Build Introduction
The Diablo Auradin has returned! Similar to the Dream and Dragon Paladins of Diablo 2, this Paladin kills not through attacks but simply by running nearby the monsters and letting the Auras obliterate all nearby foes. Holy Light Aura will be our primary source of damage, however this build really takes off with the Unique Gloves Dawnfire. Thankfully, they are not too difficult to obtain thus making this an easy build to get running.
Strengths and Weaknesses
- Can Farm All Areas
- Powerful defensive utility and survivability.
- Very Low Skill Requirement
- Close Range
- Requires Unique to Get Started
Build Requirements
This build technically can function without any uniques but there are two that will really help improve the build:
- Dawnfire – Gloves that change Holy Light’s passive to deal X Fire Damage around you each second that grows with every kill.
- Sundered Night – A 2-handed Axe that makes Casting an Aura skill trigger Consecration beneath you while also increasing Aura Potency. You can also choose to run Griswold’s Opus if you wish to run a 1 hander with a shield. It is an effective variant as well.
For Paladin specific Legendary Aspects you will want the following (First Recommended in Green):
- Aspect of Celestial Strife
- Aspect of the Ascension
- Aspect of Holy Punishment
- Aspect of Utmost Glory
- Aspect of Proselytizing
- Aspect of the Indomitable
- Aspect of Firm Decree
- Virtuous Aspect
- Aspect of Hale’s Salve
- Wildbolt Aspect
- Aspect of Unstoppable Force
Quick Navigation
Want to skip ahead? Use the table below to jump to the sections you are looking for.
Skill Bar and Skill Tree Points
Follow the skill path seen HERE!
Your skill bar should contain the following six skills. The location of these skills doesn’t matter, place them wherever is comfortable for you.
- Rally
- Falling Star
- Advance
- Fanaticism Aura
- Defiance Aura
- Holy Light Aura
Paladin Class Mechanic – Oaths
Paladins are able to devote themselves to one of four Oaths which drastically change your game play and give you access to some new resources that allow you to take your build even further. Each Paladin archetype is represented in the Oath system allowing players to choose between Zealot, Juggernaut, Judicator, or Disciple. For this build we will want to take the Disciple Oath.
Under this Oath whenever we cast a Disciple Skill (Falling Star in our case) we are granted Arbiter form for 4.5 Seconds. With our Cooldown Reduction and additional charge, we should be able to maintain permanent form!
Gear, Stats, Gems and Runes
The following sections will cover all systems that are critical if you want to improve the power of your character and move towards the highest difficulties in the endgame of Diablo 4. Early on while leveling you can focus on simply getting higher item power but in the later part of the game the item power starts to become the same for everything and the affixes and legendary aspects are a more important focus.
Uniques
Remember that Dawnfire will be a massive boost to this build and should be equipped as soon as possible upon finding it. As you level you can use a Legendary Glove with an Aspect but this will not last you the entire game. Additionally, Sundered Night or Griswold’s Opus are two weapon choices depending on if you wish to a one or two handed build. Both are good, however if you do run Griswold’s Opus with a shield you will want to adjust your skill tree slightly to add nodes that give benefit for blocking.
Legendary Aspects
Below you will find all of the best-in-slot Aspects found on Legendary Items that are important for this build. Remember that all Legendary Powers can be added into your Codex of Power once you salvage the items. You can still find some aspects through dungeons though they will always be at the minimum power level. To get the most out of this system, combine these Aspects with the right stats and unique items.
| Gear Slot | Gems | Aspect / Unique | Aspect / Unique Power |
| Helm |  Igni &  LumRunes OR  Grand Ruby | Aspect of Firm Decree | Judging an enemy grants you [60 – 100]%[x] increased Armor for 5 seconds. |
| Chest |  Cir &  Gar Runes OR Grand Ruby | Aspect of Hale’s Salve | Healing while at full life Fortifies you for [0.5 – 1.0]% Maximum Life and grants 50% increased Armor for 5 seconds. |
| Gloves | N/A | Aspect of Holy Punishment | Holy and Fire damage are increased by [50.0 – 70.0] |
| Pants | Grand Ruby | Aspect of the Indomitable | Gain up to [100-140%] Armor and impairment resistance based on your block chance. |
| Boots | N/A | Wildbolt Aspect | Every [3.5 – 1.5] seconds, Distant enemies are Pulled In to you and take 10%[x] increased damage for 3 seconds. This effect cannot occur while you are in Stealth. |
| Amulet |  Grand Diamond | Aspect of Celestial Strife | While in Arbiter, kills grant [1.5 – 2.5]%[x] increased Vulnerable damage, up to a maximum of [75 – 125]%[x]. |
| Ring 1 | Grand Diamond | Aspect of Ascension | Casting a Skill that grants Arbiter form increases your damage by [8.0 – 12.0]%[x], stacking up to 10 times. All stacks are lost when leaving Arbiter form. |
| Ring 2 | Grand Diamond | Virtuous Aspect | Using a Valor skill increases your damage by [40.0 – 60.0]%[x] for 0 seconds. |
| Weapon |  Grand Emerald | Aspect of Utmost Glory | While Healthy your Skills deal [20 – 35]%[x] increased damage. Double this bonus against Weakened enemies. |
| Shield | Grand Ruby | Aspect of Proselytizing | Judicator Skills have a 40% chance to chain to a Close enemy for [50 – 150]%[x] of their damage. If no enemy is within range, damage the initial target instead. |
To see how this build compares to the others on our site, you can check out our Endgame Tier List.
