Guild Wars 2

Because they are doing the Druid at Twitch Con I wasn’t really sure if we’d still get a teaser. I would love! love love! if we still did. <3

DRUID HYPE <3

We’ll still get a teaser image i imagine, I can’t see why we wouldn’t.

I believe that_shaman already data-mined the Druid art.

Most exciting thing for me is absence of pet

I have a theory that they are replacing for the druid pets with an mechanic where the druid changes aspects which will also influence his glyphs

Me all day tomorrow.

I don’t see why to be honest. The only thing the teasers did was show us what class and weapon we were getting info about. We already know the class is ranger(druid) and the weapon is staff so the teaser seems kinda….unnescessary.

Well, they do show the skin of the weapon, along with a special armor piece, and they’re beautifully done art to boot. Plus we have someone making a Professions Picture who likely wants all the bits so it can be finished.

ImTasty.2163:

I don’t see why to be honest. The only thing the teasers did was show us what class and weapon we were getting info about. We already know the class is ranger(druid) and the weapon is staff so the teaser seems kinda….unnescessary.

Not really. We knew the Mesmer, Ranger and Engineer before hand. Hey we even knew the Guardian elite specialization beforehand from the same trailer. We also knew Necro before. It’s more for marketing excitement.

Nephziel.6053:

I believe that_shaman already data-mined the Druid art.

Most exciting thing for me is absence of pet

That’s just the art for the background image of the trait line. It wouldn’t have a pet anyway.

They already confirmed that druids will still have pets. As much as I’d like to see them go back on that, I doubt we’ll see it since that would invalidate the entire BM trait specialization for any druid.

Ark Bladesteele.2943:

Nephziel.6053:

I believe that_shaman already data-mined the Druid art.

Most exciting thing for me is absence of pet

That’s just the art for the background image of the trait line. It wouldn’t have a pet anyway.

I have some bad news for you…

Morfedel.4165:

I have a theory that they are replacing for the druid pets with an mechanic where the druid changes aspects which will also influence his glyphs

I believe in the no-pet druid. I’d much rather see shape shifting.

Dahkeus.8243:

They already confirmed that druids will still have pets. As much as I’d like to see them go back on that, I doubt we’ll see it since that would invalidate the entire BM trait specialization for any druid.

Source on the druid pet claim?

And they can invalidate an entire spec line with no problem. If you spec Druid, don’t spec beast. It’s as simple as that. You can only run 2 lines anyways.

Gav.1425:

Dahkeus.8243:

They already confirmed that druids will still have pets. As much as I’d like to see them go back on that, I doubt we’ll see it since that would invalidate the entire BM trait specialization for any druid.

Source on the druid pet claim?

And they can invalidate an entire spec line with no problem. If you spec Druid, don’t spec beast. It’s as simple as that. You can only run 2 lines anyways.

That mean, that you know nothing at all about ranger.
Go threw skills, threw traits, threw utilities, threw Elite skill, and maybe you’ll understand, why druid are impossible without pet.

That’s a really pretty artwork picture. I’ve been curious about seeing the druid the most!

Gav.1425:

Dahkeus.8243:

They already confirmed that druids will still have pets. As much as I’d like to see them go back on that, I doubt we’ll see it since that would invalidate the entire BM trait specialization for any druid.

Source on the druid pet claim?

And they can invalidate an entire spec line with no problem. If you spec Druid, don’t spec beast. It’s as simple as that. You can only run 2 lines anyways.

Firstly, in the initial trailer the Druid was shown using a staff skill that shot vines forward and that attack appeared to be followed up by an alpine wolf that wasn’t behaving normally. It was likely a scripted sequence in engine with the pet standing standing in combat stance, rather than idle stance, to make the trailer look better. But why go to the effort of including the pet in the trailer at that point, especially in making it behave differently, if you’re going to remove it from the elite spec?

