The sad fact about the hammer is that It has two good abilities and after that Its laughably useless. (2 and 1/2 if you count leg specialist…)
Lets start with a simple breakdown of the skills
Hammer Swing| No effects; 1/2 second cast time; 130 range
Hammer Bash| No effects; 1/2 second cast time; 130 range
Hammer Smash| +100 or so damage increase; 1/2 second cast time; 130 range
First off Im going to start by saying the hammer is one of the only melee weapons in the game without any condition/boon on at least one of the attacks (even ranged weapons have these effects sometimes) 100 damage is so insignificant considering most chain attacks have that anyways combined with a condition/boon
Fierce Blow| Weakness; 3/4s CT; 180 range AOE; 12s CD
Great skill, no complaints here other than its slightly long timers (if the hammers other abilities got “fixed” this would be less noticeable)
Hammer Shock| Cripple; 1/2s CT; 600 range AOE; 12s CD
fairly useless skill unless traited with leg specialist which IMO is sort of a wasted trait considering you can get other more useful traits instead. This ability needs to function more like a AOE boon hate or even have snare without the spec giving it actual purpose other than it being very situational
Staggering Blow| Knockback 3/4s CT(root); 180 range AOE; 20s CD; Whirl finisher
SUCKS! this is by far one of the worst skills of any profession. It totally craps on any teamplay due to the fact its an AOE knockback that is gonna knock them out of anything you blast finished into (if you know how to even hammertime) Id rather see this skill with a .25 second daze on it and not root you instead of this hunk of clunky garbage. The only time i ever find it useful is to remove defiant stacks from a boss. Give it some real use please…
Backbreaker| 2s Knockdown; 1s CT; 130 range; 30s CD
This ability baffles me every time. How in Balthazar name did they get away with putting a 30 second cooldown on a single target knockdown? lets compare this ability to other abilities along these same lines.
Tremor| 2s Knockdown; 1/2 second CT 1200 range AOE; 25s CD
Ring Of Warding| (unspecified)Knockdown; 3/4s CT 180 range AOE; 40s CD (duration 5 s); light field
Line of Warding| (unspecified)Knockdown; 1s CT 1200 range AOE; 40s CD (duration 5 s); light field
The reason for throwing in the ring of warding and line of warding isnt for the knockdown itself persay, more the fact that It has an entirely different purpose with a built in knockdown AOE into it already. Tremor is the real main focus here. Why is the ability that is 100% more effective than backbreaker located on the warriors mace offhand? Im not saying switch them, but instead, backbreaker should more resemble its single handed counterpart in a role where it will be much more appreciated and effective.
Earthshaker 1-2s Stun; 3/4s CT; 600 range, 240 radius AOE; CD 10s + adrenaline; Blast finisher
Keep in mind this is the adrenaline skill so it was made to be powerful. THIS is why warriors would even bother with the hammer. This skill embodies what the hammer is all about in a fun and powerful way.
Even with Earthshaker and Fierce blow, the hammer cannot be carried with these abilities. The hammer lacks so many viable skills it really sets back anyone trying to get a decent hammer build rolling. Almost every WvW build I see with the hammer simply just uses earthshaker to jump in, backbreaker to stun their single target and HB him to death. IDK bout you guys but thats not the playstyle I want with my hammer. I want to keep it wielded and pound on them with it, not use a crappy GS. Please give me your feedback and tell me what you think about the hammers abilities in an objective manner. (keep in mind hammer is for control therefore damage should not be a main focus on any of these abilities)