Guild Wars 2

What Reaper builds do well against Dragonhunters? They have so many blocks, they hit like a truck, and they’re tanky at the same time. Anybody have had success against them? Or are they a soft/hard counter to Reapers?

They’re long range by nature, so there’s no way they’re not going to always be at least a soft counter. Frankly I feel that if you want to defeat a Dragonhunter base necro is the way to go. CPC is majorly helpful though.

Rise will make a trap DH cry. Good positioning, and death’s charge will win you the day. Death’s charge destroys projectiles

Ramoth.9064:

Rise will make a trap DH cry. Good positioning, and death’s charge will win you the day. Death’s charge destroys projectiles

While at it you can deaths charge your way into the traps.

Ragion.2831:

Ramoth.9064:

Rise will make a trap DH cry. Good positioning, and death’s charge will win you the day. Death’s charge destroys projectiles

While at it you can deaths charge your way into the traps.

Rise is a great skill regardless if you are up against DH or not. Trappers usually sit on their own traps,, and Rise can diffuse them

Ramoth.9064:

Ragion.2831:

Ramoth.9064:

Rise will make a trap DH cry. Good positioning, and death’s charge will win you the day. Death’s charge destroys projectiles

While at it you can deaths charge your way into the traps.

Rise is a great skill regardless if you are up against DH or not. Trappers usually sit on their own traps,, and Rise can diffuse them

Sure if you are at range, but unless you are using staff or axe, you will be in melee. Even then Reaper is melee so if the guard is smart, you could be caught along side the shamblings

Ragion.2831:

Ramoth.9064:

Ragion.2831:

Ramoth.9064:

Rise will make a trap DH cry. Good positioning, and death’s charge will win you the day. Death’s charge destroys projectiles

While at it you can deaths charge your way into the traps.

Rise is a great skill regardless if you are up against DH or not. Trappers usually sit on their own traps,, and Rise can diffuse them

Sure if you are at range, but unless you are using staff or axe, you will be in melee. Even then Reaper is melee so if the guard is smart, you could be caught along side the shamblings

Nothing says the necromancer can’t be smart too. I’m trying to highlight that we have numerous tools to fight a DH with.

You use Rise at range, wait for the traps to go off, Deaths charge to his face. If he lays another trap your shroud can tank the worst part of it.

Well they’re really tough, so many blocks is the main problem, can’t hit them properly. And when they burst on you, smart ones know to burst when you’re out of shroud. It’s a fight you’re just starved of lifeforce so you’re vulnerable majority of the fight.

If anybody finds a good build and good tactics against them, please share. Of all classes/builds, this one feels the most lopsided.

Ramoth.9064:

Ragion.2831:

Ramoth.9064:

Ragion.2831:

Ramoth.9064:

Rise will make a trap DH cry. Good positioning, and death’s charge will win you the day. Death’s charge destroys projectiles

While at it you can deaths charge your way into the traps.

Rise is a great skill regardless if you are up against DH or not. Trappers usually sit on their own traps,, and Rise can diffuse them

Sure if you are at range, but unless you are using staff or axe, you will be in melee. Even then Reaper is melee so if the guard is smart, you could be caught along side the shamblings

Nothing says the necromancer can’t be smart too. I’m trying to highlight that we have numerous tools to fight a DH with.

You use Rise at range, wait for the traps to go off, Deaths charge to his face. If he lays another trap your shroud can tank the worst part of it.

Lmao…first this is assuming we have enough shroud to begin with. What if its the start of the match? or you just burned LF in another fight? i guess the pro thing to do is wait for team and hope they take the heat off while we build LF

Those traps + LB do ALOT of damage and Guards have obscene amounts of stealth now so shamblings wont be attacking when we get slapped with true shot we wont see coming. We will burn LF we may or may not have just tanking one players burst. What if there are more players there focused on us which is pretty much what you would expect in a normal match. Position ourselves better? with what? Shroud charge our way through them after eating guardian traps? i dont think so.

