Guild Wars 2

8/22/13 Updated with video showing the Tank/DPs build in action!

Good day everyone! Thought i’d share 2 Hammer Warrior Builds I run in WvW depending on my mood and guild needs . I mainly do organized guild raids and small group roaming. One build is Tanky/DPS using Hammer/Greatsword. The second build is your standard shout heal support Warrior using Sword & Warhorn/Hammer.

Tank/DPS

In Action:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzZtBmLBXZc
Frontline DPS – Decent Survivability – Perma Might/Fury – Long Hammer Stun

Shout Support UPDATED

Support Tank – Runes of the Soldier – Perma Might/Fury – MErciless Hammer – Warhorn Condi Clearing

For the first build (Tank/DPS) you could swap “Rending Strikes” with “Crackshot” on the fly and have a fun GS/Rifle Build as well.

Any suggestions are welcome to improve the above builds. Looking forward to hearing them! Enjoy!

support tank, why not use soldier runes? Gives a lot more support to the group and makes those shouts more powerful.

Regarding the Tank/DPS build:

I love Hammer/GS… I rarely run it, but it’s so much fun. While your build is pretty standard, it’s clear you’ve tweaked it to fit your play… which is a big plus in my book.

Two questions:

1. Why Rending Strikes over Merciless Hammer? Merciless Hammer really helps hammer builds IMO.

2. Why FGJ? Perma-Fury is less important because you are running Opportunist. I could see FGJ if you were using soldier runes, but you’re not. I think you could get better offensive utility with Bulls Charge, and of course, you could get better defense with EP or Zerker Stance.

Couldn’t watch your vid on my device so maybe more insight is in there.

MiLkZz.4789:

support tank, why not use soldier runes? Gives a lot more support to the group and makes those shouts more powerful.

You can go either way on this one, I just went the more slightly selfish route lol. The remove conditions on shout is very strong. I think either rune sets work, especially if your party is running multiple warriors.

matthen.5024:

Regarding the Tank/DPS build:

I love Hammer/GS… I rarely run it, but it’s so much fun. While your build is pretty standard, it’s clear you’ve tweaked it to fit your play… which is a big plus in my book.

Two questions:

1. Why Rending Strikes over Merciless Hammer? Merciless Hammer really helps hammer builds IMO.

2. Why FGJ? Perma-Fury is less important because you are running Opportunist. I could see FGJ if you were using soldier runes, but you’re not. I think you could get better offensive utility with Bulls Charge, and of course, you could get better defense with EP or Zerker Stance.

Couldn’t watch your vid on my device so maybe more insight is in there.

1- I like the vulnerabilty condition of Rending Strikes, not only helps me but the rest of the party. You could definitely slot out Cleansing Ire for Merciless Hammer for great effect!

2 – I usually slot in EP and/or Bulls charge depending on whether i’m soloing or in a smaller group (as seen in the video – kitten you youtube! lol) , in larger fights EP/Bull’s Charge doesn’t do me, or my party any good . Zerker stance is interesting, will give it a shot and see how it goes. Thanks for the input!

I like the general idea of your Tank/DPS build, but with a few changes:

0/10/30/30/0 Guild Comp Frontline Hammer Warrior

Or a more selfish version for disorganized pug zergs and roaming:

0/10/30/0/30 Hammer Train Warrior

PS – Unsuspecting Foe + Merciless Hammer > all. Explanation in those links.

Warhorn with cleansing trait is an absolute must. You have 18k health with 3k armor, so your effective health is not optimized. You should be stacking health and armor in a 10:1 ratio. Cleansing Ire is pretty much garbage because missed/blocked attacks don’t spend adrenaline so it’s a pretty lacking trait outside of adrenaline on hit. I dislike the first build.

Second build is more on track with traits, except merciless hammer is must have for warrior trains. Soldier runes are far superior to Melandru runes in support and 25% condition duration only marginally decreases condition duration. As said above, you armor and health ratio is off and you need much more vitality than you do toughness. You’re better off stacking full PVT. I would also grab balanced stance, it’s far better stability up time. I would discard vigourous shouts because it heals for next to nothing, try picking up Shrug it off or shout recharge.

jul.7602:

You should be stacking health and armor in a 10:1 ratio.

