar to a Tesladin, just worse. For extra stylepoints you can get a 4os Nova Armor (which can be purchased by Larz) to have the same blue as Nightwings.
Summery:
It’s fun to mix up the visuals and playing something off-meta
Thank you for the guide, it gave me a lot of valuable ideas about the Dragondin that I’m building. The equipment, the mercenary (more).
I confirm for the Frostdin, it is really fun to play, it is extremely safe in terms of survivability. It’s not a machine, but for those who want a build that changes while remaining effective, it’s very good.
I totally advise against those who don’t like blue, hahaha.
For overall best versatility (farming, ubers), Tesladin beats Dragondin? (trying to decide whether to make Enigma or Dragon for gg archon plate that dropped on ladder)
Nvm, I saw that you said Tesladin best overall on another thread. Thanks!
@MoeB
Yea, the Tesladin just hits like a truck, which is better for boss killing and higher player counts.
The Dragondin is just insanely good with his pulse damage, it also does have a respectable punch, but not as impressive as the Tesladin.
@Eckhart
Glad to hear that the Guide and Frostdin get’s some appreciation
I also updated the Frostdin, because a +3 Holy Freeze Caduceus is hard to find, an alternative is Azurewrath with a cold Facet.
If I wanna play a pure passive playstyle where I do not attack myself and just let my auras kill everything, which would be the best among these seven builds?
Obviously the Shockerdin, but that one can get very expensive (I like to run the Zeus Setup with 39FCR for FoH).
But I find the Dragondin more enjoyable, because of the larger AOE, and he is also cheap in comparison.
But wouldn’t a dragondin be better? I mean with dragondin I can use 2 dragons, flickering flame and hand of justice whereas with shockerdin I can only use 2 dream and rbf socket sword (or crescent moon)? I mean I will have a level 50 holy fire aura vs a level 30 holy shock aura and I guess a maxed out holy shock aura from your skills, but as far as I know the holy shock from items will not be added to my holy shock from my skill tree.
thank you for your work. Pretty amazing guide. The comparison between the variants and the personal feedback are very interesting as well.
I’m playing an Aura based Paladin my self. Started with the Tesladin in S1, tried the Dragondin in S2 and experimenting around on non-ladder since. Atm I’m running the Auradin variant. I wanted to try something out and i’m curious about your opinion.
I really enjoyed the Dragondin and would like to build him better against the fire immunes but stick with an elemental damage rather than boosting physical. Even with Sunder and 25 conv i find him a bit lackluster, specially in higher playercount. In that regard: Have you thought about a Variant of the Dragondin but using a lvl 30+ Holy Shock Aura yourself? And since you only get 20% out of your 25 conv against sundered or immune monsters, give your Merc a lower lvl conv instead. (= -30% Res lvl25 conv vs - 17% Res infinity)
Full gear would look like this:
Dual Dragon, HoJ, Griffons + Light Facet to boost Holy Shock Light Dmg, Raven Frost, Amu (Cats Eye, High Lord depending on Player count), 20as gloves, gore riders or tri res f r/w, Holy Shock 30+ (With Off Aura Charms), Fire+Light Sunder, zeal as primary attack skill, CTA+Spirit offhand.
Act 2 Infinity Merc + COH + Flickering (I’m not sure about the Aura on the merc, mb Holy Freeze for survivability), Low Player Count Act 1 (Harmony).
Compared to my Auradin gear, the numbers look pretty tempting. What i’m not sure about is how or even if, the missing ‘bugged’ aura ticks from the dream pieces factor in the build. I read that there is some weird stuff going on where you get multiple aura ticks per gear piece? Also i’m lacking on life leech due to lack of physical damage. Maybe with Hustle dropping to non-ladder, I can use Draculs for life tap but this would also require a little phys damage
Obviously the whole setup would be pretty damn expensive but let’s not focus on that
Do you think this could work? Maybe the build would be garbage… idk
I’m glad about your feedback/opinion.
