Guild Wars 2

With what stats and against who you deal up to 10k damage with True Shot and under what circumstances (boons, conditions etc…)

Now after looking at Traps a thought for Spirit Weapons. I believe there are two issues bar skill effects currently causing problems for spirit weapons which are:

• Cast Time – Similar issues traps had in BWE2, too long actually even longer then what traps had (1.5 sec).
• Cooldown – This does start until spirit weapon expires or dies. really limiting pre-combat engagement & overall use to these skill.

For cast time due to the cost & risks of spirit weapons I believe these need to reduced allowing for overall smooth gameplay interact similar to how traps now interact.

For when the cooldown starts I believe due to the timed nature & that spirit weapons can be killed they should start recharging after summons. Let us test this & then lets see how spirit weapons are performing before changing anything else. regarding the cooldown starting on summons if this is too strong Don’t believe it will be) increase the overall cooldown increasing the window of vulnerability between summoned time & availability for re-summon.

Until cast time & cooldowns are looked at I believe almost no matter what skill effects bar “1 Shots” you give spirit weapons you’ll most like see next to no gameplay with them as they’s next of no sustainability currently due to these two issues.

Dragon Hunter is another Ranger with Longbow and Traps and it’s not good, no new idea on this profession.

Why do you choose the word “Dragon”?
I think it’s better only call it “Hunter”.

By the way, the new Virtues are really good

berjas.7834:

Dragon Hunter is another Ranger with Longbow and Traps and it’s not good, no new idea on this profession.

Why do you choose the word “Dragon”?
I think it’s better only call it “Hunter”.

By the way, the new Virtues are really good

Well I had some success killing rabits in wvw…that’s pretty all.
We could call it rabit hunter. I feel it would match much better with what it is good at.
Dragon sounds a bit…optimistic to say the least.

I still don’t get were new virtues are good at.
f1 dodged 3 time out of 4
f2 interrupted 1 of 2
f3 while emergency is of no use…only somewhat good when you don’t really need it (at range and attacking)

I honestly think this elite specialization was designed purposely to hinder Guardian and I don’t think it will be savable with a complete mechanic overhaul. But for the sake of constructive criticism I will share the most important part of that overhaul and if even just that makes it I think it will appease at least some of the problems. All the rooting skills need to go, a ranged weapon with a root is so contradictory it doesn’t even make sense. The raids are so active, people moving around, people dodging, blocking, running and then you have Dragonhunter who has to stop and stand still like a moron to use it’s best attacks.

DH is PVE only.

There is no way I would add cast times and give up my virtues for DH in PvP.
Traps are 90% of the time a joke in PvP. One would expect at least a field associated with them and/or because of guard class have an associated condi remove/heal or boon.
Heavy Light would only be useful if incorporated in an actual skill i.e " Deflecting shot… and knockbacks players 300"
Hunter’s Fortification shows promise maybe as a minor trait and w/o ICD.
I’ll try to add more but out of time for now…

After testing it for 2 days in pvp:

LB #2 needs more dmg increase by 15-20%
Virtue of Courage cd decrease to 45 – 50 sec
Virtue of Resolve need evade + decrease cd to 20 sec.
Traps need more HUGE love.

+

We need 25% moving trait ASAP in DH line.

Ragnarox.9601:

After testing it for 2 days in pvp:

LB #2 needs more dmg increase by 15-20%
Virtue of Courage cd decrease to kitten sec
Virtue of Resolve need evade + decrease cd to 20 sec.
Traps need more HUGE love.

+

We need 25% moving trait ASAP in DH line.

Thanks.

Now for DH Trait feedback:

Minors
Overall very unimpressed with minor traits as they feel like random individual traits that fight more times then most being more of a loss then an enhancement for DH builds. To get benefit from these you really need to focus your build around them & that not what I want from minor traits. That’s more inline of what grandmasters should be about. These really need to benefit any DH build & work with all the major traits within the Espec.

Virtous Action – Nothing exciting here just basically DH profession mechanic, weapon & utility access. It really feels like this is just a missing trait option although it does all that. It should already be tied to picking the elite spec not a minor trait.

Defender’s Dogma – SoJ recharge on block. Although I can see this working great with core blocking builds how does this help DH builds. Where’s the benefit for using longbow the DH elite weapon, Traps well FoF could get some but aegis build aren’t generally condition builds.

Please replace with Zealot’s Aggression as I feel this emphasise what a DH is & syncs very well with all other DH build options.

Pure of Sight – Only benefits range combat beyond 360. Again another minor trait I really dislike as it excludes all melee focused builds providing no benefit. To provide benefit and again emphasise DH aggression I would like to see these changes:

Aggressive Nature – Renamed
Deals bonus damage to enemies beyond the range threshold & Quickness to finish your foes off when closing with them.
Damage Increase: 10%
Range Threshold: 360
Quickness: 3 sec (ICD 20 sec)

Major Traits
On a whole I’m quite happy with the direction these have been heading in.

Piercing Light – Traps daze enemies when activating & have reduced recharge. This trait now play exceptionally well with the control play style of DH traps. Some have requested a stun instead of a daze but I feel this could cost some of the skills power & if Zealot’s Aggression is moved to a minor trait is no longer needed. Otherwise now a great trait.

Dulled Senses – Feels like it has limited uses for both core guardians & DHs. For what it provides guardians have little application of knockbacks & this goes for DH with out Heavy Light. Either change this skill to include all control effects or as it’s so depended on Heavy Light merge these two skills.

Soaring Devastation – A great trait but what I would like to see an overall change to involving the base WoR. Make WoR 900 range base providing the mobility this skill emphasises. Now for Soaring Devastation slightly increase the damage & apply the immobilisation but at the cost of reduced range (eg. – 300 range now making this 600 range). But I would complain if it stays the way it is.

Hunter’s Determination – Who even came up with the redesign thank you… thank you so much!!! This has to be one of my favourite overall DH trait if not one of my favourite guardian traits to date. This adds an element to stun counter play that is so enjoyable and syncs wonderfully with aegis enhancements.

Zealot’s Aggression – With the move to minor trait this opens up a spot for a complete new trait. Edit: removed active cripple from Zealot’s Aggression as looking at adding this to the base active.

Bulwark – Overall a good addition improving the base function of SoC. A main change I would like to see is the reduction to the base SoC cooldown to 60 sec. Regarding the aggressive overall nature of DH this skill feels too passive defence. What I would like is the addition of reflecting projectiles when traited providing offence through defence feeling more like an aggressive dragonhunter. Also change name to Spiked Bulwark.

Hunter’s Fortification – Something like this as been so needed for guardians freeing up many more build options. Conditions have always been a dangerous threat for low health pools & this just with overall condition protection. I would like to see the removal of the ICD as I believe the only reason it exists is because of Shelter which is starting to become a common problem with all blocking traits having to be balanced around a single skill making them ineffective with the other single hit blocking skill.

