Staggering blow on the hammer is godawful. It has been since launch. Not only does the root get buggy where you have to let go of run then press it again to actually keep running but it has MASSIVE ability delay. I’m not talking about swing animation. I get that he should have to do a tell before he swings. It’s inconsistent but sometimes it can be up to 2 seconds before he even starts the swing animation. Like if I’m running he will take multiple extra steps before he stops and starts to swing staggering blow… I’ve tested this outside WvW in low population areas multiple different times. I’m not lagging, staggering blow is just unresponsive.
Ask any warrior the worst part about the hammer and it will be the delays. Even earthshaker does this sometimes. The best part of the hammer is the control… But it being so unresponsive it’s not viable to use as an interrupt. Unless you press the button before they even think of casting an ability then you just got lucky. You should be able to see an ability being cast and actively interrupt it. Not play the anticipation game. It’s like playing cards then instead of chess. I have to predict what you have instead of reacting visually to your move.
I say a fair compromise if you’re going to keep the massive ability delay on staggering blow is to allow the warrior to keep moving while waiting the 10 minutes for it to go off. A perfect example of how much of a fail move it is would be if I am running on top of my enemy and I press staggering blow, the amount of time it takes for the game to register I pressed it then start the animation he has already moved outside of the knockback radius.
I get that you want the hammer to be slow cause it’s a big hammer… But again you’re inconsistent. Greatsword does far higher damage and has faster response times on all abilities. Hammer gets a 1 second knock back a 2 second knockdown and a 2 second stun yet all of them are next to impossible to use effectively unless you are support and the enemy doesn’t know you’re targeting them. Then you have the damage which is next to trashcan… Please improve response times on hammer. If you need to lower damage WHO CARES. No one is using hammer over greatsword for the massive damage. We’re using it because we’d like to be the kings of control on the battlefield.
Please don’t flame saying hammer is omg the best weapon ever and I’m doing it wrong. I’d like to hear from actual warriors with at least 1000-2000 hours logged. Not people who played a warrior once and want to preach about things they know nothing about.
More inconsistency… Elementalist updraft does a bigger knockback than staggering blow… No ability delay. Get it together.
Ok the real motive behind this dire need to get hammer improved is because I grinded out Juggernaut sometime back in Februaryish. It’s been sitting in my bag for a month or two because it would just gimping myself to use it. Mace F1 key with paralyzation sigil is 3.kitten stun on a 7.75s cooldown… That one ability alone makes it better than all the hammer abilities combined. Please do something! I want to be the terminator!
I made this back when I first got the hammer… God it is the best looking legendary effect in the game. Please give me reason to keep using it!
Rex Smashington – 80 Norn Warrior <Tyrians United Retard Division> Yak’s Bend
“That big kitten Norn with The Juggernaut”