TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction & Overview
The Hammerdin is amongst the most popular and efficient builds in the entire game. It excels at monster farming, magic finding, has great survivability and is Hardcore viable. For attacking, it uses the Blessed Hammer skill with Concentration Aura, dealing up to 16k magic damage per hammer. In addition, it deals 150% damage to Undead monsters.
The build is overpowered to say the least. It is capable of solo playing at player 8 difficulty, has very quick movement speed by teleport, and is a viable ladder starter as budget gearing options are available. Playing a Hammerdin is relatively beginner friendly, and the combination of its clear speed and high magic find potential makes it one of the best, if not the best magic finding characters. There are very few magic immune monsters in the game, and they can be killed by your mercenary.
Hammerdins are ideal both for Terror Zone and Boss farming, only Sorceresses have faster teleportation speed. With this build a Chaos Sanctuary run takes less than 2 minutes, while a Countess, Andariel, Summoner, Travincal, Mephisto, Nihlathak or an Eldritch+Shenk+Pindleskin run can be done within a minute.
Hammerdin Pros and Cons
Pros
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Cons
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Hammerdin Gameplay
Playing solo: There are very few magic immune monsters, and those can be dealt with by using Holy Bolt as your attacking skill, or by having your Mercenary kill them. Hammers can often miss the targeted monster, the best way to always hit is to teleport on them. You can run any magic find area, terror zones, superunique monster or act bosses comfortably.
Playing in a party: You will be welcomed at parties, as you will be the damage dealer of the group, while you will also provide Concentration aura to your party members. If you have an Enigma and a Call to Arms, you will also be able to teleport and carry your party to any destination, and boost their life by casting Battle Orders.
Playing Hardcore: Depending on your gear setup, you can become almost immortal on the expense of your damage output. 4k life, 75% all resistances (up to 95 depending on gearing), 50% Physical Damage Reduction, 75% Block Rate, up to 30k Defense and additional elemental damage absorptions options are available. A Raven Frost ring can be useful to have Freeze Immunity.
Hammerdin Breakpoints
Note: Each second in the game consists of 25 frames or “ticks”. Your breakpoints decide how many frames it will take until you can attack/cast a skill/recover from a hit/ block a new hit.
Faster Cast Rate
- Aim for the 30%, 48%, 75% or 125% breakpoints. Reaching the next breakpoints increases your casting speeds by roughly 10%. At 125% FCR you will be casting Teleport or Blessed Hammer at 9 frames.
Faster Hit Recovery
- Having high Faster Hit Recovery is essential, as you will be teleporting on enemy monsters or on monster groups. Aim for the 48% (5 frames) or 86% (4 frames) breakpoint.
Faster Block Rate
- You won’t need any additional FBR, as 2 frame will be your base block rate once you cast Holy Shield.
Skills
Combat Skill Tree:
- 1 to Holy Bolt
- 20 to Blessed Hammer
- 1 to Smite
- 1 to Charge
- 1 to Holy Shield (+remaining points)
Offensive Aura Skill Tree:
- 1 to Might
- 20 to Blessed Aim
- 20 to Concentration
Defensive Aura Skill Tree:
- 1 to Prayer
- 1 to Defiance
- 1 to Cleansing
- 20 to Vigor
- 1 to Meditation
- 1 to Redemption
- 1 to Salvation
Skill notes: Optionally you can put your last skill points on Holy Shield, but if you are a party player you could even consider putting them on Conviction and its prerequisites to help elemental casters, or Salvation if you play on Hardcore and want to boost your aura radious.
If you play Hardcore, putting points on Resist Fire and Resist Lightning will boost your maximum resistances by 1% for every 2 skill points on them.
Hammerdin Stat Points
Strength ► Just enough to be able to wear your items. With Hellfire Torch, Annihilus, Enigma and stats on other items you might not even have to put points on it.
Dexterity ► Just enough to have 75% Chance to Block with Holy Shield activated.
Vitality ► Allocate all your remaining points to it.
Energy ► Don’t allocate any points to it.
You can re-stat your character by the quest reward of Akara’s Act1 Den of Evil Quest, or by using Token of Absolution.
Mercenary
You should use an Act2 Desert Mercenary. You have two options, if you want to boost your survivability, have one with Defiance Aura, or if you want crowd control, choose one with Holy Freeze Aura.
If you play hardcore, having Pride on your mercenary can provide you the benefits of a level16-20 Concentration Aura, so you can use Redemption as your main aura. Pride is also a good option if you are just lazy to constantly switch auras.
For solo playing, having an Insight runeword for your mercenary solves any of your mana issues. If you farm areas where high survivability is required, for example 8-player Chaos Sanctuary runs, you should consider using a Phoenix merc weapon for quick life recovery. If you want to enjoy the benefits of both Holy Freeze and Defiance, you should equip your mercenary with an ethereal Doom Polearm (preferably Thresher).
Hammerdin Item setups
Ladder Starter Hammerdin Gear
Helm: Lore / Peasant Crown
Amulet: Any Amuletlet with + all resistances
Weapon: Spirit / Wizardspike / Suicide Branch
Switch Weapon: none
Shield: Spirit paladin shield, try to get one with 20+ all resistances as base item
Switch Shield: none
Body Armor: Stealth / Vipermagi
Belt: Trang Oul’s belt
Rings: Any ring with 10% FCR and other useful stats like allresist, life, magic find, etc.
