Build Guide
Hammerdin was a king of season 4 and one of the most powerful builds in Diablo 2 as well. I am glad it is still good! And not only good, but actually very powerful.
GENERAL TIPS:
1) Allres is VERY important for Crusader.
2) As much CDR as possible.
3) For life recovery: Life on Hit on BRACERS, Life per Wrath spent on SHIELD or weapon. If you have over 50% CHC, you can also have Life on Hit on helm, gloves or rings. If you have Life Per Wrath spent on weapon, i strongly recommend to run Unstoppable Force rune. Much smoother.
4) Weapon is pretty much the HIGHEST DPS you can find, with life on hit or CDR (LoH is more important).
5) High CDR = your second life with permanent Akarath's Champion "Prophet" rune.
6) The build has high damage and toughness against single target, but very squishy against multiple enemies.
7) You need to cast Falling Sword every 8 seconds to proc damage reduction of 4pc bonus.
8) Hammers Jammers are being procced mostly by the belt. When you land with Falling Sword the belt casts Judgement and immobilizes enemies for 6 seconds AND applies a powerful -40% Debilitate debuff. You can use Flurry FS rune as well, but i prefer the stun rune at all times, cause immobilize and stun are different "control imparing effects",and it's important against powerful mobs who quickly develop immunity, like RG.
Overall, what rune you use: Rapid Descent, Part of the Clouds or Flurry = does not matter. They are all good.
9) Falling Sword damage is pathetic and is not to be considered at all.
10) Most wrath recovery comes from constant uptime of Provoke and Unstoppable Force.
11) Always try to stand in Oculus ring. Jump in there with Falling Sword, if you can't reach it by foot.
12) You can try the Critical rune of the Law for maximum damage. For TOP clear you will most likely need it (this is what was used for highest clear on top of the LBs)
13) In 2.4.3 new Juggernaut elite affix is introduced. It cann be immobilized/stunned/affected by any CC, so you cannot proc Hammers Jammers, Bane of the Trapped does not work, etc etc... And you do pathetic damage to this type of elite. DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME! Skip all Juggernauts.
14) Always fight in density and watch your Faithful Memory stacks, do not fight trash if stacks below <5. Drag elites to trash mobs.
15) Since we switch Furnace to Faithful Memory - single elites and especially single Rift Guardians will take TWICE MORE time to kill now. Also keep in mind that Rift Guardians CANNOT BE IMMOBLIZED, so that's why it takes a lot of time to kill them. Your ideal situation is to make huge progress across the rift and also be lucky with an RG like Saxtris or Hamelin.
SKILL OPTIONS:
One of the biggest problems with Hammerdin is it's squishiness. It's quite fragile, and playing without a huge pool or armor and augments can be a pain, especially in higher grifts where even recovery does not help at times. Like i mentioned above, using Unity is the first and best option to improve toughness. And the rest of tougness comes from different skills.
1) Invincible instead of Critical/Unstoppable Force. Massive Life on Hit gained
2) Laws of Justice - Decaying Strength instead of Critical/Unstoppable Force. Massive -60% debuff. Along with Debilitate you will have a -100% debuff.
3) Provoke - Cleanse, even more Life on Hit.
4) Iron Skin - Steel Skin, even longer damage reduction
PASSIVE OPTIONS:
1) Wrathful instead of Holy Cause. Will give you a tonn of recovery, especially if you have a lot of Globe bonus and don't have Life per Wrath spent somewhere else.
2) Blunt instead of Holy Cause. About 8-10% more damage, but you are losing that 1% life recovery. Good choice if you already have a tonn of recovery stacked.
Thank you!
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Have you ever thought of using Cord of the Sherma for it's blind effect to proc Hammer Jammers instead of Sacred Harness? I have an ancient Cord with good rolls, but can't find an ancient Harness yet. The flat stats don't seem like enough to make a difference for the leg effect.
Thoughts?
Not a bad idea, but overall Sacred Harness is better