Guild Wars 2

Hello! As a guardian main I sometimes struggle to utilize hammer in pvp, and my next question is to people who main other professions :
– When you fight a guardian that uses a hammer, on a scale from 1 to telegraph post, how visible are their actions?

I play a guard. I also play hammer a lot.

Understand there are times when it cant be evaded. Mighty blow is a matter of knowing its distance and then calculating where the enemy will be. Its AOE, so its a matter of catching them in it after they have made a move or are in the middle of doing so. It is very telegraphed.

My advice run around and try to hit random places and things. My favorite thing to do is try to land a mighty blow on friends in WvW. Due to not having a target, you really start to learn the control of it.

Being there is no guarantee you will have a target in this game, getting used to playing without one is pretty vital.

Ive noticed most people, if I try to land it out in the open it gets dodged, if I try to land it in the direction they dodge from something else. I got them.

Same with ring, its a matter of starting your ring when you think they will be there. So you have to get used to that long cast time and predetermine your move.

Catch them coming in not while they are trying to get away.

Also Ive found ring to be a life saver in some cases, remember, just as it can keep people trapped in, it can also keep people trapped out.

Turn all your settings down so there are no big effects and light rays, this allows you to see every telltale wind up of guard hammer.

Well, I feel hammer only has its uses when you use Ring + JI and then let your combo loose, but even then it doesn’t work because of teleports and stability or them just giving you the middle finger and hitting you with kittentons of CC. Combo hammer with GS and you’ll suddenly find that hammer is really useful for landing a few CCs and going for the big damage with GS.

TL;DR hammer feels more like a utility weapon.

Also the immob while it has a long distance its easily seen at long distances, up close its a much more devastating immob and 2k crit if youre running full zerk.

Banish, great for getting downs out of the vicinity and separating some from fights. I do find it a little dangerous but then again its not one of my more practiced skills yet.

I personally like hammer a lot due to the low CD on Mighty Blow allowing for a heavy AOE hit consistently. It can be combined with fiery wrath by using f1 before the immob. or a cleave. OR set up to be used after JI.

I completely disagree with it being a “utility” as I find it to have more sustained damage than gs but lower burst capability.

You can’t reliably finish an auto attack, #3 at close range is pointless, #4 is lols, #5 can be stab/teleported through (anyone who CAN’T teleport can facetank, except for necro) and in some cases, your banish could knock them out of the circle. The only perk is mighty blow, but that has really low range and could be dodged by a person who knows what they’re doing.

GS CAN reliably finish an auto attack (also can help you keep around 2 stacks of might if you’re just autoing between skills). #2 is so good it has a whole setup around its burst. #3 is an ACTUAL gap closer with a nifty blind WHICH can get you some clutch damage mitigation if you can time it, #4 (especially when traited for) can really help you claim a point. #5 is an AoE pull that counts as a whirl (meaning you have TWO skills to shoot cleansing bolts out of if you do it in a light field) and is an uncleansable “condition”.

In terms of damage, the GS outshines the Hammer ANY day in ANY way vs ANY class. In terms of mobility, the GS wins. The CC on hammer is far too telegraphed for it to be good enough as a standalone weapon which is why I believe its merely a utility weapon. You don’t find bunker builds running GS for a reason.

SlayerSixx.5763:

You can’t reliably finish an auto attack, #3 at close range is pointless, #4 is lols, #5 can be stab/teleported through (anyone who CAN’T teleport can facetank, except for necro) and in some cases, your banish could knock them out of the circle. The only perk is mighty blow, but that has really low range and could be dodged by a person who knows what they’re doing.

GS CAN reliably finish an auto attack (also can help you keep around 2 stacks of might if you’re just autoing between skills). #2 is so good it has a whole setup around its burst. #3 is an ACTUAL gap closer with a nifty blind WHICH can get you some clutch damage mitigation if you can time it, #4 (especially when traited for) can really help you claim a point. #5 is an AoE pull that counts as a whirl (meaning you have TWO skills to shoot cleansing bolts out of if you do it in a light field) and is an uncleansable “condition”.

In terms of damage, the GS outshines the Hammer ANY day in ANY way vs ANY class. In terms of mobility, the GS wins. The CC on hammer is far too telegraphed for it to be good enough as a standalone weapon which is why I believe its merely a utility weapon. You don’t find bunker builds running GS for a reason.

In terms of Burst damage, GS does outshine. I said that. I also said Hammer is very telegraphed. But I run the heck out of it and find it to be very good in sustained damage. I can fire off 5k hits almost back to back due to the low CD. The ring, yeah it can be countered but not always. The pull in gs can be stabed you have to get it done right.

I didnt say GS was horrible, but i find Hammer to be able to provide “significant” damage over time where GS is way better in terms of Burst.

The GS cooldowns kill it for being decent sustained damage, in other words, generally once you have burst it doesnt have much left to offer.

That doesnt mean it doesnt do a lot of damage and is useless. I never said that.
I personally like hammer and use the heck out of it, a lot of the problems you say it has, Ive managed to overcome by reading my opponent (which is why I hate stealth opponents as I rely heavily on my site in this game to time everything.)

I also find hammers low range is great to control it when you dont have a target in close range. Overshooting in a close range fight with no target is very easily accomplished with GS.

I find Mighty blow devastating to Mesmers and Ring even more so.

Dont get me wrong, GS will always be probably one of the most viable weapons for guard, but that doesnt mean hammer is not just as viable.

Isnt the number 1 guard in sPvP a hammer guard?

I have a hard time landing auto#3, and #4. put ih think thats okay.

banish is already very stong imo if I could land it all the time I would do a lot better. I have the feeling however that if the enemy is standing inside you that banish does not hit reliably.

I play virtue bunker so hammer#5 is to keep stuff out and rarely to keep it trapped.

what I often do is #4,#3,#5. knock them off point and keep the there for a while. I try to place the ring so it sits on the rim of the point. I have the feeling that sometimes people do not see it very well especially if you are on blue team or if the point is white. (or maybe they are just newbs). If they run in its valuable seconds to cap the point.