Heizero.9183

Back in the day, like year 1 vanilla, Bountiful Theft used to rip full durations of boons, same with Larc strike. (I cant remember if it stole full stacks too, it may have.) To be fair it was a little op in some situations and abused. For example, I personally used to use it on Dredge in Eternal Battlegrounds in wvw to gain over 1 min of protection. Im sure there were even more ways to abuse it outside of my example and so they made every gained boon have a fixed duration.

> @"Curennos.9307" said: > > @"Heizero.9183" said: > > > @"Buran.3796" said: > > > > @"Heizero.9183" said: > > > > > > > Me and my guild love hammer guard so much its not uncommon for us to run 3 or 4 at a time when roaming. > > > > > > > > > > > > > I can see how 3-4 of you fighting at the same time with hammers in WvW can make you feel that the weapon is powerful. But that's a hollow feeling, like armwrestling a 7 year old and bragging about winning. There's a reason you don't see hammers in neither PvE nor PvP (aside from Scrappers). They are outdated. They didn't endure the power creep of PoF. > > > > Don't misunderstand, I solo roam with hammer very effectively. We all do. The weapon IS powerful when used properly in WvW. I know it isn't good in PvE and it's PvP application is debatable as well, but that's why I specifically said it was niche. It is very good at what it does where it's applicable. Which is fine imo. > > Could you please go into what 'used properly' and 'effectively' are? > > I use it in spvp and have found it rather lackluster - albeit funny when I can bonk someone with a 7k mighty blow while they're stuck in a trap or something. I'm dubious as to how it can be so bad in spvp but somehow manage to be as you describe in WvW, even with the stat/skill split differences and so forth. It is certainly very effective fighting against people who've never seen a hammer guardian before, but I've found it fails to measure up once I find someone who has any sort of idea of what they're doing and knows how to abuse the weapon's flaws. > > Anywho. I think the weapon could definitely benefit from trimming some cast times, at the very least. It feels like it was given the speed of a heavy ranged weapon when it is not that. I generally run it as a DH but I dont run traps I run full meditations like an old school core medi guard. The stat split in wvw does make a big difference because your 7k bonk is a 10k bonk for me in wvw which with the sigil proc can almost 1 shot thieves and mesmers. I run vision sigils on my hammer and my greatsword and hydromancy on greatsword. I catch them with the JI+H5, H2, swap to greatsword for the hydromancy sigil ceit which is usually about 2k, and then full crit greatsword 2 which usually lands because they ate the KD from the ring of warding. In total its something like 20k+ damage in that burst. If they survive, its fine because I can keep bursting like this since im running double vision sigils and DH virtues plus monks focus full meditations gives me tons of survivability. People also underestimate hammer 3 but it actually hits really hard, about 3 or 3.5k when it crits and is really strong when chained right after a banish and then into a DH F2, then you can follow with whichever burst you have available, either H2, Greatsword 2 or both.

Arenanet has officially stated many years ago that they have halted any development on dungeons. They will never be updated. They will never be improved. We will never get new ones. They are an old piece of content that has been completely abandoned, so take it or leave it.

I dont think this poll will get the proper data with those types of polling options For example, I DO agree that hammer is only useful in some situations and game modes, however, I always use it since I play in those situations and game modes very often. Also, even though I use hammer very often and enjoy it I still think it could use SOME updating such as making ring of warding castable while moving and increasing the attack speed on the auto attack. I DO NOT want to see the skills fundamentally altered or the mechanics of the weapon changed though because I think it is excellent at what it does with its current functionality and for what I use it for: to lock down and deliver a big burst of damage to a target(s).

> @"Buran.3796" said: > > @"Heizero.9183" said: > > > Me and my guild love hammer guard so much its not uncommon for us to run 3 or 4 at a time when roaming. > > > > > I can see how 3-4 of you fighting at the same time with hammers in WvW can make you feel that the weapon is powerful. But that's a hollow feeling, like armwrestling a 7 year old and bragging about winning. There's a reason you don't see hammers in neither PvE nor PvP (aside from Scrappers). They are outdated. They didn't endure the power creep of PoF. Don't misunderstand, I solo roam with hammer very effectively. We all do. The weapon IS powerful when used properly in WvW. I know it isn't good in PvE and it's PvP application is debatable as well, but that's why I specifically said it was niche. It is very good at what it does where it's applicable. Which is fine imo.

