Where to spend Hammerdin's extra points?

[Vash]

I just started my first Hammerdin and I'm not sure what other skills to invest in other than Concentration and Blessed Hammer.

[Nicodemus Phaulkon]

At least one into Meditation (fill that Blue orb up fast).

You might consider Smite for a secondary attack (works nicely with your investment in Concentration).

Fist of the Heavens if you want to either pursue a Clerical or PvP idea (coupled with Conviction on the PvP).

*tips helm*

[TheDragoon]

Another good option, instead of Meditation, is Redemption. Redemption allows you to fill up both the life and the mana after each battle. At high levels, one shot of Redemption is usually enough to fill both orbs. :)

Holy Shield is another good choice since it would grant additional defense for the Paladin so he doesn't take quite so many hits while tanking the monsters (I usually like to have the monsters surround me to maximize Blessed Hammer's circular attack pattern).

[Vash]

Meditation vs. Redemption:

Yeah, I've been thinking I should use Meditation over Redemption because Meditation is much more party friendly (for Sorcs and especially for Necros). How many points in Meditation will I need for a decent mana regen rate?

Smite:

Will Smite do enough damage in hell even with Concentration?

Fist of Heavens:

Bah...I tried making a FOH paladin a while back but I got really turned off by the "feature" with putting FOH on your left mouse button. It turns out that when you walk with your left mouse button (as most people do I hope) while FOH is assigned to it, you'll automatically cast it on any target that's within range. I don't plan on making this (or any of my characters) pvp so I probably won't go FOH.

Holy Shield:

Does Holy Shield take effect before or after the whole deal with dex?

[Archon_Wing]

If you can get a shield with decent smite damage. (try the exceptional/elite pally shields) smite will do damage. Holy shield also boosts smite damage so get a lot of that.

I peronally go with smite, since the backup skill is about dealing with narrow corridors and at least i can knock them out to a more open area. ;)

Holy shield tacks the % on your actual shield blocking, so i presume it's before dex; doesn't make a big diffrence anyways.

Meditation works faster, so i'd go with that.

FOH is truly great if you decide to go running around the act 2 tombs or the Chaos Sanctuary. Thing is, you would rather be using hammers anyway. I feel that is somewhat limited in use though since it really only shines with conviction. ;) I personally don't like it because the timer is evil plus it sucks up mana pretty bad in comparison to damage. That is, compared to the 2 mana cost of smite.

Still, it's a nice backup skill in narrow corridors., and wins 2 points for style. :D

You might also want some zeal, in case, you really have to do melee. ;)

For example, I carry a Blackbog's in my switch. Yes, the damage is low and poisoning an enemy over and over makes no diffrence, but the zeal's Ar boost helps since I can't be bothered to do all this and have a high attack rating. All that +skills help as well, making one point effective. It also enables me to leech a little. The slows target on Blackbog's compliments the build well, and makes Baal less painful. :)

[Saga_Keeper]

Don't use smite, you'll most probably want to go with herald of zakarum for the bonuses it gives to your hammers. You need skills, skills and more skills (well and some faster cast rate) for hammers to be useful in d2x... and hoz has lousy base smite damage.

Charge however can be very poweful due to concentration, and the fact that attack speed is pretty much ignored for it, just grab a mallet or an axe and put a hel rune in it to lower the reqs to more friendly hammeradin levels.

Holy shield lets you keep your dex down, and put points into vitality and even energy if you need to. Blocking is a good thing, and with a high block shield like the Herald level 10 holy shield (not to mention you can have +4 from using herald, which means you can save points or just have higher) over top of it will keep you from ever needing much dexterity for 75% block rate.

I'd take both meditation and redemption, both have their uses. And if you're not packing leech and a bunch of potions redemtion (with the various skill items I'd personally suggest adding in, such as a hat and armor like peasant crown/shako, skins of the viper magi[for the cast rate and resists, as well as the skill bonus]) redemption can fill up your life and mana balls after you hammer everything to death. Meditation is good when there are no bodies around, or the bodies dissapear after death... once again with plus skills you can easily get upwards of 400% regeneration which is needless to say, more then level 20 warmth(which means yay yay mana) *most* caster types will benefit from this, but since they can't rely on it being around, are typically able to fend for their mana purposes on their own... and both are very useful as I already said.
-Saga_Keeper

[-Tempus-]

well is this d2c or lod?

for a normal hammerdin you'll max bh/conc in lod but that leaves you a ton of points to use. you also need a 2nd attack skill. since you will be using as many +skill items as you can find.

smite+holy shield use the same items as a hammerdin (just need to add some ias since you use conc and not fan)

FOH+conviction again use the same +skill items as a hammerdin.

light saber + zeal or charge (can still get 4 fps attack)

if you use combat charms then going with smite & holy shield will work great. the HoZ is the best shield you can find for a hammerdin and works great for smite. the only 2 shield that will have more smite dmg is a rare +2 elite paladin shield or a magic +3 combat skills shield.

if you use smite more then bh then try using a might merc for the added dmg to smite. also try and use something to cast amp. if you want a 5% chance to be hit in hell then you may want to use a defiance merc.

high lev freeze is always great. i like to max this skill so i can use a different merc.

[Taem]

I found MEDITATION not that useful at all, even when maxed. I've had several hammerdins since I've played d2 and always found REDEMPTION more useful from my own playing style, however, good life and mana leech are a far better substitute IMO - but leech dosent help against undead (another great reason for REDEMPTION).

I found HOLY FREEZE to be exceptionally good when using blessed hammers, especially in cows. It stops the monsters almost dead in their tracks, even those immune to cold and extra fast :P , and gives your hammers time to really do some damage.

I don't want to argue against the use of SMITE because so many people find it useful, but I did not have any luck with this skill. First, it didn't stun bosses which was really the *only* place I needed it. Secondly, even with a phase blade of Greatly Increased Attack Speed, the SMITE was pretty much useless against mobs greater than 6 (but this is strictly my opinion, as I've seen plenty of successful smiters out there). The reason for this is that the build I had was not based purly on SMITE, but BLESSED HAMMER. I found ZEAL and some life/mana leeching equipment to be much more useful at any level of play.

If your not going to use SMITE, then HOLY SHIELD stops increasing significantly past level 5 at 25% block. At level 10 its a mere 5% more at 30% block. Any more points past this would not yield much benefit. If you throw in possible +skill items, then 5 points into HOLY SHIELD seems like plenty IMO.

Lastly, VIGOR is a great skill to put points into. However much your comfortable with is my motto.

-EDIT- One other thing. If you use your point in HOLY FREEZE, then that frees up a spot for another mercinary other than a HF one. I'd reccommend a DEFIANCE mercinary. IMO, DEFIANCE mercinaries help out tremendously because they dramatically decrease your chance to be hit, which is good for any character but *really* good for hammerdins since it's critical to get those hammers off and not get stunned.

[Archon_Wing]

Well, I'll have to stubbornly stick with smite :P Yes, it sucks at crowd control, but that's what the hammers are for. Plus having ITD is nice when your build doesn't really allow for that.

Zeal is indeed useful, but you just need a one point investment. Zeal is mostly for leeching.

Redemption is quite useful, but I like mediation better, since it's just a few seconds wait. I feel that redemption is more of an after-battle thing, and I'd rather have an attack aura active for most of the time, but that's just me.

[Saga_Keeper]

That's when you use redemption, after you have a pile of dead critters at your feat from hammers, it's nice for filling up your life as well as mana.
-Saga_Keeper

[Archon_Wing]

I know, but I ususaly don't care about that after battle :P
But I know it's usefullness, but it requires a high level to be effective.