Dragonhunter traits tweaked slightly or reworked - suggestion

As you know it's been a little over 2 years since Dragonhunter had any work done to it, Several of the traits are just beyond useless and don't do much to help it out now,I have a some suggestions to keep it up to stratch with things.I am going to suggest a few things focus mostly on a PVE for this. But they can help pvp and wvw too.At this point Dragonhunter lack any form Retaliation for it's meta build. Secondly traits that give boons tend to give the wrong boons and don't help it at all.

Before I mention the traits there a few things I would change outright about a few of Dragonhunter's skills, so they aren't mentioned in the traits so I'll mention them now.Deflecting Shot - By defeault it give knocks back enemies on each hit. I don't know why this isn't a thing, Ranger's LB has it by default so it should have it to, its really needed as the LB lacks any form of CC. Hunter's ward takes way to long.Wings of Resolve - Add 1 sec dodge to this move, you are literally jumping up in the air to avoid things, Literally every other class in game has evade on a skill but Guardian and Nerco this is needed for Guardian. Daredevil has a jumping dodge triat which allows it to.Shield of Courage Passive Barrier when aegis brakes you gain barrier (25%HP) (Cooldown 40 sec) The cooldown is as long as passive this prevents dragonhunter's from using aegis only skills to gain barrier multiple times over and walking become barrier tank. The reason for barrier on Shield of Courage is because Guardian doesn't have access to it, and secondly Aegis is kinda pointless as it doesn't protect you from much anymore, which many skills and triats from people that are unblockable these days, there is not much point of trying to keep aegis up.

Below are the suggusted changed to the traits.

Adept traits

Major Adept - Piercing Light - Traps give Retaliation(6 secs) and have reduced recharge, they also slow enemies.A small buff this needed for PVE as DH doesn't have a native way of gaining Retaliation through it's traits. With the current meta build having it's traps give Retaliation as well as the other boon they normally give, would allow DH to keep it's Retaliation going in raids without the need to swap back and forth between Greatsword so otfen.

Major Adept - Dulled Senses - Enemies you disable are crippled. Enemies you cripple are also inflicted with vulnerability. (Disables include stun, daze, knockback, pull, knockdown, sink, float, launch, taunt, and fear.)This shouldn't just be knockback, Guardian in general has very limited knockback options, and without heavy light this trait is pointless, so it should be any form of control/disable. Which would allow DH to use others weapon or skills to make use of this trait. I find it stupid that foes can use any for Disable/Control to trigger Hunter's Determination but DH can only use Knockback to give them a cripple and vulnerability from Dulled Senses, so it should be changed to any from of control/disable for Dulled Senses.

Major Adept - Soaring Devastation - Wings of Resolve has increased outgoing healing power and range of healing and delivers an attack upon landing. Wings of Resolve retains it's Virtue passive while on cooldown. (Gives the same effect as Firebrand's Loremaster triat)I've already stated above that the evade on Wing of Resolve should not be a trait but rather on DragonHunter by default. Secondly having a little more range on the healing with a bit more power on it to help out our allies a little.

Master traits

Minor Master - Defender's Dogma - When you use a virtue you gain light aura(3 secs), when under the effects light aura you gain fury, regen and resistance.I feel the current Defender's Dogma triat is useless and does nothing "Blocking an attack causes Justice to reach its maximum charge." 9/10 times when you block an attack, you're virtue of justice is NOT on cooldown or you're in mid battle and your aegis has already been broken and you no way of refreshing the the Virtue because most people tend to avoid aegis related skilled because they're going full power DPS. Most Full bunker builds that use aegis are done using base guardian or Firebrand and not Dragonhunter since there are more ways to bunk, again making this trait pointless. I changed to it when you use a virtue you get light aura, when have light aura now it gives you boons, they're a few ways to gain light aura but this new trait goes hand in hand with the tweak of Big Game Hunter .

Major Master - Hunter's Determination Gain Retaliation, Regen and Resistance (4secs for each) and cast Shards of Faith when disabled. Disables include stun, daze, knockback, pull, knockdown, sink, float, launch, taunt, and fear.Having resistance over aegis would be better as it'll stop more condtions coming, because if you've been disabled in someway, 9/10 times you're going to have more condtions on you as well. Also Shards of Faith give you aegis when you walk into the shards. having the aegis ontop of aegis is kinda pointless.

Major Master - Zealot's Aggression - Deal extra damage to crippled enemies. Justice's passive effect cripples enemies.This is one is fine how it is for now, no changes.

Major Master Bulwark - Shield of Courage gains increased radius and duration. the Barrier from Shield of Courage's passive is now stronger (gives 33% HP barrier instead of 25%HP). Shield of Courage retains it's Virtue passive while on cooldown. (Gives the same effect as Firebrand's Loremaster triat)Nothing to say about this but it would help.

