I’m doing a full review of each class’s Elite Specializations here:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/hot/All-Elite-Specializations-Analysis/first#post5574892
The following is my analysis of the Dragonhunter.
I’ll be covering the following things in this review…
01) General Descriptions
02) New Traits Analysis
03) New Weapon Analysis
04) New Skills Analysis
05) Gearing Options
06) Rune/Sigil Synergies
07) PvE Usefulness
08) PvP Usefulness
09) WvW Usefulness
10) Overall Opinion
Guardian – Dragonhunter
General Description
The Guardian is a class that has changed quite a lot since its release. Typically viewed as a support class the Guardian specializes in trying to protect allies while still dishing out a fair amount of damage. With a rather recent update the Guardians’ main condition, Burning, became far more useful and mainstream. Therefore, there are now two typical styles of Guardians: The Support Guardian and The Burn Guardian. With the release of the Dragonhunter we see an immediate clash against the typical norms that define the Guardian. The weapon we get is a Longbow, but the skills we get – Traps – are laid at our feet, and our virtues have changed from being instant casts to activation time casts. At first glance this may really seem like a step in the wrong direction, but I assure you there are good things to be found.
New Traits Analysis
Minor Traits
Virtuous Action
Grants access to new Virtues, the Longbow, and Traps.
Defender’s Dogma
Blocking an attack causes Justice to reach its maximum charge.
This makes for interesting play mechanisms if you focus on Block+Burn Combos.
Pure of Sight
Deal +10% damage to foes at least 360 Radius away.
Adept Traits
Piercing Light
Traps daze enemies when activating and have -20% recharge.
Good synergy if using Traps.
Dulled Senses
KB’d enemies are Crippled and Crippled foes gain Vuln.
Works to some degree, but ultimately pales in comparison to others
Soaring Devastation
Wings of Resolve deliver an Immob Attack (3s) upon Landing.
Interesting addition to a heal skill. Does decent damage. A bit odd for ranged play.
Master Traits
Hunter’s Determination
Gain Aegis and drop Fragments of Faith at your location when CC’d.
Interesting counter-play and synergy options with other traits.
~!~ BUG: No ICD listed ~!~
Zealot’s Aggression
Deal +10% damage to Crippled foes. Justice’s passive effect Cripples foes.
Can be okay depending on how much Cripple you can push out. Mostly underwhelming.
Bulwark
Shield of Courage is larger and lasts longer.
Good anti-ranged enhancement.
Grandmaster Traits
Hunter’s Fortification
Remove 1 condition when blocking an attack. -10% damage when you have no conditions. -- 1s ICD
Great synergy with other traits.
Heavy Light
LB arrows KB enemies 240 Radius when within 300 Radius of you. Gain Stability when you KB an enemy. — 10s ICD
Interesting concept, but with a 10s ICD it’s still a bit hard to use effectively.
Big Game Hunter
Striking a foe tethered by your Spear of Justice causes Vuln and grants +10% damage.
Good for adding damage to your build.
New Weapon Analysis
The Dragonhunter gains access to the Longbow.
NOTE: All LB skills have 1,200 range.
Puncture Shot
Fire an arrow that can bounce to enemies behind your target. If an arrow hits a second target, all enemies struck are Crippled for 2s.
Decent auto-attack and has some trait synergy.
True Shot — 4s ICD
Root in place for 3/4s while charging a powerful piercing attack.
Very strong if you can use it.
Deflecting Shot — 10s ICD
Fire a slow moving missile that blinds enemies and destroys projectiles. Destroying projectiles increases the damage dealt 100%.
This has some amazing uses if timed correctly.
Symbol of Energy — 15s ICD
Fire a slow arcing arrow that explodes on impact to burn targets and sear a Symbol of Energy into the ground.
Grants 3s of Vigor and 2 stacks of Burn for 5s.
Hunter’s Ward — 45sec ICD
For your arrows into a barrier, and deal damage at the location.
Causes Cripple and deals good damage. The barrier forms at the end of the attack and lasts for 6 seconds.
New Skills Analysis
The Dragonhunter gains access to Traps.
NOTE: All Virtues maintain their standard Passive effects and are affected by other traits that would affect the non-Dragonhunter variants.
Spear of Justice — 20s ICD
Hurl an unblockable spear of light that passes through foes. Enemies struck become tethered and receive burning periodically.
Decent way to force Burning on a Target.
Wings of Resolve — 30s ICD
Leap to a target area healing allies in the area.
Strong heal. Removes Immob. Has a lot of good synergy with other traits.
Shield of Courage — 75s ICD
Create a wall in front of you that blocks projectiles.
This has decent synergy with other traits, but the ICD is still rather long. Activation time should be removed.
