Builds:
My General Build- Regeneration Master, Maelstrom Shells, First-Aid, Napalm Strike, Giant Killer/First Strike, Graduating Range, Nexus Frenzy
This is the pretty cookie cutter build I go, subbing First Strike for Giant Killer if needed and Regeneration Master for Advanced Artillery
All Out Damage- Advanced Artillery, Focused Attack, First-Aid, Napalm Strike/Blunt Force Gun, First Strike, Graduating Range/Executioner, Nexus Frenzy
This build will really chunk people out, you might even sub First-Aid for Hyper-Cooling Engines if you really are being completely ignored for some reason and want to be able to chase.
Safe and Defensive- Regeneration Master, Maelstrom Shells, First-Aid, Napalm Strike, Barricade, Graduating Range/Stoneskin, Advanced Lava Strike
This is what I use if the team is able to jump on me or poke me pretty well, subbing Maelstrom Shells with Vampiric Assault if absolutely necessary and Barricade for either Giant Killer or First Strike if they are less diving and more ranged poke and have good tanks.
Talent explanations
Level 1 Talents
Advanced Artillery seems like a pretty obvious pick as a character that wants to stay in the back and deal damage but I personally find myself picking it second to regeneration master. 10% damage is a nice buff but it only works on long distance enemies and promotes you to use your siege mode more (although you can get this bonus without siege mode with Maelstrom shells) than you probably should. It's not a bad talent but I feel like majority of the time you will be safer and better off picking regeneration master. Instances that I do think this is a better talent pick is: If the enemy team doesn't have too many diving heroes and will have to deal with your frontline first, allowing you to siege from a distance safely or if you're likely to have a healer in lane with you, allowing to keep you topped up on health and not needing the regeneration. I also take this talent if the enemy team has a lot of burst because later on that regen isn't going to help but the extra damage might.
Lethal Blast should just never be picked. Concussive blast is a key part of your escape and keeping yourself safe so you should almost never be using it for the damage. You are giving up 2/3 good talent picks for this and 50% more damage is hardly anything on a skill that does 20 more damage than an auto attack. Just don't pick this.
Resistant may sound good but it's big flaw is that it only works when you are in siege mode. You really shouldn't be in a position where you are able to be stunned while sieged up but even if you are, you probably aren't going to make it out alive even with this talent.
**I've had some time to try out this talent and have been picking it when the enemy team has a lot of stuns, particularly long range. Tyrande alone almost makes me pick this talent but others such as Kerrigan, Muridan, and even Thrall can be worth considering.
Ambush has an interesting effect but is pretty difficult to pull off. It's a very team based talent that requires more team work then Sgt. Hammer already does and a lot of the time can be a wasted talent in that you won't utilize the stealth, although you will get the bonus damage on the first hit. It can work as a baiting tool for teamfights where the enemy thinks they have an advantage while you've been stealthed and getting your Graduating range stacks up, but a good team will also take note that you've got the talent and be looking out for you. It has it's pros and cons and I think it can work quite well with an organized team but it's a risky pick.
Regeneration Master is usually my go to choice. Being able to keep your health high is really useful during the early laning phase of the game. It really allows you to be a little riskier and bully the enemies out as well as make you a less desirable target for a gank. One downside is you need to be collecting regen globes which can put you in a bad position depending on your creep positioning and your lane opponent. On some maps you can really build this talent up if you're able to rotate between 2 lanes quickly but mostly only works if your opponent has poor wave clear or you're able to bully them out frequently allowing you to roam because you're so slow, you require more time to roam than other heroes.
Talent Ranking:
Advanced Artillery/Regeneration Master* depending on yours and enemies team comp.
Resistant
Ambush
Ambush
Lethal Blast
Level 4 Talents
Vampiric Assault was a talent I found myself taking sometimes when I was going against teams with a lot of diving heroes but I've strayed away from lately. The healing is nice and can fill your health bar similar to Regeneration Master but you give up 2 good talents for some dueling potential. You shouldn't really be dueling anyone and in the late game the leeching is pretty unlikely to save your life.
