Guild Wars 2

ty for your help in advance, i appreciate constructive help.

Tini

Aesculapia.9562:

i could not find anything on metabattle or in forum. have been witnessing a discussion today, where i felt like it was 2013 again. still a lot of ranger-hate in wvw-zerg community. so: is a healingfocused druid-ranger really still a useless zergling?

ty for your help in advance, i appreciate constructive help.

Tini

Ele staff/water/tempest is a far far far superior healer and far far far more smooth to play.

I, personally, will never use Druid healer for any content that requires healing on the move. Ever.

No, I don’t consider stacking at a boss and healing a stationary group of tightly packed players…. good or meaningful or fun or viable healing gameplay…

Instead, I’ll run the “heal myself” build for content and use my ele for any and all team/group/mass healing.

Don’t believe me? Roll an ele…

Edit- PLUS you are not limited by those terrible AF mechanics and ALL those terrible reticle aim skills in CA form… Ele just has to contend with cool downs on skills, and ele staff heal skills and pbaoe heal skills are far superior than what anything Druid healing has to offer. Plus you do lots more damage and have better on the move team support skills. Plus, staff reticle aim stuff functions better/smoother.

In my guild we have a druid in the commander party. Everyday the com is amazed about the healing potential of it.

Ansau.7326:

In my guild we have a druid in the commander party. Everyday the com is amazed about the healing potential of it.

No wonder since you only fight doors.

And seriously, just slapping on a full set of celestial gears with ALL “things” tailored for healing and you’ll see those green numbers floating around the screen. You don’t even have to watch health bars because you’ll keep those heals flowing…

Aezyr.5304:

Ansau.7326:

In my guild we have a druid in the commander party. Everyday the com is amazed about the healing potential of it.

No wonder since you only fight doors.

I didn’t expect such little from you… Grow up kid.

right. swagger thank you for your statement but i am looking for an answer that is not as subjective as yours.

that ele is far far far better as druid and you will never play druid in any case and stacking at a boss is not your thing and stuff like that is ok, but if you could offer a little bit more than your individual prefences, something objective like numbers, u know, facts and numbers would be appreciated.

ah and sure! to each his own.

Aesculapia.9562:

right. swagger thank you for your statement but i am looking for an answer that is not as subjective as yours.

that ele is far far far better as druid and you will never play druid in any case and stacking at a boss is not your thing and stuff like that is ok, but if you could offer a little bit more than your individual prefences, something objective like numbers, u know, facts and numbers would be appreciated.

ah and sure! to each his own.

My main is ranger with ALL unlocks and most played for the past 3 years…

My ele use to be extra bank slots until recently…

Go use a build maker for base numbers.

Go roll and ele.

Get the devs to open the channel to combat stats and make an official combat stats meter.

Well there’s a lot of “bosses” to fight in WvW

There are guilds testing Druid in raids (like CoN , afaik something like 2 druids for a 25 man raid), dunno if it’s better than an ele or not, dunno if it’s viable for gvg setups, but you sure can try it for normal/pug zergs.

Bubi.5237:

There are guilds testing Druid in raids (like CoN , afaik something like 2 druids for a 25 man raid), dunno if it’s better than an ele or not, dunno if it’s viable for gvg setups, but you sure can try it for normal/pug zergs.

k, thanks a lot for your answer, i’ll check it out!

I have found that the problem with the druid is that you got great burst heals BUT they are rendered completely redundant by “normal” blast healing. At the same time your passive AoE heal is weak. In contrast both an ele and a guardian can achieve strong AoE passive healing (well, as can warrior but no one use banners) while the ele provide water fields and guardian decent burst heal.

The druid is a very strong roamer and I guess in small scale GvG it can work too but I honestly dont see the point in 30+ zergs. Ultimately a tank guardian that can heal a ton will still achieve his expected zerg task, punch deep through enemy lines while providing on point heals to the melee frontline. A druid that also heal a ton mean that he cannot perform the task he does best, 1800 range longbow sniping.

Then again I suppose the ranger long range capabilities is replaced by the superior revenant anyway so meh.

Dawdler.8521:

I have found that the problem with the druid is that you got great burst heals BUT they are rendered completely redundant by “normal” blast healing. At the same time your passive AoE heal is weak. In contrast both an ele and a guardian can achieve strong AoE passive healing (well, as can warrior but no one use banners) while the ele provide water fields and guardian decent burst heal.

