Guild Wars 2

Runiir.6425:

Going to assume none of you paid attention to the various elite spec skills…specifically the Herald can taunt that I know of for sure. Or could last BWE.

So atleast then there was a way to very limitedly taunt enemies away from others. ‘VERY’ limited, but it was there.

Taunt is already in the game on ranger pets when traited in beastmastery. We know how it works, it’s just like any other form of hard crowd control.

It’s strictly worse than the ice bow’s deep freeze on single targets, as it interacts with them in the same way, but with taunt they just refocus their attacks onto a target, while with deep freeze they stop attacking altogether.

Or, against multiple foes, it’s more or less on par with a staff elementalist’s earth wall and static field.

zinkz.7045:

morrolan.9608:

In what universe is Druid ever a healer? This is so disappointing.

Erm lots of “universes” such as in Dungeons and Dragons which is where MMORPGs stem from.

Not solely, druids are nature wizards, a part of that can be healing but they are also offensive nature wizards and shapeshifters.

Some Concerns:

- I like the support angle, but it does seem a tad boring to have so many skills focused on it. I would like some damage options thrown in too.

- Glyphs are all short range pbaoes, they compliment melee more than Staff.

- The skill effects… I want to be a Druid not a Guardian! Ditch the blue lights, replace them with yellow or green light and consider adding more plant effects.

Lévis.5489:

Now, the best question to ask yourself: which gear will be the best for Druids? Celestial armor + ascended nomad’s jewelry from the first part of the living story S2?

Would think you will need healing power, probably settlers.

Remember, guys, that the healing and damage shown on the stream was from a Druid with no additional stats. It was pure baseline, they said it straight up as they were covering the autoattack.

I feel that’s an important point to make because it provides options. I can readily see hybrid builds taking Druid solely for the Celestial Avatar and survivability and lol-ing their way through damage and condi stacks. A Druid actually specced for survival and healing power will be a legitimate bunker in sPvP. Point caps for days.

Granted, taking Druid for the survivability and healing would mean giving something up in return and thus makes current specialized ranger builds suboptimal. I also don’t see Druid having much use in existing old PvE content where the Zerker meta will continue to live on.

The raids will be interesting, though, because Anet has stated multiple times that there will be instances of unavoidable damage. How often that happens and whether it’ll actually impact the “MOAR DMGS!” meta obviously remains to be seen.

What do I see, though? I see a 5 man group with survival/healing specced Druid support sneaking objectives from the zergs in WvW easily. I also see meta-changing potential in PvP. The team fights, the bunker builds. Oh my god, if the numbers I saw today don’t change that much between now and release, it’s going to be absolutely terrifying.

Levetty.1279:

In real life Druids killed animals.

I wouldn’t bring this up but people seem more then happy to bring up real world rangers when people talk about our bows.

Druid kills animals in meaningful and non-wasteful ways.
They only take what they need to survive.

In real life we kill animals for profit.
We kill more than we need and we consume, and use that excess supply to make profit.
We intentionally DUMP foods in order to control the supply-demand of the market.
(We wouldn’t even donate those excess food to people in need because it’d lower the price of the market. They want to make the market with limited supply and scarcity so they can control the price)

In comparison, Druid is way more respectful to nature and animals.

I personally think that the Druid that was revealed today was very exciting.
here are the things I enjoyed

: The celestial/space theme
isn’t this just an extreme for nature magic? It awesome.
: Versatility of the glyphs
Ranger lacked synergy and versatility with exception of traits involving the pet.
The Druid traits provide new options the ranger never had. It is really the first new niche that ranger has access too, we all know that the spirits didn’t quite work out.

I understand that some people don’t like the druid. But their discussion is rarely constructive.

Any feedback?! what do you like and what do you have concern about?

p.s. I don’t honestly believe that the druid will become the new monk… honestly, it looked like you’d have to exhaust all your energy and skills to get an ally to full health…. that’s quite the sacrifice.

