It's not me, it's you: A guide to playing with a Sgt. Hammer, from a Sgt. Hammer main

General Discussion
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For years now i’ve been a Sgt. Hammer main and over thousands and thousands of games, i’ve suffered a lot of unnecessary losses because of teammates that didn’t play her and therefore didn’t know how to play with her, so this will be a little guide - all my personal observations and by no means holy writ - to being a good teammate to Sgt. Hammer.

1. Protect the Hammer. I hear this all the time, and while i get the idea it isn’t always the best thing to do. Yes, Hammer needs a moderate amount of help and assistance to get the most out of her abilities, but sitting on top of her blocking her escape is more likely to get her killed than anything. I can’t count the number of times i’ve died because a well-meaning teammate was up my backside trying to ‘protect’ me but actually body blocked me into a deadly skillshot or forced me to take a very dangerous escape path. Protect, but don’t block.

2. Focus the divers. Dive comps, especially with good CC and burst added in, can be hellish for a Hammer player. Against these comps, the hammer player will need the extra help from their team in the form of strong and coordinated damage on the one doing the diving. When a Genji, Kerrigan, Illidan, Greymane or other strong dive hero jumps on your Hammer drop whatever you’re doing and blow them up. This ensures that even if the enemy team gets the kill, they end up trading one of their own and in the best-case scenario you have gotten a kill and lost nothing. Even if you don’t kill the diver odds are they are going to have to back up and heal, taking them out of the fight for a while and reducing a lot of the advantage they gained from the kill on Hammer.

3. All that the blue circle touches is our kingdom. The single biggest mistake i see my teammates make when i play Hammer is they chase enemies out of the circle of death. There is absolutely no reason to do this, especially at an objective, unless you are 100% certain you can secure the kill and get out alive. Hammer’s range encompasses two-thirds of a screen; more if she takes Graduating Range at level 7. That’s plenty of room to fight in with a massive advantage, and enemies who come into the circle and fail to do work now have to get back out of the circle alive while Hammer pounds them the whole time with her not-inconsiderable damage. Fight in the circle, people. Hover Siege hammers make it even easier; she can move up with you, albeit slowly, so slow down and wait. You won’t regret it when she is exploding the enemy team from a massive distance away and handing you free kills.

4. I can save you. If you are in a bad spot - low on health, being chased and near death - go to your Hammer. Her W is a very nice knockback and i can’t tell you how many times i have saved the lives of my teammates and then immediately turned a bad fight into several kills because the teammate didn’t run away from me. A good Sgt. Hammer player will peel for you if you’re in trouble. Let her do her job.

Also as mentioned in this very thread by Sunrider, Hammer’s spider mines give a 25% slow to any enemy affected by them and do a nice little chunk of damage if they walk into a few. Run them past spider mines and you could very well save our own life/ and get a kill, because mines also give vision and vision means Hammer can hit them since mines are also likely to be within her range,

5. Play defensive at objectives. Hammer is the undisputed queen of defensive play. She can absolutely lock down an objective if properly positioned, and becomes downright oppressive to the enemy team if her own teammates support her. You should never, ever lose a stationary objective with a Hammer on your team, and on maps that are more mobile such as Hanamura a good hammer will absolutely take hover siege, get in front of the payload, and let it ‘push’ her along even faster. Be there to run interference for her while she rides along and dominates.

6. Be aggressive when you have the advantage. Sgt. Hammer is a tough hero to push back once she starts advancing. If your Hammer is pounding away at a tower, fort or keep stay with her and PUSH. If you are low on health, run to the back of the circle and get some healing then re-engage. A Hammer team can easily push nonstop from the beginning of a game til the end with her team at her back and never once have to go back for health or mana. If you get a kill, the enemy team as to either start trickling in and dying one or two at a time while Hammer and her team keeps demolishing a lane or wait until their entire team is up and make a coordinated effort to push Hammer out. Either way, she is still destroying structures and accruing XP the entire time, and even if she dies it’s very likely her team got more value from the push than the enemy did from a kill on her.

7. Hammer is slow. Obvious, but my girl is not very mobile. She needs to be in the right place at the right time before anyone else; a good Hammer will start moving toward an objective and setting up before the countdown even begins. Go with her; staying in a teamfight and dying before an objective is stupid, being late to the objective and leaving Hammer alone is stupid - doing anything but healing up and getting to the objective with her is stupid. If Hammer got to the objective or the fight before you you are doing it wrong. Along with this, keep in mind her rotations are slow. Make sure you let her know what you’re planning with pings (or just in voice if you can) so she can unsiege and start moving immediately to avoid slowing down the rotation. Don’t just leave lane without any warning and leave her hanging with multiple enemies ready to jump on her. Say something.

8. If i can see it, i can kill it. Do everything you can to maximize the amount of vision around the areas where you and your Hammer are moving and fighting. Hammer is an AA hero, so she must be able to see her target to hit it. Give her vision so that she can have better coverage over the entirety of her attack range. Stand in bushes, put wisps and Eyes of Kilrogg in places to catch enemies coming in; if you are a Murky always take Fish Eye at level 1

9. KILL THE MAGES Kael’Thas, Jaina, and especially Kel-Thuzad are the bane of Hammer’s existence if they can just fire off abilities unmolested. Additionally, all of them have slows and stuns. Help your Hammer; kill the mages swiftly so she can continue pounding the enemy’s fortifications. Contrary to popular opinion, Chromie is not a Hammer counter unless you let her be. She is actually easy pickings for even a halfway decent Hammer - save your E and as soon as you see the windup, hit it and negate the bulk of Chromie’s damage then because you are a smart Hammer player who took BFG at level 10, blow her face off and laugh as you continue what you were doing before she arrived.