The druid is a very strong roamer and I guess in small scale GvG it can work too but I honestly dont see the point in 30+ zergs. Ultimately a tank guardian that can heal a ton will still achieve his expected zerg task, punch deep through enemy lines while providing on point heals to the melee frontline. A druid that also heal a ton mean that he cannot perform the task he does best, 1800 range longbow sniping.

Then again I suppose the ranger long range capabilities is replaced by the superior revenant anyway so meh.

hm, thank you for your response, this makes sense.

Also, you didn’t ask for specific numbers/specific builds/stats or “facts” you can see on a spreadsheet… in your title or original post.

I shared my overall experience with both healing professions according to what you were asking for…

Having played both, my ranger is currently back gathering dust. CA form can never be guaranteed to be available when you want it, and the heals just don’t feel that great- clunky is a good way to describe playing a druid. They get better the more static the fight, so not too terrible in pve or for pvd, but for fluid fights I didn’t like it at all.

My staff elite ele, on the other hand, can blast away happily and drop water fields while providing lots of other utility to the group, on the move.

For me, ele wins hands down. Which is a shame, as I do like playing ranger but there is a class that does things better for anything you can do on a ranger

Hmm, this is a bit too anecdotal for my liking. I would like to see if it’s worth building up the hero points for my ranger so I don’t have anything to test it without spending lots of time.

I think the best way is to go to http://en.gw2skills.net/ and compare what builds were used for druid vs whatever.

Another thing is that blast finishers use the blaster’s healing power. So I am not sure of the value of putting healing power on staff eles.

The other question I would like to ask is how much healing power is required to be invested for it to be effective. That is, is it possible to just use the base healing and put the rest into power or whatnot. Because eles certainly can.

Aesculapia.9562:

i could not find anything on metabattle or in forum. have been witnessing a discussion today, where i felt like it was 2013 again. still a lot of ranger-hate in wvw-zerg community. so: is a healingfocused druid-ranger really still a useless zergling?

ty for your help in advance, i appreciate constructive help.

Tini

Hi to all the other people talking about Druid as if its a healer , (it is not a Healer)
it is a Addition to the rangers Abilities (it supports no such role as healer in gw2)
as for Ele in wvw they are better off working as Damage so no don’t use Eles as Dedicated healers rather support roles while dealing damage people have ways to prevent damage and will only need Burst healing if done correctly.

in this case a Druid Heal/support role will be better than a Ele as it can do it from Range rather than up the jack of the front lines where all the major damage is.

a different role a druid can do is Damage/condi then support with CC’s and using celeform to trigger Group stealth superspeed and apply Ancient seeds + entangle and muddy terrains basicly a Soft+hard CC Tank with condis.

rotating around from one CC to the next with low windows of escape if the targets do nothing while you’d have superspeed stealth and swiftness or quickness to help with damage + a tanky pet depending on how you set up the traits .

the druid can build around its main damage source so its effective with condi or even beastmastery for AoE vigour too every 15seconds with a low cooldown pet like the drake hounds immo f2 you can use it every 16seconds or every petswap for a 2second immo ontop of the other CC’s.

my best bet would be just run the Hoard of CC’s we have Avalible and CC support while Pumping out Pet damage or Ranged/torch Aoes , if you want to go power use the Sword+axe and Staff combos to protect vs ranged and keep Asteral force sustained (using Heal as one+might stacking abilities/sigils/runes you can maintain a high amount of damage pressure with the Piercing AA from staff.)

if you go the condi route you can do the same thing as above and use Sun spirit due to being mid of the zerg you can really up the outgoing damage on targets passing by the spirit while you range AA and support , (just to note Ancient seeds is Triggered by the opposing foes own Ranged stun attacks/dazes knockbacks ect this can be Deadly to squishy targets and adds to the builds Defences)

ether way they are Viable just not as a Pure healer role , there are way too many other classes or players using Close range Healing fields ect so focus on Mid to back line CC bombing support , get close use the off-hand axe defences trigger entangles/muddy terrains bomb away and mingle back into the middle of the zerg or the back using Asteral grace into or out of the zerg for the blast where needed.

typicaly the following trait lines
power = NM/beastmastery/druid
condi = Wilderness/skirmishing/druid

We run some because they do a lot more than healing. They have a massive group wide dps buff along with condi clear, entangle and more. The moving water is also really strong and helps eles not have to be the only waters. Personally, I’m finding it very interesting to see how many groups aren’t running new specializations since pretty much all of them numbers wise are superior.

But then again, just run zerker backline hammer Rev. and when I say that please, please don’t. Try to enjoy the game and do what you think should be done.. Metabattle is often really inefficient and contains bad group synergy.