Maybe it’s time to rework how reward scoring works for EVERYONE who heals. Make support a more viable option for any class. Do the same for control type skills instead of going off of nothing but damage. It would solve any issues with druid and also open up the viability of builds for other classes. I mean, if I feel like following world bosses around the map as a healing specialized elementalist spamming heals on people, shouldn’t that be a viable option and result in rewards, even if it’s not strictly “needed”.

Last time Ranger had a bunker build usable in high tier PvP it resulted in pets being nerfed across the board in all modes.

There is nothing in the lore of the druids that states that their attunement to nature was solely based on plantlife. Nature encompasses many things, including the cycles of the moon and stars, as DevilLordLaser pointed out.

Nowhere in the druid lore do they exclude these parts of nature from what the druids attuned themselves to when they shed their human form. So while there is not a complete overlap between the druid spec and the druids from old, they did not throw lore out of the window by including mooncycles into this spec.

MirrorOfNature.4279:

TheRandomGuy.7246:

Harper.4173:

Enjoy being a part of raids as a cookie-cutter build. The introduction of roles doesn’t change the fact that there will be a meta – and with a meta you won’t be playing much of anything but what the meta dictats for that content.

This will be so true lol. Smallest deviations from “healing meta” build can result in a party wipe. Elitism in pugs will reach new heights.

How very untrue. I know many players would like to think you need meta build to do specific content, but its not true, atleast from my experience. Not even once have i ran a meta build, since I started the game. Guess what? I never had any problems finding group to do any content in the game. I just purposefully avoid any groups in LFG who ask specifically for meta build.
Granted we still don’t know how things will go with the raids, but I don’t see meta builds becoming the only vaible way to run them.

Because right now nothing is required and everything is viable. As soon as something becomes required “meta” becomes very important and build diversity goes out of the window.

As someone who mained thief before is was d/d zerker meta or bust, I’m feeling your guys’ pain at the reveal. Honestly, I think you guys are even worse off than thieves in a lot of ways. Where we are just getting our only useful mechanic denied (stealth, thanks scrapper) you guys are having your profession mechanic (pets) entirely abandoned and changed so you can be healers. At least thief still has dps…

In regards to the “the elite specs were meant to help classes branch to where they couldn’t go before and try new things!” argument, while it was marketed that way that’s clearly not the case. Rangers are turning from kitten dps to awesome healers, thieves are being changed from sneaky backstabbers to monks of peace and balance. What changed in warrior? …oh, nothing. Still big brutish dudes killing stuff. Guardians get bows.. but they still do the blue fire and have great defense. Mesmers get chronomancer, and they already had things like timewarp. Necros get reaper (obviously still fitting their existing theme) and the greatsword isn’t even their first melee weapon. Eles are still doing the same thing, too. Engineers get hammers, but all their abilities were basically melee to begin with, and they are still in the “machines and kitten” theme.

So why, for the love of all that is good and holy, do Rangers and Thieves get at least one core part of their class changed entirely? Druids are still in theme partly, just with a huge focus on nature but their entire pet thing is being thrown under the bus. Thieves? We still have steal, but it’s getting ignored too, as nothing is being added to it (except a small endurance gain as a minor trait) meanwhile, our theme is totally changing after getting shafted in updates for years.

Xillllix.3485:

Eles have been water bots for years, I think it’s nice that other classes can do it now.

But it’s done so POORLY.
Elementalists also have access to a lot of various boons for the party, not just healing.

It would be more interesting if Druids were more a support spec than a healing one.

Hell, speaking of boons, why not make that the gimmick of Druids instead of raw healing? Have their boons behave differently from others or their effects change based on what boons the druid has. I am not against ranger support, I am against lazy design >:(

For example: The Druid trait gives a natures presence to 5 allies. Boons the druid applies while under the affect of the presence will get an additional effect.

