Guild Wars 2

In the entire competitive scene, there has only ever been a handful of players who have taken DH seriously and attempted to run one in a tournament. What I’m wondering is, what do you guys think it would take to actually make DH viable (but not OP), even assuming a perfect world where pvp/pve/wvw balance was separated?

Buffs to guardian condi application? Buffs to certain weapons? More buffs to core guardian? I’m interested to hear your ideas.

I’d like to see Altruistic Healing coefficients buffed, and pure of voice clear two condis instead of one with shouts. They should buff other guard specs rather than buffing DH (or nerfing it again because it stomps new people).

Nothing.

Core Guardian is waaay inferior than Tempest or Druid in support role. Half of the traits are uttely useless and half of the skills from weapons are just plain bad. Entire kind of skills as signets and spirit weapons are irrelevant since like… 2014 or so.

Dragon Hunter is worse than other classes at doing burst damage while retaining sustain, has very low team support, lacks mobility and his main weapon is easily blocked/evaded/deflected by TONS of skills in the HoT expansion.

He needs so much changes, too many things to fix; is easier just to reroll another main. Before HoT Guardians were arguably in a weak place in PvP; reasons were provided to the developers; they didn’t heard. DH was badly received, and here we are: half year in, tons of baddies moaning in the forums about traps and true shots despite that build is entirely useless against competitive teams, nobody uses Him in the Pro League.

I’m not even mad: I did stop caring. Just reroll.

Nothing. Just nerf the other elite specs. Reaper and DH are finally where they ought to be, or pretty darn close (and maybe warrior/scrapper but jury is still out). It’s some of the other elites that are an issue.

Salamander.2504:

Nothing. Just nerf the other elite specs. Reaper and DH are finally where they ought to be, or pretty darn close (and maybe warrior/scrapper but jury is still out). It’s some of the other elites that are an issue.

I agree completely. While it would still be nice to see updates and fixes for many or our utilities and weapons (not just guard every class that needs it). If all elite specs came down in power and passive procs went to the gutter, guardian/warrior/thief/necro would all be in better positions.

Too bad all a.net wants to do is buff the already strongest elites.

Salamander.2504:

Nothing. Just nerf the other elite specs. Reaper and DH are finally where they ought to be, or pretty darn close (and maybe warrior/scrapper but jury is still out). It’s some of the other elites that are an issue.

^
though I do think sword auto 3 needs to be changed to melee. also revert the TS damage nerf. If they want to nerf TS change it to 5s cd so I can cancel it and gain benefit.

Increase healthpool to that of warriors and they get a ton better with the healing they can do

Chase.2798:

Increase healthpool to that of warriors and they get a ton better with the healing they can do

That wont happen because of all the blocks we have access to, in truth guardian is in a good place when it comes to true balance its just like what was mentioned before other classes are too strong. I also agree with kitten when it comes to TS the nerf wasn’t needed especially by 20%

Id like to see them make some changes to our other weapons tbh, Sword is good but needs some work, and id love to see them increase the auto attack speed on hammer.

Why does it have to be just DH. I don’t want to play my guardian with a bow and traps. Thats the problem its like lets make x elite more competitive instead of lets make Guardians more competitve. Haven’t they sold enough copies of HoT? There are going to be more expansions with more elite specs. Is this the game that is going to be played going forward class x is only good as the last elite spec they kitten out in an expansion?

It’s not about buffing DH. It’s about buffing core Guardian. Our support role has been gutted over the years. We don’t need to be the boon bots like ele or rev, but we should provide a few specific boons for a long time (I’m thinking protection, regen, and resistance).

Condition wise I’m okay with just applying burning but the icd on burning on blocks should be taken away. The GM that increase burning damage should be brought back up.

Traits need to be rearranged too so actual builds can be made from the concepts.

Salamander.2504:

Nothing. Just nerf the other elite specs. Reaper and DH are finally where they ought to be, or pretty darn close (and maybe warrior/scrapper but jury is still out). It’s some of the other elites that are an issue.

Another +1

Though I still think DH is superior to core guardian, and in particular virtues need a nerf to reach better balance, while virtue of courage (core) could get a buff. The same way, I think reaper is still better than necro.

But yes, DH does not need a buff but simply other specs to be reduced to core specs.

Thanks for the feedback guys; there does seem to be a lot of back and forth from the two different perspectives that 1) DH needs buffs to reach the same level as other elite specs, and 2) DH needs more nerfs to be in line with its core spec, as do all other classes and elite specs.

I’m no pro, but as someone who has mained guardian for over 2k matches, with only a couple hundred at most on any others (for the most part I have been doing rev nowadays though, for obvious reasons), I wouldn’t mind sacrificing guardian to be the staple of a balanced class (curently below the other elite specs) in order for the other elite specs to eventually be brought down to about the same level. That being said, I honestly doubt that Anet will ever decide to balance primarily around nerfs than around buffs, which likely will keep guardian/DH out of the meta for an even longer period of time than it already has been.

