Guild Wars 2

Has anyone else been running hammer lately for roaming in wvw? I’ve been running vanilla warrior zerk gs hammer and it’s like everyone has forgotten how to fight a hammer warrior and it’s been cake. I’m not saying it’s better than other builds, but I’ve been having an easier time than I thought I would running a gs hammer set, and was just wondering how anyone else was doing with hammer if your running it

Nowdays in WvW everyone has stability and stunbreakers + damage reduction while being stunt food in there inventory. Full melee with Hammer gs was fun before HoT in my opinion. Im not saying full melee is bad, but there are other full melee builds that has a better chance of surviving/killing.

SPent time in earnesst with it since HOt but I didn’t like it cause it lacked damaged, I had fewer moves to play on longer cd, and less mobility compared to S/shield. Then when i ran into range heavy enemies it just became a huge ‘nooooooope not doing this anymore’. Very easy to kite you. And if it’s 2 vs 1 and they both kite you…..then you are kinda scrwed. Works well when surprising people though and for dealing with less experienced players it can end groups of them much faster than other weapon combo’s.

Plus when dealing the hammer stuns you have to counter the abundant stability AND blocks (aegis/shield/whatever) and other kitten invulnerabilities.

just my experience with it since hot anyways.

Cerby.1069:

SPent time in earnesst with it since HOt but I didn’t like it cause it lacked damaged, I had fewer moves to play on longer cd

Merciless hammer completely fixes all that. 8k backbreakers and 6k fierce blows are pretty common here. Not to mention the CD of fierce blow becomes so low you can nearly maintain 100% weakness uptime. I completely ditch Heightened Focus when playing hammer/gs now. With Sigil of int and force on hammer the dmg you can pull during CC chains is insane. If I want quickness that much I’ll just grab Frenzy, I mean last stand + balanced stance is already amazing stability uptime I could honestly go without. Plus frenzy breaks stuns too.

Hammer, Mace/sheild, Sinister amulet, Str, Def, Discipline, and the proper sigils is pretty fun.

mind yu i said fun, not awesome

Rekt.5360:

Cerby.1069:

SPent time in earnesst with it since HOt but I didn’t like it cause it lacked damaged, I had fewer moves to play on longer cd

Merciless hammer completely fixes all that. 8k backbreakers and 6k fierce blows are pretty common here. Not to mention the CD of fierce blow becomes so low you can nearly maintain 100% weakness uptime. I completely ditch Heightened Focus when playing hammer/gs now. With Sigil of int and force on hammer the dmg you can pull during CC chains is insane. If I want quickness that much I’ll just grab Frenzy, I mean last stand + balanced stance is already amazing stability uptime I could honestly go without. Plus frenzy breaks stuns too.

Yea that’s kinda what I mean, it seems like a half the time also even with stab up on my target, and I don’t get the bonus dmg from Merciless hammer I still get enough dmg in and people just don’t dodge cause they go " hammer cc? Well I got stab" and just don’t dodge and just eat the dmg I’m still throwing out.

But it’s still like how some of u mentioned, not the best set, but it just seems like I’m having a waaayyy easier time overall than I thought that I would running it

How do I say this, GS/Hammer is pretty bad nowdays VS “decent players”. I dont know wich server you come from, and I dont want to disrespect a outdated build that you have fun with. I Just want to say that people that get recked by Hammer gs are bad players. I can kite someone that use Hammer GS without having to worry about tis, and Im not even using a rifle. I mean, there is a reason why all Hammer Gs warrior roamers stopped with the build sins HoT came. Warrior is already in a Poor position atm, and now you want to use a outdated build on a Poor class. That is Just not going to work not on my server. I dont know how long you play warr but what I tell you now isnt something new. I think most warriors here are very aware that Hammer gs isnt that great anymore as it was.
I would replace that hammer with axe-shield or something. axe shield is faster. You even have a long range cripple attack on your axe wich can be very handy if you know how to use it, you still have cc on that weaponset, you can counter high burst attacks with shield aswell as reflecting almost every projectile (if you use the trait) of enemys that could kite you to your death with long range weapons. In my opinion axe shield would be a good replacement for your hammer.

One of the reasons i think it fails is because of the delay between leap and landing. you have to predict where an opponent is going to be, how they will react to the leap and how to counter that move as well as what they can do to counter your move. The slow AA of the hammer makes matters even worse. basically the only attacks that are worth anything are Earth-shaker, back-breaker, specifically in that order and staggering wave (situationally)

Strangly there is a very easy way for Anet to fix all of this. Just remove the cooldowns on burst skills. base them solely off of adrenaline. Then you can’t easily predict when a warrior will use them and they become more useful. I don’t know about you but there have been many times when i have wanted to Earth-
shaker>backbreaker>Earthshaker>swap>Skullcrack>Bulls Charge>Stomp>Sheildbash>Swap>repeat but you can’t link them because of that pesky cooldown.

I think earthshaker, into backbreaker, into fierce blow is the best attack with hammer combined with sigil of intelligence, 3 high crits.

I think earthshaker, into backbreaker, into fierce blow is the best attack with hammer combined with sigil of intelligence, 3 high crits.

But thats the combo everyone and their mom would dodge
Something like Staggering blow → backbreaker → earthshaker into 100b worked always better for me when i was still playing warrior.
But then again, you always had to mix stuff up to be less predictable.

I probably didn’t make itclear, I know the hammer isn’t the best option, I know the downsides to it, I was just simply asking if anyone else has been running it also and seeing their feedback on it.

I will say though, I thought I was going to get kited all day, but with all the mobility from gs, even wasting dodges with the vigor I get and wasting earthshakers to close gaps,( I guess not really wasted since it helps me land hits afterwards) I’ve been able to stick to most things I’ve run into, except for Druids that run with a lb

Oh i run it all the time. but only for fun.

I ran it as well the other day for 2-3h, had fun until i started buming into reaper-packs.

emkelly.2371:

The slow AA of the hammer makes matters even worse. basically the only attacks that are worth anything are Earth-shaker, back-breaker, specifically in that order and staggering wave

Hammer AA speed is same as GS…and the damage is wayyyy higher. GS autos have 20% less base dmg and their coefficient is also lower, by 0.2 so another 20% there.

And starting off with earthshaker is absolutely terrible, its the most telegraphed attack after back-breaker (might even be the most considering you do a huge-kitten jump, despite BB having a longer cast time). The best approach is dodge roll into wep swap into staggering blow. Staggering blow is way less telegraphed and sets up all other CC, its also the one with lowest duration CC meaning you can use it to bait a stun break or defensive CD and won’t waste much.

This:

Something like Staggering blow -> backbreaker -> earthshaker

is far better, you can even add Fierce Blow between backbreaker and earthshaker or 1-2 autos and you’ll still have time to land earthshaker without the knockdown being over, unless they stun break out of it reaaaaally late.

I really think a lot of people waste their hammer CC’s on people who have stab or just don’t stow cancel/swap cancel earthshaker when they see the enemy initiate a dodge before their attack lands. Backbreaker is amazing at dodge baiting, abuse it.

Hoaxintelligence.4628:

In my opinion axe shield would be a good replacement for your hammer.

But running axe/shield with bugged eviscerate is gey kek :P

You know, you say the GS is slower, but i don’t see it. Yeah their attack speed may be similar, but the after cast is worse on hammer. also, yeah hammer can hit harder, but is no where near as utility friendly as GS. everything else i agree with.