Guild Wars 2

for PvE in the open world,like HoT maps and the new LS maps.
can anyone recommend a build that will be bulky enough for those maps yet hit hard enough?

The axe/torch + shortbow condition druid build on various sites (check metabattle) has served me very well, with a couple minor adjustments.

One of the best survival adjustments for solo working through HoT and LS was putting on a lot of Survival skills (Troll Unguent for heal, Lightning Reflexes as an extra dodge, Quickening Zephyr for a stun break, and Entangling Roots for elite) for very easy access to tons of condition cleanses. Each of those can be specced to cleanse 2 conditions, which is a godsend. That left me another slot open to use Spike Trap, which in addition to adding a lot more bleeds also helped with its area knockdown).

For survival, I got used to having 4 dodges (shortbow #3 is a backstepping evade, lightning reflexes is similar, plus your two regular dodges) and that negates a ton of damage while your pet is hopefully plugging away all the while. Shortbow #3 also has a short cooldown, so it’s a consistently available option as an extra dodge. As a druid, having access to celestial avatar is HUGE. The sustain is even more viable when you learn how to heal yourself while consistently moving out of danger. There is almost nothing my ranger can’t safely kill or walk away from, as a result.

I also ran cc pets (Electric Wyvern and the regular wolf) early on just for insurance, to keep enemies at bay if things got out of hand. But I find bleeds and burns work remarkably well for getting you through HoT safely, and Troll Unguent works quite well as a preemptive heal (it ticks for a long time, in exchange for being a weak burst heal response). I quickly found the extra cc not necessary for survival, and instead focused on rapid kills with some small amount of healing when necessary.

I focus on stacking bleed and fire mostly, but you get access to poison via shortbow #2 and pets as well. Stuff like pocket raptors die rapidly as they try to mob you while you’re standing in your bonfire.

The one drawback of this setup seems to be that almost all of your attacks are going to be projectile based. I think Torch #5 is your only non-projectile attack, aside from the trap and roots. This means when your enemy enters a projectile-reflecting phase, you have to be careful about not shooting yourself repeatedly in the face.

voltaicbore.8012:

The axe/torch + shortbow condition druid build on various sites (check metabattle) has served me very well, with a couple minor adjustments.

One of the best survival adjustments for solo working through HoT and LS was putting on a lot of Survival skills (Troll Unguent for heal, Lightning Reflexes as an extra dodge, Quickening Zephyr for a stun break, and Entangling Roots for elite) for very easy access to tons of condition cleanses. Each of those can be specced to cleanse 2 conditions, which is a godsend. That left me another slot open to use Spike Trap, which in addition to adding a lot more bleeds also helped with its area knockdown).

For survival, I got used to having 4 dodges (shortbow #3 is a backstepping evade, lightning reflexes is similar, plus your two regular dodges) and that negates a ton of damage while your pet is hopefully plugging away all the while. Shortbow #3 also has a short cooldown, so it’s a consistently available option as an extra dodge. As a druid, having access to celestial avatar is HUGE. The sustain is even more viable when you learn how to heal yourself while consistently moving out of danger. There is almost nothing my ranger can’t safely kill or walk away from, as a result.

I also ran cc pets (Electric Wyvern and the regular wolf) early on just for insurance, to keep enemies at bay if things got out of hand. But I find bleeds and burns work remarkably well for getting you through HoT safely, and Troll Unguent works quite well as a preemptive heal (it ticks for a long time, in exchange for being a weak burst heal response). I quickly found the extra cc not necessary for survival, and instead focused on rapid kills with some small amount of healing when necessary.

I focus on stacking bleed and fire mostly, but you get access to poison via shortbow #2 and pets as well. Stuff like pocket raptors die rapidly as they try to mob you while you’re standing in your bonfire.

The one drawback of this setup seems to be that almost all of your attacks are going to be projectile based. I think Torch #5 is your only non-projectile attack, aside from the trap and roots. This means when your enemy enters a projectile-reflecting phase, you have to be careful about not shooting yourself repeatedly in the face.

seems like the build would suck in aoe sitations wouldnt it?

Amaranthe.3578:

seems like the build would suck in aoe sitations wouldnt it?

Welcome to druid. AoE is limited to autoattack for the most part.

Just go full glass anything. Druid spec keeps you alive. I’ve done every living story to date in the typical berserker build (LB/SA/SWH/GS any combo of those are fine) but glass condi should be fine too. LB is just a little more fail-safe with the range.

Unless you’re new, then you might want a few soldier’s trinkets or whatever. Whatever you’re comfy with. Just SoS pop hould get you out of any danger long enough to full heal with druid, worst case scenario.

Fluffball.8307:

Amaranthe.3578:

seems like the build would suck in aoe sitations wouldnt it?

Welcome to druid. AoE is limited to autoattack for the most part.

Just go full glass anything. Druid spec keeps you alive. I’ve done every living story to date in the typical berserker build (LB/SA/SWH/GS any combo of those are fine) but glass condi should be fine too. LB is just a little more fail-safe with the range.

Unless you’re new, then you might want a few soldier’s trinkets or whatever. Whatever you’re comfy with. Just SoS pop hould get you out of any danger long enough to full heal with druid, worst case scenario.

i find that with full glass my celstial avatar doesnt heal that much
im using 4 and 3 and then leaving
am i doing something wrong?

