Guild Wars 2

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)

I think the cooldowns are OK, especially with the unblockable 3 hits we now have possible via Signet of Might. IF you get an opening in which to start the CC chain, it is ruinous, and I don’t think it should be possible to do the chain any more than once every 25 seconds max. It is a great weapon for scaring people to use their stun breakers / stabilities.

That said, with the cast time and poor range of the hammer abilities it is a miracle if you get to do the chain. #4 is the worst with the self root, I almost always end up cancelling it by accident. Then there’s also the inexplicable “MISSED” events with the F1 skill… I hate the hammer.

vorpal.1497:

I think the cooldowns are OK, especially with the unblockable 3 hits we now have possible via Signet of Might. IF you get an opening in which to start the CC chain, it is ruinous, and I don’t think it should be possible to do the chain any more than once every 25 seconds max. It is a great weapon for scaring people to use their stun breakers / stabilities.

That said, with the cast time and poor range of the hammer abilities it is a miracle if you get to do the chain. #4 is the worst with the self root, I almost always end up cancelling it by accident. Then there’s also the inexplicable “MISSED” events with the F1 skill… I hate the hammer.

I agree the CD would not be bad IF the abilities were useful in more situations

I’m guessing you are talking PvP. Hammer might not be great for PvP but it totally rocks in WvW where it is the warrior’s zerg busting tool of choice.

Julie Yann.5379:

I’m guessing you are talking PvP. Hammer might not be great for PvP but it totally rocks in WvW where it is the warrior’s zerg busting tool of choice.

I guess I wasnt clear when I stated I dont want to use f1 then switch to another melee to do something. Im talking about PVP and PVE.

Julie Yann.5379:

I’m guessing you are talking PvP. Hammer might not be great for PvP but it totally rocks in WvW where it is the warrior’s zerg busting tool of choice.

And easily countered by stability and blind/chill spam that every zerg runs. We need more variety in wvw zerg warfare.

Epic.3950:

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

Alternatively, almost every WvW build I see uses hammer as the main weapon and GS for the mobility.
I WvW in Tier 1 and our guild focuses on destroying zergs, if I stop moving for HB to channel I will die before it even finishes.

I agree that hammer could benefit from some minor tweaks in cool down times. Staggering blow is a bit odd, the only situation I use it is when multiple enemies are reviving and we don’t have AOE damage on top of the down guy yet. Would love to hear what other situations people use it in, i’m just not getting much use out of it.

I guess ultimately this post brings into question if every weapon needs to be good in each environment (PvE, PvP, WvW). Hammer definitely works in WvW.

The main problems I have with it are:

-it’s slow.
-it’s slow.
-it’s very slow.

Even a few NPCs with interrupts make hammers annoying, and often random ones will just accidentally wander out of that knockback which requires standing still.

I guess the cooldowns are long-ish but I always trait them if I use it anyway.

I don’t like how number 4 plants the character for the swing.

I’ve always wanted to use the hammer but with no way to burst outside of frenzy I always just lose.

I love my hammer but agree that it does need some tweaks.

1. I think our 1 ability should add a stack of confusion or vulnerability on the third swing and increase the speed of it by 15-20%
2. Fierce Blow is fine.. again could use a speed increase
3. I think Hammer Shock should root for 1 second without needing leg specialist.
4. I love Staggering Blow. Yes i don’t like the fact that it roots you in place. My only change would be to have it usable on the run.
5. BackBreaker needs its cooldown reduced to 20 seconds. If its left at 30 then make it AoE

I also think Merciless Hammer should be changed to

Hammer Damage is increased by 10%. Reduces cooldown of hammer skills by 20%

The main problem is the cast times. Far too many warrior skills have cast times or root you in place. Thing is pvp and wvw is all about constant motion. Anyone standing still is toast. Add in server lag and it becomes very difficult to land many of our skills. Melee skills should not have a cast time. If they root you in place then there needs to be a complimentary skill on the weapon that immobilizes the opponent so you can set up the hit. It is hard enough to stay in melee range of some classes with high mobility, warriors don’t need the added pain of cast times and abilities that root you in place.

