Guild Wars 2

I won’t talk about them being easy to play, this is more about breaking down why they can be annoying to face. As strong as some other classes are, you can break down their weakspots pretty well. For example, meta warrior you can simply stall out the one or two stances before going in for the burst as they have a hard time healing themselves back. Necro has annoying condi damage but is one of the easier targets to focus as they don’t have really any disengage. Druids are pretty weak against cc, etc.

DH is a combination of good qualities, decent health, loads of blocks, synergy with cooldowns, can heal itself full, good condi clear, cc and does good AOE and ranged damaged. I would say their weaknesses are tempest which don’t have much offensive presence, unblockable attacks which are pretty scarce and the fact they’re slow.

Good condi clear? They normally have only one in a big cooldown. Decent health? Like really? They have the worst hp pool of the game. This show how knowledge you are with the class.
Cc? They have a pull on 40 sec cd. Maybe a knockback on LB if traited. An impossible to land CC on lb 5 if a player is decent. And thats it. As they normally go with Sword and shield for swap.
The only thing they really have is the good amount of PROJECTILE blocks. Because 1 block of aegis every 45 seconds is pretty poor.

Reaper boon corruption, then freeze, then bleed to death. They dont last long. Same as eles

OnizukaBR.8537:

Good condi clear? They normally have only one in a big cooldown. Decent health? Like really? They have the worst hp pool of the game. This show how knowledge you are with the class.
Cc? They have a pull on 40 sec cd. Maybe a knockback on LB if traited. An impossible to land CC on lb 5 if a player is decent. And thats it. As they normally go with Sword and shield for swap.
The only thing they really have is the good amount of PROJECTILE blocks. Because 1 block of aegis every 45 seconds is pretty poor.

I’m gonna double-check tonight to see if you’re playing DH, hard to believe an objective person would give this response.The current metabattle DH has 3 CCs, unblockable pull on spear of justice, shield 5, and unblockable LB 3, the latter of which is on a 10s CD. And yes Hunter’s Ward adds a 4th CC, but no good player is caught by that. Much more CC than most builds, since you’ll be able to use LB 3 at least 3 times in a node fight.

Meta DH also has 3 condi clears normally, F2 for 3 conditions, Smite Condition for 2 condis, and Smiter’s boon for 1 condition when a heal skill is used. Unless you’re absolutely terrible then you’ll be able to use your heal skill and smite condition twice each during a mode fight or a 1v1. Sometimes contemplation of purity is used against a condi-heavy team.

OnizukaBR.8537:

Good condi clear? They normally have only one in a big cooldown. Decent health? Like really? They have the worst hp pool of the game. This show how knowledge you are with the class.
Cc? They have a pull on 40 sec cd. Maybe a knockback on LB if traited. An impossible to land CC on lb 5 if a player is decent. And thats it. As they normally go with Sword and shield for swap.
The only thing they really have is the good amount of PROJECTILE blocks. Because 1 block of aegis every 45 seconds is pretty poor.

While they inherently have the worst healthpool in the game next to ele, they have traits to compensate for this (one grandmaster even boosting their health) and unlike ele, can get away with using amulets that give them the health they need to be tanky. An ele can barely get away with something like marauder or carrion because of the traits and survivability, but a DH can easily while dishing out just as much damage.

Let’s face it, the healthpools have been toned down quite a bit in the past few years, 18-19k is considered pretty average by today’s standards. Just because you main DH doesn’t mean you gotta get kitten lol

Sooloo.1364:

Reaper boon corruption, then freeze, then bleed to death. They dont last long. Same as eles

Yeah I agree on that, really the only problem with that is you won’t really be seeing a reaper 1v1 a DH effectively. I would say reaper is definitely useful, but needs a little bit of help to see it’s full potential which can be very deadly.

People like to say DH just free casts behind their blocks. Try free casting past gold and you’re asking to get shut down.

Also a good scrapper easily beats a good DH. The biggest failing of most players is their failure to interrupt purification which forces a full cd with only a 2k heal.

Gwaihir.1745:

People like to say DH just free casts behind their blocks. Try free casting past gold and you’re asking to get shut down.

Also a good scrapper easily beats a good DH. The biggest failing of most players is their failure to interrupt purification which forces a full cd with only a 2k heal.

I wouldn’t say they’re freecasting, theres some DHs I’ve seen thats clearly skill, this is more in terms of “pick up and play” DH is probably the easiest. As for the healing, it has to be more than 2k, not on purification, but DHs will be at 25% and they can easily get their health back up full in a few seconds. Not very consistent in big team fights, but if you’re in that position where you have to contest, it can be a pretty big problem.

