Budget Hammerdin

The Cheap 3 + RAL Build

A Guide for the Hammerdin who’s on a budget

This guide is created in an effort to help the low-budget player efficiently build a Blessed Hammer Paladin for the purpose of farming Hell Travincal, particularly for high runes and other valuable gear.

This guide was inspired by our serious high rune-hunting experience (one could call it an addiction…), as well as a sudden connection of how one could accomplish 75% FCR, a decent Mana pool, and max resistances in Hell difficulty with the combination of 3 inexpensive items and a Ral Rune.

By: *Bobinator and *elemen0 of Reddit’s /r/Slashdiablo server

(and a special thanks to *MDMC for his input, knowledge and encouragement, as well as *d29 for his always being a help to us)

For more information about high rune-hunting in Travincal, see this post by Bobinator: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]


Okay, let’s begin with the basics.

Part 1: STATS.

Strength:  At this point, most guides would suggest you put just enough points into Strength for your gear requirements, but in this build, you may want to put around 80-100 points into Strength before gear.  Assuming you are very gear limited, you won’t have an Enigma, Anni, or Torch, all of which are items that give you “soft” stat points, so if you don’t want to respec every time you change gear, a base of 80-100 Strength is suggested. (Adjust accordingly if you have specific pieces of gear you already plan to use.)

Dexterity:  This definitely depends on the gear.  Most Hammerdins don’t put any points into Dexterity because they have enough for their gear from those “soft” point items.  But in this build, we need to have some points into Dexterity to use Wizardspike (see weapons).  If, for some reason, you decide to use a different weapon because you have resists coming from something else, don’t worry about putting points into Dexterity, the base is probably fine.  People may also wonder about ***Max Block***.  The reason we don’t add Dexterity to achieve max block is that this is a Vitality build, which is much more efficient for survival, based on the suggested gear. In addition, because you may have to put significant amounts of hard points into Strength, you would sacrifice too much Vitality by putting more points into Dexterity to achieve max block. We want consistent survivability, and blocking won’t help if you don’t have the Life to tank other sources of damage.

*** The only case in which you should strive for max block in this guide is if you can find a 4os SACRED TARGE.  This shield has a base blocking rate of 60%, therefore only roughly a total of 90 points into Dexterity is required for max block (with holy shield), meaning you would only need 15 more points into Dexterity than is already required for Wizardspike!***

Vitality:  The majority of your stat points go here.  If you’re new to Diablo II, this will probably come as a surprise to you, but just trust us. Hell difficulty requires survivability. After achieving the Str and Dex that you need for you gear, you should definitely dump the remainder of your stat points into this. In Hell difficulty, damage often comes in bursts, and Health Potions can only help so much.

Energy: Leave this stat at base.  Even if your gear doesn’t supply enough Mana to prevent you from having to consume Mana Potions, you’re still wasting your time putting points here.  2-300 Mana should be plenty for anything you need, and you should get most or all of this from your gear.


Part 2: Skills.

The link below is to the basic skills setup, up to level 77, assuming all the +skill quests have been completed in normal, nightmare, and hell, yielding an extra +12 points:

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Prerequisite Skills

       DEFENSIVE AURAS: Prayer, Cleansing, and Defiance 1 point each

       OFFENSIVE AURAS: Might 1 point.

       COMBAT SKILLS: Smite, Charge and Holy Bolt 1 point each

Main Skills

       DEFENSIVE AURAS: Vigor (increases run speed and synergizes Blessed Hammer) 20 hard points (max)

       OFFENSIVE AURAS: Blessed Aim (synergy to hammer) 20 hard points (max)

      Concentration (main aura, increases hammer damage) 20 hard points (max)

       COMBAT SKILLS:  Blessed Hammer (Main skill, of course) 20 hard points (max)

Holy Shield (increases defense and blocking) 1+ points (dump all excess points    here for more defense after maxing all of the main skills)



Now, for the feature of this guide that makes it so unique.


Part 3: Gear.


       Now as stated before, there are 3 items that are vital to the building of this guide. Luckily, these items are about the cheapest you could ask for when building a Hammerdin.


