Guild Wars 2

Hey all. I have returned to gw2 from a long break and played my Guardian for a while. I noticed that at the times I ran with Hammer and Greatsword, people were quite negative with the choice so I had to explain each time that its not subpar and only %5-10 less dps than best combo. I love to use Hammer with Greatsword and keep seeking the opportunity to do so. Is Hammer really not viable? Are there any others like me? Did you experience similar interactions with your party mates?

Note: PvE

Boiwatusayin? Hammer is meta lol. Maybe not in combination with GS, but hammer is part of the meta guard build.

SlayerSixx.5763:

Boiwatusayin? Hammer is meta lol. Maybe not in combination with GS, but hammer is part of the meta guard build.

I get the vibe that he’s talking about pve where its only meta in high level fractals.

@ OP you are right with Writ of persistence Hammer is only a very small dps loss over Sw/F&GS. If people are good players its a bigger dps loss because it interferes with might blasting but if no one is throwing out firefields, its just people who dont know jack making assumptions because its not in the meta.

It’s also meta in keeping terrible pub teammates alive.

Rising Dusk.2408:

It’s also meta in keeping terrible pub teammates alive.

Very true but then thats not a meta party, just a guadian mule carrying people :S

Vizardlorde.8243:

Very true but then thats not a meta party, just a guadian mule carrying people :S

I mean, sure, but the OP’s question didn’t specify only for meta groups.

SlayerSixx.5763:

Boiwatusayin? Hammer is meta lol. Maybe not in combination with GS, but hammer is part of the meta guard build.

What would you combine it with, or would you combine at all?

GS with Hammer is great in team fights. Far more superior than Sc/Focus in that regard. Personally, I find it more fun to use.

People use Sc/Focus for when they need to play defensively while also offering some form of range dps. Its Immobilize skill is great for setting up the focus target burst too. Focus offers additional sustains (even if it’s a little) from condi cleanses and #5 blocks. The #5 can even offer a very nice aoe burst effect if used correctly.

I like sword because it offers more direct dps; as well as, offering better cleaving abilities from its auto attack than the Scepter. Flashing blade is great for attaching yourself to targets, or simply for mobility purposes.

A few guards like using Staff in the offhand to offer additional support and control… that’s mainly their own personal play-style, though.

TBH, all are viable in their respective rolls with some weapons simply being more popular than others. Hope that helps

Edit: Just noticed OP said PvE… Sorry! I hope the weapon descriptions still help for PvE as well.

Thats okay, and thank you for good advices. I was intending to start pvp with my necro but seeing med has some more hype to it (renewed focus becoming a med skill) I might as well as just pvp with Guard right away.

The main problem with the hammer is that the light field will more often then not override any other fields.

The other gripe most people have with the hammer is that the last auto attack in the chain takes so frekin long to swing.

There have been numerous suggestions for how they could change it, some of them being quite good & balanced.

Sadly Anet seems devoted to keeping it as is, just like they do with shield.

Pregnantman.8259:

Thats okay, and thank you for good advices. I was intending to start pvp with my necro but seeing med has some more hype to it (renewed focus becoming a med skill) I might as well as just pvp with Guard right away.

Just remember med has strengths but it also has a few major problems.

That being

1: It can be kited quite easily by skilled players do to the lack of cripple/chill up time that many other melee specs have.

2: It lacks CC

If your going to use it I suggest running with a warrior, engineer etc… that can provide allot of cripple/immobilize & CC.

I have an openworld pve guard that uses hammer, mace/shield and traited symbols. I call it my puddle maker ;-)

How could you call something balanced based on forum posts that haven’t gone through testing, let alone live?

In PvP, hammer is part of the medi meta. Granted, it’s largely in part of some high level players did well with it, and it became popular. Meta doesn’t mean “best”.

Hammer+GS had no noticeable or appreciable damage loss compared to sw/f. Similarly, mace has no appreciable loss compared to sword, and can often be better. The weapons perform much closer than people think.

Only bad players (in a very derogatory sense) complain about light fields. As someone who consistently used hammer in pve and wvw, I and my ele friends can reliably blast might even through my symbols.

You’re going to get people who complain about anything you do, so pick what affords you the most fun and run with it. You can’t control what other people think, or if they’re having fun, but you can control if you’re having fun.

To answer the original question. A lot of people are ignorant and jus spitting information from Meta battle.

- Replacing Sword for Mace equal a dps lost of 1-3% depending on your build.

- A Hammer build is around 6-10% less dps than a standard GS Sw/Focus build.

- The best secondary weapon for a Hammer build is Greatsword (6% dps lost), but Hammer just by itself is good (8% dps lost), meaning that you can bring whatever secondary weapon you want for specific situation.

- The Hammer can interfere greatly with fire field, but that can be limited if the Elementalist and Guardian coordinated with each other. Anyway, the problem is becoming less and less of an issue since PS Warrior is slowly replacing S/F Elementalist for the might producing role and this trend will probably accelerate even more with the incoming changes to traits.

Hey, I simply assumed he was talking PvP. I didn’t know people actually took PvE seriously lol. Hammer is meta not just because some good players did well with it, but because it makes more sense in an organized team environment. Making the comparison between sword and mace and saying that the dps lost is neglible is also stupid. You have to take into account that sword offers higher mobility (a freaking teleport with a blind), more reliable burst and a better auto attack. People don’t take hammer for the damage by the way, toots. All of these “dps” scenarios are against stationary targets if I’m assuming correctly and if thats the case, literally ANYTHING would work. Hell, if you wanna talk PvE DPS, spam spirit weapons with tome of wrath with a full power build. Can’t get more guard dps than that.

Also, if you think that hammer’s auto is “fair and balanced” then you’re the reason why we aren’t getting everything fixed.

I myself don’t take pve seriously. Likewise, I don’t take PvP or wvw seriously. Doesn’t mean I shouldn’t know what’s going on with the three games modes. The was one paragraph I stated relating to PvP, denoted by the “in PvP” start. It’s fairly obvious by op’s phrasing he’s talking about pve, which would be easy to miss if your only focused on one aspect instead of the whole picture.

You can see the difference in dps in the link below. Hammer suffers a lot more then gs main if you need to dodge or do something else to interrupt attacking like putting up reflects as well as being lower dps. If you are going to go with hammer do hammer and mace/focus rotations. Hammer + GS isn’t the best combo since they are about the same if you can connect with all 14 hits of whirling wrath and a fair amount worse if not. The blocks are nice too. Hammer will most likely be more comparable when the trait changes come. For now it is subpar but not bad. If you play with a decent group or are doing open world content there isn’t much need for it.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ou7qL2Dj2gytJeS0bl1FinoukKWGnTf_FLTEP4gkuUQ/edit?pli=1#gid=1548911428

Would using Hammer and Mace/Focus combo be appropiate even if the group is seemingly fine, for the sake of keeping group’s Scholar bonus (with blocks, high regen, heal and protection uptime)?

Or in other words, does a group that is having difficulty keeping the Scholar bonus or just not keeping it %100 warrant an action as response from us Guardians?

If you don’t need hammer then don’t bother just run gs + mace/focus if you want to do that. It’s like 1-2% worse then gs + sword/focus and can help keep scholars up. Mace/focus really shines in fractals because of the extra blocks against bosses and better cleave then sword.