Guild Wars 2

Hey guys i had a question to mediation build guardians who use hammer at all, How do you guys avoid being kited while using hammer????… i find my self using sword focus GS for pvp because the mobility lets me stick so well on targets and even though id like to use hammer i just cant figure out how to avoid being kited.. any advice?

Well if this is in wvw, you HAVE to have at least 2 of the holy mobility trinity for Guards. GS: 3, Sw: 2, Judge’s intervention. Combining hammer 3/4/5 with Judge’s intervention is really effective, but you will eventually still get kited if a class wants to kite you.

^ see that sounds about right…. i just cant seem to get the kills i can with sword.

swap weapons, using one weapon alone is useless. There are two slots for a reason.

Use scepter or staff as secondary and the problem is solved if you use the terrain with some finesse.

I use scepter and hammer as my primary setup in both tpvp and wvw. Both weapons are very underrated in this community.

one ever said i dont weapon swap, the problem is one of those weapons seeming mostly useless in comparison to the other and its alternative, but thank you for the advice.

I love my hammer, scepter makes me want to punch baby seals.

just another idea.. if you can afford to, i had a lot of fun with Bane Signet a while back in WvW/PvP. passive power boost, can’t complain. the active you can use offensievly to set up burst, or when chasing someone. or defensively, to interupt their burst if they have a long cast, or drop ’em if you need some breathing room.

pair that up with scepter insta-immob, or hammer CC’s, or you can keep sticking with sword on your other weapon set for the short tele as well.

and for another while, i used hydromancy on both weapon swaps, so that helps when using something like that hammer as well. sure it can be easily cleanse, but when chill procs at the right time (or all the time assuming you swap a lot), it gets pretty annoying for them and they do lose mobility/utility.

just some ideas.

with the hammer, definitely play extremely offensively. it throws them off and use that to your advantage. and like Dynnen said, to a certain extent, if they’re good and they wanna get away, they’ll get away. but hey, there’s satisfaction in seeing an enemy dance with you and know they don’t stand a chance and turn tail.

[edited some typos and added some more]

Deth.4109:

one ever said i don’t weapon swap, the problem is one of those weapons seeming mostly useless in comparison to the other and its alternative, but thank you for the advice.

Think you missed the point, if they kite out of range you shouldnt be using melee weapons in the first place.

If you perceive one of the weapons to be “mostly useless” i believe its more of a matter that that weapon doesn’t suit you. Neither of those two are useless if played correct.

Its as Akamon says, if you want to be successful with the hammer you need to play it very offensively. Even though its perceived as a defensive option (i suspect its the symbol of protection) its in fact best used on the other side of the scale. And 2h mastery is almost a must in any type of pvp.

and ofc his other advise are really worth looking into as well, there is and endless list of options to handle kiters.

Me, i just kick them till they run, in wvw/pvp that is a win. But some might fancy the kill more than the actual impact.

EDIT: Rune of the traveler might be worth considering

i picked up rune of the traveler (and testing out a celestial set) and as they are not bad, i personally don’t notice a HUGE increase in mobility. definitely useful for going Point A to B, but when in combat, our utilities and weapon skills make all the difference. but maybe i haven’t tested them enough yet.

another off top my head, don’t forget to use retaliation against kiters as well. many will try to get JUST out of range and pewpew you, so give ’em a little taste of their own medicine while you close the gap one way or another.

Roll a warrior.

You’re not going to get much mileage out of trying to improve mobility with a hammer – you really need to focus on control options.

My preferred hammer meditation build has hydromancy sigils, bane signet, ji and a sword and shield ( or sometimes scepter ).

People often cite using RoW + JI as an opening combo, but you can also teleport with Zealot’s Embrace or Bane’s active to extend their range ( Bane+JI = ~2400 range knockdown which can do a couple of k damage ) or to get you close to unload your burst while they are immobilized.

Hyrdomancy helps keep them in place once you have engaged them in melee ( and it does reasonable AoE damage too ).

I tend to save RoW for midfight when I know they’ve burned stability and they might be considering a retreat.

Shield #4 (if you are quick) and Bane can finish off a fleeing foe.

Shield #5 is a great interrupt, and along with Hammer#4, good for knocking thieves out of Refuge/off point.

If you can keep the opponent at medium-short range, the hammer’s excellent AoE/Symbol damage + small Mighty Blow leap should help keep you in combat range.

There are hard counters for Melee based fighting styles that will kite you and turn you in road kill without much of an issue so the only option is to bring your own ranged weapon to the party. A well played Dodge style Thief (especially if he avoided going full Zerker) will give you a hell of a time and the same for the Condition Engineer. All they have to do is stay out of hitting range and rain down the pain.

That happen only on roaming or traveling alone.

For not getting kited you need at least 2 gap closer with LOW cd. If you run GS or sword + hammer and JI you will getting kited anyway, because you have only one low cd gap closer, JI has a lot of CD.

For solo fight, or solo roaming GS + sword or any of it + scepter is mandatory. The roamers have a LOT of mobility and duelist capability.

If you want to use hammer you need to roam or fight with a team or duo. Because if your partner do the right pressure the enemy cant kite you.