I’ve often wondered what it would be like if the third strike of the #1 chain crippled or maybe dazed whatever it hits for a fraction of a second. I imagine having an small-radius AOE 1/4 second cripple on the third swing with Leg Specialist would help with the kiting issue.

awesome feedback so far. really happy people are taking an interest in making the hammer a more viable weapon over the boring GS! keep em coming

vorpal.1497:

I think the cooldowns are OK, especially with the unblockable 3 hits we now have possible via Signet of Might. IF you get an opening in which to start the CC chain, it is ruinous, and I don’t think it should be possible to do the chain any more than once every 25 seconds max. It is a great weapon for scaring people to use their stun breakers / stabilities.

That said, with the cast time and poor range of the hammer abilities it is a miracle if you get to do the chain. #4 is the worst with the self root, I almost always end up cancelling it by accident. Then there’s also the inexplicable “MISSED” events with the F1 skill… I hate the hammer.

Just a correction..signet of might active effect lets only the damage from your CC attack goes through. The CC does not work and does not interrupt the blocking hence signet of rage is useless for hammers. I’m not sure if this is intentional.

On the other hand, guardian WEAPON skills : line and circle of warding, can interrupt blocking completely. We should have signet of might doing that for us.

Kill shot+ signet of might? yea..like the opponent won’t see it coming a mile away and dodge or cc you. Maybe evis from Axe+signet of might but even then how many times do you find your target blocking when you suddenly evis? I almost never do. Just time it.

Signet of might active effect is useless at its current state. It should allow 10 seconds of uninterrupted attacks..not 3 attacks..that is nothing. Also, if you use a cc on a blocking opponent with signet of might it should interrupt the channeled block/heal just like a plain regular guardian weapon skill..

I honestly would perfer if hammer 3 last attack chain removed 2-3 boons or remove a boon + bonus damage on removal (like the necro). Not only is it hard to land, but its insanely slow.

The hammer 4 and 5 skills are slow as they are made to be chained and combo’d after u get an immob on them from sword mainhand with leg spec..or number 3 with hammer or from earthshaker

If you aren’t landing your hammer 4 and 5 skills, ur doing it wrong. This is for wvw purposes.

slow, bland, needs to be chained together and predictable. sounds about right.

I think the hammer was built more around control than "clobbering time."

#5 is good. Slightly long cast time but it’s a knock down and can be avoided. Wish it was 3 seconds or if it didn’t land it would have a half refresh duration but still solid.

#4 Staggering blow is nice but I think it should have the daze effect with it lasting 1-2 seconds that begins after the knockback.

#3 is good range cripple/Immobilize if you have leg specialist.

#2 Fierce blow hits hard and I wish after the initial strike, it would apply 5 stacks of vulnerability for 5 seconds.

#1 For the slow attack speed, there is where I would move the weakness condition lasting 3-5 seconds. This would also give a reason to pick up Cull the Weak trait.

Weakness should also be changed to reduce target’s chance to crit by 100% for the duration. This would allow for a little more mitigation the warriors are needing.

The #1 Attackspeed isn’t exactly slow.
Here are some frame numbers. I measured how many frames past between the start of the attack chain, until the damage floater of the first attack of the second chain appeared, at 60 FPS.

Greatsword: 190 frames
Hammer: 201 frames
Sword: 174 frames
While technically it is slower then greatsword, it is just ~5% difference.
190 / 201 = 0.945 → ~95% → this is the time greatsword need in relation to hammer for a full chain.
The damage difference between both weapons on the other hand is enourmous.
Damage greatsword chain: 519+519+668 = 1706
Damage hammer chain: 668+668+891 = 2227
1706/2227 = 0.766 → ~77% → this is the damage greatsword does in relation to hammer in a full chain.

Just for the sake of numbers, here is the amount of frame from Hundred Blades start to damage floater of autoattack:
Hundred Blades: 257 frames.

