Guild Wars 2

Right now, druids tend to only really be used for roaming/havoc rather than in zergs, so I started designing a Druid build that could be useful as a frontliner.

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQJAWRn0rCNsg1CCWsCUtgFMBzJxlqqZNLrBQAAum2TDqXIfTQA-TFSBABVq+TYK/04RA4oSQAOCA7v/gg6C0/CAEAAB4m3MbezADdoDdoDdoN0hO0hO0hWKARXGB-w

The primary purpose of this build is to throw down a crap ton of crowd control (immobilizes and dazes, mostly), while also providing group support in the form of heals and stunbreaks.

I’m by no means advocating that this replace guards or revs as core frontline, but I feel like having a few druids in a zerg running something like this would definitely have a positive effect in fights.

Thoughts? I’d love feedback, and I’d be more than happy to explain in-depth some of my choices for skills/traits.

Eles do most of that.

Well, there seems to be a few issues.

First is verdant etching. It’s fairly slow and also drops a light field which is a big no-no. Yea you can position yourself a bit off to the side but it doesn’t change the fact that your heal is connected with a light field. I think you’ll get more mileage out of celestial shadow with super speed and maybe stealth on lows

The 2nd thing of note is that you have no stability whatsoever and merely a single stunbreak with the glyph. This would mean that you’d have to be placed with a guardian.

Also, I don’t see the point of Wilderness Survival. That tree is entirely selfish and you might get some mileage out of entangle, and Wilderness Knowledge but you’re not making use of that either. Empathtic bond and a frontline doesn’t seem to mean much.

I think it may be better to swap it with beastmastery and resounding timbre, while taking Strength of the Pack. Maybe pursue trooper runes and shouts. You’re not getting mileage out of the durability because you don’t give out many boons.

I think picking up ancient seeds can make up for the loss of entangle.

Also drop like 300 toughness. Maybe try out some zealots/marauders/crusaders weapons or trinkets if possible.

You ever think that being ‘meta’ in wvsw really isn’t all that? I mean meta for wvsw is just a set of guidelines of how to run around the map acting like a glorified gundam/transformer/robot/insertreferencehere. Is that really all its played out to be?
In wvsw being meta doesn’t mean being useful and it definitely doesn’t mean being awesome. Its just 1 playstyle among many viable alternatives.

Maybe just sit out the meta with ur druid instead. Change how you play and/or the role you play. Work on forming ur own squad and getting them to play to druid strengths….you could make a zerg full of people playing this way and find no difference in ur success rates compared to a meta zerg. The meta is just teaching you how to play like a clog in a robot. Its based on theory crafting for defeating a force of equal size. But honestly what does that have to do with winning in wvsw? Maybe druids weren’t meant to be clogs….I personally think its okay that they aren’t clogs.

Would put on-kill stacks of some kind on ur gs instead of sigil of force (that literally does nothing for ur build) since you’ll be running in a zerg and be, presumably, running people down all the time, or put another ‘on weapon swap’ sigil.

Forget those pets – they will die instantly in the frontline. You can try bears – bown bear offers aoe condi clear, murrelow an aoe poison field. But even bears tend to not survive larger zerg fights. And i would definitely swap WS out for either Skirmishing (QD, Spotter, traited Healing Spring) or Beastmastery (traited shouts for aoe regen/condi remove with soldier rune, quickness, GS trait). For both the master and grandmaster trait from the druid line i would choose any of the other traits than those you have taken. And probably it is better to focus more on healing power, because your dmg will be negligible anyways.

I have tried something similar (more focused on healing/support though) and the main issues in pug zergs are:

1. people tend to be too spread out to make good use of the mostly clunky heals
2. No/too little stability – frontline ranger will always rely on allies for enough stab and in pug zergs you often won’t get it – especially because commanders tend to put rangers in pure ranger/thief/other “useless classes”/…-groups.

Cerby.1069:

You ever think that being ‘meta’ in wvsw really isn’t all that? I mean meta for wvsw is just a set of guidelines of how to run around the map acting like a glorified gundam/transformer/robot/insertreferencehere. Is that really all its played out to be?
In wvsw being meta doesn’t mean being useful and it definitely doesn’t mean being awesome. Its just 1 playstyle among many viable alternatives.

Maybe just sit out the meta with ur druid instead. Change how you play and/or the role you play. Work on forming ur own squad and getting them to play to druid strengths….you could make a zerg full of people playing this way and find no difference in ur success rates compared to a meta zerg. The meta is just teaching you how to play like a clog in a robot. Its based on theory crafting for defeating a force of equal size. But honestly what does that have to do with winning in wvsw? Maybe druids weren’t meant to be clogs….I personally think its okay that they aren’t clogs.

Would put on-kill stacks of some kind on ur gs instead of sigil of force (that literally does nothing for ur build) since you’ll be running in a zerg and be, presumably, running people down all the time, or put another ‘on weapon swap’ sigil.

Well, blindly following anything is bad, but things are meta for a reason— they’re tried and true tactics that generally outclass other ones. This isn’t to say you couldn’t find a way to exploit it by knowing a certain way your opponent will react but that still involves understanding how said meta works.

