Guild Wars 2

Anyone else using hammer as their weapon of choice? I switched to hammer somewhere around level 60 to try it out in comparison to the more popular greatsword, and was really impressed with with powers it provide. When I later on switched back to GS, it felt like a total downgrade to the power table.

It might not deal damage as hard as the GS, as there aren’t as many traits related to hammer damage as there is to GS, but the interrupt, knockdown and weakness give unreal survivability in PvE when running solo, and the utility in groups is really nice as well.

I guess I’m mostly looking for your insight into this weapon that isn’t really widely used. What are the reasons why it’s not more popular than it is, is it really lot worse as damage weapon compared to GS and possibly axe/axe, etc.

It’s the best weapon warriors have in group fight scenarios really. It’s just most people value damage > control when control really is king. Especially when we’re talking PvP.

The slightly slower swing speed though not terrible also puts people off because they can’t just brainlessly spam it like they would on a greatsword. To get effective use out of it, you gotta combo it so your most devastating skills on hammer aren’t dodged etc.

I’ve recently switched to hammer / mace+shield (or maybe mace+axe for more dps) and I love the control. When I call targets in WvW, i find that we can focus fire enemies down MUCH faster with my hammer keeping them still.

It’s hammer time!

I don’t really like it. My hammer builds in GW1 were mostly KD based. They were fun, but in GW2 you will only ever be allowed to have 1 hammer knockdown? Feels like they killed hammer to me but of course I can’t look at it without it having been one of my favorite GW1 weps.

Nothing to see here, move along…

I just a few days ago decided I wanted to go hammer, as well as mace/shield depending on the situation – I really hated hammer in Beta, but now im really loving it.

Some of the knockdowns and other control the hammer has is quite amazing.

After playing a hammer warrior in the beta, one of the first things I did was get a hammer for my warrior. It doesn’t have the raw DPS some of the other weapons have, but I don’t find it overly lacking, especially if you have enough precision and +crit modifiers. And really, I wouldn’t give up all the control a hammer has for more damage even if I could. Sure it may take me longer to kill something solo, but I bet I’ll take a lot less damage since I can lockdown mobs so well.

Group situations are ideal, though. Both when I’m in a group and if/when I decide to pull multiple mobs.

The only thing that bothers me is that hammers are next to useless against mobs which have stability, are unstoppable, or otherwise immune to the control hammers have. Still, I guess that’s why there’s weapon switching :P

And I wouldn’t give up the ability to jump in with the AoE daze burst to save someone who aggro’d too much with the Captain Hammer song running through my head for anything

TurtleofPower.5641:

I don’t really like it. My hammer builds in GW1 were mostly KD based. They were fun, but in GW2 you will only ever be allowed to have 1 hammer knockdown? Feels like they killed hammer to me but of course I can’t look at it without it having been one of my favorite GW1 weps.

Hammer #4 knocks back, #5 knocks down, burst ability stuns. You can take another knockdown (+charge), knockback, and AOE knockback as your utility skills. You can also add more CC on your alternate weapon by using mace or shield.

Playing with the hammer and haveing fun (with a rifle for ranged)

2 knockdowns ( inc Bulls charge)
1 Knockback
1 Cripple (circle those mobs like a boss :P )
1 AoE Stun

Yes I’m a control Freek ;D

True it doesnt have the fast Damage Burst of the Greatsword, but you Die a hell of a lot less ( /waves at the easy monthly 100K exp survivor achive)

My warriors name is Hammer Smash Face, I love my hammer, I love jumping into a mob in WvW hitting frenzy/endure pain and ccing the kitten out of everyone while my team blasts them apart, I also get downed alot doing this, sometimes I can dodge out before I die but I’d say I’m getting out about 65% of the time, still worth it because its fun as hell and the other team thinks I’m an idiot but I know I’ve done my job.

Mace + Mace.

Tremor says hi to Backbreaker

I tried every warrior weapon combo, and I enjoy the hammer the most due to the interrupts and aoe damage. GS is good for quickly working through mobs, but it’s not as satisfying.

Is the hammer’s CC better than a dual mace or offhand mace build?

I use hammer as my primary weapon (secondary rifle for ranged combat and conditions).

Love the style of it, the animations, and the damage output. It’s not huge like GS but it’s also the less beaten path of being a warrior and has tons of control.

The Hammer has an AoE stun, a ranged AoE cripple, AoE knockback, Single target Knockdown…thats alot of CC.

But I also run dual mace: Single target stun, Ranged AoE Knockdown, Daze…

And aside from the CC you get 4 stacks of vulnerability and weakness conditions on your foe.

You don’t get the numbers, numbers, numbers from GS or Dual Axe, but I’ll be —-- if it doesnt secure kills for your team/party

Im probably going to hit level 80 today as a Hammer Warrior. Im not very experienced with MMOs, this game is pretty much it and Ive yet to dive into PvP, but I just like the look/style of the 2handed Hammer so thats what I like to go with whether its ‘the best’ or not. Are there any good threads/sites either here or elsewhere on the internet that serve as guides for Hammer builds? My google searching has bore no fruit besides a Captain Hammer build. I just have so many noob questions, and Id rather know exactly what I want/am supposed to have before buying/crafting/grinding for gear this way I only have to do it once (more after that if I like different skins, but once from a build standpoint). All the different stats and skills etc just sound so good when I read em, but I know I cant use em all and they dont all really apply to the Hammer.

It also makes the best noises of any of the weapons. It really does sound physical, particularly Backbreaker’s face-planting “WHUMP!”.
I just get peeved when PvE mobs using the same skills or different KD skills get longer periods of knockdown.
Where’s my Stonefist insignias?