Grandmaster traits

Major Grandmaster - Hunter's Fortification - Remove conditions when blocking attacks. Receive less damage when you have conditions on you. when you are struck while below the health threshold (75% HP) Conditions on you do less damage (33%) to you.The game has changed a lot now since DH was made, and this trait feels outdated. No matter what the mode, EVERYTHING in the game seems to gives you a condition on hit making this triat is really useless, So wouldn't it be better have it so that this triat give you damage reduction if you have a condition and reduce the damage done by conditions to you. This way dragonhunter can be more tanky and at this point in PvP and WvW, it really needs it due to it's REALLY low base HP.

Major Grandmaster - Heavy Light - All Longbow skills now pierce, Hunter's Ward now casts faster and has a reduced cooldown by 10, (40 seconds to 30 seconds). Gain Retaliation(8secs) and Quickness(6 secs) when knocking back, launching, or pulling an enemy. (10 second cooldown for control part of the trait like it normally has.)This is a huge on and much need one, from a PvE point. Stability is pointless, what we need at this current time is Retaliation and Quickness for dragonhunter its rather slow and the lack of Retaliation for its current meta build hurts it. the cooldown of Hunter's Ward is needed too, having it reduced from 40 to 30 would help a lot.

Major Grandmaster - Big Game Hunter - Striking an enemy tethered by your Spear of Justice causes vulnerability and increases damage dealt. Gain Might and Fury when tethered to a foe, When you are under the effects of fury you get a slight Power and Ferocity increase (+200 power and +150 Ferocity). Spear of Justice retains it's Virtue passive while on cooldown. (Gives the same effect as Firebrand's Loremaster triat)This is a much needed buff, with change in Defender's Dogma this trait will give power back to dragonhunter

How do you guys feel about this tweaks and reworks for my suggested Dragonhunter.

seems pretty stronk

I think some of these changes would make DH way too strong, unless the changes are split between PvE/PvP/WvW. From a PvP perspective:

Defender's Dogma - What's the duration of the resistance and does it pulse while light aura is active? Anything over two seconds or pulses would be too much resistance imo. DH already fares moderately well against condi and will fare very well if F2 had an evade on it. I would do replace resistance with protection.

Heavy Light - LB AA already bounces, and TS/DS already pierce. I would lower the quickness to 2s, which is enough to pull your combos. 6s is very high on a 10s icd. I would also keep the stability portion. The added retal is a good change as it would open up the possibility of radiance/valor DH.

While DH needs a buff in sPvP, this will be way over powered. What works:

1) deflection shot CC be default will be a nice addition.2) I also think that traps should provide retaliation.3) hunter’s determination, I do not agree with your change. It needs to be completely reworked.4) a 20% reduceses CD on LB skills would be nice on heavy light.

What does not work:

DH is not lacking in sustainability at all. What it lacking in PvP is damage, yet all your changes are focused on sustainability.

1) WoR does not need a buff. Neither does SoC.2) guardian is loaded with condi removal. Having access to resistance is a not remotely balanced.3) DH major grandmasters, aside from heavy light are strong. The change you are suggesting for hunters fortification is a nerf btw. You are giving a class with heavy condi removal less damage from condis. You can see how logically that does not make sense.

Also, big game hunter is strong as is. Your suggestion is broke. 200 power and 150 ferocity, on top of the increased damage and vulnerability. Also you maintain passive. Lol?!

@"crazyhusky.2985" said:As you know it's been a little over 2 years since Dragonhunter had any work done to it, Several of the traits are just beyond useless and don't do much to help it out now,

This is incorrect, the last changes to DH were about exactly a year ago.

Deflecting Shot - By defeault it give knocks back enemies on each hit. I don't know why this isn't a thing, Ranger's LB has it by default so it should have it to, its really needed as the LB lacks any form of CC. Hunter's ward takes way to long.

This isn't an unreasonable thing to ask. Would be a good change IMO.

Wings of Resolve - Add 1 sec dodge to this move, you are literally jumping up in the air to avoid things, Literally every other class in game has evade on a skill but Guardian and Nerco this is needed for Guardian. Daredevil has a jumping dodge triat which allows it to.

By this logic it would be perfectly reasonable to give Daredevil access to Aegis. Is it logical though? I don't think so. Somebody got this dumb idea of WoR needing an evade which has been hovering around the sub-forum ever since. The reality is that if it gets an evade, it loses all the healing. And DH already has plenty of hard damage mitigation. Realistically the casting time could be decreased, overall making the skill faster thus more reliable.

