Guild Wars 2

This has bugged me since release. I’d like to use hammer more in PVE, but the 3rd attack in the chain is just so stupidly slow I find myself switching to other weps.
Simple fix, just make the last attack follow with the rest and only allow the symbol to be put down if the chain completes, or something like that. I dunno, but as it is now, I find it very dull to auto-attack with.
Anyone else agree?

Your not alone.

I know allot of people that use the hammer due to how useful the protection is but pretty much everyone agrees. The hammer AA is painfully slow.

A suggestion I have been floating around for a while is quite simple & something I believe would help allot.

1: Reduce the cast time of the last swing to 1/2 second.
2: Take a pulse of of symbol of protection (Don’t worry it will still provide permanent protection)
3: Adjust the damage per pulse of symbol of protection so that our overall damage is the same.

You end up with the same damage potential, more or less the same protection uptime (Still have permanent protection uptime) but a much faster AA chain.

While I don’t disagree that the AA is slow I’m fine with it. I’ve played a guardian since beta and used a hammer the entire time and never been bothered by the speed of it.

I see the argument that the 3rd attack misses a lot because of the speed or it doesn’t go off at all, but this has never been my experience as long as you stay on target it goes off even if they move out of range before the animation finishes it will still finish which still gives you protection which is mainly what you want the attack to trigger for anyway.

I dunno. I see posts like this a lot so I know I’m definitely in the minority but I like the hammer AA just fine. although I wouldn’t mind hammer 4 sped up slightly. its gotta be the most telegraphed CC in the game hands down.

I think Ragnar’s suggestions would go a long way. Hammer is quite clunky as is and could use some help on the auto attack. The target can just kite away while you’re laying down the symbol and avoid 1/2 your damage. Mighty Blow is the only reliable damage on the entire set, though the utility is always useful.

I’d also like to see the light field on the symbol removed, it’s a major hindrance in PvE.

We just need new traits to improve it.

Like 20% increase speed of 3rd attack and 20% decrease simbol duration.
Or 5# to make it consecration
Or 5# change to aoe attack or jump like warriors

there are lots of ideas out there…but like new retreat buff after 2,3 years…dont expect too much…

I wouldn’t mind if they changed it, but I’m fine with the way it is right now. Guardian is my main since the game launch (minus a month).

I like to use the 2 first attack of the chain on a enemy and having the time to start the animation on the same enemy, but moving to a second just as the hammer hit him instead

Just cut the casting time, Symbols are garbage everywhere except on spvp, and quite frankly, guardian builds could use the diversity if the hammer where to actually become useful.

… Guardian Hammer not useful? … someone’s taking crazy pills, maybe it’s me but seems like it’s part of the general Fractal build for the protection, part of the frontline WvW build, and is just in general a nice way to make dungeons easymode for everyone while doing good damage.

I don’t see it /shrug.

Yeah I think there is a little of “if it’s not in the 99% of awesome, it’s crap” going on in the thread. Is everyone actually aware of how much damage a hammer does in 5/5/0/4/0 setup? It’s one of the highest if you aren’t swapping weapons. I’m assuming we aren’t debating the usefulness of hammer in WvW here.

AA chain is slow but … balanced for what you get from hammer. My big issue with hammer is how situational the other skills are. i.e. it’s a pretty boring weapon.

Obtena.7952:

Yeah I think there is a little of “if it’s not in the 99% of awesome, it’s crap” going on in the thread. Is everyone actually aware of how much damage a hammer does in 5/5/0/4/0 setup? It’s one of the highest if you aren’t swapping weapons. I’m assuming we aren’t debating the usefulness of hammer in WvW here.

AA chain is slow but … balanced for what you get from hammer. My big issue with hammer is how situational the other skills are. i.e. it’s a pretty boring weapon.

^^
and… light fields… ugh light fields.

Yes, would be nice to have a ‘switch’ to change fields but then the hammer would be OPed. That’s more of a field issue, not a Hammer one.

The damage doesn’t seem out of line with the cast time. The QoL is terrible and could use some adjustment so it feels less slow.

