Shield of Retribution Paladin Leveling Guide for Diablo IV Season 12 - Slaughter

The Season 12 theme brings Killstreaks and Bloodied Items to Diablo 4. Slay enemies in succession to begin a streak that grants increasingly greater benefits based on which affixes you roll on your gear in addition to seasonal reputation and experience. Tiers are divided as follows: Killstreak (0-99) - Carnage (100-249) - Devastation (250-499) - Bloodbath (500-999) - Massacre (1000-9000) - Fresh Meat! (9001+). For most instanced content types, you can typically expect to reach up to the 4th tier (Bloodbath). Additionally, you can find Bloodied Sigils for Nightmare Dungeons, Infernal Hordes and Lair Bosses that offer greater challenges and rewards (introducing "pseudo Torment 5").

Bloodied affixes are bonus affixes that can randomly roll on gear and come in three categories: Rampage (armor), Feast (weapons), Hunger (jewelry). The first two offer minor combat effects while the latter boosts specific loot drops, which doesn't impact your build. Recommended affixes for this build are:

• Rampage: Resource, Crit, Attack Speed, Movement Speed, Cooldown and Life on Hit are all useful early on
• Feast: Every X Kills, gain Berserking
• Hunger: Largely irrelevant, but I suggest increased chance for Hunger Items to find more amulets

To get started as a Shield of Retribution Paladin, weapon damage is actually irrelevant because everything scales off Thorns, so look out for it on your gear. Otherwise, follow the priority list below. While you don't have all of the desired temper manuals available, simply try to get anything useful on your gear until you acquire the right ones. For example, % Damage, Damage to Close, Vulnerable Damage, etc. all work as long as you activate their conditions. Likewise, you can temper multiple defensive options such as Resistances, Life, Armor to fill gaps in your survivability. Tempering low level gear is relatively cheap and the results can be very impactful.

Tip: For the early game, Elemental Surge Weapon Tempers are very powerful due to their high base damage, especially if you are twinking. If you find these, you may want to keep imprinting them on your weapons for an easy time.

The Codex of Power is a collection of Legendary Aspects you can imprint onto Rare or Legendary items at the Occultist. They unlock after completing specific Dungeons located around Sanctuary or salvaging items with these powers. Check out our Map Tool to locate these Dungeons.

For leveling, there are a few powers that can significantly help us if we have the funds to imprint them. In addition, keep an eye out for powerful Unique items you may find for this or other builds.

Must-have Dungeon unlocks

1. None

Nice-to-have Dungeon unlocks

1. Needleflare (Yshari Sanctum - Kehjistan)
2. Might (Dark Ravine - Dry Steppes)
3. Umbral (Champion's Demise - Dry Steppes) - with Ceh

Other useful Aspects (drop/gamble)

1. The Penitent's
2. Utmost Glory
3. Virtuous
4. Chastisement
5. Lapa's Scripture
6. Juggernaut's Covenant
7. Bulwark's
8. Verdant Restoration
9. Vanguard's
10. Indomitable
11. Valiance

What to Gamble

Great Uniques for this build

1. Ward of the White Dove
2. Griswold's Opus
3. Herald of Zakarum
4. Mantle of the Grey
5. Arcadia
6. Razorplate

As you level up, you may get lucky and find some great random drops. Some of these can massively amplify your power and speed up the leveling by switching to another build. Keep in mind that there are many more Aspects and Uniques that can be useful to multiple builds; this just lists some of the most impactful ones. While we usually recommend starting with Endgame Builds at level 60, you often can make them work earlier with these drops:

Build-defining Uniques

1. Sanctis of Kethamar (enables Wing Strikes Endgame Build)
2. Bastion of Sir Matthias (enables Shield Bash Endgame Build)
3. Dawnfire (enables Auradin Endgame Build)
4. Supplication (enables Brandish Endgame Build)

You can have up to two Runewords in your setup, each consisting of one Ritual and one Invocation Rune. Socket them in Two-Handed Weapons if your build calls for them, otherwise place them into your Armor pieces to replace normal gems. The Shield of Retribution Paladin focuses on the following combos:

Best in Slot

• Cir + Ceh - Spawns wolves that deal damage and freeze enemies.
• Cem + Lum - An easy solve for resources that you can just refill when evading.

Alternative choices

If you have access to higher level runes, you can also explore the following options:

• Wat - Decrepify helps with stagger, defense and allows execute at 10% HP. When combined with Xol in your other Runeword it also generates large amounts of offering.
• Que - Earthen Bulwark helps with survival
• Igni - Another good way of generating offering.
• Gar - For more Critical Strike Chance.
• Tam - We spam our core skill all the time.
• Thul - The freeze adds more defense and an extra damage buff.
• Jah - Allows us to go faster with free Teleport.

Mercenaries are unlocked during the Vessel of Hatred campaign and assist you in battle. There are 4 separate Mercenaries to choose from, each with their own skill trees and abilities. You can have one hired (permanent) mercenary during solo play and a reinforcement who assists you from time to time in certain situations.

She grants extra attack speed (cap 1) with Hysteria but more importantly a ton of healing via Taste of Flesh.

We choose Field of Languish for extra damage reduction.

In Diablo 4, you can level by completing the Campaign, collecting Grim Favors for the Tree of Whispers, completing Helltide activities, grinding Dungeons, clearing Strongholds, fighting in the Undercity of Kurast or interacting with the Seasonal Mechanics. While there are many ways to level up in Diablo 4, not all of them are equal.

As you approach level 60 with the Shield of Retribution Paladin, you unlock higher item power gear that represents a massive jump in character power. This is a good time to refresh your setup with new tempers and imprints.

After reaching level 60 and finishing the second Capstone Dungeon, Paragon Levels and The Pit unlock. Complete Tier 10 to enter Torment 1, where Diablo IV's Endgame begins.

At this point, your setup should look roughly like this before you dive into min/maxing with Aspects, Uniques, Mythics and more. With better gear, more levels and Glyphs, you can push further and eventually unlock higher difficulties for increased rewards.

This step marks the end of the leveling guide. Below is the Paragon setup to get you started in Torment difficulty but ideally you should now transition towards the endgame version of this build or choose another of your liking.