scerevisiae.1972

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

I really hate the current version of this skill. It propels you back, except when you are ~600 range from your current target, when it doesn't. Even when it works, this skill is pretty bad TBH, would be much more useful to propel you forwards not back, as hammer has crappy mobility/engage -- your only real gap closer is water #4 but you'd be crazy to be in water attunement and put your water attunment on CD at the start of the fight. The problem with this skill is that it has gotten me killed numerous times because i expected to go backwards on cast but the target came into range at the last moment, or I targeted some other random thing in an attempt to detarget. Notwithstanding all the other bad stuff on hammer (eg: all the #3 skills which look good but are nearly worthless in impact), this skill really needs to be deterministic/reliable.

bumping in the hope that hammer can be made into a real 600-range weapon before Feb. 6 out of 20 skills being ranged means hammer is YAMW: yet another melee weapon

I don't care what the weapon is as long as IT'S NOT ANOTHER MELEE WEAPON. Only 6/20 skills on hammer are ranged: fire 1/2/4, air 1/2/5. Why the living kitten is hammer yet another melee weapon? we already have dagger & sword.

F5 is much improved but energy needs to go. It's pointless and annoying to farm energy on yellow mobs after every respawn. Super annoying and clunky AF. Just get rid of it and re-balance as needed hammer still sucks. Needs more skills to be 600 range, or needs the evades/mobility than dagger/sword have if you want to keep it melee. I hasten to add, literally noone wanted yet another melee weapon -- we already have sword/dagger. all the 5 skills feel like they want to be 600 range, and water/earth 1s should probably also be 600 range, preferably not yet more boring proectiles. augments much improved, I can realistically see myself using the air stunbreak, the heal and the elite the traits are still super boring and don't really change the playstyle. I think it was anothe design mistake to have another aura-based elite spec, seems super lazy.

Agree, hammer is just all wrong. I REALLY HATE that water and earth don't have any ranged attacks. It forces you to go into melee but hammer doesn't have the evades and sustain to melee. At the very least, water 1 and earth 1 should be 600 range to match air/fire I would strongly argue all of the 5 skills should also be 600 range The hammer 3s feel pointless, I don't like them at all. They don't last long enough and don't really do anything useful. The finale skill never seems available when I want to use it. Overall, hammer is just too melee-oriented and the ABSOLUTE LAST thing I want is yet another melee weapon. I think a 600 range *could* maybe work, but hammer does not deliver on this brief. As a WVW player, I'm quite sick of staff being the only real go-to weapon in WVW. After 9 years, I think Anet should have done a LOT better than hammer, and TBH I couldn' really be more disappointed. update 2/11: played hammer for 4hr in WVW 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 is a serious limitation but the AOE skills are all also only 180 radius. conclusion: hammer is total trash.

Energy is just a pointless mechanic and it feelsbadman not to be able to cast a field at all (and benefit from traits) until well into the fight. Makes catalyst still feel clunky. Besides pointless mechanic, the UI for energy also sucks. Please just remove energy completely and re-balance as needed so as to remove the clunkiness. I don't want to have to farm yellow mobs for 2min after every respawn. I'm stil super disappointed that hammer is essentially yet another melee weapon because I can see how a 600-ranged-based character could work, but hammer just doesn't deliver on that brief cause still too many melee skills, it feels weird. But by far the crappest thing on Catalyst now is energy and having to pre-farm energy before any encounter. Quite infuriating.

This. Energy is just a pointless mechanic and it feelsbadman not to be able to cast a field at all (and benefit from traits) until well into the fight. Makes catalyst still feel clunky. Besides pointless mechanic, the UI for energy also sucks Please just remove energy completely and re-balance as needed so as to remove the clunkiness. I dn't want to have to farm yellow mobs for 2min after every respawn.

feel free to make your own spreadsheet where you define your own breakpoints as to what constitues "ranged". I prefer my definition - if a skill can apply its dmg/effect outside of melee range, it's a prima facie ranged attack.

yeah i'm also surprised to see mechanist rate so high. pet classes don't appeal to me at all.

actually i was deleting people left and right in wvw roaming on vindator.... i thought it was really fun and strong. agree the 150 dodge is too expensive for its effect but the other 2 dodges were good. yeah there are some issues but nothing too out of place for a beta.

hard disagree. after 9 years i think most players have at least 1 of each class, or at least experience of several classes. not to mention you don't have to be an expert warrior to have a valid opinion on whether the new warrior spec is good or not.

Overall I liked it. Very unique playstyle and I really like how it still felt "thief-y". but: I think Sceptre is a bit too pigeon-holed into being support weapon. sceptre and well dmg felt very underwhelming when played as a pure power spec. I disliked the sceptre sound effects. Doesn't match the animation and doesn't sound "shadow-y" at all. Kind of irritating sound actually. Strong dislike that trickery felt mandatory for the 3 extra initiative. I think you should re-tweak so that baseline ini is higher or the effect of trickery is less. 50% more ini (vs 25% more on other specs) is just too good not to choose every time. eg: 8 baseline, 10 with trickery (still 25%). Shroud skills were overall great but Sceptre was pretty meh.

Overall, kinda bad, mainly because the spec mechanics and traits don't work very well with existing weapon sets, which is key to overall satisfaction with a spec long-term. Things I liked: individually-controllable pet skills is good but it's a net loss unless we can select one or more of the skills to be auto-castable. the cooldown-reduction traits/skills gave the spec a unique feel/playstyle hammer felt good in PVE but terrible in competitive modes because of the 0.01 coefficient slapped onto all CC skills (IMO one of your worst balance decisions...) Things I didn't like: a pet-based spec means it's going to be bad in WVW, the only game mode I really play/enjoy * "pet return to me" needs to be keybindable. Hammer has no gap closer. I don't think you should have to take the teleport utility on every hammer spec to be viable (mandatory utility == bad design) condi-cleanse-on-unleash trait should prob clear 2 condis not 1, unless you want Survival to be mandatory on all untamed specs I think there was a missed opportunity for a skill (or grandmaster trait) that swapped your location with your pet's location as a novel engagement/disengage Perilous Gift (the heal cantrip) is really bad in its current state Exploding Spores felt very undertuned, either the areas should be larger or the dmg/effect stronger Vow of the Untamed - i don't think you should take a percent-based extra portion of damage when unleashed - remove or maybe change to +/- stats? Bugs aside, I think I would have been a lot happier with Untamed if hammer has a decent gap closer or block. As it is, hammer is hands-down worse than greatsword.