Guild Wars 2

Honestly after playing everything else for this beta. . . I just wish for running speed so badly on something called “hunter” (Say what you will about my preferences :P)

If anything this would help with putting down traps in melee range so you can then back up again and use bow.

LB damage payoffs seem a bit out of balance. Long casting times and roots don’t equal the damage output that seems to justify it.

I am trying my hardest to make traps work for me because i feel like it’s more of a l2p this new thing issue but regardless of how much I practice there are seldom occasions I was glad I slotted one in my utility bar. I much rather have shouts / spirit weapons.

Taking off the bow I still don’t find traps to be useful. Anything else in that slot is a much better use of space.

I hate to be a downer but I really tried to enjoy this because I want to come back to Guardian as my main. But with the loss of tomes and this being what we get instead I’m just baffled and disappointed.

Last thing from me will be that the traits have 0 synergy with the core. I can’t say this about any other elite that I’ve played. I find synergy even with Druid (Nature Magic, Beast Mastery. Depending on the mode you play of course). But with DH I find myself doing whatever traits because it’s . . . just not giving me anything to work with.

Either way, good or bad – this is only because of my personal preference and gameplay style and anyone who finds enjoyment in DH isn’t wrong. Just different from me personally.

I’m afraid I am also a player for whom Dragon Hunter was one of the only specializations that I couldn’t get into at all. The traits were simply meh, the longbow animations were clunky to the point of irritation and the dissonance between melee range traps and a long range weapon was utterly jarring.

I tried condition hunter this weekend, not that bad really. My thoughts:

Traits:

Give us a 25% speed trait, there are a lot of useless traits on the DH spec, and we need the extra speed to kite when needed. Heavy Light procs once in 20 attacks… I prefer traits and I do not need to count on luck,

Piercing Light, I think it was better with the bleed addition… maybe it is me but I do not feel the daze is helping much…

Traps:

I do not think they are so bad, but they need some improvements spcially Dragon’s Maw… for a elite skill it is still weak, I would love to see a immobilize effect added to it.

Longbow:

Looks better, Hunters Ward final effect could be faster to easy to evade… or at least raise the initial damage.

Virtues:

Spear needs a faster animation, and it would be really cool to pull the enemy as someone suggested.

Wings are cool, could be stun breaker to be perfect.

Shield… I still have to get used to it… I think ti should show up closer to the character, sometimes if I am in short distance against ranged attack it feels the shield does not work because it appears to far away and behind the enemy.

Thats it for now.

-Puncture shot should have a much faster projectile speed and either criple every target always or do something else.
-True shot should not root you, we have no dissengage skills.
-Deflecting shot is worthless, shoting into their prijectiles, really? and ground targeted to make it worst.
-Simbol of energy is SO contradictory it aint funny. So it gives vigor which is a diffensive boon, but i shot it at them?, it is also ground targeted with a miniature aoe so gets a 0 on pvp and wvw.
-Hunters Ward, again Ground targeted, but to make it worst it is telegraphed sice it is the last hit that does the thing instead of the first one.

If bow is to be a ranged weapon, then it needs to be a GOOD ranged weapon.
-The berserker Torch is awesome for condi builds.
-The scrapper hammer is awesome for meleeing, cant stress this enough.
-The reaper sword is awesome for power melee cleaving builds.
-The shield is awesome on the cronomanser.

In contrast the Bow and virtues Suck on the DH.

Traps need to be something else, they dont work on hunter or thief, they wont work on DH either.

To be honest i dont see any other elite spec as badly received as the DH.

Firebird.8324:

Ezrael.6859:

Firebird.8324:

I am a top tier sPvP guardian who plays the bunker guard “The Big Damage” for team radioactive.

Here is my DH feedback:
The style of Dragon Hunter I tried to play was a bunker guard variant for use in high level sPvP tournaments. The duties of a bunker guard include clearing conditions from allies, healing and buffing them, holding a point, as well as providing stability for res and stomp.

Hunter’s Fortification, this needs to be changed from “cure a condition on block with a 1 sec icd” to “cure a condition on Aegis block” so that it gives the group condi clear that makes up for dropping the Honor line to take this specialization. This would also create tremendous synergy with Shattered Aegis and Pure of Heart, please consider this. Also, if you make this change, remove the ICD.

Sorry but, No.

The Dragonhunter is meant to be a totally different playstyle and a selfish offensive style for the Guardian. It’s not intended to mesh with the bunker Guardian role.

The bunker Guardian has been absolutely fine with Honour, Valour and Virtues and has had a place in the tPvP meta for 3 years.
It needs no consideration with regards to the Dragonhunter. It’s meta, it works.

The Dragonhunter needs to work for personal offense and survival that meshes with our existing offensive style.
The ability to add a little team support through Virtue traits or take Shouts is enough of a hybrid already.

Hey, buddy, not sure if you noticed but with things like a trap that makes it so ANYONE on your team can pick up an Aegis and get healed by it, or a shield of courage that blocks for ANYONE behind you, or a wings of resolve that gives a MASSIVE aoe 5k heal, it DEFINITELY meshes well with bunker traits. Saying “sorry, but no” and then stating that YOU know exactly how Dragon hunter is supposed to be used is narrow-minded naivete.

Bunker Guard has never been so strong now you can take 3 full lines with Honour Valour and Virtues. It’s been meta for 3 years and always had a place in top team comps for tournaments.

Of all the Guardian specs people might play, bunker Guard needs the least additions and considerations from the elite spec, bunker works and has done reliably for 3 years. Damage Guardian is a dream that lasts for a few months at a time but is quickly swept away by other more powerful specs from other professions.

If you can make some aspect of DH work for bunker then fine, but no changes need to be made to the elite spec with the bunker Guardian in mind.

I like the dragonhunter but I believe a few changes are required.

Change1:

Longbow #2 useable while moving.

Change2:

Longbow #5 should have a faster casttime or proc faster.
Its to easy to avoid in its current state and it also roots you at the spot for a long casttime. That is a bit to much.
You could reduce the barrier duration if you make it faster to proc the barrier, to balance it out.

Change3:

A 25% run speed on the dragonhunter.

Apolo.5942:

-Simbol of energy is SO contradictory it aint funny. So it gives vigor which is a diffensive boon, but i shot it at them?

Ever heard of teammates? Not all fights are 1 on 1.
Maybe you are shooting it at someone and a melee teammate is fighting that enemy over there. He gets vigor.

There are also situations where you let someone walk into a trap or where a cc is used on someone close to you. You can throw it on that target and walk over it, while you walk away from that enemy. Or shoot it on you when a melee jumps on you.

I guess it wont hurt if it would give you some vigor when shooting it, in addition to its effects.

