LLD101

[destructojoe]

Table of Contents
[1] Introduction to The Guide
[2] Basic Concepts
[3] Skill Layout
[4] Gear Choices
[5] Stash Gear
[6] Socketing Choices
[7] Overview
[8] Dueling Tactics
[9] Credits


[1] Introduction to the Guide
My Name is Destructojoe and I've been playing Diablo before it ever came to be a MMPG. Over the years I've spent countless hours making all different types of pvp and pvm characters. Most have been wrong since I was focused more on gear then on breakpoints, skill, etc. I've been involved with LLD or low level dueling for a relatively short time but I'd thought I'd share one of my favorites builds. This is a pure cookie-cutter build with no variations. So although there are some different hybrids, don't look for them in this guide!

[2] Basic Concepts
Our hammerdin is going to be level 30 because this is typically the accepted highest level of any LLD on the East or West Realm. The Europe/Asia realm have a different accepted max level etc. Notice on my guide I put EAST. This is because a majority of East Realm LLD's are hell rushed, so naturally you want to be competitive. There are some important breakpoints that we want to meet in creating our hammerdin and in the selection of our gear. The break points we need to meet are:

125% FCR
86% FHR
75% Block
75 all resistance

In addition to the 12 extra skill we get when hell rushing our pally, we get 30 extra resistance from the anya quests, 60 extra life from the golden bird quests, and 15 extra stat points from the Tome quest. Let go over our stat layout.

Stats for All Characters are basically the same.
Strength:Enough for your Gear and your Gear Only.
Dexterity:Enough to hit the Max Block. (75%) - this can depend on your shield type as well!!
Vitality:Rest of the Points.
Energy:None Whatsoever.

That wasn't so hard? Your probably saying to yourself, "Yeah but they all say that but what does that really mean?" In a nutshell it means that don't assign any stat points untill you have all your gear and any +stat charms your going to use. Doesn't that mean I need to have ALL my gear before finishing my character? BINGO!!!


[3] Skill Layout
Almost to the fun part now. So if you have ever made a hammerdin you know the basics of what you need; Blessed Hammer (BH), Concentration (Conc), and the synergies of BH which are Blessed Aim (BA) and Vigor. Naturally we need Holy Shield (HS) as well. With our hell rush we have 41 skill points to work with. Which means even though we have 20 points to dump in BH, we are not able to do this because we don't get access to this skill until level 18, which means we max BH with 13 points. Lets lay out the skills now.

BH - 13
BA - 19
Conc - 4
Holy Shield - 1

Now dont' forget the pre-requisits to these skills Smite, Charge, Holy Bolt, and Might. All these get 1 point. Vigor was left out because it takes 3 points to get to vigor, instead we dump these points right into Conc to boost damage.

[4] Gear Options
Many people would think that low lvl dueling is cheap. On the contrary, it is VERY expensive. Especially at the godly level. I'm going to present to you what I currently use on my hammerdin and also give some alternatives, although in meeting our breakpoints as discussed earlier there are not a huge variety of choices.

HELM
We have essentially a few choices here. I'm going to start with the best.
1. Peasant Crown
+100% Enhanced Defense
+1 To All Skills
15% Faster Run/Walk
Replenish Life +6-12 (varies)
+20 To Energy
+20 To Vitality
*okay there is nothing about this helm that I don't love. It has literally everything usefull that we want and nothing that doesn't have some benefit.

2. 2 socketed +2 pcombat circlet
*hopefully this spawns with some mods like fcr, life, mana, str, dex, etc. This adds a VERY insignificant amount of PVP damage. In order for this to be better then a Peasants Crown it would have to spawn with some really good mods as well as fcr.

3. Lore Runeword
*basically your just getting the +1 to skill and any other mod you can get on the helm. Peasant crown is not expensive so don't mess around with this garbage.

Armor
There is only one real choice here.