Gloves: Magefist / Trang Oul’s gloves
Boots: Tearhaunch
Charms: Any charm with +skill, life, resist or FHR will help
Notes: Aim for 75% all resistances and at least 30% faster cast rate. You can use magic and rare items in any of your gear slots, and can also use them for your Mercenary.
Mercenary Gear
Helm: 3*Perfect Diamond socketed helm
Body Armor: Any useful rare body armor
Weapon: Insight Polearm
Advanced Hammerdin Gear
Helm: Harlequin Crest Shako (Socket it with Um rune)
Amulet: Mara’s Kaleidoscope / Rare Amuletlet with +2 to Paladin skills
Weapon: Heart of the Oak Flail or Crystal Sword
Switch Weapon: Call to Arms
Shield: Spirit paladin shield, try to get one with 40+ all resistances as base item / or Herald of Zakarum (Socket it with Um rune, upgrade it if you have enough strength)
Switch Shield: Spirit
Body Armor: Enigma Mage Plate / Dusk Shroud/ Archon plate / Vipermagi (Upgrade it if you have enough strength)
Belt: Arachnid Mesh / Verdungo’s Hearty Cord / Thundergod’s Vigor
Rings: 2*Stone of Jordan / Bul Katho’s rings / Rare rings (10% faster cast rate, possibly with life, stats, and/or resists) / Raven Frost / Wisp Projector
Gloves: Trang Oul’s Gloves or Magefist (Upgrade it if you have enough strength)
Boots: Sandstorm Trek / War Traveler / Waterwalk (Upgrade it if you have enough Strength)
Charms: Annihilus, Hellfire torch, Magic Grand Charms (+1 to pala combat skills), Magic Small Charms (with +all resistances, or +life)
Mercenary Gear
Helm: Andariel’s Visage or Crown of Thieves (preferably ethereal, socketed with Ral/Um rune)
Body Armor: Ethereal Fortitude or Treachery armor
Weapon: Ethereal Insight in an elite two-handed Polearm (preferably Thresher) / Ethereal Tomb Reaver socketed with 3*Shael rune / Phoenix in Ethereal Polearm base (preferably Thresher) / Pride in Ethereal Polearm base (preferably Thresher) / Doom in Ethereal Polearm base (preferably Thresher)
Magic Find Hammerdin Gear
Helm: Harlequin Crest Shako (Socket it with Ist rune)
Amulet: Magic Amulet with 40-50% Magic Find
Weapon: Heart of the Oak Flail or Crystal Sword
Switch Weapon: Call to Arms
Shield: Spirit Paladin Shield with 35% Faster Cast Rate and 40%+ all resists
Switch Shield: Spirit
Body Armor: Enigma Mage Plate / Dusk Shroud/ Archon plate
Belt: Upgraded Goldwrap
Rings: 2*Nagelring
Gloves: Upgraded Chance Guards
Boots: Upgraded War Traveler
Charms: Annihilus, Hellfire torch, Gheed’s Fortune, Small Charms with 7% Magic find (and also @all resistances if possible)
Notes: You can use a 6*Ist Crystal Sword and a 4*Ist Paladin Shield as switch items instead of Call to Arms, and use them in the last seconds before boss kills to gain additional magic find.
Mercenary Gear
Helm: Andariel’s Visage or Crown of Thieves (preferably ethereal, socketed with Ral/Um rune)
Body Armor: Ethereal Fortitude or Treachery armor
Weapon: Ethereal Insight in an elite two-handed Polearm (preferably Thresher) / Ethereal Tomb Reaver socketed with 3*Shael rune / Phoenix in Ethereal Polearm base (preferably Thresher) / Pride in Ethereal Polearm base (preferably Thresher) / Doom in Ethereal Polearm base (preferably Thresher)
Hardcore Hammerdin Gear
Helm: Crown of Ages (Socket it with 2 Lo runes)
Amulet: Mara’s Kaleidoscope
Weapon: Heart of the Oak Flail or Crystal Sword
Switch Weapon: Call to Arms
Shield: Stormshield (Socket it with Cham rune)
Switch Shield: Spirit
Body Armor: Enigma Mage Plate / Dusk Shroud/ Archon plate
Belt: Thundergod’s Vigor
Rings: 2* Rare 10 FCR/resist/life/mana rings
Gloves: Upgraded Trang Oul’s Gloves
Boots: Upgraded Hotspur
Charms: Annihilus, Hellfire torch, Gheed’s Fortune, Magic Grand Charms (+1 to pala combat skills), Magic Small Charms (with +all resistances, or +life)
Notes: Aim to overprotect yourself for situations when you get cursed with spells such as Lower Resist and Amplify Damage or get under an effect of an aura such as Fanaticism or Conviction.
Mercenary Gear
Helm: Andariel’s Visage or Crown of Thieves (preferably ethereal, socketed with Ral/Um rune)
Body Armor: Ethereal Fortitude or Treachery armor
Weapon: Ethereal Insight in an elite two-handed Polearm (preferably Thresher) / Ethereal Tomb Reaver socketed with 3*Shael rune / Phoenix in Ethereal Polearm base (preferably Thresher) / Pride in Ethereal Polearm base (preferably Thresher) / Doom in Ethereal Polearm base (preferably Thresher)
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