Advice needed from Pally experts.

[Oscar]

Advice needed from Pally experts.

I have a level 18 pally who has not spent any skill points as yet and was wondering on which build to use. At the moment I am drawn towards the Hammerdin build but was wondering how easy it was to hit with hammers, skills and stats to use and how item dependent it was (as although I am willing to twink him I do not have many good items)?
Thanks in advance
Oscar
P.S. I am at work at the moment so do not think me rude if anyone asks any questions.

 

[Bolinbrooke]

Hammerdin, Avenger, Zealot

They are all great simple builds.

Do you want to be a caster and deal huge damage - go Hammerdin

Do you wish not to worry about immunes and PI's - go Avenger

If you like to belt the Cra# out of monsters - go Zealot

How about building them all

 

[Borlag]

well basically out of all the paladin variants, hammerdin is the least dependant on the items, it is very much possible to pat one or make a guardian out of one completely untwinked.

As for the ease of aiming, with about an hour of practice with it, I'm sure you'll learn it just fine. Big critters like Mephisto can sometimes be a pain to hit, strangely enough but it's not really that much to do to move just a little bit.

The hammers start from about 9:30-10:00 marker and continue in an spiral form. They will not hit every single spot on the way and it's possible that some critters get through to you, but this shouldn't be a problem.

Skills:
20 hammers
20 concentration (only active aura helping it)
20 vigor (synergy)
20 blessed aim (another synergy)
1 redemption (basically a must thing for both mana and life recovery)
rest in holy shield for added defense and blocking since you wont need the points anywhere else.

Stats:
str - about 100 is enough for everything you could want
dex - enough for max block at all times
vit - everything else
nrg - nothing here

Stuff to look in gear:
skills
fast cast rate
mana
life
resists

basically those are the most important

edit: I like Bolin's suggestion One thing though, hammerdin doesn't worry about immunes either, you'll never encounter anything immune to the hammers, outside the 3rd act temples in hell which are optional anyway

 

[DreamlessDude]

Not to mention a hammerdin can be a great mfer too

 

[factotum]

I have to hold up my hands as being unable to aim hammers to save my life. The one hammerdin I tried didn't get past level 22 because of this--I could only actually hit monsters if they were in that 10 o'clock position where the hammers start, which means they have to be right next to you!

This doesn't mean you'll have the same experience, of course, and it's quite easy to get a character to level 18 in order to test out the hammers--and provided you keep a lot of your skill points you can easily change direction mid-build to produce a Zealot or Avenger, should you have the same experience I did.

 

[Borlag]

The trick there is to spam a hammerfield, then backup and repeat until the critters die. They're bound to be hit by a hammer sooner or later and when they do, they'll be on hit recovery until they die as then you don't stop spamming them before they die heh...

Also, hammerdin is basically helpless before lvl30 when he gets redemption, that's when he can start spamming hammers constantly.

 

[cloudstride]

The trick there is to spam a hammerfield, then backup and repeat until the critters die. They're bound to be hit by a hammer sooner or later and when they do, they'll be on hit recovery until they die as then you don't stop spamming them before they die heh...

Also, hammerdin is basically helpless before lvl30 when he gets redemption, that's when he can start spamming hammers constantly.

What Borlag said. You want to start casting as the monsters run towards you, and most of the time they'll meet the hammers halfway. If they don't, (fast monsters such as corrupted rogues, for example)then run a bit away and spam again, usually they'll be walking now.

Here's a pic of the hammer path, but starting at about the 9:00 position instead of the 12:00 position. (edit: don't mind the equipment on the pally, I pulled him out from 1.09 for this test a while ago.)

 

[Moog_playa]

I'm working on a Hammerdiun right now myself...I had a bit of a time aiming at first, but now it's pretty easy. What the others said is true. But you can also run into a room (i[m in the act 2 tombs right now) and get into the middle and start spamming hammers...everything dies. It's a beautiful thing! Just use a good shield and have a lot of life to take a couple hits before everything dies.

 

[MeBrutox]

I'm working on a Hammerdiun right now myself...I had a bit of a time aiming at first, but now it's pretty easy. What the others said is true. But you can also run into a room (i[m in the act 2 tombs right now) and get into the middle and start spamming hammers...everything dies. It's a beautiful thing! Just use a good shield and have a lot of life to take a couple hits before everything dies.

The first time through Hell with my hammerdin, I tried the same thing..only I was in the Chaos Sanctuary and..well, lets just say I had to clear half the sanctuary out naked..and even that was not too tough if I was being carefull...so it is definately not gear dependant.

Another thing on my hammerdin, I added a point into zeal, and used that with concentration (which was maxed first), up to act 5, then I ran pindleskin on players 8 until my blessed hammer was maxed, and never really needed redemption (just use alot of potions early on).

 

[Oscar]

Thanks for the advice. Just one more question and that is choice of merc for a Hammerdin.

 

[Borlag]

The choice is basically between HF and defiance mercs, I'd go for the holy freeze one, I find that my hammerdin benefits the most from that.

 

[Moog_playa]

I second that....Holy Freeze all the way....slows down enemies, they sstay in the hammer death field of doom and destruction longer, and die into crispy bits.