Guild Wars 2

Hey guys,

I’m running a full zerker build and I’ve been struggling with choosing between hammer and greatsword… Truth be told, I like the gameplay of hammer more but if the DPS loss is too much, I can live with GS.

I’ve been told by some that hammer DPS = GS DPS in longer battles while others say there’s a 15% loss in damage for hammer.

Furthermore, if I chose hammer, do you guys think it’s worth it to get Mjolnir or keep plugging away for the legendary?
I do love the look of Mjolnir but the price and effort needed unfortunately might not be justified with exotic status…

Thoughts?

Thanks guys!

if this is for WvW then use greatsword for roaming and hammer for zerging

if PvE then greatsword/sword focus for more or less everything and hammer for fractals

Why isn’t Hammer viable for PvE? I think it does a great job?

Everything is viable for PvE. So stick with Hammer if that’s what you really want to do. Some people will continuously remind you that you are sub-optimal for group runs because you aren’t max DPS, and you are. If you can ignore those comments once a while then go with it.

As for Mjolnir vs Legendary. Mjolnir + Ascended Hammer still cost less time and effort than Juggy, you aren’t paying for the stats when you go for things like Mjolnir, you are paying for the skin. The biggest thing you miss out on is ease of changing stats. But if you don’t mind having a few Hammer in your bag it’s cheaper to go with multiple Ascended Hammer over Juggy, since you can have multiple sets of sigil on your multiple sets of hammer.

Keiel.7489:

Everything is viable for PvE. So stick with Hammer if that’s what you really want to do. Some people will continuously remind you that you are sub-optimal for group runs because you aren’t max DPS, and you are. If you can ignore those comments once a while then go with it.

As for Mjolnir vs Legendary. Mjolnir + Ascended Hammer still cost less time and effort than Juggy, you aren’t paying for the stats when you go for things like Mjolnir, you are paying for the skin. The biggest thing you miss out on is ease of changing stats. But if you don’t mind having a few Hammer in your bag it’s cheaper to go with multiple Ascended Hammer over Juggy, since you can have multiple sets of sigil on your multiple sets of hammer.

I agree with you 100%. Just needed someone like you to confirm it. Yeah, hammer DPS is really good… I have no idea why I have people come up to me asking why I’m not using a greatsword. I think I will go for Mjolnir then try to craft an ascended and transmute. Thank you (:

Problem with hammer isn’kittens dps, it’s the lack of burst and the light field spam.

And the huge dps loss if the AA gets interupted because u have to dogde.
Dummy DPS is good, dps vs moving enemys and/or dogde heavy fights not.

the light field spam is annoying in dungeons/fractals

honestly only equip hammer in cliffside trash or spvp or zerging wvw

I am saying this everytime: Hammer Protection and utility is not only good in Fractals but in all PvE. Moreover, Hammer + Greatsword combo is calculated to have more dps than Sword/Focus + Greatsword combo by obal. You can choose however the way you want.

Note: Again, the permanent light field in combat is irrelevant as might stacking by blasts is best done out of combat to not to intervene with personal dps of party mates. In general, out of combat might is granted by blast combos and in combat might is granted by the likes of Phalanx Warrior. Even if your party mates insist on doing the might stacking by blasting in combat, the symbol of Hammer autoattack is smaller than all fire fields except Lava Font, so your party can just move a bit and still blast. Note that Hammer also has the best blast skill (aside from Cluster Bomb) in the game, so use it. Besides, you have to spend half your time in Greatsword to maximize personal dps, so your party can utilize that timeframe too.

As for the “dps loss” when dodging, if you dodge or heal or whatever after the second attack of autoattack in Hammer, the autoattack chain is not broken and you can actually place the symbol at your enemy even outside the melee range.

To add for the final time, Hammer can burst more often than Sword/Focus combo. The second skill can hit quite hard with a low cooldown, while all burst Sword/Focus has is on Focus with long cooldown.

No. Since hammer is a symbol spec, there’s a ramp-up time to reach its dps. The only burst from gs/hammer come from a gs rotation every now and then that will do less damage than a 5/5/0/0/4 or any dps played guardian. Investing into honor makes gs less powerful to boost hammer dps. Stacking out of combat is a time loss, especially when ( and that’s always the case) you have eles and engis in you group. You’re also stacking less multipliers for reflects, and don’t get the utilities of focus offhand.