After playing DH more, here are a few more of my impressions:

I absolutely love it for pvp. With wall of reflection and the shield virtue, it’s pretty much your game when you’re up against another ranged spec, and traps make it difficult for melee players to approach you. There were times when the enemy team could not move me from my position because if they got close, they had to retreat and they couldn’t fight me at range. So for pvp, i think it works, wonderfully.

Now i have a few comments on certain traps: I found it very difficult to convince myself to take light’s judgement. I tended to use if it i saw the enemy team had a lot of stealth using classes and it worked well enough, but at times i felt that i was better off using a damage dealing trap since the thief could just leave my trap, wait for reveal to go off, and then return to try again after the trap’s effects have ended. Meanwhile, when i took two damage dealing traps and the elite trap, the thief was much more likely to die from trying to attack me. I felt like Light’s judgement was too easy to shake off. I think the trap might benefit if it had more lingering effects: for example cripple or perhaps chill. That, way, if the thief triggers the trap, he gets revealed and then he must limp away from me, which gives me ample time to put a few arrows in his back before he gets away.

As for Procession of blades: the impression i got was that this skill was supposed to be the highest damage trap skill but it seems to lag behind fragments of faith. Now, i have heard FoF might be bugged, which i hope is not the case since that makes the trap pretty decent, but what the current situation is you want that you want test of faith and fragment of faith for damage, leaving little reason for taking Procession. I think it might make it more enticing if you either outright increase its damage, or give it some other effect that raises its damage indirectly. That could be either by letting it quickly stack burn innately, or letting it stack bleeds innately. As it stands, not only is FoF better for in terms of sustain and utility, it is also better damage wise than procession, which i imagine wasn’t the intention.

Now regarding traits: it seems there is a bit of a problem with synergy between DH traits and core guardian traits. There are a few scattered good ones around, but it seems you need to take traits you dont want to get them. I have a few suggestions to alleviate that: In zeal, tier 2 and tier 3 traits are fine, but the options are slim for tier 1. Might i suggest making zealous scepter not just give might with scepter but also with longbow? It used to be a trait you’d take if you wanted to range, but now that we got a long bow, it makes sense to include it here too.

For radiance, wrath of justice in tier 2 seems to be the only reason you’d take that line if you wanted to use justice’s active effect (more on that later). I think we need to add some things to tier 1 and tier 3. Perhaps you can modify Right hand Strength to also give buffs to long bow? Reduced cooldown? More crit? It doesn’t have to be both.

Finally, regarding pve: while in pvp traps work well because more often than not, the enemy will have to run into them if they want to get you or get to the point, and while traps may also work while solo in pve because they enemy is always after you, i can see a problem if you pve in dungeons or raids. It’s far more likely that in a dungeon you’re not gonna want to be next to the enemy if you are using longbow, and it also likely the enemy might be attacking someone else and not you. In those cases, traps might be of very little use (unless you are a melee dps guard). It’s been suggested before, but i think it should seriously be considered making the new justice active effect work as a flip over pull. This might help with being able to drag an enemy to your trap to activate it. This not only helps solve one problem with traps in dungeons, but it also gives DH a reason to use the active of justice, which right now, there is little benefit to doing.

Most likely, DHs in dungeons will not want to use knockbacks, so they might very well be using Big Game Hunter, but unfortunately, the traits in DH such as Zealot’s aggression and dulled senses promote the use of justice’s passive. There needs to be more benefits to using the active of justice.

Finally, returning to pvp, one thing i find lacking in DH is the ability to disengage from fights. The best i have is wings of resolve which isn’t very effective for getting away. There are many ways to make it more fruitful to use as an escape virtue. You could give it stability. You could give it evade frames. You could increase the range. Lots of ways. I just feel it needs to be considered, at least when it comes to pvp, as a tool, probably the only tool, you can use to create distance. Hell, if the buff to wings of resolve were large enough, you could potentially even use it to lay traps near the enemy, and then jump back to range with a good buffed wings of resolve virtue. Might help for pve too.

Anyway, that’s it. Thank you for all your work!

Through further testing I’m finding DH minors traits becoming more frustrating.

• Defender’s Dogma
• Pure of Sight

A SoJ passive recharge on block & +10% damage to foes beyond 360 don’t provide the core favouring for Dragonhunters that I believe elite minors should. Like others I’ve proposed minor trait changes:

Bezagron.7352:

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)

With Zealot’s Aggressions replacement trait being:

Bezagron.7352:

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

The thoughts behind these changes were DH bring Cripple a new condition guardians can now access without sigils or runes. So the minor DH traits should be shouting out HEY LOOK HERE CRIPPLE! your brand new toy.

For this the new Zealot’s Aggression fills the role perfectly, make it also apply cripple on SoJ’s active effect & this becomes a minor trait that works with all DH builds. This trait emphasises the feeling of a hunter stalking after wounded prey that can’t escape you.

Aggressive Nature continue playing with this feeling of hunting changing Pure of Sight into a trait that has a feeling of finishing off you prey once catch. It provides benefit in the hunt & the means for a quick finishing strike. This trait will also work with all DH builds, providing benefit at range & when closing to melee.

The new replacement major trait Hunters Swiftness is there to enhance work with the aspect of as the hunter you control the engagements. The daze provides this lost feel for prey delay their response before being able to strike back themselves. The swiftness provides the means of repositioning for best position to strike &/or chasing your prey down to finish them off.

A question for all DHs do we believe our minors need changing?
Also what do others think of Zealot’s Aggression & my Aggression Nature as minors for DHs?

Liking where the DH is going, especially the longbow, but there are a few things that feel a little off about it.

NEW VIRTUES
I really like them, and I really do feel like they add something new and cool to the profession, but the activation times take some getting used to. Wings of Resolve in particular feels a bit sluggish, but I feel like that’s more something to get used to rather than something that needs to get fixed.

TRAPS
feel lacking. Compared to other abilities there’s a stronger need for positioning and preparation and I feel like they should have a more impact when the fire off because of it. Especially so given that they’re not ground targeted and the guardian isn’t known for it’s mobility, which can make getting into position for placement for these skill feel like a chore.

PURIFICATION
doesn’t feel competitive for the heal slot. The initial heal is very small, and getting the full heal is made all the more awkward and risky by the fact that it’s deployed at your location and is dependent on an enemy to trigger, whether they don’t set it off, kill you before they do, or you have to rush them to use it point blank. It just doesn’t seem worthwhile when compared to the healing and utility of other options.

I think it could be made a more attractive option by:

• having the triggered heal also remove or convert some conditions.
• during the trap’s arming time, have the skill flip to an immediate lesser heal that consumes the trap without triggering any of it’s additional effects.

