Guild Wars 2

Recently, I have been having lots of troubles against DH in both pvp and wvw.

I play Gs/axe mostly, but switch to either gs/rifle or mace/rifle once I see DH.

Even with rifle, with signet of might, DH seem to have too many blocks for me to punch through. If I happen to land burst through that block, he just heals or use invuln and blocks again. Then I eventually get pulled into traps.

I would appreciate some detailed tips against DH as power warrior.

I feel the same way, while i main both Warrior and Guardian i must say that as a warrior, i feel mechanically inferior aginst a Herald/Rev, Chrono, and DH when I’m running a power build, you just don’t win aginst equally skilled players of said classes.

swapping to condi certainly does help-alot, but it also means that power should get a look at because it simply isn’t up to par in terms of performnce, me landing a hundred blade feels underwhelming since its so difficult to land one, and the guardian simply heal trap to recover from all the damage I have done while at my health pool dies at their traps and constant damage out put
even worse so are mesmers who can simply invuln /block everything, and the moment i stun them they pop off some where elese. Heralds… well thous things have a auto aimed hundred blade like damge with evade- gee i sure hope i get a hundred blade with evade, i mean if mesmers and revs gets thous i figure warriors should at least get some benefits when channeling that thing, not even asking for evade but could really use some stability or toughness during channel

however as i do note, when i swap to condi- most Rev/heralds simply crumble. mesmers are easier to fight aginst if i use Longbow and sometimes i can rip guards if they ran out of cooldowns

also being condi allows you to focus on other stats instead of needing 3 stats to do some form of decent damage. i mean. power build require -power -precision -ferosity where condition damage simply require condition damage Maybe expertise and in extremely low cases precision.

also. i must say that while my power warrior isn’t able to mechanically win aginst Rev/Dh/Mes. it does work a lot better aginst Ele/Druid and sometimes Necro/scrapper
so
-I don’t believe simply calling for nerfs aginst classes that we couldn’t beat is a solid viewpoint/option since we do have tools to fight aginst it (condi war).
-This also means that power options should get a look at
-Sustain is too focused on burst skills landing and building adrenaline, while this grant wonderful “skillful play” that many people desire, it also enforce defense line as well as making multiple classes hard counter us, I would like other ways to work about sustain

-off topic there and i simply maybe a warrior noob but yeah. on topic- try using condi warrior aginst thous classes

axe / shield / gs POV:

1. constant pressure untill they run out of cooldowns.
2. dodge every single bow #2, better even reflect it.
3. traps can be avoided if you expect them.

for me fighting a good dh comes down to outsustaining and thus running a tanky build, its a lot harder if you cant take punishment because DH will land it no doubt. DH (guards naturally) can blow through a lot of cooldowns for sustain, but without them their sustain is actually bad, unlike warrior. so your first real opening is very late into the duel compared to every other class. also you need to put up constant pressure to actually make them blow their cooldowns – once they are out of protection, invuln and their block kitten is currently on CD – smack them hard. real hard like a warrior. it wont kill them but from there its manageable because they will be fleeing, likely panic a bit and start to make mistakes. keep focussing now and dont make the mistake of thinking its over, you need to land a few more hits still and itdid not suddenly become easy. once their elite is back on you are screwed for another minute so press your advantage and finish the job.

Idk but have you consider defiance stance? Although I won’t advise it against a skilled DH but it might do some wonder against low skilled player. So you engage the dh normally and wait for your second endure pain to trigger and once you have about 10% Hp left. Active defiant stance to refill all of your hp, work great with marauder since you get all of your 24k hp back and get to literally restart the fight. If time right your first EP should be at 25 cd . Hence prolonging the fight.

Or you can use the typical warrior build and watch their icons, most DHS have 3 blue icons. So, the strategy is to save your utility everytime you see a fourth one or aegis and pressure them when they have 3 or less blue icon and the aegis icon is pretty easy to recognize and can easily get rid of as well.

They key to beating the DH is to interrupt the leaping heal skill. Unfortunately that is easier said than done.

best way is to run last stand + balance stance and someway to spam adrenal health

but any competent dragonhunter will obliterate you

Right now DHs have a very OP bug where they can drop all traps at the exact same time, and they can drop all traps while stomping. so this may be why you are having a hard time.

emkelly.2371:

Right now DHs have a very OP bug where they can drop all traps at the exact same time, and they can drop all traps while stomping. so this may be why you are having a hard time.

so you never had a hard time before?

even pre hot?

