Hammer or Sword?

I was wondering which would better for a Warrior that is starting in Nightfall? I played axe a fair bit but I found them to be fairly boring (up to Kryta missions in Prophecies) and the normal damage was too spikey (they usually healed since my next hit was just 10 damage >_>). When I tried out Hammers, I LOVED knockdown (disables better than my Mesmer :P) but it's pretty hard to get that much adrenaline. Swords generally have the Knight'ish look, but the elites look lame besides [Crippling Slash]. I can always unlock the Tyrian skills if need be, but starting out, which would be better? (I only have Prophecies and Nightfall.)

(Oh, and which would be the best secondary Condition Removal for the first 60% or so of the Missions? [Mending Touch],[Antidote signet],[Plague Touch], or [Remedy Signet]? Wammo could give me the Res, but no one likes Wammos. :P)

And what are some good looking Hammers/Swords that I could see about getting?

Antidote signet is superior to remedy signet (same stats except for more conditions removed), so if you're only looking at paragon for the condition removal, you can exclude it.

I've seen some W/R take throw dirt (yes at 0 expertise) to help take off a bit of pressure at the beginning of a fight while the AI is still engaging targets.

Warrior has some nice skills such as [crippling slash] which you already listed, in general the hammer line is less effective at killing mobs but more useful against bosses. There are several hard-to-kill bosses (most monk or ritualist) that a single [backbreaker] dominates. If you want some more general PvE suggestions, there is some nice synergy using the popular [earth shaker] + [crude swing] + [yeti smash]. Note that [yeti smash] does AoE damage rather than attacking all of the foes, so some may flee.

no dragon slash? use earthshaker

W/R is a great setup. Although I didn't use a hammer build.

Here's a link to the hammers on wiki. http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Hammer

Weapon skin choice is personal and other peoples' opinions don't count. But the Furious mod is almost required.

Most hammer builds are designed for PvP. But here is a thread with some builds from our Campfire warrior section. http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...php?t=10319709

Personally if I had to make the choice, I'd go hammer. A KD at the right vs the right foe is priceless, but really both are fine.

For a weapon I like the spiked war hammer.

Thanks guys, I'll go Sword until I can get some Elite Hammer skills/proper gear from Prophecies.