Guild Wars 2

Chameleon Dude.1564:

The grandmaster trait to cause knockback on longbow skills… yeah. Having it affect the first attack after coming off cooldown is just awful. Unwanted knockbacks are just annoying. If we could have that trait unlock an F4 skill with a 10s cooldown or whatever, where using it adds the knockback to your next longbow attack… that would be much better. The option to have a knockback is great, but I don’t want to be pointlessly knocking an enemy out of AoEs or away from a melee user.

Yea it must be some kind of Anet trolling when the hated point blank shot from rangers become an automatic effect on guardians, and a grandmaster trait at that, complete madness to the point of being funny.

Tried to be optimistic and played it again here in BWE2 and the entire spec just feels out of place frankly.

1. Lack of vision for what this spec is supposed to be for guardians, I have a really hard time seeing why I should use it over current options and it has such poor synergy with everything else the guardian does.
2. Clunky and slow gameplay, especially with longbow.
3. Low damage reward despite issue #2 makes it even worse.
4. I feel I become worse at providing boons, less mobile and do worse DPS overall.
5. The elite spec managed to make an even worse ranger, which is already one of the most unwanted classes in the game, which is sort of an impressive feat.

Maybe playing around with traps as combo fields/finishers could help make them more viable in more game modes? Like making Procession of Blades a whirl finisher, would create synergy with symbol of energy, without being forced into greatsword? Could also allow you to place traps, create distance and then place consecrations for added effect and utility.

Maybe it is a bad idea, but somehow I feel traps lack some kind of reward from smart play and combos more than they currently do. Compared to other utility skills traps are:
1. Harder to position well and can’t be placed at range
2. provides no mobility
3. Have long cooldowns
4. lack of fields and finishers
5. provides little to surviveability, especially due to #1
6. Mediocre damage, due to all other points people really need to be scared of triggering them.

If the traps could really help controlling the battlefield, zoning opponents or be better at locking down opponents who triggers the traps to setup kills, I feel the dragonhunters role as a battlefield commander type would be in a better place. Support through zoning/seting up killzones and switching between ranged and melee.

So how does the dragonhunter differentiate itself from the ranger? Slightly more support but less damage? I’m not sure right now

I sort of see the Dragonhunter as the commander character specializing in setting up the kills for his group and swooping in where needed while providing battlefield control with traps. I try to see the traps more as a new form of symbols, to help with zoning control and kill setup, which also allows to stay at range against enemies easier, but also provide the melee Dragonhunter with new “symbols” to lock down enemies and make them vulnerable, taking on a more offensive support role.

DH has more access to immobilize effects, both F2, longbow 5 and elite trap immobilize and can setup kills, it is however still a strange mix of ranged and close combat.

Is it perfect? No I don’t think so, but maybe not quite as kittenome make it out to be. At least changes are being made and I don’t really care for what was said about the spec at reveal, I am far more concerned about it being playable in the end.