Definitive hammer Build

[comicalflop]

Many people always ask about "How do I make a hammerdin..." and people always respond with "Use the search button..." So I decided to make a quick Hammeridn guide, especially with 1.11 out the other guides are a little outdated. I'll also make comparisons, and show what the best hammerdin sections of the game are.

The Hammerdin is one of the most versatile characters. Only one monster in the game is immune to the hammers, because +150% damage to undead somehow translates to -150% magic resistance to both demons and undead. Hammerdins can teleport, and kill almost every single monster in the game. They are the best rushers, Mfers, PvM Ball runners, Chaos runners, and a high PvP character.

To start, the stats:
If you have Torch and Anni, every single blessed point will go into vitality. If you don't:
Strength: Only enough for equip, as low as possible
Dex: Only enough for max block, Holy Shield helps. (note; you will have to add points to dex later on, 80's above, because holy shield will not add as much +% block as dex provides.)
Vitality: Everything, as much as possible.
Energy: None, early on blue pots, later you will have plenty. If you have Insight Merc, like me, you'll gain more mana than Blessed Hammer and Teleport can use.

Skills
20 Blessed Hammer
20 Concentration
20 Vigor
20 Blessed Aim
20 Holy Shield
Max Holy Shield last
As you level up, put points in blessed aim, then alternate between BH and Conc, then max Vigor before Blessed Aim.

Items
These are the Cookie-Cutter items that everyone uses.
Weapon 1: Hoto or Wizspike
Weapon 2: CTA
Shield 1: HoZ or Spirit
Shield 2: Lidless, Spirit
Armor: Enigma
Helm: Shako, Pally Circlet
Gloves: Magefist, Trang's Claws
Belt: Arach's
Boots: Waterwalks, Treks
Rings: SOJ, BK, Ravenfrost, FCR
Ammy: Mara's, +2 Pally FCR Ammy
Charms: Pcombs, Ptorch, Anni

This is the classic Hammerdin as of right now. Gear choices:
Wiz or Hoto?
I use both. I will use Hoto only if I can reach 125 fcr by getting a FCR ammy and a 35 FCR Spirit (mines 32) but comparison wise, 10 more FCR, 35-45 more resists, better mana. I lose 2k damage by using wizspike, and don't notice any difference in killing monsters
What type of Enigma?
I use Dusk; it looks coolest to me, and Archon costs like 50k to repair, and dusk is easier to get. Get an Enigma, it is practically essential and Hammderdins benefit from it the most because it helps them aim.
What boots?
Waterwalks gives much better life with BO than treks, however treks can help you get strength requirements and makes you immune to poison. I use 50 War Travelers, but I MF all the time. Before that, I used 65 waterwalks, and the dex was helpful also.
What helm?
Shako, all the way. Circlet only for PvPers. Shako cna be either all MF (74% PTopaz) or resists (um). your choice.
Trang's gloves should be used in PvP against cold sorcs.
HOZ or Spirit?
It is up to you. You can reach insane speeds with spirit, but a lot of people still hold dearly to their HOZ. I think it's overated, I myself use Spirit and enjoy the Huge FCR, HUGER FHR, mana, and resists. and everyone uses holy shield, so they all look the same anyway.
With the introduction of Anni and Torch, most people like to make their chars look naked by using +strength glitches. To me, the two charms = more resists. You can get up to +40 resists with these, not to mention +4 skills. Very helpful, very recommended. And now you can trade these in the window, so no more scams.
Are Pcombs really nescessary? They are the GC that adds the most to Hammer damage, however I reach 12k Hammer without a single one. And with them ranging 2-3 sojs each, I'm not broke.
What ring? I use SOJ and BK, or a 10FCR 8 res ring when I use wizspike to reach next FCR BP. people love raven, but as a caster you will not be bothered being frozen.

[comicalflop]

What should the merc be?
The merceneary should be act 2 (suprise?) because no other merc has an innate aura. We use the act 2 merc also because he can use polearms- there are very useful polearms, especially runewords.
The act 2 merc to get is holy freeze- nm defensive. Holy freeze will slow monsters down, making monsters easier to hit and less likely to kill you.
Ther merc can very strong, but you have to make him so. Give him good armor and helm- eth if possible, but not nescessary- Like vampgaze, shaftstop, leviathan, tal's crest (the only use of this cruddy helm!) etc. For the weapon, I highly suggest Insight. This ladder only polearm has one truly strong feature- lvl 12-17 meditation aura. This is invaluable to any caster- with it, I gain more mana than I can use spells. If a mana burn monster hits me, I can still cast spells, and gain mana faster than I can use it up. For teleporting long distances or casting hammers indefinetly, I find it to be a very sueful polearm to have. Granted your merc will not be the most effectively killing machine if he had a different polearm, but for me the tradeoff is easy since I'm doing all the killing myself anyway. Get it in an eth colussus voulge if possible- mine's in a eth voulge, and it does really bad damage, but gets the job done.

