Hammer User: Spellbreaker or Scrapper

[ArkLightXXVII.4768]

Hello! So i'm gonna make another alt character but I have a weapon choice of using a Hammer. I want to have a dps focus class with a little bit of flexibility in situations and consistency in damage. What class should I go with? This would be mainly PvE and a little bit of PvP. 

Thanks for your inputs.

[SRMorgan.6124]

Have you considered Catalyst? You can go more dps-y or more tank-y and still do plenty of damage, if you don't mind rotating across twenty skills. (Otherwise, Scrapper is my vote!)

[ArkLightXXVII.4768]

21 minutes ago, SRMorgan.6124 said:

Have you considered Catalyst? You can go more dps-y or more tank-y and still do plenty of damage, if you don't mind rotating across twenty skills. (Otherwise, Scrapper is my vote!)

Catalyst crossed my mind actually. But thinking I would level up another crafting mastery (tailoring) to make an ascended gear makes me lazy. But I would love to give it a try. 

[the krytan assassin.9235]

In terms of effectivity in instanced PvE (excluding HTCM) the most overpowered dps builds are hammer spb, Cvirtuoso and Cmech atm (Reaper might join this group post patch). The majority of strikes, raids and fractals are melee range, power focused fights, so the Spb usually reigns supreme over cvirt and Cmech. The main exceptions are 100cm fractal, confusion focused raid fights and xjj, ko, olc cm's. 

 

The flow of hammer Spb is extremely good, very good surviveability (tons of health, heavy armor, access to full counter, some of the best healing skills ingame). You basically have an open elite skill slot, so you can slot in your elite banner (5 man rez, so big carry potential). You can slot in Shake it off in your utilities which is one of the most broken skills ingame (aoe 3 condi cleanse+stunbreak+ammo skill). The breakbar damage is also really solid on spb, a small amount of self quick in its rotation and basically perma stab uptime aswell. 

If you want to deal massive dps while carrying the rest of your team, be self sufficient on blocks and stability and have more then enough built in healing to compensate for slacking support the spellbreaker is the best pick for you. 

Edited May 2, 2023 by the krytan assassin.9235

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

Spellbreaker because it isn't an elite spec based weapon and you can use it on all warrior variants.

[ArkLightXXVII.4768]

17 minutes ago, Lan Deathrider.5910 said:

Spellbreaker because it isn't an elite spec based weapon and you can use it on all warrior variants.

can I also use double axe on SPB? 

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

2 minutes ago, ArkLightXXVII.4768 said:

can I also use double axe on SPB? 

Of course.

[ArkLightXXVII.4768]

4 hours ago, the krytan assassin.9235 said:

In terms of effectivity in instanced PvE (excluding HTCM) the most overpowered dps builds are hammer spb, Cvirtuoso and Cmech atm (Reaper might join this group post patch). The majority of strikes, raids and fractals are melee range, power focused fights, so the Spb usually reigns supreme over cvirt and Cmech. The main exceptions are 100cm fractal, confusion focused raid fights and xjj, ko, olc cm's. 

 

The flow of hammer Spb is extremely good, very good surviveability (tons of health, heavy armor, access to full counter, some of the best healing skills ingame). You basically have an open elite skill slot, so you can slot in your elite banner (5 man rez, so big carry potential). You can slot in Shake it off in your utilities which is one of the most broken skills ingame (aoe 3 condi cleanse+stunbreak+ammo skill). The breakbar damage is also really solid on spb, a small amount of self quick in its rotation and basically perma stab uptime aswell. 

If you want to deal massive dps while carrying the rest of your team, be self sufficient on blocks and stability and have more then enough built in healing to compensate for slacking support the spellbreaker is the best pick for you. 

Few Questions:
1. Do SPB have own quickness buff? I mean do I generate quickness from my own skill even if I don't share it to the team?
2. Do SPB have faster animation speed than scrapper or it's just the same?

