Guild Wars 2

the trait is there, dont worry the tool tip just wasnt updated, its not like every other shield trait with 90 armor and 20% reduction

Aven.7295:

the trait is there, dont worry the tool tip just wasnt updated, its not like every other shield trait with 90 armor and 20% reduction

Not sure exactly what you mean. My equipped shield trait was replaced by the glacial trait. I looked at my traits and noticed I had glacial equipped. Then I looked through all the toughness traits for the shield trait and it`s not there. For them to add a completely new trait and retain all the old ones they would need to update trait UI to accept and have room for another skill, which the toughness does not have enough room for, They went and replaced the old shield trait with new hammer one. I just went and equipped all the traints on and off to see if any gave a +90 toughness boost while wearing my shiled and none of them worked.

Banewrath.5107:

Not sure exactly what you mean. My equipped shield trait was replaced by the glacial trait. I looked at my traits and noticed I had glacial equipped. Then I looked through all the toughness traits for the shield trait and it`s not there. For them to add a completely new trait and retain all the old ones they would need to update trait UI to accept and have room for another skill, which the toughness does not have enough room for, They went and replaced the old shield trait with new hammer one. I just went and equipped all the traints on and off to see if any gave a +90 toughness boost while wearing my shiled and none of them worked.

Try Honorable Shield trait, it should give you +90 toughness. The tool tip hasn’t been updated yet.

Aye, that works. I equipped all the traits one by one checking for the toughness bonus. Don`t know how I missed it. Guess I can stop making voodoo dolls for all the devs now.

If you’re finding yourself having some issues with the hammer, try comboing it with Judge’s Intervention as a utility skill. It works as a slightly better gap closer than Hammer 3, and teleports don’t seem to interrupt casting so you can start casting, say, THUNDERDOME and pop JI right before it finishes. You’ll warp to the target, finish casting THUNDERDOME and have your target trapped for a couple seconds.

One of my main problems is the Hammer Swing combo, for some reason the 3rd attack often doesn’t land so I don’t get the protection buff. I’m not sure why this occurs since my character isn’t moving and neither is the npc. Not only that, its very slow.

In regards to pve, hammer has limited uses. Mainly because of Zealot’s Embrace, Banish and Ring of Warding. All three are relatively useless in pve compared to the great sword skills. In pvp, its slightly better. Zealot’s Embrace is a great move for runners and helps your team catch up to them. Banish and Ring of Warding remain still have very limited uses.

Banish doesn’t really have a practical use to it. In pvp there have been rare times where I use it to push a enemy off a friendly or push them off a cliff to make them take extra damage. But other than that, I don’t see it as useful. Pve is the same, there isn’t many times were pushing a monster back helps you out. Not to mention boss monsters are immune.

Ring of Warding is interesting, because while Line of Warding is seen as a excellent skill. The hammer version is not. One of the problems imo is the cast time, its fairly long and the ring radius is fairly small. Unlike Line of Warding you can’t really position or time it to stop fleeing enemies and not to mention you need to be in melee range to use it.

What often happens is while using ring of warding, due to the long cast time and small radius the target ends up slightly out of the ring’s warding. So it ends up being wasted. In pve, ring of warding doesn’t really have a practical use.

Overall, I feel with how skills 3, 4 and 5 function forces hammer users to rely solely on the first two skills. Since they both do damage and have a more universal function. This makes hammer lose a lot of dept compared to great sword.

I know Anet probably doesn’t want to make Hammer Guardian a Hammer Warrior clone. And thats very understandable, I wouldn’t want that either. However, when you look at the Hammer Warrior skill list, its way more universal than situational. If Anet can make skills 3, 4 and 5 more universal then I feel hammer would definitely be a solid option for Guardian players.

I just went hammer to try it out, im wondering WHY OH WHY is the Hammer #1 skill so SLOW????
Its like….wow, totally behind on dps because of how slow it is, im pretty sure i can get 3 greatsword hits off in the time it takes the hammer to swing.

