Guild Wars 2

Hello folks,

I was just wondering, in the thoughts of the Guardian community, which weapon is better and why?

Which one does more damage? If one does less damage, what utilities does it have?

Thank you~

GS does more dmg, but hammer has a lot more CCs.

I use both. Great weapons.

Most people will recommend greatsword. I would even recommend greatsword, but I prefer hammer for it’s defense plus CC. Both are good when fighting crowds. You get better damage on greatsword, and you will also get to press buttons 3-5 more on the greatsword than you will on the hammer. The hammer’s 3-5 skills are frequently more situational and gimmicky. Hammer #5 is particularly bad, in that it seems as just about anything and everyone has a way out of it. While Hammer #4 is good in PvE, the wind-up feels too slow and easily to dodge in PvP.

Personally I like Greatsword it has great mobility, a blind, great damage, retaliation and condition removal with light fields, and 2 gap closers. i use it with a sword an focus secondary since my build is pretty aggressive and i need the movement from both and they compliment well with my play style WvW or PvE.

The hammer has its uses though and does hit pretty hard and the auto attack chain procs a protection symbol which is good for defense thanks to the 33% damage reduction it provides. the other skills with the hammer are situational though i mean you can use skill #5 to block a door or trap someone so your team can focus fire and skill #3 to immobilize someone so the CC is great but I feel greatsword does so much more for me then the hammer.

I have a question about the condition removal with the light field actually. WHen I do the GS #2 in the GS #4, it shows the condi removal combo thing. Is it actually removing conditions from me though? Or from someone being hit by the bolts?

Also why does the GS do more damage? Hammer hits hard doesn’t it? And its #2 is much shorter CD than GS #2.

Sorry for so many noobish questions, and thanks for the answers and insight.

I find it hard to quantify any weapon as “better” (except the Scepter). I personally prefer the Hammer in most situations, since it offers fair damage and protection with just the first two abilities, leaving the other 3 for more specialized situations. To get the most out of the Greatsword, you’re often blowing all the cooldown and then left auto-attacking.

it is very difficult to actually land the 3rd hit against people with hammer #1, and if it did hit you probably took 1 or 2 extra hits because of it. the area protection seems good but its not-the area of effect is too small and in an actual fight the enemy will constantly be moving.
hammer #2 does good single hit damage, but gs #2 does more overall damage. hammer #2 has shorter cooldown but it can also be dodged/blocked/blinded for complete damage mitigation. gs#2 also combos well with gs #5.
gs #3 leap has superior mobility and damage, while hammer #3 immobilize can easily be dodged without the need to actually dodge if the enemy is not at melee range.
gs #4 does tons of damage vs melee. hammer #4 is a great knock-back but the enemy will be up by the time you run up to him.
gs #5 and hammer #5 are both great CC, but gs #5 has better range and actually does damage.

having said that, hammer is better in certain situations. one example is retaliation guardian vs any other guardian. a perma retaliation/protection guardian using a hammer will win vs any guardian that is using a greatsword. reasons being: hammer #1, #3, and #5 are easier to hit since its a melee battle. gs#2 is suicide against retaliation-you’ll be doing basically the same damage right back at yourself (more to yourself if enemy has protection up). gs#4 retaliation is not as effective vs hammer since its attacks are single hit bursts.

Edit: typo..

I can’t use hammer.. autoattack is just soooooo slooooooow

Ursan.7846:

I have a question about the condition removal with the light field actually. WHen I do the GS #2 in the GS #4, it shows the condi removal combo thing. Is it actually removing conditions from me though? Or from someone being hit by the bolts?

I believe it’s removing conditions from you and those that are hit by the bolts.

Ursan.7846:

Also why does the GS do more damage? Hammer hits hard doesn’t it? And its #2 is much shorter CD than GS #2.

Sorry for so many noobish questions, and thanks for the answers and insight.

Because GS hits faster and can hit more people. With a decent amount of crit and the Empowering Might trait, you can even get decent stacks of might.

Basically run hammer if you want perma-protection and to trigger blast combos with #2 frequently, otherwise run GS.

Hammer is a proper aoe weapon even with its auto attack. To use the hammer properly you need to go down the honour line and use writs to make the symbols more effective. The 3rd hit in hammer chain is actually a ranged attack.

