Guild Wars 2

lxghostxl.5097:

Oh how I wish to have Sharpening Stone cd go 5 sec lower without the trait line of survival.

+1

While I can enjoy the work behind the “Druid” specialization there are a few point that seem out of place. My biggest complaint would be that this specialization is the only one that doesn’t give a feeling that let you say :
“They push the ranger mechanisms to it’s limits and they released something awesome that is coherent with this profession”

Staff :
The staff feel like a pretty good weapon with invaluable utilities. Seriously, as a heavily healing/control focused weapon you did a great job. The only bad point about this weapon is it’s lack of synergy with the pet. (we could argue that some of the healing goes to the pet but still, it does not give you the feeling that you work with your pet)

Glyph :
Glyph lack coherence with pet and the ranger profession. None of them feel like something you would find on a ranger specialization, they just feel like random spell that are out of place. Not that the effect aren’t nice some feature feel pretty interesting but it’s just does not fit.

Celestial form :
This thing is a big enygma.

Druid through GW lore : I can understand this “transform” choice if you restrain the GW Druid as a being that shed from it’s skin to attain a new existance plan. What does not fit is that at the same time Druid are basically lone being that care more about nature than sentient species that tend to destroy nature. Why is the druid transformation so focused on healing those puny guy that destroy our beloved nature while none of my skill care about the most natural aspect of my profession, my pet? Lore wise I don’t think a “GW druid” should be this altruistic it should be more of a neutral being (Guid wars 1 had spirits that were really fitting this mindset).

Druid through mechanism : The Druid is a specialization which is a part of the ranger’s specialization’s set. The ranger is meant to be a profession that is close to the nature and work with this nature through a deep complicity between him and it’s pet. It’s the pet that link the ranger with the nature. Looking at the celestial form, the only thing we can think is that : “What the hell the ranger gave up on it’s pet to become a necromancer”. It’s an issue, this form feel like the ranger disown it’s pet as it’s link with nature. It form a huge gap between the pet and the master while a specialization should bring a profession closer to it’s core mechanism.

Traits :
Most of the trait are OK, there is nothing to say about them. Still it feel like there is to much focus on support (not that it’s a bad thing) which reduce a lot the versatility of this specialization. Simply it feel like pigeonholed.

Questions :
I have a few question that probably only the game designer can answer and are related to this speicalization :

- Why did you chose to stray this far frome the ranger’s core mechanic?
- Did you felt that the core mechanic was lacking in some way to the point that it couldn’t be used in a specialization heavily focused on support?
- Were you trying to answer the ranger’s community hate for it’s pet by giving it something new that isn’t related? (is this specialization a community pleaser?)
- Do you think that the Druid will be enough to fix the way the community look at the ranger and why?

And most important question :
- What’s the future of the ranger pet? You should be well aware that it need a lot of work (UI, AI, reliability… etc.). Will we see some improvement (other than a few stat points. The condi damage point were really need though, thank you!) or will the pet stay in it’s sorry state?

Druid for player who loves to control and heal sounds good because all of the skill is heal and control that’s all but druid also need to have support group skills not only heal like buffing the party and dps a little however for player who expected druid can be as a dps will be meh

Solar beam should have some cripple in it to combine with the MM GM trait to make sure we can fully utilities all the traits line not only druid elite trait line

I love to see druid can be more offensive rather than fully healing without buffing group and dps in the group if only healing i think later or sooner druid will be boring for a dps player

Glyphs and glyphs relaited trait:
Ranger utilities heavly supported by very strong trait synergie(survival – condi removal/fury, also our most popular utilite atm) , (shouts – prema aoe swiftness and regen) I think that our glyph synergie (seed of life) should give somthing more then condi removal and small heals. Glyphs obviously desighned for gruop oriented content, and i we play in spvp/wvw with full glyphs we have no access to stability or stun break and this the biggest weakness of glyphs(hard to heal when u’r prema stunned). Also, glyphs have cast time and the seed of life also have blooming suration which mamkes it not very reliable as condi removal mechanic. I think seed of life should give stability(not sure if only to you or group) and the glyph of alighnment / glyph of tides/glyph of unity, should function as stun break for you only and be instant. (while in celec form it could change for aoe stun break).

We have to sacrifice a trait (apart from already choosing the trailine as such) in order to use our Spec while other classes can just use the traitline and still get acsess to ther weapon, skills etc….?

