Guild Wars 2

Tried to be optimistic and played it again here in BWE2 and the entire spec just feels out of place frankly.

1. Lack of vision for what this spec is supposed to be for guardians, I have a really hard time seeing why I should use it over current options and it has such poor synergy with everything else the guardian does.
2. Clunky and slow gameplay, especially with longbow.
3. Low damage reward despite issue #2 makes it even worse.
4. I feel I become worse at providing boons, less mobile and do worse DPS overall.
5. The elite spec managed to make an even worse ranger, which is already one of the most unwanted classes in the game, which is sort of an impressive feat.

Keep in mind (those posting above) mentioned haven’t been implemented. I also think another important aspect of dragon hunter is the virtues. I feel that decreasing virtue cooldown is important and having traits that reward to DH for usage of virtues is the best way to go.

Honestly, I’m still debating how much “analysis” I should do on the dragon hunter. With so many necessary upcoming changes not implemented, it makes the whole thing almost futile.

Almost. I’m still going to do the traps. In PVP with no amulets, runes, or sigils equipped. So basically it is base damage.

Purification: 50 damage. 2192 self heal + 0.25 scaling, 6413 trap heal with 1 scaling. 1 × 6 bleed. 1 second activation time, 30 second recharge. BUG: Skill does not list its target maximum for damage, which is 5.

Fragments of Faith: 665 damage 1 × 6 cripple. 1 second activation time, 45 second recharge. Uses Fragments of Faith, which spits out 5 fragments for 10 seconds that each give 1 × 8 aegis when picked up. 90 pickup radius. BUG: On utility bar, skill does not display fragments of faith when scrolled over.

Test of Faith: 798 damage per crossing of the ring. 1 × 6 cripple. 8 second duration. Unblockable. 1 second activation time, 30 second cooldown.

Procession of Blades: 1200 damage (10 hits). 1 second activation time. 25 second recharge. BUG: Does not list the duration upon activation, which is 4 seconds. BUG: While the skills animation is only 3 seconds, it continues doing its damage over an extra second.

Light’s Judgement: 50 damage per pulse. 1 × 1 revealed per pulse. 10 × 2 vulnerability per pulse. 8 second duration. 1 second interval. 9 pulses total. 450 damage total. 1 second activation time, 45 second cooldown.

Dragon’s Maw: 638 damage. 1 × 4 slow. 6 second barrier. 180 range pull. 1 second activation time, 60 second cooldown.

Overall these traps have the same problem as last weekend: Minor effects, long activation times, long recharge. For reference, I’m going to bring up the traps from other classes.

For example, on a generic broken down condi ranger build, vipers nest hit s for 9,241 condition damage. Every 16 seconds. With a half second activation time. Flame Trap hits for 7.9k every 12 seconds. Needle trap hits for 6.8k every 24 seconds.

The ability for guardian traps to inflict bleed is being removed next patch, so each of their traps becomes a daze. Tested in PVP (full zerk, scholar runes, sigil of force), the highest damaging trap Procession of Blades only hits 5k direct damage.

This wouldn’t be so bad, if it weren’t for the fact that it is the highest damaging trap.

There are two ways to build traps. Ranger traps are all about damage. Thief traps are about utility. Dragonhunter traps are all about neither. They have much lower damage, but also have much less utility. On much longer recharges. With much longer activation times.

So my suggestions are fairly simple:

#1: Reduce the recharge of Fragments of Faith and Light’s Judgement by 10 seconds. Increase their damage by 33%% respectively.
#2: Reduce the Recharge of Test of Faith to 25 seconds, and increase its damage by 50%.
#3: Reduce the Recharge of Dragon’s Maw to 45 seconds, increase its damage by 33%.
#4: Reduce the Total damage time of Procession of Blades to 3 seconds, and reduce the delay of the blades emerging from the ground.
#5: For all traps, reduce their activation time to 0.5 seconds.

It is hard to come up with a metric for these skills. Smite Condition is the closest I can come up with, but there’s a lot of incomparables. When traited, Smite Conditions, is a 2k heal + AoE 4 seconds of fury + condition cleanse every 2 seconds. Instant activation, base 505 damage, 16 second recharge. It is slightly lower in damage than most traps, but because it does so much more it is better off.

It is still an option to make the traps into more utilities than damage, like thief traps.

To be honest, a lot of potential for Dragonhunter gets destroyed by cast times. All new Virtues have a cast time, which slows down the class a lot and also prohibits the use of them whilst channeling Renewed Focus.

The traps have a one second cast time, which is huge, quite often you just get bursted whilst trying to lay traps.

What the traps and the virtues do is actually overall quite solid, but you have to factor in not only what a class can do, but also what it can do in a certain amount of time. If it takes 5+ seconds to go through your virtues and traps, it is just bad. Guardian works fine because you can go through your skill rotation a lot quicker and therefore have a lot more pressure.

Another thing that gets completely destroyed by Virtues having a casttime is the active counter play you can normally get from them. Instant aegis and instant blind on Virtue of Justice allows you to prevent key attacks with good timing, instant condi cleanse on Virtue of Resolve helps you survive against condi bursts and the list goes on. So many things that the virtues currently do require them to be instants, which severely weakens the Dragonhunter’s Virtues.

Some traits felt mediocre and too specific to be useful overall. A mandatory 10% damage increase only for ranged weapon really limits your options.

The longbow felt way too slow and clunky.
- #1 does not deal enough damage and is easy to avoid
- #2 deals very solid damage but roots you in place quite long, which can get you killed
- #3 it should either offer more utility, by destroying projectiles better, or it should deal more damage
- #4 reaches destination too slowly, damage is a tiny bit too low
- #5 looks fine, maybe lower the channel time a tiny bit

I don’t know why LB feels so clunky to use either in PvP and/or PvE, definitely LB#1 needs to deal a bit more damage, and LB#5 needs to react a bit faster too, there a very noticeable delay between landing the AOE and seeing it work trapping enemies, (i know its intended to work like that but really, it feels just a waste of effort of even using it since it forces you to stay all the time).

As for traps, I like the idea posted by RebornbyFire.7913 about traps having boons on activation, i dont want traps to be overpowered but really, right now picking a full trap build on a PvP match is just beggin to get stomped.

Another issue is the virtues, why are they so hard to use? or at least that’s how i feel them right now about virtue#2, if i want to get a quick heal, I need to land it in a place, which takes time, idk i just hate it lol, the spear is nice, can’t complain on that and the shield is.. well.. it kinda works, but virtue#2 feels so so awkward..

The bow just feels bad. It’s slow, clunky the skills and damage is bad. Grounding sucks.
The traits are worse than other trait lines.
Traps need to be instant cast symbols.
Revert the virtues to the normal ones or change them totally.

The grandmaster trait to cause knockback on longbow skills… yeah. Having it affect the first attack after coming off cooldown is just awful. Unwanted knockbacks are just annoying. If we could have that trait unlock an F4 skill with a 10s cooldown or whatever, where using it adds the knockback to your next longbow attack… that would be much better. The option to have a knockback is great, but I don’t want to be pointlessly knocking an enemy out of AoEs or away from a melee user.