The only way is to not get noticed by the guard and start doing damage from range with axe or staff and hope the guardian is not running much stability or blocks so at least the pulls may work.

Ragion.2831:

Ramoth.9064:

Ragion.2831:

Ramoth.9064:

Ragion.2831:

Ramoth.9064:

Rise will make a trap DH cry. Good positioning, and death’s charge will win you the day. Death’s charge destroys projectiles

While at it you can deaths charge your way into the traps.

Rise is a great skill regardless if you are up against DH or not. Trappers usually sit on their own traps,, and Rise can diffuse them

Sure if you are at range, but unless you are using staff or axe, you will be in melee. Even then Reaper is melee so if the guard is smart, you could be caught along side the shamblings

Nothing says the necromancer can’t be smart too. I’m trying to highlight that we have numerous tools to fight a DH with.

You use Rise at range, wait for the traps to go off, Deaths charge to his face. If he lays another trap your shroud can tank the worst part of it.

Lmao…first this is assuming we have enough shroud to begin with. What if its the start of the match? or you just burned LF in another fight? i guess the pro thing to do is wait for team and hope they take the heat off while we build LF

Those traps + LB do ALOT of damage and Guards have obscene amounts of stealth now so shamblings wont be attacking when we get slapped with true shot we wont see coming. We will burn LF we may or may not have just tanking one players burst. What if there are more players there focused on us which is pretty much what you would expect in a normal match. Position ourselves better? with what? Shroud charge our way through them after eating guardian traps? i dont think so.

The only way is to not get noticed by the guard and start doing damage from range with axe or staff and hope the guardian is not running much stability or blocks so at least the pulls may work.

All this ridiculous what if theorycrafting. What if we had 100% LF, what if it wasn’t at the start of the fight? What if the DH’s utilities were all on CD? See, I can do that too. The OP asked for tips against DH, and I stated facts, not what ifs. Rise diffuses traps. FACT. Deaths charge destroys projectiles. FACT. But sure, keep what if-ing your way to the next heavily disadvantaged scenario if that makes you feel better.

Ramoth.9064:

Rise diffuses traps. FACT. .

I must admit I’m a little confuse here. How does Rise diffuses traps? As in Rise can spawn shamblings from traps? Or are we expecting the shamblings to get aggro into stepping on the traps?

Rise can spawn shamblings from the dragon hunter who laid the trap. If you see a trap go off, then good. If you don’t then its likely there are no traps where he is. I’m talking about assaulting a point.

Side note…rise can spawn shamblings from the breakable pits in skyhammer, seems to be a bug.

O Ramoth You dont seem to understand do you. I like your glass half full spirit though but i think the years of PvP have made me a realist. Best case scenario is 100% LF and guardian is out numbered. So what now? guard just places a trap, stealths and leaves you behind, which direction are you going to charge in? 3 second stealth not enough? lays another trap and stealths again.

If guard decides to fight you while you have 100% lf and not outnumbered well, you are going to lose a range battle and you wont want to take hp damage from LB so you will go into Reaper which doesnt have range . You will be forced to go melee to do better damage and so you charge, guard lays a trap, stealths and you eat a true shot. you take what 30% or more shroud damage? keep in mind you are already bleeding LF so the more the guard stealths and blocks your attacks the worse it is for you since you will not last long outside shroud. This isnt theory craft its just the truth about what we have been given.

If you are running a conditions tank build then maybe if you can get in a good burst quickly that hasnt been avoided sure but again, if you are using reaper, it is melee so in the end you will be forced to go meet the guard where there are traps waiting.

The whole class has been set up to put you at a disadvantage. Ticking clock on shroud, slow lf build especially if its not your focus with no way to protect yourself while you build up (i dont consider using hp to tank as protection even if damage is mitigated). Taking one skill to solve a problem just means you two more show up, why? because the class’ defences in the traits have no impact in the grand scheme of things. Plague sending is probably the only one that i will call significant, the rest? all just lead back to problems.