#1:  First and foremost, the most important item (and, most likely, the one you’ll hang onto the longest):

WIZARDSPIKE

+ (2 Per Character Level) 2-198 To Mana (Based On Character Level)
50% Faster Cast Rate
Regenerate Mana 15%
Increase Maximum Mana 15%
All Resistances +75
Indestructible

This weapon is the KING of budget Hammerdin builds.  Even though it has no +skills on it, it does have 50%FCR, 75 to all resistances, and a boatload of Mana bonus.  I would suggest putting a Hel rune into this to lower the Dex requirement, and put more of those unspent Dex points into Vitality (unless, of course, you need to use the Dex anyway for max block with a sacred targe).  I wouldn’t really recommend using any other weapons (even spirit) because of the massive FCR and Resistance loss, as hitting max resistances and the FCR breakpoint is VITAL to this build.  It also allows for more flexibility with the rest of your gear, while being very inexpensive on its own.


#2: The second piece of gear, the Smoke Runeword, is often overlooked as it doesn’t carry +1skills, so many players tend to pass it up. But let’s take a look.

Smoke Runeword (Nef+Lum)

+75% Enhanced Defense
+280 Defense Vs. Missile
All Resistances +50
20% Faster Hit Recovery
Level 6 Weaken (18 Charges)
+10 To Energy
-1 To Light Radius

Now, considering survivability, this is an excellent runeword for the price. It has +50 resists, 20FHR and more Energy!!! (take all the Mana you can get from your gear).


#3: The third and final piece of gear is the beloved, Spirit runeword shield. (In a paladin shield of course)

Spirit (tal+thul+ort+amn)

+2 To All Skills
+25-35% Faster Cast Rate (varies)
+55% Faster Hit Recovery
+250 Defense Vs. Missile
+22 To Vitality
+89-112 To Mana (varies)
Cold Resist +35%
Lightning Resist +35%
Poison Resist +35%
+3-8 Magic Absorb (varies)
Attacker Takes Damage of 14

Ahh, the wonders of this little beauty...  It has +2 skills (damage), a minimum of 25%fcr (getting to the 75% breakpoint with wizardspike), 55 FHR (plus 20 from smoke, so a total of 75%), 22 Vitality (more Life!), at least 89 more Mana, and three different resists (35% cold light poison). For the ideal bonus, you should put this in a Sacred Targe to have the best blocking chance from the base shield, making it easier for you to achieve max block with around 90 Dex (and Holy Shield). If you can’t find a 4os Sacred Targe to put this in, any other 4os pally shield will still work!  A goal for the base shield would be to have base resistances of 20-30+ so you could eventually swap out that Smoke for a Vipermagi, to get more skills and the possibility to hit the 125% FCR breakpoint.  


Moving on, the keen amongst you may be asking, what about that 35% fire resistance that is still missing, as a result of the lack of bonuses to this stat from Spirit? Isn’t that going to be important for surviving Hydras in Hell Travincal?  This leads us to our final piece: the RAL RUNE.  All that’s left at this point to achieve max resistances is to find and socket a helmet you like (tarnhelm, peasant crown, sazabis etc.) with a Ral Rune. This gives you 30% fire resist, and you now have max resistances in hell.

Don’t believe me?  Well here’s the math:

Let’s calculate our resistances.  In Hell difficulty, base characters have a base of -100% resistances.

Next let’s assume you have done the Anya ACT 5 resistance quests in all difficulties. This totals up to +30% to all your resists, so we’ll start further calculations at -70%.

Add the resistances from Wizardspike and Smoke:   75 + 50 – 70(current) = 55 resist all

Add the resists from Spirit:   35 + 55(current) = 90 resist to Cold, Lightning, and Poison

Again, Spirit lacks bonuses to fire resist, so we’re left 55% fire resistance.

Add the Ral Rune into your helmet. 30 (fire) + 55 (current fire) = 85% fire resist

This leaves us with Fire Cold, Lightning, and Poison resistances of 85, 90, 90, and 90 respectively. However, these will all hit a cap at 75 unless you use +Max Resistances gear, but this is by no means necessary.


Also, with Wizardspike and Spirit, we have achieved the 75% FCR breakpoint (50 from wizzy and 25+ from Spirit)

We also receive around 100 Mana from Spirit, at least 150 from Wizzy, and 10 Energy from Smoke.

Now, what should we do with the rest of our gear slots?

       Well, herein lies the beauty of this guide.  The rest is up to you! Theoretically, this guide should work without any other gear, although that would probably not be such a good idea.  

That being said, other modifiers you should be looking for in gear are:

       Vitality or Life

       +Skills (this means more damage!)

