Notable Passives:

You should limit the points spent in the Sentinel Skill Tree to the bare minimum, just enough to unlock more powerful options. The most important one is the Armour Clad which reduces the Damage you Take from nearby enemies. The one point invested in the Stalwart grants you a 3% Block Chance and does not scale further with investments. Juggernaut and Fearless grant decent Attributes and Resistance. 

Paladin Skill Tree (58 Points)

Notable Passives:

You will spend most of your Points in the Paladin Skill Tree. The Honour grants you a 2% Block Chance with minimal investments, while Conviction and Valor provide lots of Health and Physical Penetration.  The Holy Icon also gives you a Health bonus, but also lots of Necrotic Resistances. To pick up Shield Wall which gives you a solid 5% Block Chance but disables Dodge you will also need to spend one point into Sanctuary Guardian. The Faith Armour is a great source of Critical Strike Avoidance, but the best defensive Notable here is the Reverence of Duality which grants you tons of useful stats such as increased Health and Damage. On the other hand, The Holy Precision is the best offensive Notable as it grants insane amounts of Critical Strike for your Throw Skills. 

Notable Passives:

Notable Passives:

The Forge Guard Tree is a very efficient way to scale your Damage. The Weapon Master is a good place to spend some leftover points to increase your Damage and unlock more powerful Notables, such as Siege Capitan which grants you flat Damage for Throw Attacks, or Hammer and Anvil which makes you Deal and Take more Damage. The Steel Aegis grants a bit of Block Chance for just 1 Point spent there. 

Your Passives grant you tons of Health, Block Chance, and various Resistance which make your Gearing much easier. You will also get plenty of powerful Damage bonuses there, especially in the Forge Guard area. The order of investments is rather irrelevant, although the Holy Precision in the Paladin Skill Tree will make scaling Critical Strikes much easier. 

Hammer Throw - it is one of the first Skills you unlock as a Sentinel. Just as the name suggests, with this Skill you will Throw a Hammer at your opponents. Melee Damage of your Weapon doesn't affect it, only the specific Throw Attack modifiers do. 
The Enra's Technique is the key to scaling its Damage, as it grants enormous Damage and Critical modifiers for each trajectory modifier applied to Hammers, such as the Iron Spiral or Hammer Vortex. The Mana Starved Forging nullifies the Mana Cost once you run out of Mana, allowing you to spam this Skill effortlessly.  Catapult and Avatar of the Spire cause you to Throw Hammers in a nova around you, while Zealot's Conviction and Weighted Hammers are used simply to increase the Damage you deal. 

Volatile Reversal - it is a very important Skill both offensively and defensively. It applies a powerful Debuff on Enemies it Hits, and takes you back in time, reversing and Damage and Healing you took in the past 2 seconds. 
You will need the Harbinger of Dust Notable to apply the Debuff which increases the Damage Taken by Enemies by 30%. The Warped Time and Catching Up grant you very useful Attack and Movement Speed bonuses after you use this Skill. Lastly, Timelost Wisdom significantly reduces the Cooldown of this Skill but disables the Mana Restoration, which is quite irrelevant for this Build anyway. 

Smite - is usually a Damaging Spell, but in our case, it is a Movement Skill instead. It can be used only on Enemies but comes with very useful utility options. 
The Descent is the most important Notable here which turns this Skill into a Movement one. Traveling through the Righteous Flurry will grant you bonus Attack Speed every time you use this Spell, while Blinding Flash grants a high chance to Blind enemies. The Desperate Measures is also very important as it allows you to use this Skill even when you are out of Mana. 

Sigils Of Hope - it is one of the set-and-forget Skills that grant you bonus Healing and Damage. You can automate casting, and thanks to the Instant Cast you will use them as soon as your Mana regenerates enough. 
The Exigency is the Notable responsible for the Instant Casting of this Skill. The Empowering Sigils will grant you significant bonus Damage, and Tetragram increases the maximum Sigil limit and thus the bonuses they grant. The Faith will consume your Sigils to Heal you if you take too much damage at once. 

