Guild Wars 2

Hammer has always been my favorite Warrior weapon since GW1. That being said it is a flawed weapon, but to me not as flawed as it is made out to be. This build is primarily designed to kill Spirit Rangers and Necromancers, which have become very prominent as of late.

The Build

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNAS8ejkOpwBPGPMxBE0DNsK4iTBlQ9YOsj4A-TsAA1CnICSFkLITQygsBNQYRwGEA

I use Hammer similar to how a Guardian uses a GS, it has a very clear combo and it should be all be used together for maximum effect. You want to actually avoid using most of its skills until you’re certain they’re out of stun breaks. This is actually REALLY easy to do with Spirit Rangers. Just use Shield Bash and that uses up the 1 stun resist they have. Your ideal combo is Earthshaker (ES) -> Fierce Blow -> Backbreaker (BB) -> Staggering Blow -> Switch to Sword then Shield bash if up if not then Final Thrust. If hit by the full thing you’ll generally have a dead Ranger on your hand.

Now obviously you won’t always be able to land that perfect combo on builds with stun breakers and ES can be hard to land. Using Flurry and letting it go for a few strikes then switching and hitting with a shorter duration ES in order to ensure BB + Staggering Blow land. I would only ever try to land BB if you somehow set it us with another skill. You can also go Flurry -> Staggering -> BB as well. Basically the Hammer how I play it is all about combos and making up for the weaknesses of skills like BB and Staggering Blow.

I feel a lot more useful with this build than with Mace + GS because Hammer gives you the ability to jump into the middle of a point battle and cause havoc. After you..eh hem..hammer down the combos it will like a much stronger weapon and it’s a hell of a lot more fun then most warrior weapon sets.

There’s been a lot of talk about Hammer recently, I honestly don’t have any major gripes with the skills themselves, just their speed. The slow hulking nature of it looks cool which I’m sure was their intent but that hurts it in PvP. If I had my way I would have them make Earthshaker faster, make you able to move a bit while using Staggering Blow (which the balance team mentioned while streaming), and either make Backbreaker cleave or make the knockdown longer, I don’t mind the long windup so long as the payoff is good.

Even as it currently Hammer is still good, it just has room for improvement.

2/25/2013
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/warrior/Defektive-s-PvP-Hammer-Build-SkillCap-Edition-1/first

In the end, the build didn’t fit tPvP. It was good for hot joins but didn’t have a niche or enough pressure to be useful in a team setting. So I discontinued it.

Defektive.7283:

2/25/2013
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/warrior/Defektive-s-PvP-Hammer-Build-SkillCap-Edition-1/first

In the end, the build didn’t fit tPvP. It was good for hot joins but didn’t have a niche or enough pressure to be useful in a team setting. So I discontinued it.

Warrior meta has changed dramatically since then though. Back then we didn’t have Healing Signet being good, Cleansing Ire, Zerker Stance being anti-condi, or Final Thrust being able to hit 4-7k with Soldier gear. I tend to focus on SoloQ but thus far my W/L ratio has been pretty kitten good and most games I either get cursed by the enemy team or tanked my my team and even sometimes have the enemy complementing me. It does what it’s made to do well which is to focus on Rangers and Necros while still being useful for point capping and I stand a fair chance against almost ever class. Mesmers and Thieves can be tricky if they are running certain builds but those builds are of favor currently.

I know that you being on a team makes your word a lot more valuable but considering how popular Rangers and Necros Currently are I don’t see how a build that is dedicated to killing them and can kill them very quickly in the case of Spirit Rangers could be considered.

I did draw inspiration from your old build, but this not only has a different trait layout but just feels totally different than it did before because of how much more responsive hammer is now.

BurrTheKing.8571:

Defektive.7283:

2/25/2013
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/warrior/Defektive-s-PvP-Hammer-Build-SkillCap-Edition-1/first

In the end, the build didn’t fit tPvP. It was good for hot joins but didn’t have a niche or enough pressure to be useful in a team setting. So I discontinued it.