Personally I completely disagree with this sentiment. Hammer has been at the core of my roaming guardian builds since vanilla. It actually feels great again since they lowered the cooldown on skill #2. Glacial Blow burst is insanely high and trapping a target in your ring is devastating. Me and my guild love hammer guard so much its not uncommon for us to run 3 or 4 at a time when roaming. I do agree that it is a very niche weapon, but when you play to its strengths it is a game changer. Its scarcity also helps because many average players are not used to seeing hammer and do not typically have the muscle memory to react to being Hammer 5d in time to avoid the devastating hammer 2. Its a ton of fun and very effective in roaming/zerg busting groups and I would hate to see its mechanics change. Imo every skill on it is valuable and synchronizes very well with each other in this environment. My only comment on its current state is that I would love to see the hammer 5 castable while moving. I think that small update would honestly make a world of difference. Otherwise, the Judges Intervention/ Ring of Warding combo is always my go-to opener. "Welcome to the Thunderdome!" I know many of you would disagree with me butbif you would like to hear more details about how powerful this weapon really is in roaming/small scale or want to see my build or see it in action in-game just let me know. This was long but I hope it helps some you understand how exceptionally this weapon can perform in its niche. If any of you ever get slammed by one of the BLNT hammer guards in NA just remember this post. Happy hunting.

> @"Hollowperspectiv.3047" said: > Quite the investigation... > > Winter break has been totally great with a stack of new nerfs and our class further broken by this. If any other class couldn't use a class skill, after a patch, due to a bug, it would get fixed right away. These combos are essential for thieves and this bug should have been high priority and fixed before ya'll hung it up for the year.. Pretty much what this guy said. Lets just hope this really was caused by spaghetti code bug and not an unintentional early balance patch update.

Crazy that we still get these threads in 2020.

> @"otto.5684" said: > > @"Heizero.9183" said: > > > @"otto.5684" said: > > > > @"Heizero.9183" said: > > > > GS2 already does insane damage If you land the whole skill. I dont think buffing damage is the right fix, however I think removing the movement penalty so that it behaves more like Reaper shroud 4 would really benefit the while weaponset. > > > > > > Insane damage as 6k in sPvP? Assuming you somehow managed to pull the entire damage on enemy target. You know this is not PvE we are talking about, right? > > > > Insane damage as in 8-12k in wvw when running full marauder with zerk trinkets like I do on my roaming build. I run hydromancy and vision on My GS and the times I manage to get a full GS 2 after a weapon swap the 2 skill on average does about 10k damage. The damage on it is honestly great, at least in wvw, and the movement penalty it receives while channeling is what I think makes it difficult to use successfully. > > I specifically said in sPvP. Blob PvP balance is and always would be wonky. Hey, I can get you a picture of something doing ranger damage of 10-12k in WvW, so...? Btw 12k damage, considering how hard it is to pull a full GS2 against a bone dumby target, is not that high. OP did not specify spvp at all in his original post, which is what I was initially replying to. I use hammer offhand and usually ring my target before swapping to gs, and yes after the overall power nerfs earlier this year any skill that does 12k damage is pretty high. Also, Im not debating that GS2 is difficult to land, thats my entire point. It IS difficult to land and removing the movement speed penalty on it would help a lot with staying on target during the channel, much like how Reaper Shroud 4 behaves. > @"Gwaihir.1745" said: > > @"Heizero.9183" said: > > > @"otto.5684" said: > > > > @"Heizero.9183" said: > > > > GS2 already does insane damage If you land the whole skill. I dont think buffing damage is the right fix, however I think removing the movement penalty so that it behaves more like Reaper shroud 4 would really benefit the while weaponset. > > > > > > Insane damage as 6k in sPvP? Assuming you somehow managed to pull the entire damage on enemy target. You know this is not PvE we are talking about, right? > > > > Insane damage as in 8-12k in wvw when running full marauder with zerk trinkets like I do on my roaming build. I run hydromancy and vision on My GS and the times I manage to get a full GS 2 after a weapon swap the 2 skill on average does about 10k damage. The damage on it is honestly great, at least in wvw, and the movement penalty it receives while channeling is what I think makes it difficult to use successfully. > > Post a 12k screen where you have your target locked showing their boons. A full spin can range anywhere from 8-12k, 12k being on light armor targets without prot. I do this all the time in wvw, and will do some recording tonight and post here for you if you'd like. To be fair I have seen more than 12k as well although I wasnt paying attention to my own might stacks, but I remember a few weeks ago landing a 16k GS 2 on a full zerk well necro. Obviously this doesnt happen often which is why instances like that stand out in my memory.

> @"otto.5684" said: > > @"Heizero.9183" said: > > GS2 already does insane damage If you land the whole skill. I dont think buffing damage is the right fix, however I think removing the movement penalty so that it behaves more like Reaper shroud 4 would really benefit the while weaponset. > > Insane damage as 6k in sPvP? Assuming you somehow managed to pull the entire damage on enemy target. You know this is not PvE we are talking about, right? Insane damage as in 8-12k in wvw when running full marauder with zerk trinkets like I do on my roaming build. I run hydromancy and vision on My GS and the times I manage to get a full GS 2 after a weapon swap the 2 skill on average does about 10k damage. The damage on it is honestly great, at least in wvw, and the movement penalty it receives while channeling is what I think makes it difficult to use successfully.

GS2 already does insane damage If you land the whole skill. I dont think buffing damage is the right fix, however I think removing the movement penalty so that it behaves more like Reaper shroud 4 would really benefit the while weaponset.