Guild Wars 2

This is a bit wider than simply being a topic about hammer, but all of the thoughts come from playing with it for a long time.

Backbreaker:
Suggestion: This should be a Blast Finisher.
Bug: Currently only has a 1 second knockdown when it advertises 2.

Earthshaker:
Suggestion: The skill needs slight improvement. It should be uninterruptable. If however interruptibility of Earthshaker is retained, the cooldown should be reduced on interrupt; it’s currently ten seconds which is the cooldown of the skill.

Adrenaline:
Charges do not disappear immediately on use. If you’re using Inspiring Shouts, this can result in wasted adrenaline where adrenaline is not added to the now empty bar.

Shake It Off:
Bug: Since a recent update, this has been displaying bugged behaviour where now it intermittently does not break Knockdown or Blowout.

General Enemy Immunity:
Get rid of “Stability” from minor mobs such as Earth Elementals and the like and replace it with Unshakable. At least this way they could occasionally be CCed. CC immunity pushes players towards not using weapons that centre around the idea. In the end, players will gravitate to weapons that are useful 100% of the time rather than ones that have their effects nullified be over-arching game mechanics.

Risen Pirates are immune to everything except damage when doing the drink animation before placing their fire field. Is this intentional or an animation oversight?

For PVE: I would like to see CC’s become more viable on dungeon bosses, currently hammer is only good for trash and you’ll be lucky to knock down bosses even twice during an engagement.

PvP: Hammer is very predictable, now you can use that to your advantage by starting backbreaker then if they pop a block or dodge you can dodge or weapon swap to fake them out. Earthshaker needs to activate quicker, once you select the location there’s a pause that is just long enough to screw you over.

You can shorten pause by taking fast ground targeting but you may often miss target because of kitten cursor.

I like hammer in wvw. There is nothing better than droping Earthsaker on downed ally when Thief is doing stealth stomp.

Opynn.2936:

You can shorten pause by taking fast ground targeting but you may often miss target because of kitten cursor.

I like hammer in wvw. There is nothing better than droping Earthsaker on downed ally when Thief is doing stealth stomp.

Yah, I use fast cast but the delay I’m talking about is after you press the skill there’s a short delay and it takes just long enough for it to mess you up vs a moving target. I alike to use Leg Specialist and I often can’t get Earthshaker off faster then it takes for the immobilize to wear off.

Merciless Hammer:
All hammer attacks are now 100% Projectile Finishers.

Hammer seriously need some form of blind-immunity, at least for AoE attacks, especially Earthshaker.

Rednik.3809:

Hammer seriously need some form of blind-immunity, at least for AoE attacks, especially Earthshaker.

Blind has a 50% chance to fail?

Blind hurts.

GW1 blind was a 90% chance to miss with attacks on a duration, not this piddly “next attack misses” stuff

So some further thoughts.
I’m pretty much tied to hammer now as my Legendary is The Juggernaut, and there’s no way I’m not going to use it.
I know it probably makes me biased towards hammer, but I think the damage needs drastic tweaking.

It’s just too situational a weapon at the moment. Merciless Hammer’s damage bonus hardly ever kicks in, or does too infrequently to make a difference.
With Backbreaker currently broken and only knocking down for 1 second as opposed to the advertised 2, you only get one swing in before the enemy is back on their feet and no longer taking the extra 25%.

I have specced heavily into Defense, Tactics and Discipline for a build that while heavy on CC (which again is far too situational to be reliable), lacks a certain “Oomph” on damage output, even though Power is impressively high thanks to gear. But if I spec away from this build, I’m severely breaking a lot of hammer’s functionality.

My build is as so:
All Exotic P/v/t armour and trinkets, with Crests of the Soldier on the trinkets.
Runes of the Soldier

Traits:
0/0/20/20/30
Defence: Embrace The Pain, Merciless Hammer
Tactics: Leg Specialist, Lung Capacity
Discipline: Inspiring Shouts, Mobile Strikes, Burst Mastery

Utilities:
Healing Surge
For Great Justice!
Shake It Off!
On My Mark!
Signet of Rage

The idea is to spam Earthshaker as frequently as possible, so everything is geared towards increased adrenaline gain. And this build does achieve that very nicely, allowing Earthshaker to be used as soon as it’s off of cooldown.

I have thought about taking 10 points out of Tactics and putting them into Arms for Unsuspecting Foe, but I’d lose a lot of shout synergy for a non-guaranteed crit; adrenaline gain wouldn’t be as high meaning less Earthshaker, I’d be more prone to conditions and normal damage output would be impacted due to less frequent vulnerability, might and fury.