Warrior meta has changed dramatically since then though. Back then we didn’t have Healing Signet being good, Cleansing Ire, Zerker Stance being anti-condi, or Final Thrust being able to hit 4-7k with Soldier gear. I tend to focus on SoloQ but thus far my W/L ratio has been pretty kitten good and most games I either get cursed by the enemy team or tanked my my team and even sometimes have the enemy complementing me. It does what it’s made to do well which is to focus on Rangers and Necros while still being useful for point capping and I stand a fair chance against almost ever class. Mesmers and Thieves can be tricky if they are running certain builds but those builds are of favor currently.

I know that you being on a team makes your word a lot more valuable but considering how popular Rangers and Necros Currently are I don’t see how a build that is dedicated to killing them and can kill them very quickly in the case of Spirit Rangers could be considered.

I did draw inspiration from your old build, but this not only has a different trait layout but just feels totally different than it did before because of how much more responsive hammer is now.

The problem is that any stun style of build is going to counter necros or eliminate Spirit Rangers, you don’t have to make a build around it.

The changes to the class only made improvements to our Condi survivability, but the core build I made 6 months ago is essentially the same.

I’m not a huge fan of hammer in competitive PvP anymore because intelligent players know its limitations and abuse the living hell out of it.

Been runnin a similar build
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNAS8ejcOFvxQqQMRCEMDNsKOFUCNj5wOSFIDA-TsAg0CvIqRVj7JTNynsPNQYRwGCA

I utilize unsuspecting foe and fury for 100% crit on stunned target with +50% crit damage
I like warriors sprint for the roaming capabilities but you can switch for boon hate/vigor stance/or even mobile strike(not much range cept for savage leap, but you carry 3movement skills)
The toughness with dolyak sig wielding hammer ~2700 with shield ~2900
23k health
+150 power to allies in combat puts your hammer at 3200 attack and sword ~3100

All in all you still gotta watch out for condition spikes, 4 or less conditions are bearable, 6+ conditions, good luck.
As if it matters went 3/4 in soloq one win was a 4v5 which happens all too often.

Going to try this build tonight, Love the hammer, love the shield, still getting used to sword miss the axe but sword is the same but better.

This is what it does to Rangers

While any Stun build may kill Spirit Rangers, only hammer incapacitates the spirits as well while also avoiding the issue that Mace has which is the Spirits body blocking and making you waste the stun.

I’ve also been experimenting with hammer build, sword/shield on switch for mobility and final thrust, focusing on decent power and crit damage and high vit.

Hammer is bit sluggish by itself, but using sword #2 to close gap and then immediately doing shield stun into hammer stuns seems to work fairly well at keeping enemy in place for follow through attacks or you at least force one stun break and a couple of dodges out of the enemy, and you shouldn’t have too much trouble chasing them most of the time.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNAS8ejkOFvxQqQMxBE0DNsK4iTBlQ9YOqj4A-T0AA2CnIqRVjrGTNyas1MQYJymgDGPCA

Defektive.7283:

BurrTheKing.8571:

Defektive.7283:

2/25/2013
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/warrior/Defektive-s-PvP-Hammer-Build-SkillCap-Edition-1/first

In the end, the build didn’t fit tPvP. It was good for hot joins but didn’t have a niche or enough pressure to be useful in a team setting. So I discontinued it.

Warrior meta has changed dramatically since then though. Back then we didn’t have Healing Signet being good, Cleansing Ire, Zerker Stance being anti-condi, or Final Thrust being able to hit 4-7k with Soldier gear. I tend to focus on SoloQ but thus far my W/L ratio has been pretty kitten good and most games I either get cursed by the enemy team or tanked my my team and even sometimes have the enemy complementing me. It does what it’s made to do well which is to focus on Rangers and Necros while still being useful for point capping and I stand a fair chance against almost ever class. Mesmers and Thieves can be tricky if they are running certain builds but those builds are of favor currently.

