Hello moderately unhappy guardian forums! I’ve decided to make a post dedicated to builds people have created so we can discuss build crafting for our favorite elite spec the “Dragon Hunter.” /sass
I tried medi/DH in PvP (specifically) and saw good success with it. I ran:
*Valor*—2,3,2
*Virtues*—2,2,3
*DH*—1,2,2
Longbow(energy,hobling) Sword/Focus(energy,intelligence) Marauders(Hoelbrack)
Utilities: JI, CoP, and Test of Faith (shelter, renewed focus)
I played roughly 50 matches between Friday and the time I posted this. For the most part the build offers similar sustain to the traditional Medi guards.
I sacrificed smite condition to take Test of Faith as it offers an excellent amount of dmg and soft cc while being on a manageable cool-down.
The new virtues are amazing. It took me most of the games to get used to using them PREEMPTIVELY, but when timed right you can easily out position opponents or dodge a nasty burst. I found that Wings of Resolve were best used in situations when I just wanted to get somewhere quickly and i needed a little heal, anytime I tried using WoR as an o-kitten skill I ended up getting caught mid air and died (as a side note are WoR supposed to be effected by cripple and chill as I was only going about 1/3 of the distance).
In terms of the new longbow I think it is fantastic. Your autos do good damage, #2 can deal massive crits when timed with cripple traits, #3 while hard to land can also deal significant damage when blocking projectiles (I hit up to 5k at one time), #4 is alright I still feel like it still travels too slow and #5 is very niche and almost un-used in PvP unless you’re being ignored and can land on in a team fight.
The style in which I played this build was a melee ranged skirmisher. I found using Test of Faith off point in prep for approaching enemies and the saving it for when Heavy Light comes off cd. It’s easy enough to land a well timed knock back even though I wish we had more control of when you can knock back someone as it is still unreliable unless you’re counting down the icd.
Once Heavy Light was on icd I found longbow to be useless in melee combat unless you wanted to burn WoR early to jump to the other side of Test of Faith to put that obstacle back in your opponents path making it harder for them to get to you.
I took focus over shield simply for #4 as it can give decent regen and gives you access to a second blind as well as traiting for Focus Mastery in heavy melee teams. I seriously considered using shield over focus for synergy with dulled sense, but in the end I found piercing light most useful for the daze and landing a knock back while in your trap. Also Might of the Protector for focus #5.
The build is still lacking in the fact that traps offer nothing else but more dmg and your losing a lot of your dmg from not taking GS and losing the zeal line. I didn’t attempt to play without Virtues as I feel it is absolutely necessary in every guardian build. WoR is awesome for moving around and the cd is acceptable.
All in all I found the DH to be a lot of fun to play even if you’re taking a serious hit in dmg from META Medi.
Also as note this could also easily countered with time. This is the last of 3 betas of all lasted about 3 days. Dragon Hunters do not have specific counter builds in place and the meta doesn’t support many of the Elite Specs. So many players didn’t know how to deal with it yet.