Oh boy! Are we ready for another hero guide with one of our favourite Heroes of the Storm players? YES, SIR! We have to go with a military phrase to answer that question this time, because we are ready to roll out with none other than Sgt. Hammer.

This feisty little lady is no pushover as she drives her Siege Tank into battle in the Nexus. Of course, we will need an expert in Ranged Assassins to help us get better, so this time we are joined by Team Dignitas’ very own Ranged Assassin player, Vilhelm "POILK" Flennmark, who will give us a helping hand to understand what we should be doing when we want to play Sgt. Hammer.

POILK: Sgt. Hammer is one of my favourite heroes right now, she is super nice to play! The fact that the enemy team is always struggling to kill you and you know they are mentally in pain throughout the whole game because of you is awesome. I just slowly hover around while everyone falls around me.

It’s funny that she became meta, suddenly, out of nowhere. I think it was mainly because Gen.G played it at the Mid-Season Brawl, but there was also this guy, Leotheex, who started playing her a lot in EU Hero League. Someone just needed to show the pro scene that she is good in the current meta.





Solo lane or 4-man?

Decent waveclear, escape tools, self-cleanse, and a bush scouting ability. Sgt. Hammer has many of the attributes that are characteristic for a good solo lane hero, but she can also be a force to be reckoned with in the 4-man rotation where her team can protect her even further. Where does she belong? Alone as the rock protecting her structures in the solo lane or controlling space in the 4-man?

POILK: If the enemy team has a hero like Leoric in the solo lane, you can easily put Hammer there. But if you have strong heals in your 4-man, I would definitely put her there. It really depends on a lot of different things. Overall, she only has three, or so, bad matchups in the solo lane that I can think of: Blaze, Yrel, and Junkrat. She should be able to zone everyone else away from the minion wave.





Siege? Don’t siege? When?

After Hammer’s rework where she got a new E ability and sieging was made into an activatable trait, we have seen a playstyle change. Before the rework, we would rarely see Hammer siege up for a long period of time. She would be played as a normal auto attack hero like Raynor. After her rework though, she has been tailored to fit a near constant sieged up playstyle, but it could leave her vulnerable. POILK helps us understand when to siege up and when not to.

POILK: You are basically sieged up 95% of the time, trying to get as much Ambush poke as possible. You don’t really do much when you are not sieged, you are either retreating or rotating. With the new E ability, you are also safer when sieged up, especially when you get the self-cleanse for it. You really need to think about where you siege up though. Normally you try to be behind a wall, but if you were against Diablo or Hanzo that would be really dangerous.



A good siege spot though is around the top corner wall at the middle contention point on Volskaya Foundry. You are fairly safe while also having control over the point. However, most of the time you are just cruising around in hover siege mode.





Mines - Serious damage or scouting tool?

If you read our Junkrat guide featuring Snitch, you’ll know that some abilities are mostly used for scouting bushes for potentially incoming ganks. Hammer also has one of these abilities. Her Q ability, Spider Mines, is often just thrown into a bush to give vision for the squishy siege tank’s flanks. But, are they actually also a notable source of damage? Let’s see what POILK says.

POILK: The mines are mostly used for vision, but you can also do the Abathur trick and throw them down around you. You can have three sets of mines out at a time before they disappear, and with each mine doing around 100 damage, that can hurt an Assassin that tries to dive you a lot.

To sum it up - mines are mostly used for scouting, but can also be put around you if you fear a hero with heavy dive on the enemy team. Just remember to use them on cooldown, as they won’t be used for anything if you don’t put them on the ground.





Heroic choice and use

Sgt. Hammer is fascinating when it comes to heroic abilities. Her two very different abilities suggest two very different playstyles. BFG for the big AoE burst for teamfighting and Napalm for the consistent waveclear with the low cooldown. Both good are good in their own way, but when should you pick what? And when should you use it?

POILK: It will, almost, always be BFG for the burst damage in teamfights. BFG just deals so much damage and is global, it can take half of the HP off a backliner. Napalm is not a bad heroic, it’s actually really good and gives a lot of waveclear, but right now BFG and its burst potential in teamfights is just more valuable because you most likely have enough waveclear in your comp already. We have a Support meta right now, with slow healing in Deckard and Malfurion, so the burst is super good.





Thrusters - A Teamfight mobility tool, or only for escape?

Sgt. Hammer is one of the heroes that doesn’t have access to a mount. Instead, she has a “sprint” that she uses by pressing her mount up key. This ability can have many uses - you can chase enemies down when they try to retreat from a teamfight, you can dodge skill shots, but most importantly, it’s also Hammer’s only quick escape when dove upon. The fact that you can activate this ability while you are in the siege mode will save your butt in most situations.

POILK: I mostly save the thrusters to use them as an escape, but if your comp has heroes that can peel for you, then you can start using them offensively and start hunting down kills.

Another thing to mention about Thrusters is that you shouldn’t use them to rotate to an objective. You want the cooldown to be up when you get there. Instead, you should start rotating earlier so you can get in a good position at the point as well. You can start using them to move more freely after level 13.





POILK’s Sgt. Hammer build

Level 1: Ambush

You get a lot of value from this, and it’s a fantastic tool for poking in teamfights and engages in general. It’s basically the only talent you get a lot of value from at level 1.





Level 4: Siege Tactics

The self-cleanse on a 12 second cooldown is just super broken. It will get you out of all the problems you can imagine combined with Thrusters.





Level 7: Hover Siege Mode

Making you mobile in Siege Mode is the biggest power spike for Hammer. Being able to reposition yourself according to the situation constantly is awesome.





Level 10: Blunt Force Gun

Again, the Support meta makes this super effective with all the slow healing going out. Burst damage is king right now.





Level 13: Hyper-Cooling Engines

You can start feeling safe now because you have your Thrusters up almost all the time, so at this point, you can start to play more aggressive and really take control over contention points.





Level 16: Giant Killer

A lot of extra damage on the front liners of the enemy team, you will mostly be hitting the Tank, so being able to do some extra percentage damage is really nice.





Level 20: Ultra Capacitors

After the change to BFG, making it so it no longer clears minion waves, Ultra Capacitors has taken over as the best level 20 talent. The extra attack speed pokes really hard on Tanks combined with Giant Killer.