Vindicator - Power Hammer Vindi

The community gave this build a rating, making it top-tier: Great

Focused on: Strike damage and Sustain

Designed for: PvP Conquest

Expansions required:

Difficulty:

Hard

This build was last updated on August 24, 2024 and is up to date for the October 8, 2024 patch.

Overview

A PvP Vindicator power build that's putting the recent Hammer buffs to good use. Capable of doing massive burst damage at any range while still retaining access to great mobility and plenty of defensive skills. Hammer Vindi can cover several different roles from roamer to sidenoder depending on how it's built.

Devastation difficulty: 3/3

Salvation difficulty: 2/3

Skill Bar

Hammer

Greatsword

Utility

Utility

Template Code

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Specializations

Specialization Variants

For higher survivability (at the expense of damage) you could try replacing Invocation with Salvation. This makes the build better at taking 1v1s instead of being just a roamer/teamfighter, but it's also a solid option for beginners and harder games in general:

Equipment

Hammer

Sigil

Sigil

Greatsword

Sigil

Sigil

Rune

Amulet

Relic

Equipment Variants

Sigils

• Sigil of Intelligence works great on both sets, but since legend swapping can also proc the sigils of your active weapon and sigils of the same name share a common cooldown sometimes a sigil proc can go to waste if you have it on both sets. If you want to replace Intelligence on one of the sets then Cleansing, Energy, Exposure and Exploitation are all viable picks.

Mobility improvements

The build doesn't have Swiftness access when played with the Salvation variant. This can be remedied in one of two ways:

• Rune of Lynx - you sacrifice a tanky rune for a more offensive one that also has some wasted stats (condi damage) but provides a passive 25% movement speed boost.

• Relic of the Wayfinder - trades the guaranteed crit procs of the Daredevil relic for a speed boost (25% in combat, 33% out of combat). Rune of Reaper could be considered with this, it's a lot like Scrapper but with a higher crit chance to ease the loss of the other relic. Assassin's Presence is another option on Devastation you might want to pick up for a crit chance boost.

• These do not stack, so pick either Lynx or Wayfinder but never both.

Usage

General

• Invoking a legend resets energy to 50, removes 1 condition, procs Song of the Mists, and could even proc the sigils of your current weapon set if they're no longer on CD. Swapping legends is basically the main resource management tool in the build - swap whenever you're out of CDs, low on energy, or need to cleanse. As the CD on legend swap is 10 seconds you want to plan ahead with your energy pool accordingly.

• Energy Meld (F2) is your other big resource management tool, restoring both energy and endurance, extending the time you can spend in a given legend without having to swap.

• Legendary Alliance Stance Vindicators have access to 3 legends in a way, but swapping between the Kurzick legend Saint Viktor and the Luxon legend Archemorus does not proc legend swap related traits and class mechanics.
  • You can swap between the two with Alliance Tactics (F3 by default).

• The build works just fine anywhere from 1v1s to teamfights.

• Spam Nomad's Advance for mobility while roaming between capture points. Alternatively if you're on Shiro Turn turn Impossible Odds on and off every 5 seconds in order to maintain permanent Swiftness through Rapid Flow.

Shiro

Damage, mobility, CC, minor sustain through evasion and condition cleansing

• Enchanted Daggers is a skill with life steal, which means the damage it deals bypasses any damage mitigation including Protection or even Endure Pain. That being said it still can't go through evasion or invulnerabilities such as Distortion. It's not a great healing skill, so most of the time it'll be used to boost your burst damage.

• Impossible Odds can augment any skill and increase your damage output significantly while active. It's quite expensive though, so don't maintain it for more than a few seconds at a time, use it only for bursts. Note that it's only single target damage, doesn't cleave.
  • Always stop maintaining this skill if you're about to hit 0 energy - turning it off sends it on a 1 second CD while running out of energy results in a 4 second CD.
  • Most Greatsword skills are rather slow, you only really want to use this for Eternity's Requiem (or autoattack spam with Quickness) before turning it off unless you really need to squeeze out all the damage you can in your situation. Works much better with Hammer autoattacks from range.