No, you won’t have a lvl 50 holy fire aura with a Dragondin, you’ll have a lvl (14+14+16=)44 holy fire aura.
That means any +skill or +fireskill does NOT increase the lvl of your Holy Fire from Dragon or Hand of Justice. Same is true for Dream, Doom, or Ice.
And yes you are correct there, those item’s WON’T increase your Skill Auras. See them more like another player aura, which sits on top of you. With 3 suchs items, you have 3 players on top of you casting an aura individually from you, but their special ability is, that they increase just their aura skill lvl and they do benefit from your synergies.
The Dragondin is nearly as good as the Shockerdin and there is very little difference.
But the Shockerdin has less resistances he has to fight against, has faster traversal speed and can be more passive.
The Dragondin has to fight more resistances, has a larger AOE with a larger conviction radius as well, but you need to charge around all the time, and he is slow in dungeons.
That’s why I recommended the Shockerdin, but overall I would always recommend the Dragondin over the Shockerdin.
I mean, yea, maxing out Zeal and sacrifice adds like 450-500 damage (which is like 4k DPS) to a Dragondin.
If you put points into Holy Shock and resist Shock gives you more diversity, but than you rely on your merc to be near you once again, which can be really annoying.
Beyond P3 you don’t really kill with dmg auras anymore.
So going with your concept, I think a Tesladin is better suited, because more res, more flexible skill points, enigma, static and better single target damage.
But instead of Fanaticism, you run Holy fire and Highlords Wrath (30FCR is good enough).
So after a bit of testing, I think that might be the winner.
He hit’s as hard as a Tesladin with grief, but with static.
His pulse damage against cows is 619-4443.
Can farm everywhere.
And has Enigma.
Only downside 28frame for zeal instead of 24
Yea I know. You always outrun your merc and then you loose his item wielded aura for a short moment, kinda sucks. The idea behind the build was to stack as much elemental dmg as possible. Therefor using the lvl 44 Holy Fire Aura from the Dragondin and combining it with a high self wielded Holy Shock.
I know but the attack damage bonus from Holy Fire or Holy Shock is still pretty high.
I ran the numbers on that and kinda liked it. I might try that tbh. I tried using a belt for attack speed but in only brings you to 74% ias You can solve the attack speed problem with a Hustle pre buff tho (or mb even wear Hustle armor ?). Hustle is pretty expensive right now on non ladder tho. If it feels awkward to play at the 28 frame zeal. You can always switch back to grief. Theres also the possibility to switch from Enigma to Fortitude for extra Physical dmg. Especially in Cows I personally dont think the Teleport is needed. Eventhough with Enigma you don’t have the problem of outrunning your mercs Conviction.
But still, the numbers on this variant would be superior compared to the Tesladin + HF Of course you loose on Tesladins mobility and survivability. If i come across a Griffons I think i’ll give this a try. I’ll let you know how it played out
Let’s look at the Auradin Gear with self cast dmg Aura, because his thing is to stack elemental dmg on his melee attack.
Dream helmet (Shock lvl15) = casts an aura (lvl 30)
Dream Shield (Shock lvl15) = casts an aura (lvl 30)
Dragon Armor (Fire lvl14) = casts an aura (lvl 30)
Hand of Justice (Fire lvl16) = cast an aura (lvl 30)
Paladin (Freeze lvl 20) = casts an aura (lvl 20)
So you have 5 Auras on your Character, which all hits at the same pulse tick.
That’s why I went for a Holy Freeze aura, otherwise you would lose the melee elemental buff on your self wielded or gear wielded aura. But I would recommend to run your own conviction in that case (Just used Holy Freeze for better demonstration).
I hope that answers your question, if not please lemme know.
