Guild Wars 2

@Lumines

Yeah its weird that survivability doesnt go down even if you add dps, sure some support is lost but its arginal imo. But if ou are more conetent with a more defensive set up you should play that.

Regarding heals and selfless daring, this is why the orrian gear, with vit/prec on them are so interesting. It might be able to keep most of the dps/ah heals and still improve selfless daring immensly. I will get back to this as soon as i have the gear to test it with.

@Fabsm
Thx and nice to hear that you gotten enlightend, frontline killing in wvw is just so awesome :-)

There are plenty of valid sigils if you are not comfortable with energy. Hydromancy, battle, strength, fire, ice, life leech on swap, life leech on crit, just to mention a few.

I suggest you trait it how you want to play and then choose sigils and runes based on what you want to improve. Starting to sound like a politicians answer but there isnt just one solution.

@Trungalunga
Yes, thx for the advice, im planning to do that but my real life is kind of hectic but if i get the time (dictionary+not english=slow writer) i will make a new updated thread with all your reflections and suggestion as valid options. If its good enough it might be stickied or the effort will be in vain but i take the chance.

I would really appriciate if you could help me with the pve part and your input. You play it a bit different then me and more input is always nice in a “guide”.

@Krulz
There are more then gear needed to hit superhard but that i will keep to myself :-)

The jewels drop on a regular basis in open world pve, just buy an explorer set and you will have the jewels of your choice in no time.

@Akamon
Thx for the kind words and im glad you “discovered” the “secrets” of targeting, dodging and a 4k aoe with almost 600 in range. If you have im rather certain that you also find 2h mastery to be invaluable in pve as well.

When you master it, grab a guildie and go into wvw, the playstyle is just supereffficent as a frontline stormtrooper. Even if your not that into pvp this will change your mind, its great fun and a pure killer. its not uncommon that i run alone into the hord of players, kill 2 or three and get out of there alive and seconds later i buff my entire team while healing with the staff.

Sidenote. I very tempted to write a similar guide regarding the staff, that weapon is a monster in openworld pvp and attacking towers.

@Hjulstad
Spot on and i appriciate that you to point out that this isnt a single build, its just a set of must have traits (3 or 4) and weapon, gear and utility and based on that you can actually take on what ever role you want. You can even switch role while in combat, the staff is a work of wonder for this.

@Lumines
Here is how you break 15k hp and with tons of precision and really good power. Personal record is now 6.8k with mighty blow on a warrior with this armor and accessories. How its done is up to you guys to figure out ;-)

build
0/15/30/20/5

Kights armor with 6*rune of the soldier.
Berserkers accessories with exquisite ruby jewels
Berserkers spring guard with exquisite jewels
Berserker hammer

Stats
Attack 2900
Crit 48%
Crit damage 75%
Armor 2800
14550 HP in statsheet and in healthpool i have 15178.

I assume the “bonus” comes from wvw where we are third atm so this buff everyone should have. If not, just change a couple of jewels in your accessories to vitality/pov, two is enough, and you will break 15k and still have 46% critchance.

Stats with all knight gear and berserker hammer.
Attack 2788
Crit chance 51%
Crit damage 43%
Armor 3200
14550 HP in statsheet and in healthpool i have 15178.

This one is one tough motherkittener to kill and hits like a truck imo.

I now have:
Knights armor and accessories
Berserkers armor and accessories
pov/vit/tuv armor and pov/vit/crit damage accessories
Half a set of och pov/prec/heal armor and a combination green vit/prec/heal earrings and exotic rings and amulets with heal on them.
Rampager accessories

Also have Explore, berserker and knights when it comes to hammers.

If you want anything tested or stats on a particular setup just post it here and i will try to check it out and answer you.

I dont want you to buy gear and then be unsatisfied with the outcome.

Like i been with my rampager accessories, god how bad they are for a guardian imo which brings up an other topic, they just has to fix so conditiondamage is a valid option for us.

Btw checkout the Ascalonian catacombs trader, there are some interesting weapons there with precision, vitality and healing.

There are infact green accessories with both heal power and precision. Dont remember where i bought them but it was for karma.

Hjulstad.6317:

Yeah, for SPvP that can be awesome but i dont like the need to swap weapon to gain a benefit, only on warrior its good when traited for faster weaponswap.. Before i ran hammer i actually had the same build i have now but ran sword and torch, there the strength sigil really shined aswell and the altruistic healing was even greater due to viglrous precision.. But i find hammer more interesting..

Hopefully i can get the last 20k Karma today so i can buy Mortal chestplate and get some more crit aswell as heal power, as for Runes im running 2x water 2x monk and 2x the cheapest One on trader with +20% might duration. Thinking about swapping might for 1 more each of the others tho.. And i only choose gear for WvW since you can do PvE in any gear you want really.. Need to check some more Runes but so far have t found any other ones i really like.. Might get a set with soldier for shout condition remove but for WvW it doesnt feel justified

True! They are mcuh better in spvp then wvw and swapping comes more natural in spvp then in wvw.

Havent come far on my crit/heal gear but i will get there and when i do it will be a blast and i definitely will have the same runes as you and also might on crit.
It will be hysterical, here comes the “healer” and hit me for +4k with mighty blow, lol.

I find tis the combination of vital/toughness and condremoving to be the interesting part, the buff to shouts alone isnt that special.

chtiyonki.6284:

Retaliation Damage:

- Not stacking with any stat.
- Stacking only with your level.
- Damages can be reduce by armor.
- Not stacking in intensity but only on duration.
- On lv80 vs lv80 the average damage is between 150 and 350. Never less, never more.

This “nerf” isn’t even a nerf because who need Relatiation ? Maybe for PvE yes.

Is this a quote from a real source or your own interpretation?

I think people have in general misunderstood empowering might, not you though, its not for adding dps to you, its for boosting the team. The internal cd on 1s makes the average number of stacks to be about 1.5 with the hammer. The thing it does does though is it heals and buff the team and as such its very nice indeed.