Pre Hot? The game was the most balanced it has ever been back then.

Since Hot, and the introduction of DH. DH has been a huge problem. it’s a horribly designed spec as far as PVP goes.

I should clearify. Pre, the updates leading up to HoT. before the nerfed Warrior into the ground by removing all semblance of sustain

(Edit: I previously posted that i found a bug with DH Traps. I was totally wrong when i tried to record the bug i could not recreate it again. So, sorry i said that. DH is still a horribly designed spec, but it’s not bugged as far as i can tell)

Funny, i came to forums specifically to look if anyone else had noticed DH been stronger recently.

Was duelling 1-2 yesterday and they seemed particularly tougher than usual.

I know OP doesn’t want to hear this but to beat a DH you have to be literally better than them.

Beating a DH as a power war is a lot harder than beating him as a Condi LB/Mace/Shield war. DH have a lot of on point pressure and blocks/sustain. As mentioned above you have to be a lot better than the DH to beat him as power war. If the DH is playing the new 1 handed symbol build then a condi war with mace/shield can win due to the lack of stun breaks the DH has. CC chain the DH with mace/shield.

emkelly.2371:

Right now DHs have a very OP bug where they can drop all traps at the exact same time, and they can drop all traps while stomping. so this may be why you are having a hard time.

Just wanted to come and point out this isn’t true, and the issue has been resolved on the Guardian forums.

Warlord.9074:

I know OP doesn’t want to hear this but to beat a DH you have to be literally better than them.

This is true of almost any fight, regardless of class.

Outsustain them if it’s a 1v1 you can out sustain them

They gained new damage with sword and scepter on their symbols and mace 3 was buffed. Otherwise most things were unchanged in the damage department for them traps remain the same. The virtues were buffed the spear now applies cripple for 1.5 secs be mindful of that and virtues of resolve baseline removes 2 condis and when traited an extra 3 so that’s a 5 condi cleanse on a 26 sec cd so condi warriors gl and shield of courage now gives them stab at the start rather then the end so time cc better and If they trait for meditations they can have a full condi clr on a 36 sec cd.

Pretty much this patch gave guardians much needed sustain in condi clearing and more on point damage. Some very dangerous combos now are being pulled with spear into possibly 2-3 traps then into a sword/focus combo. Or bow 5 into traps, weapon swap to something like sword/scepter or mace and lay on the symbol damage. My personal fav so far in team fights is bow 5 with 2-3 traps depending on what I’m facing and hammer 5 for well near total lockdown on called targets.

Don’t go in with the mind set that they can just be steamrolled anymore be it through condi or power, another thing to note a great deal of them are most likely running that trait that removes condis when they block with aegis 1 sec icd and when they have none they take 10% less damage.

Lalainnia.3598:

Outsustain them if it’s a 1v1 you can out sustain them

They gained new damage with sword and scepter on their symbols and mace 3 was buffed. Otherwise most things were unchanged in the damage department for them traps remain the same. The virtues were buffed the spear now applies cripple for 1.5 secs be mindful of that and virtues of resolve baseline removes 2 condis and when traited an extra 3 so that’s a 5 condi cleanse on a 26 sec cd so condi warriors gl and shield of courage now gives them stab at the start rather then the end so time cc better and If they trait for meditations they can have a full condi clr on a 36 sec cd.

Pretty much this patch gave guardians much needed sustain in condi clearing and more on point damage. Some very dangerous combos now are being pulled with spear into possibly 2-3 traps then into a sword/focus combo. Or bow 5 into traps, weapon swap to something like sword/scepter or mace and lay on the symbol damage. My personal fav so far in team fights is bow 5 with 2-3 traps depending on what I’m facing and hammer 5 for well near total lockdown on called targets.

Don’t go in with the mind set that they can just be steamrolled anymore be it through condi or power, another thing to note a great deal of them are most likely running that trait that removes condis when they block with aegis 1 sec icd and when they have none they take 10% less damage.

You don’t know what you are saying, you can’t out sustain them with their current build. Heck, you d be lucky to kill one since most are going bunker in high elo as a bait. I believe K pop gave the best tip interrupt ot headbutt them when the leap..

Warriors can out sustain a guardian Kpops suggestion about interrupting the the wings is spot on so I saw no need to repeat it. If a guardian is playing as bunker and they kill you I would highly suggest revisiting how to play a warrior in general.

