[PD2] Season 9 Hammerdin

Hey everyone, decided to try to optimize a build i theorycrafted in season 8 closed beta and see how far it could push. Turned out pretty good actually.
Armory : projectdiablo2...
Build Synopsis
Skills
Blessed hammer - 20
Concentration - 20
Vigor - 20
Joust - 20
Blessed Aim - Rest of points
Character Items
2 pally sk 20 fcr circlet with 2 os [Socketed with 2x 15 ias 3 MAEK jewel) : The ias is mainly for hitting the 78 attack speed breakpoint for faster jousting. Mana after kill is for mana of course.
Akarat Devotion Cast on Strike - Playing on strike with innocence armor procs much more hammers when you telestomp than cast on casting.
Innocence armor - To proc on striking
Arachnid Mesh - For skills and fcr to hit max fcr BP
BK ring with mana steal - Mana steal is actually better than MAEK for this build, since we will be jousting a lot, we get back alot of mana through that.
FCR with HFD ring - For fcr and cannot be frozen when paired with boots.
2 sk 20 fcr ammy
Tri res with HFD boots
Alma negra - For reduction to joust CD
CTA on holy shield base - To save skill points
Lightning Merc items
Azurewrath - For"Chance to cast holy light on striking" and sanctuary aura.
Innocence - For Bladeshield
Lava Gout - For enchant fire (to increase my character attack rating since i'm running innocence)
Verdungo
Shadow dancer - For curse resistance
Ferocity - For taunt
Exile shield - For defiance aura and decripy on striking
General playstyle
With quickcast, i leave my vigor on right and concentration on left, and i cast my joust/hammers, so when i stop jousting or casting hammers, it will default back to vigor. With the newly added "chance to cast holy light on striking", i no longer need to rely on prayer aura for sustain, and thus i'm running the static merc instead for the sweet 15% hp reduction. Max block and max res is a must as im generally be relying on taunt + decripy procs for safety as im not running any PDR on my gears. With holy shield and defiance aura, i have very high defense, so mobs hardly hit me.
Sustain
With enough MAEK and Mana steal on gears, i can telestomp with worrying about my mana. Thanks to joust, you can generate mana from mana steal despite being a caster but mana steal alone isn't enough to sustain the high amount of mana usage so both MAEK and mana steal are important.
Not running any LAEK, but hp sustain comes from holy light from merc and lifesteal from BK ring. (Joust)
The mercenary can be squishy, hence you can also heal your merc using your own holy light if it gets low.

[@heartemperor4616]

Hey all, some people are wondering how good is the new "chance to cast holy light on striking" on azurewrath, can it really replace prayer, etc.
So here's a demonstration video which i have 0 lifesteal / LAEK, so i'm relying solely on azurewrath for hp sustain :
ua-cam.com/video/qNTmnCaq6q8/v-deo.htmlsi=_VbrPKUY9oIdbq7s

[@StaffordM801]

Alma Negra for the joust cooldown? or does ed help hammer dmg? just wondering since I just slammed a 3os akarats wondering if it's worth anything. also why ias jewels in the circlet? I know nothing about hammerdin

[@heartemperor4616]

@@StaffordM801 yup, alma negra is for the joust CD. It also has +2 paladin skills. The ias jewels are specifically for reaching the higher ias BP just to joust quicker since joust is dependant on ias.

[@Dredswich]

😮

[@heartemperor4616]

Hey dred :D!

[@JapzOrtiz]

how do you got ur innocence? where u farming? whats your stategy to get those gg equips?

[@heartemperor4616]

just t1 maps if gears arent strong yet. never impulse buy overpriced items in trade site. sell items for a reasonable price. understanding the demand of certain items also helps a lot to know how high you can push your selling prices.

[@Christoff070]

​@@heartemperor4616great advice, thanks. Besides playing the builds, what else would u recommend to understand the value of certain items?

[@heartemperor4616]

​@@Christoff070 Certain items when hit with a certain corruption can skyrocket an item's price way above its clean value, so it's always a good to know which items are usually for which kind of builds.
Also, certain clean items would have higher value in early season (week 1), and price tends to fall off fast. However, certain corrupted items with desired corruptions tend to be go up in price as the season progress.
For instance, soul drainer on its own clean value wouldn't be worth that much in mid season, but in week 1, you could prob fetch twice the price even if it was clean.
A ED/DS corrupted soul drainer would be worth like maybe 2-3 HR in the first week, but tends to go up to 5-8 in mid season, so it really depends on how important that 3 HR is to you in the first week. Need that last 3 HR to finish your infinity? Then yeah, it's worth it, because with infinity you can speed up your farming process much quicker, resulting in more loots and overall networth at the end. If you need that 3 hr to buy something that's definitely gonna decrease in price like a 5X/18 torch then its not worth it. It's like trading your 5-8 hr item (mid season value) for a 1 hr item (mid season value).

[@Christoff070]

@@heartemperor4616 ypur clear explanation certainly makes a lot of intuitive sense, ty. I would even wonder if understanding the value of such items for trading and knowing when to sell them is a more important skill than reading maps, lol