Guild Wars 2

The Longbow feels good in concept but the auto-attack projectiles are far too slow and have similar tracking issues in moving combat that the Scepter does.

The auto-attack projectile velocity needs to be increased to counter this and improve it’s ranged accuracy.

Symbol of Energy should fire behind also, like Warrior Longbow and Thief Shortbow.

Dragonhunter Virtues are clunky and awkward and lose all synergy with Virtue traits because of their cast times. The F1 blind, F2 condi clear, F3 stun break and stability (especially when stomping). F2 leap is also clunky and delayed because of the cast time.
And of course activating Virtues while channeling Renewed Focus is impossible with these.

The Dragonhunter Virtues need to be changed to instant cast.

Also, Puncture Shot and Deflecting Shot should auto-face when standing still

Old virtues could be used while doing other stuff, and gave effects immediately (and better effects in the case of f1 and f3).

Longbow is inferior to Scepter+Any weapon (even shield).

Traits are inferior then other trait lines.

Traps are useless (the only cool one got nerfed from 25 vuln to 10).

No brainer here: do not spec to dragonhunter.

We have inherited launch Ranger.

Well, I wouldn’t write it off so soon.

I just feel an auto-attack velocity increase and making the Virtues instant cast again would solve the biggest issues with the Dragonhunter and it’s current clunky feeling and take it back to the smooth instant effect of regular Virtues.

If Dragonhunter F1/F2/F3 need to retain the channel for balance then the F1 Blind, F2 Condi removal and F3 Stun break / Stability from the other trait lines need to activate instantly while the Dragonhunter parts activate after the cast.

Kidel.2057:

Old virtues could be used while doing other stuff, and gave effects immediately (and better effects in the case of f1 and f3).

Longbow is inferior to Scepter+Any weapon (even shield).

Traits are inferior then other trait lines.

Traps are useless (the only cool one got nerfed from 25 vuln to 10).

No brainer here: do not spec to dragonhunter.

We have inherited launch Ranger.

I have to disagree. Carrion amulet speaking… DH has his weaknesses but you have to remember that our F4 is a Block that offers burns + Might stacks, we have a Whirling Wrath (x2) for traps, and we actually offer incredible supportive attributes at ranged now. Condi Guards (I’m actually using the term) remain a threat if we are not checked. Do we have apparent weaknesses? Absolutely. Every Guardian build does.

Traps are far from useless but hey… it’s been a day. Give me a weekend against people who actually know what they’re doing and i’ll give you a better review. So far? I’ve been getting 2+ people (1v2) to 10% health because of my playstyle and proper trap usages. I’ve wiped a group because of my burns… … but I wasn’t against any soft counters like Ele/Necro/Guard so.. who knows.

This is not to say DH is “ok”. It can very well be terrible in higher tier TPvP play. Tournaments always seem to weed out all the “niche” builds but hey, as a casual, i’m ok with just being “ok”. DH is darn fun to play (currently, give me two more days

Ezrael.6859:

Well, I wouldn’t write it off so soon.

Implying a normal staff+focus/torch guardian could not have done the same if not better.
Also no traps used.

Why do you expect it to utterly replace Scepter as a ranged weapon? That would be terrible design, it’s meant to add other options for a different play-style.

As a longer range damage dealing option with some mixed soft and hard cc support it’s design is good, a few tweaks here and there are needed is all.

Sure we could have won with Scepter Torch perhaps.
Would it have been as effective 2v3+pet? Probably not as the Scepter and Torch suffer vs more than one target, the longbow excels in multiple target fights as the auto bounces, 2 and 3 pierce, 4 and 5 are AoE.

Because longbow was introduced on Guardian to add a better ranged option.
However I was mainly referring to virtues. Scepter and old virtues, or even longbow and old virtues, would have been better. And, again, he didn’t use any trap.

A win only shows that guardian is fundamentally a good class at the core, not that dh is a good addition to guardian. Virtues are inferior and traps are hardly going to be used if they keep them like that.

Ezrael.6859:

The Longbow feels good in concept but the auto-attack projectiles are far too slow and have similar tracking issues in moving combat that the Scepter does.

The auto-attack projectile velocity needs to be increased to counter this and improve it’s ranged accuracy.

Symbol of Energy should fire behind also, like Warrior Longbow and Thief Shortbow.

Dragonhunter Virtues are clunky and awkward and lose all synergy with Virtue traits because of their cast times. The F1 blind, F2 condi clear, F3 stun break and stability (especially when stomping). F2 leap is also clunky and delayed because of the cast time.
And of course activating Virtues while channeling Renewed Focus is impossible with these.

The Dragonhunter Virtues need to be changed to instant cast.

I completely agree with the symbol. Would be great, and not at all op for the symbol to be able to be fired backwards. As for our virtues, I agree with you on at least one point. Yes, instant casts are needed, namely f3. As is, you can abuse the f3 by casting and interrupting it in order to receive a stun break, but not set it into full cool down. Simple fix is to make it instant cast. However, I disagree with f1 being instant cast.

In my opinion, f2 shouldn’t be instant cast. If traited for the damage trait, it is a very powerful skill, and needs very tactical use outside of being an “oh kitten, condi cleanse.”