Druid…

“Bringing heavy healing to GW2, unlike anything you have seen before. Strong support, very powerful in upcoming raids and WvW. Can sustain a zerg train of 20-30 players in WvW.”

http://dulfy.net/2015/09/25/gw2-druid-ranger-elite-specialization-livestream-reveal/

Tell me Druid isn’t supposed to be a healer?

Tell me why ele is doing a far far far better job at supporting and sustaining zergs?

Zenos Osgorma.2936:

Aesculapia.9562:

i could not find anything on metabattle or in forum. have been witnessing a discussion today, where i felt like it was 2013 again. still a lot of ranger-hate in wvw-zerg community. so: is a healingfocused druid-ranger really still a useless zergling?

ty for your help in advance, i appreciate constructive help.

Tini

Hi to all the other people talking about Druid as if its a healer , (it is not a Healer)
it is a Addition to the rangers Abilities (it supports no such role as healer in gw2)
as for Ele in wvw they are better off working as Damage so no don’t use Eles as Dedicated healers rather support roles while dealing damage people have ways to prevent damage and will only need Burst healing if done correctly.

in this case a Druid Heal/support role will be better than a Ele as it can do it from Range rather than up the jack of the front lines where all the major damage is.

a different role a druid can do is Damage/condi then support with CC’s and using celeform to trigger Group stealth superspeed and apply Ancient seeds + entangle and muddy terrains basicly a Soft+hard CC Tank with condis.

rotating around from one CC to the next with low windows of escape if the targets do nothing while you’d have superspeed stealth and swiftness or quickness to help with damage + a tanky pet depending on how you set up the traits .

the druid can build around its main damage source so its effective with condi or even beastmastery for AoE vigour too every 15seconds with a low cooldown pet like the drake hounds immo f2 you can use it every 16seconds or every petswap for a 2second immo ontop of the other CC’s.

my best bet would be just run the Hoard of CC’s we have Avalible and CC support while Pumping out Pet damage or Ranged/torch Aoes , if you want to go power use the Sword+axe and Staff combos to protect vs ranged and keep Asteral force sustained (using Heal as one+might stacking abilities/sigils/runes you can maintain a high amount of damage pressure with the Piercing AA from staff.)

if you go the condi route you can do the same thing as above and use Sun spirit due to being mid of the zerg you can really up the outgoing damage on targets passing by the spirit while you range AA and support , (just to note Ancient seeds is Triggered by the opposing foes own Ranged stun attacks/dazes knockbacks ect this can be Deadly to squishy targets and adds to the builds Defences)

ether way they are Viable just not as a Pure healer role , there are way too many other classes or players using Close range Healing fields ect so focus on Mid to back line CC bombing support , get close use the off-hand axe defences trigger entangles/muddy terrains bomb away and mingle back into the middle of the zerg or the back using Asteral grace into or out of the zerg for the blast where needed.

typicaly the following trait lines
power = NM/beastmastery/druid
condi = Wilderness/skirmishing/druid

wow, thank you so much for writing this! thumbsup.

Dano.5298:

We run some because they do a lot more than healing. They have a massive group wide dps buff along with condi clear, entangle and more. The moving water is also really strong and helps eles not have to be the only waters. Personally, I’m finding it very interesting to see how many groups aren’t running new specializations since pretty much all of them numbers wise are superior.

But then again, just run zerker backline hammer Rev. and when I say that please, please don’t. Try to enjoy the game and do what you think should be done.. Metabattle is often really inefficient and contains bad group synergy.

thank you too. i’ll consider your advice for sure.

Since Anet screwed CA mechanics instead of finding a happy medium, it got a little trickier to manage so it won’t save a poorly organized group but when a Druid in on point there is a notable difference. I run Druid in our guild raids and alongside a couple other specs, we can easily keep our group up against 2x and sometimes 3x our numbers even without stab. We run 15 on average.

P.S Don’t expect to get any bags though lol (after each raid, my guildmates send me some)

gennyt.3428:

Since Anet screwed CA mechanics instead of finding a happy medium, it got a little trickier to manage so it won’t save a poorly organized group but when a Druid in on point there is a notable difference. I run Druid in our guild raids and alongside a couple other specs, we can easily keep our group up against 2x and sometimes 3x our numbers even without stab. We run 15 on average.

P.S Don’t expect to get any bags though lol (after each raid, my guildmates send me some)

right, ty for your answer. that is – even if the mechanics are not ideal- good news.