S-TIER | BUILD PALADIN HOLY LIGHT AURA AURADIN (@Slaydra) | SEASON 12

ENDGAME | PIT PUSH | SPEED FARM PALADIN

Build Overview

The Auradin is the ultimate speed farming build for the Paladin in Season 12. Thanks to the buff to Sundered Night which now offers a multiplier of up to 180x aura power as long as you remain in your Consecration, this build turns your auras into weapons of mass destruction. Combined with Dawnfire whose passive can now be refreshed by activating Holy Light Aura, the Auradin requires almost no interaction: you walk, and everything dies around you.

This build excels in T4 open world content with massacre bonuses easily exceeding 1000 kills. It is however less suited for Bloodied Bosses, for which the Shield of Retribution build remains the Paladin reference.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Recommended Equipment

Heir of Perdition and Shroud of False Death make up the ideal mythic version, providing crit and survivability. Without mythics, the Judicant's with a defensive aspect granting Fortify remains a very viable alternative for comfortable T4 farming.

The core of the build relies on Sundered Night, a mandatory piece in Season 12. In addition to its aura skill ranks, this unique provides reduced blocked damage and block chance that allow you to reach the 100% cap. Each aura activation automatically triggers a Consecration, whose power is multiplied up to 180x thanks to Sundered Night. If you don't reach 100% block, you can Temper Inguard ranks instead of Holy Light Aura power.

Dawnfire is the primary source of fire damage. In Season 12, its passive can be refreshed by activating Holy Light Aura, which solves the historical DPS loss problem against Pit Bosses. Aim for the highest possible roll on this item's power.

The Aspect of Holy Punishment at the amulet increases your overall damage. Aspect of Proselytizing and Aspect of Utmost Glory guarantee 100% uptime on all your buffs, the latter conditioned on being healthy — which is never an issue since you one-shot all T4 content. Aspect of the Indomitable bolsters survivability if needed.

For runes, the Box Set combination is standard. If you don't have 100% crit, replace with a Gar rune to fill the gap. For elixirs, the Elixir of Advantage (attack speed) is excellent if you haven't yet reached the 200% attack speed cap.

Build Variants

Mythic Version

With Heir of Perdition and Shroud of False Death, this version delivers a massive crit boost and superior survivability. Heir of Perdition excels at reaching 100% crit effortlessly, freeing up Tempering slots for other stats.

No-Mythic Version

Perfectly viable for T4 content. Use Judicant's with a defensive aspect of your choice for Fortify. The Gar rune becomes nearly mandatory in this configuration to compensate for the lack of natural crit.

AFK Version

By replacing your offensive rune (such as Igni or Bac) with a Lith rune, the build runs entirely in AFK mode. You no longer need to activate Arbiter of Justice, but damage will be slightly reduced. Ideal for open world farming without attention.

Gameplay Tips

Arbiter of Justice is the only button you'll need to press regularly, especially against Bosses or at the start of a run. It applies Judgment to enemies, triggering the Judicator glyph bonus which increases damage taken by each judged enemy. In open world, this isn't necessary since everything dies instantly.

Keep an eye on the green bar above your Holy Light Aura: when it drops, reactivate the aura to refresh the Dawnfire passive. In speed farming, kills automatically refresh this bar, but against Pit Bosses it's crucial to maintain it manually.

Falling Star is used solely for mobility: bridging gaps between monster packs and traversing walls. Don't underestimate this skill for maintaining optimal farming pace.

For Tempering, prioritize aura power on your equipment. This is the stat that directly feeds the x180 multiplier from Sundered Night. For Masterworking, target aura skill ranks first on Sundered Night and Greater Affixes.

Arbre des Talents

Mercenaire

Paragon and Glyphs

The glyphs Exploit, Judicator, Honed and Spirit form the core of the Paragon. Exploit applies Vulnerability, redundant with the Mercenary companions but useful to guarantee application in all situations. Judicator on the Castle board boosts non-physical damage, ideal for our sacred-to-fire conversion.

The Preacher board is essential: it increases attack speed for Zealot skills and offers a damage multiplier based on your bonus attack speed. Combined with Fanaticism Aura which stacks 4 times and grants both crit and attack speed, the bonus is considerable.

Relentless provides bonus damage after movement and cooldown reduction, perfect for a speed farming build in constant motion. Shield Bearer capitalizes on our 100% block chance for an additional damage multiplier.

Aura Power and Sundered Night

Sundered Night is the mechanical core of the build in Season 12. Each time you activate an aura skill, it automatically triggers a Consecration. As long as you remain in this holy zone, Sundered Night applies a multiplier reaching up to 180x your aura power. This multiplier directly feeds the damage of all your auras.

This is why the "Aura Power" Tempering is the most important stat to look for. Hallowed Ground increases the size of Consecration, ensuring you stay in the zone even while moving fast. If you want even more damage, you can use Coat of Arms which offers a flat multiplier superior to Judgement Day, although the latter brings Judgment spread to nearby targets.

Managing Dawnfire in Season 12

Dawnfire applies a passive that continuously deals fire damage. However, this passive needs kills to ramp up in power. In Season 12, a major update allows refreshing the passive duration by activating Holy Light Aura. This is a crucial change for Pit Bosses.

Previously, arriving at the Boss with an expiring passive meant a total DPS loss. Now, watch the green bar above the aura and reactivate it when it drops. In open world farming, successive kills automatically keep the passive active. Note that Dawnfire needs mobs to ramp up: against Bosses without adds (such as certain T4 Bosses), damage will be reduced. This is why Shield of Retribution remains superior for Blood Soaked content.