A decent PvP & PvE Hammer Chain

Just switched over from Axe to get a taste of the Hammer Set. I must admit, as disappointed as I was in its PvE performance, I was just as amazed at its superb performance in PvP. The few matches I played, we had the Monks on their backs a good portion of the time (though it certainly helped having a second Hammer-weilding maniac on our team, for sure) and shredded just about anyone we two focused on.

Anyway, I have been experimenting with a variety of skill combos and examining some of the builds posted here. I do have some questions though:

1. With my axe, I would take only 3-4 attack skills, but with my Hammer guy, it seems I need to bump that up to 5 attacks to really dish up some decent skill chains. Do others feel this way, too, or am I crowding my skillbar with too many attacks?

2. What is an effective chain of Hammer attacks using (one of) these two elite skills? I use Devastating Hammer and am working on getting and testing Backbreaker tonight. I have all the regular Hammer atttacks. It seems I just can't figure out the proper order to get a nice "flow" going...

3. Does anyone find it hard in PvE to detect when you actually knock certain creature types down? Often, with all the effects and crowding, I sometimes can't tell when I landed my knockdown. Anyone know of a good way to counter this wrinkle to improve my effectiveness?

All-in-all, despite my unfamiliarity I am really digging the hammer set.

Backbreaker's use won't fit like a jigsaw; it doesn't provide an excellent combo when used with another skill, but it's knockdown length is very nice. The only good pve combo I can think of is earthshaker+crude swing, but if you're ele or even monk secondary, you can effectively use aoe spells.

Yeah, but what is a good chain of attacks?

I think (am at work right now) I am currently doing: Devastating > Crushing > Mighty > Heavy

Then my Adren gets cleared, heheh, and I build it back up, using "Irresistable Blow" (or some other Energy-based) as a fill-in until it does. Is this an okay order?

Looks good to me -do you use stonefist gauntlets?

I use axe or hammer, use flurry to charge up adren. berseker is nice, but takes 30 sec to recharge.

for hammer, flurry, devasting, belly smash, heavy blow, aftershock, flurry, repeat.

for axe, flurry, penetrating blow, Eviscerate, axe twist, executioner's strike, flurry.

flurry lasts 5 sec, so wait for it to expire and use skills to do the heavy damage.

Quote:

Hellraisin, you do know that by not using crushing blow you're giving up a skill that does around 100 damage to most targets with normal health?

Heres the hammer chain I use

Devastating Hammer --> Crushing Blow ---> Heavy Blow --- Aftershock --> Bull Strike