Some Hammer Warrior help :)

Well I've been running an axe warrior as of late and have been having a lot of fun and I'd like to try hammer. I'm an experienced player and all my skills will be bought out of faction. I was running...

16 hammer mastery
9+1 strength
10 earth magic

I'm not sure what a good secondary to this is. W/E's aftershock isn't as great as it sounds. The dmg is reduced to around like 50 total.

Backbreaker
crushing blow
staggering blow
mighty blow
aftershock
irresistible blow
sprint
frenzy

I forget how exactly i put a rez sig in there but it was there lol. I liked backbreaker when i bought it but it just takes f o r e v e r to charge up the adrenaline to use it. And even after that im not sure if I will kill my target. Plus the energy cost on this is pretty bad... I'm not sure if a zealous hilt would help since the hammers speed is pretty slow. Basically I was using backbreaker, then staggering blow and aftershock. I'd follow it up with might blow and then crushing and irresistible to try and finish them off all under frenzy. I've been interested in hammer warriors but I'm not sure how to run them effectively.
Any tips or suggestions would be appreciated.

By the looks of it, you're more focused on just doing damage rather than pure KD. You could probably ditch aftershock for "For Great Justice!" If you want to spam some more damage. The build itself is pretty solid, just make sure you have a good monk since any hex/conditioning will severely cripple this build, but it does to most others too so nothing wrong. You can probably afford to take out Crushing blow or Irrisitable blow to take a res signet, or place in something such as bulls strike (Sprint is a stance, so if you use it, you'll be attacking as slow as heck without frenzy. The only alternation is a snare, which hammers don't have too much of. Unless you use something like... iron mist + lightning hammer)

well, i love playing kd/as myself, i wouldnt sugjest having 16 hammer, just for hp reasons, after working it around a bit i have my attributes at hammer 14 str 9 earth 9, which i think keeps it pretty balanced, but thats only me. For an elite, i think the best one is Earthshaker, it takes 10 adrenaline (same amount for backbreaker), backbreaker effects 1 target, earthshaker effects all surrounding enemies with basicaly the same effect (just no extra dmg). For tombs, i usually use: Ward Against Foes, Frenzy, Mighty Blow, Crushing Blow, Aftershock, Irresistible Blow, Earthshaker, and Rez Sig.

12+1+3 Hammer
12+1 Strength

Stonefists

Devastating Hammer [E]
Crushing Blow
Hammer Bash
Irresistable Blow
Frenzy
Sprint
Something
Res Sig

Frenzy->Devastating->Attack->Crushing->Hammer Bash->Attack->Sprint->Repeat. Should kill an unprotected caster or be damned close to it.

KD/AS is good in theory but blows in actual use. You burn 10 energy and a bunch of attributes to do about what just hitting spacebar does for free. No thanks.

12 + 1 + 3 hammer
8 strength
10 earth magic

devastating hammer [e]
crushing blow
heavy blow
aftershock
bull's strike
sprint
frenzy
rez sig

this is my build, worked quite well in team arena with my guildies

Thanks for the info guys ill think about them

Quote: Originally Posted by Bast

The build I posted was intended as a rough and extendable build for a thumper. Perhaps I should have mentioned that Strength was the place to jack attributes from for something from a secondary. I assumed most people would realize that.

I don't care for KD/AS builds, since there's some real longevity issues with it (energy use) and the extra damage from AS isn't that great anyway. There's a point in the attribute planning for them where it comes down to "Do I want really strong hammer attacks, or a strong spikey Aftershock?" I think a Warrior is better served with sticking with the hammer and using something else from a secondary to either help the team or improve the hammer attacks instead.

In my experience, Aftershock works spectacularly on a hammer warrior. But if you're that unhappy about its energy cost and the armor reduction, you could switch to w/mo and use Holy Strike. Then with points in smiting, you can also throw in Smite Hex, or maybe Judge's Insight if you're into that.

Quote: Originally Posted by entropy I'm not sure what a good secondary to this is. W/E's aftershock isn't as great as it sounds. The dmg is reduced to around like 50 total. Funny, I always seem to be doing 80-160 damage to casters. Perhaps you're targetting warriors?

Oh, and Backbreaker with Stonefist gauntlets will still have a 4 second knockdown, while Devastating Hammer with stonefists will have a 3 sec knockdown. Enough to use Devastating Hammer, Crushing Blow, and Aftershock with it's triggered bonus.

Edit:

Quote: Originally Posted by Bast

And take heavy blow. If you spike right (as in, build up adren then spike another target), I find that you catch most people off-guard and almost always hit devastating hammer. The extra damage is very much worth it.

I had a hammer warrior with Shield of Judgement + holy strike and someone said I was a "knockdown noob".

Heavy Blow is a wasted slot if you whiff Devistating Hammer or weakness is removed. Hammer Bash does basically the same thing unconditionally.

But heavy blow is an extra 32 damage + the strength boost + the possibility of a big critical hit. Weakness will very rarely if ever get removed in time since deep wound covers it and the time between devastating and heavy blows is just over 2 seconds.

About missing, as I said, you should be surprising the target, and the rest of your team should be supporting your warrior.

And even if they do evade devastating, odds are you're gonna miss with hammer bash as well, ruining your spike. The wisest thing would be to switch target / wait for a disenchant and build up your adrenaline for another devastating/heavy hammer spike.

The reward outweighs the risk.

Quote: Originally Posted by Enigmatics Funny, I always seem to be doing 80-160 damage to casters. Perhaps you're targetting warriors?

Oh, and Backbreaker with Stonefist gauntlets will still have a 4 second knockdown, while Devastating Hammer with stonefists will have a 3 sec knockdown. Enough to use Devastating Hammer, Crushing Blow, and Aftershock with it's triggered bonus. False information FTL

Quote: Originally Posted by wheel

Heh

Owned

Knockdown durations >= 3 seconds are not affected by Stonefisters. Backbreaker is 4 sec by default.

Wheel you silly goose! Maybe you just misinterpreted what I said, it's ok though, I forgive you.