scerevisiae.1972

So why did you guys go ahead and make one? Hammer is 6 / 20 ranged skills, 14 / 20 melee skills. It's a melee weapon. Please, lean into the 600 range aspect to make something new. eg: all the #5 skills as 600 range, the earth/water #1s as 600 range, the water #2 as a 600 range cone AOE. I really want a new ranged weapon to play in WVW that I haven't already been playing already for ***9 years*** Please fix this ridiculous situation.

Hammer is benching 50K+ vs golem, yet completely sucks in WVW. The spheres are the obvious place for nerfs.

yeah i know, but arguably that's what's needed to bring them into line.

Nope, close to zero. I know hammer is benchmarking well but I can say with some authority that hammer is grbage tier in WVW for GVG/zerg play. Small radius, short range AOEs and close to useless melee skills because trash mobility (unlike e.g. spellbreaker) makes hammer unuseable as a DPS spec. For WVW I think hammer needs at least: to lose the #3 skills, replace with mobility or ranged skills make all the #5 skills 600 range ranged autoattack on water/earth These changes would also bring the OP PVE damage down. A weapon that massively overperforms vs stationary golems and massively underperforms everywhere else in the game is prima facie a badly-designed weapon.

well, from a game design POV there's no real reason for it to exist now. Currently it's only purpose is to prevent you from being able to drop multiple fields in quick succession, but this could be easily solved with a CD on the F5. Theoretically it prevents you from being able to drop a field at the beginning of a fight but in practise players can easily get around this by pre-farming energy, so it doesn't really count. So it's really somewhere between redundant and annoying, and given the kitten UI for it - it should just be nuked from orbit. A CD on the F5 is arguably a better thing to have as it's functionally independent of the number of things being hit so it's easier to balance around - consider: hectic raid battle where energy is infinite vs 1v1 where energy is very limited. A CD on the F5 normalises these 2 extremes.

I'm doubtful 600 range caster can really work but it would at least be a good start to make the #5s and water/earth autoattacks 600 range. Kinda feels like there was a missed opportunity with catalyst hammer to have a lot of the kit based around 600 range cone AOEs. The absolte last thing Ele needed was another melee weapon. As it is, current hammer is literally the worst possible outcome - weird melee/600 range split, terrible in WVW but good on stationary golems so they prob won't bother changing it. I'm so angry and disappointed I've lost my will to play.

PVE numbers vs a stationary golem (or boss that plays like one) are meaningless. In the majority of the game, where mobility and range matter, hammer sucks hard. I played WVW with hammer for 4hr in full marauders with a damage-oritented build and full legendaries and trust me it sucked. I couldn't get much more than ~65% of other DPS classes, which also brought way more group utility. But hey it was good on the tower lord... Seriously hammer is utter trash in WVW, which is pretty much the only game mode I care about. I really don't want to be stuck playing staff in WVW, it's already been 9 years. I REALLY REALLY REALLY want hammer to be viable in WVW.

the playstyle is nearly identical to sword/focus weaver, which has nearly the exact same melee/ranged split. that's one of the biggest gripes people are having - there's no niche, it's sword/? all over again.

Catalyst hammer is easily my least favourite (and IMO the worst-designed) weapon in the game with its absurd and ultra-clunky mix of 2 short-ranged elements and 2 melee elements. Literally noone wanted yet another melee weapon for Ele but somehow that's what was decided. Tempest and weaver hugely changed the way Ele plays but with hammer being DOA for WVW, Catalyst is just core Ele with a field. Then there are the budget copy/paste gen3 legendary weapons. So yeah, pretty disappointed with EOD as a whole. Seriously considering requesting a refund and moving onto a new MMO.

I'm still super disappointed the gen3's aren't unique and "legendary" like the gen1/gen2s. They're just a fraction above gem store skins and IMO that sucks. Definitely not legendary-worthy. I'd rather have zero gen3s on EOD launch and get a "real" set of truly unique and varied gen3s some time down the track.

