Im not sure what im doing wrong, I can barely do act 2 hell difficulty quests
Im standard hammerdin build but I cant seem to get thru alot of stuff.
My Items are Natalya’s totem helm
Spirit Sword/Spirit Shield
Chest- Smoke
Belt-Goldwrap
Gloves ammy and rings are decent Yellows but having trouble finding other stuff to help.
Also follower has insight
You’re a caster and hell mobs swing a good punch, so I don’t really know what you might expect from your Hammerdin.
Even chars with much higher level sometimes get caught by a cursed/might aura mob pack.
Your resists are probably fine with smoke and spirit, but hell always requires a more defensive gameplay. Once through you can skip the most dangerous areas.
Do you use holy shield?
Your block and defense are useless while running so keep that in mind. For hdins without enigma, it’s hard to position and not run though…
Are you using Holy Shield?, What’s your blockrate?
Firstly, check all your defenses.
Are resists maxxed? Can you use other items to go higher?
Is your Holy Shield up? Often times Hammerdins forget to refresh this and insta-flop.
Best practice is to forego all those BiS items you see everywhere on forums and guides and work with what you have. Survival first, flashy dps “2 min” clears second.
Def goes to 0 while running but it stays as is while charging. Generally best to charge into a fight.
What merc are you using? HF helps slow things down so they don’t hit you while you get your hammer on.
I’ve seen people running vipermage in Hell HC with a hammerdin, Smoke should do you fine as long as you keep HS up.
Thx everyone, my Holy Shield is at 13.
I Use Act 2 Prayer Merc with insight
I Didnt realise Blessed aim booster Hammer damage, Its at lvl 13, It was at 7 but I had some unspent points so i put them in Aim, Damage is alot better
My Defense is at 2100, My Resists are 37, 39, 69, 39 SO i Need some help there
I recommend getting lightning and fire resist maxed out first!
Bro hammerdin a really pricey to build youll get rekt for several years before you can get the proper gear lmao enjoy the endless struggle or just make a bliz sorc and farm meph stuck on stairs
You need more resists. Preferably having all of them capped would be nice.
Don’t expect to be able to facetank most mobs, Hammerdin isn’t exactly tanky unless you are rocking high defense, maxed resistances and like lvl 20+ Holy Shield (and even then if you get a pack of archers with Multishot - Cursed - Extra Strong in a cramped hallway there’s a very small chance you will survive without a lot of Full Rejuvs or Teleport)
Just pick your fights, give lifesteal gear to your merc, probably a lifetap wand for him and let him tank mobs while you hammer them down.
This is my Hammerdin on Act 3 Hell… all on Solo from Normal to Nightmare… all Solo from Act 1 Hell to Act 3 Hell. Actually, I am on Act 5 Hell now… again on Solo.
Helm - Ort Sol
Shield - Tal Thul Ort Amn
Weapon - Tal Thul Ort Amn
Chest - Nef Lum
Belt, Gloves, Boots, Amulet and Rings are just regular yellows with Resistances.
If you want a suggestion:
Put a point in Holy Shield and keep it up. Your blockrate would go from 41% to 68% with that set up. It would likely max out to 75% if ditched that normal Targe for an exceptional or elite shield.
Holy Shield would also double your defense.
I’m having a brainfart on your merc…Is that a Rouge with might on?
edit: PD2 right?
On my first respec, it was all mess up. But I beat Normal with crappy specs. On nightmare, I made a respec with correct Hammerdin specs with some points on Holy Shield.
I have +2 skill on Spirit shield , +2 skill on Spirit Weapon and +1 skill on Ort Sol. So there’s a +5 right away on all skills including Holy Shield. And I put some points on Holy Shield and put many points on dexterity as I calculated it according to what shield drops on me with block rate calculator around 60% total block rate.
When I reach Hell mode, all points were all on dexterity to reach total 75% block rate and I reached it. I am suppose to use only fewer Dexterity if I get a better shield with good block rate. But I havent got one better than Akaran Targe. I am not putting more points on Dexterity as the block calculator says I am at 75% total. I got another Targe on Act 4 with 35% resistance and I easily reached max resistance without resist on belt, gloves and Boots. So I put better defenses on those instead. Shield block remained the same. When I get a better shield, I would use my respec (one respec on Hellmode), to lower my dexterity to put more points on Vitality. Also when I get lighter Chest Armor but max’d defense, I would also lower my Strength to put more points on Vitality.
We will see. Dont know what I will get now that I am on Act 5.
ROFL. You’ve never seen her destroyed all Stygian Dolls trapped on the other end of the platform. All areas with pools between me and mobs, it’s a breakfast for my Rogue on elite bows. Also my rogue is a good puller then returns back to me to bait mobs to my death cloud of flying hammers. Versus gazillion archers on any open areas, she’s helping deplete their numbers. The only disadvantage of her is on caves/dungeons where she cant move that much. But she’s pretty safe on me. I cant hit far range, but she does. When all is melee, she just stays back while I eat them all. We are a good combo so far. I know everyone is using the Polearm merc. Well, I have to prove to you then that me and her will kill everything on Hell difficulty… all on SOLO.
Just wait and watch.
So you do have holy shield, you just didn’t use it in the video? Is that correct?
Yup. On Concentration Aura, my Hammer damage is 4.6k. I cant help it. I love to Nuke especially Act Bosses.
I have Holy Shield but I dont use it often. Defiance Aura or Holy Shield against hard hitting mobs who can hit me. Most of my strat is kill them before they reach me. But against Stygian Dolls, there you get me… Need to be out of Concentration Aura. ROFL.
I just need maybe 1 or 3 points on Blessed Aim/Vigor then I go with Holy Shield.
Holy Shield is a Buff, not an aura. You cast it and switch back to concentration, it’s effective for X amount of time.
I don’t doubt the Rouge, but I use her on my Zealot…
Dang, I thought it’s an aura. ROFL. I thought I need to be hit and it would go off.
The Block calculator I am using is wrong. I need more Dexterity while I look for better Shield both with higher resistances and higher shield block.
So far, I am not stucked on Hell yet unless I see Stygian Dolls again. I know they are in there somewhere.
Cheap gear I’d recommend:
Helm: Peasant Crown or Lore
Armor: Stealth (25% fcr and faster run/walk)
Shield: 35 FCR spirit
Weapon: Wizard spike
Gloves: Frostburn or magefists
Boots: Tearhaunch Greaves
Ammy: + combat skills or pally skills + resist
Rings: 10% FCR and resist rares
Your goal is to hit 125% FCR and stack resists/skill bonuses. This stuff should get your damage up to around 6k ish at 80+ and keep strength low enough to get you to around 400 vit. Socket the stealth and spirit in low str armor.
After that just get good at switching between vigor/concentration/redemption. Just kite mobs into your hammers and redeem corpses for health/mana and you should be able to clear up to WSK by level 85.
Edit: Also keep holy shield up and your Merc alive.
besides what others have mentioned make sure youre not under lvled. hell was a cake walk for me on my hammerdin but i farmed nm baal until 70. when i finished hell i was 79