Dragonhunter - Turbo Trapper

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

Focused on: Strike damage and Control

Designed for: PvP Conquest

Expansions required:

Difficulty:

Normal

This build was last updated on August 16, 2024 and is up to date for the October 8, 2024 patch.

Overview

A PvP Dragonhunter build made to burst targets with True Shot and various combos centered around forcing enemies to cross Test of Faith.

Skill Bar

Longbow

Sword/Shield

Utility

Skill Variants

Heal

• Signet of Resolve - better condition cleansing.

Template Code

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Specializations

Variants

• Soaring Devastation improves your mobility which allows you to drop Rune of Lynx for something better. This however is going to negatively impact your survivability and removes much of the Relic of the Defender synergy, so you should consider taking a different relic too.

• Heavy Light is an equally viable option, it's a great source of Stability and the trait's damage modifier has strong synergy with various burst combos built around CC. This version puts more emphasis on push/pull combos with Test of Faith.

Equipment

Longbow

Sigil

Sigil

Sword

Shield

Sigil

Sigil

Rune

Amulet

Relic

Amulets

• - higher risk/reward option. Consider taking Rune of Warrior to compensate for the lower HP and Relic of the Wayfinder to make up for the loss of Lynx's mobility boost.

Relics

• Relic of the Brawler - DPS increase with high uptime and an easy trigger.

• Relic of the Dragonhunter - while this relic could potentially give you higher uptime of 10% extra damage than Brawler, you need to be in melee to proc this rune which makes Brawler more ideal for ranged bursts. Dragonhunter relic works really well with the Test of Faith + pull/knockback combos while Brawler is perfect for Spear of Justice + Longbow bursts as SoJ gives Resolution via Virtue of Resolution.

Usage

General

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

• Test of Faith is a decent 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 2 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 as many times as possible.

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

• Resolution increases your critical strike chance via Righteous Instincts. This boon is extremely important to have while unloading your hardest hitting skills! You may obtain it boon from every Virtue skill as well as the Healer's Resolution enhanced Purification.
  • The F1 Virtue is already a part of many burst combos but the F3's great too. In addition to the Resolution, Shield of Courage also applies Aegis for extra damage via Unscathed Contender while allowing you to tank some damage and safely counterpressure opponents.
  • Using any Virtue skill before the burst also applies Inspiring Virtue for even more damage.

• There's a delay on Hunter's Ward, the final strike doesn't go off immediately after you finish channeling the skill. This leaves you enough time to pull targets in with Hunter's Verdict to make sure they get hit and can't dodge nor leave before the skill finishes and the rings trap them inside. The final strike of this skill also 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 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 (even neutralizing enemy points) 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.

Fighting a Dragonhunter

This section contains tips that could prove useful vs another DH on any build

• Teleports count as crossing for Test of Faith. Even if you Blink out you're going to take damage. One way to avoid that is to dodge while blinking.

• Usually they burst you right after attaching a Spear of Justice so be extra careful and play it safe for a few seconds.

• Spear of Justice can be avoided, but its chain skill Hunter's Verdict could even pull you out of a dodge once the Spear's attached. If you're worried about the pull the easiest way to outplay Hunter's Verdict is to outrange it - beyond 1.2k range the pull can't happen. Get into a safe distance quickly and wait for the tether to expire. Stability or a well timed invulnerability could also work. Blocking line of sight by hiding behind a pillar is a good idea too, but depending on the terrain might not always work.

• Hunter's Ward calls down arrows from the sky then spawns a cage around targets struck by the final set of arrows. The only dangerous part here is the very last hit: if you can avoid that the cages don't spawn, and you avoid the bulk of the damage. Don't dodge at the start of the animation, more like 1-2 seconds into it.
  • If Spear of Justice is attached to you and the DH uses Hunter's Ward expect to be pulled soon - pulling a target while the animation of HW is playing denies them the chance to dodge the final hit. Use the methods described earlier to avoid that.

• If a DH is sitting on a capture point, just assume that it's full of traps. The first thing you should do is trigger the traps safely. Sending in Ranger pets or Mesmer clones from a safe distance could ruin their plans. Briefly getting into the edge of the node and dodging out of it right away could also proc the traps while avoiding their effects, but you need good timing for that.

• True Shot deals heavy damage but can be easily spotted: the DH has to stand still for 3/4s. Dodge when you see them stop moving.

Top Streamers

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Related Builds

• Dragonhunter - Radiant Trapper - the WvW Roaming version of the build.