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Paladin Build Guide Diablo 2 Resurrected | Hammerdin

Paladin Build Guide for Diablo 2 Resurrected Hammerdin. This is and End Game Paladin Build which is very popular among players because it excels in almost all categories with very few drawbacks. If you are looking for the Ultimate Paladin Build, then this Hammerdin Build Guide is for you.

  • Class: Paladin
  • Skill Line Focus: Combat Skills
  • Build Focus: DPS
  • Main Attribute: Vitality
  • Difficulty Level: Hell
  • Level: 40 – 87+

Diablo 2 Resurrected Paladin Build | Hammerdin

While playing the Hammerdin in Diablo 2 Resurrected you’ll quickly Teleport to your enemies and spam the Blessed Hammer Combat Skill. This skill invokes a hammer that spins around the Paladin dealing massive damage to all enemies it comes in contact with, killing enemies very quickly in large groups. The damage output for each hammer can easily go from 12k to 15k damage which is huge. You’ll be able to quickly clear most enemies even at /Players 8 with ease.

Using the Teleportation Skill combined with Max FCR (Faster Cast Rate) allows you to move through the map at immense speeds, and this is granted to you by the Enigma Runeword. If you don’t have Enigma, you can instead use the Vigor Defensive Aura to enhance your walking speed. It’s important that you walk, because your Block is greatly reduced while running.

While attacking, you’ll need to swap your Teleport skill with the Concentration Offensive Aura, as this aura greatly increases the damage dealt by your Blessed Hammer. Note that if you’re playing on controller you can have both these Skills mapped to separate buttons so this is not necessary.

Similar to other Paladin Builds in Diablo 2 Resurrected, the Hammerdin is very tanky. Using the Holy Shield Skill allows you to reach max Block without investing too many points into Dexterity, which means you’ll have a lot of spare points to invest into Vitality. This combines Block Rate and Life, making you really hard to kill. This Build can perform any type of run without issues. I personally like to run Chaos Sanctuary, because of the large packs of enemies which provides both great loot and experience.

This Diablo 2 Paladin Build is intended to be used for Nightmare and Hell difficulties starting around around Lvl 40. You can start the game with this build, but I personally recommend you use our Holy Fire Build instead, and then respec into this one. If you are already playing and want to respec into this build though, the easiest way to do it is by claiming the Den of Evil reward from Akara at the Rogue Encampment. You’ll get 3 respecs (1 for each difficulty) and you’ll need to be on the same difficulty to reclaim them.

Paladin Build Guide Stats | Hammerdin

Like most Builds in Diablo 2 Resurrected, our Stats distribution will focus on assigning enough points into Strength to meet equipment requirements, enough points into Dexterity to reach Max Block and then assigning everything else into Vitality to gain as much Life as possible.

  • Strength: Just enough to use your equipment. This will greatly depend on the gear that you are using, and the +Strength that you get from the rest of your equipment.
  • Dexterity: You should have enough dexterity to acquire Max Block (75%). This depends on your Shield so I can’t give you a number, but make sure to first use your Holy Shield Skill and then assign points into Dexterity until you reach the 75% Cap
  • Vitality: All remaining points should be spent here.
  • Energy: No points required

Having a Hellfire Torch and an Annihilus will greatly reduce your stat investment into Strength. These unique charms provide between +10-20 to all Attributes and +10-20 to all Elemental Resistances. Having both in your inventory will save you between 20 and 40 stats points that you can spend into Vitality greatly increasing your health pool. The additional passive resistances will also allow you to depend less on +All Resistances equipment, opening up more options.

If you don’t have a Hellfire Torch or an Annihilus yet, I strongly recommend that you get them as soon as you can. Perfect rolled ones are very expensive, but you can get bad rolled ones for very affordable prices. Make sure to get a low roll when you are starting off and then upgrade it when you have enough money.

Paladin Build Guide Skills | Hammerdin

The Hammerdin is designed around two main skills which are the Blessed Hammer Combat Skill and the Concentration Offensive Aura. You’ll use the following Skills when playing this Diablo 2 Resurrected Paladin Build:

blessed_hammer_paladin_skills_diablo_2_resurrected_wiki_guide_132pxBlessed Hammer

The Blessed Hammer Skill summons a magical hammer that spirals outwards damaging enemies along its path, with Undead enemies taking 150% damage. The Hammer spins around you making a wider and wider turn until it disappears, and multiple enemies can be hit by the same hammer.

