Making the most of Hammer by Drummerboy

Making the most of Hammer

By: Drummerboy
Last Updated: Dec 2, 2015
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Build 1 of 3

Sgt. Hammer

Build: Coordinated Punishment

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

Sgt. Hammer

Build: Life will go on

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

Sgt. Hammer

Build: Ultimate Poke

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

Coordinated Punishment Top

This build assumes you have a team on comms, coordinating to protect you. This will give you great damage-at-range but not a lot of survivability or escape (this is where you team comes in.)

TALENTS:

Advanced Artillery and Giant Killer will give you extra sustained damage that will help not only in lane pushes, but add continuous punishment during teamfights; this combos well with Maelstrom Shells, Graduating Range, and Nexus Frenzy so you can engage earlier and continue putting out damage without having to leave siege or over-extend yourself.

First Aid is really the only survivability-based talent in this build, since no other talents at this tier will lend to your main DPS, first-aid will let you survive small dives or long-range pokes so you can stay in a fight longer and keep putting out damage.

Napalm Strike with its very low cooldown will let you add decent AOE burst damage throughout teamfights, as well as add a fantastic poke you can use outside of siege mode (and is great for dismounts.)

ABILITIES:

You should be laying down Spider Mines whenever you are out in lane, to cover your flanks (especially while in Siege Mode.)

Concussive Blast is going to be used mostly for escapes (followed by a quick Rocket Boosters or to push enemies back into your team.

Use Siege Mode smartly, as it does make you a juicy target.. Only do it when there's value (enemy team clumped up so you can add AOE damage, or when you're pounding down enemy buildings or minion waves.)

Life will go on Top

This build is going to really hamper your damage, but will make you a consistent, hard to address threat. This is going to be great for split-pushing and harassing, but bad for engaging (this will work better on maps where lanes are left empty during objective times such as Cursed Hollow and Abandoned Mines.) This will require your team to work with you so you can keep split pushing, and will really rely on your map awareness and mobility to predict and escape ganks and counter pushes before you're over-committed.

TALENTS:

Resistant is an obvious pick for survivability, and will give you a chance to Thrusters out of danger if the enemy does get a stun off on you. Obviously, if they manage to stun once you leave siege (i.e. activate thrusters) then this isn't going to help you anymore, so don't overstay your welcome.

Vampiric Assault is your only 'heal' while in the field since we're not taking first-aid. Since you'll be largely split-pushing, this talent should keep your health topped off from minions and mercenaries. Again, you won't be teamfighting with this build much, so it's not going to keep you alive against enemy heroes.

Hyper-Cooling Engines is going to give us mobility. Reducing the cooldown will let you cover ground more quickly after hearthing to get back into a lane and pushing, and still get it off cooldown by the time you need it for an escape. Since this build is centered around your map awareness and smart positioning, this is going to be more valuable than first-aid. Barricade will be a good combo with this to aid in your escapes from enemy heroes and help prevent engages or chasing.

Napalm Strike is the more valuable ult here due to it's quicker cast speed and ability to quickly dismount pursuing heroes. During pushing, its low cooldown will allow you to siege down lanes that much faster, and Advanced Lava Strike will allow you to stay safely out of range of your opponents while using it (or dismount and damage pursuers even farther away.)

Stone Skin will be your big red danger button in case enemy heroes get too close (dive engages for example.) Ideally when you pop this you'll still have Thrusters and/or Barricade off cooldown to finish your escape.

ABILITIES:

You'll want to use Siege Mode sparingly (when in range of enemy buildings but while you have map awareness of enemies or protection from your team.)

Spider Mines should be used on cooldown to keep your flanks covered; bushes are a great place for these, and a few right under your bumper will be good for divers like Illidan and Zeratul.

Concussive Blast will be used as an escape tool, or extra wave clear if you have map awareness of enemies.

Ultimate Poke Top

There's not a lot to say about this build; it's for massive-damage single auto-attacks. Your goal here is to get in, throw out one or maybe a few hard hitting attacks, and re-position. You're going to be mixing engagements with mobility here to make it harder for the enemy team to engage or stop you.

TALENTS:

Ambush will come into play when you plan the engagements (setting up a gank, or ambushing at an objective or camp.)

Focused Attack will give your auto-attacks that extra oomph, and since you'll be dipping in and out of combat, with a few auto-attacks, it will be back off timer and proc again the next time you engage. First Strike has the same use, since you ideally shouldn't be getting attacked with your dis-engage and re-engage.

Hyper-Cooling Engines will help with mobility. If the enemy engages quickly or from a hidden position, this will get you out fast and let you keep engaging with new positioning.

Blunt Force Gun is going to be the pick here due to its unlimited range. Napalm will require you to be a little closer to the fight than you should be with this build, and you wouldn't be able to fully utilize its cooldown.

Executioner is really going to depend on your team comp. If you have a decent amount of CC on your team, then this will definitely pay off if you focus those CC targets. If your team doesn't have a lot of CC, I'd suggest going Mine Field instead, just to get off a bit more damage whenever someone does trigger your mines (drop them right before you are disengaging so if enemies come sniffing they get the brunt of the damage.)

Fury of the Storm at level 20 will give us that extra bit of damage per-hit. Since we're not doing sustained damage, Nexus Frenzy is less useful, and the Orbital BFG isn't going to be reliable damage-on-target like Fury.

ABILITIES:

You'll want to avoid Siege Mode unless you're blasting enemy buildings or minions. You'll need the mobility.

Spider Mines should be dropped underneath yourself before disengaging to trap divers.

Concussive Blast shouldn't see much use ideally, since you should be out of range of enemies, but it can create a gap to escape if things go south.

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