Depending on if you want a bursty weapon or not then you have your options made easy. GS for burst. Hammer for everything else.

Hammer actually does more damage than GS, but more damage OVERALL. Because the hammer has a pretty slow attack chain, GS will definitely be better in some situations where you simply can’t afford the time it takes to use a hammer. I mainly use GS in PvE, I have used the hammer as well though, but the fact that slot 3-4 are the only useful ones other then main attacks is kind of a turn of for me

It all depends on my team comp, if I am running with a lot of heavy DPS I stick with Hammer and CC/Banish people in to my group to get obliterated. If there is more support than DPS I go Sword/Focus and GS and do my burst combo. I have Valkyrie and Zerker stat accessories for this also.

Leftstanding.6814:

it is very difficult to actually land the 3rd hit against people with hammer #1, and if it did hit you probably took 1 or 2 extra hits because of it. the area protection seems good but its not-the area of effect is too small and in an actual fight the enemy will constantly be moving.
hammer #2 does good single hit damage, but gs #2 does more overall damage. hammer #2 has shorter cooldown but it can also be dodged/blocked/blinded for complete damage mitigation. gs#2 also combos well with gs #5.
gs #3 leap has superior mobility and damage, while hammer #3 immobilize can easily be dodged without the need to actually dodge if the enemy is not at melee range.
gs #4 does tons of damage vs melee. hammer #4 is a great knock-back but the enemy will be up by the time you run up to him.
gs #5 and hammer #5 are both great CC, but gs #5 has better range and actually does damage.

having said that, hammer is better in certain situations. one example is retaliation guardian vs any other guardian. a perma retaliation/protection guardian using a hammer will win vs any guardian that is using a greatsword. reasons being: hammer #1, #3, and #5 are easier to hit since its a melee battle. gs#2 is suicide against retaliation-you’ll be doing basically the same damage right back at yourself (more to yourself if enemy has protection up). gs#4 retaliation is not as effective vs hammer since its attacks are single hit bursts.

Edit: typo..

like someone already mentioned, Hammer’s 1 attack’s 3rd hit is actually a range attack. And I like how you tend to mention dodging/missing with hammer skills, arent most attacks can be dodged if you time it correctly or have endurance to do it (GS attacks included)? I just think it really comes down to preference and how much you have play with certain types of weapons. Once you know the shortcomings (or advantages), you work and adapt to a different way of offense or defense.

My play style is a bit more mobile, so I prefer GS as my general all-purpose weapon.

The greatsword has the advantage of reach with GS4 being a gap closer and GS5 allowing you to control mob positioning when they are scattered. It has built-in condi removal and consistent damage. I run empowering might, and because GS attacks faster and more frequently, it helps me trigger crits more often.

However, I use the hammer for zone control/defense. Sometimes, I’ll have it on switch, so I’ll pull mobs in together with GS5, swap to hammer and use hammer5 to lock mobs together for a few seconds. Hammer4 is nice for putting isolated mobs into the group of mobs for AoE. Hammer3 is another tool to keep everything in place.

Ursan.7846:

Hello folks,

I was just wondering, in the thoughts of the Guardian community, which weapon is better and why?

Which one does more damage? If one does less damage, what utilities does it have?

Thank you~

IMHO this is a wrong question,

different weapons have different purposes, they are situational and affected by your play stile and the content.

personally, I use GS / scepter_focus for solo PVE and dailies,

I use staff/scepter_shield for dungeons and fractals (support build)

I also have mace and hammer in the backpack for those rare occasions that i might use them (I love using the hammer against mobs who use hammer, its sweet revenge… toss them around with banish …lol)

this leaves me two weapons that I tried but couldn’t find a niche for them they are sword and torch.

sword is a short range melee weapon with projectiles protection and torch is well torch…

Maiden England.3491:

Hammer actually does more damage than GS, but more damage OVERALL.

Er, according to the latest calculations I’ve seen (http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/70080-guardian-effective-dps-tests/) as well as my own experience with both weapons, the hammer does not deal more damage than the GS. Still, it can be a good weapon – if you can live with its kind of gameplay.

Lalangamena.3694:

Sword is a short range melee weapon with projectiles protection and Torch is well Torch…

Sword and Torch fill kinda the same niche (namely feeling like Aragorn :-)). They don’t hit that hard, but they do hit very fast, which lends itself to a heavy crit-based build and makes for a lot of passive Virtue of Justice activations.