That’s the dumbest statement i ve seen today .. “Warriors can out sustain guardians?” you’d think every pro would jump on warrior so they could out sustain a DH then get +1 by thief. I wonder why is that not happening??

A good bunker guardian would have killed 100 time over during S3. And i said AS A BAIT, so whist your focusing him his teammates are focusing u.

You don’t even main warrior and you;re asking me to revisit playing warrior?? GTFO here. and btw GTFO stand for Going to Franks Outhouse , that’s where i am going.

Fivedawgs.4267:

That’s the dumbest statement i ve seen today .. “Warriors can out sustain guardians?” you’d think every pro would jump on warrior so they could out sustain a DH then get +1 by thief. I wonder why is that not happening??

A good bunker guardian would have killed 100 time over during S3. And i said AS A BAIT, so whist your focusing him his teammates are focusing u.

and what are your teammates doing? Sounds like you have inexperienced teammates or you’re simply being silly and going into outnumbered fights thats not a class issue but a player one. On that note would love for you to give some info as to how you thing a guardian is going to outsustain a warrior running healing signet, adrenal health, endure painx2, zerk stance and another defensive utility so far you’ve only been able to throw temper tantrums.

Warriors CAN out sustian a guardian, but it takes o long to do that on point, that the guardian’s team will show up and turn the fight in the guardian’s favor.

Sorry, i dont argue with noobs , just a waste of time.

I guess you are right. but goof luck out sustaining this :

how can you tell this is broken? simply look at their traitlines. every single investment is defensive and yet they still can output damage on-par with thieves, who have to invest heavily into damage modifiers. thanks to this, Dragonhunters now have almost zero windows of vulnerability.

this is just how stupid the current symbol build is:

Shield of Wrath ? Aegis ? Aegis ? Shield of Courage ? Purification (heals them back to full lmao) ? Aegis ? Smite Condition ? Wings of Resolve ? Shield of Absorption ? Aegis ? Shield of Resolve ? Aegis ? Renewed Focus ? Shield of Courage ? Shield of Wrath ? Purification (another full heal) ? etc.

and this is all why outputting severe damage, particularly AoE and CC, and maintaining a good amount of stability to boot. they have so many sources of sustain that you can rotate through them incredibly easily without ever not having something to fall back on. the concept of skillful CD management goes out the window.

emkelly.2371:

Warriors CAN out sustian a guardian, but it takes o long to do that on point, that the guardian’s team will show up and turn the fight in the guardian’s favor.

Tf is this non-sense? The Aoe burn, dmg Tf are you whole on, anything that can out sustain DH would be it’s counter.. It’s simple as that. You cant out sustain a DH of similar skill that’s my point. Tf, you guys wont be even last 20 sec against Wakkey.

btw, i was solely talking about power warrior.

Okay first, triple post is annoying. Next time you feel like doing that, just edit your previous post.

Second, Power Warriors have more mobility, plenty of damage pressure, plenty of condi clears, Reflct on block, Stability, Healing over time, and two Invulnerabilities to direct damage, a block on a relatively short cool down, and Plenty of CC to level the playing field on a DH in a 1v1. On point, it’s a different story, Out sustianing a DH on point is not going to happen, even if they have lower skill level than you. unless their entire team is crap, you will fight them, until they either kill you (because you have to try and contest the point) or their team shows up.

That’s my point. Yes DH is very unbalanced in sPVP. We all kow that already, and we did not need you to put on the captain obvious cap in this case.

To answer people who actually asked useful questions…..

The reason DH seem more powerful now is because during the off season, people are learning team comps and class builds. Maybe a pvp team is practicing or whatever. what you are seeing now, is team comps that incorporate the DH far better than unranked solo queues. Not only that you may have noticed Metabattle has changed recently. What was working for you just fine in Unranked, may not work as well in ranked now simply because you are now fighting people who care about getting ranks.

emkelly.2371:

Okay first, triple post is annoying. Next time you feel like doing that, just edit your previous post.

Second, Power Warriors have more mobility, plenty of damage pressure, plenty of condi clears, Reflct on block, Stability, Healing over time, and two Invulnerabilities to direct damage, a block on a relatively short cool down, and Plenty of CC to level the playing field on a DH in a 1v1. On point, it’s a different story, Out sustianing a DH on point is not going to happen, even if they have lower skill level than you. unless their entire team is crap, you will fight them, until they either kill you (because you have to try and contest the point) or their team shows up.