Lame, totally lame.
Please make the hammer swing to the speed of the Gsword

Yawg.1294:

The biggest problem with Hammer has always been the lack of synergy between its skills.
While the individual skills are very powerful at what they do they just don’t work that well together. If I launch a target I can no longer hit it, if I immobilize a distant target that’s also of little use for me. These types of skills would better fit on a ranged weapon.
Of course I can imagine having an organized dungeon or PvP team making good use out of each of the hammer skills, but the lack of synergy in of itself isn’t good for solo or chaos (open word pve, wvw).

Sigh.

Use 4 to root the target and catch up to him/her, then use 5 to block them inside the ring. Now use 2, followed by 4 to knock them down inside the ring. Finish by switching to GS/1h Sword and unload 3 while target is down.

Skills 3-5 can also keep someone out of a control point for over 10s if used correctly in sPvP. Having a team just increases the amount of punishment the guy will get while locked down.

The only Hammer issue is its #1 chain being too slow in PvP. In PvE, the chain does relatively good DPS. The Symbol actually does quite a bit of damage, it doesn’t just give protection.

Is there any confirmation or hint that the hammer #1 chain will fixed?

Oh the “hammer love” changes already happened? Why didn’t they fix the only major problem hammer had? I really hoped for that.. that third hit really ruins an otherwise awesome weapon.

Zsymon.8457:

Oh the “hammer love” changes already happened? Why didn’t they fix the only major problem hammer had?

Probably because they don’t really see it as an issue. Because it’s not really an issue.

Exactly. ^

Some people just want to change everything because it’s them who have issues with it while it’s not an issue in general.

Do either of you even use the hammer as a main weapon?

Im gonna have to agree on this one, the hammers 3rd hit is far to slow. It’s only real uses is bunker build on nods but you will lose so much dps you must have a great team backing your lack of dps. hell 1 hand mace does more dps than the 2 hand hammer by a pretty large amount at that

Zsymon.8457:

Do either of you even use the hammer as a main weapon?

Yes. Why?

Yo Beezy.8395:

hell 1 hand mace does more dps than the 2 hand hammer by a pretty large amount at that

Tell me I did not just read that, please.

Hammer is an amazing weapon. It’s got amazing control and passive defense/support. The guardian is built around outlasting your opponents and Hammer perfectly fits that motif.

I’m realizing more and more that people in this game tend to forget you have 2 weapon sets available to you at all times (sorry engineers and ele’s). Maybe they just choose not to use both of them… The game is balanced around being able to use 2 different sets of weapons at any time. You’re supposed to be weapon swapping and swapping a lot at that.

@Zsymon:
“Do either of you even use the hammer as a main weapon?”
Yes. In every type of content. The “issue” you described is more or less non-existent. If you use the third chain attack, the animation follows your target and tries to land your symbol right on it.
The damage on the Hammer is good. Not Greatsword-amazing, but close.

The damage is actually a lot closer than people think. Run some time to kill tests on mobs in the mists and you’ll see. The fast recharge on #2 combined with the actual high damage of the symbol on 3rd hit of #1 give some serious damage but not in big numbers. I feel hammer had even more mobility than GS, more control by a londshot, not to mention nearly permanent protection… Hard to beat all that.

Proteus.6320:

… not to mention nearly permanent protection…

I keep seeing this, but can’t quite work out how it’s at all practical.

With [Writ of Persistence], the symbol barely lasts for the full duration of the next chain. So that locks you into using absolutely no other skills, never dodging, etc… You must stay in range and hit 111111111 forever to keep it up. That’s not exactly practical if you’re taking damage. If you’re not, then does the protection really matter?

It also doesn’t take into account the ~3 seconds at the start of each and every fight that it takes to get the symbol down. If you’re grinding through PvE then you’re still going to get hit quite a lot while protection is down.

Not exactly “permanent protection” in my opinion.

From a PvP point of view, Hammer is fine. If it’s faster, it would be the top 2h wep in PvP IMO. I use the Hammer for node defense in tournies(I’m bunker Guardian). With shield and mace, hammer is extremely powerful with the buttons 3,4,5, and button 5 with shield/mace. You can literally keep the enemy out until you cap the node if used correctly with the correct build.

phor.7952:

Proteus.6320:

… not to mention nearly permanent protection…

I keep seeing this, but can’t quite work out how it’s at all practical.

