Guild Wars 2

Wall of text, if you dont want to know about the crithammer gameplay or hammer gameplay in general, dont read any further.

Its been posted before but im been approached by a number of player in pm on this forum and also ingame that wanted to get help, advice or just say that the ones in here promoting the crithammer gameplay have actually changed their perspective on how to play the guardian.

Some of them has also asked me to write a guide about crithammer and how to play it but dont fear, i have no intention of writing a guide and the reason for that is simple, you cant!

The reason why i wont write a guide is that the crithammer gameplay is much more complex then the other weapons and also much more rewarding when you get it together.

What i can do is try to outline some things about builds and overall gameplay and hopefully this might inspire more people to play the offensive support- and controlguardian you get in the crithammer build.

The crithammer build kills the myth that you need to build defense in order to support or that you have to neglect cc if you want to do dps and support. imo the crit hammer build has it all in one package.

So here we go and lets start with:

The foundation of the crithammer build.

First of all you need crit rating, there is no right or wrong here, just see to it that you hit at least 40% critrating. The main reason for that is that you need endurance when playing and since the hammer is kind of slow you will need to dodge more often and also fully exploit the fact that you have a ranged attack with almost 600 in range in mighty blow. Dodge backwards out of reach and then bounce back in with a huge blow.

The second reason you need crit rating is ofc for damage and the hammer hits hard. Its the best melee aoe the profession has with the highest dps in mighty blow and its also much harder to avoid then ZD or WW. Overall, in both pvp and pve it has higher practical dps then any other meleeweapon, at least for me.

When we are talking about damage we need to mention the third step in the chain and if you add in one single tick from SoP then the third step hits with about 15% less damage of mighty blow. Yeah thats right, that is how good the third step is and considering it also applies a “ranged” symbol and automatic retaliation this pretty much makes it the most powerful chainfinisher a guardian has.

The greatness of symbol of protection.
The symbol is kind of unique. First of all it doesnt have the downsides of SoW, you dont have to stand still and it also lacks the casting time the other symbols have, yes i know the third step is slow but just compare with the mace symbol or even the staff symbol. Considering SoP infact applies two boons (boons equal to two symbols) and damage from the third step, makes it the most powerful symbol we have.

The only downside with the symbol is infact that you need a target to use it. This downside dictates how you (imo) should play the hammer and thats why the crithammer is an interesting option. A build that deal huge amount of damage while supporting with the best/most boons any class can spew out in a given timeframe and great cc and the more damage you do and the more bons you get out the more you survive and the more damage you do. Its the ideal frontline soldier and pusher and the synergy between SoP and MB is what makes this possible.

What traits/gear do you need?
Gear and traits are the same imo, just two different ways of achieving a goal, so i talk about them under the same paragraph.
The build has its foundation in altruistic healing so 30 points in Valor is mandatory. I also find retributive armor to be mandatory and the reason for that is ofc the extra crit you get from it. The one thing with retributive armor is also that it also has synergies with the gear of your choice, for instance knights gear will give you more crits then berserker due to the toughness it has.

Choose your gear wisely. I gone from berserker to knights and will probably go to pov/vit/tuv the day i have a full set.The reason why im not using the three pieces i have is that i havent decided what runes i should have in it and i want all 6 pieces to get full effect of my runes. I think i will drop below 40% crit when i do but i think it will work out anyway. In my builds i use purity, for both pve and pvp, and in pvp i think its mandatory and part of meta. In pve though there are other stuff that you might find nice to have and purity isnt a must have.

In honor there is only one mandatory trait and that is 2h mastery, without it you wont get the synergy between SoP and MB. Trait it and dont ask questions.. This also means that you have 20 points in honor so you have the first tier to trait as well. Here you have two choices and those are superior aria for shorter cd on shouts and writ of exaltation for larger symbols.

Well which one should you go for? The answer is both, one is better for ranged combat and one is better for melee. Writ of exaltation might seem weak but when you start to get the importance of positioning the symbol you will understand what huge difference the symbol size really does, both for damage and survivability and your capability to support. In coordinated teams i use writ of exaltation.

When you invested 20 in honor you also got selfless daring and vigorous precision. The first one is pretty amazing and the reason for that is that it scales with about 1 to 1 which means that every point you invest in healstats give you back 1h on dodge. I have about 100 heals in my accessories and this trait is also why i chose to have sigil of energy, it allows for 3 rapid dodges on swap and besides avoiding damage it also gives me 1,5k in hp and more time to get something of cd. This means that when it comes to selfless daring healing stats are much stronger then vitality. So when in doubt, more health or more heals, go for healstats as long as you have selflessdaring. EASY CHOICE.