Regarding the sigils, i have to admit that i havent used them in wvw, i like dodging to much, but i have used them extensively in spvp.

Here is what i do with hammer+1h sword.

I run with hammer out and initiate the fight with zealots embrace. just ensuring im in combat so the sigil triggers on swap.

Swap to 1h, use my blinds and mobility to force the opponent to use cooldowns. Last i pull the bubble on the focus, blocks generate might, and swap to the hammer and pull virtue of justice for burns and might.

Thats 3+3+3+3+1-2 stacks of might right there. All running when hammertime starts, exactly 11 seconds after the fight was initiated with zealots embrace.. All of them healing and 5 stacks are teamwide.

If the fight is long, the swapping alone ensures 9 stacks of might on you. with this setup, sigils and empowering might, you will have +10 stacks of might at any given time.

I find this to be the fastest way to add a lot of might.

Burns dont stack in intensity. So the skill with the highest burndamage is the one that lasts the longest.

If a burn is running, the next application increases duration, not intensity. They are merged and appear as one condition even though its two applications.

@OP

Guardians do very well in WvW. We have our shortcomings in ranged combat, not as bad as people say though, and doing damage in sieging, especially when attacking imo.

This is solved by using a staff and supporting the attack with shouts, heals, damage and ofc wall of reflection.

In open world wvw we rock! End of discussion, we just do. We are superstrong in melee and a great asset to our team while having awesome semiranged tools in our staff. The optimal stortrooper imo.

@Hjulstad
Life is a kitten:-)

Try sigils of battle instead, 3 stacks of might on swap for 20 seconds. Imo much better on 2h hand weapons and goes really well with empowering might.

Spvp solution for your issue. 0/5/30/30/5. 5 runes of the eagle and ine rune of the ranger. Berserker amulet with ramapager jewel. The you can use superior aria, empowering might and 2h nastery (pun intended)

2870 Attack
51% critchance
53% crit damage
2427 toughness
17095 in vitality

And spews boons like a mad man.

@akamon
Renewed justice is realy nice in pve and spvp. Not so great in wvw since you need a kill to renew it and its almost only in open world clashes you are guaranteed that.

The difference is huge in pve imo since every kill also means reactivation and you get tons of heals from it. Stacks of might multiplied with number of teammembers multipled with AH.

I can see builds with it and without it.

@Trunglalunga
Sorry if i misinterpretated your statement as that you dont need to dodge in most dungeons.

English isnt my native language so i actually interpretate both those sentences in the same way. You dont need to dodge in dungeons while having aggro.

The fact still remains, if you want to do max dps you need 2h mastery but the rotation is chain, 1st step of the chain and mighty blow.

@Remix
Sorry if i been unclear.

The 73-105% statement was a recommendation based on the gear i had available atm which was berserker and a couple of sets of accessories. It was a range where i could see acceptable damage.

After that post i gotten 3 more sets of gear and a couple of set of accessories and not to forget runes.

So when i answered your question regarding critdamage i did it in relation to the current situation. I use knigts gear now, with knights accessories, and i have 43% crit damage. Its my prefered setup but i also play with a 114% critdamage setup from time to time in wvw and all the time in open world pve.

Some times i play with a 75% critdamage set up. so what i answered was a reflection of my current prefered setup.

@Lucabration
Excellent, thasts why i started it. Have fun with this weapon.

@Zarovich
Its actually possible to go even higher, in my max setup i have 114% atm. There are probably other ways to get even more.

@Zarovich
I would try to get some more critrating. The survivability goes up if you do. Vigorous precision is given on every proc and even on multiple enemies. The heal in massclashes is huge imo.

This was one of the backsides i found with using pov/vit/tuv gear, you needed to invest heaviliy in radiance to get the critrating you needed in order to make it effective so you had like 5 points in honor. So i lowered my survivability. This is the paradox with crithammer gameplay and which, imo, makes it interesting and skillbased. Its your dps that makes you survive and its about finding the perfect balance between toughness, hp, and critchance.

Which actually turned it to a nice 1h build but i didnt get it to work with the hammer. Someone else probabaly will but i didnt.

@Akamon
AH heals you, you are considered a teammate.

Its not the distance that cancels, its the time, you have roughly 3 seconds to do skill 3.

Try this, when you dodge inbetween chainsteps, you dodge sideways so you dont get to far away.

IMPORTANT: Do some testing on cursed shore, the symbol is actually ranged, it will be placed around the target so you dont have to be in range for a meleehit to get at least one tick and then trigger retaliation with mighty blow.

This means you can fight one opponent and mid chain switch target to support in an other fight and also move faster there with mighty blow, one more reason why i find 2h mastery to be very strong. I found this to be very effective and protective. Your teammates wont even notice it but its great support.

In short place the symbols where your teammates are but fight an other target.

When you dodge after the chain you dodge towards the target if you want to be in the symbol to get protection or backwards if you want to make enough distance to be out of reach for melee. Those dodges serves two different purposes. Then leap back in with mighty blow and trigger retaliation.

Regarding larger symbols, well im starting to move from superior aria and more into larger symbols, they do increase both your supportive capabilities, damage and survivability. Im trying to play with larger symbols and 2h mastery atm, it works really well, in wvw and pve at least.

Hang in there with the animationskipping, its going to increase your performance.

@Trungalung
Yes the relative gain in the symbol increases but the overall damage in relation to mighty blow decreases so mighty blow gets relatively stronger.

Yeah, mobs i can take on 10 at the time. My question was in reference to you saying you could tank most dungeons without dodging. i have much more toughness and i cant facetank in dungeons without very excessive dodging.

@bantapoo
well since i use only 20 points in honor i have no choice since i rely on dps and dodges. If i need more protection the best way of solving that for me is 3*runes water which also gives other synergies.

if i need symbols to work even better i find larger symbols to be more beneficial for the team and also increases the incoming heals from altruistic healing.

