Curse

Deathbow · Dec 28, 2005, 11:41 PM // 23:41

Been reading and Decided i like the look of:
Counterblow , To knock enemies over
Back breaker Again for knock down and a little extra damage
Bellysmash For when they're on the ground and when i get surrounded(Knock one down and blind the rest)
Rush, For when i gotta get somewhere a bit faster (Like to save a mage/ranger from being whacked)
Defy pain for Extra Health and Armor. Can see that being quite a good thing.

Obviously i cant use them all, and am gonna need monk healing skills/auras and such. But i cant decide what the best Warrior/monk skill combos. Looking at being a self healing damage machine with a hammer. Any advice welcome

DeanBB · Dec 29, 2005, 12:13 AM // 00:13

I wouldn't recommend defy pain as it is kinda band-aid like and bad things can happen when it wears off - use a real heal or healing signet. Look at smiting and the smite touch spell that does double damage to a knocked-down enemy. So use a KD and then belly smash, KD then smite.

Look thru the warrior posts and you should find wa/mo hammer builds.

Deathbow · Dec 29, 2005, 12:23 AM // 00:23

i Should probably mention that i havent ACTUALLY played yet Still waitin gon PC repairs

Dont like the idea of signets as they're single use. So will be using healing spells. Was looking at smite and that DID seem like a good plan. Also, healing seed says it 'Heals target ally and other adjacent allies' If i cast it on a henchman/other melee and stand next to him/her whacking away with my hammer, will the spell also heal me?

-edit-
By smite touch i take it you mean holy strike right? and can monk healing skills that say 'Will heal target ally for....' be targeted at yourself?

Deathbow · Dec 29, 2005, 04:20 AM // 04:20

Okay been doing more reading. Decided on my eight skills and would like help with attribute points on them please. Skills are as follows (No particular slots)

1-Counterblow to KD
2-Holy Strike to deal big damage to KD'd enemies
3-Bellysmash To blind other enemies if i'm swarmed
4-Balthazars Spirit To keep my Adrenaline/Energy high for carrying out the above
5-Defy Pain, i Wont have a shield so the Extra Health could come in useful
6-Rush/Sprint(Not sure on which is better as one uses Adreneline and one uses Energy) for running to defend mages/support or to run when i'm geting whooped.
7-Healing Signet for healing myself when AWAY from combat not during due to the extra damage i'll take
8-Ressurection Signet <<Kinda self explanatory

Again, all input welcomed but would like Attribute breakdown especially.

Thanks.

lasteele · Dec 29, 2005, 02:11 PM // 14:11

Use as many kd attacks from the warrior as you can,also use dolyaks sig and balthazars spirit.Get health from a hammer not from defy pain.2-3 more hits and that is worthless your still dead.

striderkaaru · Dec 29, 2005, 02:23 PM // 14:23

will you be using this for pve or pvp?

either way, i have a few suggestions.

pve:
drop defy pain, rush/sprint, and maybe healing sig. add in earthshaker/devastating hammer and hammer bash.

pvp:
drop counterblow, belly smash, and defy pain. add earthshaker/devastating hammer, hammer bash, and some way of increasing your attack speed like frenzy.

as a hammer warrior, you want to maximize your knockdown chain. counterblow isn't enough. you need the hammer elite + hammer bash. sprint isn't good for pve, and counterblow isn't so good in pvp since your main targets are casters.

invest attribute points into hammer mastery, strength, and smiting prayers. keep a few points in tactics if you decide to keep healing signet, as well.

Deathbow · Dec 29, 2005, 03:02 PM // 15:02

First of all this is purely for PvE, not interested in PvP yet.

Drop healing signet? Doesnt seem like a good idea to be unable to heal myself. Any particular reason sprint/rush isnt good for pve? Being able to be somewhere quicker seems like a much needed ability. As for Defy Pain. Surely those extra 2-3 hits i could take would be enough to KD the enemy attacking me and holy strike them do death? Re-read the counterblow description, only KD's if enemy is attacking so it has limited useage, but hammer bash uses all my adrenaline. limiteing my combat ability till Balthazars spirit replenishes it/i whack a lot of stuff. Earthshaker/Dev. Hammer are elite skills and i'd wager it'd take me a while to obtain them (n00b here) Frenzy doesnt seem like a good plan, taking double damage just doesnt seem with the extra attack speed. Dont feel that the input isnt appreciated, it is, greatly. This is my first character, i want it to be perfect, hence all the research. Thanks so far for the help, keep it coming please

striderkaaru · Dec 29, 2005, 03:26 PM // 15:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by Deathbow

First of all this is purely for PvE, not interested in PvP yet.

