Guild Wars 2

As far as my opinion is concerned on the issue is that I am already a bit biased right out of the gate (name wise). Since day one when they announced the “Elder Dragons” would be the main antagonist of GW2, I was already rolling my eyes. Mainly because Arena Net were setting themselves to somewhat walk away from the “typical fantasy tropes.” Even now these “Elder Dragons” still don’t feel like a compelling or unique antagonist. It’s like when they said they had to dumb down the human lore in GW2 because they wanted all the races to have equal footing. Take a wild guess which race take took more of the spotlight then they deserved; on top of the terrible writing that continued even into the post launch content.

Anyways the sad part you have to realize it’s that this name is “official” now. They are probably already using it in the story in the lore in some way to justify this name. Which will probably stick from now on. Especially if they had any of their payed for voice actors mention this specialization by name even once.

Hey, but you know what? At least the Guardian can be better then the Rangers in one department now. When this specialization class comes out they will be the second long bow class that won’t have to rely on idiotic pet AI behavior from screwing them over.

I think the lesson ANet might learn here is that many people don’t like compound words made up of fully english standalone words. Chronomancer would get kittened on too if they called it a Timemage.

As for me, Dragonhunter is visually displeasing. I have no problem with Dragon Hunter. But the word mashup doesn’t flow well. Also it’s a mouthful to say. We’re all gonan end up calling this a “hunter” I’m sure.

This article has a few screenshots I’ve not seen in other articles, showing skill particle effects.

http://massivelyop.com/2015/05/07/guild-wars-2-unveils-the-guardian-elite-spec-dragonhunter/

I am not exactly enjoying how much people are whining about the new specialization reveals or anything else that has to do with HOT in that matter. We should be happy we are getting info on it anet doesn’t even have to show us specialization they could just make us wait till expac is out and we have to figure it out ourselves. I trust anet will put out some great stuff I have no doubt about it, but with players complaining as much as they do it would make me not want to show you guy anything if I had that power.

Thank goodness you dont have that power. Whining is a good things for the devs too, as it allows them to get feedback on things, sure it might not sound to great, but it is feedback.

Well, put simply, people are hating because this is not “GW2”.

You have to admit some of the new names and stuff are pretty childish. I understand that developers don’t have alot of resources, but we all know that this is not the kind of content that the original game (and GW1) were built on.

Its almost like the LS season one team was put in charge of the expansion.

I mean Guardian is a defensive/support version of a Warrior yet it get a very offensive name.

Yes I know with the changes in the past 2 years, a guardian can out damage warrior and in last months we see warriors to be better at support, I won’t talk about that.

But how the game and through the names of professions gives you a feeling about them and their play style.

Guardian name is obvious, Guard/Support your allias.
Warrior in the opposite, gives the feeling in the face loose gun n smack kitten.

So if the Guard/Support profession gets the name “Dragon Hunter” a pretty “offensive” name, then what does his brother the warrior gets ? Dragon Slayer, Dragon Eater

Dante.1763:

Thank goodness you dont have that power. Whining is a good things for the devs too, as it allows them to get feedback on things, sure it might not sound to great, but it is feedback.

Feed back is good if it is done in the right way rather than just complaining about it without giving reason why it doesn’t sound acceptable.

No originality…

Don’t we already have enough dragon theme’d stuff in MMO’s, did you really need to name a specialization after it. Also does no one else see the clear re-skin on ranger skills used in the preview of guardian LB.
(Cough Cough) Swoop, barrage, hunters shot.

Frightlight.3796:

Feed back is good if it is done in the right way rather than just complaining about it without giving reason why it doesn’t sound acceptable.

People have provided feedback on that aspect of the name.

Frightlight.3796:

Dante.1763:

Thank goodness you dont have that power. Whining is a good things for the devs too, as it allows them to get feedback on things, sure it might not sound to great, but it is feedback.

Feed back is good if it is done in the right way rather than just complaining about it without giving reason why it doesn’t sound acceptable.

Most of the whining though does give feedback, especially dealing with the new Guardian specialization. It all comes down to to things. 1.) the name is horrible for the class(Which i agree with). 2.) “traps” are at the moment useless.(Im not sure on this, i dont use them…but i only play in PVE).

