Guild Wars 2

It gets asked often enough so I just upload 7min uncut of what to expect when solo roaming for anyone who may have left and wants to get back into it or new/bored people.

https://youtu.be/WO1CtOI4DHE

Some of this isn’t really new to roaming but it has definitely gotten worse.

• hot raised the skill floor so anyone and everyone has the potential to not instant die and still deal easy dmg with aoe/cleave everything lvl of skill.

• some how with that high skill floor people are still terrible and you will find it most effective to build to kill bad people more so than building a dueling character for roaming.

• Unless you like getting hunted down and killed like a dog for appearing to be OP/Hacker, stealth &/or mobility are necessary to escape the inevitable mob.

Just 3 aspects to keep in mind if you want to return/get into solo roaming currently.

I don’t know why you didn’t just take out that group at the end with your 10k staff auto attacks….

I never understand why these WvW players try to fight against roamer who use some lamer build. If roamer is close kill him 20 vs 1 and drop some rams over him.

Jim Hunter.6821:

I don’t know why you didn’t just take out that group at the end with your 10k staff auto attacks….

staff auto only hits 3 people ;-(

I don´t get what the op want us to know. Is that a complaint about the power creep in hot ? Because honestly playing a druid which is one of the more ridiculous elite specs in terms of survivability and damage output and complaining about:

“some how with that high skill floor people are still terrible and you will find it most effective to build to kill bad people”

makes no sense, you are part of the problem.

I think its called low skill floor and not high skill floor if something is easy to play and do well with.

mordran.4750:

I don´t get what the op want us to know. Is that a complaint about the power creep in hot ? Because honestly playing a druid which is one of the more ridiculous elite specs in terms of survivability and damage output and complaining about:

“some how with that high skill floor people are still terrible and you will find it most effective to build to kill bad people”

makes no sense, you are part of the problem.

Try running the build the op is playing. It doesn’t rely on a bunch of passive crap to carry the fight. He’s not using nature magic, beast mastery, or druidic clarity/celestial shadows from the druid line.

He could be running the boring bunker druid and outlasting or stalemating every fight but instead he chose to run a riskier build that will allow him to end most fights quickly but still have enough mobility/stealth to escape a zerg. In a nutshell he is running a roamer build instead of a dueling build.

santenal.1054:

I think its called low skill floor and not high skill floor if something is easy to play and do well with.

Hmmm, maybe I worded it incorrectly I’m not sure. To me low skill floor is when there is not anything hidden to be mastered by a noob or a pro. When I say high skill floor I mean that if a person has some basic understanding of the game they will put together a build that will lift them up beyond their skill level. I didn’t want to give examples in specific but a DH free casting behind shield of courage/renewed focus/shield of courage would fit what I mean. They might do fairly well for 10seconds which can be all you need in wvw to snowball a fight but a competent dh wont blow those 3 back to back I wouldn’t think.

mordran.4750:

I don´t get what the op want us to know. Is that a complaint about the power creep in hot ? Because honestly playing a druid which is one of the more ridiculous elite specs in terms of survivability and damage output and complaining about:

“some how with that high skill floor people are still terrible and you will find it most effective to build to kill bad people”

makes no sense, you are part of the problem.

oh no nothing like that, just a what to expect if you are returning/new to wanting to roam. With my short list of things to keep in mind when creating a character for roaming, you can solo roam but expect to end up getting run down by a wolfpack if you are being mildly effective.

santenal.1054:

I think its called low skill floor and not high skill floor if something is easy to play and do well with.

Yea, unless the OP is referring to elite specs requiring skill to play lol.

I didn’t really see much from this gameplay, though. The opponents played poorly, and it mostly consisted of favorable matchups (thief/reaper/ele). The death at the end was entirely self-inflicted. Looks like a non-boonshare celestial build or some mashup. Too tanky and too low damage to be berserker, too low health to be marauder, too much crit chance to make me suspect a pure durability set or much else.