Skin of the Vipermagi
+120% Enhanced Defense
+1 To All Skills
30% Faster Cast Rate
Magic Damage Reduced By 9-13 (varies)
All Resistances +20-35 (varies)

The two things I LOVE about this armor is the FCR and the Magic Damage Reduce. The +1 to skills is just gravy on my biscuits...mmm, mmm good! Since we are making a pally we are going to use a pally spirit shield so the resistance is not so critical on this piece. In the end we are going to have massively stacked resistance.

Sword/Shield
There really is not many choices here either. The spirit runeword sure did turn the tables on alot of builds. The pally recieves huge bonuses because unlike other builds, he can use a spirit shield and sword at low levels. In making your spirits you should consider that you want a sword that has LOW strength requirements such as a crystal sword. Ideally you want both spirits to be 35% FCR but you do have some flexibility.... 5% fcr!! So that means that each spirit needs to be roughly 33% or better.

The shield should be made also in a high def, high resistance shield that your pally can use at his level. This can be all the way up to an Akaran Rondache. Getting a good resistance shield is very important because you will be fighting higher level duelers inevitably in public games (pubs). 45 is the perfect resistance that can spawn on a pally shield. Why does being called a hacker on closed bnet feel good??


And oh btw...each spirit gives us 22 to vitality, 89-112 to mana, 3-8 magic absorb, and 55% fhr. There's our fhr breakpoint!

In addition we get the extra resistance for the sheild! Damn I love me some spirits!

Belt
There are a couple choices here but only two belts come to mind, which is what I carry.
String of Ears and Deaths Sash. The Deaths Sash is purely for the cannot be frozen mod. Even though being frozen doesn't affect your casting speed it will slow your general movement down. Since we use charge to move around quickly, being frozen doesn't help.

The String is a great overall belt because it holds a bunch of mana pots (your not using red or purple pots in duels are u??). It has damage reduction of up to 15% and it also has magic damage reduction which is very nice at low lvls. Have both of these belts ready.

Gloves
Sorry, no choice here. We need the FCR so its good ole Magefists.

Boots
Two options here really. Sanders or Cow King Boots. The difference between the two really comes down to strength for casters. The Sanders has str. and the Cow Kings don't. The cow kings have more dex. Either of these works.

Ammy/Rings
Little selection here. The ammy should be a +2 pcombat with fcr and whatever other mods you can get. Obviously if you can get something with strength then you gain a few more points to put into vitality. If you can only get a hold of a +1 pally skills with fcr then use it for the time being. Whatever amulet you go with make SURE it has FCR because we need to hit our breakpoint.

Rings are both SOJ. (Did I say it was cheap??)

Inventory/Charms
This is what separates the men from the boys in the arena. Your whole inventory should be filled with life charms, specifically 15 life small charms. Your aiming for life/mana small charms if you can get them but beware that these are very expensive.

[5] Stash Gear
There is not much you need to keep in the stash here. You already have a weapon switch which I didn't mention in this guide as there are so many choices. Some choices include using a Holy Shield pre-buff sceptor with a spirit shield (this means more points in dmg synergies or concentration) or Insight staff for meditation aura. There are different sceptors that can spawn with all kinds of mods as well. I can't spoon feed you everything! Naturally you want to have your death sash and string of ears availabe for cold users.

[6]Socketing Choices
Essentially we have a helm and armor to socket. My personal preference is to socket each of these with a Pruby for additional life. Another choice is to socket them with Pskulls for the life/mana regeneration. If your looking really good on all your life charms you may choose to socket these with Psaphires for some additional mana. What I don't recommend is socketing them with +stat gems like emeralds, etc.

[7] Overview
If you have most of the gear choices I've mentioned above you will have approximately +8 to all skills with an additional +2 to pcombat skills. Lets review the breakpoints and the gear that meets them:

125% FCR (spirits 70%, viperskin 30%, magefist 20%, ammy 10%= 130%)
86 FHR (spirits 110%)
75% Block (holy shield + dex)
75 all resistance (80% spirit, 30 hell rush, 35 viperskin=145 stacked!!)

