Why do I die to quickly as a Hammerdin?

General Discussion
1

I find myself having to pot all the time, normal mobs just blast me and I die very often. This despite that I don’t focus on mf but on survivability or so I thought. What am I doing wrong, how can I improve.

stats:
176 enough to wear stuff plus the extra I get from gear.
dex: 178: a bunch over 75% block to get more defense (defense 2378) really low, maybe I should have much more?
vita: rest (238) its low but max what I can squeeze out, i have a ton of life charms.
Life is still only 1144 with all gear.

Gear:
Kira’s
Upped skullders
spirit
upped hoz
snowclash, trang glows, infernostride
dwarf star, raven, seraph hymn

This gives me resistance:
fire: 85%
cold: 90%
light: 75%
poison: 75%

  • cold absorb: 20%
  • 15 cold absorb(snowclash) i should replace with the amazon belt for light absorb but only have one now.
  • 15% fire absorb

So that is a pretty good defense right…yet I die like a fly in hell.

I can’t afford enigma or that boa thing…but seriously, this should be a pretty good base setup, how can this not be viable in hell. give me pointers.

2

Do you have points in holy shield?

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3

If you’re running, your defense goes down to 0. Also your block chance is reduced to 1/3rd. Be sure to toggle walk when engaging enemies.

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4

Oh yea, forgot to mention my skills.

20 points into holy shield, hammer, blessed aim, concentration and rest in vigor. I’m lvl89.
My real points is 29 into all due to items.

5

how is your defense that low with maxed holy shield?
Do not pump dex for defense, pump enough for MB only.

probably has to do with r/w toggle.

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6

Turn off run and walk. There’s a penalty for running that renders your defense to 0 and reduces block to 1/3. It’s that easy, walk, don’t run.

7

Low block/Defense most likely, upgrade your items, buy defiance merc.

8

Snowclash is weird choice, you need Arach or Verdungo or Thundergods visor. Why not shako instead of Kiras? I would replace infernostrides with waterwalks. You need Hoto instead of Spirit, but i guess you dont have runes.

9

I can’t understand how your def is so low with HS on… my way less geared pally has like 4500.

Very likely what folks are saying about running is what’s getting you killed. I had lag the other night and for some reason game thought I was running during Lord De Seis’s minions and I got stomped on even though I haven’t died there in weeks since upgrading some gear…

10

Dont walk but charge into enemies

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11

Somethings wrong with your Holy Shield, it’s not passive you have to activate the skill. It’s a buff, so activate it and you should have around 13K Def.

^This

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12

too much str and dex, my pally is at about 100 str after gear, and only about 140 dex. I don’t bother messing with the run/walk stuff i just use force stand still to throw hammers.

13

Are you keeping 100% uptime on holy shield?

14

You should have maxed vigor because it synergizes with your damage output.

Holy shield is the last skill you should be maxing.

Instead of wearing a crappy snowclash, trade for a string of ears, they’re relatively cheap, or even just farm one. They drop like water on Hell mode off of Andarial, and she’s an easy farm. This will further reduce your damage taken by up to 15% which is nice.

Infernostride is another issue as those boots are junk, Aldurs innately gives you 40% faster run / walk and huge fire resistance… great hell starter boot, eventually you’ll want Sandstorm Trek for the +STR or even an Ethereal pair of Sandstorm Trek because they auto repair themselves.

Heart of the Oak eventually instead of Spirit, the upped HoZ is nice… P. Diamond or Um it. You’re going to want to eventually get rid of Dwarf Star and wear an SoJ or Bul-Kathos… The Raven Frost is fine until you can Cham your helm.

Try to get a Shako for your Helm, eventually you’ll want a Crown of Ages, even if it’s only 1 socket, the 2nd socket is excessive with Hammerdin builds because most people just Ber it for further damage reduction on Smiter builds… Crown of Ages would be a huge boon to your survivability as well.

Finally you’ll want to find a Guardian Angel Templar Coat and up it if you want an extra 600 Def out of it. It will require a lot of STR but you should get some huge gains from Sandstorm Trek and HoZ.

Also Mara’s instead of Serpah’s for more res if you need it.

Again, go respec and max Vigor out, also keep that skill on switch so you can boot around and get out of trouble quickly… it makes your Hammerdin incredibly agile so you can re-position yourself and shoot off hammers more safely.

Yeah you need some upgrades if you want to survive Act 4+ a little easier.

Make sure you pimp your merc and get a holy freeze one to slow enemies down… get an insight thresher, put on treachery or smoke for now until you can make a fortitude and wear a tal’s helm for life leech until you can find a vamp gaze and cham that for him.

15

He dies all the time and you suggest to put fewer points in a defensive skill rofl

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16

Offense is the best defense

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17

“Invincibility lies in the defence; the possibility of victory in the attack.”
-Sun Tzu

18

Yes, charge is awesome. Definitely the go-to mobility skill for a paladin without Enigma. I didn’t use it in the OG as much due to the charge lock issue, however in D2:R I did run a Holy Shock paladin up to 82 using charge, not once did the charge lock bug happen.

19

I am also a hammerdin, I consider myself a noob even at level 91.
I usually just do World Stone Keep runs without a merc.
Among all areas in the game the only things that kill me almost instantly are the tiny pink skeletons in WSK and the grouped flying witches/harpies(?) with might aura.

My noob suggestions:

  1. get a heart-of-the-oak rune word flail
  2. get a nature’s peace ring (this is just my personal preference) for perma-kill
  3. I think your dex is too high. I suggest you re-spec and add dex until you reach 75% max block. I would say 130 dex.
20

Roll something other than a noob sorc or beginnerDin like 99% of other noobs…game will be much better I promise.

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