SuicideFall.3697:

No originality…

Don’t we already have enough dragon theme’d stuff in MMO’s, did you really need to name a specialization after it. Also does no one else see the clear re-skin on ranger skills used in the preview of guardian LB.
(Cough Cough) Swoop, barrage, hunters shot.

every skill is a reskin.
id love some new animations
(charachter animations, not effects)

but devs seem to be insanely stingy when it comes to animations for charachters (not just in this game)

How about Warmonk? War Monk?

That has a much more classifiend and fitting theme, and you can work in traps and pro-active corporeal nature of this specialization rather than Dragonhunter

Dante.1763:

Frightlight.3796:

Dante.1763:

Thank goodness you dont have that power. Whining is a good things for the devs too, as it allows them to get feedback on things, sure it might not sound to great, but it is feedback.

Feed back is good if it is done in the right way rather than just complaining about it without giving reason why it doesn’t sound acceptable.

Most of the whining though does give feedback, especially dealing with the new Guardian specialization. It all comes down to to things. 1.) the name is horrible for the class(Which i agree with). 2.) “traps” are at the moment useless.(Im not sure on this, i dont use them…but i only play in PVE).

Most of the whining is irrational. Arguing over whether the name is horrible or not, is like arguing if pizza is better than a burger in terms of taste, particularly with the description of what the spec does. As for traps, this implies that Anet is not doing anything to skill balance. Like people saying the new specs or certain traits are going to be useless in HoT, because they have no place in the current dungeon meta.

Genesis.8572:

Sorean.5379:

You guys must at least watch the video before you say something about the name.

It is a trapper.
He is a hunter.

“Zealot”,“Paragon” and the likes dont fit him. Dragonhunter is perfect.

‘Avenger’ or ‘Crusader’ for the more pro-active ‘Guardian.’ ‘Dragonhunter’ is neither inspiring, evocative, nor imaginative as a name.

Avenger, and Crusader are some of the most unoriginal, and unimaginative names one could possibly come up with for a holy warrior in an extremely popular genre that is filled with holy warriors. No fantasy world goes without mentioning some variation of Avenger, Crusader, or something involving a name originating from historical events related to Judeo-Christian influences.

Roles might be less restricted with upcoming trait changes. Anything dragon is probably a no no for warrior, I expect War+engi for maybe Warlord or something like that.

Dante.1763:

Frightlight.3796:

Dante.1763:

Thank goodness you dont have that power. Whining is a good things for the devs too, as it allows them to get feedback on things, sure it might not sound to great, but it is feedback.

Feed back is good if it is done in the right way rather than just complaining about it without giving reason why it doesn’t sound acceptable.

Most of the whining though does give feedback, especially dealing with the new Guardian specialization. It all comes down to to things. 1.) the name is horrible for the class(Which i agree with). 2.) “traps” are at the moment useless.(Im not sure on this, i dont use them…but i only play in PVE).

bit off topic but i’d just like to chime in here and point out that one of the larger ranger builds currently (well maybe not right now because of certain bugs? not sure if it’s been fixed) is a trapper build. (at least in wvw roaming, it’s power lb/gs rangers, and trapper rangers)

granted some traps, e.g. thief traps ARE pretty useless, from what i hear

Alasteir.7031:

Avenger, and Crusader are some of the most unoriginal, and unimaginative names one could possibly come up with for a holy warrior in an extremely popular genre that is filled with holy warriors. No fantasy world goes without mentioning some variation of Avenger, Crusader, or something involving a name originating from historical events related to Judeo-Christian influences.

That’s how I feel about the Dragonhunter. The benefit of the name ‘Avenger’ or ‘Crusader’ is that they are broad enough to encompass other archetypes and concepts than the far more narrow Dragonhunter allows.

PS: ‘Crusader’ already exists as a rank within the Vigil. While I admit that works against its use as the specialization name, it also works against your premise that ArenaNet would want to avoid using such historically contentious terms.

ITheNormalPerson.9275:

bit off topic but i’d just like to chime in here and point out that one of the larger ranger builds currently (well maybe not right now because of certain bugs? not sure if it’s been fixed) is a trapper build. (at least in wvw roaming, it’s power lb/gs rangers, and trapper rangers)

granted some traps, e.g. thief traps ARE pretty useless, from what i hear

Thats why i put in that i only play PVE ^^ i was thinking there was a large trapper build for WVW but i wasnt sure! Thanks for that though!

Sagat.3285:

Anything dragon is probably a no no for warrior

of course no. Made these names as an example.

Its just that my point was “Drahonhunter” the name we get for a support profession then what about his offinssive brother.