Have you picked up a trait called Quick Draw? It lets your next ranger/druid skill you use after weapon swap have a significantly lower cool down…so you’d use your CA form (which counts as a weapon swap) use skill 4, 3, spam 1 til 4 is up again, then leave. You get 2 full uses of the 4 skill, giving you more healing for yourself and the damage buff. Quick Draw is like a serious bread and butter tool of a Druid and something to absolutely have in your pocket. If you don’t like the second weapon set, have two SB and still proc your Quick Draw trait.

Amaranthe.3578:

for PvE in the open world,like HoT maps and the new LS maps.
can anyone recommend a build that will be bulky enough for those maps yet hit hard enough?

This is what I generally use for all pve stuff. The build is all Celestial, but sometimes I switch to Viper armor (just the armor). You have to be proactive with CA skills, particularly 3 and 5, so I make use of staff to build up AF faster.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNAW3fnUqAFsiVsCurAUtglCBr5DMseBwb1x6a9pLEtCAlI9wA-TxhFABUp87OdDDcRAkU9H42fgPlgA8EACAgAczbmNbzgzbezbezbeu5Nv5Nv5NLDg+CA-e

Edit- The build was doing just fine yesterday while soloing centaurs in the new zone.

Amaranthe.3578:

i find that with full glass my celstial avatar doesnt heal that much
im using 4 and 3 and then leaving
am i doing something wrong?

Rabidsmiles covered the important QD aspect of it, but another tip is throw down a 2 before the 3, it will blast retal, do a minor heal, blind, and cure a condition. It’s a sort of “eh, why not?” move. And it’s a good habit for WvW and PvP.

But even if you don’t get the QD, just getting that extra several thousand health every 10 seconds is a pretty big deal and should allow full glass to be much easier.

I’ve found dropping the Druid to be far more efficient in HOT.

Marksmanship, Beastmastery, and Nature Magic. Axe/Warhorn with longbow as offset. I’m in full zerk gear and have little trouble with groups or single targets. Found Mad King rune to be best you can pop your elite and really hit groups of mobs hard. Shouts are core with healing. And a couple signets to add tough and health regen. I hit hard and can heal through most things. Smokescale and Tiger seem to be best pet options due to the wyverns slow attacks that seem to miss quite often. In some areas I’ll swap to the Bristleback in place of the tiger if more ranged fighting is ideal. I’m still not sure why but fire and air runes do most damage in build. But if you need more condition control above what your pet can do, use Generosity over Purity as it has a shorter cooldown.

I’ve never found AoE to be much of a problem.

Viper condi druid, running A/T with quickdraw basically has great bonfire uptime. With the spike trap and roots, I’m spreading fire and tons of bleeding around, not to mention continuously immobilizing enemies. Sure there might be other superior aoe builds on other classes, but you have plenty of aoe tools:

1: SB #2, while best used stacked right on an enemy hitbox, pierces naturally without any traiting. so if you have mobs clumped up when you use it, you tend to see lots of green ticks form.

2: Torch #5: already discussed – with quickdraw, has a very high uptime.

3: Axe #2: splitblade acts much like SB #2, in that you want to toss it out at melee range to land 5 stacks on one target, but it naturally pierces.

4: Combos using your own bonfire: the aforementioned SB #2 and axe #2 each have a good chance of turning into piercing, flaming projectiles. 5 of them. Given how long you can stand in your own bonfire due to quickdraw uptime benefits, this is far from negligible.

5: Pet choice: while I tend to run lynx for single targets, sometimes I break out a drake for more consistent aoe performance. I favor the marsh drake for its bouncing poison f2, simply because I cover bleeding and burning pretty well from my own ability set.

edit: forgot about combo fields with bonfire

I normally use Skirmishing, Wilderness Survival and either Druid or Beastmastery

Druid gives you Glyphs, and if traited will clear Conditions as you drop Seeds. And you would probably run 3~4 Glyphs

Beastmastery gives your Winter’s Bite an AoE effect.

I originally went Axe/- and -/Torch combined with Quick Draw can give you a Permament Fire Field uptime.

I just started using Short Bow, and SB #5 is great as a Break Bar ability.

Pets:
Lynx – more Bleeds
Tiger – Buff Pet

Blue Drake for the Break Bar
Red Drake for AoE?
Pink/Black Moa for Break Bar
Bristle Back (another new HoT pet?) Ranged, not bad for Break Bar

I’m only level 75. I’ve been using a pretty standard Axe/Torch condi build, except instead of SB I’ve been using S/A, mainly because of the finishers on off-hand Axe. The whirl finisher in a fire field sure seems to be great for AoE. Or am I imagining that?

I’ve also been using Beast Mastery with an Eagle, which is giving me blind and weakness every 4.75 seconds. For when the going gets tough I’ve been carrying a Murrelow, mainly because its poison field gives me a lot of options.

Do you think this build would make it in HoT maps?

I have been running an (old) Condi Bleed Druid build (based on https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/PvE-WvW-Bleed-druid/first) once I had the complete Druid spec unlocked. Overall, I still like it as a low-ish skilled lazy player, unless I’m getting badly mobbed like the Mordrem flock in Tangled Depth before you reach the zone change to Dragon’s Stand. I mainly use Druid for the passive 33% run speed buff, though. If Zerker gear wouldn’t be ~ twice as expensive as the rabid gear on the trade post, I’d switch around a bit more often here and there.