Guild Wars 2

Simple question…. whats better? The greatsword or the hammer?

Both have many purposes in PvE and PvP for both aoe and single target but generally which one is better? Just wondering what opinions people have and what are their reasons for thinking so.

GS is more damage based and Hammer is more control based. It really depends on your playstyle.

I would say that GS is more burst damage based and Hammer is more control/tank based. For PvE I’m a hammer guardian. That Protection is just too nice to pass up. We’re melee fighters and this lets you and your team stay in melee longer. I tend to go GS for WvW just for its burst and speed. I don’t PvP a lot on my Guard. I feel both weapons even out damage wise over time so its really a preference thing IMHO.

exactly what they said, Hammer is a more sustained dps/deffensive/control focused weapon, meanwhile GS is more bursty and is definately more offensive, doesnt have as much CC as Hammer…

in the long run damage evens out, so each weapon should be used depending on the situation

I agree with the above. As a dungeon runner, I switch out one for the other, depending on what I need for a given scenario. Sometimes, I use both on my swaps to lock mobs in place so my team can nail the mobs with AoEs.

Typically, I like GS for both the aesthetic and function. I prefer to “tank” by dodging and using damage mitigation/negation skills, especially because this game features dynamic combat. It feels more mobile (600 range leap) and being able to position mobs exactly where I want is nice. I feel sluggish with the hammer, but I respect it for being able to keep things in place and having nice protection uptime.

Both used for different things so I can’t say what is better. But if I had to pick one over the other, it would be the Greatsword since it is a bit more versatile.

Greatsword Advantages:
Mobility from leap. If you are running and this skill is not on CD, you’re doing it wrong.
Interrupt from #5.
More bursty damage.

Hammer Advantages:
More control from the ward, immobilize and knockback skill
Protection (but a really really SLOW animation on the third attack of #1)

In general, a hammer is a lot more useful in PvP than it is in PvE because of the control skills. For an example, someone is trying to rez a downed person or stomp an ally that is downed —> Knockback.

GS is great for general pve. Puzzle jumping with the 3 skill is wonderful for those longer jumps where you have room for landing. Hammer on the other hand i find more suited to hard fight’s. Does decent damage and has plenty of control. Not to mention that protection has saved me countless time’s. I personally carry both but find my self rolling hammer most of the time because i know if i do encounter something i was not expecting not only will i survive it but good change ill kill it with the hammer. Not so with the GS.

Aside from whats been said (and some good points too), id advise that you shouldn’t neglect the use of any one particular weapon. I highly suggest incorporating the techniques from all the guardians weapons. What might not work in one situation may not be true for the whole.

I also want to chime in on the slower attacks. Just because that third swing on hammer or mace seems to stall for 2-3 seconds, doesn’t mean its a worthless attack. It’s just part of a larger attack chain.

Dont use hammer in PvE unless your with all squishers

JJBigs.8456:

Dont use hammer in PvE unless your with all squishers

Disregard this, poster is high on something. Something strong.

Hammer is arguably the best PvE weapon, outside of mass killing trash minions, but those are never an issue anyways.

For PvP/WvW it comes down to damage (Greatsword) vs. control (Hammer). That said, depending on your build/traits, the differences are more subtle than major.

Let me re-phrase. If you want to be considered good at GW2, use GS. If you want to be a casual pug, use hammer.

No one needs control. Mesmers are control if you need it and guardian cannot match mesmer control. Your play a inferior version.

Its like a necro saying I can chill/cripple in CoF p1. Thats great control, but no one needs it. As a guardian you should be able to live with a GS and we all know DPS is king in PVE. Even in high level FOTM

JJBigs.8456:

Let me re-phrase. If you want to be considered good at GW2, use GS. If you want to be a casual pug, use hammer.

No one needs control. Mesmers are control if you need it and guardian cannot match mesmer control. Your play a inferior version.

Its like a necro saying I can chill/cripple in CoF p1. Thats great control, but no one needs it. As a guardian you should be able to live with a GS and we all know DPS is king in PVE. Even in high level FOTM

As a correction if you want to be considered good in PvE, you don’t need control. Then again nobody really cares about how good you are against NPCs.

If you play any PvP or WvW, then you will definitely need control.

Honestly this has been beaten to death many times. Each one of these Hammer vs. Greatsword threads devolves into ugliness.

@OP: Did you bother to search for Hammer vs. Greatsword using the search feature? Seriously you’d save everyone a pile of effort and have enough topics to keep you busy for 30 minutes or more (assuming you are truly interested enough to read them).

TemplarOmega.7384:

Simple question…. whats better? The greatsword or the hammer?

Both have many purposes in PvE and PvP for both aoe and single target but generally which one is better? Just wondering what opinions people have and what are their reasons for thinking so.

Hammer for pvp, GS for pve.

Control matters more in pvp, dps matters more in pve.

Both?

1234567890

Xavi.6591:

Both?

This. ^^

In WvW, I use them both almost equally and I’ve had pretty good results.

JJBigs.8456:

Let me re-phrase. If you want to be considered good at GW2, use GS. If you want to be a casual pug, use hammer.

That’s quite a large blanket to throw out…

Show us your data where GSword is the best and therefore is the only respectable weapon.

IMHO, If you want to be good at GW2 use the setup that best suites your current situation.

Haha I just recently made a thread similar to this. I’ll say outright that the guard is defn not my field of expertise, I am still learning as I’m leveling my toon.

