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shzukahime wrote on 2010-11-11 20:16
I don't know which one to use honestly. Anyone can give me some ideas?
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Shirayuki wrote on 2010-11-11 20:19
Hammer is a terribad solo endgame, and sword is really versatile and its way easier to be both defensive and offensive with a sword.
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Muckypup wrote on 2010-11-11 20:38
Quote from Shirayuki;212333:
Hammer is a terribad solo endgame, and sword is really versatile and its way easier to be both defensive and offensive with a sword.
Agree 100%. It is nice to mess around with, when running lower instances, just for the fun of watching things fly, but anything that puts up a good fight, it is just too slow.
This is just my opinion though, and I am sure there are folks that not only like the Hammer, but find it fits their playstyle perfectly. To each their own.
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BobYoMeowMeow wrote on 2010-11-11 21:08
go sword
The upcoming character Kalok uses a Giant hammer
which makes hammer Fiona pointless
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Teaberry wrote on 2010-11-12 02:02
The way I see it is:
Playing Fiona as a tank? Go sword.
Playing Fiona as a female DPS? Go hammer.
I went sword, but if you're not playing defensively stigma until you're satisfied.
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heretic304 wrote on 2010-11-12 11:28
The difference between Hammer and Sword, as said before is how defensive you want to be. If you like doing high damage numbers and getting a ton of knockdowns, with lots of superarmor frames, then Hammer is for you. If you like versatility at the cost of high damage hits, and the ability to block quickly, go with sword.
Another thing to note is that Hammer play requires a ton of passives in order to make it superior to sword play. Due to its slower attack speed and longer smash delays, the sword can often outdamage hammer through quick hits, but once you get Combat Mastery, Willpower Mastery, Critical Hits, and Smash mastery to max, Hammer really begins to shine. The reason is that Long Hammer is the only weapon in the game that can deal critical hits when using Normal attacks, whereas every other weapon is limited to critical smashes. As a result, when you have all those Masteries completed, your normal hits will give you added damage, and added chance to knockdown due to crits.
The general way of looking at Sword vs Hammer is the Sword is made for sticking close to a boss, and blocking and countering while throwing in a few hits here and there. As a result, this makes Sword a very good solo weapon. Hammer, on the other hand, must be played carefully. You'll either have to wait for the attacks to come to you to counter, or lead the boss into your hammer smashes and attacks. It makes for a more difficult solo weapon because of how inflexible it can be. Hammer really shines in party play when you are not the primary focus of the target. This allows you to dole out the harsh hits and super knockdowns and crits.
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shzukahime wrote on 2010-11-12 16:39
I see, thanks for the advise guys. =o
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Cucurbita wrote on 2010-11-12 16:54
I'm sticking hammer in the argument.
As someone who has fully stuck to hammer, I will be able to give a non-BAW SWORD argument.
Clearly, pros of sword:
1. Faster
2. Less delay, allows you to use guard faster.
These are more or less the only two advantage behind swords. Advantage number two is HUGEEEE, because you can play defensively and still deal sufficient damage against more aggressive bosses.
But the real problem behind the sword is that its weak. I mean, VERY weak, in comparison to the hammer.
When I first got the hammer, it was about twice as powerful as the sword. But since the sword was about twice as fast, it balanced itself out.
Because masteries tend to buff your damage by percentiles instead of a fixed number, the hammer's damage growth is much better than the sword.
I have rank 9 combat mastery. My hammer now does THREE times the damage of a sword with normal attacks. Smashes are the same as well. A fully charged stigma hammer rank F is the same as like 4 or 5 amaranth kick. Its a huge difference.
First of all, this makes trash mobs REALLY easy. You literally use your normal attacks and everything dies. For stronger mobs like vampires, just throw in a smash. Against large numbers of enemies, Butterfly Swing is GODLY as you can use it continuously and has a 360 AoE. Everything dies.
Second, this makes trash bosses REALLY easy. Hammers have much higher stun than the sword (though this eventually balances out because sword smash skills are not capped at rank A). Also, that damage isn't anything to laugh at.
