Prepare your drink and settle in; it's time to talk about the most talked-about addition to Path of Exile 3.28: Holy Hammers. The buzz around this new skill has grown rapidly, sparked by a surprisingly dense six-second teaser from GGG. Even in that short preview, Holy Hammers showed enough impact to make the community speculate on its place in the game, both for fresh league adventures and deep-endgame challenges. Here we will walk you through what to expect from Holy Hammers, great leveling builds for league starters, and how to transition toward endgame greatness.

PoE 3.28 New Holy Hammers Skill Effects

Holy Hammers appears as a physical-lightning hybrid slam, think of it as the older, bulkier brother to Smite. While Smite converts physical damage to lightning, Holy Hammers pushes further by acting as a true slam skill with a strong holy aesthetic. From the preview, the skill starts with a hefty windup and swings down a mighty hammer attack, delivering a dramatic slam. The impact isn’t immediate across the entire screen. Instead, it hits the area directly in front of you first, then propagates outward in clear, wave-like expansions.

The attack itself isn’t about striking all targets simultaneously but more about a rolling wave of destruction, much like how thunder travels across an area. When watching frame-by-frame, you notice careful wind-up animations, followed by both power charges and mysterious blue orbs orbiting the character, hinting at possible new mechanics with power charges and propagation effects.

This propagation makes Holy Hammers visually unique among slam skills, as it showcases hammers descending from the sky and striking enemies in sequence. Importantly, this skill may deal weapon damage with 50% converted to lightning, based on the stylization GGG uses for “holy” attack effects, similar to Divine Ire or previous holy-themed abilities.

PoE 3.28 Best Holy Hammers League Starter Builds for Leveling

Holy Hammers offers a dynamic and hard-hitting approach to both mob clearing and bossing in Path of Exile 3.28. Its design is straightforward but extremely rewarding, especially for players who enjoy visually impressive and satisfying single-click gameplay. With many options for progression, reliable sources of power charges, and a playstyle that rewards careful setup but allows relaxed mapping, it makes for an excellent league start and beyond.  Inferred from the teaser and typical Path of Exile slam mechanics, here we give some tips on setting up the Holy Hammer League Starter for leveling:

• Starter-Friendly Strength Builds: Early footage showed the character moving at a moderate pace and not particularly geared up, suggesting Holy Hammers can function well right from the outset and does not demand steep investment. For leveling, a Marauder or Templar-based class is ideal for stacking strength and weapon damage, allowing you to scale with minimal gear.

• Physical-to-Lightning Conversion: Because Holy Hammers likely converts half your physical damage to lightning, weapons with high base physical damage shine. Starter players can focus upgrades on raw weapon damage early, picking up weapon nodes and strength along the way.

• Power Charge Synergy: The sudden appearance of power charges mid-animation hints at a build variant that uses them to augment offense or defense. This opens up new paths for slam builds, perhaps favoring skill trees or ascendancies that support charges.

• Propagation Mechanics: Given the rolling wave pattern, new league starters should focus on skills and passives that help clear packs efficiently and maybe even play around with knockback effects, which historically haven’t been meta but could have new potential with Holy Hammers.

Holy Hammers league starter builds will likely mirror the success of other slam-based archetypes, such as Earthquake or Ground Slam, but with a fresh twist in scaling both physical and lightning and possible new options via power charge nodes.

Leveling Build 1 - Holy Hummers Inquisitor/Templar

Inspired by holy-themed abilities and a powerful “slam” playstyle, this build provides both substantial area coverage and high single-target impact. Its design draws upon elements reminiscent of classic archetypes, think paladin, and offers a satisfying mix of clear speed, survivability, and straightforward mechanics for rapid progression. Unlike many complex setups, Holy Hammers combines potent effects with easy-to-read results: when you use the skill by spending a power charge, two additional hammers strike on either side of your main hit. Against most bosses, all three impacts overlap for a huge spike in damage. Even when only one or two connect (against smaller foes), it still delivers impressive results. 

Ascendancy and Class

Start as a Templar and select Inquisitor. This class brings together excellent benefits for holy-themed builds. Notably, the inevitable judgment node removes the need to worry about resistances on enemies, and the Pious Path node lets you enjoy consistent consecrated ground benefits for both recovery and reduced curse effects.

Skill Gems & Main Links

The primary attack, Holy Hammers, should be paired with synergistic supports to maximize your area and damage per hit:

• Fist of War

• Melee Physical Damage

• Brutality

• Overexertion

• Lifetap

• Leap Slam (for movement)

For auras and utility, consider:

• Herald of Purity

• Blood and Sand

• Pride

• Frostblink (movement)

• Assassin's Mark (for increased chance to gain power charges)

Maintaining permanent uptime on power charges is vital for peak output. Tactics include using cluster jewels with “war cries have a chance to generate a random charge”, passive anoints that give power charges on kill, and using skills like Static Strike linked with Power Charge on Critical for reliable generation, especially against bosses.

Equipment

• Weapon: Opt for a two-handed axe or staff with high physical base damage (the higher, the better). Late game upgrades go for an 800+ DPS staff. Early progression versions suffice with much lower DPS.

• Body Armour: Use rare armour with life and resistances. Consider options like the "giving tree" body (from the Keepers league now in the core game) for progression.

• Rings: Secure ones that offer “non-channeling skills have reduced mana cost” to ensure you can use warcries and attacks smoothly.

