Read the Altruistic Healing guild and it tells you about speeding up the animation by using dodges
That doesn’t actually make you attack any faster. It just gives you an interrupted dodge to burn endurance for purposes of triggering Selfless Daring/Elusive Power.
So unfortunately, yeah, the hammer auto is very slow. There really isn’t anything that can be done about it since that’s just the way it is; if it was any faster it’d be too strong due to how powerful the symbol you get is, relative to other auto-attacks (even the symbol itself actually kinda sucks as far as symbols go). That’s why I support making the symbol the second skill and giving us something other than Mighty Blow for the third auto, so we can get a proper symbol and a decent auto-attack at the same time.
It wouldn’t be quite as bad if using other skills didn’t interrupt the auto chain’s progression, too. Then again I think that’s just a universal design issue and not a fault of the hammer specifically.
Read the Altruistic Healing guild and it tells you about speeding up the animation by using dodges exploiting a bug.
Fixed it up for you .
Edit: I have unintentionally done it myself and as Guanglai mentioned, I didn’t actually notice any increased speed, if it does it isn’t worth wasting a dodge on.
Silver Stormshield – Guardian
Kaimoon Blade – Warrior Fort Aspenwood
I have tested it. It is exactly the same. There’s no reason it would make it any faster. I don’t know why that silly guide thinks it does, or why it claims half the stuff in it, or why it even exists in the first place, except to make my own life that much more difficult when someone reads it and actually believes it and ends up in my dungeon party and most likely dead.
If you don’t believe me, do 5 chains and count how long it takes (exactly 18s), then roll cancel-cancel the chains and see how long it takes (hint: still 18s).
Read the Altruistic Healing guild and it tells you about speeding up the animation by using dodges
That doesn’t actually make you attack any faster. It just gives you an interrupted dodge to burn endurance for purposes of triggering Selfless Daring/Elusive Power.
So unfortunately, yeah, the hammer auto is very slow. There really isn’t anything that can be done about it since that’s just the way it is; if it was any faster it’d be too strong due to how powerful the symbol you get is, relative to other auto-attacks (even the symbol itself actually kinda sucks as far as symbols go). That’s why I support making the symbol the second skill and giving us something other than Mighty Blow for the third auto, so we can get a proper symbol and a decent auto-attack at the same time.
It wouldn’t be quite as bad if using other skills didn’t interrupt the auto chain’s progression, too. Then again I think that’s just a universal design issue and not a fault of the hammer specifically.
I would be 100% against removing mighty blow from the hammer or removing the symbol from the chain. MB is a Blast finisher + short leap + aoe attack… on a short cd… the symbol doesn’t root you when you “cast” it like the GS one (aka why that skill is rubbish)… and you want them to take MB away and give us another rubbish symbol that I’m sure they would also root us?!
Are you kitten serious?
It’s fine as is, just learn to deal with a slightly longer attack string. The symbol is awesome for protection + AoE retaliation via mighty blow. I’m willing to pay auto attack speed as a price for that to keep it balanced.
The only thing that needs to be fixed on hammer are the bugs with RoW. Otherwise don’t try to fix something that isn’t broken.
With certain builds and gear setups you’re pretty much unkillable in PvE using the hammer. Reducing the time of the attack chain would just make this ridiculously OP. I can see a case being made for a PvE/PvP split, or a change that strikes a balance for the two though.
The third attack is mostly to get a good protection buff going, which unlike some other boons is something you’d want to have regardless of whether the attack connects or not. This is also why Symbol of Faith takes a long time to proc as well.
I totally agree that the third attack feels very slow. However, as some have already pointed out – Symbol of Protection would be overpowered is the cast-time were reduced.
I think what needs to be improving of the animation and an adding of a sound effect.
We need a solid hammer-slamming graphic and sound effect
One that makes the long cast time feel worthwhile, whereas the current symbol casting effect feels a bit anti-climatic; the visuals and audio just aren’t giving the appropriate feedback relative to what the skill does.
“Bleeding, Poison, Confusion, Torment, they all look delightful on you.”
Lv80s: Guard, Thief, Necro. Renewed my Altaholic’s card on the HoT Hype-Train. Choo choo~
Make the 3rd hit trigger faster and reduce damage to compensate proportionately.
Same DPS, more effectiveness.
Wouldn’t keep it balanced as you would have more protection + aoe retaliation (mighty blow) uptime.
Seriously just leave it alone. It’s our best 2h weapon. Yea it’s a little slow to balance it out… but it’s nothing you can’t compensate for with practice. This is very much a l2p issue.
Read the Altruistic Healing guild and it tells you about speeding up the animation by using dodges
That doesn’t actually make you attack any faster. It just gives you an interrupted dodge to burn endurance for purposes of triggering Selfless Daring/Elusive Power.
So unfortunately, yeah, the hammer auto is very slow. There really isn’t anything that can be done about it since that’s just the way it is; if it was any faster it’d be too strong due to how powerful the symbol you get is, relative to other auto-attacks (even the symbol itself actually kinda sucks as far as symbols go). That’s why I support making the symbol the second skill and giving us something other than Mighty Blow for the third auto, so we can get a proper symbol and a decent auto-attack at the same time.
