This is a proposed rework for Sgt. Hammer. As a Sgt Hammer main of sorts, I've often found the lack of viable utility in her talents to be frustrating, with only one build being viable. Don't get me wrong, its a good build, decent in most situations, but it makes playing Hammer a bit repetitive.
Combat Trait
1
Seige Mode
Cooldown: 2 seconds
Activate to enter Siege Mode. While in Siege Mode, Basic Attacks deal 20% more damage, have 100% increased range, and deal 25% of their damage as splash damage around the target. After being in Siege Mode for 3 seconds, basic attacks heal for 10% of the damage dealt.
Having a self-heal as a stationary target isn't just a must pick at level 4, but essential. Hammer can't seek out healing easily without neglecting her lane, so having healing baked into her trait means her level 4 talents can offer more utility.
Primary Abilities
1
Spider Mines
50 Mana Cooldown: 14 seconds
Create 3 mines that arm after 1.25 seconds. Mines detonate when an enemy comes in range, dealing 96 damage to nearby enemies and Slowing them by 25% for 1.5 seconds.
Siege Mode: Cast range increased by 100%.
2
Concussive Blast
80 Mana Cooldown: 12 seconds
Deal 141 damage to enemies in front of Sgt. Hammer and knock them back.
Siege Mode: Radius increased by 50%.
3
Neosteel Plating
60 Mana Cooldown: 16 seconds
Gain 25 Armor for 2 seconds.
Siege Mode: Grants 100% more Armor.
Heroic Abilities
1
Blunt Force Gun
100 Mana Cooldown: 70 seconds
Fire a missile across the battlefield that knocks back enemies, dealing 200 damage to non-Structure enemies in its path. Enemies caught in the center of the missile's path are stunned for 1.5 seconds.
Travel speed increased from 20 to 60
2
Napalm Strike
35 Mana Cooldown: 6 seconds
Deals 164 damage on impact, and leaves a napalm area that deals 50 damage per second. Lasts for 4 seconds.
Special Mount
1
Seige Thrusters
Cooldown: 30 seconds
Increase Movement Speed by 60% for 4 seconds. Thrusters are always active while at the Altar. Activating Thrusters cancels Siege Mode.
1.1 - Ambush
Gain Stealth when entering Siege Mode or after not taking or dealing damage for 2 seconds while in Siege Mode. Remaining stationary for at least 1.5 seconds while Stealthed grants Invisible. Deploying Spider Mines does not break stealth.
Being able to Stealth in Siege mode has way too much utility to make this not an instant pick. It means you can hide in plain sight on objectives, 'disappear' from your lane when you're actually gone no where, and set up hard to predict ganks because you don't need a bush. The bonus damage when exiting stealth made all other Level 1 Talents pointless. I've removed that, but in its place allowed Hammer to place mines without breaking stealth and to return to stealth quicker. You can still potentially give away your position, but if your subtle, you can still pull off some tremendous plays.
1.2 - Advanced Artillery
Cooldown: 45 seconds.
Activate to increase Siege Mode's splash damage to 100% of Basic Attack damage, and increase its splash radius by 25% for 5 seconds.
If you're facing a team that tends to bunch up, either because they have a Stukov or are a team consisting of high CC melee heroes, this talent can be chosen to punish them.
1.3 - Maeltrom Rounds
Cooldown: 60 seconds.
Activate to increase Basic Attack damage dealt to structures by 50% for 3 seconds. Hitting enemy Heroes with Basic Attacks reduces the cooldown of Maelstrom Rounds by 10 seconds.
Stores up to 2 charges.
Hammer already has high damage output, so the temporary buff of the old version of this talent was never appealing when you could become Stealthed in Siege Mode if you picked another talent. But Hammer has never had the ability to burst down structures like other 'specialists' like Murky or Azmodan, this talent is designed to address that gap in her tool kit.
4.1 - Barricade
Cooldown: 90 seconds.
Construct a wall with 500 health that is impassable to enemy heroes.
The previous version of this talent had utility in that it kept enemies away from you and gave you chance to escape, but your normal Concussive Blast followed up by Siege Thrusters is usually reliable enough to put distance between you and any ganking enemy hero. Plus building a wall that was impassable for your team could prove detrimental during a team fight on an objective as it would hurt their ability to reposition, so you had to be careful about using Concussive Blast to save yourself lest you inconvenience your whole team.
The new version of this talent lets Hammer wall off part of her lane, letting her reduce the number of potential locations enemy heroes could gank from. Th wall drops from the sky, and looks like the gates in Starcraft that drops into the floor when friendly heroes approach.
4.2 - Seige Tactics
Using Neosteel Plating while in Siege Mode grants Unstoppable for 2 seconds, as long as she remains in Siege Mode.
Now self healing is part of her kit as standard, I figured this talent could remain the same because its now a viable pick and means Hammer no long is hard countered by Stitches or Artanis.
4.3 - Regenerative Bio-Steel
!Quest: Each Regen Globe collected increases the healing of basic attacks in Siege Mode by 1% of the damage dealt, up to a maximum of 20%.
!Reward: After collecting 10 Regen Globes, basic attacks now heal the moment you enter Siege Mode.
The previous version of this talent was a must pick because without it Hammer felt incredibly weak. Now healing is baked into her trait, this talent instead increases that healing. A Regen Globe quest is generic, but gathering Regen Globes will be tricky for Hammer as her roaming potential is weak, so this could end up being a talent you only pick on two lane maps.
7.1 - Pulse Detonation Core
Spider Mines detonate 3 times over 3 seconds but for 25% less damage. If an enemy is hit by all three detonation, increase the slow time by a further 1.5 seconds. Basic Attacks against enemy Heroes in Siege Mode grant 5 Mana and reduce the cooldown of Spider Mines by 1 second.