If i was doing pve and had 30 points in honor i would trait longer lasting symbols. To me larger symbols is an option to pure of voice and a different setup of runes.

Frankly i think 2h mastery is a must in order to maximize the effect of a crithammer build, at least i know its a must for me but im certain my playstyle isnt everyones cup of tea.

Trungalung.7850:

I tested in the mist. It gives 4 ticks without the trait. You’re also right that if you add in between dodges, you’ll get a more damage out with 2-handed mastery. But since this build survivability is really good in dungeon (Temple of Grenth is a meta dynamic event which requires a lot more than 5 people. Of course, tanking for a long time is not gonna be doable), I rarely even need to dodge in there. On fight that I actually need to keep dodging every time it’s up, grabbing a scepter to do range is better for damage.

Really weird, im in the mist right now doing chains on the dummies and untraited none of my +100 chains hits for more the three ticks. Each tick is applied at the start of the protectionboon and in total three boons, 3s of protection and three ticks, i know the tooltip states four but i have never seen 4 ticks untraited, not during beta, bwe or after release.

You are certain that you dont mix up the burning thats applied to the second tick for a symbolcomponent?

May i ask what gear you are using since i have to dodge a lot in most/all dungeons?

So in short, in all fights that involve dodging as a major component, or has multiple opponents, then 2h mastery is the better alternative, i think we can agree on that and if so then its up to the individual to determine what trait that suits their playstyle.

Well since i do more dps with my dodgestyle hammergameplay then i do with the scepter i only use it when the mechanics of the boss strongly favor ranged.

@Trungalunga
Symbol of protection gives you 3 ticks of damage, 4 if traited, just a detail but right is right.

You are absolutely right in the setup you use, but as always there are other ways to do stuff then just one way.

The thing is that you just dont spam the chain in pve, if its large number of mobs you need to move and dodge and this eliminates the 1s gap between MB and the chain.

If you really want to max dps you do the chain then do step one in the chain abort and do mighty blow. If you try this you will find that this combo (chain+step 1+ mb) infact has even higher dps.

The issue is that its purely theoretical, on boss fights you need to dodge and anyone that has maintanked the boss in the temple of grenth for minutes knows that without a dodge every 6 seconds you will die, standing still and maintanking with 14k health isnt doable versus almost any boss in the game and not even versus 8 mobs in cursed shore

Add in the huge aoe from MB and it gets even more evident.

Also add in that you can reenter a fight much faster with mb then running. This is also a practical dps gain from 2h mastery that the chain lacks completely.

The only time 2h mastery isnt maxing out dps is versus a single target which someone else has aggro on so you can spam the chain. But not even then since you can always use chain+1st step chain+mb and totally fill the gap and produce higher dps over time.

The above also tested and naked i have an average killtime on dummys with chain in 1:33. With chain+MB, 1:38 and with chain+1st step+mb 1:30.

In reality the mb alternative comes out on top due to higher mobility, aoe and the ability to place your dodges so they “eat up” the timegap between mb and the chain.

I do fully agree with the last part, that is where longer lasting symbols infact do have their uniqueness. You dont need to have have runes or traits for 100% uptime on protection.

i have no critical damage what so ever in my wvw gear and in what i do most most of my pve with. I use knights all the way and in wvw i hit for>5k damage with mighty blow.

Imo toughness is better but as i have tried to point out, this isnt a single build or setup, you need to choose so your comfortable..

trooper.2650:

@Brutality

I was hoping that you would answer to Bantapoo and TeamRaveGreen because they asked what I wanted to ask:

1) is longer symbol duration any good?
2) can you explain in detail the non-auto attack thing:
“Also, am I reading you guys right that you are turning off the auto attack for Hammer1 combo so that you press the button 1x for each part of the combo – therefore allowing yourself to use the 3rd part later? How long can you hold off on the 3rd part?”

1. Yes it is, mostly in pve but i can see that it can be powerful in pvp as well, depending on playstyle.

2. In numbers i dont know, but you can test it. Just do the first step of the chain on a mob and see for how long the second button stays on your skillbar. Its roughly 3 seconds imo.

Trungalung.7850:

@Brutaly

The best part with the crithammer setup is that i dont have to respecc for any activites in the game, im perfectly valid in all aspects.

I just swap some weapons, gear and utility and this alone convert me from a dps monster to a survivor and teamsupport soldier.

It’s true that this build is usable in anything beside SPvP when switching points around. In WvW , I can switch point around in 0/0/30/30/10 into a support staff so I pretty much use the same build. If I need to take command of the guerrilla squads, again I can switch around into a high mobility greatsword build. It’s quite versatile. However in SPvP, I use mostly one hand weapons which is why this 0/0/30/30/10 has no place in my SPvP style.

Back to the Consecration vs VoJ blind. In WvW, both are great but consecrations diminish greatly due to players’ movement (only wall of reflect is worthwhile in WvW). In dungeon and PvE, consecration is a clear winner due to monsters will just stand in your consecrations.

Out of all the traits in Honor for Valor, Writ of Persistence is a MUST HAVE trait for a hammer build.

Personally, I see two handed mastery as overrated for a hammer.

Above is all perspective in PvE and dungeons. In PvP, things are much different.

If you mean a 0/5(0)/30/30/5(10) build then i can say thats its not unusuable in spvp. I use it with berserker and rune of the soldier and it works wonders. Just give me a cappoint with 2 or more enemies and i clear it in seconds.

What its not excelling in, hammer that is, is one on ones, but i have a second set of weapons for that.

I agree, both blinds from VoJ and consecrations has its place in the game and having on or the other based on some flawed assumption thats its in general is better is just reducing overall performance.

I disagree writ of persistence is a must have though. There are situations when its prefered but its not a must have. Even without it you have 80% uptime on protection from the chain alone. Add in 5% from virtues and 3*rune of the monk and you will have 100% uptime and improved heals from dodges and still fit in shorter cd on mighty blow, allowing it to trigger retal on every symbol.

