Dragonhunter - Power DPS

Part of the current metagame

Our curator decided this build is in the current metagame regardless of rating. The community gave this build a rating, making it top-tier: Great

Focused on: Direct damage

Designed for: Raids and Fractals

Expansions required:

Difficulty:

Normal

This build was last updated on November 18, 2024 and is up to date for the October 8, 2024 patch.

Overview

Dragonhunter is a heavy burst damage power DPS that excels in short fights (such as fractals) and raid encounters with short damage windows. It has strong CC and good mobility, and provides Vulnerability. In addition, it brings very high defensive support for a DPS class, with a party wide block in Shield of Courage, a strong burst heal in Wings of Resolve, and the ability to bring Guardian utilities such as Wall of Reflection and Hallowed Ground.

Dragonhunter is reliant on either Aegis or Resolution for maximum damage. The Radiance build provides ~45% uptime of Resolution itself, but ideally will be supported by other Guardians, or Renegades with Spirit Boon.

Skill Bar

Greatsword

Spear

Utility

Weapon Variants

• Longbow adds ranged damage and higher long-term DPS than Spear, while also being the best option for players that don't own Janthir Wilds. It has lower burst than Spear though, which is where Dragonhunter typically excels.

Skill Variants

Healing

• Litany of Wrath provides a huge amount of healing if you're able to keep attacking during its duration, allowing you to survive almost anything that doesn't one-shot you.
• Shelter can be used to help nullify niche mechanics, such as Slothasor's shake attack or Deimos' Mind Crush.

Utility

• "Stand Your Ground!" provides more Resolution as well as a stun break and Stability.
• Hallowed Ground can be used for more Resolution and Stability.
• "Advance!" can be used to Aegis big hits for your group like the knockback from Gorseval, the timed bombs from Matthias or the shockwave from Deimos.
• Hammer of Wisdom provides additional CC if needed.
• Wall of Reflection or Shield of the Avenger if projectile defense is needed.

Elite

• Use "Feel My Wrath!" to help slacking supports keep up Quickness. It can also be nice at bosses where the group is split, such as Sabetha when doing cannons or Matthias in general.
• Signet of Courage can be used for great passive healing for your team.

Template Code

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Specializations

• As you throw the spear as soon as it comes off cooldown, Permeating Wrath adds only a tiny amount of extra damage, so Indomitable Courage offers some nice utility as well as more reliable Aegis uptime. If the stunbreak won't be useful, you could provide a small amount of healing to allies with Battle Presence.
• The extra Aegis uptime from Hunter's Premonition is very helpful when running Virtues. Otherwise, Soaring Devastation offers more utility.
• If running Radiance Heavy Light is very close to Big Game Hunter, and may be attractive to newer players as the playstyle is slightly simpler. It should also pull ahead on bosses that spend a lot of the phase stunned (such as in fractals).

Specialization Variant

Virtues can be swapped out for Radiance. This is mostly useful for new players who wish to run Heavy Light, but it can also pull ahead if you're unable to stay above 90% health for Unscathed Contender.

• You will need to adjust gear as you have much higher crit chance (see below).

Equipment

Head
Assassin

Shoulders
Assassin

Chest
Berserker

Hands
Berserker

Legs
Berserker

Feet
Berserker

Backpiece
Assassin

Accessory
Assassin

Accessory
Assassin

Amulet
Assassin

Ring
Assassin

Ring
Assassin

Greatsword
Berserker

Sigil

Sigil

Spear
Berserker

Sigil

Sigil

Rune
x6

Infusion
x18

Relic

Equipment Variants

• The recommended setup takes 2317 precision to reach 99.71% crit chance.
• You can get the exact same damage using Rune of Superior Rune of the Dragonhunter, but it requires more Assassin stats pieces.
• If you want to benefit from Sigil of Superior Sigil of Impact, replace the Sigil of Superior Sigil of Force.

Radiance Variant

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

Spear
Berserker

Sigil

Sigil

Rune
x6

Infusion
x18

Relic

• Dragon stats gear is a very minor increase in damage over Berserker stats, so running full Berserker stats is totally fine. The optimal balance of Dragon/Berserker will also depend on your buffs so a gear optimiser will be needed to know exactly what you'll need.
• Swap Sigil of Superior Sigil of Force for slaying sigils or Sigil of Superior Sigil of the Night where applicable in fractals.