This setup has saved my life numerous times even when not having one single point of healstats in gear, and ofc its a great battle heal when in a group. And its here vigorous precision (and critrating comes into play) which also gives more dodges to you. The thing is that you will have 4 dodges at your disposal in a very short timeframe. Remember, if you have room in your healthpool and vigor runs, dodge, even if you dont need to avoid damage.

This build is about keeping the healthpool up at all costs and this is the main difference between it and a meditationbuild which passively has a couple of burst heals, in this build the damage you do is the heals you get. Superfun and demanding but has great rewards when play right.

Empowering might, pure of voice, writ of persistence and writ of the merciful are also traits that work well in a crithammer build. So in short you can invest 20 or 30 points in honor and you have a bunch of nice traits. The only minor trait thats kind useless is elusive power, being short of endurance is kind of missing the point of the gameplay in a crithammer build.

One interesting thing to mention is that rune of the soldier and pure of voice stack. With three shouts nothing sticks to your team and conditionbuilds are totally moot. Especially with purity and signet of resolve which also stack.

In virtues, inspired virtues is the only mandatory trait and thats 5 points. I cant understand that there are people that dont trait this, it should be in any build and i consider it meta. Think about what it does, it gives your group 3 extra boons with an average cd of 60 sec. Thats is the same as getting 1,5 shouts on a 60 sec cd. Wtf we have access to 4.5 utilityslots and some people dont want that. Trait it and stop asking stupid questions ;-)

There are a couple of major traits though that might be interesting and all of them can be used in a crithammer build.
First we have vengeful ofc, packing stand your ground, save yourselves and signet of judgment then this is supernice.
Second we have master of consecrations which is nice for two shouts and wall of reflection/sanctuary.
Third one we have consecrated ground which shares the same purpose with master of consecrations.

In virtues you shouldnt go deeper then 10 points and no less then 5 points so its max one major. Personally i stopped traiting more then 5 points.

Now last but not least, radiance, what should you trait here then since its all about crit and your hammer??

Well the answer is imo a paradox, you trait whats left!!

This is the last one you look at. Some of you will end up with 5 points (great with an extra blind) som will trait 10 points and either get shorter cd on your heal or why not fury when you are set on fire, its remarkable how often those engie/guardian/eles set you one fire.

Some get 15 points in there, super nice for pve to always have VoJ off cd and also kind of nice in pvp tbh, especially spvp.

So in short there is no one single build just a couple of must have traits (imo) and the rest is up to your own strengths and shortcomings.

Healingskill ofc the signet, passive conditionremover, short cd and massive heals. Easy choice.
Utilityskills the shouts are a given, at least 2 imo. If you use two shouts then you can either use signet of judgement for more boons on the team and one great aoe condition when fighting in the front or wall of reflection.

What elite: In pve and spvp i use renewed focus, i thought it was really bad at the beginning but after learning to play the crit hammerbuild i started to realize how nice it is even though 60 sec cd is justified compared to what other classes bring to the table.
For WvW i use tome of wrath, i find it just useless in almost every aspects of the game but in wvw its just so nice. Outnumbered 1 to 3, np, just get behind your group, pull a couple of shouts/virtues for 10 sec protection and then this monster and kill em all.

What runes, well i use soldier runes for conditionremoval but there are a bunch of choices. When i get a full pvpset i will use crit runes in that. One other rune that is very interesting is rune of dwayna, which gives you and the team regen and also has healingstats. For the one that needs more heals on dodge this is a work of wonder and the regen it gives also trigger altruistic healing.

So once again when you traited checkout what you miss and fix that with the gear/weapon/accessories and upgrades.

What stats to look for?
40-51%% crit
2800-3200 Attack
14k-18k health
2400-2800 armor
200-400heal power
73-105% critdamage
As you can see there is a huge span in which you can still have great damage, decent healthpool and being one tough motherKITTEN.

How i play this then.
- dodge as soon there is room in our healthpool
- Save your heal to last, it doesnt remove conditions when on cd
-Learn to dodge within the chain, between step 2 and 3.
- Dodge towards if you want to stay close, dodge from if you want a gap.
- Making a gap isnt always defense. MB makes it possible to jump into the symbol and trigger it.
- there is time between you placed the symbol and to trigger it, to make a dodge, use that.
- Stop spamming skill one, always “hold” the third step of the chain and start it when you think you will hit. One more reason for holding for a fraction of a second is that you will get more time to trigger the combo with MB.
- The way you play with gs and 1h wont cut it. With the hammer you “run” in the hit.
- Even if you know you gonna miss with the third step, place the symbol, and use MB to jump out of it. Retal rocks.
- Switch often (in pvp, in pve you dont need to switch that often) and have energy sigil in your secondary weapon, ofc if you are into that sigil like i am.
- Save your cc for when they make a run for it. People that cant hit without ccing will have serious issues playing with the hammer.
- Dont quit just because you cant make it work. As soon as you gotten the hang of it it will perform better then any of the other melee weapons we have.
- Choose your secondary based on situation, i play two setups:
tpvp and pve, 1h sword + focus
WvW and some pve content, scepter + shield
When moving around in wvw and pve i ofc use staff for speedbuff but switch it as soon as there is content (mobs or players to be killed) to do.