Next, comparisons between 75 FCR and 125 FCR:
it does seem to make a very insubstantial difference. When teleporting you do notice it, as you reach your destination much faster. 75 FCR is what you should aim for in PvM, 125 in PvP. I have 125 in PvM for rushing and MFing, I can hit 8 MF spots in 5-6 minutes.

What are the best spots for the Hammerdin?
The Hammerdin is very versatile, and can handle almost every single spot in the game. He cannot solo Uber Trist at all. He can be a helper, by killing all the minions and adding an aura or two- but He cannot face off against the three on his own. He can handle the mini-bosses, and Dclone, but the Uber three heal faster than resisted hammers hit.
When it comes to rushing, he is not the fastest teleporter, but he is the most durable and versatile. He can rush a char without dying or pausing to work around a certain monster. His high damage- average builds get 8-12k damage- takes down monsters, and bosses, really fast.
The hammerdin is the character of choice for two things- as bots and in chaos runs. A chaos run almost always has a hammerdin as the bot, because his high damage kills everyhitng and his versatility means he never dies.
When MFing, the Hammerdin is a strong choice. I favored my Hammerdin over my Windy, because he is faster, more durable, and has way more damage. He can run every single MF spot in the game, and can take down bosses extremely fast. While a sorc can run one boss faster, and a barb can reach higher MF, I feel that the Hammerdin's ability to clear every area fast, including bosses, makes him a superior choice. I only have less than 300 MF (287?) and gets lots of great drops, fast, without boredom because I'm not running the exact same boss every time. I run Shenk, Eldritch, Pindle, Thresh Socket, Meph, Summoner, Countess and Andy all with ease.
PvP the Hammerdin is not the best character everywhere, but standard enpugh that if your character cannot beat a good one, than you need practise or your build isn't strong. Good Hammerdins set up defensive fields, great Hammerdins desynch to become invisible.
PvM, rushing, MFing, PvP, Botting, the Hammerdin can do it all, and only gets stopped by that wailing beast in act 3 that no one ever goes to. have fun with it, and remember it is a cookie-cutter build, and the most effective ones do all use the same equipment. What seperates them is the specific item choices and use of tactics.

[superficial]

it's a very nice guide.
just some notes:on my merc i use obedience, simply for the 40% crushing blow. for mana recovery, i put 1 pt into redemption, it helps a lot in mana + life recovery.
also i prefer dual soj, just for the +skills and +mana. just my opinion :p


i got a question though, it might sound noobish: when killing baal's minions, where is the best place to stand to dish out hammers?
i know it'd be somewhere within the square where the minions are summoned, but is there a specific spot?

[Black Rat]

Great build.......i have to say that i do like looking at the incredible damage over the faster cast rate..... im not rich enough to get my hands on enigma either though.....

[KiLLJOi]

i got a question though, it might sound noobish: when killing baal's minions, where is the best place to stand to dish out hammers?
i know it'd be somewhere within the square where the minions are summoned, but is there a specific spot?

People nowadays use the concept of "Hammer fields" to their advantage. I have seen some people pull off a triangle where they set 3 seperate fields to catch the minions, 1 towards the stairs and 2 simply on the left and right of the screen.

Or just go old school and sit smack dab in the middle just below baal himself :thumbsup:

[sorcyone]

What are the best spots for the Hammerdin?
The Hammerdin is very versatile, and can handle almost every single spot in the game. He cannot solo Uber Trist at all.

? Hammerdin solo's ubers quite easily with 1/10 of the gear you suggest.
I've done it 3 times and it is easy.
1 point in smite is already there, just add dracs, goblin toe, guilliames, any weapon fast enough to reach 6 frame smite. I use a 6 socket phase blade with 65 IAS in it. Prebuff fade from treachery for Meph. Make sure your shield is upped HoZ or elite pally shield.

[comicalflop]

Gread comments, I'll address them all and add some tatics I forgot to put in.

Obedience is a great choice, if you can afford it for the crushing blow, resists, and enchant. However, Obedience is harder to get than insight, and yes Redemption is wonderful at getting back mana. Once you hit lvl 30 redemption takes care of all mana problems. It won't take care of life at later levels because it takes 20+ corpses to fully replenish your life. My inight is an eth voulge, so my merc could wear it at lvl 27, so redemption was used by me, but very infrequently. Merc dependency? Maybe...

