Guild Wars 2

Hello guys,
i need your help in order to decide which weapon (greatsword or hammer) can give me better results in those comparisons:

1. which one deal more damage to a single target?
2. whcih one deal better aoe damage?
3. which one is better for pvp?
4. which one as more control over enemies? (not only the quantity but also the “quality” of those)
5. which one is better for support?
6. which one gives better mobility?
7. which one is more viable in fractal? (slash and dash…)

thank you.

1: Greatsword
2: Evenly matched
3: Depends what you want to do each have their strengths and weaknesses
4: Hammer
5: I’ll say Hammer due to the 3rd auto attack dropping a protection symbol plus you can CC enemies
6: Greatsword
7: Both are equal however I usually go Hammer

I’ll give more detailed answers if you let me know the specific kind of thing you’re looking to do.

1. GS, Approx 5% more if both are untraited
2. Hammer, especially traited which gives you 100% uptime on heavy aoe. But if you want to max aoe dps you should combine the both or use mace and hammer
3. Personal preference, i find hammer to be superior but its much more demanding and has a higher skillcap in pvp compared to gs which is more newbie friendly.

If i try to be objective
Tpvp = hammer and the reason for that is that ww and bb are like light houses in the animation so any skilled opponent can avoid them.
Spvp, much less skilled players and easier gameplay makes gs the best weapon.

4. Hammer hands down but once again you need to time it.
5. Hammer! Protection, retaliation, blast finisher on low cd, aoe root, aoe ward and ofc banish that is both a great cc and one hell of a life saver and life taker when stomping or protecting a downed mate.
6. GS is better at “macro” movement. Hammer with 2h mastery is extremely mobile in a micro perspective due to mighty blow low cd. GS is a better initiator and an also be used when escaping and moving faster out of combat.
7. Both are viable. Gs slightly better at single target fights and secondary aoe weapon, hammer rocks in aoe fights and ofc as support thru protection.

Not to be mean but stop comparing the two weapons, they actually do very different things when played correct and there is no hammer vs gs.

tanshiniza.8629:

1: Greatsword
2: Evenly matched
3: Depends what you want to do each have their strengths and weaknesses
4: Hammer
5: I’ll say Hammer due to the 3rd auto attack dropping a protection symbol plus you can CC enemies
6: Greatsword
7: Both are equal however I usually go Hammer

I’ll give more detailed answers if you let me know the specific kind of thing you’re looking to do.

this

also I think you could argue 1%2 in favor for Hammer if traited.

Asmodal.6489:

tanshiniza.8629:

1: Greatsword
2: Evenly matched
3: Depends what you want to do each have their strengths and weaknesses
4: Hammer
5: I’ll say Hammer due to the 3rd auto attack dropping a protection symbol plus you can CC enemies
6: Greatsword
7: Both are equal however I usually go Hammer

I’ll give more detailed answers if you let me know the specific kind of thing you’re looking to do.

this

also I think you could argue 1%2 in favor for Hammer if traited.

Thank you all for answers. I like to carry every avaiable weapon with me and to know when i can carry out the best from them… so i was asking about “when is better to use hammer over gs (and viceversa)?”

Also can you explain better of what “trait” for hammer are you talking about? 20% reduced CD? or the one for chill? Also spam hammer #2 with 4sec cd will not give you a good mobility since the range is 300 (… i don’t remember exactly but very low) and the animation last 3/4 sec… with swiftness you can cover 300 range in less than 3/4 sec.

Skip glacial heart, its rubbish.

Larger symbols for pvp and mobile mobs.
Longer lasting symbols for static bosses.

2h mastery for pvp/wvw.

Mb is the primary source for dps in pvp/wvw, the chain in most pve content.

Kjeldoran.3849:

Thank you all for answers. I like to carry every avaiable weapon with me and to know when i can carry out the best from them… so i was asking about “when is better to use hammer over gs (and viceversa)?”

Also can you explain better of what “trait” for hammer are you talking about? 20% reduced CD? or the one for chill? Also spam hammer #2 with 4sec cd will not give you a good mobility since the range is 300 (… i don’t remember exactly but very low) and the animation last 3/4 sec… with swiftness you can cover 300 range in less than 3/4 sec.

For traiting hammer he means go 20 into Honor and pick up Writ of Persistence (Symbols last longer) and Writ of Exaltation (Symbols are larger). There’s also Symbolic Exposure in the Zeal line (Symbols apply vulnerability to foes), but I don’t like going 15 into into Zeal. With writ of Persistence and some boon duration, you can keep perma protection up and do constant AoE dmg. 20% reduced CD for Two-Hand weapons is nice for GS, but situational for hammer. Like 95% of the time you will only be using you’re autoattack and skill #2 (has a low cooldown already) in PvE/Dungeons, so its not too useful there. In WvW or PvP, I could see bringing the Two-hand trait.

Lastly, the 300 gap closer is nice in combat, not so much out of combat because of aftercast. Note also the skill moves 300 but it also has a radius of 180.

Scizzor.8137:

Lastly, the 300 gap closer is nice in combat, not so much out of combat because of aftercast. Note also the skill moves 300 but it also has a radius of 180.

QFT

This is what i ment with mobility on the hammer. in combat mobility and the ability to move the damage over pretty large areas. Remember that MB also has an aoe which in reality makes it hit for about 500 in range and SoP also is ranged and can be placed on an other opponent than the one you are fighting.

And its as OP says (or almost) if you run and make mb you will travel just as fast as not using it and that is due to the animation in the beginning and the end of mb where you freeze. The thing is that you can actually cut some of the animation in the end of mbwith timing and skill but how that is done you need to figure out on your own. :-)