Isnt that both unfair and strange?

Suggestion: By using the traitline we get acsess to staves, glyphs etc…. Maker the actual trait that does that today into something different. Something that affects the pet maybe – as the traitline lacks those things. Maybe a trait that Makes pet self heal on hit or cause a small amount of AoE heal when doing F2 or something.

Also, Will the pet name function be changed to work the way ppl want it to work – to actually save the pets names for real?

Feedback:

The Druid may be a strong healer, but he has no other functionality. If you spec for the Druid, you have to ge healer or go home. Limited synergy with the core Ranger, almost no synergy with the pet.

Bryzy.2719:

I’ve said this before, now you may or may not agree with me here but -

You don’t have to be a dedicated healer. […]

Sorry to disagree Bryzy, but when you look at the traits (which are mandatory for every elite spec) you can’t help but notice that they’re mainly favoring heal specs only, especially the minor traits. You can’t choose Druid without putting a strong emphasis on healing. That’s a fact and as far as we know, intended.

Bryzy.2719:

[…] The Druid traitline opens up some great inter-build dynamics between current builds and weapons, as well as adding some brilliant self-sustain for the more squishy builds like LB power. You also do not have to wield a staff to be a Druid.

Maybe I’m suffering from Blindness and Confusion at the same time, but I don’t see these ominous inter-build dynamics. The Druid spec tree (traits) features no real synergy with the pet (except for this one trait), neither our other weapons, nor the other traitlines. It looks as if the druid traitline was created with only the staff and CAF in mind.

Dedicated healers shouldn’t exist in this game by Anet’s own definition and this also extends to content that would make a dedicated healer necessary. If raids require healbots, then their design is flawed. Besides, an elite spec that is designed to shine only in one narrow game aspect, isn’t exactly great either.

Edit: Would like to give an example
If the Natural Mender trait granted +300 Healing Power, I could say, yes, this is also useful to builds that don’t necessarily focus on party heals, but >increase outgoing healing effectiveness< only favors the monk role. Live Vicariously suffers from the same issue. There’s no real diversity possible, because I have to use the staff and CAF often in order to justify this trait. No other playstyles taken into account here.

GM trait- cosmic wisp, I thnik it should also damage enemies in its radius, the same way as astral wisp.

With wvw in mind, my main concern over supporting as a Druid is the complete abscence of stability and stun-breakers. In large group fights where heavy healing may be a niche role, that’s going to be a huge issue for popping the healing skills, not to mention staying alive.

Now, maybe this is a desired weakness by design but it’s a big one. It’ll heavily push one to go with the usual wvw suspects: LR for stun breaks, RaO for stability, leaving just two utility skills available. This is a pity in the sense that zerg fights may be one of the very few of the already existing contents where big burst healing may prove useful, but the required protection against cc will make it very unlikely that the Druid trait line will be used to its full extent.

i think you can play without druid in new content.
Just need t take 2-3 elems for water, guardians with hammers for waterfield blasts, Warriors with shout heal, Guardians with heal elites and dodgeroll heal, engeneers with healingTurret/healing kits, thiefs with venom poison heal, necromancer with aoe heal, revenant with healing tablet and you don’t need druids and you don’t need dedicated healers.

I can’t get that…
Anyting that more hard than hit 123 in the corner with zerker gear, ppl don’t want to accept.
It is challenging content! where everyone have to think about his build for traits and team play.

Just to sum up my concerns and most likely repeat those raised by a couple others as well.

1.) Change the druid traitline in a way that allows multiple different variants.

2.) Celestial Avatar Form shouldn’t be about healing only.

3.) Involve our pet

Going to add my thoughts on things here, see if I can help contribute to the development of my favorite class

[/spoiler]

All in all, I’m super excited about this. Druid’s going to take not only Ranger, but all of GW2 down an entirely new path in PvE. There are some pressing issues that I feel need to be addressed about the class’ long term viability, but I’m confident that you can sort them out Irenio, and make the Ranger a class people are happy to see in their groups ^^

I remember when Karl revealed Daredevil and 90% of the Thief community were like OMG, I love that, love you Karl etc etc

Then the BW came and a significant proportion hated it and were kittenin left right and centre. Basically they felt it was too clunky.

I like the Druid on paper but I will reserve Judgement until after this BWE. I do think it’s really cool that you have opened up Raids for this weekend as that is where I will be testing my Druid to see how good/ needed it is.

