Changes: Hammerdin

Latest revision as of 07:52, 26 January 2020

A Hammerdin is a Paladin build involving the maxed-out use of the Blessed Hammer skill.

This build is favored due to the extraordinary damage of the Blessed Hammer, coupled with its synergies, Vigor and Blessed Aim. Concentration Aura also adds damage. It is the most played character build in Diablo II, as Hammerdins dealing 15,000 damage per hammer are not uncommon. However, it is one of the most expensive builds to successfully create, as there are so many Hammerdins out there. A Hammerdin will use his Enigma Rune Word to teleport next to large mobs of enemy, and then hit them with multiple hammers. Many saw this build as being overpowered, and so 1.13 attempted to balance this by removing Blessed Hammer's Demon and Undead immunity bypassing. However, this only slowed Hammerdin Baal runs a little, as people later realized that Holy Bolt can still damage the undead, magic immune or not, and so Achmel the Cursed's boss pack did not prove to be as big a problem as was initially thought.

Skills

A 'basic' Hammerdin setup looks like this:

20 points to Blessed Hammer
20 points to Vigor
20 points to Blessed Aim
20 points to Concentration
20 points to Holy Shield

With high end gear a hammerdin ends up having +20 combat skills; an alternate version is to put only 1 pt into Holy Shield and instead put the skill points into either Fire Resist or Lightning Resist to up the max resist cap from 75.

Stats

Enough Strength to use gear.
Enough Dexterity to reach max (75%) block.*
The rest into Vitality.
None to Energy.

You will still need dexterity to reach a 75% chance to block, as Holy Shield increases the shield blocking rate, and does not scale directly with your character's chance to block. See below.

For example, a Royal Shield with 55% blocking and level 20 Holy Shield will raise the shield blocking to 80%, however, blocking is capped at 75% (25% while running). A shield with higher blocking rate will require less dexterity to reach the maximum block rate of 75% while a shield with low blocking will require significantly more dexterity to reach the cap.

An alternative version is to keep the base 25 strength and equip an Enigma breast plate, and either a Torch (or Annihilus) and placing more stat points into vitality instead. Though this has fallen out of favor in Patch 1.13c with the ability to reset stat points.

Items for expansion

Armor: Enigma Rune Word, in an Archon Plate, Dusk Shroud or Mage Plate (preferable for low strength requirement).
Helm: Harlequin Crest Shako, preferably inserted with Um or Ber Runes, or a Perfect Topaz.
Belt: Arachnid Mesh Spiderweb Sash.
Rings: 2x Stone of Jordan or Bul-Kathos' Wedding Band rings or a mix of the two. Rare rings with Faster Cast Rate or Raven Frost can also be used here.
Amulet: Mara's Kaleidoscope Amulet or Faster Cast Rate +Paladin Skills +All Resistance Amulet.
Gloves: Magefist or Chance Guards gloves.
Boots: Ethereal Sandstorm Trek Scarabshell Boots, War Traveler boots, or Waterwalk for +5% Max Fire Resist and more Life.
Charms: Hellfire Torch, Annihilus and combat skillers.

Maximizing damage setup

Weapon: Heart of the Oak Rune Word in a Flail.
Shield: Herald of Zakarum, preferably upgraded and inserted with Um, Ber, or Shael (this is only if you invest absolutely no points into Holy Shield, as Shael only gives Faster Block Rate, not chance, and Holy Shield already reduces block rate to 2 frames) Runes, or Zod Rune if ethereal.

125% faster cast rate setup

Weapon: Wizardspike or Heart of the Oak Rune Word (this requires a Faster Cast Rate ring).
Shield: Spirit Rune Word with 35% faster cast rate, made in elite paladin shield with all resistance attribute.
Gloves:Magefist or Trang-Oul's Claws.
Belt: Arachnid Mesh.

Items for non-expansion

It's hard to find perfect equipment in non-expansion but the preferred (or perfect) equipment for a Hammerdin in non-expansion looks like this.

