Guild Wars 2

The Hammer is said to be a balanced hybrid for both PvE and PvP for the Guardian. I would just like to toss an idea to say update only TWO of the weapon skills to make the hammer have more variety in battle then only using a limit of two to three weapon skills.

First is Zealot’s Embrace. Skill 3 that immobilizes enemies in a line. This is a solid ability for PvP yet I don’t see it being used as much in PvE, very few mobs run away in combat. Perhaps the damage it does could be removed and a condition would be added? Example would be a stack of Vulnerability (1-3).

Second is Ring of Warding. Skill 5 which creates a ring around you that enemies cannot cross and those trapped inside the ring cannot escape. This is an amazing skill in PvP, almost like you’re creating a personal arena, melee-wise, or for an enemy player to not escape. However in PvE I have seen very little use of it.. the most I have activated this ability for is to create a Ring of Warding and knockback a mob so it doesn’t go past the ring that way I don’t have to go and chase it wherever it was knocked back too. Another is if I have a dozen of melee-mobs chasing after me and I create a Ring of Warding as a barrier for those extra seconds of escape.

What could we do with Ring of Warding? Well, it is possible to add a condition to those who are caught inside the ring, such as a short Burning condition or Vulnerability, I say this because the Ring of Warding only lasts 5 seconds. Another thing that could be added would be a longer duration and/or the ring not only makes foes unable to cross, but also stops projectiles or even reflects them.

Let me know if anyone else fights with a Hammer who is a Guardian, please leave a response of what you think and if you agree with these ideas of changes.

All down for this. As a hammer guardian myself, I barely use Ring of Warding so this would be a welcome change.

Khorthall.1682:

The Hammer is said to be a balanced hybrid for both PvE and PvP for the Guardian. I would just like to toss an idea to say update only TWO of the weapon skills to make the hammer have more variety in battle then only using a limit of two to three weapon skills.

First is Zealot’s Embrace. Skill 3 that immobilizes enemies in a line. This is a solid ability for PvP yet I don’t see it being used as much in PvE, very few mobs run away in combat. Perhaps the damage it does could be removed and a condition would be added? Example would be a stack of Vulnerability (1-3).

Second is Ring of Warding. Skill 5 which creates a ring around you that enemies cannot cross and those trapped inside the ring cannot escape. This is an amazing skill in PvP, almost like you’re creating a personal arena, melee-wise, or for an enemy player to not escape. However in PvE I have seen very little use of it.. the most I have activated this ability for is to create a Ring of Warding and knockback a mob so it doesn’t go past the ring that way I don’t have to go and chase it wherever it was knocked back too. Another is if I have a dozen of melee-mobs chasing after me and I create a Ring of Warding as a barrier for those extra seconds of escape.

What could we do with Ring of Warding? Well, it is possible to add a condition to those who are caught inside the ring, such as a short Burning condition or Vulnerability, I say this because the Ring of Warding only lasts 5 seconds. Another thing that could be added would be a longer duration and/or the ring not only makes foes unable to cross, but also stops projectiles or even reflects them.

Let me know if anyone else fights with a Hammer who is a Guardian, please leave a response of what you think and if you agree with these ideas of changes.

I think Zealot’s Embrace is fine as it is, although I’d prefer it if the projectile actually travels faster.

If Ring of Warding made casteable while on the move or making it instant cast would make it optimum.

Kiijj.3594:

Khorthall.1682:

The Hammer is said to be a balanced hybrid for both PvE and PvP for the Guardian. I would just like to toss an idea to say update only TWO of the weapon skills to make the hammer have more variety in battle then only using a limit of two to three weapon skills.

First is Zealot’s Embrace. Skill 3 that immobilizes enemies in a line. This is a solid ability for PvP yet I don’t see it being used as much in PvE, very few mobs run away in combat. Perhaps the damage it does could be removed and a condition would be added? Example would be a stack of Vulnerability (1-3).

Second is Ring of Warding. Skill 5 which creates a ring around you that enemies cannot cross and those trapped inside the ring cannot escape. This is an amazing skill in PvP, almost like you’re creating a personal arena, melee-wise, or for an enemy player to not escape. However in PvE I have seen very little use of it.. the most I have activated this ability for is to create a Ring of Warding and knockback a mob so it doesn’t go past the ring that way I don’t have to go and chase it wherever it was knocked back too. Another is if I have a dozen of melee-mobs chasing after me and I create a Ring of Warding as a barrier for those extra seconds of escape.

What could we do with Ring of Warding? Well, it is possible to add a condition to those who are caught inside the ring, such as a short Burning condition or Vulnerability, I say this because the Ring of Warding only lasts 5 seconds. Another thing that could be added would be a longer duration and/or the ring not only makes foes unable to cross, but also stops projectiles or even reflects them.

Let me know if anyone else fights with a Hammer who is a Guardian, please leave a response of what you think and if you agree with these ideas of changes.