That’s my point. Yes DH is very unbalanced in sPVP. We all kow that already, and we did not need you to put on the captain obvious cap in this case.

To answer people who actually asked useful questions…..

The reason DH seem more powerful now is because during the off season, people are learning team comps and class builds. Maybe a pvp team is practicing or whatever. what you are seeing now, is team comps that incorporate the DH far better than unranked solo queues. Not only that you may have noticed Metabattle has changed recently. What was working for you just fine in Unranked, may not work as well in ranked now simply because you are now fighting people who care about getting ranks.

My point as well

Guardian has all the protection based solely on the block
My solution on wery easy kill guardian is change Discipline trait line to Arms and use Signet Mastery trait, combinate with Signet of Might make all your attack unblockable over 12 sec every 25 sec.

BTW: unblockable Rampage is funny to

Evilek.5690:

Guardian has all the protection based solely on the block
My solution on wery easy kill guardian is change Discipline trait line to Arms and use Signet Mastery trait, combinate with Signet of Might make all your attack unblockable over 12 sec every 25 sec.

BTW: unblockable Rampage is funny to

Never have been a fan of Arms trait, but I’ll give it a go.

Sabtah.1704:

Never have been a fan of Arms trait, but I’ll give it a go.

Arms can appear very underwhelming, but it can also make something like a rifle, or berserker in general come to life under various setups.

Sabtah.1704:

Recently, I have been having lots of troubles against DH in both pvp and wvw.

I play Gs/axe mostly, but switch to either gs/rifle or mace/rifle once I see DH.

Even with rifle, with signet of might, DH seem to have too many blocks for me to punch through. If I happen to land burst through that block, he just heals or use invuln and blocks again. Then I eventually get pulled into traps.

I would appreciate some detailed tips against DH as power warrior.

I use stances to rush them while ignoring their traps (for a while). But a good DH is still pretty cheesy. The cool down on their traps combined with all their survivability is tough to counter. Note however that Signet of Might (and/or Signet Mastery trait) is good for beating their blocks. I’ve found it mandatory, actually, the Signet Master on my condi warrior.

The saddest thing about all of this is that traps as a premise are not a bad idea. The real problem comes into how powerful the traps are. If Anet lowers the power in the traps, they make them no longer a viable option which would alienate players who use them.

I’m not really sure how Anet could fix this aside from maybe keeping their power the same, but increasing their cooldowns drastically. In this way DH would have a massive Damage burst with the Traps but would not be able to spam them nin stopped. But eben that seems like a cop out.

This is why i think the DH is a horribly designed spec. There is no way (that i can see) to make traps both viable and not overpowered at the same time. On top of that, instead of simply changing virtues to be different, all of their virtues to pretty much the same thing, but are even more powerful. That is stupid. (and that goes for all elite specs. not just DH)

If Anet wanted to make a balanced game, they should have put more thought into each Elite specialization instead of just tacking on more power to existing mechanics. but they did not. They got greedy and decided to the create the elite specializations in such a way that the only viable option is to buy HoT. Personally i did not buy HoT for the new Elite specializations. I bought it because I had finished the game and wanted a new chapter to plow through. would anyone really have complained if the elite specializations were balanced with the vanilla mechanics? no of course not, and then Anet would not be in this situation..

dude if its anyway similar to where i work (and it surely is, NCSoft being big IT enterprise) they dont have time for quality. everyone is producing kitten these days. sure the core stuff works as its being tested, but everything that the boss doesnt understand or cant measure isnt really important. and from my experience they usually understand kitten all, id be very suprised if the people in charge of NCSoft even play games. and if they do they do it only because they “owe it to themselves” and would get rekt by 98% of the wvw population in a 1v1.

as for the workers, they lose half of the time simply by making up for all the sticks in the way of getting anything done and dont have much control over what they are working on. thats why i expect nothing anymore, they are getting your dollahz and once they dont they move on to the next product, aka next expansion or a bit later next game so you can bend over again and deliver your bucks.

if you really want to change all this kitten you need to take their power away and leave making games to the people with a passion, not to the people creating incomes. the passionate people who created the engine and designed the core wvw are long gone you bet, they are probably well paid by some other IT enterprise by now. correct me if im wrong. /rant over