PROCESSION OF BLADES
in particular doesn’t feel like a very attractive option for a utility slot when compared against other guardian skills. It’s just too easy to get out of and Daredevils cartwheel through the thing to shed all their conditions. Maybe consider having it pulse retaliation or might and fury to nearby allies for more support function, and so it’s still serving a purpose when evaded.

LIGHT AURA
was something that I was hoping we’d see more of from the guardian. like maybe a trait that grants it to nearby allies on when certain select traps trigger to make them more desirable as group utilities.

25% PASSIVE MOVEMENT SPEED
I really want to see this somewhere, and I think we actually need it now to make traps more usable. For one I’m just so tired of always having to waste a utility on retreat just to keep up. For second, now that we have traps, which require poisoning and placement, lacking a reliable source of mobility and frumping around the battlefield to place them just adds to the awkwardness of having them bundled in an elite spec built around using a ranged weapon.

Other than that, I’m really liking the Dragonhunter quite a bit, and I’m leaning toward it as my new main for HoT (between Daredevil and Scrapper) and can’t wait to see it at release whether this stuff gets addressed or not.

And a quick nod to those responsible for all the new skill visuals and audio. Absolutely loving it.

This was my favorite of the weekend, (but my #1 is still tempest and didn’t play much of that so as not to be tired of it by launch.)
The bow sounded great, and really delivered all its abilities. Hunter’s Ward is a supernova on screen when it hits though, and should maybe be toned down.

Not a single Guardian or Dragon Hunter in the world first raid kill.

I tolled you this would happen, with the constant nerfs to Guardians, the horrible Dragon Hunter, the constant power creep every other profession has received, and the new powerful elite specs others have received, there is no reason to bring us anymore to PVE content.

What is the role of the Dragon Hunter?

It offers less DPS, less group support, less healing, less everything! Our core traits, skills and virtues are far superior in every way! The only reason to go DH is if you want to roleplay or do open world zerg content.

I’m speaking from a PvE perspective although some things may apply to PvP too.

Longbow gains a lot of boosts when you have two or more targets in a line. Every single skill can hit multiple targets in a line. However, it’s not like DH is overpowered when there’s multiple targets. What’s happening instead is that DH is underpowered when there’s only a single target. This is bad for balance and goes against the whole “dragonhunter” theme when the DH performs the worst against a single large target like a dragon.

The worst offender is the skill 1 which loses its cripple+vulnerability when there’s only one target. I think the cripple should apply even when there is only one target. Players are still encouraged to line up shots because you damage both targets, but this would really help with single target effectiveness.

Skill 3 doesn’t seem to fulfill its intended role very well. Since it deals reasonable damage and blinds, I think it’s optimal to just spam it at the enemy whenever possible. However, this removes the strategic decision of trying to actually deflect shots. I’m hesitant to suggest nerfs given that the DH is already weak but I think the blind should be removed to make this skill a strategic anti-projectile option rather than simply a “spam whenever possible” skill. The projectile should also move much more slowly to improve anti-projectile performance.

Traps are flawed because they work much better when the player is using a melee range, as they function as a player-targeted AOE. As a result, they can’t be made much more powerful because they would be too strong for melee guardians, but this makes them useless for ranged guardians. Many players suggest making them ranged but this basically makes them function like consecrations. The traps don’t really feel like traps either, since they act like immediate AOE fields that you lay down for quick damage/effects rather than devices that you prepare in advance to attack approaching enemies. To solve this problem, I suggest making the traps increase in power the longer that they have been placed. Melee trap spam will be less effective since the traps would trigger instantly, but ranged trap usage would be much more effective since the traps would have time to charge up. To balance out the new charge time, the traps should be made much more powerful when fully charged, so that they can seriously punish any enemies that trigger them.

Traps have another problem, probably moreso in PvP, that you can stack multiple traps in the same place and have them hit the enemy all at the same time, dealing massive spike damage. Players would probably whine if they got one-shot killed from traps regularly. If necessary, I suppose this problem can be fixed by causing a new trap to erase an existing trap of your own if the trigger circles are too close together. It would be nice if this was a PvP only change as trap spike damage would not really be overpowered in PvE.

Arnath.2319:

Not a single Guardian or Dragon Hunter in the world first raid kill.

I tolled you this would happen, with the constant nerfs to Guardians, the horrible Dragon Hunter, the constant power creep every other profession has received, and the new powerful elite specs others have received, there is no reason to bring us anymore to PVE content.

What is the role of the Dragon Hunter?

It offers less DPS, less group support, less healing, less everything! Our core traits, skills and virtues are far superior in every way! The only reason to go DH is if you want to roleplay or do open world zerg content.

this prety much

Build used: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQNAT8dnsABVDhdDBekittendilEi6aZDgEQe5j+sPb/+vAE-TZxAABzXGwjjAAAXAAOOIAR8AAAA

Mostly played Stronghold this beta weekend and I mostly played defence.

Virtues
Spear of Justice – Did not use it much, the passive feels way stronger than the active.
Wings of Resolve – Love this, most of the time I want to cleanse conditions I want to get away from the enemy anyway.
Shield of Courage – Not sure yet, at least for small-scale PvP. Potentially very strong but I would have preferred something that was more all round.

Bow skills
Puncture Shot – Very nice auto-attack, good damage and the cripple is really strong in some situations. Almost noone is getting away from you anymore (something I feel plagues Guardian).
True Shot – Decent damage, critical hits do about 5,000 which can really add up considering the short cooldown.
Deflecting Shot – Not too sure about this skill, the damage is low even compared to auto-attack. The only time I ever wanted to use it was to get an extra blind in. Considering we already have Shield of Courage to deal with projectiles this skill seems out of place. I would suggest upgrading the damage a little bit and making the blind an explosion that affects multiple enemies.
Symbol of Energy – Cool skill, wish it was a little bit larger, especially with the long cooldown on skill 5.
Hunter’s Ward – Nice skill, very long cooldown though. The only issue I have with this is the combination of the cooldown and the fact that the barrier only activates at the end of the skill. If this would activate a little bit earlier the skill could be used as an additional escape / kite mechanism. The way it stands now if you try to trap someone that is already close by you will die.

Utilities
Purification – Did not test this.
Procession of Blades – Nice damage and with the stun it almost always hits. Make sure to Smite Condition for Fury, if this does not get critical hits the damage is meh.
Test of Faith – I did not like this trap, damage is reliant on enemies being idiots (running over the dangerous looking blades).
Light’s Judgement – Pretty nice but PoB does more damage and that is what I’m looking for in my traps.
Fragment’s of Faith – I’m not a fan of mixing offensive and defensive skills. When I’m in a situation where I need defence, I don’t want to have an enemy trigger my trap and then run around to get protection. Maybe with a build that utilizes Aegis-effects this can be good.
Dragon’s Maw – Love this! Might be weak for an elite so lower the cooldown (pretty please?).

