Guild Wars 2

I run hambow guardian and I play pure meditations, along with LoW.
It has one of the best synergies among all out traits, it has low cooldown and really nice heals but 25% damage converted into healing feels a little weak, but maybe that’s just me.
Even then, during team fights when mighty blow or true shot crits, the heals are real !

Okay so let’s be realistic and see what Anet could really do first about hammer.

1. I am sure that they could give us ward being cast on movement, just like shield’s dome.

2. Probably boost AA damage or make it cast the symbol faster.

3. Perhaps touch mighty blow to give it range increase and maybe damage boost.

4. It’s really crucial and this should be the first thing, which is moving Glacial Heart trait to Honor, Valor or Zeal. (It should get reworked as well but I don’t think they will do that anytime soon).

Here is a poll about the trait placement:

http://strawpoll.me/6087828

Brutaly.6257:

The more i think of it moving glacial heart and making it transform SoP into an ice field is an easy but yet interesting solution.

Just remove one second of SoP, reduce casting time on aa and up the damage on skill 3 and4. This with the new and improved glacial heart sounds pretty sweet tbh.

Considering that SoP is already like two seconds, it should stay as it is (or make protection last longer if SoP gets reduced to one sec). But it might work out, I think we could also drop a 600 yard ground targeted mighty blow and I’d call it a day.

For Glacial Heart trait the best choice might be Honor, in case we keep protection symbol on AA or somewhere else, then we should have the straight on capability of boosting this symbol.
Zeal would work out too but only if some of those traits got merged (some are so weak that they are like a minor trait). Maybe if devs were up to it and thought that it is as good idea, then they might try to make one of our core specs merge into a symbol based spec.
But the question still remains: should we keep the symbol or get rid of it and replace it with AoE protection boon ?
I changed my mind and I stand behind keeping the symbol and making it an ice field.

Now Valor spec would work out for those who run with meditations and considering that it’s our only best source of survivability, we should not ignore it as well. (Unless SW, signets and consecrations will git gud and give us kind of the same level of survivability).

P.S.
Let’s contribute more and hit’em posts so that devs see it !

You are right OP, sword needs a good touch as well (lots of guardian’s weapons and traits need to be updated but that will take months and years even).

Just what Timston said. We should keep the hammer thread on the surface for as long as it takes so that Karl or any other dev could see it and note it down so that we could anticipate for some changes in the future.
First things first, if we kept on throwing random feedback threads then we won’t do much, guardians need to focus on one goal first before moving on to the other.

I am not so sure about that, lots of people were talking about that CC and lifesaving passives really break the skilful play as you don’t have to do anything in order to execute it, and some passives give quite an advantage.

Aye, I’ve just experienced it. I was playing all nice and chill on stronghold (stable internet connection for me so…yeah) and I got a DC to character selection screen (though sometimes it DC’s and crashes to desktop).
I ain’t got a beast, just a decent asus laptop that gets the job done just fine but it can’t rush through 2 loading screens in under a minute.

Vikkela.7261:

I’d prefer “Advance”!

“…in the opposite direction !”

I don’t play with shouts but yes, “Retreat” doesn’t fit for a guardian.

The idea of a trait that would allow our symbols to follow us would be dangity dang great.
It would make symbol builds viable to 100% considering that now enemies just step out of our symbols (basically we avoid any kind of AoE as much as we can), but with such trait if we kept on chasing them and hold them in the radius of our symbols, they would end up in our domain

P.S.
Perhaps we could have a trait for symbols to force every other enemy ground AoE to disperse.
Dang, symbols should have their very own trait line

Now this looks more like it.
But indeed we should keep it simple, there will be time for huge overhauls but now we should keep it at small tweaks.

Judging by what you say the most urgent aspects of hammer that should be changed first are:

1. The placement of glacial heart, for the most convenience it should be moved to valor or honor

2. Mighty blow damage OR range increase and ground targeted (this is up to the devs).

3. Ring of warding should be cast even while moving (perhaps at least slower like whirling wrath).

For those things like Zealot’s embrace and Banish I think we will have to wait, unless devs will see it through and make our hammer all new and shiny right away (which I doubt that will happen soon).
For Zealot’s embrace I thought that instead of root it should daze and cripple multiple targets that it passes through, and Banish just as some of you said, should hit in a cone for up to 3 people (faster animation OR lower cooldown).