Seeing how shoutbow warriors becoming a thing then i Hope its not Field medic

Juba.8406:

Sagat.3285:

Anything dragon is probably a no no for warrior

of course no. Made these names as an example.

Its just that my point was “Drahonhunter” the name we get for a support profession then what about his offinssive brother.

Seeing how shoutbow warriors becoming a thing then i Hope its not Field medic

That’s exactly why the name is offensive and focused on range,condition damage and soft CC that’s what they lack, I’m pretty sure zerk warriors will make a comeback even in conquest same for bunker/support guard. It should be easier for them to balance with upcoming trait changes.

https://youtu.be/UsnRQJxanVM
Bit of a shame. Would have been hilarious if it was.
I’ll still make Skyrim jokes about it though.

The hate and whining is a bit crazy. While I’m not thrilled with Dragonhunter, anything about it to be honest, it doesn’t upset me enough to rant and rave about. The names a bit silly, the skills for the bow seem a bit mediocre and traps just don’t sound fun. BUT, you don’t have to use it. And the new virtues sound kind of fun. We will get more info from the Ready Up Friday.

phys.7689:

SuicideFall.3697:

No originality…

Don’t we already have enough dragon theme’d stuff in MMO’s, did you really need to name a specialization after it. Also does no one else see the clear re-skin on ranger skills used in the preview of guardian LB.
(Cough Cough) Swoop, barrage, hunters shot.

every skill is a reskin.
id love some new animations
(charachter animations, not effects)

but devs seem to be insanely stingy when it comes to animations for charachters (not just in this game)

yeah, that’s pretty much what i meant. The animations associated with the skill, they’re an exact copy off of rangers. It’s almost a testament to how much effort they put into guardian spec.

Eggs.3142:

Arewn.2368:

Eggs.3142:

Chronomancer literally means a Mancer of Chrono, a Practicer of Time. A Time Controller. I just, im really agast at how there’s so much outrage against the timplicity of Dragonhunter when Chronomancer was the same thing. Is it just because its Latin? Dracovenotar sounds wierder to me.

“mancer” is typical suffix for different types of magic practitioners. Like necromancer, pyromancer, etc.
Chronomancer feels like a “proper” name as a result. Where as using a two word descriptor like “dragon hunter” sounds a little uninspired.
It’s honestly not a big deal, I just think they could have found something more appropriate and better sounding.
Like if necromancers get shouts and are called “Banshee”, that would be cool. Thematically appropriate and speaks to what they do/what skills they got. But if they were called “Voice commanders”, no matter how appropriate of a descriptor it is, it doesn’t sound like a good spec name.

Imagine if warriors were called “Weapon Fighters”, engineers were called “Gadget Users”, mesmers were called “Illusion mages”, etc.
They all work as names, it’s just not a very appealing naming convention to follow.

All of this is just a language problem. We just happen to be on the lesser side this time in English. Like to me, an English speaker, the word Hunter sounds lame. But the word Jager sounds AWESOME. Its got a soft j (and an umlaut if i could remember the code for it) But to a German speaker, Jager might sound pedestrian, and they might prefer Hunter for the exotic englishyness.

Same reason people get tattoos in Asian languages. Get truth written on your arm and its lame. Get truth written in Kanji and you think its cool.

Are you sure it says “Truth” ? Quite often it actually says “stupid” or “eggs” or “table” etc

ReaverKane.7598:

kitten … Traps? Why Traps?
I was kinda excited about the whole longbow thing, but traps? Even the heal is a trap? So i have to sit in the trap wait for someone to come near me so i can heal? Kinda reminds me of getting the enemy heals on ARAM in LoL. Sure you get the heal, but more often than not you also get more damage than what you healed.
On paper its a really lame concept. I mean, at this point, although my first character was a Guardian, i play mostly on my ranger, and i can’t remember the last time i used a trap.
I’m going to wait for the Stream though.
Love the virtues… I mean come on, why not shouts? Traps, Really?

And honestly, the name? Could be Booger Picker, i wouldn’t care… But Traps?

Booger Picker is an objectively better name than Dragonhunter.

Mursaatpuncher?

Bubbleblower

Big McLargeHuge

Change the name please. A profession name should give people an idea of how it works. Ranger use bow, Chorno use time, Thief use dagger etc.
Dragon Hunter tells you nothing. . . It does not give you the impression that it is a backline support at all.