In essence, it captures the fact all the good players left the game because of the powercreep and imbalance that came with HoT. Honestly, the video could have been made like a week after HoT launch when the bulk majority of small-scale outright died from the DBL’s, profession power creep, guild hall/buff removal for small guilds, and the new guild upgrades trivializing fights.

Roaming itself like the OP was doing always resulted in gank groups. That was the point; get attention to a single player, either through trolling kills or contesting WP’ed objectives, while other allies support other areas being hit by larger organized units.

Havoc and fight guilds on the other hand, are a different stories.

DeceiverX.8361, the get atention thing, now is leveled to groups, if one blob looses to another, a full stacked server will apear to ktrain your 15-20 players :|, and solve any problem.

Jim Hunter.6821:

mordran.4750:

I don´t get what the op want us to know. Is that a complaint about the power creep in hot ? Because honestly playing a druid which is one of the more ridiculous elite specs in terms of survivability and damage output and complaining about:

“some how with that high skill floor people are still terrible and you will find it most effective to build to kill bad people”

makes no sense, you are part of the problem.

Try running the build the op is playing. It doesn’t rely on a bunch of passive crap to carry the fight. He’s not using nature magic, beast mastery, or druidic clarity/celestial shadows from the druid line.

He could be running the boring bunker druid and outlasting or stalemating every fight but instead he chose to run a riskier build that will allow him to end most fights quickly but still have enough mobility/stealth to escape a zerg. In a nutshell he is running a roamer build instead of a dueling build.

True, OP lacked that 3 minute regen, and some boons, lacked damage, lacked sustain, lacked the scales spam…

The issue actually was the other players, a simple guardian could have nulified OP’s build and LB combo.

Most players play only what kills faster w/o actually searching for creep builds to carry them and make them show off, since Anet love power creep much players relly on skills to do their bidings instead of play with strategy.
Actually Anet needs to reduce some creep damage output on some skills, that migh players learn 2 play a bit better.

Aeolus.3615:

DeceiverX.8361, the get atention thing, now is leveled to groups, if one blob looses to another, a full stacked server will apear to ktrain your 15-20 players :|, and solve any problem.

Jim Hunter.6821:

mordran.4750:

I don´t get what the op want us to know. Is that a complaint about the power creep in hot ? Because honestly playing a druid which is one of the more ridiculous elite specs in terms of survivability and damage output and complaining about:

“some how with that high skill floor people are still terrible and you will find it most effective to build to kill bad people”

makes no sense, you are part of the problem.

Try running the build the op is playing. It doesn’t rely on a bunch of passive crap to carry the fight. He’s not using nature magic, beast mastery, or druidic clarity/celestial shadows from the druid line.

He could be running the boring bunker druid and outlasting or stalemating every fight but instead he chose to run a riskier build that will allow him to end most fights quickly but still have enough mobility/stealth to escape a zerg. In a nutshell he is running a roamer build instead of a dueling build.

True, OP lacked that 3 minute regen, and some boons, lacked damage, lacked sustain, lacked a decent pet.

the issue actually was the other players, a simple guardian could have nulified OP’s build and LB combo.

I don’t lose to DH, all I do is kite out their defensive cooldowns and then they die ;-(

Any one curious about the build (or for those calling it too tanky lols):

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNMQJATWjEqCVqZ1sWy6Xxl1yCXrr1ihg18uSdtAmAworBA3VHrp1UCbFphE-TVTFAB9pEk6DIwhq/okyga1QUlSFGOQAA8ECS4QAk8FQYNdILpkqt9HNBBAQA25OTn7MbezduzDdoDdoDdotzduzduzdWKg7WWB-w

I’m not sure why the thread is targeting my build, in a nutshell this thread was about what to expect solo roaming in 2016 for those who are thinking of returning/ new to wanting to try it. In fact that’s in the original OP that I have not edited. Reading…

People are targetting you because you are a druid. Currently, Druids are problably the most hated class while roaming, even above thief.