Chameleon Dude.1564:

The grandmaster trait to cause knockback on longbow skills… yeah. Having it affect the first attack after coming off cooldown is just awful. Unwanted knockbacks are just annoying. If we could have that trait unlock an F4 skill with a 10s cooldown or whatever, where using it adds the knockback to your next longbow attack… that would be much better. The option to have a knockback is great, but I don’t want to be pointlessly knocking an enemy out of AoEs or away from a melee user.

Yea it must be some kind of Anet trolling when the hated point blank shot from rangers become an automatic effect on guardians, and a grandmaster trait at that, complete madness to the point of being funny.

I noticed earlier I wasn’t getting the automatic aegis from Courage passive unless I activated it or swapped spec lines. I assume it was a bug.

I’ve also noticed during this bwe I’m getting a lot of “misses” and “obstructed” shots when there seems to be no justification.

I like most of the bow skills and looking forward the velocity changes next bwe. the 2 abilities that I’m getting more frustrated with are deflecting shot and and symbol of energy. you still can’t fire these abilities to the side or behind you. Why can’t we at least have the character snap to whatever direction they need to be facing to fire it where we aim? and the cone in front of where you are aloud to fire is sooo narrow. it makes the dh very clunky and slow.

secondly on symbol of energy why does this ability have a 3/4 sec precast AND a slow arcing projectile? its almost guarateed even in pve that your target will have moved away by the time the symbol gets there.

I’d be fine with instant cast, but similar speed projectile"maybe a bit faster" or keep the precast but make the symbol pop up instantly. Not both though.

also even though hunters ward is a very good control ability and has a nice big radius the CD is just way too long. can you knock it down to like 45sec please?

finally as stated by others DH knockback should be an activated ability not just one random shot every 10 sec. maybe add the a knockback to deflecting shot and remove the damage?

I am in shock that there are a small minority of people saying Traps are good. What?!

Traps are pure 100% garbage. There is not a single redeemable thing about those poorly designed train wreck set of skills.

Worthless in PVE.
Worthless in PVP.

Why would a logical thinking person ever waste a skill slot with a Trap? When we have access to so many superior options, condi cleanse, dps, stability, group support, projectile reflect/destroy. Traps offer NOTHING.

Not only do they offer nothing but they are on a ridiculous super long cooldown, they rely on the enemy being stupid, they can easily be dodged or moved out of, they have a ridiculously long cast time, and even if luck is on your side and the enemie triggers the trap and dosent move they are still SUPER weak.

It is hard not to feel personally insulted that we received a set of skills worse then spirit weapons, worse then signets, worse then Shield weapon.

RebornbyFire.7913:

Spear of Justice: Is really kind of weak right now. Could we think about upping the burning time it applies, or making it pulse damage, as well? Or… something? Maybe a pull or a KD when thrown? Maybe a flip-skill to allow a pull which ends the tether? (This would actually be great.) Particularly when the new Zealot’s Aggression hits, it will basically never be worth activating, and it also currently does very little for power-based builds, as well as adding nothing to the player’s ability to control his opponent’s movement, which seems silly, given the Power- and control-oriented focus of the Traps and Longbow.

A Flip-skill Pull would be a great addition to “Spear of Justice’s” active visual looking themematic & giving more reason to use the active. It would also sync fantastically with longbow’s ranged gameplay & traps.

This will play great into trap gameplay allowing DHs the ability to relocate foes into their traps but also provide strong counter play to this pull for foes. This would add more build & gameplay options to SoJ giving reason to use the active:

• Trap play: As a pull to force your foes into your traps.
• Burn build active play: To quickly apply a number of burn stacks (would require a chance to actives burn application) & then control you foe allowing those burning stacks another 1 or 2 ticks of damage before you foe could respond.
• Control build play: Another method of relocating & grouping of foes to help peel & grouping of foes for some AoE punishment by team mates & / or traps.

Visual effect: On successful tender a chain appears linking foes to the dragonhunter, which shatter when foe leaves tendered radius. Now just like Greatsword “Binding blades” the flip-pull uses these chains to pull you foes back towards you.

To really have better ranged longbow & trap gameplay I would love this flip-skill SoJ pull & a reliable knockback included in longbow. Why, well first I’m one that doesn’t want traps changed to include ranged placement, otherwise we just have another “Consecration”, “Well” or “Ground Targeted AoE Skill”.

Again I’m one that likes the current theme of traps – self placed & arming time. This theme wise feels just right for me (eg. building the trap), but mechanically this is only really good if foes are required to stay within a certain area or for defensive gameplay.

What I believe most are looking at fixing with ranged placement is the ability to place your foes within your skill’s effect.

Instead of the ability to place traps under foes (aka “Well gameplay”) leave traps as self placement but add in the ability for Foe Relocations in trap builds. This for me would have a differing control focus type of gameplay having a more movement control / relocation / isolating gameplay that still leans towards a more overall defensive play but provides the ability for effective trap gameplay in more mobile encounters. This would keep the differing favours of “Traps” & “Wells”.

Andred.1087:

I noticed earlier I wasn’t getting the automatic aegis from Courage passive unless I activated it or swapped spec lines. I assume it was a bug.

I noticed this too probably a bug.

Blood Red Arachnid is right on a number of points. The first and largest issue with the traps, right at the start, is that they simply take far, far too long from button click to damage dealing. Cast time should probably be something like halved, as should arming time, and, more importantly, since they already have both a cast time and an arming time, once an enemy steps on them, that activation/damage had better be flipping instant. The way it works now, even if you manage to somehow suffer through the cast and arming times, or even if you manage to pre-set them in a useful area, an enemy can still simply run through them almost before the damage/effect even begins. What sort of trap ever works that way? If anyone steps on my Ranger’s traps (which cast/activate somewhat more swiftly, layer tons of conditions, offer control options that actually keep enemies in them, and deal far, far more damage), they begin suffering immediately, or very nearly — and because those traps deal damage through longer-duration conditions, leaving them does not immediately end their threat.

So: DH Traps can still be great — or at least workable. We first need reliable access to something that keeps enemies in them — like by making Zealot’s Aggression (in it’s updated, “Justice’s passive also applies cripple” version) the GM Minor trait, and maybe causing “Procession of Blades” to also have a pull, or “Test of Faith” to function like “Ring of Warding” on the Hammer. Second, we need to be able to actually lay them down (even, gasp, sometimes in the midst of combat, or at least near it) relatively quickly and have them arm in a more reasonable time frame; after all, how long does light take to be ready? It’s not like DH’s use mechanical traps. And finally, maybe even much more important than the cast/arming times, once they’re set and armed, if an enemy steps on them, they should activate immediately, instantaneously, without requiring yet a third waiting/casting/activating/whatever delay. A trap that delays its effect when an enemy steps on it is a ridiculous and useless trap, indeed. I know there’s a concern about counterplay, but honestly, traps are pretty easy to counter in countless ways just because of the fact that they’re traps. And ours are already tiny and easy to dodge-roll out of.