I was one of the early people that criticize the dragon hunter Elite specialization with its Trap theme in nature.

but i have a little faith. ANET not going to throw us under the bus, Guardians. I trust them more now after the way they handled the “Trait Situation”.

I am sure Dragon Hunters and their traps will rock.

i am starting to feel the name as well. Cant wait for the full reveal.

#Cheer

Exactly, change the name. We all hunt Dragons.

Trap is not the problem if implement well, but the name is implement wrong for sure.
ANET is not what it used to be, not sure if it will listen anymore.

Ralanost.8913:

The hate and whining is a bit crazy. While I’m not thrilled with Dragonhunter, anything about it to be honest, it doesn’t upset me enough to rant and rave about. The names a bit silly, the skills for the bow seem a bit mediocre and traps just don’t sound fun. BUT, you don’t have to use it. And the new virtues sound kind of fun. We will get more info from the Ready Up Friday.

Hell it being kind of mediocre might be preferable, if they’re super OP like the Chronomancer seems to be, you would feel forced to take it, whereas it becomes a choice if the options are on Par with the core.

Frightlight.3796:

I am not exactly enjoying how much people are whining about the new specialization reveals or anything else that has to do with HOT in that matter. We should be happy we are getting info on it anet doesn’t even have to show us specialization they could just make us wait till expac is out and we have to figure it out ourselves. I trust anet will put out some great stuff I have no doubt about it, but with players complaining as much as they do it would make me not want to show you guy anything if I had that power.

Over the last 10 years of existence MMO idustry ppl could learn one simple rule – do NOT trust developers or distributors.

Really? ‘Cause Hunter kinda screams traps and bow as tool of their trade to me. And since I’ll be turning those tools on dragon-minions…

Alasteir.7031:

Dante.1763:

Frightlight.3796:

Dante.1763:

Thank goodness you dont have that power. Whining is a good things for the devs too, as it allows them to get feedback on things, sure it might not sound to great, but it is feedback.

Feed back is good if it is done in the right way rather than just complaining about it without giving reason why it doesn’t sound acceptable.

Most of the whining though does give feedback, especially dealing with the new Guardian specialization. It all comes down to to things. 1.) the name is horrible for the class(Which i agree with). 2.) “traps” are at the moment useless.(Im not sure on this, i dont use them…but i only play in PVE).

Most of the whining is irrational. Arguing over whether the name is horrible or not, is like arguing if pizza is better than a burger in terms of taste, particularly with the description of what the spec does. As for traps, this implies that Anet is not doing anything to skill balance. Like people saying the new specs or certain traits are going to be useless in HoT, because they have no place in the current dungeon meta.

Okay, could you explain in which way the new profession screams “dragonhunter” for you?
Aside from his name and his equipment he gets through the traitlines?

I mean, Angel/Birdwings, holy arrows and traps scream dragonhunter so much, right?
I would agree with hunter, since the playstyle is around it, but calling it specificaly a dragonhunter is a bit of a stretch isn`t it?

That is the problem. Nothing more. Maybe it is stupid, but them going with the name, without much background, ties or anything isn`t better.

The story about Braham and Eir? No proof. Just something someone said could happen. In the future.
Any other dragonhunters around? Yeah, called Vigil or the Pact.
We don`t even have any Norn calling themselves dragonhunters.

In the end it is just a name. Yes. Just a name that doesn`t make a lot of sense in the grand sheme.

What I’m hoping for is a longbow type that is akin to the Warrior’s setup and delivery of a big hard hitting attack.

I do not want a “deal x damage when y distance form the target” on the 1 skill…..i HATE that on LB Ranger and GS Mesmer, especially GS Mesmer, as rangers have the LB 4 skill to push them away, Mesmers have their 5 skill, but it doesn’t really push back that far

Thatkitten Rat.1236:

Hell it being kind of mediocre might be preferable, if they’re super OP like the Chronomancer seems to be, you would feel forced to take it, whereas it becomes a choice if the options are on Par with the core.

But that’s the problem Chronomancer looks so interesting! Dragonhunter doesn’t feel so as if it matches up very well. So Chronomancer seems like it will be a must take for Mesmers and Dragonhunter would be more of a matter of which set of virtues you like better.

DestinyEdge.2046:

Change the name please. A profession name should give people an idea of how it works. Ranger use bow, Chorno use time, Thief use dagger etc.
Dragon Hunter tells you nothing. . . It does not give you the impression that it is a backline support at all.

What does a hunter do?