Overall I like it. Major issues: dagger is kinda weak - dagger #3 moves WAY too slowly and dagger #2 is just a bad/unreliable skill shouldn't sword/greatsword skills count as blade skills? currently you're forced to use dagger if you want to run condi Other issues: power damage on Rain of Swords and Sword of Decimation feels too low power damage on F4 Bladeturn Requiem feels unreasonably low F3 shatter Bladesong Dissonance should be instant - assuming interrupts are the point of this skill Elite Thousand Cuts is way too narrow, seems to miss even when it's lined up perfectly Don't like having 2 conditional aspects of Twin Blade Restoration - the condi removal should be reliable and then the boos application be conditional

So hammer is OP vs stationary PVE targets and super weak in WVW and/or any other fighting situation where mobility and range matter. Surely that means we can lose the #3 skills and replace with more mobility and ranged skills? I think the #3 skills are a stupid gimmick anyway. Cause PVP/WVW is all I play and I really kittening hate hammer, the crap range and excessive emphasis on melee skills make it total garbage. Making the #5 skills ranged and/or cone AOEs and adding ranged autoattacks in earth /water would make a huge difference to WVW without affecting PVE, but even then I predict it would still be weak. I still can't understand for the life of me how anyone thought Ele needed another melee weapon.

The performance of hammer in WVW is really really bad, which means we're all still stuck with staff (after 9years...). I really think all the #5 skills should be 600 range, and earth #1/water #1 should be 600 range as well. e.g. The Earth/Water #5s could be 600 range cone AOEs instead of yet more melee. Fire #2 should pierce and the cone wider, seems to miss a lot. The AOE circle(s) of Fire #4 should be larger, often hits fewer targets than expected and kinda bad dmg for its CD as well. The AOE of Air #2 should be 240. Air #4 is annoying unreliable. Sometimes propels backwards, sometimes not, it sucks. I hate the #3 skills. They don't last long enough and feel very unimpactful. In summary I hate the mixed melee/600 range, especially that there's no ranged in water/earth. Sucks balls. Also with 14/20 melee and 6/20 ranged the balance of skills is way too much on the melee side.

Agree the duelling capabilities of hammer cata or the golem benchmarks of hammer are not that bad, but that's not the problem many are describing. It's the overall feel of the weapon - mixed melee/600 range feels like crap to play and severely limits where the weapon can be used to golems, stationary raid bosses and lol-sPVP circles. Everywhere else (most of the game) it's pure crap, e.g. the WVW performance of hammer is total garbge - short range, small AOEs, heavy projectile reliance. That's why it's trash.

just add a 5sec CD to the F5, done even if no CD, is it really a big deal that you could potentially have 3 fields up at once? 1.5sec attunement CD prevents you having 4 up, not to mention putting 3 fields down is pretty well balanced by the resource of putting 2-3 attunements on CD requiring energy just adds clunk and tedium, pls anet just replace with a CD

Yeah ^this, though i think sword weaver kicks the kitten out of hammer catalyst in PVE. Hammer is true garbage in WVW. Stupid videos vs golems or stationary fractal bosses are totally totally worthless. Even if they tweak hammer's dmg coefficients to sky high, it would still suck because it's too close to sword/dagger and feels like crap to play in WVW/PVP because of the awkward melee-600 range split. 600 range caster is a potentially interesting space but - and there's no way to window dress it -- Anet in my view have completely failed to deliver on that brief. It really sucks that bad.

IMO just remove the #3 skills completely and replace with new skills that address hammer shortcomings -- crap damage vs anything not a stationary golem, crap AOE, crap range, crap mobility, weak sustain. Maybe move the orbs to an automatic on-attunement effect - attune to fire, get the fire orb. Though I'd prefer just remove them and focus on delivering a real 600-range caster, not a worse version of sword/dagger.

