Hammerdin is an especially popular build from Diablo 2, and Last Epoch pays homage to it by offering a similar experience. This build stays relatively true to the D2 playstyle with Hammers spiraling throughout the battlefield, annihilating any enemies that are foolish enough to stand in the way.
When it comes to performance this build doesn't disappoint. Hammers fill the screen and can be left in your wake, making clear an easy and enjoyable task. Hammers can also shotgun, and you're able to throw three at once which gives great single target damage.
This setup doesn't require any Unique to function but benefits greatly from several. Bleeding Heart is tremendous for sustain, Bastion of Honour is a massive defensive boost and Prismatic Gaze is necessary to reach Crit cap.
Overall, the Hammerdin is an excellent throwback to the early days of ARPGs while still being fully capable of defeating all of the content in the game. It's easy to play, has great Damage and is relatively tanky. If you are looking for an iconic build that fills the battlefield with swirling hammers and may bring you a bit of nostalgia then this is the build for you!
Volatile Reversal
Sigils Of Hope
Smite
Holy Aura
Hammer Throw
This build guide assumes you have a Level 70 Character. Reach Level 70 with our Paladin Leveling Guide.
If you are looking for a different playstyle, check all our Build Guides!
- Good Clear
- Pretty Tanky
- Iconic Playstyle
- Great Single Target Damage
- Mana Management
- Needs Gear To Crit Cap
- Heavy Buff Management
- Vulnerable To DoT Damage
Skills
Hammer Throw
Hammer Throw is your primary Damage as well as the skill this build is themed around. Iron Spiral allows our hammers to spiral similarly to the traditional Hammerdin. Catapult allows us to throw three hammers at once. We take enough points in Ballista to reach zero mana, then invest elsewhere.
Alternative Skills & Tips
Passives
Passives provide powerful effects that dictate the playstyle of a Class and its Masteries. Remember that you can allocate Passives on the first half of all Masteries regardless of the one you chose.
- Armour Clad grants Damage Reduction and is crucial for any Sentinel's survivability.
- Juggernaut, Abyssal Endurance, Holy Icon and Defiance provide tons of Resistances. Use them as needed.
- Place at least 1 Point into Gladiator, Steel Aegis, Honour and Shield Wall for the Block Chance.
- The stats granted by Reverence of Duality are extremely powerful.
- Invest your final Points in Prayer Aegis or Weapons Master, depending on your needs.
Make sure to complete the Campaign to get all your Passive Points.
Gameplay
This Paladin uses Hammer Throw to create spirals of death that decimate any enemies who get close enough. Remember that you don't need Smite on your Skill bar. Make sure you are familiar with enemy mechanics to know when to use your Support Skills to stay alive. Pay attention to their telegraphed attacks!
Skill Usage/Rotation
- Cast 4 Sigils Of Hope for their buffs.
- Use Volatile Reversal to recover mana.
- Spam Hammer Throw at enemies. Stand close to them to maximize damage.
- Use unspecced Shield Rush or Lunge to move across the map.
- Cast Volatile Reversal and Holy Aura on top of enemies for their buffs and extra Damage.
- Maintain 4 Sigils Of Hope up at all times.
Mapping
- Rush to the objective with unspecced Shield Rush or Lunge.
- Proc the Haste buff from Holy Aura's Expedite Node for the additional Movement Speed.
- Be careful not to backtrack when using Volatile Reversal.
- Group mobs before using Volatile Reversal and Holy Aura to maximize their Buffs.
- For large groups, use Hammer Throw while staying on the move to maximize clear and reduce incoming damage.
Bossing
- Take advantage of all your defensive buffs and keep them active.
- Actively use Holy Aura to double the effect of its buffs.
- Use Volatile Reversal to ramp up your damage then spam Hammer Throw, staying as close as you can to the boss to maximize damage and the potential for multiple hits from the same hammer.
- Keep unspecced Shield Rush off Cooldown for emergency situations or telegraphed Boss attacks.
Advanced Skill Tips
Learn more about how to maximize your gameplay in the Build Scaling section of this guide.
Gear
Gearing in Last Epoch revolves around finding Items and then using the powerful Crafting System to enhance them. As long as an Item has Forging Potential left, players can upgrade or modify their Affixes up to Tier 5. However, the powerful Exalted Tier Affixes are drop only and can't be modified by players.