Armor: A rare Mage Plate with high resistance, +Life and enchanted defense. Good to have -20% or -30% requirements, too.
Helm: A rare Grim Helm with high resistance, +Life and enchanted defense. Good to have -20% or -30% requirements, too.
Belt: A rare one with high resistance and +Life. Good to have a 4 slot Belt. Perfect if they have +Strength too so you are able to put more points in Vita.
Rings: Both Rings should have +10% Faster Cast Rate and high resistance. Perfect if they have +Strength too so you are able to put more points in Vita.
Amulet: The Amulet should have +10% faster cast, +2 to Paladin skills and prismatic. Perfect if they have +Strength too so you are able to put more point in Vita.
Gloves: Magefist for more faster cast.
Boots: Any rare Boots with high resistance. Faster run is quite helpful too.
Shield: A rare Grim Shield with high enchanted defense, prismatic (+20 to all resistance), +2 to Paladin skills and Faster Block Rate.

Faster Hit Recovery on the Armor, Helm, Boots or Shield could be really helpful too.

Maximizing damage

Weapon: A Scepter with +2 to Paladin skills, +3 Concentration and +3 Blessed Hammer

100% faster cast

Weapon: Spectral Shard

Magic find

A Hammerdin is useful for Magic Find runs and to run a party through all difficulties, due to its high damage output. Use Gheed's Fortune, 7% better chance of getting magic items small charms and War Traveler boots to increase your chances of getting magic items. You may insert Ist into Wizardspike and a Perfect Topaz into Shako as well.

Mercenary

A well-equipped Act 2 Defensive Mercenary from Nightmare difficulty will help, by distracting the enemy and slowing them down with its Holy Freeze aura. Popular equipment for hammerdin's act 2 mercenary is Fortitude Rune Word in ethereal armor, Insight Rune Word in ethereal Colossus Voulge, and ethereal Andariel's Visage inserted with a Ral Rune.

Another alternative Mercenary is the Act I Rogue, using the Ice Rune Word in a high damage Elite Bow such as a Shadow, Colossus, or Diamond, then boosting her attack speed with Andariel's Visage socketed with a Ral rune, and the Treachery Rune Word for armor. This setup was more commonly used for Chaos Party leveling due to Oblivion Knights casting Iron Maiden. However the Patch 1.13c removed this skill from the Knights' abilities, encouraging the use of Act 2 mercenaries once more.

