Guild Wars 2

Which do you think is better? I will likely run both as as a switch and just only use hammer when long range attacks are needed, but i’m just deciding which one i want to get ascended first i’m leaning more towards staff.

look at the skills and make your decision. It’s not that one is flat out better than the other, its situational and build dependent on which would benefit your character more.

Make ascended everything thats what I did

Do you have Artificer and Weaponsmith both at 500 to craft them? Since Hammer is the only ranged option depending on the content you are doing, both are very good. Staff 4 is a nice condi cleanse and heal.

Yes I have my stuff at 500, well not artificer but i can get it easily

Hammer will benefit more from ascended stats, because the skills have higher coefficient. But Staff is a great weapon, and you should have both in your inventory.

This is like asking which is better on Ranger, Longbow or Greatsword. They are entirely different.

With one power Staff has really good mobility. Condi cleanse is always a good thing. Staff 2 is questionable. The block is good.

Hammer is a ranged weapon. Taunt is kind of cool. I forget what else it does, it’s been six months since I used it.

kal the fact that they are entirely different is why im asking, and to answer that, longbow on ranger is far better.

I would probably be inclined to get hammer first, simply because you do have other options for your melee set, but you’ll always be carrying a hammer unless you go pure melee.

I was thinking of going pure melee and having a hammer as backup, since i hardly find myself in situations where i absolutely need a ranged weapon.

Well, if you’re planning to be in staff most of the time, and not expecting to switch to other melee weapons very often, then go with the weapon you’re going to be using most of the time.

whatever the highest dps rotation is going to be.

Staff inst really dps oriented.. Most of the time you will be in melee tho so go for staff.

Idk, staff 5 looks pretty good for dps but i know what you mean it seems like 2 of the skills on it at least aren’t that great but…yeah

Might as well compare Lima beans to watermelon.

I see hammer lot better overall honestly, good aoe attack with the 2nd skill being on LOW cd as heck, the damage per auto, and 1,200 range is not bad one bit at all, you position yourself correctly, you use the 4th skill to avoid range dps on certain mobs to help ress or for what ever reason, a cc if needed and an evade skill, staff… I just see it useful for pvp honestly.

The one to Rule.2593:

kal the fact that they are entirely different is why im asking, and to answer that, longbow on ranger is far better.

Depends on the situation. When completely surrounded in melee, the greatsword’s cleave and evade is pretty nice to have.

Which was actually my specific point. It’s situational.

The one to Rule.2593:

whatever the highest dps rotation is going to be.

highest dps is sword afaik, and pushing 3 on cd, and use axe offhand for mobility with axe 4, then switching to hammer for ranged when you need it

For melee sword mainhand is your best bet. Offhand situational, probably doesn’t matter that much damage wise due to energy constraints.

I found staff damage to be lacklustre other than surge of the mists (though surge does hit hard, had a few pvp matches where someone running jalis+shiro ate through my entire healthbar just using surge+sigil procs, longish cooldown on it). It’s more of a defensive/support orientated weapon though, so I guess it’s to be expected.

Personally, I think a ranged weapon is always good to have, even if you don’t have it equipped all the time. It’s useful in too many places not to have it when you need it.

Sword/something (haven’t decided yet) and hammer will probably be the first two weapons I make for my revenant.

Yeah I was thinking sword/axe most of the time, sheild for when i need blocks for harder fights. I know staff 5 is insanely powerful though.

It’s pretty obvious, no?

Staff for Melee, Hammer for when you absolutely must use range.

I always need a ranged weapon on a weapon swap because you never know when a mistake might occur that’ll force you to play more defensively, and that’s done better with a ranged weapon.

staff seemed borderline worthless for pve imo. Switching from sword/x to axe seems to be an automatic dps loss and not much of a survival gain, while hammer is a survival gain by default due to range.

I also think hammer is higher dps than staff

i have and will stick with sword/axe and hammer for my weapons. I always like having an option to use a long range weapon when the situation calls for it – like if megadestroyer decides to camp in lava due to pet infestation distracting it inside there.

Sword is the best in terms of pure damage but Staff is better than hammer for pve for a melee friendly situation. It is very strong against break bars skill 5 pretty much melts it, far stronger than hammer is. Hammer is excellent ranged damage if the situation is not melee friendly.

If you can, just get both and adjust on the fly for the situation.

and for pvp ? staff or hammer ?

It’s situational. Based on how you play the class, you’ll prefer one over the other. Personally, I think both looks pretty great. I personally plan on running with all weapons in my inventory because situations change, but the hammer is a must for your bag, since it’s your only ranged option. Like scepter used to be for guardians.

Hammer would probably be superior in pvp unless you’re going for the condi clear on staff. I imagine you’d use staff at a good distance when people dont notice you or are distracted to get some decent damage in before going to sword/x.

Case in point I could imagine a warrior esque hammer 5 into weapon swap into sword burst

Staff for PvP (condi cleanse+some def/cc) and for some fights in the raid with breakbars because staff 5 really smashes them. I wouldn’t suggest it at all for open world PvE. The condi cleanse isn’t rlly super useful, you have loads of defense on a shield (which you really may as well take) and you’d do more dmg in melee range by just using sword and never changing weapons to staff. You get some useful utility on the Hammer too, and I think that’s by far the best secondary choice. Look at something like the big Wyvern boss fights – you just couldn’t be fighting it in melee range all the time because the lines of fire on the ground are too overwhelming and will keep you backed off him often. Having a ranged weapon makes tagging things a lot easier too, and lets face it just grabbing a tag on a few enemies is all you need to do in this game quite often.