Focused Attack adds a bit of burst to your attacks but Sgt. Hammer has a pretty slow attack speed so you don't benefit from the passive cooldown reduction too much. I find that this talent is best picked against a team comp that has a lot of trouble getting in range of you, allowing you to siege from a distance safely and not really need the range bonus of Maelstrom Shells.
Maelstrom Shells is just a really satisfying talent to pick up in the early game and I might even consider it a decent powerspike. It turns you into a pretty big lane bully being able to outrange heroes and slowly poke them down until they are forced to leave lane. By taking this talent with Regeneration Master you allow yourself to out sustain most heroes, giving you a chance to work on their towers or roam a bit for some ganks.
Excessive Force might have some use but it just has too much better competition for a talent choice. I find Concussive blast usually knocks back far enough and from the times I have taken this talent, I had trouble utilizing it with some of my 'combos' that I use.
Talent Ranking:
Maelstrom Shells
Focused Attack
Vampiric Assault
Excessive Force
Level 7 Talents
Hyper-Cooling Engines is a nice talent that 'fixes' a few of Sgt. Hammer's weaknesses. It allows you to get back from base slightly faster and by getting your boosters back off cooldown 10 seconds faster, you have more safety in lane by being able to escape a quick followup gank if you had use your boosters recently. The biggest flaw is that it has to compete with First-Aid which is just too good to pass up most times. It can be a talent choice that comes down to preference though.
First-Aid will allow you to top up your health if you get poked hard, win or survive a duel/gank where your only choice is to fight or bully an enemy off an objective then patch yourself up while they have to heal at base or the well. Being a Sgt. Hammer, you will probably get ganked a lot because of your subpar mobility and having First-Aid just helps too much to keep you healthy in lane and during the late game is great selfhealing during a team fight.
Talent Ranking:
First-Aid
Hyper-Cooling Engines
Slowing Mines
Level 10 Talents
Blunt Force Gun is a cool talent but it just cannot compete with Napalm Strike. I really want to say more but it's just that simple really. Napalm Strike is just REALLY good. You can choose to use this talent if you're going for a massive damage build. It kind of sucks to be so range limited since you likely won't have Maelstrom Shells and Napalm for poke but you can dish out a lot of damage quickly, especially if you have combo potential on your team. I like to take this with a massive damage build when the enemy team has a Lt. Morales with another support, and 2 squishy assassins as it will allow you to quickly burst down an assassin or one of the supports.
Napalm Strike is just an amazing talent/heroic. It's got great range, decent damage, tiny cooldown, finally a reason to have mana, wave clear, zoning abilities, scouting abilities, makes taking mercenary camps much faster and doesn't even have a cast animation. I can't even think of con for this ability. Maybe it takes a bit to get use to the aiming of it? Love this ability.
Talent Ranking:
Napalm Strike
Blunt Force Gun
Level 13 Talents
Giant Killer use to be my 2nd choice but after a while I've slowly drifted to this talent more. Partially because the meta seems to have shifted to more tanks and because you gain the bonus on all enemy heroes no matter what.
First Strike is usually a talent I take when I think I can avoid the frontline and safely poke their squishy's. It generally gets combo'd with Advanced Artillery and even Focused Attack. You will be really chunking their backline if you're able to get this combo off but it's very team dependent and can be a pretty all or nothing combo of talents because you lose out on more defensive choices.
Bullhead Mines I personally haven't even tried yet because I find the other 3 to all be good choices and this one to be too situational. I will come back to this once I've given it a chance and decide if it's worth noting at all.
Barricade definitely has it's uses but is also quite situational. It's best used against diving enemy comps and also can add some strong defensive options on certain maps. One of it's recent best options has been to completely block out a charging butcher on maps that you can seal off the path between you to. Notable maps being Cursed Hollow and Battlefield of Eternity.