Ragion.2831:

O Ramoth You dont seem to understand do you. I like your glass half full spirit though but i think the years of PvP have made me a realist. Best case scenario is 100% LF and guardian is out numbered. So what now? guard just places a trap, stealths and leaves you behind, which direction are you going to charge in? 3 second stealth not enough? lays another trap and stealths again.

If guard decides to fight you while you have 100% lf and not outnumbered well, you are going to lose a range battle and you wont want to take hp damage from LB so you will go into Reaper which doesnt have range . You will be forced to go melee to do better damage and so you charge, guard lays a trap, stealths and you eat a true shot. you take what 30% or more shroud damage? keep in mind you are already bleeding LF so the more the guard stealths and blocks your attacks the worse it is for you since you will not last long outside shroud. This isnt theory craft its just the truth about what we have been given.

If you are running a conditions tank build then maybe if you can get in a good burst quickly that hasnt been avoided sure but again, if you are using reaper, it is melee so in the end you will be forced to go meet the guard where there are traps waiting.

The whole class has been set up to put you at a disadvantage. Ticking clock on shroud, slow lf build especially if its not your focus with no way to protect yourself while you build up (i dont consider using hp to tank as protection even if damage is mitigated). Taking one skill to solve a problem just means you two more show up, why? because the class’ defences in the traits have no impact in the grand scheme of things. Plague sending is probably the only one that i will call significant, the rest? all just lead back to problems.

O.M.G. I was pointing out to the OP about two new reapers skills that are effective against traps and projectile attacks. I don’t care much to divulge in your if/and/or/but scenarios. Have I lost to DHs? Yes. Have I defeated them? Yes.

lol alright, just saying, it isnt theory crafting. Just the world of PvP.

On topic, for anti dragonhunter builds, I would probably say damage reduction to the max. Rise, Death magic (Putrid defense, Death nova), Curses(chilling darkness, weakening shroud) and ofcourse reaper. So you get:

-10% damage taken from poisoned foes
-10% damage from chilled foes
damage reduced from weakened foes
-50% from rise

I also run 2 sigil of doom and 1 sigil of ice to keep up the chill and poison without me having to do anything special everytime, the rest basically has to do with stuns, chills and condi transfers but the main thing is damage reduction. The damage you deal can still be significant for a power build with marauder despite no air and fire.

So then tell us O great Ragion, in your infinite wisdom to which we cannot even hope to attain, how you would beat a Dragonhunter, or are they so intimidating and powerful you either run away or die every time?

Ghotistyx.6942:

So then tell us O great Ragion, in your infinite wisdom to which we cannot even hope to attain, how you would beat a Dragonhunter, or are they so intimidating and powerful you either run away or die every time?

How would i beat drgonhunter? well it is always a close fight. Last two days i think all the pros came out but I would open with axe and rise. If my lf is too low i would use chilled to the bone to gain shock aura. and go for a pull/grave digger combo since im stubborn enough to force GS to work.

Should probably say that if that doesnt work then i would hope i have enough LF to stall then swap back to axe/dagger since it has doom and ice sigils. Can apply some bothersome conditions with that.

Reapers who include toughness or stack high vitality and shroud generation in their build, or who are minion masters, are the absolute bane of my trapper berserker DH.

I know it takes a lot of preengage to have a full lifeforce bar, but ive had a reaper literally just waltz through all my traps + take a fully synergized treushot to the face and still have 20% shroud remaining.

Pets triggering my trpas is additional salt to my wound hehe.

But yea, my build gives up huge survival options to go all in on damage, but even a pure tank bruiser reaper with no might would cleave me down in a matter of 10 seconds or less unless i get off some trap heals. Its berserker stats with 11k health and no elite invulnerability or Shelter heal, so i have to be on point with my dodges, f3 shield, f2 leap heal, and kiting.

