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Sgt. Hammer Build Guide Update: Nov 30

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Sgt. Hammer received a rework yesterday and Oxy has updated our guide and moved it to the new format.

You can find the updated Sgt. Hammer build guide here.

TL;DR

  • Her attacks have become more responsive.
  • Her old trait was removed and replaced with an improved Siege Mode.
  • Cast range of her Spider MinesSpider Mines (Q) has been increased by 100% while in Siege Mode.
  • Cast range of her Concussive BlastConcussive Blast has been increased by 50% while in Siege Mode and the cone narrowed from 60 degrees to 45 degrees.
  • Neosteel PlatingNeosteel Plating is her new (E) ability that can be activated to gain 25 Armor for 2 seconds (50 Armor in Siege Mode).

If you haven't been following the latest patch notes, you can find all the changes to Sgt. Hammer below.

Blizzard LogoBlizzard (Source)

Sgt. Hammer

Divider_Hero_SgtHammer_Crop.png

  • Sgt. Hammer’s Basic Attack is now more responsive.

Abilities

  • Artillery (Trait)
    • Removed (including the +1 Basic Attack range)
  • Siege Mode (D)
    • Moved to D (Trait)
    • Mana cost removed
    • Basic Attack range bonus increased from 5 to 6
    • Sgt. Hammer now deals 20% bonus damage to all enemies while in Siege Mode, instead of 30% bonus to Minions and Structures.
    • Sgt. Hammer can no longer cast abilities while entering Siege Mode.
  • Spider Mines (Q)
    • While in Siege Mode, the cast range is increased by 100%
    • Mana cost reduced from 50 to 45
  • Concussive Blast (W)
    • Cone narrowed from 60 degrees to 45 degrees
    • While in Siege Mode, the cast range is increased by 50%
    • Mana cost reduced from 75 to 60
  • (New Ability) Neosteel Plating (E)
    • Activate to gain 25 Armor for 2 seconds.
    • While in Siege mode, increase this to 50 Armor.
    • 12 second cooldown, 30 Mana

Talents

  • Level 1
    • Advanced Artillery (D)
      • New functionality:
        •  Now increases Siege Mode’s splash damage to 50% and its radius by 25%.
    • Resistant (D)
      • Removed
    • Ambush (D)
      • Adjusted functionality:
        • Sgt. Hammer now also enters Stealth after not dealing damage, taking damage, or using an Ability for 3 seconds while in Siege Mode.
    • Regeneration Master
      • Removed
    • (New Talent) Maelstrom Rounds
      • Activate to increase Sgt. Hammer’s Basic Attack damage by 40% for 5 seconds. Maximum 3 charges. 90 second charge cooldown. Basic Attacks in Siege Mode against enemy Structures reduce this cooldown by 5 seconds.
  • Level 4
    • Vigorous Assault (Passive)
      • Removed
    • Focused Attack (Passive)
      • Removed
    • Excessive Force (W)
      • Removed
    • Barricade (W)
      • Moved from Level 13
    • (New Talent) Siege Tactics (E)
      • Sgt. Hammer becomes Unstoppable for 2 seconds when she uses Neosteel Plating in Siege Mode.
    • (New Talent) Regenerative Bio-Steel (D)
      • Sgt. Hammer heals for 15% of her damage dealt with Basic Attacks in Siege Mode.
  • Level 7
    • Mine Field (Q)
      • Removed
    • First Aid (Active)
      • Removed
    • (New Talent) Pulse Detonation Core (Q)
      • Spider Mines explode 3 times over 3 seconds, instead of destroying themselves immediately.
    • Hover Siege (D)
      • Moved from Level 16
      • Movement Speed reduced from 50% to 25%.
    • Graduating Range (D)
      • Moved from Level 16
      • Maximum range bonus reduced from 5.5 to 3.3
  • Level 13
    • First Strike (D)
      • Removed
    • Bullhead Mines (Q)
      • Removed
    • (New Talent) Tactical Mine Deployment (Q)
      • Increases Spider Mine’s slow from 25% to 40%. Casting Thrusters leaves behind a trail of up to 5 Spider Mines while Sgt. Hammer is moving.
    • (New Talent) Entrenched (W)
      • Increases Concussive Blast’s damage and knockback distance by 75% while in Siege Mode.
    • Hyper-Cooling Engines (Z)
      • Moved from Level 7
      • New functionality:
        • Each enemy Hero hit with a Basic Attack in Siege Mode reduces the cooldown of Thrusters by 5 seconds.
  • Level 16
    • Stoneskin (Active)
      • Removed
    • Giant Killer (Passive)
      • Moved from Level 13
    • (New Talent) Mechanical Know-How (E)
      • Neosteel Plating grants a Shield equal to 5% of Sgt. Hammer’s maximum Health for 2 seconds. If this Shield is destroyed, she deals 50% more Basic Attack damage for 5 seconds.
  • Level 20
    • Fury of the Storm (Passive)
      • Removed
    • Nexus Frenzy (Passive)
      • Removed
    • (New Talent) Shrapnel Mines (Q)
      • Each Spider Mine explosion reduces enemy Armor by 10 for 3 seconds.
    • (New Talent) Ultra Capacitors (D)
      • Every enemy Hero hit with a Basic Attack while in Siege Mode increases Sgt. Hammer’s Attack Speed by 5% for 5 seconds, up to 40%.
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Posted