[the krytan assassin.9235]

7 hours ago, ArkLightXXVII.4768 said:

Few Questions:
1. Do SPB have own quickness buff? I mean do I generate quickness from my own skill even if I don't share it to the team?
2. Do SPB have faster animation speed than scrapper or it's just the same?

your axe 4 gets like ~15% uptime on quickness. it aint much, it kinda secures your 100% quick uptime

animation speed is roughly the same on hammer. for SPB the dagger/axe is quite abit faster animation speed

[ArkLightXXVII.4768]

6 hours ago, the krytan assassin.9235 said:

your axe 4 gets like ~15% uptime on quickness. it aint much, it kinda secures your 100% quick uptime

animation speed is roughly the same on hammer. for SPB the dagger/axe is quite abit faster animation speed

I see. Thank you.

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

20 hours ago, ArkLightXXVII.4768 said:

Few Questions:
1. Do SPB have own quickness buff? I mean do I generate quickness from my own skill even if I don't share it to the team?
2. Do SPB have faster animation speed than scrapper or it's just the same?

Sources of quickness on core warrior that SPB also gets:

• Axe 4
• Frenzy
• Banner of Tactics (PvE Only)
• All banners when traited (all modes)
• Warhorn 4
• Aggressive Onslaught (quickness on interrupt via a trait)
• Martial Cadence (quickness on hitting with a burst skill)
• Heightened Focus (1uickness when hitting a foe under 50% hp, sucks do not take)
• Sigil of Rage (quickness on critical hit PvE/WvW)
• Sigil of Celeritity (quickness on interrupt PvE/WvW)

As for the animation speeds between the two I would say that hammer on warrior is a tad slower overall but not by much, especially with all the above quickness sources.

[Roadkizzle.2157]

I'd definitely go with Scrapper. Just because its so much more fun than Spellbreaker.

 

After struggling for so long to get my Mesmer viable at PVP I just boosted a Spellbreaker to use for the PVP daily's.

 

The Spellbreaker is so much more powerful but so dreadfully boring to play. It's just raw damage that gets a 20% boost if you can land a couple of attacks.

 

Its still what I use for PVP but I'll be using my Scrapper or any of my other characters for actual fun tasks.

[ArkLightXXVII.4768]

10 minutes ago, Roadkizzle.2157 said:

I'd definitely go with Scrapper. Just because its so much more fun than Spellbreaker.

 

After struggling for so long to get my Mesmer viable at PVP I just boosted a Spellbreaker to use for the PVP daily's.

 

The Spellbreaker is so much more powerful but so dreadfully boring to play. It's just raw damage that gets a 20% boost if you can land a couple of attacks.

 

Its still what I use for PVP but I'll be using my Scrapper or any of my other characters for actual fun tasks.

Does the playstyle makes it boring or it's kinda struggling in some situation unlike scrapper?

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

10 minutes ago, ArkLightXXVII.4768 said:

Does the playstyle makes it boring or it's kinda struggling in some situation unlike scrapper?

Playstyle preferences are subjective. In this case I'd suggest you take an engineer and a warrior into the PvP lobby and tinker around and see which chassis appeals to you more. While there you can use either elite spec in your tinkering.

[Infusion.7149]

Spellbreaker hammer could be nerfed at any time with a further defense retuning, whereas scrapper hammer will almost always be relevant due to being an elite spec weapon (and scrapper using quickness) so therefore it is inherently more flexible. There has not been a power quickness spellbreaker meaning any time a power spec with heavy CC and boon rip enters the realm of meta it could possibly be displaced (think power virtuoso, power reaper, power holo with mines). I enjoy spellbreaker more than any other warrior spec but up until defense rework it was not even remotely used in PvE short of fractals when the alacrity source and teammates have no boon rip.

Your power options for quickness currently are:

• Quickness scrapper (hammer) which is probably the easiest quickness to maintain short of firebrand before the mantra revert , just use your gyros
• Quickness catalyst (hammer) which is harder to play properly due to the quickness only output from air attunement jade sphere
• Quickness StM chrono (sword, greatsword) which is not too bad so long as you make clones and shatter F1 for quickness
• Quickness herald (swords) which is essentially spam all facets
• Quickness berserker  (no hammer) with banners
• Quickness Bladesworn (no hammer) with banners
• Some future deadeye build per Arenanet

Playing any sort of pDPS means you are relegated to not being a key role (quick,alac,heal) and therefore considered expendable by most groups. Moreover the meta spellbreaker has zero range capability whereas quickness scrapper has grenades which are 900 range and ranged mortar (which can be swapped for the Supply crate for CC or sneak gyro for stealth skips).