I know that you being on a team makes your word a lot more valuable but considering how popular Rangers and Necros Currently are I don’t see how a build that is dedicated to killing them and can kill them very quickly in the case of Spirit Rangers could be considered.

I did draw inspiration from your old build, but this not only has a different trait layout but just feels totally different than it did before because of how much more responsive hammer is now.

The problem is that any stun style of build is going to counter necros or eliminate Spirit Rangers, you don’t have to make a build around it.

The changes to the class only made improvements to our Condi survivability, but the core build I made 6 months ago is essentially the same.

I’m not a huge fan of hammer in competitive PvP anymore because intelligent players know its limitations and abuse the living hell out of it.

Wish I could get Anas Tarcis to weigh in here because apparently he uses a Hammer as well. I kinda disagree with his opinion that dual melee sets aren’t viable, I think so long as you have a set that provides mobility you can get away with it but other than that we run the same trait loadouts just a different secondary set and he builds more for damage than I do, which makes sense since he uses a bow.

Build has an appropriate soundtrack too:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAZ7op9eJKQ

This is the exact build I’ve been running in wvw for a little over a month. The only difference is I run knights armor with Lyssa runes, and Cav trinkets

dargosian.2704:

Build has an appropriate soundtrack too:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAZ7op9eJKQ

Or perhaps this? :P

Yup ran this for about a month although prefer using the synergy of mace hammer (generally swapped to this spec to replace a bunker) rest was the same though except obviously the condi cleanse can be swapped up for EP depending on the comp.

And yeah remember how unsuccessful you were with that build defective, fought a few hammer warrior teams back then.. only to have someone like fivegauge demolish them ><.

It’s a different beast now though.. Glad to see you and Anas getting the right idea.

Tested out 30/10/0/0/30 (thats lyssa/healing surge) again the other day, it’s still the best if you just intend on roaming/stun locking, but isn’t as balanced and won’t lock down a team fight.

Only other thing I’ll say is try it with a valks ammy/jewel, be interested to see how you find it…

Phaeton.9582:

Yup ran this for about a month although prefer using the synergy of mace hammer (generally swapped to this spec to replace a bunker) rest was the same though except obviously the condi cleanse can be swapped up for EP depending on the comp.

And yeah remember how unsuccessful you were with that build defective, fought a few hammer warrior teams back then.. only to have someone like fivegauge demolish them ><.

It’s a different beast now though.. Glad to see you and Anas getting the right idea.

Tested out 30/10/0/0/30 (thats lyssa/healing surge) again the other day, it’s still the best if you just intend on roaming/stun locking, but isn’t as balanced and won’t lock down a team fight.

Only other thing I’ll say is try it with a valks ammy/jewel, be interested to see how you find it…

I still have to try out Anas’s build, I don’t think there will be a definitive better or worse because they’re two different playstyles. I’m really big on mobility and staying in the fight as long as possible and landing the big execute that is Final Thrust. Anas’s build has less mobility but has the AoE from the bow and Pin Down doesn’t require you to use adrenaline to immobilize your target. His utilities would work on my build as well I just like Sig of Stamina because it’s a good emergency cleanse if you get hit with a big condi spike which means it’s logical to bring Dolyak Sig as well. I actually Really like Bulls Charge now that it’s a bit more reliable in close quarters. As for Heal Surge VS Heal Sig I believe that Surge makes the most sense with Zerker ammy but Sig fits well with Soldier.

As for Valk gear I’m not to sure on that, I think I’d personally rather have the extra HP than the Healing Power because even with 3k armor only having 18k HP as a Warrior makes me feel more vulnerable.

Anas build is a roaming build. This one can do things that a dps roaming build can’t however, like hold a point neut vs a bunker + roamer. Like you mentioned sustain in a fight is also big plus.

I tried valks hammer before the signet buff and didn’t find it appealing too. However now if you can utilise the additional sustain/dps this can be a really effective ammy.