Hopefully this has given you a picture of some my insights in the crithammer build and hopefully its what you asked me to post. hopefully its what you asked me to post.

In short:
STOP ASKING FOR THE BUILD, ITS NO ONE BUILD, ITS INFACT AT LEAST 30 DIFFERENT BUILDS, BUY A KNIGHTS GEAR AND TRAIT ALTRUISTIC HEALING AND LET THE FUN BEGIN.

Mmm, Empowering might, Altruistic healing, HAMMER TIME! I’m a very happy guardian.

Yet another lovely, extremely well-written guide from the guardian forums.

Thank you Brutaly for this write up. I have hit 80 on my guardian since I last left a message for you asking if this build was viable while leveling but I also ditched my greatsword for the hammer mid-70s and haven’t looked back. I love the fact that I get nearly as much damage out of the hammer as I did out of the greatsword but I’m at least twice as tough, take half as much damage and heal it back up way more easily.

And I’m only sitting at 35% crit atm, it still works spendidly! Also I don’t know if this will help others if they are struggling with it at first as well but I took the trait to extend symbol duration because I found I was having issues timing my mighty blow before my symbol expired…the extended duration makes it possible for me to make sure I hit the blast finisher while I’m still practicing getting my timing down.

Solid work, Brutaly, as usual. Really good insight here to a powerful build, and I know you’ve been advocating Crithammer for a while. I tried it for a few days before switching to my Spirit Weapons/Empowering Might build (more my playstyle), but I have to say I was impressed. Crithammer has some serious potential behind it, but it does require deep investment in precision.

I’ve been running pretty much the exact same build (0/15/30/20/5) on my Guardian with the Greatsword with the exact same traits and it’s so interesting to see the exact same build played so differently with a different weapon. I run Dolyak Runes & a Staff though, but I think I’ll swap the Staff for my Hammer the next time I’m out and give this a try.

@Grace
Thx, really nice of you even though when i read it i realize that my lack of knowledge in english shine thru. Hopefully its understandable.

@Eveningstar
Thx! Yes it is powerful and i still think we just started to explore the possibilities with the hammer and altruistic healing. It will be very interesting to see what will happen when people get their hands on Grenethgear which combine healing and precision, imo a very deadly combination.

@ShadowbaneX
So true, i played 1h+scepter and fooled around with gs before i switched and the playstyle of the hammer is very different. The biggest difference is that bad gameplay shine thru much more obvious and great gameplay is more rewarding and ofc the pace of the battle. I find mysesf dodging much more often and being more tactical with the hammer then with 1h sword.

One of the reasons why wrote this, besides being asked to, is that i think the community shouldnt mix up personal preference with how effective it is. We are infact a bunch of players that find that 3rd step entertaining and that the playstyle is very entertaining and im certain, if we give it time, more and more will start playing with the hammer due to its very distinct character.

Once again thx for the feedback in this thread and also in the pm i gotten, it makes it worth the time for an illiterate like myself to take the time and effort writing this.

I will definitely get back to you when i have other gear then berserker/knights to try this build with and especially if i can get a couple of pieces of greneth-gear.

Do you have some fottage of this build?

Props for being one of the few to utilize Hammer, I truly believe it is one of the Guardian’s best weapons and I run with one with Staff or Scepter/Shield in WvW as well.

My build however is a bit more different as I like Consecrations a lot in WvW and thus run with a 10 Radiance, 30 Honor 30 Virtues set up. As much as I like purity and I’d fit it in if I could, Absolute Resolution and Purging Flames (when it works) has been decent for condition removals. It can only get better once the bugs revolving it are fixed. I’m also not as worried as I regularly run with a Mesmer who always has Null Field slotted, between the two of us, we don’t fear conditions.

Rune of the Soldier definitely is a must for a shout centric build, but Rune of the Earth is great for general lasting power, the chance to proc Protection along with duration bonus works out pretty well with the hammer. I currently use 4 Earth 2 Water.

