While I think GW2 is a marvellous game I’ve never been able to really click with it and have only ever been an on and off player. Two things stood in the way.
First, I normally play healers in online games and GW2 essentially does away with them.
Second, I could never settle on a class. I like the theme of some (guardians, rangers, elementalists) and the mechanics of others (rogues, engineers) but couldn’t get everything in one package.
One thing I had always wished for was rangers being able to wield some of the ‘magic’ type weapons and be more druid-like. And here it is! So that’s enough for me buy the expansion regardless of what else it contains.
they also said that there are gonna be different mechanics to a class once it’s specialised
so i’m thinking that the ranger, once a druid could shapeshift into any of his pets
I sort of feel like they’re going to use the expansion content to shore up the lack of good support/healing builds in the game, so I would not be at all surprised if that’s what we get with the Druid.
I sort of feel like they’re going to use the expansion content to shore up the lack of good support/healing builds in the game, so I would not be at all surprised if that’s what we get with the Druid.
Looks like the specialisations will be used to help classes in places they suffer, yeah.
I’m just hoping this Druid gives the Ranger some nice, effective condition cleanses.
Well, I love druids. As long as they are very versatile and preferably are capable of shapeshifting.
I really wished my ranger was a norn and not human, but who could have ever forseen this move.
Even though Norn shapeshifting sucks kitten, it would have fitted perfectly to the druidic theme.
I will not reroll my ranger though, not with the new trait system still active anyways. So I am hoping for some nice shapeshifting elite for druids, even though I do not really expect this to happen…
Well, I love druids. As long as they are very versatile and preferably are capable of shapeshifting.
I really wished my ranger was a norn and not human, but who could have ever forseen this move.
Even though Norn shapeshifting sucks kitten, it would have fitted perfectly to the druidic theme.
I will not reroll my ranger though, not with the new trait system still active anyways. So I am hoping for some nice shapeshifting elite for druids, even though I do not really expect this to happen…
They’re redoing the trait system with HoT so it might be a good plan to do it then!
Well, I love druids. As long as they are very versatile and preferably are capable of shapeshifting.
I really wished my ranger was a norn and not human, but who could have ever forseen this move.
Even though Norn shapeshifting sucks kitten, it would have fitted perfectly to the druidic theme.
I will not reroll my ranger though, not with the new trait system still active anyways. So I am hoping for some nice shapeshifting elite for druids, even though I do not really expect this to happen…
shapeshifting won’t happen. that’s a norn thing. you can expect a lot of nature-based magic stuff, but more in the veins of entangle and spirits, not “army of bears, werewolf dude”
they also said that there are gonna be different mechanics to a class once it’s specialised
so i’m thinking that the ranger, once a druid could shapeshift into any of his pets
kitten that would be RAD!!
Man, that would be cool. I don’t like playing professions with pets. They annoy me. But if I could shapeshift into different animals which gave me different abilities that would be really awesome. Guild Wars 2 conceivably already has the structure for such a thing to exist. You could swap animal spirits like an Elementalist swaps Attunements!
Leader of Contre [VS], just a bunch of zen adults
focus on Dungeons, Fractals and Raiding.
Well, I love druids. As long as they are very versatile and preferably are capable of shapeshifting.
I really wished my ranger was a norn and not human, but who could have ever forseen this move.
Even though Norn shapeshifting sucks kitten, it would have fitted perfectly to the druidic theme.
I will not reroll my ranger though, not with the new trait system still active anyways. So I am hoping for some nice shapeshifting elite for druids, even though I do not really expect this to happen…
They’re redoing the trait system with HoT so it might be a good plan to do it then!
They’re not redoing the trait system, they’re re-revising the way traits are acquired because the previously revised system was not implemented well.
So anyway, this is my prediction for specializations. You get 10 skills and one trait line. It will also change some functionality in the F-keys. That’s it. Shapeshifting “could” be a thing, but it’s unlikely. We get five weapon skills, which won’t be that. One heal skill which probably won’t be that. Three skills in a new skill group and a new elite which could be that but probably won’t.