On maps like Stronghold i can use the terrain to my advantage and this is when i have my best chance of opening up tankier reapers before they can close on me.

wow I have to admit they are bursty. I was fighting one on my Druid, he burst me down fast. My heal cast time didnt even go off before I was from 80% to downed….

I waste most of my time in 1 v 1 servers instead of playing the game, and what I discovered is that against Dragon Hunters your best bet is either playing condi (you get a lot of ranged options that way and dragon hunters have less removal than classic mediguards do) or bruiser (they are really squishy and lack defensive tools, so a soldier/celestial reaper can live through their damage while keeping up with DPSing them. Solider ammu + rise means their damage is nowhere near as threatening as they would want with a squishy build).

Something not viable for team games, but since I sometimes run Golem in 1 v 1, the most holarious thing is pressing that golem charge button towards the DH and popping all of their traps before even engaging them.

Other than the build advise – what you need most is good positioning and really smart use of dodges. Don’t waste death’s charge either, pop it only to close gaps thyey open or to get away from traps and switch to staff, scepter or even axe if you are running itfor some ranged pressure. You can live through some hits. Using terrain to LoS them is really helpful, too.

Hope that helps!

What i noticed is : DH have 1 big burst combo move ( the trapers at least ) if u survive this , which im . Then u can kill him by going afk as well

Thanks for the tips and suggestions, appreciate it!

I admit Dragonhunters, of all classes/elite specs, is one I’m least familiar with. So at the moment I don’t quite know what to dodge, what moves they like to combo, and what their cooldowns are like. I just know the ones I fought had a lot of blocks rending some of my big moves useless. I had good chill uptime against the few I fought, but that didn’t bother them at all. And I was lifeforce starved, couldn’t stay in shroud for long before I’m popped into the usual defenseless necro mode.

It’s funny during beta weekends there were like zero Dragonhunters around. They must have received nice buffs post-BWE3 because they’re literally everywhere now. Oh well live and learn, thanks again.

gavyne.6847:

What Reaper builds do well against Dragonhunters? They have so many blocks, they hit like a truck, and they’re tanky at the same time. Anybody have had success against them? Or are they a soft/hard counter to Reapers?

Nothing can save you cuts through block…

Nothing can save u is a very good skill vs Guards of any Variation

@Ragion Trapper Runes stealth is 2sec now (got nerfed)

base nec (power) is better at killing DH than reaper. hilariously ur capable of higher ranged dmg pressure than DH if u can build enough shroud. if u run wells thous things go through block, if u run minions they can body block some projectiles/trigger traps (and some of their death grant lifeforce)

i cant comment on condi since i have no experience in that area

Zantmar.5406:

base nec (power) is better at killing DH than reaper. hilariously ur capable of higher ranged dmg pressure than DH if u can build enough shroud. if u run wells thous things go through block, if u run minions they can body block some projectiles/trigger traps (and some of their death grant lifeforce)

i cant comment on condi since i have no experience in that area

A DH will destroy a necro at range. They do VASTLY more ranged damage in a head to head fight. Trueshot, F3 and Deflecting shot will completely ruin your day at range and that’s if they don’t decide to just pull you into their traps or teleport to you and drop more.

Your minions won’t body block well since their AA bounces anyways and both TS and DS pierce and #4 and #5 are AoE’s to begin with. While certainly your minions will give you LF that also means you have no utilities left, wells can work if you pin them down with CTTB or RS5. Dagger 3 won’t as they’ll just F2 out of it(although that isn’t a bad way to force them to blow one of their condi clear and heals early).

Condi can work well if you are using sustained pressure and not burst they have a few cleanses(2x F2 + heal) although they are medium cooldowns they are often saved for burn bursts from other classes so some light poison+bleed+torment that necros use can wittle them away decently.

As a Dragonhunter just load us up with conditions from staff. Works every time.