*[Edited to remove the bit about trap visibility to enemies: Traps cannot be seen by enemies. Thank you to Ghotistyx for correcting that error.]

…Also, @Karl and the rest, I know this might sound a little silly, and I can only assume it would probably end up being broken in some way (especially in PvP), but since Dragonhunters are supposed to be hunting, you know, Dragons — which are enormous — has anyone considered making the traps a little more…. Dragon-sized? I mean, like, they’re really pretty tiny; considering what they’re supposed to be for, and how difficult it is to keep things in them, could we maybe consider — both for practical and lore-related reasons — enlarging them somewhat?

A Note on Heavy Light and Deflecting Shot:

Longbow in general has a lot of potential, but as it stands right now, it really could use some more interest — both mechanically and aesthetically. Also, as many others have noted, auto-KB on a time-based cooldown becomes unpredictable and somewhat irritating, to both the player and his enemies. Heavy Light’s effects would be much better if they remained tied to the LB skills: Stability for hitting with True Shot; Knockback added to Deflecting Shot.

Further, regarding Deflecting Shot: I would really love to see this become a reflect, and for it to have a somewhat more interesting mechanic. There are two great options I’ve seen so far:

1. Slow the projectile down (you may have already done this enough, and we just haven’t seen it yet), and cause it to expand in width (both the block and attack hit box should share this expansion) as it travels away from the player. This would allow it to remain a “skill shot,” but would add an extra interesting mechanic (and give a place for some much-needed aesthetic/graphical FX love), which would be especially interesting with the ability to reflect and when traited to cause KB.

2. Or, allow the projectile to maintain a fairly swift pace, but cause it to leave behind a trail of light (like the Mordrem Snipers already do) for a short time which also reflects projectiles. This would help make up for a lack of utility in general on the DH, and it would fit the original idea of Deflecting Shot, which was that it could sometimes be used in other directions than directly towards the enemy in order to intercept projectiles and defend allies. In this case, when traited to apply Knockback, the light trail left behind would also cause Knockback, functioning for its couple seconds of existence like the Line of Warding, from the staff. This would be an extremely interesting and fun mechanic, and I think it would make Longbow in general much more interesting, useful and fun to play, without breaking it in terms of power.

…Also, on the symbol — can we please have the burning back?

Traps, lets break it down so we can all see how bad they currently are.

Purification – competing with ‘Shelter’ and ‘Litany of Wrath’. Might as well delete this Trap from the game since no one will take it over our current two king heals.

Test of Faith – garbage. completely worthless. provides a short cripple to those who cross the outer ring of the circle. for those standing in the circle nothing happens. Since we have cripple on Longbow AND cripple on F1 passive with the new trait there is no logical reason to take this disgustingly bad clunky horrible Trap.

Procession of Blades – whirling wrath clone, except it’s not a Whirl Finisher, can’t be moved, and on a stupidly long cool-down. The only half decent thing about this trap was the old trait that applied bleed on hit, now that’s gone. Why would any logical thinking person take this Trap when you could take ‘Purging Flames’ – shorter cooldown, does damage, remove conditions / shortens condi duration and it can be ground targeted.

Fragments of Faith – perhaps the only decent Trap. Despite its long cool-down and long cast-time and short Aegis duration. Wall of Reflection or Sanctuary are more reliable group support.

Light’s Judgement – PVP only Trap. Only worth using in niche circumstances for the Reveal. Worthless in PVE. Far easier to stack vulnerability other ways.

Dragon’s Maw – okay for niche circumstances. but with Longbow and Scepter offering CC i would rather take one of our other group supportive elites.

I am not expecting Traps to be overpowered, but i expect them to be an option.

I am so frustrated…bought HoT on Friday for the Beta-Weekend to see my favorite class shine….never thought I could be so wrong.

General: I absolutely do not understand, why I cannot use Bow or Traps without using Dragonhunter spec. I mean when I do not take Valour I can still use Meditations….

Virtues: only interesting thing is Wings of Resolve due to the damage and increased heal, but cast times on virtues is completely negating the benefits of virtues. Played new virtues for several hours, then switched to old mechanics and they are so much better. Why do I have to use new virtues? Should be a swapable trait, so that I can decide to use the old (yes!) or new functionality of virtues.

Bow: I looked so much forward using a Bow with my Guard! But when comparing it with Ranger Longbow I do not know what to say…did any of the Guardian developers play Guardian in PvP?

Traps: what have we Guardians done to deserve traps? I mean we have really pain in the a… skill lines like signets and spirit weapons, so what have we done that we deserve 5! new trap skills instead of at least one (please!) cool skill? I tested them carefully, but none of them is worth taking into the skillbar instead of the standard meditation/shout skills.

Traits: seems to be ok, what I really like is the Hunters Fortification Trait. This one could be really shining when virtues are instant or old virtues mechanics can be also used for dragonhunters.

Summary: for release I hope virtues and parts of the Longbow will be reworked, so that it is at least an exotic option for PvP. For traps all my hope is gone, again, why 5 of them???

If all dh skills become instant (virtues / traps / bow), do you think dh would stop being garbage ?

I am not even sure lol.

I’ve mained Guardian since launch, and the DH has been a huge letdown. Now that I’ve gotten my feelings out of the way. I’ll start with my opinions of the major parts of DH. The longbow, utilities (traps), virtues, and traits in a vacuum. (Not as a whole)

Longbow was a nice addition, and I like the skills on it, they just need tweaking. Fixing issues with LOS are an absolute necessity.

Traps are interesting, but need to be thrown. They do not add survivability to the class so I’m not sure how useful they would realistically be outside of PVE. Although, personally I’d still never use them.

The new virtues are good move into more active virtues. I like justice and resolution as they are, they just need a little tweaking. However courage has gone from a nice save mechanic to a weak very situational mechanic that doesn’t help much. I’d almost rather give it up completely in its current state.

Where DH is the most disappointing is in the department of traits.

To gain the line you are forced to give up SOMETHING invaluable to a Guardians offense, defense, or utility. While the line almost exclusively adds utility to the longbow and traps. Due to how the virtue lines are designed now, zeal and radiance are both offensively focused, while honor and Valor are defensively focused. Virtues adds utility to both offense and defense creating a wonderful synergy between the lines. DH breaks this synergy without adding enough offense or defense to compensate.

At this point I wish I could only take the new Virtue change without the DH line because the justice and Resolve virtues are better for a melee Guardian.

My general experience so far I feel they need to tone down the number of traits that focus purely on longbow, or strengthen some traits to take care of the many core weaknesses of the class that start to crop up again when you lose one of the most important lines to Guardian, Virtues, which is the line I could most see this replacing besides zeal or radiance.

TL;DR
It feels like nothing but a poor replacement for the virtues line, because I cannot see taking it over Zeal or Radiance offensively. Nor do I see it being valuable enough to choose over Honor or Valor for defense.