Popular Paladin builds

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-A '''Hammerdin''' is a [[Paladin]] build involving the maxed-out use of the [[Blessed Hammer]] skill.
+A '''Hammerdin '''is a [[Paladin]] build involving the maxed-out use of the [[Blessed Hammer]] skill.
-This build is favored due to the extraordinary damage of the Blessed Hammer, coupled with its synergies, [[Vigor]] and [[Blessed Aim]]. [[Concentration]] Aura also adds damage. It is the most played character build in [[Diablo II]], as Hammerdins dealing 20,000 damage per hammer are not uncommon. However, it is one of the most expensive builds to successfully create, as there are so many Hammerdins out there. A Hammerdin will use his [[Enigma Rune Word]] to teleport next to large mobs of enemy, and then hit them with multiple hammers. Many saw this build as being overpowered, and so 1.13 attempted to balance this by removing Blessed Hammer's Demon and Undead immunity bypassing. However, this only slowed Hammerdin Baal runs a little, as people later realized that Holy Bolt can still damage the undead, magic immune or not, and so Achmel the Cursed's boss pack did not prove to be as big a problem as was initially thought.
+This build is favored due to the extraordinary damage of the Blessed Hammer, coupled with its synergies, [[Vigor]] and [[Blessed Aim]]. [[Concentration]] Aura also adds damage. It is the most played character build in ''[[Diablo II]]'', as Hammerdins dealing 15,000 damage per hammer are not uncommon. However, it is one of the most expensive builds to successfully create, as there are so many Hammerdins out there. A Hammerdin will use his [[Enigma Rune Word]] to teleport next to large mobs of enemy, and then hit them with multiple hammers. Many saw this build as being overpowered, and so 1.13 attempted to balance this by removing Blessed Hammer's [[Demon]] and [[Undead]] [[immunity]] bypassing. However, this only slowed Hammerdin [[Baal]] runs a little, as people later realized that [[Holy Bolt]] can still damage the undead, magic immune or not, and so [[Achmel the Cursed]]'s boss pack did not prove to be as big a problem as was initially thought.
 == Skills ==
@@ Line 11: / Line 11: @@
 * 20 points to [[Holy Shield]]
 With high end gear a hammerdin ends up having +20 combat skills; an alternate version is to put only 1 pt into Holy Shield and instead put the skill points into either Fire Resist or Lightning Resist to up the max resist cap from 75.
 == Stats ==
@@ Line 18: / Line 17: @@
 * The rest into [[Vitality]].
 * None to [[Energy]].
-No points should be put in Dexterity if Holy Shield is skilled up high because this will increase the blockrate easily to the maximum of 75%.
+You will still need dexterity to reach a 75% [[Blocking|chance to block]], as Holy Shield increases the shield blocking rate, and does not scale directly with your character's chance to block. See below.
-An alternative version is to keep the base 25 strength and use a 15% ed bp (Enhanced Defense Breast Plate) and either a torch (or annihilus) placing the stat points into vitality instead. It has fallen out of favor in 1.13 with the ability to reset stat points.
+For example, a [[Royal Shield]] with 55% blocking and level 20 Holy Shield will raise the shield blocking to 80%, however, blocking is capped at 75% (25% while running). A shield with higher blocking rate will require less dexterity to reach the maximum block rate of 75% while a shield with low blocking will require significantly more dexterity to reach the cap.
+An alternative version is to keep the base 25 strength and equip an {{rw|Enigma}} breast plate, and either a [[Hellfire Torch|Torch]] (or [[Annihilus]]) and placing more stat points into vitality instead. Though this has fallen out of favor in {{p2|1.13c}} with the ability to reset stat points.
 == Items for expansion ==
-* '''Armor''': [[Enigma Rune Word]], in an [[Archon Plate]], [[Dusk Shroud]] or [[Mage Plate]] (preferable for low strength requirement).
+* '''Armor:''' [[Enigma Rune Word]], in an [[Archon Plate]], [[Dusk Shroud]] or [[Mage Plate]] (preferable for low strength requirement).
