Guild Wars 2

Why is Greatsword + hammer on metabattle, but not something like Greatsword + mace and shield?

I am new to warrior and I just dont see what is so great about hammer.
Its not that I dont see that it can be a good weapon. I can, but I wonder if something else in its place would be good too.

Hammer has autoattack, weakness, cripple, knockback and knockdown.
The adrenaline move gives you a ground target aoe stun jump.

As mace + shield I get an autoattack with a build in weakness, a block for potential adrenaline and reflect on it if traited, a daze and on shield a stun and another block with reflect if traited.
The adrenaline move gives me a non-ground target stun, which can go up to 3 seconds with 3 adrenaline bars (quite good). Making a hundred blades follow up easier to do.

What am I overlooking?
Why is there so no such metabattle pvp build as Greatword + mace and shield?
Or some other Greatsword + mainhand + offhand build?

Because mace+shield is a single target weapon. And that coupled with gs means the weapon sets do any noticeable damage only when you get to CC someone(So you can burst with hundred blades) So you have to hit mace f1, if you miss it… not much dmg you can do until it is up again.

Hammer has a lot of aoe effects, and as such is better for group combat. And has more abilities than can be chained into damage with greatsword(hammer alone does pretty good dps too, unlike mace)

Shhh don’t let them catch on. Mace/Shield Greatsword is a fantastic build when you put the time in to learn it.

It’s my favorite spec, but it is a spec with very obvious limitations. You can beat a D/D Ele if you land Skull Crack consistently. The blocks aren’t only good for defense but can be used for offense with Shield Master.

That being said, it’s easy to kite using the terrain and there’s a disgusting amount of blind floating around. Now, if you build your team around having the build you can do really well, but the question is always “is this better than another build.”

I love GS Mace/Shield and use it quite often. Hammer is however better for group fights as it’s easier to hit multiple targets with it, it has a blast finisher (Earth Shaker) and if you chain the CC’s together, which is the hammer’s strong point, it can be very deadly.

Mace is also a high skillcap weapon. Landing Skull Crack reliably takes a lot of practice where as Earth Shaker is relatively easy. Hammer is technically a better weapon utility wise but mace has it’s benefits. Honestly nothing in Gw2 feels as good to me as landing a Skull Crack on someone. I’m not sure what it is about that skill but I just feel so good every time I hit someone with it.

Just because it’s not meta, doesn’t mean it’s not good. You aren’t really missing anything.
As others have described, both weapon sets have their advantages and disadvantages. It all depends what you want to do. Due to the all-out aoe stunlocking and interrupting on hammer it’s a great way to set up groups for your cleave DPS, but if you want a build with a bit more sustain and just as strong 1vs1 capabilities, there’s no reason why you can’t bring Mace+Shield instead.

A build can still be great and powerful in it’s own right, even if it’s not the current meta-standard. You’ve also got to remember, any meta build wasn’t meta until somebody created it and made it meta. New meta’s are in-part created by people trying new or different builds, and them catching on.