Abit off topic:

It’s starting to make me think Shelters more of a curse then a blessing for guardians as it causes more problems with any current or future “On Block Effects”. This was also why it wasn’t tried to any utility category as it would be too strong with the additional trait effect. My thoughts now for the current & future “On Block Effects” is that Shelter needs to be changed. It’s always holding back any trait that makes use of blocking require all blocking effects to be balance off Shelter Traited Effect.

So a change to one of the most loved guardian heals for the betterment of on block effects.

Shelter (1.25 sec cast time, 35 sec cooldown)
Consecration: Heal & block the next 10 attacks sanctifying the target area providing protection to allies.
Healing: kitten
Attacks Blocked: 10
Protection (1sec): -33% Incoming damage
Boon Application Interval: 1 sec
Duration: 5 sec
Radius: 240
Combo Field: Light
Range: 900

This should still provide some of the overall block function of the current shelter allowing for the removal of ICDs on all on block effects as maximum benefit from shelter is now limited. A major problem is the loss of block from multiply sources which can easily exceed 10 attacks which the increased group protection function might not make up for.

Another option could be:

Shelter (1 sec cast time, 35 sec cooldown)
Block the next 10 attacks & heal after blocking ten attacks become invulnerable for 2 seconds..
Healing: kitten
Attacks Blocked: 10
Invulnerable (1.5 sec): after blocking 10 attacks.

This option still limits the maximum benefit shelter can provide from on block effects & also provide much the same defence from multiply damaging sources. The first part also still provides the current counterplay to interrupt the heal & skill but now allowing for the removal of most on block ICDs.

Back to traits sorry:

Heavy Light – The knockback is a function we all would like but many of us really dislike the random uncontrolled nature of this traited knockback. Like most I would like the knockback to be tied to Deflecting Shot. This hand control of the knockback to players. Regarding the application of the stability allow it to be granted from all controlled effects.

Lastly add Longbow reduced recharge and this will start to feel like a grandmaster trait. Regarding the reduced recharge & True Shot increase the base skill cooldown to 5 sec similar to Hammer this will still provide a 4 sec recharge when traited.

Big game Hunter – the velocity increase has been great but it just doesn’t feel like a grandmaster trait. What I would love is the addition of a Pull/Taunt Flip Skill which this trait could provide. It then becomes about do I keep them tethered or pull/taunt them in. It also provides a strong active effect for SoJ.

Now for the missing trait I would like:

Hunters Swiftness
Daze controlled foes & gain swiftness when controlling foes.
Daze: 1 sec
Swiftness (4 sec): 33% Movement speed increase.

This plays into the control theme throughout DH also creating these themed lines within the DH Espec:

• The Battlefield Trapper – Piercing Light, Hunter’s Determination, Hunter’s Fortifictaion.
• The Remorseless Tracker – Dulled Senses, Hunters Swiftness, Heavy Light.
• The Aggressive Hunter – Soaring Devastation, Spiked Bulwark, Big Game Hunter.

Core Suggestions:
Take boon duration increase on Honorable Staff and combine it with Altrustic Healing

Shattered Aegis does not feel like it is Grandmaster Trait. Have it apply Vul., burn, or do something else in addition to the damage. Maybe give out Aegis to allies.

Combine Write of Persistence and Symbolic Avenger

The 1 ICD on Might of the Protector and Amplified Wrath are, in my mind, unjustified nerfs. Other professions can put loads of conditions on a player and maintain 25 stacks of might. Might of the Protector will never put us at 25 stacks of might by itself. Amplified Wrath will allow us to stake a single condition high, but one that can easily be cleansed. In both cases the I ICD lowers the incentive for Guardians to do what we do best, block to survive. I’ve always viewed our lack of speed and health as the trade off for great defense that forces our opponents to think about how to handle us. They can run, or risk a fight.

Get rid of weapon specific main-hand traits. Just have Right-Hand Strength deal with all single main hand weapons. Create a similar trait for two handed weapons modeling it off Zealous Blade or Glacial Heart.

DH
Change Heavy light to proc knockdown from traps.

I feel the Dragonhunter is an “ok” class and is easily the most underwhelming class next to Druid.
Spear of Justice is interruptible and had an animation that is pointless. If it was instant cast that sent out a force wave in front of you in a straight direction just like the spear throw but is a lock on target that auto tethers the enemy. For a thief to shadow step away from the spear or it even being dodge able is an immediate downgrade compared to Virtue of Justice.
Wings of Resolve is ok but can be interrupted in mid air making it a gamble to try and go anywhere with it. The fact that it is a leap and does not have a leap combo finisher is bad in itself. If you Gained one stack of stability on use of the skill I could use it. The heal isn’t good because you need to land before the heal goes off. Compared to Virtue of Resolves heal radius of 600 and it being an instant cast meaning you kittene it while being knocked down makes it a downgrade compared to Virtue of Resolve.
Shield of Courage is good because you block ALL attacks in front of you unlike the text saying it only block projectiles it is easily an upgrade from Virtue of Courage. Despite the text saying it is instant cast you can still interrupt it because it has an animation clearly an oversight. other than that their equal because Virtue of Courage is instant cast they are equal on usability.
The long bow is fluid and easily the best ranged weapon guardian has now despite only being able to equip it while using the dragon hunter trait line which is bad in itself because all the new traps are a waste. The heal trap needs your opponent to trigger it. and every trap is dodge able and block able except test of faith. I’d choose the vanilla guardian over the new stuff just because it leaves less room to get interrupted. The longbow 5 skill still does not do enough damage for the cast time. anyone can double dodge the longbow 5 skill and make it useless the attacks before the final hit rarely hit opponents and if it does it’s to late for the cage to catch then before they dodge again. It needs to do some kind of damage like ranger 5 skill to make it useful. I find I never use it in a fight ever. I am still using medi guard just wasting a trait line to use the new virtues. The fact that every virtue has a cast time and you cant use them while knocked down is huge which is what guardian needs because we have basically have only 3 trait lines worth using, Honor , Valor, and Virtues. Zeal and radiance are just a waste of a line because everything in it is not good for any kind of pvp or hardly pve play. Honestly Judge’s intervention should be changed back to be able to use it while in air or atleast while using leap of fait or wings of resolve. Honestly scepter focus is better than longbow because you have more utility for immobilizes and an aoe attack that can be used as a defense agains melee characters.

In conclusion, I feel like the new guardian/Dragonhunter class is the same as the only one just with more risk for being interrupted or less stability and team support without being able to use your virtues for your allies more effectively. The new virtues need to be reworked and honestly the traps are bad in general. Guardian should have gotten Mantras like they are charging the power of the dragons to use their own abilities against them instead of lets be generic because we cant think of something for guardian lets give him traps and a long bow and make him a rip off ranger.

Played DH all day, again: Keep it short, more likely to read?

1. Bow so much better
2. Traps in PvP/WvW useless
3. “If you have a bow equipped, you can now launch traps” is what we need to see (600m is enough).

Finally, my personal wish and the wish of a lot of Guardians I’ve talked to: Remove DH spec requirement to be able to use the bow, simultaneously make the DH spec viable w/o a bow.