Let me see if i got it right. To speak in Numbers against p1 cows with lvl 25 conv:
Dream helmet (Shock lvl15) = casts an aura (lvl 30) = 2–2335 Tick dmg +
Dream Shield (Shock lvl15) = casts an aura (lvl 30) = 2–2335 Tick dmg +
Dragon Armor (Fire lvl14) = casts an aura (lvl 30) = 972–1210 Tick dmg +
Hand of Justice (Fire lvl16) = cast an aura (lvl 30) = 972–1210 Tick dmg =
1948 - 7090 total Tick dmg per Aura Tick?
So you’d get the maximum lvl 30 aura tick dmg per gear piece? Is that how it works? If so, does the same principle apply to the attack dmg as well? I hope I picked the right numbers from maxroll. I wasn’t sure which ones are for the Aura Tick dmg (i ignored the holy freeze aura)
That would mean, if i switch out Dream for a self wield Holy Shock i’d lose (2-2335) dmg each Aura Tick?
That means for MELEE and RANGE attacks you also get a elemental buff, beside the pulse damage tick from 1 Aura. But the elemental Buff to your Melee/Range attack won’t stack with the same aura. Just for the elemental buff on your Melee/Range attack won’t stack, unless it’s a different aura type.
No, you not only lose 1 Holy Shock Aura for it’s pulse damage, you also lose the melee/range buff and the item Holy Shock level will also drop from lvl30 to lvl 15.
But yea, you gain your self cast Holy Shock, which does pulse damage, most likly will overwrite the melee/range elemental buff from your lvl15 holy shock aura from dream.
Damage summery:
Dream helmet (Shock lvl15) = casts an aura (lvl 30) = 2–2335 Tick dmg +
Dream Shield (Shock lvl15) = casts an aura (lvl 30) = 2–2335 Tick dmg +
Dragon Armor (Fire lvl14) = casts an aura (lvl 30) = 972–1210 Tick dmg +
Hand of Justice (Fire lvl16) = cast an aura (lvl 30) = 972–1210 Tick dmg = Pulse Damage → every 2 seconds in a 23.3 yards radius you do 1948 - 7090 dmg
in addition the the pulse damage, you get an elemental buff to your melee attack.
Holy Fire level 30 = +2916-3628 fire damage
Holy Shock level 30 = +1-7005 shock damage Melee/Range Damage → each time you attack, you do 2917-10633 elemental damage beside your physical damage.
If you wanted to boost your Melee/Range elemental buff even further, you would do so with Holy Freeze, because there you would gain 803-815 additional damage from a lvl 28 Holy Freeze aura.
If you use a self cast lvl 28 Holy Fire aura to boost your elemental damage, that lvl 28 Holy fire aura get’s overwritten by your lvl 30 item Aura (from HOJ+Dragon), so you DON’T add any additional damage to it.
BUT you still cast a lvl 28 Holy Fire aural, beside of your item auras, which does just pulse damage.
For clarification my initial plan was to play the lvl 44 item based Holy Fire Aura alongside a lvl 33(ish) self wielded Holy Shock Aura. Thats why I asked about the missing dream aura ticks.
With your clarficitaion (thanks ) from my understanding now, I would end up like this :
Thats the highest elemental damage I was able to squezze out of all the variants. Of course of the cost of mobility and survivability but resulting in the fastest theoretical Zeal ttk for cows and 145% Fire res monsters
I would test that offline with a HeroEdited Char and see if you can accept the fact that the merc is all over the place.
When you get your hands on a +2 Pala or +3 offensive amu with tele charges, I think that would improve your build even further.
Hi people. First of all, congrats to Biervampir, thanks for all the informations, pretty useful.
I keep playing this game much more than D4, and one of my goals is to find my favorite version of Auradin, problably my favorite build of the game.
I played the basic Auradin for sometime (Holy Fire + Holy Shock), and was much what i wanted - high aura pulse damage. You just kill by walking. But i felt it kinda squishy, too much dependable on pots. Besides this, its a very funny build.
