Build Introduction
Welcome to the comprehensive guide for the Blessed Hammer Paladin for the endgame of Diablo 4. This build is the truest take on the classic Hammerdin, driving into the middle of packs and releasing swirling hammers of death on the foes of Sanctuary. If you seek the build that has defined the Diablo Paladin for years, look no further.
Strengths and Weaknesses
- Explosive Area of Effects.
- Powerful defensive utility and survivability.
- Requires Manual Casting.
- Close Range Fighter.
Build Requirements
This build does not require any specific uniques to get started, however there are a few uniques that will empower the build and take it to the next level.
- Herald’s Morningstar – A powerful weapon built for this build. With additional Blessed hammer skills, increased Blessed Hammer Damage, Chance for Blessed Hammer to do Additional Damage, and Chance to Spawn an Additional Blessed Hammer, this item is the perfect weapon and will be a big power boost once obtained.
- Herald of Zakarum – A Shield with great Block Chance, Armor and Armor boosting. Again, not required for the build exactly but will be a large boost to survivability and damage.
- Seal of the Second Trumpet – A ring with Chance for Judgement to Deal Double Damage, increased Judgement Damage, and a chance for Judgement explosions to blow up twice.
For Paladin specific Legendary Aspects you will want the following (First Recommended in Green):
- Aspect of the Golden Hour
- Aspect of the Judicator
- Aspect of Watkins’ Law
- Aspect of Holy Punishment
- Aspect of Utmost Glory
- Aspect of the Indomitable
- Aspect of Firm Decree
- Aspect of Disobedience
- Aspect of Glynn’s Anvil
- Wildbolt Aspect
- Aspect of Unstoppable Force
Quick Navigation
Want to skip ahead? Use the table below to jump to the sections you are looking for.
Skill Bar and Skill Tree Points
Follow the skill path seen HERE!
Your skill bar should contain the following six skills. The location of these skills doesn’t matter, place them wherever is comfortable for you.
- Rally
- Blessed Hammer
- Purify
- Fanaticism Aura
- Defiance Aura
- Holy Light Aura
If you need a bit more healing and damage you can look to add in Consecration instead of an Aura of your choice.
Paladin Class Mechanic – Oaths
Paladins are able to devote themselves to one of four Oaths which drastically change your game play and give you access to some new resources that allow you to take your build even further. Each Paladin archetype is represented in the Oath system allowing players to choose between Zealot, Juggernaut, Judicator, or Disciple. For this build we will want to take the Judicator Oath.
Under this Oath whenever we cast Judgement we can blow it up with a Core Judicator skill, namely Blessed Hammer in this case. Additionally, each time an enemy is Judged your damage to that enemy increases. Lastly, Basic skills now apply Judgement so if desired you can replace Rally with one of the Basic Skills to not only generate Faith but also apply very quick Judgement.
Gear, Stats, Gems and Runes
The following sections will cover all systems that are critical if you want to improve the power of your character and move towards the highest difficulties in the endgame of Diablo 4. Early on while leveling you can focus on simply getting higher item power but in the later part of the game the item power starts to become the same for everything and the affixes and legendary aspects are a more important focus.
Legendary Aspects
Below you will find all of the best-in-slot Aspects found on Legendary Items that are important for this build. Remember that all Legendary Powers can be added into your Codex of Power once you salvage the items. You can still find some aspects through dungeons though they will always be at the minimum power level. To get the most out of this system, combine these Aspects with the right stats and unique items.
| Gear Slot | Gems | Aspect / Unique | Aspect / Unique Power |
| Helm |  Igni &  LumRunes OR  Grand Ruby | Aspect of Firm Decree | Judging an enemy grants you [60 – 100]%[x] increased Armor for 5 seconds. |
| Chest |  Cir &  Gar Runes OR Grand Ruby |  Aspect of Disobedience | You gain [0.4-0.8%] increased Armor for 4 seconds when you deal any form of damage, stacking up to [25-40%]. |
| Gloves | N/A | Aspect of Holy Punishment | Holy and Fire damage are increased by [50.0 – 70.0] |
| Pants | Grand Ruby | Aspect of the Indomitable | Gain up to [100-140%] Armor and impairment resistance based on your block chance. |
| Boots | N/A | Wildbolt Aspect | Every [3.5 – 1.5] seconds, Distant enemies are Pulled In to you and take 10%[x] increased damage for 3 seconds. This effect cannot occur while you are in Stealth. |
| Amulet |  Grand Diamond | Aspect of the Golden Hour | Judgement detonations can detonate other Judgements early. Judgement deals [60 – 100]%[x] increased damage. |
| Ring 1 | Grand Diamond | Aspect of the Judicator | Increase the damage and size of Judgement’s explosion by [40 – 60]% |
| Ring 2 | Grand Diamond | Aspect of Utmost Glory | While Healthy, your skills deal x[20-35%] increased damage. Double this bonus against Weakened enemies. |
| Weapon |  Grand Emerald | Aspect of Watkins’ Law | Your Judicator Skills deal [45.0 – 65.0]%[x] increased damage against enemies affected by Judgement. |
| Shield | Grand Ruby | Aspect of Exorcism | Lucky Hit: Holy damage has up to a [5 – 25]% chance to Execute non-Boss enemies with less than 0% Life. NOTE: This is the worst aspect of the bunch and should be replaced as soon as you have a Unique item in any other slot. |
To see how this build compares to the others on our site, you can check out our Endgame Tier List.