-Kite

DH Virtue Feedback:

Spear of Justice – Not sure but it feel like it’s lost the granting of burn on next hit to allies losing the core idea for virtues of sacrificing a benefit to you to empower your allies. Also it’s provides no new function to guardian justice gameplay that Supreme Justice & Permeating Wrath don’t already do better with justices passive.

The tethered idea is very nice but I feel just burning on active achieves little new gameplay. What I would like is the addition of cripple (2 sec) per pulse while tethered as well. This help differentiate SoJ for VoJ more. This also plays into the foes tethered aspect making it harder for them to get away.

Wings of Resolve – Like mentioned in the trait feedback I would like to increase WoR leap range to 900 (1200 would be a dream) with Soaring Devastation applying damage & immobilise at the cost of leap range.

Shield of Courage – Like everyone else for what this skill grants 75 sec still feels way to long a cooldown. I would like to see this changed to a 60 sec cooldown.

This still provides the loss of the passive effect for another 20 sec on top of it’s refresh rate & when taking the Virtue spec line a 51 sec recharge base giving 11 sec above aegis refresh & with Indomitable Courage 21 sec above the aegis refresh.

A heads up! This is very important

Fragments of Faith is bugged, it triggers TWICE or THREE times when traited for massive damage.

Dragonhunter counters base guardian at least.

Just because of the bow and virtues.

Specifically in regards to Longbow #2:

While it is much better, I agree with a lot of the other posters that this still needs a bit more love. While the low CD is a crucial part of this skill, the reality is that because of the root and how movement heavy the game is, you’re not going to be getting this used on CD a lot of the time (even in PvE) – and this is fine, but it does need to be considered when balancing.

I don’t think removing the root is the right idea. I’m not saying I wouldn’t mind it being castable while moving like many others want, but it would take away from the spec’s unique gameplay feel and there is something to be said for the root adding a bit of satisfaction to landing the hit.

I also don’t think adding more damage is the right answer. It hits pretty hard already, and I don’t think more burst is the solution here.

Instead, I’d like to see the skill apply two stacks of burning. This would greatly open up the Longbow to condition based builds (as 4 has a lengthy cooldown), while adding a bit more oomph to the ability’s DPS and helping provide better synergy with the Zeal line without relying on Supreme Justice and never ever using Virtue of Justice’s active ability.

On an unrelated note, it seems that cancelling 2’s cast triggers the entire CD. While that’s not very long, it still seems really unnecessarily punishing for something you’re going to have to do a lot.

DH Longbow Feedback:
Overall longbow is in a great spot with the last changes.

Puncture Shot – No Change now being able to hit target has fixed the problems with this skill..

True Shot – Like others I’m liking the root effect as it really adds a heavier feeling to the shot which matches well with it’s damage.

Deflecting Shot – It’s going to require practice but I think this will become the skill that displays mastery of DH longbow. What I would like with many others is for the knockback on Heavy Light to be attached to this skill give players control over this knockback.

Symbol of Energy – Finally being able to fire this shot behind you has made the gameplay so much smoother. Keeping & increasing the burning to 2 stacks has allowed for longbow to still be viable & usefully in condition builds.

Hunter’s Ward – Really the last problem child of DH longbow. And it all comes down to how long it takes before foes are warded. Like others I would like to see the warded effect happen alittle more quickly even at the cost of 1 sec of barrier time.

Bow #2 not being able to cast while movement makes this spec almost useless in any kind of PvP mode.
I can undestand bow #5 rooting you but 2 abilities on the same ranged weapon? God, even staff has 100% movility.

About the spec in general is just doesn’t work. Traps are a no no in almost every aspect and virtues even if the ideas for them are good, don’t fit with the bow.
Its like if devs would want to open 3 different ways (ranged DPS, condi spam and support) for guardians on just one spec and they have failed on all of them.

How to fix this:

Bow

Ability #2 remove the root.

Virtues

Allow guardians to choose between old and new ones as part of the spec.

Traps

Make them really stronger.

Light’s judgement: Add some utility to it like rooting in place nearby enemies or something and reduce cd. 45secs on something that enemy has to activate is lol.

Procession of blades: The way to go of this trap is clear. The problem may not be with the trap but with the need of condition proc for it. One of the most important ones is the one you get with normal version os the Virtue of Justice which you lose when you spec for the trap. More condition procs on hit/crit would make this trap strong.

Fragments of faith: I see here 2 ways to go.
1st: Add a effect on the skill. Adding the DH virtue of courage effect on the location of the trap when activated would make this trap really interesting on making anbushes in WvW.
2nd: Buff the amount of fragments by a lot and reduce the cd.

Test of faith: I like the way it is but perhaps its a bit useless for pve.

What if Dragon Hunter’s F1 spear ability pulled an enemy to you? Drop your traps, pull someone into them, they can’t get out.

Or would that be too gamebreaking / un-fun for the person on the receiving end?

Isarii.2804:

Instead, I’d like to see the skill apply two stacks of burning. This would greatly open up the Longbow to condition based builds (as 4 has a lengthy cooldown), while adding a bit more oomph to the ability’s DPS and helping provide better synergy with the Zeal line without relying on Supreme Justice and never ever using Virtue of Justice’s active ability.

This is not such a bad idea & I like it maybe slightly reduce True Shots overall direct damage with the additional burning. And I agree with 15 sec on symbol of energy & that it’s impossible to build stacks with longbow’s AA this would greatly improve longbow for condition builds. This also gives True Shot something extra differentiating it from just a ranged Mighty Blow.

Tipper.6973:

What if Dragon Hunter’s F1 spear ability pulled an enemy to you? Drop your traps, pull someone into them, they can’t get out.

Or would that be too gamebreaking / un-fun for the person on the receiving end?

This is something I believed is need to make all trap builds a viable play style in GW2’s fast dynamic combat. The can still use a dodge, movement skill (leap teleport…) to escape trap’s effective radius still only receiving part of the overall effect. The main aspect of a pull or taunt is that it helps guaranteeing trap triggering which can be important for some traps & your survivability.

Tipper.6973:

What if Dragon Hunter’s F1 spear ability pulled an enemy to you? Drop your traps, pull someone into them, they can’t get out.

Or would that be too gamebreaking / un-fun for the person on the receiving end?

This is something several people have been advocating & something I would love to see as well.

Have it be a toggled skill.

First activation throws the spear and starts the pulsing burn, then while tethered you can do it again to pull the target to you.

I would go a bit further though, If you don’t activate the second part (the pull) then it should have a greatly reduced CD on spear of justice once the tether ends.

All that being said I also advocate for a change to the bow number 5.

As is it takes quite a while to cast and anyone paying attention can easily dodge before it activates the ward or just step out of the ward with stability.

Instead what if it fired a very narrow cone attack that does decent damage, pierces, cripples & tethers any enemy it hits for the next 6 seconds.
Then have it create a flip over skill which can be activated to pull tethered enemies to you & immobilize them for the next 2 seconds. (with say a 25 second cool down)

This ^ skill would have great potential on the bow & work great in combo with traps.

Bezagron.7352:

Tipper.6973:

What if Dragon Hunter’s F1 spear ability pulled an enemy to you? Drop your traps, pull someone into them, they can’t get out.

