Guild Wars 2

This isn’t to completely slam on DH, but after me and some friends played various offensive builds for different classes, I was wondering why DH stood out to me.

Take for example revenant, it’s very strong, but also susceptible to cc, conditions and has pretty much no ranged attacks. Warrior has good toughness, but relies a little too much on stances and no real healing to back it up (though the unblockable is pretty nice via the signet.)

When I play DH, I find I can deal with both other power and condi specs equally well. The one downside is they’re still pretty slow when it comes to mobility, but I find the powerful ranged attacks, cc via traps, heals and blocks to not only be easier to pick up, but more adaptable to the situation.

Yet no one plays them at high levels. The sooper class that hardly anybody plays when its people that really know what there doing. Imo 90% of the complaints about this build actually involve lower level of plays and stacking of multiple DH on a side. I really don’t understand how can you can play a DH and when your the only one on your team think you are some kind of god. Its ridiculous. Your effect on the outcome of a match is objectively worse then anybody but thief and warrior imo and possibly ele. Scrapper, Mesmer, Necro, Druid, Rev all more valuable.

There are two main reasons why you don’t see many dhs at higher level play.

First, projectile hate. Auramancer ele shuts bow down so hard. Scrappers and warriors also have an easy way to deal with it. On top of that true shot is quite telescopic and easy easy to avoid. Beyond that the bow doesn’t really do much. And guardian doesn’t have good way to set up melee burst. Not to mention its melee burst isn’t anywhere near other power builds.

Secondly, on the trap side of things, its a one trick pony. The trap bomb is easy to deal with while taking minimal to no damage with obsidian flesh, endure pain or any teleport. Plus it can be easily triggered with clones, pets, minions etc. And if you’re running the meditation variant, most decent players will know not to strafe on the edge of test of faith.

Beyond that, as you mentioned, the movement speed is abysmal, which makes it really unsuited for roaming, therefore how strong it is in certain 1v1 matchups is irrelevant.

I also disagree with it being good for beginners. Yes, it is absolutely very beginner friendly. However it encourages camping on point instead of rotating, which is a practice that needs to go.

Rezlind.6015:

There are two main reasons why you don’t see many dhs at higher level play.

First, projectile hate. Auramancer ele shuts bow down so hard. Scrappers and warriors also have an easy way to deal with it. On top of that true shot is quite telescopic and easy easy to avoid. Beyond that the bow doesn’t really do much. And guardian doesn’t have good way to set up melee burst. Not to mention its melee burst isn’t anywhere near other power builds.

Secondly, on the trap side of things, its a one trick pony. The trap bomb is easy to deal with while taking minimal to no damage with obsidian flesh, endure pain or any teleport. Plus it can be easily triggered with clones, pets, minions etc. And if you’re running the meditation variant, most decent players will know not to strafe on the edge of test of faith.

Beyond that, as you mentioned, the movement speed is abysmal, which makes it really unsuited for roaming, therefore how strong it is in certain 1v1 matchups is irrelevant.

I also disagree with it being good for beginners. Yes, it is absolutely very beginner friendly. However it encourages camping on point instead of rotating, which is a practice that needs to go.

I do agree with it being a one trick pony, I can definitely see why it’s not seen in higher level play. That being said, casual pvp is also a very large portion of this game, and similar to cheese builds in the past like turret engineers, yeah it wasn’t seen in high tier play, but the effect it had on the average match/1v1 was unhealthy for the game.

In my opinion it isn’t DH’s fault that people at lower tier are having trouble with them when more than 1 is present, it is both the game mode it’s played and the stat distribution system. Conquest makes it so others have to fight near or on point with trap DHs. and on the other hand what does not help is this is a glass meta, and they mostly removed the tank amulet like clerics. I would bet that if they re-added Merc amulet or something like Trailblazer again you’d see a bigger increase of mesmer, warrior and necro players, around. Instead they have to settle for Carrion or Wanderer’s amulet instead. other classes become much more OP if given the appropriate stats. If you wanted to nerf DH the Anet way, remove Marauder’s amulet from the game.

just outdamage the heals when they are not blocking. use cc, & unblockable skills. dont sit in traps (p easy to guess where traps are most of the time). use a dodge roll.

Other than it being a slight less faceroll with F3 & Purification nerfs, it virtually remains in the same tier as before. A 5th pick next to War, Thief, Mesmer…

…that said, and thanks to the increased cast times of certain abilities, Thief got a hair stronger thanks to the nerfs of others. It’s a tossup now and DH is not in favor.

Lucentfir.7430:

In my opinion it isn’t DH’s fault that people at lower tier are having trouble with them when more than 1 is present, it is both the game mode it’s played and the stat distribution system. Conquest makes it so others have to fight near or on point with trap DHs. and on the other hand what does not help is this is a glass meta, and they mostly removed the tank amulet like clerics. I would bet that if they re-added Merc amulet or something like Trailblazer again you’d see a bigger increase of mesmer, warrior and necro players, around. Instead they have to settle for Carrion or Wanderer’s amulet instead. other classes become much more OP if given the appropriate stats. If you wanted to nerf DH the Anet way, remove Marauder’s amulet from the game.

It’s always aggravated me since launch because DH is very aggressive, high damage in your face bruiser, meanwhile the berserker, who’s sole purpose is to do high damage and be in your face, is staying back with a rifle everytime there is a dps meta.

Warrior is such a disaster of a class and has been for over a year with one exception. Macebow was good because it had really good 1v1 potential, but you’re ultimately going to go to DH for your 1v1 potential and aoe/tankiness via blocks, and you’re going to go to your revenant for the high mobility in your face dps.