How the heck do you play a Hammerdin?

sonnytai331 wrote: 2 years ago

I don't understand people who say hammers aren't fun.

Is it monotonous? Sure, but so is everything else in the game.

Spamming Blizzard /

Lightning Fury /

Zeal over and over and over again killing the same monsters in Pit / AT / Chaos / WSK / Cows over and over and over again isn't monotonous?

Beyond a certain point in this game after you've defeated the game in Hell Mode, everything in this game is monotonous.

The reward comes in finding ultra-rare end-game loot that makes your character marginally stronger.

And yes, that psychological reward makes the game fun despite the monotony, but it doesn't change that almost every single other build is just as boring and monotonous to play as a Hammerdin is.

And that's where subjectivity comes in.
If I play a hammerdin, I am bored to Death before the first run is even complete (which is why I don't have one anymore).
If I play one of the builds I actually keep around and enjoy, I just don't get bored because the builds themselves are entertaining to play (to me).

Hell, if you got bored with every build out there, I don't get why you'd still even play at all. The point of that marginal improvement with some rare drop is to marginally improve a char you enjoy playing. If you take something you don't like and merely turn it into something slightly better that you still don't like and never will, what is the point of that?
Its still a game. A grindy one, but a game none the less. It should be fun.

sonnytai331 wrote: 2 years ago

I don't understand people who say hammers aren't fun.

Is it monotonous? Sure, but so is everything else in the game.

Spamming Blizzard /

Lightning Fury /

Zeal over and over and over again killing the same monsters in Pit / AT / Chaos / WSK / Cows over and over and over again isn't monotonous?

Beyond a certain point in this game after you've defeated the game in Hell Mode, everything in this game is monotonous.

The reward comes in finding ultra-rare end-game loot that makes your character marginally stronger.

And yes, that psychological reward makes the game fun despite the monotony, but it doesn't change that almost every single other build is just as boring and monotonous to play as a Hammerdin is.

I disagree.
There are builds using a variety of different skill rotations, reactive skills and strategies depending on the type of monster you encounter (hence why I personally love kicksin hybrids so much).

Hammerdins are for those who want to farm everywhere (except

Ancient Tunnels). The only hurdle is getting the Enigma.

It's usually

Teleport on top of guys-> hammer 2-3 times ->

Teleport.

It can get kinda boring because nothing can kill you (except those dolls). You get at least 2-3k health. Max block and hammers do 11-13k dmg. Clear speed is not as a fast as a sorc/javazon in cows though.

If you need health ->

Redemption/

Prayer
If you need mana ->

Redemption/

Meditation
If you get cursed/poisoned ->

Cleansing.

A few times, I have

Fallen asleep in Chaos Sanc/Cows and my hammerdin was fine surrounded by mobs.

As opposed to a sorc, even with Infinity, you have to play carefully if you are in an area with ranged monsters and you are quite squishy even with 1-2k health. I found that there are cows that remain lightning immune even with

Conviction on them and it gets annoying if they are also physical immune as well. With a hammerdin, it would be instantly cleared.

Anonemous wrote: 2 years ago

Hammerdins are for those who want to farm everywhere (except

Ancient Tunnels). The only hurdle is getting the Enigma.

It's usually

Teleport on top of guys-> hammer 2-3 times ->

Teleport.

It can get kinda boring because nothing can kill you (except those dolls). You get at least 2-3k health. Max block and hammers do 11-13k dmg. Clear speed is not as a fast as a sorc/javazon in cows though.

If you need health ->

Redemption/

Prayer
If you need mana ->

Redemption/

Meditation
If you get cursed/poisoned ->

Cleansing.

A few times, I have

Fallen asleep in Chaos Sanc/Cows and my hammerdin was fine surrounded by mobs.

As opposed to a sorc, even with Infinity, you have to play carefully if you are in an area with ranged monsters and you are quite squishy even with 1-2k health. I found that there are cows that remain lightning immune even with

Conviction on them and it gets annoying if they are also physical immune as well. With a hammerdin, it would be instantly cleared.

the new sleepy build is the 2.4 Auradin with the buffs on

Holy Fire, those cows fall immediately just as you run by them and they make this syncronized Moo sound, looks hilarious.