Using the correct Item Bases allows you to make use of their amazing Implicits, this is fundamental for gearing efficiently. Combine Implicits, Passives, Idols and Blessings to cap your Resistances and other defensive layers, while fitting as much Health related Affixes or Endurance Threshold into your gear as possible. Plan ahead for your next upgrades and consider the final Blessings of your build while gearing. Finish up by farming Uniques with Legendary Potential and Sealing Affixes into Exalted Items to unleash all of your build's power!
Here are the Stat Goals for this build:
- Capped Resistances
- Capped Critical Strike Avoidance
- Capped Endurance
- 3000 - 4000+ Health
- 50% - 60% Armour Mitigation (Pre Buffs)
- 2000+ Block Effectiveness
- 50% - 100% Block Chance
- 250%+ Critical Strike Multiplier
- 110+ Throwing Damage
- 100%+ Throwing Attack Speed (Pre Buffs)
Gear Progression
Milestone 1
Aim for good Item Bases with two valuable T5 Affixes. The defensive rolls on T5 Suffixes are very important at this stage as they can easily cap all your Resistances when combined with Item Implicits, Idols, Blessings or Passives. Get a good Eagle Wing as soon as possible.
Milestone 2
Make sure your Critical Strike Avoidance is capped. Remember that Woven Flesh is always an option early on. It can be farmed by killing the Abomination in the Fall of the Outcast Monolith Timeline.
Milestone 3
Get T1 Throwing Damage and Reduced Mana Cost on both of your Rings and some Mana Regeneration to help with your rotation. Fit as much Health into your gear as possible. Hybrid Health and Health are extremely valuable, but can be hard to find early on. Use regular flat Health until you find them.
Milestone 4
Get a source of Life Leech. Use Bleeding Heart and later add Grand Wrath of Rahyeh.
Milestone 5
While you look for this basic set of gear, start farming your Empowered Blessings and look for any Idols that can help you cap all your Resistances momentarily or increase your Damage output. Finding at least 1 Adorned Rahyeh Idol with Chance To Cast Smite When You Hit With Throwing Attacks is necessary to take advantage of Smite. On the suffix look for Block Effectiveness or Health.
Milestone 1
If you don't already have a Prismatic Gaze begin to push for one now. You need this to cap your Crit. Use any Rune of Ascendance you have on helmets, and once you have your blessings covered work The Black Sun Timeline for the Unique echo rewards.
Milestone 2
Get Chance to Apply Frailty on Hit to decrease the Damage enemies deal to you. Get Chance to Chill on Hit and Chance to Slow on Hit on your Axe. These Ailments are really important and should always be kept in mind. Keep looking for any useful Idols.
Milestone 3
When all your core Defenses are covered, start working on your Damage. Get as much Throwing Damage as you can. Pushing to get Throwing Attack Critical Strike Chance on your Body Armour as well as Helmet if you can fit it. Try to get Level of Hammer Throw on your Relic.
Milestone 4
If you have a good Adorned Rahyeh Idol with Chance To Cast Smite When You Hit With Throwing Attacks, start looking for Large Rahyeh Idol with Throwing Attack Critical Strike Multiplier and Chance To Shred Armor on Hit with Throwing Attacks or Block Effectiveness. As you finish up your Empowered Blessings keep a decent Health pool, capped Resistances, Endurance and Critical Strike Avoidance. Your goal is to have Items with 4 valuable T5 Affixes, also known as T20.
Milestone 1
Upgrade your T20 setup with Exalted items, high value Sealed Affixes or ideally both. Obtain the Affixes included in the Planner, but prioritize the indicated Item Bases for their Implicits. Make sure to Seal highly efficient low tier Affixes. Ward and Ailment Cleansing on Potion Use is a must have for Belts.
Milestone 2
Push to get crit capped. Prefixes on Body Armor, Helmet, and your Axe are the most powerful, but Copper Rings can also be a good source if needed. You can also replace Added Throwing Damage on either the Relic, Amulet or Glove Slot if needed, but don't replace more than one.
