Bring the Hammer Down! by Allerka

Bring the Hammer Down!

By: Allerka
Last Updated: Nov 14, 2015
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Sgt. Hammer

Build: Primary Build

Level 1
Level 4
Level 7
Level 10
Level 13
Level 16
Level 20

Threats to Sgt. Hammer with this build

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Threat Hero Notes
1
 Abathur His minions are no real threat, and you'll probably never fight him directly. If you do, a couple whacks is all it takes.
1
 Brightwing Polymorph is annoying, otherwise it can't really do anything to bring you down.
1
 Li Li Blinding is annoying, but otherwise she can't really hurt you directly. Nuke her to strip away her support to any other enemies nearby.
1
 Lt. Morales The only thing she can do is knock you around with her grenade. Otherwise, same as Lili, nuke her first.
2
 Arthas Unless he roots you in the middle of a team fight, his ice will get melted by your fire.
2
 Chen Specced right, you can laugh as you burn through his drinking shield faster than he can charge it.
2
 The Lost Vikings Even if they're grouped up, it's easy XP for you because their overall health is so low. Avoid the longship if they take it, otherwise they really can't do anything to you.
3
 Illidan If he's played right, he can hurt. But even then, he really can't do anything to stop you knocking him back and then jetting away, and probably wasting his ultimate in the process.
3
 Leoric His life leech hurts a lot, but knockback and thrusters can get away from it easily enough. Otherwise it's the same as any other tank: keep your distance and wear him down last.
3
 Malfurion Mildly dangerous with his entangling roots, but only if you're trying to back off the entire enemy team. Otherwise you can ignore it one-on-one.
3
 Rehgar He really can't do much to you directly. Like most healers, nuke him first.
3
 Rexxar He can be annoying to fight if he's staying outside your attack range and letting Misha do his fighting. Luckily by late game you can completely negate that.
4
 Artanis His Phase Prism can stick you in the middle of his entire team to nuke you. One-on-one though, he really can't do enough damage to bring you down.
4
 Johanna Her main threat is her durability. It'll take a long while to burn her down by yourself. Ideally you'll want to be behind the lines in a team fight, saving her for last.
4
 Kael'thas His stun and flame circle can put some hurt on, but if you can push through that, he probably can't take you out while you make your escape. With enough regen orbs collected, you'll heal up enough to survive a living bomb too.
4
 Murky A smart Murky will throw a pufferfish at you, then immediately Octo-Grab you, so you can't get away, and then Envenom/Blood you after to make sure you die. If he's not built that way, then you're a hard counter to him, able to blast him before he can even get close enough to touch you.
4
 Tassadar His psychic storm can hurt a bit, and his shields can make it tough to kill enemies. Otherwise, the only other thing he can do to you directly is if he takes the 20% slow on basic attacks.
4
 Thrall A good Thrall can be a big nuisance, but that's about the worst he can do. His root can slow down an escape, but not stop it. And if you hit thrusters after he uses Windfury, his ability to chase you is gone.
4
 Tyrael If thrusters are down, he can chase you all day long and make your life miserable. A well-timed judgment can be devastating too. Otherwise if you stay back and pound away at him, he's probably just going to run away.
5
 Anub'arak His stuns can make it hard to escape, plus if he burrows behind you he can body-block you during a fight to keep you from escaping. Good support can negate this, though.
5
 Falstad His AoE lightning can make it difficult to escape damage, and his short-range jump can also keep him in damage range.
5
 Gazlowe His bombs can mess with you, and his turrets can hurt after a while. One-on-one in lanes, fight defensively.
5
 Kerrigan If she gets close, she can hurt. And of course she can keep you from escaping. If you're not alone though, just stand your ground and pound her in the face.
5