Consumables

Food

Utility

• • is slightly stronger if running the virtues variant.

Usage

Simplified Rotation

Newer players may wish to run the Heavy Light grandmaster along with the Radiance build. This trades the temporary 20% modifier from Big Game Hunter for a permanent 10% modifier. The rotation is very similar, but you no longer use Spear of Justice and can cast the skills named in the Spear of Justice Burst section off cooldown instead.

Video example (Heavy Light)

Spear Rotation

Spear's unique mechanic is the Illuminated effect. When under the Illuminated effect, skills 2-4 have enhanced effects:

• Helio Rush gains increased healing and applies Resolution to allies you pass through, as well as dealing more damage and applying Weakness to enemies.
• Gleaming Disc deals more damage, applies Blindness to enemies, and grants Might and Fury to allies.
• Solar Storm hits two additional times and heals allies that it removes conditions from.

In addition, each of these skills itself applies the Illuminated effect for five seconds. Finally, while Symbol of Luminance gains no extra benefit from Illuminated, it causes all skills to be Illuminated for as long as the symbol is active, regardless of where it is in relation to you.

Given that all your main skills on spear apply Illuminated, practically speaking there are only two things you need to consider:

1. The first skill (non-auto) you use when swapping to spear will not gain the Illuminated effect. Outside of the opener, this is resolved by using Symbol of Luminance.
2. You want to use at least one of your 2-4 skills every five seconds when Symbol of Luminance is not active. The easiest way to maintain it is via Helio Rush as it an ammunition skill with low cooldown.

The most important skill to Illuminate is Solar Storm.

The following rotation assumes the Radiance traitline with Big Game Hunter is used (if using Heavy Light just ignore references to Spear of Justice). It gives a basic structure for each section, but your utility skills will change place each loop:

• Procession of Blades and Spear of Justice should be used off cooldown as high priority as they provide damage buffs.
• Sword of Justice should be not be allowed to reach max stacks. As an ammo skill, you can be flexible with when you use it, but try to line it up with the buffs from Spear of Justice or Relic of the Dragonhunter.
• Dragon's Maw and Purification are best used to extend the buff from Relic of the Dragonhunter. Try to use them at the end of the autoattacking section on each weapon if Procession of Blades is not used. Use Dragon's Maw as a preference as it deals good damage. Either can be saved for utility if desired though.

Opener

1. Sword of Justice
2. Procession of Blades
3. Spear of Justice
4. Symbol of Luminance
5. Gleaming Disc
6. Solar Storm
7. Helio Rush
8. Weapon Swap

Greatsword Section

1. Symbol of Resolution
2. Whirling Wrath
3. Leap of Faith
4. Binding Blade - this can be delayed if you can hit it under the effect of Spear of Justice or Relic of the Dragonhunter
5. Autoattack until Whirling Wrath is off cooldown - try to finish your auto chains
6. Whirling Wrath
7. Symbol of Resolution
8. Leap of Faith
9. Weapon Swap

Spear Section

You only get one use of Solar Storm and Symbol of Luminance each loop, so the position is flexible and you should aim to use them both while under the effects of both Big Game Hunter and Relic of the Dragonhunter

1. Gleaming Disc
2. Helio Rush - this is a targeted movement skill. If you hover your cursor over your UI, you will charge in place and minimise the animation time
3. Autoattack and use Helio Rush, Solar Storm and Symbol of Luminance when you will be under the effects of both your key buffs (prioritise Helio Rush as we want to use it again before weapon swapping).
4. Autoattack until Gleaming Disc is nearly off cooldown
5. Helio Rush
6. Gleaming Disc
7. Weapon Swap
8. Return to start of Greatsword section

Video example

Longbow Rotation

While the rotation may seem complicated, the general structure of each weapon section is the same each time and you generally just use Spear of Justice off cooldown. The buff from Big Game Hunter lasts long enough that you'll be able to fit in all your high-damage skills without issue so it's more important not to delay your rotation.

Opener

Start on Longbow.

