Ele/War Build Pros and Cons

[Sturmjaeger]

Hail and well met all. I picked up GW 2 days ago and haven't slept much... :)

I built a level 9 Warrior/Elementalist who uses a hammer. I was pretty successful as a loner with NPC party until Dessidra (sp?) Lowlands. Ouch. The philosophy I was taking was 1) I wanted a character who could solo when my friends weren't online and 2) thus I wanted tons of damage dealing, possibly some disruption and knockdown while the healers healed me. Some issues:

1) I am debating refunding my hammer mastery into swords or axes since hammers are slow and the skills (that I know of) for them are not so hot. They're also slow whereas swords and axes have penetration damage and swords can do % damage (thinking gash or sever) whereas hammers just hit hard a lot (which is good if you go with the "hit hard and they die quicker" instead of the more tactical death by a thousand blows"). I also don't like the fact that you have no shield using a hammer.

2) I also don't like how the energy pool for Warriors never goes up so I was considering switching to a Ele/War. This would give me more mana so to speak at the cost of strength bonuses.

I am open to suggestions for other combinations, because I was thinking about a Ele/Mes or Mes/War instead of the everpresent War/Mo combination.

Would this still help me solo? Thanks! I look forward to reading your responses :)

[Sturmjaeger]

Come on, please? Any help would be greatly appreciated...

[Valsalis]

Well IMO, if you are after PvE (player vs environment) I'd take E/W. You'll have a worse armor class, and will probably do alittle less damage 1 on 1, but you'll be a set back from the fighting (getting hit less, so armor matters alittle less), and able to suport your party/henchmen better. For an even better suport role you could choose E/Mo, or E/Me (monk/mesmer respectivly), as these classes would be more of an aid in PvE.
Now if you're talking PvP (player vs player) the question gets alot more complicated. Hanging back is alot less helpful as many players target the weaker casters first (or that's what i do atleast). An W/El can do ALOT of damage, and i'd go swords or axes if you go W/E btw, faster attack times which stacks with your flame blade/frost blade ability. As E/W you'll have problems getting your area of effect to land, which lessens the effectivness of a good portion of your spell line. But i have seen both W/E and E/W become successful with the right skill loadout and some experience.
P.S. Hammers have the greatest DPS normaly, with the slowest attack rate. That means if you have few to no weapon skills sloted they are the way to go, but if you'll be using alot of melee skills you may find yourself short on adrenalin regularly.

[Sturmjaeger]

Thanks for your reply- I was starting to think I was invisible. I think I might use a W/Mes to kill and counter next... or perhaps a Mes/W...