Nobody actually will care to think “oh, maybe this guy is running somenthing different” because everyone instantly assume everyone run the same kitten we come across 99% of the time.

My build actually can counter/stale with yours(i dont play bow nor traps) and those plesky druideasy way,but i think that is what roaming is about nowadays, execp Rev, when ic roammers, comes a rev hammer, drops the hammer and CoR… match ends…
Romming nowadays it is to much gimmick builds and damag eis easy to pull in this game that make player side skill only a small part of the equation, that is why most left, Anet made players being more carried by the gimmicks( where players must use certain weapons and utilities to be more eficient and with less aplication) than actually be the player skills doing the work with what class offers.

DeceiverX.8361:

I didn’t really see much from this gameplay, though. The opponents played poorly, and it mostly consisted of favorable matchups (thief/reaper/ele).

A well played thief actually has the advantage fighting against this build. The druid isn’t running nature magic for all the passive bunker/boon crap and a good chunk of his damage is coming from fast attacks to stack bleeds without a lot of cover conditions, making it very easy to cleanse with evades. Plus the druid build is running longbow/staff which offers almost nothing in the way of cleave for a stealthed thief .

Of course most thieves in WvW are pretty terrible so it’s not that big of a problem.

It varies depending on your tier. Most people who continue to roam are one of a few things; Patient, not sore losers, extremely stubborn, or lazy and running carry builds.

Since the powercreep with the release of HoT, everyone has gotten “better” because of how effective elite specs are. As players, many people have gotten worse, as the OP has covered. If you’re not using an elite spec or at the very least, a meta build, you’ll be at a huge disadvantage in 90% of your encounters and will be fighting mechanics and not people.

Roaming used to be a lot more complex than just fighting other players, however. Once upon a time, solo roaming could mean; taking towers, contesting keep waypoints/contesting objectives, capturing supply camps and protecting them until they upgraded, killing dolyaks, killing structure siege (cannons, AC’s, mortars, etc.) and so on. Most people will only fight and flip sentrys now with structure contesting usually being accidental.

This is largely because of the defensive upgrades to objectives making them take far too long to capture and being constantly marked on the map becoming a beacon for everyone to see.

The video is a relatively good example of what roaming has become, at least in that tier; Fight bads -> eventually get ganked. If you want to be a little more specific; Fight bads, reset -> chase person(s) trying to reset -> reset -> eventually get ganked. Not very complicated and usually not very rewarding. Most classes have so many ways to disengage or completely recover that it has become very literally like chasing a squirrel.

Personally, I enjoyed contributing to my server in more ways than killing other players when it used to be an option. I’ve always loved fights but I also have always preferred to contribute in more meaningful ways on a solo-level. I miss the days where our zergs would be off fighting/defending somewhere while I pumped our score a bit by soloing things, keeping waypoints contested, defending camps and chasing down the zerglings trying to rejoin their fight. Now, most of what I do is stalk blobs and kill the ones that are too slow to keep up. As exciting as it can be at times (no sarcasm intended) it gets boring doing only that.

I respect the people who persist and continue to roam despite the abysmal state of it. I’ve long since retired and am quite simply, a sore-loser, who’s sick of being zerged everytime she tries to do something other than chasing the zerg.

Also @ mordran: Just because OP is a Druid does not mean she is using the meta carry build and by watching the video you can clearly see that.

I hate the meta Druid as much as the next person but that doesn’t mean the profession as a whole is a problem. There are certain traits/utilities/stats that are problematic, not professions entirely.

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

It varies depending on your tier. Most people who continue to roam are one of a few things; Patient, not sore losers, extremely stubborn, or lazy and running carry builds.

Since the powercreep with the release of HoT, everyone has gotten “better” because of how effective elite specs are. As players, many people have gotten worse, as the OP has covered. If you’re not using an elite spec or at the very least, a meta build, you’ll be at a huge disadvantage in 90% of your encounters and will be fighting mechanics and not people.

