Sgt. Hammer OP or Unkown?

[Museigen]

So I bought Sgt. Hammer, afterwards I haven't lost a game and she feels insanely overpowered. I have yet to fight an opposing Hammer that doesn't just die all the time, so I'm curious how do you all feel about the hero? Based on how I seem to rock every games hero/siege damage I feel she's very strong if not directly overpowered.

However, I also see the enemy simply run at me over open ground into my mines then realize they are dying to fast and try to run away which I just boost-chase and finish the deal. Or during fights of other heroes 1v1 or team fight, I just take an advantageous position and wreck havoc on the enemy team while they kind of just let me. I always have mines set near me and the previous set along a retreat path giving me a solid chance to escape ganks. It makes me curious if the people I've played simply do not know how to play against Hammer and more are less playing like lemmings to my wonderful tank.

I played against one stitches who baby-sat me with hooks and his eat-you ult to try to run me behind their towers and another Illidan who did his whole map jump thing plus really focusing on me to give me some grief. In these games I actually died and felt more like a normal hero instead of an overpowered wrecking machine.

What are your thoughts?

[Ragnarocket]

I think Hammer can be very good when left to her own devices, kind of like Murky. I feel with a team that is willing to work with you, she's an absolute monster, she can do tons of damage in a teamfight and level structures...her only real weakness is stealthed characters and her mobility. She very much feels like a siege tank, slow and lumbering but absolutely devastating if left alone.

It's hard to say if she's OP honestly, in solo queue I usually feel her failings...but in team play she may be the strongest part of a team.

[PACOX]

She is in an interesting spot from a design stand point. She does an insane amount of damage and has exceptional range which makes her a force to be reckoned with, but at the same time its not terrible hard to counter her. Things that are truly "OP" are OP because there is nothing in the game that can really counter them, thus they are overpowered compared to the rest of the game. Sgt hits like a nuke and can do it at a very nice range but she also requires a decent team or an oblivious opponent to be able to do so.

The difference between her and Murky (though I haven't really played pvp since they tweaked him) is the Murky is anti-fun. Its your team vs that stupid egg instead of an actually competition, on top of that he'll destroy an inner tower before you can even reach him from spawn...

[Valedus]

She has a high skill cap for you and your team. If your team has the right setup (she really needs a smart warrior on the team), she is incredible. The other team also has to know how to play against her and some heroes can flat out be the death of her. She'll be really good for organized play, I would say.

Yeah, a smart Illidan or Tyrael can really mess her day up. But a friendly Diablo or Uther with some peels and stuns can keep people off of her and let her wreck face. I think she's in a good spot, but not overpowered.

[Keile]

She has a high skill cap for you and your team. If your team has the right setup (she really needs a smart warrior on the team), she is incredible. The other team also has to know how to play against her and some heroes can flat out be the death of her. She'll be really good for organized play, I would say.

Yeah, a smart Illidan or Tyrael can really mess her day up. But a friendly Diablo or Uther with some peels and stuns can keep people off of her and let her wreck face. I think she's in a good spot, but not overpowered.

I usually play Hammer as my main.

Tyreal is my bane...Hammer just can't do enough damage (since she does less damage to those who are CLOSE to her) to burst him down. The only thing you can do if a Tyreal is on you...is run. Same with Illidan. Usually a Blast to knock them back and then a Thrusters is enough to get you away from them, if you ensure you have an escape route. Something you should always do with Hammer....make sure you know EXACTLY where you are going to run to so you can be sure it's clear and you won't get boxed in.

I use Hammer as a support, as said a good Warrior is your BFF. If you can stay behind them the warrior can help keep the enemy off you while you lay down the hurt. Though now and then I find it good to use Hammer tactically. By this I mean with the Ambush/Hover Siege mode you can stealth up to an undefended lane and pressure their towers. Usually you can break one down by the time the enemy has made it to you (since Hammer can do so much damage to the things), and then you just Thruster away and re-seige to stealth. I find this tactic especially useful if your whole team and their whole team are going after a single lane (which is stupid...but it happens in randoms a lot) as it tends to peel some of their heroes away from the frey.

