Guild Wars 2

Hi all, can anyone tell me why the Meta GS/Hammer Roaming build uses Melandru runes instead of Hoelbrak?

I see that the Meta GS, Axe/Shield use Hoelbrak. On paper im trying to see why you would want the extra tougness and stun reduction rather than power and might duration for a roaming build.

My war is almost at level 80 and im planning to buy the exotic armor set and runes for WvW. The benefit of getting Hoelbrak is that i can also use it in PVE until i get the gold for a separate set of armor.

Apologies for the ignorance if the answer is obvious.

Thanks

Simple. One build has Forceful Greatsword and the other doesn’t.

Spartacus.3192:

Hi all, can anyone tell me why the Meta GS/Hammer Roaming build uses Melandru runes instead of Hoelbrak?

I see that the Meta GS, Axe/Shield use Hoelbrak. On paper im trying to see why you would want the extra tougness and stun reduction rather than power and might duration for a roaming build.

My war is almost at level 80 and im planning to buy the exotic armor set and runes for WvW. The benefit of getting Hoelbrak is that i can also use it in PVE until i get the gold for a separate set of armor.

Apologies for the ignorance if the answer is obvious.

Thanks

There is NO meta for GS/Hammer builds… It’s Shinryuku’s build and melandru runes are HIS prefered rune set. I think hoelbrak are infinitely better for roaming because of the extra power and might.

It’s all about your preference, more damage? Hoelbrak. Slight increase in survivability? Melandru.

Kraljevo.2801:

There is NO meta for GS/Hammer builds… It’s Shinryuku’s build and melandru runes are HIS prefered rune set. I think hoelbrak are infinitely better for roaming because of the extra power and might.

It’s all about your preference, more damage? Hoelbrak. Slight increase in survivability? Melandru.

oh i got it from metabattle.com

http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Warrior_-_Hammer/GS_Roamer

It stated it was part of the metagame so figured that means meta.
I kinda feel that Holebrak should be better too or at least more versatile.
Thanks

Spartacus.3192:

Kraljevo.2801:

There is NO meta for GS/Hammer builds… It’s Shinryuku’s build and melandru runes are HIS prefered rune set. I think hoelbrak are infinitely better for roaming because of the extra power and might.

It’s all about your preference, more damage? Hoelbrak. Slight increase in survivability? Melandru.

oh i got it from metabattle.com

http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Warrior_-_Hammer/GS_Roamer

It stated it was part of the metagame so figured that means meta.
I kinda feel that Holebrak should be better too or at least more versatile.
Thanks

It is a good website, but don’t believe everything you read there. Everyone can post builds there. You need to think outside the box, not copy paste everything 1:1.

Kraljevo.2801:

It is a good website, but don’t believe everything you read there. Everyone can post builds there. You need to to think outside the box, not copy paste everything 1:1.

Thats actually how i play. I hate just copying builds , however, i like to understand what it is about a build that makes it good so i can decide whether i want to keep that aspect or not. Hence my question as to if anyone knew why melandru runes were used instead of Hoelbrak. On my guard ive played every meta build and then adjusted them or tweaked them with regards to traits, gears, sigils , runes to get to builds that i like to play in PVE, WvW etc.

Im levelling my war and want to do the same. Start off from the "meta’ or popular sets and tweak from there. Just from levelling i have a fair idea of what i want to do but i dont want to reinvent the wheel so its always good to start from a strong base build.

Spartacus.3192:

Kraljevo.2801:

It is a good website, but don’t believe everything you read there. Everyone can post builds there. You need to to think outside the box, not copy paste everything 1:1.

Thats actually how i play. I hate just copying builds , however, i like to understand what it is about a build that makes it good so i can decide whether i want to keep that aspect or not. Hence my question as to if anyone knew why melandru runes were used instead of Hoelbrak. On my guard ive played every meta build and then adjusted them or tweaked them with regards to traits, gears, sigils , runes to get to builds that i like to play in PVE, WvW etc.

Im levelling my war and want to do the same. Start off from the "meta’ or popular sets and tweak from there. Just from levelling i have a fair idea of what i want to do but i dont want to reinvent the wheel so its always good to start from a strong base build.

Makes sense!

Hoelbrak runes are still effective without Forceful Greatsword. In fact, Hoelbrak runes don’t increase the might duration of Forceful Greatsword all that much.

It’s simple, if you want more offense then go Hoelbrak, if you want more defense go Melandru.

Spartacus.3192:

Hi all, can anyone tell me why the Meta GS/Hammer Roaming build uses Melandru runes instead of Hoelbrak?

I see that the Meta GS, Axe/Shield use Hoelbrak. On paper im trying to see why you would want the extra tougness and stun reduction rather than power and might duration for a roaming build.

My war is almost at level 80 and im planning to buy the exotic armor set and runes for WvW. The benefit of getting Hoelbrak is that i can also use it in PVE until i get the gold for a separate set of armor.

