You should keep in mind that this guide has been written from the perspective of my own personal experience with the game.  At least for the time being, the Hellfire Torches and Annihilus are not available in single player mode; we'll have to wait and see if Blizzard changes their minds about this for Diablo II Resurrection before making any conclusions.  Members of the moderating team who permit the use of those items are not welcome on these forums.  Despite the fact that we do not allow the use of the Runeword Mod (RWM), which allows for the creation of ladder-only runewords in single player, I will include a link to this mod in the 'Further Reading' section of this document.  If RWM is required for an item, the word 'RWM' will appear in parentheses next to the item's description.  As an aside, I'll mention 'untwinked' gameplay, which is a term we use to describe the act of playing a character solely with items that character has discovered during their journey.

So, what is the most effective method of utilizing this guide? We'll go over the fundamentals of zealot functionality in this section.  This section is applicable to any zealot build, and we'll go over the key mechanics of the build, as well as the stats to aim for and the breakpoints for each of these factors in more detail below.  As soon as you've mastered the fundamentals, you'll be able to choose a specific zealot 'flavor,' specifically one of the following: physical, fire, lightning, or cold.  You should strive for the following additional flavor-specific statistics, which will be discussed in their own sections after they have been listed.

The purpose of this guide is for you to feel confident in your ability to use a zealot for whatever purpose you choose when developing your character after reading it.  However, where appropriate, I will provide links to additional guides to provide a more comprehensive overview of specific topics.  I hope you find this guide to be informative.  I am also happy to respond to questions that are sent to me through the private message system on the forums.

1.  Zealots – An Introduction and a Discussion of the Key MechanicsMechanics of Zeal buy D2R runes Paladin Zealots – An Introduction and Key Mechanics buy D2R Runewords Paladin Zealots – An Introduction and Key Mechanics

A zealot can use the 'zeal' skill to send the hordes of The Burning Hells back to where they came from by repeatedly hitting them with a hammer, then hitting them with another hammer, and then hitting them with another hammer until they are defeated.  By pressing the left mouse button while wearing an aura of your choosing, Zeal can be activated by pressing the right click button on your mouse.  It is the aura that you choose that determines the nature of your zealot build, and these options will be discussed in greater detail in the following section.

The melee skill Zeal has a faster attack speed than a normal attack, making it more effective when used in conjunction with other melee skills.  In direct proportion to the number of skill points you devote to zeal (as shown in Table 1), your damage and attack rating will increase.  When you reach level one, zeal will strike twice per attack, with each subsequent hit increasing by one, until you reach level four, when you will strike five times per attack.  After the first strike, all subsequent strikes will be aimed at your initial target and any nearby enemies if there are any.  If there are no nearby enemies, all subsequent strikes will be aimed at your initial target only.  There is a separate chance to hit for each strike with zeal (and thus for each of the individual five) that is taken.  The use of Zeal will always result in a cost of two mana per attack, which is equivalent to a volley of five strikes rather than a single strike.

When it comes to the effects of enemies as well as the player's own actions, Zeal is unaffected.  This is significant because it means that zeal will not be interrupted by effects such as blocking, hit recovery, knockback, or stun.  You can, for example, continue to block; there is simply no animation in this case, however.

2.  D2R Runewords Paladin Guide – How to Make Your Own Zealot! 2.  The Buy Diablo 2 Resurrected Items PC Blocking Mechanics are explained!

The enemy will be right up in your face when you're playing a zealot, hurling insults at their friends and making ridiculous faces in an attempt to scare them away from your side of the battle.  Then they'll slap you across the face with a club, a claw, or a bolt of lightning in an attempt to scare you away again.  Avoiding this situation should be your first priority, and there are numerous ways to do so, the most important of which is to prevent those who wish to disfigure your beautiful face from being successful.  It should be noted that mercenaries do not have the ability to stop.

As soon as a defender is hit by one of the skills listed in Table 2 and is not running, the first thing that happens is a hit check, unless the defender is already running in which case the hit check is bypassed.

As a matter of notation, a level is represented by alvl and a defender's level is represented by dlvl.  In addition, AR represents the attacker's attack rating, and DR represents the defender's defense rating are all represented by the letters AR and DR.  Whenever an attacker attempts to hit, his or her chance of hitting is 5%, which equates to a 95% chance of hitting.

When the attacker successfully completes the hit check, you will have the opportunity to intervene and prevent the attack from happening.  In order to deflect an attack, the only items that can be used are a shield, a shrunken head (which is only available to necromancers), or an auric shield (which is only available to paladins).  Note: Because no one refers to an auric shield as an 'auric shield' (although they should, because it's a lovely word), simply refer to it as a paladin shield, or 75% of people will not understand what you're talking about and 87% will think you're a little strange, if you don't use the term "paladin shield. "

Projectiles (arrows and bolts), throwing weapons (javelins, throwing knives, throwing axes), and physical damage missiles are all things that you can defend yourself against.  Mimicry is one of the most effective ways to defend yourself.  There are two other types of attacks that you can avoid: the on-death explosion caused by a bone fetish, and the explosion caused by a monster that has been enchanted with fire by a monster that has been enchanted with fire.  These are two extremely useful situational building blocks to have on hand at all times.

It is unfortunate that there are some attacks that are unblockable, some of which you should not be concerned about, such as lightning bolts, the explosion from molten boulders, the pulse damage from tornadoes, the impact damage from armageddon, and smite (when used by a paladin) among others.  With a few notable exceptions, the most notable are corpse explosions (such as Nihlathak's), claw viper charges, and reanimated hordes, to name just a few.  For calculating block chance, just as there is a formula for calculating hit chance, there is also a block chance formula.

Attacking at a faster rate is number three.
You should strive to achieve maximum attack speed when playing untwinked, but this is less important when playing twinked, and it should be avoided if at all possible.  It is as simple as this: if you hit harder, you will kill more things in a shorter amount of time.  When it comes to this situation, there are a variety of factors at play.  For starters, zeal attacks are significantly more rapid than standard attacks in terms of speed.  Every weapon now has an attack speed; the base value is 0, values greater than 0 are slower, and values less than 0 are faster.  This is the second time this has happened.  At the 20th level, fanaticism grants a 35% increase in the speed with which attacks are launched.  Finally, the attack speed built into your equipment is an added bonus.  Decrepify, holy freeze, and other spells, on the other hand, have the ability to slow your movement speed.  Take into account the decrepify, which is especially important if you intend to run Baal. . . . The most effective method of approaching this problem is to use the attack speed calculator to bring all of these factors together.

Phase blades are the best bases for speed, despite the fact that they have a low base damage.  This is especially true in the late game.  Both the Grief runeword on fanaticism zealots (because the damage is primarily derived from the +XXX damage, which is independent of the weapon damage) and any runeword used on an elemental zealot (because the damage is primarily derived from the +XXX damage, which is independent of the weapon damage) are examples of this.  In terms of damage per unit of time spent wielding them, berserker axes are slightly more damaging, but they are also slightly slower.  Speed is unlikely to be an issue for a fanaticism zealot, with the exception of Baal, who may be forced to run due to decrepify's interference.  This will need to be customized to meet your specific requirements.  Is it true that you have an abundance of resources at your disposal? Each build should be equipped with a weapon that is distinct from the others.  Is it because there aren't enough resources available to support the project? A Phase blade can be used in a wider variety of situations.