If you want max dps in combination with 100% uptime i would say that 2h mastery is a must, since it can be used every chainrotation and without 2h mastery you can only use it every second rotation and consequently loosing out on dps and retal.

Im not saying people shouldnt use it but what its best at is adding protection and heals but there are other routes to achieve the exact same thing and as long there are its not a must have to me. The problem can be solved in other ways.

Symbol of protection has 3 ticks of damage and if you trait it you get 4. The increase of damage is marginal to the gain in using MB

If you want max dps mighty blow is by far our best tool in our weapons

MB also allows you to close in on the mob very quickly, in pve i often dodge out of reach and make them follow me and then bounce back with MB and if done correct this also triggers retal on my symbol..

I think its very good that you bring a pve perspective to the thread, thx for that, since the game is played different in pve and pvp. I often becomes to focused on pvp since its my main interest so its good for the balance of things that pve is lifted. It is as you say, the hammer is a beast in pve and the discussion should be reflecting that.

@akamon
Spot on. You got it. Its superfun and very effective way of playing the guardian but as you say very deifferent from the other sets.

I just want to add that the dodge also do other things, and that is skipping the end of the animation of the third hit.

Damage and symbol is actualiy applied slightly before the animation ends which means that if your just spamming skill 1 then the third steps animation prevents you from starting the next chain. If you practice you can time your dodge so it aborts the last part of the animation and this will have the overall effect of you being able to execute more skills in a given timefram and hence gain more.

Good nerf.

The boon itself and in its design doesnt promote skillbased gameplay.

The fact is that the boon rewards, relatively, bad players and bad gameplay. Being hit is the opposite in a non tank game (you remember that anet want to remove the holy trinity).

To ensure a win you need to deal damage and avoid damage. Retaliation infact decreases the gap between being hit on and hit.

Hopefully they redesign the entire boon and make it that you need skill to use.

perfect, now my bursts is on the same button on gs and hammer.

As you said, its in the eye of the beholder, personally i find an aoe blind with 28,5s (excluded renewed focus) cd to be very nice indeed, especially with a hammer and staff setup which has no blinds what so ever. If you use a gs and 1h sword then it might not be worth it.

I think we agree, its perosnal taste and that was the reason why i posted, in the posts above i got the impression that it was objectively worse then vengeance or traited consecrations, which its not. Both those traits are fairly weak for a frontline pusher even though they might have bigger overall impact.

If we translate that to what i do in wvw for instance i find more then 5 points in virtues to be a waste, a crithammer build shines in close quarter combat and 10 points in virtues wont save the day, 5 points in radiance might.

But once again thats me and my playstyle, it can be totally different for others.

Voltric is spot on. You shouldnt be looking at HP when playing a guardian, you should be looking to get gear and traits that support your playstyle.

Ynna.8769:

Svarty.8019:

I’m amazed to read such positive comments about Guardians. Mindboggling!

That’s because no-one else is living in your dream-world, where Guardians suck at everything.

Guardians are really good at what they do well, and can still perform adequately at the areas they’re weaker in. As long as it’s not at range.

Long story short, Guardians are good. Good Guardians can be amazing.

Can just agree with you Ynna.

A guardian is a beast if played correctly. On the other hand guardians isnt as forgiving as a ranger for example. Bad guardians are really bad and based on the stuff Svarty posts he his one of those bad ones.

First of all, 5 points in radiance isnt bad at all.

Second you cant compare 5 points in radiance with consecrations, they do very different jobs.

since im a frontline charger 5 points in radiance is superior since it is an aoe blind on short cd. Fyi, i dont have only 5 points in radiance, it was an example.

0/5/30/30/5 are definitely valid in all aspects of the game, the thing is that it doesnt fit all playstyles. There is a huge difference there.

I agree on wall of reflection and i use it in wvw but i dont have it traited.

@MidgeisGood
Thx, it was kind of the purpose and im glad it worked that way for you.

@Trungalunga
The best part with the crithammer setup is that i dont have to respecc for any activites in the game, im perfectly valid in all aspects.

I just swap some weapons, gear and utility and this alone convert me from a dps monster to a survivor and teamsupport soldier.

One bad thing i discovered this morning and this is the main reason why i post and that is that pov/vit/tuv gear, orrian or wvw gear, isnt workng that well with the crithammer setup. I infact lowered my survivability when using it (got the last piece last night) when critchance goes down to around 32%.

I think vigorous precision is much more powerful then we give it credit for.

So dont invest in that gear, it wont make you stronger.

Knights/rampage/berserker and some healing accessories still seem to be the most valid setup for me.

@bugowt
Check the trader for exotic gear and accessories, people sell crafted exotics. You can also get gear with the same stats thru dungeons and karma.

@Saturn
i would, (im not playing with it atm)use.
2*superior runes of water (15% boon duration)
2*superior runes of the monk (15% boon duration)
2*superior rune of hoelbrak (20% might duration)
Sigil of superior battle (3 stacks of might on swap, 20s+10s)
Purging flames for a firefield and mighty blow to trigger 3 stacks of might (25s+12.5 sec duration)
inspired virtues 3 stacks of might (5s+2.5s)
Empowering might to renew virtue of justice
empowering might, might on crit
focus, might on block
Shelter, might on block
Save yourselves to get one might (12.5s) but fury in particular so i build max from empowering might.
Stand your ground so i wont be interupted when i have fury running

Think thats all.

There are at least two other runes that only improve might duration but i think 10% less duration from monks and water are worth it since those boost all boons and i have plenty in my build to share with the team.

EDIT: Sorry, forgot to add 5% boonduration from inspired virtues.

Danicco.3568:

As far as I know, the extra boon duration works only for boons placed on YOU, not others. You can only cause a boon, but it’s up to the target’s boon duration how long it’ll last.

So if you have +50% boon duration and a Warrior with 0% boon duration gives you Might for 5 secs, you’ll get Might for 7.5 secs.
If you apply Might for 5 secs to him, he’ll have Might for 5 secs.