Blind is easy to remove yes, but then when being blind spammed, you are forced to use AA if you wish to remove it without condi cleanses (or if those are on CD). Is it efficient to fight someone with just AA ?
If you are face tanking or play cele druid/tempest then of course, it’s not a problem ^^

Its getting tiresome after breaking a few blinds with AA and condis, trying to use some direct AoE (like mighty blow for example) just to find yourself blinded again.

Overall combat in pvp is pretty neat if we won’t touch the subject of certain specializations that we all know to be rather too strong.

The most annoying thing is how many blinds there are, that can be laid upon us in a very short time.
I guess nobody will ask to reduce that ammount I agree but I guess we would find it convenient if AoE attacks were immune to blind.

I would touch the aspect of realism but hey, it’s a game so meh, there is no point.
But don’t you find it a little weird that certain abilities that are blast AoEs are still countered with blind ?
It’s … I dunno… normal ? That when we get blinded and we can’t focus on precise strikes, we go bat crap crazy and try to hit everything at once with anything that could deal damage in 360 degrees so despite of being blinded, we should still be able to hit something withing range of our attacks.
Yeh, yeh I should probably get along with this and just dodge it like everyone else does

Checking out overall contributions it seems like we are beginning to give it a shape.
Lots of us would like to see:

1. 5th skill to be cast during movement
2. Moving glacial heart to a better spot (though this trait should be reworked as well)
3. Making 4th skill to hit in a cone up to 3 enemies.

Let the ideas keep on flowing.

Okay, now I feel like a huge dumb potato <:C
Thank you for explaining this to me.

So in the era of stability/CC/interrupt/blind Wars 2 (you call it) I have wondered how it could be if we were able to counter some of those with our perception (100% skill) besides dodging. (This thread also might apply to PvE but It would have a lot more impact on PvP thread I guess).

What is running on my mind is the ability to interrupt our own skills once we begin to cast it with nothing more than just our escape button BUT with lower cooldown to it.
It gets annoying to be kept at perma blind etc… and dying to this like a lil’beach.
I run meditation guardian with condi cleansing traits but the ammount of condi cleanses =/= the capacity or re-applying conditions (and I do realise it has to be this way cause otherwise condi builds would be useless).
So once we spend our condi cleanse and dodges, we would like to counter strike but then we get let’s say: rooted, blinded, slowed, crippled during casting a spell that is rather cruicial to the fight so we waste it.
With the ability to stop our skills being cast by ourselves (dodging while using renewed focus included) would give us more counter possibilities in a fight.
The thing is, when we get for example blinded, we would just stop the casting animation of certain spells and make them go on a cooldown which is much shorter.
(unless we get interrupted/dazed/stunned by an enemy player/mob, then the CD is full).
Let’s say:

1. Weapon and utility skills that have a cooldown longer than 20 seconds get only 1 second cooldown, but it’s global cooldown (on all abilities) upon interrupting by yourself OR 90% lower cooldown.

2. Weapon and utility skills that have a cooldown below 20 to 10 seconds, get a 50% reduced cooldown upon interrupting by yourself.

3. Weapon and utility skills that have a cooldown lower than 10 seconds, get normal cooldown upon interrupting by yourself.

This would only apply to abilities with a casting time of course.
What do you think about this ?

I am pleased to see that so many guardians do care about hammer.
Go on and throw your opinions in hammer thread to keep it on top so that Karl might see it.

Im okay with this being in Honor, this is not an awkward trait line at all
If you zerg then keeping perma swift with retreat and SoS is quite nice, but this is quality of life.
It gets boring to die (while solo roaming) just because you can’t swap utility and weapon to fight for 100% of your true capability. But well… it’s just a minor thing, let’s just stick to that perma swiftness of ours.