Stat Priority and Tempering Affixes
Below are the affixes to prioritize on gear. Each line of affixes is listed in order of importance. Tempering Manuals and their recommended affixes are provided in the second column and the bolded yellow affixes are the most important targets for the Masterworking Capstone Upgrade. Be sure to check out our Tempering and Masterworking guides for more details about these topics.
| Slot | Gear Affixes | Tempering Affixes |
| Helm | 1. Cooldown Reduction 2. Strength 3. Armor 4. Maximum Life | Maximum Life  Worldly Endurance or Maximum Armor |
| Chest | 1. Strength 2. Maximum Life 3. Armor 4. Resistance to All Elements | Maximum Life Worldly Endurance or Maximum Armor |
| Gloves | 1. Cooldown Reduction 2. Critical Strike Chance 3. Critical Strike Damage 4. Strength | Aura Innovation – Holy Light Aura Potency |
| Pants | 1. Strength 2. Maximum Life 3. Armor 4. Resistance to All Elements | Maximum Life Worldly Endurance or Maximum Armor |
| Boots | 1. Movement Speed 2. Strength 3. Armor 4. Resistance to All Elements | Movement Speed Natural Motion |
| Amulet | 1. Movement Speed 2. Cooldown Reduction 3. Critical Strike Chance 4. Strength | Aura Innovation – Holy Light Aura Potency |
| Ring 1 | 1. Critical Strike Damage 2. Critical Strike Chance 3. Cooldown Reduction 4. Damage % 5. Strength | Guardian Finesse – Damage while in Arbiter Form |
| Ring 2 | 1. Critical Strike Damage 2. Critical Strike Chance 3. Cooldown Reduction 4. Damage % 5. Strength | Guardian Finesse – Damage while in Arbiter Form |
| Weapon | 1. Strength 2. Maximum Life 3. Critical Strike Damage 4. Vulnerable Damage | Guardian Finesse – Damage while in Arbiter Form |
| Shield | 1. Cooldown Reduction 2. Strength 3. Armor 4. Vulnerable Damage | Paladin Guard – +1-2 to En Garde |
Mythic Uniques
Below you will find information about the Mythic Uniques that are useful to this build. Moreover, if you are interested in target farming Mythic Uniques, check out our How to Farm Mythic Uniques guide.
These are the chase rare items in Diablo 4. They have a very low drop rate from most content and a slightly higher drop rate from Tormented Bosses in Torment 1 and beyond. We will be listing only the ones useful to this build. If a mythic unique is not listed here, it is not useful to this build but may be useful to other setups. Let’s take a look.
Heir of Perdition – Provides 200% Damage to Angels and Demons plus Critical Strike Chance, Lucky Hit Chance, and Movement Speed! Extremely powerful and the best in slot helm.
Shroud of False Death – An extremely powerful chest for its implicit bonus of +1 to all Passive Skills. Paladin has amazing passives and if you’re lucky enough to find one the power it provides through that alone is worth dropping your normal chest for. The additional stats and life are also helpful as is the stealth bonus which can help you speed through large areas quickly.
Gems and Runewords
Listed below are the best gems to socket into gear for each slot type.
Gems
| Weapon Gems | Armor Gems | Jewelry Gems |
| Grand Emerald for increased Critical Strike Damage | Grand Ruby for increased Strength | Grand Diamond for increased Resistance to All Elements |
Runes
Runewords return from Diablo 2 in Vessel of Hatred! You are limited to two Runewords across your gear and it requires two sockets in the same item. So this limits creating Runewords by combining two Runes to either Helm, Chest, Pants, or Two-Handed Weapons. We recommend putting these in some combination of your Helm, Chest, or Pants.