Purification — 30s ICD
Minor self heal when laying trap. Large self heal and area blind on triggering.
Odd trap. Hard to use if not planning ahead of time. Heal values should likely be inverted.
Test of Faith — 30s ICD
Creates a ring that damages enemies that cross its threshold.
Decent damage. Causes Cripple. Hard to get many hits from this due to its size.
Fragments of Faith — 40s ICD
Damages foes and releases multiple Fragments in the area when triggered. Fragments grant Aegis to anyone who passes over them so long as they don’t already have Aegis.
Interesting trap. Can lead to a lot of interesting synergies with other traits.
~!~ BUG: If standing on top of a fragment while under the effects Aegis and getting hit thereby losing Aegis the fragment will not automatically grant Aegis and you must step off the fragment for at least 1s before you can pick it up. ~!~
Procession of Blades — 25s ICD
Creates whirling blades at location when triggered.
Hits up to 10×. Can be used to trigger Justice a few times.
Light’s Judgement — 45sec ICD
Reveals the area for 1s and causes 10 stacks of Vuln for 2s per pulse.
Very good for anti-stealth play and increasing damage with Vuln.
Dragon’s Maw
Pull enemies to the center and creates a 6s barrier.
Decent damage. Causes 4s of Slow.
Gearing Options
The following are acceptable gearing types to consider for a Dragonhunter.
NOTE: These are types that can work depending on the overall goal of your build. They are not all equal as some are much better than others.
Power: Berserker’s, Zealot’s, Soldier’s, Valkyrie
Precision: Rampager’s
Toughness: Knight’s, Settler’s
Vitality: Sentinel’s
Condition: Sinister, Carrion, Rabid, Dire
Healing: Cleric’s, Apothecary’s
Rune/Sigil Synergies
NOTE: These are types that can work depending on the overall goal of your build. They are not all equal as some are much better than others.
Superior Rune of (the)…
Power: Baelfire, Brawler, Elementalist, Fire, Flame Legion, Hoelbrak, Ogre, Scholar, Strength
Precision: Eagle, Thief
Toughness: Dolyak, Earth, Forgeman, Guardian, Melandru, Mercy, Resistance
Vitality: Exuberance, Radiance, Trooper (Soldier), Wurm
Condition: Adventurer, Aristocracy, Balthazar, Nightmare, Scavenging, Trapper, Undead
Healing: Defender, Water
Superior Sigil of…
Attribute Bonus: Force, Malice
Duration Bonus: Hobbling, Smoldering
Chance on Hit: Water, Purity
Chance on Crit: Air, Blood, Fire, Generosity, Incapacitation, Nullification, Strength
On Kill: Luck, Restoration, Bloodlust, Corruption, Cruelty, Momentum
On Swap: Battle, Cleansing, Doom, Leeching, Renewal
PvE Usefulness
This class seems like it either needs to kill immediately with its traps right after engagement or else things may not go so well. Though it is true that this class thrives in team oriented situations – it’s not true that it’s bad for solo play. A counter-intuitive example is that once you’re in combat range you may immediately think the LB loses value even with its KB trait. The truth is that as long as you snare your target in some way you have the ability to create a rather large gap of at least 800 range from your target using at minimum Wings of Resolve. Not only will this heal you, but it will provide you with sufficient distance to set up your target for your next assault.
PvP Usefulness
This class in PvP may seem a bit out of place at first. The fact that Guardians are typically melee is one thing, but with all the things flying around in PvP you tend to feel like you lose ground quickly. Not to mention once you expose the fact that you’re a trapper – you’re getting targeted right away. The remedy for this style of play in PvP is to become a Hybrid of being a trap user and either a Tank+DPS or Tank+Burn user.
WvW Usefulness
In Zergs – you’re out of your element if running Traps. Apart from using your #5 skill – you’re not much help unless you’re Commander is working with you directly to place your Traps in locations that he intends to lure the opposing party. Defending is a similar creature – just the venue has changed. However, roaming can be very interesting and fun. If not running traps you can actually be useful everywhere and be a very interesting force to be reckoned with. Using DPS+Heal gear you can force yourself into battle and hold your own quite well while causing a fair amount of havoc for the offending party.
Overall Opinion
The Dragonhunter, though cool in concept, is still not quite all there. Synergy lacks in many aspects of the class for what the Dragonhunter was initially. It’s now become something slightly more respectable, but it’s still feeling infantile compared to the other elite specs present. It has its areas where it shines, but it’s clear where it doesn’t shine. There is a conflict of interests that occurs – keep the target at range or let them close in? If you can keep them at range that’s great! But, if you let them close in – not having much for CC skills to push them back – you start to feel a little cornered unless you leap away. It’s a strange system of push and pull that just needs a bit more tweaking in my opinion.