Guild Wars 2

Merciless Hammer
“Hammer damage is increased when a foe is disabled. Reduces recharge on hammer skills.

Damage increase: 20%
Recharge: 20%"

This trait’s damage buff is rather unique in that it delivers a flat out 20% damage increase under specific circumstance. It is the only weapon trait that allows a 20% increase.

Bring it back in line with all other weapon traits and have Merciless Hammer with either a 10% or 5% increase or maybe even a +Attribute instead. Just recharge reduction alone is good enough on a weapon that has stunlock potential built into it (1/2 of its skills).

It’s little things like this that promote power creep and the like. And yes, I would like to read arguments for/against this trait.

TLDR: another warrior gripe thread

This trait was already nerfed, I think it was 30% or 25% before so stop whining.

Thanks.
P.D: Your name says it all, it is not the trait.

xbutcherx.3861:

This trait was already nerfed, I think it was 30% or 25% before so stop whining.

Thanks.
P.D: Your name says it all, it is not the trait.

If there was a skill that did 100k damage for a bunker build, was instant cast/hit, unblockable, and had a 5 second cool down and was then nerfed to only deal 50k damage would it still not be over powered? Just because something has been nerfed, doesn’t mean the nerf is sufficient.
As for merciless hammer, it still an extremely strong trait so perhaps more nerfing is appropriate.

I’m not saying it shouldn’t be nerfed or that it shouldn’t be left as it is. But consider this, while it is a 20% increase its has requirements to be met. No character is stunned 100% of the time, but only a very tiny portion. So while it appears the 20% increase is a lot, I don’t feel it is vs 10% dmg increase that is consistently available to the user.

Hammer is supposed to be a CC weapon, whenever I switch from my regular GS/LB build to hambow I still see some absurd 6k crits with back breaker. I wouldn’t mind if they nerfed it by 10% to be on par with other traits such as Slashing Power or Axe mastery.

Give me back the damage on earthshaker and staggering blow and you can remove the 20% damage boost on a disabled foe.

Aza.2105:

I’m not saying it shouldn’t be nerfed or that it shouldn’t be left as it is. But consider this, while it is a 20% increase its has requirements to be met. No character is stunned 100% of the time, but only a very tiny portion. So while it appears the 20% increase is a lot, I don’t feel it is vs 10% dmg increase that is consistently available to the user.

Yes you are right, a whole slew of damage mitigation and denial does stop that 20% and a whole lot more. Merciless Hammer is still twice as good as the other prerequisite weapon traits (which incidentally belong to the warrior) that suffer their 10% damage loss to the same mitigations/denials. This trait allows hammers to hit hard without actually investing some points into their Power line, if any.

If you played a Warrior you’d know how rarely that damage boost actually takes effect.

How often do you really hit a stunned target, aside from the stuns themselves? That’s right, not much.

With most stuns the effect expires (or is broken) by the time the next hit connects. So the damage increase is really only effective for the initial stunning hits, of which only Backbreaker and Earthshaker hit hard.

And a 20% damage increase on those two skills is hardly something to write home about. People pick the trait for the cooldown reduction. The damage bonus is nice, but fairly irrelevant in the grander scale of things.

Squishy.2135:

Merciless Hammer
“Hammer damage is increased when a foe is disabled. Reduces recharge on hammer skills.

Damage increase: 20%
Recharge: 20%"

Bring it back in line with all other weapon traits and have Merciless Hammer with either a 10% or 5% increase or maybe even a +Attribute instead. Just recharge reduction alone is good enough on a weapon that has stunlock potential built into it (1/2 of its skills).

So if you want to bring it back in line can we assume that the disabled foe requirement would be removed to become an always active 10%?

Dan.4398:

So if you want to bring it back in line can we assume that the disabled foe requirement would be removed to become an always active 10%?

With or without the requirement, 10% would bring it back into line with all other weapon traits in the game. Where is the reason for one specific weapon to suddenly put out 20% more damage with its respective trait (even if it has a prerequisite) than any other weapon and their respective traits?

Dee Jay.2460:

If you played a Warrior you’d know how rarely that damage boost actually takes effect.

How often do you really hit a stunned target, aside from the stuns themselves? That’s right, not much.

With most stuns the effect expires (or is broken) by the time the next hit connects. So the damage increase is really only effective for the initial stunning hits, of which only Backbreaker and Earthshaker hit hard.

And a 20% damage increase on those two skills is hardly something to write home about. People pick the trait for the cooldown reduction. The damage bonus is nice, but fairly irrelevant in the grander scale of things.

Actually, I take it for the damage on my WvW unsuspecting foe build. A crit ES+2 crit autoattacks +20% from trait + 10% from sigil of impact + 5% from force makes for some really nice bursts.