My set up right now is Valkyrie Helm, Power/Vit/Tough karma chest/boots with the rest clerics. Knight’s Hammer and Scepter/Shield with Cleric Staff and full Cleric accessories. It’s easy to break 1k Healing when I switch into staff and I’m hoping to replace more of the gear with karma once Melandru temple stops bugging out.

However, even with this amount of +Healing, writ of the merciful still felt very lackluster especially considering what selfless daring can do. I like picking up one of the revive traits instead as SoA on revive is pretty clutch sometimes in WvW. If you went for Protective Reviver, you can also pull off some dope saves for your group too. Now if only the shield KB’d! (might be op lol).

I also run Sigil of Energy on my secondary set but use Hydromancy on the Hammer, curious as to what you slapped on yours.

Silly question.
If you could answear I’d be greatfull.

Altruistic healing affects boons to allies, does our symbol count as a boon?
Is there an internal cooldown to it?

Lets say, our normal chain on a hammer gives everyone protection through a symbol. So it will also heal? Do you have any idea what’s its scalling formula?

Thx in advance.

Hammer is probably my main weapon of choice for dungeon. I however use a different build but same concept on high crit rate with decent survivability (I use meditations).

A quick question on two-handed mastery, since most of the hammer damage comes from the chain attack, is there any noticeable increase in damage when reduces hammer cool downs (its only other damage attack is MB, which will only reduces by 1 sec)? Also, I generally run with a fire elementalist so I usually delay my MB for a blast finisher.

Brutaly.6257:

@Grace
Thx, really nice of you even though when i read it i realize that my lack of knowledge in english shine thru. Hopefully its understandable.

I wouldn’t worry yourself a thing about that. I have no idea what your first language is but I ran for a long time with a Korean guild in my last game…I may be used to seeing some discrepancies but your English is superb compared to even some native English speakers and you’re obviously intelligent with a great knowledge of the Guardian profession and its mechanics.

I ran a greatsword pretty much from the time I started my character until late 60-early 70s so it was definitely hard to let go of but your posts/replies about the hammer have been so informative to other people that it has made people want to try out the hammer, for sure.

@MysticoN
yes, but i dont post images or clips on the Internet, call me old fashioned.

@Lumines
Thx but the reason why i made a separate thread was due to a request from a couple of guys in here that thought the crithammer build was worth it, and your post and build is something completely different and kind of offtopic even though interesting.

I use energy in both sets and mix it up accuracy in the offhand. In tpvp i sometimes use intelligence in the hammer.

@Reihert
Yes they do which means hammer symbol applies protection and retaliation with mighty blow triggering the combofield!

No there is no internal cd on altruistic healing but on empowering which might has 1s cd. Which doesnt matter that much since the hammer hits slow.

Yes you will get one heal per boon applied to an ally. Two teammates in the symbol and you get 2+1 heal.

It heals for about 70 per boon/ally and scales really bad, i havent seen it heal for more then 78 with tons of healing power. This is the reason, and vigorous precision and empowering might, why a high crit build do wonders with altruistic healing. The formula is scaling=i+t+s+u+c+k+s+s+o+d+o+n+t+b+ot+h+e+r

In one of my builds it healed for 73 per boon. Here you have a calculation on its potential:

Assume three allies inside the symbol and my build where AH heals for 73.

A hammer chain+symbol hits in total 6 times on a single target. Thats 3 crits (50% crit) generating 3*73. Total of 219hp from vigorous precision.
You get in average 3 hits from empowering might as well but those also hit the teammates and give you 219*3=657
The symbol generates 3 ticks of protection, with 3 allies inside that is 9*73 which in total is 657 hp.
And when you trigger retal you apply retal to 3 people once, which gives you 3*73=219
219+657+657+219=1752 heals to you.
With two allies:
219+438+438+146=1241
Soloplaying:
219+219+219+73=730

Basically its about getting heals from a large number of sources, also why healing on the symbol is kind of interesting even though underwhelming at first glance.

Hammer+Crit is one hell of beast, id have to thank both Brutaly & Marthiarn for the eye opening posts regarding hammer and the bundle of awesome it holds.

Its fun, brutal ( no pun intended ) and quick of the draw gameplay when rolling out in Tyria with the Hammer/Crit & Altrustic healing.

Brutaly : Greneth gear, you mean the karma vendors in Cursed shore, Malchors Leap & Straits of Devastation? See some of the items contain that excact stat combo Healing, Precision & Vitality.
Another eye opening statement? Hmm…. 1k dodge heals Uhuuuu….

yeah it was those i ment. Been very interested in that combo, it might be very sweet on a crithammer build, Just add in 3 pieces of that set, specc empowering might and 60% mightduration runes and with sigil of battle and it would more then compensate for the loss on power and have permanent 6 stacks with an option of 2*6 stacks from virtue of justice and 12 more from the staff + heal for 1k per dodge. Think it might be possible with a 6k hit with mighty blow, with a healbuild!