For healing they’re either running valor or virtues. If they have valor they have no f3 stab so you’re free to interrupt the heal. They will heal 4.3k from smite trait but the other 8k can be easily stopped. The only way they have to burst heal past that is to burn smite and ji, which if they do you essentially can cc them and kill. If they have virtues they can secure the heal every other time but burn a lot of CDs to do so. And they lose the meditation heals so after a 40s fight the kill is open. A lot of even the best players don’t realize this and disengage when the fight is actually over for the guard if they pressured. You only need 5s to 100-0 a guard during this window which any dps spec can handle. However this window is about 12s long before I can start cycling CDs again so even an attrition class like scrapper (especially scrapper) can do a takedown before the window ends.

Gwaihir.1745:

For healing they’re either running valor or virtues. If they have valor they have no f3 stab so you’re free to interrupt the heal. They will heal 4.3k from smite trait but the other 8k can be easily stopped. The only way they have to burst heal past that is to burn smite and ji, which if they do you essentially can cc them and kill. If they have virtues they can secure the heal every other time but burn a lot of CDs to do so. And they lose the meditation heals so after a 40s fight the kill is open. A lot of even the best players don’t realize this and disengage when the fight is actually over for the guard if they pressured. You only need 5s to 100-0 a guard during this window which any dps spec can handle. However this window is about 12s long before I can start cycling CDs again so even an attrition class like scrapper (especially scrapper) can do a takedown before the window ends.

Thanks, this is a much more balanced answer. It pretty much underlines the problem with DH, that being their ability to delay death is crazy long. In those 40 seconds they still own the node they’re likely standing on, and have so gained 20 points for their team. If I kill them I get 5 points. Doesn’t really work out for the attacking player in conquest.

Unblockables from Necro and Warr do toast them pretty good, espec corrupt boon and tootyhorn 4 on the Necro.

They are also still very susceptible to projectile destruction/reflection. Sword 1 may have been fixed but LB, Sword 3, focus 4 are still very dependent on projectiles.

Sarrs.4831:

Unblockables from Necro and Warr do toast them pretty good, espec corrupt boon and tootyhorn 4 on the Necro.

They are also still very susceptible to projectile destruction/reflection. Sword 1 may have been fixed but LB, Sword 3, focus 4 are still very dependent on projectiles.

As a DH player I will say I’ve been caught with my pants down before in the middle of teamfights by a necro, normally having a stack of condis that’ll need to be cleared, trying to F2 out of the fray to recover only to get feared or CC’d by someone mid cast. Also for the longest time I’ve always dreaded facing competent warriors.

Huskyboy.1053:

I’m gonna double-check tonight to see if you’re playing DH, hard to believe an objective person would give this response.The current metabattle DH has 3 CCs, unblockable pull on spear of justice, shield 5, and unblockable LB 3, the latter of which is on a 10s CD. And yes Hunter’s Ward adds a 4th CC, but no good player is caught by that. Much more CC than most builds, since you’ll be able to use LB 3 at least 3 times in a node fight.

Meta DH also has 3 condi clears normally, F2 for 3 conditions, Smite Condition for 2 condis, and Smiter’s boon for 1 condition when a heal skill is used. Unless you’re absolutely terrible then you’ll be able to use your heal skill and smite condition twice each during a mode fight or a 1v1. Sometimes contemplation of purity is used against a condi-heavy team.

Unblockable? You surely are not playing a DH then. You can block it and you can dodge roll it.

EDIT: I know it states it on the tooltip but my Spear of Justice gets more blocked / dodged than anything else in the game. Might be a bug in fact.

Dofty.9814:

Huskyboy.1053:

I’m gonna double-check tonight to see if you’re playing DH, hard to believe an objective person would give this response.The current metabattle DH has 3 CCs, unblockable pull on spear of justice, shield 5, and unblockable LB 3, the latter of which is on a 10s CD. And yes Hunter’s Ward adds a 4th CC, but no good player is caught by that. Much more CC than most builds, since you’ll be able to use LB 3 at least 3 times in a node fight.

Meta DH also has 3 condi clears normally, F2 for 3 conditions, Smite Condition for 2 condis, and Smiter’s boon for 1 condition when a heal skill is used. Unless you’re absolutely terrible then you’ll be able to use your heal skill and smite condition twice each during a mode fight or a 1v1. Sometimes contemplation of purity is used against a condi-heavy team.

