Sgt. Hammer Build Guide “Napalm's airborne!”

Sgt. Hammer is a ranged Specialist that excels at dealing large amounts of sustained damage from a very long range. Her unique playstyle, relative lack of mobility, and her fragility mean that her allies must adopt a patient playstyle in order to get the most out of her.

• Be careful with Siege Mode; although its damage increase may be tempting, it also leaves you very vulnerable to area of effect Abilities.
• Use Thrusters sparingly; they are your only reliable method of escaping opponents.
• Sgt. Hammer's low Mana costs allow you to use Spider Mines on-Cooldown to protect your flanks. Keep them away from Minions to preserve them.
• Concussive Blast deals very little damage; use it to push enemies away from you or teammates.
• Neosteel Plating should be used to avoid Ability-based burst damage such as an impending Pyroblast hit.
• Napalm Strike is useful for quickly checking Brushes, dismounting or Revealing opponents, and clearing Zagara's Creep Tumors.

Although classified as a Specialist, Sgt. Hammer plays like an Assassin; her primary goal is to inflict damage to whatever is in sight. The main difference between her and regular Assassins, however, is that she does not possess a regular Mount, greatly limiting her Map presence. The trade-off is that she has Thrusters, which innately grant her a strong and very useful but Cooldown-gated speed boost. She can also enter Siege Mode, which makes her unable to move but nearly doubles her attack range. This makes her, as the Ability's name implies, an excellent sieger.

Since Heroes of the Storm is a game that is defined by the rotations that its various map objectives call for, having such an immobile Hero as part of any team composition requires very specific adaptations from the part of any team that is willing to pick her. Sgt. Hammer players must also be very critical of their own ability to predict necessary rotations ahead of time, so that they are rarely out of position and unable to assist their teammates.

In general, Sgt. Hammer simply does well against team compositions that lack hard-engages, and as part of teams that can properly protect her, allowing her to freely decimate her foes and safely take down Structures.