I think the journey of the hammer has just begun

Grenth might be the sets name.

Shopping Helm now, at Melandru’s temple. Last exotic piece of armor. Now im just missing 2 earrings and a ring. Too bad the Ironfist exotic hammer doesnt have a proper unique look to fit its unique name.
Keep the good idea’s comming Brute.

How much do altruistic healing heal for for eatc tick, how much +healing power are you running and how often do you get it to tick? How much do it heal you each min in combat?

A few other points about Altruistic Healing, especially in PvE, Inspired Virtues makes it so that Virtue of Justice gives 3 stacks of Might. That’s another 3 heals per ally, and with Renewed Justice that means you can pop it every single time something dies, in addition to the AoE Blind, AoE Vulnerability (if traited) and the burning.

I usually use a Sigil of Perception for increased Critical Chance, but some people recommend Sigil of Strength for applying might to Allies. Anyone know how many stacks of might this gives when it triggers? It might be worth it as well.

@MysticoN
May i suggest you read the thread, its there.

@ShadowbaneX
it proccs 1 stack of might with 30% chance on crit. The stack has 10s duration for superior sigilss.

I played extensively with it during beta and with 1h sword it might be good but for a slow hitter like hammer its not worth it.

question:
brutaly r u sure that retributive armor works with toughness from armor and equipment, as far as i did tests during BWEs it only used base toughness…?!
if they changed it it has secretly turned into a musthave trait!
greetz garm

/Brutaly

Dont have accsess to my computer atm, reading and posting on my iphone and so much text is hard to read on a so small screen

Nice guide but I didn’t see any mention of the ridiculousness that is Staff’s Empower + Altruistic Healing? If you’re in a Group of 5, you will proc Altruistic healing 12 times (12 stacks of might) for each person, meaning 60 procs of Altruistic Healing. In my opinion every build based around Altruistic Healing should have a Staff and Two-Handed Weapon Mastery, you just just heal yourself for 30-40% of your health every 16 seconds.

Nice write-up Brutaly!

I’ve been running a crithammer build for a while now, and can attest to the effectiveness of it. It’s awesome!

Currently I’m running a 0/15/30/20/5 build with exotic berserker hammer / staff, exotic knight’s armor / earrings, and exotic valkyrie amulet / rings.

Bobnintendo is right, the staff’s Empower ability is great with Altruistic Healing.

What about 4 Superior Rune of Svanir, and 2 Superior Rune of the Ice? It would give you a +90% freeze duration bonus, while still giving +25 Vitality and +75 Toughness. If you’re trying to build around the hammer crit’s, you could look into this as a way of making the most out of your freezes.

If you throw those with a Superior Sigil of Ice on your hammer to make use of the crits (30% chance for 2s), and use your offhand to utilize the Superior Sigil of Hydromancy (3s on switch), then when combined with the +90% boost to freeze duration you will have that person frozen (if no conditions removed, but this is applied multiple times):

~4 seconds from hammer sigil,
~6 seconds from offhand sigil
~8 seconds from Glacial Heart

So, you have three separate chances to apply freeze over a relatively short duration to ultimately keep them frozen for a whopping 18 seconds! And, since the cooldown on the offhand sigil is 9 seconds, and the cooldown on the hammer sigil is 10 seconds, you can keep freeze chained on the poor sap until he can pop a condition remover, but who’s to say it won’t be covered by burning?

Now, I’m going off the assumption that these durations stack additively, not multiplicatively, so I may be off by a factor of 2 or so…but if I’m right, then the crit hammer just got a whole lot nastier. Here’s hoping I’m right! =D

Hammer is a great PvE weapon.

But as an offensive weapon it is too slow for high level PvP.

Skill 1 Chain is far too slow, Skill 3, 4, 5 have slow cast times and obvious animations, making it too easy to predict and avoid.

It only works for point defenders because they already have all the advantages, sitting on the small point the attacking player needs to go to and try to hold by staying in a small location.

When the enemy needs to come to you the hammer works (like in PvE where enemies just let themselves get hit).

The chill trait was a nice idea for the PvP hammer, but it’s on such a long recharge it doesn’t realistically help.

Brutaly.6257:

@ShadowbaneX
it proccs 1 stack of might with 30% chance on crit. The stack has 10s duration for superior sigilss.