My advice would be to try both for a while.

Then while you are on the other weapon analyze if there any situations where you wish you had the skills of the first weapon.

Also watch out for times where you are standing around doing nothing. Think about what skills you could use in that situation.

Those questions can point you in the right direction.

OP didn’t specifiy PvP or PvE.. So I’ll go with PvE since that’s my strength. I’m a Hammer/Greatsword Guardian who sometimes switches either of them out for Sword/torch. If you want to do a short burst of decent AoE damage and then sit with auto attack for a while then you want greatsword, if you want constant AoE damage with some handy utility then you want Hammer. Greatswords are shinier and Whirling Wrath looks good and all but… I only use it to leaproy in, pull mobs in, spin to win for a a second then weapon swap immediatly. I’m aghast at the countless guardians I see who only use greatsword and never swap except to back off with a scepter -.-, the DPS on GS is only good while you’re using Whirling Wrath because “yay big numbers happened” otherwise, no, get a hammer and deal damage to everything near you the whole time you’re attacking with probably the handiest bind, the most powerful knockback and the most useful warding that guardians have access to.

Nayaru.4716:

OP didn’t specifiy PvP or PvE.. So I’ll go with PvE since that’s my strength. I’m a Hammer/Greatsword Guardian who sometimes switches either of them out for Sword/torch. If you want to do a short burst of decent AoE damage and then sit with auto attack for a while then you want greatsword, if you want constant AoE damage with some handy utility then you want Hammer. Greatswords are shinier and Whirling Wrath looks good and all but… I only use it to leaproy in, pull mobs in, spin to win for a a second then weapon swap immediatly. I’m aghast at the countless guardians I see who only use greatsword and never swap except to back off with a scepter -.-, the DPS on GS is only good while you’re using Whirling Wrath because “yay big numbers happened” otherwise, no, get a hammer and deal damage to everything near you the whole time you’re attacking with probably the handiest bind, the most powerful knockback and the most useful warding that guardians have access to.

The only time the hammer auto atk will out dps the GS is when traited for symbols and the enemy you’re attacking stays in it for the full duration — which even in pve is not always likely. Those utility spells you mention have very minimal use and any hammer user that isn’t constantly utilizing the auto attack chain is actually being a detriment to the group by putting out pathetic damage.

I should have added the Mighty blow doesn’t hit quite as hard as the whirling wrath but it hits mostly as hard and isn’t a build up attack, it’s done when you cast it, it also grants Area retaliation if you use it within the symbol of protection, it has a lower cooldown and it hits targets where you started and where you landed, not just the former. Yes I will agree within the duration of a whirling wrath, whirling wrath does more damage, but I can’t agree that during the whirling wrath cooldown that hammer will have done less AoE damage than the Whirling wrath will add up to once it’s usable again. Single target damage? Ok perhaps the greatsword wins. But this is why I like Sword/Torch. :P

Edit: I re-read reply. I said nothing about the hammer auto attack. But while I’m here it definitely hits more targets than greatsword does. Also note I wasn’t talking about single targets

The hammer may not be able to out-DPS the GS, but it’s better at keeping your party and allies around you alive. That protection buff and altruistic healing can be a godsend in dungeons, WvW, or PvP.

The greatsword wins in aoe and single dps. The issue with the hammer is that mighty blow’s CD is too short with the necessity to completely finish the hammer’s auto chain. Basically, when you mightyblow your light field, you will find yourself with mighty blow back up again around your 2nd hit. In order for mighty blow to maintain it’s dps with the GS, which is around 70-80% of actual whirling wrath damage considering it’s a channeled spell and damage ramps up, you’d have to use it on CD. However, not completing the auto chain greatly reduces the potential DPS of a hammer and severely inhibits anything comparable to a GS.

Now, I’m not against the hammer as I main it myself, but these flaws are extremely obvious and the pay off is zero.

What I’m hoping a-net does:

A.) Increase the cooldown of mighty blow and bump the damage accordingly since hammer users -have- to complete all 3 hits of #1
or
B.) Stabilize the casttimes on the auto chain in reflection of mighty blow’s short CD.

