Dragonhunter - Radiant Greatsword

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

Focused on: Direct damage, Control, Active defense.

Designed for:

Open World

Expansions required:

Overview

A Dragonhunter build for running around in open world. This build deals extremely high burst damage and has excellent defensive skills allowing it to stay alive. Compared to Guardian - Radiant Greatsword, it has more burst damage and mobility, but less consistent sustained damage.

Skill Bar

GreatswordHealingUtilityElite

Sword/Focus

Weapon Variants

• Your second weapon set is fairly flexible. Sword/Focus is suggested because it provides a good mix of defense, AoE damage, and mobility. Depending on what you need, you can run Hammer (crowd control), Scepter (ranged and high damage on bosses), and/or Shield (crowd control and projectile defense).
• You can carry a Staff for tagging mobs in open world farming.

Skill Variants

Healing Skills

• - defensive option. You can cancel the animation but keep the block by stowing your weapon during the cast. However, you won't receive any healing if you do this.

Utility Skills

• - more burst damage.
• - grants more retaliation for boss fights where you can't proc
  much.
• - more crowd control.
• - if you need condition cleanse.
• - if you need to reflect projectiles.
• - alternative projectile defense option.
• - long-lasting swiftness while running.

Elite Skills

• - defensive option.

Specializations

Variants

• - if running
  or
  .
• - if you're dying to lots of damage and/or conditions that you can't dodge. This trait sacrifices up to 20% of your damage so think carefully about slotting it.

Zeal Variant

In short fights, or if you have an ally granting you retaliation, you can run Zeal instead of Virtues.

Honor Variant

When soloing extremely dangerous enemies such as Heart of Thorns hero challenges or Queen's Gauntlet bosses, it's sometimes worth running Honor instead of Virtues. This is a significant damage loss but allows you to dodge more often. Note that you will need to avoid using

to maintain the passive.

Equipment

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

Standard Equipment

The Standard Variant uses similar gear to the Dragonhunter - Power DPS build for fractals and raids. This makes it a good general-purpose gear set and is the gear that most players should aim for.

6x

Superior Rune of the Flame Legion

Optimal Equipment

The Optimal Variant is the best possible gear for this build. It's overkill in most cases, and you should only get it if you have spare gold or you don’t care about fractals and raids.

6x

Superior Rune of the Flame Legion

18x

Mighty +5 Agony Infusion

Variants

• provides high sustain at the cost of damage.

Marauder/Valkyrie Variant

For a tankier alternative, you can run this mix of Marauder and Valkyrie stats. You lose about 8% of your damage (significantly more if you drop retaliation) but have almost 70% increased health.

6x

Superior Rune of the Flame Legion

18x

Mighty +5 Agony Infusion

Consumables

If you're having trouble you can use the following 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
  or
  Dragon's Breath Bun

  Dragon's Breath Bun

  Nourishment (20 m):

  +200 power for 30s after killing an enemy+70 Ferocity+10% Experience from Kills

  Consumable
  for more damage.
• Bowl of Orrian Truffle and Meat Stew

  Bowl of Orrian Truffle and Meat Stew

  Nourishment (30 m):

  100% chance to gain might when you dodge.+40% to your Endurance refill rate.+10 Experience from kills

  Consumable
  for more dodges.
• Scoop of Mintberry Swirl Ice Cream for more healing.

Utility

• Potent Superior Sharpening Stone

  Potent Superior Sharpening Stone

  Nourishment (1 h):

  Gain power equal to 3% of your precisionGain power equal to 6% of your ferocity+10 Experience from kills

  Consumable

Usage

Damage

• Your main damage skills are
  Symbol of Wrath

  ¼

  20

  Symbol of Wrath

  Symbol. Pierce the ground with a mystic symbol that damages foes while granting retaliation to allies.

  ₅Damage: 670

  ₅Retaliation (1s): Reflect incoming damage back to its source.

  Number of Targets: 5

  Symbol Duration: 4 seconds

  Symbol Radius: 180

  Combo Field: Light
  ,
  Whirling Wrath

  ¾

  10

  Whirling Wrath

  Spin in a place and swing your greatsword while hurling powerful projectiles.

  ₇Damage: 637

  Number of Impacts: 7

  Number of Targets: 5

  Radius: 130

  Combo Finisher: Whirl

  Range: 600
  ,
  ,
  ,
  ,
  , and
  . Swap between your weapons using these skills whenever possible, and fill with autoattacks.
  • Never interrupt your autoattack chain as all the damage is loaded in the last hit.
• Retaliation is a massive damage boost so you should try to have it up as much as possible. Your main retaliation sources are
  ,
  ,
  , and
  • resets off every kill thanks to
    . It's also a huge damage buff in its own right, so use it whenever possible.
  • In long fights where you can't reset
    you can consider bringing
    and traiting
    .
• If running Zeal, fight enemies in your symbols to get the damage buff from
  .
• If using
  , try not to get hit (ง ͠° ͟ل͜ ͡°)ง

Defense

• is a powerful defensive skill.
• ,
  , and
  blind enemies.
• and
  can be used against projectiles.
• is a block that also gives aegis, protection, retaliation, stability, and a stun break.
• You can run
  for more active defense. You can also run
  but this comes at the cost of one of your best burst damage skills.
• Remember to always dodge and sidestep attacks if possible. Don't get hit by anything you can move out of.

Sustain

• This build doesn't have much sustained healing unless you have
  , so avoiding damage is extremely important in long fights.
• is a powerful heal and condition cleanse. You can also use
  in the light field from your symbols to cleanse conditions.

Crowd Control

• Binding Blade

  ¾

  25

  Binding Blade

  Throw blades at your foes, causing damage over time. Bound foes can be pulled to you. The effect ends when a foe moves out of range.

  Damage: 369

  Number of Targets: 5

  Maximum Blade Duration: 10 seconds

  Maximum Leash Range: 600

  Combo Finisher: Whirl
    
  Pull

  ¾

  Pull

  Pull your foes to you.

  Leash Range: 600

  Range: 600
• 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
• (as a last resort)