With [Writ of Persistence], the symbol barely lasts for the full duration of the next chain. So that locks you into using absolutely no other skills, never dodging, etc… You must stay in range and hit 111111111 forever to keep it up. That’s not exactly practical if you’re taking damage. If you’re not, then does the protection really matter?

It also doesn’t take into account the ~3 seconds at the start of each and every fight that it takes to get the symbol down. If you’re grinding through PvE then you’re still going to get hit quite a lot while protection is down.

Not exactly “permanent protection” in my opinion.

That’s because people use “Save Yourselves” and/or “Hold the Line” with the hammer; this means that the prot from the symbol will keep the proc going at ~15 seconds, dropping only bit by bit. If you use SY as an opener to combat, then you can have protection going full-time. There are plenty of guardian builds that utilize shouts, and I’ve pretty much had SY on my bar since I got it. Also, some people might be activating their Courage, giving a secondary of protection with 5 into Virtues.

Remember, the symbol procs the protection each second it’s active, so you do get an extra proc if you invest heavily into Honor…which again, is a pretty big line that people go down. It’s not unheard of to toss in #2 every chain and still keep protection up and running…and for your allies inside, to boot (depending on shouts, of course).

Dear Anet,

If you are still actively reading this thread. I have a suggestion, please give hammer guardian, the skill Dwarven Battle Stance.

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Dwarven_Battle_Stance

Thank you!

I love the hammer when combined with scepter/focus or staff. It prevents melee mobs from hitting me for a while without kiting them while I focus on the ranged ones.

Level 80 with full exotics and using Hammer as mainhand.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fUEQNAS8elUgKDHFSLEm4EhlCAKQMFYE+XPo4EZIA

Prioritize Of the Knight gear (power/tough/precision) with runes and trinkets involvng a healthy mix of vit and more precision.

The point of the build is to crit. Although damage isn’t really the main point of the build, the nature of this beast means you WILL do damage.

With my current spec and gear set, 16.5k health, 2000 tough, 45 percent crit chance with hammer equipped. My 2 ability crits for 4k regularly, without added might buffs.

Think about it. Boons you give heal allies. You apply a boon on crit. You have 45 percent crit chance. Your number 2 ability has the radius of an atomic bomb, which means more things will be hit for a chance to proc a crit. In a dungeon, you will almost never die, even while face tanking most bosses.

The healing in this build is absurd. The crit damage afforded by valor is a HUGE bonus, as is the healing power and vitality provided by Honor.

I suggest everyone try this out. It really is a beast, and allows for some serious damage along with fantastic longevity.

(btw, the trait setup is for pvp. take the 90 toughness and replace with hammer trait. I run the shield trait in dungeons however for when I need that extra toughness in a pinch)

I was just wondering, between running a symbol healing build around the hammer, and a crit applying might build, with both having altruistic healing, which would be doing more healing/dmg/survivability?

Feralmoon:
The crit applying build will heal for more once you get a decent amount of crit (40 percent)

Any less and it seems too inconsistent of a heal with the hammer unless we are fighting two things at once.

Keep in mind, however, that the symbol is static, therefore its healing isn’t as effective in pvp as it is in pve. Also, if you find you run with a lot of melee classes, the might on crit is fantastic as they are generally always in range to receive the boon. The also proc the heal from every tick of the protection buff on the third swing of the main attack, it seems.

I find in both pve and PvP that I live infinitely longer, and provide much more support to my team by using the crit method. However I also have a large crit percent with my hamer (48 Percent currently)

I like perma retaliation with hammer and virtue traits. Also #2 is the best attack in the game.

I dunno where all the hammer hate is coming from; these people are crazy. Hammer is easily my favorite weapon on my Guardian.

Protection, retaliation, and a little bit of control makes it a good utility weapon, and it deals steady damage, too. Staff feels weak unless i’m fighting large numbers of enemies, and greatsword makes me feel silly because it doesn’t pack enough defense.

The hammer autoattack is to weak compared to sword and greatsword.

