dubnik's Perfect MF Hammerdin Guide



Overview:

D2 is basically all about finding good loot. Finding good loot is a
combination of having a high rate of killing, and a high percentrage
of magic find. This build reaches the best intersection of those two points.





Summary:

You have a few goals with this build, I will list them in the order of
importnance, along with reasoning for each goal.

1. 125 FCR
Allows you to teleport and kill faster. VITAL!

2. 75+ All res in hell
Necessary to survive in hell difficulty.

3. Max Block, high defense, 3k+ life, 55% fhr
Holy shield, Spirit, CTA allow for an awesome combination of defense (10k+),
block rate (2 frames), life bonus, and a nice fhr breakpoint. This leads to
great survivability without sacrificing resists, damage, or killing speed.

4. High Damage
11k+ hammer damage, extremely high merc damage. Helps deal high damage
to get more drops faster, and kill magic immunes with the merc.

5. 200+ Magic Find
The gear and charm options allow you to have 200-300mf while maintaining
all of the above goals.





Skills:

20 Blessed Hammer
1 Holy Shield
20 Concentration
20 Vigor
20 Blessed Aim
Rest into Holy Shield





Stats:

Str: Enough to wear gear (with enigma, stats on anni, torch, and
amulet/ring, you might not even have to put any stats in here)
Dex: Enough for max block while using holy shield (75% block) --
Need more dex for this every time you lvl up. So when you do lvl up, do
your buffs, cast holy shield, and put the 1-2 points into dex until its @ 75%
again.
Vit: All the rest
Energy: 0





Gear:

Ideal Paladin Gear:
1. Shield - Spirit Runeword made in an elite shield (sacred targe, sacred
rondache, kurast shield) - 35fcr (very important), 45 Res All
2. Weapon - Heart of the Oak Runeword - 40fcr, 40 Res All
3. Armor - Enigma (mage plate, dusk shroud, you want the highest def you
can wear without putting anything into str)
4. Upped Magefists - 30%ed, 20fcr, mana regen
5. Arachnids Mesh - 120%ed, 20fcr
6. War Traveler boots - 50% MF
7. Amulet - +2 pally skills, 10fcr, STR/DEX/All Res/Life/Mana/MF are all
good to have on here
8. Rings - SOJ/BK/Magic Find Rings - Depending on whether you want
more mf/survivability/mana
9. Helm - Shako - Your choice of socket - Good options are Ist (MF), Ber (DR),
Jah (max life), UM(resists), Ral (resists)

Inventory:
High Pally torch (18+/18+)
High Anni (18+/18+)
High Gheeds (40%mf)
7mfsc with resists (mf/survivability)
Optional: Pcomb lifers (if you desire extra damage/survivability these are
your best bet)

Switch:
1. CTA - 6 to Battle Orders
2. Random spirit - +2 to skills (fcr doesnt matter)





Merc:

You will be using a max damage merc setup to increase your killing
speed. You do not need holy freeze because slowing enemies down
does nothing for you. You do not need insight because you have enough
mana regen from your gear - you will occasionally need to pot mana,
but the increased kill speed from them merc is worth it. He will deal with
magic immunes without much issue, especially if you use holy bolt to
help deal damage.

To the doubters: try this out and you will see a 20% increase in your run speed.

Might Aura - More damage for merc - hell or normal offensive act 2 merc
Guillaume's Face winged helm (15ias 40ed jeweled) - Crushing blow, FHR,
Deadlystrike, strength. Best DPS merc helm possible.
Eth Treachery- treachery is cheaper and BETTER than fortitude in almost
all situations. You do more damage, and have better merc survivability.
Eth Reaper's Toll (15 ias, 40ed jeweled) - 33% DECREP PROC, deadly
strike, ignore targed def, life leech, high damage





Other Options:

1. Cheaper: Instead of pally ammy (which can be very expensive) you can
have a Maras (30@res) and a FCR (10fcr, stats, res, life, mana, mf) ring
and still reach 125 fcr breakpoint
2. Even cheaper: Instead of hoto/fcr ammy - you can use a wiz spike (50%fcr)
to reach 125, leaving you whatever you decide to put in ring/ammy slots.
3. Merc options: Insight/andy's/fort merc. Less DPS but it helps your
survivability. I really do NOT reccomend this. You kill significantly faster
with the other setup, and you have enough mana regen from magefists,
sojs, and the rest of your gear/inventory.
4. 1 skill in redemption - this will allow you to convert monsters' corpses to
mana and life, will reduce the need to use pots, allow you to free up your
ring/glove spots for something besides soj/magefists.




