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Dragonhunter - Power Dragonhunter

The community gave this build a rating, making it top-tier: Great

Focused on: Strike damage

Designed for: Open World and Open World General

Expansions required: Heart of Thorns builds

Difficulty:
Easy
This build was last updated on February 12, 2025 and is up to date for the February 11, 2025 patch.

Overview

Power dragonhunter offers very high burst damage from melee range in a small AoE, high vulnerability application, and decent mobility. Although it has low health, it has access to several defensive options and decent sustain. Moreover, it can opt to bring Longbow Longbow if ranged damage is required.

Template Code

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Skill Bar

Standard

Greatsword
Spear
Utility


Weapon Variants

If you don't have access to land spear with Janthir Wilds, use Longbow instead.

  • Longbow Longbow - provides high burst damage from range, but lacks the much-needed Resolution Resolution generation of spear and has slightly lower damage.

Skill Variants

Heal Skills

We default to Litany of Wrath as it provides insane sustain, making you almost immortal for its duration. If needed, it can be replaced by:

  • Signet of Resolve can be considered as a more defensive option.
  • Purification provides more damage thanks to Relic of the Dragonhunter.

Utility Skills

We recommend:
Procession of Blades for its damage, Fury Fury, and uptime of Relic of the Dragonhunter. Never replace it.
Sword of Justice for its damage and vulnerability application. Can be replaced if needed.
Bane Signet as a passive damage increase. Can easily be replaced if needed.
If you want or need to run other skills, here are some suggestions:

  • Test of Faith - defense + offense; replaces Procession of Blades against moving targets and grants Protection Protection.
  • "Hold the Line!" - defensive; grants area Protection Protection to yourself and nearby allies
  • Wall of Reflection - defensive; reflects projectiles
  • "Advance!" - defense; provides area Aegis Aegis and Swiftness Swiftness
  • "Stand Your Ground!" - defense; area Stability Stability and personal stunbreak.
  • Merciful Intervention - mobility
  • Sanctuary - projectile block and extreme CC, though it has a long cooldown

Elite Skills

We default to Dragon's Maw for its good damage and uptime of Relic of the Dragonhunter. If really needed, it can be replaced by:

  • Renewed Focus - defensive option.
  • "Feel My Wrath!" - area Quickness Quickness and Fury Fury.


Specializations

Variants
  • Heavy Light - can be considered for long fights vs. defiant enemies such as bosses. It has slightly lower burst but higher sustained damage. When using this trait, do not use Spear of Justice, as it will reduce your uptime of Zealot's Aggression for no gain.


Equipment

Ascended gear and stat infusions are not required; you can use exotic gear with the same stats.

Standard Equipment

This set uses gear that is generally applicable in all of PVE.

Head
Berserker
Shoulders
Berserker
Chest
Dragon
Hands
Berserker
Legs
Dragon
Feet
Berserker
Backpiece
Dragon
Accessory
Berserker
Accessory
Berserker
Amulet
Dragon
Ring
Dragon
Ring
Dragon
Greatsword
Berserker
Sigil
Sigil
Sword
Berserker
Focus
Berserker
Sigil
Sigil
Rune
x6


Relic
  • Consider Relic of Zakiros to trade damage for high sustain. If you lack access to Dragonhunter and Zakiros, consider Relic of the Thief.
  • For defense, equip the highest tier Jade Core you can afford. Use defensive food, traits, or skills if required. If necessary, use Knight Knight trinkets.


Consumables

Budget consumables are acceptable for use in open world.

DPS

  • Prioritize Steak Ascended food.
  • /
  • /

Defense

Farming

  • Prioritize Steak Ascended food.
  • /
  • (and variants)


Usage

Spear of Justice

Spear of Justice is the dragonhunter's first profession skill. Thanks to Big Game Hunter, your Spear of Justice allows you to deal massive burst damage to your target and also activates Inspiring Virtue.