       Mana

       Strength (this means putting less hard points into Strength and more into Vitality)

       Dexterity (for block)

       Faster Cast Rate (if you’re trying to reach 125% fcr)

       More resists (so you could swap out your smoke for something better!)

Faster Run/Walk (but this will be of no use once you’ve created an enigma from farming Travincal’s High Runes )


Now we’ll provide an ideal Full Equipment Setup of gear that you can strive for that goes well with the three items above.

Helmet: The Peasant Crown War Hat *SOCKETED WITH RAL RUNE* (alternatives: tarnhelm, sazabis)

Body armor: Smoke runeword as stated above.

Weapon: Wizardspike as stated above.

Shield: Spirit paladin shield as stated above.

Gloves: Frostburns for Mana, or Trang Oul’s/Magefists for FCR. If you have plenty of Mana and don’t want 125% FCR, then Chance Guards are a good choice for their Magic and Gold Find.

Boots: Tearhaunch for Dexterity/Strength and more resists, or Silkweaves for Mana. Alternatively, Infernostrides provide a great Gold Find bonus.

Belt: Rare boots with Life, Mana, Strength, Dexterity, or Magic Find work well. String of Ears (for damage reduction), Glooms Mesh (for Mana/Life), or Crendium (for Str/Dex/Resists) are also good choices.

Rings: Ideally Dwarf Star Rings are the best for this build, because of the fire absorb that essentially eliminates Hydra damage in Hell Travincal, but any +FCR (if you want 125%fcr), +Magic Find, or +Skills ring works as well.

Amulet: As many +skills as you can get (or pally combat skills), or good stats (Life, Mana, Dex, Str).

THIS SETUP EASILY PREPARES YOU FOR FARMING HELL TRAVINCAL!

Part 4: The 125% FCR Breakpoint.

Lately we’ve seen many hammer paladins on the server not utilizing 125% FCR. Normally, this is a fairly difficult breakpoint to reach, so we understand where they’re coming from when they decide not to reach it.  We do, however, have a few reasons why we believe it is important, especially with this build.

It is important to realize that when doing Hell Travincal, a hugely beneficial part of your survivability is the SPEED at which you spin your hammers.  From a crowd control point of view, the more hammers you cast with higher FCR, the more hammers you have spinning around you at any given time.  This means the hammers are closer to each other, increasing the hit ratio in any given area of the spiral around you.  A slower hammer means that mobs can sometimes run through your spiral and evade the hammers.  Another thing to note is that when a monster gets hit by a hammer, they have a preset Hit Recovery speed that the 125% FCR breakpoint beats.  Council Members can’t move once hammers are continuously hitting them at this speed, meaning that as long as you keep casting, they are trapped and essentially stuck until they die.  This build is setup in a way that may take longer to use Hammers to kill your enemy as a result of less damage bonuses from gear, but is ultimately safer and more easily survivable. Plus, more hammers results in more damage per second, so we feel FCR greatly contributes to the overall speed at which you clear out the Council.


Now we’ll provide an ideal Equipment Setup of gear that you can strive for that achieves 125% FCR, while still maintaining max resists and a decent Mana pool.

Helmet: The Peasant Crown War Hat *SOCKETED WITH RAL RUNE* (alternatives: tarnhelm, sazabis)

Body armor: Skin of the Vipermagi. (30% FCR, +20-35 resists, +1skill)

Weapon: Wizardspike as stated above. (50%FCR)

Shield: Spirit paladin shield as stated above, with the exception that you may need more base resists here to keep max resists in hell. (25-35% FCR)

Gloves:  Trang Oul’s/Magefists (20% FCR)

Boots: Anything will work here, although you may need this slot for more resists, so Tearhaunch may be your best choice.

Belt: Rare boots with Life, Mana, Strength, Dexterity, or Magic Find work well. String of Ears (for damage reduction), Glooms Mesh (for Mana/Life), or Crendium (for Str/Dex/Resists) are also good choices.

Rings: Again, Dwarf Stars are great, or MF rings, and if you can’t get Trang Gloves or Magefists, you could use 2x 10fcr rings.

Amulet: As many +skills as you can get (or Paladin Combat skills), or good stats (Life, Mana, Dex, Str)

THIS IS THE END OF THE GUIDE.  HAVE FUN AND GOOD LUCK IN YOUR HIGH RUNE/GEAR HUNT!