Guild Wars 2

While I see posts out there addressing (aka whining about) the changes to hammer, I don’t see many ideas on how to improve or support it.

I’ll concede the Earthshaker changes, for the most part. While I enjoyed getting good damage with an AoE stun, the nerf hasn’t hit me all that hard. (A roughly 20% nerf on something that happens every 7.5-10 seconds isn’t that rough, peeps.)

What gets to me more is how ill-supported hammer is in the trait tree. For example, Axe gets loads of stuff, littered all over the trait lines. Most others get some nifty tricks as well.

Hammer gets two things, maybe.

I’ll lead with Distracting Strikes, since Hammer can produce some consistent interrupts. It takes some skill and timing, but it yields the most painful damage condition. (And if the wiki is right, it’s been buffed rather nicely since I last used it. o_O)

And then there’s Merciless Hammer. The CD reduction is nice, yes. The problem occurs on the damage boost. While hammer does get plenty of CC skills (knockback, knockdown, and stun), none of those effects last long enough to benefit from the 25% damage bonus. You’ll get one swing, maybe, if you’re lucky.

Point is, the synergy just isn’t there.

So, I’d recommend some other options:
1. A smaller damage boost (5%) against targets with Weakness, a condition hammer can also inflict.
2. Higher damage when a target is immune to CC. Similarly, granting Might and/or Fury when a hammer skill is blocked/condition-immune. This would really, really help with champions and dungeon bosses, and would still be fair for PvP/WvW.

Hammer was what brought me into Warrior as a class, and I’m still really fond of it for its AoE handling, but it needs some actual love, ANet. Anyone else out there got some ideas?

While I like your ideas, in the mean time, I have been trying out new builds playing with the Last Chance Trait. Hitting a zerg with Earthsharker and someone in that hit drops below 50% it can be very deadly for anyone that was stunned. It is still the weapon it once was, you just might have to adjust your stats a little.

I agree most with Merciless Hammer, while hammer skill 3 draws fast enough to hit a knocked down foe, outside of that its only has synergy with earthshaker, adding a bonus to this trait when you strike foes with defiance would go a long way for PvE balance. Don’t know if I would do it for stability because while it shuts down hammer, every build does need an effective means of being countered for balance.