Drop healing signet? Doesnt seem like a good idea to be unable to heal myself. Any particular reason sprint/rush isnt good for pve? Being able to be somewhere quicker seems like a much needed ability. As for Defy Pain. Surely those extra 2-3 hits i could take would be enough to KD the enemy attacking me and holy strike them do death? Re-read the counterblow description, only KD's if enemy is attacking so it has limited useage, but hammer bash uses all my adrenaline. limiteing my combat ability till Balthazars spirit replenishes it/i whack a lot of stuff. Earthshaker/Dev. Hammer are elite skills and i'd wager it'd take me a while to obtain them (n00b here) Frenzy doesnt seem like a good plan, taking double damage just doesnt seem with the extra attack speed. Dont feel that the input isnt appreciated, it is, greatly. This is my first character, i want it to be perfect, hence all the research. Thanks so far for the help, keep it coming please

i would like to say that i'm very glad you're taking the time to look into these things rather than rushing in foolishly. if only half of the gw population did what you are doing now, we wouldn't have so much grief. anyway, on to the comments.

drop healing sig?
this one is situational. in a team based situation, you usually rely on the monks to keep you healed. even if you use the hench healer, alesia does a pretty good job of it. a lot of people will criticize her, but she honestly does the job better than a lot of real monks. if you're careful when you play, she will do fine. however, this one is entirely up to you. just know that using it in the middle of battle would be foolish, as -40 armor can get you killed rather quickly.

sprint/rush for pve?
i can see 3 uses for it.
1 - getting somewhere quickly
unless you are soloing, this is useless since your teammates will still have to catch up with you.
2 - moving around quickly in battle
this is a valid reason and would be the only reason i would use these skills. however, once you learn to control aggro or shake aggro from your casters, you won't really be using this much.
3 - running away from a situation gone wrong
i'm not such a big fan of this reason. i would much rather bring a skill that can prevent such situations rather than one that helps me run away from them.

defy pain vs. hammer elites?
defy pain is an elite as well, so you won't be getting it until much later. having the extra knockdown is still a lot more useful as it can help out the whole team.

hammer bash loses all adrenaline?
this one isn't really such a big deal since you want to use hammer bash at the end of your knockdown chain. you will have already lost adrenaline for other skills after using them anyway. a typical chain should look something like: counter blow + some skill + hammer elite kd + some other skill + hammer bash. sometimes, you can stick in an extra counter blow. the points is, you will have already used your adrenaline for the chain anyway, so you won't be losing much.

frenzy for pve?
frenzy is only good for pvp. i agree that it is a bad idea for pve.

hope this helps.

Age · Dec 29, 2005, 08:52 PM // 20:52

I would still use the healing signet though along with watch Yourself the only thing you need to be worried about is you health dropping below 50% when useing the signet and rush is an adrenal skill I never use it in PvE only PvP.War/Mo are usually swar or axe Warrior not hammer like I said over at TGH.If you are worried about the healing signent aftershock with knockdown would do so much damage you wouldn't worry about it and in PvE you would take down lots of mobs.You can always change your secoundary after you ascend but then you have to buy some of these skills.What I told you over at TGH is that Hammer Warriors are rarely War/Mo.

Deathbow · Dec 29, 2005, 11:30 PM // 23:30

*They're hardly ever hammer warriors* Thats exatly what i'm going for. A break away from the norm. From what i've read there are too many 'Paladins' and tanks and the like. I Wanna make something thats not often/ever made. Perhaps skills(For PvE Only) should balance like;
(No particular order and based on a party with a monk)

-Hammerbash(Untill i get Dev. Hammer) for KD
-Counterstrike for KD
-Bellysmash For Damage to KD'd foes and blinding groups
-Holy Strike foir Big damage to KD'd foes
-Balthazars spirit for getting back adrenaline and energy
-Endure pain to make me last the little longer
-Doylak Signet for that little extra staying power
-Res Signet

That way its just big on Strength, hammer and Smiting and i can get good attributes

DeanBB · Jan 05, 2006, 05:32 PM // 17:32

It's fine and good to make plans for your character but the reality is that you will get *one* hammer skill in pre-sear, I think *one* more in Old Ascalon, a few in Kryta, a couple in the jungle, etc. Holy Strike you can buy in the north Shiverpeaks or Lions Arch.

