How to build highest damage Charge Paladin

Hello,

I’m quite new to playing a plaladin, and i want to make a highest damage output charge paladin (chargedin?)

I looked around the skill points and i felt the best path would be
Fanatisim + Charge

But i think i also heard Fantisim doesnt work with Charge, is that so?
Because i was told if you say build a Hammerdin, you must use Concentration skill instead of Fanatisim.

Is it true that Fanatisim doenst boost Charge skill damage output and I am forced to use Concentration instead?

So please help me, how would i build the higest damage Charge Paladin and which skills should i max?

Thanks,
Imp

Hello,

first a disclaimer: I’ve only had a few chargers and none too successful. They’re tricky and I didn’t like them enough to bother learning how to play them well. That aside, I can tell you about mechanics.

Blessed hammer works only with Concentration, that’s true. Fanaticism works with Charge, there’s no reason for it not to.

The point is that you are missing benefits there. The stronger aspect of the Fanaticism aura is its attack speed, which does NOT work with Charge as it has a fixed attack animation hence is not affected by attack speed. In short, if you’re only using Charge, you can pick the highest damage weapon, no matter how slow it is and completely forget about Increased attack speed modifiers on your gear.

On the other hand, Might is a synergy to Fanaticism so you might use it instead, as it will already be maxxed. Its damage bonus is lower, but Charge gives you plenty already, so will be overkilling mobs. Those are 22 skill points that you can redistribute if you wish (20 Fana + 2 prereqs).

Keep in mind that Charge is a physical damage attack so you will need some alternative to kill Immune to physical monsters. 1 pt in Sanctuary will be enough to deal with Undeads (Sanctuary breaks physical immunity of any Undead monster), which are normally encountered first, so you can use it before you have your alternative attack up and running. I’d personally use something like Holy Shock to deal Lightning damage (double immunes: lightning + physical will also often be ghosts or skeletons so you can still use Sanctuary there) with a fast-attacking weapon on switch, as offensive elemental auras don’t care about your weapon’s damage and they’re all about speed. A Crescent Moon Phaseblade would be perfect for the occasion (fast and lowers lightning resistance of enemies).

A note about Charge playing style: you pick an enemy which seems kind of separated from its pack, slay it, and move on to the next. Be very mindful of the sequence in which you pick your targets. Charge requires an initial separation between you and the enemy, so if you end up being right next to the target, you will produce a weak and possibly slow normal attack, during which you might die. Trying to always have separation is basically trying to position yourself a bit like a ranged character and then dashing left and right across the battlefield. Extra fast monsters will get on your nerves a lot.

That being said, you also need to make a HUGE decision about whether you are going to use a shield or not. A paladin without a shield feels weird, naked, and squishy and turns Charge into more like a ranged attack since you will also have to think about not being hit.

Using a shield adds safety at the cost of Charge damage (you might not one-shot mobs). It will also improve your (1pt Zeal)+Holy Shock switch. On the other hand, you might just use Charge either with Might or Holy Shock, depending on the enemy, forget about weapon switch and use a big bad 2-handed weapon (Crescent Moon fits into 3 Socket Axes/Swords/Polearms, 2-handers included, although its physical damage is not the highest).

Obedience + Holy Fire instead of Crescent Moon + Holy Shock seems like a good idea for a 2-hander on paper, but I strongly suggest to crunch some numbers first. Holy Fire ends up being underwhelming in terms of damage and there are many more fire resistant mobs in hell that there are lightning.

What’s fun is that if there’s nothing behind the mob to stop it, you will just keep charging at it as you knock it back with each hit, leading to its inevitable doom. Really feels OP :smiley: I just might give my 2-handed charger a second chance and build a 1-hander+Shield. After all, to me Diablo is all about trying new builds and making them work.

Long story short, it’s a tricky build to play, probably not the best introduction to paladins, and maybe much better for PvP, but I have 0 experience there.