Unblockable? You surely are not playing a DH then. You can block it and you can dodge roll it.

EDIT: I know it states it on the tooltip but my Spear of Justice gets more blocked / dodged than anything else in the game. Might be a bug in fact.

The initial damage is unblockable.

phokus.8934:

Dofty.9814:

Huskyboy.1053:

I’m gonna double-check tonight to see if you’re playing DH, hard to believe an objective person would give this response.The current metabattle DH has 3 CCs, unblockable pull on spear of justice, shield 5, and unblockable LB 3, the latter of which is on a 10s CD. And yes Hunter’s Ward adds a 4th CC, but no good player is caught by that. Much more CC than most builds, since you’ll be able to use LB 3 at least 3 times in a node fight.

Meta DH also has 3 condi clears normally, F2 for 3 conditions, Smite Condition for 2 condis, and Smiter’s boon for 1 condition when a heal skill is used. Unless you’re absolutely terrible then you’ll be able to use your heal skill and smite condition twice each during a mode fight or a 1v1. Sometimes contemplation of purity is used against a condi-heavy team.

Unblockable? You surely are not playing a DH then. You can block it and you can dodge roll it.

EDIT: I know it states it on the tooltip but my Spear of Justice gets more blocked / dodged than anything else in the game. Might be a bug in fact.

The initial damage is unblockable.

He was talking about the ‘Pull on Spear of Justice’ that is 100% blockable my reaction was to his statement which I put in bold ;o

Dofty.9814:

phokus.8934:

Dofty.9814:

Huskyboy.1053:

I’m gonna double-check tonight to see if you’re playing DH, hard to believe an objective person would give this response.The current metabattle DH has 3 CCs, unblockable pull on spear of justice, shield 5, and unblockable LB 3, the latter of which is on a 10s CD. And yes Hunter’s Ward adds a 4th CC, but no good player is caught by that. Much more CC than most builds, since you’ll be able to use LB 3 at least 3 times in a node fight.

Meta DH also has 3 condi clears normally, F2 for 3 conditions, Smite Condition for 2 condis, and Smiter’s boon for 1 condition when a heal skill is used. Unless you’re absolutely terrible then you’ll be able to use your heal skill and smite condition twice each during a mode fight or a 1v1. Sometimes contemplation of purity is used against a condi-heavy team.

Unblockable? You surely are not playing a DH then. You can block it and you can dodge roll it.

EDIT: I know it states it on the tooltip but my Spear of Justice gets more blocked / dodged than anything else in the game. Might be a bug in fact.

The initial damage is unblockable.

He was talking about the ‘Pull on Spear of Justice’ that is 100% blockable my reaction was to his statement which I put in bold ;o

Yeah that’s gotta be a bug, feel free to report it. I’ve been pulled mid-dodge and have never blocked it. Also it’s not really productive to tell me that I can dodge it, that’s true of every attack in the game.

Huskyboy.1053:

Dofty.9814:

phokus.8934:

Dofty.9814:

Huskyboy.1053:

I’m gonna double-check tonight to see if you’re playing DH, hard to believe an objective person would give this response.The current metabattle DH has 3 CCs, unblockable pull on spear of justice, shield 5, and unblockable LB 3, the latter of which is on a 10s CD. And yes Hunter’s Ward adds a 4th CC, but no good player is caught by that. Much more CC than most builds, since you’ll be able to use LB 3 at least 3 times in a node fight.

Meta DH also has 3 condi clears normally, F2 for 3 conditions, Smite Condition for 2 condis, and Smiter’s boon for 1 condition when a heal skill is used. Unless you’re absolutely terrible then you’ll be able to use your heal skill and smite condition twice each during a mode fight or a 1v1. Sometimes contemplation of purity is used against a condi-heavy team.

Unblockable? You surely are not playing a DH then. You can block it and you can dodge roll it.

EDIT: I know it states it on the tooltip but my Spear of Justice gets more blocked / dodged than anything else in the game. Might be a bug in fact.

The initial damage is unblockable.

He was talking about the ‘Pull on Spear of Justice’ that is 100% blockable my reaction was to his statement which I put in bold ;o

Yeah that’s gotta be a bug, feel free to report it. I’ve been pulled mid-dodge and have never blocked it. Also it’s not really productive to tell me that I can dodge it, that’s true of every attack in the game.

The pull is definitely unblockable, I use it all the time to rip chronos and revs out of their shield blocks.