Masori.3528:

Ghotistyx.6942:

Swiftness > 25%

+ 1

Just run Staff + “Retreat” and you’re settled.

Then get surprise buttsecks around the corner and you can’t fight properly with your build cause you have a staff and retreat shout that you are not spec’ed into.

With this logic I guess mesmer should wave goodbye to its speed trait in chrono (and they have it in minor grandmaster so they don’t even have to sacrifice any traits).
Why ? Well, just run focus and you’re settled.

420 Praise it !
That is some good new for us, thanks Karl !
By the way, we would be really pleased if you checked out “Guardian hammer – Feedback” thread. I know that it’s a bit of a chaotic thread now but lots of guardians contribute to it because our beloved hammer needs to get some love.
Please, visit that thread in your earliest convenience, thanks once again !

I don’t play traps cause these are for dummies, and those who die to them (while not being CC-tanked of course or without stab) are dummies as well.
Just dodge the heck out of it, even dragon maw shows its teeth for 0.5 second before shutting so it’s easy to spot it (unless kitten tons of AoE’s everywhere so only asian kids with cyborg’s perception shall see it).
Once you dodge the traps, and DH is below 50% hp then don’t come near them cause they pop purification for sure. Pets and minions are both a blessing and a curse when they force traps but also might force purification which is a strong heal on low CD if traited.

Loki.4871:

Rodzynald.5897:

It says on wiki that it deals high AoE damage, well I kind of don’t feel it in both PvE and PvP.

-Spec for condition damage
-Spec for traits to increase symbol duration and size
-Take trait to cause burning on enemies in your symbols
-it’s been a while but you might be able to bring the trait that makes your enemies take more damage from you (and your burning) in the symbols too

Boring? Yes, but very practical, you can really hurt things with it.

Doesn’t it sound wrong that weapon’s viability is only limited to one type of damage ?
That is fine but what we need now is for hammer to be viable also as a power weapon.

Well, we might keep on discussing this thread but we should try to aim for one goal to specify what devs should update first in this weapon.

P.S.
Someone call for Karl :P

This is why Berserker needs a buff, but well I played a warrior few months ago (he is no longer with us <:C ). This thread seems to touch warrior’s current ground overall.
I see more of those threads after HoT release but before xpack, it was just ordinary buff X threads within warrior forum boundaries (every other prof has those despite of how good some of them are atm).
I haven’t touched warrior after expansion release but still, what I say is based on my own and my guildmates’ experience of fighting warriors and playing them.
I see core warriors running here and there doing just fine, that’s all. When I speak with some of them in game and they just talk about slight changes that warrior could have but nobody is that x-treme about it like some of the forum “warriors”.

1st – Endure pain + trait is 8 seconds of immunity to damage and if used well, in cruicial moments it turns the tide in warrior’s favour.

2nd – Tell me how much blinds guardians have at their disposal (maximum at a time we have like 3 blinds, sword/focus and GS), we can’t keep them permanently, like mesmers can so don’t compare blind application capabilities of a class that is all about being cheeky.

3rd – Maybe I just met skilled warriors through my matches. Its quite a task for me to spot unskilled warriors, damage they deal with possibilities they have is good enough.

There is a funky trick that warrs are able to do: mixing stab/zerker stance with endure pain, they can safely summon champs or carry orbs without being interrupted though it is very situational but cruicial in certain scenarios.

P.S.
I play hambow guardian with all meditations (yes, even Litanny of Wrath cause screw you shelter and traps are for dummies)
I handle myself well during combat (but current meta seems cancerous). I had a fair share of warrior fights 1v1 and during team fights. Warriors just need a solid buff on berserker that’s all.
Git gud.

Bro, I’ll tell you a secret…

…. everyone already knows that

From what I see very frequently, warriors can endure enough to force their enemies to pop some of their defensive utilities and then go bat-kitten crazy with rampage on flat ground where nobody can escape nor hide or just pop 8 seconds of endure pain and zerker stance for condi immunity, this is enough to (if played well) wipe even whole teams that are depleted in cooldowns.