Roaming used to be a lot more complex than just fighting other players, however. Once upon a time, solo roaming could mean; taking towers, contesting keep waypoints/contesting objectives, capturing supply camps and protecting them until they upgraded, killing dolyaks, killing structure siege (cannons, AC’s, mortars, etc.) and so on. Most people will only fight and flip sentrys now with structure contesting usually being accidental.

This is largely because of the defensive upgrades to objectives making them take far too long to capture and being constantly marked on the map becoming a beacon for everyone to see.

The video is a relatively good example of what roaming has become, at least in that tier; Fight bads -> eventually get ganked. If you want to be a little more specific; Fight bads, reset -> chase person(s) trying to reset -> reset -> eventually get ganked. Not very complicated and usually not very rewarding. Most classes have so many ways to disengage or completely recover that it has become very literally like chasing a squirrel.

Personally, I enjoyed contributing to my server in more ways than killing other players when it used to be an option. I’ve always loved fights but I also have always preferred to contribute in more meaningful ways on a solo-level. I miss the days where our zergs would be off fighting/defending somewhere while I pumped our score a bit by soloing things, keeping waypoints contested, defending camps and chasing down the zerglings trying to rejoin their fight. Now, most of what I do is stalk blobs and kill the ones that are too slow to keep up. As exciting as it can be at times (no sarcasm intended) it gets boring doing only that.

I respect the people who persist and continue to roam despite the abysmal state of it. I’ve long since retired and am quite simply, a sore-loser, who’s sick of being zerged everytime she tries to do something other than chasing the zerg.

Also @ mordran: Just because OP is a Druid does not mean she is using the meta carry build and by watching the video you can clearly see that.

I hate the meta Druid as much as the next person but that doesn’t mean the profession as a whole is a problem. There are certain traits/utilities/stats that are problematic, not professions entirely.

I agree with almost everything said and I’m glad someone else said it more clearly. I do still flip camps/sentries of course and do tag objectives intentionally. I also like to defend the camps/sentries I take and kill enemy scouts running to objectives I tag. Taking se or sw camp and sentry then tagging the respective keep, then go hunt their scouts, ya I nasty like that. I like to try and “control” the map when I roam, I will roam for 1-3hrs on same map to that end. And indeed choosing the right tier to solo roam in will go along way. If you get on a server opposing a server with crazy home bl defenders you are going to have a baaaad time. But you don’t want to face dead servers where you have every camp/sentry capped before an enemy contests something either, yes ive had those nights long ago before server linking, don’t want to go back to that.

Jim Hunter.6821:

I don’t know why you didn’t just take out that group at the end with your 10k staff auto attacks….

The Druid Club rules prevent any of us from posting or recording the super secret immortal 10k auto attack nuke build… Doing so means forced account deletion.

I like that wvw is kind of a sandbox in that you can make game play your way, in your case roaming. What I don’t get is your complaining because others who choose to group up come and kill you. Should they just ignore you and let you keep ganking and causing havoc? I play solo most of the time and when I get mobbed I just rez and run back out there. I just don’t get it.

Jim Hunter.6821:

DeceiverX.8361:

I didn’t really see much from this gameplay, though. The opponents played poorly, and it mostly consisted of favorable matchups (thief/reaper/ele).

A well played thief actually has the advantage fighting against this build. The druid isn’t running nature magic for all the passive bunker/boon crap and a good chunk of his damage is coming from fast attacks to stack bleeds without a lot of cover conditions, making it very easy to cleanse with evades. Plus the druid build is running longbow/staff which offers almost nothing in the way of cleave for a stealthed thief .

Of course most thieves in WvW are pretty terrible so it’s not that big of a problem.

