Guild Wars 2

Would you choose hammer over greatsword? Like in dungeons, wvw, pvp?
Either yes or no , kindly state your reasons, how is greatsword or hammer better?
Thanks

Hammer contributes a lot more to groups in dungeons and is much more versatile.

Greatsword has a cripple and can be used to kite somewhat well, but it’s obvious when someone will 100b you. GS is for flat out DPS and not really for utility.

I choose Hammers.

Can a hammer out-damage a greatsword? Lets say both weapons are of the same stats?

Tou.3078:

Can a hammer out-damage a greatsword? Lets say both weapons are of the same stats?

I’m not sure, but it sure can do heck of a lot of damage if you let them get the best of ya depending on their spec.

In general, no, a hammer probably wouldn’t out-damage a greatsword. However, the hammer provides a lot more CC. In situations where the CC would be more useful than burning things down directly (kiting hard-hitting mobs in a dungeon, for example), I’d rather use the hammer.

Thanks for all your comments!! From what i see, hammer is the better choice for cc, dungeon. Would the cc work well in wvw too? I would also like to know how the hammer fare against greatsword under wvw and pvp.

Blunt weapons are defensive and utility weapons.

Bladed weapons are offensive damage-dealing weapons.

That’s a good rule of thumb to remember when it comes to Warriors.

Thanks to the Forceful Greatsword trait, as well as a well-rounded set of attacks, the Greatsword really is the king of Warrior weapons. Hammers are nice in PvP but rather lackluster in PvE due to Defiant stacks on bosses reducing your effectiveness drastically.

STOP !

Hammer time.

and you can use Hammer for trash and swap to GS or whatever at boss.

Greatsword also stacks vulnerable, which increases everyone else’s damage by about 4% on average. That alone is huge. Hammer on the other hand, can routinely keep enemies slowed and stunned.

So yes, the standard answer is correct: Hammer for defense and control. Greatsword for making things die.

Actually i’m trying to make a legendary, just that i don’t know which to pick, the greatsword or the hammer. Don’t wanna regret my decision though. I guess i would just go with one legendary and one exotic.

I didn’t want to try to pick between the two, so I use both. Mobility of Greatsword lets me get in and out of WvWvW enemy zergs, and the Hammer lets me cause AoE CC/general panic (large charr with large hammer near me, I should back up now etc.).

Before anyone comes in with “Lol hammers are so easy to dodge only noobs back up yadda yadda blah blah top tier tPvP”, a zerg mentality is something easily manipulated. Like sheep. Not every aspect of the game is about individual viability at top level 1vX structured situations.

Long story short, don’t be afraid to try both at once.

EDIT – If you’re going for the legendary, go with the one you think has a cooler effect, since that’s basically all legendaries are. The greatsword ones leave swooshy light trails behind them and look like mirrors for sunrises/sets, from what I can tell. The hammer one gushes quicksilver, and it gives you a shiny metallic exterior.

GS
1. DPS
2. Mobility
3. Looks

Hammer
1. cc
2. cc
3. Looks

I use a hammer myself as a WvW player, but thats mostly for the CC that the guild feels is useful. On the whole I think it’s an inferior weapon…

Long animations make it very easy to dodge the bigger hits (especially as a norn), the longer swings make it harder to take advantage of the stuns it brings, it actually does inferior damage to a greatsword (or most other weapons tbh) and Whirlwind on the greatsword is simply one of the best abilities we have -bringing high dps, mobility and evade.

Evade is the key there, in WvW it’s HUGE.

EDIT: Oh yeah, due to the hammers key being CC… stability nulifies it completely :P

I use a hammer most the time since I’m a support build, but it really is kind of pointless against bosses. Going to be frustrating when I get juggernaut finished to have to swap it out for a great sword on a lot of encounters.

great in wvw though.

as far as damage goes, my biggest crit was 4900k with earth shaker on hammer (which im specced for) and up to 14k on hundred blades over and over.

hammer could use more buffs imo

I badly wanted to use a hammer when i started this game, and did for most of my leveling from 1-80. Its got some good utility, but the damage compared to a gs is alot less. GS has its own form of utility (mobility) as well, which is unaffected by defiance. I haven’t tried hammer since they removed the self root on #3 though so maybe its worth it again, i’ll have to try.

Stability basically crushes hammers effectiveness. You can’t stun (F1 or #5), which also means you lose the beneift of the hammer trait of +25% dmg vs stunned targets.