Basically what I did was get some damage in at range, when the enemy gets closer use True Shot / SoE and lay down PoB. The stun makes sure most damage gets in, while this is happening switch to sword and use Zealot’s Defence. This combined takes of a good chunk of the enemy. Use sword / focus skills to defend yourself until weapon swap is ready. If you manage to get range just keep your distance with auto-attack, otherwise use True Shot / SoE again with Dragon’s Maw.

Match-ups, depending on skill of course!

Hard enemies
D/D Elementalist
Necromancer
Engineer

Medium enemies
Ranger
Mesmer

Easy
Thief
Warrior
Guardians
Revenants
Non-D/D Elementalist

my thoughts from BWE3

Very unstructured but I learned a lot this BWE and I udnerstand a little bit better why some or many feel that DH is lackluster (which I still do not)
First the things that do not work in my experience:

Hunters Fortification
there is talk about the ne ICD which I am completely against. We have a lot of single blocks yes but using them to cleanse effectivly can not be steered 100% accurate. shelter and the DH F3 have the potential to clear and keep you condi free BUT only if you are attacke often enough. Shelter and F3 animations are obvious enough that opponents can just decide not to attack you leaving you with your condis as is.

That being said: Hunters fortification did not work at all for me as well. It did not cleanse anything.

LB #5
The delayed rings of warding have been mentioned before. the CD and casttime its too long to justify this behaviour. On top on many occassions the damage part of the skill did not even hit anything so the cripple does not trigger which lets targets move out of it even easier then it already is.

All in all in the heat of team battle I found the skill useful since opponents tend do not move out of it as much as I thought.

f3:
the skill is very strong however I find the casttime low as it is clunky. Given the long CD this is supposed to be a very strong effect (which it definitely is). if it is traited we are looking at a go to spec for bunker and support builds. but only if Hunters Fortification works since we sacrafice at least one traitine that is reponsible for condi cleanse (in all likely hood virutes). Just considering the skill I could live with the casttime by itself but looking at indomitable courage this needs to be instant.

what should be discussed:
DH feels as opposed to many others very fluid. I really wonder why there are so many different views on this. IMO it does a lot of things very well in terms of gameplay.

Many claim that LB#2 needs to lose the root. However I think the skill is too strong on a too short CD to justify this. It is basically a ranged mighty blow. I understand the concern that the animation is too telegraphing and that that causes enemies to avoid it actively. But as well in wvwvw as in pvp this is only an issue in 1on1 where you can not pin the enemy so it hits. We have the means to that and in all other situations its about positioning yourself. LB is not a 1on1 weapon.

However: pinning down the enemy should be something that our traps should provide. yet only our elite does it well. and the argument that this is hard to achieve since it forces you to go in close combat is absolutley valid. I have no solution for this but speccing into radiance or slotting signets shouldnt be the only options.

personally I think the JI nerf hit us hard there because it took hurts a lot of burst build options which are by default very glassy.

DH longbow shines both in dps and condi builds imo however any option requires heavy invest in traits that will cause you overall to be very squishy. this is no problem in zerg situations. However I think most people feel that because of this DH can not be all you could be as a Guardian. In terms of group utility F3 alone does not cut it for most people. The skill can be incredibly strong – game changing – if used at the right moment.

The issue becomes more crucial if you are into minmaxing small teams (pvp+raids)

DH can be a great addition to those teams but – what I did understand a lot better this last BWE – is that it kinda feels underwhelming when you choose a complete traitline to benefit from one strong ability on a very long coold down which might be negated by “hard content” that deals unblockable damage.

I guess this will be the case more often because 2 DHs on TS have the potential to trivialize most encounters providing 20 seconds of blocking any damage that is not based on a ground target.

With the F3 working as it is now I feel that any concerns about defenders dogama are unjustifed. arguing that it promotes keeping F1 on passiv is still true and a valid issue but the effect is defnitely useful. I wouldnt mind if it gets incorporated into Bulwark giving it offensive and defensive benefits. This frees a minor for which there are a lot of good ideas floating around. personally I would see a 25% movement speed while having aegis up trait there or getting 2 secs of resistance when aegis is removed. this would provide a lot of synergy within DH itself as with the valor traitline.

pure of sight is only relevant for LB, Scepter, Staff#3,#2, Hammer #3 and funny enough SW. DH needs a damage modifier. maybe this should be 5% at any range and 10% beyond the threshold – iI beleive it would calm most people down.

I tested a build that takes blind to the maximum also using the new trap heal.

the heal component is not bad but it not reliable. IMO the full heal needs to be seperated from the trap mechanic. place the trap get healed. If the trap gets activated pulse 4 short blinds or give 3 secs of stealth.

right now any of our heals is better.

Found a small bug with Symbol of Energy, it states in the tool tip that it pulses 5 times but it only pulses 4 times, you can test for yourself it only applies the vigor 4 times and the burn 4 times.

Also to add to the discussion, I do not want to see a change to ‘True Shot’ i love that it roots you it gives the longbow that added flavour it needs plus if you are finding the root as a problem i think that is more of a l2p issue than the root being the problem.

My 2 cents after doing a bunch of PvP and PvE dragonhunter.

Mechanically it is very sound now.

Its place in the game though is not.

This is still the biggest issue with Dragonhunter and I do not think it can be fixed. The Guardian is already a VERY well balanced and well rounded class that has a specific place and play style. It is a front line burst damage, or support class. Can it use the Longbow well? Yes, it can. It is a very fun style to play, and the visuals are very gratifying, the issue is, the rest of the skills on the Guardian and the usual play style do not mesh with it. If we had some kind of ranged support mechanic, then it would fit perfectly.

When I saw that DH got traps over something similar to GW1 Paragon (which I believe EVERYONE in the community was expecting), I knew it would not fit. It completely contradicts the Guardians leadership and support specialty.

So my review, mechanically, the class is right on the money. Range, and Cooldowns of the Virtues are very good. The wings virtue is a great leap for combat or out of combat, and the Spear having the same range as the Longbow on a 20 second cooldown to mesh with its trait of delivering Vulnerability on hit is perfect. The longbow deflecting shot skill is just slow enough to be of use now against opposed ranged characters.

I honestly could not work with the traps enough to know if they were of use. I tried them a few times, but I had much better options to support ranged combat.

I WANT to like Dragonhunter so bad. However, to have a decent build means to lose so much mobility, in terms of movement speed. Sure, we could use runes that give +25 movement speed, but I feel like the rune itself really isn’t good for the builds that I had in mind for Dragonhunter. What about changing a minor trait to give +25 movement speed?