Because of the spin pattern, positioning is key to effectively use this skill. The Teleport skill provided by the Enigma Runeword is the best option as you can teleport directly upon enemies assuring the hammer will hit them as soon as it spawns.

concentration_paladin_skills_diablo_2_resurrected_wiki_guide_132pxConcentration

While active, the Concentration Offensive Aura will reduce the chance of your attacks being interrupted and greatly increase your damage by a percentage. The damage increase percentage is halved for the Blessed Hammer. This means that if your Concentration Ability provides 200% increased damage it will only increase your blessed hammer damage by 100%, but even halved, this is a huge bonus that makes your hammers decimate enemies in seconds.

holy_shield_paladin_skills_diablo_2_resurrected_wiki_guide_132pxHoly Shield

This Skill increases your shield’s defense and block chance. Since this provides diminishing returns, the amount of points that you’ll need to spend here to acquire Max Block Chance will depend on the amount of +Skills that is provided by your gear.

You’ll get +36% at lvl 22 Holy Shield so this might be a good number to do the math on. Simply sum the amount of +Skills that you’ll get from your gear and then substract that number from 22. So if your equipment provides you +10 Skills you do 22 – 10 = 12. You’ll need to assign 12 points into Holy Shield to acquire max block.

charge_paladin_skills_diablo_2_resurrected_wiki_guide_132pxCharge

While you won’t use this skill for combat, you should assign this to one of your hotkeys and use it to quickly navigate through the map.

Holding the shift button and then clicking where you want to go will make your character quickly charge there.

vigor_paladin_skills_diablo_2_resurrected_wiki_guide_132pxVigor

This aura greatly increases your movement speed and, while you are assigning points here to increase your Blessed Hammer Damage by synergies, it’s also a great alternative to Charge to navigate through the map without having to spend any mana .

redemption_paladin_skills_diablo_2_resurrected_wiki_guide_132pxRedemption (Optional)

If you are having problems with Mana, you can also spend 1 Skill point here. This Aura purifies bodies and provides you with Life and Mana in exchange. This is very useful to quickly regenerate your mana and get rid of bodies at the same time, but should not be necessary if you have enough gear.

Level 40 Paladin Skill Distribution

Since this guide is starting at Lvl 40, you’ll want to first focus on your Blessed Hammer and Concentration Skills, and then work towards completing Vigor and Blessed Aim as each of them increases your Blessed Hammer magic damage by 14% per level. You should have around 43 skill points at lvl 40 (39 from levels, and 4 from Quests). You should have your Skills placed in the following manner:

 

LEVEL 40 PALADIN SKILLS
Skill Points Spent
 Might (Pre-Requisite)  1
 Blessed Aim  1
 Concentration  17
 Smite (Pre-Requisite)  1
 Holy Bolt (Pre-Requisite)  1
 Charge (Pre-Requisite)  1
 Blessed Hammer  20
 Holy Shield  1

 

Level 87 Paladin Skill Distribution

At level 87 you should have 98 skill points to distribute, 86 from Levels and 12 from Quests, and they should look like this:

LEVEL 87 PALADIN SKILLS
Skill Points Spent
 Prayer (Pre-Requisite)  1
 Defiance (Pre-Requisite)  1
 Cleansing (Pre-Requisite)  1
 Vigor  20
 Might (Pre-Requisite)  1
 Blessed Aim  20
 Concentration  20
 Smite (Pre-Requisite)  1
 Holy Bolt (Pre-Requisite)  1
 Charge (Pre-Requisite)  1
 Blessed Hammer  20
 Holy Shield  11

 

Paladin Build Guide Equipment | Hammerdin

When it comes to equipment your first goal will be trying to achieve 125% FCR (Faster Cast Rate).

Like most skills in Diablo 2, the Blessed Hammer Skill doesn’t have a cooldown on its own. Instead, you need to wait for your character to finish the cast animation and then start a new one.

The time that your character takes to cast a skill depends on the Class. In the case of Paladins, casting each spell without any FCR equipment will require 15 frames. When you equip something that provides Faster Cast Rate (FCR), the cast animation time is reduced by a percentage, but unless you are able to reduce the amount of frames required to finish the animation it won’t have a real effect on gameplay.

This means that when trying to reduce your cast time, you’ll need to find the FCR percentage breakpoints for each frame drop. As you can see in the following table, the Paladin FCR Frame breakpoints are at 9% – 18% – 30% – 48% – 75% – 125% meaning that at 125% FCR your casting animation will only require 9 frames to complete and start a new cast. Even it doesn’t appear to be that relevant, each frame reduced will greatly increase the total amount of hammers that we can cast each second.

 Frames  15  14  13  12  11  10  9
 FCR  0%  9%  18%  30%  48%  75%  125%

 

For this build we are aiming for the max (125%), but you can also be effective at 75%. Do note that unless you reach the 125% mark, any points above 75% are useless, since you’ll still be stuck at 10 frames, so min-maxing your equipment will be very important. Don’t hesitate to add an FCR ring if you are close to the 125% mark, as doing so will greatly increase your damage output.

