Sgt. Hammer is the first hero to receive a rework in the "new pipeline", where reworks and other smaller pieces of content can come outside of major patches. The Hammer rework has been initially underwhelming based on community sourced statistics, but received some much-needed buffs with Patch 29.3. This article analyzes both the rework and the context of the recent buffs.

Original rework patch notes

Spreadsheet

Base Kit

• Sgt. Hammer’s Basic Attack is now more responsive.
  
  • Translated: Damage point buffed from 0.25s to 0.125s, to be consistent with other marksmen
  
  
• Artillery (Trait)
  
  • Removed (including the +1 Basic Attack range)
  
  
• Siege Mode (D)
  
  • Moved to D (Trait)
    
  • Mana cost removed
    
  • Basic Attack range bonus increased from 5 to 6
    
  • Sgt. Hammer now deals 20% bonus damage to all enemies while in Siege Mode, instead of 30% bonus to Minions and Structures.
    
  • Sgt. Hammer can no longer cast abilities while entering Siege Mode.
  
  
• Spider Mines (Q)
  
  • While in Siege Mode, the cast range is increased by 100%
    
  • Mana cost reduced from 50 to 45
  
  
• Concussive Blast (W)
  
  • Cone narrowed from 60 degrees to 45 degrees
    
  • While in Siege Mode, the cast range is increased by 50%
    
  • Mana cost reduced from 75 to 60
  
  
• (New Ability) Neosteel Plating (E)
  
  • Activate to gain 25 Armor for 2 seconds.
    
  • While in Siege mode, increase this to 50 Armor.
    
  • 12 second cooldown, 30 Mana

From Patch 29.3

• Health increased from 1638 to 1720
  
• Health Regeneration increased from 3.4 to 3.6
  
• Basic Attack damage increased from 128 to 140

To start, the mana changes are entirely irrelevant. Sgt. Hammer simply doesn’t use her spells frequently enough to ever realistically run out of mana.

The new base Hammer Kit is overall a nerf. Frequently, the optimal strategy for Sgt. Hammer before the patch involved staying in tank mode and using 6.5 range to kite back like a standard ranged carry. While the more responsive basic attack helps her kiting, the loss of 1 range is a sizable nerf, especially when dueling other ranged heroes. Furthermore, Artillery provided a fairly consistent 30% damage boost while in tank form. While Siege Mode somewhat compensates with a 20% damage boost that won’t turn off if the target gets close to Sgt. Hammer, it comes at the severe cost of completely eliminating Sgt. Hammer’s ability to kite.

Accounting for the improved base damage, Hammer's damage in tank form was only nerfed by 16% rather than 23% when she could've procced Artillery, and her damage in siege mode actually went up by 1%.

The range on Spider Mines and Concussive Blast both benefit from the siege mode changes, going from 5.5 to 11 for Spider Mines and Concussive Blast going from 6 to 9 while Hammer is sieged. These changes give Hammer much more leeway in affecting the battlefield and help align her attack ranges with her spell range.

The new Neosteel Plating is a huge survivability cooldown, providing a 33% EHP boost baseline and a massive 100% EHP boost while sieged. The short duration coupled with the long cooldown make usage of this skill integral to high level Sgt. Hammer play.

The 5% base health buff should help Sgt. Hammer with her new lack of mobility, but it's unclear whether it will be enough given how poorly she's performed since her rework.

Talents

Level 1

• Advanced Artillery (D)
  
  • New functionality: Now increases Siege Mode’s splash damage to 50% and its radius by 25%.
  
  
• Resistant (D)
  
  • Removed
  
  
• Ambush (D)
  
  • Adjusted functionality: Sgt. Hammer now also enters Stealth after not dealing damage, taking damage, or using an Ability for 3 seconds while in Siege Mode.
  
  
• Regeneration Master
  
  • Removed
  
  
• (New Talent) Maelstrom Rounds
  
  • Activate to increase Sgt. Hammer’s Basic Attack damage by 40% 35% for 5 seconds. Maximum 3 charges. 90 second charge cooldown. Basic Attacks in Siege Mode against enemy Structures reduce this cooldown by 5 seconds.

Ambush remains the least changed talent here, only gaining a QoL change of not having to unsiege and re-siege to stealth. The 100% damage boost represents an upfront 140 extra damage while the stealth helps against heroes like Tracer and Li Li that struggle to decloak enemy heroes.

Advanced Artillery shares only a name with the previous talent. It now increases the splash from a 2m radius to a 2.5m radius and doubles the damage dealt. This reduces the number of shots it takes to clear the back line of minions and significantly upgrades Sgt. Hammer's waveclear, but is unreliable for adding damage in a teamfight.

Maelstrom Rounds is a large boost to Sgt. Hammer’s conventional damage output. It adds up to 245 damage per charge, and while continuously basic attacking an enemy structure, Maelstrom Round’s cooldown can be reduced to as low as 15 seconds, which is just enough to guarantee 20 seconds of continuously buffed basic attacks if starting with all 3 charges available. The change on the live patch from 40% of 128 base damage to 35% of 140 base damage is a net buff.