Always mark your target with Spear of Justice before bursting it down.

Resolution

This build greatly benefits from Resolution Resolution to activate a few traits, most notably Righteous Instincts.

Your sources of Resolution Resolution are Healer's Resolution, Zealot's Resolution, Symbol of Resolution, and Helio Rush when Illuminated Illuminated.

Damage

  • Mark the target with Spear of Justice before unleashing your combo.
  • Make sure to use Symbol of Luminance first to empower your other spear skills with Illuminated Illuminated.
  • Use Procession of Blades off cooldown for damage, Fury Fury, and uptime of Relic of the Dragonhunter.
  • Use Sword of Justice at the start to apply vulnerability, and then periodically throughout the fight instead of autoattacks.
Opener
  1. Procession of Blades
  2. Spear of Justice
  3. Sword of Justice
  4. Symbol of Luminance
  5. Helio Rush
  6. Gleaming Disc
  7. Solar Storm
  8. weapon swap weapon swap
  9. Dragon's Maw
  10. Symbol of Resolution
  11. Whirling Wrath
  12. Binding Blade
  13. Leap of Faith

Notes and tips

  • Space out the usage of Procession of Blades and Dragon's Maw (and Purification if using it) for higher uptime on Relic of the Dragonhunter.
  • Remember that Resolution Resolution is a huge damage increase due to your traits. Get Resolution before bursting enemies down.
  • Make sure to hit enemies with your symbols to gain stacks of Symbolic Avenger and inflict vulnerability from Symbolic Exposure.
  • Maintain uptime on Inspiring Virtue with Spear of Justice, Wings of Resolve, and Shield of Courage.
  • Turn off "Melee Attack Assist" in Options. This allows you to use Whirling Wrath and Binding Blade inside an enemy's hitbox so that all projectiles hit your target.

Defense

  • Chain Shield of Courage and Litany of Wrath to cover your opening rotation.
  • Indomitable Courage turns Shield of Courage into a stunbreak.
  • Use Wings of Resolve to heal and cleanse conditions.
  • Use Leap of Faith and Gleaming Disk to Blind Blind enemies.
  • Review the defensive skill variants above for more defensive options.

Crowd Control

  • Pull
  • Dragon's Maw
  • Symbol of Luminance
  • Bane Signet (as a last resort)


Ratings

This build has a rating of 5 stars based on 3 votes.
Log in or register to rate this build.
5 stars
HossamA.Eldin gave this build 5 stars • August 2023
Best Dps build for Guardian with alot of traps , Easy build
5 stars
Frostbyte gave this build 5 stars • July 2023
This is an outstanding build: flexible, sustainable and capable of inflicting fearsome damage on one's foes. In my experience, even if you *don't* replace Radiance/Virtues with Honor, you can still hold your own and do some decent damage. This flexibility, coupled with various alternate options in gearing (Berserker's vs. Marauder's/Dragon's and Longbow vs. Sword/Focus) as well as individual traits that can (and should) be swapped depending on context make it a proper "hybrid" build reminiscent of the classic Tank/DPS builds in games like WoW, for instance, and allow for extreme survivability and damage output in almost any situation. My *one* complaint is not with the build itself but rather the fact that certain sections of it have yet to be updated (e.g., the rotation/usage section still sings the praises of Resolution despite it not being used very much since the switch to Honor from Radiance). Thanks to the author. Very solid build that I'd recommend to any Zealous (pardon the pun) Guardian fan.
5 stars
Tao1013 gave this build 5 stars • March 2022
This DH open world build is a lot of fun to play. It's fast-paced and effective and with weapon variants like longbow available, it's flexible too. With two build options, this set up can be played seat of your pants glass cannon style or with the Honour variant it's a bit more tanky, so you won't get caught out if you run into more trouble than you were expecting. It's my build of choice for exploring and engaging in the new E.O.D. open world content and storyline.

Comments

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