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: Heart of Thorns builds

Difficulty:
TBD
This build was last updated on April 14, 2022 and is up to date for the November 28, 2023 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
Sword/Focus
Utility


Weapon Variants

  • Longbow - highest dps ranged option
  • Staff - good farming weapon thanks to spammable ranged AOE


Skill Variants

Healing

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


Utilities

  • - great AOE damage that mobs can be made to repeatedly walk over; higher burst than . This skill also provides Protection Protection
  • - generates Vulnerability Vulnerability
  • - stunbreak that also grants you some Resolution Resolution uptime.
  • - grants more Resolution
  • - condi cleanse
  • - if you need to reflect projectiles.
  • - long-lasting swiftness while running, also gives aegis
  • - teleport with a moderate cooldown


Elite Skills

  • - defensive option.
  • - alternative DPS option; higher DPS if using Longbow


Specializations

  • - less reliance on Resolution Resolution
  • - use if running in a zerg
  • , - lowers DPS for defense


Honor

Honor can be taken for more defense at the cost of damage. This should typically replace Radiance.

  • - extreme condition cleanse
  • - extra might uptime


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
Sword
Berserker
Focus
Berserker
Sigil
Sigil
Rune
x6



Variant Equipment

Gear

  • Marauder Marauder - trades -10% damage for +60% effective health; luxury set
  • Knight Knight - use some trinkets to provide extra Defense


Runes

  • , - budget dps
  • , - defense


Sigils

  • - higher dps than but less versatile; generally not used in other modes
  • - strong defense
  • - budget DPS


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 , , , , , , and . Swap between your weapons using these skills whenever possible, and fill with autoattacks. You should attempt to use and right before you use .
    • Never interrupt your Greatsword or Sword autoattack chains as all the damage is loaded in the last hit.
  • Resolution Resolution is a massive damage boost so you should try to have it up as much as possible. Your main Resolution sources are , , and . If using the Virtues variant, will provide an enormous boost to your Resolution Resolution uptime as well as significant damage.
    • If using Virtues, resets off every kill thanks to . You should use it whenever possible.
    • In long fights you should bring instead of for increased Resolution Resolution uptime.
  • If running Zeal, fight enemies in your symbols to get the damage buff from .
  • You should wait until procs before activating


Generic Opener

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

  1. /
  2. Weapon Swap
  3. Auto-attack until , , and are back up
  4. Weapon Swap

From there, your goal is to load your big damage skills into the window provided by while auto-attacking and using off cooldown.


Defense

  • You have a ton of Resolution Resolution uptime which helps you against conditions.
  • 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.
  • , , and blind enemies.
  • and can be used against projectiles.
  • is a block that also gives aegis, protection, Resolution, 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. You can run healing food, such as in these situations to relieve some pressure.
  • is a powerful heal and condition cleanse. You can also use in the light field from your symbols to cleanse conditions.


Zerging

  • When zerging, use your , , and to tag mobs. Try to make sure your 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.


Crowd Control

  • (as a last resort)


Ratings

This build has a rating of 5 stars based on 3 votes.
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5 stars
HossamA.Eldin gave this build 5 stars • August 2023
Best Dps build for Guardian with alot of traps , Easy build
5 stars
Frostbyte gave this build 5 stars • July 2023
This is an outstanding build: flexible, sustainable and capable of inflicting fearsome damage on one's foes. In my experience, even if you *don't* replace Radiance/Virtues with Honor, you can still hold your own and do some decent damage. This flexibility, coupled with various alternate options in gearing (Berserker's vs. Marauder's/Dragon's and Longbow vs. Sword/Focus) as well as individual traits that can (and should) be swapped depending on context make it a proper "hybrid" build reminiscent of the classic Tank/DPS builds in games like WoW, for instance, and allow for extreme survivability and damage output in almost any situation. My *one* complaint is not with the build itself but rather the fact that certain sections of it have yet to be updated (e.g., the rotation/usage section still sings the praises of Resolution despite it not being used very much since the switch to Honor from Radiance). Thanks to the author. Very solid build that I'd recommend to any Zealous (pardon the pun) Guardian fan.
5 stars
Tao1013 gave this build 5 stars • March 2022
This DH open world build is a lot of fun to play. It's fast-paced and effective and with weapon variants like longbow available, it's flexible too. With two build options, this set up can be played seat of your pants glass cannon style or with the Honour variant it's a bit more tanky, so you won't get caught out if you run into more trouble than you were expecting. It's my build of choice for exploring and engaging in the new E.O.D. open world content and storyline.

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