@Wanderer I really like the knockback too but it is not very reliable (only 33% chance). I really wish Hammer Mastery would buff those effects.
It’s better than round-swing, but worse than sword’s 3 space AOE attack. It’s better to use a sword if you are going for that, and axe if you want armor damage.
Hammer is supposed to be specialized in armor damage. As of now it feels neither specialized nor good enough to use. (talking about 2h)
Well, Swing is more accurate and has more HP damage, but less armor damage. Shatter is an amazing skill against orc warriors. 2-3 swings will strip their armor completely. Yes, Split Man (Axe) is a better skill than Smite (Hammer) when you look at the numbers. I wonder if the total damage written in the skill description for Split Man is for the initial hit (and we get extra on top of that) or if the damage to head is already included.
I would rather have more damage to body armor than have the damage split up between body and head armor.
If we assume that we get extra damage with the Greataxe, I would agree that the single-target attack of the Greathammer seems weak compared to the Greataxe. On top of that, Greataxes have higher base damage and lower effectiveness against armor than a greathammer. This has a significant effect on famed item stats:
Damage increase seems to be percentual. So a Greataxe will benefit more from a 20% increase than a Greathammer because of the higher base damage, concerning HP-damage.
Armor effectiveness also seem to be percentual, but additive. A Greataxe (140% base armor eff.) will benefit more from a 30% bonus (170%) vs. a Greathammer (200+30%). Axe will get a 21.4% bonus armor dmg where the Greathammer will only get 15% effectively.
I did not do the math on armor penetration but my guess is that both weapons would get a similar effect with not too big a difference.