Go to a player in divinitys reach and cast a shout, preferably one with long duration on the boons so your bonus is easy to “see” and im sure you will find that the boons on the person next to you last just as long as they last on you.

Your durationbonus is applied to your teammates. 100% sure.

The easiest way to test this is with writ of persistence, and symbol of wrath. I have 20% boonduration and retaliation vanishes the exact same moment on the both of us.

Yes, in pve i use berserker mostly, In open world pve there is no need for knights. I havent died once in open world since i got my berserker gear and taking on 10 mobs is definitely doable.

I use knights in wvw and some dungeonfights.

So basically we do the same.

Sorry if i havent been clear about this, the thing is if you play all of the content available knights is more versitile, god knows there is enough firepower in those as well.

@Quds
as Zarovich says, i think knights gear is best atm, it has nice damage thru crits and buffed with berserker accessories you also have very good critdamage.

Regarding power/vitality/toughness i dont know, im on my way, got 3 pieces, there to try it out with gear that lack critrating and see if its possible to make it work.

I suspect though that you need to put more points in radiance and then the hammer isnt favourable but 1h sword and scepter might be doable with altruistic healing but i doubt it, meditaitons are probably better.

One combination, which im also going to try, is to mix that gear with orrian gear (grenth??) that has both power and precision but in combination with heal power, this scales extremely well with selfless daring and considering im using energy sigils and a very “dodgy” playstyle it might be superstrong for me. The combination with 40% critrating, 2700 attack and 1k in heals on every dodge is definitely in reach.

Looking forward to 4k hits with mighty blow and dodgeheal for 2k every chain+mb :-)
Think this might be supercool with sigils that gives might on stack and empowering might.

But as soon as i know i will get back to you guys and add to OP.

If someone has experience of the above with the hammer, please post your impressions.

Zarovich.7285:

Power = 2900
Crit Chance = 42%
Armor = 2750
Health = 16k
Crit Damage = 71%

Do these look like good numbers?.

Yes!

Regarding sigils and swapping, to not swap is alright in pve but in pvp you should swap almost as often you can. The sets do different things and spamming one weapon just makes you predictable.

Why not go for hydromancy, works nice in both pve and pvp or as i do, energy or might. The increase in dps is huge when building mightstacks.

As for the sixth rune, an emerald orb gives you 20 in precision, 14 vitality and 14 in toughness. Just saying that it can be better then 25 precision only.

Immo.9217:

Hey Brutaly thanks for the guide I’m running a variation that uses hammer/GS with a heavy boon duration focus and I’m able to keep retaliation and might 95%ish uptime. I just take people apart and I’m only really need to watch out for are good hunters and necros.

You are welcome. Glad it works out for you.

I read the whole build word for word but I’m wondering if this would work with a greatsword and a full berserker set ?

Then I would go 30 Valor 5 Virtues 10 Power (for the 10% against burning) and 25 in precision?

I got school now so I hope ill get a response here when I get back

thnx

~Saturn

I think the survivability would be to low for a pvp build since you would have very limited resources to fill your HP, when needed.

In pve, why not.

The whole point of a crithammer (GS) build is to live from your crits and your boons and if you excluded those then its not even a topic for this thread :-)

@Zarovich.7285

I do not understand how your power is that high, is that with bloodlust sigil and max stacks ?

Its not his power, its his attack.

I’m almost done with my armour now(Knight’s with soldier runes) and so far it’s great, I’ll focus now in the jewellery, and I was wondering which one are you using with this kind of “build”.

By the way once you learn how to dodge properly in the chain to time your MB and heal yourself it’s great, as @Brutaly stated early on.

I use berserker stats one my jewels and heal stats. I find about 450 in healing power being optimal for me.

Cool that you “discovered” the dodgetrick in the chain and sprint in the third hit. Have you also figured out the timing in aborting the end of the animation on the third hit with a dodge?

akamon.2769:

love that this isn’t a set “guide” or “you must do this”. offers some room to customize for your own personal play style. thanks for sharing Brutaly!

Good, it was the point, instead of pointing out what to do i try to point out what you can do.

@Orphanfryer
I would go for knights.

There is no yes and no to your second qeustion, just that you need to get critrating for a crithammer build to be powerful. You can solve that in many ways. you need to check the vendors and trader and do some math.

@Melizande
Correct, typed it and now i think its a flashback from beta. Think we called the soldiers amulet (which had those stats) in spvp for that. might be mistaken though.

aaron.4317:

Brutaly.6257:

@Aaron
Seriously, low dps on the third chain? Its one of the best attacks we have dpswise,

No it isn’t. It has a channel time nearly equal to the ENTIRE greatsword #1 chain. You compare it to an attack with 1/3 its attack time. The greatsword attack chain portion which has a comparable channel time does around double the damage of the hammer third hit. Swapping in a mighty blow instead of finishing the chain means you land a hit which does more damage and channels twice as quickly.

And please don’t forget that additional channel time gives your enemy more time to interrupt. Catching a daze just moments before you land that blow means you traded away two attacks so you could not land one.

The best thing it has is probably the protection spam, but the loss of DPS isn’t worth it outside of holding down a position or something.

Check this thread out and what Alarox has posted, thats very much inline with my own numbers.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Why-the-hammer-shouldnt-be-faster/first#post141716

People get mislead by the third step and actually underestimate the true power of it, its not as slow as people think, it just feels slow in contrast to the first two steps..

You cant play the hammer the same way you play GS. As someone posted after you, you dodge in the middle of the chain, or at the end of the chain, so you wont be as easy to interupt. In a ideal setup you also start the third step out of range of the opponent and “run” it into him, even if you miss the symbol has awsome range and even a drunk person can hit with about 200 extra range.

Well, ofc the relative gain per mightstack will be higher if you have low attack then if you have high attack. So if you purely look at it as an investment the trade off might be better else where. But its up to each and everyones personal taste and style.