Even then, it doesn’t provide even close to the near necessary utility of the virtues line.

Defender’s Dogma doesn’t cause the virtue of justice to charge if Spear of Justice is on cooldown. This trait discourages you from using the Spear of Justice, which is kind of the point of the Dragonhunter, right?

Also, this trait loses a lot of value if you spec into Virtue and take Supreme Justice. Not much synergy going on since Supreme Justice is going to do a superior job of keeping burn on your foes without having to block anyway.

The first change i would make to Traps is this:

Delete ‘Purification’.

Fragments of Faith – Heal yourself and imbue the light into the ground unleashing multiple fragments into the area. Each fragment grants aegis to allies, as long as they don’t already have aegis. Each fragment whether taken by yourself or an ally heals you. Allies standing in the trap have plus boon duration.

Reason: Trap heal is competing with ‘Shelter’ and ‘Litany of Wrath’. The current Trap heal ‘Purification’ is worthless in comparison. Making ‘Fragments of Faith’ the heal would give us the options of ‘Shelter- selfish defensive heal’, ‘Litany of Wrath- DPS heal’ and ‘Fragments of Faith- non selfish defensive heal’.

It also adds diversity to the traps, Rangers have ‘Healing Spring’, a trap that doesn’t need activation, so why cant Dragonhunters have Traps like that.

Some DH Traps movement control / relocation / isolating gameplay enhancement ideas & thoughts (multi posts):

Purification: Can provide a great heal but has to many constraints & disadvantages:

1. Requires a foe to active main heal.
2. Can be activated by foe when not needed.
3. Easily interrupted due to long cast time before any effect.
4. Useless damage component with a weak single application of blind.

Overall any other heal would preform better & more reliable in the situations you would be looking to heal. Some redesigns:

Stun Break, Purification (PvP Beserker Amulet)
Cooldown: 30 sec
Damage: 110
Initial Heal: 2,192
Trap Heal: 6,413
Applies Blindness (2 sec) each pulse.
Number of Targets: 5
Duration: 6 sec
Pulses: 4
Interval: 2 sec
Trap Radius: 180
Attack Radius: 240
Breaks Stun
Trap Arming Time: 1.5 sec

Reasoning
At the moment for a unnoticeable damage & single blind this really didn’t feel like a trap to a foe & I wanted this heal to have a greater effect to your foes to really provide that trap feeling (just feels like a self heal & not a trap).

To strengthen the trap feeling to a foe I changed to single blindness application to a pulsing blindness just like “Black Powder” on the Thief. This reinforces the trap feeling making it an area foes want to get out of.

At the moment traps are missing a much needed stun break, which I and many believe should always be an option to choice in a utility set. Adding this here provides the much needed stun break to traps. The side effect making Purification an instant cast allowing benefit of the initial heal similar to meditation under MF. The important factor is the trap arming time giving foes time to relocate not making the trap heal a guaranteed heal when cast directly on top of foes.

This makes Purification gameplay interesting as do you place the trap before the fight to have the trap heal available but with the change your stun break might not be or keep the stun break if needed but placing it in during the fight allow your foe to know were Purification is located.

Condition Cleanse, Purification (PvP Beserker Amulet)
Cooldown: 30 sec
Instant cast
Damage: 110
Initial Heal: 2,192
Trap Heal: 6,413
Removes 1 condition each pulse.
Applies Blindness (2 sec) each pulse if a condition is removed.
Number of Targets: 5
Duration: 6 sec
Pulses: 7
Interval: 1 sec
Trap Radius: 180
Attack Radius: 240
Trap Arming Time: 1.5 sec

Reasoning
Now I prefer the Stun Break version as I would like to keep traps weak to conditions & look at the Drangonhunters & Guardians other options to provide condition protection if needed as I feel ranged gameplay provides reduced condition application & a stun break greatly more needed.

With this design I was looking at the addition of some condition removal which works in very well with the trap’s name theme Purification. I also wanted to enhance the feeling of this is a trap to foes & again changed the blindness application to a pulsing blindness. Also kept the instant MF mediation cast with the arming time as this really made this feel like a different heal that requires differing counter play by avoiding the trap then interrupting the cast.

Fragments of Faith:
Overall a great trap & I’m loving the enhancement to “Aegis” gameplay brought about by this trap.

The problems I have with the BW2 version are:

• Fragments 10 sec is to short
• Aegis doesn’t stack

Changes:

• Aegis not stacking, fragments time returned back to 15 sec
• Aegis stacking, can leave fragment time a 10 sec.

Reasoning
For me Fragments of Faith was about tactical gameplay having these Aegis available for use when needed, again providing an Area of Advantage. But 10 sec feel to short for greater tactical use & for the protection a single aegis provides (especially with unblockable attacks seeing more gameplay).

The original 15 sec felt long enough to provide this tactical feel but not long enough that you could use them whenever.

The other option is a change to the base function of Aegis to allow it to stack. I would look at allowing a maximum of 3 stacks providing the ability to block three attacks while the aegis window. This would enhance aegis as although great against a sinlge massive attack from one foe it’s ineffective against multiply foes each striking with a massive hit while still keeping it’s weakness to fast multiply hitting attacks.

With regard directly to the guardians passive aegis make it so it applies a single aegis which expires when the next aegis is applied. For Indomitable Courage you could allow the over lap allowing for a time period 2 aegis or just readjust the application & expiration to match the new aegis application cycle. It would maybe new nice to tie the defensive stat toughness into the aegis skills number of stacks providing the difference between aegis apply by offensive focused characters & defensive focused characters.

This inclusion of stacking on some non stacking boons might be away to include defensive stats into active gameplay. This would allow support (boon) focused character to feel like the support their provides is slightly stronger at the base level.
Allowing defensive stats to also play into enhancing skills instead of just being passive.

Light’s Judgement:
I love the aspect of finally having the ability to counter play stealth bursts & feel overall concept wise & function it works fantastic. It’s just needs some balancing.

Current issues:

• Damage is to low
• Reveal to short

Changes:

• Increase the reveal time to the standard reveal duration (4 sec PvP, 3 sec PvE & WvW) but make it so that each pulse refresh the reveal.
• Increase the damage

Light’s Judgement (PvP Beserker Amulet)
Damage (x9): 1,342
Revealed (4 sec)
Revealed is refreshed back to 4 sec each pulse.
Applies vulnerability (2 sec, 10 Stacks)
Number of Targets: 5
Duration: 8 sec
Pulses: 9
Interval: 1 sec
Trap Radius: 180
Attack Radius: 240

Reasoning
At the moment this trap has extremely short effects that can be avoid quite easily by quick responding foes. They can basically re-stealth as soon they leave your trap & the vulnerability expires just as fast. I would like this to be the group anti stealth burst opener, providing counter play to this strategy which allow a window of opportunity from the ambushed to strike back but also provide the window for the ambushers to fall back.