My main objection is field spam. Yes protection is great, but no auto-attack in the game should include combo fields because it messes up coordinated team combos.

GreyWraith.8394:

The damage doesn’t seem out of line with the cast time. The QoL is terrible and could use some adjustment so it feels less slow.

My main objection is field spam. Yes protection is great, but no auto-attack in the game should include combo fields because it messes up coordinated team combos.

Yes..make 5# skill simbol with light field and 3rd chain faster and giving aoe protection plus maybe might or regen without simbol.
change aoe light animation of 2# into third chain and make new 2# skill animation(some ground effect like earth shatter or something when character jump on target – something like jormag flamethrower jump animation).

Hammer aa is an aoe 100% uptime prot skill. It cant do more dps

I love my hammer. The only complaint I have with it is skill 5 not the auto attack. It might be as fast as our other weapons, but to me it hits a lot harder. Its all I run in WvW and fractals (well 99% of the time anyway)

My biggest issue with hammer auto is the light field. When I play ele in fractals or dungeons and there’s a hammer guard, their constant light field auto spam often overwrites my fire field blasting rotation, which ends up depriving our party of a reasonable amount of dps.

I’d prefer if the field was moved to another skill and the auto was sped up to compensate.

Tenrai Senshi.2017:

My biggest issue with hammer auto is the light field. When I play ele in fractals or dungeons and there’s a hammer guard, their constant light field auto spam often overwrites my fire field blasting rotation, which ends up depriving our party of a reasonable amount of dps.

I’d prefer if the field was moved to another skill and the auto was sped up to compensate.

or… just have the symbol not a combo field… done

Ya, if the symbol wasn’t a field, the hammer will be so much nice to play. It wouldn’t make it stronger, just group play friendlier.

Or remove the symbol and give it knockback…but then the pve people will QQ.
Symbol on hammer is staying though because of the bad guardian symbol traits that Anet put in place for it.

It isn’t going anywhere.

Saiyan.1704:

Or remove the symbol and give it knockback…but then the pve people will QQ.
Symbol on hammer is staying though because of the bad guardian symbol traits that Anet put in place for it.

It isn’t going anywhere.

1 stack of vulnerability for 3s as a master trait hurray!! Note that every other vulnerability application that is 5 seconds or shorter has 5 -10 stacks

Ragnarox.9601:

We just need new traits to improve it.

Like 20% increase speed of 3rd attack and 20% decrease simbol duration.
Or 5# to make it consecration
Or 5# change to aoe attack or jump like warriors

there are lots of ideas out there…but like new retreat buff after 2,3 years…dont expect too much…

All of which could have been added to the ZEAL trait line – /cough Devs.

I honestly would be much happier if they made #3 Zealots Embrace’s immobilize wave travel twice the speed on the ground, and #5 Ring of Warding not root you in place.

The hammer AA attack speed is horrible in pve especially if you have players nearby. They simply steal your kill while you watch the animation.

And protection is rather useless in pve except killing champions alone. Where is it currently usefull? Game mode? Dungeon?

However it is great to pose with an awesome looking hammer in that manner.

The best would be changeable skills. So you could choose 1 out of 3 or 5.

raubvogel.5071:

And protection is rather useless in pve except killing champions alone. Where is it currently usefull? Game mode? Dungeon?

Protection is useful where there is damage to be mitigated. As such it can be necessary on PvE in pugs or harder content like fractals. Its a flat %33 damage decrease permanently with hammer, can’t get any better then that I think.

They need to fix the AA chain and change the #4 that is useless, unless you wanna troll.

Pregnantman.8259:

raubvogel.5071:

And protection is rather useless in pve except killing champions alone. Where is it currently usefull? Game mode? Dungeon?

Protection is useful where there is damage to be mitigated. As such it can be necessary on PvE in pugs or harder content like fractals. Its a flat %33 damage decrease permanently with hammer, can’t get any better then that I think.

But these situations are rather rare. The best way to mitigated damage, now, and in pve, is to kill that foe fast. And therefore it’s the holy trinity: fury, might, vulnerabilty and professions that provide that boons more frequently then others and not the professions that add protection and/or regeneration.