im thinking Zealot… it’s simple… straight forward… and with ok gear i can get 75% block, max resistances (with aura if I have to), etc etc.
hammerdin i think requires… certain… things to line up… like gear… level… etc??
side note (venting) I messed my sorceress up and she has no restats anymore and she’s pure lightning.
I cleared the pits once… but then every game now seems to have those lightning immunes that run fast at me… 
RIP mage fuuudge. and my act2nm guy’s aura didn’t help much… maybe it’s b/c i didn’t give it time to activate?
You can certainly start off as a Zealot, and then respec to Hammerdin once you find some of the needed things for that build.
Zeal is a pretty safe bet that scales really well into end game if you decide to stick with it additionally.
For your sorce you can eventually farm a respec token eventually so she’s not entirely dead but you could also just shelf her until you get a chance at crafting infinity or come across one of the better merc weapons.
For leveling your kinda stuck playing zealer or hammer.
As Hammer its not that much of a problem to get some baseline gear as you are playing but it’s a headache to deal with merc+insight early on when they’re squishy, to have low armor going into the higher difficulties, and to not be able to easily hit/run when dealing with elemental enemies when you have low resistances. You also end up farming early so you don’t waste your runes crafting Spirit in something with a low quality base which isn’t very fun for some people.
Zeal is a lot easier to get away with using some budget gear. Steel is easy and cheap to craft early on and your auras will take you pretty far since they are so much more versatile than the pairing of Hammer+Conc. You also actually get to max out Holy Shield so in addition to having more versatile auras you are a little beefier.