Which legendary hammer to craft?

[Buran.3796]

   A year ago I asked about which legendary short bow was the best to craft, and the answers helped me to take a choice (which I'm happy about). Now I'm 6 days away of finishing Eureka (when the last 7 mystic clovers from my monthly track arrives -I known that I can craft them, made some, but I'm not in a hurry- ) and the last non undewater weapon from the Rev that I not have is the hammer. So I would like to ask your preferences and why? My preliminary thoughs:

   Overall I don't think the legendary skills of the legendary hammers are very good, with dozens of other skins eclipsing them: Entropy, Genesis, Glacial, Magmaton, Shimmering Aurora, Fox Fire, War Machine, Devil Axe, Dragon Decade, Flame Serpent... and even the more subtle and realistic approachs as  Lightward or Gallant. So aside from the convenience, the main appeal is on the effects. Based on this:

* The Juggernaut; I dislike the skin and splashes but the chrome effect on armors is nice unique, and the crafting following the second gen model allows to create a potion which grants the armor effect without the need to use the Juggernaut skin. Is also the cheapest to craft.

* Sharur; decent shape but not fan of the lacklusting effects, but this one has a peculiarity I didn't saw in any other: when used by a Revenant, the auto attack bolt projects light across the environment that is crossed. For a Rev that alone makes it different to any other contender. Has a cost in the middle of the other two.

*Aurene's Weight/Jormag variant; I think this has the most elaborated and detailed fx of the three, and I love the Jormag varaint the most in any of the third gen legendaries, but is also the most expensive one to get.

   This is a mid term goal for 2023, since I'm currently working on Vision & Aurora (which due the low usage of hammers in the game in general take preference) so, what are your thoughs? Which one would you craft and why?

[Jaykay.9641]

Was in a similar situation as you when deciding on a legendary hammer. In the end, I chose Juggernaut for a few reasons:

• It was the cheapest option of the three.
• Hammer is a two handed weapon so there are some decent hammer skins outside of the Aurene variants. By going Juggernaut, I felt I didn't have to keep using the exclusive skins that Sharur or Aurene variants provided.
• I had one left over Gift of Exploration and had all of the other Gen 1 Legendaries I wanted.
• Finally, with EoD, there's a total of 6 professions that can use a Hammer so the price point of Juggernaut give me more value as I play all the other Hammer classes frequently.

The effects of Juggernaut are sub-par although Rev has an extra animation with it's auto attack which is cool. In reality, I chose Juggernaut because of the value with little care for it's visuals.

Edited December 14, 2022 by Jaykay.9641

[Telgum.6071]

I have Juggernaut and I don't recommend you to get it unless you really love the chromatic effect (or want the cheapest option). That's why I did it and because I want to craft an Aurene's sword so I wasn't going to use the Cantha stuff on the hammer.

Edited December 14, 2022 by Telgum.6071

[draxynnic.3719]

Kinda feels like what you're basically saying is:

 

Juggernaut: Cheap, you wouldn't use the skin, but maybe you'd use the potion you get on the way to making it?

Sharur: Mediocre, but has a lighting effect on the projectiles.

Gen 3: Seems to be your favourite (even if in a 'best of a bad lot' sense), but also the most expensive.

 

As a general rule, I tend to take the attitude that the cost of making a legendary is high enough that you might as well spend the extra to get one you're actually going to use on at least one character. Even if you decide you want the Mystic Chromatic Ooze, getting there is still only a couple hundred gold's worth, a fraction of the cost of getting a legendary skin you'll never use.

From a revenant perspective, I think the gen 3 is probably the best choice? Sharur's light effect doesn't seem to be all that impactful, and it does seem to be a smaller projectile (it only launches a piece off the side of the hammer rather than the whole hammer). If you want a unique projectile rather than a spinning hammer, that could be a plus, but I think the projectiles from the gen 3 hammers are better overall. The Gen 3 weapons also have effects that trigger off non-projectile attacks - if Coalescence of Ruin ever gets fixed, for instance, I think having those finisher effects bursting out of the ground would fit well with the CoR graphics.

Themewise, there's an obvious connection between Aurene's Weight and Herald (and Kralkatorrik coming from the other side). Unlocking other skins can also open up the opportunity to match other legends with a skin so you have a suitable skin for use with core and vindicator builds (I'm going to go out on a limb and assume you won't be likely to be using hammer with renegade...). It is a shame (in this context anyway) that the Soo-Won weapons are looking likely to have effects similar to the Living Water effects, since a jade theme would have fit really well with any Shiro build, but that's probably not going to happen. Sharur's Orrian theme makes it a de facto Zhaitan theme, especially at night - and while it probably does achieve that theme probably better than Zhaitan's Weight, that's not the most relevant theme for a revenant.

Edited December 15, 2022 by draxynnic.3719
Added comment on Sharur theme.

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

I made Juggernaut myself.   Though Sharur will get points for being an incredibly rare skin.  I don't think I've seen one person with it in this game. 

[Buran.3796]

7 hours ago, draxynnic.3719 said:

Kinda feels like what you're basically saying is:

 

Juggernaut: Cheap, you wouldn't use the skin, but maybe you'd use the potion you get on the way to making it?

Sharur: Mediocre, but has a lighting effect on the projectiles.

Gen 3: Seems to be your favourite (even if in a 'best of a bad lot' sense), but also the most expensive.