Or would that be too gamebreaking / un-fun for the person on the receiving end?

This is something I believed is need to make all trap builds a viable play style in GW2’s fast dynamic combat. The can still use a dodge, movement skill (leap teleport…) to escape trap’s effective radius still only receiving part of the overall effect. The main aspect of a pull or taunt is that it helps guaranteeing trap triggering which can be important for some traps & your survivability.

Aye, I suggested this back in the BWE2 feedback, along with Wings of Resolve not interrupting channels so you can do a mid-air True Shot if you played your cards right.

…but the Spear Pull would be really solid to integrate Traps, you can even serve it as part of say Big Game Hunter.

Bezagron.7352:

Isarii.2804:

Instead, I’d like to see the skill apply two stacks of burning. This would greatly open up the Longbow to condition based builds (as 4 has a lengthy cooldown), while adding a bit more oomph to the ability’s DPS and helping provide better synergy with the Zeal line without relying on Supreme Justice and never ever using Virtue of Justice’s active ability.

This is not such a bad idea & I like it maybe slightly reduce True Shots overall direct damage with the additional burning. And I agree with 15 sec on symbol of energy & that it’s impossible to build stacks with longbow’s AA this would greatly improve longbow for condition builds. This also gives True Shot something extra differentiating it from just a ranged Mighty Blow.

I thought about a damage trade-off, but the general consensus is that both the bow and the Dragonhunter are still in need of some minor tune-ups, which I agree with. At this point, I think straight up buffs are still warranted.

Farzo.8410:

Dragonhunter counters base guardian at least.

Just because of the bow and virtues.

in what world ?

Again have been trying to test spirit weapons with a DH longbow build & all I can think about is if only that functioned a little like Traps:

• Shorter cast time allowing for summoning within melee combat &
• Skill recharging after summon.

Allowing this would make the spirit weapon playstyle so much smoother no longer feeling as chunky as it is. We could then start to really look at the skill effects to see what else could be needed for survivability in a viable spirit weapon build.

Regarding core virtues, DH virtues have shown me is so much more fun being able to actively use virtues more then once. Overall I would also like to see a reduced cooldown applied to core guardian virtues as at the moment their active effects are miles worse off then DH’s.

One of the other core areas of improvement to core guardian are Signets. What I would love to see is the removal of “Light Aura” on Perfect Inscriptions &
replaced with a Lesser Symbol of Swiftness on signet activation turning Signets into a component for symbol builds.

Lesser Symbol of Swiftness
Damage (3x): 1287 (Dmg = 0.195 * Power)
Swiftness (4 sec): + 33% Movement Speed
Number of Targets: 3
Symbol Duration: 2 sec
Symbol Radius: 120

Did some pvp with DH.

Longbow was okay. The conditional cripple really wasn’t the greatest. It would be better if it just straight crippled with a percentage chance or on critical.

The biggest problem I had was that my utility list wasn’t really useful. Everything really required me to be close for optimal use.

The virtue changes make it so you can’t use them to really save you, because by the time they cast, if they aren’t interrupted, you’re dead.

I have to say I have gone from completely loathing to just deciding it will be fun PvE only. I really don’t like the virtue changes at all. The benefits they give for a cast time just don’t cut it. Why does resolve have to be a leap, but not a leap finisher? Justice would be better if it offered some CC. Rev gets our Courage skill on their hammer with less cast time and it acts as a combo field. Why can’t we have something cool like that?

PvE I have enjoyed DH. PvP, I have seen some decent builds, but mainly in stronghold. Still, it’s a cute spec, but it doesn’t put us in the traditional good spot, rather it puts us slightly below the optimal spot.

I’d like to give you some updated feedback, but as the Dragonhunter in itself doesn’t seem to have been updated much it’s mostly the same as before.

The longbow is good.

The traps are horrible.

Why was the trait for bleed on traps nerfed to 1 sec daze? This specialization is mostly for HoT, and in the new maps it won’t work on 1/2 of the mobs because they have a break bar. The daze is useless, bring the bleed back, at lesst that did damage.
I just don’t get how you want to sell us on the traps that almost everyones thinks a waste of their time when you don’t even try to make them stand out. Traited, they have 20, 24 and 36 seconds cooldown, compared to shouts that have 24, 28 and 32 seconds cd but can a) be used to remove conditions and b) give you boons that are a good adition to the guardian gameplay – unless you are a zerker of course, then you won’t use either.

You don’t want them placeable for only god knows what reason. The majority of the people will not use them because of that. Fine. Just if you want at least someone to use them, please make them viable in pve. You don’t need shouts in the ususal dungeons, but you don’t need traps either. Why not make them special in their own way?

The traitline is bad.

Tier 1: If people won’t use the traps they will not take the trait. That leaves cripple + vuln and knockback, and 3 sec immobilize on Wings of Resolve. A guardian has no need to apply vulnerability. Everonye does that: a standart warrior stacks more than any guardian ever can. At this point in the traitline a guardian with a longbow doesn’t even have a knockback – so why the trait? That leaves the immobilize, and that is honestly not even a “nice to have” skill.

Tier 2: To have aegis and drop the Fragments of Faith trap when stunned etc. would be nice, but is has the cooldown of the trap. Again, if you don’t take the trap traitline (Piercing Light) from Tier 1 this has 45 sec cd, and this is just too long to be viable. Zealot’s Aggressions is good, Bulwark is ok but Shield of Courage as 65 sec cooldown, which is kitten long, so it doesn’t give you that much in terms of gameplay.

Tier 3: Hunter’s Fortification is a tank trait. I’d say I’d see myself using this in Wvw, but tbh in a zerk fight you always have conditions on you, so no dmg reduction for me there. The same goes for the HoT maps. Big Game Hunter is a nice skill for 1 vs 1 or to use on champs etc. Once you have a group of mobs or a zerg to hit it becomes… well, unimportant.

Heavy Light is just a train wreck. As a guardian, if you have a longbow, your second weapon set will of course be a melee weapon. So if something comes close to me, of course I’m switching to my greatsword/sword/maze/whatever to whack it over the head – we aren’t longbow rangers, we don’t get max damage for max range (even with the 10% dmg plus of Pure of Sight). Why would I kock back an enemy at 360 range? What do I get from that? Also I get stability for doing the knockback. So I knocked it back for it to not hit me, but I get stability … for what exactly?

Make the knockback 500 or so instead of 240, and get the stability back into the Tier 1 trait (the original Hunter’s Determination) that gave you stability on True Shot. That trait was nice to have, specially for WvW.

The best traits about the Dragonhunter to me were the bleed on the traps (if you use them, with that they at leats do good damage) and the stability on LB2. Now those two traits are gone, but the new/edited traits are as lackluster as before.

I honestly don’t understand what’s up with the Dragonhunter. It could be fixed so easily, but it just got worse.

Mysticjedi.6053:

The virtue changes make it so you can’t use them to really save you, because by the time they cast, if they aren’t interrupted, you’re dead.

