How to MASTER the Thunder Hammer in Space Marine 2

[@TrueVanguard]

What's your favorite melee weapon in the game? Join the PATREON group here: patreon.com/user?u=83518521&Link Once you join, link up your Discord and you'll be granted access to the private Space Marine rooms. Message me with any questions on Patreon.

[@NoDebuffs]

Power Sword by far

[@bassplur12]

I think the Hammer is my favorite although the power sword is nice the hammer was the last one i used and i absolutely loved it! The Charged attack ground slam is amazing but the best is the dodge/sprint attack it is so overpowered, and i love it!!!

[@jaxlewis85]

A guy on Reddit did the testing and figured out the damage numbers. Pommel smash does sooo little damage that the 50% perk is pretty much worthless, far far far better to go up to get the 10% extra damage to majoris instead, as that effects everything including ground pound

[@ozymandias3540]

came here to say the same thing.

[@belzerkerdbeast5370]

@@ozymandias3540 me too😅

[@Ozymandias_SofaBear]

Like the other Ozymandias, I came here to say this exact thing three.

[@BevanWard]

true. still a good gap closer, and interrupt, though.

[@jammin1881]

The pommel smash is for tiddlers and staggering. The damages comes from gun strikes and follow ups.....

[@mr.god.complex]

I main assault purely because I can jump into the air, yell TASTE MY MIGHTY FUCKING HAMMER, and proceed to beat up aliens while shouting words that would get most celebrities 8 different kinds of cancelled

[@yokiyoky2678]

100% joy from the game Codex Astartes approves

[@Mr.Ford3350]

Great stuff. Be sure to press your key/button as hard as you can to do more damage

[@matthewball8147]

BROTHER!!!

[@darthkaton]

The Codex approves brother. 👍🏼

[@area12353]

Or yell GIVE ME THANOS

[@samuelludescher6978]

Playing the hammer actually taught me to play the game better. It slowed everything down so I could get my parry timing down, and really think about my next move instead of reacting. And the fun hidden combos in the hammer make it simple but with a high skill cap. Loving assault, now I don’t need anger management. My therapist agrees, for the emperor.

[@spacesloth9529]

What are these hidden combos?

[@samuelludescher6978]

@@spacesloth9529 It’s basically animation cancelling using parry. You can parry after a slam to get a faster reset. Parry also animation cancels literally every movement the assault does, whether you’re dodging or in the middle of any attack. This allows you to chain combos more fluidly while still being defensive minded. Learning where to anticipate enemy attacks and distance is key. It’s easy to learn and difficult to master, it’s pretty fun.

[@GhostCastle7]

6:04 I'm glad I'm not the only who thinks pommel smash shouldn't be called pommel smash. Should be like Hammer punch instead

[@Rubix176]

Another Tip: After the ground slam animation you can quickly click the parry button to cancel the laggy animation at the end of slam. Dodging straight backwards, then sprinting forward and doing a pommel smash is a great way to create some space and then get a free gun strike for armour

[@armi999]

That parry animation reset is key I feel.

[@douglaspurcell7506]

Nah bro "stuck step-Carnifexes" is wild

[@aziouss2863]

Hey to each his own man! We all have some questionable tastes. Like the dummy THICC Raveners squeezing you. Right? Right???

[@Danktual]

Kinda wild but I’ve actually been taking a major liking to the hammer, it’s just a fun melee that’s spammy

[@brandonlt6434]

Glad to hear someone else complain about the pommel smash name XD I thought I was the only one who noticed that lol

[@manhoenguy6104]

FYI would not recommend +50% pommel smash. When i tested it, it still did less damage than a light (did 23 to a nid devourer even with compared to 29 for a light with whatever perk set up i had at the time) and the damage numbers are wonky for minoris - like its not enough to kill a full health minoris but against a non-full health one it does too much damage that u dont always get gunstrikes when u need to - i'd rather just lower the negligible damage for consistency and i found with the extra 5% melee damage u can 2 swing minoris with lights rather than 3 (though i havent run any real tests against minoris - just my previous 2 set ups seemed to require 3 swings) also theres something weird with the double hit of the pommel strike, i think only the end part does damage (or maybe if u hit with both, 1 gets negated). I kept getting 23 damage whether i hit with both parts or just the last hit (couldn't figure out a way to just hit with the run up without hitting with the hammer)

