Is there a DH build that uses GS and Hammer?

[Oldirtbeard.9834]

I'm coming back to GW2 and I'm interested in a build that uses GS and Hammer since I have both as Ascended, I assume you could use GS pull them all in with 5, drop 4, then whirl, switch to Hammer and auto until permanent protection then swap back to GS again.

While weaving traps in as well.

I don't plan on doing anything except Open World., t1 Fractals, and old school 5 man's (unless I could get away with it in a raid which I doubt)

[TwilightSoul.9048]

Yes there is and it is viable in raids ;)Here you can easily replace Sword/Torch with GS, the only real reason I can see for Sword is the Fury from the Symbol on sword. Although Hammer probably has higher DPS than GS but don't quote me on that :)

[otto.5684]

I would suggest to GW2 metabattle for details. DH power build uses radiance/zeal/DH and gs/scepter with either focus or torch in off hand. You can use hammer instead of gs, but it is lower dps and you should not need the protection much.

[Oldirtbeard.9834]

@otto.5684 said:I would suggest to GW2 metabattle for details. DH power build uses radiance/zeal/DH and gs/scepter with either focus or torch in off hand. You can use hammer instead of gs, but it is lower dps and you should not need the protection much.

I've been to Meta battle, I'm just looking for a build that utilizes a Greatsword and Hammer that I can use in non bleeding edge content where I don't have to offend the sensibilities of the META people.

I personally need the protection from Hammer and back when my Guardian was my main before my Reaper I actually used Soldiers Gear armor with Ascended Zerker Weapons and Trinkets, back then I only did Open World and Story Mode Dungeons with the occasional non meta groups for explorable modes.

That said I have no intention of ever Raiding or doing harder Fractals, I don't like those kinds of people because they take things way too seriously so I'm perfectly happy doing Face roll content with a non Meta build.

I mean hell I'll even try a vanilla build that has no Dragon Hunter even, I'm just looking for a casual build for the casual end of game play.

[otto.5684]

You can use the meta build for DH and switch out DH line for virtues. That should work well for hammer/Gs. You can substitute as well DH with FB for a good uptime on quickness. If your group does not have anyone else providing quickness you will improve the groups effectiveness significantly.

Honestly, guardian outside of raid and high fractals is extremely flexible. You can mix and match between scepter, sword, axe, gs and hammer and you will deal good damage and good provide support.

[BeardedVagabond.8136]

@Oldirtbeard.9834 said:I'm coming back to GW2 and I'm interested in a build that uses GS and Hammer since I have both as Ascended, I assume you could use GS pull them all in with 5, drop 4, then whirl, switch to Hammer and auto until permanent protection then swap back to GS again.

While weaving traps in as well.

I don't plan on doing anything except Open World., t1 Fractals, and old school 5 man's (unless I could get away with it in a raid which I doubt)

You could just do what you want, and if some one tells you to change, tell them to frig off.

I use hammer and staff in most of pve

[Oldirtbeard.9834]

@otto.5684 said:You can use the meta build for DH and switch out DH line for virtues. That should work well for hammer/Gs. You can substitute as well DH with FB for a good uptime on quickness. If your group does not have anyone else providing quickness you will improve the groups effectiveness significantly.

Honestly, guardian outside of raid and high fractals is extremely flexible. You can mix and match between scepter, sword, axe, gs and hammer and you will deal good damage and good provide support.

That's interesting so you can use Firebrand in a Power build to provide quickness, I could basically provide Quickness while providing Protection with a Hammer.

If I have to go Condi I could always convert the Weapons to Viper and use my Viper Trinkets, people would have to settle for Rabid or Carrion Gear though.

I generally prefer Power because I like having burst on demand as opposed to Ramp Up times.

[otto.5684]

You absolutely can use power builds with FB. It is not the highest possible damage, but in a fractal or a dungeon you can provide great support. You can get somewhere around 35% quickness uptime without concentration. With concentration from food you can easy get around 50% uptime on quickness. That surely will get you 100% uptime on protection.

[narcx.3570]

@Oldirtbeard.9834 said:

I personally need the protection from Hammer and back when my Guardian was my main before my Reaper I actually used Soldiers Gear armor with Ascended Zerker Weapons and Trinkets, back then I only did Open World and Story Mode Dungeons with the occasional non meta groups for explorable modes.

There's many ways to get protection without using a Hammer though... If you're playing a meta raid DH build with Scepter/Torch/GS, you can easily just take a step back out of the cleave when in scepter/torch mode and then use f3 or even a shout to pop protection when you go in to drop your GS/trap bursts.

That said, if all you're doing is open world/t1 fractals/dungeons, people don't really care what you're running so knock yourself out and go crazy with that hammer. You may get a little hate from the dungeon speed run elitists, but there's not very many of them these days and they're super easy to laugh off.

[ReaverKane.7598]

Well, if you're not interested in T4 Fractals and raids, you can even pop into your broom closet and use the oldest broom in there and you'll still be viable.For Raids and such, you can probably use hammer without issues, if you have a decent chrono to give quickness. The extra CC and prot from hammer will help out a lot, but you'll miss out on ranged damage for those encounters where melee is not very advisable.

[Yannir.4132]

Sure you can smack two random weapons together and call it a build.

