Guild Wars 2

cool…will try this tonight.

@ Coldheart – i’ve been using hammer for a while not, during early levels as well, so this crithammer build was not available to me yet but i still thoroughly enjoyed it. i usually played in a pair, and or solo while leveling and it served me well enough. slowly work towards in. though in the beginning and especially in PvE, i ran with 15 in radiance as early as i could, along with 5 in virtues for the spammable Virtue of Justice. some people still choose to keep it in their AH builds as well.

in terms of Power build, i personally feel the traits in the power line are slightly lack luster. there certainly is a build for it and power is always useful. however, the traits in valor and especially honor carry more synergy for the way i want to be able to play. perhaps someone with more experience with a power build would be able to comment more.

@ Lagonazer – good observation. they are quite different. although, Brutaly mentioned as well his timing was slightly off due to the lag so we can wait for his response as well. to note, in regards to animation skipping, i guess there is not JUST one way. the way i do it is closer to what Brutaly showcased in his video. i’m going to try what Trung displayed though. of course, to point out i don’t dodge in between every 2nd and 3rd hit. sometimes i’ll dodge after the third hit, or sometimes i won’t dodge at all and throw in a #3 or #4 if the situation calls for it. but it’s good knowing there are variou ways we can use this to our advantage.

@ Trung – very cool. thanks for the explanation. so the key for me would be to hit 1 during the roll. i often wait until near the end of the roll which doesn’t cancel as much as you’ve shown.

and that’s very key regarding avoiding interupt! espcially if going against people who know the animation and charge ups well. thanks again for this! using dodges wisely and timely can make all the difference in your gameplay. it does take practice though, so keep at it folk! i’m still trying to master this myself.

My Crithammer animation skipping method is the same as Brutaly. Last night, I tried Trungalung and found my third chain to activate faster and frankly speaking, I find this method more to my liking. So, does this mean that 2 handed mastery has lost its luster in the DPS aspect of this build since I am no longer able to use MB in every rotation?

On a separate note, I am currently on 0/5/30/30/5 and using WoE, EP and 2HM. I don’t use shout much because I am mostly running on Signet of Judgement, Judge’s Intervention and Stand Your Ground. As such, is it advisable if I replace my 2HM for Superior Aria nonetheless? I only play PvE for now and am gearing up before trying out my first WvW and dungeons, so I would like some pointers on a versatile build that I can bring to everywhere.

When i checked the forums and saw Trungaung´s gif image i got a bit worried and there for i made the decision to post the video. Why i got worried, well it was like opening up Pandoras box by just taking a peak.

My hope was that my clip would remove some attention from the gif but after he posted the animationtimes the box was suddenly wide open and people started to ask questions. Hence i also pm:ed him and asked him to post the whole “story”.

The reason why i didnt mention anything in the guide regarding this is that frankly im terrified using it, it actually makes it possible to place “double” symbols.

When i tested this the first time i actually got a feeling that its exploiting, not saying it is, hence i left it out all together from the guide and also why im not using it, except “by mistake”. And its also kind of difficult to do it manually which also leads me to believe that this is an unwanted mechanic.

Well now its all out there so people can judge for themselves and it might be for the better to have an open discussion about it.

If we look at the chain its pretty clear that the gain from using 3rd party macros isnt there and i think this is a good thing but if this is a legit move then macros would be very powerful indeed, 100% timing on the dodge would have a huge impact on gameplay and even more if you have a logitech soft-/hardware, or similar, that can handle scripts which is very difficult to detect as well.

@Akamon
No you aint doing it wrong, read above. To me it feels a bit fishy so i left it out of the guide.

@Lagonazer
Its two different things, one adds huge amount of dps and one adds survivability which allows you to use more offensive setups and gain a bit of dps.

It might have been a mistake to leave this out of the guide and frankly its probably better to have a discussion about it then trying to hide it.

