Curse

Valkyries · Apr 20, 2006, 11:58 AM // 11:58

Hey everyone,

After a long time using spell casters in PVP (and PVE for that matter) I have decided that I am going to make a Hammer Warrior for PVP. Why did I choose hammer?? A few reasons actually. First being, I think they are pretty neat with being able to do huge knockdowns and still a lot of damage is my main reason. I also noticed a lot of the high end GVG's are using Hammer Warriors over Axe/Sword (except for IWAY) so I really think this is a good choice. Of course please feel free to disagree assuming you will give an argument with your reasoning. Don't just tell me Hammer Wars suck

Anyways, the first thing is my secondary profession. As I said, Im pretty new to the whole Melee class but I have it down to 2 classes Ele/Necro. I plan to probably only use 1 skill from each depending on what I choose. Ele Ill go with either Shock or Gale (I heard Gale isn't as good now but not sure. I don't think the exhaustion from Shock is that bad for a Warrior so most likely this will be my choice) or Necro for Plague Touch. Plague Touch is simply awesome to remove blind and many other nasty conditions that could come my way. Please remember though this will be used for HA/GVG so I should have a Monk to get rid of such things. Still its nice to be able to take care of it myself.

Now Ill get to the build. Don't trash me too much, this is really my first attempt and I haven't had much or any help with this.

W/N or E

Devastating Hammer {E}
Crushing Blow
Hammer Bash
Irresistible Blow
Frenzy
Healing Signet/Sprint/Rush (not sure what is best. On one hand Healing Signet is AWESOME, but I should have a Monk to take care of me. Its slow and I have a very high armor reduction. Sprint/Rush are good at chasing enemies)
-Plague Touch/Gale/Shock-
Res Signet

What do you think? Am I in the same ballpark of a good Hammer Warrior or should I just be starting from scratch? Attempt #1, lets go!

thanks for comments!

JR · Apr 20, 2006, 12:31 PM // 12:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by Valkyries

W/N or E

Devastating Hammer {E}
Crushing Blow
Hammer Bash
Irresistible Blow
Frenzy
Healing Signet/Sprint/Rush (not sure what is best. On one hand Healing Signet is AWESOME, but I should have a Monk to take care of me. Its slow and I have a very high armor reduction. Sprint/Rush are good at chasing enemies)
-Plague Touch/Gale/Shock-
Res Signet

Decent build at a glance, there is a couple of small problems though.

Irresistible Blow is a great Hammer skill. It's energy; so you don't need to build up, it's spammable for more pressure, and it has the nice side effect of the conditional KD. However, to really get the most out of this you would be wanting to spam it. This pretty much means you have to take into account the rest of the skills on your bar.

With Irresistible, Crushing, Frenzy, Sprint (I will explain why you can't use Rush further down) and PTouch/Gale/Shock you are going to have problems in extended conflicts. My suggestion would be to drop that utility slot (ptouch/shock/gale) and put Healing Signet there. I'm a big fan of Heal Sig, great against degen, great on a split. Now you free up the extra space in your skill slots for taking Sprint.

The reason you can't use Rush is Hammer Bash; which makes you lose all adrenaline. If you are Frenzy adren spiking someone, and you finish up and need a cancel stance, you are not going to be able to rapidly cancel with Rush if you use Bash.

Now with Frenzy, Sprint, Irresistible and Crushing this character is still pretty energy intensive, but just about viable.

Personally I prefer to run Backbreaker with Irresistible, as you still have a long KD without the need for Bash. It's not as long as the Dev->Bash combo, but it goes some way towards compensating. This way you can use Rush, which gives you a much more stable character energy wise; allowing you to then run something like "To The Limit!" instead of Sprint to help with building up.

Something like:

"To The Limit!"
Devastating Hammer {E}
Crushing Blow
Irresistible Blow
Frenzy
Rush
Healing Signet
Res Signet

Valkyries · Apr 20, 2006, 12:43 PM // 12:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by JR-

Decent build at a glance, there is a couple of small problems though.

Irresistible Blow is a great Hammer skill. It's energy; so you don't need to build up, it's spammable for more pressure, and it has the nice side effect of the conditional KD. However, to really get the most out of this you would be wanting to spam it. This pretty much means you have to take into account the rest of the skills on your bar.