• Might gives allies attacks an additional chance to inflict vulnerability.
• Protection grants super speed for 1 second
• Regeneration also periodically removes conditions
• Fury also grants extra Ferocity
• Aegis grants a light aura
  and so on.

But the ranger doesn’t have very much in way of applying a bunch of boons? Well that is where the traits and the staff comes in. Offering various boons to all allies.

You don’t have to heal to be support, ArenaNet seems to have forgotten that. I’m just tossing my idea of how to make a support focused elite spec.

Also, Chronomancer is shatterspike 2.0, unless they completely change F1-F4 there is absolutely no reason to play a support Chronomancer.

Eric.7813:

I personally think that the Druid that was revealed today was very exciting.
here are the things I enjoyed

: The celestial/space theme
isn’t this just an extreme for nature magic? It awesome.
: Versatility of the glyphs
Ranger lacked synergy and versatility with exception of traits involving the pet.
The Druid traits provide new options the ranger never had. It is really the first new niche that ranger has access too, we all know that the spirits didn’t quite work out.

I understand that some people don’t like the druid. But their discussion is rarely constructive.

Any feedback?! what do you like and what do you have concern about?

p.s. I don’t honestly believe that the druid will become the new monk… honestly, it looked like you’d have to exhaust all your energy and skills to get an ally to full health…. that’s quite the sacrifice.

Wait, hold on there.

What do you mean by “Versatility of the glyphs with synergies”, when all of them are PBAOE short range, while all staff skills are 1200 range?

Where’s the synergy?

Plus that 10% damage bonus Glyph is even worse than Frost Spirit.. (only 1/4 up-time, netting a 2.5% damage increase over 20 secs)

I`m disappointed with the lack of synergy with the rest of the class. I can accept having a healing option, but I want something there which opens up new options for using the longbow as ranged dps.

Its odd, as I could take the healing trait line of any other class and still find something for a dps in some way. As a necro I could take the minion traitline and even if I didn’t use minions, I could still justify it for its toughness/ defence options.

Where is the option to let the new celestial form deal some damage for example? Or to boost its charge rate for damage so you don’t have to rely on healing to get it ready?

Many rangers will still want to be pinging away with their bow most of the time, because without that we just don’t have any pressure or anything to bring to a fight. Range is about the one thing that makes us unique and now, its being sidelined for some completely alien and non synergistic healing add on.

love it all
15char

Aomine.5012:

Eric.7813:

I personally think that the Druid that was revealed today was very exciting.
here are the things I enjoyed

: The celestial/space theme
isn’t this just an extreme for nature magic? It awesome.
: Versatility of the glyphs
Ranger lacked synergy and versatility with exception of traits involving the pet.
The Druid traits provide new options the ranger never had. It is really the first new niche that ranger has access too, we all know that the spirits didn’t quite work out.

I understand that some people don’t like the druid. But their discussion is rarely constructive.

Any feedback?! what do you like and what do you have concern about?

p.s. I don’t honestly believe that the druid will become the new monk… honestly, it looked like you’d have to exhaust all your energy and skills to get an ally to full health…. that’s quite the sacrifice.

Wait, hold on there.

What do you mean by “Versatility of the glyphs with synergies”, when all of them are PBAOE short range, while all staff skills are 1200 range?

Where’s the synergy?

I believe greatsword will synergize wonderfully with Glyphs. With the dazes, stuns, cripples, and general control, it’ll be absolutely a blast to mess with people. I saw a few combos just from watching the video. I’m sure people will find more as builders are updated.

morrolan.9608:

zinkz.7045:

morrolan.9608:

In what universe is Druid ever a healer? This is so disappointing.

Erm lots of “universes” such as in Dungeons and Dragons which is where MMORPGs stem from.

Not solely, druids are nature wizards, a part of that can be healing but they are also offensive nature wizards and shapeshifters.