The root on #4 is annoying.
And it seems that unsuspecting foe from the Arms traitline really just works against stunned enemies, and Backbreaker is a knockdown.
Backbreaker casttime could really use a slight cooldown and casttime reduction. Somewhere around 0.75s casttime and 25s cooldown.

Earthshaker on the other hand is the by far best burst skill the warrior has.

blinds are what ruin hammer builds

wads.5730:

blinds are what ruin hammer builds

Or anyone’s build for that matter. They’re annoying no matter what class / build you play.

I don’t mind the cast times. I think they good the way they are.

- 1 adding a condition (preferably stun or cripple) to the 3rd strike would be awesome although it might make it OP. Maybe a 33 or 66% to cause stun or cripple would be better.

-2 fine the way it is

- 3 great the way it is

- 4 the fact that it roots you makes it useless anywhere but PvE where mobs stand still waiting to be knocked back. Please make this usable while running.

- 5 fine the way it is

F1 has some issues with missing due to uneven ground which hopefully gets fixed but other than that it is a great burst.

4 shouldn’t root, 5 should be an actual 2s knockdown (at the moment it is not 2s) and f1 needs a bugfix… so, yeah, 2 bug fixes alone would be a nice bump to the hammer.

Epic.3950:

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…

You blast finish from the point of origin of earthshaker, not the point of impact.

Also, it’s a good way to get stealthed thieves that are stomping a friendly away.

Thruth is hammer is super strong in WvW.

Some weapons are good in PvE, some in PvP and some in WvW. None are good everywhere. So if you don’t like the hammer in PvE, than simply don’t use it.

Buffing hammer would make it to strong in WvW.

MiLkZz.4789:

Thruth is hammer is super strong in WvW.

Some weapons are good in PvE, some in PvP and some in WvW. None are good everywhere. So if you don’t like the hammer in PvE, than simply don’t use it.

Buffing hammer would make it to strong in WvW.

I cant possibly see buffing the hammer by bug fixing and making it more in line with its purpose will make it OP. MOMMY HIT HIT ME WITH HIS HAMMER BECAUSE MY ZERG IS TO STUPID TO USE STABILITY! NOW WE GOT PORTAL BOMBED WAHH!!! The hammer has so many counters. bugs and crap skill cast times shouldnt be among them.

Whats wrong with the Hammer.

1 It is slow.
2 It doesn’t have good traits.
3 Its slow.
4 Its easily avoided.
5 Its slow.
6 Aegis and Blind wreak havoc on it.

Merciless Hammer
Grants “Blind Rage” when your blinded or blocked (even with aegis.) and wielding a hammer, you become immune to conditions, unblockable and gain quickness for 4 seconds as long as your holding a hammer. (10 second cool-down.)
Hammer skills cool-down are reduced by 20%.

What does this do?
It gives the Hammer its own FLAVOR and punishes people for doing certain things, but does not overpower it because it makes good players able to get around it and punishes bad players, for example thieves who constantly use stealth fields to perma-blind hammer warriors will not think twice.

Hammer is fine, stop trying to blame your lack of skill on a weapon.

Want to hit skills when blinded? Use soldier runes, shouts clear conditions, right before you hit, use a shout. Works on supply camps and against thiefs to interupt their stealth spike.

Blind sucks because there are only a few skills that give blind immunity. But is is just the counter against warriors.

100% of the people in my guild run hammer warriors, the weapon is strong already.

MiLkZz.4789:

Hammer is fine, stop trying to blame your lack of skill on a weapon.

Want to hit skills when blinded? Use soldier runes, shouts clear conditions, right before you hit, use a shout. Works on supply camps and against thiefs to interupt their stealth spike.

Blind sucks because there are only a few skills that give blind immunity. But is is just the counter against warriors.

100% of the people in my guild run hammer warriors, the weapon is strong already.

Sorry but Hammers are only good against other Warriors.

the only problem with the hammer is hammer 4 staggering blow. the rest of the weapon is fine, its border line op when your glass with it in wv3.