My only complaint is the slowness of the third attack in the Hammer #1 chain. Speed that up a bit (reduce the damage, if required), and I’d be very happy with the weapon.

Velkyn.9285:

My only complaint is the slowness of the third attack in the Hammer #1 chain. Speed that up a bit (reduce the damage, if required), and I’d be very happy with the weapon.

Why would you mess with the 3rd attack… i dont see why everyone is trying to get the hammer to be like the gs in attacking speed… its a giant super heavy hammer, the animations and attack speed are perfect. I love the speed of the hammer and just rolled my guardian and have had no problems owning things in pve. In pvp the same rules apply… your not able to attack as fast as the gs so dont use it like the gs.

Imho the hammer has the best utilities and percs attached to it compared to the other wep choices in our arsenal.

Anet dont listen to these ppl saying speed up the 3rd attack for reduced dmg or changing the symbol. ITS PERFECT!!!!

The only thing they could change if it isnt already, is the hammer having a sweeping attack like the gs. Like i said i just rolled my guardian so i havent really paid attention to it. But i know the gs’s AA has a sweeping effect that it hits everything in a cone in front of it. If the hammer doesnt do that aswell, thats the only thing i could see them having to change. Imo 2hand weps like the hammer and gs NEED that sweeping dmg… your swinging around this giant weapon you should be smacking everything in front of you lol.

Nice to hear that the hammer is getting a boost!

It already got the “boost.” Bad trait and a minor range increase on #2. Wheeeeeeeee.

I wish you could style cancel. I’d like to just do this first two hits in the #1 skill over and over. Unfortunately, even if you sheathe your weapon you’re stuck with that painfully slow, low DPS attack on your bar. I guess that’s one draw back to an automated style system, the system decides your style.

What I normally do is interupt it with another attack if I can. The first two hits are fine, the do OK dps. But if youve got any other attack available, after that second hit from the #1 chain fires, go to that other attack. Then come back and hit the first two again.

When a style chain is so borked that you find ways to replace the final hit in the chain with -anything- else, its time for a change.

@Aaron
Seriously, low dps on the third chain? Its one of the best attacks we have dpswise, that and mighty blow. no3 crits for 2k alone, the symbol hits simultanously with no 3 and crit for 1k and if you have traited larger symbols it will hit two times. So basically 4k damage. Add in protection and retaliation on top of that ond ofc aoe. The third skill on the 1h sword maxes out on 2k with the exact sam build and GS isnt even in the same league.

There is a reason why that attack is slow, its because it extremely powerful when you land it and especially in large packs of opponents.

Single target, in pve, i kill my target faster with the hammer then i do with the 1h sword and focus and im not depending on cooldowns (zealots defense and focus skills) to accomplish it.

Why cancel it, just do it and then use might blow or any of the other skills.

Ofc i cancel it sometimes but then i do it with a dodge/mb combo. Cancelling it as the norm wont make you gain anything, it just feels better and has nothing to do with performance. That cancelling manouver is present in all the weapons btw. Anyone used focusskills while doing the chain or using shouts. Or aborting the last part of the chain to use a cc-signet?

The fact is that if you dont abort from time to time you have a l2p issue, and this is true with all weapons.

@Non in particular but almost everyone in general.
Gosh how i wish there where parsers for this game so people could get this in numbers. Half the community are fooling themselves when it comes to the hammer.
Search for alarox and what he has posted and checkout the dpscharts he made and you might get and idea of what the hammer is all about.

The style of the hammer is/was perfect to me.
I like the slow powered up massive hit, heck, make it slower and add more power.

I do not like the new gap closing aspect added to mighty blow.
I think It looks/feels weird.
I understand why it was added and I suppose the guardian could use something to close the gap while having hammer equiped, but it just looks weird.
Perhaps “gap closing” should be more focused on slowing/chilling/ccing when it comes to the guardian hammer.

I really like the effect / idea of the hammer chill trait, although it doesn’t feel usefull enough yet. Because it’s double random and the cooldown is a bit long for double random. But perhaps do more in that direction with guardian Hammer.

Hammer is already the best pvp option for guardians.

