Spellbreaker - Defense Hammerbreaker

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

Focused on: Direct damage, Control and Boon removal

Designed for: PvP Conquest

Difficulty:

TBD

This build was last updated on March 18, 2023 and is up to date for the March 19, 2024 patch.

Overview

A Spellbreaker PvP build which offers a strong mix of damage and CC, made to teamfight.

Skill Bar

Hammer

Greatsword

Utility

Skill Variants

Utility

For the optional slot:

• Bull's Charge - mobility, CC, even an evade frame for sustain.

• Banner of Defense - extra sustain and some group support.

Elite

• Battle Standard - more group support.

Template Code

[&DQIWPzM+PSunAAAAagAAAK0AAABxAAAAfAEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA=]

Copy Template Code

Specializations

Variants

• Guard Counter makes the build even more tanky but gives up Immobilize which is a valuable combo piece that could set up CC chains or bursts.

Equipment

Hammer

Sigil

Sigil

Greatsword

Sigil

Sigil

Rune

Amulet

Usage

Elite specialization basics

• Full Counter (FC) recharges your Burst skills Arcing Slice and Earthshaker. Always try to use it when you can refresh their duration, except if you're under heavy pressure in which case you can use FC purely for defensive means.

• Always try to make sure Full Counter goes off: briefly move into hostile AoE spells, tank Mesmer clones or Ranger pets, etc.

• FC is both one of the best defensive and offensive skills in the build as it blocks, evades, grants Stability, and performs an unblockable AoE CC attack when triggered.

• Full Counter costs adrenaline just like any other Burst skill.

General

• Settings: disable auto targeting, otherwise it'd be impossible to use skills like Rush for disengaging.

• Fast Hands reduces the CD of weapon swapping to 5 seconds, which keeps gameplay rather fast paced with minimal downtime. As a result you won't be auto attacking much unless you're cleaving a downed enemy.

• Despite its range, Bull's Charge is best used in melee to make it harder to react to.

• CCing a target removes a boon and deals damage/grants adrenaline via Loss Aversion.

• Versatile Rage grants you half a bar of adrenaline on weapon swap. This might not seem like a lot, but it's quite useful especially in situations where you're under pressure and don't have the adrenaline to activate Full Counter. Instead of scrambling to build some a adrenaline a simple weapon swap could get you there.

• All movement skills remove the Immobilized condition - list of movement skills in the build:
  • Greatsword: Whirlwind Attack and Rush. These two skills also provide excellent mobility both in and out of combat.
  • Hammer: Earthshaker
  • Rampage: Kick (Rampage), Dash, and Seismic Leap.
  • Utility: Bull's Charge

Damage

• Both sets are capable of doing a lot of damage, but Hammer needs a little more setup than Greatsword as most of its damage is in Fierce Blow.

• On GS your best attack skills are Arcing Slice and Whirlwind Attack. They are both quick skills on short CD.

• Bladetrail is more of a filler skill. It's good if you don't want to get into melee (low on health for example) or if you want to remove Aegis before going in. If it doesn't get blocked the blade will boomerang its way back to you, try to position yourself in a way that it hits the target on its way back too. This could even be used as a source of minor ranged burst damage if the target is just far enough for the blade to pass them right before it starts to return, hitting them twice in 1 second.

• Rush is mostly just a mobility tool, the damage on it isn't bad but the pathing of the skill is (not to mention it has a very obvious tell).

• Hundred Blades is rather hard to land against moving targets and isn't really a priority. It's good for cleaving downed enemies who are being revived or vs targets sitting in a CC, but Arcing Slice should take priority even then. If the target's getting out of the CC soon it's usually better to land a Whirlwind Attack (or Arcing Slice) on them while you still can rather than getting another strike of HB off.

• The 3 best skills to benefit from Sigil of Intelligence are Earthshaker, Fierce Blow and Hammer Shock. Fierce Blow hits harder if the target is CC'd, so if you use your skills in this order Earthshaker already sets it up perfectly. Of course any other CC works, even Bull's Charge.
  • Hammer Shock is the only true ranged skill on this set (not counting Earthshaker which is a melee leap). The Cripple makes it easier to catch up to fleeing targets so it has some value other than just doing great damage.

• No Escape procs an Immobilize whenever you stun or daze a target. This is more relevant on the daze, as dazed targets could still move freely if it wasn't for this trait.
  • No Escape turns Full Counter into a great setup tool for burst chains, allowing you to immediately go on the offense even if you were being pressured. Arcing Slice and Earthshaker are both great followups for the short immob.

• Backbreaker is the best CC in the build. It also lasts longer against targets with Weakness and recharges Fierce Blow. Fierce Blow itself inflicts Weakness, so going FB ⇒ BB ⇒ FB is the dream scenario, but sometimes you may want to go straight to BB after an Earthshaker to prevent your enemy from avoiding your Backbreaker as it has quite an obvious and long cast time.
  • Thanks to Cull the Weak Earthshaker also applies Weakness, making it an even better combo piece for it.

Burst combo examples

Hammer to GS:

1. Full Counter to proc the Immob from traits
2. Earthshaker
3. Backbreaker
4. Fierce Blow
5. Weapon swap to GS
6. Arcing Slice
7. Hundred Blades

GS to Hammer:

1. Bull's Charge
2. Weapon swap, Sigil of Intelligence now makes your next 3 attacks crit
3. Fierce Blow
4. Backbreaker
5. Fierce Blow

Conditon cleansing & general survival

• Brawler's Recovery and the Revenge Counter empowered Full Counter will be used to manage condition levels before resorting to mass cleanses.

• Mending cleanses 5 conditions and should be used pretty much on CD, assuming you're missing a large chunk of health or need to deal with conditions.

• "Shake It Off!" (SIO) is both a stun break and a source of condition removal for you and your team.

• Bull's Charge is great if you want to run away from pressure as it can build quite the gap while providing an evade frame.

• Endure Pain is the best defensive skill you could have against direct damage but it has to be used preemptively (unless you used it to break stun). Keep in mind that you're still vulnerable to condition damage, CC, and even life steal from skills such as Enchanted Daggers!

• Even Earthshaker could be used defensively as a ground targeted escape tool. A mobility skill is never a bad thing to have for kiting, and with this you could even jump over gaps in the terrain, forcing some specs to go around or blow CDs.

• Whirlwind Attack can be used as a substitue for dodging if you're out of endurance or want to keep the target pressured while evading their attacks. It's also a mobility skill, so you could even try to Whirlwind your way behind a pillar if you suddenly need to get defensive.

Rampage

• Rampage is what you use when you quickly want to burst/CC a target, or desperately need mobility to either chase down someone, or run away from a fight.

• CC skills barely do any damage anymore, most of the damage in this form comes from autoattacks and Dash.

• Throw Boulder is a popular opener, allowing you to CC targets from range and then either follow up with Dash for burst damage or Seismic Leap to keep the CC chain rolling.

Top Streamers

• Twitch: Boyce

• Twitch: Keyba

• Twitch: Mijo