Yes not solely, they were a sort of hybrid class somewhere between a cleric and magic user, but then playing Druid doesn’t make you solely a healer, you have two other trait lines, another weapon, choice of utils / elite / pets & choice of gear, sure you won’t be full out DPS, but you will certainly be able to play hybrid, much like Druid in D&D.

Caiden.9074:

Aomine.5012:

Eric.7813:

I personally think that the Druid that was revealed today was very exciting.
here are the things I enjoyed

: The celestial/space theme
isn’t this just an extreme for nature magic? It awesome.
: Versatility of the glyphs
Ranger lacked synergy and versatility with exception of traits involving the pet.
The Druid traits provide new options the ranger never had. It is really the first new niche that ranger has access too, we all know that the spirits didn’t quite work out.

I understand that some people don’t like the druid. But their discussion is rarely constructive.

Any feedback?! what do you like and what do you have concern about?

p.s. I don’t honestly believe that the druid will become the new monk… honestly, it looked like you’d have to exhaust all your energy and skills to get an ally to full health…. that’s quite the sacrifice.

Wait, hold on there.

What do you mean by “Versatility of the glyphs with synergies”, when all of them are PBAOE short range, while all staff skills are 1200 range?

Where’s the synergy?

I believe greatsword will synergize wonderfully with Glyphs. With the dazes, stuns, cripples, and general control, it’ll be absolutely a blast to mess with people. I saw a few combos just from watching the video. I’m sure people will find more as builders are updated.

Umm… So Druid is a melee class then?

Great….. More stacking in one spot meleeing the kitten out of all contents while being a healbot so people can just stand there waiting for heal..

love the druid, can’t wait to play

plus dragons. Dragons, Carl.

Nova Stiker.8396:

Xillllix.3485:

Eles have been water bots for years, I think it’s nice that other classes can do it now.

But it’s done so POORLY.
Elementalists also have access to a lot of various boons for the party, not just healing.

It would be more interesting if Druids were more a support spec than a healing one.

Hell, speaking of boons, why not make that the gimmick of Druids instead of raw healing? Have their boons behave differently from others or their effects change based on what boons the druid has.

Also, Chronomancer is shatterspike 2.0, unless they completely change F1-F4 there is absolutely no reason to play a support Chronomancer.

I disagree, i feel like you’re trying to make all types of support and put them into one category only, that being support through boons. There are many ways of support and so far, raw healing has been the more neglected one. We ahve support through active defense (guard/scrapper) support through boons (herald/ele) and now some support through raw healing. I rather enjoy the variety in ways to support your team instead of it all being the same “apply boons now” tactic.

bluesnacks.2301:

love the druid, can’t wait to play

plus dragons. Dragons, Carl.

You don’t need to be Druid to tame dragons if I remembered correctly.

I was hoping some common pets become usable too though :/
Not just fancy stuffs.

A Druid, both in common sense and GW Lore, transcends to a higher plane of existence and sees nature from a more cosmic point of view.

The druids from GW1 are strongly connected to nature, but what we, or rather the player character consider nature (plants, life, animals) might just be where their sphere of existence begins.

I really love the the theme of the elite specialization with the nature/plant life theme in normal form and the “higher sphere of existence” theme, while in celestial form.
It goes much deeper than the simple “druid is one with nature” theme I had expected.

Aomine.5012:

Caiden.9074:

Aomine.5012:

Eric.7813:

I personally think that the Druid that was revealed today was very exciting.
here are the things I enjoyed

: The celestial/space theme
isn’t this just an extreme for nature magic? It awesome.
: Versatility of the glyphs
Ranger lacked synergy and versatility with exception of traits involving the pet.
The Druid traits provide new options the ranger never had. It is really the first new niche that ranger has access too, we all know that the spirits didn’t quite work out.

I understand that some people don’t like the druid. But their discussion is rarely constructive.

Any feedback?! what do you like and what do you have concern about?

p.s. I don’t honestly believe that the druid will become the new monk… honestly, it looked like you’d have to exhaust all your energy and skills to get an ally to full health…. that’s quite the sacrifice.

