Best Juggernaut Paladin Build in Diablo 4

The Paladin’s Blessed Shield skill is insanely strong in Diablo 4 thanks to its ability to bounce around and damage multiple enemies in a single cast. It has a number of upgrades that greatly alter how the skill works, and out of the three options available to Blessed Shield, Shield of Retribution is arguably the most interesting one.

Shield of Retribution removes Blessed Shield’s iconic bounce mechanic and turns it into a slow-moving, short-ranged grenade that explodes multiple times. With this upgrade, Blessed Shield’s famed AoE damage gets concentrated into a much smaller area of effect, and with the multitude of damage multipliers available to Juggernaut abilities, this can yield some seriously silly damage numbers in Diablo 4.

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D4 Shield of Retribution Build

Shield of Retribution deals absurd amounts of damage with the right setup. It trades range for damage, which means your general clear speed will be lower compared to other Blessed Shield upgrades. However, with the Argent Veil ring and Arbiter form, we’ll be dismissing this weakness completely.

Aegis with Faith is my Shield provides us with both increased survivability and a massive 90% damage multiplier thanks to one of our Paragon Nodes. This should help you survive in those upper Torment tiers while still letting you disintegrate bosses within seconds.

Fanaticism and Defiance Auras are great for getting passive stats, though the Weakness effect from the former is great for further buffing our damage through passive synergies, while the Unstoppable from the latter prevents us from getting stunned.

Passives

• En Garde
• Riposte
• Discipline
• The Best Offense
• Fortitude
• Thorns and Thistles
• Iron Sharpens Iron
• Break the Line
• Heavyweight
• Press the Advantage
• Master Craftwork
• Shining Armor
• Giant Slayer
• Coat of Arms

To sum this setup up, it’ll give you bonus damage and survivability, but with a particular focus on Blocking and Fortify. Block-related effects are a no-brainer for a Blessed Shield build, but Fortify will be more of an issue.

How Do You Get Fortify With Paladin?

In Diablo 4 Season 11, players get access to Divine Gifts, which includes the Essence of Lies from Belial. With this equipped, players will gain 1% of their Maximum Life as Fortify per second.

Outside of seasonal buffs, your best bet to get Fortify is to use Fanaticism Aura – Rite of Redemption. You’ll lose the crit damage and convenience of Rite of Vengeance, but you’ll heal and Fortify for a percentage of your health every time an enemy dies within your Aura’s radius.

Paladin Oath

Since Shield of Retribution is a Juggernaut skill, this build will use the Juggernaut Oath to turbo-charge Blessed Shield’s damage while also preventing us from losing Resolve stacks when we get hit by an attack. The build doesn’t have much synergy (if any at all) with the other Oaths, making Juggernaut the best choice.

Gear and Aspects

Equipment is very important for this build, so we’re going to focus on the core items that make this build work.

Ward of the White Dove

This is a Unique shield that multiplies Blessed Shield’s damage twice over. By default, it increases your damage by up to (x)177%, but if you cast a different build, your next 3 Blessed Shield casts get double this damage bonus, and they’ll cost 7 Faith less.

If you combine Ward of the White Dove with all the other damage multipliers available to the Paladin, Blessed Shield’s damage becomes astronomical. You can pair this with any legendary sword, but ideally, you should use it with Griswold’s Opus for bonus crit damage.

Argent Veil

Argent Veil is one of the best Uniques for any Paladin that uses Core skills and the Arbiter of Justice ultimate. This will automatically cast Shield of Retribution for you as long as you’re moving while in Arbiter form, which you will constantly be in thanks to Arbiter of Justice.

You can still play the build without Argent Veil, but it won’t be as fast and as hands-free. If you don’t have this ring yet, replace it with anything that can help you sustain your Faith (preferably Ring of Starless Skies).

Judgment of Auriel

This amulet gives you all the Arbiter of Justice upgrades for free while providing you with bonus damage and damage reduction for each Skill Rank you have for the skill. Judgment of Auriel isn’t exactly mandatory, but it’s a great quality-of-life upgrade that lets you allocate more skill points for other abilities/passives.

Razorplate

A good chunk of Shield of Retribution’s damage scales off your Thorns, and with all the Thorns buffs we’re getting from our abilities, we might as well use Razorplate as well. If you have a better Chest Armor like Shroud of False Death, then use that instead.

Other Legendary Aspects and Stats

When tempering gear, try to get enough cooldown reduction and Arbiter Duration until Arbiter form’s duration meets or ovelaps Arbiter of Justice’s cooldown.

Paragon Boards

Like for most other Diablo 4 Paladin builds, the Paragon Board setup for this one is fairly straightforward. Grab ones with general damage and survivability nodes; the fewer conditional buffs, the better. With that said, we recommend the following:

• Castle: Gain bonus damage based on your Armor
• Endure: Gain bonus damage when you’re Fortified
• Shield Bearer: Gain bonus damage based on your Block Chance
• Sentencing: Deal (x)90% more damage to enemies marked with Judgement

And as for Glyphs, use the following:

• Challenger to increase damage against Elites
• Apostle to increase damage against Vulnerable enemies
• Arbiter to boost your damage for every second you spend in Arbiter form
• Chip for more Physical Damage

These should fit in any of the Paragon Boards above, but in case they don’t, level the Glyphs up to extend their range.