For me this just shows overall how sad base guardian virtues are as a profession mechanic in that we generally only consider them for use as last resorts. As the overall cooldown really done allow for any other mind set. Generally without Monk’s Focus or Altruistic Healing your not going to have the sustain to survive till these recharge. Without the Virtues or Radiance specialisation lines virtue active effects are very lacking.

On a whole for me core virtues need:

• A cooldown reduction to VoR, VoC &
• Some of the traited virtue functionality needs to be rolled into baseline virtues.

Longbow changes:

Puncture shot: Scrap the whole ‘’bounce it’’ idea and make it shoot two arrows. If it hits two targets then the cripple effect will take place. Should be an easy change.

True shot: Please unroot it

Deflecting shot: Add a 2-4sec cripple aswell

Symbol of energy: Bigger radius and faster projectile speed

Hunter’s ward: Lower cooldown to 35 and cast time to 1.5-2 sec

Changes i want to virtues:

Spear of justice: Make it instant and up the damage abit.

Wings of resolve: Make it evade and up the range to 1000-1200. We guardians lack mobility, and the range increase would mean alot. Also make it a leap finisher.

Shield of courage: Lower cooldown by 15-20 sec.

I didn’t really care for the traps so i got nothing to say about them.

We REALLY need a 25% movement speed trait It’s not fun being a snail and see revenants teleporting to targets in the horizon.

Core wishes: Make staffs symbol of switness to take full effect when you enter it, it’s pretty silly to stand there for 4 seconds for 15 seconds of swiftness…

Please Karl , make it happen

Focusing on the Dragonhunter specialization, and not the other core Guardian traitlines, I think the biggest issue with the specialization now is the traps. No, not that is has them, I quite like them in a melee build (glares at Pure of Sight Trait) as a DPS utility option, something the Guardian didn’t really have before, but the lack of flexibility they have is crippling.

It’s been said ad infinitum at this point but I’ll say it again;

TRAPS NEED A STUNBREAK. TRAPS NEED A CONDITION REMOVAL..

Now, of course these don’t have to be on every trap, but forcing a Trap Guard to use the Hunter’s Fortification grandmaster trait (it’s a pretty good trait, but not for this type of build), and then Fragments of Faith to manage conditions is just really clunky design, at best, and completely impractical or ineffective at worst, in no small part also owing to that it’s reactive rather than active, which leads to being an unreliable source for such a thing, as great as that trap may be otherwise.
.
As for stunbreaks, there isn’t even an option on that with them, and to make the skill-set truly viable both of these need to be somewhere. Doesn’t matter if its via Traits that affect multiple trap types or a trap skill itself that’s really good at that one thing anyway regardless of traits, but they need to be there somewhere, and in a reasonably effective capacity that will actually matter and could make a difference.

Heck, despite the name implying the Heal trap (Purification) should remove condi’s (even though, you know, it doesn’t), why not put the stunbreak on it? That’d be unique, and might even convince a few Guardians to take it as their heal of choice instead of Shelter, maybe even when not running a trap build! Imagine that?! It definitely needs something “real” though to give it some value, that Blind just doesn’t cut it.

As for condition management, ideally I’d just like to see “Lose 2 [or even just 1] Conditions on trap use” as part of the perks included in the Piercing Light trait;
But alternatively you could make Procession of Blades create a Light Field and Whirl Finisher on itself as a method of removing Conditions. Not the most reliable option, but better than nothing. You know; That’s assuming you are determined to just not put it on Purification baseline anyway (which, once again, the name of the trap implies it should do :p). Although the way Whirl Finishers actually trigger condition removal, will probably be needed to be tweaked a bit for this though, if you went for the Procession of Blades option, as right now Whirl Finishers on Light Fields are rather unreliable at removing conditions on the user.

Finally, you could put either the Stunbreak or the Condition Removal (or both) straight-up baseline on Test of Faith, as this trap currently seems to offer the least practicality and usability of all the Dragonhunter Traps IMO, and this would be a change that would given it at least some value in trap builds, right now I feel like this is the least useful trap of the whole lot, and otherwise would require a complete rework to find it’s way onto some people’s bars, which is more work for you guys!

That’s my thoughts on the current biggest issue I see with Dragonhunter right now anyway.

Why in the kitten would I want a knockback that gives stability? This is the definition of poorly made. If I just knocked it back, I should be safe from a ckittenil the measly stab has already ran out. LOGIC

Off: They said no more big changes on this thread, but the rev and various others debs are still encouraging large changes. The bunny hunter is feeling the hate.

Dragon Hunter’s Virtue of Courage has been great, but when I strafe, the barrier turns a bit farther then I need, leaving me wide open. Don’t know if anything can be done about this, but it’s tough in pvp when you’re never just walking straight at people. Maybe a wider radius with a lower duration for the barrier? Not sure if a wider radius would really be balanced though.

MINOR BUG
Problem: Unable to equip longbow.
Explanation: I spent last night testing longbow. I logged out with Dragonhunter still tratied and the bow equipped. Upon login today, my longbow was unequipped and I had no option to equip it from the equipment Interface, nor from right-clicking the bow.
Workaround: Swap Dragonhunter for something else and then swap it back in.

My apologies if this is a duplicate. A forum search returned no results and asking in game led to…interesting answers.

The good:

1) Longbow is great. The increased arrow speed helps immensely both for feel and practicality and adding the necessary aiming functionality for the symbol have it in a good place.

2) The virtues are finally worth the trade-off of non-instant cast.

Traps “still-need-work”:

Although somewhat interesting and powerful (at least in a melee oriented build), traps still sacrifice far too much potential survivability to see any real use. To echo the oft-repeated advise, a stunbreak is mandatory, and the best place mechanically for it seems to be test of faith. It’s one of the currently weakest traps, and adding a stunbreak would provide it some fun counterplay when melee cc’d (ie. I’ll stunbreak, and then get out of the ring – do you still train me?)

The most pressing need: Minor traits for dragonhunter are not interesting, are not impactful, and worst of all, can be completely useless for a large number of potential implementations of a dragonhunter.

In my opinion, Defender’s Dogma and Pure of Sight are the worst part of the dragonhunter, so much so that they make the entire feel of slotting the trait line feel bad. There are a couple of reasons for this:
1) They don’t work with all of the potential builds. Say I want to build a melee-focused trap guardian for PvE, or a melee bunker relying on the grandmaster trait. Pure-of-sight is completely and utterly useless. It is something I am forced to take, and yet completely useless.
2) Pure of sight is not interesting because there is no choice. The damage modifier is required to access the rest of the specialization, and consequently feels like a poor-mans trait. Why not just roll the damage in baseline to the bow in the first place? It feels like something was taken away just so there could be a text-string for a minor trait.
3) Defender’s dogma is gimmicky and even within its role, is outclassed by other core guardian functionality. If I want to speed up my passive justice, I’ll build for it in virtues.
4) On top of that, Defender’s dogma encourages even more passive play: it only works when I don’t activate F1, and unfortunately that use/don’t use decision is currently not a great choice (it’s currently much better just to keep the passive and get some free cripple). One of the compelling elements of the new virtues is supposed to be their more physical, impactful nature.