Is it legit, if so, i will add it to the guide and also start using it on purpose and not just by mistake.

@Carlos – that’s a very good observation. did you try Trung’s method and did it really significantly cut back on the timing? i thought of this as well during lunch.. if we are able to cut short the chain by that much, like you said, even with 2HM, we wouldn’t be able to pull a MB every rotation. i personally love using MB, so i might keep it, but i’m open to giving it a shot and try something else. if you prefer the shortened chain attacks, then i’d say go for it. and i wouldn’t say SA is the only trait you could choose though, since you’re only using one shout at the moment. there’s also longer lasting symbols and/or healing symbols to choose from. i’d say any of those would be quite beneficial in dungeons.

i’m running the same as you 0/5/30/30/5, WoE, 2HM and either EM or healing symbols depending on the situation. so far i’ve performed quite well in dungeons using this, as well as WvW! scepter and focus/shield as my second set usually. sometimes staff as second set in WvW.

however, i am shout heavy so i am considering using SA so debating which trait i’d want to switch out to try. i might take out healing symbols/EM for that. but we shall see! and remember, as long as not in combat, you can always switch up your major traits as well.

@Brutaly – whew. good lol and thanks for clearing that up. that’s very interesting. i’ve neverexperienced “double symbols” before though but will see what others think as well.

though, on “bugs”, there are times when i hit MB, i actually see the animation twice! as in my Guard does two jumps successively. not sure if that’s just an animation issue because it was hard to tell from all the numbers popping up to see if it in fact hits twice. it happens randomly too so i might have to rememer to check combat log next time. has anyone else experienced this before?

I cant imagine any sort of technique to skip animations is not a bug of some sort. I remember reading a developers post about how the damage for different weapons is delivered at various keyframes in the animation, in other words the animation itself determines when and how fast a weapon hits. Since all of the weapon/skill balancing must have taken into account the different animation lengths and times what this technique does, if I understand it correctly, is make a weapon attack/cause effects more frequently than it was designed to. I wouldn’t have a go at anyone using it because its obviously not an easy thing to master and it was very clever to discover its effectiveness in the first place but I would definitely expect it to get fixed at some point.

Not saying its practically possible, haven tried it personally, since there might be an internal cd on SoP.

My point was that the trick kind of bend the rules for how the chain is used.

Im not using it since i think its an exploit but it would be very cool if its intended.

Brutaly.6257:

When i checked the forums and saw Trungaung´s gif image i got a bit worried and there for i made the decision to post the video. Why i got worried, well it was like opening up Pandoras box by just taking a peak.

My hope was that my clip would remove some attention from the gif but after he posted the animationtimes the box was suddenly wide open and people started to ask questions. Hence i also pm:ed him and asked him to post the whole “story”.

The reason why i didnt mention anything in the guide regarding this is that frankly im terrified using it, it actually makes it possible to place “double” symbols.

When i tested this the first time i actually got a feeling that its exploiting, not saying it is, hence i left it out all together from the guide and also why im not using it, except “by mistake”. And its also kind of difficult to do it manually which also leads me to believe that this is an unwanted mechanic.

Well now its all out there so people can judge for themselves and it might be for the better to have an open discussion about it.

If we look at the chain its pretty clear that the gain from using 3rd party macros isnt there and i think this is a good thing but if this is a legit move then macros would be very powerful indeed, 100% timing on the dodge would have a huge impact on gameplay and even more if you have a logitech soft-/hardware, or similar, that can handle scripts which is very difficult to detect as well.

@Akamon
No you aint doing it wrong, read above. To me it feels a bit fishy so i left it out of the guide.

@Lagonazer
Its two different things, one adds huge amount of dps and one adds survivability which allows you to use more offensive setups and gain a bit of dps.

It might have been a mistake to leave this out of the guide and frankly its probably better to have a discussion about it then trying to hide it.

Is it legit, if so, i will add it to the guide and also start using it on purpose and not just by mistake.