All I wanted was them to replace pets on my ranger with something more useful (accepting that fixing pets is impossible) ><
We’re on the same page… I’ve been on that page for two years now. And, they aren’t going to be anywhere near “useful” because then they’d be considered OP in PVP by the majority. Considering they do 90-99% of their balancing by PVP that means our pets will remain dumb. Not to mention they are tied to normal mob AI and for our pets to get better that means normal mob AI would be considered OP by the majority of players. Remember when Cursed Shore was more difficult? Yeah, they toned it down long ago. I have no hope that they’ll fix pets or release the Ranger from the shackles of it, what I do hope is that the Ranger will get a Specialization that completely replaces the pet (Preps from GW1 would be awesome). I’m hoping the 2nd or 3rd expansion they’ll bring it out as I suspect that Specializations are only going to be coming out with expansions.
they also said that there are gonna be different mechanics to a class once it’s specialised
so i’m thinking that the ranger, once a druid could shapeshift into any of his pets
kitten that would be RAD!!
As said above, that’s really not likely to happen out of all the given options.
RNG is a bell curve. Better hope you’re on the right side.
I’ve also really been wanting Ranger to use some magical weapons with nature magic. While everyone else was clamoring for rifles or pistols or hammer or whatever for Ranger, I’ve always wanted a staff or scepter (I actually was preferring scepter personally, so I could go Scepter / Warhorn, but staff should be really nice too).
So yah, I’m pretty happy with Druid. Although I hope they don’t change the core playstyle too much. I absolutely LOVE the way Ranger plays right now (even though I know I’m in the minority there), so if Druid changes anything with the Ranger playstyle too dramatically I might be pretty torn.
Like, it would be the absolute worst if they gave in to the constant demands for less pet reliance with Druid, since I love the pet synergy (again, I know I’m in the minority). If I had to choose between Staff or the current pet dynamic, that would suck. Thankfully, that doesn’t appear to be the case so far, and Druid isn’t really the type of specialization I would expect to be less connected to pets / nature, so I’m not too worried, but I’ll be happy once we get 100% confirmation on what exactly Druid does besides just give you a staff.
guys…the ranger has never got any love. The class is totally broken. Just compare ranger survival skills with the warriors..or eles…or thieves…ranger is 100km behind such classes.
Moreover look at our F skills and compare them to other classes F skills…compare our pets with…warrior eviscerate for example….
There is no hope Anet won’ t fix ranger. And druid will suck hard in pvp couse ranger sucks hard. So don’ t be too happy. The disappointment train for rangers never stops…..
It is painfully obvious how the druid profession will work in HoT.
The marksmanship traitline will be locked out if you pick the druid profession. It will be replaced by the druidism traitline.
A consequence of this will be that druids won’t be able to use longbows but instead get a staff specialization.
The new trait line will include 13+x new traits (depending if and how many new traits the old traitlines will get).
Druids will lose the ability to use traps but get four new utility skills in a new category which will be buffed in the new traitline.
That’s pretty much what is going to happen, and I am OK with that. I never liked bows anyway.
It is painfully obvious how the druid profession will work in HoT.
The marksmanship traitline will be locked out if you pick the druid profession. It will be replaced by the druidism traitline.
A consequence of this will be that druids won’t be able to use longbows but instead get a staff specialization.
The new trait line will include 13+x new traits (depending if and how many new traits the old traitlines will get).
Druids will lose the ability to use traps but get four new utility skills in a new category which will be buffed in the new traitline.
That’s pretty much what is going to happen, and I am OK with that. I never liked bows anyway.
i’d like to see where people got the idea that entire trait lines will be removed and replaced with something new, instead of current trait lines getting sprinkled with druid-only traits?
It is painfully obvious how the druid profession will work in HoT.
The marksmanship traitline will be locked out if you pick the druid profession. It will be replaced by the druidism traitline.
A consequence of this will be that druids won’t be able to use longbows but instead get a staff specialization.
The new trait line will include 13+x new traits (depending if and how many new traits the old traitlines will get).
Druids will lose the ability to use traps but get four new utility skills in a new category which will be buffed in the new traitline.
That’s pretty much what is going to happen, and I am OK with that. I never liked bows anyway.
This is pretty much what I’m imagining, too, but we really have no idea what Anet has up their sleeves.