All in all: Defender’s Dogma and Pure of Sight don’t feel good, and since they are required, it feels like I’m sacrificing to access the rest of the specialization. That’s not a good feeling, especially when the core Guardian has so many nice traitlines and tools.

Please, however you do so, remove/replace/BANISH Defender’s Dogma and Pure of Sight.

To this, some thoughts and suggestions:

The Dragonhunter is a selfish, positioning-heavy take on a guardian as it has multiple post-up skills (longbow), other skills that only function if and when you can kite your enemies through them (traps), and others that are explicitly linked to your position (shield of courage).

The problem: cripple doesn’t cut it as a mobility tool on a class without any core mobility options.

So here’s a couple of suggestions, based on some other ideas here, reddit and on the forums:

Version 1:
Remove Defender’s Dogma.
Remove Dulled Senses as an adept and replace with Pure of Sight.
Add two new minors:
Hunter’s Balance: Your first attack cripples foes (3s) and grants you swiftness (6s).
Resolute Hunter: Activating a virtue reapplies Hunter’s Balance.

Motivation: The goal here is to encourage in combat mobility and brief positional advantage only, while simultaneously allowing for a dependable source of cripple. The addition of swiftness helps when there is more than one enemy to be kited, and the second trait encourages use of the more active physical virtues.

Note: At this point is seems as though dev’s are too wary to ever give the guardian any increase to out-of-combat movement speed, and this would avoid the problem of having a mobile (or at least more so) bunker.

Version 2
Remove Defender’s Dogma.
Remove Dulled Senses as an adept and replace with Pure of Sight.
Create two new minor traits based on the previous Dulled Senses:
Dragon Snare: Control effects (knockback, knockdown, launch, and pull) cripple enemies (3s).
Hunter’s Stride: Striking a crippled foe grants swiftness (10s). 10s ICD.

Version 3
Remove Defender’s Dogma.
Switch Dulled Senses and Pure of Sight.
Amp up the minor versions based on the old Dulled Senses:
Dulled Senses: Foes you cripple are made vulnerable (3 stacks, 5 seconds)
Dragon Snare: Control effects (knockback, knockdown, launch, and pull) cripple enemies (3s).

Granted these are all probably horrible, but the point is….please, please, please do something to fix the current state of the Dragonhunter minor traits.

Dragonhunter

Seems way better overall. Some little changes and bugfixes needed:

Hunter’s Fortification
Currently plain not working. pls fix. Also i am not a friend of the icd, but i guess if it works it will be fine. The 2nd part (10% dmg) is completly useless. no class does no condition. I would like to see this replaced by something else. Maybe put Bulwark in it?(could be too strong).

Justice is Blind only works if you hit an enemy in the range (240), which is insanly small. The trait was good before, because it was aoe. now it is single target with near to no range and you have to hit the spear. I would suggest that the spear always (on any range) blinds if it hits (with the trait equiped)

Hunter’s Ward
The cast time seems a bit too long! Decrease it a tiny bit. 2.25s seems better to me

Core Guardian

Merciful Intervention
Please make it a stunbreak + teleport. It should always be a teleport even with no allies around. Otherwise it is too gimmicky. Make it heal if you hit an ally. This way the idea of the skill stays the same (you want to port to allies)

Feel my Wrath
With the new cooldown i feel like it doesnt need a cast time anymore. Having a 0.25s castime just makes it feel clunky

Radiance
We need a Dmg orientated GM in radiance. Pls let Retribution and Radiant Retalliation switch places

Valor
Strenght of the Fallen —> remove the downstate part and add Stalward defender to it (or just the 20% shield recharge). Put Glacial heart as a new valor master instead of Stalward defender
here is why:
No one likes do get bleed out in pvp (remove downstate part), if you go with mediation you chose valor adapt mid, if you go focus you chose valor adapt down, but if you go with bunker guard with shield you miss a trait to chose. A shield trait would fit perfectly (combine strenght of the fallen+stalward defender). And last but not least: we need a dmg orientated master in valor if we dont go with hammer--> glacical heart

The question I’m trying to answer is “what can dragonhunter offer that other professions can’t.”

Nothing really stands out. There’s no “Wow, we really could use this in PvE/PvP.”

Dragonhunter is near Perfect imo.

It has a great bunker spec (this comes naturally actually, even when the traits were bad it still outshined the normal guardian bunker), it has a great burst spec, it has a great CC spec and I’m sure there’s trap builds and condi combos in there that will both shock and awe people when they finally realize how powerful the dragon hunter can be.

Once all the bugs are fixed with traps hitting thrice and all that, I think the DH is right where classes like the Reaper and Chronomancer are. People just haven’t seen the potential yet and when someone like Tage plays it in the Go4 after HoT launches, you’ll see all the complainers change their mind.

The Dragonhunter is now in a great place guys. Well done on the changes Karl and crew.

I just wanna put in my impression of Dragonhunter.

I’ve only tried it out at the demo story, but so far, I like the longbow and most of the traps (only trap I didn’t try was Test of Faith). I haven’t played fully around with the traits. There was only one big thing that caught my attention and it’s the longbow #5 skill. Hunter’s Ward cast time is longer than ranger’s Barrage skill and I feel that it needs to be the same casting time.

I’m sure there are other bugs with traps and such, but so far I’m liking the improvements overall.

Played some more today and these are my main suggestions to make traps more viable:

• Big Game Hunter should allow us to pull tethered enemies into our traps to make activating virtues more interesting. This would solve some issues with the synergy between longbow and traps as well.

• Wings of Resolve should let us jump back and forth. Then we can jump in with Wings of Resolve, put down traps on the enemy, and jump back out. This is necessary for situations where enemies do not automatically run into the traps. For example, when you’re fighting in a group, fighting a ranged enemy or simply PvP. Make it a flip skill: press F2 to jump in, press F2 again to jump back to the original position.

In my opinion this should take away the majority of complaints for traps.

Ragnarox.9601:

We need 25% moving trait ASAP in DH line.

That would be the only thing right now that would actually entice me to use the line.

Here are some of my thoughts on how to improve the Dragon Hunter.

Longbow:

Puncture Shot: Remove bouncing. Make it penetrate, if it penetrates more than 1 target the first two targets hit are crippled.

True Shot: Remove rooting. (Rooting on this skill is what will keep Scepter/Focus my go to option for ranged fights).

Deflection Shot: Launch a wall of reflect with about 1/4 the width, reduce its range to around 400 to 600 (I’ve had way too many projectiles simply arc over deflection shot for me to take it seriously).

Traits:
Heavy Light: To call it a bit silly is a understatement. If I am using traps then the last thing I want is knock backs especially if they are getting close, and into the trap. The stability is a nice thought but feels out of place, especially considering if you knock them back interrupting the attack that required the stability in the first place.

Simply change this to a flat 25 movement speed buff, or at least gain 25 movement speed while wielding a Longbow.

Please put a flat 25 movement buff somewhere in the trait line for Dragon Hunter.

