Build:Dragonhunter - Hammer Support DPS

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Focused on: Direct damage, Utility.

Designed for:

Raid

 

Fractals

Expansions required:

Overview

A hybrid DPS/support build for Dragonhunter. While this build deals very low damage compared to the more popular Dragonhunter - Power DPS, it has an extremely easy rotation which provides Protection to 5 players and minor heals from

. This makes it a viable choice for new raiders and struggling groups that for whatever reason are unable to bring

.

Skill Bar

HammerHealingUtilityElite

Scepter/Focus

Weapon Variants

• Shield provides a knockback, which can be useful for helping with pushing (e.g. seekers on VG).
• Greatsword can be used instead of Scepter/Focus for an AoE pull with
  .

Skill Variants

Healing Skill

• can be used to blind mobs that can knockback (Sabetha and Gorseval) or deal a lot of damage (Xera).
• can be used to help nullify niche mechanics, such as Slothasor's shake attack.

Utilities

• can be used to have a higher supply of Retaliation to keep up the extra damage and crit bonus from Radiance.
• can be used for even more Retaliation if needed, like when chronomancers are not with the group at Deimos.
• can be used to block big hits like the knockback from Gorseval, the timed bombs from Matthias or the shockwave from Deimos.
• provides additional CC if needed.
• or
  if projectile defense is needed.

Elite Skill

• Use
  to help slacking Mesmers keep up Quickness. It can also be nice at bosses where the group is split, such as Sabetha when doing cannons or Matthias in general.

Specializations

Variants

• Take
  if there are no other power DPS to benefit from the shared 216 power of
  .

Zeal Variant

Zeal can be used instead of Radiance for better personal DPS but at the cost of the damage buff from

. Usually not worth running (as you can just play Dragonhunter - Power DPS instead) but included for the sake of completeness.

Equipment

6x

Superior Rune of the Scholar

18x

Mighty +5 Agony Infusion

Consumables

Food

• Bowl of Sweet and Spicy Butternut Squash Soup

  Bowl of Sweet and Spicy Butternut Squash Soup

  Nourishment (1 h):

  +100 Power+70 Ferocity+10% Experience from Kills

  Consumable

Utility

• Furious Sharpening Stone

  Furious Sharpening Stone

  Nourishment (30 m):

  Gain Power equal to 3% of your PrecisionGain Ferocity equal to 3% of your Precision+10% Experience from Kills

  Consumable

Usage

Opening burst:

1. Start on Scepter/Focus with
   precasted.
9. Autoattack until
   is available
11. Weapon swap

After you swap to hammer just spend the rest of the fight autoattacking. Cast

,

,

and

whenever available.

Video example

Notes

• Be very careful not to interrupt your auto attack chains -
  has a much longer cast time than the first two parts so it should be easy to track when you're finishing a chain.
• and
  share a cooldown and so should always be available to cast at together.
• Dodging does not interrupt your auto attack chain.
• Only swap to Scepter/Focus if the ranged damage is needed.
  • While on Scepter/Focus you should cast
    ,
    , and
    off cooldown; fill with autoattacks.
• Use
  as often as possible to share the damage buff through
  .

Breakbar

• (used inside your enemy's hitbox)
• Spear of Justice

  ¾

  20

  Spear of Justice

  Virtue: Burn foes every few attacks.
  Activate: Hurl a spear of light that passes through foes. Enemies struck become tethered and receive conditions periodically.

  Damage: 224

  Justice (6s): Periodically applies burning as long as you are within range of the caster.

  Burning (passive effect) (2s): 262 Damage

  Burning (active effect) (2s): 262 Damage

  Crippled (1½s): -50% Movement Speed

  Numbers of Attack to Trigger: 5

  Interval: 1 second

  Pierces

  Unblockable

  Range: 1,200
    
  Hunter's Verdict

  ½

  40

  Hunter's Verdict

  Pull all enemies tethered by the Spear of Justice to you, breaking the link. This ability's recharge is separate from that of Spear of Justice.