Honestly, I like the virtue skills as they are now, and the weapon skills are fine. Traps themselves could use some tinkering, but I’m quite happy with them at the moment.

Karl, i hope you will listen all people asking for +25% movement speed on minor trait. It’s just too slow for this playstyle actually

I love the Dragonhunter when it comes to PVP. I think it just need some extras on the traits to get some sustain.

VIRTUES:

Wings of Resolve: AWESOME , love big heal and that it removes immobilize

Shield of Courage: I really like but it would be awesome if the shield would actually “Block” attacks. That would help to remove condis with Hunters furification.

Spear of Justice: The active is simply not good enough… the passive is way better, it produces 2 condis which can be combined with a dmg buff.

LONGBOW: I really like it and i don´t think changes are needed. I´m tired of reading how bad it is that True Shot can´t be used while moving… come on guys this Shot can hit like 5000 DMG every 4 seconds..

TRAPS:
Procession of Blade: Increase the damage, this role of this Trap is simply to provide dmg. but atm the dmg is just to low and it is easy to dodge..

Test of Faith: PLEASE if it is possible in game enemy shouldn´t be able to dodge through that Trap….

Dragons Maw: a lot of people suggest that this trap should “kill” a downed enemy when activated. I also think this would be cool.

TRAITS ( really put some thinking in it )

PIERCING LIGHTt: i tried it out but i couldn´t really “feel” and advantage while i dazed them for 1 second… i would reccomend they STUN opponents. so it is much easier to produce dmg with the Traps.

BOLWARK: all “absorbing” attacks count as a “Block”. You are vulnerable when an enemy is hitting you from behind. Witch these Changes we it will work so well with Hunters furification. Now enemies can´t attack us without thinking because otherwise they will remove the conditions. It is basically the same as the daredevil.

BIG GAME HUNTER !!!! : due to the fact that you want us to really “use” our virtues i have a suggestion for you : when we activate spear of justice we gain sth like " LITANY OF WRATH "!!!! ( but only to the enemies we hit with the chain) so we can use the spear of justice to use our dmg to heal us a bit.

DULLED SENSES: rework it and just use the following : GAIN HEALING POWER BASED ON YOUR POWER. Guardians need healing power when they don´t use medi builds to stay alive. this would give us the option to gain some healing power without using an amulett or sth like that.

thats it, overall i love the dragonhunter. it was so fun to blow up all those foes which thought traps wouldn´t hurt and dragonhunter is weak

InViictuZz.1705:

Shield of Courage: I really like but it would be awesome if the shield would actually “Block” attacks. That would help to remove condis with Hunters furification.

This is exactly what it does check your screen and combat log

Our F1 passive has to remain even when on cooldown. If you don’t do that you will have to redesign half the talents.

Also Traps are disgustingly horrifyingly disturbingly embarrassingly completely pure 100% garbage.

and it would be IMPORTANT to remove the 1 second cooldown from the “condi remove when block” trait. because with that one second cooldown we can´t really remove condis in an effective way

Troma.3250:

InViictuZz.1705:

Shield of Courage: I really like but it would be awesome if the shield would actually “Block” attacks. That would help to remove condis with Hunters furification.

This is exactly what it does check your screen and combat log

Perhaps he is confused because Hunter’s Fortification was bugged and not working during the beta.

I just got my Guardian to Lvl 80 and i really loving it. Then when I heard HoT are giving the guardian a new specializations dragon hunter I was really hyped so I bought the game and then got to try it I was really disappointed.

I really liked the guardian for its tank and head-on feel and its 2nd thought when you are going just attack. But now I got try out the Dragon hunter I just like to give opinion.

The Bow is a good idea because the guardian doesn’t have a good range weapon/system. But the kind of defeats the purpose of being a tank (In my opinion) because it makes you create distance between you and your enemy and that’s not being a tank. Maybe duel axes would be interesting for a guardian I can see a Dragon hunter kicking dragon butt with axes well just my own imagination haha.

Traps I dislike aswell they have good animation and made well. But I think they fit better on another profession. I mean again a head-on fearless guardian I dont think needs to wait and pull there enemy to a trap they set before hand. Yea they can be integrated well in the gameplay and give good support to your team but its not guardian think to me .

I love the new F1,F2,F3 skills nice animation does the same thing with nice animations and some new features to them.

Its quite late now to change the dragon hunter with my ideas just some ideas maybe to take it to the next new content.

InViictuZz.1705:

LONGBOW: I really like it and i don´t think changes are needed. I´m tired of reading how bad it is that True Shot can´t be used while moving… come on guys this Shot can hit like 5000 DMG every 4 seconds..

I mostly agree, except that LB #5 is absolute garbage in SPvP. A person in a coma could dodge it. In WvW AoE garbage can work even if it sucks. The rest of the LB is fine. I’d like to be able to move on the 2 but you can’t always get what you want. The root is annoying but not bad. Change the 5 to something good and you have a home run weapon.

I’m not going to add to the wish list…. But I do have to say you guys finally got it perfectly balanced. Hats off to you anet people and the wonderful work you all do.

Dragonhunter

F1 range seems less than the max of autoattack, so you need to go close of the target. Make it shoot to all mobs (max 5) infront of you on a 180º arc. Max distance = bow. F2 area need to be large. If you are using F2 to heal is because someone need heal NOW. Press F2, point and aim then click with your mouse is too slow. With normal virtues, i just press F2 and i KNOW i healed the guy in danger. Maybe if no ally selected you can aim but if you have an ally on target it autojumps to him. F3 is good. I like it.

To make bow competitive it need to be able to substitute zeal line. All talents on zeal seems better than bow ones.

Longbow 5 CD seems too long and duration too short and when you shoot on abrupt terrain it just fails and do nothing. So the aoe feels pretty poor. LB1 third attack on the chain should do something extra, maybe 1/2 sec bleed.

Core

I don’t know others, but i signed into Guardian to protect, absorb the blows and heal. We don’t have taunts, but 2 other classes have. We can absord hits (via Aegis, antiarrows domes, etc) so i seem we are good on this spot. We are pretty terrible at healing. Mace and shield should the ultimated closequarters healer spec.
Mace is ok, healing feels a bit low and borring (you are hitting 1 all time and sometimes 2. Most of time, hit 3 seems a waste of time if the enemy is not doing direct attacks). Shield 4 after the changes is cool. Shield 5 don’t. It need to heal everyone on the bubble each second they are on the dome. I don’t know if anyone will like a support guardian with the druid on the game. Almost all weapon skills on druid heal.