Then I made a Tesladin with dual Dream, self using Conviction. It can get pretty tanky, specially with Last Wish. But it doesn’t do much damage on aura pulse.
Now, i’m running a different version of Tesladin - self use Holy Shock, Griffons, pally shield with 4 5/5 light facets, Beast on +3 HS Caduceus and Offensive Auras Skillers. Using Conviction on merc. I’m impressed with his FCR, it’s faster than i thought it would be, even using Arachnid.
The first thing I miss on this build is “Ignores target’s defense” - this is much more stronger than what i thought. When I got a merc with Blessed Aim, things got much better, but this ability still would be very strong.
Besides this, Crescent Moon, although good, seems to make him just weaker than Beast, and even on area pulse damage. Grief, as always, absolutely killer, and what i find most useful here is the Ignores targets defense ability, it just keep killing things easily. But I lose area damage - would be amazing if Grief could be made of Scepters, altough i don’t know if life leech applys to that +400 damage. As last, Last Wish is also really good, it gives the tankness that sometimes I miss, because of Fade and Life Tap, but, again, I lose attack speed and individual and area damage.
Other thing I think is that i’m more dependable on pots than what I expect. It’s not squishy, but I’m lacking a much more higher life steal on him - that’s why I’m preparing lots of material to craft blood gloves and boots for him.
For now, it has been my favorite auradin version, really liking the gameplay and there’s lot to do with him to get better, wich keeps me liking the game.
I also wanna test the Zeus build Biervampir posted, it seems pretty fun to have very high pulse damage and spread Fist of the Havens (althoug it’s cooldown). Same for the Dragondin - must be very fun even without Enigma, specially to focus on farming cows. Cold aura seems pretty fun too.
Any tips for the self use Holy Shock version of Tesladin would be apreciated.
I have to complement my last comment. Crescent Moon is actually much better than what i thought. Actually, it kill about the same speed as Beast on hit, but with a much higher Aura Pulse damage. Altought it loses attack speed, the “Ignore Target’s Defense” make a lot of difference.
The only thing it loses is that paladin becomes less tanky because the lifesteal gets lower. Besides that, it kills things faster, so it takes less hit.
I’m really thinking Crescent Moon is the best weapon for the Teslasin self Holy Shock, at least for the build I want.
Another thing i’m testing is using Dream on merc instead of Andariels Visage. It gets a aura pulse damage higher than 1 extra level for my aura, and he uses Infinity, so it’s almost +2 level pulse damage for my self aura.
Still testing things, tough. Sad that Offensive Aura life skillers are so expensive now.
Hello everyone, nice topic about paladins, but I still have some doubts:
I use mine with dual dragon, hand of justice, bulkatos, ravens frost, gore rider, gloves draculs and belt nosferatus.
On my head I have a crow of age + 2 facet fire, which I traded for my runeword flickering flame. I don’t know if it was the best exchange.
Based on that, there were some doubts regarding the list of skills, can I maximize all points in fire resist, salvation, in conviction I leave lvl 24 only? the other points I put right away in sacrifice or zeal, because I see that I miss many attacks and some cases I take a long time to kill. even having a good atck rating.
another question is about the mercenary, currently I use the second act with aura of atak rating, before I used it with prayer but it took a long time to kill, in the equipment I use insight, fortitude and andariel visage. Is it worth switching to aura migth?
the charms I use, I opted most for atk rating, because I realized that I missed many attacks, what can I change to improve this issue?
You can solve the attack speed problem with a Hustle pre buff tho (or mb even wear Hustle armor 
?). Hustle is pretty expensive right now on non ladder tho. If it feels awkward to play at the 28 frame zeal. You can always switch back to grief. Theres also the possibility to switch from Enigma to Fortitude for extra Physical dmg. Especially in Cows I personally dont think the Teleport is needed. Eventhough with Enigma you don’t have the problem of outrunning your mercs Conviction.
(i ignored the holy freeze aura)