Wait, hold on there.

What do you mean by “Versatility of the glyphs with synergies”, when all of them are PBAOE short range, while all staff skills are 1200 range?

Where’s the synergy?

I believe greatsword will synergize wonderfully with Glyphs. With the dazes, stuns, cripples, and general control, it’ll be absolutely a blast to mess with people. I saw a few combos just from watching the video. I’m sure people will find more as builders are updated.

Umm… So Druid is a melee class then?

Great….. More stacking in one spot meleeing the kitten out of all contents while being a healbot so people can just stand there waiting for heal..

Not exclusively, no. I think it can’t be. It depends how you build and what skills you use. I agree with you that most of the Glyphs don’t really synergize well with the ranger unless you’re in celestial form. We’ll have to see how it plays out.

I’m glad it can go both ways, however.

zinkz.7045:

morrolan.9608:

zinkz.7045:

morrolan.9608:

In what universe is Druid ever a healer? This is so disappointing.

Erm lots of “universes” such as in Dungeons and Dragons which is where MMORPGs stem from.

Not solely, druids are nature wizards, a part of that can be healing but they are also offensive nature wizards and shapeshifters.

Yes not solely, they were a sort of hybrid class somewhere between a cleric and magic user, but then playing Druid doesn’t make you solely a healer, you have two other trait lines, another weapon, choice of utils / elite / pets & choice of gear, sure you won’t be full out DPS, but you will certainly be able to play hybrid, much like Druid in D&D.

We all know how well hybrids have done in all games with a team of specialized roles! rolls eyes

As a mainly wubwub player, I’m excited for the potential it can bring to fights. It changes quite a lot of things.

Frankly if i wanted to play a healer I’d be playing (every other MMO)! New pets great, current direction, horrid.

Zenith.7301:

zinkz.7045:

morrolan.9608:

zinkz.7045:

morrolan.9608:

In what universe is Druid ever a healer? This is so disappointing.

Erm lots of “universes” such as in Dungeons and Dragons which is where MMORPGs stem from.

Not solely, druids are nature wizards, a part of that can be healing but they are also offensive nature wizards and shapeshifters.

Yes not solely, they were a sort of hybrid class somewhere between a cleric and magic user, but then playing Druid doesn’t make you solely a healer, you have two other trait lines, another weapon, choice of utils / elite / pets & choice of gear, sure you won’t be full out DPS, but you will certainly be able to play hybrid, much like Druid in D&D.

We all know how well hybrids have done in all games with a team of specialized roles! rolls eyes

They do fine if the game is well designed, especially in harder content like raids, when I played LOTRO 2 captains (1 per 6 man group) were virtually mandatory, as was a loremaster, both hybrids.

They also generally do fine in most forms of PvP, just look at engies/eles, or chlorodom in Rift, etc.

The main problem hybrids have is when games dumb things down, so nabs who can’t cope with anything but DPS/Heal/Tank don’t have to think too much.

And in case you’e missed it, every class in this game is a hybrid of damage/control/support, that the PvE is so poorly designed that many of the mechanics, skills, traits, etc are worthless in the one dimensional DPS facerub that passes for PvE, doesn’t alter that, hopefully raids will fix the PvE.

Scowny.1654:

Absolutely ridiculous. Most of the other profession forums are complaining about how amazing Druids are compared to the other elite specs while a large portion of the ranger community is complaining about how the druid isn’t what they signed up for. You are right. You signed up to play a ranger, not a druid. And guess what? YOU CAN STILL PLAY A RANGER!!! The elite spec is optional, providing something that the base ranger is lacking. Are people really questioning the entire expansion on the Druid elite spec?

