Ok, let's see, where to begin...
You are right, you need to hit something, many times repeatedly, before it procs and you gate. You can hit anything targetable, including mobs (yes on raids that's not wise), other players (I use this method by asking a tank to "duel" me and let me smack them until it procs), or if you have a SS helm, I've heard you can kill your eye with it repeatedly until it procs...
As I said, once you explain what you need of a fellow raid member, they will always let you smack them for as much as 200 damage before it procs. No biggie to a tank with 5k hps. Make sure they don't hit you because without faction, the skelleton worker will hit you when you zone in.
Just make sure you have Travel song up, or levetate and selos. When you zone in, back straight up, once on deck, turn and run off towards the water, by then your lev or travel song should be up and switch out your drum for your hammer and run around the wall to the book. An alternative metod is to train the OT outpost to the book but I don't recommend that.
In conclusion, this hammer isn't a clicky, it's a proc. You need to work at getting out of a zone, but it's better than using up a Thurg potion when there is not a port available. I use it at least 3 times a week and have the porting down pat. I can almost beat someone gating if they are the one I'm dueling, hehe, it's that fast now.
I don't know what I did without it!
Sinfonian