The thing with stacking might is its very easy to do and to do it reliably.
On a 0/15/30/20/5 build you get:
Three stacks from virtue of justice
9 stacks after 11 seconds of gameplay thru swaps.
3 more if you trigger Purging flames with mighty blow
So basically 15 stacks in a matter of seconds and then mighty blow starts to hit for over 5k on the mobs on cursed shore which is almost 6k on an average opponent in wvw. if you use empowering might you will have 1-3 morr stacks and if you use sigil of strength there will be 1-3 more stacks.

Top this with:
Rune of water*2
Rune of the monk*2
Rune of holbrak*2
And 9 of those stacks has over 30s duration.

So 15 stacks in pvp is valid and in pve i think you can have over 20 durng entire fights.

Add in an ele that adds more firefields in a coorrdinated team

Personal record in wvw is now 5.5k with mighty blow

Might and power is a bit tricky i think, there seems to be differences between skills and how much they gain from more power/might.

Mighty blow seems to scale extremely well but this is me speculating here, i have no facts to back this up with, its just a feeling i get when playing.

No idea if there is a cap but i have about 4k attack in pve on my might build, with 48% crit chance

High Marshal.2185:

Would adding Purging Flames or Judge’s Intervention to the line up be worth it? They are fire fields, but have a fairly long recharge.

Oh yes, absolutely, especially in a wvw build or in a might stacking build.

i actually bought sigils for10 g yesterday to try some new wvw setups and i have Purging flames in those builds.

Dont think judges interventions is a firefield.

MysticoN.5068:

pretty sure i didnt miss out of the heal since i was low on hp and shouted my voice off to get some heals ^^

You think shoutS is needed for this to work? Running staff/hammer build, but i struggle to get shouts into it.

I just love Judge’s Intervention to much to let it go, same with smite condition. I struggle between hold the line or retreat for the last skill.

Might go for hold the line since its a lower CD.

Il still get the heal on 2 symbols, 1 shout and when i crit. But is it enough?!

edit:
@High Marshal.2185
Not sure what you mean about fire shield but Judge’s Intervention is not a combo field

Ok might be a bug there which i havent seen. Then you have some reporting to do :-)

No i dont, i just think shouts are extremely nice for the team. My major gripe with guardian was that they were to dependent on meditations for survivability and those pesky egocentric utilities took away from my want/need to support. Altruistic healing and the crithammer build made it possible to use shouts and still have good survivability even though the shouts turn it into great.

JI and smite are really nice for the individual, but they bring close to nothing to the team, that is why i find the altruistic guardian to be so strong. If you have two meditations, dont specc altruistic healing, go for monks focus.

If your just gonna use one shout may i suggest stand your ground for pvp and hold the line for pve. Since you already havethe staff you have less need of retreat.

No it doesnt, this is a common misunderstanding. AH trigger even if you already have the boon. Just try out the staff and empowering.

1. Go to a mob of your choice
2. Let him bring you down to 50% health
3. Then you pull empowering
4. The only skill you used so far is empowering and every new stack of might applies a boon.

Either there is a bug, havent seen one before in AH, or you just missed out on the heals. If you are solo a shout brings you only like 2*70 in heals, can you have missed them?

Shouts isnt the mest powerful source of heals in an atruistic heal build, skills like empowering and the symbols, vigorous precision and empowering might are. Stuff that reapplies boons fast and often and with ease.

@Bantapoo
everything is ok, thats the reason i wrote OP, there are a lot of valid choices with the hammer critbuild, especially in that trait line and its not mandatory to trait the shouts even if you have two of them.

@Melizande. Its defenitely valid, with the proper runes and sigils its both the most powerful build and the ones that throws most boons to the team. You can keep this build running with +12 stacks of might with ease.

As i said to bantopoo, there are a lot of god choices to be made and they reflect your style of playing. The guide is there to point out some of the choices.

You can even drop out 2h mastery as long as you do it of the right reasons. Stating its useless in pve ;-) isnt the right reason. Stating i find it useless with my current style of play is.

i would skip larger symbols and get both 2h mastery and pure of voice.

2h mastery is pretty neat both from a boon perspective and a dps perspective, At least how i move and play with the hammer.

So basically chain (1, 2, 3 or 1,2, dodge, 3) and/or dodge and then mighty blow.

I maintanked the last boss and all adds in AC, first line, in explorermode just a few minutes ago doing the above with my wvw gear, knights and stacked crit. Even thoughthe boss is relatively easy 8-10 adds is hectic to confront while tanking.

And we were only four guys (one dc) and the other three wheer pure dps and low level.

That is how efficient this is when played correctly, damage, avoid damage, heals from dodge, heals from boons, boons on the team and superfun gameplay.

You dont play the hammer to its max by standing face to face trading blow, not in pve and not in pvp, its to slow for that.

@Krulz, yeah i heard something but have also seen it work so i dont know if its an official bug or something charachterrelated. I use stand your ground and retreat in almost all my setups and it seems to work for me.

@OneManArmy
You are correct in a lot of stuff here like 3-5 being situational and that you always should finsih the third step since the gain is huge.

I might have misunderstood this part but then correct me.
Whats not correct is canceling the symbol. The symbol isnt cancelled by mighty blow, just the ability to trigger an other combofield.

Check the buffs (protection) on you and the damage, its still the same amount of ticks even if you trigger with mighty blow.

if you do the chain you will have a short gap before MB comes off cd. The gap can be filled with a dodge or the dodge can be inbetween step 2 and 3.

The interesting part is that the 3 step actually hits slightly before the animation ends. So the animation is actually delaying the next weaponskill even though damage and boons are allready out there.
This can be avoided by skipping the last part of the animation and that you can do with a dodge, making the weapon faster, smart!!??

The same thing goes for being “late” with mighty blow, check the buffs even if the animation is gone you trigger retal every rotation, just check it. The effect/combofield is still there even though the animation is has faded.