Looking at this tier, Maelstrom Rounds is obviously the best talent for use as a general damage boost. While Ambush and Advanced Artillery may seem cool, the amount of raw damage Maelstrom Rounds adds is too good to pass up. Maelstrom Rounds surpasses Ambush at 3 basic attacks and doesn't rely on Sgt. Hammer sieging up.


Level 4

• Vigorous Assault (Passive)
  
  • Removed
  
  
• Focused Attack (Passive)
  
  • Removed
  
  
• Excessive Force (W)
  
  • Removed
  
  
• Barricade (W)
  
  • Moved from Level 13
  
  
• (New Talent) Siege Tactics (E)
  
  • Sgt. Hammer becomes Unstoppable for 2 seconds when she uses Neosteel Plating in Siege Mode.
  
  
• (New Talent) Regenerative Bio-Steel (D)
  
  • Sgt. Hammer heals for 15% of her damage dealt with Basic Attacks in Siege Mode.

Barricade was in fact slightly nerfed from pre-patch, as the reduced angle of Concussive Blast also impacted the size of the barricade. This talent is most powerful against characters that lack mobility skills.

Siege Tactics gives Sgt. Hammer counterplay against stuns and blinds while she is in Siege Mode, giving an on-demand Unstoppable to pair with the 50 armor. Furthermore, this can help Hammer preempt dangerous CC effects like Stitches Hook that would otherwise prove lethal.

Regenerative Bio-Steel is strictly worse that the previous Vigorous Assault because it doesn’t work in tank mode. However, because almost all of Sgt. Hammer’s damage output comes from basic attacks, it remains a relevant source of sustain, healing hammer for 25.2 HP per basic attack in siege mode.

Sgt. Hammer’s level 4 talents constitute a ragtag package of survivability talents. The choice here is highly dependent on compositional factors, but Regenerative Bio-Steel is always useful while the other two may provide no benefit at all over the course of a match.


Level 7

• Mine Field (Q)
  
  • Removed
  
  
• First Aid (Active)
  
  • Removed
  
  
• (New Talent) Pulse Detonation Core (Q)
  
  • Spider Mines explode 3 times over 3 seconds, instead of destroying themselves immediately.
  
  
• Hover Siege (D)
  
  • Moved from Level 16
    
  • Movement Speed reduced from 50% to 25% 40%.
  
  
• Graduating Range (D)
  
  • Moved from Level 16
    
  • Maximum range bonus reduced from 5.5 to 3.3

The new level 7 is a big power spike for Sgt. Hammer. Hover Siege enables Sgt. Hammer to move at 1.1 1.76 m/s, which is faster than the 1.1 meters per 3 seconds of Graduating Range. Graduating Range at max stacks improves Hammer's sieged range from 11.5m to 14.8m, expanding the total threat area from 415m^2 to 688m^2. As a point of comparison, a standard 5.5m range hero provides 95m^2 of threat area, and a 6.5m range hero provides 133m^2 of threat area.

Pulse Detonation Core improves the damage on Spider Mines from 96 to 288 per mine, re-triggering the slow and potential armor decrease post-20. Three mines together can do a total of 864 damage, which is more than half of most squishies’ health bars. The extra damage triggers 1.5s and 3s after the initial detonation. This detonation period matches the 1.5s slow, extending the total slow duration to 4.5 seconds. Mines have a speed of 6 m/s, which is 136% of hero base movement speed. Against a hero that is slowed by 25% mine slow down to 3.3 m/s, the mine a 2.7 m/s speed advantage. Mines only have 25 HP, so most heroes can quickly dispatch a set of mines without a problem, but this does mean they are stopped and not using their basic attack on enemy heroes.

Picking the “best” of these three talents is basically impossible, as they all serve very different functions. Generally speaking, the low movement speed on Hover Siege is unlikely to be very valuable, meaning the key choice is between the added power on mines for a more mobile Sgt. Hammer versus increased power in Siege Mode.


Level 13

• First Strike (D)
  
  • Removed
  
  
• Bullhead Mines (Q)
  
  • Removed
  
  
• (New Talent) Tactical Mine Deployment (Q)
  
  • Increases Spider Mine’s slow from 25% to 40%. Casting Thrusters leaves behind a trail of up to 5 Spider Mines while Sgt. Hammer is moving.
  
  
• (New Talent) Entrenched (W)
  
  • Increases Concussive Blast’s damage and knockback distance by 75% while in Siege Mode.
  
  
• Hyper-Cooling Engines (Z)
  
  • Moved from Level 7
    
  • New functionality: Each enemy Hero hit with a Basic Attack in Siege Mode reduces the cooldown of Thrusters by 5 seconds.

Tactical Mine Deployment synergizes powerfully with Pulse Detonation Core at 7 by allowing Sgt. Hammer to heavily deter kiting enemies. The mines release when Sgt. Hammer presses Z and every half second for 2 seconds afterwards, but only if she is moving at the moment she presses Z. If an enemy just tries to follow Sgt. Hammer’s trail of mines, with the Pulse Detonation Core talent they will take 1440 damage and be slowed by 40% for 6.5 seconds.

