Druid Power Build
Depends on what do you want to focus on.
For healer purposes, Staff+LB is the superior option.
For maximizing the DPS – LB+S/A
For roaming and mobility – Staff+GS
The difference of GS to S/A was said to be around 17% (not sure now)? In practice it can have more damage than sword because you are not forced to dodge roll often – increasing Steady Focus uptime just like it doesn’t postpone your rotation. It also allows you to focus more on what’s happening around you and not your bloody clunky attacks that will kill you once you stop paying 40% of your attention to them.
If you are not familiar with Sword Mechanics – get Greatsword for sure. The difference of DPS is basically mathematical. Not realistic. There are many fights where you can bring reality to match theoretical maths results but Sebetha is definitely not one of those and I wouldn’t dare exclude Vale Guardian here, either.
“Observe, learn and counter.”
Depends on what do you want to focus on.
For healer purposes, Staff+LB is the superior option.
For maximizing the DPS – LB+S/A
For roaming and mobility – Staff+GSThe difference of GS to S/A was said to be around 17% (not sure now)? In practice it can have more damage than sword because you are not forced to dodge roll often – increasing Steady Focus uptime just like it doesn’t postpone your rotation. It also allows you to focus more on what’s happening around you and not your bloody clunky attacks that will kill you once you stop paying 40% of your attention to them.
If you are not familiar with Sword Mechanics – get Greatsword for sure. The difference of DPS is basically mathematical. Not realistic. There are many fights where you can bring reality to match theoretical maths results but Sebetha is definitely not one of those and I wouldn’t dare exclude Vale Guardian here, either.
So you would say then for HoT and fractals up to 50 I would be safe with a Great Sword? but beyond that go for support build for sure? Sorry just to be clear
So you would say then for HoT and fractals up to 50 I would be safe with a Great Sword? but beyond that go for support build for sure? Sorry just to be clear
Actually…
It doesn’t really matter what you do if you know what you are doing.
But you need to do it n a way to be helpful and dealing damage is the best thing you can bring. Be it your personal or DPS support (at which we excel up to a point where top DPS theory-craft for raids includes 2 druids).
For speed-clearing Fractal dailies no healing or defensive support is needed. If it is – the healing will be enough in berserker (or viper). Being a healer in daily speed or daily runs is absolutely pointless.
Being a healer in grind of 90-100 is a completely different story. It’s a change as clear as holy water and depths of hell. Focus on Clerics only if you want to babysit your parties up to lvl 100 fractal.
When it comes to raids – it all depends on your composition. I constantly play something different in every squad and every encounter.
Moral of the story:
Greatsword is not that bad. You are completely safe to use it instead of sword. If anyone has problems with it instead of S/A – feel free to block them since those are arrogant kitties.
You want to hear a funny piece of information? People who want you to run S/A are usually arrogant elitists. And those elitists have literally no idea that Torch beats Axe even in full berserker if we assume you are in elitist party and are full mighted and banners are available. If the party doesn’t bring those – they have literally no right to ask you to bring “meta” stuff either.
tl;dr
Meta is a lie. Always trust in your own research or data that make sense.
If Greatsword is what makes you deal more damage or Sword makes you wanna kill yourself because of it’s weird mechanics – get Greatsword. Results are what matters. GS is not that far behind in DPS against sword. Feel free to use it.
“Observe, learn and counter.”
(edited by Tragic Positive.9356)
Depends on what do you want to focus on.
For healer purposes, Staff+LB is the superior option.
For maximizing the DPS – LB+S/A
For roaming and mobility – Staff+GS
Just out of curiosity – why Staff+LB? The skills on longbow don’t really scream “support build” to me.
Depends on what do you want to focus on.
For healer purposes, Staff+LB is the superior option.
For maximizing the DPS – LB+S/A
For roaming and mobility – Staff+GSJust out of curiosity – why Staff+LB? The skills on longbow don’t really scream “support build” to me.
I dont think that Staff+LB is meant as a support build but more of a DPS situation at Range with the LB and Heals at Range. That’s more or less the way I use those. If you were going Staff+Sw/A then your having to switch more between Range and Melee which can cost time and DPS.
I may have misread what both of you were saying/asking but that is what I thought at first read of both your statement/question.
Depends on what do you want to focus on.
For healer purposes, Staff+LB is the superior option.
For maximizing the DPS – LB+S/A
For roaming and mobility – Staff+GSJust out of curiosity – why Staff+LB? The skills on longbow don’t really scream “support build” to me.
The main reason is to hold onto staff as much as possible to keep those heals up.
And when it is needed – just swap to that LB, help with that vuln ultime (there’s rarely 25 in fractals) or the most common thing I use LB for is to help with Break Bar (I don’t have to worry about my positioning of melee/range dance).
I usually start with staff – fill the astral bar – swap to LB for the burst > enter CAF and keep the uptime of GotL and heals as much as I can – and when I leave I can swap back to staff immediately. This sequence doesn’t force me to use even a single auto-attack of LB if I don’t want to.
LB is a cooldown based weapon and works the best as a synergy with staff. Positioning wise and it also is the highest spike weapon rangers have. Yes, the perfect rotation of Rapid Fire > Barrage > 1 auto > Rapid Fire beats even sword rotation.
Plus it has on demand CC for break bars while S/A has an awful delay.
EDIT: Naturally, S/Wh may be a viable choice on swap instead of LB with the very same pattern but my parties never really needed the +might/fury.
“Observe, learn and counter.”
(edited by Tragic Positive.9356)