I think Zealot’s Embrace is fine as it is, although I’d prefer it if the projectile actually travels faster.

If Ring of Warding made casteable while on the move or making it instant cast would make it optimum.

I don’t want additonal things, I want fixes. Zealots Embrace is slow and misses a LOT. Ring of Warding is lol bad and almost anything can get out of it. Brb walking out, dodging out, teleporting out, stablitiying out, invurnrability out. The only time it works is in PvE vs trash mobs.

Zealots Embrace – Needs a change in animation (perhaps wider Aoe range) and more damage
Ring of Warding – Just needs fix’s or a tooltip that says everything can practically get out of it. Also, I do like the idea of an instant cast.

I love the hammer in pve because of mighty blow’s blast finisher + Fire combo fields can greatly increase the groups over all damage out put. sadly i rarely use skills 3-5 unless i need to buy time for shelter.

Zealots Embrace- Needs to be much wider or faster, and last twice as long.

Banish- I really like our underwater weapon abilities because they by themselves cause burning. So if we added a burn to banish that the combine damage of the intial hit and the subsiquent burn did the same amount of damage as mighty blow it would be a nice change up in our damage rotation. I love the sound of banish.

Ring O’ Warding- Main problem 40second CD that does no damage but people escape from to easy. My suggestion to fix it is as follows: Greatsword binding blade pulls targets to me Why not have Ring do the same, Not a super long range but at a range that if someone is running away from me w/o swiftness or increased movement speed they are pulled back towards me and KD down for the duration of the cast. Once in the ring it saps all of their endurance. Making it so they are unable to roll out right away. Even go as far to couple them with 1 second debuff that stops all endurance from regenerating.

Ring of warding is a skill on a 40 second Cooldown that is CC only no damage and is very easily escaped from. It should be a skill that should make any player wet themselves they they are stuck in not the red ring of death but THE BLUE RING OF MOMMY MAKE THE BAD GUARDIAN STOP SMASHING MY FACE IN! Ring of warding should be kind of like the warrior’s Charge to 100blades combo or Thief’s Backstab for 14k

I’m a hammer guardian as well (still unsure what to put as secondary weapons though). I have seen quite a few mobs in pve who try to escape, the moa for instance, or the bandits. Sometimes they flee when they are near death, and then I use Zealot’s embrace to finish them of without chasing them. Or in some events when I have to prevent trolls to flee with some goods, I use this skill so the people with me who are chasing them can catch them.

Your updates seem good though. I near never use ring of warding, but mostly because I always forget to ^^ And usually I hit all the enemies in aoe and I don’t need to prevent them to flee or prevent them to come. And 5 seconds is really short.

About Zealot’s, is this because the immobilize is very short ? Or does it break when the enemy takes damage? As often I see the enemy being able to flee again as soon as I have launched this…

If this is true this is as easy to get out the ring of warding, I think this is a bug and should be fixed, nobody should be able to get in and out even by dodging, this is not normal…

I started with hammer and turned to Mace/Focus because I was only using 1 and 2. Now with M/F every button is helping me a lot. Creative effects to RoG and ZE would give it some flavor, but as it’s now, I got bored of it.

I like the hammer because it is quite a heavy AOE weapon, and usually I’m surrounded with enemies… Seems they don’t like me ^^

And the 33% damage reduction from the hammer chain is neat…

Yeah, I play a guardian, got bored of it in the 40s. I do like hammer #2 and #4 but #3 and #5 could be improved.

1. should inflict 5 stacks of vulnerability to foes in a line, and #5 should inflict weakness for 5s orso.

It would be really cool and more usable if 5 would be insta cast (like Focus 5), so you can be hitting stuff and cast it without interrupting you chains. I’m sure many people would be using it then because it no longer lowers your dps and hey, maybe being there would be useful. Plus if an opponent knocks you back, you can pop it so you have time to get up before he runs over your knocked body again. It would be cool also to combo it with Vanish, as you could place the cage during Vanish animation and stop the opponent fly, leaving him at your feet to smash more instead of having to run after him (that’s the reason I don’t use 4 in PvE, because I have to chase the opponent after it, this way I would be using 4 and 5 a lot).

I totally agree and hope that Anet is aware of this along wi the useless Zeal-traitline.
They could make Hammer the zeal line, lower the CD til 25-30 on RoW and make it instant. Fix issue with player being able to jump over the lines.. It is just lame tbh.

All in all they should just take a deep look on all weapon set.. i am not saying they all suck, but most of them (for every prof) could use some fixes. Also going back and forth between my guardian and thief.. Just really miss the initiativ point system on my guardian, gives a certain amount of freedom.. So if you screw up, you do not have to wait xx sec, unless u spam.. But why spam..

Getting some great comments here and such so I’m going to give this a bump, the Hammer is a great AoE weapon and the Protection chain is wonderful, especially to help it boon up your fellow melee players.