Against harder bosses, like the Red Tyrant, a solo Fiona will indeed have a much harder time. But her DPS will not fall to swords as long as you don't take unnecessary risks. Players have a hard time guarding because they go for an extra hit smash when they should use that time to guard. Hammer Fionas are entirely capable of soloing harder bosses as long as your attacks are time well.
Overall, Hammer Fiona isn't best suited for solo gameplay against the harder mobs. But she can solo, and she can fight harder mobs. Her ability of course, shines the most when someone is there to distract the boss or knock it down for her, since a fully charged stigma hammer is more or less a big chunk of a boss's hp.
To balance out the amount of damage hammers do over swords, devCAT actually capped hammer skills at rank A. This will hopefully get uncapped later, but overall hammer damage is still much higher (the only thing that really gets balanced out is the stun time).
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Juno wrote on 2010-11-12 18:07
One should also consider than the Hammer's 1+smash does more damage than Swords 2+smash. In terms of getting to higher smashes faster, sword wins...but in terms of being able to hit a boss hard in a short opening, they're about even.
I've stuck to hammer since it came out and that 1+smash has quickly become my most used. It has a surprising target area and hits monsters behind me as well. The damage is nice and it's quick enough for aggressive bosses.
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Cucurbita wrote on 2010-11-12 19:21
Quote from Juno;213113:
I've stuck to hammer since it came out and that 1+smash has quickly become my most used. It has a surprising target area and hits monsters behind me as well. The damage is nice and it's quick enough for aggressive bosses.
Now if only devCAT would release a skill for it.
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Shirayuki wrote on 2010-11-12 20:42
I have rank 9 combat mastery. My hammer now does THREE times the damage of a sword with normal attacks. Smashes are the same as well. A fully charged stigma hammer rank F is the same as like 4 or 5 amaranth kick. Its a huge difference.
Stigma hammer had terrible damage when I saw a Fiona use it. She fully charged it and did ~50% of a bosses health bar, and I can Amaranth for around 25~40% of a bosses health bar.
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Juno wrote on 2010-11-12 21:13
Amaranth hits at a 0.18 percentile, Stigma has 0.4 when fully charged and 0.26 uncharged. The % increase from smash mastery further widens this gap.
You can see it all in
this thread.
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Cucurbita wrote on 2010-11-12 22:39
Quote from Juno;213282:
Amaranth hits at a 0.18 percentile, Stigma has 0.4 when fully charged and 0.26 uncharged. The % increase from smash mastery further widens this gap.
You can see it all in this thread.
Since this is % damage, and smash mastery also adds % damage, stigma only gets more and more powerful.
Of course, unless you max amaranth to rank 6. But the damage is still superior.
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heretic304 wrote on 2010-11-12 23:53
Amaranth only maxes out at A anyway, so for the most part Stigma will always outdamage an Amaranth. The difference is the fact that Amaranth can be canceled relatively quickly into a defensive, or retaliatory, stance, whereas the Stigma Hammer cannot be canceled till most of the animation is completed, often increasing the time between attacks if you even attempt to Heavy Stander Cancel it.
Stigma does, however, give super armor frames in quite a few places. During the charge, you get super armor from most normal attacks, and the Release gives you super armor on everything, including smash attacks. Amaranth, on the other hand, only gives super armor on release of the kick, which is half way through the animation, and that super armor only applies to normal attacks. A smash will interrupt an Amaranth, unless it reaches the point where the kick is released, in which case you get blown away. A Stigma getting hit during the Release animation just stands there and takes the damage without flinching.
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Andy-Buddy wrote on 2010-11-13 00:29
There are only 3~ Hammer Skills out right now, so I see no point in really having to make this decision.
Mostly I see this as a situational thing, and since the Hammer Skills have no physical difference, (As in an additional attack, less stamina use, etc.) then I'd just rank Sword Skills where your AP makes a difference. Hammer does fine with skills at rank F. (Except for Mastery.)