I suppose I should mention that this rework significantly weakens Sgt. Hammer. If she was barely playable before as a novelty item, this smothered her completely.

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Posted (edited)

Oxygen, can you place Mechanical Know-howMechanical Know-how as a no-go or situational? It's a trap talent that wants you to use your only defensive ability as offensive without even securing bonus. Either it activates, which means you are getting focused so you should run away, or you just wasted your only defensive ability for nothing. ONLY place where I see it is if they have poke, something like Lunara and you aren't under threat of a dive.

And yes, Hammer was gutted, now even Raynor is better than her. 

F

Edited by SleepySheepy

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Posted
14 minutes ago, Oxygen said:

I suppose I should mention that this rework significantly weakens Sgt. Hammer. If she was barely playable before as a novelty item, this smothered her completely.

Can you explain ?
Some good known players are quite pleased with her changes and say that at least she has a specific role now and that she looks viable. And you say that update " significantly weakens" her which makes her completely unviable...

 

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Posted (edited)
47 minutes ago, Godeyes said:

Can you explain ?
Some good known players are quite pleased with her changes and say that at least she has a specific role now and that she looks viable. And you say that update " significantly weakens" her which makes her completely unviable...

 

I'll try to explain, of course, you don't have to agree.

When she was picked at higher levels of play, Diamond and similar, she was used as Raynor, ranged AA hero that dealt significant damage. You never used siege mode, because, well, it's effectively self-rooting... I hope I don't need to explain why it's bad.

Now her AA in tank mode loses 30% (+10% from level 1 talent) + 1 range trait, Focused AttackFocused Attack talent, Nexus FrenzyNexus Frenzy, and Giant Killer was moved to 16, where are as every good Hammer player you would choose ExecutionerExecutioner if your team featured CC, Nexus FrenzyNexus Frenzy for even more range and more RoF which solved now fixed stutter stepping issue. All those combined, made her AA fearsome. Now tank mode does bugger all.

So you would think that forcing siege mode through talents and trait (I hate this move), they would make it better for TF... Except it's worse.
Range was decreased by 0.1, you are still immobile as ever, loss of both regenerating talent and Z CDR, makes it even more unforgiving to enter siege. While 50 Armor might seem like much, it's only for 2s, which does nothing when you are getting poked all the time because you are sitting still. Nexus Frenzy counterpart is just plain bad. Not only it doesn't give you range, it's worthless where enemy isn't there, but also when you first enter siege, you still need to hit enemy hero 4 times to actually gain value of Nexus Frenzy... So you need to root yourself and waste time to still don't have what you had before?

So overall, tank mode does bugger all, siege mode is worse and is forced as only way to play. 
As Hammer main before, I hate it.

To not forgot to add, every other hero that had Giant KillerGiant Killer, now has it as better variant with condition. You effectively lost level 13 talent beucase it was moved to more impactful talent tier.

Edited by SleepySheepy
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Posted
1 hour ago, SleepySheepy said:

Oxygen, can you place Mechanical Know-howMechanical Know-how as a no-go or situational? It's a trap talent that wants you to use your only defensive ability as offensive without even securing bonus. Either it activates, which means you are getting focused so you should run away, or you just wasted your only defensive ability for nothing. ONLY place where I see it is if they have poke, something like Lunara and you aren't under threat of a dive.

And yes, Hammer was gutted, now even Raynor is better than her. 

F

Know-how's shield is more important that its situational damage increase aspect. The idea is to use it to further resist poke damage, and not to activate it to gain a damage bonus. That's just gravy.

To be completely honest, though, I'm still experimenting with some stuff myself, so I might very well change my stance.

