Dragonhunter - DH Frontliner
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Contents

Welcome to the Builds Archive. See the ones that gathered dust, were orphaned by their original writers, or became obsolete by balance patches. We keep the orphan builds together and salute the veteran builds that held a position in the good, great, or meta categories.
Focused on: Direct damage, Support, Utility.
Designed for:
Overview
Dragonhunter brings personal mobility and damage in exchange for less group condition clear compared to core frontliner Guardian builds.
Skill Bar
HammerHealingUtilityElite
Staff
Weapon Variants
Greatsword/
Take greatsword instead of hammer for a leap, pull and more damage at the cost of CC and a blast-finisher.
Skill Variants
Heal
- for more group sustain.
Utility
- ⇒ for projectile hate at the cost of condition removal.
Elite
- for more damage and CC at the cost of personal sustain.
Specializations
Variants
- Only one Guardian per party needs to take since its effect does not stack.
Variants
- The extra stability from Hunter's Determination can be useful in uncoordinated groups (Keep in mind it will proc even if you already have stability)
Variants
Swap Valor to Honor for extra Stability at the cost of personal survivability.
Equipment















6x
Superior Rune of Durability
18x
Mighty WvW Infusion
Variants
Stats
- Marauder's can be replaced with Berserker's or Soldier's to personal preference.
- Soldier's can be replaced with Marauder's or Berserker's to personal preference.
Sigils
Runes
- - Additional damage at the cost of survivability and group boons.
- - Additional stun reduction and condition duration decreases at the cost of group boons.
Consumables
Food
- Defensive option.
- Offensive option.
- Alternate offensive option.
- Alternate damage option.
- Alternate defensive option vs condi pressure.
Utility
- Offensive option.
- Support option.
Usage
Rotations
Hammer
- Beginning in staff use as close to your allies as possible.
- The use on the enemy push followed by for ranged damage
- Swap to Hammer
- Use ahead to catch enemies in an immobilize.
- Activate just before going in on the enemy zerg. If you are allocated as the second stability in your party, skip this step and activate during the boon's downtime or to secure a stomp/revive.
- Leap in to the enemy with for damage and to blast blackline combo fields.
- Follow up with to strip some stability and damage enemies as they move around you
- can be activated whilst casting and moving, so continue to autoattack whilst casting.
- can be used to drag enemies through the damage of this trap and in to your zerg.
- Use to trap enemies in your damage
- Inside your or close to your , place to drag enemies in, CCing them and forcing stunbreaks, stability or invulns (as you cannot dodge through this CC)
- Use on enemies caught for additional damage.
- During the course of this combo you will be under enemy pressure. can be used to tank enemy damage whilst still letting you dish out damage to enemies. Its best use is during a stability downtime for your group, as it in an AoE stabiltiy granting skill.
- Continue to autoattack until the groups disengage, using when it is off cooldown.
- Disengage from the enemy, and if it is up, use to blast allied water fields.
- Switch to Staff, double tap skill 2 Can't find such skill "Orb of Light"! Please refer to our skill index. to receive the healing of in an AoE around you.
- Repeat from step 1.
Greatsword
- Beginning in staff use as close to your allies as possible.
- The use on the enemy push followed by for ranged damage
- Swap to Greatsword
- Activate just before going in on the enemy zerg. If you are allocated as the second stability in your party, skip this step and activate during the boon's downtime or to secure a stomp/revive.
- Use to get in to the enemy zerg
- Follow up with to strip some stability and damage enemies as they move around you
- can be activated whilst casting and moving, so continue to autoattack whilst casting.
- can be used to drag enemies through the damage of this trap and in to your zerg.
- Use to pull enemies through the trap's damage and in to your zerg's bomb
- Place followed by for AoE condition clear and damage
- As enemies try to disengage, use to pull them back in for finishing damage and CC, to either bait out a waste of stability, keep them off their regroup, or to finish off low enemies trying to escape.
- Continue to autoattack until disengage.
- Disengage from the enemy
- Switch to Staff, double tap skill 2 Can't find such skill "Orb of Light"! Please refer to our skill index. to receive the healing of in an AoE around you.
- Repeat from step 1.
Virtues
- This skill blocks all attacks in front of your position, use it to mitigate damage for your frontline.
- The healing from this skill applies only at the end of the leap.
- This skill can sometimes hit targets it otherwise would not if aimed with action camera mode (particularly in siege situations).
Gameplay Tips
- Hammer's is a blast finisher - use it on combo fields like fire, water, and chill.
- The Greatsword's can kill you if you use it on an enemy with Retaliation.
- Is a burst condition cleanse and heal that can disengage you from the enemy that will always remove immobilize.
- Applying boons to party members and yourself will heal you via .
- Stack might for your team with (and by blasting fire field if you have Hammer). It will also heal you for a huge amount because of , plus a bit of AoE heal when the skill ends.
- Use ( and ) to escape damage. Unlike normal Guardian virtues, you cannot activate Dragonhunter virtues whilst casting renewed focus. Try to ensure that have been used before you begin to channel to get the most benefit.
- Use when you are being overwhelmed with conditions.
- - gives area Stability to help secure stomps/resurrection or mitigate the effectiveness of an enemy CC (try to use SYG proactively, before a bomb). It is only a stun break for yourself, not your party.
- When running to/from objectives, speed up your zerg with .
- can be used to throw downed enemies away from their zerg, preventing a revive or warbanner. Use carefully however, and ensure you do not move them away from lethal damage or a stomp from your group.
Completely irrelevant as of now, core of the frontline is better covered by Support FB, Damage is better with the Radiance traitline (both power or condition), any form of dps/support hybrid hasn't been in use since roughly PoF. What's left is a bit of unique utility with the F3 but those are also available with the DPS options.