—I love the hammer and I use it way more than I should out of preference, but the way it’s setup is inferior and not at all optimal for just about any situation.

I think Hammer is perfect as it is and I’d only choose a GS over it because i want a short burst, nothing substantial. But ok, I’ll stop debating. Because the fact that hammer does practically all around AoE damage with plenty of retaliations while Whirling wrath is on cooldown, means greatsword is better AoE damage. I get this crap argument every so often in game too. I was told not to bother with actual game forums because fools were everywhere, thanks for solidifying that. xD Bye.

Just to throw my 2 cents on #5 hammer…

It’s not as bad as many make it out to be, people who walk out of it use all kinds of buffs or change their form. Not once I had a person simply walking out of it without a change of his status.
Regardless though, the skill is great to use when it’s not obvious, more as a surprise CC.

Best one I had today when a kitteny kitten kept popping out of the gate to dish out some dmg, and then return back into the fort. I popped #5 just as he finished his burst when he came out again, ending up panicking trying to get back. Only left to meet his end by our angry zerg.

Wish I had it on fraps.

Seeing someone suggest increasing the cooldown on Mighty Blow to make it mesh better in a DPS rotation makes me wonder if I’m playing a different game from everyone else. Having a blast finisher on such a short cooldown is one of the things that makes Hammer so good, imo. We already have GS for dealing damage, I don’t see the point in gutting some of Hammer’s most powerful PvE utility just to have it try to fill a role we already have covered with at least one other weapon. I’d rather see the CC made more user friendly.

Hammer. 4-5k every 5s.

PvE DPS: Hammer
PvP DPS: Greatsword
Damage Consistency: Greatsword

i frigging love the hammer. i love the GS too. but i frigging love the hammer. i have a build that i run with both the hammer and GS. and swapping out for whatever situations call for.

like someone mentioned, which i think is sound advice, try both out and see which you like better. do get used to all of your weapon sets though and pick and choose what works and doesn’t work. ; )) they all can be really fun. though i’ll admit i haven’t touched the torch in a while : //

just to add, hammer #5 also acts as a light field. so it doubles up as a combo field as well. fun stuff.

rchu.8945:

Leftstanding.6814:

it is very difficult to actually land the 3rd hit against people with hammer #1, and if it did hit you probably took 1 or 2 extra hits because of it. the area protection seems good but its not-the area of effect is too small and in an actual fight the enemy will constantly be moving.
hammer #2 does good single hit damage, but gs #2 does more overall damage. hammer #2 has shorter cooldown but it can also be dodged/blocked/blinded for complete damage mitigation. gs#2 also combos well with gs #5.
gs #3 leap has superior mobility and damage, while hammer #3 immobilize can easily be dodged without the need to actually dodge if the enemy is not at melee range.
gs #4 does tons of damage vs melee. hammer #4 is a great knock-back but the enemy will be up by the time you run up to him.
gs #5 and hammer #5 are both great CC, but gs #5 has better range and actually does damage.

having said that, hammer is better in certain situations. one example is retaliation guardian vs any other guardian. a perma retaliation/protection guardian using a hammer will win vs any guardian that is using a greatsword. reasons being: hammer #1, #3, and #5 are easier to hit since its a melee battle. gs#2 is suicide against retaliation-you’ll be doing basically the same damage right back at yourself (more to yourself if enemy has protection up). gs#4 retaliation is not as effective vs hammer since its attacks are single hit bursts.

Edit: typo..

like someone already mentioned, Hammer’s 1 attack’s 3rd hit is actually a range attack. And I like how you tend to mention dodging/missing with hammer skills, arent most attacks can be dodged if you time it correctly or have endurance to do it (GS attacks included)? I just think it really comes down to preference and how much you have play with certain types of weapons. Once you know the shortcomings (or advantages), you work and adapt to a different way of offense or defense.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but from my experience hammer 1’s 3rd attack isn’t really ranged. It simply has a range of 180 instead of 130. Although once the animation finishes it will put down the symbol regardless, the attack itself will do zero damage (only the symbol’s first pulse will hit if the enemy was within it).

And yes, obviously all attacks can be dodged. But what I was saying is that hammer skills are easier to dodge or get away from, not to mention that hammer 2, 3, and 4 take twice as long to animate.