Taking Longbow and a Staff is not a ideal combo, I prefer having at least one melee weapon. Also waiting 4 seconds for 15 seconds of swiftness on the staff is also unnecessary and should simply apply all 15 seconds when touching the symbol. Taking Save Yourselves and Retreat just to have a chance of keeping up with the other classes is unacceptable and severely cripples build options.

Trait synergy while using Big Game Hunter has it actively working against Defenders Dogma and Zealot’s Aggression especially if Zealot’s Aggression is paired with Dulled Senses. The combination of Dulled Senses and Zealot’s Aggression is the best trait combo I could come up with for the Dragon Hunter. The traits for the Dragon Hunter still leave much to be desired and I’m upset to see other specializations where the trait line alone makes them worth taking and not seeing that for Dragon Hunter is very disappointing.

just dueled a dh with cele d/d meta, one (basically instant) trap did 11k dmg. dh blocked ~75% of the time. dh was using longbow and gs, longbow capable of doing 20% of my health with true shot. dueled ~20 times? duels 90:10 in his favor? …. Traps not viable? Long bow not viable? what?

As a player who has played Guardian as his main character since launch, it might be time for me to finally provide some feedback about the Core Guardian.

ZEAL:
Minor:
Symbolic Power:
Maybe make this trait a little bit stronger by increasing the duration of the burn applied?

Major:
Zealous Scepter:
Since every minor trait of Zeal is focused on Symbols, this is a strange place for a scepter trait to be in, since it has no Symbol on it. Either change Smite on scepter into a Symbol, or change this trait so that this trait triggers with every weapon.

Shattered Aegis:
This trait seems a bit lackluster for it to be a Grandmaster. Maybe it is an idea to add something to it? Vulnerability, or weakness?

RADIANCE:
Minor:
-

Major:
Right-hand Strength:
Why is the recharge decrease limited to only sword? Roll every main-hand recharge trait into this one.

Radiant Fire:
Currently the boon Zealot’s Flame only applies burning to the enemies around you. Change this trait so that it burns your target and enemies surrounding it, to synergize this trait more with ranged weapons (including the Dragonhunter’s longbow).

VALOR:
Minor:
Courageous Return:
It would be nice to see this trait changed so that it can trigger in active combat, instead of when reviving or rallying. Maybe let it trigger when you’re out of endurance?

Major:
Defender +Strength In Numbers:
Maybe roll this trait into one, or make one of the two an adept trait. It seems a bit strange to have a choice between two toughness increasing traits in the same level. Maybe swap one with Smiter’s Boon.

HONOR:
Minor:
-

Major:
Invigorated Bulwark:
Why is the Invigorated Bulwark buff limited to wielding a mace? Change it up so that any weapon can be used with this trait.

Protector’s Impact:
I know every class (as far as I know) has a fall damage reduction trait, but please, can’t we remove these? They are hardly used except for in WvW, or breaking out of maps. If you want to keep the fall damage reduction, just make it a sigil or something, or a rune set, just don’t let it take up a valuable trait slot.

Honorable Staff:
Merge the boon duration with some other trait, but please don’t let the boon duration be bound to a specific weapon. We already lost our base boon duration in Virtues with the trait system revamp.

Pure of Voice:
Maybe convert two conditions? Or change it so that shouts apply resistance for a few seconds.

VIRTUES:
Minor:
-

Major:
Glacial Heart:
This trait line seems a strange place for a Hammer trait. Maybe change it into a trait affecting Virtue of Courage, or swap it around with Shatter Aegis from Zeal? (So that you get a choice between improving Virtue of Justice, Virtue of Resolve or Virtue of Courage, just like with the Grandmaster traits.)

Grimreaper.5370:

just dueled a dh with cele d/d meta, one (basically instant) trap did 11k dmg. dh blocked ~75% of the time. dh was using longbow and gs, longbow capable of doing 20% of my health with true shot. dueled ~20 times? duels 90:10 in his favor? …. Traps not viable? Long bow not viable? what?

You should sit down and ponder about your PvP skills some.

@ Karl McLain

Firstly, I want to say that the changes made to the bow itself to this point has been done very nicely and should be praised for. I however have a few suggestions regarding the Dragonhunter specialization, some of these suggestions may have been previous mentioned, but I’ll write them here anyhow.

1. Heavy Light should be removed as a GM trait and added to Bow 3.

Reason: Because the players playing the Dragonhunter wants to control when and who gets knocked back, not having it being a passive that triggers every 10 seconds. Placing this thing on Bow 3 will also make it easier for anyone facing the dragonhunter to actually avoid being knocked back, by dodging this attack. Will provide abit of counter-play. Also makes it much easier to make combos with knockbacks/pulls. That may make one one or two of the traps more attractive to some people aswell.

2. Make Bow 5 slightly quicker in its execution. I would suggest a cast time of 2 sec. It also doesn’t seem to damage downed opponents apart from with its last hit. Is this intentional?

3. Make the virtues instant. I know they’ve were made to be more physical, but there is some issues with that.

a) F1: People who might go with Radiance skilltree will want to use their F1 ability to blind downed opponents mid-stomp to avoid being feared/knocked back/pulled.. etc. Or if they’ve want to avoid a follow up move after having been stunned.

b) F2: This virtue is interupted alot in larger fights, which is really annoying. But not only this, the most annoying part is that you cannot use it while using Shelter or Renewed focus to clear any conditions that be on you, unlike the vanilla virtues. I also suggest this ability to be changed from a leap into a teleport. Perhaps with a slightly altered visual aswell, despite the fancy wings. Just like F1, this one cannot be used when stunned either.

c) F3: This ability is the least affected by the non-instant virtues. It however be also slightly annoying not being instant cast.

The new virtues description:

“The guardian’s resolve has further increased, allowing virtues to be manifested as physical aspects. "

This meaning that the guardian has gotten more powerful in its use of the virtues, despite of them becoming physical. After all, if the guardian’s resolve has indeed increased (gotten more powerful) then it doesn’t make much sense to them having been nerfed in cast-time. Right?

With that out of the way, next up is…

4. Traps.

The main issue with traps is that most guardian players put them up against the current options they’ve have for healing, utilities and elite. Which is either shouts or meditations. Both of those have healing, stun breaking and condition removals in common. Basic, with traits or with runes, or all of them.

Suggested changes:

Add GM trait for traps:

When using traps, you are healed for ??? (1000-1500?) and remove 1 condition.

Dragon Maw: Stunbreaker.
Fragments of Faith: Stunbreaker.
Test of Faith: Stunbreaker and dazes those which passes its border.
Procession of Blades: Healed for ??? (120?) per hit with trap (max 5 enemies).
Light’s Judgement: Remove a condition every 1 sec for 8 sec. 1 per pulse.
Purification: Remove 3 conditions.

That’s my two cents. Thanks.

///Dezuel

Grimreaper.5370:

just dueled a dh with cele d/d meta, one (basically instant) trap did 11k dmg. dh blocked ~75% of the time. dh was using longbow and gs, longbow capable of doing 20% of my health with true shot. dueled ~20 times? duels 90:10 in his favor? …. Traps not viable? Long bow not viable? what?

