The druid would be a nature mage and shapeshifter.
It starts out with F1 being human form, using 5 abilities granted by staff or trident, no other weapons available.. and F2 being the first available animal form at lvl1. Then at level 5 it would get a second animal form with F3, and at lvl10 a third animal form with F4.
In human form it wields a staff, or trident underwater, giving 5 skills based on nature magik, focusing on ranged combat, since the animal forms will be mostly melee combat. This gives the druid a nice choice between melee (shapeshift forms) and range (human form staff skills).
The F2 shapeshift would be based on direct damage. (Maybe a stag.)
The F3 shapeshift would be based on condition damage. (Maybe a feline.)
The F4 shapeshift would be based on control and support. (Maybe a bear.)
The elementalist already has a similar class mechanic, and limiting the druid to only one weapon set is unreasonable at best. even the engineer with the lowest number of weapon sets has 3 weapon sets, on top of like 7 kit skills that grant them several weapon set style abilities.
Utilities would be:
- 4 signets.
every class has 4 signets, be specific as to what they would do.
- 4 summons (ethereal elementals such as faeries, pixies and sylphs).
except no such things actually exist in GW2 lore. Perhaps read a bit about the guild wars 2 lore before making suggestions?
- 4 earth utilities, such as rooting yourself for stability and retaliation (spikes on the roots), tremors to cripple and slow, rock walls that need to be destroyed during which the druid can cast spells safe from attacks, etc..
the only unique one that you’ve given would be the first one, the stability and retaliation. Other than that, the rest is covered by the elementalist, the rock walls are too equivalent to an invulnerability feature already implemented in the elementalist arsenal.
- 4 herbalist-based skills, where the druid has access to salves for condition curing and potions for buffs.
engineers have elixers already.
Elite skills would be:
- A summon ability, such as calling upon a massive flock of ravens.
This skill is already in the ranger arsenal.
again, what would be so special about this signet?
- A short term transformation into something fierce like a gryphon or unicorn, granting 5 weapon skills just like the shapeshifts, with the difference that it only lasts a short while, where are shapeshifts are permanent until canceled.
again, the transformation needs to be something relevant to lore, so no unicorns, but the griffon sounds like a good idea.
I think a druid class would fit perfectly with GW2 mechanics.
they already have druids in guild wars 2 lore btw. The druids removed their physical bodies to become spirits of nature. a new rise of that would be difficult to implement into guild wars 2 and the easiest method of doing that would be to give the ranger a staff, a scepter and a focus.
i’d say try again and keep in mind what the other classes have, and also racial abilities too.
maybe in some future datadisk ^^