I’ve played mainly with the Chronomancer and Dragonhunter this weekend, and Dragonhunter was a really letdown for me.
The Longbow is awesome, that for sure is. The skill #5 has a too long CD though, even if it has all those bloated effects (AoE, pulse, big damage, circle of warding… I’d be fine with just the AoE + some condition like Vulnerability).
Traps are… weird, but since we’re mostly melee, should be easy to pull one or two off in a fight.
In my opinion, the main issue with the Dragonhunter are the traits.
[Virtuous Action]: Mixed feelings on this one, some prefer the old virtues, some the new… I’m in between, but I’d say probably the new ones are better.
[Piercing Light]: Condition damage, and with such a weak effect? No thanks…
[Soaring Devastation]: Good choice.
[Zealot’s Aggression]: Passive but excellent overall.
[Defender’s Dogma]: Hmm… really… might be sorta useless. What if I’m already on trigger point to my VoJ? We don’t really control “Oh I’m getting VoC proc in the next second and I’m exactly at VoJ so lucky!”
So it’s a really, really really weak/random effect.
[Bulwark]: Okay.
[Dulled Senses]: We have only a few knockbacks and they’re mainly weapon dependant: Hammer, Staff, Shield and the new Longbow. Outside of these, I can only think of Sanctuary. Okay but I’d need to be using one of these weapons, with one of these skills that grant these knockbacks (and they’re all on huge CDs except for the Shield) only for an extra CC…
[Hunter’s Determination]: Seems like a PvP trait. I don’t play much PvP, but seems overpowered.
[Pure of Sight]: Sigh… so this only works with Scepter (to be obsolete with Dragonhunter’s Longbow) and Longbow. Guardians are still a heavy melee profession so this feels half-wasted.
[Big Game Hunter]: Excellent!
[Heavy Light]: Another PvP trait, or to complement [Pure of Sight]. Okay I guess… but locked to the Longbow.
[Hunter’s Fortification]: Ah, excellent trait, but seems misplaced, grandmaster traits shouldn’t be huge, affecting how you effectively play the profession? This doesn’t feel like it.
What I mean about the lacking traits are:
- All the minors are… VERY minors. If I didn’t plan on using the Longbow or Scepter, I wouldn’t pick these minors AT ALL.
- Adept: The trait affecting the new skill type is really weak.
- Master: Weak all around, centered in specific weapon/skills and situational only.
- Grandmaster: One good trait, others don’t match the tier/profession.
Comparing with Chronomancer, one which I enjoyed greatly:
- Shields and Wells: Shields are okay, Wells finally fill the AoE Mesmers lacked in my opinion (for PvE). Participating in those mobs-dense events with lots of other players I had an easier time tagging mobs and didn’t felt like I was barely doing damage besides to a few targets.
- Continuum Shift: Awesome, simply awesome. Provides more skillful play from the players and rewards those efforts.
- Minor Traits: They all work regardless of weapon or build of choice. I’d pick any of them with whatever weapon I’d choose, since they’re all useful.
- Adept: One trait affecting the new skill type, others are okay.
- Master: Two useful traits, one trait to combo. All of them useful regardless of build/weapon.
- Grandmaster: Two excellent traits, working very nicely with whatever playstyle I pick, and another one that seem to fit a specific build (slow).
All of them are useful and none are specific to the Shield, I’d be fine using the weapons I always did with these traits and only the playstyle was enhanced somehow.
Guardian’s are still strong but besides getting the Longbow, I wouldn’t really pick Dragonhunter at all… I wish the traits had a bigger impact in the Guardian’s general playstyle and not focused on being a ranged focused profession, and they could synergize better with other specializations besides the Virtues.