Zeal

Allows you to attack multiple adjacent enemies with a single attack.

Zeal is a level 12 Paladin Combat skill that requires Sacrifice and opens Vengeance. One click swings a sequence of melee attacks at the enemies next to you: two at level 1, five from level 4 on. Two numbers decide it: the hit count, and the damage bonus, which is zero until level 5 and reaches +96% at level 20.

The numbers

The hit count is Param5 2 plus one a level, capped at Param6 5: two hits at level 1, five at level 4 and every level after. The damage bonus is the table's (lvl − 4) × Param4 once the level is 5 or more, with Param4 6: +6% at level 5, +96% at level 20, +156% at level 30. The attack-rating bonus is ToHit 10 plus LevToHit 10 a level, +200% at level

1. All three lines read lvl, so +skills from gear count, and the mana is 2 at every level for the whole sequence.

How it works

Every swing in the sequence is a separate melee attack with its own hit check against the target's defense (Chance to Hit), dealing weapon damage with the bonus above (Dealing Physical Damage); every hit can leech, and item effects such as Crushing Blow and Open Wounds roll on each one. The Basin's page gives the rules of the sequence:

• Past level 3 it is always five attacks, whatever the number of targets in range: a single target is hit five times.
• The sequence is not interrupted by blocking, casting, hit recovery, being knocked back or stunned.
• The Basin's page says the fastest sequence averages 4.8 frames an attack with a one-handed swinging weapon, about 5.21 attacks a second, against 8 frames for a normal attack with the same weapon. See Attack Speed.

The table's stsuccessonly flag is set: the on-hit states Zeal carries apply only on a successful hit. The row's Param2 is 100, which the table describes as "% Anim frame rollback": an animation setting, not a damage one.

A sequence does not stop for hit recovery, which means it does not stop for a stun either: you are committed to all five swings once the first starts.

Synergies and +skills

One skill feeds Zeal, read as hard points (blvl):

• Sacrifice: +12% damage a point (Param8). Twenty points add +240%, more than twice what Zeal's own twenty levels give (+96%).

Zeal feeds nothing. The Paladin has no masteries. The hit count and the attack rating have no synergy and come only from Zeal's level, hard or from gear.

Against players

A player's hit on another player is cut to 17% of its value (difficultylevels.txt PlayerDamagePercentVSPlayer) before anything else, see Player versus Player; each swing of the sequence is a hit, so each is cut. The Basin's page adds nothing else about players.

Build notes

• Four hard points buy the whole sequence: five hits and +40% attack rating. The damage bonus only starts at level 5 and is worth 6% a level after that.
• Sacrifice at 20 is +240% to every Zeal swing, against +96% from Zeal's own twenty levels; the hard points in Sacrifice are the bigger damage source.
• Attack rating is the limiter on five separate hit checks: +200% at level 20 and Blessed Aim or Fanaticism on top; see Attack Rating.
• Mana is 2 for the full sequence, so Mana Leech barely matters.