Yes. I am not making anything up, the DPS is all obal’s calculation that he posted in a thread. If I can I ll find it for you. As for regarding out of combat as time loss, it lasts for what now 10 seconds maximum? On average its 6 seconds or so, and people wouldn’t have to choose blasts to a more damaging attack – they are not always the same. As for the ramp up, its only till it finishes an autoattack, which I presume that is included in the calculation as well. As for Focus utility, there is a blind, an unreliable condition cleanse, a long cooldown block and blast. We have plenty of practicle blinds, condition removals and blasts on a hammer build as well, and block is only situational if you need ot to survive. In return, hammer has permanent protection, 2 CCs,1 AoE immobilize and blast finisher with 5 seconds cooldown. I d say they are comparable.

I can only give it to you that Hammer has less multipliers for reflects. But is it a decisive factor? Maybe not.

Edit:

There you go. As far as I can see this is his latest calculation.

obal.3218:

5/5/0/4/0-GS-Hammer – 11029
6/6/0/0/2-GS-Scepter – 10871
4/6/2/0/2-GS-Sword – 10797
4/5/0/0/5-GS-Sword – 10515
3/5/0/4/2-GS-Hammer – 10146
5/5/2/0/2-GS Camping – 9417
3/5/0/4/2-Hammer Camping– 9338
4/6/2/0/2-Sword/Focus Camping – 7530
3/5/0/6/0-Staff Camping – 7391

I know you’re not making things up as far as math goes. Quick reminder: taking full dps builds for both, they are about equal with about 300 more less for gs/ sw/f. (6/6/2 against 5/5/0/4, both without unscathed contender). You won’t use full dps builds in dungeons. But that’s negligeable: the problems are indeed the one I listed above. 6 seconds to stack might for a 3 sec boss fight is a huge time loss. It’s not about choosing what abilities to take for blasting: both eles and engis rotations are a dps increase. If you stack might out of combat, you’re also lowering the party dps. The ramp up is actually achieved at the 2nd autoattack chain when the symbol is overlapping with the next auto attack. It is included in the calculations for a 30 second rotation, but faster the fight is, more important is the burst damage. Hammer utilities are dps loss, focus 4 and 5 aren’t. Hammer not only has less modifiers for reflects, it also has less for other weapons, conjures, non symbol skills.

It won’t be 3 seconds anymore.

Yeah, so the ability to stack might mid fight will be even more important.

Pregnantman.8259:

Yes. I am not making anything up, the DPS is all obal’s calculation that he posted in a thread. If I can I ll find it for you. As for regarding out of combat as time loss, it lasts for what now 10 seconds maximum? On average its 6 seconds or so, and people wouldn’t have to choose blasts to a more damaging attack – they are not always the same. As for the ramp up, its only till it finishes an autoattack, which I presume that is included in the calculation as well. As for Focus utility, there is a blind, an unreliable condition cleanse, a long cooldown block and blast. We have plenty of practicle blinds, condition removals and blasts on a hammer build as well, and block is only situational if you need ot to survive. In return, hammer has permanent protection, 2 CCs,1 AoE immobilize and blast finisher with 5 seconds cooldown. I d say they are comparable.

I can only give it to you that Hammer has less multipliers for reflects. But is it a decisive factor? Maybe not.

Edit:

There you go. As far as I can see this is his latest calculation.

obal.3218:

5/5/0/4/0-GS-Hammer – 11029
6/6/0/0/2-GS-Scepter – 10871
4/6/2/0/2-GS-Sword – 10797
4/5/0/0/5-GS-Sword – 10515
3/5/0/4/2-GS-Hammer – 10146
5/5/2/0/2-GS Camping – 9417
3/5/0/4/2-Hammer Camping– 9338
4/6/2/0/2-Sword/Focus Camping – 7530
3/5/0/6/0-Staff Camping – 7391

gs sf will outdps 5504 hammer when you use UC.

How long can you maintain Aegis infront of Alpha in CoE?
UC is kinda unreliable to me.

Hammer2 ish very stronKkk as mentioned and helps in Blast Combo.
SF is strong too in case of ressing teammate with F5 on, while Hammer5 doesnt have as much impact on that.

Therefore at the end of the day, it depends on your own playstyle and team set up!
If a party filled with Ele, i would use SF, if a party is filled with Warrior, i would use hammer.

yLoon.5289:

How long can you maintain Aegis infront of Alpha in CoE?
UC is kinda unreliable to me.

that depends on how well you play.