Champion Flakhammer, Concentrationless Hammerdin

[Tupsi]

First of all, I've got issues with paladins. I find them absolutely horrible to play because the right click is pretty much always reserved for an aura. With zealots it’s manageable but that’s it. I don’t really like barbarians either but at least I’ve got the chance to right-click-cruise.

When I made my Enigma about two years ago, I thought: ”My hammerdin’s gonna wreck the CS.” Unfortunately, it didn’t really impress me. Teleporting, switching to Concentration and shift-casting or name-casting while also checking the loot (this so called spider-fingering where the fingers are all over the place) wasn’t really my thing. I tried changing the hotkeys and played him like that for a while, but it was still feeling too sketchy and fiddly for me. I re-specced him in 1.13 and enjoyed the life as a tele-zealot much more.

I do enjoy Chaos Sanctury, but I’ve never found a character who would clear it fast enough for my taste and still be enjoyable. Then I got this weird idea, Concentrationless Hammerdin. Well, it turned out really enjoyable.

Character name  : Flakhammer
Character type  : Paladin
Character level : 86
 
Strength        : 25
Energy          : 15
Dexterity       : 133
Vitality        : 352
 
Life            : 1657 / 3044 (BO)
Mana            : 614 / 936 (BO)
Defense         : 6236

All resistances : 75

Skills:
20 Blessed Hammer
20 Blessed Aim
20 Vigor
20 Concentration
1 Meditation
1 Redemption
1 Sanctuary
x pre-reqs
6 unused

Equipment:
Helm: Harlequin Crest w/ 15 res jewel
Armor: 'Enigma' Light Plate
Weapon1: 'Heart of the Oak' Flail 40@
Shield1: 'Spirit' Sacred Targe 45@
Weapon2: Beta 'Call to Arms' War Scepter w/ +3 to Holy Shield
Shield2: 'Spirit' Heraldic Shield
Gloves: Magefist
Boots: Rare with 36 mana, 30% Fire Res, 22% MF
Belt: Arachnid Mesh
Amulet: Mara's Kaleidoscope 24@
Ring1: SoJ
Ring2: Rare with 10% FCR and STR to equip Enigma, subject to improvement

Charms: Mainly plain Lion Branded GCs and life/mana SCs

Before you say anything, I leveled him through Hell at /players8 without a point in Concentration. It wasn't my original plan to place 20 points to Concentration when the build was supposed to be Concentrationless Hammerdin, but I'll come to that later on when I tell about the CS runs.

The whole build bases on the RW 'Pride' which is wielded by his mercenary:

Mercenary name  : Fazel
Mercenary type  : Holy Freeze
Character level : 86
 
Life            : 1807 / 3632 (BO)
Defense         : 2335

All resistances : 90

Equipment:
'Pride' 1.07 ethereal Thresher
Kira's Guardian
Guardian Angel

The Gameplay:
Normal and Nightmare were destroyed by Raven Bazooka and later on Enchantress-enhanced Kuko Shakaku. I leveled him and his mercenary to 67 at Nightmare Baals, the level his merc could equip the 'Pride'.

Hell difficulty. What can I say, Enigmadin is an Enigmadin even with a few k's less damage. Apart from the magic immunes, nothing really stood in his way. The gameplay was really straight-forward. Two hotkeys were all I needed, Teleport and Blessed Hammer, though at some places I eased my life a bit with 1 point utility auras like Holy Freeze, Redemption and Sanctuary. I didn't do full clears but I completed all quests and gathered all waypoints. No deaths, no NDEs. His merc was probably a little weaker than usual because 'Pride' lacks some damage, but 5ll from Boneflesh and 'Delirium' were enough to keep him alive nevertheless. When I hit the Chaos Sanctuary, I rehired Fazel with Holy Freeze aura (he had Might before) and equipped him with my usual choices: Kira's and GA.

The end of journey, Chaos Sanctuary. I started to notice the mobs getting more durable in Act 4. Not unbearably strong but my hammer damage still started to seem a bit low at /p8. I reached CS and cleared the place a few times to get a grip of the runs, but the feeling of being constantly a little slow didn't disappear. So, I started to think, what if I put 20 points to Concentration anyway. It wasn't like I had to use the aura all the time, I had already proved that Concentrationless hammerdin clears Hell (apart from Act 5) just fine. But if I'm already standing there, in the middle of the pack of enemies, safely, the target pinned by hammers, why shouldn't I ramp up the damage at that point? So I did. Hammer damage with my own Concentration aura raised to 12k and it was pretty noticeable. I could live without it, but I could also call upon it any time I wanted.