It’s all a matter of who you fight against, honestly.

I’ll say it again, Blind Wars 2
btw, is thief a class that should have stability ? They have stuns, stealth on demand, blinds and good evades so someone who is lightly armed and protected shouldn’t be an unyielding, stable juggernaut.

If True Shot’s damage will really get nerfed then it’s going to be just as viable as Mighty Blow is right now, I guarantee it.
If TS is about to be nerfed, then unroot it and add some condition to it along with making sustain damage stronger. If this won’t work out then buff the hammer and don’t move the trait from virtues, otherwise those who don’t run traps will be left with long CD virtues (and these are already long enough) due to leaving Virtues trait line for other trait lines that will give us hammer/GS/meditation/shout traits.

If mesmer relies on their shatters as well, then why their CD’s are short, they got resummons, but we have only a long cooldown refresh to reset long cooldowns >_<
Guardians also need their virtues, and these should be WORTH using without obligatory Virtues trait line.
Without Virtues we don’t have any other form of healing other than healing utlity spell and meditation trait. Where are the passive regens that randomly pop ?
Retaliatory Subconscious is amusingly underwhelming.
Well it’s nice we get an aegis after knockback etc… but it’s a shame that it can be negated by a sneeze so after we shake off the CC we are left with basicaly nothing.
I think it should make us immune to any form of CC after being CC’ed instead of granting aegis (by immune I mean that only one CC thrown at us would be neglected, this would shield us from being CC locked).

This is what we need, a little bit of extra effect to our hammer skills and a slight damage boost.
This could ease the pain of not having land polearms.
I use hammer to finish off my opponents or focus team bursts with judge+ward which should be more frequent, lower base CD on ward and Judge Intervention (26 seconds with trait).
If you think that lower CD on judge’s intervention could be OP then say hello to Rev’s phase traversal (energy is easy to gain through damage so don’t argue that 20 energy skill on ridiculosuly low cooldown is balanced).

Hammer needs more of what it has now because it’s just a control weapon with mediocre damage at best, it doesn’t feel intimidating seeing a hammer guardian heading towards you because of how weak hammer skills and damage is.
When I fight enemies and get them below 25% HP I always imagine that mighty blow should just reduce them to dust.

Here is a trait for hammer that could replace glacial heart.

Righteous Weight:
Hammer base damage is increased by 20% and 3rd AA dazes for 1 second (no ICD)
20% cooldown reduction on hammer skills (hammer AA and other abilities’ speed stays the same)

Mighty blow (which has its cooldown extended to 8 seconds + trait) has built in 100% critical strike chance on enemies below 25% health. Doesn’t it sound mighty ?
OR
Just buff the base damage of MB to match True Shot, I think that would be the easiest thing to do though

We should get rid of AA combo field and make it punishing and intimidating, to make our opponents feel that they might kitten up once they end up under the 3rd AA.
3rd AA should apply cripple and 1 sec daze but we keep the slow speed of our hammer.

Zealot’s embrace could be something harsh, something extra that could break defiance bar and faster projectile speed.

Banish just could use a lower cooldown, the casting speed should stay.

Ring of warding – now this made my brain think about countless possibilities.
We might keep the long cooldown but give it lots of stuff or lower the cooldown and just keep it simple.

1st: Is to make it a fire combo field that applies burn on trapped enemies or those who bounce outside of it

2nd: Is to make it apply 10 seconds stacking stability to us and our allies in 600 yard radius every time an enemy bounces inside or outside of the ward.

3rd: Is to give it a 20 second cooldown (with trait) but nothing else.

pick one
+ bonus to all three options, ward can be cast while moving in normal pace.

