Guild Wars 2

I want to start off by saying that DH can work.. it just feels like the specialization itself isn’t… Specialized….

There’s a concept that the Devs want to follow and I respect that. I embrace it even. What’s preventing that notion is the sole concept of Guardian. There are certain skills that didn’t get the memo.

Why DH bow is lacking – excuse the heavy criticism
Compared to GS, Scepter, Mace and Sword, the Bow lacks considerably.

It is not because of the amount of work it does in a team setting, but because it is more susceptible to getting outplayed; in fact, It’s incredibly susceptible to melee combat as well as other types of burst focused scenarios. If you increase the power of the Bow, we lack other aspects of Active Play.. when a Thief (for example) engages us. I rather increase Active Play instead of power/sustains aspects of the Bow.

Adding 1/4s – 3/4s Virtues; as well as, long casting utilities in the equation and you have one very slow build. It doesn’t matter whether or not you deal X amount of dmg to X amount of targets (again, active play). Extreme scenarios (in reference to Permeating Wrath and Supreme Justice…) should be governed by their own DH trait. The trap bleed was considered condi pre-beta until it was removed for something that seemed more important. I agree.. it was definitely more needed in reference to the Trap’s weaknesses. What about the DH condi aspect of things? You just traded trap damages for something that suppose to prevent players from leaving trap. Again, I agree but what about condi builds?

I want to keep the DH profile while also be Viable. Let me be range but deal damage, not be a contradiction – have utilities that does not work in range. But hey, I have a “Kiting Utility” (F2) utility so it should work… it clearly doesn’t. A very simple concept would be to have the F2 teleport instantly to a Trap instead of provide an instant heal effect because…“DH was suppose to provide a more selfish playstyle”. How can F2 be selfish when it heals everyone in an AoE effect? Again, contradiction play-style..

TL/DR
Remove F2 heals. Make it faster and enable us to remove ourselves from combat faster.
F3 should be instant and can blockself when using a Bow, give us Active Reaction style of play.
Defender’s Dogma should be accumulative (collected) in Stacks (max 3 stacks) until we hit a target. That should help Condi Builds.

What ic, is lacking to bow classes in general are bow mechanics… LB makes same damage at close and long range there isnt even need a l2p mechanics here, just stack/sustain output damage, but that is comprehensible, since it is the only stats that matter, so those skill will have only damage being in raw power or condi, there is not clever gameplay besides stacking damage.

Gw2 is a very lackluster in terms of class mechanics, it is not DH only, any changes to DH are only possible after hot being on the table for quite some time.

funny thing that LB is a ranged version of GS.

1. = AA
2. = big damage, hard to land
3. = blind
4. = symbol
5. = CC+ damage, hard to land

All of it on lower cool downs but somehow it does not get any love from the playerbase at all.

The one thing that I think needs to be tweaked are the traps. They need to have the option to be detonated by the player. So if a trap is triggered by an enemy it sets off a enemy harming effect but if the trap is triggered prematurely by the player it only sets off a boon effect for allies.

For example:

Purification if triggered by the player only activates the AoE heal, but if an enemy triggers it then the ally AoE heal, enemy damage and blind occurs.

Fragments of Faith if triggered by the player grants only Aegis, but if an enemy triggers it then the ally Aegis, enemy Cripple and damage occurs.

Light’s Judgement if triggered by the player grants ally Protection, but if an enemy triggers it then they receive damage, reveal and vulnerability.

Test of Faith if triggered by the player grants ally Resistance or Retaliation, but if an enemy triggers it then they receive Weakness and damage

Procession of Blades if triggered by the player grants ally Vigor, but if an enemy triggers it then they receive damage and bleeding.

Above was just a quick example, but it would be better if every trap was based around a condition and their opposite boon. So the enemy triggered effect would be the condition + boon, but the player triggered effect would only be the boon. It would also be nice if they renamed the traps to be a different skill type, I’ve seen the name “wards” suggested and I think that’s an apt name. Afterall Necromancers have Marks and they are slightly tweaked versions of Traps. Dragonhunters need their own unique take on Traps that combines the knowledge of the Guardian.

That way you can choose to play the Dragonhunter as the big game witchhunter concept or you can play a supportive role by using Traps like Symbols. It would turn what is a situational skill type into something with more versatility. I admit such a change would water down the Dragonhunter concept but I think it would be in keeping with what the Guardian is all about.

Asmodal.6489:

funny thing that LB is a ranged version of GS.

1. = AA
2. = big damage, hard to land
3. = blind
4. = symbol
5. = CC+ damage, hard to land

All of it on lower cool downs but somehow it does not get any love from the playerbase at all.

yea, Anet dont have ideas for Guardians because we are “in a good spot”.