It’s a wonderful, powerful and versatile weapon that I absolutely can’t stand to use. It’s just painfully slow.

I don’t even mean “painfully slow” for button-mashing purposes, just the feel of the weapon in combat drives me nuts. Every time I equip one I catch myself staring at the screen and wishing he would get on with it and hit the bloody target already. Hammers are bad for my blood pressure.

Lumines.3916:

It’s the best weapon warriors have in group fight scenarios really. It’s just most people value damage > control when control really is king. Especially when we’re talking PvP.

The slightly slower swing speed though not terrible also puts people off because they can’t just brainlessly spam it like they would on a greatsword. To get effective use out of it, you gotta combo it so your most devastating skills on hammer aren’t dodged etc.

This is spot on. I love the hammer.

The #1 reason why Hammer will always be inferior to GS in PvP is that detargeted GS abilities provide for amazing escapability … while Hammers have only an awkward casted knockback and a short range ‘burst’ leap, both of which are pretty ineffective for escaping.

If you use Bull’s Charge to initiate instead of Rush, then you can detarget, turn, and Rush+Whirlwind your way WELLLLLL out of range of any enemy. This perk for the GS gives Warriors the best escapability in WvW and is yet another reason the Hammer just cannot compete with the GS.

I absolutely freaking LOVE hammer. I do switch to other weapons from time to time for certain cases or just for variety but for the most part, it’s hammer time… all the time. Also, there’s just something sexy about a hot chick wielding a hammer like a boss.

anyone know if there is a hammer that looks like the Ghastly/Royal Ascalonian hammer? From what Ive seen so far that is my favorite hammer style, but if I dont have to grind a dungeon id rather not. The stats dont have to be good as long as the skin is good since I can just transmute it

I used hammer/mace shield combo from as soon as I got the weapons so something like level 15, I love it so much knockdown and disables, means I can control fights a lot easier

Hammer is good in certain situations. I find that for exploring around it’s a bit to slow for my tastes so I stick to Axe/Mace or Dual Axe or Greastsword. But I like it in dungeons, using the abilities right to CC the enemies.

I found the hammer quite effective in PVE instances alongside the longbow, but the immobilization for skills 3 and 4 renders it quite awkward to use in PvP. It’s ok to give visual cues to CC skills, so people can avoid them in PvP, but giving hammer skills both a long cast “visual cue” AND a root effect? I find it’s a bit too much

I use Hammer in PvE (both solo and in dungeons) as my primary, with sword+warhorn for secondary (only swapping out the secondary to rifle on fights where melee is just impossible, which is very few, actually).

I also use hammer as my primary for WvW and sPvP tournament play, although right now I’m running a longbow glass cannon build for glory farming hot-join sPvP, because playing smart in hot-join gets you no glory.

I really do wish they would make the Hammer a bit more responsive, though. Usually feels as if I’m playing with 1-2 second delay when I use the hammer, and anyone with half a brain in sPvP can dodge every backbreaker + earthshaker, because the animation is so slow and obvious.

In fact, I remember this 1v1 fight I had with another warrior who had the exact same build I use for tournaments, being Hammer + mace&shield, and we fought for a good 3+ min on the node because we both just kept dodge rolling each others backbreaker and earthshaker. In the end one of my team mates finally came along and the other warrior died. Longest fight I’ve ever had in sPvP.

Genoc.5473:

Anyone else using hammer as their weapon of choice? I switched to hammer somewhere around level 60 to try it out in comparison to the more popular greatsword, and was really impressed with with powers it provide. When I later on switched back to GS, it felt like a total downgrade to the power table.

It might not deal damage as hard as the GS, as there aren’t as many traits related to hammer damage as there is to GS, but the interrupt, knockdown and weakness give unreal survivability in PvE when running solo, and the utility in groups is really nice as well.

I guess I’m mostly looking for your insight into this weapon that isn’t really widely used. What are the reasons why it’s not more popular than it is, is it really lot worse as damage weapon compared to GS and possibly axe/axe, etc.

do hammers + maces in pve or pvp and you are a stun machine. They rock at what they do, control. GS is burst damage, 1h sword is for bleeds, I ran with dual wield swords for a while in pve and they work wonders. If you spend some money and match the stats on your armor with the weapons you are using you will see a dramatic improvement in your abilities. like stack condition damage and precision with 1h swords or power and toughness with hammers builds are not just a thing for elitists, they make you that much better.

Out in WvW running with guild group nothing even comes close, the aoe cc can be devastating. I would love to use it in SPvP but what I’ve found is that the animations are so slow that its just to easy to avoid in solo or small group fights.

A hammer mace/mace warrior is a cc machine.

All around a very mediocre weapon. Sure, it may seem like a great choice for the CC options, but then you get past 100 glory and run into people who will, surprise surprise, dodge a skill that’s as slow and obvious as a hammer attack.

Not to mention the fact that skills 2 and 4 root the warrior during the animation. Not a terrible thing on skill 2, but my god it makes skill 4 utterly useless on it’s own. Thanks to the self root, you’ll never want to actually use skill 4 outside of a CC chain. By itself, it is a terrible mess of a skill that roots you while you go through an absurdly long swing animation just to knock nearby enemies out of your attack range.

Then there’s the high cooldowns on the skills, which means when you miss your Backbreaker because anyone who isn’t an idiot can see it coming a mile away, all you can do is flail around uselessly. I say uselessly because not only do the only worthwhile skills have high cooldowns, but the damage is so pathetic that you’ll only ever want to use a Hammer as a secondary weapon anyway.

TL;DR, if you want CC that badly stick with Mace/Shield. Better defense, faster swings, CC on a burst skill that doesn’t bug out whenever you and a target are on different elevation levels, reasonable cooldowns, and blocks.