Hey, on the topic of dh: traps

As a ranger main and soon to be revenant main, the dh needs some serious rework on traits. it also needs rework on core mechanics like ghost weapons….when you don’t see a mechanic being used like ghost weapons and now traps in the game. Why would you not try and fix it? implementing traps on a class like guardian that has 2-3 viable builds makes no sense. Obviously it needs to be either taken out or reworked to where it can be viable in any gameplay anet has to offer. as a ranger I don’t even like traps. Especially after you guys took away the ground targeting. Reapplying ground targeting on traps, is a turn in the right direction imo and I’m sure everyone else agrees. Seriously though as a ranger traps on guard really…..why not symbols way more synergy?

longbow guardian and or dh:
As a ranger or rev playing against a guard or dh with lb this past bwe its not very threatening. Honestly its #5 skill should apply the ward on the first or at least second tick….just common sense. maybe up some damage here and there as base not trait. Otherwise you wasted a trait again common sense. To many ground targeting skills on longbow. Take one away.

I see nothing but medi gaurds and burn gaurds. here and there I see bunker gaurds. you say you want to make more viable builds for all classes? Then actually listen to what people say and fix the problems. Like how the shield on guard is now viable, things like this need to happen more often!

Sorry I couldn’t go into more details but I don’t play guard or dh that would be my brother. I’m just trying to help the guardian community as it rightly so needs some love on the new spec. As for guardian I still feel its has its place in raids all those boons it can apply is amazing. rev may apply perma boons but guard still has it beat when it comes to boons imo. alright dh community good luck hopefully you guys get some love before launch!

I played for a few hours in both PVP and SPVP each and here are my thoughts.

LB:

Overall I like it. I actually planed to use this come expansion so I really spent time on this. It has flaws and could use more visual punch. Here are my thoughts on the individual powers.

Puncture Shot:

Visually could use something, maybe a larger arrow or a light trail, not sure. Also, the bounce to targets behind seems broken. There were several times in PVE that it just did not work and I would not get the cripple effect.

True Shot:

I actually do not mind the root on this. Felt powerful and has a quick recharge. Again could use some visual flair added.

Deflecting Shot:

Love the visual here and the skill shot targeting. I had no trouble aiming, but it didn’t seem to block much. Maybe it travels too fast, not sure.

Symbol of Energy:

Love the concept, hate the application. Unlike symbols in melee range, I cannot keep an enemy in it and usually waste the shot due to them moving. At best I’m using it for a quick burning stack for the build I’m running, but I am not getting the full benefit here. I’d like to see a cripple on impact or something to keep them in it more than a second.

Hunter’s Ward:

Underwhelming. Rarely can you get anyone frozen in this both in PVP and SPVP. The root and recharge are too long. I noticed the first few attacks rarely land too. At first I thought I was missing it, but it seemed to happen a lot. I’d like to see the chains apply sooner so that this is more of a control tool.

Virtues:

F1:

Does this work or is it bugged? I would try to use constantly, but often I’d see the animation of me throwing and that’s it. No effect, nothing. A couple times I’d at least see the icon on the enemy, but that was it. I also think I saw the multi chains maybe twice all weekend. I want to use and love this power, but it seems broken.

F2:

Needs to evade while flying. So many times I was interrupted mid animation, effectively wasting a CD. I’m usually using this as a re position for LB attacks (to stay at range), so the distance seems a bit restrictive as well. A range increase would be good. Power also has issues going vertical, which seems strange for a power that gives you wings/flight thematically.

F3:

Only issue here is the cool down, way to long for a spec that seems to promote active virtue use.

Traps:

The only one I really tested was Fragments of Faith. The others were not something I could see putting on my bar over other utilities.

On FoF I mostly liked this trap and used it as an Oh Kitten button to get some breathing room. That said, it is super buggy. I found on any terrain that had varied vertical space (like a slope with a rock) it wouldn’t trigger. I tested this quite a bit on beetles around one of the way points in the expansion zone (forget name). They would cross the trap and it would not trigger.

Overall I will likely not use traps as they don’t work well at range. If I’m doing my job things are dead before they close in. If not I’m trying to get out of dodge, which none of the traps seem to help with much. Otherwise I swap to melee and punish them, which other utilities are just better at.

ebslike.1852:

Build used: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQNAT8dnsABVDhdDBekittendilEi6aZDgEQe5j+sPb/+vAE-TZxAABzXGwjjAAAXAAOOIAR8AAAA

Hard enemies
D/D Elementalist
Necromancer
Engineer

Medium enemies
Ranger
Mesmer

Easy
Thief
Warrior
Guardians
Revenants
Non-D/D Elementalist

No wonder you think dd eles are tough because you use traps. Remove traps and you will kill them.

My opinion of the DH in BWE3:

Virtues:

• Spear of Justice: Effect is a little weak, only a few short burn stacks, could need slight improval.
• Wings of Resolve: Great skill overall, does not need a change.
• Shield of Courage: Great skill overall, does not need a change.

Traits:

• Virtuous Action: Allows to have stronger Virtues than the base ones, so it is worth it.
• Piercing Light: The daze part feels a little weak, but overall solid.
• Dulled Senses: Vulnerability should be 2-3 stacks. It needs to have a higher impact, because knockbacks/cripples are a rather rare occurrence. In my testing it also worked with launches like Banish, not sure if that is intended.
• Soaring Devastation: Great
• Defender’s Dogma: Very very weak, blocks are not always directly followed by an attack. On average you might get 2-3 more Justice passive procs every 20 seconds.
• Hunter’s Determination: Very good Trait, but the trap was bugged during the beta. Bug will be explained below.
• Zealot’s Aggression: Very strong Trait, but forces you to never activate Spear of Justice.
• Bulwark: Pretty underwhelming, a minor bonus for a skill on a long cooldown, should have aditional benefits.
• Pure of Sight: Strong Trait, but only effectively works with Longbow and Scepter, which limits build options.
• Hunter’s Fortification: Would be very strong, but the Condition cleanse part was bugged and did not work at all.
• Heavy Light: A little bit underwhelming for a Grandmaster Trait, if Pure of Sight would be merged into it, it would be a solid choice.
• Big Game Hunter: Underwhelming, a short damage increase on an ability that can miss is not worth a Grandmaster Trait. It also is antagonistic to Defender’s Dogma and Zealot’s Aggression.

Longbow:

1. Solid overall.
2. Very solid, root is now a perfectly reasonable tradeoff for such a hard hitting ability on only 4 seconds cooldown.
3. Hard to destroy projectiles with it, quite underwhelming if you do not destroy a projectile.
4. Solid overall.
5. Solid overall.

