Guild Wars 2

What do you guys think of Medi Gs/Ham in spvp after the patch?

Was initially waiting for a few folks to roll in with a “no, not Guard meta” or two…

…However, believe you me folks; if it’s not, it most certainly should be

My particular build works wonders; but hey, to each their own…

Sincerely,
Gilded Guardian – ;333

Pre patch I had a ton of fun running Gs/Hammer medi, though post patch I found it very unsynergistic and lackluster :/
Palomod, could you please link your build? I’d really love to find a good build running Gs/Hammer

I’ll mail it to ya in-game bud

Used properly it’s devastating

Doin the War daily; may be a min

Edit1: Sent, enjoy the build there bud
Edit2: First Guard match of the day 501 to 16
Edit2.5: Started at the top, finished at the top ;333

Sincerely,
Gilded Guardian – ;333

Maybe it could work when we get traps.

I have found hammer to be a sub par weapon for PvP because its attacks are too slow for its range and guard’s dearth of mobility or cc options. Hammer has built-in cc but still suffers from slow, obvious telegraphs.

What weapons would you consider to have good synergy then? Personally I enjoy being able to RoW—JI to ensure max dmg on WW or forcing the enemy to blow cds/rolls to avoid it. That and the snare and knockback are decent for helping point secure or chasing down kills, though I will grant that the lack of mobility outside of the GS3 and JI is pretty noticeable when fighting ranged weapon sets.

Because sharing is caring and one of today’s sPvP dailies is Guard/Thief Winner…

Honor-Mid, Bot, Mid
Valor-Mid, Mid, Mid
Zeal-Mid, Mid, Bot
[Of course, there are quite a few variants available; that’s one of this build’s particular draws, lil tweak here n’ there and you’re good to go with most any sorta situation]

GS/Ham [though, there is a staff variant that’s a bit better for PvE purposes]

Rune of Speed(Vit+8% quicker during/after battle)/Trav(AllStat+Boon/Condi) for permanently increased speed [Helps a ton bein full melle n’ all; huge kite reduction]

Marauder ammy as Guards have such a low initial Vit Pool

Air sig rec on GS +other options
Bloodlust on Ham +other options

Utils: LoW[Shelter variant very doable]—SC-JI-CoP—RF

Like most builds there are, of course, certain tricks that’ll work particularly well here but you’ll either have to inquire further or figure them out on your own

Best of luck bud,
Gilded Guardian – ;333

…Here’s what I’d mailed our pal Sreb earlier today [with a few additions of course as we get extra space via forum]; here’s hoping he’s both enjoying and utilizing it properly as that, like most things, is how/when/where it shines

Sincerely,
Gilded Guardian – ;333

GS/hammer is a strong combo, however it’s severely lacking against anyone that knows how to properly kite.

Hammer works great. I prefer to use it with mace/torch offhand for more burst potential with a marauder amulet. Your burst would go like this:

Ring of Warding->Judges Intervention->Hammer 2->weapon swap->Torch 4-> Mace 3->Mace 2/auto attack until you can swap back to hammer for hammer 3 (if necessary) to ensure landing another hammer 2. As with any typical medi build, still use Smite condition ASAP once you get a condi upon the initial burst. You may even have an extra Torch 4 to land in there if you run Radiant Fire from the radiance line (which you should). Push Mace 3 back one step in the rotation if they are still surprised and aren’t attacking back yet—the lamest thing you can do is stand there channeling Mace 3 while your prey twiddles their thumbs.

Depending on your opponent, they may even be downed right after Mace 3. If Hammer 2, Torch 4, Mace 3, and Smite condition crit, you’ve done ~14k damage in just a few seconds, plus the ~1k burning from Judges Intervention. I prefer mace/torch over the GS because Mace 3 and Torch 4 allow you to burst more frequently than GS, especially because the GS burst is so telegraphed and thus easy to miss. If you time it right, landing Mace 3 and Torch 4 bursts is easy as pie. Like any medi setup, you’ll be fairly defenseless after the initial burst, so get ready to pop your virtues and renewed focus if you start attracting unwanted attention…

Prepatch I used to play a gs/hammer medi with valor/honor/virtues and valkyrie amulet. Battle/Intelligence sigil, and either strength or traveller rune.

I haven’t yet sat down to make it work with the new specialization but I think that losing two handed mastery must have hurt gs/hammer builds as hammer utilities have long cool downs.

I hope this helps guide someone.

Losing THM was a bit of a fish, BUT, one of my favorite parts of Ham was/is its #2 skill Mighty Blow; not only does it hit hard but it’s a blast finisher on a 5 second c/d…

…That’s friggen amazing folks considering how easily placed it is; area retal ftw!
(Not only that but you can most certainly use said finisher on others fields causing all sortsa awesomesauce to occur when teamed up with another field producer)

Going full mele seems a good way to get poked to death.

GS/Hammer is for teamfights with every drawbacks and advantages. You can score a kill on 1v1 against a melee heavy build every now and then but soloing without scepter is a big NO unless you are bunker.

I also run H/GS and I find it very viable in teamfights. The utility/CC and damage is well balanced here. But if a ranged catches you off-guard… You are in trouble

GS/Hammer is purely meele. i dont see that be viable in pvp. you can easily outkite that (just cripple) and if you go low and need to retreat abit, regenerate, wait for cds and stuff you will be completly useless.

So no, dont play GS/hammer in spvp

If you think GS/H isn’t viable in sPvP you’re just not that good at it.

I, however, am; and I can assure you, it works incredibly well for me.

In fact, pretty certain I’ve still got screenshots on my desktop (on laptop currently) of a trash talking MetaMedi Guard with GS/S-F getting completely stomped by me and my “un-ranged” build…

…Just because it doesn’t work for you doesn’t mean someone else can’t play well enough for it to be fully viable for them

Palomid.9256:

If you think GS/H isn’t viable in sPvP you’re just not that good at it.

I, however, am; and I can assure you, it works incredibly well for me.

In fact, pretty certain I’ve still got screenshots on my desktop (on laptop currently) of a trash talking MetaMedi Guard with GS/S-F getting completely stomped by me and my “un-ranged” build…

…Just because it doesn’t work for you doesn’t mean someone else can’t play well enough for it to be fully viable for them

I don’t just believe it works .. I actually played successfully for a couple of month pre patch. I haven’t thought too much about how to spec it post-specializations .. Would you mind sharing the build you’re doing well on ? I could use a good starting point