Boeroer

I meant the healing. It's substantial because of the dual source. As mentioned before, when using Sacred Immolation and then healing yourself with Greater Lay on Hands and Exalted Endurance + healing bonuses you merely lose 50 health overall. The Cascade of Immolation + Ghost Blades is pretty awesome.

Eh? I do that all the time. Why not?

Oh dear - I forgot that the Espir also heals you when you proc Ghost Blades. I don't even need Greater Lay on Hands to survive Sacred Immolation. As long as I kill with it I stay at high health. Kind of my own private Triumph of the Crusaders: SA procs Ghost Blades who also can proc themselves if they kill... I get +1 zeal for each kill. Meanwhile the chanter sends in squishy skeletons who distract and get roasted for +2 zeal. This is truly awesome... Have to do a build description after playing one of these I guess... Of course the Estoc also works very nicely with every other class that can kill quickly. Not paladin-specific. But the combo of infinite zeal + Sacred Immolation + heal on kill is pretty awesome.

Yeah - endless Zeal is totally overrated. As I already explained it would be an offensive support Paladin. I would cast FoD, Inspired Beacon and Divine Immolation over and over. With a Kind Wayfarer I could spam White Flames endlessly while healing with Divine Immolation and preventing my death with Greater Lay on Hands. I'd put Brand enemy on everybody and let Light of Pure Zeal rain on all vessels and spirits...

Blooded as well

No idea, I didn't manage to do that because dummies have so much health.

Dammit, I totally misremembered Divine Retribution... It gives you +2 zeal when an ally goes down, not an enemy. Superoops... well... does it work with summons...? Edit: Hahahahaha - yes it does. Put a Beckoner, Ghost Heart, Druid and/or Wizard in your party and you'll get +2 zeal every time a summon gets killed. Now suddenly that thing went from meh passive to AWESOMEST passive. Virtuous Triumph does only work on enemies, so you don't need to kill the summons yourself. Just send them on a suicide mission...

Toxic Strike with high INT does tremendous damage. Each tick added ~10 dmg (can't remember exactly) for me. So it's like 5, 15, 25, 35, 45 and so on. That was with the Deep Leap Scout. With high INT it's a lot stronger than Ring the Bell if you like to apply it and then attack another target (because the one with Toxic Strike might die anyways most of the time).

During (exhaustive) testing sessions I never had any problems with it though. Just note that it often summons a pet - like a cat or a dog - that can't do anything and neither takes part in combat nor anything else. It's just there and can be overlooked easily. It might be that those bug reports were from people who missed this - or the weapon is really bugged. But as I said: not when I use it (at least not yet).

There is no reliable resistance to it. But you can interrupt the wizard who's trying to cast it. The casting time is pretty long and monks can interrupt with Rooting Pain or Force of Anguish for example. You can also use figurines as cannon fodder.

I want to try a SC dps Paladin with the Espirs Estoc - because its Ghost Blades proc on kill. And they proc on all kills (Sacred Immolation and Brand Enemy etc. included). They even proc off themselves. I can imagine that with Sacred Immolation, some +PL stuff like Otto Starcat and so on and Greater Lay on Hands/Exhalted Endurance/Voidward I could wipe mobs quickly without dying. Not for solo obviously - but healing party emmbers while damageing/killing enemies and triggering Ghost Blades all the time should be fun. This would also work with any other class of course, but together with the zeal refunds it might be good - and obviously it would be very fitting thematically/lore-wise.

As does the Lantern.

That is totally up to you. I merely showed some advantages. The high level stuff also works for any other cipher who uses will based spells. Doesn't need to be a Beguiler. But the fact that nearly all deception spells target will and you can get 10+2*PL focus per crit is kind of cool. I used the Beguiler for CC mostly and almost never ran out of focus after a certain point.

I like a single classed Beguiler. He not only gains +5+PL focus when using deception spells on targets that have an afflcition or are flanked, but can also regain focus when he crits with a spell (like other ciphers that take "The Complete Self" as PL7: chance to regain +5+PL Focus on crit with a power). In combination with "The Empty Soul" (+10 ACC with powers vs. Will) and "A Soul's Echo" (15% hit to crit vs. Will) you can fill up your focus very quickly when casting Deceptions spells. "Shared Nightmare" can make sure you hit/crit a LOT of enemies with your deception spells, giving you back +5+PL focus per enemy hit and +5+PL when you crit for every attack roll in the AoE.

I don't think Lord Darryn's Volgue will be good without Heart of Fury and you can get that only with a pure barbarian (the only good choice is berserker tho). And there is Grave Calling just better with the perma paralyze you get. Static Charge works with Carnage, so the Voulge is plenty good with a Barbarian.

SC Barbarian can also use his yell to damage enemies in a huge AoE for only 1 Rage. Also some single classes have limitless resources.

Grab a large shield with modal - works wonders against ranged volleys. Ihave a Warlock with <100 deflection atm and he can survive lots of stuff just with the modal on.

I have def. found then somewhere - because I tried to wear them with a Cape of Greater Deflection and they didn't stack which was weird. But I can't say where.

I was pretty sure that didn't change. Thanks for confirming.

Ascension doesn't change the action speed on it's own, though. And that was Teclis' question. Yeah, you can use some methods for speed stacking, like Scordeo's, maybe even the special foods but those are not connected with Ascension. All true. But my answer was not aimed at you.

@Manveru123: Exactly. Except Marksman ring maybe. And using two Rings of Overseeing sometimes. @Teclis23: Erm... isn't that the whole point of roleplaying a Paladin?

You mean like OP suggested with Sc. Trophy? Nah - too obvious...

The exhortations my be costly, but they are also fast cast with 0 recovery - which means you can remove afflictions immediately. Especially when using a gun. I agree that the costs seem too high most of the time though. Also a single class paladin can get back substancial amounts of zeal on kill (if he takes the right abilites). Also you can get Exhalted Endurance a lot earlier which has more impact on lower levels. That means if you build a somewhat offensive paladin (who is still sturdy - just because he's a Paladin) you can get a lot of zeal back during an encounter. With Exhalted Endurance and Greater Lay on Hands (and some healing bonuses like Physiker's Belt and Practised Healer) you already only lose less than 50 health in total from your Sacred Immolation. If you pick up Voidward even less. With Sworn Enemy, Scion of Flame, Ring of Focused Flame, FoD and Inspired Beacon+Scared Immolation you will kill a lot of enemies, getting back zeal constantly. Later use Divine Immolation and Zeal of Pure Light to heal your people big time while dealing large amounts of damage around you. Also people always argue about Sacred/Divine Immolation as if you'd use it in a vacuum, without your party members present. Or as if a paladin couldn't drink a potion. Sure, the self damage of Sacred Immolation is high, too high. But it's not that hard to circumvent it. If a single class paladin is boring then it's because you build him too defensively. Everything is boring if you build it too defensively. A single class paladin like described above surely isn't boring. Maybe the character would be more useful if he was a Herald or Templar, but he's certainly not boring.

Doesn't Static Charge work with Carnage?

Getting 1 minute of ascension where you can cast cipher powers without cost and increased Power Level (+2 in this case) while having fast cast times is not a questionable outcome. By the way: Salvation of Time adds +20 sec on the first cast and +10 on the second currently. Example: with the first cast of SoT you can "buy" the equivalent of 3 Amplified Waves (if you consider casting speed/recovery bonuses). Three Amplified Waves instead of one Pillar of Flames is a win for me personally. So - not really questionable, but a bit fiddly perhaps.