Virtues need to be an instant cast! This alone would make the whole traitline appealing without bow or traps… Instant leap while casting, blocking while casting would make DH virtues a very viable choice over the vanillia ones. This change only would buff our shield to an acceptable level with mobile knockback or blast finisher or heal or whatever.

Mace and Hammer auto, Sword#2, Torch#5, Shield#4 and #5… All the issues were gone if instant leap and/or block becomes accessible…

I know I’m just repeating what pretty much everyone is saying here, but

virtues need to be instant cast!

Otherwise it just feels clunky. With current virtues there’s very little synergy with so many other traits, not to much RF feels very lackluster now since you can’t activate virtues mid cast. This is probably the biggest issue with Dragon Hunter right now. I think most people can accept LB issues but virtues just feel very unoptimized right now.

Hope Anet reads the feedback :0

In addition to the above points there are two more issues with auto-facing.

Punture Shot doesn’t auto-face a target when standing still.

However, Warrior Longbow, Thief Shortbow, Ranger Longbow and Shortbow all auto-face with the auto-attack and all other target skills.

Deflecting Shot also doesn’t auto-face, so you can only fire it in-front of you in a 160 arc, if you attempt to fire to the sides or behind it will fail, which is an utterly horrible mechanic as it’s already the only projectile skill-shot in the game, making it not auto-face too is an oversight.

I am still not sure what kind of tactics they want us to use with the Dragonhunter elite specialization. Having a long range longbow and short range traps has a very niche usage (capturing nodes in PvP). The synergy is lacking in all the other game modes. I am quite disappointed. I had more fun with the Mesmer, Necromancer and Elementalist elite specializations.

Some other minor issues I had:

• I can’t move while using True Shot and especially Hunter’s Ward which allows my enemies to pound on me for 3 seconds.
• Spear of Justice should redirect itself to nearby enemies. Enemies almost never line up in front of you anyway. So it almost never attaches to more than one target.
• Leap on Wings of Resolve is too short. It needs to be an 800 range skill.
• Knockback on the Heavy Light trait is too short. I rather have a longer cooldown with a longer knockback range.
• Traits like Hunter’s Determination and Hunter’s Fortification give us boons we already have easily access to. It doesn’t feel rewarding to use them.
• The auto-face issue feels like a bug. I don’t think any of our other weapons force us to look towards a target.
• Dragon’s Maw elite trap doesn’t have its own symbol on the ground. It’s the same as the symbol from Test of Faith (two crossing swords).

I totally agree with what you’re saying. Also thought the same way about our Virtues

Ezrael.6859:

Why do you expect it to utterly replace Scepter as a ranged weapon?

I don’t think anyone expected it to “REPLACE” anything but rather be a tempting alternative. And DH is not. It’s slow, clunky, and makes you a sitting duck. What did you give up to be said duck? Blocks, holds, blinds, . . . basically survival! xD

My feelings about this is “Well this isn’t the same but its pretty effective” should of been the feeling we got from DH.

Anyway, hopefully they will review the observations so many of us have made and fix it up. My hopes are that they will hold off moving onto working on the other specs until these are finished. Because imo 3/4 still need a lot of work.

Dragonhunter virtues need to be instant cast.

You can use the Shield of Courage to stun break if you have the Virtues GM trait, but if you are fast enough you can cancel it to put it on a 4 second recharged and use it as a stunbreaker again.

So basically get a 4 second stun breaker. They all should just be instant cast.

A video of the Longbow auto-facing issues

Kamikazi.5380:

Dragonhunter virtues need to be instant cast.

You can use the Shield of Courage to stun break if you have the Virtues GM trait, but if you are fast enough you can cancel it to put it on a 4 second recharged and use it as a stunbreaker again.

So basically get a 4 second stun breaker. They all should just be instant cast.

Agreed. I wrecked a thief in a duel with this; stun broke basilisk venom, and the stolen-item 3 second daze. I’m curious though; how do you suggest f2 be instant cast? If traited it’s very powerful, and imo it shouldn’ be instant cast. Also, it would look awkard for you to suddenly leap in the air and land in the middle of doing some other animation.

For F2 the traited effects like the condition clear need to happen the instant you push the button, so that if you are caught in an immobilize you first break it with Absolute Resolution and then leap away.

Arcaedus.7290:

Kamikazi.5380:

Dragonhunter virtues need to be instant cast.

You can use the Shield of Courage to stun break if you have the Virtues GM trait, but if you are fast enough you can cancel it to put it on a 4 second recharged and use it as a stunbreaker again.

So basically get a 4 second stun breaker. They all should just be instant cast.

Agreed. I wrecked a thief in a duel with this; stun broke basilisk venom, and the stolen-item 3 second daze. I’m curious though; how do you suggest f2 be instant cast? If traited it’s very powerful, and imo it shouldn’ be instant cast. Also, it would look awkard for you to suddenly leap in the air and land in the middle of doing some other animation.

It could inherit an evade frame and remove immobilize, thus making it like Thief’s Withdraw. There wouldn’t be a cast time, but there would be a flight time. Also, you leap in the air preventing you from using skills, similar to basically all leap skills, you can’t weapon swap mid-Leap of Faith and cast Mighty Blow.