• Phase Traversal is great for initiating fights from range and immediately starting off with Quickness coupled with unblockable attacks. Quickness can be used to do burst damage or cleave downed targets better through auto attacking, while the unblockable attacks could seal the fate of enemies relying on blocking as their last resource option for sustain.
  • This is quite an expensive skill, so it's best used when legend swap is off cooldown and you can swap to refill your energy bar if necessary. Jumping into melee and blowing all your resources on damage could backfire so it's important to have a plan B.

• Jade Winds won't be used often because it exhausts most of your energy pool, leaving you defenseless and with barely anything to capitalize on the CC. This should only be used to set up kills for your teammates, or to interrupt very important channels like a rez or a stomp.

Greatsword and damage

• Both sets offer a mix of defense and offense. There's no true defensive set in the build, but between 2 sets and 3 legends you have plenty of defensive skills to cycle through when focused by the enemy team.

• Imperial Guard is great for blocking attacks under pressure and Phantom's Onslaught could be used not only as a gap closer but also a gap builder (just make sure you don't have an enemy targeted). These are not purely defensive skills though, their damage shouldn't be underestimated either. Imperial Guard hits particularly hard once it's charged up.

• Mist Unleashed and Eternity's Requiem are great AoE skills, but the latter deals more damage against single targets. Use these on CD.
  • People often dodge right after casting Eternity's Requiem. This allows them to pressure enemies while avoiding incoming attacks before delivering even more damage with Forerunner of Death.

• Scavenger Burst and Spear of Archemorus add a bit of extra reach to the build. The Spear has a huge delay so you could even precast it in a fight and line it up with other damage sources for burst damage, or burst targets while the spear is charging which forces them to choose between using their defensives to avoid either the spear or your other attacks.
  • Swapping legends doesn't cancel Spear of Archemorus.
  • Scavenger Burst applies Quickness which makes it a great setup skill for GS burst combos or Hammer auto spam.

• Nomad's Advance does a lot of damage on a very short CD, if your GS skills are not available this is a solid option for pressuring targets at a reasonable energy cost. Being a mobility tool is a nice added bonus and makes it more versatile.
  • When Field of the Mists is active, using this skill gives you Dark Aura which reduces incoming condition damage.

Hammer

• Field of the Mists is one of your best offensive abilities on Hammer. The projectile it shoots when activated already applies decent pressure on its own but it's also a dark field, which means spamming Hammer Bolts through it will create leeching bolts for extra damage and healing.
  • Spamming hammer autos through this field while Enchanted Daggers and Impossible Odds are active could do quite a lot of damage. It gets even better with Quickness from sources like swapping to Shiro in combat or using Scavenger Burst before you start attacking. Since the build has bad Fury uptime Scavenger Burst can be even more important here, especially with the Salvation variant.

• Consider dodging before using any of skills 2-4. All of these skills deal high damage in a single strike, making them synergize well with Relic of the Daredevil which makes your next hit a guaranteed crit.

• Coalescence of Ruin is rather straightforward, just something to use on CD. Cheap high damage skill, pick a direction and fire away.
  • Note: this can only be used on targets in front of you. Even turning your character slightly could cause this skill to fail sometimes.

• Phase Smash is the primary burst skill of this set, but that's not what makes this skill interesting. When you pick a location it physically moves your character to the destination before porting back, all while evading attacks. This can be used to trigger Dragonhunter traps from a safe distance, throw off the pathing of enemy movement skills, or even hit targets with Song of the Mists from 1.2k range.

• Drop the Hammer creates a spectral hammer at the target location that goes off after a delay, knocking targets down. Use this to set up other, slower skills.