This takes a lot of practice to time but its worth it and so is 2h mastery.

You can even do the entire chain then dodge, and still trigger the combofield with mb, without skipping the last part of the animation.

The third step does roughly 15% lower damage then mighty blow.

Not having 2h mastery is considerably lower damage then having it.

Every chain should be ended with a mighty blow, both for max boons on the team and max damage.

2h hand mastery isnt useless for pve.

@Bantapoo i am armorssmith and i had over 40% crit from the day i reached at about level 40. Not kidding here. You need to check out crafted master armor (green) at the trader. They arent that expensive either.

Doesnt matter though, i tried an other build in spvp a couple of minutes ago and you can go lower in crit and still make it work, healingwise. The only thing you cant do is dodge as much as i do.

The damage is there and all the boons are just spewing out.

@Bantapoo
I have two shouts in all variations of the crit hammer. I think its the foundation of it. Playing a very supportive dps soldier.

Try a 0/5/30/30/5 build with knights gear. Then you have room for shouts, larger symbol and 2h mastery. Still be over 40% crit and tons of tougness.. And still have signet of judgement and perma protection thru hold the line, symbol and virtues.

Regarding signet of energy. its my impression, after 5 games this morning, that you still can triple dodge in pvp, if its vigor that makes that possible i dont know but the nerf is either not there or it isnt breaking the gameplay.

i never seen it critheal.

@Mysticon
I thin thats to little crit but even with crafted level 80 its really easy to get +35%. why do you end up so low?

If you are interested in crithammer gameplay then you need crits :-)

well they (sigil of energy) might be less worth now but its all good, if you get enough crits you will have have enough endurance in pve, the real nerf is in pvp though, its a bit worrying for me and my playstyle. I will have to get back to this after i tried it in pvp.

The worst part isnt dodging it self, its the direct nerf to selflessdaring, this is a bad one imo. Something that didnt need a nerf. To bad, they really added a different playstyle and that might be more or less gone.

Inner fire is suprisingly good in wvw and spvp, it triggers often, in pve its close to useless since its to situational. The thing i dont like with it is that you are dependent on your opponent to do damage.

@El Topo

1. I know this probabaly isnt correct but i will write it anyway since its what i have observed when roaming around. I think it triggers blast when you jump out of the symbol AND when you jump into the symbol. it might be that the range of the aoe hits the symbol when jumping out.

2. Yes, you are correct and that was what i intended to write and when i read it again i realise that it can/will be read as it removes two conditions from the team. Sorry english isnt my native tongue and half this text is written with a dictionary in my right hand. I will make this a bit cleares during the day.

Yeah, those runes works like a charm and are really interesting to use, i have stayed away from them due to the simple fact that i cant afford to replace the ones i have now, break exotic armor. I infact use them from time to time in tpvp.

Thx for the firefield suggestion, i will add it in OP. The main reason why i didnt mention anything about it was because it would almost be mandatory to go 10 into virtues and i thin thats just to much on a crithammer build. But after reading what you wrote it might be an other way of traiting thats very viable with the crit hammer build.

Yeah its buggy, hopefully they fix it.

There are more reasons why a hammer guardian are best friends with eles and also pet necros btw. MB and water fields are a pretty nasty combination as well. an ele that dont put down water fields en masse, with a hammer guardian around, is imo a bad ele.

Thx for the input guys, i will add and redo some of the stuff in OP during the day.

In spvp they do, 100% sure.

in open world, i have no idea, but i cant see that they should have two dfferent functions.

In spvp they apply the regen boon and trigger AH.

I only have one standardrotation and thats chain+mb.

Sometime i dodge after second step in the chain sometimes after the third and sometimes i just spam, the rest is situational.

i like to see to it that a cc is the last skill i use on the hammer before swapping, this makes zealots defense a lot better imo.

Shouts and virtues are used when the team needs them, the common situation is that they need them before i do.

I dont play with gs that much and frankly im not that fond of it, being very dependent on cds imo so im not the right guy to answer you there.

1h sword, i play accordingly to the conditions they have, just keep em blind. So i save VoJ for the blind the same goes with the focus and the blink on the sword.

Skill 5 on focus i save to later, if i need more firepower or defense then i pull it. if not, save it, its to good to waste on a certain kill. Once again im very restricitve when using my cooldowns. They have cooldowns because they are powerful so i try to make them count.

@Shadowbanex
you could go 0/5/30/30/5 and then you get both empowering might, 2h mastery and superior aria. Then use rune of the 5*ranger and 1*eagle to boost critrating. Still with knights gear and pretty nice critchance, think you will end up with like 46%.

@bantapoo
Ofc, you jsut use it, 2h mastery supports both, personally i find those two doing almost thesame job but GS being more cd depedent and better at removing conditions.

Orphanfryar.7694:

I have to admit i’m afraid to die in 2 hit from bosses without strong Vita/Thoughness….That why i ask so many questions for this this new way of play

And you will die from two hits, the amount of crits on the hammer keeps your endurance high so you dodge at least every 4 seconds so you wont be hit twice, that is the point.

Use Knights gear and you will have plenty of toughness and healthpool is just a buffert allowing for more mistakes.

The thing is that in a group situation a knight geared crithammer guardian gets 2k health every 5 seconds or so and has also access to even more thru virtues and shouts.

if you want more health then use runes or accessories to get it.

I can fill my health pool with 6 instant abilities and still have my healskill up for grabs.

its fast, active and its brutal and it doesnt suit everyone.

@Bantapoo
I think you are confusing crit damage with crit chance here.

On my wvw build i have 48% crit chance and 76% crit damage. Ingame if you hover the cursor over the the crit chance stat you can see your crit damage.

On my pve build (berserker) i have 51% crit chance and 104% crit damage.

You cant use the buildtools for stats since you can get much more critdamage and crit from pve gear then spvp gear and the build tools only display spvp gear.

