Guild Wars 2

Hi there!

I currently have a ranger that’s about to hit 80 (my first character to 80, yay!). I like the idea of being a healer so druid seems like a really fun way to play for me, but is it useful in larger group settings such as fractals, dungeons, and raids? And if so, are there any builds you would recommend?

As well, I’m still sitting on 2 max level boosts and want to use one. I really enjoy playing at range but being self-sufficient while still able to contribute to a team. Any recommendations for which profession to do that with? I was thinking about necromancer but I don’t know what is/isn’t viable in the current game.

With your ranger, you can’t do too much wrong. Druids have 2/10 spots in raids (though I hope that’s reduced to 1 with the new addon) and are a nice addition to most fractal groups. If a druid isn’t needed, switching to condi ranger yields a solid dps class. For builds, just check http://qtfy.eu/builds/

Just one thing, though: Playing at range is not how you contribute to a team in GW2. Most buffs are shared at rather close range, so people usually stack pretty close to each other.

All the professions are ok as long as your build makes sense in the type ofncontent you play. The content also isnt so hard that classes are straight up not viable so ye.

DavidGo.1729:

I really enjoy playing at range but being self-sufficient while still able to contribute to a team.

You should let go of that mentality for Raid and Fractals in this game:

• Druid and Chrono support abilities are mostly melee range, so standing far from them means they would not be able to heal/support you
• Many raid/fractal bosses have punishing mechanics targeted at the furthest away player. For fractals, a few bosses have teleport skills which are annoying to deal with for teammates. For raid, groups often assign someone to be the sacrificial lamb for these attacks.
• Generally you also want to prevent boss from moving a lot, so classes that deal most of their damage from AoE won’t lose DPS because boss can move outside of their AoE. One common way groups do this is to have everyone stand in close range to the boss. Having player unnecessarily in range increases the chance boss might move around.

You can still use ranged weapon in melee, as most people do in those situations. Condi warrior & druid’s meta builds are all ranged weapons.

P.S. These mechanics might change with the expansions tho.

All of them have value in their own ways. Some are overshadowed, some are undertuned, others are overtuned or simply bring too much. But every class at max level brings something of value. Even if their value is quite niche.

All classes can be, and often are ‘good’ in the right situations. The beautiful thing about this game is finding these situations, or creating them yourself with friends.

That’s all great to know, thank you all so much!