Edit: Updated on 11/5/2019. Added 8.
Updated on 12/1/2020. Added 9.

19 Likes
2

Thank you that was very insightful.

Which heroes do you think best compliment hammer, or are the ones you like to see on your team?

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Impossible. The forums have assured me numerous times that OBFG is absolutely broken with no possible counterplay. :slight_smile:

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LOTS of heroes go great with her. A Lucio and his speed boosts is gold, literally anyone with strong peel or dive - I even love a Chen. Tyrael’s speed boosts and protection are also nice. An Abathur hat or Auriel crown with attack speed boost? That is a dream come true. Actually, hardly any heroes pair poorly with Hammer. I can’t even think of any who don’t bring something to the table that she can make use of, which brings up an excellent point: Sgt. Hammer is a force multiplier. She makes everyone else’s job easier by being there.

Edit: And a shout out to my Medivh players. A good Medivh is far and away the best teammate a Hammer can have.

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As someone else who also plays Hammer a lot, these are the types of heroes I enjoy teaming with.

Healing/Support: Burst healing and shields are both very welcome. Hammer is usually not a good target for Abathur’s hat unless it has the Attack Speed talent (but then it gets really good).

Tank/Bruiser: Anyone who can peel well and/or make sure a vital enemy stays in my range. Garrosh and Stitches are both great for their ability to both isolate an enemy for elimination and keeping that enemy within range.

Assassins: Player skill (including map awareness) is generally more important for Assassins than their individual kits, but someone like Alarak or Kel’Thuzad can be good Hammer partners the same way Garrosh and Stitches are.

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All great tips.

The worst pet peeve of mine is going to an objective as Hammer, and you’re the first one there alone, get killed and then your allies blame you for feeding.

Somehow the hero that doesn’t have a mount as well as a couple of enemies got to the objective just fine, but it’s the Hammer’s fault for going to the objective and dying.

I have an issue with the wording on this though. If the ally is behind you, that’s not really protecting you, that’s hiding behind the hammer which is stupid.

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I worded it poorly, but an example: The first response of a decent tank if a teammate is hurt and running is to block for them and peel off chasers. I find that this often means they end up being just a bit faster even with my Z up and end up bodyblocking and slowing me down. Its even worse with fat boys like the ever-present azmodan sitting directly behind me.

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If you’re alone at the objective give the objective Or wait for your team.

If your team does not show up and you engage anyways, it is your fault than you died.

Should your team have been there already? almost certainly yes
Did you have to run in solo? Nope. That’s all on you.

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No word on Ambush?
People like to say Hammer either wrecks or is completely useless when countered. Ambush is great for constant resiege.

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I’m not a fan of Ambush, personally. It isn’t a BAD talent, but it is very situational, especially if you don’t take it with Hover at level 7. The main reason i don’t like it on most cases is because everyone has a way to break stealth. As far as countering her, that’s easier said than done unless she has a LOT of hard counters on the enemy team like Alarak, kel’Thuzad, Kael’Thas or Chromie.

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TLDR but wanna say that I hate her since her hyper-cooling engines got turned into a trap talent. Completely ruined her for me.

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Stealth is just a bonus. Its the extra damage, that makes you punished less for re-sieging.

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What? Hyper-cooling is far from a trap talent. In fact i never don’t take it. It’s one of her most game-changing talents because it allows you to use your Z more liberally; once you have it you can much more safely use thrusters to engage or stay in a fight longer because you know you’ll have your thrusters back if you need to GTFO

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I always take that talent. Nearly always up thrusters is much more valuable than some increased pushback.

15

Playing around Spammer is super dull. Sorry.

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As someone who likes to tank with Stitches, I like to tank for Hammer with him because Fishing Hook is some absurdity with Graduating Range.
Remember: she doesn’t have to unsiege if she doesn’t have to move.

It also makes those dives like The Hunt or a stray Dwarf Toss harder to pull off because if you Protecc the Hecc, you can take Gorge to absolutely shut down dives or pull tanks off her.

Let us not dismiss Anduin too, who recently came with an unobstructed pull and comes with an area invuln+heal.

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Eh. I’d rather have advanced Artillery for the waveclear and splash damage in teamfights, or if i need burst Maelstrom, which also lets me blow down structures even faster. Consistent and reliable damage beats situational damage any day of the week. And why are you sieging and unsieging enough for ambus to be useful? You shouldn’t be sieged unless you know you’re in a good position to do work with it.

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Some people like it because it gives you one double damage hit and reactivates, so if you have stealth and hover you can sneak around the corners of teamfights and stuff. The extra ‘boom’ on that first hit, although I don’t think it splashes, can be enough to poke down someone who keeps toying at the edge of The Blue Circle.

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Go away. I get it, you hate Hammer. No need to come into every thread where she’s so much as mentioned to reiterate. Everyone knows, now GTFO unless you have something constructive to say.

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  1. Seige
  2. Right click
  3. XD
1 Like