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:

Difficulty:

Normal

This build was last updated on July 23, 2023 and is up to date for the October 8, 2024 patch.

Overview

A very high-burst build for power dragonhunter. This build offers extremely high burst damage, great CC, great defensive tools, and decent mobility.

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Skill Bar

Greatsword

Longbow

Utility

Weapon Variants

• Sword/Focus - Strong weapon set with a bit more defense that also provides Fury
• Staff - good farming weapon thanks to spammable ranged AOE

Skill Variants

Healing

• Shelter - 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.
• Purification - heal trap that blinds an an area when triggered

Utilities

• Test of Faith - great AOE damage that mobs can be made to repeatedly walk over; higher burst than Procession of Blades. This skill also provides Protection
• Light's Judgment - generates Vulnerability
• "Stand Your Ground!" - stunbreak that also grants you some Resolution uptime.
• Hallowed Ground - grants more Resolution
• Smite Condition - condi cleanse
• Wall of Reflection - if you need to reflect projectiles.
• "Advance!" - long-lasting swiftness while running, also gives aegis
• Judge's Intervention - teleport with a moderate cooldown

Elite Skills

• Renewed Focus - defensive option.
• "Feel My Wrath!" - alternative DPS option; higher DPS if using Longbow

Specializations

• A note on Honor: While it may seem counter-intuitive, Honor is generally higher DPS than both Radiance and Virtues for this build due to increased symbol duration providing higher boon and vuln uptime. Virtues with 100% uptime on Aegis can come very close, but isn't realistic in open world.

Equipment

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

This set uses gear that is very similar to Build:Dragonhunter_-_Power_DPS, making it excellent for general PVE.

Head
Berserker

Shoulders
Berserker

Chest
Berserker

Hands
Berserker

Legs
Berserker

Feet
Berserker

Backpiece
Berserker

Accessory
Berserker

Accessory
Berserker

Amulet
Berserker

Ring
Berserker

Ring
Berserker

Greatsword
Berserker

Sigil

Sigil

Longbow
Berserker

Sigil

Sigil

Rune
x6

Variant Equipment

Gear

• Assassin - used to fine-tune crit cap
• Marauder - you can use several piece of Marauder to reach the crit cap and provide additional defense, however this does lose some DPS.
• Knight - use some trinkets to provide extra Defense

Runes

• Rune of Superior Rune of the Eagle / Rune of Superior Rune of the Thief - these runes are higher DPS than scholar against bosses, however Scholar is recommended as the default as it is the more versatile set in PVE and provides higher burst damage. If using these, it may be beneficial to run several pieces of 24px Dragon gear with them. This is a very small DPS increase but can provide a bit of extra vitality.
• Rune of Superior Rune of Vampirism - defense

Sigils

• Sigil of Superior Sigil of Accuracy - higher dps than Sigil of Superior Sigil of Impact but less versatile; generally not used in other modes
• Sigil of Superior Sigil of Energy - strong defense

Consumables

Food

• Any ascended food is superior to any other food you could use. Steak for power, flatbread for conditions. Budget versions of these foods exist and are acceptable.
• - farming
• , - DPS
• - defense

Utility

• (and variants) - farming
• , - DPS

Usage

Damage

General Advice

• Note that to play this build optimally you must turn off "Melee Attack Assist" in your Options menu. This is so you can stand inside of boss hitboxes.
• Your main damage skills are Whirling Wrath, Symbol of Resolution, True Shot, Symbol of Energy, and Hunter's Ward.
  • Never interrupt your Greatsword or Sword autoattack chains as all the damage is loaded in the last hit.
• Fight enemies in your symbols to get the damage buff from Symbolic Avenger.

Generic Opener

While this opener may not apply in every situation, it is a good general-use rotation to start with. Open on Longbow.

1. Dragon's Maw / "Feel My Wrath!"
2. Procession of Blades
3. Sword of Justice
4. True Shot
5. Symbol of Energy
6. Hunter's Ward
7. Weapon Swap
8. Symbol of Resolution
9. Whirling Wrath
10. Sword of Justice
11. Auto-attack until Symbol of Resolution, Whirling Wrath, and Spear of Justice are back up
12. Sword of Justice
13. Symbol of Resolution
14. Whirling Wrath
15. Leap of Faith
16. Binding Blade
17. Weapon Swap
18. Symbol of Energy
19. True Shot

From there, your goal is to loop your weapon's big damage skills, True Shot and Whirling Wrath while filling the gaps with other weapon skills like Symbol of Energy and Symbol of Resolution. For Greatsword loops, you want to use Symbol of Resolution twice before weapon swapping. For Longbow loops, you want to get off at least three True Shots. For Sword/Focus loops, focus on three Zealous Blades (while also weaving in Symbol of Blades twice.)

Defense

• Shield of Wrath is a powerful defensive skill. If you stand on top of an ally while this is active it can block attacks for them as well.
• Wall of Reflection and Shield of the Avenger can be used against projectiles.
• Shield of Courage is a block that also gives aegis, protection, Resolution, stability, and a stun break.
• You can run Shelter for more active defense. You can also run Renewed Focus 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 Rune of Superior Rune of Vampirism, so avoiding damage is extremely important in long fights. You can run healing food, such as in these situations to relieve some pressure.
• Wings of Resolve is a powerful heal and condition cleanse. You can also use Whirling Wrath in the light field from your symbols to cleanse conditions.

Zerging

• When zerging, use your Puncture Shot, Deflecting Shot, and Symbol of Energy to tag mobs. Try to make sure your Sigil of Superior Sigil of Fire procs on groups so you get credit for all of them.
• Against bosses or static groups of mobs (while the zerg isn't moving much), use your higher-damage weapon set such as Greatsword or Sword/Focus.

See Build:Dragonhunter_-_Power_Farmer for a much more detailed breakdown of zerg farming with guardian.

Crowd Control

• Pull
• Procession of Blades
• Dragon's Maw
• Hunter's Verdict
• Hammer of Wisdom
• Bane Signet (as a last resort)