It is painfully obvious how the druid profession will work in HoT.
The marksmanship traitline will be locked out if you pick the druid profession. It will be replaced by the druidism traitline.
A consequence of this will be that druids won’t be able to use longbows but instead get a staff specialization.
The new trait line will include 13+x new traits (depending if and how many new traits the old traitlines will get).
Druids will lose the ability to use traps but get four new utility skills in a new category which will be buffed in the new traitline.
That’s pretty much what is going to happen, and I am OK with that. I never liked bows anyway.
i’d like to see where people got the idea that entire trait lines will be removed and replaced with something new, instead of current trait lines getting sprinkled with druid-only traits?
It’s come up in a couple of the immediately post announcement interviews from what I understand.
People will still be complete indifferent (if not outright hostile) to healers in most gameplay modes.
The Druid still has a huge chunk of their expected value tied up in a dumb-as-rocks AI pet.
I’m glad to have the variety, but I just don’t see Druids as being much of a thing when compared to the pre-existing list of Ranger problems they stand to inherit.
“You keep saying ‘its unfair.’
I wonder what your basis for comparison is…”
- Jareth, King of Goblins.
It is painfully obvious how the druid profession will work in HoT.
The marksmanship traitline will be locked out if you pick the druid profession. It will be replaced by the druidism traitline.
A consequence of this will be that druids won’t be able to use longbows but instead get a staff specialization.
The new trait line will include 13+x new traits (depending if and how many new traits the old traitlines will get).
Druids will lose the ability to use traps but get four new utility skills in a new category which will be buffed in the new traitline.
That’s pretty much what is going to happen, and I am OK with that. I never liked bows anyway.
i’d like to see where people got the idea that entire trait lines will be removed and replaced with something new, instead of current trait lines getting sprinkled with druid-only traits?
It’s come up in a couple of the immediately post announcement interviews from what I understand.
its’s come up that they would have their own exclusive traits, not a trait line being replaced by another.
guys…the ranger has never got any love. The class is totally broken. Just compare ranger survival skills with the warriors..or eles…or thieves…ranger is 100km behind such classes.
I guess you’ve never used a BM bunker build then. With it you can tank better than most other builds in the game, especially if you use conditions and sword/dagger for evades.
The only thing I believe we’re lacking is decent condition removal.
guys…the ranger has never got any love. The class is totally broken. Just compare ranger survival skills with the warriors..or eles…or thieves…ranger is 100km behind such classes.
Moreover look at our F skills and compare them to other classes F skills…compare our pets with…warrior eviscerate for example….
There is no hope Anet won’ t fix ranger. And druid will suck hard in pvp couse ranger sucks hard. So don’ t be too happy. The disappointment train for rangers never stops…..
No offense but a sucking ranger is usually a sucky player. Rangers arent bad as you make them seem. And someone mentioned turning into our animals… I can truly achieve bowbear hidden powers ;3
If the druid allows me to make my pet even more powerful, I’m all for it. If it’s some jungle gimmick where you cast ‘spells’ or some other nonsense, forget it.
Interesting. It sounds like people are thinking ArenaNet went with something like This Suggestion from the discussion of sub-classes a year ago.
honestly, it’s pretty clear specializations flourished from that discussion (and the ranger CDI as well).
people might complain that ANet doesn’t implement the features the way they wanted, but you can’t fault them for not trying to do the things people asked for.
guys…the ranger has never got any love. The class is totally broken. Just compare ranger survival skills with the warriors..or eles…or thieves…ranger is 100km behind such classes.
I guess you’ve never used a BM bunker build then. With it you can tank better than most other builds in the game, especially if you use conditions and sword/dagger for evades.
The only thing I believe we’re lacking is decent condition removal.
that’s a complaint i never understood. healing spring might not remove all the condis at once, but it’s a great condi removal source (the fact that it keeps on applying regen to slow down the damage condis is also great), on top of being a super long water field where you can use those leaps and blasts on. then you have pets that remove conditions from you. then you have signet of renewal. then you have a trait that makes survival skills cleanse condis.