I have always thought the animation skipping you mentioned was that one until I realize in your video that it’s different. This move is EXTREMELY powerful. With the 40% endurance food, you’ll be able to do this almost every chain attacks. This is also partially the cause of the whole Writ of Persistence vs Two-Handed Mastery debate I had with you.

I also want to mention this. One way to nerf this move is to actually remove the ability to resume your chain after a dodge. To do that, Anet has to remove that ability from every single chain skills in the game. Or else, it will create a gimmicky that only a guardian’s hammer is unable to resume its chain attack. Yes, this move also works on other weapon such as the mace for guardian. It benefits hammer more since we have permanent vigor and our 3rd hit applies SoP.

I actually want Anet keep this. This has been my favorite move since the hammer is pretty boring for DPS. This also separates a good hammer DPS guardian vs a bad one. It gives you options: spend endurance to increase damage or save it to increase survivability.

Also, I want to confirm that double symbol cannot be done. Tested this in the mist. The first symbol will disappear if the 2nd one is placed. So pretty much you will want to do: animation skip > normal chain > animation skip > repeat or animation skip > MB > animation skip > normal chain.

Now, it’s also giving me idea of going healer mode with mace since you also heal every time you dodge then finish the 3rd hit for the mace heal.

Edit: this move now downgrades Writ of Persistence. You will lose one tick of SoP if you use this move back to back thus canceling WoP’s effect. If you don’t have WoP, you can use it every chain without losing anything.

Why cant i quote, is there a trick to get the choice to edit and quote??

@Trungalung
Yeah then we are on the same page regarding our earlier discussions. My perspective is/was that it was an exploit so i didnt incorporate your type of skipping in the varables.

yeah it would be very nice indeed if it is a feature and since its purely skillbased and difficult to pull off.

The main issue is that it would benefit script/macrousers which in fact removes the need to have timing and skill. This is my major gripe since i suspect now when its “known” people will make the shortcut thru third party software and remove/reduce the skill required.

Then there is some sort of cd on SoP, i dont play with increased duration on symbols so i didnt test that when i found out how to do this.

People should be cautious though so the banhammer dont smack them over their head.

What do you think, you used it the most, do you see it as legit based on the reasoning in this thread?

Here’s my own personal opinion on this move.

What you need to watch out for using this move?

- Do you have enough endurance to dodge (or double dodge) the next fatal attack or will your endurance regenerate fast enough for that attack?
- Is your target in range for the 2nd hit (the 2nd hit is very crucial since it’s the activation)?
- Are you afflicted by the blind condition (miss attack will totally throw you off on the whole move)?
- Does the target have aegis boon on? (Questionable: will aegis stop your chain attack, or the chain still happens but there’s no damage)
- In PvP, will the target go in the opposite direction of your dodge? (this will allow the target to actually increase the distance)
- Can you see through the countless effect on your screen to time the dodge perfectly with the 2nd hit?

Those are the reasons on why having script/macroes will not be even close on optimizing this move. Example: Hacker hits the macroes, but the mob suddenly goes to the opposite direction. Hacker misses his 2nd hit. The script goes on as if the 2nd hit lands on the target and proceed to dodge. Hacker now has his whole move ruined.

With this move, it will add so much depths. Endurance will now acts as a resource to increase your damage, not just your survivability.

Even if Anet wants to fix this, it’s not an easy fix. This move is tied with the whole animation system for guild wars 2 (other classes can use it too). Plus it has no effect in the macro game for PvE (at most, it will increase your speed in dungeons by a little bit) and PvP (this move is good for quickly applying the damage and protection and avoid the interruption at the cost of endurance which will open yourself up for the enemies’ attacks. You also have to watch your conditions, enemies’ boons, and endurance to pull it off).

I myself see this as a legit move due to its skill level to pull off. It has no effect in the macro game unlike the bans from exploiting items which result in worse economy.