-* '''Helm''': [[Harlequin Crest (Diablo II)|Harlequin Crest]] [[Shako]], preferably inserted with [[Um]], or [[Ber]] [[Rune]], or [[Perfect Topaz]].
+* '''Helm:''' [[Harlequin Crest (Diablo II)|Harlequin Crest]] [[Shako]], preferably inserted with {{r|Um}} or [[Ber Rune]]s, or a [[Perfect Topaz]].
-* '''Belt''': [[Arachnid Mesh]] [[Spiderweb Sash]].
+* '''Belt:''' [[Arachnid Mesh]] [[Spiderweb Sash]].
-* '''Rings''': 2x [[Stone of Jordan]] or [[Bul-Kathos' Wedding Band]] rings or a mix of the two. Rare rings with faster cast rate or Raven Frost can also be used here
+* '''Rings:''' 2x [[Stone of Jordan (Diablo II)|Stone of Jordan]] or [[Bul-Kathos' Wedding Band]] rings or a mix of the two. Rare rings with [[Faster Cast Rate]] or [[Raven Frost]] can also be used here.
-* '''Amulet''': [[Mara's Kaleidoscope]] Amulet or [[Faster Cast Rate]]+Paladin Skills+All [[Resistance]] Amulet.
+* '''Amulet:''' [[Mara's Kaleidoscope (Diablo II)|Mara's Kaleidoscope]] Amulet or [[Faster Cast Rate]] +Paladin Skills +All [[Resistance]] Amulet.
-* '''Gloves''': [[Magefist]] or [[Chance Guards]] gloves.
+* '''Gloves:''' [[Magefist (Diablo II)|Magefist]] or [[Chance Guards]] gloves.
-* '''Boots''': [[Ethereal]] [[Sandstorm Trek]] [[Scarabshell Boots]], [[War Traveler]] boots or Waterwalk for Max Fire Resist 5%+more Life.
+* '''Boots:''' [[Ethereal]] [[Sandstorm Trek]] [[Scarabshell Boots]], [[War Traveler]] boots, or [[Waterwalk]] for +5% Max Fire Resist and more Life.
-* '''Charms''': [[Hellfire Torch]], [[Annihilus]] and [[Combat Skills (Paladin)|combat]] [[skiller]]s.
+* '''Charms:''' [[Hellfire Torch]], [[Annihilus]] and [[Combat Skills (Paladin)|combat]] [[skiller]]s.
-=== Maximizing damage setup ===
+==== Maximizing damage setup ====
-* '''Weapon''': [[Heart of the Oak Rune Word]] in a [[Flail]].
+* '''Weapon:''' [[Heart of the Oak Rune Word]] in a [[Flail (Diablo II)|Flail]].
-* '''Shield''': [[Herald of Zakarum]], preferably upgraded and inserted with [[Um]],[[Ber]],or [[Shael]] Rune, or [[Zod]] Rune if ethereal.
+* '''Shield:''' [[Herald of Zakarum]], preferably upgraded and inserted with {{r|Um}}, {{r|Ber}}, or {{r|Shael}} (this is only if you invest absolutely no points into Holy Shield, as Shael only gives [[Faster Block Rate]], not chance, and Holy Shield already reduces block rate to 2 frames) Runes, or [[Zod Rune]] if ethereal.
-=== 125% faster cast rate setup ===
+==== 125% faster cast rate setup ====
-* '''Weapon''': {{2|Wizardspike}} or [[Heart of the Oak Rune Word]] (this requires a Fast cast rate ring)
+* '''Weapon:''' {{2|Wizardspike}} or [[Heart of the Oak Rune Word]] (this requires a [[Faster Cast Rate]] ring).
-* '''Shield''': [[Spirit Rune Word]] with 35% faster cast rate, made in elite paladin shield with all resistance attribute.
+* '''Shield:''' [[Spirit Rune Word]] with 35% faster cast rate, made in elite paladin shield with all resistance attribute.
+* '''Gloves:'''[[Magefist (Diablo II)|Magefist]] or [[Trang-Oul's Claws]].
+* '''Belt:''' [[Arachnid Mesh]].
-You must use [[Magefist]] or [[Trang-Oul's Claws]] to reach 125% [[Faster Cast Rate]].
 ==Items for non-expansion==
-It's hard to find a perfect Equipment in non-expansion but the preferred (or perfect) Equipment for a Hammerdin in non-expansion looks like this.
+It's hard to find perfect equipment in non-expansion but the preferred (or perfect) equipment for a Hammerdin in non-expansion looks like this.
-*'''Armor:''' A rare Mage-Plate with high [[resistance]], +Life and enchanted defense. Good to have -20% or -30% requirements, too.
+*'''Armor:''' A rare [[Mage Plate]] with high [[resistance]], +Life and enchanted defense. Good to have -20% or -30% requirements, too.
+*'''Helm:''' A rare [[Grim Helm]] with high resistance, +Life and enchanted defense. Good to have -20% or -30% requirements, too.
-*'''Helm:''' A rare Grim Helm with high resistance, +Life and echanted defense. Good to have -20% or -30% requirements, too.
 *'''Belt:''' A rare one with high resistance and +Life. Good to have a 4 slot Belt. Perfect if they have +Strength too so you are able to put more points in Vita.