It wouldn’t be quite as bad if using other skills didn’t interrupt the auto chain’s progression, too. Then again I think that’s just a universal design issue and not a fault of the hammer specifically.
I would be 100% against removing mighty blow from the hammer or removing the symbol from the chain. MB is a Blast finisher + short leap + aoe attack… on a short cd… the symbol doesn’t root you when you “cast” it like the GS one (aka why that skill is rubbish)… and you want them to take MB away and give us another rubbish symbol that I’m sure they would also root us?!
Are you kitten serious?
It’s fine as is, just learn to deal with a slightly longer attack string. The symbol is awesome for protection + AoE retaliation via mighty blow. I’m willing to pay auto attack speed as a price for that to keep it balanced.
The only thing that needs to be fixed on hammer are the bugs with RoW. Otherwise don’t try to fix something that isn’t broken.
What makes you think it would root anything? Most symbols are usable on the move. Symbol of Wrath is a root because otherwise the GS would be even more OP than it already is.
The fact of the matter is that the auto-attack chain is really bad. The dinky symbol you get at the end of it isn’t nearly worth the two whole seconds you spend channeling it. By comparison Symbol of Faith is a way better symbol in pretty much every regard and it’s usable on demand with the same cast time. If Symbol of Protection got the usual 5 ticks, was usable on demand, and had something like a 10-15s CD it would be way more useful than the Hammer’s current afk-and-hope-you-don’t-die playstyle.
Imagine how good the hammer would be if the third swing was the same speed as the other two (like GS’s is) and gave some kind of short AOE boon, and you could use Symbol of Protection on demand. It’d be like a DPS-oriented version of mace. I would use the kitten out of that weapon.
Make the 3rd hit trigger faster and reduce damage to compensate proportionately.
Same DPS, more effectiveness.
Wouldn’t keep it balanced as you would have more protection + aoe retaliation (mighty blow) uptime.
Seriously just leave it alone. It’s our best 2h weapon. Yea it’s a little slow to balance it out… but it’s nothing you can’t compensate for with practice. This is very much a l2p issue.
Not really, you can’t make something that isn’t useful for the situation into something useful for the situation by “learning to play”. You can learn to somewhat compensate, yeah, but you can’t magically make something better than it is. The truth about Symbol of Protection is that it is an obvious animation that makes it easy to avoid, and to be worth the cast time (important) your enemy has to be willing to stand in the Symbol with you. In PvE it is by far the best Auto-attack. For point defense it’s also very useful. However, outside of situations like those, the ‘1’ chain is more trouble than it’s worth, as a short auto attack with less damage would do MORE damage due to the Symbol needing time to deal it’s damage while a quick one is instant. Plus, too often you’re presented with the choice of either completing the chain or casting Might Blow, and more often than not Mighty Blow is the better option.
Alarox – Human Guardian
Rampage Wilson – Charr Engineer
Sea of Sorrows
GS is far from OP… other than vs trash mobs…. and that’s just trash anyways, so I don’t count that for very much. Gs is in need of some tweaking to improve it imo.
Hammer is the opposite… I would be against removing/changing any of the current skills on the hammer. Especially mighty blow. Dealing with a slower attack speed seems like a l2p issue more than anything.
GS is far from OP… other than vs trash mobs…. and that’s just trash anyways, so I don’t count that for very much. Gs is in need of some tweaking to improve it imo.
Hammer is the opposite… I would be against removing/changing any of the current skills on the hammer. Especially mighty blow. Dealing with a slower attack speed seems like a l2p issue more than anything.
Edit: Maybe the problem is what perspectives we’re coming from. In PvE the Hammer is fine (in fact it’s amazing), but in PvP it’s different.
L2P to partially compensate yeah, but any Guardian who has spent a couple dozen hours with it knows all the tricks and tactics. It doesn’t change the fact that you have to compensate in many situations due to the design.
I played with the Hammer from 2-80 and for about 1-2 months after, constantly. After mastering all the other weapons I realized that I learned to deal with the ‘1’ chain rather than actually enjoying it like I do with the rest of the weapon.
And yeah, GS isn’t OP, just effective.
Alarox – Human Guardian
Rampage Wilson – Charr Engineer
Sea of Sorrows
GS is far from OP… other than vs trash mobs…. and that’s just trash anyways, so I don’t count that for very much. Gs is in need of some tweaking to improve it imo.
Hammer is the opposite… I would be against removing/changing any of the current skills on the hammer. Especially mighty blow. Dealing with a slower attack speed seems like a l2p issue more than anything.
Edit: Maybe the problem is what perspective you’re coming from. In PvE the Hammer is fine, but in PvP it’s a whole different ballgame.
L2P to partially compensate yeah, but any Guardian who has spent a couple dozen hours with it knows all the tricks and tactics. It doesn’t change the fact that you have to compensate in many situations due to the design.