I see your point but regarding macros and scripts i find you only half correct..

If you use a macro you would make a macro for all steps, three chains and one dodge, four steps on one push. In this scenario i find you to be 100% right, the performance would be higher if you did it manually.

But if you use scripts you would have to push the button 3 times and in the second “buttonpush” you have a script that applies the second step and a perfectly timed dodge in one push.

In my experience, based purely on dummy tests a couple of weeks back, you dont have time to cancel the dodge even if you miss the second step of the chain.

So basically if you miss the seconds step you will still dodge and consume endurance.
Regarding direction of the dodge nothing differs between a manual application of the stunt or a scripted one.

But it might be my inexperience.

Sure if its not legit then changing it would/could be really complex but on the othe hand imo its mace and hammer that benefits most from it, the other weapons have no reason at all to do this, due to the length of the third step animation.

If they want to fix it, just keep the mechanics as they are and shorten the animation of the third step so total chainlength of the hammer is about 2.1 seconds and the symbol applies 1.5 s protection and two ticks of damage. then the benefit of this would be marginal, or am i mixing things up now?

The key is the second hit. You have to land it to activate the 3rd hit. If he use the script on his second hit and it misses (due to out of range or blind), he will dodge but his 3rd hit is not activate yet. This will result in him having to walk back to the target to reapply the 2nd hit. I will predict that he will swing a few time into the air and hit nothing (unlike 2nd hit, the 3rd one doesn’t need to be in range of the target).

If they do decide to shorten the animation, that will be a buff across the board to the class but a nerd to the elites that mastered this technique.

I know that the second hit is the key but my point was that to make a perfect skip you need to pull the dodge within a 10th of a second from the second step hits. My point was that the reactiontime and actiontime is very short and i doubt most people even CAN abort the dodge if they miss.

They can ofc if they sense that the seconds step was a mistake, which prolong the reaction time, and then they can abort. but so can the scriptuser, you can infact write scripts that overwrite other scripts.

With the last part i do agree and this is true to the hammer in general, its a weapon that reward people that can play and this is also true for for all forms of skipping.

Well its up to each and everyone to chose if they want to do this, i will stay away from it until im certain its legit.

sorry to nudge in on your technical discussion( i have no clue what was discussed on the few posts before this :P) but after reading your guide i feel like starting a guardian so my question is simple, does your build work for levelling? or should i go some other path then change to AH when i get to 60 ?

it works for leveling, first 5 points in virtues and the following 15 points in radiance. Both inspired virtues and and renewed justice are excellent traits for leveling, especially renewed justice which is great in open world pve.

Back again in Hammer world!

Brutaly, i finished my studies about Rune of Vampirism, and other leech effect.

While nice, Rune of Vampirism are not worth it. The chance is really low, and in a normal combat it is very difficult to see it proc, and then it heals about 300 hp

Sigil of Blood + Omnomberry Pies are definitively worth it in PvE. I think they’re not useful in PvP because of the fewer actual hits and crits inflicted.

To add some random thought, i am an avid PvE player, and i used this build to approach tPvP. Contrary to the belief, this build makes resisting 1v1 possible even against hard hitters/griefers (thieves, warriors), and actually win against easier targets.

Sadly, even with all the skill of the world, we are going down to a good necro or mesmer (too many conditions to purge).

Thanks for the useful addition to the guide and keep going, Brutaly!

And… sticky sticky sticky!

Fabsm.5897:

And… sticky sticky sticky!

not much to say lol

@Brutaly

thanks for the quick reply, thats awesome to know.Time to make a new guardian

I changed my mind and will add it to the guide.

The reason why i changed my mind is, based on me recalling something from bwe3 so i might remember incorrectly, that we back then did some stunts with the hammer and we used the autoattack for that.

This recollection made me download a couple of clips from my network server and when i studied those i saw that i played with autoattack a couple of games, which i never do normally.