Leftstanding.6814:

Correct me if I’m wrong, but from my experience hammer 1’s 3rd attack isn’t really ranged. It simply has a range of 180 instead of 130. Although once the animation finishes it will put down the symbol regardless, the attack itself will do zero damage (only the symbol’s first pulse will hit if the enemy was within it).

And yes, obviously all attacks can be dodged. But what I was saying is that hammer skills are easier to dodge or get away from, not to mention that hammer 2, 3, and 4 take twice as long to animate.

Its actually a bit more then 180, you get 180 from the radius of the symbiol dna then amy an additional 150 in range, and if you trait larger symbols you will almost always hit with at least two pulses and in aoe situations its much more then that.

And the cool thing is when you get uses to it you can attack one target but have a different one targeted and on the third hit you place the symbol on the second target and use mb to swap the damage. Imo almost impossible to avoid in fights with multiple enemies.

If you play the hammer where it should be played, large crowds, it has nice impact, dealing 24/7 pure aoe, which the GS doesnt, and giving retal and protection to the team.

As people said, they excel at different things and people should play them extensively before judging them, personally i use both because they excel at different things. Well the only weapon i dont use is mace, i just find it to awkward and slow for me.

I use both, but if I HAD to choose only 1… Hammer.

Explanation + rating of skills -

Auto attack – Chain is a little slow for the 3rd hit, but well worth it for that protection + light field + can’t be stopped. Easy AOE retal when combo-ed with MB. You just need to get used to how the 3rd hit works. You need to sort of slide it into your opponent. 4/5

MB hits for 4.5-5.5k with my gear Vs. fully geared 80’s on a 5s cd.
MB is a blast finisher which can be done at both ends of the attack (leaping out of or landing into the field)<- this is huge
MB is a short leap attack/gap closer VERY useful for staying on my target
Seriously… MB is frekkin’ boss. 5/5

ZE is a short->mid ranged LINE of rooting. Beyond that it’s improbable that it’ll hit the intended target. However, shoot this into the middle of a group and watch how many get rooted even if your “intended” target isn’t rooted. 3.5/5

Banish is a knockback that can knock downed players around. Lets me interrupt/shove people off of things… I’ll also use it to punt downed players into my group so that it’s far harder for my opponents to res them. 4/5

RoW is great with JI. Get used to the timing and it’s knockdown + light field + forces them to dodge/tele/stability. If they mess up trying to dodge out, they lose endurance and get knocked down again (although it really shouldn’t be bypassed by a dodge). Good for helping you escape as well (forces them to go around… if that’s even possible due to walls/terrain). If you don’t use JI I would rate this skill a 2/5… if you do… 4/5.

Vs. GS -

Auto attack is basic, pretty quick, gives might and good damage. 4/5

Whirling wrath – aoe, but vs 1 target does less dps vs just auto attack, it can proc a lot of might if you’re traited due to the number of hits. Procs sigils well for the same reason. It is very easy to mitigate with dodge/movement though. Putting a chill on swap can help with this… but I don’t like feeling that I’m forced to use a specific sigil to get it to connect reliably. The vigor nerf hurt this skill’s synergy with AH. 3/5 or 4/5 (depending on build/sigil)

LoF – Good leap range (600) + aoe bilnds (combos very well with vuln on blind). Good gap closer, but can miss targets due to elevation/terrain at times. Also useful to create a gap/get out. 4/5

SoW – roots you + cast time. The retal is nice, but no one is going to just sit in it… which will force you out of it yourself if you’re staying mele. 2/5

BB – Aoe projectile like attack. Pulls on 2nd. Another way to close the gap. Causes nice disruption/interrupts against a group. BIG plus for auto-targeting players regardless if they are stealthed or not. Can pull thieves out of refuge if done right. Some times the pull doesn’t seem to work properly and won’t pull them to you fully (seems mostly due to terrain… or if they are leaping away they just get stopped) 3/5

My normal two weapon setup(s) are H+GS (I use this a good 90% of the time) or H+Scepter/shield (for ranged/max cc/defense)

Note You can probably tell that this is mostly from a PvP PoV. WW being easy to mitigate doesn’t matter Vs. Mobs, constant gap closers aren’t as important in PvE, knockbacks aren’t as valuable in PvE etc. etc. etc.

