How to efficiently play rev hammer frontline in wvw?

any tips for newbies playing as this role? what stance should i be on situations, what skills are a must use,etc

Depends on your role. What you trying to do?

My advice is old, but here is what I did back in the day.

Legends you want are Shiro and Glint. Glint is self-explanatory. But, Shiro... he's good for two things: chasing enemies, and running away. Phase Traversal is excellent for catching stragglers as they try to run off. But mostly, you'll want it for Riposting Shadows. This skill breaks stuns, cures conditions, and sends you flying backwards. This makes it a must for zerg play, so you can quickly retreat if the enemy gets aggressive. Jade Winds and Impossible odds have their niche uses, too.

Jalis has some uses, too. Mostly in condi metas, but also because retaliation is OP in WvW. Combine the Retribution line's retaliation traits with jalis, and you can get long-duration uptime on the boon. This will have to be a server call, depending on what other players having during that time.

Now, personally, my gear is just my PVE gear port over. But it works fairly well. You'll want either full Marauder, or Berserker + Marauder mix.

For specializations, I use the following:

Herald: This one is pretty obvious. The AoE boons are so good that, if you aren't running Herald, then you might as well be on a different class. For a zerg, you'll want Elder's Respite, Shared Empowerment, and Draconic Echo. If you're not in a zerg, then change the traits as you see fit. The other specializations are debated among the players, but Herald is the one that almost everybody agrees on.

Invocation: In my opinion, this is the other necessary line. Invocation has both offensive and defensive skills, and it makes Legend Swapping a utility in itself. You'll definitely want to take Cleansing Channel and Rolling Mist. The major master tier is... more debatable. If you're front-lining then you'll want Incensed Response, since you won't be swapping legends as fast as if you were dueling.

Retribution: This line is also really good, in that it has both offensive and defensive abilities. Planar Protection is a life saver. For the other traits in the line, there's no clear cut winner. Personally, I take Retaliatory Evasion with Vicious Reprisal. With the Defense Against Guards WvW ability maxed out, you'll get 15 seconds of retaliation every time a guard nicks you, and retaliation now powers you up greatly. However, there is a great argument to be made for Eye For an Eye + Versed in Stone. Those traits let you survive some pretty strong bursts.

Rune and Sigil choices... that'll be left to other people. Since I just run my PVE set, I have a bunch of DPS sigils and runes.

Pretty sure the whole point of playing Rev frontline in zergs these days is to share Rite of The Great Dwarf... It used to be that you were the resistance-bot for the frontlines, but boons are unreliable af in the current state of the game, and RotGD is incorruptible/unstrippable, so it's actually a somewhat sought after effect.

Granted playing Jalis feels terrible, and you'll feel like a sitting duck without Shiro/Glint, but such is the life of the frontlines. If you wanna play Shiro Hammer, you'll probably have more fun, but you should stay in the mid/back lines where it's safer, as you contribute nothing meaningful by being up front in the fight.

Here's a pretty detailed build (with gameplay vids) for it though if you want it to be your thing:http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Herald_-_Frontline_Sustain

@"narcx.3570" said:Pretty sure the whole point of playing Rev frontline in zergs these days is to share Rite of The Great Dwarf... It used to be that you were the resistance-bot for the frontlines, but boons are unreliable af in the current state of the game, and RotGD is incorruptible/unstrippable, so it's actually a somewhat sought after effect.

Granted playing Jalis feels terrible, and you'll feel like a sitting duck without Shiro/Glint, but such is the life of the frontlines. If you wanna play Shiro Hammer, you'll probably have more fun, but you should stay in the mid/back lines where it's safer, as you contribute nothing meaningful by being up front in the fight.

Here's a pretty detailed build (with gameplay vids) for it though if you want it to be your thing:http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Herald_-_Frontline_Sustain

What is a good Rune to use if you can't get the Superior Rune of Durability for this build?

@Excursion.9752 said:

@"narcx.3570" said:Pretty sure the whole point of playing Rev frontline in zergs these days is to share Rite of The Great Dwarf... It used to be that you were the resistance-bot for the frontlines, but boons are unreliable af in the current state of the game, and RotGD is incorruptible/unstrippable, so it's actually a somewhat sought after effect.

Granted playing Jalis feels terrible, and you'll feel like a sitting duck without Shiro/Glint, but such is the life of the frontlines. If you wanna play Shiro Hammer, you'll probably have more fun, but you should stay in the mid/back lines where it's safer, as you contribute nothing meaningful by being up front in the fight.

Here's a pretty detailed build (with gameplay vids) for it though if you want it to be your thing:

http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Herald_-_Frontline_Sustain

What is a good Rune to use if you can't get the Superior Rune of Durability for this build?

There's not a real replacement for Durability because of its pretty broken stat weighting coupled with boon duration...

You could maybe just run some budget Scrapper runes or something until you get your Durability's. Or if you want the duration, you could run Pack and rock a few +toughness exotics to compensate as a quick temporary solution.