Paladin : Hammerdin Build

[Dennis]

You have a few goals with this build, I will list them in the order of importance, along with reasoning for each goal.

1. 125 FCR
Allows you to teleport and kill faster. VITAL!
2. 75+ All res in hell
Necessary to survive in hell difficulty.
3. High Damage
Five figure (10k+) hammer damage, five figure merc damage. Kill faster, get more drops over time, merc helps deal with
immunes.
4. Max Block, high defense, 3k+ life, 55% fhr
Holy shield, Spirit, CTA allow for an awesome combination of defense (10k+), a 2 frame fbr, life bonus, and a 5 frame fhr.
This leads to great survivability without sacrificing resists, damage, or killing speed.
5. 200+ Magic Find
The gear and charm options allow you to have 200-300mf while maintaining all of the above goals.

Skill Distribution

20 Blessed Hammer
1 Holy Shield
20 Concentration
20 Vigor
20 Blessed Aim
1 Redemption (You don’t use insight, so it’s needed to refill hp/mp)
Rest into Holy Shield

Stats

Str: Enough to wear gear (With the right gear, only 7 points needed)
Dex: Enough for max block while using holy shield (75% block)*
Vit: All the rest
Energy: 0

* Need more dex for this every time you lvl up. So when you do lvl up, cast your buffs, cast holy shield, and put the
1-2 points into dex until its @ 75% again.

Gear

5.1 Ideal Paladin Gear
1. Shield – Spirit Runeword made in an elite pally shield – 35fcr (very important), 45 Res All
2. Weapon – Heart of the Oak Runeword – 40fcr, 40 Res All
3. Armor – Enigma (mage plate, dusk shroud, you want the highest def you can wear without putting anything into str)
4. Upped Magefists – 30%ed, 20fcr, mana regen
5. Arachnids Mesh – 120%ed, 20fcr
6. War Traveler boots – 50% MF
7. Amulet – +2 pally skills, 10fcr, STR/DEX/All Res/Life/Mana/MF are all good to have on here
8. Rings – SOJ/BK/Magic Find Rings – Depending on whether you want more mf/survivability/mana
9. Helm – Shako – Your choice of socket – Good options are Ist (MF), Ber (DR), Jah (max life), UM(resists), Ral (resists)

Inventory
High Pally torch (18+/18+)
High Anni (18+/18+)
High Gheeds (40%mf)
7mfsc with resists (mf/survivability)
Optional: Pcomb lifers (if you desire extra damage/survivability these are your best bet)

Switch
1. CTA – 6 to Battle Orders
2. Random spirit – +2 to skills (fcr doesn’t matter)

Merc

You will be using a max damage merc setup to increase your killing speed. You do not need holy freeze because slowing
enemies down does nothing for you. You do not need insight because you have enough mana regen from your gear – and
you have redemption/pots.

Might Aura – More damage for merc – Nightmare offensive Act 2 merc
Guillaume’s Face winged helm (15ias 40ed jeweled) – Crushing blow, FHR, Deadlystrike, strength. Best DPS possible.
Eth Treachery- treachery is cheaper and BETTER than fortitude in almost all situations.
Eth Reaper’s Toll (15 ias, 40ed jeweled) – 33% DECREP PROC, deadly strike, ignore target def, life leech, high damage

Other Gear Options

1. Cheaper: Instead of pally ammy (which can be very expensive) you can have a Maras (30@res) and a FCR (10fcr, stats,
res, life, mana, mf) ring and still reach 125 fcr breakpoint
2. Even cheaper: Instead of hoto/fcr ammy – you can use a wiz spike (50%fcr) to reach 125, leaving you whatever you
decide to put in ring/ammy slots.
3. Merc options: Insight/andy’s/fort merc. Less DPS but it helps your survivability. I really do NOT recommend this. You kill
significantly faster with the other setup, and you have enough mana regen from magefists, sojs, and the rest of your gear.

Addendum

Attack Pattern

You will attack with a basic tele stomp.

1. Tele into middle of mob cluster, directly onto a monster (or boss)
2. Switch to concentration aura
3. Start casting hammers
4. As monsters start dying, teleport again directly onto the next monster/mob cluster
5. If low on health/mana switch to redemption aura temporarily to refill

Dealing with Immunes

Your mercenary can deal with Magic Immunes with no issue.

1. Tele into immune mob
2. Switch to concentration aura
3. Cast a few hammers to kill non immune surrounding mobs
4. Shoot holy bolts at magic immune monsters (most magic immunes are undead as well)
5. As monsters start dying, teleport again directly onto the next mob cluster to make sure your merc is hitting the immunes.
6. If low on health/mana switch to redemption aura temporarily to refill

Places to MF

Here is my typical run:
Andy > Trav > Memph > Chaos Sanct + Diablo > Pindle > Shenk + Eldrich > Baal.

This hits some bosses and high item level areas, where you encounter few magic immunes.

And here is a list of all aLvl85+ areas (places where you can get the best drops):

Act 1 – Pit Level 1 (Few Undead; Any Immunity; ~6 Boss Packs)
Act 1 – Pit Level 2 (Few Undead; Any Immunity; ~2 Boss Packs)
Act 1 – Mausoleum (Undead; ONLY Lightning Immunes; ~4 Boss Packs)
Act 2 – Maggot Lair Level 3 (bad place to MF with hammers)
Act 2 – Ancient Tunnels (~6 Boss Packs)
Act 3 – Sewers Level 2
Act 3 – Forgotten Temple (Upper Kurast)
Act 3 – Ruined Fane (Kurast Causeway)
Act 3 – Disused Reliquary (Kurast Causeway)
Act 4 – River of Flame
Act 4 – Chaos Sanctuary (Boss – Diablo)
Act 5 – The Worldstone Keep Level 1
Act 5 – The Worldstone Keep Level 2
Act 5 – The Worldstone Keep Level 3
Act 5 – Throne of Destruction
Act 5 – The Worldstone Chamber (Boss – Baal)

[Author]

Posts