1. Sword of Justice
2. Procession of Blades
3. Spear of Justice
4. Symbol of Energy
5. True Shot
6. Hunter's Ward - any other skill will interrupt this, so leaving it until last is safest.
7. Weapon swap
8. Symbol of Resolution
9. Whirling Wrath
10. Leap of Faith
11. Dragon's Maw
12. Sword of Justice
13. Binding Blade
14. Strike ⇒ Vengeful Strike ⇒ Wrathful Strike x2
15. Whirling Wrath
16. Symbol of Resolution
17. Leap of Faith
18. Weapon swap
19. Proceed to the Longbow Section

Longbow Section

You should always open this section with the first two skills, but later skills can be delayed slightly if Spear of Justice is about to come off cooldown.

1. Symbol of Energy
2. Deflecting Shot
3. True Shot
4. Autoattack and use True Shot and Hunter's Ward as they come off cooldown (remember you can delay these if Spear of Justice is about to come off cooldown).
5. Deflecting Shot
6. Symbol of Energy
7. Weapon swap

Greatsword Section

Similar to longbow, it's important to cast the first three skills immediately, but those afterwards can be delayed somewhat.

1. Symbol of Resolution - this has an aftercast that can be cancelled by weapon stowing or moving shortly after casting.
2. Whirling Wrath
3. Leap of Faith
4. Binding Blade - this has an aftercast that can be cancelled by weapon stowing shortly after casting. This skill can be delayed if Spear of Justice is available.
5. Auto-Attack until Whirling Wrath is off cooldown. Always finish your attack chains.
6. Whirling Wrath
7. Symbol of Resolution
8. Leap of Faith - if you're slow enough that weapon swap is off cooldown already, you can skip this step.
9. Weapon swap

Spear of Justice Burst

• Procession of Blades, Sword of Justice and Dragon's Maw should only be used in combination with the buff from Big Game Hunter.
• Fit them in whenever available after the opening skills on each weapon.
• Try to use Sword of Justice twice in each of the first two bursts, then once for subsequent bursts.

Video example (Virtues)

Video example (Radiance)

General Tips

• In the Virtues build, Procession of Blades and Spear of Justice should be cast together. The cooldown of Procession of Blades is shorter, so delay using it until just before Spear of Justice is ready - the activation delay should ensure that all hits land under the effect of the Big Game Hunter buff.
• In the radiance build, the cooldowns don't line up as neatly, so just use both Procession of Blades and Spear of Justice whenever they come off cooldown.
  • if you are able to block an attack, then Defender's Dogma will reduce the cooldown of Spear of Justice such that it lines up with the trap. Using the Aegis from Hunter's Premonition is a best way to ensure this.
• Try not to interrupt your greatsword autoattack chain.
• Use Whirling Wrath and Binding Blade (especially if the boss has adds) inside the boss's hitbox.
• Use Sword of Justice when you both of the buffs from Spear of Justice and Relic of the Dragonhunter.
• Renewed Justice (in Radiance) will recharge your Spear of Justice. This allows you to have a higher Big Game Hunter uptime when there are adds around. Always try to keep Spear of Justice up as much as possible if it's being recharged with this interaction.

Breakbar

• Bane Signet is your strongest hard CC, but it should only be used in emergencies since it's a considerable DPS loss.
• The pulls from Spear of Justice and Binding Blade can be used for CC if needed. However, you will lose the uptime on Big Game Hunter.
• Piercing Light adds Slow to all your traps, dealing 100 more breakbar damage with each second.
• Dragon's Maw pulls and applies Slow on your target.
• Deflecting Shot deals 150 breakbar damage and knocks back enemies.

Encounter-Specific Tips

Spirit Vale

Vale Guardian

• Binding Blade can be used inside of Vale Guardian's hitbox while seekers are nearby for bonus damage.
• Shield of Courage can block all the blue AoEs.
• Wings of Resolve is a good gap closer as well as a strong heal, use it wisely.

Gorseval the Multifarious

• Consider playing the virtues variant here because it is possible to maintain 100% aegis uptime when dodging his knockbacks and pulling in the adds quickly.
• You can use Shield of Courage to share aegis for his knockback attack.
• Procession of Blades can hit you quite hard due to 24px Retaliation from Gorseval. To negate that you can use Litany of Wrath, which allows you to output DPS in the CC phase without losing health.

