Curse

faraaz · Jul 25, 2008, 04:37 AM // 04:37

Hi All,

I've been using hammers lately in PvE, having capped and tried out a few elites and builds built around them, I've settled on two major types.

Earth Shaker
Enraged Smash

The builds I've been using are:

[build;OQkSE5JT8ViFYfxR7g/VXFmY]
[build;OQkSE5JT8ViFxRhF7g/VXFmY]

and

[build;OQkSE5JT8VhPniYfxR/VXFmY]

My specific questions are:

1) Between the two Earth Shaker variants, which is a better build? I'm going to be using these in EoTN (I was blown away by how easy Warband of Brothers was with the second variant Earth Shaker build)...however, Crude Swing seemed a dangerous skill to use on a survivor char, so I've swapped that out for Pulverizing Smash. Haven't used it extensively though, so I cannot comment yet. Thoughts?

2) Between Earth Shaker and Enraged Smash, which is a better build for PvE? I'm leaning towards Earth Shaker for utility...but Enraged Smash damage is soooo good. Plus I can always use Brawling Headbutt if I really need a KD in the build...hmm...I'm confused. Also, is the Enraged Smash build, by itself, any good?

3) I searched through the other threads in this forum on Hammer Warriors and I was disappointed to find at first glance that a lot of material was from 2006/2007 and is very outdated, given more recent skill additions and/or changes. What are good PvE skills, apart from Whirlwind Attack that I can use in these builds? How about SY!?

4) Is Yeti Smash a good skill? It does decent damage to adjacents I thought, and 6 adrenaline isnt too bad to maintain with a 30 second FGJ...then again, what do I know? There's probably much more superior skills out there that I am just plain unaware of. Any recommendations (preferably with reasons/comments as to why they are good)?

5) This one is not so serious as the other questions...but I'm in a bit of a dilemma. My warrior has successfully achieved the Legendary Survivor title, but I am still stuck in the "Survivor" mindset, in that I am unwilling to allow my warrior to die!

I'm at 1.85 million xp at the moment and working my way simultaneously through EoTN and NF, having completed Factions. Does anyone have any nice ideas for a fun/seriously cool way to let my warrior die first?

One of the suggestions made by some friends was to retain the survivor title all the way through till I finish Abaddon and then have a "dance-off" with him in the final mish, finally giving up my ongoing title.

Another suggestion was to use frenzy-healsig, be naked, have a mending+healing breeze bar and find a HM EoTN boss which would then inflict (preferably) 4 digit damage to make it as "painless" as possible.

Any other ideas? All thoughts & comments are appreciated! Also constructive criticism for the build I posted is needed!

Tyla · Jul 25, 2008, 05:03 AM // 05:03

1) I would say the first, although I myself would get rid of the self-heal and put in Enraging Charge for a quick burst of adrenaline to a knocklock. Edit: Oh, and taking out Yeti Smash for Crude Swing.

2) The problem with Enraged Smash is that it requires full adrenaline slots to function, and you have several other skills which surpass it's potential. I'd rather go Axe or Sword if I would be using Brawling Headbutt. As for ES vs. Enraged, I would go with ES. Put it this way, when enemies don't move you can buff the crap out of your Warrior, and have a couple of Dervs pounding on it for AoE damage, aswell as buff them and the Warrior up for splash damage and general "BOOM!" from Ancestor's.

3) SY can be used, and I generally prefer "Finish Him!" on a hammer bar. If you want it at max potential and spam, use a zealous hammer.

4) I've never really used Yeti Smash myself, but then again I just go with the two AoE +damage attacks. Armour-ignoring AoE damage can be good though, problem is you don't get additional hits out of Splinter and not much buffs it.

5) Go into Alliance Battles as a Shock Axe, wait for a mob to happen and run into it saying some corny film line or some "heroic" phrase.

Nainoa · Jul 25, 2008, 05:20 AM // 05:20

1) For NM, I'd probably go with the second since things aren't alive long enough for deep wound to matter. For HM, I'd go with crushing blow in place of pulverizing since other classes can spread the weakness condition more effectively. Crude Swing is good because you get adrenaline for each target you hit with it to fuel your adrenaline based aoes. I would replace the self heal with a utility skill.

2) I would stick with earth shaker for aoe knock down. Mobs on their butt is preventing them from damaging your party and running around. I'd say the enraged smash build would be good if you're only concerned about doing damage to a single target by mashing one skill. Using other adrenaline skills means you lose some of the bonus damage.