I use hammer in dungeons and Greatsword in PvP and open world PvE most of the time but I switch to hammer in open world PvE when I am fighting a single high HP mob.

In dungeons I generally run altruistic healing and with the hammer #1 and #2 I can pretty much proc the light combo field every 3rd swing of the hammer. That’s also why I feel as if the hammer does more damage against single targets. But I don’t have any empirical evidence and could be grossly mistaken. I also don’t use GS in dungeons cause I act slightly reckless when I am using GS.

They are both great and I recommend carrying both if you have space.

Considering the newest patch removed the ability to ninja skip (dodging after the 2nd autoattack swing to speed up the chain), do you guys feel that the hammer is still a viable weapon?
Skipping was pretty valuable for me since I had near 100% uptime of vigor so I could heal others with Selfless daring and speed up the hammer autoattack chain at the same time.

Hammer is better, GS has a lot of damage on #2 but with that Cooldown you can hit Hammer#2 twice which will do a bigger damage. GS used to be my #1 weapon before I tried hammer, since then Hammer is my main wep – GS/Staff second

Hammer still works and you can still skip some part of the animations, both on the end of the second swing and the third by dodging.

It was viable before ninja skipping was official and it is viable now.

Note that speeding up animation =/= actually making the attack faster. You still attack at the same rate; dodge canceling was just for burning endurance and proccing roll traits. The nerf hits Hammer much worse than GS because GS can take the last 10 points in Honor (since Elusive Power is useless now) and put them into Zeal instead to offset the damage loss, while hammer has to keep them in Honor to keep Writ of Persistence.

Okay, thanks for the clarification Brutaly & Guanglai.

Strontius.6478:

Considering the newest patch removed the ability to ninja skip (dodging after the 2nd autoattack swing to speed up the chain), do you guys feel that the hammer is still a viable weapon?
Skipping was pretty valuable for me since I had near 100% uptime of vigor so I could heal others with Selfless daring and speed up the hammer autoattack chain at the same time.

Aww crap they fixed that? I loved being able to dodge roll to do some healing while waiting for that long kitten third swing to hit.

Guanglai Kangyi.4318:

Note that speeding up animation =/= actually making the attack faster. You still attack at the same rate; dodge canceling was just for burning endurance and proccing roll traits. The nerf hits Hammer much worse than GS because GS can take the last 10 points in Honor (since Elusive Power is useless now) and put them into Zeal instead to offset the damage loss, while hammer has to keep them in Honor to keep Writ of Persistence.

sorry,

I’ve been busy at work this week and didnt have time to follow the changes in detail, what happened to Elusive Power?

Greatsword is better hands down.

Hammer is just lackluster because the skills don’t do very much in PvE. Yeah maybe you can known an enemy back once in a while but the only enemies you can knock back are the ones you dont’ need to knock back and waste your time by doing so as you then need to either wait for them to return or chase them down, not to mention that the huge cast time completely obliterates any advantage that not getting whacked on for 1.5 seconds will get you. You’d have reduced the damage you took more by kiting than using that skill. The single AOE skill does lackluster damage, the only benefit is that it recharges fairly fast and is a comba finisher. The other root skill does little damage and there isn’t really much use to rooting mobs (obviously useful in PvP). The shielding ability is pretty useful however it doesn’t really make up for the fact that 2/5 of the abilities are pretty much useless in PvE. The autoattack is super slow and if memory serves me right only hits one target at a time. So the DPS of the autoattack very low even if the individual hits do more damage than the GS.

Every ability of the GS is aoe, and they all do damage. THe GS has an AOE pull and an AOE blind/charge skill. Three of the abilities are combo finishers and 1 of the abilities creates a combo field. The autoattack does AOE damage, is much faster than the hammer autoattack and the 3rd hit of the GS ability gives you might.

When comparing the two weapons I would simply ask yourself this, “Am I going to be pvping or pveing?” And even then I’d still think about taking the GS to PvP with instead of the hammer which is very underwhelming.

@ellisande

just a correction, hammer is our only true aoe weapon since both #1 and 2# are true aoe, which #1 on gs isnt, its just a cone in front of the guardian, just like any other melee weapon in the game.

So basically hammer can keep aoe going 24/7, gs cant, and with this im not saying hammer is better, its just better at doing sustained aoe.

Ellisande.5218:

Greatsword is better hands down.

