Guild Wars 2

Well you know, um, you guys gave me a bow! WTF, over. I mean what am I supposed to do with all of this heavy armor I am wearing. It is hot, makes me sweaty, lose stamina, and can’t dodge worth a kitten to save my life. Last time I read the note on the inside of ma shield it says something along the lines of:

“Guardians are devoted fighters who protect their allies and smite their enemies by drawing from the power of their virtues. True guardians are brilliant tacticians and selfless defenders who know when to sacrifice their own defenses to empower their allies to achieve victory.”

Maybe, I mean just maybe, Johnny stole my staff and placed his bow in my day pack. I heard him talking of this new Druid who is supposed to be great at group healing and support. Radiating golden bombs of light and green numbers in both Raids and WvW. Johnny could have stole my mandolin and I wouldn’t have cared, but my staff, um, I can’t really support myself out of a wet linen cloth sack without it. This shield, um, hate to admit it, but we use it for playing cards on after a hard days work of fighting.

Seriously though, I honestly would have expected once a more unique role of support/healing comes into play that the Guardian would have been the go to class. I wasn’t expecting the Druid. Go figure.

Then again I don’t play GW1 so maybe the Druid is the bees knees. Then again, Druids and Revs will be all the grass is greener play for a while I guess until the first OP or broke one rears its ugly head. Then maybe after a few months the Guardian will be in that happy spot again…

Oveall I find it interesting that player quote druid for healing with 0 healing power, when Arenanet has acknowledged that BWE3 druid healing was too powerful needing balancing. I believe druids will now require healing power to heal. So it’s going to be interesting were they end up.

Bezagron.7352:

Oveall I find it interesting that player quote druid for healing with 0 healing power, when Arenanet has acknowledged that BWE3 druid healing was too powerful needing balancing. I believe druids will now require healing power to heal. So it’s going to be interesting were they end up.

Most classes got 2 to 3 beta weekends (public anyway) – Druid got one. We all know it isn’t going to be balanced in any way shape or form. The only question is if it will be on the positive side that makes it OP or the negative side which gives Arena Net time to review data and adjust.

My money is on the OP/Busted June 23rd type broke…

Fashion Mage.3712:

Terra.8571:

I’m not trying to say Guardians can’t heal, I’m trying to say Druids can do it easier/ better.

I mostly agree, but I’m still not convinced that guardians are worse at (practical) burst healing specifically. :p
I suppose whether or not the range restrictions on druid burst healing are a problem or not will only be able to be truly seen once the expansion hits.

Terra.8571:

Verdant etching is instant whilst seed of life is only 10% of a 14k heal. Group healing is definitely not out of the question, watch this Lost Vale kill:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thS431kCOcg

He pretty much keeps up his whole party and if you look for reddit threads, they attest to that.

Druid heals are mainly 300 radius which is enough for everyone around the boss. Stacking was originally used when group huddles in a corner to LoS mobs into their territory. Simply grouping around a boss (like in the video) isn’t really stacking. Given the above scenario, druids can definitely group heal. Just keep them in their own party so they can hit members outside their party and you’re set.

With regards to landing moves like healing seed, you’ll need some coordination with the tank who can easily move the boss over the seeds.

That’s true, coordination helps a lot, although I don’t think grouping together that tightly is always going to be a viable strategy. At least I know it isn’t in stuff like PvP and even in some fractals. Perhaps (all? some?) raids are different though.
I don’t recall Verdant Etching’s seeds exploding instantly.

Terra.8571:

You have to count the cast time, same as when calculating dps. The cast is 2.25, then the heal starts which is 3s.

I’m pretty sure I would’ve noticed Healing Breeze having a longer cast time (in total) than Signet of Courage. The actual healing effect starts at around 0.3-0.4 seconds. From what I counted, it doesn’t seem like that “3 second” breeze is 3 seconds long either, so I’m assuming the tooltip is incorrect unless the breeze persists after the cast.

Terra.8571:

Overall, like I’ve mentioned, it’s too early to say whether Guardians can or cannot fill the healer spot. However, Druid’s have higher burst and higher sustained healing. Both theoretically and practically. My long posts, sorry for that, wasn’t to disregard your opinions, but I wanted to point out factually that druids can heal more than any other class in terms of raw healing than everything else by some distance.

You are right though, whether that kind of healing is necessary is another question and that’s why you are getting posts like should druids use zerkers, clerics or zealots.

I think it’ll be recommended in raids, at least. I don’t believe guardians have the sustained healing to keep a whole group up indefinitely, but I still do believe that they have the most practical burst healing, so maybe they’ll fit in as zealot DPS/supplemental burst healers or something. Overall I do agree that druids generally outheal guardians pretty hard.

Terra.8571:

My whole rant/ posts was because you said:

Fashion Mage.3712:

I honestly don’t believe druids have better burst healing than guardians

I simply wanted to show some evidence and reading back it’s turned into a long tirade :P. Anyways, as mentioned, if you like guardian healing builds, give them a go.

It’s k. I was wondering on the details of this matter anyway, and your posts helped me realize that I was underestimating/miscalculating how much healing druids can put out, although I never really thought their general healing was weaker in the first place. :>
I plan to use both a guardian and a druid. I don’t see the need to “reroll” to be honest.

Lol, I don;t think any Guardian needs to re roll, the only thing that might be changing is they won’t be near the top in terms of first picks… maybe (depends on contents).

You’re right verdant etching does have a delay, I was sleepy when I wrote that because I saw Seed of Life/ Verdant etching and mistakenly took that as Seed of Life/ Cultivated synergy as in you were saying the both additional heals to the main heal had a delay and only the seed does, my mistake.

