Guild Wars 2

Everyone was raging about Dragonhunters in PvP and now with the release of the PvP system I’ve watched them all but disappear from play. Even in the ESL there was only what, one DH? On EU the meditrapper build seems to be nearly gone and it’s dropping a lot on NA too.

I’m not saying DH is bad, but other specs are obviously much more powerful in PvP scenarios.

Funny how things change in just a few weeks.

The thing about guardian & DH is

1: Its very predictable, and its weaknesses are glaringly obvious once you know how it works.

&

2: It doesn’t really bring anything that isn’t done better by another class.

The only exception to 2 is AEGIS which sadly is worthless in PvP, WvW and raids due to how fast damage comes.

But hey at least traps still destroy idiots in mid-low tier and hot join.

DH is actually a very good nuker when it has support. The problem is that the support it needs, also counters it when other teams have it (i.e.. Tempest aurashare).

Nothing changed at all. Good players foresaw this from the start.

DH very effective at most skill levels because it doesn’t require much skill to pull off burst combos. However, the higher skilled players can see through the obvious combos, and DH has nothing else other than falling back on meditation healing to out-sustain other DPS.

Basically, DH is like the old 100blades warrior. It wrecks mediocre and bad players, but doesn’t do much against skilled players unless left alone. It needs significant re-design to add more depth; all that was done after BWE3 was to increase the damage and utility to silly levels while keeping the mechanics extremely shallow.

It went down the same road as thief. Scary at first, until you know it’s incredibly easy to counter.

Cause DH gets weak when focused but other professions have such capabilities of face tanking everything with CC/blind fest and strong regenerating passives (or boons that wildly activate here and there).

DH Bunker an be a real tough mother. all the mitigation with a low cooldown heal that will blind and daze and heals 60%+ is very strong. Not many classes can bring me down 1on1 or even push me off point. add in F2 low CD even untraited with the high heal value, good acces to stability and a decent way to remove condis per block is quite a tool set imo.

Downside to DH bunker is that you are actually more selfish but you can definetly make really good plays.

Best combo: Engaging a point that is in process of being decapped, opening with F1 pulling the enemy off point, walk past him, knock back with shield, swap to staff and put the barrier behind you. Glorious.

the f1 pull is an awsome tool in pvp.

yup , the only thing a person QQ’ing about DH shows is the level of his skill. Namely trash/low tier.

Would just like to mention: DH is a good counter to chrono bunker thanks to all the unblockable/unavoidable CC which disrupts the defensive rotations. They were pushed off the meta before bunker chrono went it but it may be time to take them out of their closet again.

The only two professions worst than DH are warriors and thieves. I think these profession needs some buffs. I suggest making true shot not rooted. Hunter’s ward should grant protection to allies and increase the damage. Symbol of energy should give a big heal. Test of faith should remove 2 conditions from u and allies when enemies passes them. Procession of blades radius should be bigger and increase the duration.

Doon.2364:

The only two professions worst than DH are warriors and thieves. I think these profession needs some buffs. I suggest making true shot not rooted. Hunter’s ward should grant protection to allies and increase the damage. Symbol of energy should give a big heal. Test of faith should remove 2 conditions from u and allies when enemies passes them. Procession of blades radius should be bigger and increase the duration.

No definitely not, we dont need skill buffs we need an overhaul to our mechanics so we have the depth to compete

Timston.1976:

Doon.2364:

The only two professions worst than DH are warriors and thieves. I think these profession needs some buffs. I suggest making true shot not rooted. Hunter’s ward should grant protection to allies and increase the damage. Symbol of energy should give a big heal. Test of faith should remove 2 conditions from u and allies when enemies passes them. Procession of blades radius should be bigger and increase the duration.

No definitely not, we dont need skill buffs we need an overhaul to our mechanics so we have the depth to compete

IF you change the mechanics, it will no longer be a dragonhunter. Might as well save the new mechanics for the next specialization.