3) SY is difficult to keep up with a hammer warrior. I'm a new player myself and am not familiar with all the pve skills. If you want to find pve skills that synergize with your class and goals search the GW wiki and read the skill descriptions.

4) For HM, yeti smash's 47 damage to adjacent foes is usually more than the damage you'll see to adjacent foes with a maxed whirlwind. If you're just looking for aoe damage skills for warriors, crude swing, whirlwind attack, and yeti smash are the only hammer attacks that do aoe damage.

I like running my warrior in PvE with an aoe snare to keep them all bunched up and away from squishies. If you're not looking for more utility than the KD from earth shaker, I would replace Lion's Comfort with Grasping Earth for an aoe snare. If you plan to keep crude swing, you'll want to upgrade your hammer with a zealous mod to keep your energy up. If you're concerned about damage you'll take from the -armor, only use it after you've used earth shaker.

5) No armor, Frenzy, Heal Sig against an elemental boss in HM will probably give you four digit damage. There might be more skills with a damage penalty you can use for an even bigger instagib number.

Also, you didn't state if these builds were for HM or NM. In HM, you will find it harder to hammer nuke bunched up mobs because melee switches targets often and ranged mobs usually aren't bunched up. If your build is for NM, I would add 3 searing flame ele heroes or 2 SF ele heroes and a minion bomber hero with your aoe based build to clean house.

Tyla · Jul 25, 2008, 05:23 AM // 05:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nainoa

For HM, I'd go with crushing blow in place of pulverizing since other classes can spread the weakness condition more effectively.

Pulverising is for the deep wound.

Nainoa · Jul 25, 2008, 05:28 AM // 05:28

I know. If he has enough energy, then I'd go with crushing since it adds a bit of bonus damage and can be used simultaneously with an adrenaline attack.

Tyla · Jul 25, 2008, 05:30 AM // 05:30

For the most part I agree, although Deep Wound coming out every 2 seconds is quite amazing.

JDRyder · Jul 25, 2008, 06:08 AM // 06:08

Before i say any thing let me say im a hardcore hammer warrior and Ive been playing hammer warrior for about 3 years,

1. Id run [build=OQASE5JPiFwySpowXNsXFAA] or [build=OQASE5JPiFwySJwyXNsXFAA] I use 2 hammers mainly, a furious and vamp, you will be able to pump out a LOT of ES with a furious hammer.

Im not a real fan of the AoE hammer offers cause they dont do that much and that 2nd KD and crushing blow is a must imo

2. ES is better imo, your going to have 3+ others players doing damage any way, keeping something knocked locked can help them kill faster "as long as 1 of them is not a SS necro :P" and help your monks etc.

3. ES is better than SY if you use it right cause mods do 0 damage, they cant move or cast skills. I showed a hammer build thats more used in Q1 as well

4. I dont like the skill, talked about in in Q1

5. get in a ursan fow group, make them think your a ursan, and take the quest from the Rastigan the Eternal where you start out, it will get every 1 killed most likely.

Snow Bunny · Jul 25, 2008, 06:18 AM // 06:18

Your second build (ES2) was fine. Just run around with that.

Magikarp · Jul 25, 2008, 02:16 PM // 14:16

Out of the 3, the second build is by far the best, and in fact, not far from the current extremely popular pve hammer knocklock build out there right now. try dropping yeti for pulverize and maybe lions comfort for either a cancel (like enraging) or possibly a more active interrupt, such as YmlaD, or even a skill like mending touch.

lol.. nowadays, just for kicks, i try to put dshot in almost all of my builds, both pve and pvp, just so i can laugh at how good it is, and i just swap to a bow in mid fight (even on monks lol)

Shaz · Jul 25, 2008, 07:49 PM // 19:49

Agree with the second build being the best out of the three builds.

Quote:

Im not a real fan of the AoE hammer offers cause they dont do that much and that 2nd KD and crushing blow is a must imo

I disagree, 2nd KD like hammer bash or heavy blow and crushing blow is more suited in PvP where you want to quaterknocking and DW someone, and AoE opportunity rarely come by especially when you are an ES.

In PvE, AoE hammer will be the best way to keep throwing out ES the most without losing all your adrenaline from that second KD, especially when you are under FGJ and maybe sometime an order with Dark Fury also. With ES, you should be positioning yourself so that you can KD several foes anyway so the AoE should trigger frequently, you should be able to KD lock with just ES easily. I usually let some other member bring a deep wound causing skills and I bring skills that buff my damage even more like "I am the Strongest" for example. With splinter, ancestor's, and other melee buff on you also, you'll see how much it offers.

