Guild Wars 2

http://taugrim.com/2012/06/21/guide-to-gw2-captain-hammer-warrior/

This guide discusses my “Captain Hammer” build for GW2 Warrior. When I visualize a captain on the battlefield, I picture a leader bellowing orders, boosting the morale of those under his command, and serving as a rallying point. The name is also a tribute to Whedon’s hilarious Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog.

This build provides good AOE healing and AOE buffs via shouts, excellent sustained CC capability, high direct damage mitigation with 1810 toughness, damage that steadily increases over time (via stacking of might boons), and high uptime on Weakness debuffs. Therefore, this spec excels at supporting friendlies and “tanking” enemies in sPvP.

I came up with this build after reading an awesome thread by Vorsakan discussing Warrior healing on the GW2Guru Warrior forum. That got me theorycrafting about the possibilities for a shout-based Warrior.

For a more offensive and less support-oriented build that still provides good sustained CC, see my “Hammer Gun”:http://taugrim.com/2012/09/15/guild-wars-2-hammer-gun-warrior-build/ build.

Hey Taugrim,

Looking forward to having a read of the article when I get back from work. I’ve been pondering for a week or so looking at a support build (if I am honest more for PvE dungeons rather than PvP although I am starting to get into PvP now as well in this game) but I hope this will be a good starting point for a general template for me to try or at least point me in a good direction for trait / skill synergy when going for support. I suspect for PvE I will end up with the range option in there for the fights where you have to stand back a bit rather than the full on mace/hammer version :P.

Love your Youtube channel btw, keep up the good work

Taugrim, glad to see a build from you here. I loved your work in SWTOR and I look forward to trying this one out later.

I have been running the Build almost since launch .. just for leveling sake at start I was more dmg spec with Hammer/Shotgun combo.. and now End game WvW/sPVP/PVE I have switched into the full spec but I still maintain using a gun in off slot.

I feel the build is 100% solid with hammer/maces and Love it in Spvp no complaint , for that thank you much!

For WvW/PvE I suggest to anyone trying this build to at least have the off slot with a range weapon. The Hammer is way to awesome to give up vs 2maces but a range weapon in place of them is stellar.

My main reasons
1. In WvW you need to be able to run away sometimes but still stay close to provide support/dmg , and this allows that.
2. In PvE you need to just be able to back off and do dmg during some boss encounters , and this allows that.
3. Shouts will still provide the point of healing/buffs to group with a range weapon so don’t be shy on it.

Thank you Taugrim … I will add anyone interested in seeing how someone else handled with this build besides Taugrim msg me and I will give you my stream channel .

Shargath of Sorrows Furnace

NuclearMessiah.9503:

Taugrim, glad to see a build from you here. I loved your work in SWTOR and I look forward to trying this one out later.

Let us know what you think after you try it.

WreckSC.1835:

I suspect for PvE I will end up with the range option in there for the fights where you have to stand back a bit rather than the full on mace/hammer version :P.

Pigmartyr.2413:

For WvW/PvE I suggest to anyone trying this build to at least have the off slot with a range weapon. The Hammer is way to awesome to give up vs 2maces but a range weapon in place of them is stellar.

Yes, swapping mace/mace for rifle makes sense for PvE and WvW.

<3 the Hammer!

Thanks for the build, I haven’t had the chance to test it as much as I would like, but initial results came out well, especially on how much healing and adrenaline the shouts give out. I did make some changes though, and I think they were more just playstyle differences:

- Sword/Shield for the swap set
- Leg Specialist instead of Empowered
- Warbanner instead of Signet of Rage

I’m back and forth for the Warbanner/Signet but I’m amazed at how well this worked out. Considering that I was running a paranoid build (not trusting teammates in hot join = Endure Pain, Defy Pain, Last Stand and Shrug It Off), I felt like through shouts and Lung Capacity, I could keep myself up so much better. Not having that rifle felt silly at first, but the hammer’s utility easily made me forget it. I still wanted the movement Savage Leap offered though, along with the shield stun.

I’ll definitely have to try the Empowered version in PvE, it seems like it’ll handle dungeons so well while still putting out better utility than banners. Thanks again, looking forward to other builds you put out!

Equivocat.8246:

- Sword/Shield for the swap set

Axe (direct damage) or Mace (CC) would be better mainhand options than Sword, since the Sword is a bleed weapon and this build offers direct damage not condition damage.

Taugrim,

Your builds as always are awesome, I was wondering if you have had a chance to take a look at other more popular builds and giving your input perhaps in a Taugvlog? The one that strikes me as the most popular would be Yojack’s.

