hammers good enough for farming?

tomanders91

Academy Page

Join Date: Jul 2006

W/Mo

Do u think hammers are good enough for farming. I have a W/MO and ive decided to spend most of my gold on armor and a very good hammer, get some good defensive and healing skills.

Ive heard that they are better with a sword/axe with a shield, is this true?

Rent

Rent

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Feb 2006

Darkness Within

Mo/Me

Depends quite a bit on what you're farming, but more often than not, an axe/sword + shield will be your best bet for soloing.

Marth Reynolds

Marth Reynolds

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Jan 2006

The Netherlands

The Lore Enforcers

Me/A

most builds use a shield + axe or sword for the additional armor boost to prevent damage.

DeanBB

DeanBB

Forge Runner

Join Date: Jul 2005

Arizona

Wizardry Players Guild, http://4guildwars.7.forumer.com

Not only do you lose the armor from the shield (+other bonuses) but your attack rate is reduced from 1.33 to 1.75 so adrenaline gain and skills that trigger from attacking (like Vigorous Spirit) are reduced as well.

Axe has the Cyclone attack for striking multiple foes and generating adrenaline but the hammer's area attack can be interrupted so is not as good.

beleg curudin

beleg curudin

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Jun 2005

Durance of Fate [DoF]

R/

If you are farming melee creatures and have factions and prophocies then take a few healing skills, renewing smash, gladiators defence, hammer bash, and "on your knees!" this will give you, if you have 16 tactics, 33 seconds of Gladiators defence, which in that time everything attacking you should be long dead.

Guitary Boy

Guitary Boy

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Feb 2006

England

FhS

W/

No sorry dude, hammers are almost confined to pvp. The extra armour level from a shield and the mods e.g -2 stance health +30 beats a hammer hands down in pve. You might just scrape using it in pve missions and quests going through the story line. But if your looking for serious thinks like FoW/Uw or elite missions hammers are thumbs down. Regarding soloing they are usless, so many good skills requiring swords/axes/skills e.g ripostes and stances and various attacks are for soloing.

tomanders91

Academy Page

Join Date: Jul 2006

W/Mo

so u think its better to use a sword/shield? damn. ive put most of my time into hammer's. A have a green victos bulwarks shield, although i dont have the strenght to use it, i may sell it, how much can i get for it?

lagrand1

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Jan 2006

Zombies of War

W/

Hammers are very good against one enemy, but in groups like you find in PvE, you need the added armor and multi enemy attacks that come with swords/axes. Not to mention the adrenaline charges much too slowly for use with the hammer. Many of the defensive stances, require sword or shield as well.

DeanBB

DeanBB

Forge Runner

Join Date: Jul 2005

Arizona

Wizardry Players Guild, http://4guildwars.7.forumer.com

While I wouldn't use a hammer for farming or in some PvE areas, they can still be used in PvE in general and it is nice to switch between different builds and weapons for variety, so don't get rid of your hammer gear, just add some axe gear.

Sientir

Sientir

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Mar 2006

At DigiPen.

Biscuit of Dewm [MEEP]

I have a troll farming build that I use that uses a hammer. Though, as someone stated above, the use is not for damage but to power a KD/On Your Knees combo to keep Gladiator's Defense up 100% of the time. It actually works quite well.

gou

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Mar 2005

globally warmed england

the discarnate

I solo often with a hammer as a W/N mostly with a 5/-1 vampiric hammer too, a very long time ago I posted a hammer build I used and was laughed off these boards

But using an anti knockdown skill (balanced stance or dolyak signet) in conjunction with both drunken blow and desperation blow at max tactics can put out some awesome damage as well as stack up conditions which will fuel "Victory is mine" which is more than plenty to keep me alive and also gives even more value to plague touch. Throw in a few adrenal skills and whatever else the situation requires. I used to farm the FOW spiders with something similar.

It may not have the all round utility of a W/Mo axe or sword build, but it works and hammers are a lot more fun imo