Apologies for the ignorance if the answer is obvious.

Thanks

Before i was running Hoel with axe/shield gs… mind you the dmg was great, but it was hard to face people 1v2/1v3. I switched up my play style to Ham/Gs with melandru and i am now dominating 1v2/1v3. Simply put, if you’re an expert in evading attacks and using your skills perfectly, go Hoelbrak, but if you want more survivability than go melandru. Personally, there wasnt a HUGE dmg decrease… i love the melandru better.

Theres no reason a good warrior should need to use melandru runes. They offer toughness but no warrior should need over 3k armor and 2.8k armor is plenty.

You can go higher than 3k armor but if you say that there is no noticeable DPS drops or that your DPS is fantastic when pushing over the 2.8k armor boundary into 3k you are already making sacrifices in DPS to say going past 3k into 3.1 and higher that your DPS is not different or even great is mistaken. At the cost of not significantly more survivability. Since your survivability should be coming from dodging, stances, and mobility and mostly damage by applying pressure to keep the opponent on the defensive.

or go Rune of Strength.

since the improved Arcing Slice that you can now actually use it, i find it so easy to clean conditions, i even dropped zerk stance.

unless you really really need the -20% condi duration.

Juba makes a good point IMO. I too have been running strength runes more often, especially on HamGS. The cleanses are pretty decent on that set.

Melandru offers other things then ‘just a little defense’, though. A -25% on stun duration can allow you to pack less stunbreaks or stability, for instance. Also, just using Melandru and Lemongrass nets you a 65% decrease on all condi’s, which might allow you to choose another trait instead of Dogged March. Granted, the traits in that line don’t really suit HamGS, but you get my point.

All in all, I sold my Melandru set ages ago. Hoelbrak not only offers better damage but it is also decent in PvE if you don’t play a lot of that, like me. Besides, in WvW, you need to take out one target quickly in a 1vX, or you die anyway.

Also, going hoelbrak+full zerk nets you 2600 armor, and that is with ascended gear and the +100 toughness useless trait in Defense. So in order to get above mentioned 2800 armor, you would need at least three toughness trinkets. This would reduce the damage difference between Hoelbrak and Melandru.

Forceful GS as a reason why to use Hoelbrak is just silly. A 5 second might stack turns into a 6,5 second might stack. Who gives a silver. Don’t get me wrong, Forceful GS is awesome, but it will be with or without Hoelbrak.

Juba.8406:

or go Rune of Strength.

since the improved Arcing Slice that you can now actually use it, i find it so easy to clean conditions, i even dropped zerk stance.

unless you really really need the -20% condi duration.

This is a joke right? Only time youd ever use arcing slice is when you want more tags for bags. Unless you need condi clear. On single opponents it does less damage now than it did before the rework.

Travis the Terrible.4739:

Juba.8406:

or go Rune of Strength.

since the improved Arcing Slice that you can now actually use it, i find it so easy to clean conditions, i even dropped zerk stance.

unless you really really need the -20% condi duration.

This is a joke right? Only time youd ever use arcing slice is when you want more tags for bags. Unless you need condi clear. On single opponents it does less damage now than it did before the rework.

Not necessarily. Arcing Slice does a lot more damage to opponents less than 50% HP. It’s damage also doesn’t scale with adrenaline so it still does full damage even with one bar of adrenaline. It’s animation has been cleaned up so you can easily slip it into a combo. It’s good for that quick finishing blow.

And since the Signet of Rage nerf, Warriors have less than half uptime on Fury. Arcing Slice helps maintain it to some degree.

So let’s see:

#1: Decent for Condi clear cuz it is AoE
#2: Decent for tagging
#3: Decent for fury uptime
#4: Decent for landing a finishing blow regardless of adrenaline level

Uh yeah .... I think any decent Warrior would acknowledge that Arcing Slice is way more useful than it was before and actually slip it into some of their rotations.

Anyways, I still would run Hoelbrak instead of Strength. To me the - condition duration is just too good to give up. To me there is a huge difference between a -93% condition duration and a 73% difference. Chills cripples and immobilizes barely lasting a second on you is huge for trying to stick to your target and landing attacks. I’d gladly give up 5% damage and 15% extra might duration for it, especially since I feel like with my Ham/GS build I have 40% extra might duration including the 10% boon duration from tactics which is good enough.

This is what I use:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fJAQJASRjMdUGaVIehwJaAmgCdnPBhwxIIAU+EfOA-TFjDABcqyhEHCAHeAARp0AXlgAYCChjAgLqj8kysP0FIwFAYm9HCAgAwQH6QH6QTGAmtA-w

I used melandru when i first starter my warrior, then switched to Hoel, and then strength.
I really do not see the survivability loss using strength, but the dmg increase is noticible.

In regards to arcing slice, I cannot understand how, as an axe/shielf GS warrior, you would use arc slice. with the low weapon switch, its so much more dmg to switch to axe and hit eviscerate.