Curse

Evisicator · Jun 21, 2005, 07:51 PM // 19:51

Well I am looking for a good hammer build.

I have all elites for warrior, and I play PvE with my warrior. I'm a W/Mo and I just converted from Sword to Hammers.

My Current Set-up is:

Hammer: 12
Strength: 14
Smiting: 3

I am Using a Max Dmg Heavy Giantslayers Hammer of Fortitude (Increases Weakness Duration) and I am wearing Stonefist gloves (Increases KD duration) or maybe its the other way around no matter I have both those abilities.

I am willing to Change out Skill sets and Attr but I want a fun warrior to play.

your Skill sets Attr displacement and tactics would be much appretiated.

Epinephrine · Jun 21, 2005, 08:19 PM // 20:19

To be honest, Hammer warriors are neither of the things you want to be.

To tank takes armour, and the hammer warrior gives up 16 AL by not having a shield, this will affect how tankable they are.

To deal "awesome damage" the axe is a better weapon, having a faster swing rate results in a greater effect from most buffs, faster charging of adrenaline and the axe skills have more damage bonuses than the hammer ones.

A hammer is the most disruptive weapon, and is a great weapon vs a big powerful foe; chaining knockdowns result in you dealing damage while he's standing up, sitting down, then standing up, then sitting down again, then standing up again...

Can you tank? Sure, the belly smash helps with this vs melee mobs; blind them and you are laughing; Vs a big enemy, hammer deals weakness, so you can laugh at the half damage coming in. I wouldn't say they are the "ultimate tank", nor the best crowd control (sword and axe get decent attacks vs a group, the hammer has an interruptable swing), but they excel at one on one.

Reiden Argrock · Jun 21, 2005, 09:11 PM // 21:11

My friend plays a hammer warrior, and owns quite a lot of peeps

would help if I knew what your attributes were base though. and I'm wondering exactly what you plan to do wtih 3 smite?

Evisicator · Jun 21, 2005, 10:41 PM // 22:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reiden Argrock

My friend plays a hammer warrior, and owns quite a lot of peeps

would help if I knew what your attributes were base though. and I'm wondering exactly what you plan to do wtih 3 smite?

My attr are listed

and 3 smite is cuz I have 6 points left over

Epinephrine · Jun 22, 2005, 02:28 PM // 14:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reiden Argrock

My friend plays a hammer warrior, and owns quite a lot of peeps

would help if I knew what your attributes were base though. and I'm wondering exactly what you plan to do wtih 3 smite?

I didn't say they can't "own peeps" - he said he plays PvE with his warrior. I would take a hammer in PvP quite readily, as it can keep a single powerful foe occupied and dying very well, and it is great vs big enemies in PvE, but it is lacking in the area effect and armour departments, which makes it a bit more limiting in PvE for tanking/mass damage dealing - not saying it isn't possible, just that axes deal more damage and tank better (excepting tanking due to blinding the opponents with belly smash), build adrenaline faster and benefit more from buffs due to the faster attack rate.

Gods Punishment · Jun 22, 2005, 02:41 PM // 14:41

I play also a hammer warrior, but i havent got all elite skills atm.

The only one i got is Earth Shaker and i also use it. Im Warrior/Mesmer (female, Kight armor, all purple, Murrsat hammer look pretty cool

) the skills i use are:

1. Berserks stance
2. Flurry
3. Crushing Blow
4. Earth Shaker [E]
5. Mighty Blow
6. Irresistable Blow (Same dmg as Mighty Blow and you dont need ad

)
7. Skill signet (normally counter blow)
8. Rez signet

Well my taktic is easy:
Get ad very fast with Berserks stance at the start. Then wait as long as I cant use Mighty Blow. If it is up, I use it. After that, Irresistable Blow then I need maybe 2 more Hits (if its more I use flurry) then I can use Earth Shaker. If its up I look for a lot of enemys (I dont have to but it is the best way to use it). And finish with Crushing Blow on the traget I have used ES. If the fight isnt over now I can get ad with flurry... In speacial situations i use Irresistable blow faster because of block etc.

In wich way play other Hammer Warrior (in PvE)?

Dreamsmith · Jun 22, 2005, 04:53 PM // 16:53

A point to ponder: no one gets as much benefit from Judge's Insight as a hammer warrior. It might even be worth sacrificing a few points in Strength to get more points in Smiting Prayers, both to extend the duration of JI and to take advantage of some other smiting skills. As I recall, there are a few smiting skills that combo well with knockdown skills (not to mention more knockdown skills, if you really want to make a "kick a guy while he's down" build).

Darkest Dawn · Jun 22, 2005, 05:04 PM // 17:04

Hammers for: Elementals, Giants, Scorpion type critters, and PvP

Ax or sword for: the rest of PvE

IMHO

Epinephrine · Jun 22, 2005, 05:32 PM // 17:32

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dreamsmith

A point to ponder: no one gets as much benefit from Judge's Insight as a hammer warrior.