Squishy.2135:

Dan.4398:

So if you want to bring it back in line can we assume that the disabled foe requirement would be removed to become an always active 10%?

With or without the requirement, 10% would bring it back into line with all other weapon traits in the game. Where is the reason for one specific weapon to suddenly put out 20% more damage with its respective trait (even if it has a prerequisite) than any other weapon and their respective traits?

Sword: +10% crit
Axe: +150 Ferocity
Greatsword/Spear: 10% damage
Rifle/Harpoon Gun: Pierce
Shield: +180 Toughness, -20% cooldown
Mace: +10% damage against weakened foes, -20% cooldown
Hammer: +20% damage against disabled foes, -20% cooldown
Warhorn: Convert 1 condition to a boon, -20% cooldown
Longbow: Damage increased against burning foes, -20% cooldown

See what I did there? There are a total of three weapons whose damage increment depends on a condition/CC on the foe. That’s nothing new.

As for why it’s 20% and not 10%? For the same reason why Axe gets Ferocity, Rifle gets Pierce and Sword crit%: For diversity.

Olba.5376:

Squishy.2135:

Dan.4398:

So if you want to bring it back in line can we assume that the disabled foe requirement would be removed to become an always active 10%?

With or without the requirement, 10% would bring it back into line with all other weapon traits in the game. Where is the reason for one specific weapon to suddenly put out 20% more damage with its respective trait (even if it has a prerequisite) than any other weapon and their respective traits?

Sword: +10% crit
Axe: +150 Ferocity
Greatsword/Spear: 10% damage
Rifle/Harpoon Gun: Pierce
Shield: +180 Toughness, -20% cooldown
Mace: +10% damage against weakened foes, -20% cooldown
Hammer: +20% damage against disabled foes, -20% cooldown
Warhorn: Convert 1 condition to a boon, -20% cooldown
Longbow: Damage increased against burning foes, -20% cooldown

See what I did there? There are a total of three weapons whose damage increment depends on a condition/CC on the foe. That’s nothing new.

As for why it’s 20% and not 10%? For the same reason why Axe gets Ferocity, Rifle gets Pierce and Sword crit%: For diversity.

Ya…and how many people use the mace and longbow one….noone, because they are too situational and provide very little bonus. Some people may use the longbow one here and there, but its very few, and the amount that use the mace trait? lol

The trait is perfectly fine, it’s only active during certain circumstances, which explains the higher damage increase.

don’t be too “Squishy” and use Stability/stunbreaks/dodges.

Merciless Hammer is fine, 20% damage against disabled enemies sounds like a lot, but honestly avoiding hammer cc is not that difficult.

The fact it does both +dmg against stunned targets aswell as cooldown reduction is absurd.

My Engineers comparetive trait just reduces cooldown, doesnt add any damage. Same for my Ele, reduces cooldown on one specific attunement, doesnt add damage under any circumstance.

So i already find this trait overbudget as is. But i have that problem with a lot of Warrior traits.

Terrahero.9358:

The fact it does both +dmg against stunned targets aswell as cooldown reduction is absurd.

My Engineers comparetive trait just reduces cooldown, doesnt add any damage. Same for my Ele, reduces cooldown on one specific attunement, doesnt add damage under any circumstance.

So i already find this trait overbudget as is. But i have that problem with a lot of Warrior traits.

This coming from an engi is quite funny. If you want to talk about overbudgeted traits, engi is definitely up there at the top.

Lifestealer.4910:

Terrahero.9358:

The fact it does both +dmg against stunned targets aswell as cooldown reduction is absurd.

My Engineers comparetive trait just reduces cooldown, doesnt add any damage. Same for my Ele, reduces cooldown on one specific attunement, doesnt add damage under any circumstance.

So i already find this trait overbudget as is. But i have that problem with a lot of Warrior traits.

This coming from an engi is quite funny. If you want to talk about overbudgeted traits, engi is definitely up there at the top.

Really? such as?

The 20% damage is actually applied whenever a target is dazed, knocked down or stunned not just stunned. So the way I use it is mainly for burst damage: for example
F1→#5→#2 etc

Squishy.2135:

Merciless Hammer
“Hammer damage is increased when a foe is disabled. Reduces recharge on hammer skills.

Damage increase: 20%
Recharge: 20%"

This trait’s damage buff is rather unique in that it delivers a flat out 20% damage increase under specific circumstance. It is the only weapon trait that allows a 20% increase.

Bring it back in line with all other weapon traits and have Merciless Hammer with either a 10% or 5% increase or maybe even a +Attribute instead. Just recharge reduction alone is good enough on a weapon that has stunlock potential built into it (1/2 of its skills).

It’s little things like this that promote power creep and the like. And yes, I would like to read arguments for/against this trait.

TLDR: another warrior gripe thread

this trait was already nerfed

power creep?

have you not noticed the condi meta? power builds are fine right now