Seriously though, for the content you intend to do, I'm not sure why you're asking about builds. Those only really matter in high end content.For gear I'd pick going full berserker, guardian can be reasonably tanky just with traits and utilities. For a greathammer DH build I'd pick Virtues, Zeal and DH, although Virtues can easily be swapped for Valor for more selfish sustainability, or even Honor if you want those massive healing symbols.Hammer/GS is even somewhat viable in raids, and might even be preferred in a group full of raid-noobs/pugs, especially if the healer is new.

[Aeolus.3615]

@Yannir.4132 said:Sure you can smack two random weapons together and call it a build.(...)

So true... but theres an issue in that, game is so based on stupid damage(wich is all that the damage output, that what meta means on gw2) and the gap between being carried with damage output and lesser damage builds is so big that feels that u can be easilly playing with a wrong build, wich most cases it is.

When u sacfricide damage output and the gains are minimal unless that class has a boon gimmicks(meta for carry in boon spamming), otherwise all players need is damage output.

[Oldirtbeard.9834]

@Aeolus.3615 said:

@Yannir.4132 said:Sure you can smack two random weapons together and call it a build.(...)

So true... but theres an issue in that, game is so based on stupid damage(wich is all that the damage output, that what meta means on gw2) and the gap between being carried with damage output and lesser damage builds is so big that feels that u can be easilly playing with a wrong build, wich most cases it is.

When u sacfricide damage output and the gains are minimal unless that class has a boon gimmicks(meta for carry in boon spamming), otherwise all players need is damage output.

That sounds like ineptitude on the part of the balance team, they either need more people, or better people, or the community needs to alter their mind set towards what the developers intend for this game. I ran into problems recently with Guardian and Revenant that I know people are going to tell me its a learn to play thing but here's the thing. I've been playing for 4 years, I've read many many guides, read many forums, many Reddit posts and still the only class combo I have any success with is Necromancer Reaper, prior to that I played Guardian Hammer all Soldiers (and still died a lot). There isn't any Git Gud for me that moment has passed, I will just play the class build I enjoy, and if I can't make it into any Meta T4/Raid Meta groups then that's fine by me because I'm sure I'll be having more fun being less stressed out.

I'm not whining it's just an epiphany I had recently while trying to do something on my Herald I'd easily been able to accomplish on my Reaper, every Fractal plot line is available in T1 and T2, Wooden Potatoes will put out extensive Lore videos on any Raids, and the vast majority of game's PVE content which is Open World will be my oyster. Thank you to everyone that has tried helping, I really appreciate it but unfortunately after 4 years I'll be that kid in the back of the class wearing the Helmet making macaroni pictures (he always looked happy come to think about it).

[csquirrelrun.3108]

Sadly the perma protection that hammer can provide is superfluous given ranger spirits now hit 10 targets (and Stone Spirit gives protection), and to maintain it you would practically have to camp hammer and autoattack, which means you're not switching to greatsword where your damage is at.

For open world, knock yourself out - but in raids and fractals the established meta builds use Greatsword and Scepter/Torch and you will get all the support boons /healing from other people rather than needing to provide them yourself.

[Aeolus.3615]

@csquirrelrun.3108 said:Sadly the perma protection that hammer can provide is superfluous given ranger spirits now hit 10 targets (and Stone Spirit gives protection), and to maintain it you would practically have to camp hammer and autoattack, which means you're not switching to greatsword where your damage is at.

For open world, knock yourself out - but in raids and fractals the established meta builds use Greatsword and Scepter/Torch and you will get all the support boons /healing from other people rather than needing to provide them yourself.

sometimes i feel they only improve classes they play, and then give soem stupid gimmick or spam based to guardian to fill isntantly those gameplay genra cause they over boosted other classes.SW still not working after 6 years.... this show how muh c they care about the class, and tomes were used to make a bad gameplay class concept based on spam n stack.

Oldirtbeard.9834, only thing Anet wants to players to follow is buy the class evolution every expantion, that is how ANet has choosed to make class progression, and will deliver always a stronger damage output or spam based gameplay more than the last one.

It is not ineptitude from the balance team, the game developers are awfull...just awfull in class design/concept and balance... lets see how the fake balance patch will hit in a few days,.

[Etterwyn.5263]

I can't run hammer without Honor. If symbols didn't also do damage I'd think differently but since the main point of hammer is autoattack plus the occasional CC, those extra 2 symbol seconds are hard to live without.

It's a true shame that Mighty Blow practically doesn't exist. Guardian Hammer is 1-1-1-1-1-1-1... and 3,4,5 when you need CC. That's one weapon where you build around your utilities instead of your weapon skills.

[Aeolus.3615]

@Etterwyn.5263 said:I can't run hammer without Honor. If symbols didn't also do damage I'd think differently but since the main point of hammer is autoattack plus the occasional CC, those extra 2 symbol seconds are hard to live without.

It's a true shame that Mighty Blow practically doesn't exist. Guardian Hammer is 1-1-1-1-1-1-1... and 3,4,5 when you need CC. That's one weapon where you build around your utilities instead of your weapon skills.

Hammer + shield diablo style... i would love it.. >_>

Increase damage on hammer skills 10% if not using a offhandIncrease outgouing heal when hammer is pairerd with a shield. or improve protection damage reduction?