Blessed Hammer

Summons an ethereal hammer that spirals outwards damaging enemies it hits.

Blessed Hammer is a level 18 Paladin Combat skill that requires Holy Bolt and opens Holy Shield and Fist of the Heavens. It casts a magic missile that spirals out from the Paladin and pierces everything it crosses. Two numbers decide it: the hammer's damage, 12–16 at level 1 and 196–200 at level 20, and the synergy rate, +14% a hard point in each of Blessed Aim and Vigor.

The numbers

The damage comes from the EMin/EMax columns and their five brackets, and both ends grow at the same rate: 12–16 at level 1, then +8 a level to level 8, +10 to 16, +12 to 22, +13 to 28 and +14 past that, so the hammer's range is always four points wide. Mana is 5 at level 1 and +0.25 a level, 9.75 at level 20. The damage line reads lvl, so +skills from gear count. The tooltip's last line is a constant: +50% damage to undead at every level.

How it works

Blessed Hammer is cast at Casting Speed speed, so Faster Cast Rate sets how many hammers you throw, and it needs no hit check. The hammer is magic damage, reduced by the target's magic resistance (Resistances and Immunities): the Basin's page says it no longer pierces the magic resistance of demons and undead, so a magic-immune undead takes nothing. Hammers pierce targets. There is no physical part, so nothing on your weapon and no leech applies.

The row's Param1 is 4, which the table describes as "Damage % from Concentration (in 8ths)": Concentration gives the hammer half of its damage bonus. The Basin's page says the same and adds that it is rounded down to the nearest percentage point, and that Might and Fanaticism do not apply to the hammer at all, whatever the character screen shows.

Only Concentration among the damage auras touches the hammer, and only at half rate: a level 20 Concentration (+345%) is +172% to Blessed Hammer.

The Basin's page prints the undead bonus as 150% damage to undead and demons; the current tooltip prints +50% to undead.

Synergies and +skills

Two skills feed Blessed Hammer, both read as hard points (blvl), both at Param8 14% a point (the row's EDmgSymPerCalc):

• Blessed Aim: +14% magic damage a point.
• Vigor: +14% magic damage a point.

Forty hard points across the two add +560%. Blessed Hammer feeds nothing, and the Paladin has no masteries; Magic Skill Damage from items is the other multiplier.

Against players

A player's hit on another player is cut to 17% of its value (difficultylevels.txt PlayerDamagePercentVSPlayer) before anything else, see Player versus Player. The Basin's page adds nothing else about players.

Build notes

• Level 20 reads 196–200 magic damage for 9.75 mana a cast; each +skill past 20 adds 13–14.
• The two synergies at 20 each are +560%, far more than +skills; the hard points go into Blessed Aim and Vigor before anything else.
• Concentration is the only aura that raises the hammer, at half its listed bonus; Might and Fanaticism do nothing for it.
• The hammer is magic damage: magic immunes are the one wall, and the +50% against undead is free.