This made me realize that Trungalunga also used autoattack on the gif/clip which leads me to the conclusion that all you have to do is dodge sideways when the second step hit and the autoattack will trigger the third step if you are in range.

So basically ArenaNet has already a macro in place for this so instead of starting the macro on your logitech the autoattack starts it for you and all you have to do is time the dodge and see to it that you land in range for the third hit.

So instead of timing the skills you let the game time it for you and you just focus on the dodge.

For the “pro player” you can still do it manually by pressing 1+1+dodge+1 and the “noob” just presses dodge.

Will add it tonight after i checked the above, but im 99% certain i got it down right, and also add the clips of both “styles”.

@Trungalung
You get the honor to name “your” skip, what should i call it?

HM…to name it? I’ll go with something catchy and stupid like…the “ninja” step/skip. When you skip the animation, it’s as if your guardian disappear then reappear (the lag) like a kittening ninja. The stupid and catchy name is also easier to remember and contagious.

I’ve been “practicing” this skipping sequence for a couple days now I’m starting to get a bit frustrated because I cannot seem to get any consistency with it. I followed Trungalung’s method of 1, 1, soon as second hit goes off I dodge (binded dodge key not double tapping direction button) and then 1 right after I dodge.

Most times, the actual dodge is cancelled by the third attack or its animation is skipped and most times the animation for the third attack then begins full. Ive tried timing to when just as the bar for the second hit disapears and the third is about to begin (using auto attack) and also dodging as soon as I see the numbers from the second hit and it still doesn’t seem to work correctly for me. It appears to be random because using this method I rarely sometimes will see it work the way you guys have demonstrated but it is highly inconsistent.

So, just to confirm and maybe I just need to keep practicing its as follows:

Manual: 1, 1, (soon as second in the chain hits) dodge, (then immediately after the dodge) 1 again.

Auto: 1 (wait for second in chain to hit) dodge and if in range still the 3 chain should auto…

Maybe the key here is making sure you are still in range for the third hit not sure but that can be more manuevering like you have to be off to the side in range say on the right of you enemy then dodge roll left and maybe immediatly hit strafe right to stay in range? I dunno I tried to emulate what you guys did in the video but its simply not working for me.

Use the autoattack at the dummies in lions arch. Then you can just practice to get the hang of the dodging first and then you add in manually pressing the steps of the chain.

Came home from work a couple of hours ago and tested it out and i was correct in my previous post. Go for auto as a starter.

Added to the guide:
22. Animations skipping, Ninjaskipping and Evasive Skipping

animation skipping in dungeons is great, because it allows you to use evade for heal, without rolling all over the place

great discussion guys. that’s what i love about this thread))

@Trung and Brutaly. ahh, now your previous convos make sense, regarding WoP and 2HM. since we were talking about different “animation skipping”. and interesting you brought up auto-attacking again, Brutaly. i’ll give it a shot again tonight and see if it makes a diff dodging to the side while using auto-attack, because you are in closer range as opposed to dodging backwards. i’d assuming dodging into your enemy would work as well.

i tested a bit last night but couldn’t get the 3rd hit animation to skip. namely the third hit would start at full, and i’d be getting the other animation skipping. which shaves time, but not as much obviously.

this CAN be extremely powerful, although it does take a lot of practicing. although it offers more flexibility if this was “intended” or will remain in-game, since i too believe it won’t be an easy fix if should one be needed. this also gives people a chance to not use 2HM if they have other traits they prefer but felt they needed it to pull the MB combo every chain. we’ll see how this pans out. but fo rnow, thanks for sharing!