Equipment Math for 125%
  • 40% (Heart of the Oak) + 35% (Perfect Spirit) + 20% (Magefist) + 20% (Arachnid Mesh) + 10% (Crafted Amulet) = 125% FCR.
  • If you don’t have a Perfect Spirit, or you are missing the amulet, you can equip FCR Rings to achieve the 125% FCR.
Equipment Math for 75%
  • 40% (Heart of the Oak) + 20% (Magefist) + 20% (Arachnid Mesh) = 80% FCR.
  • Using this configuration will open up the Shield and Amulet Slots for anything you want. In this case I personally suggest Mara’s Kaleidoscope for the amulet and Herald of Zakarum or Spirit (doesn’t matter which FCR) for the Shield.

Our second goal will be to max out our Resistances, and finally our third goal will be to either increase our Max Fire Resist if we want to focus on Chaos Runs or increase our Magic Find Chance.

Budget Build

When you are starting off you’ll obviously have less gear, so here are some cheap Runewords and Unique items that you can use while you search for better gear.

Helmets

  1. Lore (Runeword): This helmet provides +1 to all Skills as well as +30% lightning resistance which is perfect for this build. You can farm the runes by completing Nightmare Countess.
  2. Uniques: Any helmet that provides +Skills works great here. For example Tarnhelm, Peasant Crown, Wormskull, etc.

Weapons

Spirit (Runeword): This Runeword provides +2 To All Skills and +25-35% FCR. It also increases your defense, thanks to Faster Hit Recovery and Vitality. The additional mana is also great. Finding a 4 socketed weapon can be a little tricky, but stay on the lookout for Crystal Swords, Longswords and Broadswords. If you happen to play the Secret Cow Level, if you find any un-socketed of these types of Weapons, you can get a guaranteed 4 sockets from Larzuk by completing the Siege on Harrogath quest.

Shield

  1. Spirit (Runeword): This shield provides +2 to all skills and +25-35% FCR. It also provides many defensive stats such as Elemental Resistances, Faster Hit Recovery and Vitality.
    If you are having trouble finding a 4 slot shield, just find a Monarch Shield and take it to Larzuk after completing the Siege on Harrogath quest. Some Paladin Shields may also have 4 slots, so stay on the look for those.
  2. Ancient’s Pledge (Runeword): This shield doesn’t provide +Skills, but compensates by granting a huge boost to Resistances allowing you to survive early Hell.
  3. Paladin Shields (All Rarities): There are many Paladin Exclusive shields that come with +Resistances, +Skills and even 4 sockets to create a Spirit (Runeword).

Armor

  1. Stealth (Runeword): This is by far the best armor that you can get early on. The 25% Faster Cast Rate is nice, while the poison resistance and Faster Hit Recovery (FHR) provides more survivability.
  2. Uniques: Any unique armor with +Skills is also great for this build, like for example The Spirit Shroud, Skin of the Vipermagi, Que-Hegan’s Wisdom, etc.

Gloves

When it comes to gloves you’ll want to focus on defensive stats such as Life and Resistances.

Belt

For the belt you’ll want something with Life and Resistances.

Boots

You’ll want to search for Faster Run/Walk speed on your boots as well as Resistances and Life.

Rings

You’ll want to search for rings that have life, stats and resistances as well as Faster Cast Rate.

Amulet

Try to find an amulet that provides Stats, Health, resistances or +Paladin Skills.

Charms

For charm’s you’ll mainly want to look for +Life, +Mana and +Paladin Skills or +Combat Skills.

Optimal Equipment

Once you are reaching max level you’ll want to start searching for the following equipment to complete your character.

Helmets

  1. Harlequin Crest (Unique) – This option is cheap and focuses on increasing our damage. The +2 to all skills is great for our damage output and the extra life, mana, and the damage reductions it provides helps with survivability. You can insert a perfect Topaz for even more Magic Find.
  2. Crown of Ages (Unique) – If you can afford a Crown of Ages with 2 slots and 2 Ber Runes then this helmet will greatly increase your survivability. The crown of Ages can reduce damage by 10% to 15% and each Ber Rune will increase that amount by another 8%. A perfect Crown of Ages with 15% Damage reduction and 2 Ber Runes will provide 31% Damage reduction making you really hard to kill.

Weapon

Heart of the Oak (Runeword) – This is the best weapon for this build. There’s nothing else I would recommend here.

