Sgt. Hammer Build Guide “Napalm's airborne!”
Welcome to our guide for Sgt. Hammer, a Ranged Assassin in Heroes of the Storm. Within these pages, you will find everything required to understand how best to play this hero, in both different map styles and team compositions.
Sgt. Hammer's Overview
Sgt. Hammer is a Ranged Assassin 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.
Sgt. Hammer's Strengths and Weaknesses
- Exceedingly dependent on proper positioning
- Vulnerable to skillshots
- Very limited out-of-combat mobility due to not having a regular Mount
- Limited team fighting utility
- Peculiar playstyle around which your team must play
Sgt. Hammer's Talent Build Cheatsheet
Standard Build
RecommendedThis standard build focuses on enhancing Siege Mode to maximize Sgt. Hammer's damage from high distance.
At Level 4, Regenerative Bio-Steel is the recommended choice. When it is paired with Advanced Artillery its healing becomes extremely hard to deal with, as she can quickly heal most of the poke damage dealt to her. However, against several displacements, or crowd controls, Siege Tactics might be a better choice. At Level 16 Giant Killer is the standard Talent, but Mechanical Know-how is a good choice if you need more resistance.
Sgt. Hammer's Synergies and Counters
Since Sgt. Hammer needs to stand still to get the most out of her Abilities, she is naturally vulnerable to Heroes that use dangerous skillshots, particularly those that can displace her.
Sgt. Hammer's Maps
Sgt. Hammer's static nature makes her thrive on Maps with fixed Objectives that allows her to threaten Heroes from range. Conversely, she tends to be of limited usefulness where quick group rotations are required.
Sgt. Hammer's Tips and Tricks
- 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.
- 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 bushes, dismounting or revealing opponents, and clearing Zagara's Creep Tumors.
Sgt. Hammer's Role in the Current Meta
Sgt. Hammer's primary goal is to inflict damage to whatever is in sight. The main difference between her and regular Ranged 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.
Changelog
- 05 Jun. 2022 (talents page): Talents and Builds updated to reflect meta development.
- 05 Jun. 2022 (this page): Guide updated to reflect meta development.
- 15 Apr. 2022 (talents page): Updated Graduating Range's description after recent balance patch.
- 15 Apr. 2022 (this page): Guide updated after recent balance patch.
- 26 Mar. 2021 (talents page): Updated Talent recommendations.
- 05 Nov. 2020 (talents page): Talents and Builds updated after recent balance patch.
- 05 Nov. 2020 (this page): Guide updated after recent balance patch.
- 01 Nov. 2020 (talents page): Talents and Builds updated.
- 01 Nov. 2020 (this page): Guide updated.
- 30 Aug. 2020 (this page): Role in Current Meta section updated.
- 05 Apr. 2020 (talents page): Description and recommendation updated for Hover Siege Mode.
- 15 Feb. 2020 (talents page): Talents reviewed following February 12 patch changes.
- 27 Jan. 2020 (talents page): Guide reviewed following January 22 balance patch. No changes to Talent recommendations.
- 09 Dec. 2019 (this page): Added a note about current Anomaly.
- 11 Oct. 2019 (talents page): Talent builds and recommendations reviewed and updated.
- 11 Oct. 2019 (abilities page): Abilities section reviewed.
- 11 Oct. 2019 (this page): Guide updated.
- 28 Jul. 2018 (talents page): Talents updated to reflect July 25 balance patch changes.
- 14 Jan. 2018 (talents page): Updated Siege build.
- 01 Dec. 2017 (talents page): Added Talent discussions.
- 30 Nov. 2017 (this page): Guide fully updated to account for the Hero's rework and moved to the new format.
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Derenash has been playing Heroes of the Storm since 2015 and has achieved Grandmaster in multiple seasons, peaking at Top 1 in Season 3 and 4 of 2018. He participated in the HGC Copa America in 2018 where his team had a strong victory. He is passionate about teaching others about the game, and streams often on Twitch in Portuguese, and you can find him in Wind Striders' Discord as well where he is happy to answer any questions in English or Portuguese.
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