Many good tips around here, but if your on console, or dont have problem in fast change skills, you could minimize the lack of a Enigma, using the

Charge skill to get close enough of the crowd of enemies. You could easily use

Charge and

Vigor to easily cross the map really fast.

The bigger problem to a hammerdin, (and its not really a problem) is the magic immunes, mostly the "horadrim ancient" found in WSK or

Baal throne. Since they are undead, you can eficiently use you

Holy Bolt to kill them. If they not undead, you could use your

Smite to crush them.

Foremost, with time you learn that the hammers appears almost in the right shoulder of the pally, right above the shield. This way you kinda "aim" to that lone bastard remained enemy.

But hey, the pally is the char with most working builds around, just find one that your like most.

The game has a few "directed" builds for some activities, like the smitter pally to kill ubers, or the gold digger barb to farm

Travincal.

The hammerdin is like the swiss army knife of the chars.. he can do a bit of everything, if properlly equiped.

For MF? It will only work eficiently if you have an Enigma, sadly.

Oh, and about the gear and stats, the

Holy Shield is a must, and with enough dex, you can bring your block to 75.

I see two kinds of aproach about the FCR. First is the pally with raw dmg, with 75 FCR, zakarum and hoto, and the faster 125 FCR pally with Spirit.

Most of guys want to have a 125 FCR pally, but i personally rather have a good poise and resistance than cast speed. Cast hammers quickly worth nothing if your dead.

A merc with a Insight and a andy visage is a must. For a budget, you could give him a Treachery.

A budget gear with

Wizardspike,

Harlequin Crest,

Herald Of Zakarum or a cheap non perf Spirit, trang ouls glove, rare 10 FCR rings, can take you far.

Even a

Guardian Angel will pop your resistances in hell up to 90.

My all time favorite character to play. Truthfully I won't make a hammerdin until I know for sure Enigma is on the way. I farm

Baal, Chaos, trav, all the bosses actually, cows. Anything with open areas that won't leave you on a wall or a pillar. 10k+ dmg is the target for Hammers, and you can pretty much destroy anything. on

Baal wave 2 I just use my + skilled

Holy Bolt and my mercenary damage and its no problem. Don't recommend

Ancient Tunnels however. It takes too long and usually a ton of magic immune. It's a Niche thing though,. if you find it boring, definitely pick another character that suits you. My other side character is normally a Trav running Horker and my pindle/Meph/

Ancient Tunnels Blizz Sorc, for when I need a break from spamming

Teleport and hammers.

I prefer the 125 cast rate with Spirit. My

Holy Shield is max and my resists are max, plus teleporting with Enigma is a breeze. second to a sorc really if you ask me. just don't try teleporting on an amazon ( haha). Do what makes you happy but these are my 2 cents.

Hammerdins are boring as hell imo. But can be used to get you great loot. Even a brokedin running vipermagi

Wizardspike and a

Lidless Wall is viable in hell. You just need to learn where your hammers come out at, kind of a weird spot not directly above but slightly to the right. They're safe as in if you're taking too much damage of any kind you have

Salvation ( I think) to max your res while you escape,

Vigor for running into or away from mobs.

Holy Shield to block pretty much everything. Don't have a HoZ, Enigma, hot? So what. Que hogan's, vipermagi, Silks, skullders all work. a Najs puzzler (the staff) costs less than a NM forge and only need an

Ort and chipped gem to recharge (in cube)

Wizardspike won't add damage but the res and fcr can and will get you through hell. Not good for a leveling build but one respec out of the three freebies (

Den of Evil) isn't bad. Lvl 60 you'll have a working hammerdin, Use

Vigor to position yourself then

Concentration and hammer away. All of which is viable in classic without runewords or with runewords i.e. Spirit Enigma Lore Rhyme what ever will add +1 skills. And Insights are a dime a dozen for plenty of mana to spam away.

For whatever reason, for me, hammerdin is not boring to play as even with the jump->hammer->jump tactic.