[@atlasstoned]

yeah the pommel strike buff has no upside, the attack is for stuns or gunstrikes. killing minoris with it is a negative

[@Mr_Big_Head]

If your not doing gunfu with the pistol, your playing assault wrong. On a majoris after a charged attack spam pistol headshots and in between parries spam shots. You will get far faster executions.

[@kylelantan9220]

Apparently by definition pommel is a synonym for pummel? Also some two handed hammers appear to have what looks like a pommel on the top, so it may indeed be a pommel strike. But I agree the name sounds weird.

[@nefiran01]

You can animationcancel the heavy attack or light attacks with parry and then you can immidiatly charge aftershock. Its very effective.

[@Salence]

True, but canceling into a parry when the enemy is doing an orange unblockable is the one downside, which is the point of the comment about waiting.

[@nefiran01]

@@Salence It's a bit tricky but you can also animation cancel and then dodge

[@Ozymandias_SofaBear]

Someone on Steam did the testing - the damage on Aftershock isn't all that impressive if it damages only from the blast. The initial overhead swing is 50% of the damage. So we can't just spam Aftershock. It is more reliable to have more Ground Slams than Aftershocks.

[@Mr_Big_Head]

You should never be spamming light attacks. Ground pound chaining is where the assault shines. Even a group of 3-4 is worth it as you will get refunded 30-40% charge

[@jonnowocky8179]

Absolutely agree - I’ve had 8 consecutive charges (4 lots of 2) in a row today - basically limitless destruction as a wave kept piling through a narrow gap

[@Mr_Big_Head]

@@jonnowocky8179 think the most I’ve ever done is 6 and that was only because everything was dead by then

[@chef5588]

I played with an Assault dude earlier and he was the best player I’ve ever seen lol

[@RebelOfTheNorm242]

Did he perhaps stun locked the hive tyrant to bits and pieces? Were you playing either assault or heavy? Just asking.

[@jonnowocky8179]

That was probably me

[@eirikursigurdarson1998]

That was probably me

[@vietcong411]

​@@RebelOfTheNorm242 what combo stun locks the hive tyrant?

[@RebelOfTheNorm242]

@@vietcong411 blue parries into gun shot, or red dodges I to gun shot. Both stun him for roughly 1-2 seconds each. It’s nothing crazy, but a coordinated team can take heavy advantage of it

[@rudyv1972]

Thanks for the video. I've never played as a melee based player in a shooter before but picked it up as my buddy was a level 1. OMG this class is so much fun! I've quickly leveled him up (having an upgraded bolt pistol helped....alot) and he's becoming my main.

[@MarkovChains223]

"pommel" refers to a shape more than it does a function; thats why you have sword pommels as well as a pommel on a saddle (the knob-thing you hold), or a pommel horse in gymnastics (pommel here refers to the handles on the pommel horse). If theres a bulbous thing at the top of the hammer, striking with that could correctly be called a "pommel strike". That said, it's worth noting that the original intention of having a pommel on a sword was to keep the sword from slipping out of your hand (later, it was also used as a counter balance to distribute the weight of a sword better); you would think that a massive fucking hammer would have a similar, if not greater, need for a pommel on the handle to prevent it from slipping out of your hands, so it's still weird af that a "pommel strike" wouldn't be striking with the pommel on the handle. What they call a pommel strike, I think, would be more accurately/precisely referred to as a "head strike" or something to that effect, since you're striking with the head of the hammer (rather than its face).

[@dukeofterror]

And here I was looking for a thunderhammer guide. And here's your video greeting me 5 seconds after the thought and opening KZbin. Noice

[@daveadams6489]

Courage and Honour TV! I love the hammer on my Assault, it's so fun and really feels weighty and substantial

[@davidhamer7820]

Thunder Hammer is my favorite weapon in the game, closely followed by power sword. i levelled Bulwark first and they are great but the Assault is just so much fun. the combo of Hammer and Ground Pound gives me the giggles.