Life: 1000+
(This is a conservative number. You can get 600 life from charms alone. But at least aim for this number.)

Mana: 400+ (Again, charms will make a difference but u will be close to this with gear alone)

Damage: 1806 - 1838
(With the 1/6 pvp penalty this is 301 - 306 pvp damage PER hammer!)

[8] Dueling Tactics
Unlike most guides I'm not going to tell you to do this versus this character etc, because I feel that most of those guides were written by people who have had very little experience dueling skillful people. What I can tell you is that the little hammerdin (my din's is name DestructoPalyjr) is competitive with EVERY class and build of dueler out there. I'm not saying he owns everything because if you stand there and just hammer then you will get ownt by any noob using ranged attacks. Your basic skills you will be using is charge for movement and your hammers. Every character requires a different dueling tactic, and you will only know these by trial and error.

[9] Credits
This guide and my involvement in LLD would not have been possible without the assistance of lld101. My thanks goes to their members and staff.

Thanks for reading my guide. If you liked my guide then please post. If you didnt like the guide then please stfu.

Oh and u may not reproduce or use this guide without my consent. May your mother smell of a thousand rotten camel crotches if you do.

[velocity]

Cool guide, should be helpful to some of us out there.

[hairy_brute]

Love the organization of the guide.

Some questions:

1) is 125% absolutely necessary or could you build like this (assuming you found this scepter):
3BH + Conc - honored WarScepter - replenish life, 10str
Bloodfists - 30% fhr
FHR / str / Life / resist Belt - 17, 24% fhr

Sacrifices from Spirit / mage / string: Loss of 22 vita, 100mana, 55%fhr, MDR, 55% fcr
Gains: 40 + Belt's Life : 47 - 54%fhr [hit bp w/ either]

Lose 125 bp, bumps you to 75% bp on fcr.

Unless you found this kind of scepter I'd assume that spirit would be a better choice.

2) This guide assumes a Hell Rushed which is not official LLD101 rules: how would the skill placement change (1 conc, less BA i assume, HS pre-buff)?

3) What was your Damage / Life / Mana / etc ?

4) What significant mods does the circlet need to beat out peasant crown (assuming the replenish life / 40mana / 40 life are key sacrifices [frw - charge covered])?

Some Ideas:
2 Socket Circlet w/ 20%fcr + 1 pally or pcomb: w/ 2x Ruby (38 x2 Life)
used with Blood Fists (+40 life). <Still hit fcr bp, lose peplenish + 40mana>

This hinges on whether max life or replenish life is better. Something that I'm not sure of.


Anyways, all in all Great Guide. Makes me want to rebuild my caster + get better tactics.

[LLD-Vamp]

The only thing I can ever see beating spirit would be a +2 combat +3bh+3conc 10%fcr war scepter.


Using this along with a 20% fcr circlet you could still hit the 125% BP and get a signifigant damage booste. You'd lose some life and mana though.

The scepter above would be orgasmic.

[destructojoe]

[OutlawHeaven]

[Knifer]

the reason he point into conc is because he had 3 extra skill points left. as you probably already know, conc only gives 1/2 the listed to BH. however, since BA is already maxed for its lvl, vigor is the only other synergy and it requires some new pre reqs to even get to.

[Hades]

Nice Guide, altho I have seen other lvl '29' Hell rushed hammerdins make use of vigor for the charge synergy + extra desynch. But if you "Easties" hell rush but don't use charge for dmg then ignore what I just stated.

[destructojoe]

[crawlingdeadman]

hello joe, ive met your pally on a couple occasions. those couple of times as well as reading this guide several times prompted me to make a lvl 30 hammerdin. i just got "done" with him last night. i have a few questions.

1) why is this guide not in the stickie? i think it was in the last one...

2) what is your insight in?

3) i need help with my charging...do you charge only when u have insight on and then do a quick switch to hammer?