-*'''Rings:''' Both Rings should have +10% faster cast and high resistance. Perfect if they have +Strength too so you are able to put more points in Vita.
+*'''Rings:''' Both Rings should have +10% [[Faster Cast Rate]] and high resistance. Perfect if they have +Strength too so you are able to put more points in Vita.
 *'''Amulet:''' The Amulet should have +10% faster cast, +2 to Paladin skills and prismatic. Perfect if they have +Strength too so you are able to put more point in Vita.
-*'''Gloves:''' [[Magefist]] for more faster cast.
+*'''Gloves:''' [[Magefist (Diablo II)|Magefist]] for more faster cast.
-*'''Boots:''' Any rare Boots with high resistance. Faster run is quiet helpful too.
+*'''Boots:''' Any rare Boots with high resistance. [[Run/Walk|Faster run]] is quite helpful too.
-*'''Shield:''' A rare Grim Shield with high enchanted defense, prismatic (+20 to all resistance), +2 to Paladin skills and faster block rate.
+*'''Shield:''' A rare [[Grim Shield]] with high enchanted defense, prismatic (+20 to all resistance), +2 to Paladin skills and [[Faster Block Rate]].
-Faster Hit recovery on the Armor, Helm, Boots or Shield could be realy helpful too.
+[[Faster Hit Recovery]] on the Armor, Helm, Boots or Shield could be really helpful too.
-===Maximizing damage===
+====Maximizing damage====
 *'''Weapon:''' A Scepter with +2 to Paladin skills, +3 Concentration and +3 Blessed Hammer
-===100% faster cast===
+====100% faster cast====
 *'''Weapon:''' [[Spectral Shard]]
 == Magic find ==
-A Hammerdin is useful for MF (Magic-find) runs and to run a party through all difficulties, due to its huge damage output. Use [[Gheed's Fortune]], 7% better chance of getting magic items [[Charms|small charms]] and [[War Traveler]] boots to increase your chances of getting magic items. You may insert [[Ist Rune|Ist]] into [[Wizardspike (Diablo II)|Wizardspike]] as well.
+A Hammerdin is useful for [[Magic Find]] runs and to run a party through all difficulties, due to its high damage output. Use [[Gheed's Fortune]], 7% better chance of getting magic items [[Charms|small charms]] and [[War Traveler]] boots to increase your chances of getting magic items. You may insert [[Ist Rune|Ist]] into {{2|Wizardspike}} and a Perfect Topaz into Shako as well.
 == Mercenary ==
-A well equipped [[Act 2]] Defensive Mercenary from [[Nightmare]] difficulty will help, by distracting the enemy and slowing them down with its [[Holy Freeze]] aura. Popular equipment for hammerdin's act 2 mercenary is [[Fortitude Rune Word]] in ethereal armor, [[Insight Rune Word]] in ethereal [[Colossus Voulge]] and ethereal [[Andariel's Visage]] inserted with [[Ral Rune|Ral]] rune.
+A well-equipped [[The Secret of the Vizjerei|Act 2]] Defensive [[Desert Mercenary|Mercenary]] from {{d|Nightmare}} difficulty will help, by distracting the enemy and slowing them down with its [[Holy Freeze]] aura. Popular equipment for hammerdin's act 2 mercenary is [[Fortitude Rune Word]] in ethereal armor, [[Insight Rune Word]] in ethereal [[Colossus Voulge]], and ethereal [[Andariel's Visage (Diablo II)|Andariel's Visage]] inserted with a [[Ral Rune]].
-Another alternative Mecrcenary is the Act One Rogue, using the runeword ICE in a High Damage Elite Bow such as a Shadow, Colossus or Diamond. Then Boosting Her attack speed with Andariel's Visage socketed with a Ral rune, and the Runeword Treachary for armor. This setup is more commonly used for Chaos Party Leveling Due To Oblivion Knights casting Iron Maiden. However the 1.13 patch removed this skill from The Knight's ablilities, encouraging the use of Act 2 Mercs once more.
+Another alternative Mercenary is the [[The Sightless Eye|Act I]] [[Rogue Archer|Rogue]], using the [[Ice Rune Word]] in a high damage [[Elite Items|Elite]] Bow such as a Shadow, Colossus, or Diamond, then boosting her attack speed with Andariel's Visage socketed with a Ral rune, and the [[Treachery Rune Word]] for armor. This setup was more commonly used for [[Chaosing|Chaos Party leveling]] due to [[Oblivion Knight]]s casting [[Iron Maiden]]. However the {{p2|1.13c}} removed this skill from the Knights' abilities, encouraging the use of Act 2 mercenaries once more.
 {{palbuilds}}