Stat Priority and Tempering Affixes
Below are the affixes to prioritize on gear. Each line of affixes is listed in order of importance. Tempering Manuals and their recommended affixes are provided in the second column and the bolded yellow affixes are the most important targets for the Masterworking Capstone Upgrade. Be sure to check out our Tempering and Masterworking guides for more details about these topics.
| Slot | Gear Affixes | Tempering Affixes |
| Helm | 1. Cooldown Reduction 2. Strength 3. Armor 4. Maximum Life | Maximum Life  Worldly Endurance or Maximum Armor |
| Chest | 1. Strength 2. Maximum Life 3. Armor 4. Resistance to All Elements | Maximum Life Worldly Endurance or Maximum Armor |
| Gloves | 1. Cooldown Reduction 2. Critical Strike Chance 3. Critical Strike Damage 4. Strength | Judicator Damage |
| Pants | 1. Strength 2. Maximum Life 3. Armor 4. Resistance to All Elements | Maximum Life Worldly Endurance or Maximum Armor |
| Boots | 1. Movement Speed 2. Strength 3. Armor 4. Resistance to All Elements | Maximum Life Worldly Endurance or Maximum Armor |
| Amulet | 1. Movement Speed 2. Cooldown Reduction 3. Critical Strike Chance 4. Strength | Judicator Damage |
| Ring 1 | 1. Critical Strike Damage 2. Critical Strike Chance 3. Cooldown Reduction 4. Damage % 5. Strength | Judicator Damage |
| Ring 2 | 1. Critical Strike Damage 2. Critical Strike Chance 3. Cooldown Reduction 4. Damage % 5. Strength | Judicator Damage |
| Weapon | 1. Strength 2. Maximum Life 3. Critical Strike Damage 4. Vulnerable Damage | Chance for Blessed Hammer to Deal Double Damage OR if you have Herald’s Morningstar or are near 100% Double Damage already then Judicator Damage |
| Shield | 1. Cooldown Reduction 2. Strength 3. Armor 4. Vulnerable Damage | Chance for Blessed Hammer to Deal Double Damage OR if you have Herald’s Morningstar or are near 100% Double Damage already then Judicator Damage |
Mythic Uniques
Below you will find information about the Mythic Uniques that are useful to this build. Moreover, if you are interested in target farming Mythic Uniques, check out our How to Farm Mythic Uniques guide.
These are the chase rare items in Diablo 4. They have a very low drop rate from most content and a slightly higher drop rate from Tormented Bosses in Torment 1 and beyond. We will be listing only the ones useful to this build. If a mythic unique is not listed here, it is not useful to this build but may be useful to other setups. Let’s take a look.
Harlequin Crest – The infamous “Shako” helm provides a massive amount of armor and cooldown reduction as well as additional ranks to our skills as well as providing a 20% damage reduction. If you’re lucky enough to pick one up, replace your helm and drop Aspect of Glynn’s Anvil entirely.
Shroud of False Death – An extremely powerful chest for its implicit bonus of +1 to all Passive Skills. Paladin has amazing passives and if you’re lucky enough to find one the power it provides through that alone is worth dropping your normal chest for. The additional stats and life are also helpful as is the stealth bonus which can help you speed through large areas quickly.
Tyrael’s Might – This is the tankiest armor in the game, providing massive Damage Reduction and Resistances. If you want to improve your defenses and find this, you cannot get better.
Ring of Starless Skies – A ring with plus to Core Skills and some other nice affixes included damage for spending Faith. Casting Hammers and your Auras will trigger this and it can be looked at for some additional damage if found.
Gems and Runewords
Listed below are the best gems to socket into gear for each slot type.
Gems
| Weapon Gems | Armor Gems | Jewelry Gems |
| Grand Emerald for increased Critical Strike Damage | Grand Ruby for increased Strength | Grand Diamond for increased Resistance to All Elements |
Runes
Runewords return from Diablo 2 in Vessel of Hatred! You are limited to two Runewords across your gear and it requires two sockets in the same item. So this limits creating Runewords by combining two Runes to either Helm, Chest, Pants, or Two-Handed Weapons. We recommend putting these in some combination of your Helm, Chest, or Pants.