How does he compare to a normal Hammerdin, then? He's easier to play. 8k hammers are enough to put stuff into hit recovery so I can start the fight by teleporting in, casting a hammer with Right Click and check that I'm hitting the correct target and continue if I am. If the hammers miss him, I just repeat the process until I do and switch to Concentration myself and spam away with left click. Also having the freedom to use the other auras without sacrificing too much damage is great. Sanctuary is especially useful when fighting a really hurty Lord De Seis pack.

Maybe the favourite thing to do with him compared to normal hammerdin is chasing fast enemies. I can first pin the runaway demon down with easy Right Click Tele-hammering and only then switch to the really powerful Left Click casting. Even Extra Fast Lord De Seis is doable without excessive swearing

I don't know if I've succeeded at capturing the essence of this character, but for me, anyway, he is more than just three HRs worth of extravaganza.

Finds:
This morning when I started Hell act 1, my brain froze and I started to doubt the game mechanics. My first of these. I took the SS, S&E'd and checked ATMA drop calculator Hell hellforge was Ist, best charm found was 20life/11mana and best unique (not many at all) was Tomb Reaver (bad roll) from the CS runs.

What next:
I'm going the loan the Pride for my Tele-zerker for Pit running as his damage could really hit the sweet spot for /p5 runs, but other than that, I'm just going do some CS runs and level Flakhammer.

Thanks for all the traders involved in this project: zemaj, janoo and WoRG. Many, many thanks to you for making this possible. Also, thanks for everyone for reading.

[nulio]

Grats, stylish character there!

Btw, I totally called it when you mentioned a veiled secret build with Pride! ^^

[Solar Ice]

Nice write up and an interesting build. What you say about the inconvenience of the RMB limitation of most Paladin builds is correct. A nice way to circumvent that, with your build.

If you did not choose to go with Concentration in the end, what would you have spent your skill points on?

Personally, I find that I enjoy the regular switching of skills on certain builds but it is a little annoying to use the LMB for the Hammerdin. Hammerdins, when properly geared are insanely good in CS, and on higher player setings.

[pharphis]

Super stylish, and I agree with Solar on switching skills around being not so bad for other chars (I haven't tried hammers yet)

[SunsetVista]

Congrats! I like the use of Pride on your merc to make the character more fun to play for you. Nice. =)

What's your goal running CS? mf? 99?

Good luck, and may all your drops be green and gold and orange!

[zaphodbrx]

Well done! Do you mind not having LL on the merc?

[Drystan]

Congrats, and gieb Pride. Interesting idea, and glad it worked well for you.

[Twibz]

I dont mind spider handing the keyboard with my hdin, but maybe thats just me , congrats on that wealthy character!

[Tupsi]

@zaphodbrx: Hammer fields disable most incoming monsters so Fazel’s pretty well protected. When he gains some resistances via leveling I’m going to revisit his equipment to include some leech and see how much it adds to his survivability.

@SunsetVista: Thanks. I’m going to level him to the mid 90’s and see from there if CS has become so enjoyable that I’d be willing to push the level a little higher. Probably not all the way to 99 but I’d like to be even with my 97 summoner. MF'ing has always been more of a side product of leveling for me but it sure adds to the fun.

@Solar Ice: I had a few thoughts how to spend the rest of them. One was Defiance since I’ve always like characters with a lot of defense. I also thought about Holy Freeze for a nice chill radius and Meditation for even greater mana regeneration. Though I don’t have nearly as much points to use now, I’m still undecided.

@nulio: Damn, l should’ve hired someone to spread false information around the forums

@pharphis: Good luck with a hammerdin if (when) you eventually make one. I hope you're more like Twibz and less like me (for the sake of your own wealth)

@Drystan: Aww, I'm really fond of that sin, could I give you Greed instead? I think I'm over it after all these HRs I've found lately

[Drystan]

By all means! I could do with some extra runes! And runewords. And elite uniques. And more runes. And... everything!