Sabetha the Saboteur

• Use your Wings of Resolve to jump on the launchpads fast if you want to go up to a cannon.
• Try to use Aegis for cannon shots or kicks from adds that people might not be able to dodge.
• Time your burst for when Knuckles is stunned.
• If you use your burst for it you can one-shot Karde's turrets in the last phase. However, this is not advised unless turrets are overrunning the platform. Simply dropping your Symbol of Punishment on turrets should make a significant impact without ruining your positioning.

Salvation Pass

Slothasor

• Binding Blade can be used inside of Slothasor's hitbox while slublings are nearby for bonus damage.
• Shield of Courage can block everything at Slothasor which is especially useful when he does his shake attack, as many have trouble dodging it. It can also block the fear that Slothasor applies after the CC phase which is valuable, especially for the last CC phase at 10%.
• If needed, you can pull slublings with your Spear of Justice. Keep in mind that it pierces, so multiple slublings can be pulled with it if used optimally.
• potentially stronger and cheaper than as killing slublings occurs frequently.

Bandit Trio

• Run "Stand Your Ground!" for this fight to mitigate all the annoying CC.
• Since you are somewhat tanky and have a lot of useful CC in the form of Bane Signet, Spear of Justice, Shield of Absorption, and traps, it is a good choice for you to deal with the mortars, as you are able to solo the snipers on the bridge that respawn between mortar #2 and #3 really quickly and reliably.

Matthias Gabrel

• You can take the role of the main reflect in this fight; however, you have to keep in mind that the cooldown of Wall of Reflection is 30 seconds-the same as Matthias' invulnerability bubble. Thus, you need decent Alacrity uptime and must cleanse chill as fast as possible if it is applied to you.
  • A way to always have Wall of Reflection up in time without having to rely on Alacrity is replacing Radiance with Virtues and using Master of Consecrations. You will lose quite a bit of DPS in doing so though.
  • On a sidenote, all of Matthias' attacks in abomination phase have longer cooldowns. Accordingly, you don't have to worry about not having Wall of Reflection up in time.
• In the phase from 40% until the end blocks become very valuable. A well-timed Aegis can block the undodgeable timed bombs. The same principle applies to the damage from the ghosts, which is blockable but not dodgeable.
• "Stand Your Ground!" can be brought for 10 player stability, which can help greatly during abomination and rain phases.

Stronghold of the Faithful

Escort

• Since almost all the mobs have some kind of annoying CC it is definitely recommended to bring "Stand Your Ground!".
• If you need help with capturing the towers, a Shield is useful for knocking mobs out of the capture circle or away from each other.
• Use your immobilizes and cripples to slow down the wargs engaging from the front.

Keep Construct

• You can assist in pushing the orb into the rifts by pulling them with Spear of Justice. Be careful with it though, as the impact of the spear hitting the orb will push it away from you a tiny bit before you can pull it in.
• You can use everything you have including Bane Signet for CC without any drawback since after each CC phase,there will be some DPS downtime.
• You can share aegis with Shield of Courage to help your team when the room is filled with small AoEs before the last burn phase.

Xera

• You can deal with Xera's adds extremely effectively by pulling them in and/or bursting them down with the Greatsword.
• Try to perform your rotation in a rhythm that allows you to be on Greatsword when Xera is spawning adds and on Scepter when she is the only target.
• Your pretty decent ranged damage with Scepter allows you to assist with clearing shards and standing on the buttons surrounding the big shards that you have to destroy both before the fight and when you get teleported to the other platform.

Bastion of the Penitent

Cairn the Indomitable

• Wings of Resolve can be used for mobility.
• Bring "Stand Your Ground!" for stability.

Mursaat Overseer

• Consider playing the virtues variant here as keeping up aegis on this fight is very easy.
• You can use Shield of Courage to block the explosions from adds.

Samarog

• Consider playing the virtues variant here as you can easily keep up aegis by dodging Samarog's attacks and jumping the shockwaves.
• You can bring Hammer of Wisdom for more CC. You can also consider Perfect Inscriptions.
• Consider bringing "Stand Your Ground!" for stability.

Deimos

• You can share aegis to block Deimos's pizza attack or Mind Crush.