  • +40% FCR: Perfect for our build, a massive flat FCR bonus.
  • +3 to All Skills: Greatly increases our damage output increasing all our core abilities.
  • +30-40 All Resistances: Greatly boosting these. A +40 is not a must and will depend on the rest of your gear. You can start off with a non-perfect one and see how you stand once your build is finished.
  • +15% Maximum Mana: Great for increasing our mana pool.

Shield

  1. Spirit (Runeword) – Spirit is a must for this build as it provides a massive increase to FCR. Depending on the rest of your gear you will probably need to find a perfect +35% FCR one to achieve the 125% mark.
  2. Herald of Zakarum (Unique) – If you can’t reach the 125% Mark or want to run a 75% FCR build, then this Shield will give you +2 to all Paladin Skills and +2 to Combat skills greatly increasing your damage. Do note that even if you do more damage per hammer, your DPS will be lower than a 125% FCR build.

Offhand

Call To Arms (Runeword) + Spirit Shield (Runeword) – The Call to Arms Runeword provides you with the Battle Command and Battle Order shouts which are great buffs.

Armor

Enigma (Runeword) – This is the most expensive item of the build. The Teleport skill allows you to position exactly where the hammers will damage enemies as soon as they spawn. Using this skill, your clear speed will be greatly increased as enemies won’t move all over the place while you engage them. Enigma also provides us a huge boost to Survivability and gives us even more damage and Magic Find.

Gloves

Magefist (Unique): These gloves are a must, as they increase our FCR by 20%.

Belt

Arachnid Mesh (Unique): This belt provides us a flat +20% FCR and +1 to all skills increasing our damage output. The additional mana is also great for our build.

Boots

When it comes to boots you have a few of different options:

  1. Hotspur (Unique) – If you are running Chaos Sanctuary then these boots will greatly increase your survival chances. The +15% Maximum Fire Resistance will allow you to tank fire enemies without issues.
  2. War Traveler (Unique) – If you are comfortable with your build’s efficiency and want to maximize Magic Find these are perfect for you.
  3. Sandstorm Trek (Unique) – If you want to increase your survivability, but you are not running Chaos Sanctuary, then the +20% FHR (Fast Hit Recovery) of these boots can be a great option.

Rings

Here you have two different options.

More Survivability: 2x Bul-Kathos’ Wedding Band to increase your life.

More Mana: 2x Stone of Jordan to increase your mana.

I personally prefer the Bul-Kathos Wedding Band, as the Mana issues can easily be resolved by equipping an Insight (Runeword) on your mercenary. Remember that you can also equip rings with FCR here if you are falling short to achieve the 125% mark, as the effect of not having the Bul-kathos or Stone of Jordan will not be too noticeable.

Amulet

  1. Crafted Amulet: Here you’ll want to find a +2 to paladin skills and then a +10% FCR. These types of amulets are very expensive, so if you can’t afford them just go for a Mara’s Kaleidoscope (Unique) or a +2 Paladin Skills and look for any other stat that you might be missing.
  2. Mara’s Kaleidoscope: This amulet provide +2 to all Skills as well as +20-30 to all resistances and +5 to all attributes.

Charms

For charm’s you’ll mainly want to look for +Life, +Mana and +Combat Skills.

What Mercenary to Select & Gear to Use

You’ll want to get the Act 2 Holy Freeze Mercenary (from Act 2 Nightmare) for this build. The Holy Freeze Aura is great for dealing with large crowds of enemies.

When it comes to equipment, you’ll want to get an Insight Runeword for the weapon, a Fortitude Runeword for the Armor and Andarie’s Visage for the helmet. The Insight Runeword provides Lvl 17 Meditation Aura, greatly increasing your Mana recovery rate. Using this will allow you to clear your ring slots for either Bul-kathos or FCR Rings.

Final Tips

Your Blessed Hammer will always spawn on top of your left shoulder. For this reason, it’s best to teleport below enemies so they are hit as soon as you cast the spell.

I personally like to run my belt with 3 Healing Potion columns and 1 Mana Potion columns, but 2 Healing Potion and 2 Mana Potion is a great option as well. You shouldn’t need too many Mana Potions if setup properly.

Your Mercenary gets the full effect of the Concentration Aura, allowing him to hit really hard. If you encounter a magic resistant enemy, you can let your mercenary get rid of it.

Remember to walk for maximum Block Chance. You’ll be teleporting around the map, so you might forget to hit the walk button. This is very important to stay alive, as your Block is reduced to 1/3 while running.

This build is intended for PVE, but it can also be effective in PVP. Make sure to keep moving and don’t spam too many Blessed Hammers at once.


Stay tuned for more Diablo 2 Build Guides, and be sure to check out our Diablo 2 Resurrected Wiki for more information about the game!

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