P.S.
I wonder how it would work out if our trait had a trade-off. Even more damage but we can’t benefit from any kind of movement speed increasing effects once we swap to hammer.
(Something like warrior’s sprint but we can’t run faster once we get swiftness nor superspeed or if we have traveler/speed rune equipped, just base running speed)

Okay, stabs and CC, let it roll (ammount of CC gets funky now and should be trimmed down a bit)
But I am still concerned about the wide variety of blind applying skills. Really, you can’t stab that, though I don’t know which classes apply it the most but when I enter a team fight I could also just wear a blindfold on my eyes and expect the same result

venusiano.8246:

You are right about Chronomancer and Druid being good at that for a while… but since they produce no damage, they are doomed at the long term when their skills get in CD. DH plays in a different league than the other classes and eventually will destroy them.

No damage ?
Celestial amulet says hello.

Also I don’t get it how there are so much diversity in everyone’s reports.
Some say UA is weak, some say it’s OP, some say AA chain is the strongest melee chain and vice versa.
Even with energy bar that limits the usage of skills, along with sustain Revs have, they still have a wide variety of possible outcomes during a fight (I don’t say they are OP becuase casual shiro/glint is really freakin’ squishy).
Though UA is kind of annoying it should lack the evade because you can’t CC a rev unless you have a CC boon like shocking aura, but not everyone has those.

TIP for guards with DH spec
When such rev is damaged, it’s good to drop a spear on them because when they use shield skill to heal, crystal hibernation, you can pull them and interrupt it.

I’ll have to agree with you OP that certain downed skills give a lot of advantage.
It’s kind of a bummer that thieves, mesmers and elementalists can counter any kind stomp but well, they don’t have any healing abilities that will help them get up faster. Then there is guardian and ranger who have it and still they have a long CD after getting downed and after being used (guard’s healing symbol duration is short, pet heal is nice but has a long CD as well).
Though if we all had the same effects on all 1-4 downed skill but different names, it would be boring
About those stomps, once I saw that revenant #1 being able to go through shield of courage and slow you anyway when other professions’ downed conditions can’t be applied through SoC (but that happens rarely, it’s a simple bug)
I do safe stomps with banish and JI or just cleave the crap out of my enemy.
I love it when my enemy gets safe healed so all I have to do is just to banish the downed enemy instead of the one picking him up, it looks hilarious

P.S.
Guardian’s #1 downed skill is really freakin’ weak.

2v2 ? That smells competitive but what about all those cancerous builds but times two ?
Unless if it would be forbidden to play the same builds in one team or allow double mesmer comps cause it could be rather scary.

So what exactly are those QoL changes that we could have then ?
Well I don’t know but I am sure that if MB got buffed to TS damage then hammer would go up not only in PvE but also in other game aspects.
Because to say the truth, if we had that one fast and good AoE burst then even Litany of Wrath would get more viable while fighting a bunch of enemies.
I once tried it and when MB got crit while fighting a bunch of players then those heals were amazing, though it’s very situational (LoW could use a tweak as well but that is for another thread).

P.S.
We all know that guard’s traps and longbow nerf is incoming, so what if TS got unrooted but got MB damage and MB got current TS damage ?

I wonder how it would work out if there could be some sort of diminishing returns (like WoW) to make us invulnerable to certain CC after being spammed at us (no matter the source).

I had kittenous celestial ranger in enemy team. Good grief, pvp is getting more annoying day after day, I couldn’t handle the ammount of CC and I couldn’t even drop him to 50% of his health.
I play DH but without traps just for the sake of not being kitten.
Traps will be just fine when they will start CD on being popped (but they could be remotely activated, purification as well)

Ghotistyx.6942:

A good spot? Yes.
Could it be better? Sure.
Most of what I’d change are qol improvements only, but otherwise it’s quite serviceable in every game mode.

If I said that I do not agree, that would be a lie.
There is a but a fistful of guardians that run with hammer in PvE/P and WvW, it is in a good spot indeed and what we are trying to do here is to update its abilities to match the overall possibilities that other professions’ weapons have so that every guardian could pick it up and rock it like those few who are doing it now (by making in viable on the same level as GS).
To be really honest, I’d be happy with just MB damage increase to the same as True Shot’s
or chill aplication reduction. (Well I’d throw in ward to be castable while moving and 5 second reduction to it along with banish becuase they have slow and very obvious cast animations that are easy to dodge by just decent players).