Not fully change the mechanics just change the unimportant ones like the usless minor trait, a grandmaster trait. The way traps do damage stuff like that

Timston.1976:

Not fully change the mechanics just change the unimportant ones like the usless minor trait, a grandmaster trait. The way traps do damage stuff like that

IF you mean changing the way traps do damage by making it more effective then I agree. Otherwise if it’s more easy to avoid then it’s the death of dragon hunters as we know it.

Rodzynald.5897:

Cause DH gets weak when focused but other professions have such capabilities of face tanking everything with CC/blind fest and strong regenerating passives (or boons that wildly activate here and there).

^ This. DH is a fine trait line. It wrecks in WvW … It does exactly what it needs to do in PVE … it can stand toe-to-toe against most other classes solo …

It just can’t compete in a meta that is all about speed and being just shy of unkillable, which is the two things Guardians can’t accomplish. And judging from Anet’s responses on Guardian’s tankiness/movement speed perhaps never will.

DH does not need buffs. It needs nerfs, like almost all elite specs. Maybe it needs less nerfs than the others. Mostly, what I would change is remove almost all the support from the virtues, keep them as stronger but very selfish. Then remove the excessive CC, in particular the unblockable CC. I think otherwise, damage is fine.

This would be a good start to bring DH to the level of core guardian. I think core guardian was one of the most balance profession, and thus should be the reference for how strong a class can be.

Just had a nice win streak (8) and several smaller streaks with mah DH today, mostly at the top of the chart. I’m in division 2 if your asking, Before today I just used a bunker build.

So, beginners luck, or poor match making, or just playing against lower tier players, but I think the DH is doing fine. I think its OP but thats just IMO.

no they dont need to save it for another SPecialization, cause the Mechanics suck, they need to be thrown into the bin.

and Ofcourse it’ll still be a Dragonhunter, but as it should have been and not what you guys are stuck with. traps should be more CC orinitated for Team play, where there Skillset needs More combinations in it, atm they just have Tons of Damage in 1 button, and the Prayer a idiot runs through their traps repeatively.

They needed their skillset to have More Damaging skills in it and Not just true shot standing on its own, While they counter Chronobunker, they get countered hard by tempests, and not in 1v1 but they just nullify DHs damage completely, and given how many strong bunkers are in meta right now simply countering 1 of them isnt enough to bring DH to the table.

It was a mechanic at fault realistically, it needed more then just that to make it work, it has some really good things with it, but it also has alot of problems, which hopefully anet will address in season 2, but im not sure it will be… prolly just have more damage ramps…

Guardian don’t need nerfs, they only need to remove daze from traps. Or give it internal icd of 15 sec.

Drayos.8759:

and Ofcourse it’ll still be a Dragonhunter, but as it should have been and not what you guys are stuck with. traps should be more CC orinitated for Team play, where there Skillset needs More combinations in it, atm they just have Tons of Damage in 1 button, and the Prayer a idiot runs through their traps repeatively.
/snip

Do you even read the tooltips on traps?

All traps can be traited for daze, one of the stronger CC in the game.

Fragment of Faith: 6s of cripple, spreads aegis procs around the area and is a personal stun break and stability for the guardian.

Lights judgment: 10 stacks of vulnerability, reveals stealth, and provides guardian with swiftness.

Test of Faith: 6s cripple and provides guardian 6s protection.

Dragons Maw: Provides 6s ward, 4s slow, and gives the Guardian 10 stacks of Might.

They really don’t need more CC or utility.

My personal feeling on the issue (although I don’t sPVP often) is that too much of Guardians survival is based off taking Monk’s Focus (there is a reason why Medi guards are so prevalent), thus severely limiting you in what you can bring for utilities. If Monk’s Focus was removed from the game and its sustainability rolled into base guardian I think you would see a lot more opportunities for guardians.

Indure.5410:

Drayos.8759:

and Ofcourse it’ll still be a Dragonhunter, but as it should have been and not what you guys are stuck with. traps should be more CC orinitated for Team play, where there Skillset needs More combinations in it, atm they just have Tons of Damage in 1 button, and the Prayer a idiot runs through their traps repeatively.
/snip

Do you even read the tooltips on traps?

All traps can be traited for daze, one of the stronger CC in the game.