An example would be heralds and resistance. They can provide an extremely high uptime on it, and thus as a result conditions become highly ineffective against an organized zerg. Now, there are certainly ways for another player to respond to this.

They could perhaps, find that, since the Heralds are taking mallyx that they’re not taking something else and find a way to exploit it somehow. And then are those people who just ignore it because meta followers are big meanies and stubbornly try to force builds like condi in a zerg to work but it’s like fighting an uphill battle…. up Mt Everest.

It’s just the way the game is designed, and the (lack of) balance that promotes this perma push boon share nonsense that pretty much renders most possible options inferior.

It’s just really hard to concieve a scenario where a healing druid could say, beat a auramancer tempest in this department. I’m not discouraging people from trying, but I think the odds are definitely stacked. If anyone could come up with a scenario where you might have like 5 tempests in a group, and you could be like, well you could add a druid instead of a 6th or whatever then that’d be swell. Or maybe a group is configured in a very specific way that makes it possible.

I certianly think that you should never just not try something just because a few people say it’s not possible because metabattle or their l33t guildies said so and certainly there’s a lot of those because people like to talk regardless if they actually understand or not but at the same time the burden of proof is on you on whether it is possible or not.

ArchonWing.9480:

Well, there seems to be a few issues.

First is verdant etching. It’s fairly slow and also drops a light field which is a big no-no. Yea you can position yourself a bit off to the side but it doesn’t change the fact that your heal is connected with a light field. I think you’ll get more mileage out of celestial shadow with super speed and maybe stealth on lows

The 2nd thing of note is that you have no stability whatsoever and merely a single stunbreak with the glyph. This would mean that you’d have to be placed with a guardian.

Also, I don’t see the point of Wilderness Survival. That tree is entirely selfish and you might get some mileage out of entangle, and Wilderness Knowledge but you’re not making use of that either. Empathtic bond and a frontline doesn’t seem to mean much.

I think it may be better to swap it with beastmastery and resounding timbre, while taking Strength of the Pack. Maybe pursue trooper runes and shouts. You’re not getting mileage out of the durability because you don’t give out many boons.

I think picking up ancient seeds can make up for the loss of entangle.

Also drop like 300 toughness. Maybe try out some zealots/marauders/crusaders weapons or trinkets if possible.

My reasoning behind Verdant Etching had been that if I popped my heal, then the people behind me could benefit from the seed, but I can see how the light field could be a problem. I’ll see how well Celestial Shadow goes.

There’s a second stunbreak when I pop CA, but that’s not always up when I need it. As for being placed with a guardian, if there’s not already a guardian in every party then you’ve got a problem with team composition.

I was running Wilderness Survival mainly for the damage reduction on Oakheart Salve, and for the damage reduction on Bark Skin for a little more tankiness on initial engage.

I’m probably going to give Beastmastery with Resounding Timbre plus Strength of the Pack and Ancient Seeds a shot. That combo could really work well, considering the stability on-demand, the benefits to my F2, and the increased group support.

I realize there might be better options than durability runes because of the wasted boon duration, but in my guild we’re all told to run them for the group resistance so I can’t really swap them to something else.

I’ll also try out running Zealot’s weapons, amulet, and backpack.

Thank you for taking the time to help!

Artemis.1372:

ArchonWing.9480:

Well, there seems to be a few issues.

First is verdant etching. It’s fairly slow and also drops a light field which is a big no-no. Yea you can position yourself a bit off to the side but it doesn’t change the fact that your heal is connected with a light field. I think you’ll get more mileage out of celestial shadow with super speed and maybe stealth on lows

The 2nd thing of note is that you have no stability whatsoever and merely a single stunbreak with the glyph. This would mean that you’d have to be placed with a guardian.

Also, I don’t see the point of Wilderness Survival. That tree is entirely selfish and you might get some mileage out of entangle, and Wilderness Knowledge but you’re not making use of that either. Empathtic bond and a frontline doesn’t seem to mean much.

I think it may be better to swap it with beastmastery and resounding timbre, while taking Strength of the Pack. Maybe pursue trooper runes and shouts. You’re not getting mileage out of the durability because you don’t give out many boons.

I think picking up ancient seeds can make up for the loss of entangle.

Also drop like 300 toughness. Maybe try out some zealots/marauders/crusaders weapons or trinkets if possible.

My reasoning behind Verdant Etching had been that if I popped my heal, then the people behind me could benefit from the seed, but I can see how the light field could be a problem. I’ll see how well Celestial Shadow goes.

There’s a second stunbreak when I pop CA, but that’s not always up when I need it. As for being placed with a guardian, if there’s not already a guardian in every party then you’ve got a problem with team composition.

I was running Wilderness Survival mainly for the damage reduction on Oakheart Salve, and for the damage reduction on Bark Skin for a little more tankiness on initial engage.

I’m probably going to give Beastmastery with Resounding Timbre plus Strength of the Pack and Ancient Seeds a shot. That combo could really work well, considering the stability on-demand, the benefits to my F2, and the increased group support.

