Quick Facts

Screenshots

Videos

Comments

Comment by Theyos

This is the much complained about (by Horde), much celebrated (by Paladins) 'ranged execute' given to Paladins due to their inability to kill targets that just ran away on low health. This ability is quite effective at landing a killing blow, especially if it crits. Crit chance (and damage) are based upon the melee crit chance the paladin has (as opposed to spell crit chance) despite dealing holy damage. This ability will stop casting or fail if the target is healed back above 20% health before the hammer hits the target. This ability can miss, and hardly gets resisted vs other players, what the miss chance is determined by is unknown, most likely the 4% base chance to miss that all abilities have.

Comment by 7073

The Paladin Equivilant of "Execute", exept it can also be done at range and has a short casting time. You first get this spell at lvl 44. It also has a very cool looking animation and explodes on the target upon impact. =)

Comment by 16310

This spell gets ~40% of your spell damage added.

Comment by 48977

This is a good spell for a paladin, especially in instances where its the paladin's job to stop humaniods from fleeing. I, myself, sometimes forget to use Seal of Justice in a dungeon. And it's a pain to chase them down to kill them. With this, all you need to do is use it and face the humanoid. Makes the paladin life so much more easier.

Comment by 47175

Agreed Satachi, I use this mainly in instances (and PvP) on fleeing mobs. Being a holy pally I mostly just heal and timing a judgement of justice on the mob while healing the team is too risky so I just wait til it flees and then hammer of wrath the mob....also being a holy pally I have a lot of +spell damage which makes this ability even better.

Comment by 47175

Yep, I left a comment in the rank 1 version of this spell but I'll repeat it here....being a holy pally I have quite a lot of +spell damage which adds a really nice amount to this ability.

<3 Hammer of Wrath

Comment by Asmael

And it's cast time will be reduced to 0.5sec in 2.2... Neet.

Comment by 21020

As a warrior, I really hate this move because it cannot be reflected using spell reflect >_<.

Comment by DELPylon

Melee crit, melee hit, 200% crit damage, cannot be spell reflected, ignores Grounding Totem.

This thing was hilarious before its projectile speed was boosted in a patch. You could fire it off against someone on an epic mount riding away and it'd slowly gain up on him and then smack him in the back of the head after 150 yards or so.

Comment by 79440

Mana cost on this ability was lowered by 20% in Patch 2.3.

Comment by camarouge

If you find yourself with 20% health or below in a pvp situation, I would highly advise being nowhere in sight of a pally.

I mean, warriors can execute you as well, for higher damage, but a paladin can do it AT THIRTY YARDS! .5 cast, 6 sec cd, unreflectable holy damage, crit factor of 2.0, not an overly demanding mana cost -- I fear heavily for this skill, for it has "nerf" written all over it.

There is a downside; it can "Miss" just like a melee hit. In practical terms, think of the pally actually materializing a hammer from nowhere and chucking it. A real hammer, that just so happens to deal holy damage... yeah.

Comment by 84594

This is the pally's execute. Myself having a tankadin, this is very usefull. Since you'll have (or should) plenty of +spell dmg.

Things to keep in mind about this
Helps keep agro during the last strech of a boss fight
Great for dealing with runners

Comment by 6536

Despite being holy damage, this crits like a melee attack (200% damage) instead of like a spell (150% damage). It also uses melee crit, not spell crit.

Comment by Arnulf

As a mediocre PvP Retribution Paladin, this spell has gotten me my highest crits. (3,007 on a Rift Lord in BM, once.)
And for Ret Pallies who are arguing with other DPSers about whose DPS is better... it probably wouldn't be wise to mention your highest crit, because we just don't really get 10k crits like those fire mages. ;)
Most of my DPS friends with gear about equal to mine have a highest crit of 4.5k at least. However, that's not to say that we just have crappy DPS. They might put out a 4.5k crit, but we'll just keep pumping out 2k holy and even white crits and.. yeah.

For PvE, this mostly shines on bosses for me, as a good group can usually take a mob down from 20% to 0% faster than I can hit my Hammer of Wrath. lol

Comment by 99462

This is a melee ability, it goes directly through rogues "Cloak of Shadows" which is nice in arena if your (Example: 2v2) buddy is a caster. I have myself killed a good bunch of rogues with this in arena...

Comment by Arrent

Hammer of Wrath spam is a bad idea for DPSing for a couple reasons

- Resets your swing timer
- Costs a decent amount of mana
- Doesn't scale with AP

Now, if this function more like Slam (weapon damage + X) it would be a whole different story. However, it doesn't. Majority of the time, this attack won't kill someone in good gear and you'll just end up further away from them then if you chased and auto attacked em.