Holy Aura - it is another Passive Skill used just for the Buffs it grants. You can activate it to get increased Stats for a short duration, but most of the time you will be out of Mana to use it. 
Shelter from the Storm grants you Elemental Resistances and Endurance which makes the Gearing process much easier. The Expedite grants you a chance to gain Haste on Hit as well as some Attack Speed Bonus. The remaining Passives are quite simple Stat boosts. You can spec into True Strike and Extreme Zeal if you prefer Critical Strikes over Attack Speed or Damage. 

Stat priority:

To improve your Damage you should look for Items that add or increase your Throwing Damage, Critical Strike Chance and Multiplier, or Attack Speed. Note that Melee modifiers don't apply to your Hammers, but global Physical modifiers do. Additional Hammer Throw Levels found on your Relic are very useful, as they allow you to pick up additional "More Damage" modifiers on the Skill Tree which are unavailable elsewhere. The Obsidian Dagger is the best base for your Weapon as it has the best bonus Critical Strike Chance but also increases your global Physical Damage, however, any Weapon with a bonus Critical Strike is good enough. Defensively, you should get Health on every piece where it is possible. Good Item Bases and Blessing will be a great help to cap your Resistances and Crit Avoidance. Armour and Block Chance are also very useful. 

1. Health 
2. Base Throwing Damage
3. Critical Strike Chance and Multiplier 
4. Increased Throwing or Physical Damage
5. Critical Strike Avoidance 
6. Resistances 
7. Armor 
8. Ailment Cleanse on Potion use  

Optional Unique Items: 

+10 Strength 100% Increased Health Regeneration if you have Stunned an Enemy recently +(20% to 30%) Endurance (1.5% to 2.5%) of Physical Damage Leeched as Health on Hit

The Last Bear's Scorn - it is quite good defensive Unique that boosts your Endurance and Health Regeneration. It can be used to get Damage Leeched as Health modifier if you can't get it on your Blessing. 

+(60% to 130%) Chance to Poison on Throwing Hit +(60% to 130%) Throwing Critical Strike Multiplier +2 Projectiles with Shurikens

Li'raka's Claws - those grant you an enormous amount of Critical Strike Multiplier for Throwing Attacks, but it is worth using them only if you manage to get ones with good Legendary Potential modifiers, as the remaining modifiers are not useful for this Build. 

Idols:

Your Large Rahyeh Idols can grant you a lot of Critical Strike Multiplier for Throw Attack, ideally with the Armour Shred Chance as well. On Small Lagonian Idols look mostly for Armor and Health, but any Small and Medium ones with Resistance and Health can be quite useful too. 

Recommended Blessings:

• The Black Sun: it is a tough decision between Critical Strike Chance or Multiplier, and Throwing Damage Leech. All those stats are very useful so pick one that suits you best. 
• The Age of Winter: you can get many great defensive Blessings here, including Armour, Physical Resistance, or Block Effectiveness. The Physical Resistance Shred is already covered by your Passive Tree. 
• Spirits of Fire: here you can get a very useful Endurance Bonus, but Fire Resistances are also okay if you can't get them on your Gear. 
• Reign of Dragons: you should pick up a Blessing that grants you Resistances or Critical Strike Avoidance, depending on what you lack the most. The Physical Damage bonus is also useful, but not as impactful. 
• Ending the Storm: pickup up Lightning Resistances with this Timeline' Blessing will make your Gearing much easier. 

END NOTE

This is the beta version of our Hammer Throw Paladin Build for Last Epoch, which simply Throw Hammers at enemies until they die. It is a great Build to begin your journey with the game, as it has great Clear and no specific Gear requirements. Future Patches can change the performance of this Build, we will keep our eyes on it and update this guide accordingly to the game's growth.