Hammer is just lackluster because the skills don’t do very much in PvE. Yeah maybe you can known an enemy back once in a while but the only enemies you can knock back are the ones you dont’ need to knock back and waste your time by doing so as you then need to either wait for them to return or chase them down, not to mention that the huge cast time completely obliterates any advantage that not getting whacked on for 1.5 seconds will get you. You’d have reduced the damage you took more by kiting than using that skill. The single AOE skill does lackluster damage, the only benefit is that it recharges fairly fast and is a comba finisher. The other root skill does little damage and there isn’t really much use to rooting mobs (obviously useful in PvP). The shielding ability is pretty useful however it doesn’t really make up for the fact that 2/5 of the abilities are pretty much useless in PvE. The autoattack is super slow and if memory serves me right only hits one target at a time. So the DPS of the autoattack very low even if the individual hits do more damage than the GS.

Every ability of the GS is aoe, and they all do damage. THe GS has an AOE pull and an AOE blind/charge skill. Three of the abilities are combo finishers and 1 of the abilities creates a combo field. The autoattack does AOE damage, is much faster than the hammer autoattack and the 3rd hit of the GS ability gives you might.

When comparing the two weapons I would simply ask yourself this, “Am I going to be pvping or pveing?” And even then I’d still think about taking the GS to PvP with instead of the hammer which is very underwhelming.

I think admittedly you are pretty unfamiliar with the Hammer and are speaking from a bad memory. All of the Hammer auto-attacks are AoE, and each one of the auto-attacks hits harder than GS (to make up for the slower speed). Also, you’re completely ignoring the biggest benefit of using a Hammer in PvE… the symbol that it generates on the third hit. You can keep permanent protection up simply by auto-attacking, not to mention the other benefits that you can get from dropping a symbol (Altruistic Healing, Writ of The Merciful, combo field).

Hammer DPS is right on par with greatsword. I will agree that for PvP/WvW I would personally use a greatsword for the mobility and pull that it provides, but for PvE Hammer is stellar. As someone else has already said.. if you’re running with one guardian then use hammer, if you’re running with another hammer guardian then switch to greatsword to help pull in the mobs.

Here’s how my guardian does it – main hand GS, alt hand Hammer (this works great for CC, especially Risen mobs, but wont work for ranged play, and will suck if crowd has overlapping AOE, e.g. Orrian Spectral Bow).
Specced for a 50% crit build. Anything more than that, and you start losing power/HP/armor.
GS #3 for gap closer, jump in the middle of crowd, then GS#4 → GS #2. Follow this with GS #5, then switch to Hammer.
Take remaining down with Hammer #2, then follow with #3 and #4.
Usually works pretty good, unless you get knocked back.
If my health is close to 50% or less by this time, dodge out, strafe for a bit and use 6, then switch back to GS (should be enough to get through the swap cooldown).
Rinse and repeat.

I carry both weapons in WvW.
Both upgraded with Hydromancy.

The extra unexpected CC is great, especially on cliffs for the hammer, or if you want to golf a player into your zerg.

Aberrant.6749:

RoW is great with JI. Get used to the timing and it’s knockdown + light field + forces them to dodge/tele/stability. If they mess up trying to dodge out, they lose endurance and get knocked down again (although it really shouldn’t be bypassed by a dodge). Good for helping you escape as well (forces them to go around… if that’s even possible due to walls/terrain). If you don’t use JI I would rate this skill a 2/5… if you do… 4/5.

I have no idea why the Ward go off around half-way through the cast time instead instantly at the end like most skills. Most of the time I’ll end up completing the animation but the ward will be where I teleported from.

Aberrant.6749:

LoF – Good leap range (600) + aoe bilnds (combos very well with vuln on blind). Good gap closer, but can miss targets due to elevation/terrain at times. Also useful to create a gap/get out. 4/5

Note that if Blind Exposure is traited, it will apply three stacks of vulnerability for every target hit, so if you hit two targets, it will apply six stacks to everything hit.

If we are talking about WvW. If you ever have been or against a good team in WvW, you will find out every single guardian+warrior use hammer. And at least 1/3 of the team are hammers. For 1v1 maybe it’s still a hard call whether go GS or hammer, but for group play in pvp/wvw, the answer is hammer no doubt.