Well you only remain stationary if you are exactly 600 from target anyway, so with either implementation, you are always going to be 600 range from the KD target, so it's basically the same. But really I don't care which one it is as long as it is deterministic/reliable, ie: always propel backwards or always stay stationary. Either way I think it's not a great skill while hammer is lacking in so many other aspects.

personally i think the F5 would be better if it wasn't targeted, just casted at your location.

Hammer is fine versus stationary targets. In the actual real game though it sucks hard because of limited range, small AOEs and low dmg coefficients. > Drop the 600/120 range disparity: make everything melee Hard disagree, we already have sword/dagger. I think majority of skills should be 600 range and 1-2x 900 or 1200 range. All the #5 skills should be 600 range, water #1/earth #1 should be 600 range, earth #2 should come with superspeed or 50% movement while channelling, all the fire AOEs should be 240 radius, especially fire #4. fire #2 should pierce.

heh funny i was going to repost my original survey again today but i see someone has already done it 🙂 I think the 2 big issues are: energy is a pointless/clunky/annoying mechanic, it's super dumb to have to farm energy before any encounter hammer is REALLY FREAKIN bad vs anything not stationary cause of bad range, bad mobility, small AOE radii, pointless hammer #3 skills I zerged with marauder hammer for 4hrs the other day and I knew it wouldn't be great but I was shocked at just how bad it is. Would be good to have a survey that broke hammer down into finer detail so anet get the right picture. Overall IMO it's still _bad_ and feels way too much like core Ele. Hammer is garbage in its current 70/30 melee/600-range split.

or better yet, just remove thie energy mechanic completely. serves no useful purpose. so what if you can drop a field at the start of a fight honestly. I think it's kinda ridiculous that you have to farm energy on neutral mobs before going out to fight in wvw. in the case of necro in PVP it's more of a balance issue but for catalyst, it's just a field, so what if you can drop the field at the beginning of the fight.

Hammer fire #2 doesn't hit targets that are right in front of me. Many times in WVW zerg-v-zerg, I would use fire #2 with no visible proj hate present and the skills does not, just whiffs Hammer air #4 is frustratingly inconsistent. Sometimes it propels backwards, sometimes not, depends on the dice roll of whether your opponent falls in the extremely difficult-to-judge 600 +/- x window. Super annoying skill. I want determinism as a minimum but what I REALLY want is Air #4 to propel me FORWARDS - I don't care if I have to lose the knockdown aspect - hammer desperately needs the mobility. Hammer #3s in general feel like useless skills but the bug aspect is that the "finale" skill often doesn't go off, even when I appear to have orbs present and the skill appears ready to use. Just fails to cast.

Spent 4hr in WVW zerging with hammer yesterday, even in full marauder gear, the damage was pathetic, I couldn't get higher than ~65% of the numbers achieved by "regular" DPS classes, despite high APM and good skill usage and damage-oritented build. Lack of range in general is a HUGE limitation but the AOE skills are all also only 180 radius. Compare this to revenant hammer #3 Phase Smash -- 1200 range and 240 AOE, hits like a truck AND chills AND blast finisher AND evade all damage. Fire #2 doesn't do any damage even when targets are right in front of you. Just whiffs. The hammer #3 skills are garbage. Do no damage, weak effect, even instant cast they are not worth the action cost of casting, I gave up trying to bother. Fire #4 skill damage feels really low considering its CD. Water and Earth REALLY NEED ranged attacks too. Many times I was forced into these attunements to drop fields and then had to just stand there. All the #5 skills feel like they want to be 600 range - they are so slow to cast and frequently miss because of this. Conclusion: hammer is absolute trash. Needs ranged buffs, damage buffs, more mobility or evades, skill reworks across the board. If I don't play hammer then it feels like playing core ele all over again, which after 9yr, sucks hard. I tried really hard to like it, make it work but there's no way around it, catalyst sucks HARD.

Not reflect, only block FWIW