 

50 minutes ago, Godeyes said:

Can you explain ?
Some good known players are quite pleased with her changes and say that at least she has a specific role now and that she looks viable. And you say that update " significantly weakens" her which makes her completely unviable...

 

She deals less damage than before and is more reliant on sieging than ever. Graduating range was gutted. First aid is gone. The positives of the rework are Neosteel and the Siege Tactics talent.

Edit: Sleepy wins the posting race, and does so more eloquently than I.

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Posted

So just pick D talents? Idk how they're balancing. ..

by the way I don't like that new E talent she doesn't need something like that specially if it's duration is 2secs!  Maybe something about heal or shield was better...looks like they had no idea about fixing her but they wanted to add a new useable ability (D) to her.. so they just fill that E with something... 

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Posted (edited)

Personally I go with this build and it works more than the others:

1 - Maelstrom Rounds

4 - Regenerative Biosteel (which is amped by Maelstrom)

7 - Hover Siegemode (so you can continously push waves, enemies and forts/keeps)

10 - BFG (just burst damage to finish enemies out of range of siege)

13 - Hyper Cooling Engines (to get out of siege as fast as possible and reposition)

16 - Giant Killer (safest pick as it just increases damage no matter what)

20 - Ultra Capacitors (just increases damage against heroes)

 

I just feel that siege mode is a beast if you can stay safe. You just melt enemies much faster, but it comes with a lot of weakness on the mobility side. It's still Hammer and I like playing her.

Edited by ReaperChief

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Posted

I'll have to play around with her more, as I was distracted by things the first time and didn't play optimally (not that I have the processing power - both in my laptop and in my brain - to play the standard definition of "optimally" anyway).

I will say I subscribe to the notion that every talent (and hero and team comp) in the game is viable with the right player(s) behind it. 

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Posted

Have not played the remake.  I personally hate the main function of a hero being on the D key.  It can be missed when dropping your fingers off qwer.  It is much more natural to shift to T than D or F or Z or B.  I have never understood their hotkey usage.  I bought a gaming mouse and programmed them, so it is not an issue for me.  Regardless, they keep talking about making the game easier to learn for noobs.  Then why put a vital skill on a key your fingers are not resting on constantly? 

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      Abilities
      Ravage (Q) Charges increased from 1 to 2 Range reduced from 8 to 6 Mana cost reduced from 40 to 20 Damage reduced from 210 to 130 Added functionality: Now also refunds 20 Mana when used on an enemy that dies within 1.5 seconds Impaling Blades (W) Damage reduced from 261 to 180 Primal Grasp (E) Pull damage reduced from 114 to 25 Added functionality: 2.5 seconds after using Primal Grasp, Kerrigan damages all nearby enemies for 180 damage Summon Ultralisk (R) Splash radius increased from 1.5 to 2 The initial cast of Ultralisk is now directional skill shot that causes the Ultralisk to charge in the targeted direction until impacting an enemy Hero. It deals 250 damage and stuns for .5 seconds to the first Hero it hits. Assimilation (Trait) Shield amount increased from 10 to 15% of damage dealt Talents
      Level 1 Siphoning Impact (Q) New functionality: Using Ravage on an enemy Hero grants an additional 90 Assimilation Shield Assimilation Mastery (Trait) Moved from level 7 No longer increases the duration of Assimilation Shield In addition to increasing Kerrigan’s Health and Mana Regeneration by 100% while Assimilation is active, now also causes Regeneration Globes to grant 40 Assimilation Shield per second while active Fury of the Swarm (Passive) Moved from level 4 New functionality: Kerrigan gains 10% more Assimilation Shields from Basic Attacks. Casting Ravage causes Kerrigan’s next 2 Basic Attacks within 3 seconds to splash for 100% damage around the target Sharpened Blades (W) Removed Block (Passive) Removed Level 4 New Talent - Sharpened Blades (Q) !Quest: Every time an enemy Minion or Hero dies within 1.5 seconds of being damaged by Ravage, increase Ravage's damage by .5 (5 for Heroes), up to 50 !Reward: After reaching 50 damage, gain an additional 50 damage New Talent - Kinetic Fulmination (W) Damaging an enemy increases the damage of Kerrigan's next Impaling Blades by 15%. Stacks up to 150%. Lasts 10 seconds. Psionic Pulse (E) New functionality: Primal Grasp deals damage a second time 2.5 seconds after the initial burst Clean Kill (Q) Removed Envenom (Active) Removed Level 7 New Talent - Queen of Blades (Q) Every time Primal Grasp's pull or explosion hits an enemy Hero, reduce the cooldown of Ravage by 4 seconds New Talent - Boundless Fury (Q) Casting Ravage on an enemy Hero grants a charge of Ravage. Can only occur on each Hero once every 10 seconds Bladed Momentum (Passive) Now only triggers when attacking enemy Heroes Now works with splash damage from Fury of the Swarm Blade Torrent (W) Removed Level 13 New Talent - Psionic Barrier (E) Kerrigan gains 15 Spell Armor for 4 seconds for every enemy Hero she hits with Primal Grasp's pull or explosion New Talent - Volatile Power (Trait) Increase the base Shield amount gained from Assimilation by 15%, but reduce the duration of Assimilation Shields from 6 to 3 seconds New Talent - Chrysalis (Active) Activate to place Kerrigan in a chrysalis with 550 Health for 5 seconds. Kerrigan regenerates 5% Health per second while inside the chrysalis. 90 second cooldown. Eviscerate (Q) Removed Double Strike (Q) Removed Queen's Rush (Active) Removed Level 16 New Talent - Mounting Potency (Q) Casting Ravage on an enemy increases Kerrigan's Spell Power by 5% for 4 seconds, stacking up to 40% New Talent - Painful Spikes (W) After stunning an enemy with Impale, Kerrigan deals an additional 75 damage the next 6 times she damages them within the next 5 seconds New Talent - Unbridled Energy (R) When Kerrigan damages a Hero with a Heroic Ability she gains 30% Spell Power for 4 seconds Aggressive Defense (Trait) Removed Essence for Essence (Active) Removed Overdrive (Active) Removed Level 20 Omegastorm (R) New Functionality: Maelstrom's duration is increased by .125 seconds every time it damages an enemy Hero New Talent - Assimilation Blades (Trait) Damaging an enemy increases Kerrigan's Basic Attack damage by 4%, up to 40%, for 5 seconds Psionic Shift (Active) Shield amount is now doubled when damaging enemy Heroes Nexus Blades (Passive) Removed Support

