Guild Wars 2

Hey guys
Here I want to present you my own personal “hamhorn”-build.

I’m gonna structure my post like this:
1. Intro @ the Link
2. Why not X?
- Hambow
- Longbow instead of Hammer
- Shield
3. Trait setups
4. Skills
5. How to fight against certain classes

1. Intro & Link
Well I am a main warrior and I have a few hundred hours of playing both 2 of my lvl-80 wars. Currently I am rank 30 in sPvP and did get there by solo and team q even before the faster ranking in the recent patch.
I quit playing hotjoin since I got to rank 8 as I was looking for something that would be less zergy and more competitive with more tactics involved.
Anyway that’s enough to my person lets get to the link:
Link to my Build
well that was fast and easy – let’s go on.

2. Why not X?
- Hambow
Before the recent patch I played hambow for quite some time but since it was nerfed I didn’t really like the dmg-output it offered… and playing my DD-Ele (even tried some other builds) in sPvP – well I guess you know what followed. I quit sPvP for some time and went farming for ascended gear, leveling my sending warrior to 80 and just had a nice time with my guild.
But about 2 weeks ago I again tried sPvP and as I knew I wouldn’t like the damage from hambow I tried hamhorn – hammer, axe+warhorn. It works pretty nice, i don’t claim to be good at this game but to date I didn’t loose any 1v1 and if I wasn’t able to kill my enemy (btw I’m not a tank, berserkers amulet with soldiers jewel) I at least survived until back-up came – either for me or my opponent :P Hambow is nice but I don’t really like the damage it offers after the patch – in group fights it is nice but in 1v1 I just lack dmg to take out one enemy quickly.
Also in group fights the axe f1 is hard to see and you can help your team bursting down your target.
- Longbow instead of Hammer
I also tried Longbow instead of hammer and LB has a secured condition removal but at the same time LB is amid between direct and condition damage. With LB I lack any stun as well (you could go for shield but I’m giving my opinion on shield in the next point). Also with hammer f1 if u don’t hit anything you are faster on maps.
- Shield
Why am I not using shield instead of Warhorn? I like the shield, I also use it in WvW and it has a nice stun in order to interrupt a Aether renewal or anything like that or/and to directly use your axe f1 afterwards. The block on #5 is nice too but with a shield I would change “+3% dmg per boon on my opponent” to “+25% increased movement speed” as without the Warhorn I’d loose the swiftness – which is for your whole team btw.
Also the shield #5 is a but egoistic comparing it to Warhorn #5 – vigor for you and your team mates as well as weakness for your enemies. Of course the weakness may not stay that long but it affects your whole team and the whole enemy team and… well it is just an amazing skill.

3. Trait setups
Atm I am running 0/10/30/0/30 with this build taking “vigor and fury if u take 10%+ dmg of your health in one strike”. As your amulet is berserker (is also tried soldiers amulet with berserkers jewel btw but i wasn’t really satisfied with my dmg-output) you are gonna take a lot of dmg (especially from thieves and warriors) anyway so why not take this trait? It helps you at maintains perma fury for ~65% crit chance or something in about these lines.
And then of course dogge march, cleansing ire amd merciless hammer, as well as burst mastery, signet recharge and +3% dmg per boon on my target.
If u don’t want the 10 points in weapons go for 0/0/30/10/30 and take empowered – or just go for 0/0/30/0/30 for the challenge ^^ (btw I wouldn’t recommend that as it is the worst option obviously) You can also go like 20/0/20/0/30 for +10% crit dmg on axe but that isn’t really worth the points in strength. If u don’t want merciless hammer rather go for 0/20/20/0/30 for unsuspecting foe (hammer #5 -> axe f1) Another option is going for 0/0/20/20/30 and taking both empowered and the reduced cd on Warhorn skills/Warhorn skills remove 1 condition – that would allow you to maintain 12 secs of swiftness on a 13 second cd without using your elite.

4. Skills
I take healing signet (just pay attention to poison on you) which is probably a thing I won’t have to explain to you. Just remember to use it before you go down, maybe you are going to survive because of that little burst heal (note: with another patch arenanet is going to decrease the passive and increase the active, you MAY want to switch to healing surge then) Then I am using no triple stance but balanced stance, dolyak-signet and berserker’s stance.
In order to proc lyssa runes as often as possible I use signet of rage as my elite and trait for signet mastery.
If u don’t think you’re gonna need 16+5 (lyssa runes) seconds of stability, go for endure pain instead of balanced stance and keep your dolyak-signet!
I may do that as well later to make sure I don’t get bursted down while stomping (at least even bad backstab-thieves are good for something :P ) but atm I love that long stability for save stomping, -ressing and against hammer warriors.
Balanced stance is worse than dolyak-signet with “signet mastery” as the signet only has a 8 second longer cd and +180 toughness if u don’t activate it – and I mean who really cares about the 8 second swiftness on the stance Berserker’s stance is amazing – use it when you are fighting a warrior when he uses LB in order to not let him get off his #5 -> #3 combo and to avoid his blind on #4. It also I amazing to get some fast adrenaline for 2 quick adrenaline skills.
It is nice against condi warriors, condi engis, spirit rangers, d/p or s/p thieves, condition nekros and condi mesmers as well – so just a nice skill to have.
If u want to play tPvP you may want to change signet of rage to battle standard, take vigor on stances instead of signet mastery, take Melandru runes and go for triple stance – but that doesn’t have to be the case, a lot of good warriors in top teams use SoR

