Guild Wars 2

Ok meddled around with the hammer a bit in sPvP… and found it terrible. How are you supposed to catch anyone competent with your slow, highly telegraphed specials? I watched some “pro” Hammer PvP videos and the opponents just ate the 4 and 5 attacks like they didn’t know there is a dodge key. Good job flattening noobs I guess.

Is there something I’m missing here or is the hammer really only good against people who don’t know how to dodge?

It’s all about getting that first stun in and then chaining them all together.

The easiest stun to start the chain is the hammer F1 since its instant and a Leap. Just watch for the amount of times an enemy has dodged, once they hit 2 just go for the F1 Stun.

From the F1 I generally go:
.#4 (knockback) -> #5 (since it can be casted as you run to them while knockbacked) -> #2 since its the only other casted attack you may as well do it while they are knocked down.

Can’t just wail it around you need to watch for their boons (stability) and how much endurance they probably have left.

EDIT:
Forgot to mention, sometimes I like to bring Bulls Charge along for easy target swapping and starting a CC chain.

Also. Use the CC chain to combo into your more damage-based second weapon set in order to provide the DPS push you need to win a fight.

I go sword/shield + hammer. Sword is for mobility and bleeds.
My usual tactic is this: Shield bash -> switch to hammer and 5, 4 , F1, 2.
Pull that combo off any squishy and they won’t touch you the rest of the match. Get the 15% stun duration on your hammer and remember that you deal more damage to stunned opponents.
This isn’t hurr durr faceroll like the greatsword and you won’t deal as much damage. But you’ll be able to handle a lot more situations and controlling your opponent. The best part is that I rarely die when I’m using this setup.

The tricks is to run with sword’n’shield. The leap and cripple are just amazing to closing the cap and they rarely expect you to pull out a hammer after the shield bash.

Most often, players with the Hammer are telegraphing their movements more than the movements themselves. “Oh the Hammer warrior is in range, he’ll probably use Backbreaker now because it knocks you down for two seconds, better dodge.”

You’d be surprised how many times people dodge away from auto-attacks. When they do, then they’re 1 less dodge from being stunned. When they don’t, well, you’re doing a lot of damage, and now they don’t know what you’re going to do.

As Defektive said, lead in with Earthshaker. It’s a pretty quick animation, but you should still be using it intelligently. You also have another weapon set to trigger dodges as well, so use the hammer wisely and it will deliver miracles.

Also, don’t blame the weapon for your failures, and don’t try to rationalize your failure by assuming the person fought in a video is a “noob”. You’ll only hamstring your own progress.

Use the element of surprise! Run in with the hammer… and use kick! lol

Cogbyrn.7283:

Also, don’t blame the weapon for your failures, and don’t try to rationalize your failure by assuming the person fought in a video is a “noob”. You’ll only hamstring your own progress.

I assumed they are noobs because the people in the videos didn’t dodge any of the hammer CC attacks (or any other attacks for that matter). Anyone could beat those. Please point me to a hammer video where the opponents dodge intelligently and the hammer warrior still wins.

But if you claim you have been successful against competent opponents when I must revisit the hammer soon. Will let you know if I can get the ropes of it.

Don’t front load your best attacks, it really is that simple. Hold back and punish them heavily when they absolutely have no way to get out of it. More than your average weapon, it’s also better to combo if you will, with the hammer.

The only complaint you can have about hammer is if someone pops a stability, you better have something to switch to.

If you think you are slow try water,speed and the 3rd rune i cant remember and then signets at 25% faster recharge. You’ll have permanent swiftness from Sigil of Rage and backed up with sword and shield this is one of the most mobile specs out there!

Chain them. Use something else to open for you.

Generally I run Hammer + axe and shield, and have either bolas or bulls charge as utility. This means i can open with axe / shield and start with #3 for cripple, or bolas/charge (or vise versa) this will usually guarantee at least 1 dodge attempt. From their, use shield stun #4 > swap into hammer > F1 > knock back > knock down. You can also just open with hammer, and do F1, it usually gets people, then chain whatever from there.

