Tips for Sgt. Hammer of Heroes of the Storm

Written by: Jon Quinn
1/15/2015, 08:47
Tweet to: @LeissureOG

Introduction

Sgt. Hammer is a bombastic beauty who can lay down some serious firepower. Couple that with her talents that give massive increases to range and you have yourself a suitable sniper. I’m a little disappointed that the tank hero doesn’t hold true to the StarCraft model. The StarCraft RTS gave the tank the disadvantage of dealing splash damage to allies as well as enemies. This indiscriminate carpet bombing had some hilarious effects when used in play. I wouldn’t mind seeing friendly fire on this hero with an increase to damage. It is also worth mentioning that Sgt. Hammer has gotten some criticism for not being part of the story arc in any of the StarCraft games. She is solely a creation of Heroes of the Storm, possibly foreshadowing that Blizzard team working on HotS does not want to stick to their lore created in previous games.

Skills

Spider Mines – Not a great ability. They have a cool down so you really have to anticipate where the enemy is going to be walking. They are easy to walk around and can be targeted by ranged heroes, which causes the mines to explode prematurely.

Concussive Blast – Useful if your going to be making a run for it, as it will launch the enemies across the map until they hit a wall.

Siege Mode – The only really important ability in your spell arsenal. You’re going to want to pay special attention to where your place yourself in a fight. The enemy is going to know you’re raining down some serious firepower and they’re also going to know you’re vulnerable to attack because you have relatively low hit points for a tank. They also know you’re an easy target because your rooted to the ground in Siege Mode.

Early Game

Your best bet early game is to try and stay out of the line of fire, as this hero’s range is pretty comparable to every other ranged hero in the game. My advice is to just try to not feed the other team. The Siege Mode is particularly terrible early game, as you barely do enough damage to justify rooting yourself to a specific location. You’re extremely susceptible to getting ganked if you’re soloing a lane. The hero doesn’t allow for mounts, but you can sprint straight out of Siege Mode, which eliminates the half-second stun that brings you out of Siege Mode and puts you back into the mobile tank form. As for your level 1 talents, I would focus on advanced artillery that increases your damage to long-distance enemies by 10%. The hero lends itself to long-range attacks later in the game so getting this ability will make you much more powerful toward the end of the match. You might suspect that the ambush ability that allows you to stealth would be useful, but in team fights later in the game that 100% damage bonus won’t likely do much for you, since you’re probably going to spend most of your time fighting behind the other high hotpoint allies.

Mid Game

Vampiric assault is always a favorite of mine for a mid-game talent, but with this particular hero I wouldn’t recommend it. If you’re getting hit at all you’re “doing it wrong.” You want to be in the back of the pack trying to take advantage of strategic locations, like structures, so you can land massive splash damage from a distance. Instead, I would go for the Maelstrom shells, which increases your basic attack range by 20%.

Slowing Mines would be a good complement to your other abilities for a 7th-level talent. Not for any real strategic advantage, but because the other options are abysmal. Hyper-Cooling Engines are tempting, but if you’re finding that using sprint more often is for you, it might be time to look for other teammates or reconsider your positioning. This hero lends itself to tank-heavy groups. Diablo would be a great companion hero if your in a lane with a friend. Let Diablo take the hits, and sit back and rain fire on the enemy.

The 10th-level talent to choose is definitely the blunt force gun that launches a missile across the battlefield, which does massive damage. This missile can be upgraded later in the game so that it orbits the planet, which is very cool. With one cast you can deal damage to buildings and enemies multiple times, if you place it right. I wouldn’t recommend the napalm strike. One hit with the missile is worth way more damage than two landed casts of the napalm strike, and the damage over time does not scale with higher levels.

The 13th-level talent is definitely situational. If you’re tank heavy, I would recommend going with Giant Killer. You’re adding 1.5% damage that is equivalent to the enemies maximum health. Great for dealing damage quickly. However, if your team isn’t keeping people distracted in front of you and you find yourself getting rushed often, I would check out barricade. It creates a path of blocking debris in front of you for four seconds which is great if you need to make an escape or hold someone off long enough to get a last hit.

Late Game

Graduation Range is a great 16th-level talent. This talent increases your range by 100% after three seconds. This is great for a team fight, when people try to retreat. Up until this point, you constantly have to toggle between tank and Siege Mode. This can be tricky because you’re basically dealing no damage while your replanting yourself in a different location. The hover Siege Mode talent could be useful if the other team is using multiple AoE abilities, but most cast times are too fast for your slow-moving siege tank to get out of the way. Instead, I would use the mount ability to quickly dislodge yourself from the ground so you can get out of the way of larger area of effect abilities.

The level-20 abilities are a lot of fun and are also very situational, but a safe choice is the Nexus Frenzy, which increases your range and also increases attack speed. This haste effect is going to give a major boost to your hero’s damage output.

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