Shield of Courage Passive Barrier when aegis brakes you gain barrier (25%HP) (Cooldown 40 sec) The cooldown is as long as passive this prevents dragonhunter's from using aegis only skills to gain barrier multiple times over and walking become barrier tank. The reason for barrier on Shield of Courage is because Guardian doesn't have access to it, and secondly Aegis is kinda pointless as it doesn't protect you from much anymore, which many skills and triats from people that are unblockable these days, there is not much point of trying to keep aegis up.

DH does not need access to Barrier. Guardian as a whole is unlikely to ever get it, because Aegis.

Major Adept - Piercing Light - Traps give Retaliation(6 secs) and have reduced recharge, they also slow enemies.

6 seconds is a bit much. You're supposed to work for your Boon uptime, not get it all for free. I'd suggest making it more along the lines of 3 seconds.In any case, I don't see this really ever happening. The retal crit bonus was always ment more for Core than DH.

Major Adept - Dulled Senses - Enemies you disable are crippled. Enemies you cripple are also inflicted with vulnerability. (Disables include stun, daze, knockback, pull, knockdown, sink, float, launch, taunt, and fear.)

This I can support. Would be a pure PvE change since nobody in their right mind is going to pick this trait over Piercing Light in PvP/WvW.

Major Adept - Soaring Devastation - Wings of Resolve has increased outgoing healing power and range of healing and delivers an attack upon landing. Wings of Resolve retains it's Virtue passive while on cooldown. (Gives the same effect as Firebrand's Loremaster triat)

DH is not a healer so I fail to see the value in this. Retaining the passive is alright I suppose.

Minor Master - Defender's Dogma - When you use a virtue you gain light aura(3 secs), when under the effects light aura you gain fury, regen and resistance.

This is not okay. If you didn't know, Light Aura is the only aura that actually stacks duration. So realistically you could stack 18 seconds of Light Aura + the 2x4 seconds from Radiance. Sound a bit overtuned?Besides, these boons you've taken give an impression you don't know what you want the trait to do, so you just gave it a bit of everything. Guardian doesn't need more anti-condi, not even DH.

Major Master - Hunter's Determination Gain Retaliation, Regen and Resistance (4secs for each) and cast Shards of Faith when disabled. Disables include stun, daze, knockback, pull, knockdown, sink, float, launch, taunt, and fear.

My previous comment regarding anti-condi still stands. No resi. Without Resistance it kinda feels like a meme change though. Right up ANets alley.

Major Master Bulwark - Shield of Courage gains increased radius and duration. the Barrier from Shield of Courage's passive is now stronger (gives 33% HP barrier instead of 25%HP). Shield of Courage retains it's Virtue passive while on cooldown. (Gives the same effect as Firebrand's Loremaster triat)

I've commented about Barrier before. That comment stands.

Major Grandmaster - Hunter's Fortification - Remove conditions when blocking attacks. Receive less damage when you have conditions on you. when you are struck while below the health threshold (75% HP) Conditions on you do less damage (33%) to you.

DH in PvP doesn't need more tankiness, it needs more damage and more mobility. No support for this.

Major Grandmaster - Heavy Light - All Longbow skills now pierce, Hunter's Ward now casts faster and has a reduced cooldown by 10, (40 seconds to 30 seconds). Gain Retaliation(8secs) and Quickness(6 secs) when knocking back, launching, or pulling an enemy. (10 second cooldown for control part of the trait like it normally has.)

Bow isn't used in PvE so why exactly does this trait need Retal and Quick? For PvE specifically. On the other hand, they would be great for PvP so I'm not against the change either. Your reasoning just makes no sense.

Major Grandmaster - Big Game Hunter - Striking an enemy tethered by your Spear of Justice causes vulnerability and increases damage dealt. Gain Might and Fury when tethered to a foe, When you are under the effects of fury you get a slight Power and Ferocity increase (+200 power and +150 Ferocity). Spear of Justice retains it's Virtue passive while on cooldown. (Gives the same effect as Firebrand's Loremaster triat)

Uhm, just no. You've crammed way too much into the trait. A modest Power Increase(like 100 to 150) against tethered targets + Fury(1 second) every second while tethered would be alright but that's about as much as you can give it.

How do you guys feel about this tweaks and reworks for my suggested Dragonhunter.

Overall, Dragonhunter does not need this many changes. Especially for PvE. You said your PoV is mostly PvE but honestly these changes look more geared towards PvP, while making it ridiculously overtuned in every way in the process. It's only recently that DH has fallen off the major DPS wagon, and that can be rectified by adjusting a few damage modifiers in the DPS weapons, scepter and greatsword. No need to change the entire ESpec for that reason.