Sanny.1270:

the only problem with the hammer is hammer 4 staggering blow. the rest of the weapon is fine, its border line op when your glass with it in wv3.

sorry you said OP let me fix this for you

Sanny.1270:

the only problem with the hammer is hammer 4 staggering blow. the rest of the weapon is fine, its border line viable when your glass with it in wv3.

Epic.3950:

Sanny.1270:

the only problem with the hammer is hammer 4 staggering blow. the rest of the weapon is fine, its border line op when your glass with it in wv3.

sorry you said OP let me fix this for you

Sanny.1270:

the only problem with the hammer is hammer 4 staggering blow. the rest of the weapon is fine, its border line viable when your glass with it in wv3.

i know what i said, i said it was border line op not completely op in wv3 . i still stand by that statement, Fb, BB , ES all can crit for over 10k + while BB and ES are CC abilities. staggering blow should be able to be used on the move or change the ability all together.

To make Hammer #4 great, make it a whirlwind like the GS#3. Make it low damage and keep the knockback.

That would enlarge the AOE knockback and give some mobility.

Sanny.1270:

Epic.3950:

Sanny.1270:

the only problem with the hammer is hammer 4 staggering blow. the rest of the weapon is fine, its border line op when your glass with it in wv3.

sorry you said OP let me fix this for you

Sanny.1270:

the only problem with the hammer is hammer 4 staggering blow. the rest of the weapon is fine, its border line viable when your glass with it in wv3.

i know what i said, i said it was border line op not completely op in wv3 . i still stand by that statement, Fb, BB , ES all can crit for over 10k + while BB and ES are CC abilities. staggering blow should be able to be used on the move or change the ability all together.

I know. Ive seen your videos and Im a fan but in all honesty do you really think you can pull any of that stuff off in anything other than WVW? in pve enemies cheat the CC system and in tpvp zerker is extrememly UP since it only has around a 50% crit chance (even with unsuspecting foe it doesnt proc off knockdowns/backs)

Its even less viable if you are trying to use it as a main weapon in WVW zergs (not roaming) without having to swap to a GS to get any damage output after the initial ES.
On a lighter note I actually laughed abit when I realized in your videos I had a similar Spvp build to what you use for WVW and I can tell you its significantly less “OP” in Spvp and significantly more borderline viable. In WVW I can only imagine it would be good for roaming though I cannot say much more since I havent tried… yet.

Hammer is a pretty strong as a team fighter in pvp. The damage is good, the control is solid.

People need to stop thinking that glass cannon is the only way to build anything. It isn’t.

Numot.3965:

Hammer is a pretty strong as a team fighter in pvp. The damage is good, the control is solid.

People need to stop thinking that glass cannon is the only way to build anything. It isn’t.

Could just roll guardian and be a much better ‘team fighter’ with much easier, lesser CD, easier to hit with CC. Along with much more survivability and group buffs.

Epic.3950:

Sanny.1270:

Epic.3950:

Sanny.1270:

the only problem with the hammer is hammer 4 staggering blow. the rest of the weapon is fine, its border line op when your glass with it in wv3.

sorry you said OP let me fix this for you

Sanny.1270:

the only problem with the hammer is hammer 4 staggering blow. the rest of the weapon is fine, its border line viable when your glass with it in wv3.

i know what i said, i said it was border line op not completely op in wv3 . i still stand by that statement, Fb, BB , ES all can crit for over 10k + while BB and ES are CC abilities. staggering blow should be able to be used on the move or change the ability all together.

I know. Ive seen your videos and Im a fan but in all honesty do you really think you can pull any of that stuff off in anything other than WVW? in pve enemies cheat the CC system and in tpvp zerker is extrememly UP since it only has around a 50% crit chance (even with unsuspecting foe it doesnt proc off knockdowns/backs)

Its even less viable if you are trying to use it as a main weapon in WVW zergs (not roaming) without having to swap to a GS to get any damage output after the initial ES.
On a lighter note I actually laughed abit when I realized in your videos I had a similar Spvp build to what you use for WVW and I can tell you its significantly less “OP” in Spvp and significantly more borderline viable. In WVW I can only imagine it would be good for roaming though I cannot say much more since I havent tried… yet.

yeah i agree it is lacking in other parts of the game, that’s why i specified in WvW,

T/S pvp unless they change the stat cap and get away from conquest being the main game mode i honestly believe warriors will never be a viable class. they don’t do enough splitting of abilities to make changes that don’t directly effect S/Tppv/WvW and PvE at the same time. in the case of the hammer, the dmg just isn’t there due to your stats being nerf’d.