Traps:

• Purification: A healing skill that is a trap is inherently a bad idea, because your heal skill is a very important part of your survival, so you never want it to be reactive, but proactive. The healing value this trap offers on a 30 second cooldown is amazing though.
• Fragments of Faight: Very good trap, has strong synergies with Aegis Traits. It was bugged so that the damage part of the trap would trigger three times. I crit a golem dummy for 3.7k three times, which definitely did not seem like intended behaviour.
• Light’s Judgement: Very weak, 45 seconds cooldown for a little bit of Reveal and Vulnerability is just not worth it. The opponent can immediately walk out of it and be almost not impacted by the trap at all.
• Test of Faith: Solid area denial tool, can push opponents through it for strong bursts.
• Procession of Blades: Offers nothing but a little bit of damage, which can be partially mitigated by simply walking out of the trap. Very weak.
• Dragon’s Maw: Felt a little bit underwhelming for an elite skill, but it is overall still quite solid.

Additional Notes:

• Currently the Guardian is forced to run heavy sustain, because of the inherent lack of mobility, so pretty much every build is forced to run Altruistic Healing or Monk’s Focus, which heavily impacts the viability of everything that does not work with those Traits. If you compare builds without Healing Power, one running Monk’s Focus and the other one not, you can do some math. Your base sustain featuring your healing skill and Resolve passive add up to around 235 health per second (using Shelter). Monk’s Focus adds around 200 health per second, if you run a full Meditation build, which almost doubles your health regeneration.

(Math: Add up Meditation cooldowns: 16+36+48+72 = 172 => Average Meditation cooldown: 172/4 = 43. Four Meditation skills. => You can use a Meditation roughly every 10 seconds, which heals for roughly 2000. => Around 200 health per second.)

If the sustain issue is not fixed, I do not see anyone using traps, or any other skill that does not work with Monk’s Focus or Altruistic Healing. If you look at other Professions, which do not have that problem, you almost always see Professions which have great sustain from their healing skill alone (Ranger, Warrior).

Tom.8976:

Also to add to the discussion, I do not want to see a change to ‘True Shot’ i love that it roots you it gives the longbow that added flavour it needs plus if you are finding the root as a problem i think that is more of a l2p issue than the root being the problem.

Long bow root adds Flavour? what the heck are you smoking?

Tom.8976:

Found a small bug with Symbol of Energy, it states in the tool tip that it pulses 5 times but it only pulses 4 times, you can test for yourself it only applies the vigor 4 times and the burn 4 times.

The damage hits 5 times, the Vigor 4 and the Burning is on impact only, no additional pulses.

The Vigor should be one more pulse, the impact pulse too.

This BWE:

Shield of Courage blocking everything in front of you is amazing, excellent job. I still think the cd needs to be reduced but that’s just me.

Wings of Resolve: Very clunky, easy to interrupt. Evasion might be nice for the duration.

Longbow
#1: Finally has solid tracking.
#2: Excellent damage.
#3: Still a bit too fast to block projectiles.
#4: Feels weird having a symbol on this weapon since you need to be constantly moving.
#5: Cast time is a bit long.

Traps:

Fragments of faith is bugged. It will trigger twice un traited and three times if traited to do massive damage.

Class lacking mobility? Let’s give them cast times and roots on all their skills so they feel like they’re playing WOW again!

of all the professions I tried BWE3, Dragonhunter was by far my favorite. The longbow and consecrations synergize very well.

DH traits still need further refinement, those minor traits are incredibly restrictive and limited to very specific builds; I suppose Defender Dogma could work OK with aegis/block-heavy guardians, but it is completely antithesis to the DH playstyle.

As others have pointed out in this thread, Pure of Sight only caters to ranged users, a general melee guardian has absolutely no use for the trait; make Pure of sight a baseline for the longbow and rework the DH Minor Grandmaster.

Hunter Fortification is wonky, the cleansing effect just wouldn’t proc, not sure if it’s due to the ICD or if the trait is bugged ? Either way, Hunter Fortification is an extremely unreliable condi cleanse. And the “10% dmg reduction on no condi” requirement, just isn’t feasible in any game mode; if you’re getting hit, there’s a high chances that you will be inflicted with condi anyway, so…

Just my 2 cents.

Hey Karl-

I really appreciate what you’ve done for the spec this time around, and I feel like it’s starting to feel great, really fluid- I had a fun time roaming on it in WvW this weekend, modifying my standard meditation build for the new spec.

That said, this is a feedback thread, and I’ll touch on a few of the issues that my fellow beta testers have had with the class.

1. Fix the behavior of Hunter’s Fortification- it seems like it wasn’t coded properly to interact with the blocks Guardian has. If it behaves as advertised in the trait panel, it will truly be worthy of a GM trait.

2. Minor traits- Defender’s Dogma is still sub-par- and I do agree with others that Pure of Sight should simply be merged into Heavy Light, creating internal synergy in the trait (knock them back to get the damage modifier), and replaced with the generic 25% movement speed trait with 33% reduction on cripple, chill, and immobilize. This fits within the selfish nature of Dragonhunter, and also fits thematically with the mobile hunter ideal.

3. Heavy Light- as mentioned in my previous point, needs a bit of a buff to compete with the wonderful traits that Big Game Hunter is, and Hunter’s Fortification should be.

4. Fragments of Faith- bugged to hit twice. Now it’s nowhere near as ridiculous as Gun Flame, but this trap has been almost too effective. I’d suggest increasing the damage to match that of a Shield of Wrath, but I’m very, very happy with the way this trap will perform even after the damage is “nerfed,” aka, un-bugged.

Now some positives.

1. Virtues! Yes! This is the functionality I’ve been looking for this whole time. I enjoy Radiance guardian, and Spear of Justice is absolutely fantastic with recharge on kill and low cooldown to begin with. Wings of Resolve being the same range as a Jump Shot has also been a great improvement, and the attack can really hit hard. Shield of Courage’s functionality is now fixed, and I personally believe the cooldown is fair for what it brings to the field.

2. Hunter’s Determination- I always enjoy taking traits that give me an “extra skill,” so to speak, on my utility bar- such as Smiter’s Boon and Wrath of Justice. This one doesn’t disappoint and allows me to take a trap for free while not sacrificing any meditations.

3. Big Game Hunter and synergy with Radiance- This GM trait was always beautifully designed. Kudos to whoever came up with the initial idea for this one, and it fits perfectly with the reduced cooldown and unblockable function on Spear, and the Radiance traits with Spear make it an invaluable virtue.

At any rate, now I can see myself actually taking this line to roam and play WvW. In a zerg fight, the standard virtues have been considerably more clutch, but with small man fights, I’m impressed with DH’s performance. I’ve even seen some full trap DH’s do alright in fights.

Thanks for your continued work, you’re well on the way to making this the truly elite specialization it can be.

