Curse

Arkantos · Aug 14, 2006, 11:07 AM // 11:07

I've decided to start playing around with hammers, the only warrior wep I'm not expirienced with. Please tell me what you think

Attributes

Hammer Mastery 12 + 1 + 3
Strength 9 + 1
Tactics 9 + 1

Weapons

Slot #1
Vampiric 15^50 Hammer of Fortitude/Defence

Slot #2
Ebon/Fiery/Shocking/Icy 15^50 Hammer of Fortitude/Defence

Armor

Full glads with stoneskin gauntlets

Skills

Frenzy
Sprint
Devastating Hammer {E}
Fierce Blow
Irresistable Blow
Crushing Blow
Healing Signet
Ressurection Signet [Optional For AB]

Tactics

Gain adrenaline with frenzy, using Irresistable Blow when possible. When you gain enough adrenaline, use Devastating Hammer > Crushing Blow > Fierce Blow > Irresistable Blow. Heal when needed.

Thats my build, I mainly use it for RA/AB.

JR · Aug 14, 2006, 11:19 AM // 11:19

Crushing Blow will give you a far better damage spike than Aftershock, and doesn't require the spec into Earth Magic. Dev -> Crushing -> Fierce. Deep Wound is key. Aside from that, it looks solid.

Arkantos · Aug 14, 2006, 11:21 AM // 11:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by JR-

Crushing Blow will give you a far better damage spike than Aftershock, and doesn't require the spec into Earth Magic. Dev -> Crushing -> Fierce. Deep Wound is key. Aside from that, it looks solid.

Thats what I though

What if I took out fierce and put in crushing, so It'll be Dev > After > Crush? Will they be knocked down long enough?

hyper · Aug 14, 2006, 11:23 AM // 11:23

drop aftershock for crushing and youve got a good build. Maybe fierce blow for hammer bash if you have trouble killing monks.

one alternative i like is running death's charge on a W/A and d-charging to a monk and unloading a hammer combo. it's fun because monks never see it coming and usually die by the end of the combo, especially if i'm running dev hammer/backbreaker and hammer bash.

i would also take vampiric instead of zealous, i run this hammer build frequently and i almost always have 5-10 energy avaiable for a chain unless you're IB spamming every time it's up, which i personally never do while just building.

Vindexus · Aug 14, 2006, 11:25 AM // 11:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arkantos

Thats what I though

What if I took out fierce and put in crushing, so It'll be Dev > After > Crush? Will they be knocked down long enough?

That won't work but you can however do Dev > Crushing > Aftershock. Aftershock has a 1.75s aftercast so they would be knocked down by Dev for 2s then by the time you used Crushing it would be too late to trigger the Deep Wound.

Also you can try switching out Sprint for Rush to help with Energy.

Wasteland Squidget · Aug 14, 2006, 11:25 AM // 11:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arkantos

Thats what I though

What if I took out fierce and put in crushing, so It'll be Dev > After > Crush? Will they be knocked down long enough?

No. The thing to remember is that Aftershock has a 1.75s aftercast, so you're standing around doing nothing after you use it. This makes it kind of useless in a chain, since you usually want to follow up with some other attack.

Even ignoring that, the timing just doesn't work out. Maybe you could get Backbreaker > Crushing > Aftershock, but that's assuming you have 20 energy when your combo starts (5 for Frenzy, 5 for Crushing, 10 for AS.)

Ultimately, KD/AS is just not a particularly strong combo.

JR · Aug 14, 2006, 11:28 AM // 11:28

Trying to justify Aftershock really is a bit pointless, there are far better skills to take on a Hammer Warriors bar.

Jade Zephyr · Aug 14, 2006, 11:40 AM // 11:40

I sometimes run Devasting Hammer ---> Aftershock ---> Heavy Blow ---> Crushing Blow... works pretty nice

Arkantos · Aug 14, 2006, 11:43 AM // 11:43

Alright, I used the suggestions and found it to be better then KD/AS. Updated the build

Thanks for the input.

Orange Milk · Aug 14, 2006, 01:09 PM // 13:09

HOORAY!!!

Now some one needs to make this into a usefull PvE Build so I can sell Godly Hammers to someone other than the Merchant.

Orange Milk: WTS GOLD MAX VAMP 15^50 HAMMER REQ 10, 5k WTS
Everyone: No one uses hammers go merch it and stay of the trade chat Douche Bag

Good Times, Good Times

Arkantos · Aug 14, 2006, 01:14 PM // 13:14

I still prefer axe and sword for pvp

Dzan · Aug 14, 2006, 09:37 PM // 21:37

I would switch Irres out for Shock. Having a second knock down will be very valuable to you, and if you're playing right you wont really have the energy to spam Irres effectively anyway.

