Hammer skills?

Old swordie w/mo here, recently starting fresh after about six months of vacation time - and very, very lost.

I decided to try something different from what I was used to, so I've gone with a hammer warrior - w/me, just to be silly. So far, I really like how she's handled.. but I've had a heck of a time trying to decide on a standard PvE skill set to use. A lot of these hammer skills seem pretty situational, and while I've liked a few of them, most just wound up performing nowhere near as nicely as they looked on paper.

Lately, I've tended to run with Berserker's Stance, Irresistable Blow, Counter Blow, Crushing Blow, Endure Pain, Sprint, Ether Feast, and Res Signet. It's worked so far.. but I get the nagging feeling that it's not as well as could be done. Belly Smash looks nice.. I don't have it yet, but I plan on at least trying it. I'm not sure on Elites, either - some look good, lots look underwhelming.

Any hammer experts have any suggestions? Any mesmer suggestions might be nice, but I think I'll be switching secondaries later on. My new warrior is level 19, if that makes any difference, and has access to Lion's Arch, Droknar's, and the Center - so skill availability isn't so much a problem.

For elites Backbreaker and Devestating Hammer are kind of the standard. Dev hammer links nicely with other attacks like fierce and heavy blow while backbreaker gives you extra damage and a nice long KD while have a longer charge time. I've never tried earthshaker in pve...might be fun. Basically I'd say you want some kind of chain that you can charge up and unleash like

Dev ham > Crushing Blow > Heavy Blow/Fierce Blow

With the additional skills

+ irr blow + attack speed up + Healing Sig + Watch Youself?+ Res

As for mesmer suggestions...There are many useful mesmer stances ( like mantra flame/lightning/ ele and physical res, etc) as for other things..not sure where they might fit in.

My standard PvE hammer build looks like:

Devastating Hammer {E}
Fierce Blow
Mighty Blow
Irresistible Blow
*Some sort of Stance*
Sprint
Healing Sig
Res Sig

Since you have a mesmer secondary I would try Physical Resistance as my stance or you can stay with Berserkers for an increased DPS.

I've found Renewing Smash + Dwarven Battle Stance works really well in both PvE and PvP for keeping a near constant interrupt. Also using Warrior's Cunning can work, but it has such a low recharge plus energy can become an issue.

After you keep interrupt (or they can run around in PvP) on the foe for the first 10s follow up with a KD, renew the stance and go for another 10s, then another KD. Worked quite well. Takes healers out of the picture so that your party can kill the more annoying targets (or versa).

personally i think youd love Forceful Blow on pve the most. it comes with a nice dmg boost, costs only 5 adrenaline, weakens (follow up with Heavy blow for knockdown and even more bonus dmg) and is all in all not that bad. Backbreaker seems like an overkill for pve, i mean, till u build up ur 10 adrenaline, there might be no mch use for it ^^. devastating is better, but still, no +dmg and a bit higher cost

Im trying to think a nice pvp chain with it, but its a bit hard :P

Thanks for all the suggestions so far. I probably should have said this at the start, but I'm shooting mainly for PvE. Eventually I'll wander over into PvP, but for now, PvE is the focus.

Yeah, agree on backbreaker, its a bit of overkill. Devastating is probably your best call imho. You still do a lot with it since its a hammer attack, and its basically the trigger for your massive damage in the rest of your chain. PLus its only 7 adren, less than other commonly used skills like eviscerate, final thrust, galrath and so on.

EDIT. I think all this is fine for a pve focused hammer. You still want to basically deal high damage through KD chains.

cheers

here's a good w/me Hammer build i ran once in an old guild.

W/Me Anti Monk
Hammer Mastery:16
Domination:11
Tactics:7(6+1)
Strength:rest+ minor strength rune

Skills:
1.Backbreaker
2.Hammer Bash
3.Crushing Blow
4.Berserker's Stance
5.Blackout
6.Arcane Thievery
7.For Great Justice
8.Ressurection Signet

only use blackout after the double KD or you'll kill your adrenaline faster than jeff foxworthy killin his own career with those lame redneck jokes

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