Fragment of Faith: 6s of cripple, spreads aegis procs around the area and is a personal stun break and stability for the guardian.

Lights judgment: 10 stacks of vulnerability, reveals stealth, and provides guardian with swiftness.

Test of Faith: 6s cripple and provides guardian 6s protection.

Dragons Maw: Provides 6s ward, 4s slow, and gives the Guardian 10 stacks of Might.

They really don’t need more CC or utility.

On paper this all sounds super OP, but in PvP the more traps you bring the weaker you are going to be and even with them all it’s basically going to come down to if your opponents aren’t paying attention or if you get a lucky break with your team. I agree that Dragonhunters need an overhaul in mechanics and versatility. As far as CC, other than the global daze, Maw is really the only one that stands out. I think the traps need to be more specialised. There’s is no real strategy behind crapping traps out, outside of placement and the 1000% obvious and telegraphed push/pull game. 90% of players go for the Test of Faith tug of war and that’s essentially the extent of DH gameplay. It’s shallow, predictable, and ineffective against not even just skilled players, but any with a modicum or awareness. There is something wrong when a DH can drop up to four or five traps on a point and literally accomplish nothing against most professions while they instantly become useless for 20s outside of maybe carrying some meds.

It’s not that DH is no longer viable, the meta preference simply changed and DH is no longer popular anymore.
Heck, DH was one of the first unique eye-candy specs everyone tried and stuck with until they grabbed a hold of mesmers, scrappers and revs. Even then, these classes took some getting used to while people still played DH for easiness. People QQ’d about the popular class that was everywhere until the meta shifted and players suddenly had less issues with DH.

Now, people are leaning towards Mesmer to bunk points and Revs to single out targets, along with other support classes that can pretty much 1v1 anything. DH is only good at 1v1 against these classes if they preplace traps before hand, strategically defending a point. Their abilities are otherwise very animated to counter, unlike Revs who seem to be the class that’s hard to beat.

tl;dr
The only thing that changed about DH is popularity. People still prefer at least 1 DH on a team while the rest are a mix of bunk mesmer, rev, ele, scrapper, and occasionally necro, due to new meta popularity. DH isn’t bad by any means, they’re still a viable 5th.

p.s. I despise maw elite with a passion. I think it’s only viable against soloq players.

Luvok.5697:

Everyone was raging about Dragonhunters in PvP and now with the release of the PvP system I’ve watched them all but disappear from play. Even in the ESL there was only what, one DH? On EU the meditrapper build seems to be nearly gone and it’s dropping a lot on NA too.

I’m not saying DH is bad, but other specs are obviously much more powerful in PvP scenarios.

Funny how things change in just a few weeks.

um… I point you to the thief class which is just non-existent

So it almost like DH is far too powerful in one aspect, but has glaring weaknesses in another that make it not viable for high tier pvp. And they cant fix one without nerfing the other because it would make it invincible

My god, could this mean IT ACTUALLY NEEDS A BALANCE?!~

It’s always been like this. People complain about a class being OP until they find a way to fight it and then move to complain about the next one. DH is out of the spotlight and now Cronomancer Bunker is on it. My prediction is that after that, people will start complaining about Condition Revenant.

Astra Lux.2846:

On paper this all sounds super OP, but in PvP the more traps you bring the weaker you are going to be and even with them all it’s basically going to come down to if your opponents aren’t paying attention or if you get a lucky break with your team.
/snip

The only reason the more traps you bring the weaker you become is because of the reason I pointed out in my previous post, that Meditations are too essential. Traps are strong utilities, but too much of a Guardian’s survivability hinges on Monk’s Focus.

I wonder if Piercing Light was changed to mimic Monk’s Focus, so that trap activation (or placement) heals for 2k, would people still think traps are a liability?

Silhouette.5631:

So it almost like DH is far too powerful in one aspect, but has glaring weaknesses in another that make it not viable for high tier pvp. And they cant fix one without nerfing the other because it would make it invincible

My god, could this mean IT ACTUALLY NEEDS A BALANCE?!~

Or does it mean it actully has balance and the rest is broken because you can not counter it?