CureForLiving.5360:

Thatkitten Rat.1236:

Hell it being kind of mediocre might be preferable, if they’re super OP like the Chronomancer seems to be, you would feel forced to take it, whereas it becomes a choice if the options are on Par with the core.

But that’s the problem Chronomancer looks so interesting! Dragonhunter doesn’t feel so as if it matches up very well. So Chronomancer seems like it will be a must take for Mesmers and Dragonhunter would be more of a matter of which set of virtues you like better.

I don`t think so.
I actually love the concept of the dragonhunter.
I mean, the Mesmer in general is all about being grandiose and full of effects.

The guadian hunter is designed to be a focused attacker and I really love the execution so far.
I mean we have only seen the “new stuff”, but think a bit further. You still have your second weaponset. You are not bound to your bow.
Now you can trap the enemy in distance, even do significant damage there maybe and then litteraly swoop in and go into close combat and do your thing.

I mean. It`s like compairing a sniper and an soldier.
The sniper will always sit in the back and shoot single shots. Nothing “special”.
The soldier is on the front, dodging bullets and shooting wildly.
He looks bigger, but the sniper is as essential and can be as astonishing as the soldier (if not we wouldn`t have that many sniper movies )

BrotherBelial.3094:

secondly, there is nothing I like about it

The virtues seems nice. I might take dragonhunter, run more or less the same spec and build as now and just use the virtues (since I find that at present guardians virtues seem more like something you don’t want to use).

velmeister.4187:

Where is the damage to kill a dragon? Wait… are we talking about zhaitanesque fights?

Dragonhunter not ElderDragonhunter :P

Ragnarox.9601:

Guardians always get useless stuff.

Um… I’d argue that necros tend to get the short end of the stick more often than not.

Windsagio.1340:

my problem is more, you take hte elite spec, all normal skills, and use a hammer or GS, and you’re guardian+ no matter what.

So far (and yeah others have said it), there’s an ongoing problem where the elite specs seem just better than the standard.

Which is an interesting discussion to have. Do you want specialisation to change the mechanics to an extent (almost like adding a new class!) or do you want them to give a bit more versatility to current professions (like is the case with the dragonhunter).
I think a lot of players have actually been hoping that specialisation would be ANet’s answer to profession bloat.

lordkrall.7241:

^ They do have a live-stream tomorrow showing it, which will probably give us a bit more details.

Hope so, at least I hope they’ll explain the theme around which they designed (and how that fits into dragonhunting).

Tzozef.9841:

How about Warmonk? War Monk?

Long bows don’t really fit. That might be the problem with specialisations, since they have to give each profession a new weapon I think some professions were like “ok which one of these weapons they don’t have should we give them and what exactly are we suppose to do with it!?”
I think if they allowed for different weapon abilities for current profession weapons that would have given ANet more design freedom.

DestinyEdge.2046:

Change the name please. A profession name should give people an idea of how it works. Ranger use bow, Chorno use time, Thief use dagger etc.
Dragon Hunter tells you nothing. . . It does not give you the impression that it is a backline support at all.

This more than anything. I don’t mind Dragonhunter, I do mind that the specialisation doesn’t inspire the image of a dragon hunter.

Nike.2631:

Really? ‘Cause Hunter kinda screams traps and bow as tool of their trade to me. And since I’ll be turning those tools on dragon-minions…

So a more apt name would be Dragon Minion Trapper?

lordkrall.7241:

What does a hunter do?

Hunt.

Yeah I actually like the mechanics of the new specialisation. Makes sense for the Guardian to be a bow wielding angel of vengeance that leaps around with seraph wings. If only the name was something guardian or holy themed, and one that could be universal to all areas of the game besides PVE dragon story based combat. Which for me I play once the way through and rarely ever again.

CureForLiving.5360:

Hunt.

Exactly. Often using bows and traps.

PookieDaWombat.6209:

My biggest worry is that this will be a very dps unfriendly spec and that bothers me a lot.

Please allow me to direct your attention to the wall.. and the writing on it. They are trying to increase the relevance of conditions (new stack limits). They are trying to make control not just relevant but essential to optimal play (break bears). They are trying to make people consider healing to have some value (new outgoing heal traits). They’d like for Support to mean more than “Stack Might pls!”

The game is overrun with DPS specs. It’s awash with them. I doubt ANY of the first wave of Elite specialization are going to focus on bringing us yet another Power-based damage dealer.

lordkrall.7241:

CureForLiving.5360:

Hunt.