Comment by 134888

lol, this reminds me of the movie The Longest Yard. "Why don't you hit them upside the head with that hammer? I don't want to kill them, I just want to hurt them."

Comment by Yarthort

A pally's equevelent to a warrior's execute

Comment by frmorrison

From Wrath patch notes:

Hammer of Wrath is now considered a Retribution spell, moved from Holy, mana cost reduced, missile speed increased, now usable on targets below 35% health.

It seems it still has a cast time, but at least it will scale with attack power instead of spell damage.

Comment by Kaziel

Interesting. Hammer of Wrath has had it's available health range expanded from 20% in tBC to 35% in WotLK. I wonder what caused this to happen?

Comment by speedhaxu

40/0/21 pallys could crit 3000 with HoW, though you have to have alot of spell damage. And its like a 30 yard execute, so dont try to run, it just makes it more fun for me =)

Comment by 129530

Hammer of Wrath is now instant cast.

Also, through talents alone, Hammer of Wrath gains a 61% chance to crit.
Talents include: Heart of the Crusader, Conviction, Sanctified Seals, and Sanctified Wrath.
Add crit and spellpower from gear.

Paladins get a very nicely improved spell available to them.

Comment by Athene

- Rumors say it doesn't reset our swing timer
- Casting time of 0.5 sec..
- Health range of 35%.
- Damage is scaling with AP in addition to spellpower.
- Damage is not mitigated.
- 61% crit chance from talents, in addition to crit from gear.
This can do some serious damage now, it will probably be included in a standard DPS cycle in raid, and it's alot more likely to be a killer in pvp.

Comment by Ronark

Don't forget that the missle speed has been increased, and also the mana cost has been reduced from about 14.666% to 12% base mana

Comment by Chronalis

This has to be the WORST spell in it's current state. I've NEVER seen it finish off a level 70, even a hunter in GREENS didn't die to this spell! Yes, it did hit, yes, they were at 18% HP, and yes, they were left with 7% HP after the spell hit. No, they didn't have heals on them.

It's absolutely bloody useless. Sure, it CAN finish the target, but if they've got more than 12% HP and have anything better than White quality gear, forget it.

Comment by Nerissa

I ran the numbers on the level 70 version of this using the coefficients listed here.

Assuming 3K AP (I easily attain this in raid sans warrior buff) and 900 +spell (from the AP -> spell converter talent), full vengeance, sanc aura and crusader judgement on the boss, the level 70 Hammer of Wrath went from a pitiful 733-809 damage base to clobbering things for 1705-1802 damage.

And just think that on top of that you have a +61% crit chance mod on the spell, and it goes from being a waste of mana to being insanely powerful, and it will only become more so when people get into WoTLK gear. I mean, my paladin runs a 33% chance to crit in raid. With that much added crit chance, it would have an astounding 94% chance to crit, which means that nearly every casting it would be doing 3410-3640 damage, actually more because of the meta bonus.

Truly a very much beefed up spell and it is this paladin's hope that it stays that way for launch :D

(And to reiterate, those are the numbers for the level 68 rank using level 70 raid stats for a semi-T5 geared ret paladin.)

Comment by Ronark

Hammer of Wrath - Cast time now instant

About damn time too =)

Comment by 176637

Holy Hammer Thrower :D

Comment by Keene

Protection paladins are weird. First they throw away their shield, then their hammer. Do they fight with faith alone?

On serious note, it's a shame Blizzard had to design another melee caster (death knight) before they realized that casting times and scaling with caster stats is bad for melee casters.

Comment by 85530

fun spell...

Comment by 57042

For some reason this can't be spell reflected by warriors, perhaps it is bugged.

Comment by 75419

With the huge retribution nerf, I'm so disappointed we're back to 20% again... so sad

I actually started using it again with the 35% window

Blizzard giveth, blizzard taketh away

Comment by 10128

This ability is to be changed to 20% of enemy life instead of 35%, like Execute.

It's a fair change, since being able to use it from 35% meant you could use it like crazy a bit too often.

Now it really has that "no escape" touch.

