Guild Wars 2

Hi i am a guardian player current guardian level 76 and i love using the hammer.

Ever since i saw the Juggernaut legendary i knew thats the one i was going to work for however im finding that using any thing other than a greatsword for my guardian in PVE and dungeons makes me struggle quite a bit.

I don’t know what im doing wrong but none of my friends or guildmates seem to be struggling with it as much as i do and i was wondering if there was anyone that could give me advice or maybe a simple to understand guide to using a PVE/Dungeon hammer guide for a guardian.

First of all: this topic might be better off in the guardian sub-forum, may be a mod will move it.

Anyway, about your topic.
I play a guardian as my 2nd “main” and it’s the class i usually bring to dungeons/fractals (up to lvl 50). I always carry a hammer with me, but I don’t use it very often (I’m talking about PvE exclusively, I don’t use my guard for PvP/WvW).

I don’t think you’re doing anything “wrong”, you just run into the common hammer guardian issues and they might be more anoying to you than for your friends. But the “good” news is- you might be on the majority’s side with this.

The big issue with guardian hammer in PvE is, that most things offered are simply not needed there. Let’s break it down:
- AA-Chain: pretty slow, places a light-combofield; gives (if traited correctly) perma protection
- Skill 2: blast finisher / gap closer (nothing wrong with that, but in coordinated partys usually not needed)
- Skill 3: a little cc, nothing really needed in general
- Skill 4: a guardians way trying to be a bearbow (j/k, but unless you really need to remove a stack of defiance it’s pretty pointless due to its long wind-up time)
- Skill 5: duh… another light field and some cc

The thing is- the few usefull things hammer offers are rarely worth taking it and rather for niche uses. Let’s break it down:
- open world PvE: all you need is mobility and dps. GS outshines Hammer
- dungeons/fractals: you mostly need dps and some specific support (like blinds and pulls for trash so your party can AoE them down). Again, GS outshines Hammer.

So what’s left for the hammer are some thougher boss fights in dungeons and mainly high level fractals where the hammer can actually be usefull for the perma protection.

Don’t get me wrong- you can do everything with your hammer, but usually it won’t be as effective as other weapons. And thanks to that ultra slow AA-Chain it will always feel a bit dull (at least that’s the case for me). But speaking for myself- I started with a hammer guard and now I use it ~10% of the time.

The hammer in general is not designed as a PvE weapon in the game. At least not currently – the HoT specializations might change that. The warrior is facing the exact same problems as you are. Hammer is a CC weapon and thus only really useful in a handful of PvE encounters, while very useful in most PvP encounters. I know the Hammer has rekindled my will to PvP with my guardian. Trapping squishy enemies within the circle is extremely satisfying.

Oh i made a mistake i thought this was the guardians forum my apologies. But im a little sad that GS seems like the only true option for PVE as everything else i use seems inferior and i feel like i struggle more with anything but greatsword.

Hammer is usable when there are no fire field stacking might and you change to it when your gs skills are on cd. And one more thing, Juggernaut is beautifull combined with sunrise makes perfect combo :P

Ppl seem to don’t really understand what they are talking about.

Hammer dps is higher than GS.
Hammer dps is lower than GS + Sw/F

That’s different. If you gonna camp 1 melee weapon, Hammer is the way to go. The only problem with Hammer is the annoying constant light field that prevent might stacking. It won’t be an issue when you solo in open world and it won’t be an issue in most pugs group, but you will have the issue eventually.

If you gonna use a Hammer build you ABSOLUTLY need the trait Writ of persistance. Without it you don’t have perma protection and its a 35% increase in dps against 3 targets, a 126% increase in dps against 5 targets. So its a really important trait to have.

Overall, a Hammer build will make about 90-97% dps of a GS + Sw/F build. And the protection is not needed except in fractal. That + the fact that it screw up might stacking is the reason why most ppl don’t use Hammer in dungeon, but they tend to use in in Fractal 50, especially against hard and fast hitting boss like Archdiviner. Guardian Hammer + Skale Venom allow your team to melee that boss and not just range him.

In the end, Hammer is a super powerful PvE weapons. It lack a tiny bit of dps, screw up might stacking, but give one of the biggest boost possible in survivability to your party. It is definitively worth using if you like it.

Hammer is mainly not used in dungeon because it has no burst. Greatsword dps is inferior, but on short fights, it pulls ahead for a lot.
@synthyourlife: the knockbacks on hammer are all useless, as you want to keep foes close to you, and they are dps loss. It leaves you using hammer auto attack, wich is totally inferior to greatsword hb or axe auto attack. Sword/axe is probably the 2nd worst set ever ( first would be mace/axe).

synthyourlife.8174:

As I’m new to the game, just pardon me if I make some mistakes.
I’m currently using a Sword/Axe (or Sword/Shield) – Hammer combination on my warrior.
What I usually do is throw some conditions and dps with sw/a and change to hammer, do the stuff and jump back again to sw/a. I don’t know if this is correct at all, but I feel like maximizing all the conditions I have in both stances.
I tried GS too, but I like hammer more for the knockbacks and stuns and stuff.