Milestone 3
Maximize your defenses. Look for a well rolled Oracle Amulet to provide some much needed DoT protection. You can upgrade your defensive drastically with a Bastion of Honour and some Block Effectiveness on your Idols.
Milestone 4
Get all your Idols as optimal as possible. Keep stacking as much Health and Strength as you can fit. Push your Throwing Damage to the limit.
Milestone 1
Keep upgrading your gear with Exalted Items with Sealed Affixes. Get every stat in the right place and in the correct Item Base. Min/Maxing your gear in Last Epoch can be pushed to the extreme as Items with multiple Exalted Affixes are technically possible.
Milestone 2
Start looking for Higher LP versions of your Uniques. It's possible to get 3LP+ on Bleeding Heart. LP on your Shield and Helmet are much more difficult, but still achievable.
Milestone 3
If you can find a pair of Li'raka's Claws with multiple LP and can get Throwing Attack Speed and Throwing Damage on it the DPS boost is huge. This is a huge boost to damage but difficult to fit in until your defenses are very good. You lose a good bit of health with it and need to make up for the Armor Shred and Endurance loss, but the damage output may be worth it if you want to clear considerably faster.
Learn the basics for crafting gear with our Beginner Crafting Guide.
Check our Unique Item & Set Farming Guide and learn how to get them!
Want to know more about Legendary Items? Check our Legendary Guide!
Blessings
Completing a Timeline in the Monolith of Fate lets you choose one of several randomized Blessings from its unique pool. Their benefits are permanent and persist even outside of the Monolith of Fate.
Empowered Blessings are a fundamental part of all builds, so getting the correct ones for each is key.
The sooner you reach Empowered Monolith, the faster you can start farming your desired Blessings!
Normal Blessings are not important as they are eventually replaced by Empowered Blessings. However they can still be a great source of Resistances, Critical Strike Avoidance or Life Leech for your build early on.
Pick up these Normal Blessings on your way to Empowered:
- Wrath of Rahyeh
- Bastion of Divinity
- Survival of Might
- Persistance of Will
- Bones of Eternity
- Embers of Immortality
- Body of Obsidian
- Breath of Cinders
Note: Don't target farm Normal Blessings. Get to Empowered Monolith as fast as you can.
Reaching Empowered Monolith unlocks all the level 100 Timelines and the ability to farm Empowered Blessings. Unlike Normal Blessings, these need to be farmed until you get the desired ones for your build. It is extremely important to get this set up as fast as possible to free up affix slots on your gear. Remember, the more value you get from your Blessings, the easier it is to craft efficient gear!
These are the core Combat Empowered Blessings for this build:
- Start with Grand Wrath of Rahyeh to take care of your sustain and free up gear slots.
- If you are lacking Critical Strike Avoidance, get Grand Survival of Might next.
- Your third choice is flexible. If you prefer more damage take Grand Fury of the North, which provides a 20% damage boost against bosses. If you want to be more defense oriented, take Grand Bones of Eternity. This is especially good with Bastion of Honour.
- Grand Body of Obsidian provides a huge amount of Armor that really improves your defenses.
- Finish up by farming Grand Crash of the Waves. The CC benefit from this Blessing is hugely underrated and makes most normal enemies completely unable to attack you.
These Empowered Blessings are flexible and depend on your current needs and goals.
These are valuable Empowered Drop Rate Blessings for this build:
- Grand Mark of Agony is very valuable to help you find a Adorned Rahyeh Idol with a well rolled Chance To Cast Smite When You Hit With Throwing Attacks Prefix. Once you find it switch to the Sight of the Outcasts to find the rest of your Idols.
- Grab Grand Slumber of Morditas to help find more Relics with Exalted Level of Hammer Throw. Once you're satisfied with your relic you can switch to Grand Binds of Sanctuary to help you find more Shields or Grand Vision of the Aurora to find more Amulets.
- Take Grand Scars of Blood to find more Eagle Wings.
- Grand Memory of Masters helps you find more Critical Strike Chance prefixes for your Body Armour and Helmet. Lastly Grand Hope of the Beginning is a more generic Blessing that can help a bit with Prefix farming but is skippable.
Learn how to farm Blessings fast with our Advanced Monolith Strategies.