For pve and wvw I still prefer the greatsword as melee option.

Brutaly.6257:

@Aaron
Seriously, low dps on the third chain? Its one of the best attacks we have dpswise, that and mighty blow. no3 crits for 2k alone, the symbol hits simultanously with no 3 and crit for 1k and if you have traited larger symbols it will hit two times. So basically 4k damage. Add in protection and retaliation on top of that ond ofc aoe. The third skill on the 1h sword maxes out on 2k with the exact sam build and GS isnt even in the same league.

There is a reason why that attack is slow, its because it extremely powerful when you land it and especially in large packs of opponents.

Single target, in pve, i kill my target faster with the hammer then i do with the 1h sword and focus and im not depending on cooldowns (zealots defense and focus skills) to accomplish it.

Why cancel it, just do it and then use might blow or any of the other skills.

Ofc i cancel it sometimes but then i do it with a dodge/mb combo. Cancelling it as the norm wont make you gain anything, it just feels better and has nothing to do with performance. That cancelling manouver is present in all the weapons btw. Anyone used focusskills while doing the chain or using shouts. Or aborting the last part of the chain to use a cc-signet?

The fact is that if you dont abort from time to time you have a l2p issue, and this is true with all weapons.

@Non in particular but almost everyone in general.
Gosh how i wish there where parsers for this game so people could get this in numbers. Half the community are fooling themselves when it comes to the hammer.
Search for alarox and what he has posted and checkout the dpscharts he made and you might get and idea of what the hammer is all about.

Everything here is true.

I’m just waiting for the day when people are realizing it’s me 4 shotting (auttoattack chain and mighty blow) their Berzerker characters and finally give hammer the props it deserves.

Come to think of it, I don’t really want the nerf bat.

Let people keep thinking its bad

@Marthiarn: Can you post your exact gear here? Like what exotic set do you have? Which parts are knight gear, which are valkyrie or something else. I’m running on 3 pieces of whispering set and green knight/valkyrie accessories (yeah I know I’m not quite there yet, full exotic wise) and I was running a 0/0/30/30/10 build that was working okay for me in dungeons, PVE and story. Despite that, I barely hit the 1,6k toughness mark and 2,3k. armor mark, let alone my lousy attack (but I wasnt focusing on being a killing machine, rather a rock, that is hard to kill and I still get killed by thieves in 3 seconds in wvwvw). I have noticed tho, that in wvwvw my GS/mace+focus set up wasn’t really viable due to lacking range.

When I started a guardian, I rolled a hammer and just love the playstyle of smashing heads in. I’d like to go back to that, could you give me a few tips for wvwvw? also gear wise, since I spent too much karma on my whispering set already, to get a different set now (soldier rune btw).

Posted this in another thread. Currently in the process of getting the CoE berserker style gear set with superior rune of the soldier for the needed tough/vit and amazing 6th piece stat that causes shouts to remove conditions.

Ah too bad, I joined the Order of Whispers so I don’t have access to vigil’s armor or weapons. But that sure looks nice. Is Berserker a crafted set? or the one you buy with dungeon marks?

Oh and as for WvWvW tips?

With my setup and stats (which admittedly is much higher than the average person in WvWvW), I have no qualms about charging headlong alone into 10 or less, so long as I have allies at my back. My usual fight goes like this.

Use retreat to start closing the gap.
Number two on the sword to teleport as close as I can to the squishiest target I can see.
Switch to Hammer, snare enemy
Ring of warding
Position myself so that when ring of warding ends, I punt back the enemy into my allies to destroy

Ring of warding generally enough time for a full use of an Auto attack chain and a mighty blow before a knockback is required.

In general though, that combo doesn’t always work due to dodges, blocks, evades, etc. So always be aware that you will have to think on your feet. Also remember you have a huge hammer that HURTS. I routinely kill 2 at a time or more before the rest of my team shows up due to the insane aoe burst of a mighty blow, auttoattack, mighty blow.

With a high toughness build like this, it is IMPERATIVE that you make sure you have valid, reliable condition removal. Conditions are the killer of my build (which is why I am excited to get these Soldier runes).

