building my hammerdin

[Moatilliata]

Hey all, i just started building my first hammerdin the other day, im currently at level 21 and have level 3 hammers and have been putting the rest of my skill points into concentration, vigor and blessed aim. However, the hammers aren't doing as much damage as i would like and its still a little hard to build them up in time to attack enemies that are coming right for me. i know being level 21, the damage will be rather limited as it isn't maxed out yet but i was hoping for more than this as i can't really kill anything in act3. when building the hammerdin and working through the low levels is it ok to assign some points into zeal as i'm having trouble killing monsters without using zeal. Also my mana drains unbelievably fast when using hammers (as expected), as i rarely put any stat points into energy as i have been following the guide, but honestly there is no way i could kill any monsters without using three mana pots every few seconds.

[DH Amazon]

Hey all, i just started building my first hammerdin the other day, im currently at level 21 and have level 3 hammers and have been putting the rest of my skill points into concentration, vigor and blessed aim. However, the hammers aren't doing as much damage as i would like and its still a little hard to build them up in time to attack enemies that are coming right for me. i know being level 21, the damage will be rather limited as it isn't maxed out yet but i was hoping for more than this as i can't really kill anything in act3. when building the hammerdin and working through the low levels is it ok to assign some points into zeal as i'm having trouble killing monsters without using zeal. Also my mana drains unbelievably fast when using hammers (as expected), as i rarely put any stat points into energy as i have been following the guide, but honestly there is no way i could kill any monsters without using three mana pots every few seconds.

Use tal+eth armor for running and fcr speed for low level. Hire that act3 cold merc, he can tank and freeze while you kill. Helps a lot in low level.
Put two perfect or near perfect sapphires in your helmet for +mana.
NO zeal, every lvl push you towards godly build.

If you can run full games, then hire that act3 cold merc and run arcane, easy to kill and fast leveling too.

At lvl 25 you can use spirit sword and shield, all problems gone then.

[Moatilliata]

koolio, thanks.

[DustDrake]

Don't use cold mercs from act 3 - waste imo - stick with offensive merc act 2 (at low levels) and normal melee attack untill you get meditation or hold up till you get redemption or just stack mana pots and run with hammers from level 18
As for initial gear
Yes Tal+Eth - make's nearly godly good for lowbie stealth armor (25frw, 25fhr, 25fcr) toss here here Ort Sol in helm (Lore rune word), get some with +usefull skills scepter, tearhouch as a boots 10fcr rings/ammi's any 4 row's belt (to stack up mana portions) may be magefists and you all set till you hit level 25. Then try to get ahold for spirit sword and from that point you will become nearly unstopable :)

[GreatZeal]

Use wall of eyeless,Stealth,spirit Sword,Pcrown,2* Fcr rings,Any belt,Tearhaunch (sp), and magefist and you should be good for quite a while.I wouldnt put any skills points out side of the normal hdin route but if your really sick of the lower hammer dmg i suggest getting gold and buying some scepter that give skills to zeal.

[Nymins]

I too am thinking of building a hammerdin, but could someone tell me which skills should go where through each level? Because i followed a guide about building a blizz sorc and it says to save skill points every so often, so i thought great, when i save enough i can shove them all in blizz at once. I was wrong. I needed to go up a level each time to spend them in blizz, but i could spend them in cold mastery that didn't help at the time.

If anyone could give a brief list of when and where i should put each skill point that would be great.

[baisner]

http://strategy.diabloii.net/news.php?id=535

At this link you will reach captain_bogus guide for a "maximum damage hammerdin".

This is a good build.

Have fun building your new hammerdin.

[Moatilliata]

ok i am now at level 50 (thanks to baal and cow runs in normal, i just entered nightmare). My stats are as follows, i would like to make sure i'm on the right track and any input would be appreciated.

Blessed Hammer, level 25
Blessed Aim, level 7
Concentration, level 19
(hammer damage is currently 1380-1404 with concentration, i was hoping for something higher than this as i met another hammerdin in a baal run at level 45 and he claims to be doing 2.5k damage)

Stat assigning has been pretty good so far imo, as for every level i usually put 1 point in strength, 1 in dexterity and 3 into vitality. currently my stats with gear are:
strength 107
dex 119
vitality 155 (660 life)
energy 39 (200 mana)

i'm thinking of assigning the rest of my points into mostly vitality as most of my strength and dex comes from my charms and two rings that give 15 to strength and 15 to dex, which allows me to equip some pretty decent gear atm as i have about 1000 defense and my shield has a 74% chance of block, and I decided to go with the act 3 merc who is equipped with the isenhart set (i don't know why, just thought it would be neat).

I'm not to sure if i should max blessed aim next or something else because my max damage isn't all that great without it, and i like being at level 50 and killing nightmare cows. thanks for the help.

[Teleportation]

You shouldnt start with maxing hammers. They cost way more mana when maxed, so i would suggest 1. concentration 2. vigor 3. hammers 4. blessed aim 5. holy shield

I certainly hope you have not put points in energy? And yeah, pump vitality. you want to reach 1200 life minimum.

[Moatilliata]

ok thanks for the help guys, i am now at level 80 (thanks to some baal runs in hell and nm) i have around 1400 life, 400 mana (no stats have gone into energy at all) about 130 str, and 130dex with equipment.
i'm using spirit sword and shield (pretty bad res with -40 to fire)
griswolds armour (still 3 sockets empty which im thinking of cramming 3 pdiamonds into to give me more res, or going back to my old armour which gives +1 to all skills)
using ik boots
some random gloves that prevent freeze and good poison res
ravenfrost ring
another ring that gives +25 to most res
ammy that gives +1 to pally skills and 16 to dex
i have maxed out vigor, concentration, hammers, i think about 18 into blessed aim and the rest into holy shield, and 1 into meditation.
i dumped the act3 merc as he died wayy too easily in hell and picked up an act two merc from nm.

I'm looking to upgrade pretty much all my armour n weaps as with concentration and blessed aim at level 25 and my gear im doing about 4.5k dmg i think, which is kinda crap in hell. So i was wondering what everyone would reccommend as i have quite alot of junk to trade with over 40 pgems, a few high level runes including ist,ko,lum. some random stuff for necro's, pally's, amazons and barbs that gives +1 to their skills, complete sigon set and a whole lot of sin gear.

[Smackin]

P diamonds dont add res in armors, and get rid of that griz armor cuz its pretty useless. Try to get a hold of a vipermagi, magefist, peasent crown. With these gear some res charms and jewelry, u can do hell pits quite easily with a decent merc. For ur merc, I'd say holy freeze or defiance, depending on ur choice. Get him insight thresher or Eth insight cv, otherwise he'll have to be very high lvl to equip it. Get a Tal helm(totally underrated, +life, res ll), duriel shell or glad's bane if hes 85, with ur conc on he will rarely die due to high dmg and thus leechin more.