Help with PH (Psyhic Hammer) Tactics

[briefcase]

These tactics were mentioned in passing in the video thread.

I was just wondering if someone could elaborate on it. ^__^

Thanks

[yuqing]

Basically, PH works like Fist of Heaven, in that it will automatically hit another target when you click near enough to them. Thus it can be used to give a temporary delay in order to catch-up or namelock.

[briefcase]

Basically, PH works like Fist of Heaven, in that it will automatically hit another target when you click near enough to them. Thus it can be used to give a temporary delay in order to catch-up or namelock.

Yes, i understand that part.... but I was sort of looking for more advanced tips such as is PH better than MB for holding up a barb... should MB just be used for the swirlies and PH to stun..... and also does PHing extend beyond the context of just catching a fast caster or screwing up a barb....

Thanks for help

[Kijya]

Useful thread::
http://forums.diabloii.net/showthread.php?t=508343

[Moritz]

In my opinion a very powerful skill and I wonder why hardly anyone uses it. There are several aspects that must be taken into consideration.

Psy Hammer causes knockback when it hits at a high % (at slvl20 it causes KB at 88%) and deals a low amount of physical and magical damage (split into 50% physical and 50% magical), but doesn't cause stun (swirlies). Doesn't seem very impressive when you read it. What makes it so good then?
It's got the same 'autoaim'-function like FoH and Dragonflight, means you only need to click somewhere vastly near your opponent to hit and KB him. You can use it a bit like the barb's 'Leap' skill: The instant which your opponent needs to recover from knockback is the instant that you need to namelock. Slippy casters can be namelocked a lot easier with PH even if you're a very fast namelocker.
PH can also be used against chars that telestomp you pretty often. Press down right mouse button with PH active and it will trigger as soon as your opponent lands beside or on top, which leads to instant KB. Take care with this, though. It's usually better to do short defensive whirls instead of PH because you still can get hit before knocking back your foe. Just test.

Another very useful thing about PH is finishing off (very) low life opponents, e.g. when they bled to 1 life from open wounds. Finish them off without even namelocking. Nice, isn't it?
A specific case where PH is very good is finishing off 1 life necros because this can't be done by mindblasting them. Necromancers use Bone Armor, which absorbs physical damage, and Mindblast is 100% physical. Psy Hammer is 50% physical and 50% magical, and the magical damage ignores Bone Armor.

A rather unimportant but nevertheless cool gimmick is that PH only costs 4 mana per hit and only when it really hits.
Mindblast, on the other hand, costs 15 mana whenever you use it - no matter if you hit or not. This can summarize during a long duel.

[thepandafactor]

The thing about hammer is that the stun isn't as good as MB, the damage is much lower, and usually the autoaim function isn't that useful. My openings happen when the shadow hits with mindblast (also auto-aimed :p), and your own mindblast's radius is not small. So I very rarely ever use hammer. Sometimes it helps with necs as mentioned previously though.

[shopbot]

i tried ph, its no good.

its basically like a lesser version of leap.

i dont think its worth learning, too many buttons

it would mean ph then mb then tele ww traps too much micro

[Moritz]

yeah just try it out on your own. I personally am a great fan of it against some opponents (against others it's useless) but I also know other experienced assa players who don't like it.

I just say there is no reason NOT to use it.

[RedemptioN]

Watch me use it on my trapper (keep an eye on the right hand skill thingy to see when I use it).
http://youtube.com/watch?v=CA6sHpVD1Fs

[briefcase]

Thanks .... all i needed to know ^___^