Idols
Idols grant your character bonuses when equipped in the dedicated Idol Container. Unlock all the slots of your Idol Container by completing the Campaign and some of its Side Quests. Remember that some Idols are Class specific and you won't be able to equip them with other non-compatible Classes.
These are the Idols recommended for this build:
- Find an Adorned Rahyeh Idols with Chance To Cast Smite When You Hit With Throwing Attacks and Block Effectiveness or Health.
- Get 4 Large Rahyeh Idol with Throwing Attack Critical Strike Multiplier and Chance To Shred Armor on Hit with Throwing Attacks or Block Effectiveness.
- Get 2 Stout Lagonian Idols with Health and a resistance if you need to cap or Health.
Other useful Idol Affixes
Make sure to complete the Campaign to get all your Idol Slots.
Learn how to be efficient with Idols with our Advanced Idols Setups Guide.
Build Scaling
This Paladin uses Hammer Throw to to create spirals of Hammers throughout the battlefield. Scale your Throwing Attack Speed and Flat Throwing Damage as much as possible. This build also has good survivability thanks to the multiple defensive layers it can take advantage of.
- Throwing Attack Speed: This build gets a ton of it thanks to the buffs provided by its Skills and Passives. The more you have, the faster you deal damage and apply ailments with Hammer Throw.
- Flat Throwing Damage: Hammer Throw doesn't scale with the base damage of our weapon, so we need to stack this as high as possible on our Gloves, Belt, Amulet, and Relic.
- Strength: Hammer Throw gains 4% Damage per point of Strength. Additionally it grants 4% Armour per point, which adds a nice defensive layer for the build.
- Critical Strike Chance: Critical Strikes deal double damage by default and scale with Critical Strike Multiplier. Try to get this capped to guarantee a Crit from every hit. Prefixes on our Weapon, Body Armour and Helmet plus the Added Crit from Eagle Wing and Prismatic Gaze make this much easier.
- Critical Strike Multiplier: Increases the Damage your Crits deal. We can stack a lot of this on our gear thanks to Idols. Build as much as you can.
- Sigils Of Hope: They grant increased Damage and Added Fire Damage.
- % Increased Damage: We get most of this from our Passive tree, Buffs and Strength. Any extra on gear is a bonus.
- Volatile Reversal: The Time Rifts and Harbinger of Dust Nodes apply a powerful debuff on your enemies that makes them take additional Damage.
- Level of Hammer Throw: This is a big boost to our damage since it allows us to invest in additional multipliers from the skill tree.
- Grand Fury of the North: Since the build attacks so fast and has so many hits, it is extremely easy to apply 10 stacks of Physical Resistance Shred to your targets. 10 stacks increase the Damage enemies take by 50% (20% for Bosses). This Blessing plays a big part on your Damage output, so make sure you roll it nicely (45%+) and as early as possible.
- Armour Shred: Shredding Armor is good for all hit builds, but it is especially impactful for Physical. Getting Armour Shred stats on our Gloves, Idols, Weapon, and Body Armour is a huge damage boost to the build.
- Armour Clad: Grants Damage Reduction and is crucial for any Sentinel's survivability.
- Block Chance: Block is a defensive mechanic that grants a chance to reduce the Damage taken from Hits. Whenever you take a Hit, your Block Chance is rolled to determine if you Block the Hit. On a successful Block, a percentage of the Damage is mitigated. This build can have anywhere between 50% and 100% block. Using a Bastion of Honour makes this stat less impactful, but still good against ranged attacks.
- Block Effectiveness: The percentage of Damage reduced on Block depends on how much Block Effectiveness you have. The percentage cannot exceed 85%. The Grand Bones of Eternity blessing is an exceptional source of Block Effectiveness. Additionally, Sentinels have access to the Block Effectiveness Suffix on their Idols.
- Endurance: It allows you to take up to 60% less Damage while below a certain Health threshold. The Iron Sigils node from Sigils Of Hope makes this especially valuable for Sentinels.
- Strength: Grants 4% Armour per point.
- Armour Mitigation: This setup can get high Armour. Combine the Armour from your Item Implicits and all the %Armour this build has to reach 50-60% Mitigation.
- Health: This build can stack a decent Health pool that can surpass the 3000 mark without sacrificing other defenses. Health is very effective when combined with all the other defensive layers.