[@dquinn9482]

on a mace or hammer weapon BOTH ends of the haft are considered the pommel.

[@TrueVanguard]

if that's true i've never heard it but happy to learn something new

[@balintmiklosy9138]

At first I sucked with the hammer, but since it fits my power fantasy so well, I kept at it, and now I destroy ruthless with it (until a Neurothrope pops ofc). It really is a complete packgae if built right, just gets to killing stuff a bit slower than other classes, but once you master it, the methodical extreme violence of it is beautiful.

[@belzerkerdbeast5370]

how did you not speak of the "parry animation cancel" combos? in fact you can cancel all your melee attacks by the parry and then charge an aftershock or move or dive etc its really fun and strong to use specialy on the thunderhammer

[@DDmegadoodoo]

Good point on Pommel Smash, initially I ignored that perk because I never saw my pommel actually hit anything so I figured I wasn't naturally ever using the move. Had to look at the moves list to find out what move it was actually referring to. I still don't really bother with the perk because its not a move I spam and it doesn't seem to do that much damage to begin with. I usually go for one of the other perks that'll give me consistent damage. Thunder Hammer is def one of my favorite ways to play the game.

[@jonnowocky8179]

Yea other comments have tested and pommel smash isn’t worth it - go for the 10% majoris

[@Mr_Big_Head]

Act of attrition allows you to spam headshots after charged attacks and body shots in between parries. 10% increased dmg on 4-6 pistol shots is more dmg than 15% melee only on majoris.

[@atlasstoned]

BTW the description for “Patience Rewarded” is completely inaccurate. It activates only when under 30% HP, but you get an armor segment back instantly as soon as the attack contacts an enemy, even the initial sweep/swing. And you do not have to charge the attack at all for this to trigger.

[@atlasstoned]

it’s an extremely powerful perk and combined with armor reinforcement and the hammer’s ability to easily put groups in execute combined with ground pound, leads to the assault being extremely durable and nearly unkillable in melee

[@Invaders_Unite]

The Thunder Hammer is my favorite weapon for Eternal War the combos oh man. Even if you get blinded trust the combo. Ground pound animation cancel to charged atk is a true combo.

[@stephenchapko2257]

Thunder Hammer Assault is probably the most fun I've had in operations.

[@Rainstater]

Assault is my favorite class so far

[@gnusch3109]

You are mistaken „pummel“ is a part of a knife/sword but it is also referred to as an attack that disrupts your enemy, one can pummel an enemy full of arrows for example.

[@jdolansky1514]

I didn't take the 50% pommel smash perk and took the 10% against Majoris enemies instead. Also, I think the Assault class is the best one to utilize the "block" style since the innate perk boosts perfect dodging by 50%. Plus it gets a perk that refunds your jetpack dash when it's used to perfect dodge, *and* a separate perk that increases your damage by 25% when performing a perfect dodge with the jetpack. Plus you can take the perk that damages enemies along your jetpack dash trajectory. And the block style hammer gains 12 strength, a slight boost to speed, and no loss of cleaving potential.

[@jonnowocky8179]

Are you having much success running ops using block / dodge only with hammer? I like the idea but would love to know if it’s viable

[@ezekieldixon3753]

@@jonnowocky8179same question. I don’t feel like I’d do very well without a parry option.

[@Eskeletor_210]

@@ezekieldixon3753one time I accidentally Ran a block power fist and only realized my mistake towards the end of the op. I was wondering why I wasn’t getting gun strikes

[@jdolansky1514]

The only thing you lose is the ability to gun strike on a parry, but the ability to parry is still there, and the perfect parry window (I think) is smaller. But you can still parry. There's also no noticeable difference on parrying the Minoris jump attacks; the only difference it really matters in is on Majoris and higher level enemies which is where using the jetpack (or regular) dodge becomes important. I've been able to continue parrying the little guys every time. @jonnowocky8179 @ezekieldixon3753

[@diredier]

Thank you! was waiting for this specific video! :)

[@Vergil486]

Nice timing i was just done with leveling Tactical and decided to begin with Assault

[@federicobruschetta6930]

Thank you for this video, you helped me a lot.

