Have I screewed up my first hammerdin??

[tonedialler]

I have just started my first hammerdin and I have 2 problems...

He is level 58 and I have just started on act 1 nm. The problem is that he doesn´t seem to hit anything with his hammers. I only hit with 1 out of 10 hammers or so. How do I aim with my hammerdin?

The second problem is that he is pure hammerdin - he can´t make any melee damage. I choosed to boost energy and I use frostburn so I have around 600 mana - the problem is that I also choosed to put none in vitality so he only has around 500 life. My question is if I have chrewed up my hammerdin and should start over?

Any suggestions would be nice.

P.S. My hammers does 1,4k damage without cons aura on.

[Baroni]

He is level 58 and I have just started on act 1 nm. The problem is that he doesn´t seem to hit anything with his hammers. I only hit with 1 out of 10 hammers or so. How do I aim with my hammerdin?

The second problem is that he is pure hammerdin - he can´t make any melee damage. I choosed to boost energy and I use frostburn so I have around 600 mana - the problem is that I also choosed to put none in vitality so he only has around 500 life. My question is if I have chrewed up my hammerdin and should start over?.

You sure have screwed him up. Hammerdins don't need any points in energy. A quick flash of Redemption provides all of the mana you will need. You will need alot of points in Vit as you need to go toe to toe with alot of your adversaries.

A tip on aiming your hammers is to stand below the target if possible. This I have found is the easiest way to make them hit. Also if you find you are not hitting the enemy move around, standing still and not hitting will do you no good.

I suggest a rebuild. Check out the pala guides thread, stickied at the top of this forum. There are 2 guides that offer very useful info on everything you need to know about Hammerdins.

[LordDrift]

yea you did, read the guide luckily not level 80+

[tonedialler]

Ty for helping me - I have decided that I will start from scratch.

I will put points in strenght until level 9 - then I can wear full sigons.

After that all my stat points will go to viatlity...

At level 14 I can finally use my life charms so at level 18 I will have around 400 life already.

I look forward to play with a new - and hopefully improwed - hammerdin :-)

[AuraAllan]

Good luck.

Practice your aiming. It´s the key to a good hammerdin.

~Aura

[Krollin]

I have just started my first hammerdin and I have 2 problems...

He is level 58 and I have just started on act 1 nm. The problem is that he doesn´t seem to hit anything with his hammers. I only hit with 1 out of 10 hammers or so. How do I aim with my hammerdin?

The second problem is that he is pure hammerdin - he can´t make any melee damage. I choosed to boost energy and I use frostburn so I have around 600 mana - the problem is that I also choosed to put none in vitality so he only has around 500 life. My question is if I have chrewed up my hammerdin and should start over?

Any suggestions would be nice.

P.S. My hammers does 1,4k damage without cons aura on.Its not about aiming your hammers it is more about knowing the distribution of hammers in the so called "Hammer Field".
Using a clock-face as a reference..

Hammers are produced at 9 O'Clock and proceed to travel clockwise around you in an ever expanding spiral until they hit a wall OR they complete 4 complete revolutions around you, that is they disappear at 9 O'Clock.

Now this means that you have a deadly area with one weakspot, namely close in behind you especially on your left hand side.

Monsters in front and to the right of you are toast at any range. Monsters behind and to your left can be dealt with by moving your character so that they are no longer there.
A tactic I use in closed in areas like the Pits is to stand with my back to a wall that is below me. In a narrow passageway this means that the hammers are hitting the opposite wall fairly quickly however everything in front of you is being hit and nothing can enter the weak area of your Hammer Field.

One on One Combat. This can be difficult to master however a good rule of thumb is stand with your opponent above and to the right of you as close as you can.

You will need to practice throwing your Hammer Field and seeing what works best for you, for One on One combat practice on Mephisto in normal. To make the fight last longer don't use Concentration aura, use something else.

One more thing, hammers appear to pierce their targets so it is not always obvious that they have hit.

As for your build, your stats look messy. A Hammerdin needs 2 main things from his stats apart from enough Str for equipment.
Dex to maintain 75% Block with Holy Shield and HoZ (HoZ is a must, trade your sister for one if necessary. Trade your best mates girlfriend if you have no sister just get that HoZ!!)
Vitality for life. You are going to need ~1500 life in Hell even with PD gear and maxed (75% Resists). Unless you have to top up Str for items (max ~80 with +str gear) and dex ~120 for HoZ sink everything else you get into Vitality.

You are going to need life sc's until they come out of your ears.
I got lucky, someone I met on B.Net was giving up playing, he gave me about 10 20 life sc's some with additional mods. Without these I would be much worse off and my stats were developed as they should be for an Hammerdin.
Resistances are paramount for this build. Get your HoZ and socket it with Um or PDiamond.
Faster Cast Rate. The faster your cast rate the denser your Hammer Field is.
Best Weapon: HoTo. Yeah I would like one too. Traded the runes away for a pile of MF gear though :)
Perfect WTs, Skullders, 2*Harlies and a HoZ for a Vex was the best I could get :)

You Hammer dmg is ok for your level, you still need to max the synergy skills, Vigor and Blessed Aim. Max Concentration as well. Blessed Hammer is maxed already I assume
Any other skills except Holy Shield should remain 1 pt wonders.

Life Saver Auras.

Vigor, helps you get away from a fight and maxed makes you run like the wind.
My Vigor is at lvl 28 and I can get around a map almost as quickly as I can using Teleport. Teleport is nicer though as you don't have to run through clouds of Gloams bar stewards.

Salvation. This is only of use when some bar steward boss has Conviction however then you will be so glad you have it. With that aura I don't have to fear Conviction and Gloams quite as much as I would without it.

Redemption. I cannot stress how useful this aura is in a mass fight.
While you are beating the snot out of things in the WSK you can harvest the harvest so to speak and gain all that Life and Mana from the corpses back.

When soloing and running MF my Hammers do ~3k dmg without Conc. The only time I need Conc is when beating up Diablo/Baal and his Minions.
The rest of the time I fight with Redemption on and run around using Vigor.
In 8 player games I tend to stay at the front of the party, especially when Gloams are a'sparkling and flash Redemption when I need it.

I reckon your build can be saved however you might not fancy the cost, your biggest problem being life.

[cowtestickles]

hammerdin guide (http://forums.rpgforums.net/showthread.php?t=178444) there is a guide for ur skill/stat allocation the gear is up too you, but a basic guide line.

[Tanatus]

Nice comments about targeting...
I use completely different approach for some wierd reason it work better for me...
Much like original poster I had trouble in aiming hammers specially with opponents in front of me so I said screw that and ....turne around result was amezing. I have best hits then opponent behind me and slighting left (hammer hit target after 1 spin) and second best point indeed slightly upward and on right (in other words 7.30 o'clock and 1.30 o'clock) and worst point dead ahead (12 o'clock) - I seems never able hit anything with such positioning.
2 more things that havent been mentioned yet... FCR - you MUST have at least 75FCR to create more or less decent hammerfield preferebly 125FCR to get to fastest hammers cast of 9FPC. Other thing - 1 point in meditation - wondefull skill that will heal you (due to sinergy effect with prayer) and repelish your mana at insane speed then you dont have many copses around but need recovery
Lastlty dont underestimate power of cleansing - then I fight vs. monsters that tend to curse (amp and decrify probably 2 worst curses) I always have cleansing on