I also forgot to add a further 25% heal boost druids get from glyph of power in CA form so that takes healing up to 65% and hence theoretically (and it’s not too hard to perform practically), a druid could do a 17-18k single heal. However, that would probably be overkill and wasting the 25% healing from glyph of power when it should be used for the 3.5% dps boost to the party.

Fashion Mage.3712:

Terra.8571:

I’m not trying to say Guardians can’t heal, I’m trying to say Druids can do it easier/ better.

I mostly agree, but I’m still not convinced that guardians are worse at (practical) burst healing specifically. :p

well we do have a 6.5k group heal that remove three conditions on a 26s CD that we can recharge once within 3 secs.

Druid is madness however. chaining wisp, lunar impact on a healspring outheals any class. especially because its rinse and repeat very quickly. drop in glyph of alignment and unity and you got a HP battery.

Crapgame.6519:

Most classes got 2 to 3 beta weekends (public anyway) – Druid got one. We all know it isn’t going to be balanced in any way shape or form. The only question is if it will be on the positive side that makes it OP or the negative side which gives Arena Net time to review data and adjust.

My money is on the OP/Busted June 23rd type broke…

In all of the discussion not much has been talked about with regards to the core game. I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s not large chances regarding core profession balance wise. It’s not something that would be talked much about as it’s not new coming from HoTs. It’s a large part we’re all interested in & would be great to know but you don’t typically talk about core balance with regard to an expansion.

Guess all that’s left is waiting to see patch notes on release.

Bezagron.7352:

Crapgame.6519:

Most classes got 2 to 3 beta weekends (public anyway) – Druid got one. We all know it isn’t going to be balanced in any way shape or form. The only question is if it will be on the positive side that makes it OP or the negative side which gives Arena Net time to review data and adjust.

My money is on the OP/Busted June 23rd type broke…

In all of the discussion not much has been talked about with regards to the core game. I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s not large chances regarding core profession balance wise. It’s not something that would be talked much about as it’s not new coming from HoTs. It’s a large part we’re all interested in & would be great to know but you don’t typically talk about core balance with regard to an expansion.

Guess all that’s left is waiting to see patch notes on release.

By now all my money is on core changes to improve party support outside of stability and reflect bots.

I have already given up on DH as a serious spec I raids and spvp. All they will do at this point is try to band aid the dmg by changing numbers when it fact the whole class mechanic is garbage

We’ve seen lots of discussion about healing and dps roles, but what about tanking?

Looking at Mace/Shield/Focus skills and Honor/Valor trait lines, it seems to me that there are some really fantastic “classic MMO” mitigation tank builds waiting in the lurch. Aren’t there?

Of course, up until now we’ve never really needed a “tank” in PvE, so the builds were completely and utterly pointless. But is that going to continue to be the case for the rest of the raid as well?

Hunter.4783:

Fashion Mage.3712:

Aegis, reflection/barriers, and allied burst healing, off the top of my head. I haven’t actually played a raid yet though, so I can’t comment with surety.

Aegis: I already went over it. Instead of getting hit once every 2-3 sec like vs archdiviner it would be kittens every 1. Boss also was hitting like a wet noodle, so any class would face tank him. The problem was preventing AoE 1 shots by standing in select areas and by avoiding the orbs which could hit for like 1-2k

Reflect/barrier: Not needed. Besides, Rev is better at blocking projectiles as its built into hammer, 6 sec duration, 12 sec cooldown.

Allied burst healing: Druid surpassed the guardian in heal by about 10x, i am not even kidding. A single druid would keep the whole raid up. There is a reason they are changing druid healing coefficients a little bit.

Before playing the raid, i was thinking we would have to stack guardians/eles. But after playing it i can tell you will need

Chronos: Acclarity is HUUGE

Engie/scrapper: Good DPS and Condi which is a MUST for raids.

Druids: No explanation needed. A druid with 0 healing power would heal better than a full cleric guard and also provide SUPERIOR DPS to any cleric classes

Herald: Pulsing might,fury,prot,regen, reflects. superior single target DPS due to shiry swiftness and 50% INCREASED BOON DURATION AURA

Reaper: Good melee DPS and tankability in 1. Can soak hits nicely. Once boss hits 50%, gravedigger pushes DPS above any class.

+/- Tempest: Does more of what the ele already offers. Not a must but a good addition.

Herald doesn’t have reflects. More, Revenant as a whole doesn’t have a single reflect.

Projectile destruction 6 sec duration on 12 sec cooldown. I think it’s superior to our WOR

I have played GW2 since the beginning, and the guard have always been my main, and the only class I enjoy playing.
However, all the people I know, never goes for a guardian in their raids, it’s not the “meta”.

It’s very confusing, all of a sudden not to feel for any use. And I don’t want to play other classes.
So I’m not doing any raids, which is a bit sad.

Yesterday, I got hope. I heard that they found a way for 1 guard to be a little useful – as supporter for the Druid.

Is this Anet’s idea to rule out certain classes?

Hunter.4783:

True, HOWEVER, from what i experienced last raid, all 1 shots were linked to raid mechanics and could not be mitigated, only prevented through fulfilling certain conditions. Like having 4 people standing in 1 spot would prevent the AoE, otherwise its a party wipe.

Actually, it can also be mitigated through hard invulnerability. 2 chronomancers with inspiring distortion, blurred inscriptions, and signet of midnight/inspiration can completely negate the need for a ranged team if they time their distortion right.