P.S.
For what does “qol” stand for ?

So you claim that hammer is (no sarcasm) in a good spot already ?

Well I find banish quite handy in PvE as well (makin’ sweet combos) but truly these skills have too long cooldown, aren’t a part of dps rotation and they feel very situational.
We can’t have all but if Zealot’s Embrace could also daze or interrupt and deplete defiance bar on bosses, then we would find hammer a very cruicial weapon during boss fights.
I don’t think that 3 and 4 will see a dps boost because we have to be aware that hammer is a supportive weapon, even though it is said that it has to deal high AoE damage, that part belongs to AA and Mighty Blow.
If we sprinkled a (non trait) 5 second reduction on 3,4 and 5 along with 5 being cast while moving, but let the damage be low then hammer would definitely be viable.

As for ring of warding, (In case it won’t get that movement buff or CD reduction)
there are lots of possibilities, for example: ward being like test of faith/ every time enemy bumps on ward we gain stacks of stability or might/ enemies inside of the ward stack torment damage along with burning every second (but the more enemies caught in ward let’s say up to 3, the condition damage is split among them, just for the sake of not making this OP), so take your pick.
I’d go with burning and torment one

Then there is only male norn left. I play one and I am pleased with the animations.
Though I’ll mention 3 things

1. Running with shield is kind of, what ? I wonder why they don’t run like females do, with shield to the front becuase they just simply run while completely exposing their front.

2. Kind of irrelevant but when you draw your weapon out and do walk animation, they do not rest their GS or Hammer on their shoulder as every other race does but just keep them in their hand like if they weren’t holding anything.

3. Some people claim for sword #1 chain animation to be silly, don’t know why I don’t see a problem, you gotta check it out for yourself.

Other than that, I like how my norn stands with his hammer ready for a fight, truly a tough battle stance.

So you mean to drop damage of MB due to comparing it with the length of how SoP is being cast ?
time =/= damage
If we lose a steady source of burst we rely on then we will be useless 1v1 unless sustained damage gets much stronger. (Remember the wiki: it says that it’s AoE HIGH DAMAGE weapon so it has to deal damage just as GS more or less)
Though on the other hand, if glacial heart was in honor trait line so that we could easily combo it with writ, during team fights a constant 33% reduction and slight heals looks really tempting.
But you know there is also that part where decent players don’t stand in symbols or just fear,knock,pull you out of it, then we don’t have any instant damage blast so we get slowly kited to death while standing in symbol with small heals and a decent dmg reduction.
Buuut, I would go with those changes if Zaelot’s embrace had lower CD, faster projectile speed and pull. ZE has much potential,(let’s not take previous ideas I just gave in my last sentence) it could also root in AoE. You get to root one player but then in 300 yard radius everyone else gets slowed (not rooted and not crippled), 2 second longer duration and applying torment every second.

Ghotistyx.6942:

Swap Symbol of Protection with Mighty Blow
Decrease Mighty Blow damage by 40%
Increase Symbol of Protection duration to 3s, reduce cast time to 1s
Proposed changes #3-5 from Ragnarox

Not saying I would actually want to run this, but it would be interesting for sure. Also take into consideration a fantasy trait change:
Glacial Heart swapped with Retaliatory Subconscious. Retaliatory Subconscious functionality changed to "Activate Virtue of Courage when affected by [Control Effect].

This is also a nice change but bruh… MB damage is already weak, why would anyone think of nerfing it even more ? With 40% dmg decrease it would be just like AA.

I would just add a slight self heal on 3rd AA along with AoE protection (not symbol ofc)
and shorter CD on banish and ward.
Little sparkle and sprinkle here and there and we got a brand new hammer.

Indure.5410:

@Rodzynald: Exedore said “elite specs” not elite skills. Referring to DH, Reaper, Scrapper, etc.

Oh my… I am a dummy

I think that those raids that are about to come, have something we might need to uncover the truth. Like every raid we do gives us hints about something bigger that is about to happen, and there will be one final mega event that will make us all participate to down Mordremoth in physical world instead of his chubby lizard form that we fought on a bad trip.