 Kharazim His AoE ultimate can hurt a bunch, and in general he can put out decent damage. Keep your distance and you should be fine.
5
 Tychus He can put some hurt on you if he gets close enough to auto-attack you for a while. His grenade can mess with an escape too. Otherwise blasting him can sometimes break his attack chain and he goes down at a distance like the pansy he is.
5
 Tyrande Her stun can be bothersome, and starfall can do some damage, but otherwise she's not much of a direct threat. Remove her healing potential if she happens to get in range.
6
 Azmodan Until end-game, his range is longer than yours, and his minions can overwhelm you with sheer weight of bodies. Play defensively.
6
 E.T.C. His stun and knockback, if done right, can leave you in a vulnerable position. Mosh Pit is also deadly, of course.
6
 Jaina Her chill makes it hard to get away. And if she positioned her Blizzard right, you're gonna be hurting pretty badly. But if you can shoot back without fear, she goes squish pretty easily.
6
 Muradin His stun, of course, can mean a bad day for you. His leap also means he can stick around and keep you slowed/stunned while the rest of the team blows you up.
6
 Raynor An auto-attack build can be deadly, as he's just outside your blast range and hitting you at absurd speeds. But if you're good on regen orbs, you can straight-up ignore his Hyperion.
6
 Sonya She's got great burst damage to burn you down quickly, but if you can knock her back before she gets her whirlwind off, and/or escape, you'll leave her vulnerable to a counter-attack. Especially if she's gone Rage build, your best bet is to just blast and flee to safer ground.
6
 Sylvanas She can put out a fair bit of damage, so caution is advised. Her black arrow can mess with you too, though one-on-one you'll probably be the stronger fighter, as long as she doesn't nuke your minion support.
7
 Diablo The gank-king is good at ganking you too. If he times his stuns right, he'll hit you after you've hit your thrusters, wasting their burn time, and leaving you vulnerable.
7
 Nazeebo His ring of zombies can be deadly, especially in a team fight. Luckily concussive blast blows them away, but if it's on cooldown, you're probably dead.
7
 Stitches His grappling hook can mean pretty much instant death for you. And if you're in siege mode, then you're a stationary target and easy to hit with it. Otherwise, there's not much else he can do to you, but that grapple is more than enough.
7
 Zagara Her banelings can be hard to avoid in siege mode, as well as the roach pod. In general, she can put a fair bit of hurt on you. And her creep gets EVERYWHERE. Use concussive blast and napalm to blast the tumors where you find them and hamper her.
7
 Zeratul If you don't see him coming, he can put a LOT of hurt on you. Even if you concussive blast him and thruster away, a shadow spike, blink, and two cleaves could be enough to end you.
8
 Nova A good Nova can put out enough damage to kill you in 2-3 seconds, before you can escape or have a chance to heal at all. She'll pop up outside your blast range, slow you down, and a triple-tap will probably finish the job before you fly too far.
8
 Uther A stun build Uther can keep you frozen in place for 4-5 seconds in endgame, which is more than enough for anyone with him to destroy you. Even on his own, his stun makes getting away if necessary hard to do, and in a team fight it can be devastating. Luckily he's probably not using it on you in a team fight.
8
 Valla She's got range to match yours, and her vault can keep her close enough to keep hitting you. A hungering arrow build can hurt a lot even if you're thrustering away. Definitely keep your distance until your range is greater than hers.
9
 Sgt. Hammer Honestly the only true threat to you is another smart Hammer. Go to a different lane early game, and hope they're picking the wrong talents by late game. Jockeying for position can be an interesting game in of itself.
9
 The Butcher Lamb to the Slaughter is guaranteed death for you. If he's at max meat stacks as well, he'll be able to punch through any damage you can do. Just keep your distance and don't face him alone.
10
   No Threat

