Guild Wars 2

Been testing out this for the past few weeks after hammer nerfs were announced. Basically we lose 20% damage from Earthshaker and Staggering blow +Unsuspected Foe goes 1 tier higher. Well… didnt really care.

Unsuspected Foe is IMO overrated. It prox only with Hammer’s and Mace burst and shield attack 4. Yes, it doesnt work with knockbacks so backbreaker etc will not get any boost unless u make a hammer combo using frenzy. Merciless hammer on the other hand works perfectly with everything and even Earthshaker cause like we all know it first applies stun, then damage.

Figured out something like that:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQJASRjkOJvFPyQMxBE0DNsK4iLDqgJ0HsDA-j0BBojBiQAIBqIaslhFRjVXDT5aR1qYAA-w

We trade unsuspected foe for sigil of intelligence and our hammer burst is always crit. Every fight we start with 8 stacks of might and almost neverending fury (so our crit chance is always like 62-65% <- when using food) and these stack increase as long as we use gs. Basically rotation of skills would be Bladetrail->Whirlwind->(switch to hammer to get 100%crit chance)->Earthshaker->backbreaker->fierce blow->(switch again-repeat). Most of the time i run with 12-17 stacks of might and find this build viable even in some dungeons.

We get aditional 10% damage boost when enemy is bleeding so if u dont like GS-change to rifle or sword/shield. doesnt really matter. Rune of the traveler is my personal preference – useful for fast traveling, chasing or retreating when zerg is losing the fight. You can change it to rune of Rage or Hoelbreak/melandru if u like.

The only thing that is a big flaw- i have to admit – no Mobile Strikes. Gotta work out immobil some other way. nourishment maybe ?

Why not use a sigil of impact to get an extra 10% vs stunned or knocked down foes instead of extra stun duration?

What Julie said, I’m GS/Hammer. I personally don’t see the point in going 25 in arms for the extra 10% dmg to bleeding foes as you have access to none, better off picking up more power/vit or crit damage.

As far as sigils go I agree with impact on hammer always, or 1h sword for FT. But on GS I perfer Chill on crit, Generosity, or Force personally.

And why you would want to give up the benefits of melandru/resistance or any other rune is beyond me just to pick up free move speed.

While every kind of random build will work in wvw (not specifically mentioning OP’s build just to clarify), this will definately not work in either spv nor duels.Why? Because earthshatter is already the easiest skill to dodge with explicitly telegraphed animation and delay only better than ele’s churning earth.Equiping sigil of inteligence is not the smartest thing to do and to rely on because you will only give more hints to your enemy about what you are about to do.Imo weaponswap> highly trlegraphed earthshatter is twice as easy to avoid because you only have to wait for the first attack when switches to hammer.Not even a pointing Vegas Casino style blinking arrow sign will be more obvious about your move.But that’s just my tought.