Well outside of the nerf/buff debate, the problem with DH is that it has some absurdly powerful mechanics but which a good player can completely negate.

Let us be honest DH traps can mean insta-death for any non-tanks character. If you get trapped in a superposed ToF + PoB + DM combo, you eat massive damage + you are a free kill for team since you can’t move out. Same for LB 5.

Basically those skills are too strong for their own good, meaning a-net had to nerf them. On the other hand, good players will simply dodge most of those and come out without a scratch. This reminds me in a sense of Moa. Moa is a massive CD, negated by one dodge. But lower tier players don’t dodge.

So I think the DH traps (especially DM) and LB 5 have to be redesigned to be less overpowered against “bad” players but still reasonably efficient against good players.

Many old guardian weapons are not good enough anymore. They need improvement. Especially the single-handed weapons.

Honestly it doesn’t seem like anet are going to nerf elite specs. Rather they are going to wait until their next elite spec release and hope that balances things out. To be fair once we have 3-4 elite specs it could potentially balance itself out, but that might not be for the next 6 years if we get an expac/elite spec every ~2 years.

I wouldn’t expect anything but number tweaks for the months to come. I hope this can be proven wrong and not just for guardian.

DH actually needs toned down a little bit still. It’s just that other HoT specs are so stupidly overpowered that it makes DH seem weak.

increase true shots velocity, make focus explode after 3 hits instead of having to avoid 3 hits (really dumb), make meditations heal allies.

Stand The Wall.6987:

make meditations heal allies.

Meditations are selfish skills. It’s not meant to heal allies. On the other hand, consecrations are meant to be support skills. So… make them actually interesting for support?

Mysticjedi.6053:

It’s not about buffing DH. It’s about buffing core Guardian. Our support role has been gutted over the years. We don’t need to be the boon bots like ele or rev, but we should provide a few specific boons for a long time (I’m thinking protection, regen, and resistance).

Condition wise I’m okay with just applying burning but the icd on burning on blocks should be taken away. The GM that increase burning damage should be brought back up.

Traits need to be rearranged too so actual builds can be made from the concepts.

I have seen some great supp guardian since the patch.. their carry potential is insane. I am pretty sure, supp guardian will be meta this season.

Fivedawgs.4267:

Mysticjedi.6053:

It’s not about buffing DH. It’s about buffing core Guardian. Our support role has been gutted over the years. We don’t need to be the boon bots like ele or rev, but we should provide a few specific boons for a long time (I’m thinking protection, regen, and resistance).

Condition wise I’m okay with just applying burning but the icd on burning on blocks should be taken away. The GM that increase burning damage should be brought back up.

Traits need to be rearranged too so actual builds can be made from the concepts.

I have seen some great supp guardian since the patch.. their carry potential is insane. I am pretty sure, supp guardian will be meta this season.

I have no problem being wrong. I don’t think I will be, but if I am than that would great. I would love to see Guardian in competitive meta.

Just remember that classes like ele can provide support and damage, and I think better than we can.

I’m not worried about DH so much as I am Guardians as a core. If core Guardian is improved upon it will help DH too. Anything done to DH specifically is too narrow and niche to make a real difference. IMO.

I know they do, but that guardian carried gard. Dude we could nt get a single stomp, let alone cap mid. He had a well, similar to chrono.5 j even asked if supp guardian would be meta this season. To no avail. From what I ve Deen since the patch, supp guardian >> DH.

I could be wrong as well.

timekeeper.4690:

In the entire competitive scene, there has only ever been a handful of players who have taken DH seriously and attempted to run one in a tournament. What I’m wondering is, what do you guys think it would take to actually make DH viable (but not OP), even assuming a perfect world where pvp/pve/wvw balance was separated?

Buffs to guardian condi application? Buffs to certain weapons? More buffs to core guardian? I’m interested to hear your ideas.

This is just my dumb opinion, at least the damage is pretty balanced now but they either need more cc, support, group aegis etc. something to give them an identity.

Tempest is the undeniable support/healer as it’s very good at it, power rev is great as damage, gives buffs and has excellent mobility. DH definitely has some potential, but I kinda see it more as a slow, one trick pony. Their mobility isn’t all that great, their power damage can be decent as well as group cc via traps and when you take something like marauder they aren’t the tankiest spec in the game. They need to bring something new to the table, or at least a unique combination.

remove tempest, and DH is competitive
no more mag aura, projectil-hate all day long. tempest is literally the one thing that makes DH uncompeititive

Guardian was my main and fav character but it stopped being my main for pvp a long time ago. With the latest nerf i doubt i will play it at all