I know I can do better at the start, but you must know what I currently have:

1 Sacrifice
2 Zeal (Let +skills give me 5 hits until I can get decent Blessed Hammer)
10 Holy Bolt
9 Blessed Hammer
0 Fist of the Heavens (not 36 yet!)
1 Defiance
1 Vigor
1 Smite, Charge, Holy Shield
5 Thorns

Currently +4 skills (will be adding Steelclash to make it +5); Angelic + Face of Horror.

My intended setup:

20 Holy Bolt
20 Blessed Hammer
20 Fist of the Heavens <- Primary Skill
10 Thorns
20 Holy Shield (+2 prereqs)
1 Redemption (+2 prereqs, Vigor is nice to get to/from areas too; Defiance alone good vs. bosses but Salvation would do better IMO.. but that's lv.36 too)

3 wasted points.
88 total skill points.
Spare points will buld Defiance to 10 and perhaps will max Thorns eventually.

Now, I know the importance of not using Thorns against portal bosses, so I am thinking of building Defiance early. I would perhaps use Thorns to get the monster down to say, 25% of its life, then switch auras.

After skills, my Holy bolts do on average 950 damage! It's quite a help against the undead at act 2, where this guy's at yet. I need to get used to Blessed Hammer's arc change, since it spirals outward further (or it just looks that way) -- most of you know I'm still trying to get rid of my vanilla LoD state of mind.

I know this would take a lot of work, but I do know caster gear would come in handy for this guy, but he would very well need a strong shield and the DEX would go up just to keep block at a nice level (maybe 50%, since I would need more mana on this guy -- or maybe I should've just make him a Meditator like a few others )

EDIT: That's what mornings do to you. Steelclash, not Stormguild you idiot! >_<

This time I'll be flameproof, but anyhow, discuss:

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Go and terminate with extreme prejudice
Most people just take steps. I take dubsteps.

Er... what are you trying to do?

A gimped hammerdin? Your thorns can be outdone by gear etc and your hammer damage will suffer from the lack of concentration.

thorns is probs the most useless aura out there, instead of purposfully gimping your builds, try making one that works well instead of alot of bad ones. Just make a hdin, they do enough damage to kill bosses even naked.

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I'm not making a hammerdin. I'm making a fister.

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Go and terminate with extreme prejudice
Most people just take steps. I take dubsteps.

i wouldn't max salvation and depending on the situation I would use the direct resist auras instead. Ie. fire res on diablo. The absorb is the main bonus. You should really get one in every aura, having conviction will make any ele build you team with extremely happy. That way you will have conc aura to run with hammers, even 1 pointed conc will give the hammers a decent damage boost and put you up around 11k hammers once they and foh are maxed.

Thorns is complete garbage, it can be ok on bosses but you need the thorns effects to all be on a summon since summons take 8x damage from bosses. that damage boost makes it ok damage returned but you reslly need amp to make it work well later as well as thorns + Sob.

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Maybe I should ditch this build since it's considered "screwed up" by your standards.

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Go and terminate with extreme prejudice
Most people just take steps. I take dubsteps.

theres alot more benificial auras you can run. you also have points to play with so having 5 in thorns wont ruin the build. I would personally run more benificial auras like res auras, convic and fana/conc.

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too bad sanctuary aura doesnt add dmg to FoH... :S

I was thinking of using sanctuary with it but its too many points to buff the mag damage pulse

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I was thinking of Sanctuary as well but I didn't like the idea of such low damage. The knockback seemed okay, but it only works vs. undead so it doesn't fit in the book.

I'm rerolling him, I agree there were a few points better spent in other auras.

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Go and terminate with extreme prejudice
Most people just take steps. I take dubsteps.

Doesn't sanctuary also make it so you ignore undeads resistances?

No. Blessed Hammer and Fist of the Heavens automatically ignore resistances, as far as I know.

Why post on a dead thread?

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Go and terminate with extreme prejudice
Most people just take steps. I take dubsteps.

You're right I should have made an entire new thread for the question.. wait no.

Actually...
Yah prolly should have.

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A Lannister always pays his debts.

No thanks l2search.

sanctuary aura makes you ignore undeads phys res.

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thanks, while we're on the subject, does defiance give dr/mdr per hardpoint ?

not as far as I know, i have not tested it though

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