Guild Wars 2

Since the patch hit, I’ve basically seen the community rework their builds to make gs again a very hard hitting strong weapon.

I customized my buid to use hammer and lb (I always have a ranged weapon just in case, especially in fractals where u can’t melee bosses really) and I love the hammer, however I dont think Im putting out as much damage as warriors with gs.

I think my hammer’s utility is better with dazes, knockdowns, etc but in dungeons, my job is to burn down and burn down fast. My gear is knights with power, prec and toughness and that isnt changing. My trinkets are zerker. Would it be better for me to switch to gs? (again, I rarely wvw and never pvp).

Yes, if the criteria is solely damage for pve. Against any bosses, great sword is most definitely stronger than hammer. The other option, I think, is axes, but that play style is a mix of so boring you want to cry, and having to swap so much tha to maintain that top dps, you need to be really quick with your fingers.

I used to play a shouts healing, mace/shield hammer Warrior in Dungeons when the game just came out, during the first few months. I LOVED that build because I was able to help and carry other players that were bad. I would heal everyone in my party, if things got rough I could stun mobs for a while, faster reviving and so forth. I only did Arah (4/5 paths) and switching to this build is what helped me get through it better instead of constantly failing with my group which was always a bunch of randoms. I was also able to solo some of those bosses for a while (1-2 minutes) which was great when people could just run back when they were dead.

It took a few weeks but I got my full Arah set as a mace/shield hammer Warrior and it was pretty fun.

Bottom line in my opinion is to use a defensive build such as the one I used if you’re playing with people that aren’t very experienced or when going to a new dungeon. Once people start getting the hang of things, you can just swap to a more DPS oriented build.

This is my build with the hammer:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQJASTjcOJvtQCPMRCAMDt4yUwojCqWSfwOA-e

The people I play with are all experienced, so carrying someone is very rare. Look like Im gonna have to adjust my dps and the gs beats the hammer.

Kind of shame bc the hammer has such incredible potential outside of just solely wvw.

I’m trying to make a hammer warrior too, trying to make a build that stunts as much as possible

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIUQJASTncOk8YUQOPwEZgwo4HiXpYOwJ9oMoJNA-jAyAorhoRFU0IEAZvioxWZLiGreBTXSEV7PKiWNA-e

Shouts would heal, give adrenaline and cure conditions. I think it can be fun to play although I didn’t try it yet because I’m lvl 73 (so if anyone thinks it’s crap, please say it! ^^)

Im not a big fan of the tactics line and by not using defence you’re missing on the one trait that ups hammer damage.

Not a good build for hammer.

Yes, I know it, but hammer seems too slow, so I hardly hit a disabled foe. On the other hand, I would like to have that +20% recharge bonus. But

- 15 in Strength implies extra endurance
- VII in Strength applies confusion(4) for 8s (I can apply confusion to 3-4 foes simultanoeusly)

- Tactics (VIII and XII) improves my shouts so they can heal and recharge faster. This, used with Discipline IV and soldier runes, make shouts the “fuel” of the build (heal, cure conditions, gain adrenaline)

Finally, 20 points in Discipline reduce recharge of Burst to 8 secs.

So… yes, damage isn’t as high as it could be. But life pool is huge (30k), endurance is good (1664) and interrupts are common. Anyway, I feel a lack of healing. And extra critical damage is underused unless I apply fury with the elite signet.

Hammer does seem slow, I’ve been reading about 5 pages worth of forums posts and the way it seems it looks like if you are going for dps, you should go for axe/axe or axe/mace. Then greatsword.

Hammer as cool as a weapon as it is, as the game stands is not a burst dps weapon.

The Greatsword isn’t necessary. There’s nothing stopping you from alternating between say, Axe/Mace and Hammer. With Tremor on Mace you would be the interrupt king whilst still dealing high damage from the Axe (try to spend as little time auto attacking with the Hammer as you can, just change, use your big damage skills/interrupts then switch back.)

Dolan.3071:

The Greatsword isn’t necessary. There’s nothing stopping you from alternating between say, Axe/Mace and Hammer. With Tremor on Mace you would be the interrupt king whilst still dealing high damage from the Axe (try to spend as little time auto attacking with the Hammer as you can, just change, use your big damage skills/interrupts then switch back.)

yeah that would be a good setup, but Im just used to running with a ranged weapon and a melee weapon. I just really enjoy that. Do u think the axe/mace setup is superior to the axe/axe setup on pve?

axe/axe is pointless, axe 5 is lower dps than axe 1. the damage boost was in spvp

It is nice to have a ranged weapon to fall back on, but after you’ve done the encounters a few times you’ll find yourself rarely using your ranged set. 99% of all encounters can be done in melee anyway.

And yeah offhand Axe I have only found two encounters that make it worthwhile, that is CoFp2 defending Magg, Whirling Axe cleaves through enough targets to push it beyond auto attack damage. And the Legendary Shaman Fractal, using Whirling Axe on its shield to power through its block stacks. The No.4 skill just isn’t even worth using because we have plenty of Fury uptime as Warriors anyway.

I use Greatsword and Hammer together, I find Hammer skill 2/4/5 combined do almost as much damage as Hundred Blades. So Hammer damage is pretty good, wouldn’t mind seeing a slight boost to Backbreaker though, due to the 3rd Hammer auto-attack doing almost as much damage as those 3 skills I mentioned