Blessed Hammer vs Hammer of the Righteous

[Kasku-draenor]

I’m a tank player who is looking to get into playing Prot Paladin and I have a question about our mutually exclusive holy power generators.

I only really play mythic+. Every guide says I should take Blessed Hammer in AoE situations but I just can’t make sense of that decision from an outside perspective. Blessed Hammer’s damage is extremely low in AoE and basically nonexistent in single target. It literally deals an auto-attack’s worth of damage. Its only advantage is the 3rd charge and the single-hit damage reduction it provides, but keep in mind that its damage reduction component is also extremely low at around a tank player auto-attack’s worth of damage. To get an idea of how low that is, try killing a tank in PvP by only auto attacking them and see how long it takes.

Blessed Hammer having 3 charges on such a short cooldown also makes the ability feel extremely spammy and unsatisfying to use. Not only does it deal terrible damage and feel underwhelming to use, but it also clutters up our rotation tremendously. It’s genuinely a massive chore to press that button. You can say we need to build holy power BEFORE pulling in order to avoid getting instantly clapped and Blessed Hammer enables that, but Judgment is ranged and has 2 charges so it can easily fulfill that task if you ended the last pull with at least 1 Holy Power.

Now compare Blessed Hammer to Hammer of the Righteous. You lose the third charge (which you never need) and the AoE splash damage is 20% lower than the AoE damage of Blessed Hammer. In return, you get an ability that deals 6 times more damage in single target (which gives you prio and should more than make up for the difference). What am I missing here? Why do people pick Blessed Hammer? Is Hammer of the Righteous a viable alternative at least so I don’t have to press the spinny hammers 3 times every 5 seconds?

[Soupala-tarren-mill]

BH is more aoe since it does hit 3 times per cast per mob and all 3 of those are empowered by Blessed Assurance if you run that. But it’s primarily the convenience of having on the go hopo gen, you can micro kite a bit better with it than with HoTR which does matter in keys. Yes HoTR in pure single target is no brainer but the convenience of BH in keys beats the 50k dps increase in pure ST.

Edit: You can also fish for Grand Crusader proc slightly more reliably since you have 3 charges of BH and not 2 like HoTR. Which could mean a clutch back to back to back interrupt if your 1st 2 kicks didn’t proc Grand Crusader via Punishment class tree talent.

[Kasku-draenor]

I didn’t know it could hit the same mob multiple times. It makes sense then, thank you.

[Vindications-silvermoon]

and of how lightsmith current tierset work favors blessed hammer over Hammer of the rightous due to the 3 dmg tick on blessed hammer wich allow 3 windows were the 2set can proc 1x per cast (Hammer and a anvil at 40%) and 3x the 4set bonus (masterwork)
for lightsmith this wil be the bulk of you dmg

add to that you can pool holy power pre pull, so you can go in with a shield of the rightous
also to note “Blessed Assurance” buffs(in dmg and healing) you next blessed hammer when you use a holypower spender. so it also reduce the dmg boss and add do to you wil melee attack, you wont notic it on single target but on large pack add alot extra absorbs

Templar also favor blessed hammer becaus of the 3 charge over the 2 from HotR, wich in turn allow you a longer uptime on "Shake the Heaven"buff add onto that more Grand crusader proc is also more judgment resulted into more "shake the Heaven"buff