Combo examples

Greatsword/Shiro melee

1. Enchanted Daggers
2. Eternity's Requiem
3. Dodge on top of your enemy
4. Impossible Odds - activate this while dodging, right before Eternity's Requiem starts dealing damage and maintain it for the rest of the chain
5. Phantom's Onslaught
6. Mist Unleashed

Defensive/counterpressure combo

1. Block attacks with Imperial Guard
2. Dodge
3. Hit them with True Strike (Vindicator) (IG's chain skill)
4. CC them and gain Stability with Reaver's Rage
5. Heal up with Selfish Spirit

Disengaging if you're getting chased

1. About face into Riposting Shadows for moblity, cleansing and to avoid damage while swapping to Alliance Stance
2. Nomad's Advance away from the fight, without a target
3. Use Selfish Spirit if you can afford it, swap to Kurzick and keep running if they're still on you
4. Optional Turn around once more and use Battle Dance to build more distance while evading attacks
5. Optional Phantom's Onslaught without a target to build even more distance
6. Heal up with Selfless Spirit

Sustain

• Salvation-only Dodging removes a condition via Eluding Nullification.

• Salvation-only Unyielding Devotion provides passive damage mitigation, you should aim for a permanent uptime. Rapid Flow is a big help here when playing the Invocation variant, taking care of 40% uptime on its own (assuming you proc it every 5 seconds). Impossible Odds is a great instant trigger for Rapid Flow even if you get caught in a stun. Another huge help is Regeneration from Balance in Discord.

• Salvation-only Resilient Spirit passively grants you barrier every few seconds for each boon you have (up to 5 boons).

• Alliance stance can be defensive on both of its legends, in fact one of the Luxon ones could be better for survival than any of the Kurzick ones: Reaver's Rage. The CC is great for taking pressure off you even against multiple opponents and the Daze is just long enough to cover a cast of Selfish Spirit. Even if the CC didn't work the skill itself has Stability to protect your casts.
  • This is quite an expensive skill, but could make all the difference if you're seriously pressured.
  • If you can choose between using Reaver's Rage and Awakening to break a stun, Reaver's Rage is usually the better choice.

• Tree Song is your best source of source of mass condition cleansing.
  • Tip: if you need to cleanse a lot of conditions and you're on Shiro, try to use Riposting Shadows first. This way you'll potentially get rid of a few non-damaging conditions, increasing the chance of Tree Song cleansing the damaging ones.

• Both Shiro and Saint Viktor have tools for evading attacks, these are Riposting Shadows and Battle Dance. Quite useful when you've got energy to spare but not enough endurance to dodge and you need to avoid attacks.
  • Both skills can be used to avoid attacks while Immobilized. While Battle Dance doesn't remove this condition, it will apply Resistance which allows you to move and ignore the immob.

• Both GS and Hammer also have skills that help you avoid damage: Imperial Guard and Phase Smash. Field of the Mists also deserves a mention but the Aegis only blocks 1 melee attack so it's still mostly used against projectiles.

• The Kurzick elite skill Urn of Saint Viktor offers strong on-demand damage mitigation when you're being pressured, but you CANNOT be healed while it's active! Use it for a few seconds to survive burst damage if you can't avoid it, then turn it off or swap legends as soon as you want to heal back up.
  • The passive is also a solid support skill that heals allies (but not you).
  • The active healing (which occurs when the urn is cancelled) scales with your HP - lower HP, higher healing. At low health this is a decent healing skill worth using.

Support

• While this isn't a support build, you still have access to a couple of decent AoE healing/cleansing tools. Even if you're using them for personal survivability you should try to share them with nearby allies for extra value.

• Tree Song, Selfless Spirit and Urn of Saint Viktor are the most important tools here, but you could also peel for allies with CC skills and block projectiles with Field of the Mists on Hammer.

Combo tools

• If your team is dropping fields before combat for either Swiftness or Stealth stacking, you should contribute by using Drop the Hammer followed by Phase Smash as these are blast finishers.

Top Streamers

• Twitch: Sukaya