Test of Faith: So far enjoying the area control gameplay this trap provides as well as the visual effect. For foes this is a ring foe 8 sec you don’t want to cross. It provides an Area of Advantage creating an area of threat foe must be aware of not to cross multiply times which can be great in team fights & defensive plays. Some changes:

• Also applies Cripple (6 sec) as well as the damage when a foe crosses the threshold.
• Added Flip-skill – “Trail of Faith” (Trap Radius: 300) Pulls foes (5 targets) into the centre of the test of faith.

Reasoning
The problem at the moment is damage is average & crossing over the threshold doesn’t feel as much of a threat (but it does build up nicely if a foe is silly enough to cross over multiply times).

But I don’t see increasing the damage to make it more of a threat as a solution. The reason why is when you start to think about multiply Test of Faith traps placed one on top of other & it starts to get scary.

So I believe keeping it at a strong auto attack level is the right choice but to increase the threat making it more dangerous to cross I believe cripple should also be applied whenever a foe crosses the threshold. Note this would also sync very well with Dulled Senses.

Edit: Increased cripple duration to 6 sec as 3 felt to weak.

Procession of Blades
Simple in design simple in effect, purely just a damaging trap which I like. Great for triggering on hit effects & Area denial. Having the lowest cooldown means it could be used often but is held back by the 1 sec cast time.

Current issue:

• Cast time
• Low damage without the on hit bleeds

Changes:

• Slight reduce cast time.
• If bleeds lost increase damage.

Reasoning
Reducing the cast time, even if this means a reduction to damage (not that I believe it’s needed) means this becomes an easier trap to place which would work better with melee builds.

With the the lost of bleed on hit proposed Procession of Blades will becomes a weaker trap & I feel the best option to keep it a simple trap & not change it’s gameplay to much is just to increase it’s base damage.

Dragon’s Maw:
With the changes implemented with BW2 I no longer have any major problems with the overall skill as I believe it’s almost in a great spot for what it provides. The only modification I would do is Increase the Slow duration to 6 sec again match the Maw Barrier duration.

So with a teleport or stability you still get good damage & a 6 sec slow and without either a teleport or stability it gets better with 6 sec of entrapment.

Glaurung.1076:

…
If Spirit Weapons were actualy good i would definately try a few builds with them and dragonhunter.

….

With the range gameplay of Dragonhunters & traps I was also interested in possible builds with spirit weapons as I believe there would be a natural sync between them. Although you can feel this sync the problems innate to spirit weapons make them impractical overall as the loss of survivability is too much of a sacrifice.

1: Puncture shot really needs to have a lower cast time given the damage it does.

2: Deflecting shot really should do a knock back at base or via heavy light

3: Symbol of energy, please dont take the burn off. It was one of the few nice things the spec had for celestial or condi guardians.

4: Hunters ward, the cast time is so long that outside wvw zerging or mindless pve nothing will likely get caught in it. (perhaps if it had a quick cast time & just immobilized everything in a line like hammer 3 does it would be great, with a similar CD ofc)

5: Purification, really should remove some conditions (say 3+) for the guardian and nearby allies.

6: Test of faith, really needs a reason to make enemies want to leave the radius. (say pulsing AOE burns within its radius)

7: Dragons maw, laughable that it only effects 1 target. Should effect at the very least 3.

8: All of the single hit traps could stand to be made to hit multiple times so as to work better with VOJ.

9: Piercing light. Like the trap Cd reduction but taking the bleeding off of traps hurt condi guardians allot. Also a daze won’t help keep allies in range.
(perhaps if piercing light made all bow hits, trap hits and sword hits apply bleeding in addition to a trap Cd reduction)

10: Heavy light. A random knockback is not a good thing as it cannot be relied upon or predicted. The knockback could also easily be applied to deflecting shot (which would be better for reliability and being countered by smart play.)
(perhaps heavy light could cause traps to immobilize or stun when triggered, deflecting shot should be a knockback anyway)

11: Even with the velocity increase allot of the bow skills can still be strafed & many will not fire on enemies that move behind you as you cast.

12: The first part of the change to hunter’s fortification is nice, but given the sheer amount of abilities that spew conditions in this game perhaps the second part could reduce damage taken while you have a condition on you.

Also agree with blood red & Reborn, traps need more utility & conditions to make them even worth considering in most cases.

As is I doubt anyone would take them vs shouts, meditations or consecrations for anything in game.

Traps (suggestions)
reduced coolddon.
Dragons MAW should be larger and have a float aswell as a slow.
vastly increasing the radius of the traps to make it feel like a dragon hunter
Insta cast times and ground targeting and all the traps should remove conditions

How about having a priming system so instead of waiting for somebody to trigger it we have the power to activate when we wish and it is not based on Mobs and enemy players any more?
Adding float for more control (which can work both offensively and defensively) (4secs) and stun breakers to all traps because at the moment we as guardians are sacrificing alot of sustain picking this spec in my view.
Having some traps which move along the ground with you (unique to the dragonhunter and straying away from regular traps on classes and bringing a unique to the class
maybe adding various modes for the traps so when triggered they function in different ways?
Having the traps becoming a moving field with your char (like the berserker skill)
Virtues
Adding 3 secs of stealth to virtues and making virtues insta cast (if not insta cast stunbreakers)
Making the F2 have an evade buff on it when casting
F3 keeping it the same
making it invert melee attacks into healing
F1 boon stripping and weakness instead of burning
Longbow
autoattack should look larger and bounce to more foe with little aoe explosions
true shot
No root but do more damage when standing still
Puncture shot Longer across
4 skills could be a shadowstep if it connects which heals nearby allies
5 skills quicker animation and the aftereffect could do AOE burning after it ends
I think that the changes would make it feel more unique and honestly i think that pulling the dragonhunter from future betas so they can improve on it will be a wise idea and the community will appreciate it hell they could all this stuff HOT and we would wait i think.

I seem to die more often in PvE when I have Purification as my heal. That heal is just so risky to use.

Because some people seem to have the wrong idea and I don’t want to dig back through a million posts to correct everything, I’ll just mention this:

TRAPS ARE NOT VISIBLE TO ENEMIES
They also don’t need to be ground targeted, but that’s a different discussion.

I’ll come back if anything rustles my jimmies as hard as people just plain ignoring anything factual about traps, DH, or guardian as a whole. I thought some of this misinformation might just be a small one time thing, but reading it 4 days in a row?

Here’s what I would want to salvage the specialization:

1) Traps are ground targeted and treated as symbols.
2) Boring traits are combined and better traits (such as a 25% movement one) are added.
3) Longbow is faster, doesn’t root, and does more damage.
4) New Virtues are instacast with lower cooldown.

superherofan.8042:

Here’s what I would want to salvage the specialization:

1) Traps are ground targeted and treated as symbols.

This is exactly how I feel about it. We already had something to place upon the ground and the best part of it was it was a benefit + damage. Traps are just . . . not meshing with Guardian. Not meshing with LB. I’m baffled why we have them at all.

