A Liberator is?
Charge / Hammer
Some of you will ask “Wait, I thought a Liberator was Charge/ FoH / Hammer?” Well, it was, back in .07-.09, when the patch came out, everyone had synergies making FoH easily resisted. Unless you have maxed Conviction and lvl 40+ FoH, its not a good idea to add any FoH into this build. Besides FOH / Hammer is a Mage build, not a Liberator.
Skills
If you are planning on going past lvl90
20 Blessed Hammer
20 Concentration
20 Charge ,
20 Vigor,
20 Blessed Aim,
1 Holy shield ,
1 Prerequisites
1 Meditation (not important unless all other things are maxed ex. Your last skill point at lvl 98 or 99)
Order in which you should max ( if you don’t want to get past lvl 85)
1. Hammers
2. Concentration, only thing that adds to Hammer damage.
3. Charge
4. Vigor. Since this is a Synergy of Hammer and Charge , Good thing to max.
5. Some Points into Blessed Aim (or Holy Shield depending on preference)
Suggested Stats
Strength : None added or somewhere near 35. Note. This is only if you use Enigma Dusk shroud or low strength requirement armor.
Dexterity: Enough for max block
Vitality: all the rest.
Helm
Shako (Ber)
Rare or Crafted +2 helm with Strength / Resistance/ FcR
Peasant Crown
Armor
Enigma Dusk Shroud
Enigma Mage Plate (has lower strength requirement then Dusk)
Enigma is the only armor I found that works with a stat Paladin. So you may have to cheat, lie, steal, beg, bribe, swindle for the armor but that is what you will be using, No poor man’s armor here folks.
Boots
Rare with Strength / resist/ Fr.w. /
Gore Riders ( if you need more Deadly Strike / Open wounds for Charge)
SandStorm.
D2classic rare with similar mods, Strength / Dexterity / resist / Fr.w.
Amulet
Rare or Crafted +2 all skills / Resist / Dex / FcR
Mara amulet with 25+ Resist.
D2Classic Rare amulet.
Ring 1
Rare or Crafted with +Strength/+Dex / Resist /
D2Classic Rare ring might be useful.
Ring 2
Raven Frost 20 dex / nearly perfect AR ( this can be found fairly easy)
This gives your CbF mod and Nice AR bonus, along with added Dex.
Note on Rings/Amulet/Boots
Those are the items in which I will never change. They will always be those 3 items on me at all times. This way I have enough strength and dexterity, and the max resistance in Hell which is crucial. You need to do the Anya quest at all 3 difficulties for this to work (adds 30 resistance total). You also need all 12 skill points from each difficulty as well (the Quests such as Den of Evil).
Belt
15% Verdungo, Great belt adds to vita too.
T.Gods ( for Lightning Resist / absorb)
String of ears with 15%dr.
Glove
Bloodfist ,
Rare with Strength/ Dex/ Resist,
D2Classic glove with similar mods.
Mage Fist for more FcR
New 1.10 Unique glove with xx% Open Wounds.
Casting Weapon
Heart of Oak Flail
Wizard Spike
Suicide Branch
Charging Weapon
Grief Zerker Axe ,
Eth BoTD Zerk
Storm Lash
B.Star
Cuel ___of Evis / Butchery Socketed with Lo, Lo, Um, or use a Ohm for added damage.
You may also want to use Eth Zerk Botd for Charge weapon. Which is fine. The only reason why I’m using Famine is because that’s what I had at the time. And it works because of the Added Elemental Damage. But Berserker AXE is a must. For the Range 3 on a one handed weapon. Since you Charge, range 3 is the optimal range you want to achieve.
Casting Shield
HoZ (Perfect Topaz)
Hoz is fairly common so it’s not too bad to get.
Charging Shield
Phoenix or SS (-15 /xx ed/xx resist), also recommended HoZ (Ber)
The jewel in SS is a must. It lowers the strength requirement to 133 which is manageable if you use Enigma. You could also use a Hel rune or a –15/ resist magic jewel. HoZ on Charge adds more AR and higher damage, but you need to ber it. Then you will have 49% Dr. 50 is max.
Fact: Paladin's optimal cast speed is 75%. I use 40%. Yes, that’s correct, only 40% because Hammer does an insane amount of damage, One Hammer is enough to kill a person.
Hammers deal out magic damage, which can not be resisted very well. The only resistance against Hammer is insane high life. Sure, it cast a little bit slower than most but, it works. I suppose if you really wanted to get more FcR and higher lvl, you could use Unique Spider Web sash.
For a lightning resist option.
Get Shako (LO)
T.Gods
HoZ (Lo) this should get you to 95% Lr and have a little absorb too.
Charms
This is going to seem odd to most of you reading this but it works. I don’t use any Combat Gc with Life. What I tested is this:
Your Hammer damage is plenty to take out anyone in about one hit or so. No reason to get it any higher. So I use Charge Sc. What are Charge sc you might ask? Well I use Fine small charms of vitality, 3/xx/xx sc. This helps counter the lack of Attack Rating for your Charge and adds a healthy amount of life and damage to Charge. Other things I use are my Sc’s from .09 like Elemental damage of sust or vita sc’s. I use 2 x Offensive aura gc with vitality
Charge / Hammer
Some of you will ask “Wait, I thought a Liberator was Charge/ FoH / Hammer?” Well, it was, back in .07-.09, when the patch came out, everyone had synergies making FoH easily resisted. Unless you have maxed Conviction and lvl 40+ FoH, its not a good idea to add any FoH into this build. Besides FOH / Hammer is a Mage build, not a Liberator.
