Guild Wars 2

hi warriors. I am a new and budding warrior, less than 20 hours in him!

looking at all the new coming changes, I can’t help but salivate at this combo:

hammer + mace/shield

I am looking more at a WvW solo roaming perspective.

What do you guys think of this combo? is it feasible?

Arms
Minor
Precise Strikes: Your critical hits have a 33% chance to inflict 1 stack of bleeding for 4 seconds.
Rending Strikes: Your critical hits have a 33% chance to inflict 1 stack of vulnerability for 8 seconds.
Bloodlust: Deal 5% additional damage to bleeding foes. Bleeding you inflict lasts 33% longer.

Adept
Berserker’s Fury: Gain 2 adrenaline every 3 seconds while in combat. Striking a foe below 25% health grants fury for 5 seconds (can only trigger once every 10 seconds).

Master
Unuspecting Foe: Gain 50% increased critical hit chance against stunned foes.

Grandmaster
Burst Precision: Burst skills have a 100% critical hit chance.

Defense
Minor
Thick Skin: Gain 120 toughness while you are above 90% health.
Adrenal Health: Heal every 3 seconds based on your current adrenaline level.
Spiked Armor: Gain 150 toughness while you have retaliation. Suffering a critical hit grants you retaliation for 5 seconds (15s ICD)

Adept
Shield Master: Reduces recharge on shield skills by 20%. Blocking an attack grants 1 stack of might for 8 seconds. If you block a missile attack you reflect it instead.

Master
Sundering Mace: Reduces recharge on mace weapon skills by 20%. Mace skills apply 1 stack of vulnerability for 10 seconds whenever they hit a foe that is dazed, launched, knocked down or stunned.

Grandmaster
Last Stand: Gain vigor for 6 seconds whenever you activate a stance. Stance durations last 25% longer. If you are affected by a crowd control skill cast Balanced Stance.

Discipline
Minor
Versatile Rage: Gain 5 adrenaline when you swap weapons.
Fast Hands: Reduces recharge of weapon swap by 5 seconds.
Versatile Power: Gain 2 stacks of might for 10 seconds whenever you swap weapons (combat only). Burst skill recharge is reduced by 15%.

Adept
Warrior’s Sprint: Move 25% faster while wielding melee weapons. Using a movement skill removes the immobilize condition.

Master
Brawler’s Recovery: Remove 1 condition whenever you swap weapons (combat only).

Grandmaster
Merciless Hammer: Reduces recharge of hammer weapon skills by 20%. Hammer skills deal 20% more damage to stunned, dazed, knocked down, or launched foes.

What sorts of utilities / gear will you be running? I can see conditions being an issue for the build. Also stability will give it a lot of trouble.

i would run it with shouts and for pvp not wvw. reason being you are slow as hell, and you don’t want to be slow as hell for wvw. skullcrack or ham sw/sh is better imo because they have mobility.

Don’t use this in WvW,you lack mobility to outrun or catch up anything..If someone decides he wants to run,chance is he will get away.If a zerg pops up out of nowhere,chance is you will die.Keep hamm/mace for pvp, and rather grab Gs/hamm or mace/shield – GS for WvW.You really Need the mobility.

how about if for my elite I use Rampage and transform into a juggernaut to run or catch? that would give me a good mobility for WvW if anyone decides to run or if I need to run.

If I do meet someone who wants to fight, then wouldn’t the hammer mace shield combo be too overbearing for almost any class?

EremiteAngel.9765:

how about if for my elite I use Rampage and transform into a juggernaut to run or catch? that would give me a good mobility for WvW if anyone decides to run or if I need to run.

If I do meet someone who wants to fight, then wouldn’t the hammer mace shield combo be too overbearing for almost any class?

Rampage is always good to use it synergizes really well with a hamm or mace set up, though you dont wanna waste a 150sec elite just to bail,and it can still go wrong,thieves can still catch up and gs warrs can still catch up quite easily aswell.You’re gonna be chased untill rampage runs out and you will probably still drop nonetheless.

Ham/mace combo is incredibly strong from an 1on1 perspectiv since you can completely lock someone down,but in wvw you’re not about to find much 1on1,it’s gank or get ganked.You can always try it nonetheless but i’d advice to run gs/hamm in wvw and use rampage as a proper elite and not to bail out.

The weapon combo is solid even right now…but for WvW I would have to say no…unless you’re like me and enjoy picking fights you probably won’t win. The one interesting fact is that if you are good at grouping up multiple enemies you might be able to win uneven fights.

That being said I would run this:

Strength: Peak Performance – Body Blow – Berserker’s Power/Distracting Strikes (Imagine the synergy with Perplexity even with mostly power stats)

Defense: Shield Master/Cull the Weak (The sustain from Shield is nice but Weakness is a form of sustain as well) – Sundering Mace/Defy Pain (Mace will throw Vuln on which will boost your Confusion/Bleed dmg) – Cleansing Ire

Discipline: Warrior’s Sprint – Brawler’s Recovery (Condis are gonna be your biggest weakness) – Merciless Hammer

These traits all synergize perfectly. While having so many condis might seem strange, damage is damage. Whenever you use any of your CC skills you’ll applying Weakness and Bleed. If you interrupt you’ll get that + Confusion, Mace will be applying Vuln which will buff that damage a bit. I’m leaning towards Shield Master because the reflects make up for your lower mobility a bit because you can use them to close the gap.

Utility: Bull’s Charge – Zeker Stance – Balanced/Dolyak – Rampage

Heal will probably still be Healing Signet cause apparently someone hates variety and decided Mending shouldn’t be a Physical Skill.

In uneven fights you can open with Zerker + Rampage and go for the squishiest target. When you down them if you’re no longer in Rampage you can easily deny the revive multiple times if they don’t have Stability. Rather than trying to stomp the ones you downed use them as bait to repeatedly get interrupts on the revive.

Will this be “viable?” Probably not. Will it be enjoyable and occasionally give you some great fights? Probably.