This is interesting, first time I’ve heard it. What’s the reasoning and/or theorycrafting for that?

Great input guys! Keep em coming! Going to do more testing incorporating some of the suggestions – hopefully I can come up with something more solid in terms of the Support Tank.

So far i’ve since switched back to Soldier Runes, and have slotted Merciless Hammer. Will add annotations to the vid marking these (optional) changes. Like I said, adjust it to fit your playstyle while keeping the general idea of support. Everyone running around with the same spec is no fun

kurtosis.9526:

jul.7602:

You should be stacking health and armor in a 10:1 ratio.

This is interesting, first time I’ve heard it. What’s the reasoning and/or theorycrafting for that?

I think this would interest you, http://www.strikeforceguild.com/forum/post/last/m/7813886/viewthread/4773531-maximizing-survivability-through-ehp

I used to use another website that had more precise calculations, but for some reason I think that was deleted. This should be a very good read though.

jul.7602:

kurtosis.9526:

jul.7602:

You should be stacking health and armor in a 10:1 ratio.

This is interesting, first time I’ve heard it. What’s the reasoning and/or theorycrafting for that?

I think this would interest you, http://www.strikeforceguild.com/forum/post/last/m/7813886/viewthread/4773531-maximizing-survivability-through-ehp

I used to use another website that had more precise calculations, but for some reason I think that was deleted. This should be a very good read though.

Great writeup, thank you.

Fwiw the only build calc I know of that includes EHP is gw2buildcraft.com but it’s out of date and not being updated anymore. However, the Intothemists.com guys have told me that’s on their todo list, so hopefully they get it soon. It’s a simple calculation, at least until you try to include healing.

Updated with Tank/DPS build in action! Enjoy

kurtosis.9526:

I like the general idea of your Tank/DPS build, but with a few changes:

0/10/30/30/0 Guild Comp Frontline Hammer Warrior

Or a more selfish version for disorganized pug zergs and roaming:

0/10/30/0/30 Hammer Train Warrior

PS – Unsuspecting Foe + Merciless Hammer > all. Explanation in those links.

Against zergs both builds are squishy – believe it or not-.

This is because of the Valk armor/weapons. I still have to run in and out so it isn’t that effective for you to hold the front line. Guardians stick in there way longer due to protection/ block on healing -lol, I know- and 2seconds of invulnerability -even more lol- on their elite.

You can run in every 7 seconds for the hammer burst followed by either a 100b AOE dps or LB 3 to utilize unsuspecting foe as the hammer damage in that gear isn’t high at all nor did it pressure the targets. This obviously makes the hammer trait in the defense line less appealing.

The problem with 100b against zergs is given them a fixed target for 3.5 seconds. Anyone by now knows a warrior is a nicer target compared to a gaurdian. Also, the hammer is more annoying. So you end up either dying if you stay there or having to run in and out.

LB3 was ok in dmg. Especially if you back pedal while unloading LB 4/2.

This was against the weak zergs: 15-20 mans. Against higher tier ones it will be even worse.

Most of the dedicated zergs ask the warriors to go full tank/cc and leave the damage to the backlines -they usually go with Eles and sometimes necros/engys-. Why bother with mediocre dps in the front with reduced survivability while you can get away with more dps oriented builds hanging safely behind the front tanky line?

That’s why unsuspecting foe just dilutes your role in zerging. It’s ok for a 5man since you can get away with the hammer>100b thing since you got your buddies around.

XII.9401:

Most of the dedicated zergs ask the warriors to go full tank/cc and leave the damage to the backlines -they usually go with Eles and sometimes necros/engys-. Why bother with mediocre dps in the front with reduced survivability while you can get away with more dps oriented builds hanging safely behind the front tanky line?

That’s why unsuspecting foe just dilutes your role in zerging. It’s ok for a 5man since you can get away with the hammer>100b thing since you got your buddies around.

While this is true, me and one other warrior ran my Tank/DPS build and it worked out pretty well, of course our group was lacking backline DPS so we had to make up for it. But it’s really all situational, [EAT] switches builds throughout the night frequently depending on which enemy is running around and/or what we’re lacking.

Currently i’m testing out a new homebrew build to see if it fits in with the current meta. Will post my findings once I test it in more fights big and small.