@Fabsm! thanks for sharing your results. so you didn’t feel the vampirism runes were that effective? i might give it a shot still when i can, just to see the effects. i’d agree though it’d be more useful in PvE settings. i use this eact same build for PvE, dungeons as well as WvW and it’s worked wonders for me in WvW as well. i’ve been in situations where i’ve been able to take some players out while on the run (i always accidentally run into enemies mini-zergs O____o) or taken out 2, 3 man ambushes. and i don’t even consider myself a good player. this, to a certian extent, goes to show the power of the build. and i’m going to keep practicing! i’ve yet to take on a good thief though so we’ll see how that goes ; ))) but yes, condition dmg is the worst lol

@kitai – grats and welcome!D always feel free to PM any of us on here or just stop by this thread. lot of avid hammer users and Guardian lovers here. am sure you’ll enjoy it!

I’m trying out a new build 10/0/30/25/5. Since WoP no longer gives the damage boost, I’ll drop 5 points in Honor and 5 in Virtue to get Fiery Wrath. I decide to keep Elusive Power due to the fact that I will be constantly at 50% endurance (5% damage) which is quite not bad for 5 points. I will be running 40% endurance food to test out the dodge on might. I will lose the versatility of the build by losing a lot of options from the honor major grandmaster trait.

Sounds really interesting, would/could be very nice with pre/vit/heal gear, the added damage boost might be great for a crit/heal build.

Please be so kind to keep us informed on that one, if you find it competitive with the other builds i will add that traitsdistribution to the guide..

@Trung. Be curious onhow that works out. Personally, I have a very hard time giving up 15 Points in Radiance. Not for the Crit, but for the Virtue of Justice renewal. That thing is pretty clutch in groups with AH and Inspired Virtue. Can chain those for a lot of extra damage and Heals if I’m lucky

Also, Grats on Sticky

GZ brutaly for the stiky

Thank you for your guide.

Can you check your links (skill editor) they are not working.

@exphryl

I’ve gotten used to not having Renewed Justice by running 0/0/30/30/10. The build I posted above was more of a damage build by gaining 10% damage and 100 power.

@Brutaly
I incorporate the ninja skip further into the rotation with 40% endurance regeneration food. Right now, my rotation currently is: ninja skip > MB > ninja skip > ninja skip > MB > normal chain (resting period). This is quite dangerous since you will have a moment with not enough endurance for a dodge (double skips), but it only takes you 1 second to get that endurance back.

On another note, the food also gives one might on dodge that last 5 seconds. I average two dodges per 5 seconds. So that’s 2 mights + sefless daring heals x 2 every 5 seconds. My selfless daring heals for about 600-700 or so with 6 pcs of magi gears so 1200-1400 every 5 seconds to the group.

Oh, and gratz on the sticky.

brutality, can you pls repost your builds. it does not seem to be showing the trait skills chosen. thanks.

http://www.gw2db.com/skills/calc/guardian#
gw2 db calculator as an option.

thanks again.

@Mundoin and Majiin
There is a reason for that. The guide isnt about a single build its about a type of gameplay and the builds are just there as recommended distributions of points in combination with the gear and traits mentioned in the guide.

If every build possible, outlined in the traits section, was displayed there would be like 50 builds.

So go to the traits section and find out what traits you want/need to support your gameplay and then check the builds to see if they fit your choices.

The builds are displayed as intended.

@Trunga
Will try to get some “room” in the guide and add some of that, thx for sharing.

Clarified the builds chapter that individual major traits isn’t included in the builds and the reason for not including them.

hey brutal, understood on the traiting.

i got tough/power/vital set with soldier but always used sh/ma and sw/foc. i was thinking of swapping in hammer with this guide, possibly knight hammer or the hotw hammer. i play mainly tank or “meat shield”

that said, utility skills are normally, SY, WoR and SoJ. this would seem to be consistent still with your guide.

however, on the traits, it is not clear to me the benefit of Retributive Armor. my crits% is pretty low, close to 5-6%. RA would bring this up to about 10%. honorable shield makes sense but it goes against the hammer spec.

if i go 30honor, then choice would be BP or PoV.

my “on paper in WvWvW” playstyle w/ hammer would be a melee train with warriors/thieves. i never had knight’s armor so i assume knights armor brings this up to your acceptable level of 40-60% crit. i am worried that the low toughness with knights wouldnt even allow me to play upfront.

ok. sorry regarding my last statement, i was looking at the gw2 builder and it showed knight armor as power/prec/vitality when the crafted gear is actually power/prec/toughness.

so i would have higher toughness but with alot less vitality…so the question remains, would this spec allow to play upfront or or is it recommended to use vitality trinkets?