I only took a wild guess on the build based on how much damage it was taking and how much it dealt – one which I was largely wrong about in terms of the exact specifics – and clearly demonstrates the definitive lack of proficiency the thief played with. I understand the OP’s build isn’t the meta NM/BM/D bunker, however I’m inclined to believe more warriors, scrappers, and other druids would have shown a bit more of a testy (and at least where I play, a much more representative) environment and probably would have reflected the meta a bit better. Though the OP playing bunkernoob have made a more accurate video for the current state of roaming/small-scale, too, despite being horrible to watch

Both weapons have distinct advantages and drawbacks in respects to the thief, though, particularly in how it’s played and what options for controlling the character itself are used. Staff is imho the best thief-killing weapon in the game due to the stealth tracking it offers with the capacity for druid to sustain into the thief revealing itself (if fighting D/X), and while not applicable to the OP, if you play ranger with action camera, you can linear cleave with longbow without a target, basically making killing thieves (especially those in SR or BP) like fishing in a bucket.

However, many thieves are in fact horrible, and there’s pretty much no way to play different weapons these days since they keep nerfing everything that isn’t D/P || Staff DrD or condi cheese.

Make no mistake, I’m not criticizing the OP (though I still think the death at the end was kind of a big misplay, but that’s nit-picky). I just wasn’t really sure what I was watching, since those matchups are so build-dependent, especially without having reference to the build which is pretty obscure, anyways.

I think I’ve fought you before :P

Although I think I wasn’t having a good day when I was fighting you in the video. I remember thinking, “omfg why is this druid doing so much damage” and the like.

If you would like to duel sometime pm me. I’m the Os thief.

Aileras.9460:

I like that wvw is kind of a sandbox in that you can make game play your way, in your case roaming. What I don’t get is your complaining because others who choose to group up come and kill you. Should they just ignore you and let you keep ganking and causing havoc? I play solo most of the time and when I get mobbed I just rez and run back out there. I just don’t get it.

There is no complaining here, just a what to expect. I don’t want to say it but, learn to read.

saerni.2584:

I think I’ve fought you before :P

Although I think I wasn’t having a good day when I was fighting you in the video. I remember thinking, “omfg why is this druid doing so much damage” and the like.

If you would like to duel sometime pm me. I’m the Os thief.

I generally don’t duel, it’s not a natural encounter and people play differently when they are not concerned nor fearful of dying.

Alright, well I’ll see you around then

I read all your posts and I see what your saying, but I also see a lot of veiled complaints that don’t make a whole lot of sense such as:

“Unless you like getting hunted down and killed like a dog for appearing to be OP/Hacker, stealth &/or mobility are necessary to escape the inevitable mob”

and

“you can solo roam but expect to end up getting run down by a wolfpack if you are being mildly effective”

You have a right to your opinion but so do I.

Aileras.9460:

I read all your posts and I see what your saying, but I also see a lot of veiled complaints that don’t make a whole lot of sense such as:

“Unless you like getting hunted down and killed like a dog for appearing to be OP/Hacker, stealth &/or mobility are necessary to escape the inevitable mob”

and

“you can solo roam but expect to end up getting run down by a wolfpack if you are being mildly effective”

You have a right to your opinion but so do I.

Those are not complaints, those are the realities spoken to people who might be considering a return or thinking about roaming. I’ve been solo roaming for over 3 years, I don’t need to complain. Go find another thread to tell people to stop complaining about you and your zergling friends having a right to karma train in peace. This thread is about what to expect, said for the 10th time for people who didn’t even bother to read the op.

Justine.6351:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNMQJATWjEqCVqZ1sWy6Xxl1yCXrr1ihg18uSdtAmAworBA3VHrp1UCbFphE-TVTFAB9pEk6DIwhq/okyga1QUlSFGOQAA8ECS4QAk8FQYNdILpkqt9HNBBAQA25OTn7MbezduzDdoDdoDdotzduzduzdWKg7WWB-w

Looks like a good build, but why did you pick those accessories?

