Why these abilities. Top
WARNING: Let me start by saying this guide is not for solo ranked que and will not work without very competent teammates who can play to this builds strengths. Your level 20 talent that you choose also depends if your team is ahead or behind as well. However, when you do have a proper pre setup team this build in the right hands is one of the strongest and most over powered in the game with its defensive and offensive pushing abilities. I do not recommend this build for
Haunted Mines map.
Guide Introduction
As I looked through the various other
Sgt. Hammer guides I noticed that they are all built the same way and do not utilize Sgt Hammer to her full ability. Sgt hammer is best played in the very back of team fights in
Siege Mode firing into the enemy team while not being attacked or touched.
If you build Sgt Hammer as intended in this guide you will be a team fighting, team pushing monster. A team push of 4 other players with a Sgt Hammer in the back with max stacks of Graduating Range is almost impossible to stop due to how many basic attacks the enemy must take before they can even engage your team. This is by far the best way to play Sgt Hammer. Any other way that people play Sgt Hammer I consider noobish and wrong. When playing Sgt hammer with these talents you will almost never want to fight when you are not in
Siege Mode unless it is the first 3-4 minutes of the game. You will also be able to stay in
Siege Mode for longer periods of time and escape with your lowered cool down of Siege Thrusters. Remember you can activate
Siege Thrusters while you are in
Siege Mode and it will take you directly out of
Siege Mode with the speed boost so always do that instead of pressing E first.
Below you will find a chapter for each tier of Talents you get to choose from. I highly Reccommend choosing all of the talents that are highlighted in green. The talents that are highlighted in yellow can also be chosen in very rare circumstances. If you do not choose the talents that I have chosen or decide to switch just one of them out it can break the whole build and make it weak due to the synergy the talents gain from each other.
Tier 1 Talents Top
Advanced Artillery-
8/10 - This talent is chosen simply for the fact that this whole build is based around sitting in the back and firing into the enemy team untouched. The only other ability I will consider with this build is Ambush.
Ambush -
7/10 - This is the only other talent I will ever consider for this tier of talents for this build. It can bring some huge burst damage but is not quite as good as
Advanced Artillery because it is only one time use per siege mode... it does not refresh and activate again after you enter
Siege Mode without leaving Siege Mode.
Regeneration Master -
6/10 - This is another good talent but is completely trumped by the tier two talent which heals much more and much faster for this siege build.
Resistant -
5/10 - This could also be a good talent in other builds but is useless due to the strategy we are using here is to sit in the back and not get attacked.
Lethal Blast -
3/10 - Never take this talent in any build.
Tier 2 Talents Top
Vigorous Assault -
9/10 - This is by far the best lane sustain option you have for Sgt Hammer. I take this talent almost every game
Maelstrom Shells -
8/10 - This is another widely chosen talent for Sgt Hammer. It is very good, but is greatly out shadowed by
Graduating Range, only choose this if you don't need the extra lane sustain from
Vampiric Assault.
Focused Attack -
5/10 - This is also a decent damage boost but only procs about once every 4-5 seconds if constantly firing so doesn't turn out to be much of a damage boost.
Excessive Force -
3/10 - Never choose this talent.
Tier 3 Talents Top
Hyper-Cooling Engines -
8/10 - This to me is your bread and butter for being able to siege properly without risk. This makes you come out of your spawn with your
Siege Thrusters already activated cool down free so you can use it again right after it drops off. It basically lets you use
Siege Thrusters twice in a row coming out of spawn. It also greatly lowers the cool down on
Siege Thrusters. I find the survivability gained from a lower cool down on Thrusters is far greater then having a burst heal in First-Aid.
First Aid -
6/10 - Lots of people also take this talent. I however think this is another mistake people make. We already have
Vampiric Assault which gives us great stay power and sustained healing in our lane.. much more then
Regeneration Master would, so we don't need anymore of that. The only other reason we would take this talent is for burst healing, however using this strategy we should never be fighting up close or taking damage.. and if we are we are going to be using our Siege Thrusters on low cool down to get away faster therefore in my opinion making this talent obsolete.