@exphryl – i used to live by renewed justice. it truly does work great in PvE. however, i took the dive and went 0/5/30/30/5 and debating trying 0/0/30/30/10 just for a test. i thought i wouldn’t be able to give it up, but it’s actually been working out great so far and i feel the choices i have in the honor line outweight the benefits from the radiance 15. i’d say give it a shot, in the mists perhaps and see how it works for you. my reasoning was that mainly for dungeons or WvW, i don’t kill fast enough to make the best use of that trait.

@Majina – i am currently only running rare full knight’s armour, and then my trinkets are only MF ones (i.e. no toughness nor vitality). even then, this build works really well. for this build, toughness really helps mitigate a lot of the melee dmg we recive and we ARE always on the front line pushing it. at the same time, with a not giant HP pool, the healing in that sense is more effective. it works really well and i am always pushing as melee and still survivable. of course, this is not to say we can just stand there and take hits. that being said, i can’t wait to upgrade to exotics and get appropriate jewelry. i am planning on going maybe a mix of knight’s (3) and valkyrie (2).

and grats on the sticky!DDDDDDDDD i spent so much time looking for this thread and couldn’t find it lol.

akamon.2769:

@exphryl – i used to live by renewed justice. it truly does work great in PvE. however, i took the dive and went 0/5/30/30/5 and debating trying 0/0/30/30/10 just for a test. i thought i wouldn’t be able to give it up, but it’s actually been working out great so far and i feel the choices i have in the honor line outweight the benefits from the radiance 15. i’d say give it a shot, in the mists perhaps and see how it works for you. my reasoning was that mainly for dungeons or WvW, i don’t kill fast enough to make the best use of that trait.

What are you using for your third major trait in honor?

exphryl.3857:

akamon.2769:

@exphryl – i used to live by renewed justice. it truly does work great in PvE. however, i took the dive and went 0/5/30/30/5 and debating trying 0/0/30/30/10 just for a test. i thought i wouldn’t be able to give it up, but it’s actually been working out great so far and i feel the choices i have in the honor line outweight the benefits from the radiance 15. i’d say give it a shot, in the mists perhaps and see how it works for you. my reasoning was that mainly for dungeons or WvW, i don’t kill fast enough to make the best use of that trait.

What are you using for your third major trait in honor?

Don’t know about Akamon but i run these traits:

First: WoE (solo)/Superior Aria (all others)
Second: Empowering Might (PvE)/Resolute Healer(WvW)/WoE(sPvP, tPvP)/WoP(solo)
Third: Two Handed Mastery(PvE and solo)/Pure of Voice(sPvP and tPvP)/Battle Presence(WvW)

This guide is mindblowingly awesome. I was already a huge fan of Vigorous Precision and was looking to see what could be done with it in a support-y manner (while still not trying to be a healbot) for my guardian alt. Always liked staff as a force multiplier in WvW paired with Virtue of Justice (12-stack might empowered burn for the whole bunch? yes please) and nice to see someone else with obvious knowledge has made it work for them in the way I was hoping it might.

Thanks so much for posting this! I’m sort of a guardian noob, just level 49 at the moment, but it’s nice to see I had the right idea on the general concept/traits, haha.

Guanglai Kangyi.4318:

I get that you like the hammer and want to promote its use, but really, don’t spread falsehoods.

I get that you dislike the Hammer playstyle, and want to diminish its value citing non relevant numbers, but really, don’t spread personal bias as “facts” (no offense intended.)