      Brightwing

      Abilities
      Arcane Flare (Q) Outer damage from 87 to 75 Inner damage from 260 to 180 Missile speed increased ~30% Added functionality: If an enemy Hero is hit by the center of Arcane Flare, instantly pulse a free Soothing Mist Polymorph (W) Duration from 1.25 to 1.5 seconds Cooldown from 10 to 12 seconds Pixie Dust (E) Range from 8 to 7 Phase Shift (Z) Cooldown from 55 to 60 seconds Added functionality: Heals the target for 20% of their maximum health Soothing Mist (D) Heal amount reduced from 115 to 105 Added functionality: Activate to instantly pulse a calming wave, clearing all Stun, Root, Slow, and Silence effects from nearby allies 120 second cooldown Emerald Wind (R) No longer grants passive healing to Soothing Mist Damage reduced from 303 to 225 Cooldown reduced from 60 to 50 seconds Talents
      Level 1 Greater Polymorph (W) Moved from Level 16 New functionality: Increase the cast range of Polymorph by 30%. Anytime a nearby enemy Hero is killed, reset the Cooldown of Polymorph Hyper Shift (Z) New functionality: Increase the heal amount of Phase Shift to 30% of targets max Health Every Minion killed near you lowers the cooldown of Phase Shift by 2 seconds Pixie Charm (1) New functionality: Every Minion killed near you grants you a Bribe Stack. Hitting an enemy with the center portion of Arcane Flare grants you 5 Bribe Stacks Level 4 Manic Pixie (E) Removed Unstable Anomaly (W) New functionality: Increase the slow amount of Polymorph to 40%. When it expires, it explodes dealing 2% of all nearby enemy Heroes max Health in damage Dream Shot (Q) Moved from Level 1 New functionality: Increase the range of Arcane Flare by 50%. If it hits an enemy Hero, lower the cooldown to 2 seconds. New Talent – Magic Spit (D) Increase your Basic Attack range by 20%. Attacks against Heroes reduce the cooldown of Soothing Mist’s active by 5 seconds Level 7 Mistified (D) Removed Cleanse (Active) Removed Phase Shield (Z) Removed Sticky Flare (Q) Moved from Level 13 New functionality: Arcane Flare slows Heroes by 20% for 3 seconds, or 40% if hit by the center of Arcane Flare Peekaboo! (Z) Moved from Level 4 Added functionality: Also grants the you and your target a temporary health Shield New Talent – Critical Mist (D) If Calming Mist removes a status effect from an ally, instantly heal them for 200 Level 13 Ice Block (Active) Removed Shield Dust (E) Removed Pixie Boost (E) Movement Speed decay duration increased from 1.5 to 3 seconds Movement Speed bonus reduced to 40% New Talent – Safety Dust (E) Increase the duration of Pixie Dust by 1 second. Healing dealt by Brightwing is increased by 25% on targets with Pixie Dust New Talent – Pixie Power (E) Lower the cooldown of Pixie Dust by 3 seconds and increase the Spell Armor it grants to 50 Level 16 Bouncy Dust (E) Removed Hardened Focus (Passive) Removed New Talent – Phase Out (Active) Activate to phase out and become invulnerable for .5 seconds 20 second cooldown New Talent – Hush (Q) Enemy Heroes hit with the center of Arcane Flare are Silenced for 1 second and deal 25% less damage for 3 seconds. Level 20 Double Wyrmhole (R) Removed Continuous Winds (R) Removed Revitalizing Mist (D) Removed Storm Shield (Active) Removed New Talent – Invisible Friends (R) Blink Heal grants you and the target stealth. They are unrevealable for .5 seconds. While under this effect, they regenerate 20 Health Per Second New Talent – Intensive Winds (R) Lower the cooldown of Emerald Wind to 3 seconds. It now costs 200 Mana New Talent – Faerie Protector (Active) Activate to instantly cast Pixie Dust on all nearby allied Heroes 60 second cooldown New Talent – Speedy Dragon (Passive) Gain 20% permanent movement speed Collection