I use dual soj now also when not using GCR setup, because I lose 200 mana after BO by using BK, and only gain 44 life (which doesn't get applied to BO)

I do Baal a lot because I'm trying to get to lvl 93 to start crafting, and I just stand in the middle and hold left click, all the time because meditation makes me gain more mana than I'm using. This kills 80-90% of the minions, and I tele around to kill the rest or let the rest of the group kill them (there are other players, I shouldn't do all the work in baal runs)

FCR will result in a 1-2k less damage, which will be made up with faster casting, especially noticable with teleporting. personal preference, 75 is acceptable, but I love 125 for teleporting and MFing.

Enigma is not nescessary, but once you get one you will wonder how you lived without one.

Smack in the middle of groups is how you take out monsters, I will address in tactics.

The build you're talking about is the vanquisher, the 1pt smite/Hammerdin. I had one and hated it immensely. probably because I couldn't get grief (though now I have two redeemers, and astreons) but I feel that you won't be as good as a hammerdin, or as good as a smiter. Pure smiters handle Trist, but my smite/hammer only survived because there was another pure smiter there. I am talking about pure Hammerdin here, and a pure Hammerdin's Hammers cannot deal enough damage to the Ubers, or leech off of them.

On to tactics:
Teleport
Teleport is Hammerdin's best friend. It increases your mobility a hundredfold, so use this spell to your advantage. Probably the best thing is that when you highlight a monster and teleport on it, you will be directly above it or (in weird cases when you can't be next to it) be in a position where your hammers hit them. This is especially good against bosses or single monsters, or against groups by teleporting int he middle, or against a boss right in the middle of minions (shenk, eldritch). Notes: When you teleport using this method against Baal, your hammers will not hit. He is the only boss (tested them all) that does not have the automatic tele-then-hammer. You have to position yourself elsewhere in order to get him. I usually tele next to him, then run around casting hammers randomly until I see one position that is making hammer contact.
When you teleport into a huge mob (Baal's minions, Chaos) You will see the crowd go down really fast, except for a few standing right next to you. They are in their sweet spots, where you can't touch them. Luckily there is only 5 or less monsters in these spots, so use teleport to get them singly once the whole mob has been cut down. I hate areas like the Pits, because it has sparse mobs like this and very few huge clusters like Chaos, or Baal, or Cows, and you must constantly teleport to kill all the monsters.
You must have concentration on right click to reach high damage hammers- but you can't teleport when you do. I do two things. One- my hammer damage without conc is about 3k, which with no other people in game makes most enemies die in 1-2 hammers, so I can teleport everywhere and ge them all. Bosses and tougher enemies get the conc, and they die in one 10k hammer. Or, you can keep a finger hovering over the conc button (F2 for me) and teleport directly onto a monster, and as soon as you touch them witch to conc to give them a beat down. Ball is the toughest here, because he likes to teleport or knock you back with cold wave, and you have to teleport, then switch back to conc, and so on...
A few area tips:
Chaos
If you have merc, let the hammers fly without worry. None of the curses affect you, and by teleporting inito the middle of a crowd and letting fly, they will die before they can touch you (if you're that good). If you have a merc, try to teleport and kill all doom knight casters first.
Baal
Baal himself is hard, his minions are in big groups and easy to kill. Again, stand in middle and cast hammers, or set up defensive hammer fields if you know how. I like when I have 2-3 other hammerdins in game :)
Cows
I have done cows, and no you will not kill as fast as javazons (sigh I miss 1.09, remember blood runs?) and with the arcing spread of Hammers there will be sparse cows everywhere, a pain to kill every single one.
Rushing
Know that there is no monster you can't kill, but there are monsters that can kill you. Travincal is very hard unless you're very good, I lose my merc 1/2 the time and have to take a tp 1/5 of the time. Kill the main council members first, and make sure you have Max resists.
MFing
You will find you can do a lot of things. You can take down bosses extremely fast, and do every MF area in the game. You can also do it on players 8, because youre high damaging hamemrs can still kill very fast (if you like the increased items dropping) Again, teleporting on bosses = extremely helpful

[sorcyone]

Gread comments, I'll address them all and add some tatics I forgot to put in.

The build you're talking about is the vanquisher, the 1pt smite/Hammerdin. I had one and hated it immensely. probably because I couldn't get grief (though now I have two redeemers, and astreons) but I feel that you won't be as good as a hammerdin, or as good as a smiter. Pure smiters handle Trist, but my smite/hammer only survived because there was another pure smiter there. I am talking about pure Hammerdin here, and a pure Hammerdin's Hammers cannot deal enough damage to the Ubers, or leech off of them.