Hope that helps

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And a note about the “highest damage” part of you initial post: yes, Charge + max Fana will produce the highest number. Add Eth. Death Runeword weapon on a 2-hander + Highlord Ammy + Gore Riders for max Deadly strike and you will almost always land Critical hits (double phys. dmg). Use a Might mercenary and invest unreasonable amounts of strength (1str = 1% ED, 1.1 for hammers) to top it off. No monster will stand before you unless it’s physical immune (Reaper’s Toll on the mercenary will break most of them though). The problem is that they come in packs and you can’t knock bosses back so you will need to survive a trade of hits to hit and run for the next charge :smiley:

Thanks so much!

Actually I have been looking around the internet for information, and I’ve decided to make a 2-handed Charger for max damage output.

They also recommend I max skills on Might + Vigor + Fanaticism + Charge
Might and Vigor each adds 20% to charge damage. So I figured this is the path I’ll take.

Yeah, I might have trouble with mobs but I don’t care, I’ll put 1 point in Zeal and hopefully can handle them. Basically, my idea is use 1h+ shield, Zeal with mobs, and Charge loners and bosses, champs, etc.

My purpose of this paladin is eventually evolve him in to become PVP so I can 1 shot my opponent. With Raven Frost, I shouldn’t get frozen, slowed, and hope to 1 shot even the highest HP guys, like Barbs and other Pallys.

A goal as worthy as any we’ve seen. Definitely wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of this!

I see. If you’re going PvP, then that’s it - charge + synergies + fana. Fanaticism will also help you with its attack rating. Still, in PvP there are many other considerations that I’m not familiar with. Good luck!

Edit: I’d check the PvP basics page on the Arreat Summit. It’s a great source. At a first glance, there’s this: “When attacking other players, all damage of attacks and spells is 17% or 1/6”, so to 1-shot a 5k hp barb, you’d need 30k dmg. If he has 50% damage reduction, which he most probably will, that’s a whopping 60k hit on your end. If your Deadly strike procs, that’s a 30K hit, which is a 1200max dmg weapon (godly 2-hander+charms) with 2400% enhanced damage from skills/stats. You’ll roughly have 600-700 from charge + 800 synergies + ~400 from Fana + 300 Forty + 200+ stats ( + 250 merc might - I don’t know if it’s bad manners to duel with mercs + he might be dead), which is actually almost there. Still, an imperfect hit will leave him with something left in the tank and as far as I can remember, WW barbs tend to hit chargers first when they whirl away from them, so the bottom line is that you’ll need to survive a hit, too. And that becomes a whole different story.

Now you just need your eth self repair fools+cruel 2soc zerker to one hit ppl :star_struck:

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Make that a Thunder Maul

Man, the only 5k hp barb i’ve seen are the singing barbs with only few strength points and the rest in life + max battle orders. +life items and charms, yes, he can make 5k, but not a WW barb where they need to spend much of their stat points in strength/dex.

I just threw some items in a character planner to get an idea:
Dual BotD BA, CoA (BerBer), Forty AP, Angelic Ammy+Ring, Raven, Dungo, War Travelers (upg), Bloodfist (upg), Torch, Anni; str/dex for equipment, max vita, skills into shout/BO/mastery/ww/resistance/iron skin.

The result with !!37 empty inventory slots!! is 6700 AR, max resistances, 5100 life, 46% damage reduction, 18k defense, 70% FHR, 1700-4900 dmg per hand (12.5 hits per second)

And there are 6 more points into Warcries to be had for prebuff on dual Echoing switch, bumping the life into the 5500s and defense above 20k. And there is still a whole inventory to be filled to add more damage/life/AR and probably hit the 86% FHR beakpoint.

So it certainly can be done. I just threw some more or less random stuff out there, a well-planned build would probably be better. Swapping a BotD for a more budget-friendly weapon would drop 30*4 = 120 life which is not that big of an issue. We’re still over 5k even without charms.

Edit: I accidentally used an Assassin torch in the calculations. Swapping the weapons for dual Grief and using a barb torch is about 5200-5300 life with far superior damage and much cheaper.

well, it’s at least good to know i probably cant 1 shot a maxed out barb, but i suppose the majority of the matches i can do so if i can proc crit dmg.

anyways, would be a good experiment to play a chargedin class. i like the idea of smacking out massive damage in 1 blow.