So you will probably be starting life as a sword or axe wielder and evolve to a hammer warrior as the skills become available. By that time you might find that you enjoy life as an axe wielding wamo. You might find healing or protection spells that you like and never use the smiting.

The point is that your character can try out all the weapon styles, you don't have to choose a path and follow it exclusively.

I would still recommend the healing signet over endure pain, there are just too many times that you need healing to not have a self-heal along. The henchies get busy elsewhere, they run out of energy, whatever. I've watched my health decline on a character and wondered WTH Alesia was doing too many times to not bring self-healing for each character.

Young Hero · Jan 05, 2006, 06:34 PM // 18:34

Defy Pain works well and long as you keep it alive. But you have to waste two precious skill slots for addrelin chargers like For Great Justice and Bererker Stance to do so.Go with Heal Sig and cap Glads Defense.

Fire Childe · Jan 05, 2006, 06:43 PM // 18:43

Quote:

Re-read the counterblow description, only KD's if enemy is attacking so it has limited useage, but hammer bash uses all my adrenaline. limiteing my combat ability till Balthazars spirit replenishes it/i whack a lot of stuff. Earthshaker/Dev. Hammer are elite skills and i'd wager it'd take me a while to obtain them (n00b here) Frenzy doesnt seem like a good plan, taking double damage just doesnt seem with the extra attack speed. Dont feel that the input isnt appreciated, it is, greatly. This is my first character, i want it to be perfect, hence all the research. Thanks so far for the help, keep it coming please

frenzy is a good plan because of the increased attack rate. yes you take double damage whilst frenzied but it is a stance. since you can only have 1 stance up at any single time, you can use another stance to cancel it. therefore, if you use frenzy carefully and switch stance the instant you take damage, you will begin to understand why frenzy is almost a permanent warrior skill on most of our skillbars.

sprint is a brilliant skill to use not only because it is a stance (and thus can cancel out frenzy if required) but it can be used to break off persuing mobs. if you intend on solo'ing certain pve areas of the game, you will find that in many of the high level instances, that this is impossible without sprint. sprint allows you to pick and choose the majority of your encounters. it allows you to leg it past mobs you have no chance of fighting, in order to reach mobs which you do have a chance of killing and surviving the encounter.

hammer bash does indeed kill your adrenaline level, but again. use it appropriately. most people end combos with hammer bash or use it as a last resort knockdown. it is fairly cheap in terms of adrenaline strikes and its a no nonsense straight up knockdown, unlike certain other warrior skills that either require a condition in order to knockdown or require your attack to be evaded/blocked. or for your opponent to be attacking. counterblow is actually a good skill to use in areas where creatures attack very fast. against hellhounds for instance, since they use frenzy to up their attack rate. this in turn maximises the chance of scoring a knockdown via counterblow.

hammer bash can work well in builds that have the means to accrue adrenaline very quickly. these builds would include skills like frenzy (to accrue adrenaline faster, by hitting your opponent more times over a fixed time period). for great justice - which will double the rate at which you accrue adrenaline. and too the limit, which will give you a fixed number of strikes depending on the number of enemies in the viscinity.

at 8 tactics you get 1 strike of adrenaline for every nearby foe (up to a maximum of 4 strikes). therefore, if you waste all your adrenaline on a hammer bash, you still have the means of building up strikes fast for another adrenal attack skill. running skills like this in conjunction with frenzy and/or for great justice can nullify some of the down points of 'lose all adrenaline' attack skills. the key is to get the right balance of adrenal attacks and adrenaline boosting skills in your build. this is something you will have to try out for yourself though.

alternatively you can sidestep the issue of adrenaline altogether and use flourish or warrior's endurance in conjunction with all energy attack skills. however, a focus is really a must and wont provide the extra defence of a shield on the front quadrant. it also requires good timing, since if you do not combo in the right order, you can find yourself out of energy very very quickly.

in terms of defensive skills, dolyak signet and watch yourself! have both proven to be pve lifesavers. the description doesnt sound so hot, but you can solo whole chunks of the fissure of woe and parts of underworld using these for defense.

as a last point, dont remember that your skill set is not fixed - i would encourage you to change your skill set often and adapt it to the creatures you are fighting. there is no penalty for 'respeccing' in this way. thus there is no excuse for making life harder for yourself by sticking to the same 8 skills for every area of the game.

just remember that no skill in GW is 'best' - they work like rock/paper/scissors in the sense that they all have strong and weak points which can be exploited both ways.