As a Tanky Initiator? Yes even though Mace + Shield is better, I’d go with Hammer over GS. As a DPS? No.

For SPvP, I would take a hammer over a GS. Although the GS does provide more DPS (provided you can land HB), I feel like the hammer is more beneficial in a team setting due to stuns and knocldowns it brings.

Honestly the hammer is what I wanted to use so badly when the game was first being released to us little by little in production. I enjoyed playing a prot warrior, utilizing stuns and wearing down my opponents. In WAR a 2h chosen basically with the same counter-play style through aura weaving, and in AoC a bear shaman (they only use greathammers) with the same style. In practice though the hammer has too many flaws to work as a truly viable competitive weapon imo:

• First the trait is in the defense tree which would be ok except it promotes conservation of adrenaline whereas the hammer promotes constant adrenaline expenditure. Without the trait the cooldowns are far far too long though (shield has this same issue imo with CD’s to be used as a ‘main’ weapon style)
• Then there’s the fact that a single use of stability basically shuts the hammer down completely. Partially because of the next issues.
• The swing speed is too slow for the damage output. Frenzy is practically mandatory to get any real oomph out of the weapon pressure wise as every other class has so many baked in defensive abilities and oh kitten buttons to consistantly heal through the hammer damage while speccing for GC to tear the warrior apart.
• Mobility is terrible with it, though I attribute this to an overall problem with warriors as a class. Unless you go out of your way to spec/gear for perma swiftness you’re just so kitten slow to keep up with the agile nature of the other classes.

The GS has none of those issues. Sure it doesn’t have the CC, but it’s mobile and it provides the best pressure which allows the warrior the best chance at actually securing a win (however repetitive and cheesy) since the warriors main defense is the “block with face” method.

It’s situational whether to use GS or Hammer. Obvious application is for stuns, though I also use it for controlling points by knocking people out of areas.

Direct DPS is not that great but due to its stunning nature it can hold its own if you’re skilled.

If you’re using a Hammer I highly recommend you take a Rifle for your main DPS weapon to make up for the Hammer’s innate sub-par mobility. With a Rifle you can still “reach out and touch someone”, if you know what I mean.

No, my warrior is a swordmaster, for cosmetic sense, no matter how good or bad sword skill in a game, my warrior will definitely use sword~~

Seren.6850:

I use a hammer most the time since I’m a support build, but it really is kind of pointless against bosses. Going to be frustrating when I get juggernaut finished to have to swap it out for a great sword on a lot of encounters.

great in wvw though.

as far as damage goes, my biggest crit was 4900k with earth shaker on hammer (which im specced for) and up to 14k on hundred blades over and over.

hammer could use more buffs imo

4900k!?!?!?
sweet jesus the earth probably imploded from that.

4900k would be a bit excessive yes ;D

The greatsword has far higher theoretical damage, but its damage comes in waves. Hundred Blades is the obvious example here, but Whirlwind is also a once-off ability. Against things that block or dodge (mainly other players who are not distracted/controlled), greatswords do not actually do a tremendous amount of damage. A hammer allows for fair disables, making it at least somewhat viable in sPvP and WvW, though I would argue anything in PvE that can be disabled can also be killed just as quickly (and thereby nullified) with a high-damage weapon such as a greatsword or axe.
Hammer really shines in its trait that increases damage by 25% against disabled targets. Two or even three hammer warriors side-by-side can deal a ridiculous amount of damage working off one another’s disables and chaining powerful hits together. In PvE trash mobs can be wiped out almost instantly due to the hammer’s ability to hit 5 targets with many of its skills. In PvP and WvW, two hammer warriors can beat almost any two other professions that I’ve come across, though I don’t claim to have seen it all.

4900k on a rabbit i bet… >.>

shouldn’t post on migraine pills, 4.9k :p

I run both, Hammer for CC, clutch revive etc, and GS for damage output when no CC is required or in combination with a CC from Hammer to land a HB for instance, Mace Shield or Sword Mace instead of GS if I need to have constant CC going. Depends.

Depends on the situation. Most of the times, I run GS/Rifle, swapping those when needed.

For TA blossoms or when condition damage may be good, I go for GS/LB.

