Guild Wars 2

What stats should I focus on as a dragonhunter dps guardian? I haven’t touched my guardian for about 2 weeks, but i’ve seen dragonhunter and it looks pretty fun. A few questions though.

1) How’s the guardian dps in general? Good bad? Should I not bother?

2) If it is a good dps, whats the stat priority? Prec? Power? Ferocity?

3) Should I only focus on dps, or should I play dragonhunter as a dps support?

Thanks guys!

1) I’d say DH has great burst dps, but sustain is not as good as some other classes. Burn builds are a good alternative to just pure zerker builds.

2) If you’re going for pure physical dps, then zerker is the obvious choice. Otherwise, you could go sinister’s or vipers for a burning build (it’s not uncommon to see 10k+ burn ticks).

3) Even if you’re a pure dps build, you’ll still be bringing support to the table. The two are not mutually exclusive. Change skills as the situation dictates. If you’re against lots of enemies with strong projectiles, pop walls of reflect or shield of vengeance. If your group needs stability, stand your ground or hallowed ground. If you want more burst dps for mobs or pulls to get them all packed together nicely, then procession of blades, feel my wrath and dragon’s maw all work wonders.

Tenrai Senshi.2017:

1) I’d say DH has great burst dps, but sustain is not as good as some other classes. Burn builds are a good alternative to just pure zerker builds.

2) If you’re going for pure physical dps, then zerker is the obvious choice. Otherwise, you could go sinister’s or vipers for a burning build (it’s not uncommon to see 10k+ burn ticks).

3) Even if you’re a pure dps build, you’ll still be bringing support to the table. The two are not mutually exclusive. Change skills as the situation dictates. If you’re against lots of enemies with strong projectiles, pop walls of reflect or shield of vengeance. If your group needs stability, stand your ground or hallowed ground. If you want more burst dps for mobs or pulls to get them all packed together nicely, then procession of blades, feel my wrath and dragon’s maw all work wonders.

Would you say pure physical dps is better, or a condi dragonhunter? In terms of raiding. Thanks for the reply!

HakunaMataBaby.2734:

Tenrai Senshi.2017:

1) I’d say DH has great burst dps, but sustain is not as good as some other classes. Burn builds are a good alternative to just pure zerker builds.

2) If you’re going for pure physical dps, then zerker is the obvious choice. Otherwise, you could go sinister’s or vipers for a burning build (it’s not uncommon to see 10k+ burn ticks).

3) Even if you’re a pure dps build, you’ll still be bringing support to the table. The two are not mutually exclusive. Change skills as the situation dictates. If you’re against lots of enemies with strong projectiles, pop walls of reflect or shield of vengeance. If your group needs stability, stand your ground or hallowed ground. If you want more burst dps for mobs or pulls to get them all packed together nicely, then procession of blades, feel my wrath and dragon’s maw all work wonders.

Would you say pure physical dps is better, or a condi dragonhunter? In terms of raiding. Thanks for the reply!

In all honesty, conditions are sorely needed in raids, but a lot of people have yet to jump ship from the previous zerker build meta, so finding players with pure condition builds can be quite hard (in my experience at least). In that regard, it might be better to go for a condition build.

But, most importantly, choose what’s fun for you. Conditions aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, but if you find them fun, that’s great. Burn guards can work in any game mode so you won’t be left wanting. It’s just a matter of choosing your own personal preference.

Tenrai Senshi.2017:

HakunaMataBaby.2734:

Tenrai Senshi.2017:

1) I’d say DH has great burst dps, but sustain is not as good as some other classes. Burn builds are a good alternative to just pure zerker builds.

2) If you’re going for pure physical dps, then zerker is the obvious choice. Otherwise, you could go sinister’s or vipers for a burning build (it’s not uncommon to see 10k+ burn ticks).

3) Even if you’re a pure dps build, you’ll still be bringing support to the table. The two are not mutually exclusive. Change skills as the situation dictates. If you’re against lots of enemies with strong projectiles, pop walls of reflect or shield of vengeance. If your group needs stability, stand your ground or hallowed ground. If you want more burst dps for mobs or pulls to get them all packed together nicely, then procession of blades, feel my wrath and dragon’s maw all work wonders.

Would you say pure physical dps is better, or a condi dragonhunter? In terms of raiding. Thanks for the reply!

In all honesty, conditions are sorely needed in raids, but a lot of people have yet to jump ship from the previous zerker build meta, so finding players with pure condition builds can be quite hard (in my experience at least). In that regard, it might be better to go for a condition build.

But, most importantly, choose what’s fun for you. Conditions aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, but if you find them fun, that’s great. Burn guards can work in any game mode so you won’t be left wanting. It’s just a matter of choosing your own personal preference.

Thank you so much sir/ma’m. I can’t wait to start playing my guard again ^-^

I might build wrong, but never see those high burn ticks thqt ppl claims to real. My highest with torch oh was 5k. And then I popped everything.

Phoenix the One.4071:

I might build wrong, but never see those high burn ticks thqt ppl claims to real. My highest with torch oh was 5k. And then I popped everything.

Taking virtues with the Supreme Justice trait (Virtue of Justice causes burning more frequently) And Permeating Wrath trait (Virtue of Justice’s passive effect no longer only burns your target, but also burns the area around your target each time it activates) is practically a requirement for guardian burn builds.