It’s also intensely annoying that while this build does what it says on the tin versus normal mobs and unsuspecting noobs, it gets broken easily through interrupts as all the skills are massively telegraphed; blind breaks it almost completely; Stability makes you a flailing idiot that’s easily ignored; and Defiant nullifies it massively, meaning that most of the time you’ll be relying on autoattack.

I can’t think of a single other weapon that’s broken so easily by so many things.

With that in mind, maybe Merciless Hammer should have the situational qualifier removed so that it’s a straight damage boost, but lessened to balance it, say to a permanent +10-15%.

Rednik.3809:

Hammer seriously need some form of blind-immunity, at least for AoE attacks, especially Earthshaker.

I primarily play hammer warrior in wvw, and blind is the one single thing that screws me over. It’s annoying when it happens, but I’m not entirely sure I think it’s a problem that needs to be solved. Blind counters anything with large windups and slow attack frequency, and that just happens to be hammer warrior.

Personally, I’d like to see some kind of change to staggering blow. It seems to root you in place for too long. It’s the only hammer skill that I don’t like much because it roots you in place for so long. Even when the skill is done, you’re still stuck for a brief period. It feels clunky.

Yeah, Hammer Shock used to be a root too, but they removed that. It feels like it shouldn’t be rooted as well; if I play my Guardian for a bit, spamming Whirling Wrath on Greatsword, then come back to Warrior, it takes a ling time for my brain to re-adjust to the root.

from a wvw player . (pve is a different story)

Am i the only one that think that Earthshaker should have a different effect instead of the AoE stun?

Kinda sux that we are pretty much forced to use the same weapon sets sword (mobility) warhorn (utility) hammer (CC dmg). Because unless you are roamming alone or in small groups you are hindering yourself and your group if dont use this 3 weapons and after months it gets really old.

Well, Earthshaker’s an historically interesting skill in the same way Meteor Shower is.
Both can now be considered “Watered Down” equivalents of their GW1 counterparts.
See there, both used to cause AoE knockdown, not just stun. And with the right gear, that knockdown could be 3 seconds, with no breaker skill to get your behind off of the floor.

Tetra Bug.7134:

Rednik.3809:

Hammer seriously need some form of blind-immunity, at least for AoE attacks, especially Earthshaker.

Blind has a 50% chance to fail?

chance isnt balance. Crit pushes it in a competitive game we dont need more chances. (like the terribad zerk only crit based sigils)

Just tested Backbreaker.
Start of knockdown: Frame 249
End of knockdown: Frame 369

Frapsed @ 60 FPS

369-249 = 120 frames

120F/60FPS = 2s

Could not confirm this bug.

Varonth.5830:

Just tested Backbreaker.
Start of knockdown: Frame 249
End of knockdown: Frame 369

Frapsed @ 60 FPS

369-249 = 120 frames

120F/60FPS = 2s

Could not confirm this bug.

where did you test this? I somehow find it hard to believe in pve

Epic.3950:

Varonth.5830:

Just tested Backbreaker.
Start of knockdown: Frame 249
End of knockdown: Frame 369

Frapsed @ 60 FPS

369-249 = 120 frames

120F/60FPS = 2s

Could not confirm this bug.

where did you test this? I somehow find it hard to believe in pve

Heart of the Mist moving golem.
Ths is actually the time from when the golem stopped until he moved again after getting hit by Backbreaker.

Varonth.5830:

Epic.3950:

Varonth.5830:

Just tested Backbreaker.
Start of knockdown: Frame 249
End of knockdown: Frame 369

Frapsed @ 60 FPS

369-249 = 120 frames

120F/60FPS = 2s

Could not confirm this bug.

where did you test this? I somehow find it hard to believe in pve

Heart of the Mist moving golem.
Ths is actually the time from when the golem stopped until he moved again after getting hit by Backbreaker.

I believe the “knockdown” effect includes the time it takes the person to stand up. So they may only be lying on the ground for about 1 second, but the animation of them standing up is also considered part of the knockdown during which they can’t act.

So if you’re measuring from when the person starts to lift off the ground, you’re not measuring it properly. You have to measure from the moment they can act again (that is, stand completely up), which is why the moving golem would be a good way to test it. It will only start moving again when it is able to act.

how about you just grab a buddy and go into the mists and see how long it takes for them to stand up and use their skills again