• Gloves: Seek eldritch glove implicits with life leech.

• Belt: The new cord belt base is recommended since it gives an extra anoint, but Stygian Vise or any rare belt can stand in until that is available.

• Cluster Jewels: Essential for both mana leech ("Fuel the Fight" notable) and power charge generation.

• Other Slots & Jewels: Fill with life, resistances, and accuracy ratings. Simple three-stat jewels (life, accuracy, increased damage) are affordable and effective.

Defenses & Sustain

You will want to cap resistances and maximize your life pool as you progress. Inquisitors benefit from strong regeneration—Sanctuary and Pious Path ensure that you have reliable recovery through consecrated ground, even while moving. For leech, prioritize both life (glove implicit) and mana (cluster jewel notable). Keep in mind since all physical is converted to lightning, only sources that leech generic attack damage (rather than strictly physical) will work for mana sustain.

Stagger Warcries: Assign different quality values to warcry gems to desync their cooldowns, which helps maintain charge generation without causing overlap and wasted opportunity.

Passive Tree and Pathing

• Keystone: Resolute Technique (can't miss, never crits, assures reliability unless you switch to a crit setup).

• Notables and masteries to aim for:

• Born to Fight

• Butchery

• Heart of the Warrior

• Versatility

• Kinetic Impacts (+ mastery)

• Spirit of War (+ mastery)

• Resolute Technique

• Battle Trance (+ mastery)

• Destroyer

• Art of the Gladiator

• Early, focus on physical damage and life notables for smooth leveling.

• For mana reservation efficiency, spot the Mana Mastery.

• Take the Rage Mastery (if using Berserk mechanics) for maximum rage and faster rage loss.

• Always take Two Handed Mastery for increased damage against tough enemies.

Sustaining Power Charges

Maintaining power charges during both mapping and boss fights is easy due to multiple sources:

• Cluster Jewels: Warcries with a high chance to grant random charge.

• Passive Anoints: Namely, Disciple of the Forbidden (from your amulet), which offers chance on kill.

• Warcry Skills: Staggering different ones ensures consistent charge uptime.

• Static Strike: Hits automatically for a window after activation, linked with Power Charge on Crit, assuring extra generation.

• Assassin's Mark on Hit: For another small chance, especially against rares and bosses.

• Block-related Passives: Even with low block, these provide additional (albeit minor) sources.

Leveling Tips

Begin with Ground Slam until level 12, then switch to Sunder for the rest of the campaign for a straightforward start. Once you're ready, transition to Holy Hammers. Early leveling doesn't require many investment-heavy pieces—you can use whatever rare gear comes your way as long as it has sufficient life, resistances, and physical damage boosts.

Late Game Progression

Upgrade your gear steadily:

• Seek the highest DPS staff you can afford.

• Look for Echoes of Creation helmet (great power late, but requires mitigation before use).

• Maximize life and resistances on all rare gear.

• Source as many power charges as possible for stronger hammer cascades.

• Cover mana and life leech via glove implicits and cluster jewels.

Check out the detailed guide here

PoE 3.28 Best Holy Hammers Endgame Builds

Once you reach high-level content, Holy Hammers introduces several new dimensions to build optimization:

• High Strength Investment: Advanced builds can leverage endgame uniques like Blunderbore for increased slam power. Blunderbore once was a rare chest, but is now much more accessible. Using items like this comes with a massive strength requirement, so min-maxed characters will want to stack strength in the tree and on gear, or make use of timeless jewels that alter attribute requirements entirely—though those have drawbacks to consider.

• Power & Blue Orbs: The visual of three power charges and the mysterious blue orbs after the slam opens possibilities for unique mechanics, such as augmenting damage or adding utility. While not every detail is solved yet, keeping flexibility for charge generation in your tree or ascendancy could set your build apart once more details are released.

• Propagation Strategy: The way Holy Hammers’ wave-like attack progresses through monsters means positioning and attack timing will be much more strategic than with instant-slam skills like Vaal Ground Slam. Builds focusing on enemy positioning and possibly even knockback effects could prove very effective in certain maps or boss scenarios.

• Scaling Damage and Survivability: Since the skill seems to act as a physical-lightning slam, builds can push both types of scaling—taking advantage of lightning conversion for shock procs, and perhaps adding sources of flat lightning or physical damage. For defense, the tried-and-true slam build tools (Armor, Life, Leech, or Block on Templar) remain the path of least resistance.

• Non-Traditional Ascendancies: The presence of power charges suggests that unconventional ascendancy options (even Assassin or Inquisitor) could be explored, breaking away from the usual Juggernaut or Slayer paths for slam builds. Hybrid approaches with charge stacking or added crit chance could be viable once numbers are revealed.

• Mapping vs. Bossing: With propagation taking a moment to unfold, this skill may excel at erasing large packs, while timing the waves could enhance single-target boss damage, especially if an enemy can be hit more than once by the expanding hammers—another mechanic yet to be fully confirmed.

Exact OP builds will be updated here soon!

Holy Hammers brings a fresh face and feel to melee gameplay in PoE 3.28. From the first visual, it’s clear that this skill is set to become a favorite for both new and seasoned players, not just for its satisfying animations, but also for its mix of physical and lightning damage, propagation mechanics, and synergy with charges. As always, the true numbers and final details will come with patch notes and hands-on play. Until then, theorycrafting around strength-stackers, charge-lovers, and slam enthusiasts is in full swing.