PvE – mobs do cheat the CC system and it can’t compare to the gs/axe, the only thing would be to increase its dmg/attack speed, since they can’t let you CC boss mobs. but again that would push it over the top imo for wvw.

i think if we want to see a hammer buff with things such as cast time decreases’s or cd reductions it would have to take a dps nerf in WvW/Pve first before it can happen imo.

its really a bad situation Anet has put the balance team in, the basically have 3 different game types with a lack of ability splitting so the slightest change to anything can really unbalance things.

I seriously dont see a problem with mobs having to take the whole stun duration to the face. Its not that difficult to implement a diminishing returns to prevent mob stunlocking and It would cross out 2 of the 3 categories for viability.

Hammer needs something to counter its slow swing speed. Its very hard to use, maybe make the auto attack daze with the final blow being a .5 sec stun

Well it sucks in PvE and tPvP, you got me there.

But there is no way it sucks in WvW. I did solo/duo/small group/raids/zergs with my hammer warrior and he worked perfectly fine in every situation. I don’t have problems with landing my skills. And you can’t say every opponent I fought sucked because I am sure that between all those thousands there were a few who were good.

Hammer totally rocks with GS in WvW

MiLkZz.4789:

Well it sucks in PvE and tPvP, you got me there.

But there is no way it sucks in WvW. I did solo/duo/small group/raids/zergs with my hammer warrior and he worked perfectly fine in every situation. I don’t have problems with landing my skills. And you can’t say every opponent I fought sucked because I am sure that between all those thousands there were a few who were good.

WvW is playing against PvErs. Of course it work against them..your acting outside of the expected AI.

XII.9401:

MiLkZz.4789:

Well it sucks in PvE and tPvP, you got me there.

But there is no way it sucks in WvW. I did solo/duo/small group/raids/zergs with my hammer warrior and he worked perfectly fine in every situation. I don’t have problems with landing my skills. And you can’t say every opponent I fought sucked because I am sure that between all those thousands there were a few who were good.

WvW is playing against PvErs. Of course it work against them..your acting outside of the expected AI.

wvwvw is pvpers with pve gear, theyre still setup to pvp you…

I never understood skill 4. You are a melee character, then you knock the enemies away so they’re out of melee range. Why would you wanna do that?

Veldan.4637:

I never understood skill 4. You are a melee character, then you knock the enemies away so they’re out of melee range. Why would you wanna do that?

Well one reason is to keep enemy CC locked, but even better use for it is to deny ressing. You down someone, they try to res downed player, you push them back while your friend finishes the person/you keep dmg rolling.

Gathslan.1870:

Veldan.4637:

I never understood skill 4. You are a melee character, then you knock the enemies away so they’re out of melee range. Why would you wanna do that?

Well one reason is to keep enemy CC locked, but even better use for it is to deny ressing. You down someone, they try to res downed player, you push them back while your friend finishes the person/you keep dmg rolling.

That’s about the only reason to use skill 4. Sometimes I’ll use it if I’m getting jumped by 2 or 3. Knock them all back and follow up with BB on my original target. All the hammer really needs if some bug fixes and have skill 4 not root you.

Situational skills = wasted skills. hammer 4 does more harm than good in most situations. ESPECIALLY in pve. The control aspect of the hammer needs to be reworked for PVE. the main root of evil is defiant stacks being such a kittenty system to work with when your weapon relies on smacking them crapless and defiant makes them immune to be smacked crapless and promotes tank and spank.

Too slow. No good gap closers. Vulnerable while using it: No protection, stability, extra toughness etc etc.