Did he have full zerker, full might, and full vulnerability on you or something? Because I can never pull those numbers off with my traps. True shot is an easy telegraph and a Dragonhunter with traps is not going to have much sustain. Longbow is definitely viable. Traps are too easily avoided or dodged/evaded/blocked so I don’t agree with you on that.

Hello Karl, I thought I would give my feedback on the DH after testing it for a while in WvW.

Longbow:

1) Puncture Shot – Was the sound effect for this skill changed? It seems to sound a bit better now but might benefit from a bit more tweaking, same for its visual effects though they aren’t completely bad. As for the mechanics of the skill itself it seems to be a bit better for not getting completely out strafed. A tiny buff in velocity to increase its speed would be very beneficial. It would make the auto attack feel more useful to be used rather then only switching to longbow for the skill 2. The power of the auto attack is still somewhere between meh and okay so maybe that could be increased a little. Maybe add vulnerability on it? Even if it has to be something like “add vulnerability to both enemies when this attack bounces”. But then again I dont think the skills power should be determined by the amount of people we are facing, this cripples part of its max potential which isnt good.

2) True Shot – Visual effect wise I would say it needs to be tweaked, maybe put a swirling effect around the attack, as well as an impact effect. They could serve as a reminder that it pierces as well as that it hurts. It would also look pretty cool.

See video for reference

As for the mechanics and functionality I dislike the root. First of all the animations for the root are very pronounced and obvious for male characters. This creates MANY situations where enemies have ample time to put up a block/reflect/evade to deal with it. I wouldn’t even mind the time it took as long as it wasn’t rooted (but if you make it look similar to the video I posted then I wouldn’t mind a root as much). The root just creates many situations where enemies can dump their aoe on you while you prepare the shot. As the for damage I still feel like it needs to be tweaked, Some times I have good situations where I hit 7k’s (full zerker except trinkets) and other times i’m getting 2-3k true shots. This makes me very upset because it’s almost as if I wasted my time casting the skill (and rooting myself) when I could have used something else.

3) Deflecting Shot – I don’t really like this skill, the situations where it would come in handy for its actual purpose of blocking projectiles is very niche. It almost seems like a wasted skill slot to me but maybe I need to test it more, maybe only useful for it blind.

4) Symbol of Energy – I love the fact that this can be shot behind us now. However I feel that it is still lacking in the wow factor of its use. Yes the vigor isnt bad, the burning seems pretty cool so i like that, but overall it feels weak. Maybe bump up the base damage of the skill a bit.

5) Hunter’s Ward – The concept behind this skill is fantastic, however its implementation is not. The time it takes to cast the skill is WAY to long. Also anyone can evade this skill if they really wanted to. As well as the cooldown being wayyy to high at 45 seconds. I would say that it needs to be dropped to at least 30 seconds to even make it somewhat viable. As well as tweaking the cast time of the ability (since it takes way to long to finish) and buffing the initial damage from it (even if you have to take 30-40% of the final damage and add it onto the initial damage).

Virtues:

Spear of justice – Does the unblockable on this even work? I swear ive seen many occasions where it didnt tether and in those situations the opponent was either blocking or running away (doing nothing) and it still didnt tether. Other than that It seems okay, maybe add pulsing vulnerability or pulsing cripple to it so it can synergize better with some of our other traits/skills.
Wings of resolve – This really needs to heal before the actual take off, maybe a heal before the take off and one after it? Same thing for the condi removal if you trait it. It needs to remove them before the take off. Other than that the leap distance is good but you can get cc’d in the air which pretty much kills it.

Shield of courage – Not bad but the cool down needs to be heavily dropped down to at least around 40 seconds, 45 at max. Otherwise it sucks when you have to activate your renewed focus to get it back up instead of just waiting for the cool down to finish. A 50 or so radius boost would be appreciated as well.

Traps:

Purification – This seems pretty darn useless to me, it could never take the place of shelter, not in a million years. I think that to make this more viable it needs to provide some sort of sustain from conditions ( condition clears, or condition conversion into boons or even resistance). Heck maybe give it a 1 second block and the ability to activate when you receive damage instead of when it is being stepped on.

Procession of blades – I do not use this simply because enemies (most of the time) can get out of this very easily with a few dodge rolls unless you make some elaborate set up to keep them in it. The daze on piercing light is a step in the right direction but enemies can still get out of it pretty easily. My suggestion would be to add bleeding and cripple to it (to make it Condi viable), As well as increasing he daze from piercing light from 1 second to maybe 1 and a ½ seconds. Perhaps this might make it more useful.

Fragments of faith – This seems like a pretty solid trap. Only changes I would make would be to lower the cool down by 3-5 seconds at most and possibly increase the time the fragments stay on the ground by 2-4 seconds. Other than that I loved this trap and it was worth giving up a utility slot to use it. Good work.

Test of faith – I don’t know what to say about this trap. I don’t really like it. Maybe give it an effect that pulses a pull toward the center of the trap? Also maybe put one piece of the sword of faith trap in the middle that applies half the damage of crossing the threshold? This way it would be worth using because it becomes a better control skill as well as being able to deal decent damage, and causes the enemies to REALLY not want to be in it or to cross its threshold.

Lights judgement – Was this nerfed from 25 vulnerability? Seems pretty meh now. I think the cool down should be lowered to 30 seconds (when traited with piercing light). Maybe the revealed should be buffed to 2 seconds and the vulnerability to at least 15.

Dragons maw – I think the trigger and attack radius on this skill needs to be increased, as well as a cool down reduction, maybe down to 40 seconds when traited. Other than that I still feel it lacks a bit of Oomph but its okay.

Traits:

Piercing Light: The daze on this is a good start but its not enough to keep people from leaving your traps, maybe combine piercing light and dulled senses since dulled senses is lacking as well.

Defenders Dogma: Maybe make it so it keeps its same functionality as well as make it recharge fully when you reach maximum charge? This could allow for more use out of f1. (you could just make it so that it cant be thrown again until the first spear expires to combat throwing multiple spears, or make it so you can throw a maximum of 3 spears)

Zealot’s Aggression: don’t really like this trait, not sure how to improve it.

Pure of Sight: good trait but encourages the use of ranged weapons over melee. Maybe keep its current functionality and add in the ability to increase toughness (or take 5-10% less damage) when you fight closer than the range threshold.

Heavy Light: Not sure how i feel about this, seems more like rng knock backs to me.

Big Game Hunter: Pulsing vulnerability is the key, i think it could benefit from it. If you don’t want to go that route with it then maybe add cripple on impact?

Hunters fortification: Either remove the ICD or increase the amount of conditions removed per block. Other than that it is a really good trait.

Maybe add a trait called Swift Light that increases movement speed by 25% or 33%, you can add some sort of condition that needs to be met to gain this speed if you feel it absolutely has to have one. Frankly we are one of the only classes if not the only one without a passive speed boost of some sort. We could really use one.

Also Maybe add some regen/condi cleanse to some of the other traps, may help with the whole survive-ability/sustain thing.