Skills
If you are planning on going past lvl90
20 Blessed Hammer
20 Concentration
20 Charge ,
20 Vigor,
20 Blessed Aim,
1 Holy shield ,
1 Prerequisites
1 Meditation (not important unless all other things are maxed ex. Your last skill point at lvl 98 or 99)
Order in which you should max ( if you don’t want to get past lvl 85)
1. Hammers
2. Concentration, only thing that adds to Hammer damage.
3. Charge
4. Vigor. Since this is a Synergy of Hammer and Charge , Good thing to max.
5. Some Points into Blessed Aim (or Holy Shield depending on preference)
Suggested Stats
Strength : None added or somewhere near 35. Note. This is only if you use Enigma Dusk shroud or low strength requirement armor.
Dexterity: Enough for max block
Vitality: all the rest.
Helm
Shako (Ber)
Rare or Crafted +2 helm with Strength / Resistance/ FcR
Peasant Crown
Armor
Enigma Dusk Shroud
Enigma Mage Plate (has lower strength requirement then Dusk)
Enigma is the only armor I found that works with a stat Paladin. So you may have to cheat, lie, steal, beg, bribe, swindle for the armor but that is what you will be using, No poor man’s armor here folks.
Boots
Rare with Strength / resist/ Fr.w. /
Gore Riders ( if you need more Deadly Strike / Open wounds for Charge)
SandStorm.
D2classic rare with similar mods, Strength / Dexterity / resist / Fr.w.
Amulet
Rare or Crafted +2 all skills / Resist / Dex / FcR
Mara amulet with 25+ Resist.
D2Classic Rare amulet.
Ring 1
Rare or Crafted with +Strength/+Dex / Resist /
D2Classic Rare ring might be useful.
Ring 2
Raven Frost 20 dex / nearly perfect AR ( this can be found fairly easy)
This gives your CbF mod and Nice AR bonus, along with added Dex.
Note on Rings/Amulet/Boots
Those are the items in which I will never change. They will always be those 3 items on me at all times. This way I have enough strength and dexterity, and the max resistance in Hell which is crucial. You need to do the Anya quest at all 3 difficulties for this to work (adds 30 resistance total). You also need all 12 skill points from each difficulty as well (the Quests such as Den of Evil).
Belt
15% Verdungo, Great belt adds to vita too.
T.Gods ( for Lightning Resist / absorb)
String of ears with 15%dr.
Glove
Bloodfist ,
Rare with Strength/ Dex/ Resist,
D2Classic glove with similar mods.
Mage Fist for more FcR
New 1.10 Unique glove with xx% Open Wounds.
Casting Weapon
Heart of Oak Flail
Wizard Spike
Suicide Branch
Charging Weapon
Grief Zerker Axe ,
Eth BoTD Zerk
Storm Lash
B.Star
Cuel ___of Evis / Butchery Socketed with Lo, Lo, Um, or use a Ohm for added damage.
You may also want to use Eth Zerk Botd for Charge weapon. Which is fine. The only reason why I’m using Famine is because that’s what I had at the time. And it works because of the Added Elemental Damage. But Berserker AXE is a must. For the Range 3 on a one handed weapon. Since you Charge, range 3 is the optimal range you want to achieve.
Casting Shield
HoZ (Perfect Topaz)
Hoz is fairly common so it’s not too bad to get.
Charging Shield
Phoenix or SS (-15 /xx ed/xx resist), also recommended HoZ (Ber)
The jewel in SS is a must. It lowers the strength requirement to 133 which is manageable if you use Enigma. You could also use a Hel rune or a –15/ resist magic jewel. HoZ on Charge adds more AR and higher damage, but you need to ber it. Then you will have 49% Dr. 50 is max.
Fact: Paladin's optimal cast speed is 75%. I use 40%. Yes, that’s correct, only 40% because Hammer does an insane amount of damage, One Hammer is enough to kill a person.
Hammers deal out magic damage, which can not be resisted very well. The only resistance against Hammer is insane high life. Sure, it cast a little bit slower than most but, it works. I suppose if you really wanted to get more FcR and higher lvl, you could use Unique Spider Web sash.
For a lightning resist option.
Get Shako (LO)
T.Gods
HoZ (Lo) this should get you to 95% Lr and have a little absorb too.
Charms
This is going to seem odd to most of you reading this but it works. I don’t use any Combat Gc with Life. What I tested is this:
Your Hammer damage is plenty to take out anyone in about one hit or so. No reason to get it any higher. So I use Charge Sc. What are Charge sc you might ask? Well I use Fine small charms of vitality, 3/xx/xx sc. This helps counter the lack of Attack Rating for your Charge and adds a healthy amount of life and damage to Charge. Other things I use are my Sc’s from .09 like Elemental damage of sust or vita sc’s. I use 2 x Offensive aura gc with vitality