[@feircy]

Hammer is love, hammer is life, just nuking swarms left and right and styling on majoris. Armor regen on any gunstrike is amazing too for beefier enemies and bosses

[@SoulGriever13]

That's not aftershock that you were showing off. That's ground pound. And you skipped the node that gives you an extra pound impact in your description.

[@aziouss2863]

I am happy to hear the OBLIGATORY Pommel rant. I would have been disappointed if i did not hear it.

[@Ozymandias_SofaBear]

I consider myself a prodigal son of the Assault bros. I gave up Assault after being disappointed with how different the Ground Pound is in Operations. But I came back after learning the hammer. My tip to new hammer bros - you cannot & must not start swinging away as your opening move when surrounded. The hammer is slow. You will always be interrupted, even by minoris. The opening move in any enemy engagement was my initial obstacle to maining the Assault. The way to start enemy engagement is from the edge of the fray with a pommel strike or in the fray after a Ground Pound. A big hammer may make you feel powerful but I say that the Assault has the weakest opening move among all the classes.

[@Emps4eva]

It hits like a bus and handels like one too. Very beefy, lots of impact, but good luck turning it around when you want to.

[@JayEmTee85]

The translators probably meant "hammerhead thrust" but hit a character description title limit

[@petercook438]

One thing to note is that your jump pack ground pound damage is affected by what melee weapon you’re using. It deals the most damage when using the thunder hammer as far as I can tell.

[@BenOtterson]

Makes sense, it’s way heavier than a chainsword and more powerful than a power fist(I think)

[@Soul-HunterVIII]

Yep, only with the Thunderhammer can you take out over a 1\4 or 1\3 of a Carnifex or Hive Tyrants health. If there is a Tactical with you, you can kill a Carnifex or Hive Tyrant in a few hits with the Thunderhammer. We had a huge wave while a Carnifax spawned and it was surrounded by Gaunts, I got off 4 ground slams in a row while the Auspex Scan was up and it was dead in Ruthless.

[@johnski4709]

Prefer the Power Fist on my Assault ;o

[@ceddysaid3432]

You can double up on the ground smash by holding attacks twice as long as you not starting with a pummel smash. It my favorit way to clear minoris ememy ground smash one side the follwo up with another on the opposite. I dont really see people using it

[@sontran5312]

you can start with pommel smash + light swing and still can chain the ground slam

[@МетоМинчев]

Please, do one for the power fist.

[@skuirrelTV]

Fun stuff

[@Demineaux]

we should be able to throw minoris enemies with the powerfist.

[@Verdac]

Could use a Master Class on the Combat Knife.

[@brandonpotts54]

People who hate on assault class are just clueless about how to play it. If you play assault class, how you are supposed to. It's an absolute blast.

[@sorina9130]

Personally my experience i dont really like the extra dmg on pmmel paired with the extra minoris it kills them sometimes when i need a quick armor segment

[@dreamforger7166]

I love running Bulwark with a Thunder Hammer!! Andit looks awesome together with the shield

[@Knightwingofbludhaven]

That can’t be done

[@dagame81790]

The base level hammer should have fencing parry timing to encourage people to play the class. Once you get Assault to 25 it's great, but man it's a slog in the early levels.

[@tobomargus5316]

So I get it right if understand that Assault class has the strongest gun strikes?

[@petemcc6459]

Got another question? What’s the secret of a longer hover in PVE? Seems o need to launch immediately after I launch.

[@RafterPigeon]

L3

[@NoDebuffs]

I just use the thunder hammer perks that give you +30% dmg against everything

[@momqabt]

While I get the potency of the hammer, I'm still a knife/chainsword simp😂😁

[@alandelgado2338]

6:59 did you just dodge while trying to do an aftershock????? Plus, what would it be better, pommel then ground slam or pommel then light then ground slam??