This tread was about Guardian not warrior. If the Hammer of the guardian is pretty good in PvE (but not the best) and that sword is part of the meta, its not the same for Warrior.

Hammer for a warrior is a terrible in PvE. Sword is ok for a condition dmg build, but that only good in solo situation, if you use that in group content it will be pretty bad.

The OP never explained WHAT he is struggling with the Hammer. I use it with GS and get the best of both. Most hammer guardians I see don’t know how to use the 3 hit auto-attack in conjunction with proper dodging to avoid getting hit a lot due to the slow swing speed. You can time a dodge and NOT interrupt the AA chain. Being able to do that properly is key.

^^ Exactly, what is the problem you’re seeing?

Hammer does have drawbacks, mainly in it’s back loaded damage and light fields. Blasting a light field does very little in PVE which is a pain.

The backloaded damage is kind of the biggest issue in use IMO though, you’re not really rolling at max DPS until you get that field down. In contrast to GS which you’re starting out bursting out a ton of damage and don’t drop till you start autoing.

Hammer is still a strong weapon though.

Basically your have GS/Mace which have strong burst (mace not as much, esp in rotation but for quick burst you can lay the field then swap to another weapon which is very nice)

Hammer/Sword are your solid auto attacks, sword is consistent with any burst coming from the focus skills, and hammer being backloaded and having a ramp up time but then sailing smooth as one of our highest DPS options.

Scepter is just niche in that it isn’t good unless you have to range or if the target is a large hit box.

So generally speaking for fast fights you’ll want to use GS for your damage, for longer fights Hammer becomes a solid option assuming light fields aren’t an issue.

A thing to note though hammer’s abilities can be quite handy, there are situations where immob is really cool to have, and then ring of warding layed down to stop any charging trash mobs can be absolutely amazing. Banish also has it’s niche uses and mighty blow for blasting things like stealth for fire fields before battle.

Jerus.4350:

A thing to note though hammer’s abilities can be quite handy, there are situations where immob is really cool to have, and then ring of warding layed down to stop any charging trash mobs can be absolutely amazing. Banish also has it’s niche uses and mighty blow for blasting things like stealth for fire fields before battle.

Pretty much this. I tend to hammer more in an organized CM run, and Gsword at boss.

Brother Grimm.5176:

The OP never explained WHAT he is struggling with the Hammer. I use it with GS and get the best of both. Most hammer guardians I see don’t know how to use the 3 hit auto-attack in conjunction with proper dodging to avoid getting hit a lot due to the slow swing speed. You can time a dodge and NOT interrupt the AA chain. Being able to do that properly is key.

I struggle with most content. I dont usually just use the hammer i also use the greatsword but im also really tired of it being the only option i dont struggle with. Mobs seem to blow through the protection as if it were nothing and i feel like im being hit way too hard even with the permanent protection on.

Oshelotae.4176:

Brother Grimm.5176:

The OP never explained WHAT he is struggling with the Hammer. I use it with GS and get the best of both. Most hammer guardians I see don’t know how to use the 3 hit auto-attack in conjunction with proper dodging to avoid getting hit a lot due to the slow swing speed. You can time a dodge and NOT interrupt the AA chain. Being able to do that properly is key.

I struggle with most content. I dont usually just use the hammer i also use the greatsword but im also really tired of it being the only option i dont struggle with. Mobs seem to blow through the protection as if it were nothing and i feel like im being hit way too hard even with the permanent protection on.

Jerus hit the most of it, the big thing to consider is that hammer is better the longer the fight and the more the opponents. Combined with a PS warrior, it essentially trivializes all content (well probably 98% of the content), and you’re even shockingly tanky if your group is all hitting your signs so AH pops.

That’s the irony of it, to me, it scales amazingly with larger groups, but on almost all of the content you’re likely to do the enemies die before you get much benefit… if you’re in a good group.

Edit: Since you’re not 80 yet, and still doing world stuff, make sure you have the trait that makes your marks heal you. The protection plus the heals means you can facetank almost everything in the outside world, and do it just with autoattack… well, assuming your gear is reasonable to the level you’re playing.

Mobs seem to blow through the protection as if it were nothing and i feel like im being hit way too hard even with the permanent protection on.

Important to note that all the Protection, Regeneration and Virtue of Resolve in the game won’t let you face tank a 25-stack Abomination, or fighting one other Risen after a Plague Carrier blows up in your face, or embracing Kol’s stomp. Besides Aegis, please remember that you can do the following to improve your game:

1. Turn with your mouse and not your keyboard
2. Move while using most abilities
3. Dodge