Guild Wars 2

Firstly I would add an F4 (or have it merge with the F3) mechanic which will periodically give AOE resistance and fury

to you and your allies. Thematically this would work because the theme of the Dragon Hunter is resisting the corruption and fighting all those who are corrupted.I also think adding boon stripping and weakness on the f1 skill would make it more useful.On the F2 skill i would make it have so when you land it applies AOE slow to nearby targets (10).

I think crucially what the dragon hunter needs is rewarding gameplay so for example our elementalists can use signets and still retain their passives and I think the same thing should be applied to guardian in terms of virtues for dragonhunter as right now they are very fragile without their passives (perhaps making them all stunbreakers?)

Also, true shot could be changed to have an ability where there is more damage dealt when standing still so instead of rooting you to the ground it rewards positioning and game play and it also gives those who prefer to be more mobile more options
Mechanically wise, I would also add a resource.

The auto attack i think should have like the gs a boon which lasts for 4 secs (this would be resistance)

Anet has demonstrated greatly with the revenant and necromancer that they have the capabilities to add a resource to a profession and I think for the Guardian it could be willpower.This is because the idea of a Guardian is based on the willpower to protect allies and I think adding this to the Dragon Hunter would improve it dramatically and offer new ways for the guardian to be played (based on resource management)

What could be added is longbow skills tied to willpower could act in the same way adrenaline In a way but the different would be gaining willpower every time your allies take damage and every time you heal allies and damage foes so thematically your willpower increases the more your allies are injured.The activation of this willpower bar would be the form of a form of a break bar and an a sort of evolved version of the dragon hunter virtues with added effects and skills.

I would also add ground targeting to traps to make them different from the Rangers I think they should function in a different way to ranger traps they could function by having passives when inactive all when activated and different passives when standing in the traps yourself and these are just some suggestions and i think dragonhunter should be taken out of upcoming betas and worked on drastically (not from scratch)

Needs a lot. Not trying to hate on dh but it’s absolutely worthless. It needs something like you said, a new mechanic. It’s currently awful

Pretty much what Azure said. It doesn’t offer superior damage, support, or utility than we’ve already got currently. DH is meant to be “selfish” as they call it, but a 01101 or 10101 meditation guardian is far superior in damage. Traps are useless mostly because guardian’s low HP makes it so that you need the meditations for their heals (as well as their effects). If you spec into shout guardian instead of meditation, ie bunker, then traps are still useless as you will need the basic stab/prot/retreat shouts.

DH would need to introduce something new to be even worth it. Perhaps some condis other than a single of bleeding (which they’re removing?) and a bit of cripple (if there is more than 1 enemy around) may make it worth it, but currently it’s extremely meh.

I speak from PvP perspective, PvE is easy regardless of what build you use. Also, I’m not speaking of how fun the build is, only its effectiveness in my own experience. Maybe I’m doing something wrong.

For a heavy armoured longbow user, it’s sure easy to throw around. I won’t go into specific ways of implementing it, but I wouldn’t mind seeing more in terms of it being able to stand its ground. Spammable stability, resistance, blocks, projectile absorption, invulnerability, a pulsing/stacking blind… something.

Plus the traits feel very weak compared to other elite specs. Not particularly numbers-wise, but in their actual effects. Sacrificing another traitline to go Dragonhunter cuts out so many powerful traits for little effect. It feels punishing to not take and spec for longbow and all trap skills, there’s just so little synergy with the actual guardian.