I’m not interested in what’s “better,” everyone has an opinion (some quite passionate) on this GS vs Hammer business, it’s a totally different playstyle (GS does feel easier for me to play, I will say).

Less people use hammer as opposed to GS though, so decision is already made for me, it’s hammer time baby! It has its… issues… but I’m just interested to know what it is about the hammer that makes people feel excited and encourages them to continue to use it, what makes it fun!

The difference is offense and defense. Swap according to your situation. I don’t feel the PVE/WWW is a differentiator. Nothing but a full heal provides as much damage mitigation as long uptime protection from hammer. Little matches GS ability to control and lay down stacked damage effects.

TemplarOmega.7384:

Simple question…. whats better? The greatsword or the hammer?

Both have many purposes in PvE and PvP for both aoe and single target but generally which one is better? Just wondering what opinions people have and what are their reasons for thinking so.

why not both?

I’ve actually found that the Hammer will always do more damage against good players.
Good players will:

• Kite WW/Symbols
• Dodge WW/Leap/Pull (even if you use JI)
  Also when you:
• Pull → WW – the enemy will dodge straight away and you’ll miss 3/4 of WW
• Chains of Light/Embrace → WW – the enemy will dodge after and you’ll miss 1/2 of WW
  This means that the GS is just used to force enemy dodges so that you can use skills like Banish or your allies can burst them.
  The main DPS on the GS is completely (and easily) avoidable. (this is unless you’re running rage sigils which sacrifice fire/energy) Of course you can land some WW and pulls if your enemy is saving their dodges for Banish, etc. But in WvW it’s not as important to dodge those skills as much as in pvp.

The Hammer:

• MB is actually not easy to dodge (3/4s), I sometimes miss dodges on it because I get some lag
• MB is still a high damage skill
• 4/5s recharge means doding it is usually not effective anyway and you miss your dodges for other more important skills

There’s no negative to faking out dodges with a Hammer and even if your enemy dodges MB it’s still to your benifit.
Although yes people in WvW may have too many things to concentrate on and you can get WW and your pull off really easily, but in the smaller scale fights you won’t be able to land it.
Sorry to say but as of now the GS is far inferior to the Hammer unless you have quickness then you’ll be able to get these skills off decently. Also if you’re going to say that “what if you’re against bad players” well then again it doesn’t matter what weapons you use at all because you’re better.

Oops, also!
If you have an ally to immobilize for you the Greatsword is amazing, the problem is you get a slightly weaker (and I mean really slightly) result with Hammer without needing an ally. Usually you’re the person snaring for other people because you’re a Guard anyway.

Does it really matter what you use in Pve? Mobs are stupid to start with and I can frankly run something like scepter torch and still do great because it doesn’t matter..

GS/hammer weapon swap is nice for some serious enemy CC in PvE. Start with GS, pull them in with 5, switch to hammer, trap them in with 5.

Hammer is good for those HP-sponge bosses, like the HOTW bosses. In that case, just go full writs and stand there and never die while you eat popcorn or something. It’s the ultimate lazy weapon.

This thread got me thinking about GSword again. I’ve been running it some more and it sure ‘feels’ like it does more damage against groups of mobs, yet I am not totally convinced that it has higher sustained dps. If it does more damage than Hammer you can probably make up for it with the fact that you and your team can stay in melee hitting the targets 33% longer… Again IMO its back to player preference.

Both are great. I prefer the greatsword, but the hammer is a fine weapon. You really can’t go wrong with either, as long as you trait them correctly.

I love my GS and Hammer for control and burst its all i use in WvW hammer #2 i believe has a nice aoe damage switching from GS to Ham at the right time can cause havoc shield/mace and GS for PvE

In WvW for the past three matchups I was using exclusively Hammer with Sword/Focus. We were always outnumbered so providing group support was more important to me. The more I played and used the Hammer, the more I realized what an efficient weapon it is at providing quick burst damage and have excellent control. RoW + JI is such an amazing combination at chasing down people and trapping players who try to kite; followed by MB and then other setup combos.

I found that Hammer in larger scale fights was better than the Greatsword but that doesn’t mean it is better overall. For the past week I’ve been trying some different tactics for smaller scale battles and have been using a shout build while utilizing Bane Signet. Binding Blade pull + Bane Signet activate is ~2-3 seconds of “down time” for a player where you can really add in a lot of damage. You lose the good control for hammer but make up with a lot of burst so make sure you have your cooldowns ready (F1, SY, Focus 5 primed) and you could down anyone rather quickly.

This is speaking strictly from my WvW perspective but in short, Hammer provides excellent support and control whereas Greatsword provides better damage potential from smaller fights. But don’t read into that saying that Hammer has bad damage output because it doesn’t. The only times I feel like I’m hitting someone with a wet noodle is when MB doesn’t crit.

In the end, I’d say kitten (as sess is filtered :/) the situation and switch to Hammer / GS accordingly.

As like as many guardian players, I thought GS is more offensive weapon, and go for hammer long time in dungeons. But I’ve picked up the GS recently, I find that it is a good partner to protect allies and gain dps at the same time .

We have to know what a chain of protection we get from GS skills:
Blind effect—-Pull ability—-Retaliation (can be extend 25% through trait)——trigger Cleansing Bolts, granting condition removal to nearby allies.

All of them can make damages.