PS I read you were deleting old BW characters for this weekend? Can you please reset the banks for these chars too then, I would love to test some stuff out so have filled my bank with Druid + Herald stuff in preparation.

Ltomato.8649:

Mcrocha.3891:

The argument is from a pvp perspective. Think about it this way: lets say Maul hits for 5000 damage. An Empowered Maul with a 20% increase as suggested would hit for 6000. Let’s say that if you had quickness you hit with Maul so you do 5000 and then auto attack once with the extra action speed gained from quickness. However, we can assume that the mauls hit in both situations, but there is no guarantee that the extra attack will hit because the actions of the opposing player may prevent it from hitting. In this scenario, Empowered Maul hit for an extra 1000 that quickness Maul did not. I hope that demonstrates how they are different.

The reason why I do not think 20% buff is appropriate is because it would make bursting too strong in pvp. Too much reward for too little cost(only 16s cd and possible heals+condi cleanse as well), not to mention that the reverse effect of 20% heal effectiveness would be very strong as well.

That’s true offensively regarding quickness vs empowerment, but quickness also provides a bonus defensively as well in that you can get off other skills quicker, right?

Also, just because your maul hits at 20% bonus damage doesn’t mean that the next attack will either- if your opponent reacts fast enough to a quickness’d auto after maul, then you’ll have forced a reaction that you can take advantage of, same as if you just had the 20% bonus damage. You’re also giving up a utility for it, that would likely provide extra control or mobility or defense

I know that the next attack won’t necessarily hit either, that is the basis of the argument. Assumes that only the Mauls in either scenario hit. To your point, one could just as easily argue that hitting for an extra 1000 on Maul could force a reaction from an opponent, but these are things that are out of our control.

I understand your points and they are valid, but you’re assuming things that are unpredictable. Yes Quickness provides boosts to some defensive moves(however it could be negative on something like Counterattack for example), but we are not comparing those effects because they rely too much on extraneous factors. The point of the Quickness vs. a damage modifier argument is that they aren’t really that comparable in terms of their effectiveness.

Druid feels like it was bolted onto Ranger at the last minute. With things like Reaper, Chronomancer, Tempest, Berserker, Scrapper, Dragonhunter and so on, you can see how the spec is a clear extension of the base profession. You could take Druid and give it to Elementalists, Guardians or Necromancers and it wouldn’t feel out of place. There is no thematic underpinning between Druid and Ranger because Druid doesn’t tie into any of the Ranger’s core mechanics.

Druid feels like a new one weapon profession created with the single-minded purpose of having a healer for raids and then strapped onto the back of Rangers because where else can you jam it in? Even if I thought this was a good thing, and I don’t, what happens when Anet abandon raids like they abandoned dungeons and fractals? We’re the ones stuck with the gimmick spec designed for a specific purpose that’s become obsolete. As it stands Druid is way too over-centralised with its focus on healing. Seriously? It has like eight different heals and no real synergy or interaction with other trait lines or core Ranger mechanics. And at this point, can Druid even be adjusted in a meaningful way considering we’re under four weeks out from launch and we don’t even begin testing until next week? You could have given this spec to Thieves and it would have fit just as well.

Tapioca.9062:

Druid feels like it was bolted onto Ranger at the last minutes. With things like Reaper, Chronomancer, Tempest, Berserker, Scrapper, Dragonhunter and so on, you can see how the spec is a clear extension of the base profession. You could take Druid and give it to Elementalists, Guardians or Necromancers and it wouldn’t feel out of place. There is no thematic underpinning between Druid and Ranger because Druid doesn’t tie into any of the Ranger’s core mechanics.

Druid feels like a new one weapon profession created with the single-minded purpose of having a healer for raids and then strapped onto the back of Rangers because where else can you jam it in? Even if I thought this was a good thing, and I don’t, what happens when Anet abandon raids like they abandoned dungeons and fractals? We’re the ones stuck with the gimmick spec designed for a specific purpose that’s become obsolete. As it stands Druid is way too over-centralised with its focus on healing. Seriously? It has like eight different heals and no real synergy or interaction with other trait lines or core Ranger mechanics. And at this point, can Druid even be adjusted in a meaningful way considering we’re under four weeks out from launch and we don’t even begin testing until next week? You could have given this spec to Thieves and it would have fit just as well.