I played with the Hammer from 2-80 and for about 1-2 months after, constantly. After mastering all the other weapons I realized that I learned to deal with the ‘1’ chain rather than actually enjoying it like I do with the rest of the weapon.
And yeah, GS isn’t OP, just effective.
I play WvW more than any other game mode… and use Hammer the vast majority of the time. From 1-80 I used a gs to level with… and in PvP I used to use a GS for the AH + Vigor heals but that’s rubbish now.
Hammer is great in PvP and PvE once you learn to compensate for the slow 3rd attack. The 3rd (which as others have stated) puts down the symbol regardless if you hit or not… and is easy access to aoe retal… retal is one of the best buffs in PvP… Hammer just gives you so many tatical options.
GS is far from OP… other than vs trash mobs…. and that’s just trash anyways, so I don’t count that for very much. Gs is in need of some tweaking to improve it imo.
Hammer is the opposite… I would be against removing/changing any of the current skills on the hammer. Especially mighty blow. Dealing with a slower attack speed seems like a l2p issue more than anything.
Edit: Maybe the problem is what perspective you’re coming from. In PvE the Hammer is fine, but in PvP it’s a whole different ballgame.
L2P to partially compensate yeah, but any Guardian who has spent a couple dozen hours with it knows all the tricks and tactics. It doesn’t change the fact that you have to compensate in many situations due to the design.
I played with the Hammer from 2-80 and for about 1-2 months after, constantly. After mastering all the other weapons I realized that I learned to deal with the ‘1’ chain rather than actually enjoying it like I do with the rest of the weapon.
And yeah, GS isn’t OP, just effective.
I play WvW more than any other game mode… and use Hammer the vast majority of the time. From 1-80 I used a gs to level with… and in PvP I used to use a GS for the AH + Vigor heals but that’s rubbish now.
Hammer is great in PvP and PvE once you learn to compensate for the slow 3rd attack. The 3rd (which as others have stated) puts down the symbol regardless if you hit or not… and is easy access to aoe retal… retal is one of the best buffs in PvP… Hammer just gives you so many tatical options.
I’m leaning towards it being opinion for the most part, for or against the Hammer design.
Alarox – Human Guardian
Rampage Wilson – Charr Engineer
Sea of Sorrows
GS is far from OP… other than vs trash mobs…. and that’s just trash anyways, so I don’t count that for very much. Gs is in need of some tweaking to improve it imo.
Hammer is the opposite… I would be against removing/changing any of the current skills on the hammer. Especially mighty blow. Dealing with a slower attack speed seems like a l2p issue more than anything.
Edit: Maybe the problem is what perspective you’re coming from. In PvE the Hammer is fine, but in PvP it’s a whole different ballgame.
L2P to partially compensate yeah, but any Guardian who has spent a couple dozen hours with it knows all the tricks and tactics. It doesn’t change the fact that you have to compensate in many situations due to the design.
I played with the Hammer from 2-80 and for about 1-2 months after, constantly. After mastering all the other weapons I realized that I learned to deal with the ‘1’ chain rather than actually enjoying it like I do with the rest of the weapon.
And yeah, GS isn’t OP, just effective.
I play WvW more than any other game mode… and use Hammer the vast majority of the time. From 1-80 I used a gs to level with… and in PvP I used to use a GS for the AH + Vigor heals but that’s rubbish now.
Hammer is great in PvP and PvE once you learn to compensate for the slow 3rd attack. The 3rd (which as others have stated) puts down the symbol regardless if you hit or not… and is easy access to aoe retal… retal is one of the best buffs in PvP… Hammer just gives you so many tatical options.
I’m leaning towards it being opinion for the most part, for or against the Hammer design.
It does seem to be one of those love it or hate it type of things hahahahaha
I like it. Near 100% uptime on protection and easy aoe retaliation is great once I get it off. I suppose it’s a problem in pvp, but if you get the enemy away from the point you’re on you’ve done your job.
I’m trying it at PvP (basically my first hours as PvP Guardian) and it’s pretty kitten. I use Judge Intervention to connect any skill.
It’s easy as ABC to chain a #2 when your target is immobilized or kb-ed. In fact, it’s easy to connect everything from #2 to #5 … I tried this out with a friend who has NEVER played guardian before (pve/pvp) and we were able to crush any guys as Guardian x2.
My build was 10/0/20/30/10 with bonus dmg to burning foes, meditations recharge faster, hammer apply freeze on crit, bonus dmg with aegis, faster 2H weapons, and whatever you want as the 2 last traits in Honor (aegis heals + retaliation).
Berserker amulet/jewel and Scholar or Lyssa. +5% crit chance on hammer and restore 50% endurance on focus.
Just engage with the Focus #5, Judge Intervention + Hammer #2 and it’s about 12K aoe dmg on no toughness guys. Get 2 Guardians and you can instantly down them.
About PvE I mostly use 1 with 15 in Zeal so whatever…
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