I played extensively with it during beta and with 1h sword it might be good but for a slow hitter like hammer its not worth it.

Yeah, I can agree with that. If it added 3 stacks of might for the entire group, then it might have been worth it. As it is, still need to find another Sigil to use.

@Garm
Yes im sure it works that way.
In my knights gear with rune of the soldier i have 1840 in precision and with the berserker with ruby orbs i have 1906.

Thats a difference of 66.

The orbs have 14 in precision each which is 84 in total. Retributive armor effect=84-66

@MysticoN
If you can post you can read. and if you aint reading then you by definition is offtopic. Sorry i wont spoonfeed people, its not even in the wall of text.

@Bobnintendo
The reasons why i didnt mention the staff are:
1. The thread isnt about the staff or altruistic healing, its about the hammer
2. its been brought up in other threads
3. The only time i use it is when im sieging and are on the attacking side and i was asked if i could write down my experience with the hammer, not the staff.

@Draeka
Yeah, those are nice and if your into chiilling stuff the weapon has massive aoe potential.
As i do tpvp on a pretty decent level i cant confirm or deny anything regarding chilling since its in my competitive build.

The trait i find kind of useless though, anything that proccs makes me a bit sceptical, i like skill to be predictable, espcially in pvp. In pve the randomness can spice up things but in pvp it can make you loose the fight.

@Ezreal
well i use it tournements and in wvw and with greater impact then with scepter/1h sword, and its very powerful in every situation where you are beforehand, not just at defending points. Infact 95% of my gametime is in pvp and at least 40% are in tournements.

You are simplyfying it, its like saying GS only works in aoe situations because 1h sword is faster.

The only time it might be weak in tpvp is infact in a one on one but then i have my 1h sword and as i am a pack player i always go with a number of people and then the hammer works extremely well and no i dont defend nodes, my team never uses pure node defenders.

You probably think its no good for pvp due to the speed, well its just a matter of getting used to it and instead of playing it as a single target weapon start playing it as an aoe weapon, which it is, everything slow on the hammer is infact aoe besides banish.

The playstyle in nodeattacks isnt as straight forward as it is with a 1h sword, for instance if you want to use banish in a 2vs2 you attack one guy and target the other and start the animation and then turn. Same with zealots.

With the hammer you dont attack your own target, you always support a friend. If its duelsituations we are talking about then there are definitely better weapons, for offensive aoe teamplay, seriously, no.

On the other hand there are guys in these forums that claimed a week ago that its no good for pve either, and now people are saying that the hammer actually reinstates the whole concept of the holy trinity and breaking the game.

Really interesting that you think it only works for defending points when you point out its to slow.

In my experience if you want to defend (well its more of delaying on points) points versus multiple enemies, or one on one, you should chose the fastest and most agile weapon. The hammers downside is that in a one on one and 1vs2 its really easy to avoid and the oly good thing it brings to point defending is rng of warding, as you said its to slow for point defending 1vs1 or 1vs2.

@ShadowbaneX
try sigil of superior battle, then you get 3 stacks of might on swap and 20s duration. With empowering might its means 7-9 stacks constantly running and then add in 3 more from VoJ.

So you wouldn’t even use the sigil of ice? I understand the Glacial Heart feeling…I still think it’s a placeholder for a larger trait revamp for all the classes, but I think the sigil of ice is a better option than the hammer for a longer fight; unless, of course, you’re already constantly switching between it and say a mace/focus combo for a bit more survivability.

@Draeka
As i said, i cant confirm or deny anything that has bearing to how i play the hammer in tournements. Lets just say that the relative low speed of the hammer isnt a concern. By that you can read out that, yes, i use chill on my tournementbuild.

I wouldnt have sigil of ice on the hammer, it hits to slow and the chill is on 10 sec cd so the aoe trigger just one chill (or at least this was how i perceived it when playing in beta, might be wrong though) and you cant control which one.

Hydromancy is better, it fully compensates for the low speed of the weapon and allows you to fully lock down an opponent(s) or force them to use cooldowns to get away and in a crowded situation, like on a cappoint, its beyond nasty.

My job, in my team, is to clear cappoints from opponents and as long as there are more then one on the point hammer rules and when there are one left defending i go 1h sword. I use intelligence in spvp and hydromancy in tpvp

But why not tryout your initial setup and get back here and tell us how it turned out. Personally i havent stacked chill since the problem in tpvp is that one condition seldom is enough, you often need coverconditions and guardians just suck at conditions and condition damage compared to our ingame friends.

Awesome post, thank you @Brutaly for the guide and help, I have been finally in WvW and Explore mode dungeons with this set up( not complete due cash) and it shines, I need to get used to it yet but it’s great and the most important FUN!.