5. How to fight against certain classes
- Warrior: make sure to avoid hammer f1, axe f1 and stuff like that if possible, save your dodges. use Warhorn #5 and hammer #2 for weakness and use your berserkers stance when they use their longbow – usually 1v1s against hambow takes some time but shouldn’t be hard as u have better single target dmg
- Guardian: DPS! interrupt his #4 on staff, don’t go 1v1 against a bunker guard if he has the point unless you have nothing else to do (for example you have 2 points) or you know you’re gonna get back up.
- Thief: Backstab isn’t really hard, chain your cc and make sure it hits, use f1 hammer on your position if he’s in stealth and likely to backstabbing you, try to dodge his backstab, activate berserker’s stance in black powder, pressure him as soon as he pops up out of stealth – pro tip (even for non-pros): use your axe f1 in the middle of his dodge to make sure it hits him as soon as his dodge roll ends – it really hurts him. So d/p thieves are relatively easy, but s/d thieves… well there you really have to time your skills, even auto-attacks (except your axe AA) and use my “pro”-tip from above. hammer #2 and Warhorn #5 are nice (make sure you aren’t blinded when you use your #5 on Warhorn)

- Engi: bunker engis can be a pain especially with their toughness and 3sec-protection (5sec cd) on stun – better if you are having back-up but you usually can pressure him relatively nicely and get rid of his conditions by using your hammer f1 into his turrets if necessary – otherwise try to avoid his pull & confusion (tool kit #3 & #5) or all of his knockbacks and get him to panic so that he f***s up his combos. Pay attention if they are using signet of doom or/and elixir gun (perma weakness)
- Rangers: they shouldn’t really be a problem but try to avoid their poison attacks on dagger (and sword I think) – hit their spirits as well with your skills and you should be fine
- Elementalists: are a joke atm. Probably rather squishy as they are using berserker – don’t let them heal up when they are using clerics (then they should deal a lot of dmg anyway) and try to interrupt their Aether renewal
- Necromancer: pretty strong with all their conditions, if they have their power-Sigil save your elite for that. Minion necros are strong in duels but relatively useless in group fights but necros should always be your first target in group fights because they can pressure you and your team easily (especially epidemic is a pain) – try to put any other side dmg on thieves and elementalists.
- Mesmer: direct dmg-mesmers usually lack a lot of defensive skills, just try to avoid their sword #2, dodge and kill their phantasms (especially pistol and gs), get our of null field, don’t waste attacks into their f4 (invulnerability) and other than that pressure them. Condition mesmers are harder to kill but easier to survive – its only annoying if they keep you away from the group fights and on your point (they probably aren’t able to decap it as they often stealth). They are the main reason why I went for berserker main stat and switched soldiers to jewel.

Note: All this is before the patch with the balance and sigil changes, you may want too add another sigil of battle onto you Hammer to maintain a few stacks of might if you can have 2 sigils on your 2-handed-weapons

And yeah that’s my build, some explanation why I (don’t) use X and how I try to fight some classes.
I’m still nowhere near perfect as I often forget to use my healing signet

If u have any feedback, criticism or ideas on how to improve this build (I’m for example not sure whether I should use empower instead of 10 points in weapons) leave a comment please and I will definitely answer you.
Questions on what I think about specific traits/skills or weapons or anything else are also appreciated and other than that any comment is an encouragement (don’t sure if that’s a word though)
- let’s just say “encourages me to maybe show some future sPvP builds if I ever come up with something new and think it is worth mentioning”
Other than that why not try this build?

Oh oh I wrote way too much and I’m gonna stop now – thank you a lot if u read so far!!!

Omg another warhorn warrior besides me??!!!

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Omg another warhorn warrior besides me??!!!

LOL! I was thinking exactly the same thing… Love when people have success with “non-meta” builds.

I mostly roam (not zerg) WvW with a Hamhorn warrior, but I do jump into sPvP when WvW is not giving me enough fights for my liking, and I feel like I need more focused small combat practice.

Anyway… Great post! I especially enjoy the tips on fighting different opponents. I run 0/0/30/20/20 Hammer + sword/warhorn (traited). I used to run axe, but sword let’s you get away with dropping Burst Mastery… you just have to work hard to set up your Final Thurst (Sword #3).

yeah i also like sword – especially because of the mobility it offers me
but then i dont really like the f1 in a power build unless i’m having GS in my other weapon set.
I may try sword as well but atm i am fine with axe mh

One question:

Why 0/10/30/0/30 or 0/0/20/20/30 over 0/0/30/20/20… is burst mastery that good in this build? I.e., it looks like you are taking it over both the Quick Breathing and Merciless Hammer.

[p.s., apologies for the + two week bump]

My Horn build few days ago

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNBMhNYk0p2t4hJOggeohVhAqUYHbYSxZwGA-TsAgyCsIKSVkrITRyisFNgYVwUEA

In the 3rd slot can equip berserk stance or signet of fury…

- Might stack
- Cleansers
- Average toughness
- Retaliation (good against thieves, rangers, necros and guard)
- Good support
- Good mobility
- And more, and more and more

I changed to hambow because Eng AoE and AI spam become out of control, i honestly expect come back to this build later

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=Vs;4NKFP0e4NLVQ0;9;49-OJE0;318-08-5;06Nk0U;16TsW6TsWToFLcHZ5;3jVp0tX8Z34La7oVJ70HV5;0V5P;19c;9;9;9;9;9;04-6I

Due to our guild needing warriors I have switched my main from ele to warrior. I have tried an assortment of builds, posted a few, but have settled down with axe/warhorn & hammer. I don’t pvp or roam solo so it is built more for running with my guild. We typically take on double our numbers, especially now with edge of the mist, so I have focused more on survival and sustained damage than precision/burst.

When bloodlust stacks are maxed I switch to leeching.

I still need to pick up ascended gear.