Comment by 224239

Instant cast and hitting 600-800 damage? Activate at 35%? I think Im in love. *drools*

Comment by 177852

As of patch 3.0.3, the hammer is back to 20%. This is very disappointing to me since its back to barely being able to hardly get it off before your target dies. I do understand the nerf however because, as a ret pally i will admit, this was way op in pvp. with the crit chance of this ability mentioned above, it was nearly a insta-kill at 35% health. What i think they should do, is make the damage caused by the ability scale with the amount of health your target has left, something like this:
Hurls a hammer that strikes an enemy for (/4 to /4)* (1/ target health remaining) Holy damage. This would cause the hammer to do the same amount of damage at 25% health that it does at 20% currently, might need to be upped a bit to compensate for that. Also extend the cool down to 30 seconds but make it usable whenever, this way the cool down will defer players from using it early in a fight, but allows them to decide when they want to use it. This is why i added the (1/ target health remaining) to the calculation, this allows for the damage to scale with the lowering of the targets health.

Let me know what u guys think of this, just an idea.

for the target health remaining meant to be in decimal percent form, i.e. 0.5 for 50% health remaining.

Comment by 240887

is it just me or dose this only work at much lower than 20% hp,
i just got it and was using it on some random mobs seems to only become available at like 10%.

IMO they are trying to make pallys mirror warriors 2 much

Comment by kurro

Currently this spell is bugged and is only useable at 20% health. The tooltip says 35% but its 20%, hope they fix it. >.<

Comment by arcaney

as of 3.0.3 hammer of wrath says 35% to use but the tooltip is miswrote is 20% as it was befor i talked to a gm and they said there working on it it is a tooltip bug /QQ

Comment by 28365

I don't know when this changed, but it never becomes available for me until the mob is under 20% health (not 35% like the tooltip says)

Comment by 24506

Confirmed it only works at 20% HP now instead of the 35% on the tooltip

Comment by toastmaster7727

The graphic hammer thrown needs to be at least 200% bigger to reflect how much damage this does. Also, it would be cooler for the hammer to go alot slower when it flies so the victim thinks "oh &*!@" before it hits them.

Comment by L33tsauce

It's now gone from

Stop, hammer time!

to

Momentarily pause, hammer time!

Comment by 201914

So Blizzard has merely neglected to update the tooltip... thats par for the course...

Comment by 302702

Oh, so just the tooltip is wrong? Blizzard owes me 10 minutes of playtime, from the testing and research I was doing to figure out why it wasn't working probably.

But my next question - with Vindication, will Hammer of Wrath use the reduced maximum health for its calculation, or will it use the actual maximum health before reduction?

Comment by Otacon

Tooltip is now updated :) "Only usable on enemies that have 20% or less health."

Comment by Otacon

Tooltip is now updated :) "Only usable on enemies that have 20% or less health."

Comment by DarkLordMagus

Actually if you read the Patch Note, when patch 3.0.2 came out, this was usable at 35% or less. Then this was put back to 20% or less in patch 3.0.3

So before TBC it was 20% or less, then in patch 3.0.2 it was 35% or less then in 3.0.3 is was back at 20% or less.

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/

Check out the patch notes for paladins for patches 3.0.2 and 3.0.3 and you will see the change they listed. So basically the Tooltip was right when patch 3.0.2 was out but since it was changed back so fast it just didn't get updated in the tool tip.

Not sure why it was changed back though, it was better having it at 35% or less health.

Comment by qrangerq

Hurls a hammer that strikes an enemy for 351.3 to 387.3 Holy damage

- is not correct.

right one is: Hurls a hammer that strikes an enemy for (351+0.15*SPH+0.15*AP) to (387+0.15*SPH+0.15*AP) Holy damage

Comment by 101243

Glyph it for epic win.

Comment by alexiel

Hammer of GG

Comment by alexiel

Hammer of GG

Comment by 80976

In most fights against non-elites while leveling or soloing, this typically cannot be used before the mob is below 10% health (or dead), due to client-server lag. Don't count on it being a reliable finisher against non-elites - take this into consideration when purchasing the glyph.

Comment by Godhand

It would be nice if blizz would change this spell animation into throwing a lightning model of the weapon u have currently equiped instead of this flying blue baby toy. But blizz would never give us something that cool, we already got a extremely cool looking yellow power ranger set. . .

Comment by SandmanXC

Stop... Hammer time! =D

Comment by Shadowkillz

So this is what has been raping me after Im at 20% health.... Either way pallies need to be hit by the nerf freight train.
That is all.

Comment by darkdog

Should change the animation to be bigger and maybe a lightning streams the hammer out of your hand (holy lightning?)