[ArkLightXXVII.4768]

43 minutes ago, Lan Deathrider.5910 said:

Playstyle preferences are subjective. In this case I'd suggest you take an engineer and a warrior into the PvP lobby and tinker around and see which chassis appeals to you more. While there you can use either elite spec in your tinkering.

I have both but I can't tell the difference yet in both instanced PvE and PvP. I tried both in PvP lobby but can't really tell until I used it in instanced PvE content.
Though, I have fun using Scrapper in PvP. I currently have one but SPB seems to be fun also. It's just that I'm looking something I can't find in Scrapper.

[AlPower.2476]

PvE

If fractals then Scrapper 'cause quickness dps. The rest of specs of PvE content Spellbreaker has a big dps and in Open World both are good tho.

Personal preference: Scrapper in PvE it's  a little boring xd; and if you choose other engi options, then you cannot have Hammer; Warrior has hammer as a core option so you can use it in every spec if u want.

PvP

Depends. 

Spellbreaker is more a duelist side holder. 

Scrapper (non-grenadier) is mo' about a fighter but can't hold points (according to anet, is a bruiser, but nah, it's not). Grenadier one is mo' about teamfights;
you should choose depending ur preference considering that.

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

41 minutes ago, ArkLightXXVII.4768 said:

I have both but I can't tell the difference yet in both instanced PvE and PvP. I tried both in PvP lobby but can't really tell until I used it in instanced PvE content.
Though, I have fun using Scrapper in PvP. I currently have one but SPB seems to be fun also. It's just that I'm looking something I can't find in Scrapper.

What exactly is it that you can't find in Scrapper? Perhaps that is the better thread to pull.

[ArkLightXXVII.4768]

6 hours ago, Lan Deathrider.5910 said:

What exactly is it that you can't find in Scrapper? Perhaps that is the better thread to pull.

damage output maybe. or it might be I like to have a more relaxed gameplay. I find it fun to play though specially in PvP. (always top kills). 

I like to have a class which can be self sufficient and can be greedy dps as well. maybe thats what I'm looking for.

Edited May 3, 2023 by ArkLightXXVII.4768

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

2 hours ago, ArkLightXXVII.4768 said:

damage output maybe. or it might be I like to have a more relaxed gameplay. I find it fun to play though specially in PvP. (always top kills). 

I like to have a class which can be self sufficient and can be greedy dps as well. maybe thats what I'm looking for.

Both can do that then. There isn't anything stopping you from doing both in PvP FWIW.

[cyberzombie.7348]

Scrapper imo, its hammer has so much utility by default.

- Ranged cc

- Mobility skill not tied to any prerequisites

- Projectile reflects

- Blocks

-Whirl & 3x leap combo finisher

Edited May 4, 2023 by cyberzombie.7348

[ArkLightXXVII.4768]

1 hour ago, Lan Deathrider.5910 said:

Both can do that then. There isn't anything stopping you from doing both in PvP FWIW.

i see. thank you. last question. in between the two, which one has less complicated rotation to be effective?

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

8 hours ago, ArkLightXXVII.4768 said:

i see. thank you. last question. in between the two, which one has less complicated rotation to be effective?

Warrior is in general less complicated than engineer.

[The Boz.2038]

On 5/4/2023 at 3:36 AM, cyberzombie.7348 said:

Whirl & 3x leap combo finisher

It's a 2x leap finisher (the second jump is not a finisher), and the finishers are done at the jump start, not end. Additionally, the evades of the skill are three tiny ones (0.25-0.3s), not one 1-second long one. And, finally, Nothing On Grenth's Forsaken Tyria can help you if you accidentally click it.

Just felt like tossing that out there.

[Jtoon.6907]

Scrapper hammer seems to be more used like a staff to me.