      New Bundles
      The following new bundles are available for a limited time: Fall of King’s Crest Bundle Spectral Wyrm Alextrasza Skin Pack Spider Warden Maiev Skin Pack Cursed Witch Whitemane Skin Pack Phantom Knight Zarya Skin Pack New Announcers
      Queen Nightshade Blackheart Lady of Thorns New Skins
      Alexstrasza Spectral Wyrm Alexstrasza Infernal Wyrm Alexstrasza Phantom Wyrm Alexstrasza Brightwing Spectral Bewitching Brightwing Kerrigan Spectral Countess Kerrigan Maiev Spider Warden Maiev Forgotten Spider Warden Maiev Night Spider Warden Maiev Whitemane Cursed Witch Whitemane Forgotten Witch Whitemane Court Witch Whitemane Zarya Phantom Knight Zarya Infernal Knight Zarya Geist Knight Zarya New Mounts
      Redeemed Tombstone Corrupted Tombstone Copper Money Pig Pumpkin Eye Pad Sunny Side Eye Pad New Portraits, Sprays, and Emojis
      Several new emoji packs and portraits have also been added to the Heroes of the Storm Collection tab. Bug Fixes
      General
      Fixed several confusing or incorrect tooltips across all parts of the game. Drag Scroll: Fixed an issue that could occasionally cause the camera to jump in the direction of the cursor when using the drag scroll feature. Reconnect: Fixed an issue that could cause players to lose control of their Hero if they reconnect while piloting a vehicle. AI: A number of improvements have been made to AI Hero behavior. Art
      Chromie: Fixed an issue that caused Chromie’s hourglass to go missing during her Hearthstone animation. Heroes, Abilities, and Talents
      Abathur: Fixed an issue preventing Monstrosity from gaining damage when nearby enemy minions die. Alarak & Gazlowe: Fixed an issue that allowed Gazlowe and Alarak to cast charged abilities while time stopped. Ana: Fixed an issue that allowed Ana to used Eye of Horus shots between mine levels on Haunted Mines. Lúcio: Fixed an issue preventing Lúcio from issuing attack commands while silenced. Mephisto: Fixed an issue preventing the Static Barrier talent from granting Mephisto shields if damage was dealt to Shields or Protected Heroes. Raynor: Raynor's Raider will now clear attack or move order when entering or exiting the mines on Haunted Mines. Stealth: Fixed an issue that prevented Ping markers from being visible on clones if the clones were created after the ping was initiated. User Interface
      Fixed an issue that caused Garrosh’s Groundbreaker splat to appear under the wrong team color in observer mode. Fixed an issue that could cause Heroes to fail to play stun animations and effects if stunned twice in quick succession. Lúcio: Fixed an issue causing the UI displaying the number of allies in range of crossfade to stop working after Lúcio exits a vehicle. Brightwing & Kerrigan talent updates, Garden of Terror battleground revamp, and the Fall of King's Crest event are coming to the Nexus soon!