Except the base class has many issues. If our base class was great, then sure adding druid wouldn’t be a big deal. But it does have problems. So just saying “don’t play druid” is a sign that you aren’t understanding the full issue here. The druid trait line has no synergy with the rest of the class. Most of the other elite specs have great synergy, especially chronomancer and necro. Our spec doesn’t have that. That is a problem. Particularly if you want to go dps in pve.

Harper.4173:

The problem is the “you are now forced to take x damage regardless of skill level so the people who like to role play as healers feel wanted”.

1. Making some damage unavoidable doesn’t mean that skill isn’t rewarded or isn’t important. More skilled players, in better groups, with more experience of the content they’re doing will still take less damage, including from ‘unavoidable’ sources.
2. The trinity helps make things accessible by letting less-skilled players group with more-skilled players without anyone feeling like they’re carrying or being carried
3. It also helps provide groups with feedback on whether a fight is going well or poorly, beyond just “is it dead yet, are we dead yet?”
4. Good healers don’t just heal, they use all of the tools at their disposal, including their damage skills, aggro-generating capabilities, and more.

I played an Axe/Torch Ranger

With druid reveal i realized some of those Glyphs might be good for running condi ranger, or at least getting things in the bonfire, and making them STAY.

In theory.

I think the possibility for an offensive druid is very plausible.

Can I have your stuff?

No, seriously, complaining about something that you didn’t preorder and are supposedly never going to buy (you will!) is the lamest crap ever.

This elite spec is going to clean up the class rep. Primary healers draw an entirely different crowd in any game that I ever played. You have to be on the ball all the time and enjoy helping other people.

You can see from the complaints that some feel that there is a bait and switch here. Maybe that is a valid complaint. There will probably be an element of staff or gtfo before too long.

In any case this is a very powerful spec for Pvp and WvW and I can’t wait to try it out.

Towren.1745:

We’ve already got “LF2 Meta Zerker Elly+Guard Exp 6k+ AP”

I don’t really see a difference.

The difference is that current meta is a choice. It’s entirely possible to do the content in other group compositions. If what’s Anet saying is true, in Raids this will not be the case and the group setups will become not just optimal, but required.

Runiir.6425:

The current zerker meta is boring and it amazes me how it has turned grouping into a fest full of angry bitter individuals when before dungeons were changed (the no respawning while anyone is in combat thing) people were very welcoming of any build so long as you didn’t die non-stop.

If the build setups will end up actually enforced by mechanics, that current situation will not only not change, but will become worse. Maybe it won’t be a zerker meta, but a meta it will be, and any deviation from it will be met with even stronger negative reactions. And this time those reactions will be completely justified.

Let’s put this into context:

Irenio – not only have you created a desirable role in a limited amount of time, but you’ve done so while creating an awesome new mechanic, attractive gameplay, useful (and incredibly cool) pets, arguably the best new traitline of all elite specs, detracted minimal value from other professions, created new build opportunities for non-staff/non-support Druids, single handedly (aside the raid designers of course) created a medium used to bypass the zerker cancer meta, and finally and most importantly listened and recognised base Ranger concerns.

Regardless of whether a healer/support role was what you were looking for, you can’t deny the positives that have come from this. Fantastic news for Rangers and Druids alike. We are the most deserving profession of a change like this. Huge pat on the back to this guy.

Like:

• Staff 1 1200 range beam
• Staff 3 1200 range wisp form
• Staff 5 make enemy projectiles heal (if they cant be reflected afterwards)
• movement speed trait
• condi removal traits
• immobilize GM trait
• new pets
• pets get condition damage

Dislike/Unsure:

• Unsure about glyphs being point-blank AoE rather than 1200 range ground targetted AoE (maybe thats why the cooldowns are nice)
• Unsure about new F5 form. Only heals (no damage) and has a time limit and seems like you have to keep pressing 11111111111 while aiming with your mouse.
• Unsure about F5 form traits, apart from the condition removal.
• Unsure about minor traits. Rather not have them forced. Rather see Natural Stride as GM minor.
• Unsure about orbitting wisp (Staff 2 and GM trait)
• Unsure about the many ways to heal leaving no room for other things.