@Tom Gore: And therein, as the bard would tell us, lies the rub. How many PvPers can admit that their opponent is competent? The typical pattern I see is that someone watches a video, Monday Morning Quarterbacks their opinion all over the victor/loser, and continues on their merry with their opinions about a weapon/build. In addition, any time someone loses, they blame a build or class, stating that the other player wasn’t very good, but said player won anyway because of something OP.

“Oh the person didn’t dodge Earthshaker, what a noob.”, etc.

What sort of Hammer video would prove the point? One where the enemy dodges all of the Hammer stuns and the Hammer still wins? That disregards any player ability to bait out dodges to set up a good hammer stun, and therefore we can’t show you that sort of video because then, from my perspective at least, the hammer warrior wouldn’t be good.

From what I can tell, our opinions about a good hammer warrior video are mutually exclusive, or we’d have to sit down together and watch it for the ability to analyze what’s happening in real-time.

Anyway, I love my hammer, and will continue to use it. I have no delusions of grandeur, and probably >75% of the people I’ve seen dodge roll the second you’re in range of a melee attack anyway, so its usefulness is incredible.

You might try the hammer/rifle build http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHHZk3GJ1HM&feature=share

So, I agree on the fact of Hammer sucking, but only sometimes. In some cases, it depends a lot on the amount of toughness and defensive abilities they have. But, in most cases, you can kill them very quick. I have found Hammer is not something to be used 100% of the time. I also use a Sword/Axe combo, as it offers the mobility, fury, and the nice moving “blender”. I mostly use signets, but have found a recent liking in the Stomp ability, as it adds an extra stun. Keep playing with the hammer, and maybe re-configuring your build to fit your play style. It took me a while to figure out, and I am still in the process of doing so. Just hang in there and keep trying!!

Backbreaker is really easy to hit if you get the timming right. You gotta start doing it when you are not facing the enemy so they can not see the telegraph, then turn around at the exact moment it lands to knock them down to start your chain CC spam.

I’ve met some hammer warriors in tournas recently, from a different professions view I must say I don’t feel threatened at all. I’m familiar with the attacks so there is no element of suprise for me. Only thing annoying about those specs are that they use soldier amu and they are a bit tougher to take down, pretty much just takes longer to bite through all that hp and wait till the end of endure pain.
With thief I just range and clip them down a bit and then burst if they don’t decide to run.
With mesmer it’s a bit harder and I need to delay my shatters, but the conditions from staff clones help to weaken the warrior, after that doubleshatter and gg.
With a ranger, I can just ignore him, absolutely zero threat to a bunkerspec, if he doesn’t run my pet will kill him.
With a guardian I can pretty much go afk.
Only warr that was any type of danger after the patch was a lbow/gs spec and he only really shined when he had another strong burster together with him, still rubbish in a 1v1 situation.

You could play a full cc build.

I’m trying something like this:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNAS5ZjcOtuxOqQMxBA0DrAjrTBlUPs7O5A;TsAg0CnoAzAmAMLYOwkgtgYQxmCA

It’s just an experiment and it’s probably sub-optimal (sigil of paralyzation may be better?). Haven’t tested this version well, but for sure can hold a lot of hits, while still being a damage-dealer. And, if you can come near your enemy, he’s dead. Unless he is a bunker. (Not even all bunkers: it’s really hard to down a guardian, but easier to down elementalists, if they can’t escape).

You can chain through burst abilities freely, thanks to the powered adrenaline management system.

Sure, you can’t cleanse condition, but condition dealers often have to be near you to apply their deadliest conditions (HGH engi, for instance, will try to land grenades at point-blank range). And you won’t give them the time. And Forge runes should be able to let you get out of bursts alive. So I decided to take Bolas instead of a stunbreaker.

Maybe I’m wrong, but I think Bull Rush and Bolas might be used in more creative ways:

When meleeing, Bull Rush is harder to distinguish, and becomes an instant-cast knockdown. Excellent for giving you those 2 seconds to land another stun.