Who wants to be pure? It does sound boring and inflexible.

I got my ideas from the vanquisher. But I am definitely not a vanquisher. I call myself a Smackerdin. I use different equipment. The vanquisher attempts to be a smiter and hammerdin at the same time. I do not do this. I normally wear hammer gear and only use hammers. Only when I uber I gear switch from a keys+uber gear mule. With the smiting gear I only hammer on the way to the minis. It is too weak otherwise.

You might want grief for a vanquisher but it is completely unnecessary for a Smackerdin and actually IMHO inferior to a robo blade because you are forced to find another 25-35IAS. The Smackerdin gear is very cheap, maybe the cheapest uber killer.

[KaythonXE]

Smackerdin.. That's funny. You're not inventing a new build but simply switching gear to use your one point wonders to your advantage. Any old paladin with a point in smite can effectively do ubers, with the right gear.

The best spot to stand is near the bottom cone, about 1/3 of the way to the left cone, and then 1/5 of the way to opposite side(north west side). This works out so that most of the monsters spawn and run towards you so you don't have to chase, while your hammerfields barrage them and your just spawned hammers do to.

I just did ubers in 'hammer' mode not 'smite hammerdin' mode. :P It was difficult and required lots of juvs, and mana pots. I didn't solo it, though, I had a level 40ish paladin there with med aura as I needed all my slots to be filled with healing/juving potions. Meph I required tgods and wisp. Duriel was by far the easiest, and Diablo slightly more difficult because his armageddon and attacks kept killing my friend and my mana would run out. Meph I couldn't stand and tank, until I switched to stack/sorb gear. Hard, but doable. You CAN damage them enough so that their life goes down. The trick is being able to not die yourself.

Nice guide by the way, but I don't think getting all of your points in holy shield afterwards is the thing to do. Salvation, conviction. Both make you more versatile, and I noticed your guide was stressing the build's versatility.

[comicalflop]

You may of course suit the build towards your needs. I always felt that conviction and salvation are one point wonders, but more that conviction is best maxxd by an auradin. You need a lvl 25 conviction to cancel out meph's conviction in Trist- and I believe that only cancels out the effect for you, not your party. So 20 points just to make sure conviction doesn't affect you = waste of poitns for me. Holy shield I feel is very important becauase it makes you reach max block while adding points to vitality. And it lasts like 650 seconds at later levels, and looks cool, and is overall the skill you should max. Also for the smite/hammerdin variants, it's how you get damage- holy shield is a must to make smite's base damage be high enough.
My feeling about using salvation and conviction for trist is, someone else must have conc aura, and this suggest multiple people in the game. I highly advise against having any more than 2 ppl in the game. Either solo it or do with one friend, it's hard enough because the monster's hit points go up, which makes it tougher.
The best way to do trist safely is to do it fast, and pure smiters are much better than vanquishers at this. Thye have more ias, more damage, and more crushing blow, plus much better melee gear, so they will rush into a crowd and start smiting and get the job done fastest. A vanquisher is like any hybrid- not as effective as either build it is combining (a kicker/trapper assassin is not as good as a pure kicker, or a pure trapper.) My final thing is if you want to be unique and go for vanquisher for style points and to solo trist, go for it. But I rarely myself trist solo, if I do trist I have like 3-4 friends all with smiters, and I do crowd control with my hammerdin or windiy. I do key runs, and can trade those to my friends who trist a lot.
Why do peopl like pure? the hammerdin is a cookie-cutter, there are thousands of hammerdins who all look alike; the only difference between them is the type of armor they wear. Why fix what isn't broken? The hammerdin is so effective at everytnhing it does, that gear and tactics changes shouldn't be nescessary to handle trist when there are other builds far moire suited to it.

I'm liking the input so far, keep the suggestions, personal questions, and comments coming.

[safetypro]

Nice Guide:)
Quick question, I read that meditation does not work on hirelings. The following excerpt is from the Arreat Summit Skills section:
Bonuses To Meditation
Prayer: same as having Prayer active without mana cost
Note: Meditation will not work on hirelings
Does that mean that Meditation used by Hirelings will not heal them (merc's)or does that mean that the aura produced by a merc's weapon will be of no use to you?

[comicalflop]

meditation definetly works on hirelings, in that the meditation aura is active and all party members benefit from it and it's insane mana regen. However, I'm pretty sure that the prayer benefit does not kick in for two reasons:
A) when my life is half full I do not see it go up- I have to use redemption or a rejuv to gain life, and the merc has his life leech to get his life back
B) The meditation probably receives prayer bonuses from whoever is wearing it, and the merc does not actually have any hard points in prayer