If we are getting a new way to play (backline) we should have a theme going with that and be able to aid from the backline as well as damage. My impression is that regardless of what we are wielding our biggest strength is that we are a support class. Why they would take us completely from that feels confusing to me. Symbols would be amazing with the right traits and would make backline enjoyable, useful, and still very much Guardian just different.

I mean every other elite still feels like it’s their class. Just different. DH on the other hand feels . . . weak and unfortunately a downgrade with no connection to it’s vanilla.

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)

Haven’t given much feedback since it’s started so here we go!

Long bow: Not being able to cast abilities behind your back is a major hindrance. The auto is still strafeable.

Traits:

Minors: Defender’s Dogma makes no sense, this should be changed. It’s like Purity of Body/Zealous Scepter, it discourages you from popping your virtue’s active.

Pure of Sight: Nice change to help include staff for the damage increase.

Majors:

Piercing Light: With how traps are, no matter amount of cd reduction would influence me into taking this because traps are that terrible.

Soaring Devastation: Awesome change but it’s now the ultimate choice in the adept tier. Might want to bring the rest of them up.

Bulwark: Again, Shield of Courage needs to block all attacks in front of the Guardian, this doesn’t help.

Hunter’s Fort: Reiterating the fact that condi’s are sneezed out so half of this trait will be rendered useless.

Heavy Light: Random KB’s are not good for the game, needs changing.

BGH: Needs to retain Justice’s passive to be useful.

Edit: Also, since all of the virtue’s are inherently “Selfish,” they should have far lower cd’s

My feedback is going to be based on a pvp/WvW perspective:

General: DH brings ranged cc, and great team support through their shield of courage, and large heal on wings of resolve. For power builds, DH brings the hurt, but I can’t say the same for condi builds. Other than spear of justice, DH doesn’t seem very condi build friendly. I recommend adding a burn to one of the traps (fragments of faith would make sense). Aside from minor bugs, I’m happy with how DH is going to turn out. I think traits need to be looked at and reconsidered though.

-Virtues: The increased f1 velocity is nice. Still needs to be a 1/4s cast time. 3/4 is fine as long as you lower the aftercast. No complaints about f2. The increased healing is great, and I like the cast time. The cast time makes this skill more about tactical and skillful use rather than a panic heal, great job! Shield of courage though…. if you’re going to make the shielding effect start immediately, then you should also make the on-use traits (indomitable courage) start immediately too. Honestly, this virtue does not deserve to be interruptable. Once f3 actually blocks frontal attacks, I think it will be in a great place. Happy with the virtues

-Longbow: The auto attack does good damage. Up the projectile speed like you promised, and I think it will be fine! Please allow Symbol of energy to be fire-able backwards. The increased vigor ticks are a very nice addition. I recommend having all boons pulsed by symbols to be 3-second ticks on that note. Also, increase the damage of Deflecting shot. It should do equal or more damage than an auto attack. Overall I am happy with the longbow. Honestly though, I am of the opinion that #2 should have its cd increased (5 s), and add on a reduce-cd to a longbow trait.

-Traps: They need cd reductions and/or lower cast times. Fragments of faith is great, but it would be better if it had about a 35s cd. Additionally, consider adding boons to at least one of the traps, like maybe 4x might to nearby allies when Dragon’s maw clamps shut or protection to allies standing within the pulsing light of Light’s judgement or swiftness to nearby allies when Fragments of faith is triggered (you know, to more quickly be able to run around and pick up aegis!). This would merit their 1s cast times. As is, trap cds and cast times are too long and lack of sustain or support makes them no fun to use in pvp or wvw.

Traits: I like the proposed trait changes that are coming. As someone who enjoys condi builds and power builds, I really REALLY do not like Defender’s dogma (master minor trait). This trait is completely useless for power builds, and still fairly useless for condi builds. Supreme justice does a much better job of applying burning than this minor trait. Also, this trait encourages you not to use your f1. Please consider removing this minor trait altogether, and coming up with a new one. Place the effect of Defender’s dogma on to another trait though, perhaps on to Big Game Hunter, or Hunter’s fortification. Another change I’d like to propose is to Bulwark (a master major trait). This is somewhat weak, and fairly boring for a master level trait. Here’s a possible fix:

Bulwark: Increases the radius of Shield of courage. Blocking an attack with shield of courage reduces the recharge of your virtues by a static amount: 3 seconds (1 s internal cd).

Used to its full potential, this would allow you to get a nice 10+ second refund on your virtues. This change would make this an excellent master tier trait, and would highly encourage tactical use of f3.

-Animations and sound fx: Last but certainly not least! I want to say good job, I definitely notice these improvements! I’m enjoying the sound fx of our longbow #1 a lot more now. The small trail of light behind longbow #1 makes it seem a lot more impactful. Some suggested changes/additions: Please add a stronger sound effect to Longbow #2. It would make it feel a lot more impactful, like “wow, I just got hit by this HUGE nuke of an arrow, ouch!” Perhaps changing the sound effect to have a small sonic boom/minor explosion upon firing would be great!
Another minor, but awesome addition I encourage you all to make is an animation change to our f3, shield of courage! It would be awesome if within the wall/cone of light we project, for there to be an actual shield. As is, it’s sort of just an amorphous wall of light that blocks projectiles. It looks cool, but it would definitely strike us as more thematic if you had a nice blazing shield in the middle of it!

I’ve been playing all the specializations this weekend, and I wanted to say that what I’ve seen already posted in this thread I agree with:

1) Pretty much all of the longbow abilities, even auto-attacking, don’t actually track the target and I’ve gotten a lot of “No Line of Sight” issues.
2) The modified virtues are pretty, though I rarely use them because they don’t feel very impactful.
3) I don’t know whether it’s me or not, but I’ve noticed that Dragonhunter especially has issues attacking a new target: there’s a delay (of several attacks) before it starts attacking the new target. Might be tied to the LoS issues.
4) Many of the traits don’t seem like they’re actually proccing off of attacks (Spear of Justice primarily).

Ghotistyx.6942:

Because some people seem to have the wrong idea and I don’t want to dig back through a million posts to correct everything, I’ll just mention this:

TRAPS ARE NOT VISIBLE TO ENEMIES
They also don’t need to be ground targeted, but that’s a different discussion.

I’ll come back if anything rustles my jimmies as hard as people just plain ignoring anything factual about traps, DH, or guardian as a whole. I thought some of this misinformation might just be a small one time thing, but reading it 4 days in a row?

That’s wonderful news; thanks, Ghotistyx. I’ve edited my previous post to reflect this knowledge.

After further play, I really do like the new Virtues, at least in their ideas. The previously-suggested updates are still desperately needed, however:
All: Reduced Recharge (20%?), or each individually re-balanced for DH— otherwise DH players will still basically be forced into the Virtues spec line (and/or Renewed Focus), which severely limits their available build options.