With Irresistible, Crushing, Frenzy, Sprint (I will explain why you can't use Rush further down) and PTouch/Gale/Shock you are going to have problems in extended conflicts. My suggestion would be to drop that utility slot (ptouch/shock/gale) and put Healing Signet there. I'm a big fan of Heal Sig, great against degen, great on a split. Now you free up the extra space in your skill slots for taking Sprint.

The reason you can't use Rush is Hammer Bash; which makes you lose all adrenaline. If you are Frenzy adren spiking someone, and you finish up and need a cancel stance, you are not going to be able to rapidly cancel with Rush if you use Bash.

Now with Frenzy, Sprint, Irresistible and Crushing this character is still pretty energy intensive, but just about viable.

Personally I prefer to run Backbreaker with Irresistible, as you still have a long KD without the need for Bash. It's not as long as the Dev->Bash combo, but it goes some way towards compensating. This way you can use Rush, which gives you a much more stable character energy wise; allowing you to then run something like "To The Limit!" instead of Sprint to help with building up.

Something like:

"To The Limit!"
Devastating Hammer {E}
Crushing Blow
Irresistible Blow
Frenzy
Rush
Healing Signet
Res Signet

Thanks a lot for the comments JR.

I do have a couple of questions for you though. (as always)

First, as you mentioned wouldn't Sprint be more viable than Rush? I noticed you have rush in this build... and I realize that is only because you have "To the Limit!" Added to the build. But why not just run Sprint by itself and save 1 slot for something else??

Next, I have read the skills for Backbreaker and Devastating Hammer... and frankly I think both of them are quite excellent. Backbreaker is very nice but the cost worries me a little. 10 seems like a nice bit for the extra bit of damage. So what is really better to use in the build I want to run? Backbreaker or Devastating? I understand that it really depends on what Im aiming to do. I just find it hard to choose because it seems like there are so many good skills.

One last thing, you really think no secondary is good? Im not saying it isn't, for sure you know much more about this than I do.

I am just seeing a lot of guilds run a W/E or W/N for some utilitiy. Like in the build you posted for me above, why not take out Rush and To the Limit, and add in Sprint and a utility? Is that a viable option?

I also really like Healing Signet... its an awesome skill I just wasn't sure where the room was.... the biggest issue is the -40 armor, which worries me slightly. I was thinking with a good Monk or three I should be safe but that isn't always the case and furthermore they have their hands full as it is.

So thanks again for the help. Hopefully my comments aren't too dumb or way out there!

Cheers!

EDIT: One thing I forgot to mention again, is Hammer the right way to go for High Lvl PVP or is it better to choose an AXE Warrior for example? Or is it really just personal preference?? Just curious your thoughts while it was in my mind.

Aussie AJMW · Apr 30, 2006, 09:10 AM // 09:10

well i really cbf reading that all so im just gonna say if ur going hammer warrior i suggest monk so u can use purge conditions and smite hex so u can put more focus into ur attacks and dont have to worry bout shit like SS and blinding

Yukito Kunisaki · Apr 30, 2006, 01:11 PM // 13:11

For maximum efficiency, there's some unfortunate truths to follow that won't let ya work best unless ya have them.

Frenzy + Sprint. With it, you can land 2 clean hits before an enemy gets up. Always good to have. sprint cancels frenzy dmg vaccuum, and let's you chase kiters, bang*

Hammer Bash. Basic, very good to have, let's you work well even if Devastating Hammer gets blocked.

Irresistable, already stated, hot stuff.

Crushing Blow. A warrior without doing deep wound, is a pve warrior... ^_^

Aside from that, I'd suggest going monk with Smite Hex + Holy Strike or Plague Touch. for your secondary class, always bring something to remove hexes/conditions and the res sig is your choice.

about rush: some people don't know about this trick but it's killed many for me in 4v4, 8v8, and even 12v12...

To the Limit costs energy, which kind of undermines the idea behind rush. There's another way to build adrenaline without meleeing your foe: bring a wand... Looks silly ya say? True, but wands build 4 hits of adrenaline faster than weapons do now and done properly, if you want, you can make a rush only warrior where he's in rush 100% of the time and forsake the dmg boost ya get from a frenzy. Or play it smarter and keep 4a. always available for frenzy cancelling.

sh4ft3d · Apr 30, 2006, 03:27 PM // 15:27

To the Limit has the benefit of charging ALL your adrenal skills, not just rush, so it helps with the high adrenal cost of Devestating and Backbreaker. (also my personal fav). The downside is the high recharge time. For hammer secondary in high-end PvP, I would definitely go /mo for CoP and Holy Strike, which gets the bonus from kd.