Recap:

55FHR - (spirit shield, plenty of FHR)
125FCR - (highest reasonable breakpoint)
Max Res - (hoto, spirit, anni, torch, amulet, charms)
3k+ life - (vita build)
High damage - (+17 to all skills, +2 to pally skills, + skill charms)
High Defense - (holy shield/decent gear)
Max Block - (holy shield/dex)
High MF - ( 80% enigma, 50-75% shako, 50% travs, 40% gheeds,
0-60% rings, ~70% mfsc = ~ 250-350% TOTAL MF)

This build has great survivability, and killing power, while still maintaining a
high MF%, allowing optimal speed runs with optimal drops, and almost
nothing will phase you.






Bonus: My favorite places to MF

Here is my typical run:
Andy > Trav > Memph > Chaos Sanct + Diablo > Pindle > Shenk + Eldrich > Baal
This hits some bosses and high item level areas, where you encounter few
magic immunes, and it is easy for hammerdins to kill.

And here is a list of all aLvl85+ areas (good places to mf):

Act 1 - Pit Level 1 (Few Undead; Any Immunity; ~6 Boss Packs)
Act 1 - Pit Level 2 (Few Undead; Any Immunity; ~2 Boss Packs)
Act 1 - Mausoleum (Undead; ONLY Lightning Immunes; ~4 Boss Packs)
Act 2 - Maggot Lair Level 3
Act 2 - Ancient Tunnels (Undead; NO Cold Immunes; ~6 Boss Packs)
Act 3 - Sewers Level 2
Act 3 - Forgotten Temple (Upper Kurast)
Act 3 - Ruined Fane (Kurast Causeway)
Act 3 - Disused Reliquary (Kurast Causeway)
Act 4 - River of Flame
Act 4 - Chaos Sanctuary (Boss - Diablo)
Act 5 - The Worldstone Keep Level 1
Act 5 - The Worldstone Keep Level 2
Act 5 - The Worldstone Keep Level 3
Act 5 - Throne of Destruction
Act 5 - The Worldstone Chamber (Boss - Baal)

This post was edited by Dubnik on Sep 30 2011 11:47am

Pretty much the basic cookie cutter setup. I would complain it is just another guide, but seeing other terrible guides like od_yard's and how half the people asking for help in S&G claim that anything older than 2 weeks is outdated, this guide could be useful for those with no brain.

Only suggestion I have is to include what areas are best to run, ALVL 85 areas in particular. A lot of MF guides will have people asking "where do i mf for gosu itam??"

Included the areas, and what i like to run. Thanks for the tip. Looking for more.

Well, also with those areas, you may want to include number of rare monster mobs. Worldstone 1/2/3 have the most out of them, which makes them the most ideal place to MF if you can run them while Pit/Mausoleum/Ancient Tunnels are the easiest to run.

ideal is up for debate, the monsters die slower, but there may be more/higher level/more rare mobs. It is really splitting hairs at that point.

Die slower? I switched from Pit/Ancient/Mausoleum to Worldstone 1/2/3 many years ago, and rare monster kills per minute has increased quite drastically. Plus, I skip all the normal monsters. You're a Hammerdin, nothing should be dying "slowly"

better than half the retarded nonsense we see everyday.. just one suggestion.. amulet, a maras is a far cheaper/better option than most rares.. just include a 10 fcr ring to hit the 125 fcr bp.. nice work on the guide..

Imo, 1 point hs is enough... better to invest the excess points in passive max res or holy bolt (holy bolt if u baal run)

Also remember the 1 point wonders meditation and redemption. 1 pt salvation and fanaticism can be handy too...

As for the merc... normal>hell.

Other than that... This is a good guide

This post was edited by BigSweetThing on Sep 30 2011 12:23pm

what is the diff between hell and normal?
i feel like HS is more useful than higher than max res and extra holy bolt damage (that only helps you for wave 2 baal, and you already have a bucket of +skills and a gfg damage merc to deal with that)

you will never use fanat, while salvation might be useless as well due to your > than max res.

i have that in as my first of my alternate options. Ideal would be a 2 to skills, 20@res, 10fcr, 20str, 20dex, life, mana ammy. (or something along those lines), however maras does make a nice enough substitute, and a ring will give you the extra necessary FCR.




hm, i guess ive never though of skipping all of the non unq monsters. and they do die at a slightly different rate, pit vs wsk3? there is a definite difference in kill speed and damage you take.