   Pretty much except I'm a bit more slanted towards Sharur due the AA as a light source projectile despite Aurene's Weight design is overall more appealing. I have time to meditate about it since probably I'll craft it in the second half of 2023. The sad part is as you reflected, that hammers aren't very used by Revs and Guardians (Warrior's got buffed recently, but I only like their hammer build for PvP/WvW), and I really don't play Untamed or Catalyst (which I use for alt parking and not to really play).

   Thanx everyone for your opinions.

[Yasai.3549]

Imo: 

Sharur sucks. 

Juggernaut if you going for effects which aren't flamboyant but just "different" 

Gen 3 if you want to look like a lantern. 

Edited December 15, 2022 by Yasai.3549

[phokus.8934]

Sharur is the best, hands down.  Not many people have it and that alone makes it the best.

[Esufer.8762]

never not juggernaut, it looks like you're sloshing rude fluid at your target.

[draxynnic.3719]

On 12/16/2022 at 2:42 AM, phokus.8934 said:

Sharur is the best, hands down.  Not many people have it and that alone makes it the best.

I think a big part of this is that while it's a good skin, it doesn't really fit with any of the current hammer users thematically. It's Orr-themed, alternating between a purified Orr and a Zhaitan-corrupted one with the day-night cycle. It'd be great for a hammer necro, but that doesn't exist yet. It's a bit too corrupted to be intuitive for a guardian (although one could certainly find reasons why a specific individual guardian might choose it), and it lacks the high-tech theme of scrapper or the elemental theme of catalyst. It'd be great for a revenant with an Orrian legend, but I have doubts that will ever happen. Warriors are likely to care little for the appearance of a magic hammer that smashes things effectively, and for an untamed, there might be some symbolism in switching between purity and corruption, or in a product of civilisation being encrusted with sea life... but Mordemoth's Weight gives some stiff competition.

Otherwise, there are few mechanisms by which Sharur really fits a theme, so the main draws to it are purely that it's a cool skin, or that the character using it feels connected to Orr in some way and Sharur symbolises this.

Probably also doesn't help that hammer has been an unpopular weapon in general, and with hammers generally always being power-oriented, there's less need for stat swapping on hammer.

[Kodama.6453]

7 hours ago, draxynnic.3719 said:

Probably also doesn't help that hammer has been an unpopular weapon in general, and with hammers generally always being power-oriented, there's less need for stat swapping on hammer.

This is a very good point, not only for hammer, but some other weapons as well. Rifle and greatsword come to my mind, which are power only for all classes using them currently.

Really hope that the next set of elite specs will change this. Hammer on necromancer or mesmer would be great opportunities to make it condition based. Greatsword could get added to either thief or engineer with a condition damage skill set.

We need more diversity. There is no point in greatswords with any other stat line than berserker right now.

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

The answer is always The Juggernaut bish.

But, hey, why not make them all at somepoint? Gen3 has the benefit of having several variants, so if one of those variants strikes your fancy go with that.

FWIW I have Juggernaut but will be crafting an Aurene hammer sometime in March/April and plan on getting all the skin variants during 2023.

[draxynnic.3719]

1 hour ago, Kodama.6453 said:

This is a very good point, not only for hammer, but some other weapons as well. Rifle and greatsword come to my mind, which are power only for all classes using them currently.

Really hope that the next set of elite specs will change this. Hammer on necromancer or mesmer would be great opportunities to make it condition based. Greatsword could get added to either thief or engineer with a condition damage skill set.

We need more diversity. There is no point in greatswords with any other stat line than berserker right now.

Yeah, I had a similar discussion regarding rifle with a guildie a few weeks ago.

Technically speaking, you CAN make greatsword work on condi (or at least hybrid) builds with reaper and vindicator. Greatsword on both creates a fair amount of chill, which can be converted into condition damage with appropriate traits. Neither is currently regarded as a top-tier build, of course, but it's plausible that either could appear as a result of numbers tweaking in the future. Greatsword burn guardian could potentially also become a thing if Radiant Fire is ever modified such that burn guardians no longer feel compelled to have torch offhand on both sets.

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

*Looks at Hammer* *Looks at Body Blow* *Hides Hammer behind back*

[Zero.1028]

I like the Gen 3 Hammer since it looks like it can actually crush someone. I have the Jormag skin on it so it doesn't make me a glowing target in wvw lol. Also the kill animation on the Jormag variant looks really cool when it procs 

[draxynnic.3719]

On 12/22/2022 at 2:58 AM, Lan Deathrider.5910 said:

*Looks at Hammer* *Looks at Body Blow* *Hides Hammer behind back*

Valid, although I'm not sure that alone can justify condi stats. Maybe if the hammer was being used as a CC set alongside a condi set, but I might still be tempted to use a berserker hammer regardless. Using Body Blow to help fuel a condi build seems more like a macezerker thing.

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

19 minutes ago, draxynnic.3719 said:

Valid, although I'm not sure that alone can justify condi stats. Maybe if the hammer was being used as a CC set alongside a condi set, but I might still be tempted to use a berserker hammer regardless. Using Body Blow to help fuel a condi build seems more like a macezerker thing.

Wouldn't be AoE though. That and Last Blaze with Wild Blow and Headbutt would be interesting. But yeah that 1 bleed really isn't enough to turn it into a condi weapon.

[Justine.6351]

Make a spear or trident, at least those will get used.

 

I have juggernaut, it is not used.

Edited December 24, 2022 by Justine.6351