I’m a little late to this party; however, in my mind, the druid might play like, and these are literally the only examples I can think, treant protector and nature prophet from dota. Treant can stealth(by trees) leech seed enemies, and regen stuff, and entangle foes. Natures Prophet has a teleport, a circle of trees(like guard hammer ward but placeable aoe), and can summon treants, and an attack that jumps to foes even when they’re at a distance(it being a moment his range is if it’s in part of a map exposed, it gets hit).
The only alternative i have is the diablo 2 druid, but I really doubt that’s the route it would go, i would say sadly, but I don’t think that would work for this game regardless of how awesome it was)
that’s a complaint i never understood. healing spring might not remove all the condis at once, but it’s a great condi removal source (the fact that it keeps on applying regen to slow down the damage condis is also great), on top of being a super long water field where you can use those leaps and blasts on. then you have pets that remove conditions from you. then you have signet of renewal. then you have a trait that makes survival skills cleanse condis.
rangers are more than fine with condi removal.
Don’t get me wrong, we have condition removal options, but a lot of them are situational. Signet of Renewal requires your pet to be alive and near you, as does the trait ‘Empathic Bond’.
As for Healing Spring, it’s the best condi removal option we have but I personally feel it’s healing capabilities are completely outshone by Trolls Unguent.
that’s a complaint i never understood. healing spring might not remove all the condis at once, but it’s a great condi removal source (the fact that it keeps on applying regen to slow down the damage condis is also great), on top of being a super long water field where you can use those leaps and blasts on. then you have pets that remove conditions from you. then you have signet of renewal. then you have a trait that makes survival skills cleanse condis.
rangers are more than fine with condi removal.
Don’t get me wrong, we have condition removal options, but a lot of them are situational. Signet of Renewal requires your pet to be alive and near you, as does the trait ‘Empathic Bond’.
As for Healing Spring, it’s the best condi removal option we have but I personally feel it’s healing capabilities are completely outshone by Trolls Unguent.
well, try being a thief, where we only have situational condi removals (as in “you can only heal these specific conditions with these skills”), unless we are in a shadow arts spec (which nowadays is getting more popular with the panic strike builds, granted), and even then it’s one condi every 3 seconds (guess what, stealth only lasts 3 seconds unless you’re using shadow refuge).
back on druid though, what if he was a less necro-themed Touch Ranger ? focus on close range life stealing spells. it was the most “magical” rangers got in GW1, unless i’m forgetting some popular R/E or R/Mo build :P
well, try being a thief, where we only have situational condi removals (as in “you can only heal these specific conditions with these skills”), unless we are in a shadow arts spec (which nowadays is getting more popular with the panic strike builds, granted), and even then it’s one condi every 3 seconds (guess what, stealth only lasts 3 seconds unless you’re using shadow refuge).
I actually have a few thieves and find that trait line to be amazingly powerful. With a dagger offhand you can stealth indefinitely and that trait removes a condition on stealth and then once every 3 seconds so that’s 2 conditions removed for every cloak and dagger and 6 conditions removed from a full use of shadows refuge.
back on druid though, what if he was a less necro-themed Touch Ranger ? focus on close range life stealing spells. it was the most “magical” rangers got in GW1, unless i’m forgetting some popular R/E or R/Mo build :P
That could be fun, I remember running a touch ranger for a while back in the day, it’s one of the reasons I play a melee ranger in this game.
well, try being a thief, where we only have situational condi removals (as in “you can only heal these specific conditions with these skills”), unless we are in a shadow arts spec (which nowadays is getting more popular with the panic strike builds, granted), and even then it’s one condi every 3 seconds (guess what, stealth only lasts 3 seconds unless you’re using shadow refuge).
I actually have a few thieves and find that trait line to be amazingly powerful. With a dagger offhand you can stealth indefinitely and that trait removes a condition on stealth and then once every 3 seconds so that’s 2 conditions removed for every cloak and dagger and 6 conditions removed from a full use of shadows refuge.
it’s a really strong trait line, yes, if you want to sacrifice the thief’s main strength for stealth-centric survivability. it works wonders on WvW, where you can do whatever you want with stealth without consequence, but on sPvP it’s almost never used (long stealth is bad), and on PvE i find that 3 points in acrobatics is all you need defensively.
