Ahh, the Hammerdin...

[Pale_Horse]

Does blocking protect against ranged attacks as well, because the archers in the Countess Quest were killing me more than anything.

I'm going to do some Baal runs today and get to the high-80's and get my Holy Shield as high as I can, and see if this helps.

It can block anything that will give physical damage. Hence a arrow, axe, ect. Elemental damamge is what your resists, and % to absorb does. Magical damage is unblockable (which is what your hammers do).

 

[TopGun]

Wait you mean to tell me you have NO holy shield and your Dex is only 30!
Right their is your problem. You can't block any attacks what so ever, raise dex asap and put at least 1 into Holy shield NOW! You are basically fighting in Hell with the ability to block act 1 normal monsters. This is why you are dying. Plain and simple.

Now your merc is dying left and right because their is no life leech on him. Basically socket everything he has with skulls so he can leech life and regen life alot faster. After this give it a Insight Runeword Polearm.

With both of these basis covered you will do fine at MF and killing anything in your way.

Wait till you see what your hammerdin can do once it can actually block a spitball, let alone a few melee attacks from hell minions.

If you put every stat point into dex, and put at least 5 into Holy shield, from here on out, you should survive a hell baal run by 90-92
I doute you will be able to reach max block without some help from gear though.

Quoted for da truf......

yea well the gear for hdin is realy easy to get....Hardest part is anni+torch... i think(haven't looked on him in a while) that mine with just anni, torch for charms gets my dmg to something like....14-15k... somewhere int aht range