Exactly. Often using bows and traps.

You and your kitten logic!

Kidding, it’s funny how these crybabies complain about Dragonhunter not making sense while suggesting something out-of-place like warmonk. Just lol.

Arewn.2368:

Eggs.3142:

Chronomancer literally means a Mancer of Chrono, a Practicer of Time. A Time Controller. I just, im really agast at how there’s so much outrage against the timplicity of Dragonhunter when Chronomancer was the same thing. Is it just because its Latin? Dracovenotar sounds wierder to me.

“mancer” is typical suffix for different types of magic practitioners. Like necromancer, pyromancer, etc.
Chronomancer feels like a “proper” name as a result. Where as using a two word descriptor like “dragon hunter” sounds a little uninspired.
It’s honestly not a big deal, I just think they could have found something more appropriate and better sounding.
Like if necromancers get shouts and are called “Banshee”, that would be cool. Thematically appropriate and speaks to what they do/what skills they got. But if they were called “Voice commanders”, no matter how appropriate of a descriptor it is, it doesn’t sound like a good spec name.

Imagine if warriors were called “Weapon Fighters”, engineers were called “Gadget Users”, mesmers were called “Illusion mages”, etc.
They all work as names, it’s just not a very appealing naming convention to follow.

QFT.

A broad, uninspired descriptor class name is not elegant or fun. It’s lazy, limiting, and lacking soul.

lordkrall.7241:

CureForLiving.5360:

Hunt.

Exactly. Often using bows and traps.

So why isn’t Dragonhunter a Ranger specialisation? It seems far more in line thematically with the base profession. Or could it be that Rangers already have longbows, and they actually designed Dragonhunter starting from the weapon and not starting from the overall theme (like time-magic with the Chronomancer) they’re going for?

Mordeus.1234:

Yeah I actually like the mechanics of the new specialisation. Makes sense for the Guardian to be a bow wielding angel of vengeance that leaps around with seraph wings. If only the name was something guardian or holy themed, and one that could be universal to all areas of the game besides PVE dragon story based combat. Which for me I play once the way through and rarely ever again.

~90% of the complaints are about the name. Most players seem a bit underwhelmed by traps but at least willing to give them a go and hope for the best. The name, however, is unexcusable. We don’t need to see a Let’s Play video to know it’s a stupid name.

As you said, they took a blue/wing/protector themed class and stapled dragon elements to it for no obvious or compelling reason other than the current state of PVE. This means the Dragonhunter is forever intertwined with the PVE living story the same way the player character was forced to act as Treehurr’s shadow for the second half of the personal story. WVWs and PVPers don’t want that- Dragonhunter doesn’t reflect them at all. And most PVEers don’t seem to want that either… They’re not hunters. Their Guardians with launchable traps but still ultimately a back-line character. How can you be back line and simultaneously “leading the hunt”?

DestinyEdge.2046:

Change the name please. A profession name should give people an idea of how it works. Ranger use bow, Chorno use time, Thief use dagger etc.
Dragon Hunter tells you nothing. . . It does not give you the impression that it is a backline support at all.

Nothing give us the impression of being a backline support.

We just get access to a longbow, which might be a decent tool for ranged support, and then a Virtue rework which goes exactly in the opposite direction.

Creating a shield in front of us which blocks attacks for allies? Applying a short range burn pulsing tether to enemies? 2 out of 3 active virtues are completely useless at backline, while the supportive component of the last one would require us to jump straight into the frontline.
The current Virtue active effects look far more useful for a backline support character. Unfortunately, we won’t have access to them anymore if we pick the Longbow.

And then there’s, of course, this silly idea of mine about support maybe not being exactly what the players demanding a more viable ranged option where thinking about.

CureForLiving.5360:

So why isn’t Dragonhunter a Ranger specialisation? It seems far more in line thematically with the base profession. Or could it be that Rangers already have longbows, and they actually designed Dragonhunter starting from the weapon and not starting from the overall theme (like time-magic with the Chronomancer) they’re going for?

Because Rangers already have the ranged and traps option.

Specializations as a whole seems to be built around what the base class currently lacks. In the case of Chronomancers it was wells and the ability to give boons in a good way.
In the case of the Dragonhunter it was range and control.

Dragonhunter theme does work for a Guardian.
It’s main purpose is to protect the people. Hunters usage (other than gathering food) is to hunt dangerous creatures that threatens the people. Thus the hunter specialization works quite well with the Guardian theme.