Overview Top

"Hey, I got an idea. Why don't you go about thirty yards that way and hold REAL still."



I've been playing since towards the end of beta, and SGT Hammer has rapidly become one of my favorite heroes in the last month or two. Why? Because she can put out tons of damage to both siege and heroes, she can dictate the flow of battle better than almost any other hero, she can be nigh-impossible to kill in most situations, and her banter is some of the best in the game. So I'm writing a little guide to the success I've had with her.

Thus far I've won 25/38 games played with her, and it's pretty standard for me to take both top hero and siege damage in those wins, often with top XP and fewest deaths too. The sheer volume of damage and pressure on the opposition I can put out means I never have to worry about being the weak link in a match, and can even compensate for that genius who decided to take Nova on Infernal Shrines or something.

So, with that said, let me outline why these talents work for me.

Talents Top

Level 1:



Regeneration Master: It probably seems a little weird to pick this on a non-warrior, but this is the bread and butter of what keeps you alive. At a minimum, you should be collecting one orb per level, but with Hammer it's easy to go far higher. I think my record so far is about 45 orbs collected in a single match. Since you're hanging out in the back generally, not a lot of damage will come your way, and this lets you heal whatever you do take right back up without relying on the healer. Additionally, if you're in a smaller fight or laning, you can retreat and hit the fountain. With this augmenting the fountain, you'll need a lot fewer trips back to your altar.


Level 4:



Maelstrom Shells: Pretty much a mandatory choice. Vital in early game to give you extra pushing power in your lane, and then you can sit outside a fort's range and pound it all day long, minions or no. Plus combined with the later talents means you can hit stuff from absurd distances.


Level 7:



Hypercooled Thrusters: I know the instinct is to take First Aid to handle any healing needs you have, but I PROMISE the ability to fly around more frequently will be more useful. I lost count of the number of times I wound up getting ganked between 20 and 30 seconds waiting on the default cooldown before I started taking this. Not to mention you get back into fights way faster with this. Comparatively speaking, as well, you'll get to use this way more often than First Aid as well.


Level 10:



Napalm Strike: Hands down the better choice. With BFG you might occasionally be able to snipe someone from across the map, or loop it around the map to burn the core down, but otherwise it's useless compared to Napalm Strike. Dropping it every six seconds is a big part of what gets you those giant damage numbers. Combine a Napalm Strike with Concussive Blast and you can instantly clear an entire wave of minions to grab those juicy, juicy orbs. You can fire it on the go, you can fire it while you're transferring to siege mode, there's just nothing this baby can't do.


Level 13:



First Strike: At first Giant Killer may seem a little more reliable, but by the time you hit level 13, and especially after 16, First Strike is gonna boost your damage way further. You'll be so far away from most enemy heroes that there's no worry of being hit back, so the damage boost is bigger overall. Plus, this talent helps with siege camps. Drop mines, siege mode, fire napalm and concussive blast will get you about two hits before you take any damage back. Siege camps will go down in about 8 seconds, bruiser camps in about 15. And if you're helping your team fight a boss, then you're just golden, because we all know it's not going to be hitting you.


Level 16:



Graduating Range: I see a lot of people take Hover Strike, which just makes me scratch my head. Stacking this with Maelstrom Shells, this keeps you out of harm's way, and with your range getting bigger and bigger, if you're in a good spot you can keep providing covering fire and blasting away for a minute or more before you need to fall back. After level 20, you can siege up by the enemy's inner middle fort and, within 15 seconds, be able to hit EVERYTHING within their inner sanctum. After 30 seconds you're hitting enemy players as soon as they leave the altar. There's not much the enemy team can do when you're outside an inner fort and still hitting their core.


Level 20:



Nexus Frenzy: This is just icing on the cake. Your starting siege range is even further, and you're firing even faster now. By this point, you should be able to burn down even a tank before they could have any hope of closing with you and engaging. And if you're in a team fight, then you're nuking most healers faster than they can possibly heal. Just set up shop close enough and they'll have nowhere to run. Feel free to cackle maniacally at this point.

Execution Top

One of SGT Hammer's biggest weaknesses is her lack of mobility. Between Hyper-Cooling Engines, Napalm Strike, and Graduating Range, you've effectively negated this. She can jet around more often, continue to deal damage on the move, and if you DO wind up going stationary, you're hitting stuff from so far away you'll generally have plenty of warning to prepare to run away.

That said, be prepared to run a lot. Until end game, standing and fighting probably isn't going to be a good idea. Be prepared to hit Z and run back to the nearest fort right away. You're going to need to reposition siege mode a lot. Get used to that too. Early on, you're almost better off not even bothering with it, just for the added mobility it'll give you. Ultimately though, you'll probably be able to get through the match with only 0-2 deaths.

Like any particular build, it takes practice and playing smart. Good luck!

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