Dragonhunter - Radiant Trapper Roamer

The community gave this build a rating, making it second-tier: Good

Focused on: Strike damage, Mobility and Control

Designed for: WvW Roaming

Expansions required:

Difficulty:

Normal

This build was last updated on July 08, 2024 and is up to date for the June 25, 2024 patch.

Overview

A high damage glass-cannon Power Dragonhunter build for WvW roaming.

Skill Bar

Longbow

Sword/Shield

Utility

Skill Variants

Heal

• Signet of Resolve - better defense against conditions. The signet can also be more convenient in some matchups (especially against ranged targets) because it doesn't rely on enemies triggering a trap for you to get healed.

Elite

• Dragon's Maw - it's a CC that could secure kills for you especially when combined with Procession of Blades. Most builds however have an answer to this skill and Renewed Focus lets you stay in the fight longer which makes Dragon's Maw the less popular option. On the other hand time doesn't favor you when facing tanky Cele builds, so sometimes your best option is to go all in with the traps and hope for a quick kill.

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Equipment

Head
Marauder

Shoulders
Marauder

Chest
Marauder

Hands
Marauder

Legs
Marauder

Feet
Marauder

Backpiece
Dragon

Accessory
Dragon

Accessory
Dragon

Amulet
Dragon

Ring
Dragon

Ring
Dragon

Longbow
Marauder

Sigil

Sigil

Sword
Marauder

Shield
Marauder

Sigil

Sigil

Rune
x6

Infusion
x18

Relic

Relics

• Relic of the Defender - defensive option that could be useful in longer fights, providing plenty of extra healing thanks to the many Aegis sources in the build.

Runes

If you don't care about the mobility provided by Surging, other viable options include:

• Rune of Superior Rune of the Scholar - better burst damage.

• Rune of Superior Rune of the Dragonhunter - it's very close to Scholar in terms of damage, use whichever is cheaper if you're trying to save gold.

• Rune of Superior Rune of Durability - defensive and beginner-friendly option but lowers your damage.

Sigils

• Sigil of Superior Sigil of Agility on Longbow - the brief Quickness is just enough to speed up True Shot right after swapping to Longbow. Could replace either sigils depending on the tradeoff you want: replacing Vision makes your burst combo less consistent when you don't have both Resolution and Fury, while replacing Air gives up a strong damage proc.

• Sigil of Superior Sigil of Bloodlust over Cleansing - further increases your damage if you don't mind putting some extra effort into building stacks and giving up some defense against conditions.

Consumables

Food

• - considered to be the optimal food, strong mix of sustain and damage but requires a cooking skill of 500 to craft.

• or - extra precision with an armor ignoring damage proc that also heals you.

• - defensive option.

• - offensive option.

Utility

Usage

General

• Try to stay in range, keep your distance whenever possible.

• Test of Faith is an excellent defensive skill because it's an instant source of Protection that can also be used while CC'd.

• Deflecting Shot is unblockable and may even be used to interrupt blocking skills.

• Wings of Resolve removes conditions and provides a substantial amount of healing for you and your teammates. It's also an excellent mobility tool in combat and a good way of repositioning yourself.

• Shield of Courage breaks stun and blocks all attacks in front of you, use it to relieve pressure from yourself and your team - for example, you can stand facing foes attempting to cleave downed teammates while you or your team is reviving them.

• Try to burn through all of your virtues before resorting to Renewed Focus. RF is a great panic button when you're being focused by the enemy team and you don't have any CDs left, but Dragonhunter virtues have cast times so any virtues you didn't use before RF will go to waste.

Damage

• The ring created by Test of Faith deals more damage than the initial trigger, and a significant portion of your burst damage comes from pulling/pushing foes through it.

• You deal extra damage to enemies affected by Spear of Justice, so consider using it before hard hitting skills like True Shot.

• There's a delay on Hunter's Ward, the final strike doesn't go off immediately after you finish channeling the skill. You could even pull targets in with Hunter's Verdict to make sure they get it and can't dodge or move out right before rings appear. The final strike of this skill does heavy damage.
  • Tip: when facing another DH it's very important to dodge the final strike of Hunter's Ward. If you do that the cages won't spawn and you avoid most of the damage.

Burst combo examples

Hunter's Ward + traps from range

1. Place Procession of Blades
2. Spear of Justice the target.
3. Hunter's Ward on your position.
4. Immediately pull in the target with Hunter's Verdict. The goal is to drag them into melee where they'll be hit and caged by the last strike of Hunter's Ward, while preventing them from dodging it. The cage will then force them to tank Procession of Blades and any other AoE skills you decide to throw into the mix.
5. Symbol of Energy
6. Weapon swap, follow up with Symbol of Blades and Zealot's Defense.

Test of Faith push/pull

1. Cast Spear of Justice on your target, we'll need its chain skill later. If the spear misses you might want to skip this combo for now, especially if the target was outside melee range.
2. Drop Test of Faith preferably at your target's feet so that they spring it immediately, as ideally CC should be used to make them cross the already active trap, not to activate the trap. Consider jumping in with Symbol of Blades if they are far away before dropping ToF.
3. Use either Deflecting Shot or Shield of Absorption to push them out of the ring.
4. Pull them back in with Hunter's Verdict (chain skill of Spear of Justice).
5. If possible, swap weapons and use the remaining knockback skill too that you didn't use at step 3.
6. Note: if you couldn't start this combo in melee range that's still fine, but you'll only be able to proc ToF once. In that case simply drop ToF, pull them in, push them out and end the chain with True Shot if you can.

Ranged burst

1. Hunter's Ward
2. Spear of Justice immediately (should land before the cages spawn) and keep it attached for extra damage, don't pull the target.
3. True Shot - your target should be trapped inside a cage from Hunter's Ward by now.
4. Symbol of Energy

Sword/Shield

• This is the defensive set of the build, but still has some hard hitting skills.

• The main source of burst damage here comes from Zealot's Defense. Note that the projectiles can be very unreliable in anything but melee range.

• Symbol of Blades has many uses: vertical mobility via teleportation, symbol for cleaving, or a combo field which can be used for AoE cleansing by executing a blast finisher in it.

• Use Shield of Judgment when you or an ally is about to be focused by the enemy, or if you're already pressured. It also applies boons in a cone, try to aim it at as many allies as possible.

• As mentioned above, Shield of Absorption is mainly a combo tool, but you can also use it for general CC or to defend against some ranged attacks. It forms a dome around you for a couple of seconds, blocking projectiles. You can choose to detonate the dome with its chain skill, which will cause a bit of AoE healing.

Related Builds

• Dragonhunter - Turbo Trapper - Conquest PvP version of the build.