_Nihilist_ · Jul 25, 2008, 11:32 PM // 23:32

[For Great [email protected]][Enraging [email protected]][[email protected]][Earth [email protected]][Pulverizing [email protected]][Crude [email protected]][Whirlwind Attack][optional]

Hammers are great!

1) 2nd Build

2) [[Earth [email protected]] - Enraged Smash is a great way to ignore half of your skillbar to spam your Elite every other shot, but it just does damage, no KD

3) [[Finish Him!] for a spike, [[I am Unstoppable!] if you are getting Cripp'd or KD'd yourself

4) My personal preference is to leave Yeti Smash off of my skillbar...

5) Do a slow striptease for your favorite boss mob, and see if you can strip before they can rip your face off... ofc, record it, and post it FTW...

JDRyder · Jul 26, 2008, 02:12 AM // 02:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shaz

I disagree, 2nd KD like hammer bash or heavy blow and crushing blow is more suited in PvP where you want to quaterknocking and DW someone, and AoE opportunity rarely come by especially when you are an ES.

I just like crushing blow cause i dont have to rely and a necro for weackness, even in Pve i target switch a lot to shut down w/e is hurting my teams monks, DPS or w/e, same reason i like the 2nd KD. I like having it cause you dont want to be w/o, never know when a monk is going to miss a prot or something and a KD on a target will have saved a life. This is worth more imo than a small damage AoE skill

_Nihilist_ · Jul 26, 2008, 03:24 AM // 03:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by JDRyder

I just like crushing blow cause i dont have to rely and a necro for weackness, even in Pve i target switch a lot to shut down w/e is hurting my teams monks, DPS or w/e, same reason i like the 2nd KD. I like having it cause you dont want to be w/o, never know when a monk is going to miss a prot or something and a KD on a target will have saved a life. This is worth more imo than a small damage AoE skill

Crushing Blow does not inflict the Weakness condition, only DW

[Crushing Blow]

Pulverizing Smash, Staggering Blow, and Forceful Blow are the only Hammer attacks that can cause weakness...

[pulverizing smash] [staggering blow] [forceful blow]

Even then, if you are using Earth Shaker, you can't use Forceful Blow and Pulverizing Smash depends on your target being DK.

snoozer80 · Jul 26, 2008, 06:01 AM // 06:01

Yeah! Hammer is great!

Some time ago i started my warrior char and main weapon was hammer cuz i saw my mate playing on GvG with hammer and it was awesome weapon. Lots of KD and massively damage thats why i love hammer. Actually I am running my warrior with follow skills:

[build prof=W/Mo][dwarven battle stance][Mighty Blow][Hammer Bash][Crushing Blow][Enraging Charge][Lion's Comfort][Remove Hex][Mending Touch][/build]

Dwarven batttle stance is great to interrupt enemies and to earn adrenaline for next skills. I don't use any res skill cuz my heroes do fine and don't die so often.

Enraging charge and Lion's Comfort gives me adrenaline if needed.

mrmango · Jul 26, 2008, 06:13 AM // 06:13

Snoozer's build isn't that bad, just DBS is energy intensive and only up half the time. With crushing in there too your energy won't be in good hands.

snoozer80 · Jul 26, 2008, 07:13 AM // 07:13

Tbh i never suffered any energy problems. When i stop using DBS i use adrenaline skills and then Crushing blow, but then my energy is almost recharged.

faraaz · Jul 26, 2008, 12:55 PM // 12:55

Hmm...lot of interesting suggestions here guys. I've been experimenting with Crushing Blow instead of Pulverising Smash (which works a lot like Falling Lotus strike etc) and unconditional damage is nice.

As for my survivor, I'm at Kodonur Crossroads, sitting pretty with 2.3 million xp (I did the whole Norn and Vanguard parts of EoTN as well in the meantime) so I still have a ways to go before my epic dance-off with Abaddon. However, I did steal the strip tease idea. If all goes to plan, when I get my warrior's leggings off, Abaddon would be "raisin da roof" followed by the most epic survivor KO in GW history. Or something >.>

I'm going to get back to you guys with some more questions probly, once I test out some builds a bit more.

**Marty Silverblade** · Jul 27, 2008, 03:45 AM // 03:45

Wiki says that the Abbadon dancing thing doesn't affect your survivor. Won't work

.