More importantly, the big reason why they cannot just remove the animal companion entirely is that it invalidates part of or all of:
Hilt Bash
Hunter’s Shot
Crippling Shot
Pounce
Winter’s Bite
Feeding Frenzy
Dart
Lick Wounds and the overall nightmare that is downstate Rangers.
Signets
Shouts
Rampage as One
The reason the Ranger has such high access to group support/vuln/soft CC.
Clarion Bond
Alpha Training
Moment of Clarity
Sharpened Edges
Expertise Training
Companion’s defence
Refined Toxins
Shared Anguish
Bark Skin
Empathic Bond
Poison Master
Pretty much all our general use traits in Wilderness Survival actually.
Allies’ aid
Fortifying Bond
Vigorous Training
Lingering Magic
Invigorating Bond
Pretty much everything except three major traits in Beastmastery, one improving a now useless skill type.

Every traitline besides Skirmishing and Wilderness Survival has one or more minor traits that require the pet to do anything. To top that off, many of Wilderness Survival’s major traits require you to have a pet to function. Which means a Druid, if the spec removes the pet entirely, would have a selection of 1 specialisation and 3 gutted specialisations, 1 less set of utilities and would lose the “I have an extra body helping me” synergy inherent in all ranger builds.

Knighthonor.4061:

ImTasty.2163:

I don’t see why to be honest. The only thing the teasers did was show us what class and weapon we were getting info about. We already know the class is ranger(druid) and the weapon is staff so the teaser seems kinda….unnescessary.

Not really. We knew the Mesmer, Ranger and Engineer before hand. Hey we even knew the Guardian elite specialization beforehand from the same trailer. We also knew Necro before. It’s more for marketing excitement.

Well a teaser pic was released so that clears up whether or not we get one however, I think you misunderstand what I said. Yes we knew that the mesmer was getting a shield and the necro getting a gs but at the time we did not know what order they were releasing them in. That was why the teaser was extremely helpful. Before the chronomancer reveal we had no idea what e-spec we were getting. I was saying that a teaser with the druid seemed unnecessary to me because it’s the last e-spec. We knew by default what we were getting.

https://twitter.com/GuildWars2/status/645991879906041856

Gav.1425:

Dahkeus.8243:

They already confirmed that druids will still have pets. As much as I’d like to see them go back on that, I doubt we’ll see it since that would invalidate the entire BM trait specialization for any druid.

Source on the druid pet claim?

And they can invalidate an entire spec line with no problem. If you spec Druid, don’t spec beast. It’s as simple as that. You can only run 2 lines anyways.

They could do what they did for reapers, have a mechanic like “instead of your pet, this bonus is granted to…”

Yeah, though, prob going to be keeping pet after all.

We got a teaser!

I know this might seem odd to the rest of you. But it’s exciting to me and I love the art style. Great start to my week!

Gav.1425:

Dahkeus.8243:

They already confirmed that druids will still have pets. As much as I’d like to see them go back on that, I doubt we’ll see it since that would invalidate the entire BM trait specialization for any druid.

Source on the druid pet claim?

And they can invalidate an entire spec line with no problem. If you spec Druid, don’t spec beast. It’s as simple as that. You can only run 2 lines anyways.

Basically the HoT trailer is your source. They show the druid casting a vine spell with the wolf running into battle alongside it. Why would they show something they don’t plan on including with Druids?

Bryzy.2719:

Basically the HoT trailer is your source. They show the druid casting a vine spell with the wolf running into battle alongside it. Why would they show something they don’t plan on including with Druids?

Because all those months ago when they made the trailer they had a design in mind but since then it’s changed? Like adding weapon swap to Revenant.

I’m on the side of the debate that believes the pets will persist, especially as you only 1/3 trait to the Elite. In fact, for RPers’ sakes who give their pets names and personality and an integral place in their plot lines, I rather hope they will. But I’m sure if they had reached a design point where ditching the pet made sense for the Elite, they’d do so.

I do recall one dev’s offhand comment in an interview that he felt the featured Druid staff skill shown in the trailer was “the most boring one.” Or maybe “the least exciting.” I remember the sentiment more than the precise phrase. So they’re likely to iterate pretty much everything we see in that clip.

So while pet retention seems a nigh certainty to me for other reasons, I in no way consider the wolf in the trailer as binding on ANet.