@Krulz
Cool that you enjoyed it and its the right spirit, that you think you need to get used to it, which is the main flaw with the hammer, its required taste and not just a nibble.

Empowering Might means that you lose Two-Handed Mastery though. It’s tempting, but I’m not sure I like that option. The Sigil of Might sounds though, but so does the Sigil of Fire.

Brutaly is there a way to fiddle with your build so I can slot Hammer and GS together and still make it attractive? I just love those 2 weapons.

@Shadowbanex
you could go 0/5/30/30/5 and then you get both empowering might, 2h mastery and superior aria. Then use rune of the 5*ranger and 1*eagle to boost critrating. Still with knights gear and pretty nice critchance, think you will end up with like 46%.

@bantapoo
Ofc, you jsut use it, 2h mastery supports both, personally i find those two doing almost thesame job but GS being more cd depedent and better at removing conditions.

Btw Brutaly what do you use for your standard “rotation”?
pop virtues, 3-2-1-5-4, focus/shouts, pop virtues rince repeat?

I only have one standardrotation and thats chain+mb.

Sometime i dodge after second step in the chain sometimes after the third and sometimes i just spam, the rest is situational.

i like to see to it that a cc is the last skill i use on the hammer before swapping, this makes zealots defense a lot better imo.

Shouts and virtues are used when the team needs them, the common situation is that they need them before i do.

I dont play with gs that much and frankly im not that fond of it, being very dependent on cds imo so im not the right guy to answer you there.

1h sword, i play accordingly to the conditions they have, just keep em blind. So i save VoJ for the blind the same goes with the focus and the blink on the sword.

Skill 5 on focus i save to later, if i need more firepower or defense then i pull it. if not, save it, its to good to waste on a certain kill. Once again im very restricitve when using my cooldowns. They have cooldowns because they are powerful so i try to make them count.

New Guardian players need to pay attention to this thread.

The hammer can combine great offense with great survivability. I’m currently running 0/5/30/30/5 b/c I like shouts and I feel very powerful in PvE. Don’t just mindlessly choose greatsword, look at all your options.

Question for Brutaly: Are you sure that the Superior Runes of Dwayna can trigger Altruistic Healing?

In spvp they do, 100% sure.

in open world, i have no idea, but i cant see that they should have two dfferent functions.

In spvp they apply the regen boon and trigger AH.

you think this build is going to be viabel with only 20-25% crit and going for:

Superior Rune of the Citadel 4/6
(1): +25 Power
(2): +15% Fury duration
(3): +50 Power
(4): 5% chance to gain Fury for 30s when hit. (Cooldown: 60s)

and Inner Fire. Is that going to be enough fury proc chance?! Not lvl 80 yet so its kinda hard to get the stats to what it should be.

is Sigil of energy still worth it after the patch?

•Updated Rune of the Adventurer and Sigil of Energy to each grant 25% endurance when activated.

Good stuff! I’ve been playing the Guardian since way back in alpha, and personally I’ve had trouble with the pace of Hammer. I’ve pretty much mastered the other weapons, and have made builds focused on each different combo. Hammer has been my weakest weapon, although I’ve always known its full power. There is no doubt its a good weapon, it just hasn’t fit my normal playstyle.

I wasn’t that interested in Hammer, until I had to play it to fill a team role in sPVP. While I did average on it, my interest in Hammer changed. When I started looking at builds, I got the Hammer bug. Now I’m working on a Hammer build that is looking really interesting. I just need to put in the time to practice pacing my Hammer skills.

A few things people might not understand from your post:

1. Mighty Blow does its Blast Finisher at the base of its jump
2. Soldier Rune only removes 1 condition from allies and 2 from caster with Pure of Voice trait. Unless they changed Soldier rune to apply to allies as well. The description is a bit ambiguous I know.

A few thoughts:

1. Writ of Persistence trait can give u up to 12sec plus of Protection with a few Hammer auto chains. Better protection between fights. Increasing Virtues and going Boon/Protection duration also helps on armor runes. Something like 2xMonk/2xWater/2xEarth. I believe there is a cap, which I’m trying to test currently. Might not need all that Boon duration.

2. Another reason to go Virtues is the Master of Consecrations trait, and Purging Flame. You touched on how good Sigil of Battle is, but with a Fire Field its pretty sick how much Might u can stack. You get 3 stacks of Might form the Blast Finisher for 25secs. Sigil of Battle reapplies the timer and adds another 3 stacks of Might. Make friends with an Elementalist is right:)

Note: Purging Flame is buggy for me however. It should remove 1 condition per sec, but it only seems to remove just 1 condition.