[@sontran5312]

pommel+light+ground slam is better because it can open to another slam chain (perk). Pommel + ground slam and you cannot chain another slam and get delay to do another combos

[@Scheckler27]

Yoooo: When showing and explaining the hammer perks the dam words from the game block the visual. I cant see if you skipped Tyranid Slayer node. This is a general game problem ofc, NOT you :). The dam words and "signs" block my sniper shots alot too which is terrible design. Maybe options I can turn off everything so I can see the dam targets.

[@JKS_Crafting]

artificer hammer - fencing seem awfully slow, better to go for the alpha balance one then yes?

[@TrueVanguard]

I mean you're welcome to watch the gameplay in the video itself. It's all on Ruthless with the Fencing Hammer and never once did the speed of the hammer cause me any problems.

[@JKS_Crafting]

@@TrueVanguard I watched twice. but im at home now so ive been testing around and fencing dont seem to suffer any problem with defense at all. ty

[@SageOfLimitlessHands]

How do you keep doing double gunstrikes?

[@xalxika]

perfect parry

[@SageOfLimitlessHands]

@xalxika nope. It only works when the gunstrike puts them in execution status and you have to hold the button.

[@shimmy_shimano]

does anyone have a video of the seismic chain perk in use? i swear there's no way of landing this

[@bernhardg6187]

Ironman stole Thors hammer

[@petemcc6459]

I got a dumb question. The perk that adds an additional strike for hammer. I tried a couple ways to activate it on my controller with no luck. Anyone explain how to in n00b terminology??? It says hold the attack button but nothing.

[@sontran5312]

light attack + heavy (hold button) + hold button. The key is you must start the chain with light attack, especially after pummel strike (don't hold the button after pummel strike)

[@neruba2173]

Get the fencing one and youre good. It gets automastered.

[@federicobruschetta6930]

Hello, I play on x box. There is a way to play together with your community ?

[@madkaris7224]

Does act of attrition refresh ?

[@TrueVanguard]

there is no cooldown on it as far as i know but you do have to refresh after the timer on their debuff is up, you can't refresh while the timer is active for them

[@swifterthekid4727]

i just hate that the melee class has been delegated to parry and use your gun anyway instead of just being able to survive inside of hords and beat the crap out of everything

[@xalxika]

Its 40k - the universe is dark, and you survive any way you can. thematically, having a gun to pop off on an enemy or two checks out in my book

[@swifterthekid4727]

@@xalxika i know but the class is marketed as the meleee class and the only build you can do is gun strike parry there should be a a team perk that lets yeveryone deal more melee damage or better stagger or something

[@slyllamademon2652]

I would not recommend doing the dead end perk, do literally anything else.

[@dulio12385]

Publishes guide on Hammer. Ruminates on meaning of the word... Pommel... clearly a man of culture. Also wierd problem with the hammer is that the light swings don't seem to reclaim Contested Health. Just putting it out there.

[@cixtos]

Bonk 🤣

[@patshmear10101]

Does the advanced combat include any animation cancelling?

[@mrdrebin123]

"Pummeling" is an action "Pommel" is a thing.

[@TrueVanguard]

yes im aware of that distinction. was there something i said that led you to believe otherwise?

[@MrJoker190]

Sorry but the hammer still sucks with chaos ennemies.

[@TrueVanguard]

Not even close to true

[@bassplur12]

Can i just join the discord for free to have people to play with on space marine 2 come on??

[@TrueVanguard]

There are dozens of free Discords for SM2 out there if that's what you're looking for. But they're sort of the wild wild west, poorly moderated and a mixed bag of great people and bad apples. Ours is actually moderated, and we pay server fees for better features. The $3/person helps compensate moderators for their time patrolling the Discord as well.

[@bassplur12]

@@TrueVanguard I just want to find a good of people that are nice and good at playing the game! I just dont like getting matched up with random people and they just wander off by themselves and leave you as a heavy surronded getting destroyed! I want people that know how to actually play there roles correctly! SO if you could point me to a good discord of nice gamers i would appreciate it!!