Hammer is not OP. She excels at what she does, but has clear weaknesses.

Also....I just have to say this again because of how crazy/awesome it is: It's a siege tank. THAT CAN STEALTH!

[Museigen]

I find myself going two different paths depending on the enemy team, pressing tab at the start to inspect their potential to "engage." If they have more than 1 of the likes of nova, zeratul, falstad, illidan and so on, characters that can dish out the hurt and can actually get up on you via stealth or leaps/charges, I go for a knockback-minefield safety build. 5 mines that knock back does A LOT of good and you can use them to save your team as much as yourself.

If I find they lack the potential to engage I have two other choices which depends on their makeup again, if they have more tanky type of characters I'll go for the 10% bonus to artillery talent and pew pew away at them. If they have squishies AND lack engagement potential (or if Im playing with my friends who I trust to defend me) ill go cloak siege and play her like an assassin and rack up some nice kills.

Overall I really enjoy hammer and think shes in a good spot, and might be a little too strong even. Too strong in the sense of organized teams protecting her well enough that she just wrecks your shit all game long.

[PACOX]

Overall I really enjoy hammer and think shes in a good spot, and might be a little too strong even. Too strong in the sense of organized teams protecting her well enough that she just wrecks your shit all game long.

This is the only reason why I think of lowering her numbers, but introducing a draft mode would fix the problem.

[Museigen]

After 30+ games I'm pretty solid on Cloak, focused attacks, hover siege and napalm. Still having a hard time choosing between barricade/first strike then generally minefield and advanced lava strike. I think graduating range deserves honorable mention because of how nice it is to have when the final push goes for their core, you can be so far back and "safe" while still just pounding the core.

One question I have is who is your favorite lane partner for hammer? I prefer brightwing, solid healing with a strong CC to either let you escape or really let you dish some damage on their heroes if used offensively. The main reason is whenever a teamfight/objective gets going that is too far for hammer to get to at the very start brightwing can just zip down there and contribute, hopefully turning the tide or at least buying time for hammer to show up and clean house.

The last questions are how do you deal with a gazlowe on the dragon shrine when he has 3+ turrets sitting out of vision on a shrine? I try to throw mines in for vision then get a few shots off but I really struggle uprooting this guy on a shrine. I've also done a few games where we were behind at the end and instead of taking advanced lava strike I tried fury of the storm then just sort of sat on our core stopping all their mercs/creeps cold. I wouldn't normally recommend fury on her but I'll be damned if I didn't burn those knight camps before they even got in range of me with it, I think it might warrant discussion on a defensive late-game option. (Still prefer advanced lava strike if game is "even" or you're ahead, lets you pew pew behind their walls/core and chase them out)

[Valedus]

I play Uther a lot, and do pretty well when my brother plays Hammer. His stun and ability to heal, while being a good front line tank really helps keep people off of Hammer.

I play Gaz a lot. He's hard to uproot, but your best chance is just out-ranging the turrets. Graduating might be a solid choice against him. Other than that, you really have to lob Napalms at him and hope a tankier hero can go in and take the hits from the turrets, like a Diablo or Stitches.

[PROwned]

People may disagree, but SGT. Hammer is definitely overpowered. You can take an index card and position yourself on the map to launch multiple BFGs at the enemy core, they are unstoppable, and continuously cycle through the map. Tl;dr get 3+ BFG's out and you put the enemy in a position where they have to win in under a couple minutes. Sgt. Hammer is the only character you can win a game by yourself with, even if your team is nothing but canon fodder.

EDIT: Actually, I need to correct myself--Hammer was changed so that her BFG only repeats the last shot fired, still nice to put the enemy on a timer, but you certainly can't put the same type of pressure on the enemy that my original post suggested. My opinion is probably more inline now with the people who give her credit for team work and criticize her solo play.