Blessed Hammer - Hammerdin

The Blessed Hammer Paladin Build Guide teaches you about Gear, Skills, Paragon, Playstyle & Seasonal Mechanics in Diablo 4 Season 11.

Blessed Hammer has been an all-time favorite build by many players all the way back in Diablo 2. It has now returned and is better and more satisfying to play than ever! Fueled by the Uniques Herald's Morningstar and Argent Veil this build practically glides through all content in the game. Become an Arbiter of Justice and smite demons back to hell!

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If you are not level 60 yet, make sure to check out the Paladin Leveling Guides from our Tier List instead.

1. Spam your entire skill bar other than Blessed Hammer
2. Cast Aribter's Evade to the furthest location possible
3. Auto Cast Blessed Hammer with Argent Veil while Gliding
4. ???
5. Profit.

FAQ

Why are we not playing Ring of Starless Skies?

• Because we reset our Evade with Words of Sacrifice Rally. It counts as an Attack and therefore we do not need to cast Blessed Hammer after every Evade. So, we do not benefit from Starless Skies passive.
• This allows us to use a legendary ring with the Virtuous Aspect aspect, which is more damage on average, even factoring in the lost +Ranks to Core Skills.
• You also have less issues with Faith upkeep, as you not only spend less Faith, but can also temper Valor Skills Restore X Faith on your now free Ring Slot.

Why are we using Preacher instead of Shield Bearer as Paragon Board?

• TL;DR: It's much more damage.
• Preacher gives much more damage than the description might insinuate - the tooltip is wrong.
• At +0% increased Attack Speed, it is already a 65%[x] multiplier.
• The Damage Formula for Preacher is approximated to be:
• • 1.65 * (1 + [Sum of AS / 100] x 0.4)
• At 100% increased Attack Speed, this results in
• • 1.65 * (1 + 1 x 0.4) = 2.31 => 131%[x] multiplier.
• However, with the Attack Speed Bonus from Fanaticism Aura being in Cap2, we can reach even higher than 100%.
• "But my Block Chance from Shield Bearer! Is losing that a problem?"
• • Not if you wear Herald of Zakarum or have tempered Ranks to En Guarde on your Shield.

What about Herald of Zakarum?

• First of all the tooltip is incorrect. It states that it multiplies your Armor by 50%[x] so a factor of 1.5. In reality, it only increases your Armor by +50%, which gets added into a pool of all other +% Armor additives. And we have plenty of those through passives like Master Craftwork, En Guarde and Shining Armor plus Paragon Nodes. However, The real kicker is the 50% increase to Strength and +Ranks to Core Skills which significantly boosts our DPS and our flat armor, resulting in a decent damage gain. If a Legendary Shield will outperform Herald of Zakarum is only answerable by mathing it out. Generally, if a build had access to a good aspect via equipping a legendary shield and not caring about + Ranks to Core Skills, a legendary Shield will likely be favored. It also is able to provide other useful stats like Critical Strike Chance and Cooldown Reduction. But, if you are already capped on these stats, it's benefits are significantly diminished. In optimal setups for Hammerdin, Herald of Zakarum wins out by a tiny margin, becoming larger the more optimal your gear is.
• TL;DR: Pick a Legendary Shield with stats to help you reach caps, if you're already capped go Herald.

Elixirs and Incenses

It's important to run Elixirs and Incenses at all times. Not only because they increase your Experience gain but also because they provide very strong combat boosts.

For Elixirs you want to use Elixir of Advantage II to increase your Attack Speed.

For Incenses you want to use Ancient Times for Strength, Song of the Mountain for Armor and Soothing Spices for All Resistances and more Armor.

29th of December 2025

• Fixes to wording and Paragon Glyph descriptions. The build itself is unchanged.

20th of December 2025

• Expanded the FAQ, changed to Preacher (see FAQ) and other minor typo/wording fixes.

11th of December 2025

• Build published for Season 11 - Patch 2.5.0