  Pull: 1,200
  can be used for CC if needed. You will lose the uptime on
  .
• adds Slow to all your traps, dealing 100 more breakbar damage with each second. This is both soft CC and hard CC.
• pulls and applies Slow on your target.
• deals 100 breakbar damage and renders enemies immobile.

Encounter-specific Tips

Forsaken Thicket

Spirit Vale

Vale Guardian

• Use
  and
  to keep the Seekers away. In an emergency you can also knock them away with Shield. Keep in mind that you also knock away enemies when you start to revive somebody which can be useful.
  • You might want to save
    for the breakbar.
• can block all the blue AoEs.
• is a good gap closer as well as a strong heal, use it wisely.
• In the split phase, protection helps the more squishy classes a lot when you pull the blue guardian on top of the green one and there are two heavy hitting aura ticks for a few seconds.

Ghost events

• Play Dragonhunter - Power DPS here as your symbols are largely useless.

Gorseval the Multifarious

• You can use Shield of Courage to share aegis for his knockback attack.
• can hit you quite hard due to Retaliation from Gorseval. To negate that you can use
  , which allows you to output DPS in the CC phase without losing the Scholar Rune buff.
• can be used to immobilize Charged Souls.

Sabetha the Saboteur

• In case people can't go up to destroy cannons, use
  to quickly reach a launch pad.

Salvation Pass

Slothasor

• is useful against the slublings.
• can block everything at Slothasor which is especially useful when he does his shake attack, as many have trouble dodging it. It can also block the fear that Slothasor applies after the CC phase which is valuable, especially for the last CC phase at 10%.
• If needed, you can pull slublings with your
  . Keep in mind that it pierces, so multiple slublings can be pulled with it if used optimally.

Bandit Trio

• Play Dragonhunter - Power DPS here as your symbols are largely useless.

Matthias Gabrel

• You can take the role of the main reflect in this fight; however, you have to keep in mind that the cooldown of
  is 30 seconds-the same as Matthias' invulnerability bubble. Thus, you need decent Alacrity uptime and must cleanse chill as fast as possible if it is applied to you.
  • A way to always have
    up in time without having to rely on Alacrity is replacing Radiance with Virtues and using
    .
  • On a sidenote, all of Matthias' attacks in abomination phase have longer cooldowns. Accordingly, you don't have to worry about not having
    up in time.
• In the phase from 40% until the end blocks become very valuable. A well timed Aegis can block the undodgeable timed bombs. The same principle applies to the damage from the ghosts, which is blockable but not dodgeable.
• Swap
  to Can't find such trait "Protective Impact"! Please refer to our trait index for this fight so you don't accidentally eat a projectile you need to reflect.

Stronghold of the Faithful

Escort

• Play Dragonhunter - Power DPS here as your symbols are largely useless.

Keep Construct

• Consider playing Guardian - Power DPS here as there isn't much damage pressure and burst damage is important on this fight.
• You can assist in pushing the orb into the rifts by pulling them with
  . Be careful with it though, as the impact of the spear hitting the orb will push it away from you a tiny bit before you can pull it in.
• You can use everything you have including
  for CC without any drawback since after each CC phase,there will be some DPS downtime.
• You can share aegis with
  to help your team when the room is filled with small AoEs before the last burn phase.

Xera

• Your pretty decent ranged damage with Scepter allows you to assist with clearing shards and standing on the buttons surrounding the big shards that you have to destroy both before the fight and when you get teleported to the other platform.

Bastion of the Penitent

Cairn the Indomitable

• can be used for mobility.
• You can use
  to block red circles or body block shards.

Mursaat Overseer

• Consider playing Guardian - Power DPS here as this fight is pretty much a DPS golem without any damage pressure.
• You can use
  to share aegis and block the explosions from adds.

Samarog

• Consider playing Guardian - Power DPS here as there isn't enough damage on this fight to warrant sacrificing all your DPS for protection.
• You can bring Can't find such trait "Hammer of Wisdom"! Please refer to our trait index for more CC. You can also consider
  .

Deimos

• Consider playing Dragonhunter - Power DPS here as there isn't enough damage on this fight to warrant sacrificing all your DPS for protection.
• You can share aegis to block Deimos's pizza attack or Mind Crush.

Hall of Chains

TBD