- Leech: Bleeding Heart and Grand Wrath of Rahyeh provide this build with a huge amount of sustain.
- Chill and Slow: Are Ailments that greatly reduce the Action and Movement Speed of your enemies. They are must haves on most builds, especially once you reach hard content with insane speed modifiers.
- Frailty: This Ailment reduces the Damage dealt by enemies by 6% for 4 seconds. Stacks 3 times.
- Ward and Ailment Cleansing on Potion Use: Cleanse all Ailments on Potion use.
Our Damage Explained Article covers all you need to know to scale Damage.
Learn all you need to know to scale Defense with our Defense Explained Article.
Recommended End Game Activities
Last Epoch has multiple end game activities with completely different roles and rewards. All the builds in Maxroll.gg have been tested and are designed to complete all available content. However, not all builds excel at doing the same activities. Make sure you are familiar with the end game strengths and weaknesses of your character.
The Monolith of Fate is the main end game system. Most of your character gear upgrades are found here. Once you get all of your desired Empowered Blessings, you can start pushing Corruption to increase your chances at finding incredible Exalted Items. The Monolith of Fate rewards speedy builds that are able to target farm Echo Reward Nodes or stack Timeline Stability as fast as possible.
This Paladin is an incredible Monolith of Fate farmer. It has great AoE and single target DPS. Since it's also a fairly tanky build, it's an amazing setup for farming content in high Corruption.
Monolith Goals
Your goals in the Monolith of Fate will differ greatly depending on what build you play and what stage your character progression is at. Here are the objectives you should aim at when playing this build:
- Reach Empowered Monolith as fast as possible.
- Farm your Combat Empowered Blessings. Prioritize gaining Timeline Stability and fight the Timeline Bosses as often as possible. Once you are done with one Timeline, move to the next one. Reach 200 Corruption to farm your desired Blessings faster, as it unlocks a 5th option to choose from after you defeat a Timeline Boss. Defeat the Shade of Orobyss to gain and transfer Corruption between Timelines.
- Finish up the rest of your Drop Rate Empowered Blessings.
- Farm for key Uniques.
- As you farm for Uniques, stack Corruption as high as your gear can handle. The higher Corruption you do, the more Items you find. Get your character ready for the other end game activities.
Monolith Modifiers
Every time you choose an Echo a Modifier comes attached with it, adding difficulty and changing how enemies behave. These Modifiers stay active for a maximum of 6 Echoes and stack with each other. Some Modifiers can handicap your build immensely while others can almost be ignored. Monolith Modifiers scale with Corruption and increase the Item Rarity of Echoes. Ideally you want to do the hardest content possible, without delaying your clear times. Keep up Item Rarity as high as you can without it slowing you down.
Easy Modifiers
- Enemy Critical Strike Chance (Once you have 100% Critical Strike Avoidance).
- Increased enemy Movement Speed.
- Rare enemies have high speed and crit chance until approached
- Rare enemies regenerate health
Avoid these Modifiers
- Enemy Critical Strike Avoidance.
- High health enemies take less damage.
- High health enemies deal increased damage.
- Enemy chance to Dodge.
- While bossing: enemies Enrage at half health and enemies gain Frenzy and Haste when hit.
Learn more about the Monolith of Fate with our Empowered Monolith Guide.
Dungeons are another important end game activity. All of them have an unique reward system attached that can only be accessed by defatting the Boss guarding it. They are divided by 4 Tiers of difficulty; it might take you some time to have a character strong enough to defeat Tier 4. Remember, Dungeons require specific Keys to enter them.
This Paladin is a good Dungeon farmer due to its survivability, sustain and solid single target DPS. It has an easy time with all the Dungeons and can defeat all T4 Bosses.
Dungeon Tips
When it comes to Dungeons, each build has different needs and should focus on the ones that fulfill them. Remember, each Dungeon comes with an unique Dungeon Skill. Make sure you are familiar with the different Dungeon Skills, Boss fights and Rewards before you attempt them.