They key is to use skills that hit enemies multiple times like whirling wrath and procession of blades in order to proc virtue of justice as many times as possible. Whirling wrath says it hits 7 times but it can actually hit a target up to 14 times, including the projectiles. Procession of blades can hit up to 10 times. Just with those two skills alone you can get 8 stacks of burning which, at 400 damage per tick (achievable with the right traits and gear) would do 3200 damage per tick. That’s just against single targets and doesn’t include easy to apply, long duration burns like purging flames, symbol of energy or zealot’s flame.

Against 3 targets the result is enhanced exponentially thanks to the aoe nature of virtue of justice traited. Against five targets you’ll be seeing insane burn tick numbers. To experiment, just trait for burning – including the two traits I listed above – go into the PvP lobby and pop a whirling wrath and a procession of blades in the middle of the group of training golems and see how much burn damage you get proc-ing from those two skills alone.

There are, of course, other little factors that can help get burning stacks higher against single targets or groups. Skill rotation does matter, and little things like popping purging flames first and then using whirling wrath in the fire field (which shoots out burning bolts for additional burn stacks) can make a difference in how quickly you apply stacks.

Phoenix the One.4071:

I might build wrong, but never see those high burn ticks thqt ppl claims to real. My highest with torch oh was 5k. And then I popped everything.

They’re real alright.

From what you say, burn guardian is only doing big damage against multiple enemies. Does he do enough damage for let’s say, Vale Guardian?

Mortifer.2946:

From what you say, burn guardian is only doing big damage against multiple enemies. Does he do enough damage for let’s say, Vale Guardian?

I never said “only”. I just said the effects of VoJ are perpetuated greatly against more targets. Guardian single target burn is still good, but obviously the more enemies there are, the more hits you can get and the more VoJ will proc.

As for Vale Guardian, the red orbs spawned by it can also be hit to proc VoJ. So in that fight in particular you won’t necessarily be lacking in burning stacks.

Whether it’s “enough” damage depends on how you look at things. I’d say right off the bat that while guardians have some of the highest burn damage available, other classes like engineer can probably do consistently more condition damage overall. If you’re only interested in pure dps, then you’d be better off going somewhere else.

What makes a guardian useful in a group, however, is not just pure dps though. It’s the utility they offer as well, like group stability, reflects, blocks and blinds and their group dps buffing skills like feel my wrath. Guardians are not the highest dps class on their own, that much is certain, but the idea is to synergise well with your group and increase overall group dps while offering useful utility skills.

This particular discussion was about guardian dps though, and in that respect burn builds are indeed competitive to other guardian builds.

Thank you
/15chars

If you want to compare the dps of Zerker vs Condition Dragonhunter here some infos.

During the 15 first second of a fight zerker will pretty much always be better. When the marker it 20sec it’s a bit more complicated. On a non moving boss with a large hitbox, the condition build will be able to hit 16 times with Smite, which will proc a lot of burning. But this almost never happen tbh. You have Lupi and Bloomhunger. Maybe Sabetha, but I’m not sure she’s big enough. Anyway 99% of all mobs won’t allow you to proc simet 16 times. The second tricky things is the number of DPS utilities. For Zerker it’s Blade Processions and Bane Signet (leaving one space for support), the condi guardian is

A condition guardian with 3 DPS utilities will have around the same dps as a zerker guardian with 2 dps utilities after 20second of fight. Since Guardian are usually needed for support, a condition guardian with 2 dps utilities and 1 support skill will have a bit less dps than a zerker guardian. But really, they are very similar.

To give you an idea how the dps of a guardian compare to other. Most good Dragonhunter build have a theorical max dps of between 16 and 17.5k dps. A condition engineer can reach 21-22k, but with a very hard rotation to maintain.

In my experience a good Dragonhunter can maintain 16k dps, while a good engineer can maintain 19k dps. A different of around 15% in combat situation.

Okay I need a final answer if somebody can give it, so I can finally reforge my armor. Am I going to be accepted more in raids as a zerker DH with GS and LB, or condition guardian? I guess more as zerker. And what about DPS tanking guardian? I think I would be more valued as not-tank because of merciful intervention and wings of resolve that can save green circle runners.

Mortifer.2946:

Okay I need a final answer if somebody can give it, so I can finally reforge my armor. Am I going to be accepted more in raids as a zerker DH with GS and LB, or condition guardian? I guess more as zerker. And what about DPS tanking guardian? I think I would be more valued as not-tank because of merciful intervention and wings of resolve that can save green circle runners.

Who know what pugs will accept, there is a lot of crazy people in there. 5 days ago a Viper Warrior would have been kicked faster than he could write, now pugs salivate when they see one. Pug will want whatever they know is good, but they rarely know much, especially in those early time in raid were information ain’t yet nicely show all in one place like metabattle and such.

That said. Even if condi and zerker guardian are pretty much on part when it come to dps, Zerker will be safer. But it seem that guardian are more welcome as a tank these days in pugs. Celestial or Knight/Zerker are two good setup for a tank guardian.

Thaddeus thank you very much. It seems like it would be best to first look for raid guild and then let them decide what role they want me to fill in. But as a former healer from WoW and alliance buffer in Lineage 2, tanking sounds more interesting