Ceh is extremely important in this build as all of your wolves also have Holy Light Aura, thus we want to have them out and pulsing as often as possible
| Rune Name | Rune Effects |
| Igni | Gain 25 Offering: Stores offering every 0.3 seconds. Cast a Non-Basic Skill to gain the stored offering |
| Ceh | Summon a Spirit Wolf to attack enemies for 8 seconds |
| Cir | Gain 300 Offering: Cast 5 Skills then become exhausted for 3 seconds. |
| Gar | Requires 25 Offering (Overflow: Gain multiple stacks): Gain 2.5% Critical Strike Chance for 5 seconds, up to 25% |
 Bac | Travel 5 meters. |
 Ohm | Invoke the Barbarian’s War Cry Skill, increasing your damage dealt by 15% for 6 seconds. |
Paragon Board
We recommend using the following Legendary Nodes and Glyphs to truly take this build into the endgame. Note that each glyph’s information and radius listed below is for the level 100 Version. As a reminder, glyph’s reach their maximum radius at level 46 and unlock their Legendary Bonuses at level 45.
The main focus on each board is to rush to the Legendary Node followed by the Glyph. Beyond that, focus on Armor and Damage Nodes
You can find the Paragon Board Setup HERE!
Season 11 Mechanics
Divine Gifts
As you complete the season journey and fight across Sanctuary you will earn the ire of the lesser evils. Defeating them will grant you corrupted essences which you can then purify into Divine Gifts. There are 8 of these in total and you will have four Purified and four Corrupted allowing you to modify various content and get different boons and reward as a result. For this build our recommended setup is below:
Purified
- Essence of Lies
- Essence of Pain
- Essence of Screams
- Essence of Sin
Corrupted
- Essence of Squalor
- Essence of Shadows
- Essence of Anguish
- Essence of Hellfire
Sanctification
Season 11 brings a new way to “Finish” an item called Sanctification. Any item of item power 750 or higher can be Sanctified, but BE WARNED: Sanctification will make it so that you cannot alter the item any further so it should always be the final step in the crafting process! It provides many powerful options to enhance your builds. For the most part there are no bad outcomes with all Sanctification bonuses providing at least some power, though it can replace an Affix you previously had on an item. It is rare though and all items you will want to use should be finished off with Sanctification.
Mercenaries
As you play through the campaign in Vessel of Hatred, you will unlock various NPC Mercenaries who can join you on your quest to slay demons. Each Mercenary has their own small talent tree that will give them bonuses and skills to help you. Additionally, you can assign a Mercenary that you don’t take with you as a reinforcement to jump in when you activate certain skills. Let’s take a look at how we want to set them up for this build.
We hare Raheir, the Shieldbearer
- Core Skill:
Ground Slam - Core Skill Passive:
Raheir’s Aegis - Iconic Skill:
Bastion - Iconic Skill Passive:
Inspiration
Our reinforcement Mercenary will be Varyana, the Berserker Crone
- Opportunity Skill: Skill Cast in Combat
- Reinforcement Skill:
Bloodthirst
Build Mechanics
Rotation and Playstyle
The endgame setup for the Auradin focuses on running around using your mobility skills to keep Arbiter Form up while your Holy Light Aura crushes everything
For Damage, thanks to the Legendary Paragon Node, Castle, we can stack armor for a massive multiplier of damage. Let’s review our skills and how to move around maps.
- Cast Falling Star to get into Arbiter Form
- Activate Fanaticism Aura to apply Weakened to nearby enemies and elites/bosses.
- Activate Holy Light Aura to proc Consecration from Sundered Night
- Activate Defiance Aura to become Unstoppable for 2 seconds whenever you become Crowd Controlled or to prevent yourself from being Crowd Controlled in the first place while you cut up your foes. Defiance Aura also boosts Armor (which is more damage) and Resistances so feel free to press it whenever it comes off cooldown.
- Cast Advance to move around a little bit more and restore Faith if necessary. Generally, you will not be casting this skill that often though.
- Cast Rally to regenerate Faith whenever necessary and Speed up! With all of your healing you should be able to cast this pretty often.
Which Elixir Should You Use?
Visit the Alchemist in any main town to craft helpful Elixirs that increase stats, and experience gain for 30 minutes. Make sure to forage plants and pick up the necessary crafting materials during your adventures; they randomly spawn around the world. Use 
Elixir of Precision II for its Critical Strike Chance and Damage.
Season 11 Updates
For a comprehensive look at what’s new in Season 11, its mechanics and theme, new activities, and other changes, check out our comprehensive Season Hub.
Paladin was introduced in Season 11, as such there are no updates to cover yet.
Obol Gambling
A final point on acquiring gear is using your Obols to target farm specific slots instead of randomly spending them on random drops. Similar to Kadala in Diablo 3, you can use Obol Vendors in towns to try and get what you’re missing. With the expansion when a level 60 Character spends obols, all gear from the vendors will be at least 750 item power, the highest non-ancestral power allowing you to fill out gear with the affixes or Legendary Aspects you need while also having a small chance to grant Ancestral Items, Uniques, and even Mythic Uniques!
Check out our Obol Gambling Tool Guide HERE.
Changelog
- January 3rd, 2026: Guide Created