• Spear of Justice: Needs to deliver something more powerful/rewarding for tethering enemies with it, or else it will continue to be simply not worth it — longer duration for the pulsed burns, the addition of pulsing damage, and a flip skill that allows a pull would all be good options. Also BGH needs to allow its passive to remain after activation.

• Wings of Resolve: Still think this needs to be an evade and a stun break. This, coupled with reduced recharge, would help to make traps a viable option, even without their own stun break.

• Shield of Courage: Should block all attacks (including melee) that come through its area. Also could use a knockback on activation, or to knockback melee attackers when it blocks them (with an appropriate ICD per enemy), or to deliver an attack to enemies it blocks, or some combination of the above. All of them fit the aggressive nature of the DH, and add some impact and flavor to an otherwise somewhat lacking skill.

I’ve been going through all the specs, so I’ll leave my DH stuff here. sorry if I’ve missed anything, or if I’ve misunderstood any part of the guardian – it’s not my most experienced profession – and remember that the following is my opinion, and can easily be wrong:

Specialisation: Dragonhunter
Overall:

• Was it fun: Not really. has potential, but feels poorly executed.
• Did it change how I play guardian in a meaningful way: Not really.
• Longbow felt a little lackluster.
• not sure what this spec is supposed to be. support? doesn’t guardian already have more support than any class could possibly need?

Mechanic (New Virtues):

• Spear of Justice: this virtue’s interesting, and allows for a slightly longer-range targeted burn. other than that, not much to say.
• Wings of Resolve: a nice gap closer (which doesn’t make sense on a ranged build?) and a decent AoE heal.
• Shield of Courage: gives a mobile projectile blocker. while this is nice, isn’t the guardian already pretty well known for having a decent projectile reflect?

Weapon (Longbow):

• Overall: The Longbow is a fitting addition to the guardian, providing a long-ranged option for the mostly close-range profession. however, the skills themselves feel rather lackluster.
• Puncture Shot: this attack feels pretty weak, and the piercing aspect rarely comes into play. even when it does, it’s not a huge factor.
• True Shot: This skill’s supposed to be the high-powered move, as far as I can tell, but the damage doesn’t feel all that high – certainly not high enough to justify the 3/4s root.
• Deflecting Shot: this skill’s actually really interesting, though I’ve not practiced enough to make good use of it. a projectile-destroying projectile is an interesting move though.
• Symbol of Energy: a decent symbol. does burning and grants vigor. also the only symbol I’m aware of which can be placed away from the guardian.
• Hunter’s Ward: an interesting move, though it’s very all-or-nothing, with most of the damage being weighted on the final impact. the immobilise is nice too.

Skills (Traps):

• Purification: an interesting trap, though a heal reliant on an enemy might not be so useful in some circumstances.
• Test of Faith: a decent control trap, though all it does is punish enemies for leaving, where Ring of Warding stops enemies leaving, and only has a 10s longer cooldown.
• Procession of Blades: does okay damage. it’s a trap that damages, not much else to say.
• Fragments of Faith: sort of like the above, but with less damage and more aegis granting. something the guardian’s already good at?
• Light’s Judgement: one of the more interesting traps, the pulsing reveal is quite useful – definitely strong in PvP.
• Dragon’s Maw: possibly the best all-round trap, this one’s good for deciding where you want your enemies and then keeping them there. really need some good AoE damage to work though, which makes it a good combo-skill.

Traits:
Adept:

• Minor – Virtuous Action: gives all the Dragonhunter stuff, not much else to say.
• Major – Piercing Light: gives the standard 20% recharge on traps, along with an extra bleed on each trap, which benefits condition builds.
• Major – Zealot’s Aggression: the extra damage against cripple is nice, especially given all the cripple Dragonhunter gets, but I can see this being even better in groups.
• Major – Soaring Devastation: adds an offensive element to wings of resolve, which makes it more versatile – always a good thing.
  Master:
• Minor – Defender’s Dogma: an interesting minor, but nothing in the Dragonhunter’s kit gives block other than aegis, which mostly comes from the base profession.
• Major – Hunter’s Determination: I can see stability being useful, but I’d have thought – given the root – that the stability would be most useful during True shot, not after.
• Major – Bulwark: it makes Shield of Courage better. not much else to say.
• Major – Dulled Senses: this further increases the cripple that dragonhunter can dish out, and adds weakness on top of it – but once again, the only knockback in the Dragonhunter’s kit requires traiting – otherwise it’s reliant on the base Guardian for this to work, and even base guardian doesn’t have all that much knockback.
  Grandmaster:
• Minor – Pure of Sight increased damage to enemies far away. the fact that this affects all weapons is nice – allowing it to benefit the scepter and staff too.
• Major – Hunter’s Fortification: AoE protection on virtue activation. it’s nice, fits the guardian, and promotes virtue usage. doesn’t really feel different from base guardian though.
• Major – Heavy Light: makes short-range shots knock enemies back. a good way to keep enemies away, though the ICD means you’ll never keep them that far away, so you’ll have to time this well for it to be useful.
• Major – Big Game Hunter: incentivise you to throw your spear of justice, and rewards you with extra damage. not bad, not amazing.

Overall, the Dragonhunter feels sort of lost. much like it’s name, it feels a little generic, vague, and not entirely sure what it’s doing. Guardian’s existing ranged weapons don’t do much damage, so the Longbow solves this by…not doing much damage. it adds a new role of support to the class best known for support, and the traits don’t seem to be doing anything consistently – some don’t even work with the elite spec.

I feel like Dragonhunter needs to go back and decide what it wants to be. no execution can fix the lack of direction I’m feeling from this spec.

Guess I’ll give my thoughts on the Dragonhunter as a Necro main who recently started playing as a Guardian. Overall, especially compared to what the Reaper did for the Necro, it’s underwhelming. That being said, it certainly could work (even with the name “Dragonhunter”, since every character, as others have pointed out, is a “dragon hunter” by default).

The Traits: Since they’re being updated there’s not much reason to comment on them. Though, even with the upcoming changes, they feel rather bland overall. For example:

-Big Game Hunter: Instead of just increasing the damage of Spear of Justice, it could give a couple (2) additional Spears of Justice to throw on the active.

The Virtues: I like the idea of more active, physical virtues (it was the main, if not only, draw to the specialization). However, I think there could be some slight improvements:

-Spear of Justice: Increase the damage a little (I’m no math whiz so I won’t say more).

-Wings of Resolve: Increase the leap range to about 900 and add, even if it’s in a trait, an evade during the leap.

-Shield of Courage: Add some deterrent to melee attackers (maybe they’re inflicted with slow when they attack while the shield is active?).

The Bow: The only interesting skills were 3 and 5 in my opinion, but the weapon overall did decently though it certainly wasn’t exhilarating.

-Skill 1: I think it could have a longer cast time while doing notably more damage without the cripple effect. Aesthetically speaking, I would prefer the glowing arrow to be a beam of light with a heavier sound effect. Or, as someone else suggested (I don’t remember who), Skill 1 could be a three part chain.