Another use is the one of gap closer: even if the enemy dodges the knockdown, you may be close enough to launch bolas and land them before the enemy can dodge.

And then… you can massacre him: he has to cleanse immobilize in order to get out of Earthshaker, and probably he won’t even have the time to get out of its radius. And if he tries to break Earthshaker’s stun, he will still be immobilized.

You are mostly a 1v1 fighter. You focus on one enemy and take him down, more than going around and dealing tons of damage to everyone. If you get focused, you are dead. I may change mace/mace with mace/shield to solve this a bit, but the ranged knockdown is just too good to be true.XD

But true: if all this fails probably you will get kited to death. Expecially when fighting a mesmer: they are the bane of every melee build, probably. I may try to use rifle instead of mace/mace, and see what happens: the high adrenaline regeneration and damage will surely work with killshot, and volley, giving you an excellent way to put up pressure on the enemy at long range. AND sure they don’t expect a rifleman charging them and smashing their skull with a hammer.

However, warrior is not my main, so I’m not so expert. But I main an engineer and I don’t like HGH, so you can say I like underdog classes.XD

I think Stability as well can render hammer builds a bit weak. Im probably going to stick with Sword+warhorn/Hammer, but i mostly just www. For tpvp I would probably roll another class.

It really comes down to this, does the opponent have stability or lots of stun break? If yes, hammer is … virtually no one comes to a tPvP match without a means to break chain CC from a single opponent.

Hammer in PvP is more of a team support weapon, lock someone down while the rest of your team destroy them. You want your other weapon set to either Sword/Shield or Sword/Mace. I Tend to use either Tremor or Shield bash, wait juuuust long enough to see if they stun break and if they don’t you can switch to hammer and chain your knockdowns. If they do stun break, wait for to dodge then switch and backbreaker them on so on. Some builds focus to highly on evading, blinds, or blinks that nailing them down it’s really worth the effort. One thing you can do with hammer is fake someone out, start using backbreaker then change weapons right at the end, your skill will only have a 3 second cooldown and you forced them to use a dodge which allows you to use your shield bash/tremor then bulls rush and by then you can switch back to hammer and keep the CC going.

Of course, this spec is still more of a support role and if you wanted it to be useful in TPvP you would have to build your whole team around it.

fost.9167:

I think Stability as well can render hammer builds a bit weak. Im probably going to stick with Sword+warhorn/Hammer, but i mostly just www. For tpvp I would probably roll another class.

An enemy with stability can stll be immobilized or crippled: you can use Hammer #3 or bolas, or both to delay the moment you’ll get in melee, until stability ended.

redslion.9675:

fost.9167:

I think Stability as well can render hammer builds a bit weak. Im probably going to stick with Sword+warhorn/Hammer, but i mostly just www. For tpvp I would probably roll another class.

An enemy with stability can stll be immobilized or crippled: you can use Hammer #3 or bolas, or both to delay the moment you’ll get in melee, until stability ended.

The hammer auto-attack and #2 also still put out decent damage as well, in addition to applying weakness. So it’s not like you’re rendered completely toothless.

I actually have used hammer with longbow, which is maybe a bit of a weird combination. But it gives me a nice immobilize, a ranged attack option, fire combo field, and I’m able to use a utility on stomp for some AoE CC and extra might stacks.

I don’t like to open a hammer combo with earthshaker since I use the +% damage with adrenaline, so having a nice immobilize is helpful in addition to cripples.

Also, leg specialist works surprisingly well with the hammer since the #3 ability works with it. I don’t use leg specialist myself, but I’ve seen people doing it. Most people won’t expect it.

I used to run a hammer build in tPVP (still do for kicks here and there). Stability makes the entire stun build useless, and most folks in mid-to-high tPVP have at least 1 stability skill on their bar for stomping. You can bet that they’ll use it against you instead of saving it for a stomp.

Shout Warriors do less damage then Guardians do if the guardian plays the average Tanky DPS. He also brings a lot less utility then a guardian can.