Guild Wars 2

Astral Force generation has been awkward from the beginning. Celestial Avatar shouldn’t be gated by any particular weapon like staff; this limits druids from going for condition damage. Furthermore, CA shouldn’t be gated by weird skills like warhorn 4 or troll’s unguent. That didn’t make any sense at all.

I also don’t like the idea of needing to heal in order to activate our better healing abilities. Perhaps that works in raids, but I can’t see it working in PvP well. What good is burst healing if it isn’t available when it’s needed – like at the beginning of a team fight?

If we’re stuck with AF as a mechanic to fuel CA, then get rid of the cool-down. Druids shouldn’t be stuck with the worst of both worlds. Perhaps AF could be generated by time in combat or some other metric that doesn’t limit druids to very specific builds (tanky power build with staff). Perhaps damage should build AF as fast as healing so that staff doesn’t feel mandatory. Staff should be an option for those who want some sustained healing with their druid.

If AF can be done away with, why not just have a cool-down and fixed duration in CA? Then CA isn’t gated by specific abilities or weapons. CA could be available at the beginning of fights but limited by something like a 20 or 30 second CD. Then druid would be a flexible add-on to the existing ranger skill set, to be combined into builds in a number of different ways.

As is, it doesn’t feel good.

I totally agree. I think a 15-20 second cooldown on CA with no more AF would be a great idea. It would allow druids more variety in their weapon choices.

The problem, though, is that they might actually listen to us. They’ll get rid of AF but give CA a 1.5 minute cooldown or something. I would not doubt that happening at all. Maybe hiding from any development is our best bet. Every time we get looked at we somehow come out worse for wear.

I would be ok with a CD equivalent to elite skills (60-120s) IF they get rid of AF
But also the duration on par with the same elite skills

SqualZell.7813:

I would be ok with a CD equivalent to elite skills (60-120s) IF they get rid of AF
But also the duration on par with the same elite skills

at this point it would probably be a lot better with some kind of cooldown. That BS seriously doesn’t regen at all unless you are almost dead

Assuming the Cooldown starts after exiting and not on activation, 25~30 seconds seems reasonable.