Captain Hammer has been treating my Charr very well! Keep up the good work sir!

Taugrim.7604
Axe (direct damage) or Mace (CC) would be better mainhand options than Sword, since the Sword is a bleed weapon and this build offers direct damage not condition damage.

I mainly went sword so I could zip around the map with Savage Leap, but I’m definitely going to try axe and mace individually and see how they feel! The control is certainly there, but I feel like my damage has been lacking a fair bit. Granted, it’s a rare occassion that I’m checking out the combat log, but I’ll start paying more attention to it and see how well each weapon set stacks up against each other.

I’ve looked at both builds but I’m not seeing how Mending is the best heal skill. I’m guessing because those builds were made before Mending’s CD was increased to 25s and Signet’s reduced to 20s?

I’m not sure you can really compare signet heal and mending. The signet’s heal is pretty insubstantial, both active and passive. You could argue for putting the adrenaline heal in there, if you weren’t worried about conditions (but you probably should be since without mending this build only has 1 condition removal every 20 seconds).

I’ve been testing this build in sPvP the past few hours, with the only difference being I replaced Fear Me! with On My Mark (mainly for the fast cooldown). Awesome is an understatement to describe it. I imagine someone who was actually used to playing this build would be pretty scary.

Moat.7093:

Your builds as always are awesome, I was wondering if you have had a chance to take a look at other more popular builds and giving your input perhaps in a Taugvlog? The one that strikes me as the most popular would be Yojack’s.

What is Yojack’s build? Link it and I’ll take a look over the weekend.

I’ve been working on 3 different Warrior builds, here they are in reverse order:
1. “Hammer Gun”: CC/DPS build featuring Hammer and Rifle:
http://taugrim.com/2012/09/15/guild-wars-2-hammer-gun-warrior-build/

2. “Captain Hammer”: i.e. the build featured in this thread

3. “Run and Gun”: probably best suited to WvW given the range and mobility. I used to play this in sPvP but “Hammer Gun” and “Captain Hammer” IMO are more effective due to higher sustained CC:
http://taugrim.com/2012/05/30/gw2-run-and-gun-warrior-spec/

Outlaw.4078:

I’ve looked at both builds but I’m not seeing how Mending is the best heal skill. I’m guessing because those builds were made before Mending’s CD was increased to 25s and Signet’s reduced to 20s?

I theorycrafted Captain Hammer between BWE1 and BWE2, and it turns out that the build worked really well in practice. Back then yes Mending was on a 20-sec cooldown. It was arguably a bit overpowered. The increase of the cooldown to 25-sec seems fair to me.

The spec still rocks with Mending. Especially if you’re like me and want to have a good answer to sustained incoming condition application.

Here’s a tourney finals post-launch featuring the build:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdJHduDNE_g

Thanks Taug! For the record I am a big fan of the Vlogs, keep up the good fight sir!

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/warrior/Yojack-s-Min-Max-home-of-the-Yojack-Build-2012-for-GW2

Why would you pick Hammer over dual Mace? Dual Mace has a better knockdown, a better single-target Burst, an extra Daze, a block/adrenaline builder, Vulnerability, a better trait, and allows for two sigils.
Sure, Hammer has a slightly higher auto attack speed and a good AoE Burst (which is trumped by Mace 5), but everything else is completely worse and all attacks are incredibly telegraphed. It’s a shame that Knockback isn’t affected by Immobilize, which would actually turn it into a good weapon.

CHunterX.4083:

Why would you pick Hammer over dual Mace?

Um, the “Captain Hammer” build takes Hammer and Mace/Mace.

Ive really been enjoying this build over the last couple weeks, but I had a few questions I figured I would ask the authority. Im running with 25,092 HP and 928 healing, 3100 (i think a little more but im not at my computer) toughness and 2800 attack. Are these good numbers to run on? To be honest I picked them as probably more of an OCD thing (i like 25000 HP, 2000 Heals, I like numbers ending in 0 lol etc). This is done with chest, leg, and boots of Power/Tough/Vit, Valkyrie goves and shoulders, Cleric everything else, and traits 0/0/20/30/20. If I need more damage here what would be best to give up? I do plan to get an alternate set of gear (basically replacing the cleric stuff with Knight and Berserker, and replaceing the maces with axes maybe) to replace healing with attack and crits, but until i can afford to do that I just gotta maximize this build. Thanks in advance, as I dont really play PvP yet (and dont like trying out the pvp amulets because I feel there isnt enough customization) so I dont really know if Im viable longterm or just viable for exploring the world. I do feel like I do rather well in dungeons, but if nobody else is doing damage I cant really compensate