Exedore.6320:

1. Most elite specs are significantly overpowered and will be toned down with time.

- Renewed focus: that has quite a cooldown even with trait, a 3 second invulnerability where you can’t stomp and if you accidentaly use dodge, it breaks and goes on full cooldown without refreshing virtues.

- Signet of Courage: mild heal every 10 or 8 seconds and a “please interrupt me” length of cast time for full healing (plus you can’t move or you break it) and also a really long cooldown even with trait

- Feel my wrath: 5 seconds of quickness a bunch of fury and condi cleanse if traited, kind of nice but it got longer cooldown because everyone said that such frequent 5 seconds of quickness on demand is too tough to handle.

- Dragon maw: guards have animation for that, it’s not instantly placed. Got longer cooldown (which is kind of understandable). It’s the easiest trap to dodge, if you have reflexes of a sloth then too bad. It’s easy to spot the teeth coming out of the ground before the maw shuts so dodge that before it closes, nuff said. Lag or low frame rate is not an excuse, it happens to all of us. It’s only hard to dodge it, if there is a thick fight and lots of AoE’s laying around.

These elites are OP ?
I can’t even…

Anyway, this is why I made a thread about hammer which is a quite forgotten weapon in our armory. We really feel outdated while comparing all these fancy passives and background boons/conditions that other classes do.
And just as Vikkela attached, revs just gotta stand there and look mean to win

Brutaly.6257:

Been playing hammer since closed beta (pvp/wvw/pve) and i love it but it is outdated atm.

What needs to be done is:
1. Remove one tick from SoP and reduce casting time on third step of the auto.
2. Make the current SoP a pure aoe (no symbol/combo field) and add a rather strong selfheal (not teamwide that is a mace job) or instant x seconds of protection
3. Slight increase in range (+200) on MB and add some sort of condition, why not chill and just delete glacial heart). An other way is to increase range dramatically and make it ground targeted. The last being my personal favorite, its so much more fun playing with ground targeting. how about 900 range ;-)
4. balance the damage between skill 1 and 2 so both are used in every dps rotation in pve.
5. Increase damage on #3 so it is a part of a dps rotation in pve. Speed up the “projectile” speed.
6. Increase damage on #4 so it is a part of a dps rotation in pve and make it affect 3 players.
7. Let us move while casting #5 and make it a fire field and also apply burning to players that crosses it or bounces into it.
8. Move the hammer trait. Its current spot in virtues effectively eliminates the weapon from pvp and wvw.

Why that’s very good, yes I like that !

Ground targeted MB would be more skill based, but then it should have dramatic damage/conditions increase (along with CD) to be really punishing once someone ends up under that AoE.

Yes, I’d like spirit pets… errr weapons as well to be viable in pvp.
I’d say making them invulnerable to cleave and AoE is enough.

Well, we won’t get much for hammer right now I think but I guess that getting symbol off the AA chain and giving it normal atk speed with 3rd hit to apply 4 second protection as AoE, NOT SYMBOL (we would be able to keep 33% reduction all this time on us and our allies with just AA chain which is good enough), chill ICD lowered to 10 seconds and mighty blow damage increased to true shot (MB is just a melee version of TS but weaker), this would be just enough for hammer to be widely viable for us in every aspect.

P.S. as melee has lower hand than ranged, MB could also have 1 stab for 2 seconds (but increased CD to 6 seconds with trait) OR 15% critical chance increase all the time (ofc with trait)

I am astonished that you guys are so creative about what hammer should be and that you really wish for it to be something more. It pleases me and I bet you are pleased as well.
Let’s try to keep this on surface because as I read guard forums very frequently, I didn’t see any hammer topics. It might take a long time for Devs (cheers Karl) to see this, and even then it doesn’t have to work out as we see fit but it’s always worth a shot.

Hammer is a brilliant weapon that fits our archetype just as greatsword does and it has to be worth for us to use it at full capability that it deserves and I believe that it will get some love soon enough.