Fist of the Heavens

The Fist of the Heavens Paladin Build Guide teaches you about Gear, Skills, Paragon, Playstyle & Seasonal Mechanics in Diablo 4 Season 11.

Fist of the Heavens Spear of the Heavens transforms Spear of the Heavens into the a fan-favorite Skill from Diablo 2: Fist of the Heavens! With the Unique Ring Argent Veil you can glide through enemies and have Fist of the Heavens Spear of the Heavens be cast automatically for a firework of Lightning Bolts to smite down your adversaries. Become an Arbiter of Justice to punish demons!

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If you are already level 60, make sure to check out the Paladin Endgame Guides from our Tier List.

• Ascend through Arbiter of Justice
• Glide through enemies with Arbiter's Evade
• Argent Veil will proc Fist of the Heavens Spear of the Heavens
• Attack once with Fist of the Heavens Spear of the Heavens to reset Evade.
• • You need Attacks reduce Evade Cooldown as implicit on your Boots.
• Alternatively, use Words of Sacrifice Rally instead of Words of Rejuvenation Rally.
• • This requires sufficient Healing to sustain.
• Use Fanaticism Aura and Defiance Aura for their buffs.
• Use Rally to keep up Faith.
• Use Holy Light Aura for a flash of Healing.

FAQ

Why are we not playing Ring of Starless Skies?

• Because we reset our Evade with Words of Sacrifice Rally. It counts as an Attack and therefore we do not need to cast Fist of the Heavens after every Evade. So, we do not benefit from Starless Skies passive.
• This allows us to use a legendary ring with the Aspect of Holy Punishment aspect, which is more damage on average, even factoring in the lost +Ranks to Core Skills.
• You also have less issues with Faith upkeep, as you not only spend less Faith, but can also temper Valor Skills Restore X Faith on your now free Ring Slot.

Why are we using Preacher instead of Shield Bearer as Paragon Board?

• TL;DR: It's much more damage.
• Preacher gives much more damage than the description might insinuate - the tooltip is wrong.
• At +0% increased Attack Speed, it is already a 65%[x] multiplier.
• The Damage Formula for Preacher is approximated to be:
• • 1.65 * (1 + [Sum of AS / 100] x 0.4)
• At 100% increased Attack Speed, this results in
• • 1.65 * (1 + 1 x 0.4) = 2.31 => 131%[x] multiplier.
• However, with the Attack Speed Bonus from Fanaticism Aura being in Cap2, we can reach even higher than 100%.
• "But my Block Chance from Shield Bearer! Is losing that a problem?"
• • Not if you wear Herald of Zakarum or have tempered Ranks to En Guarde on your Shield.

What about Herald of Zakarum?

• First of all the tooltip is incorrect. It states that it multiplies your Armor by 50%[x] so a factor of 1.5. In reality, it only increases your Armor by +50%, which gets added into a pool of all other +% Armor additives. And we have plenty of those through passives like Master Craftwork, En Guarde and Shining Armor plus Paragon Nodes. However, The real kicker is the 50% increase to Strength and +Ranks to Core Skills which significantly boosts our DPS and our flat armor, resulting in a decent damage gain. If a Legendary Shield will outperform Herald of Zakarum is only answerable by mathing it out. Generally, if a build had access to a good aspect via equipping a legendary shield and not caring about + Ranks to Core Skills, a legendary Shield will likely be favored. It also is able to provide other useful stats like Critical Strike Chance and Cooldown Reduction. But, if you are already capped on these stats, it's benefits are significantly diminished. In optimal setups for Core Builds, Herald of Zakarum wins out by a tiny margin, becoming larger the more optimal your gear is.
• TL;DR: If you are playing a Core Skill, which Fist of the Heavens is, just go Herald.

It's important to run Elixirs and Incenses at all times. Not only because they increase your Experience gain but also because they provide very strong combat boosts.

For Elixirs you use Elixir of Advantage II to increase our Attack Speed.

For Incenses you use Spiral Morning for All Stats, Song of the Mountain for Armor and Soothing Spices for All Resistances and more Armor.

20th of December 2025

• Expanded the FAQ.

17th of December 2025

• Updated Paragon to match the latest meta tech for my Words of Sacrifice Rally.

15th of December 2025

• Build fully updated with all relevant information.

11th of December 2025

• Build published for Season 11 - Patch 2.5.0