I realize there might be better options than durability runes because of the wasted boon duration, but in my guild we’re all told to run them for the group resistance so I can’t really swap them to something else.

I’ll also try out running Zealot’s weapons, amulet, and backpack.

Thank you for taking the time to help!

It’s just a weird thing that they put light fields with things with healing. I suppose you can get around this by only healing people with the edge of the aoe.

That’s a fair point for the oakheart salve. I’m just more worried about what you can bring to your allies. And if you’re running with a guild it’s not that big of an issue with stab though note most of the mainstays except for revs have good ways of packing their own stability should things go wrong.

Ancient seeds I just think works better because entangle requires you to go up there and perform something with quite the cast time and often they’ll be able to clear it too fast. But ancient seeds works passively as long as someone else packs CC. And if you’re able to CC someone, chances are they’re already going to fall out of line and thus have less access to cleanse/resistance or whatnot especially as the rest of your group realizes and starts training them down.

Also, resounding timbre I find really weird. I thought it’d tack on swiftness/regen onto the shouts, but apparently it can affect people not affected by the shout (you cast SOTP, people do gain regen and swiftness even if the shout doesn’t actually involve them.).

ArchonWing.9480:

That’s a fair point for the oakheart salve. I’m just more worried about what you can bring to your allies. And if you’re running with a guild it’s not that big of an issue with stab though note most of the mainstays except for revs have good ways of packing their own stability should things go wrong.

Ancient seeds I just think works better because entangle requires you to go up there and perform something with quite the cast time and often they’ll be able to clear it too fast. But ancient seeds works passively as long as someone else packs CC. And if you’re able to CC someone, chances are they’re already going to fall out of line and thus have less access to cleanse/resistance or whatnot especially as the rest of your group realizes and starts training them down.

Also, resounding timbre I find really weird. I thought it’d tack on swiftness/regen onto the shouts, but apparently it can affect people not affected by the shout (you cast SOTP, people do gain regen and swiftness even if the shout doesn’t actually involve them.).

My dilemma with Ancient Seeds vs. Entangle is the internal cooldown of 10 seconds on AS. It might do more over the course of a fight, but when the commander yells “bomb here” it doesn’t really have as much of an effect.

To make up for keeping Entangle but not having Strength of the Pack I was considering Signet of the Wild, but I wasn’t sure which other utility to replace.

That is kind of weird with Resounding Timbre though.

I recently tried out ranger again for a laugh (I used to main ranger when wvw first came out), and find it just lacklustre in any sort of zerg situation. It is fun for soloing around and capping camps or with a couple others taking unguarded towers or even small scale fights, but as soon as the numbers increase I’m jumping on to my ele which just has way more strengths and contribution to make.

Let’s be real here, Rangers are a negative because their pets are east targets for necro to epi off and kill your blob. Also Rangers are op enough pets should be scaled down. Plus that 1600 range for pin sniping.

Ps. Lord Zudo hates Rangers all praise.

If you think about frontline, you need to think about its synergy. All the frontlines we have now are have the “support” thingy. The amount of supports that build provide is lackluster compare to other frontlines. Ranger will continue not be part of the zerg meta due to its low amount of traits and skills to complement your allies or the aoe damage comparable to a backline herald / reaper / ele.

Ranger position in a zerg will always belong to that of a gank’s and gank don’t shine that much now in zerg wvw other than picking up stragglers, due to all the projectile hate skills and traits available.

The meta is decided not on personal reasons or hatred towards certain classes, it is decided on technical reasons.

SkyShroud.2865:

I

Combining the fact that pet is yet another object that will absord boons (stab / protections etc) from others while being least contribution

They changed that ages ago.

@op consider something a little closer to this http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNBmYD7kSFohFsWQwiVgrFsMLYORt5UWD+fWQfoPBg603KFpZd2gA-T1CEABurZwgjAA/qUAwBBIp9HGUJ47XAA/VX5OdAP8AAsS5XAAEgbezAwQH6QHaM0hO0hO0hWKAvWGB-w
With 0 crit chance your GS would have been doing garbage damage, main hand sword will up your damage quite a bit especially since you will have decent quickness uptime. It also let’s you bring either warhorn for the extra blast finisher or offhand axe for more damage and whirling defense which is great for blocking siege disablers or cleaving downed players.

They finally fixed trooper runes so that ranger shouts clear condi’s off allies and shouts + natural healing should keep your astral force topped off.

Definitely don’t run invigorating bond, it’s trash. Your shout regen alone heals for nearly double that, has twice the radius, and doesn’t rely on a pet who will likely be dead in a large fight. You are better off sticking with the “on swap” traits when it comes to zerg fights.

Ok corrected it

SkyShroud.2865:

Ok corrected it

In response to your updated post I’d say gank groups are still perfectly viable the majority of the time. It’s pretty much just on reset that you find organized groups running by themselves anymore. Even on organized runs during the week most guild groups tag up and have a train of pugs following them that are easy targets for gank groups.

Of course when I’m ganking zerglings I don’t run anything close to the op’s build or the one I posted. You want something with good CC, mobility and damage so you can pick off your target and get the f out before they swarm you.