Entrenched improves Concussive Blast to knock the target back 9.2m and deal 106 bonus damage while Sgt. Hammer is sieged. This improves upon the base knockback of 5.25m. Because of the extreme power of the Entrenched knockback, it will typically knock the target completely out of Sgt. Hammer’s siege range unless the target is practically in melee range or Sgt. Hammer has full stacks of Graduating Range.

Hyper-Cooling Engines allows Sgt. Hammer to drop the cooldown on Thrusters from 30 seconds to as low as 8 seconds. However, this requires re-sieging as soon as Siege Mode’s cooldown is available, which is generally unlikely. This talent will typically be a 10 or 15 second cooldown reduction, but it typically doesn't increase Sgt. Hammer’s in-fight mobility. This talent will proc multiple instances of cooldown reduction if Sgt. Hammer hits multiple heroes with splash damage, but due to the small size of her splash, this is unlikely to be relevant.

Level 13 continues to provide Sgt. Hammer with multiple choices for improved safety. The best choice depends primarily on the enemy matchup, how mobile the enemy team is, how frequently they can threaten to dive Sgt. Hammer’s position. Her level 7 choice can also affect the choices here as well.


Level 16

• Stoneskin (Active)
  
  • Removed
  
  
• Giant Killer (Passive)
  
  • Moved from Level 13
  
  
• (New Talent) Mechanical Know-How (E)
  
  • Neosteel Plating grants a Shield equal to 5% of Sgt. Hammer’s maximum Health for 2 seconds. If this Shield is destroyed, she deals 50% more Basic Attack damage for 5 seconds.

Mechanical Know-How grants an 82 HP shield to Sgt. Hammer when used. With the armor Neosteel Plating contributes, this talent grants 109 EHP in tank mode and 164 EHP in siege mode. This shielding is fairly weak and is easily destroyed if Sgt. Hammer is attacked, but the shield is mostly just a gate for the damage bonus if Hammer is being pressured. If she's under pressure, she’s less likely to get in every basic attack possible in the 5 second duration.

By contrast, Executioner and Giant Killer offer damage bonuses when Sgt. Hammer is in her ideal position, raining artillery fire down on the enemy team in an uncontested fashion. Except on the absolute beefiest of targets (Azmodan, Muradin, Diablo, Stitches, and Cho’Gall), Executioner adds more damage than Giant Killer. However, this generally relies on an ally or mines enabling the damage bonus.

Level 16 is an important damage boost for Sgt. Hammer. Giant Killer is always active while Executioner and Mechanical Know-How function as more conditional but larger damage boosts.


Level 20

• Fury of the Storm (Passive)
  
  • Removed
  
  
• Nexus Frenzy (Passive)
  
  • Removed
  
  
• (New Talent) Shrapnel Mines (Q)
  
  • Each Spider Mine explosion reduces enemy Armor by 10 for 3 4 seconds.
  
  
• (New Talent) Ultra Capacitors (D)
  
  • Every enemy Hero hit with a Basic Attack while in Siege Mode increases Sgt. Hammer’s Attack Speed by 5% for 5 seconds, up to 40%.

Other than her level 10, Sgt. Hammer’s level 20 tier remains the least changed out of her talent tiers. Orbital BFG remains a source of repeated structural damage every 10 to 20 seconds, depending on the angle Sgt. Hammer places her BFG. Lava Strike adds 82 damage every 6 seconds, or ~14 more DPS, but more importantly increases the range from 12m to 21m.

As for the new talents, Ultra Capacitors takes 6.9 seconds to stack, adding a total of one extra attack in that period, a 12.5% damage boost. The extreme length it takes to stack this talent is the primary issue, especially considering that it requires both sieging up and to be hitting heroes. While this is a damage boosting talent, unless Sgt. Hammer can count on staying sieged and relevant in teamfights for upwards of 10 seconds, this talent provides very little value. It can gain multiple stacks from hitting enemy heroes with the splash, but due to the small size of her splash (even with Advanced Artillery at level 1), it is difficult to trigger in a teamfight.

Shrapnel Mines caps off the “mine build”, attaching a significant amount of armor shred to her mines. This debuff can stack up to 20 times, giving this talent incredible synergy with the level 7 Pulse Detonation Core. Three mines shredding a target can take off upwards of 90 points of armor, guaranteeing the target drops to the -25 cap on negative armor. Three mines, by themselves, can do up to 1037 base damage, which is more than half of any non-warrior (and non-Azmodan) health pool.

Final Thoughts

The Sgt. Hammer changes all seem to be a net decrease in her power level due to the extreme weakening of her tank mode with minor buffs to her siege mode to compensate. The patch 29.3 buffs may help, but siege mode remains a very risky proposition in a fast-paced MOBA like HoTS. The saving grace for Sgt. Hammer is the new Knight camp, which combined with a Zarya and Lt. Morales, may enable Hammer to simply death push to the Core. Outside of this cheesing, though, it seems unlikely Sgt. Hammer will find a place in the meta.