Anet balances around PvP, not small scale roaming where the metric for success is based upon a points system for capturing objectives. This is usually accomplished by large groups. So in the scheme of things, some roamer killing a couple people with an imba spec in WvW isnt big of their list of things to change.

Thus some classes on the small scale are just way better than others. And due to the gear nature of WvW some specs become truly aids. There are a few stand outs, condi chronophantasma, condi death blossom/perma dodge thief. These are always amazingly enjoyable and engaging fights. Clear the first lot of condis, ok my condi clear is now on a 20 sec cooldown, 4 seconds later all those condis are on you again.

For power builds Zerker seems like it dumpsters all other classes power builds in WvW. Except bunker Druids which would probably end in a stalemate due to the sustain both classes have. The passive sustain on warriors is stupidly broken, and the boon spam/sustain on Druids is also broken when you throw in gear like minstrel.

I am kind of happy where Scrapper is at, they just need to apply the nerf bat they kneecapped Scrapper with to Zerker, Druid, condi chrono and perma dodge thief.

It was super sad to see that elementalist try to fight you with his now useless class and not be able to damage you at all, having to resort to use Armor of Earth when you pewpewed him to death way out of his range.

No wonder I haven’t played in a month’s time now, I don’t even feel the incentive to keep the game on my hd seeing this. And I’m not blaming you either, but those who made these easy-cheap mechanics so strong.

Holland.9351:

Justine.6351:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNMQJATWjEqCVqZ1sWy6Xxl1yCXrr1ihg18uSdtAmAworBA3VHrp1UCbFphE-TVTFAB9pEk6DIwhq/okyga1QUlSFGOQAA8ECS4QAk8FQYNdILpkqt9HNBBAQA25OTn7MbezduzDdoDdoDdotzduzduzdWKg7WWB-w

Looks like a good build, but why did you pick those accessories?

Some vita, toughness and healing power is bonus. Had to trim precision or my crit chance will go over 100% and I want my condition dmg so my bleeds are ~100. A few pieces of celestial gives me what I wanted to trim excess stuff and buff my survivability a tiny bit to avoid one shots.

Justine.6351:

Holland.9351:

Justine.6351:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNMQJATWjEqCVqZ1sWy6Xxl1yCXrr1ihg18uSdtAmAworBA3VHrp1UCbFphE-TVTFAB9pEk6DIwhq/okyga1QUlSFGOQAA8ECS4QAk8FQYNdILpkqt9HNBBAQA25OTn7MbezduzDdoDdoDdotzduzduzdWKg7WWB-w

Looks like a good build, but why did you pick those accessories?

Some vita, toughness and healing power is bonus. Had to trim precision or my crit chance will go over 100% and I want my condition dmg so my bleeds are ~100. A few pieces of celestial gives me what I wanted to trim excess stuff and buff my survivability a tiny bit to avoid one shots.

Yeah I noticed how you had exactly 100 bleed damage, but how are you getting 100% crit chance? I see 63% from precision, 20% from Fury and 10% from flanking = 93%. What am I missing? Spotter or Sigil of Accuracy would do it, but they’re not part of the build.

Isn’t the very definition of “roaming” NOT to stay in the same place? If you do that,
a) there is less of a risk that a zerg appears just to kill you (you can still meet zergs with other objectives as you though)
b) if there really are some people hunting you, you make it a lot harder for them to find and kill you, thus giving your server an advantage because those people will not be able to do something else then.

santenal.1054:

I think its called low skill floor and not high skill floor if something is easy to play and do well with.

went to google to make sure of this, it gave me a premium rectangular floor buffer. only 1694$US!

Rink.6108:

Isn’t the very definition of “roaming” NOT to stay in the same place? If you do that,
a) there is less of a risk that a zerg appears just to kill you (you can still meet zergs with other objectives as you though)
b) if there really are some people hunting you, you make it a lot harder for them to find and kill you, thus giving your server an advantage because those people will not be able to do something else then.