Talent Ranking:
Giant Killer/First Strike* Team comp dependent
Barricade
Bullhead Mines*May chance in the future after I've given it a shot
Level 16 Talents
Executioner Your only personal options for this are with mines for 1.5 seconds but by this point of the match the only time those are likely to hit are when an enemy is on you and that's just a bad position to be in in the first place. Arthas and Jaina are both good heroes to combo this talent with because of their ability to constantly slow the enemy team. Other than that you're going to have a hard time getting a lot of benefit from this talent but it is worth considering if you want 100% damage talents and have some team synergy to get the bonus damage.
Minefield just doesn't cut it versus the other choices. Your mines are mostly for vision and protecting your back at this point and having 2 more won't do much for either of those.
Hover Siege Mode Vs Graduating Range seems to be a topic of big debate. I've been a 100% Graduating Range person, only taking Hover Siege with a misclick. I've yet to give this talent a real test but I've slowly been considering trying it out more as my playstyle has developed. The few times I have taken it, stutterstepping in siege mode is hilariously fun. I do feel like on strong objective control maps though, Graduating Range will be superior.
Graduating Range is a pretty big power spike for Sgt. Hammer. The sheer range you are able to cover with this is just too good. During the late game when your team is at the enemies from door, this allows you to safely take down a Keep while your team pokes the enemy down and if they try to defend you will likely be able to chunk them out to make the battle in your favor and if the team dives to you hard you are able to booster out quickly while your team collapses on them and you rejoin the fight in unsieged mode, adding some strong dps. This talent definitely benefits more on strong objective maps but it's also good on those that are not.
Stoneskin Originally I didn't find this talent too useful, but I think that was more because I was taking it when behind and giving the talent an unfair chance. I've been able to use it with some decent success in more evenly matched games, but my choice to do this was mostly against dual stealth or when getting dived/focused every fight. The extra survivablity not only allows you to sometimes get away, it allows your team to pick off those that overextend from underestimating your defense.
Talent Ranking:
Graduating Range
Executioner/Hover Siege Mode/Stoneskin
Minefield
Level 20 Talents
Orbital BFG is cool and has some utility to it but you are honestly probably better off with Nexus Frenzy if you took Blunt Force Gun, either of them likely work though. You can probably assess by this point in the match which you would benefit more from. Shutting down a lane and putting a timer on the game, or additional DPS for bursting even quicker with Nexus Frenzy.
Advanced Lava Strike has really grown on me. I tend to take this talent when I'm in a pretty poke intensive game or I am basically never safe to be in siege mode. Kael'Thas is a big reason I've taken this talent since he can poke you with Flamestrike even if you are at max range and only take maybe 1 shot in return, which is a much better trade for him. Being able to move around and dodge flamestrikes while you fire Napalm on his ass, chunking him for 1/4 of his life is pretty satisfying. I also prefer to have this talent when I go against Nova/Zeratul; Being able to uncloak them from a safe distance is much better since without the range bonus Nova can likely combo you or Zeratul is in range to blink onto you. This can also be a good choice if the enemy has like 2 heroes with Imposing Presence because your attack speed will be pitiful if you hit them and this talent will allow you to DPS them harder if you are forced to attack them and also DPS the backline better if your splash damage is hitting the tanks and slowing you down.
Fury of The Storm. No.
Nexus Frenzy is the final component to the all out build but it also has it's uses in others. 20% range and attack speed is just more icing on this sieging tank and it makes your DPS quite scary. If you're able to safely siege up during a teamfight and just autoattack, you will easily top the hero damage charts. There isn't much of a downside between this and Advanced Lava Strike, they both add more DPS and range so I'd say just pick whichever you prefer but I recommend lava strike in the situations mentioned above.
Talent Ranking:
Advanced Lava Strike/Nexus Frenzy*Almost down to preference
Orbital BFG
Fury Of The Storm
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