Guild Wars 2

Hello… I know about the burning Crit Hammer build… but I was wondering if the changes I have applied here work.
This is my Alt, so I’ve spent far less time with the Guardian, though I think they are very fun to play.

http://www.gw2builds.org/create/bwe_1/guardian#1.0.8.0-3.17.18.16.3-30.20.0.20.0-2.11.10.10.1.11.8

Does this look too kittened, since I lose 10 points in Radiance to pick up the 10 points in Zeal for the Spirit Weapons?

My other method would be to drop the points in Zeal, add them to Radiance, and use Signets (which I’m doing currently).

I’m not sure I enjoy the Spirit Weapons yet… but it seems like once I get it down, it could be very fun to play. I’m looking to be a DPS and CC in dungeons, not healing support or tanking.

Spirit weapons are nice at lower levels, not quite as useful higher levels though, in my opinion. But I’d think most crit hammer builds go for Altruistic Healing instead, because the symbols, vigorous precision, and empowered might synergize very well. with it.

On a related note, that builder is outdated, You might want to look for a newer one.

Yeah thanks, after I posted I found the one everyone else is using: http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/

I spent some time with that editor last night, and it looks like if you want to be really good with the hammer or with spirit weapons, you literally need to choose one OR the other. Trying to maximize the use of both looks like it kittens both.

Thanks for the input!

You say dungeons so I assume this is a PvE build.

I should note that you pretty much always want 30 in Valor for guardians. AH is a massive spike in survivability and you also get the +30% crit damage, which is a massive boost in damage overall.

As for hammer, the only trait you actually need to make it useful is Writ of Persistence. The rest don’t really matter. You don’t need to improve the cooldown since hammer is just auto-attacking anyway (contrary to what people will tell you, Mighty Blow doesn’t actually hit any harder than just auto-attacking). This puts you at 30 in Valor, 20 in Honor, so you have 20 points to spend. If you want to use spirit weapons (although I don’t recommend it) you can put 20 in Zeal to get Spirit Weapon Mastery and Eternal Spirit. You don’t need Wrathful Spirits since spirit weapons don’t really do any damage anyway.

I should note, however, that if you want to be DPS, you shouldn’t be using a hammer at all. Based on the revised math I’ve done (which is admittedly incomplete at the moment) the hammer is actually the weakest weapon the guardian has DPS-wise. It’s only good for the area protection and snares, if you ever actually need them for some reason. If you’re already running 20/0/30/20/0 you are pretty flexible about which weapons you can take, so you might as well take a greatsword or scepter.

Guanglai Kangyi.4318:

You say dungeons so I assume this is a PvE build.

I should note that you pretty much always want 30 in Valor for guardians. AH is a massive spike in survivability and you also get the +30% crit damage, which is a massive boost in damage overall.

As for hammer, the only trait you actually need to make it useful is Writ of Persistence. The rest don’t really matter. You don’t need to improve the cooldown since hammer is just auto-attacking anyway (contrary to what people will tell you, Mighty Blow doesn’t actually hit any harder than just auto-attacking). This puts you at 30 in Valor, 20 in Honor, so you have 20 points to spend. If you want to use spirit weapons (although I don’t recommend it) you can put 20 in Zeal to get Spirit Weapon Mastery and Eternal Spirit. You don’t need Wrathful Spirits since spirit weapons don’t really do any damage anyway.

I should note, however, that if you want to be DPS, you shouldn’t be using a hammer at all. Based on the revised math I’ve done (which is admittedly incomplete at the moment) the hammer is actually the weakest weapon the guardian has DPS-wise. It’s only good for the area protection and snares, if you ever actually need them for some reason. If you’re already running 20/0/30/20/0 you are pretty flexible about which weapons you can take, so you might as well take a greatsword or scepter.

Maybe not in single target damage, but Hammer is extremely good at AoE damage especially if you take both writs. Mighty blow tends to help more in situations where you can’t just facetank everything: After a dodge (or getting knocked back, initiating a fight, etc), using a mighty blow to get back in range offers more dps then just running or dodging back in (And of course triggering combo finishers). Not to mention that in a more practical sense, being able to stand head on against the enemy longer means more damage as well, and with AH and the symbol of protection it gives one quite a bit of leeway in the way of healing and damage mitigation. In short, Hammer is more survivable than GS, and possibly work better in situations where AoE is required or preferred.

Notably, because Hammer is naturally AoE-inclined and doesn’t need to use cooldown skills in it’s damage rotation, it means that hammer is always prepared to take on added spawns, unlike GS which the AoE both has non-negligible cooldown and frequently is required in the DPS rotation.

I personally find Hammer/sceptre to be a very good combination: Sceptre offers ranged and concentrated single target damage (I offhand focus for more sceptre survivability), hammer offers AoE and melee survivability, though admittedly I haven’t done too many dungeons yet to give a fair assessment.

Guanglai Kangyi.4318:

You say dungeons so I assume this is a PvE build.

I should note that you pretty much always want 30 in Valor for guardians. AH is a massive spike in survivability and you also get the +30% crit damage, which is a massive boost in damage overall.

As for hammer, the only trait you actually need to make it useful is Writ of Persistence. The rest don’t really matter. You don’t need to improve the cooldown since hammer is just auto-attacking anyway (contrary to what people will tell you, Mighty Blow doesn’t actually hit any harder than just auto-attacking). This puts you at 30 in Valor, 20 in Honor, so you have 20 points to spend. If you want to use spirit weapons (although I don’t recommend it) you can put 20 in Zeal to get Spirit Weapon Mastery and Eternal Spirit. You don’t need Wrathful Spirits since spirit weapons don’t really do any damage anyway.

I should note, however, that if you want to be DPS, you shouldn’t be using a hammer at all. Based on the revised math I’ve done (which is admittedly incomplete at the moment) the hammer is actually the weakest weapon the guardian has DPS-wise. It’s only good for the area protection and snares, if you ever actually need them for some reason. If you’re already running 20/0/30/20/0 you are pretty flexible about which weapons you can take, so you might as well take a greatsword or scepter.

I don’t agree. MB on hammer is a hard hit. I run 20/0/30/20/0 build GS/Hammer, and I always hit with hammer MB 4k+ minimum, my hardest hit so far with MB was 6.8k, I never did that damage with GS. I use Hammer CC AoE and GS/hammer for single target fights. It’s always awesome when they get scare with a MB hit…

what would be a good alt weapon set to go with a hammer offensive build?

rchu.8945:

what would be a good alt weapon set to go with a hammer offensive build?

sword and board or sword focus.

In WvW go with staff for mobility