Yeah I was pushing my luck. If I had noticed the Reaper and daredevIL laying there dead while I killed the last 2 I wouldnt have tried the camp. At that point I was just too giddy at how badly they got chained down to think clearly. The tower being mine aswell was begging for a larger group to come if they got too much resistance.

Holland.9351:

Justine.6351:

Holland.9351:

Justine.6351:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNMQJATWjEqCVqZ1sWy6Xxl1yCXrr1ihg18uSdtAmAworBA3VHrp1UCbFphE-TVTFAB9pEk6DIwhq/okyga1QUlSFGOQAA8ECS4QAk8FQYNdILpkqt9HNBBAQA25OTn7MbezduzDdoDdoDdotzduzduzdWKg7WWB-w

Looks like a good build, but why did you pick those accessories?

Some vita, toughness and healing power is bonus. Had to trim precision or my crit chance will go over 100% and I want my condition dmg so my bleeds are ~100. A few pieces of celestial gives me what I wanted to trim excess stuff and buff my survivability a tiny bit to avoid one shots.

Yeah I noticed how you had exactly 100 bleed damage, but how are you getting 100% crit chance? I see 63% from precision, 20% from Fury and 10% from flanking = 93%. What am I missing? Spotter or Sigil of Accuracy would do it, but they’re not part of the build.

Guild buff on claims, 30 from if I got bloodlust and I need to update infusions and so does the website. And it still comes down to needing some vita/toughness and since I’m using all 4 offensive stats and I’m druid I can use some celestial gear 100% efficient. Min/maxing required on a non-meta build to keep up ;-(

Xillllix.3485:

No wonder I haven’t played in a month’s time now, I don’t even feel the incentive to keep the game on my hd seeing this. And I’m not blaming you either, but those who made these easy-cheap mechanics so strong.

Yet, you come back to this forum everyday…

My experience with it is basically if you aren’t willing to play Ranger, Mesmer, Warrior, or Thief specs then you’ll generally end up with a frustrating time while roaming solo. I think it comes down to mobility/disengage potential mostly.

Even if you play one of these you’ll likely to still have a very frustrating solo roaming experience tbh…

Skill floor is the pick up and play with passable efficiency threshold, while skill ceiling is absolute mastery/max efficiency threshold. Mesmer, for instance, has a low skill floor but a very high skill ceiling.

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

Also @ mordran: Just because OP is a Druid does not mean she is using the meta carry build and by watching the video you can clearly see that.

And how is that relevant in that context ? He talked about the skill floor in hot in general,. If he is using a build that is not meta well good or bad for him, but that does not invalidate that druid is one of the winner classes in hot regarding too their effectiveness in roaming.

Justine.6351:

you can solo roam but expect to end up getting run down by a wolfpack if you are being mildly effective.

got you, no offense but how is that different to pre hot ? I do only small scale and we have been chased by people through the map pre and post hot.

mordran.4750:

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

Also @ mordran: Just because OP is a Druid does not mean she is using the meta carry build and by watching the video you can clearly see that.

And how is that relevant in that context ? He talked about the skill floor in hot in general,. If he is using a build that is not meta well good or bad for him, but that does not invalidate that druid is one of the winner classes in hot regarding too their effectiveness in roaming.

People use meta builds because they are what is most effective. They are adapting to the changes and there’s nothing wrong with it.

Certain builds are overtuned, such as the meta Druid, but not professions as a whole.

Often when a build is over performing, many people will be using it because they are adapting to what is at the top of the food chain. Yes, the players are at fault for using said builds en masse but ANet is also at fault for not properly balancing things. The blame isn’t squarely on the shoulders of ANet nor the players.

This is entirely beside the point that fighting is not all roaming used to consist of. As I’d covered in my earlier comment, defensive upgrades to objectives have made roaming a very one-dimensional hobby: Kill other players or try not to get killed.