But I like to play as any char that's tough as nails and can clear anything in an AoE, so that might be it. I've had a smiter in the making but couldn't stand the one-at-a-time style of combat, so eventually 3

Jah, 3

Lo, 2

Sur later he runs with double Dream, Hand of Justice, Dragon, and Faith/Fortitude mercenary and there are enemies that fall before I even touch them in a wide radius. That's nice but, of course, only as the end-of-season thing.

Whirlwind barb with 1 point in

Berserk fits this

Bill for me as well but hammerdin needs very little to shine whereas a WW barb absolutely needs a great weapon to be viable in hell (so no ladder starter).

Queegon wrote: 2 years ago

For whatever reason, for me, hammerdin is not boring to play as even with the jump->hammer->jump tactic.

But I like to play as any char that's tough as nails and can clear anything in an AoE, so that might be it. I've had a smiter in the making but couldn't stand the one-at-a-time style of combat, so eventually 3

Jah, 3

Lo, 2

Sur later he runs with double Dream, Hand of Justice, Dragon, and Faith/Fortitude mercenary and there are enemies that fall before I even touch them in a wide radius. That's nice.

Whirlwind barb with 1 point in

Berserk fits this

Bill for me as well but hammerdin needs very little to shine whereas a WW barb absolutely needs a great weapon to be viable in hell (so no ladder starter).

My buddy made one of those and was so annoying in PvP. He would

Charge away and I'd die chasing him lol. Found the trick with my necro though, only ticks when in open line of site. So, circled him in with

Bone Prison and spammed

Poison Nova before he destroyed his enclosure.

Hi, I'd like to share my experience playing hammerdin. You definitely DON'T need Enigma to be effective. Note that the hammer always starts at the 12 o'clock position, so you want to stand to the bottom of the monster you wanna hit. Besides, I use

Smite on left click, and bind hammer to another

Key (D for me), so that you can

Stun the archers and harpies, and then finish them with hammers.

sonnytai331 wrote: 2 years ago

I don't understand people who say hammers aren't fun.

Is it monotonous? Sure, but so is everything else in the game.

Spamming Blizzard /

Lightning Fury /

Zeal over and over and over again killing the same monsters in Pit / AT / Chaos / WSK / Cows over and over and over again isn't monotonous?

Beyond a certain point in this game after you've defeated the game in Hell Mode, everything in this game is monotonous.

The reward comes in finding ultra-rare end-game loot that makes your character marginally stronger.

And yes, that psychological reward makes the game fun despite the monotony, but it doesn't change that almost every single other build is just as boring and monotonous to play as a Hammerdin is.

Somewhat true, but... To me Hammerdin just seems really weird, because you aren't directly attacking anything, you're creating a swirl of stuff. Is it really different than casting

Frozen Orb? It "feels like it". Most other chars seem like they have more tactical variety. With Barbarians you have

Howl,

Taunt, and

Leap Attack all there to use in appropriate situations. With Sorceress you can

Dodge and weave and aim and use

Teleport and switch between elemental skills as required. With Amazons you're aiming, selecting appropriate attacks, making use of

Decoy (haha do people do that? I do anyway), etc. With Bonemancer you aim, use appropriate curses and Bone barriers, etc. Summonancer is actually a PITA, constantly keeping up with the minions, trying to guide them, apply curses, use CE as needed, etc. Actually has a lot to do.

With Hammerdin you just kind of run around and spam hammers and see what dies, and then you get into places where it just doesn't work, like Maggot Lair or even many dungeon type places. I dunno, it does does feel right to me, but that's the good thing about the game, it has tons of options

just dropping my hammer of opinion about hammerdin: (even though this is 7 months old)

I thought they were boring as well. but maintaining a good aim with those circling hammers takes some skill. especially one on one, or one on 3. its fun to aim the arcs and see it crash them 3 mobs appropriately. it doesn't feel like a hack'n'slash game as the barbarian or the piercing feel of the amazon, and it doesn't feel like a sorceress with them area of kill zone. but it is tricky, at least until you get Enigma and 125 FCH. which takes a while if you're like me starting up single player on p8-p5 to get good gear.