Recommended Dungeons for this build:
- Temporal Sanctum: Since it's a Unique heavy build, it requires interacting with the Eternity Cache often in order to upgrade any desirable Uniques you find with Legendary Potential. The Boss fight against Chronomancer Julra is fairly easy for any Sentinel, as they can get out of her telegraphed attacks with the multiple mobility Skill available to them. Additionally, you can place unspecced Rebuke on your Skill bar and use it before taking Damage.
- Lightless Arbour: While the gold sink in the Vault of Uncertain Fate is not necessary for this build to progress, it has a decent time dealing with The Mountain Beneath and, thanks to the Rebuke swap mentioned above, his most dangerous attacks can be trivialized. The Stone Titan's Heart is easier, just make sure to avoid its moving lasers. Run this Dungeon when you have some excess Gold, be careful as it gets expensive really fast!
- Soulfire Bastion: Make sure you pay attention to the Damage type on the floor while fighting Fire Lich Cremorus and use the Rebuke swap to tank the big telegraphed attacks if you struggle. Overall this Dungeon and the Soul Gambler are low priority as nothing attached to them is relevant for the build.
Remember that T4 Dungeons are hard pinnacle content that can only be defeated with well geared characters. If your build struggles against a particular Dungeon you can always dedicate a different setup that shines against it to earn its reward. This is not possible if you play in any of the Solo Game Modes.
Check all of our Dungeon Guides if you want to learn more about their Bosses and rewards systems.
Use everything explained in the Gameplay and Build Scaling sections of this Build Guide to defeat them.
The Endless Arena is the main competitive game mode. It's all about the Ladder! While you might get some upgrades, the other end game activities are far superior for gearing up. The Endless Arena is not for everyone and only the best builds and players can reach the top. You need an Arena Key or an Arena Key of Memory to enter.
This Paladin build is good for competing in the Endless Arena with good range and tankiness. It's not one of the top Arena builds, but you can do well even without amazing gear thanks to it's high range.
Endless Arena Tips
Adjusting your playstyle to the build you are playing is mandatory to reach high waves. Use the easy early waves as a practice tool; learning about wave management, developing good habits and limit-testing your build are very important things to become a better Endless Arena player.
Tips for playing this build in Arena:
- Make sure you always keep track of all 4 enemy packs. New waves do not spawn as long as there are two enemies of the current wave alive. Finish them up at the right time!
- Fight 1 spawn at a time, manipulate the enemy pathing with your positioning and engage on your terms.
- Play arena from farther range than other content to avoid getting hit. Find a safe spot away from spawns!
- Target ranged threats first. Deal with the rest of enemies once the ranged ones are taken care of.
- Enemy homing projectiles are really dangerous. Use your Movement Skills to engage them or hide behind terrain.
- Maintain 4 Sigils Of Hope up at all times for the powerful buffs they provide.
- Use Volatile Reversal for extra Damage against dangerous threats, but be careful when getting close enough to use it.
- Hold a Movement Skill to disengage for emergency situations.
- If you want to push your Arena waves to the limit, consider switching to Enra's Technique for the greater range it offers. It will come at a damage loss, but Arena doesn't require as much damage as some of the other content to be successful.
Eager to get competitive? Check our Arena Guide!
Loot Filter
Loot Filters are critical in Last Epoch. Making sure you highlight all the related valuable Item Bases, Affixes, Uniques and Idols is crucial to ensure your character's progression. As your gear gets better, remember to hide the rules that are no longer useful to avoid screen clutter.
Here is the Endgame Loot Filter for this build:
Learn how to load and make Filters with our Loot Filter Guide.
Video Guide
Summary
This Paladin throws shotgunning Hammers in a spiral, similar to the Diablo 2 build that it gets the name from. Overall this Paladin is an excellent setup capable of completing all the content in the game. It has great AoE, survivability, speed and good single target DPS.
- Blast through enemies with shotgunning Hammers dealing high Crit Physical damage.
- Scale Crit to turbo charge the damage with Eagle Wing and Prismatic Gaze.
- Maintain 4 Sigils Of Hope up at all times for the amazing buffs they provide.
- Use Volatile Reversal on top of enemies for extra Damage.
- Use Bastion of Honour to get a huge defensive buff while standing close to enemies, which will make it easier to maximize your damage.
Credits
Written by McFluffin.
Reviewed by Facefoot, Terek