These skill names……

Its not that its wierd that Guildwars 2’s Druid has a lot of skills that are Sun, Moon and Celestial themed (these Celestial bodies are part of ‘Nature’) but its a little out of place that there are two skills that are plant based, and almost all of the traits are plant/earthly nature based, only like two or three of the traits are really named the same way as the weapon/glyph skills. At first glance, there’s also seems to be a lack of synergy with our other traits.

It makes me think that a lot of people’s original assessment was true, that the Druid was pushed to the last reveal because of a major redesign halfway through development, which would have happened if the decision to have ‘required’ healers in Raids was as sudden as some other people think it ended up being

Whatever happened (that Anet, like any good game company, will never tell), hopefully during the next beta weekend and the main release, the specialization plays like it should and it plays well with the rest of the profession. If it doesn’t…..there’s going to be some pretty brutal commentary by many people on these forums. Brace yourselves Anet, Walls of text are coming.
….
….
WALLS….OF….TEXT

Aomine.5012:

bluesnacks.2301:

love the druid, can’t wait to play

plus dragons. Dragons, Carl.

You don’t need to be Druid to tame dragons if I remembered correctly.

I was hoping some common pets become usable too though :/
Not just fancy stuffs.

You don’t need to be, I just really liked those dragons.

I’ve been waiting 3+ years for an answer to this one. It was brought up in alpha testing and to my knowledge has never been addressed. Currently if I do nothing but heal (pump out green numbers) I get bronze credit in events in PvE. If I do this in WvW I get 0 loot bags. I understand that in raids, the play style is different and I welcome the druid for that but in PvE, unless there is a change that green numbers count toward tagging, then no one will change how they play.

Tag and bag will still be the order of the day. I very much would like ANet to put their money where their mouth is and make green numbers count.

Kreed.2768:

Guys, don’t forget that elite specs are supposed to be new takes on the existing professions; new paths that open up that they previously couldn’t take, not straight up upgrades (ie "more of the same, just a little better). What did Ranger lack? Group support. What does Druid give us? Group support.

Amen.

Like:

• Staff 1 1200 range beam
• Staff 3 1200 range wisp form
• Staff 5 make enemy projectiles heal (if they cant be reflected afterwards)
• movement speed trait
• condi removal traits
• immobilize GM trait
• new pets
• pets get condition damage

Dislike/Unsure:

• Unsure about glyphs being point-blank AoE rather than 1200 range ground targetted AoE (maybe thats why the cooldowns are nice)
• Unsure about new F5 form. Only heals (no damage) and has a time limit and seems like you have to keep pressing 11111111111 while aiming with your mouse.
• Unsure about F5 form traits, apart from the condition removal.
• Unsure about minor traits. Rather not have them forced. Rather see Natural Stride as GM minor.
• Unsure about orbitting wisp (Staff 2 and GM trait)
• Unsure about the many ways to heal leaving no room for other things.

Well, even if nothing states that moon cycles (or whatever it is) are not a Druid thing, nothing says it is. By the way, nothing says that warriors can’t hit people with a toothbrush, so it would be ok to have a Dentist Warrior elite spec ?

Actually it wouldn’t bother me so much if it was just a little touch they added to give a little more depth to the character. But where’s the added depth when instead of adding more aspects to the Druid you just replace them by something else ?
Sadly it looks like instead of creating a wider variety of abilities for the Druid, they just completely replaced the old references with some new things coming out of the blue, sometimes deliberately ignoring great lore references. It doesn’t feel right.

They’ve gone too far in my opinion. To me it looks likes instead of making a druid with some celestial powers, they made a celestial spec with some druidic powers. It could be named something completely different. I don’t think that’s good.