There are a few other things, but I’ll save that for my Guardian review.

EDIT: I am an idiot

Going to do more rune combination testing, but I made a mistake: the Rune of Svanir will not increase freeze duration at 4/6, it decreases duration on you by 50%. Still, by using 2/6 of Svanir, Ice and Sanctuary, you’ll still get +60% freeze duration alongside +50 Vitality and +25 Toughness. And for those who still care about condition damage, a 6/6 Grenth is pretty nice w/ its 3s freeze upon using a healing skill.

Double Edit:
If you want to go all-out with shouts, a 6/6 Svanir isn’t actually bad, since you can use shouts while encased in the ice. So for 5s after falling below 20% life, you can shout to bring back your life if traited that way. Is a nice way to prevent spikes, at least.

Do your testing in the Heart of the Mist. There is a number of buggy number issues with the game.

@Mysticon
I thin thats to little crit but even with crafted level 80 its really easy to get +35%. why do you end up so low?

If you are interested in crithammer gameplay then you need crits :-)

well they (sigil of energy) might be less worth now but its all good, if you get enough crits you will have have enough endurance in pve, the real nerf is in pvp though, its a bit worrying for me and my playstyle. I will have to get back to this after i tried it in pvp.

The worst part isnt dodging it self, its the direct nerf to selflessdaring, this is a bad one imo. Something that didnt need a nerf. To bad, they really added a different playstyle and that might be more or less gone.

Inner fire is suprisingly good in wvw and spvp, it triggers often, in pve its close to useless since its to situational. The thing i dont like with it is that you are dependent on your opponent to do damage.

@El Topo

1. I know this probabaly isnt correct but i will write it anyway since its what i have observed when roaming around. I think it triggers blast when you jump out of the symbol AND when you jump into the symbol. it might be that the range of the aoe hits the symbol when jumping out.

2. Yes, you are correct and that was what i intended to write and when i read it again i realise that it can/will be read as it removes two conditions from the team. Sorry english isnt my native tongue and half this text is written with a dictionary in my right hand. I will make this a bit cleares during the day.

Yeah, those runes works like a charm and are really interesting to use, i have stayed away from them due to the simple fact that i cant afford to replace the ones i have now, break exotic armor. I infact use them from time to time in tpvp.

Thx for the firefield suggestion, i will add it in OP. The main reason why i didnt mention anything about it was because it would almost be mandatory to go 10 into virtues and i thin thats just to much on a crithammer build. But after reading what you wrote it might be an other way of traiting thats very viable with the crit hammer build.

Yeah its buggy, hopefully they fix it.

There are more reasons why a hammer guardian are best friends with eles and also pet necros btw. MB and water fields are a pretty nasty combination as well. an ele that dont put down water fields en masse, with a hammer guardian around, is imo a bad ele.

Thx for the input guys, i will add and redo some of the stuff in OP during the day.

@brutaly:
The problem is that im not lvl 80 yet and therefor have some problem reaching the needed stats.

Is crithammer viable only at 80 or late 70?

shout version of this build is tempting, but that means you have to swap larger symbol for 20% reduction on shouts CD. To me I prefer having larger symbol, therefore, I prefer to go for 0/15/30/20/5, and slot 2 shouts + signet of judgement for less damage taken, faster retaliation if needed.
and Mysticon if you go that way, you have all tools at lvl 65, with only radiance tree to flesh out.
My question is: can self healing through altruistic healing crit?

@Bantapoo i am armorssmith and i had over 40% crit from the day i reached at about level 40. Not kidding here. You need to check out crafted master armor (green) at the trader. They arent that expensive either.

Doesnt matter though, i tried an other build in spvp a couple of minutes ago and you can go lower in crit and still make it work, healingwise. The only thing you cant do is dodge as much as i do.

The damage is there and all the boons are just spewing out.

@Bantapoo
I have two shouts in all variations of the crit hammer. I think its the foundation of it. Playing a very supportive dps soldier.

Try a 0/5/30/30/5 build with knights gear. Then you have room for shouts, larger symbol and 2h mastery. Still be over 40% crit and tons of tougness.. And still have signet of judgement and perma protection thru hold the line, symbol and virtues.

Regarding signet of energy. its my impression, after 5 games this morning, that you still can triple dodge in pvp, if its vigor that makes that possible i dont know but the nerf is either not there or it isnt breaking the gameplay.

i never seen it critheal.

@Brutaly did you know this :
Pure of Voice
Does not work properly with Hold the Line! or Save Yourselves! Full explanation + video in this post.