4) i assume you try to avoid namelocked charging since you use it for movement, is there a good tactic to "bump" into the other player, because i seem to miss a lot. or will i just get better with practice (hopefully)?

5) how exactly do you desync? do you use bursts of charge or just leave it on?

6) how much of your charms alotment is given over to making a more damaging charge? are you using many 3 maxers or are u just going with mana/lifers?

just in playing with my din a few games i see that i need some practice. mana is a serious issue with this build imo. since i am lacking sojs at the moment i decided to use fcr rings. i tried out eth frosties for more mana, it seemed to work great but after dying ~3 times it lost a duribilty so i dont know how long they'll last. im contemplating a remake already with maybe the idea of getting 60 str (or more) for frosties and using a more damaging insight switch (i duel in pubs almost exclusively). i am not hell rushed b/c i like to be able to see games...people dont seem to come to the ones i make myself

thanks in advance to anyone helping me out and thanks, joe for the guide to...uh...guide me.

-CDM

[destructojoe]

CDM,

I'll try to answer some questions for you the best I can.

1. This guide has never been stickied and I really don't know why. There are no other guides for hell rushed lvl30 hammerdins or any good info out there. Thats for the mods to decide.

2. My insight is in a partizan - this means that you will sacrifice life for this pub killer because of the str to equip this. A few str charms with helpful mods does help.

3. When it comes to movement I charge with my normal gear. When your dueling your doing 1 of 3 actions... 1. charging, 2. casting, 3. regen with insight. (if your dueling in tourney, if not just chug some mana pots)

4. When fighting other lld's (legit ones) then you dont want to namelock, however you don't need to namelock because if they are worth a damn they will keep moving, hence you should be creating traps and hammerfields for them to run into. In pub duels however, especially effective vs bow zons, the repeated charge with just your spirit sword will chip them to death or if your build is modeled after mine, switch to your insight and make them feel some serious pain.

5. Desyncing is done with some practice and the hardest thing about desync is that it never shows on your screen. To start....go about 2 screens away from a friend, have him be some type of sorc like fireball (basically shooting an untimered spell), just tell him to shoot you but stay still. Charge towards him in a semi circular pattern and as you get close look at where he is firing. You will most often find that he is shooting where u were and u just appear all the sudden behind him. Desyncing effectively takes time and experience especially vs another desyncer or someone that has played a desycer effectively, since they have a better idea of where u really are.

6. My charge switch and the way I setup my char was to give me an effective charge to kill those pubby duelers but still stay competitive vs real lld's. Putting charms with max/ar or max/ar/life will yield minimal benefits instead of just plain life charms.

Note on your gear: You say you dont have sojs which give a nice boost of mana and your using frosties to compensate. Even if you setup your hammerdin to use the partizan (which will give u plenty of str for frosties) you lose the fcr. If your using two caster rings thats fine for now, but get those sojs and make sure your hitting the 125% fcr bp.

Final thoughts: Don't get caught up in charging with your insight. The primary purpose is to regen mana and to take care of random pubs when not dueling according to lld101 rules. Mastering your movement and use of hammers is what your goal should be. I've taken out several 85+ hammerdins that were setup for dueling with my lvl30. Once you finish out your gear and charms, thats all you get...the rest is skill honed thru practice.

Hope this answered your questions.

[sPiN]

this is a nice guide good job

[Elusive]

as far as im concerned vigor doesnt affect desynch and ive been dueling with desynching hammerdins at high levels since early 1.10.

i did a test on open with the optimal legit scepter (2 p comb 10 fcr 3 hammer 3 conc) i did 2k damage. this is probably the only scepter that would be worth using over spirit

the alternative to string would be a 24 fhr 9 str 60 life belt. or a classic one with something along the lines of 20 fhr/11-15 str/50-60 life/high resists.

boots there are some nice rares out there that are 30 rfw/tri resists above 30. they can also come with some dex (around 5)

[destructojoe]

[GT-Pwn]

nice guide for the pure type hammer pally.

bravo!!