What I said is absolutely relevant because OP is using a personal build and not an overtuned meta build. OP is using what works best for her despite the fact that it is not competitively the most effective. Being a Druid does not mean she is a part of the problem. The video was showcasing the quality of players and the consequences of being alone when you’re being constantly marked on the map. It had nothing to do with the build/profession being used. If it did, I’m sure OP would have been using the meta build to drive the point home.

Maybe I’m misinterpreting what you’re saying because you haven’t explained in a way that I understand. Still, I’m pretty confident that what I’m saying is completely valid even if it’s not answering your point.

Justine.6351:

you can solo roam but expect to end up getting run down by a wolfpack if you are being mildly effective.

got you, no offense but how is that different to pre hot ? I do only small scale and we have been chased by people through the map pre and post hot.[/quote]

Well like stated for the hundredth time now, actually read the op this time, it’s gotten worse.

Staff druid isn’t roaming, it’s barely even playing.

msalakka.4653:

Staff druid isn’t roaming, it’s barely even playing.

And here is another person that just see a staff and already assume the druid is another meta bunker shout build.

Jeknar.6184:

msalakka.4653:

Staff druid isn’t roaming, it’s barely even playing.

And here is another person that just see a staff and already assume the druid is another meta bunker shout build.

And beyond that, it’s staff and/or gs if you are a roaming ranger, gs doesn’t do too we’ll in a hybrid build.

Nah, I see a lot of people running LB instead of GS with the meta build because it’s nice to keep people away from you and to combo it with the quickness Rapid Fire + Bristleback Barrage.
Honestly, I see more LB than GS overall.

Jeknar.6184:

Nah, I see a lot of people running LB instead of GS with the meta build because it’s nice to keep people away from you and to combo it with the quickness Rapid Fire + Bristleback Barrage.
Honestly, I see more LB than GS overall.

I mean there is only two real options for fast travel.

Chorazin.4107:

I am kind of happy where Scrapper is at, they just need to apply the nerf bat they kneecapped Scrapper with to Zerker, Druid, condi chrono and perma dodge thief.

Druids, Trapper DH (its an sPvP thing), Boon Warriors, ChronoPhantasm and Ghost Thief are on my “Too OP/Too Annoying in Small Scale” list. Perma Dodge Thief builds typically have exploitable weaknesses much like Evasion Mesmers.

Druids are certainly topping that list for me though. Nothing should be able to kite from long range and have solid DPS, great mobility, stealth and durability in small scale.

Straegen.2938:

Druids are certainly topping that list for me though. Nothing should be able to kite from long range and have solid DPS, great mobility, stealth and durability in small scale.

Oh why not? Is there a rule that a class shouldn’t have those things? Isn’t it fair that you too can roll a druid?

“This is op, that is op, everything I die to is op”
So roll that op thing and keep up with the rest of the op people.

Justine.6351:

Straegen.2938:

Druids are certainly topping that list for me though. Nothing should be able to kite from long range and have solid DPS, great mobility, stealth and durability in small scale.

Oh why not? Is there a rule that a class shouldn’t have those things? Isn’t it fair that you too can roll a druid?

“This is op, that is op, everything I die to is op”
So roll that op thing and keep up with the rest of the op people.

People complained about Thieves having a 1200 range SB they complained about Thief Stealth, Thief Burst and Thief mobility, claiming No class should have all of those things, let’s see here they nerfed Thief mobility and kiting range by removing 1200 range SB, they have repeatedly nerfed stealth on Thief as well.

Now fast forward to HoT Druid now rivals Thief mobility, has Easier access to stealth with no penalty for being in stealth, has more sustain than Thief and has superior kiting with weapons, not to mention the pet as well to help with kiting pressure.

So yes the community has said that no class should have all those things they had Thief get them all removed, so hopefully they take the same route with Druids, they need to sacrifice something, and it needs to happen soon.