Power Dragonhunter

Heavy Light does two jobs with one trait: disabling an enemy grants you Stability, and disabled, exposed or defiant foes take more strike damage from you. Your crowd control and your damage are the same input — and Test of Faith's ring is unblockable and hits a disabled target harder still.

Zealot's Aggression pays you for a cripple that Justice's passive is already applying, and Soaring Devastation turns Wings of Resolve into a landing attack that immobilizes, so your heal is your gap-closer and your stick. Furious Focus wants Fury on you, and Procession of Blades hands you eight seconds of it when the trap goes off.

Underneath, Radiance runs the Resolution chain: Virtue of Resolution grants it on every virtue, Righteous Instincts converts it to crit chance and Might, Retribution to strike damage. Defender's Dogma makes Shelter pay twice — blocking an attack charges Justice to full and pulls Spear of Justice off cooldown. One warning: Right-Hand Strength's power half does nothing here, because Spear and Greatsword are both two-handed; you only get its precision.

Marauder, Berserker's and Dragon's with Scholar runes. Scholar is power and ferocity and nothing else — no defence at all — and you are walking into the pile to use it, which is why the prefixes are split three ways for the vitality rather than run as pure Berserker's.

The rest of the durability is eaten, not worn. Mists-Infused Spherified Peppercorn-Spiced Oyster Soup gives +45 to every attribute and, in WvW, -10% incoming damage — the single largest defensive line on the build, and it is on none of the gear. Writ of Masterful Strength adds 200 power while you are above 90% health, so you walk into the fight with the spike already loaded. Both are worth keeping stocked; without them this is a noticeably thinner character than the sheet suggests.

Dragonhunter is the payoff for the traps: everything a trap hits is hunted, and you deal more strike damage to it afterwards. Celerity gives you five seconds of Quickness off a disable, which this build produces on its own, and Rage three more off a critical hit. Hydromancy damages and chills nearby foes as you swap in, and Bloodlust builds +10 power a kill up to 25 stacks — and drops all of them the moment you go down.

Traps are a commitment: you arm them where you think the fight will be, not where it is. Against an enemy that keeps moving and refuses to hold ground, half of your bar lands on empty dirt — Guardian wastes fewer cooldowns doing the same melee job, and it carries "Stand Your Ground!" for the squad where this bar's Stability is only ever for you. And if the squad needs boons rather than another body in the bomb, that is a Firebrand or a Luminary, not this.