Every weapon is relevant to someone and certain builds out there. “Best” weapons are those suited to those who will make best use of them; even if it’s the mace.

Brutaly.6257:

Add to this that a hammer guardian is the best class around to trigger combofields and isn’t depending on cd to do it. This weapon is a “groupweapon” and shines when it’s used as that.

Thief’s Shortbow always available (always literally, and spammable) at 1200 range Cluster Bomb says hi But I see what you’re pointing out with this.

On topic, this looks like a great guide, I’m starting to roll my second character, Sylvari Guardian (you can guess the main one profession by the comment above), and as a support based Thief, I think the transition to guardian is a bit easier (though I’m finding the way to survive our shared low health is a bit different, changing maneoveurs and stealth with protective skills), but while I wanted to roll a pure offense+burn Sword/Torch Guardian (I like the irony of a plant-man setting himself on fire), you might convince me to try a Hammer and defensive role.

I will continue to read this long guide, thanks for the material!

EDIT:

I finished the read and I tried a bit the skip trick (though the increased dps comes very rarely). But there is one thing that is taking me a bit away from this build and it’s that while in the video you posted you seem to always have MB ready for each completed chaing, I’m midway to #2 on the next chain when that happnes (and I’m using the trait to shorten the recharge duration).

Was this nerfed during a recent patch after this guide was posted or I’m doing something wrong?

I think the biggest problem us Thieves find when rolling other professions, is that everything feels anti-dynamic and out of pace to us in comparison, and having this nice combo seemed good for me, but if it skips one full chain to repeat the combo (with the loss on DPS as you’re waiting to land MB, but if you do it before for the AoE damage, you don’t combo and you wasted half-chain without making the Symbol with Protection and Damage Ticks), it breaks the momentum.

@OP

pov

Is this meant to be pow as in power?

Vit/pov/tough probably is the most allround gear and can solve pretty much everything.

I am investing in a vit/pow/toughness set now but I notice I loose a lot of crit chance when swapping out my knights armour. Is this correct?

@Lokhet
initiatives are a consumbale resource and as such a thief can trigger more combofields in a shorter timeframe but not over time but if a thief wants to trigger combofields he also has to give up some of his dps, a guardian will always have the means to trigger and isnt dependent on cds or scarce reosources, ie initiatives, to pull the trigger.

I maintain that the guardian is the number one profession when it comes to triggering combofields.

there is about 0.2s gap between the chain and mb. Hence why i dodge in and out of the chain to fill that gap with something that adds value.

Btw in pve you dont gain dps by using mb versus signle targets, mb is good for increased movmement and to add aoe.

@swarfega
Yes pov=pow.

Yes its correct and if you check under runes there is a distinct recommendation regarding what runes to use in that gear, to compensate for the loss of critchance.

Thanks for replying.
I’ll take a read again. There’s a lot of information there so I guess I somehow missed that or read it and it went straight out my head.

Well deserved sticky btw.

Awesome work, Brutaly Thanks for sharing.

I’d like to suggest the food Bowl of Orrian Truffle and Meat Stew for this build, as I have found it to synergize wonderfully with how the build works. More dodging = more healing, plus additional might on dodge.

There are lesser versions (Bowl of Meat and Winter Vegetable Stew) which are much, much cheaper that work just as well, too.

EDIT: Whoops, it looks like you already included it. My mistake, I must have missed it, hehe. For anyone curious about which food to choose, this one is a great choice for any situation.

This is just awesome Always loved the hammer and this is just what I needed! Great job!!!

ps: is it only me or the links to the suggested builds do not work 100%? When clicking on them I get to see how the traits points are spent (0/15/30/20/5) but cannot see which traits you have picked. Also I cannot see neither utilities not armour or weapons sigils.

Thank you

@Zeke Minus
Yeah i forgot those but will add them tonight

@Trooper
Read the part with the builds again and you will find that its intended.