Pulse Detonation Core was a talent so good is made all other talents at its level pointless. To that end, I've reduced the damage per detonation because a talent trebling the damage of an ability is ridiculous, but instead doubled down on the CC potential of Spider Mines. I also reduced the cooldown reduction in hopes of making it further balanced.
7.2 - Rapid Redeployment
Cooldown - 90 seconds.
Activate to get recalled into orbit before being dropped at a target location in Siege Mode 3 seconds later. The target location can be anywhere you have vision.
Hover Siege Mode which this talent replaces had its uses, but never had consistent value. You couldn't use it to escape, you couldn't use it to pursue, and while it allowed you to keep up with a minion wave without exiting and entering siege mode, with how fast you transform these days, the time saved it negligible. This talent instead addresses Hammer's inability to quickly change lanes or get to an objective. Now Hammer won't have to neglect soaking on maps like Cursed Hallow because she has to trundle on over.
7.3 - Extreme Range Bombardment
Cooldown: 60 seconds
Activate to increase Basic Attack range while in Siege Mode by a further 50% for 3 seconds.
If your facing a team with a lot of high mobility glass-cannon assassins, this might be the talent for you because it makes said assassins terrified to engage you because even with their mobility, they might struggle to escape you or get close to you because you could also activate it as they approach to get in damage before they get in range.
10.1 - Blunt Force Gun
100 Mana Cooldown: 100 seconds
Fire a missile across the battlefield that knocks back enemies, dealing 200 damage to non-Structure enemies in its path. Enemies caught in the center of the missile's path are stunned for 1.5 seconds.
Travel speed increased from 20 to 60. The old Blunt Force Gun provided Hammer with raw damage. However, using Napalm strike in tandem with Basic Attacks has always been a more reliable source of damage for Hammer, mostly because you can guarantee you'll hit with Napalm Strike. So instead, Blunt Force Gun now provides Hammer with some much needed team fight disruption. If the enemy is hero-balling, and looking to pounce Hammer as she's their biggest threat, Blunt Force Bullet can be used to break them up and potentially stun a few of them.
10.2 - Napalm Strike
35 Mana Cooldown: 6 seconds
Deals 164 damage on impact, and leaves a napalm area that deals 50 damage per second. Lasts for 4 seconds.
Napalm Strike remains unchanged as its a solid ult if your focus is lane pushing or dishing out damage during team fights.
13.1 - Tactical Mine Deployment
Cooldown: 45 Seconds
Activate to make your next use of Siege Thrusters leaves a trail of up to 7 Spider Mines that instantly arm themselves, but the cooldown of Siege Thrusters is increased by 50%.
Tactical Mine Deployment's old wording has always been broken. Spider Mines are a devastating bit of Hammer's kit, so being able to spawn 5 for free, and increase the slow time is ridiculous. It also meant that no other talent at this level was viable. So now, you spawn more mines, and they arm instantly, but the slow bonus has been worked into another talent. Its also important to note the increase in cooldown is a one time thing, and not permanent.
13.2 - Low Flying Shrapnel
Spider Mines now slow for 50% and arm 50% faster. If an enemy hero is hit by three mines within 1.5 seconds, they're stunned for 2 seconds before being slowed.
The Entrenched Talent is gone because the benefits it gave weren't useful. Instead, this talent greatly buffs Hammer's Spider Mines, and rewards careful placement to make sure an enemy is hit by all three mines.
13.3 - Active Camophlage
While Siege Thrusters are active, if you pass through a bush, gain Invisible for the rest of the time Siege Thrusters are active.
This talent replaces Hyper-Cooling Engines. Personally, I'm not sure about this talent as going through a bush breaks line of sight anyways, but if you need to slip by a hero ball to sneakily push top lane, I can see it having uses.
16.1 - Mechanical Know-how
Neosteel Plating grants 7.5% maximum Health as a Shield for 2 seconds. If this Shield is destroyed, Basic Attack damage is increased by 40% for 5 seconds.
This talent is fine, I just upped the shield percentage to make it more of a defensive talent than an offensive.
16.2 - Executioner
Attacking a Hero that is slowed, rooted, or stunned increases your Basic Attack damage by 30% for 3 seconds.
Again, a perfectly serviceable talent. Best picked if your team has high CC.
16.3 - Giant Killer
Basic Attacks against enemy Heroes deal bonus damage equal to 1.5% of the Hero's maximum Health.
No issues with this talent. Best picked if your team lacks CC, or the enemy team consists mostly of high bruisers and tanks.
20.1 - Orbital BFG
Blunt Force Gun's missile orbits the planet every 5 seconds. Only the last missile fired orbits.
This talent is fine as is. It'll work fine with Blunt Force Gun's new design, and can be a legitimate threat should a fight run long.
20.2 - Advanced Lava Strike
Napalm Strike's range is increased by 50%, its impact does 50% more damage, and its impact zone is 20% larger.
I slightly reduced the range provided by this talent to give other talents at this level a chance.
20.3 - Shrapnel Mines
The initial detonation of Spider Mines now reduces armor by 10, up to 30, for 4 seconds, and deals damage equal to 5% of the enemy hero's maximum health over 5 seconds.
This is similar to the previous version of this talent, but I also gave Spider Mines some much needed late game omph with the percentage based damage.
20.4 - Ultra Capacitors
Cooldown: 120 seconds.
Activate to increase attack speed by 100%. This lasts as long as this ability is channeled and each basic attack consumes 50 mana for as long as this ability is active.
This talent is a way of giving Hammer some powerful late game burst, either for bringing down the core, or quickly ending team fights. I do fear this ability is perhaps overpowered, but I'm not a game designer.
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