Psiborg.2983:

Ah too bad, I joined the Order of Whispers so I don’t have access to vigil’s armor or weapons. But that sure looks nice. Is Berserker a crafted set? or the one you buy with dungeon marks?

Those are just transmuted to look like vigil pieces. They are actually just a combination of Karma and TP bought exotics. ( Can’t tell ya which ones as I don’t remember)

And Berserkers stats are basically anything with power/precision/crit dmg. CoE dungeon has a set of that, and Berserker pieces can be crafted as well by armorsmiths

Cheers! Thanks for that info. Helped me a lot :]

Brutaly.6257:

@Aaron
Seriously, low dps on the third chain? Its one of the best attacks we have dpswise,

No it isn’t. It has a channel time nearly equal to the ENTIRE greatsword #1 chain. You compare it to an attack with 1/3 its attack time. The greatsword attack chain portion which has a comparable channel time does around double the damage of the hammer third hit. Swapping in a mighty blow instead of finishing the chain means you land a hit which does more damage and channels twice as quickly.

And please don’t forget that additional channel time gives your enemy more time to interrupt. Catching a daze just moments before you land that blow means you traded away two attacks so you could not land one.

The best thing it has is probably the protection spam, but the loss of DPS isn’t worth it outside of holding down a position or something.

Someone did some tests with the GS and Hammer single target wise, and they’re apparently not that much different. The relative low cooldown of hammer’s #2 makes up for the huge burst damage that GS #3 gives. AOE control and DPS though nothing comes close to the GS. But node defending, 1vs1s the hammer is the best option.

Hammer #4 and #5 are very powerful in pvp. #3 does require you to lead your target sometimes but works wonders when they’re trying to escape. I’ve found the hammer the most useful in small group skirmishes and mace/shield in clear 1vs1.

Aegis: When you absolutely need Hammer Chain #3 to hit! Yes, it’s a slow cast time, but the symbol is worth it. Plus, as Polle says above, the low cooldown on #2 makes up for a lot.
In PVP, I’ve had my share of frustrations, but you work around it. Sometimes I’ll evade before Chain #3 – most of the time I’m moving outside of melee range and not sticking to my target as the Symbol has an ok radius (I use larger symbols, so it’s even better).

I also run with a similar build thanks to Marthiarn. Slightly different spec and armor. Also I use Judge’s intervention to help close the gaps on players trying to flee or just to teleport quickly right into the middle of a zerg and start pounding ants. It works pretty well. I will post some videos later of WvW and this similar build. Also, I use Snow leopard as the elite skill for 2 reasons. The speed distance helps close the gap on fleeing players, and the stealth comes in handy to bypass a zerg to get into a keep or to help run after teleporting into the zerg. I would like to see these elite skills on smaller CD’s though, melee should less CD on their abilities as we have to survive the gauntlet.

aaron.4317:

Brutaly.6257:

@Aaron
Seriously, low dps on the third chain? Its one of the best attacks we have dpswise,

No it isn’t. It has a channel time nearly equal to the ENTIRE greatsword #1 chain. You compare it to an attack with 1/3 its attack time. The greatsword attack chain portion which has a comparable channel time does around double the damage of the hammer third hit. Swapping in a mighty blow instead of finishing the chain means you land a hit which does more damage and channels twice as quickly.

And please don’t forget that additional channel time gives your enemy more time to interrupt. Catching a daze just moments before you land that blow means you traded away two attacks so you could not land one.

The best thing it has is probably the protection spam, but the loss of DPS isn’t worth it outside of holding down a position or something.

Check this thread out and what Alarox has posted, thats very much inline with my own numbers.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Why-the-hammer-shouldnt-be-faster/first#post141716

People get mislead by the third step and actually underestimate the true power of it, its not as slow as people think, it just feels slow in contrast to the first two steps..

You cant play the hammer the same way you play GS. As someone posted after you, you dodge in the middle of the chain, or at the end of the chain, so you wont be as easy to interupt. In a ideal setup you also start the third step out of range of the opponent and “run” it into him, even if you miss the symbol has awsome range and even a drunk person can hit with about 200 extra range.