I have a lot of issues with Hammer right now, both playing as, with, and against. I made this rework concept on HeroesFire to address the main issues I see with her playstyle, both to give her a little more flexibility and to more closely match the role of a Starcraft Siege Tank.
Heroes of the Storm Build Concept: Sgt. Hammer :: HeroesFire
Main changes are to the dynamic between Siege Mode and Tank Mode.
Tank Mode has had its damage lowered slightly but has had its attack speed increased by 33% (to 1.33/sec.) and its range increased to 6.
Siege Mode has been overhauled. It now grants 100% additional damage per attack, its range bonus has been increased from 100% to 150%, and its splash damage and radius have been increased. To compensate, its attack speed has been reduced by 62.5% (to 0.5/sec.) and it now has a minimum range equal to its splash radius (enemies within this minimum range of Hammer cannot be attacked).
Neosteel Plating has been replaced with Field Repairs, which gives Hammer some out-of-combat sustain in place of the lost up-front durability.
Both ults have been tweaked to varying degrees, and their level 20 upgrades have both been replaced.
She now also has a Hold Fire command because I thought that’d be a nice quality of life change.
The entire talent tree has been redesigned. I don’t think I left a single talent untouched. Everything has been either tweaked and moved, reworked, or outright replaced.
The level 1 Tier is themed around flexibility to give Hammer more options to work with, ranging from faster transformation speeds to the ability to place single Spider Mines at a time to the ability to shoot on the move.
The level 4 Tier is themed around basic attack playstyle, granting either armor pierce and reduction, greater splash effect and waveclear, harder hitting initial-burst, or suppression and zoning.
The level 7 Tier is themed around durability and sustain, such as gaining the Anchored effect and/or armor, healing from damage dealt, or healing passively and more from Field Repairs.
The level 13 Tier is themed around positioning and range, offering greater trigger and chase speed for Spider Mines, Siege Mode attack range or mobility, and better self-peel with Concussive Blast.
The level 16 Tier is themed around straight-up damage output, offering either increased attack speed in Siege Mode, %-health based damage on basic attacks, or %-health based damage and armor reduction on Spider Mines.
The level 20 Tier is to shore up weaknesses and cap off builds. There are 5 talents here, because why not? You can either remove the minimum range on Siege Mode attacks, allow Spider Mines to rearm themselves to chase and explode again after a brief period, resurrect yourself at the spot you took fatal damage without dying, increase the AoE burn effects of Napalm Strike and gain CDR from enemies damaged by it, or gain greater damage and speed as well as a knockback and stun on BFG.
Feel free to post any questions, comments, or concerns you have (and definitely let me know if you see any typos).