For places like AC exp. I use the hammer to deal with the gravelings, specially with breeders and scavengers. It’s also VERY usefull on AC Path 2 trap gauntlet, no need to kite, just swing the hammer with stuns, slows and knockbacks. Then on bosses, I get my GS back into action.

rogerwilko.6895:

STOP !

Hammer time.

and you can use Hammer for trash and swap to GS or whatever at boss.

They don’t share specc, so that really isn’t that viable. You either specc for Hammer or Greatsword.

Oglaf.1074:

rogerwilko.6895:

STOP !

Hammer time.

and you can use Hammer for trash and swap to GS or whatever at boss.

They don’t share specc, so that really isn’t that viable. You either specc for Hammer or Greatsword.

It’s not about the spec, it’s about the weapon usefulness. The thing that they dont have the same spec just means that one of them will be sub-optimal, and, in that case, he is speccing for GS, since it’s his weapon for bosses.

And for trashes, you can use the Hammer with a GS spec since will actually just need the cc’s, not the damage from it. Like I said, Hammers do a great job in gravelings from AC exp for example, better than GS tbh. You keep interrupting/stunning the worst from Breeders and Scavengers, and the rest of the group destroy them very fast.

I find that killing stuff usually takes care of them, y’know?

Tou.3078:

Would you choose hammer over greatsword? Like in dungeons, wvw, pvp?
Either yes or no , kindly state your reasons, how is greatsword or hammer better?
Thanks

GS for spvp, hammer for pve and wvw.

basically in spvp the hammer is too easily nutrilized and/or avoided, at least in “most” cases, making it a tough spec to play in high end spvp that can be replaced (CC wise) by other class specs that are better at it. not saying its terrible, it can be good, just not to the same extent the 100b warrior (only viable spvp spec the warrior has…..).

for me GS in pve is boring, basically just spamming 100b over and over and over again, utilities dont even matter anymore. hammer on the other hand allows for some well needed CC on any kind of mob, most bosses included.

wvw i choose hammer as well cause the aoe stun mainly. GS warrs in wvw are near to useless, cause the 100b combo is only good when specced into full burst and in wvw full burst specs are instantly killed with jsut aoe most the time. the hammer offers great CC to full enemy teams, even zergs when group together. its just more useful.

well those are my thoughts lol

Oglaf.1074:

Blunt weapons are defensive and utility weapons.

Bladed weapons are offensive damage-dealing weapons.

That’s a good rule of thumb to remember when it comes to Warriors.

Thanks to the Forceful Greatsword trait, as well as a well-rounded set of attacks, the Greatsword really is the king of Warrior weapons. Hammers are nice in PvP but rather lackluster in PvE due to Defiant stacks on bosses reducing your effectiveness drastically.

^This. When I see a hammer warrior I get a drink so I won’t rage all the times stuff gets knocked out of HB range just as I start it.

Actually the only reason GS out damages Hammer is because of Hundred Blades. Using the 1 skill the Hammer deals more damage than GS.

NinjaSonic.1392:

Actually the only reason GS out damages Hammer is because of Hundred Blades. Using the 1 skill the Hammer deals more damage than GS.

Whirlwind Attack (especially after the buff in the latest path!) does way more DPS than Hundred Blades.

Also, 1 on Greatsword stacks Vulnerability.

NinjaSonic.1392:

Actually the only reason GS out damages Hammer is because of Hundred Blades. Using the 1 skill the Hammer deals more damage than GS.

It isn’t as much as you might think even ignoring buffs and debuffs, which is where GS really kills the hammer. Auto swing tooltips lie, and a full rotation of the hammer’s is about .4 seconds slower than the GS.

Tou.3078:

Thanks for all your comments!! From what i see, hammer is the better choice for cc, dungeon. Would the cc work well in wvw too? I would also like to know how the hammer fare against greatsword under wvw and pvp.

rather than going into detail i ran 2 specs in this video and i personally love hammer but i also have another spec which uses gs in the other video but have a look and see what you think. in the vid it shows alot of cc instead of telling you about it have a look and the kinda play style see if it fits with yours.

Seren.6850:

as far as damage goes, my biggest crit was 4900k with earth shaker on hammer (which im specced for) and up to 14k on hundred blades over and over.

That’s over 14k damage over 3.5 seconds while rooted (4k dps). Most hammer special attacks can easily crit for as much in 1 second time.

Not saying Hammer is better DPS, but the gap isn’t as large as you are making it out to be.