Being original just for the sake of being original is not good, we need a meaning behind all this. An official meaning, not deductions and approximations.
Also there should be no confusion between originality and weirdness.

dsslive.8473:

Nova Stiker.8396:

Xillllix.3485:

Eles have been water bots for years, I think it’s nice that other classes can do it now.

But it’s done so POORLY.
Elementalists also have access to a lot of various boons for the party, not just healing.

It would be more interesting if Druids were more a support spec than a healing one.

Hell, speaking of boons, why not make that the gimmick of Druids instead of raw healing? Have their boons behave differently from others or their effects change based on what boons the druid has.

Also, Chronomancer is shatterspike 2.0, unless they completely change F1-F4 there is absolutely no reason to play a support Chronomancer.

I disagree, i feel like you’re trying to make all types of support and put them into one category only, that being support through boons. There are many ways of support and so far, raw healing has been the more neglected one. We ahve support through active defense (guard/scrapper) support through boons (herald/ele) and now some support through raw healing. I rather enjoy the variety in ways to support your team instead of it all being the same “apply boons now” tactic.

I’m not against raw healing, I’m against ONLY raw healing. It doesn’t add the gameplay and to make it worse it doesn’t add to the ranger. It’s just lazy.

It would be like ArenaNet trying to make the Berserker a high damage, purely ranged attacker with ranged abilities. Or what about making the acrobat a toughness tank, forget about evasions we want to give it taunts and CC. Sounds stupid right? Why design something that is a complete 180 from the class?

See the problem now? I can buy a support ranger, hell, rangers have support but it is easily their weakest aspect. Instead of improving it and creating synergy to what the ranger has, you got yourself a healer.

I want him to father all my babies. 600 babies!

In regards to “Trinity” / roles / etc:

Things I never wanted – and still do not want – from GW2:

• Rigid, obligatory, “Holy Trinity” that means that a party can’t do dungeons if they don’t have the exact needed roles.
• Rigid roles that mean that a “Healer” character should only ever Heal and never contribute to damage, or that a “Damage dealer” character should only ever maximize his DPS and never care about his survivability or some bit of healing, etc.

Things I wanted from GW2 since the beginning:

• Flexibility to make any class fulfill any role, even if some classes might be better suited for some than others.
• Flexibility to make groups with a variety of role combinations, so that we can, for example, play with our friends without restricting people based on what role they intend to play.
• Necessity to change your tactics and playstyle, even if slightly, based on the roles available to your group. If you’re doing content with a group full of damage dealers, you’d play it in a noticeably different way than if you’re doing the same content in a group that has a balance of damage, control and utility – but both would be viable.

So far, GW2 has been a bit of hits and misses in those regards, for me. It looks like HoTs might improve things.

I kind of want to play it first to be sure (also want to know what the base Ranger changes might be when the Expansion releases if there are any), but I pretty much agree.

I have to admit that I wasn’t pretty sure of what he was doing. I wouldn’t have bet on a ranger becoming so good. Good job to you, and your team, Irenio

I’m feeling pretty good about it.

We’ve got all the support and survivability we’ll ever need now. I just hope we get some GS damage increases somewhere too.

Ark Bladesteele.2943:

Can I have your stuff?

No, seriously, complaining about something that you didn’t preorder and are supposedly never going to buy (you will!) is the lamest crap ever.

I didn’t think it was that hard to relate too.

I play the game just like everyone else here and spend enough in the gemshop to support several other people who dont. I am not under the impression that the totality of the new content is worth 20% more money than the normal price of an expansion pack, thats a personal opinion but one that was shared by a large amount of other players. If changes to one of my favorite classes were excellent, that increases the perceived value of the expansion to me and might’ve made it more of a desirable purchase.

I feel this moonkin druid does not fit the archtype well, and really pigeonholes us into a spec for multiple game modes where people will now insist we heal them. further, it seems to lack playback for people who take druid but dont want to be primarily healers. thats constructive feedback that some people agree with and some people do not. thats what this forum is for.