Comment by frmorrison

Edit: This spell is powerful, but pales in comparison to Judgement (which hits hard), CS and DS (which proc Seals). Still a good 4th priority attack.

Comment by 193818

This spell is very unusual and very powerful.

Its breaks all rules, not unlike Death Grip. And is uncounterable.

Hammer of Wrath will go straight through Cloak of Shadows, Deterrence, Spell Reflection and most other abilities should resist/avoid the magical damage.

Essentially at 20% with the exception of Healing. There's nothing your target can do to stop their Death.

Comment by 193818

Not sure why my comment was downrated since it was true. Maybe i worded it wrong.

I repeat Hammer of Wrath will go straight threw:

Cloak of Shadows
Deterrence
Spell Reflection

And a few other Magic Immunity/Resist effects which by all means should ignore/deflect magic. Make of this what you will, I'm simply stating this so other Pallies will know these effects have no effect on your Hammer of Wrath.

Comment by 483566

really effective skill based on experience in battlegrounds... on a high level geared pally it would deal roughly 5-6k holy damage (when it crits) but Ret pallys with http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=53376 plus the normal 30% crit chance would mean 80% crit chance on this skill though

Comment by 314091

I have been trying to create a shift modifier macro (2 casts in one keybind one dependent on holding down shift key) it works for my Avenger Shield/Hand of Reckoning combo and my Consecrate/Holy Wrath, anyone know if the 20% health thing would mess with this activating? I have written rewritten and checked it. Cant see to find any errors but it wont work.

My only thot is that since this has a health requirement that may mess with it internally some how. Any thots?

Comment by 111622

Hammer of GG

Comment by 111622

Hammer of GG!

Comment by 157377

I've seen a white hit right after HoW, no matter how far away my target is. I've seen my white with go through Ice block aswell. Bug or intented?

Comment by 460804

Not useful on raid, since it makes almost the same damage than HotR and ShR

Comment by 469068

Wait. So the new, talented AW means you can use HoW regardless of their health. And HoW now has no cooldown.

...

*wings*
*hammerspam*

Comment by Derren

I find it meh in PvE because time you can cast it the target will be dead or almost, including bosses.

Comment by 669333

This is the PWN button. Enemies running away beware!

Comment by 415054

Its icon got changed in 4.0.1. For reasons unknown.

Comment by camarouge

So.. with 4.0 and a lot of other recent changes, this skill does more than my paladin's max hp in damage when it crits with avenging wrath on.

He has about 11.9k(average @ lvl 72-73). This crits for 12k+ with AW.

I know, I KNOW that any comment containing the word "op" is instantly blasted with downratings, but come on.. I am literally one shotting myself, give me a break!

Comment by loik

Why did you downrate my post? With my hunter I can deflect it and with my DK I can reduce its damage! It's not a joke! ¬¬

Comment by talkingoat

I don't know whether it's a bug, or whether there's some other weird proc thing happening since 4.01, but I've noticed that Hammer of Wrath pops up as a available (and can be used) seemingly at random irrespective of the enemies health. For example, yesterday I was running Heroic FoS and on the first boss it popped up when he was roughly around 80% health and I could you it for a few cooldowns before it was unavailable again until he was at 20%. Not sure if anyone else has noticed this since the patch?

Comment by loik

If you're retribution and you use Avenging Wrath you can use Hammer of Wrath every times you want.

And you're not using Avenging Wrath when this happens?
Sanctified Wrath

-.-, I didn't read your post, but I won't delete my post :P

Comment by Discokoopa

As a prot paladin, I feel a strage crit rate from this thing, about 1/4 would be a good estimate.

MUCH better from my 5% or so melee crit rate atm.

Am I missing a talent description, or is it a bug?

EDIT: Thanks for the answer! Man, how did I miss that?

Comment by 535546

As if having my holy pala churning out 10k crits on lvl 72, it will now be quadrupled in damage... Overkill?

Comment by loik

Now paladin's "finishing move" is more powerful than Kill shot (from a PURE DPS class) and Execute (not so pure, but more pure than PALADINS).
Blizz, have you ever seen the words "common sense"?

Comment by 752047

As a 60 lv ret pala with almost full epic pvp set I can crit with it for 4-4,5k on instances and bgs and for 3,5-4k if only self buffed. So it's almost certain that everything with less than 20% HP will get raped :D. One of the hardest critting pala spells.

I wish I had wings on this level. I would even one shot people with Wings + HoW :O (4-6k is an average HP pool, so it would be just... beautiul!)