As far as Rush goes, it depends. In GVG I definitely prefer Rush, but in TA and HA I prefer Sprint.

JR · Aug 14, 2006, 11:39 PM // 23:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dzan

I would switch Irres out for Shock. Having a second knock down will be very valuable to you, and if you're playing right you wont really have the energy to spam Irres effectively anyway.

As far as Rush goes, it depends. In GVG I definitely prefer Rush, but in TA and HA I prefer Sprint.

I think the energy problem would be magnified, not solved, by the replacing of Irresistible for Shock. True enough you wouldn't be spamming Shock as you would Irresistible, but the exhaustion is a killer.

Dzan · Aug 14, 2006, 11:58 PM // 23:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by JR-

I think the energy problem would be magnified, not solved, by the replacing of Irresistible for Shock. True enough you wouldn't be spamming Shock as you would Irresistible, but the exhaustion is a killer.

Well, in hero's ascent you need the shock on a warrior for a variety of reasons and it's more or less a must there.

In other venues you could use Hammer Bash, though, I think the on-demand-knockdown nature of Shock adds a utility that is something to consider when choosing regardless of venue.

Narutoscryed · Aug 15, 2006, 12:02 AM // 00:02

Quote:

think the energy problem would be magnified, not solved, by the replacing of Irresistible for Shock. True enough you wouldn't be spamming Shock as you would Irresistible, but the exhaustion is a killer.

shock is not a spamable spell.. if you use shock enough to feel the exaustion then you are playing the build wrong.

Shock is a once or twice a match item.. mostly for interupting a monks last gasp attempt at healing.. get good enough and you can predict the reversal of fortune and intterupt that lil devil.. they then accept death.

you can also use it to delay the rez sig of a soft opponent IE: mesmer teamate after the monk drops.. then you can get 2 easy kills and the leftover 2 people are left to try to rez the 2 down teamates.

and most the time the 2 leftovers both franticly target the monk to rez him.. cause your spiker is messing there asses up and they need a heal.

so ya shock is great and very efficient.. but just like anything if the new players play it wrong.. they come here and bitch about it

JR · Aug 15, 2006, 12:27 AM // 00:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by Narutoscryed

Shock is a once or twice a match item.. mostly for interupting a monks last gasp attempt at healing.. get good enough and you can predict the reversal of fortune and intterupt that lil devil.. they then accept death.

I assume you are talking about TA/RA, in that case I would tend to agree. The shorter matches make the pain of using Shock far more bearable, and the on demand knockdown is of course great.

In a GvG situation though you are going to have far longer drawn out matches. In situations like this there are skills that you could be using far more often than Shock, as such they outweigh it in efficiency when it is clogging up a slot on your skill bar.

Red Locust · Aug 15, 2006, 01:53 AM // 01:53

Never have a hammer warrior without bull's strike and rush. Hammer critical hits are too juicy, and bull's strike to kick off a spike is even juicier.

yesitsrob · Aug 15, 2006, 08:17 AM // 08:17

i'd drop irrisistable for either bull's strike or protector's strike. you already have Fierce for the knockdown chain so it's not like you need irristable for spiking, and personally, I think that bull's and protector's make for better spammable skills in the situation of where you really want to build adrenaline for your knockdown chain. Bull's is great since you'll gain a good few strikes of adrenaline from a foe who can't kite and prot's strike is really nice on a 3 second recharge and the damage both of them do is extremely good too.

As far as opening a spike with bull's strike goes I guess it depends, if you're attacking the monk, against a solo monk team I think it's probably better since he's down for longer. Against 2, it's less of a spike since the fierce blow damage won't come after your crushing blow (that is if you use crushing after the bulls strike).

I guess you could do a Bull's Strike > Normal Hit > Normal Hit > Dev > Crushing > Fierce which would only leave a small window for healing, and probably not enough

As far as spiking with bulls as an opener, I think that really shines with Forceful Blow. Bull's > Crushing > Forceful > Heavy Blow or something.... the forceful after crushing makes for a huge spike

. Plus it's really cheap on adrenaline

Elrodien · Aug 15, 2006, 08:50 AM // 08:50

What are the best mods on a Hammer (for PvP and I guess for GvG and/or HA)? Life Stealing with health +30?

yesitsrob · Aug 15, 2006, 08:56 AM // 08:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by Elrodien

What are the best mods on a Hammer (for PvP and I guess for GvG and/or HA)? Life Stealing with health +30?

pretty much, yes.

take elemental backup, no point in zealous on hammer imo