Good day from a long time guardian player and dragonhunter fanboy. I decided I wanted to put out some of my thoughts on dragonhunter/DPS guardians in an sPvP context, so here goes.
- Dragonhunter is a class capable of high burst, high CC and moderate DPS in a sturdy body. What it lacks is mainly mobility out of combat. This is not something that needs fixing, it is what the class is. I know “everyone” wants 25 % movement speed modifier somewhere, but one of the greatest mistakes Anet have been doing when balancing their game is attempting to give everyone everything instead of playing to each class’ strengths and weaknesses.
- That said, I think the class still got too much CC. They promised a reduction to guardian CC last balance patch, and all they did was halve the daze duration when someone walks into your trap. This did not achieve much IMO.
- The class got its fair share of passives and instant cast skills which is not good for the game as a whole.
- Guardian weapons are some of the worst, if not the worst overall in the game.
So with that done here are some of the changes I’d like to see:
Weapons and utilities:
Sword: The autoattack can be reflected which is laughable in itself for a melee weapon. On top of that the actual attack is weak even if it hits. It got average damage for a melee auto, but nothing more. There are no special effects, such as boons, conditions, boon strip or whatever, with the exception of passive F1 proc once every full chain. My proposed change would simply be to create the last attack into firing 3 small cones similar to staff autos. They would have a little longer reach than a normal melee weapon, but with a slightly narrower impact. The other 2 skills are fine.
Focus: Not a bad offhand, although the power creep has sort of caught up with it. Hitting a shield of wrath feels a bit anticlimatic now that you can put out backstab damage from 1200 range with True Shot. Either way, my problem with this weapon is the other ability. Having a cleanse which is so hard to hit is not a good thing, and I don’t think it deals enough damage for anyone to defend keeping it as it is. I’d like to see this be an instant cast or short cast time cleanse which applies 2-3s of regeneration, blinds nearby foes and cleanses 1 condition for you and allies around you OR 2 conditions for yourself.
Greatsword: Whirling Wrath can now be used without movement speed penalty and Binding Blades projectile velocity increased. The weapon doesn’t deal a huge amount of damage, and the might you gain for finishing an auto chain is a bit depressing, but I think the weapon would gain the most from these quality of life improvements. In addition I think reducing the cooldown on the symbol to 16s would be fair.
Longbow: A pretty good weapon wouldn’t you say? Maybe a bit too good, so I’d like to see a longer cooldown on True Shot, up to 6s. In addition, the 5th skill is a bit poorly telegraphed. It is potentially problematic in teamfights where all the walls will eat up stability like mad, but it is also a very situational skill.
Smite Condition: The blight of glass builds since the dawn of time. Well, almost. I would like to see this get an animation in the form of a building glow on the guardian. After .5-.75s it goes off like it did before. Still keep it instant cast and it could cleanse conditions and give boons/heal the moment you use the skill and not when it actually goes off. Instant casts may not be a problem, but instant casts that takes 5k health from a class is.
Virtues: Reduce cooldowns of all base virtues (non-DH) and increase the AoE to 900. I wanted this post to be about DPS guardian/DH, but this is such an important change imo. Anet said themselves elite specs should be sidegrades, but that can now be deemed a giant lie. Every single elite spec adds decent traits, skills and weapons easily able to compete with or beat the core specs, and then they just add a boost to whatever core mechanic the class got. And Dragonhunter is imo the absolute worst at this, as the upgraded virtues would be a boost even for a bunker guardian.
Spear Of Virtue: Either make blockable or add a small delay to hitting someone before you can pull them in.
Traits:
Glacial Heart: I would want this back to Valor, as I think this is the only change needed for hammer. Right now it competes with one of the most important traits for guardian. However, the passive frozen burst should be changed. Instead of on crit, make it proc 100 % of the time when you hit Mighty Blow. Non-crittable, but increase the base damage so it can be potentially used for a more offensive bunker build with clerics amulet.
Piercing Light: Remove daze completely. Add cripple instead, or a little swiftness for the guardian. This would not affect a guardian’s out of combat-mobility, but would still be nice for fights.
Heavy Light: Removed passive knockback and stability from this trait completely. This is part of some of the dumbest changes since HoT, namely handing out too much CC and stability. Stability should be something you have control over, or be given to ensure someone is able to fully channel a skill. Scrapper’s stability on successful evade, Reaper’s pulsing stability in shroud and Revenant’s stability on dodge should all be nuked from orbit for the same reasons. Instead this trait could add knocback to Deflecting Shot, 1-2s immobilize to successful hit with True Shot and/or reducing longbow cooldowns.
And that is basically that. I am aware that these changes basically invalidates certain traits, but I am not sure what I would like these to do instead. Feel free to add your own thoughts.