I would say that Zealot’s Embrace would be nice if it was wider, perhaps it could be a small cone of immobilizing chains with just a shorter distance? In my opinion, I would either want increased damage or remove it and just give us a vulnerability or even a crippling condition, better to immobilize him for those few seconds only to be able to catch up to your opponent no?

As for Ring of Warding, that is the main problem.. it’s such a long cooldown to only use a skill that does no damage, lasts for just 5 seconds and from what all the rest of the comments have been saying, easy to escape. What is the point of laying down Ring of Warding with you being lucky enough to catch someone inside of it only for him to dodge out of it?

I know there is a fine line with fixing this skill but to not make it too OP but there is a lot Anet can do with it, perhaps those who cross the line, dodge / walk / teleport / etc, get crippled or suffer burning. Well then they would just stay in the circle? Exactly, enough for us to start smashing and crushing them into the dirt. Even 3 extra seconds added to its duration would be a help, make it an instant cast, able to move while casting it, reduce it’s CD, anything really.

Anyway, I would like more comments!! The more we get the more Arenanet will see this and that gives us a possibility for them changing it to something we can enjoy, let’s bring the Hammer back to Guardians!!

I love the Hammer. With a bit of practice, aiming Zealot’s Embrace to be effective becomes a lot less of an issue. I do disagree about Ring of Warding not being useful in PvE though. It works much like Line of Warding does but with 2 lines instead of one. It helps when fighting Subject Alpha and containing the Alpha Globs that try to heal him, it helps when you want to smack up some more Grawl at the end of the first event in the Volcanic Fractal, and combined with Wall of Reflection it pretty much makes anything ranged or melee unable to hit you (with some exceptions). I just wish that the Ward type would be put away and just make them Consecrations like they pretty much act like.

One last bump for this!

Henrik.7560:

1. should inflict weakness for 5s orso.

I agree with this. SO many times I trap someone in the ring and they beat the living crap out of me.

Hammer Guardian here. I’m saving up for Juggernaut, so I’m pretty dedicated to the weapon. I personally use #5 (Ring of Warding) to trap a single enemy so I can pound him with #4 (Banish) without him going so far I have to chase him. Doesn’t everyone do this? Therefore, I get the KD I want so I can continue pounding him with #1 chain + #2 finisher. I don’t use #3 very often though. I wouldn’t care if that was completely changed.

Edit: If Ring of Warding was updated to an insta-cast or some such, that would definitely would be cool.

I wish hammer #3 worked like GS #5, you send out the immobilize in a line, and then you can press the skill again to knock down anyone who you hit, seems like it would be fun

Hammer 5 needs a cast time so it can be used in conjunction with JI. Making it instacast would ruin that synergy. If you are using Hammer, then JI should be on your utility bar to get the most out of it.

Also, I don’t think anyone mentioned that with Hammer 5 and 2 you can apply area retaliation very quickly and easily (which is kind of nice).

Oozo.7856:

Hammer 5 needs a cast time so it can be used in conjunction with JI. Making it instacast would ruin that synergy. If you are using Hammer, then JI should be on your utility bar to get the most out of it.

Also, I don’t think anyone mentioned that with Hammer 5 and 2 you can apply area retaliation very quickly and easily (which is kind of nice).

Yes, I use Hammer with Judge’s Intervention. I don’t really have any complaints about the skills, but the usefulness could be improved slightly? I don’t know. Oh well.

Oozo.7856:

Hammer 5 needs a cast time so it can be used in conjunction with JI. Making it instacast would ruin that synergy. If you are using Hammer, then JI should be on your utility bar to get the most out of it.

Where the strategy will be ruined?

now you use ROW and then JI.
If ROW become istancast, you can use JI and then ROW. OK, there is little possibility that the enemy can dodge away, but with an instacast, ROW can be more usefull through the whole combat, and not only when used with JI.

But its a matter of taste, i just will be happy if the enemy cant dodge out the ring.

I really like the idea of the Hammer 3rd skill working like the GS chains, being able to pull the enemy. It will be good to tank some foes hitting a weak party member or “protect this NPC” event without needing to take a GS.

Ganzo.5079:

Oozo.7856:

Hammer 5 needs a cast time so it can be used in conjunction with JI. Making it instacast would ruin that synergy. If you are using Hammer, then JI should be on your utility bar to get the most out of it.

Where the strategy will be ruined?

now you use ROW and then JI.
If ROW become istancast, you can use JI and then ROW. OK, there is little possibility that the enemy can dodge away, but with an instacast, ROW can be more usefull through the whole combat, and not only when used with JI.

But its a matter of taste, i just will be happy if the enemy cant dodge out the ring.

THIS.

You don’t lose any syergy at all. In fact it’s even better as you don’t need to time it, and a ranged foe can interrupt your ROW before you jup with JI.

It makes life much much better, and it gives a reason to use it regularly in PvE (even in the ROW+Banish combo, the time casting both isn’t worth it and lowers your dps).