-2: Since I practically made skill 1 replace this, I suggest skill 2 be the crippling and knock back skill. Maybe it could be replaced with a volley of shots in a line that cripple enemies they strike and knock them back if they’re within the range threshold.

-3: This skill is being updated so I have no comment at this point in time other than that I like what it’s designed to do.

-4: I’m actually bummed that they’re planning on removing the burning since i enjoy the current iteration of the skill.

-5: The skill has a pretty decent effect but the cast time and slightly too long cool down does it no justice.

The Traps: Not my cup of tea, but they do have a connection to the “hunter” part of the name. I do find it strange that the traps are placed at the player’s location while the bow is designed to keep enemies at range with no explicit skill that would bait them towards the traps (at least from what I can tell). Actually, my biggest gripe with the traps, besides weak-ish effects, is that the effects are too literal. I’d rather they allude to the name instead of practically screaming it. For example:

-Dragon’s Maw: Instead of forming an actual dragon’s head around the enemy it could, mostly for kittens and giggles, cause the player to toss out an over-sized, rusted bear trap that has a similar effect with a lower cool down. (Though this is mostly for a laugh like I said.)

Anyways, that’s my two cents.

my thoughts on the dragon hunter are simple, the casting times are really clunky, Puncture shot is very very glitchy, if my target is on a slight incline i cannot hit them even if i am right in their face it will say “obstructed” and the traps engage very slowly often times in pve this weekend mobs have walked out of dragons maw because it was too slow.

thats about all i can add really, other people have stated the issues far better than i ever could have.

I honestly think the only saving grace for traps at the moment is to make them ground targeted. They took this away from rangers but that didn’t affect them much because they have many melee weapon sets that work with traps and it fit thematically. Even looking at games like Tera, their archer class (which can only use bows) has ground-targeted traps, the class would literally suck if they weren’t.

I don’t see the problem with adding the ground target to traps….it would go a long way in making this Ranged spec viable. You can even keep the slight cast time to differentiate it from wells. Lastly as I’ve said in a previous post it fits the guardian because it can be similar to consecrations but with a Ranger twist.

After a bit playing around with the dragonunter in PvE I came to the following conclusion: “I do not understand dragonhunter.” The trait combinations do not make sense, I tried to make a guardian based around blocking to extend the virue of justive active and blocking to increase burn damage, I also tried on with sword and big game hunter. But when I entere radiance I came to the realization that half my skill set had blinds as well even one on my spear making blocking not feasable, the pay off wasn’t worth the investment either for both.

Bug: The Courageous Return trait doesn’t function with Shield of Courage.
Self rally or rezzing another player
(Courage is renewed when rallying or reviving another player 30s icd)

All existing traits were said to also work with the new Dragonhunter Virtues during the reveal.

On another note Shield of Courage needs melee help to aid in filling the flaws with Longbow defense issues, either block melee attacks or inflict Weakness on any melee range attacker that strikes you while SoC is up.

Block and an actual Block on ranged or melee hits that SoC negates would be ideal and give us some synergy with our block traits. It won’t be overpowered as both existing traits and the idea for the DH 3rd one are all balanced with 1s icds.

Not all of our traps need to be ground targeted. I would love to see greater diversity with traps, some ranged, some trigger off friends, some enemies.

For example ‘Procession of Blades’ should be a ground target-able Whirl Finisher that bleeds enemies because it is competing with ‘Purging Flames’.

But ‘Fragments of Faith’ should be like ‘Healing Spring’ where it is placed under our feet, the fragments scatter around us and we receive some kind of positive effect for standing in the circular area. (I still think Fragments of Faith should be our heal).

I’ll just copy my feetback of the BW1 in here, since a) it was deleted from the old thread for no apparent reason and b) nothing of the things players complained about was fixed. Everything I noted that should/could be changed about the Dragonhunter is still there in EXACTLY THE SAME way.
As a someone who played the class to give feedback I’m deeply disappointed.

Playing Dragonhunter was interesting, especially since I didn’t expect much from it in the first place.

I liked the bow. The skills are well done, they give you something to work with. You have cripple, burning, blindness, stability if traited… honestly, I don’t know why people would complain about the longbow on the guard. The dps could be a little bit higher but it’s a bow and the guardian is no ranger, so I won’t say that that needs to be fixed or anything.

The traps are… well, ok at best. Dragon’s Maw looks extremly good, though I personally don’t know where it can be used in general PvE sine you have “Feel My Wrath!” and Signet of Courage as alternatives. One is dps and one is party support so I don’t see myself using the elite trap anytime soon.

Procession of Blades did really good damage when traited with the trait hat gives bleed on traps and the cooldown is nice as well.
Fragment’s of Faith deals damage and throws away aegis, which again I won’t use in PvE. Test of Faith was nice with the running mobs in the new maps though I don’t know how usefull it is with the old AI. Light’s Judgement seems like a pure PvP skill to me, though maye it could be used in WvW.

All in all my problem with the traps is still that they are placed beneath you. I was running around for 30 minutes today to try and pull mobs into my traps, but as soon as there are other people you fight a loosing battle. In genereal PvE they are unusable, and even beyond that you have the problem that the first thing that walks into the traps triggers them. Also every trap has a radius of 180-240 which means that I’d have to spend 1 sec standing in the middle of the mobs to cast it.That’s bullkitten. Make them groundtargetable with a 600 radius and everything is fine.

As said before F1, F2 and F3 should be instant cast. Spear of Courage should do more damage, because as it is it’s ludicrously weak even with the trait – which brings me to the traits and the only thing that I really despise about the Dragonhunter.

The traps: fine, you don’t have to use them, no harm done. The traits however feel very lackluster. As I said before Piercing Light does makes for some good condi damage with the traps (which only works if you actually play those) and the stability on LB2 from Hunter’s Determination is intriguing especially for WvW. The Grandmaster traits however are… weak? Useless? A little protection from virtues and some vulnerability on the weak Virtue of Courage aren’t Grandmaster-worthy. The knockback on the bow is lame as well, and obviously can’t be used if someone doesn’t want to play LB.

All in all for me the only reason to play Dragonhunter would be the longbow, but then I would have to give up a useful traitline for Dragonhunter line that gives me nothing if I don’t play traps and even then is only medicore.

I’m disappointed with the Dragonhunter so far. The idea was good, the execution not so much.

Wings of Resolve is completely nullified by Immobilize.

Doesn’t matter that you have Absolute Resolution traited to remove 3 conditions, you can’t leap so you just sit there, unable to clear conditions on you or allies, unable to burst heal yourself or allies.

Also, the heal range is pathetically small, using it on moving players is impossible, by the time you leap the ally has moved out of the tiny heal range…

Wings of Resolve is a huge downgrade and nerf compared to even basic Resolve, never mind the traited versions.

Absolute Resolution needs to instantly clear conditions and then Wings of Resolve attempt to Leap, if you are still Immobilized it should just heal on the spot.

Or make Wings of Resolve clear Immobilize on the Guardian by default