Gar is the simplest and best rune that you can get early, while other runes like Ohm may take a little bit longer to get.
| Rune Name | Rune Effects |
| Igni | Gain 25 Offering: Stores offering every 0.3 seconds. Cast a Non-Basic Skill to gain the stored offering |
| Lum | Restore 3.5 Primary Resource. |
| Cir | Gain 300 Offering: Cast 5 Skills then become exhausted for 3 seconds. |
| Gar | Requires 25 Offering (Overflow: Gain multiple stacks): Gain 2.5% Critical Strike Chance for 5 seconds, up to 25% |
 Bac | Travel 5 meters. |
 Ohm | Invoke the Barbarian’s War Cry Skill, increasing your damage dealt by 15% for 6 seconds. |
Paragon Board
We recommend using the following Legendary Nodes and Glyphs to truly take this build into the endgame. Note that each glyph’s information and radius listed below is for the level 100 Version. As a reminder, glyph’s reach their maximum radius at level 46 and unlock their Legendary Bonuses at level 45.
The main focus on each board is to rush to the Legendary Node followed by the Glyph. Beyond that, focus on Armor, Block Chance, and Damage Nodes
You can find the Paragon Board Setup HERE!
Season 11 Mechanics
Divine Gifts
As you complete the season journey and fight across Sanctuary you will earn the ire of the lesser evils. Defeating them will grant you corrupted essences which you can then purify into Divine Gifts. There are 8 of these in total and you will have four Purified and four Corrupted allowing you to modify various content and get different boons and reward as a result. For this build our recommended setup is below:
Purified
- Essence of Lies
- Essence of Pain
- Essence of Screams
- Essence of Sin
Corrupted
- Essence of Squalor
- Essence of Shadows
- Essence of Anguish
- Essence of Hellfire
Sanctification
Season 11 brings a new way to “Finish” an item called Sanctification. Any item of item power 750 or higher can be Sanctified, but BE WARNED: Sanctification will make it so that you cannot alter the item any further so it should always be the final step in the crafting process! It provides many powerful options to enhance your builds. For the most part there are no bad outcomes with all Sanctification bonuses providing at least some power, though it can replace an Affix you previously had on an item. It is rare though and all items you will want to use should be finished off with Sanctification.
Mercenaries
As you play through the campaign in Vessel of Hatred, you will unlock various NPC Mercenaries who can join you on your quest to slay demons. Each Mercenary has their own small talent tree that will give them bonuses and skills to help you. Additionally, you can assign a Mercenary that you don’t take with you as a reinforcement to jump in when you activate certain skills. Let’s take a look at how we want to set them up for this build.
We hare Raheir, the Shieldbearer
- Core Skill:
Ground Slam - Core Skill Passive:
Raheir’s Aegis - Iconic Skill:
Bastion - Iconic Skill Passive:
Inspiration
Our reinforcement Mercenary will be Varyana, the Berserker Crone
- Opportunity Skill: Skill Cast in Combat
- Reinforcement Skill:
Bloodthirst
Build Mechanics
Rotation and Playstyle
The endgame setup for the Blessed Hammer Paladin focuses on spreading Judgement to as many mobs and hitting them with Hammers to detonate them early.
For Damage, thanks to the Legendary Paragon Node, Castle, we can stack armor for a massive multiplier of damage. Let’s review our skills and how to move around maps.
- Cast Purify to spread Judgement to nearby enemies
- Activate Fanaticism Aura to apply Weakened to nearby enemies and elites/bosses.
- Activate Holy Light Aura to further Judge enemies for more stacks and explosions.
- Activate Defiance Aura to become Unstoppable for 2 seconds whenever you become Crowd Controlled or to prevent yourself from being Crowd Controlled in the first place while you cut up your foes. Defiance Aura also boosts Armor (which is more damage) and Resistances so feel free to press it whenever it comes off cooldown.
- Cast Blessed Hammer for the DPS and to explode Judged minions.
- Cast Rally to regenerate Faith whenever necessary.
Which Elixir Should You Use?
Visit the Alchemist in any main town to craft helpful Elixirs that increase stats, and experience gain for 30 minutes. Make sure to forage plants and pick up the necessary crafting materials during your adventures; they randomly spawn around the world. Use 
Elixir of Precision II for its Critical Strike Chance and Damage.
Season 11 Updates
For a comprehensive look at what’s new in Season 11, its mechanics and theme, new activities, and other changes, check out our comprehensive Season Hub.
Paladin was introduced in Season 11, as such there are no updates to cover yet.
Obol Gambling
A final point on acquiring gear is using your Obols to target farm specific slots instead of randomly spending them on random drops. Similar to Kadala in Diablo 3, you can use Obol Vendors in towns to try and get what you’re missing. With the expansion when a level 60 Character spends obols, all gear from the vendors will be at least 750 item power, the highest non-ancestral power allowing you to fill out gear with the affixes or Legendary Aspects you need while also having a small chance to grant Ancestral Items, Uniques, and even Mythic Uniques!
Check out our Obol Gambling Tool Guide HERE.
Changelog
- December 15th 2025: Guide created
