Help the nOoBiE

[sapheonyx]

hi peeps. im new to diablo. ive read some strategies and all. i have a lvl 35 barb. which kinda sucks actually. and i got a lvl 18 paladin with 7 skills remaining to add on. i was wondering what is the best strategy for a paladin. i wanted to try the hammerdin but now im all confused. what are pre-requirements exactly? since lvl 11 i saved 7 skill points so that i could up 7 points to blessed hammer. but i cant. it requires me to go to lvl 19. is that suppose to happen in 1.11? anyways, id still like to know which strategy would be good. do i prioritize on my vitallity? and my dex? and if i cant add all 7 points to blessed hammer, what should i do with those 7 points?

[Shellz]

look around fourms fer a hammerdin guide and you shouldnt of put n e in dex

[sapheonyx]

how about the skill points? at lvl 18 with 7 available free points, i cant add all 7 to hammerdin. i can only add 1. and another after the next level. im using version 1.11. some guides say save your available skills and wait till u want the required skill. can someone clear this up for me?

[The-Grim-Reaper]

at lvl 18 u cn have a lvl 1 hammer, and u can add 1 more lvl for each lvl u gain. so when ur char is lvl 38 he can have a lvl 20 hammer.

[sapheonyx]

okay so then what does this mean?

"First get all the Prerequisites for the skills you are going to be maxing except hammerdin. At level 12 put all skill points into blessed aim. At level 18 put the 6 skill points you have into vigor, concentration, Blessed Aim, Blessed Hammer. You still have 2 skill points, at next level put 1 into each skill Battler Hammer, Vigor, Concentration. At level 19 start maxing battle hammer till it’s done. Secondly max vigor, then concentration, then blessed aim, then put the rest of your skill points into holy shield.

the quote is from http://www.d2sector.net/forums/showthread.php?t=1722
the paladins guides sticky thread. the post is from murderman24. the title of the guide is PvM Hammerdin Guide by: HEYman.

[The-Grim-Reaper]

yes that is a bit confusing but ill try and clear it up for u. this is wut skill to put point to on wut lvl:

after den: might(pre-req)
lvl2: prayer(pre-req)
lvl3: smite(pre-req)
lvl4: save
lvl5: save
lvl6: 1 to defiance(pre-req) // 1 to holy bolt(pre-req)
lvl7: save
lvl8: save
lvl9: save
lvl10: save
lvl11: save
lvl12: 1 to charge(pre-req) // blessed aim(synergy)
lvl13-17: blessed aim
lvl18: vigor(synergy) // conc(main aura) // hammer
lvl24: 1 in holy shield // 1 in meditation
lvl30: 1 in redemption // 1 in salvation

after that max in this order:
hammer
conc
vigor
blessed aim
holy shield(last)

just follow that exactly and u should have no problems.

[A|fzZz]

I would suggest max block on a hdin...Hdin does a lot of tanking.

[sapheonyx]

does blessed hammer hit more than 1 unit?

[A|fzZz]

Yes...If 5 mobs are cramped together....[highly impossible] 1 hammer hits all.

[sapheonyx]

so what technique should i use when using hammer? do i spam? or just spam 2 or 3 then go melee on the monsters?

[Freedom-Fighta]

With the hammerdin build, massive mana and massive mana regeneration (and potions ) are your best freinds. Early on, sticking p Sapphires (perfect sapphires) in helm/armor is a very good idea.

With this comes great responsibility. Far too often has a person tried to max BH right away. They find thmselves chugging potions just to kill 2 monsters. There is a guide around here somewhere on the mathematically correct maximum damage hammerdin... if I ever find it i'll post it here...

And Early on, i would just stick to 1 or 2 hammers. Later when your mana pool can take more stress, move on to small fields (4-5 hamers) and, eventually, your ultimate goal will be to be able to spam continuosly for a very long period of time.

Baal Runs - Stand at the third row of torches (or fourth?) so that the monsters aqcuire you, move at you, and baal doesnt curse you. after baal sinisterly laughs, count to about 3, then start spammin a hammerfield. If you time it right (it takes some work) your first hammer should impact right on the first monster. HOWEVER!!! be very careful, monsters directly below you can't be hit by hammers.

[Questor]

The HEYMon hammer guide is very good, I made my hammerdin that way and now have mostly outfitted him in the correct gear and he kicks *** at level 90. Until I got the Enigma armor he sucked for rushing and finding baal but now I'm very happy. I found him not very enjoyable to level until 29 when I added 2 sojs, vipermagi armor, +1 to skills shield and a +1 to skills weapon.

Edit: I also got a normal act 2 deffensive merc and they go well together. He boosts my armor and my concentration boosts his attack. Plus if you get enough armor on him, he can tank while you stand back enough to really nail the monsters good.

[A|fzZz]

@freedom

remembered that theres a skill called redemption

[Freedom-Fighta]

As a rule of thumb, i've always managed to get by with all my paladins using only build skills, and a some ppl reccommend using redmtion it may be worth trying. I hope however that you put NO MORE than 1 pt in it as it could seriosuly screw up the really high level builds (Zealots, Fohs, HAMMERDINS COUGH COUGH COUGH).

I never really considered it an option to sacrifice my Concentration for Redmtion. I always want to squeeze as much out of my damage as possible, cuz ya never know whats around the next corner, could be a fallen, could be a FE bugged ES EF Cursed LE MM Aura enhanced Tainted that will chew you up, spit you out and **** on your mangled corpse before you can press escape.