Guild Wars 2

From the preview, Astral Force is generated when healing or doing damage. Currently, the numbers are:

Per Heal: 2½%
Per Damage: ¼%

Per Damage seems rather low. I know the Druid spec is focused on healing, but it seems to be a huge drawback for anyone that takes the Druid line but wants to less about heals and more into other focuses such as other support means (like CC) or damage.

Anyone else feel this concern? I’ll definitely test this during the next Beta, but I feel a small bump like ½% per damage would be just right.

How long did it take to build up enough Astral Force to transform on the reveal?

Maybe they will balance it, however I think the bar will fill up faster than you think… Revanent had the same concern…. but that energy bar was almost always full during the beta weekend

Well, seems like they are doing that to get a scale for druid. This way druid will get more powerful in team fights and less powerful in a 1v1 situation. If each heal and hit is providing this Astral force, AoE heal and damage will fill your bar really quick. But single target just doesn’t.

well, at base seems low, but remember that most staff skills do both dmg and healing so it might be faster than we think

didn’t look too bad. it’s less when youre just doing damage, and even then it was filling up at a decent rate.

you get quite a bit more when you heal others, so imagine healing 3-4 people around you. it will fill up quick.

Ranger has a decent number of multi-hit skills that will fill it rather nicely.

And also, keep in mind that you always have a companion around in your pet. So you’ll always have something to heal (besides just yourself) to utilize that faster growth rate of healing.

I don’t think its meant to be something you can use constantly like Death Shroud, anyway. Its probably supposed to fill a bit more slowly and make you choose when to use it more strategically.

If ticks of regeneration count as healing allies, then it will tick up insanely fast. You are looking at 75% full force over 10s with one shout and RT. Hoping this is the case.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

If ticks of regeneration count as healing allies, then it will tick up insanely fast. You are looking at 75% full force over 10s with one shout and RT. Hoping this is the case.

Which is precisely why I’m not at all banking on Regen having any effect at all on the power gauge.

That’s just way too passive. Click a button and watch the gauge just pour in willy nilly.

It may also partially explain why Druid has literally no regeneration anywhere. They want the focus to be on direct heals which boost your gauge, rather than passive heals which don’t.

Electro.4173:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

If ticks of regeneration count as healing allies, then it will tick up insanely fast. You are looking at 75% full force over 10s with one shout and RT. Hoping this is the case.

Which is precisely why I’m not at all banking on Regen having any effect at all on the power gauge.

That’s just way too passive. Click a button and watch the gauge just pour in willy nilly.

It may also partially explain why Druid has literally no regeneration anywhere. They want the focus to be on direct heals which boost your gauge, rather than passive heals which don’t.

Maybe.. but ranger doesn’t need any more regen. It has loads of it all over the place.

windbourne notes will be interesting with this.

Oberon Vex.1389:

Electro.4173:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

If ticks of regeneration count as healing allies, then it will tick up insanely fast. You are looking at 75% full force over 10s with one shout and RT. Hoping this is the case.

Which is precisely why I’m not at all banking on Regen having any effect at all on the power gauge.

That’s just way too passive. Click a button and watch the gauge just pour in willy nilly.

It may also partially explain why Druid has literally no regeneration anywhere. They want the focus to be on direct heals which boost your gauge, rather than passive heals which don’t.

Maybe.. but ranger doesn’t need any more regen. It has loads of it all over the place.

True, but you’d still expect a full healer spec to have some Regen somewhere. Unless there’s a reason for it to not be there. Which could either be the aforementioned “regen doesn’t boost celestial power” gimmick, the fact that they want Druid to be pure healer and no boon support, or perhaps both. At least that’s my thinking on the matter.

Assuming the small self heals from Live Vicariously build astral force, you’re looking at some insane generation. Cultivated Synergy + your heal would net you something close to 50% generation with 5 targets.

Thinking outside the box a bit here; If you’re worried about Astral Force regeneration in small scale combat consider taking something like Hyena pet combined with Runes of the Ogre. Assuming each ally healed is worth that 2 1/2% Astral regeneration, you could triple up on you astral rate by having extra NPCs around to heal.

So you’ve got two hyenas and a rock dog biting some poor schmuck’s ankle and you cast the Astral Wisp on them. Boom-boom-boom, it passes through all three of them a couple times — 15% right there.

Also consider something like a Sigil of Water with the same little entourage… I think you get the idea.