No, all weapons get the same benefit from JI. It gives 20% armour penetration and converts damage to holy damage, that multiplies your DPS by 1.23 vs armour 60 and by 1.866 vs a warrior in 80+20 armour. Since a hammer doesn't have the highest DPS once skills come into the picture the hammer doesn't benefit the most. "Benefit the most" is tricky to define I guess; each weapon gets the same percentage increase in DPS, so it's no better that way - the amount of damage per swing is increased by more as a flat number, but it swings slower. The base DPS swinging is the highest of the weapons, so it does benefit the most without skills being used, but since most warrioirs use skills to bump up damage and the hammer has a paucity of such skills compared, for example, to the axe line, the axe's dps will on average be higher, thus it gets more of an increase in terms of damage output.

Neo-LD · Jun 22, 2005, 06:27 PM // 18:27

He didnt mean that JI magically gets better if you are using a hammer. What he meant was that 20% armor penetration doest a lot more for a hammer per strike than for a sword or axe because hammers do so much more per strike. That is why JI is supposedly better for a hammer war. However, his logic is somewhat faulty in the fact that hammers attack the slowest, so meaning that the 20% armor penetration is applied less often than with an axe or sword. So in that sense, hammer wars actually recieve the least benifit from JI. The truth is somewhere in the middle, with all types of warriors gaining relatively equal benifit from JI.

As for a good hammer build, I always thought that Backbreaker was hands down his most powerful option. It knocks down for 4 seconds, which is pretty sweet. However, one move wonders dont usually win. The other option is to set up a hammer combo, like Devastating Hammer-> Crushing Blow-> Heavy Blow-> Belly Smash, resulting in plenty of extra damage, 2 knockdowns, weakness, and a deep wound. Add some other fun toys like Bulls Strike and Sprint, and then some secondary profession skills (example from monk) like a Res, and your set to go kick some butt.

Epinephrine · Jun 22, 2005, 07:00 PM // 19:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by Neo-LD

He didnt mean that JI magically gets better if you are using a hammer. What he meant was that 20% armor penetration doest a lot more for a hammer per strike than for a sword or axe because hammers do so much more per strike.

Are you explaining this for my benefit? I pretty much explained all of that.

As for the chaining of attacks, yes, that's why hammer is great for 1 on 1 fighting - you can disrupt and deal damage, and they excel at taking out big opponents/players. But if we read what he wants to achieve, which is awesome damage+tanking in PvE, you have to admit that a shield will reduce damage coming in by ~24% (i.e. a hammer warrior takes 32% MORE damage than an axe/shield warrior for example) and that Axe has better damage over time as well as better area attacks.

That's why I am suggesting you look at axes - if you truly want to play a tanking damage dealer in PvE, axe is better at it than a hammer is. If you want to have a fun build that is amazingly effective 1 on 1, hammer is great.

Edit: NVM, I see that the OP has edited his post to take out his stated desire of being a good tank with "awesome damage". If you are less concerned with damage output and tanking hammer is great fun.

Scrox · Jun 22, 2005, 07:10 PM // 19:10

This is my hammer build. I only use hammer for pvp though. It needs improovement and runes etc attached.

Strength: 10
Hammer: 11
Tactics 10

Skills:-
Dwarven Battle Stance
Thrill of Victory
Counter Blow
Crushing Blow
Belly Smash
Staggering Blow
Heavy Blow
Mighty Blow

You can replace dwarven for devstating allowing you to get rid of counter blow and staggering blow. But With this build I use as a big combo. Dwarven forst to interupt for 7 seconds. This builds up your adreneline. If against someone who is attacking you go counter blow to crushing blow to staggering blow to mighty blow to heavy blow to belly smash to thrill of victory. Works very well if they're attackign if not you have to wait for staggering to charge and use only crushing not belly smash.

Evisicator · Jun 22, 2005, 10:42 PM // 22:42

Well keep the info coming, but seriously I don't care about axes. I "was" a sword warrior and am bored of that one handed line. Also I "do not" pvp with my warrior I "only" pve so I don't care what the uses of pvp and hammers are I already know this. I am playing my warrior for fun cuz playing a monk all the time gets boring.

With that said I find that Devastating Hammer is an awesome skill I have yet to go get belly smash ya I'm being lazy but that is a combo I am looking at with Devastating hammer gotta love KD and Weakness in one skill.

Prince Daniel · Jun 23, 2005, 02:42 PM // 14:42

im a hammer warrior and i think that for a w/mo this would be a good setup

1.ress signet
2.endure pain
3.backbreaker
4.crushing blow
5.belly smash
6.mending
7.heal party
8.resserect

the endure pain and mending keep your health up making you able to tank effectively, heal party and resserect for your team and when monks cant res. res signet a quick way of getting a teammate back with 100% health, backbreaker gets them down for four seconds, belly smash and crushing blow can then be used for a great combo once youve used backbreaker.

Epinephrine · Jun 23, 2005, 02:52 PM // 14:52

A nice skill for a tanking warrior is Shield of Judgment. It combos especially well with skills that benefit from people being knocked down.