The Dragonhunter was quite fun for BWE3 PvE. quick cast on javelin, wings and shield have been a huge improvement for mobility. I was running a burn trapper build with sw/foc+LB. Though burn output is quite lacking, I did love the duration of cripple and barriers in the build. In one scenario i had the thief on reveal n downed him with true shot. While a warrior and engi were ressing him they got caught in my dragon’s maw followed by javelin and LB #5 had em locked down. the trap placement though needs a lot of mobility and timing, if i don’t pre-plan the traps they are worthless and pre-planning takes a lot of time. The pvp is far too quick to pre-plan traps (wings of resolve help but at cost of nice damage and immobi).

PvE side the terrain causes a lot of missed opportunities on damage and dragon hunter adds nothing to the raid groups. The support is quite lacking as immobi is barely required in raids and damage is lack lusture compared to all the other classes. Added vuln on true shot might actually help in the PvE side though it can imbalance the pvp(?).

Overall i love the DH. However, goodbye guards from the PvE grounds

I really only tried out dh for guard so here’s my feedback:
Its a lot of fun and pretty good.
The trap on disable trait is bugged. It does kittens instead of one.
Puncture shot is, well, silly. I never predict it hitting another person.
True shot is hard to land on targets running away. I’d like the range on this to be increased or be able to move when cast.
Skill 3 seems to be moving at its original speed and I thought it was supposed to be slowed. (Bug?)
After using true shot or hunters ward your bow will be stuck in the cast animation.
Test of faith isn’t very punishing for enemies crossing it.
Procession of blades feels weak, whether or not it is, it just feels weak.
Lights judgement would be nice if we had a DMG deal rather than dmg and does ten hits.
The skill fact for Shield of Courage still says “blocks projectiles” but blocks all attacks.

So basically as most of the thread here said, most of us don’t like traps. Dragonhunter feels just like a stripped guardian with longbow. There is nothing huntery about it. I like the old virtues better even if the new ones “look” cooler.

The biggest problem with dragonhunter is its identity. It’s struggling between the idea of being long range and the idea of being close range trapper. Both just don’t synnergize togerer in any way, unless HoT is all about “hit and run”. Then maybe. Traits are not giving anything at all to the awesome class that guardian is, but a longbow.

You have to make up your minds if you want dragonhunter to be close combat or far range, or it will always stay a weird kid that never knows what he wants in a class full of defined specializations.

My feedback does not include all the skills and traits since I played with DH only tonight. However the things I experienced were actually pretty nice:
I played a ranged dps DH. I had scepter/focus+Longbow. Felt really powerfull.

Longbow
All the skills seem very nice to me. The only thing I would personally like to see is to slow down the movement of deflecting shot by about 20% to create a bigger scale of time where it can absorb projectiles.

Traps

• Purification: This one needs most work in my opinion. I like the idea of the trap, but found it unrewarding to use in PvP. It needs a bigger initial heal at the least (3k initial – 5K trigger?)
• Fragments of Faith: Oh…My….God…I love this one. I hope it is not a bug that it hits three times, because it is amazing like this!
• Test of Faith: Unrewarding skill. It is hard to push enemies through because of the size and the damage isnt even that big. I’dd like to see a 30% damage increase and a smaller radius.

Traits

• Piercing Light: Good trait, very solid, adds a nice daze, worth it as an adept.
• (The place a trap on CC one): Again Solid trait, punishes enemies heavily for trying to burst while getting Aegis.
• Remove a condition when blocking: Nice trait, helped me alot in situations and didnt force me into having condition removal skills.

Well thats the end of the Beta here is my thoughts.
Traps
Elite is satisfying to use.
damage traps give good damage .
the healing traps good healing.
maybe scale the heal with healing power more, its raw heal is very high but adding healing power doesn’t do much. I would also like to point out it heals more than Signet of resolve with a 10 second shorter cooldown thus making Signet of resolve even less used.

Longbow
1 – damage is ok for ranged weapon but perma cripple is very strong
2 – damage is WAAYYYYY too high. It undermines other guardian 2 skills, mighty blow a similar skill has a 3/4 second cast time which leaves the user vulnerable during the animation, yet it does 500-400 less damage. the argument mighty blow is AoE doesnt work as true shot is piercing the equivalent of projectile AoE.
3 – Hard to use but it works, something like field of the mists that makes your projectiles blind would be better
4 – It does what a symbol does its solid.
5 – cast time a little long I would prefer a 2 1/4 second cast time like Ranger’s Barage Ring duration is too long it shouldn’t be more than 3 seconds

Ah, another thing. The healing trap, which i barely commented on because i barely ever used it. Has a pretty strong heal which is nice and great for pve, but for pvp is a bit of a gamble since it takes a while to activate and you still take damage while using it. It would help make it more appealing if it cleansed maybe 3 or more conditions on use (not activation) to give it an added reason to use it over shelter. Condition removal i found was a problem for DH and your only reliable condi cleanse was wings of resolve if you traited virtues for it. I don’t believe having access to two condi clears on DH would be game breaking for the spec. Giving it immobilize on activation of the trap might also give it another mechanic as it can be used to hold the enemy in your damaging traps as well, giving you a reason to pre-set it instead of keeping it off CD. The immobilize on activation can also help you escape a dangerous situation.

The longbow feels much, much better now the los issues are mostly resolved. Traps feel better, but do still feel purification should changed to a concentration. With a pulsing location heal, or a regen and condi clear. If left as a trap, then the trigger should not be the enemy, but an ally. Which would allow it to compete with recieve the light as a support skill.

Fragments of faith, in fact all the trap damage save lighta judgement and procesion of blades (!? Really, this is the weak sister now?), feel better and are enticing enough one or two traps into a utility slot. But they only work in so, so few situations that its hard to justify keeping there. Eg, drop some traps on rally points or capture points, slot a meditation or suitable concentration one cd is done. The trap will live for another 4 mins.

Oh and a 25% passive run trait is really wanted, cause runes of the traveler are build limiting, not build freeing.

Dragonhunter Feedback:

1. Can we please rename Dragon Hunter? It sounds so generic D&D and doesn’t thematically fit our class at all. If anything it sounds like an elite hunter/ranger more than a guardian and protector. Others have offered many good suggestions (i.e. Paragon, Cleric, Sentinal, etc.)

2. Bow Skill #2 rooting the guardian is counterintuitive to a ranged weapon. Ranged requires either the player to be chasing or kiting, both of which are nullified by being rooted from your main damage source.

3. Bow Skill #5 needs either a shorter cooldown or a faster cast time. It’s too easy to get out of and too easy to waste with an absurdly long cooldown time.

1. Traps are bad. Traps dont fit the theme of the class, are difficult to use, easy to escape, and requires you to be at the location where you’re setting the trap. It would be much better if we could at least set them from a distance as with consecrations (seeing as they’re both magical abilities), but I’m not a fan of traps in general.