Comment by likuur911

16k crit HAMMER OF !@#$ YO FACE

Comment by 797113

Hello everyone.

I am sorry for the dumb question but isn’t it that the HoW is only usable on enemies that have 20% or less health? I mean in such rotation: Inquisition > Crusader Strike > Templar's Verdict > Hammer of Wrath > Exorcism > Judgement > Holy Wrath > Consecration, how you can use it before the enemie is under 20%. I am sorry but i am a bit confused please explain. Thanks!

Comment by 226137

From a leveling perspective the level requirement for this ability is too high. At level 43 we must put two points into Sanctified Wrath which buffs an ability that we do not have access to for another 3 levels. This is based on a PvE usage of the spec otherwise we would choose Sacred Shield and put off the talent tree stagnation till level 43. Seems illogical and I wonder why the requirement for this ability is level 46.

Comment by zomg5

every time i see someone use this ability i always think about Thor for some reason same thing when i see Avenger's Shield i think of captain America

Comment by Greywood

Im paladin and I LOVE IT!
trollface.jpg

Comment by Epicskillz

Leave the Hammer of Wrath Icon alone!

/sobbing
/mascara down cheeks

(They changed it from Wrath to Cata, and then again from Cata to MoP, for no apparent reason.)

Edit:
Wrath and before http://wowd.org/images/icons/Ability_ThunderClap.gif
Cata http://static.mmo-champion.com/db/img/icons/inv_hammer_04.png
MoP: the current you can see here on WH.

Comment by nahkhaz

I've had this ability proc when not in combat, but near other toons who were. It was solo PVE, too - not an instance, PVP, or other group member.

Comment by Baracuda

Iconic paladin ability uses the Doomhammer, orc shaman/warrior weapon, as icon :p

Comment by 701981

The string "< Hammer of Wrath >" is prominently displayed onscreen while my Paladin is not in combat, whether in Retribution spec or in Protection spec, and perhaps most often while on a flying mount.

Once I used it while the mount was on the ground, and it killed a nearby NPC. Ordinarily, though, it does not seem to do anything at all when I use it in that context.

Comment by 1389495

weak crap weaker than execute

Comment by Valadicio

This iconic paladin ability will be removed with the legion pre patch……sad face.

Comment by Warpaladin

Rest in Peace Hammer of Wrath September 13, 2005 - July 19, 2016.
Ye shall not be forgotten.

Casting Redemption, estimated cast time completion Summer 2018.

Redemption cast completed July 17, 2018 Long live Hammer of Wrath.

Comment by Donclay

I boosted a ret paladin to 110 and have never been able to use this ability, it sits on my action bar grayed out. Is this a protection only ability?

Comment by agnesm

Not working. Doesn't show up.

Comment by Moosplauze

Hammer of Wrath mouseover macro (casts HoW on enemy that you mouse over, if you don't mouse over any enemy that HoW can be cast on, it will attempt to cast HoW on your current target):
#showtooltip
/cast

Links WeakAuras Export

Hammer of Wrath

Hammer of Wrath

Talent

1% of base mana	30 yd range

Instant	7.5 sec recharge

1 Charges

Hurls a divine hammer that strikes an enemy for [(130.2% of Attack power) * 1]

Blades of Light
Holystrike

Holy damage. Only usable on enemies that have less than 20% health

Hammer of Wrath
or during Avenging Wrath

Generates 1 Holy Power.

Spell Details

Duration

n/a

School

Holy

Mechanic

n/a

Dispel type

n/a

GCD category

Normal

Cost

1% of base mana

Range

30 yards (Medium)

Cast time

Instant

Cooldown

n/a

GCD

1.5 seconds

Effect #1

School Damage (Holy) (AP mod: 1.302)
PVP Multiplier: 1

Effect #2

Give Power (Holy Power)
Value: 1
PVP Multiplier: 1

Flags

Cannot be used while shapeshifted
Do Not Sheath
Combat Feedback When Usable
Do Not Chain To Crowd-Controlled Targets
No Attack Parry
No Attack Block
Allow Class Ability Procs

Guides

Protection Paladin Best Covenant Best Holy Paladin Legendaries Best Retribution Paladin Legendaries Legion Paladin Class Changes Protection Paladin - Night Fae Protection Paladin Retribution Paladin DPS Guide Venthyr Holy Paladin Guide Protection Paladin - Venthyr Protection Paladin Venthyr Retribution Paladin Guide

Hammer of Wrath

Buff

Spell Details

Guides

Related

Contribute