Slowing Mines -
3/10 - Never take this talent.
Tier 4 Talents Top
Napalm Strike -
10/10 - This is a huge damage boost and a really good poke skill for Sgt Hammer. Use this skill when running away or when in siege mode and firing into the enemy carries. This is all around the best Ultimate ability to choose from.
Blunt Force Gun -
5/10 - The super long cool down on this skill is what makes it a never pick for me. There is some cool utility you can get out of taking the level 20 talent along with it but that is too many levels to get to that point and in my opinion much wasted utility and poke gained from
Napalm Strike. Never take this talent.
Tier 5 Talents Top
First Strike -
9/10 - This talent is your bread and butter with this build. This talent is a must take in all situations or else you are not building and playing the way I am trying to intend you to play with this guide. This talent boosts your basic damage by a whopping 25% when you have not been attacked for 5 seconds. This is useful for mercenary camps, defending, pushing, almost every situation. Always take this talent it is one of the best and also one of the most overlooked. To me this separates over powered Sgt Hammers from average Sgt Hammers.
Barricade -
8/10 - This is an awesome talent and bring a lot of utility and survivability but is just not relevant to the way we are trying to play. If you are using Concussive shot in this build you should be using it to retreat not to tank someone a bit longer.
Giant Killer -
3/10 - Sgt Hammers attack speed is just too slow for this talent.
Bullhead Mines -
1/10 - Do you see the other talents in this tier? Never take this talent.
Tier 6 Talents Top
Graduating Range -
10/10 - To me this is by far the BEST talent that Sgt Hammer has in her whole kit. With this talent at 100% range boost and a good Sgt hammer planted far in the back during a team push it is almost impossible for the other team to defend. It increases your attack range in siege mode gradually the longer you are in it. The range you can get on attack mode with this talent is insane and has HUGE synergy with
First Strike and
Advanced Artillery. This is where most people go wrong in not realizing that all this talent makes it REALLY easy to achieve the damage boost from
First Strike, therefore passing both of these talents up.
Hover Siege Mode -
8/10 - This is a decent talent but is not as good as
Graduating Range. Sgt Hammer has to stop moving to attack and just doesn't work as good as you would think. I still find most people choosing this talent, however most of those people aren't taking
First Strike and not playing Sgt Hammer to her full potential. I find that I get much more attacks in with
Graduating Range then with Hover Siege Mode.
Executioner -
7/10 - This is another really good talent but I just cant see it being used over
Graduating Range. If your team has huge CC's and slows this can be taken over
Graduating Range in VERY VERY rare circumstances. Usually your whole team needs to be built to cc and slow the enemy so you can turret into them to take this talent.
Stoneskin -
4/10 - The other talents are too good to take this talent.
Mine Field -
1/10 - This talent is not nearly on par with the other talents on this tier.
Tier 7 Talents Top
Advanced Lava Strike 10/10 - This talent is another of Sgt Hammer's best talents. Take this talent if you are a little behind and not winning team fights, it can give the necessary poke to swing the momentum. It adds extreme range and poke to
Napalm Strike and also adds some good impact damage. This can be a great talent for picking people off or if you are having trouble getting people into your auto attack range.
Nexus Frenzy -
10/10 - This is another REALLY good talent for Sgt Hammer. Take this talent if your team is winning to help your offensive push and to snowball even harder. I do take
Advanced Lava Strike over this talent some of the time, but when looking to end the game fast or start a really offensive push I take this talent. This talent along with the other talents I have specified in this build make your auto attack do insane damage and can kill pretty much any hero at the same level as you in under 3 seconds. Take this talent if the circumstances call for it.
Fury of the Storm -
7/10 - This talent actually adds some decent dps to your basic attacks but is not nearly as good as
Nexus Frenzy or
Advanced Lava Strike.
Orbital BFG -
1/10 - This talent is really good if you have that the ultimate skill to go with it, but we never take that talent in this build.
How to use this build Top
This chapter is soon to come with video explanations as well.
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