@Krulz
Cool that you enjoyed it and its the right spirit, that you think you need to get used to it, which is the main flaw with the hammer, its required taste and not just a nibble.

bantapoo.1093:

Brutaly is this build performing good when you don’t have many people around?
I might want to combine it with GS in such case, for the extra killing power.

yes it does. Ofc it works even better with teammates since it get stronger by buffing the team. When soloing the major thing isnt the boons from shouts and symbols, its actually vigorous precision which makes you able to dodge approximately every third hit.

There are stronger solobuilds ofc but honestly how often in this game are you solo and not even an friendly npc to buff.

Works wonders with pet necros btw if you gonna team up with someone.

If you are going solo and use empowering might and 2h mastery its at least 400 heals every chain+mb you do. Its a very mobile way of playing, dodging every 5th second and if you want more laidback then i dont recommend this.

yeah the site seems down atm.

head over here and read thru if you are interested in the crithammar concept (its not a build) that OP in this post also promotes.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Crithammer-one-way-of-playing-with-it/first#post308278

Its a wall of text and the reason for that is that its not only one build, its infact a concept which you can tweak and customize to your wanted playstyle/objecitve on the playing field.

its also a mix of gear and we are just beginning to discover what the crithammer is all about.

Thx appriciate it, time to leave the civilisation in divinitys reach and mix with the barbarians in the countryside.

Vigil faction hammer, not cheap but its really nice imo. Bought it adn transmuted it. There is a reasn for vanity being a deadly sin.

@lumines
Havent been in there yet, where is that vendor, that hammer is my taste indeed.

Are you sure, i thought non charging sigils infact did stack?

I was under the impression that swap/kill sigils didnt stack but statimproving sigils did infact stack.

But not the way OP “wants” them to, just to clarify, so stacking isnt worth it.

@Draeka
As i said, i cant confirm or deny anything that has bearing to how i play the hammer in tournements. Lets just say that the relative low speed of the hammer isnt a concern. By that you can read out that, yes, i use chill on my tournementbuild.

I wouldnt have sigil of ice on the hammer, it hits to slow and the chill is on 10 sec cd so the aoe trigger just one chill (or at least this was how i perceived it when playing in beta, might be wrong though) and you cant control which one.

Hydromancy is better, it fully compensates for the low speed of the weapon and allows you to fully lock down an opponent(s) or force them to use cooldowns to get away and in a crowded situation, like on a cappoint, its beyond nasty.

My job, in my team, is to clear cappoints from opponents and as long as there are more then one on the point hammer rules and when there are one left defending i go 1h sword. I use intelligence in spvp and hydromancy in tpvp

But why not tryout your initial setup and get back here and tell us how it turned out. Personally i havent stacked chill since the problem in tpvp is that one condition seldom is enough, you often need coverconditions and guardians just suck at conditions and condition damage compared to our ingame friends.

@Garm
Yes im sure it works that way.
In my knights gear with rune of the soldier i have 1840 in precision and with the berserker with ruby orbs i have 1906.

Thats a difference of 66.

The orbs have 14 in precision each which is 84 in total. Retributive armor effect=84-66

@MysticoN
If you can post you can read. and if you aint reading then you by definition is offtopic. Sorry i wont spoonfeed people, its not even in the wall of text.

@Bobnintendo
The reasons why i didnt mention the staff are:
1. The thread isnt about the staff or altruistic healing, its about the hammer
2. its been brought up in other threads
3. The only time i use it is when im sieging and are on the attacking side and i was asked if i could write down my experience with the hammer, not the staff.

@Draeka
Yeah, those are nice and if your into chiilling stuff the weapon has massive aoe potential.
As i do tpvp on a pretty decent level i cant confirm or deny anything regarding chilling since its in my competitive build.

The trait i find kind of useless though, anything that proccs makes me a bit sceptical, i like skill to be predictable, espcially in pvp. In pve the randomness can spice up things but in pvp it can make you loose the fight.

@Ezreal
well i use it tournements and in wvw and with greater impact then with scepter/1h sword, and its very powerful in every situation where you are beforehand, not just at defending points. Infact 95% of my gametime is in pvp and at least 40% are in tournements.

You are simplyfying it, its like saying GS only works in aoe situations because 1h sword is faster.

The only time it might be weak in tpvp is infact in a one on one but then i have my 1h sword and as i am a pack player i always go with a number of people and then the hammer works extremely well and no i dont defend nodes, my team never uses pure node defenders.

You probably think its no good for pvp due to the speed, well its just a matter of getting used to it and instead of playing it as a single target weapon start playing it as an aoe weapon, which it is, everything slow on the hammer is infact aoe besides banish.

The playstyle in nodeattacks isnt as straight forward as it is with a 1h sword, for instance if you want to use banish in a 2vs2 you attack one guy and target the other and start the animation and then turn. Same with zealots.

With the hammer you dont attack your own target, you always support a friend. If its duelsituations we are talking about then there are definitely better weapons, for offensive aoe teamplay, seriously, no.

On the other hand there are guys in these forums that claimed a week ago that its no good for pve either, and now people are saying that the hammer actually reinstates the whole concept of the holy trinity and breaking the game.

Really interesting that you think it only works for defending points when you point out its to slow.

In my experience if you want to defend (well its more of delaying on points) points versus multiple enemies, or one on one, you should chose the fastest and most agile weapon. The hammers downside is that in a one on one and 1vs2 its really easy to avoid and the oly good thing it brings to point defending is rng of warding, as you said its to slow for point defending 1vs1 or 1vs2.

@ShadowbaneX
try sigil of superior battle, then you get 3 stacks of might on swap and 20s duration. With empowering might its means 7-9 stacks constantly running and then add in 3 more from VoJ.

@MysticoN
May i suggest you read the thread, its there.

@ShadowbaneX
it proccs 1 stack of might with 30% chance on crit. The stack has 10s duration for superior sigilss.

I played extensively with it during beta and with 1h sword it might be good but for a slow hitter like hammer its not worth it.