I think its opposite, one of the reasons druid in its current form came to be, is due to the limitations of our pet mechnic(they didnt know how to make it survive raids and zerg fights) So they made you an healer insted(this way you wont cry over missing dps) So the lack of pet synergie in celce form, glyphs and staff skills is actually an answer to the limitations of the pet mechanic.

Bryzy.2719:

Frigoris.7853:

Red in the ranger forum, tis an exciting time indeed.

Mentioned earlier but I think having solar beam bounce between enemy targets so you could potentially form a lazer beam healing array would be cool. Some people mentioned having it able to target allies, it’s our basic attack so should function primarily as an attack.

The vine surge animation could stay in place for a while crippling and bleeding? anyone who walks through it, acting as a short term soft barrier.

Glyphs feel wierd being all melee range when the staff has high range.
New pets are fantastic except for the slow attacks that have a higher chance of missing. I’d take weaker faster attacks from the pets any day.

I’ll need to take another proper look at the druid info for more.

I agree – the solar beam may need a tweak. What distracts me the most is that it shares the same name as Pokemon move :P

I like your “array” idea. If Solar Beam was changed so that upon impact with the target enemy there were, say, 3 strands of light that bounced off that enemy and hit 3 other enemies in its vicinity (IDK, say 240 -300 radius?) it would be a nice touch. Those additional three strands of light might add random conditions instead of damage perhaps? Or both?

ORRRR – the additional light array may not hit enemies, but instead hit 3-5 allies surrounding your target enemy, providing random boons like vigor, protection, resistance and regen. You could then re-name Solar Beam as “Solar Array” or “Solar Dispersion” and escape looking as though you’ve copied pokemon :P

Yes I like this… so, so much potential.

Well that is one way they can do it. Personaly i would like to see them alter that skill to be more like guardians Receive the light(old Healing breeze). Mid range (600-900) cone attack which heals ally and damage enemyes, whitout need for taking target.

Zorpi.5904:

Bryzy.2719:

Frigoris.7853:

Red in the ranger forum, tis an exciting time indeed.

Mentioned earlier but I think having solar beam bounce between enemy targets so you could potentially form a lazer beam healing array would be cool. Some people mentioned having it able to target allies, it’s our basic attack so should function primarily as an attack.

The vine surge animation could stay in place for a while crippling and bleeding? anyone who walks through it, acting as a short term soft barrier.

Glyphs feel wierd being all melee range when the staff has high range.
New pets are fantastic except for the slow attacks that have a higher chance of missing. I’d take weaker faster attacks from the pets any day.

I’ll need to take another proper look at the druid info for more.

I agree – the solar beam may need a tweak. What distracts me the most is that it shares the same name as Pokemon move :P

I like your “array” idea. If Solar Beam was changed so that upon impact with the target enemy there were, say, 3 strands of light that bounced off that enemy and hit 3 other enemies in its vicinity (IDK, say 240 -300 radius?) it would be a nice touch. Those additional three strands of light might add random conditions instead of damage perhaps? Or both?

ORRRR – the additional light array may not hit enemies, but instead hit 3-5 allies surrounding your target enemy, providing random boons like vigor, protection, resistance and regen. You could then re-name Solar Beam as “Solar Array” or “Solar Dispersion” and escape looking as though you’ve copied pokemon :P

Yes I like this… so, so much potential.

Well that is one way they can do it. Personaly i would like to see them alter that skill to be more like guardians Receive the light(old Healing breeze). Mid range (600-900) cone attack which heals ally and damage enemyes, whitout need for taking target.

What if Solar Beam was a simple beam that hit the target enemy (No healing aspect), but then once it hit a foe, it split into rays that bounced to allies, and those rays applied the healing effect?

Maximum Potato.5923:

Zorpi.5904:

Bryzy.2719:

Frigoris.7853:

Red in the ranger forum, tis an exciting time indeed.

Mentioned earlier but I think having solar beam bounce between enemy targets so you could potentially form a lazer beam healing array would be cool. Some people mentioned having it able to target allies, it’s our basic attack so should function primarily as an attack.

The vine surge animation could stay in place for a while crippling and bleeding? anyone who walks through it, acting as a short term soft barrier.

Glyphs feel wierd being all melee range when the staff has high range.
New pets are fantastic except for the slow attacks that have a higher chance of missing. I’d take weaker faster attacks from the pets any day.

I’ll need to take another proper look at the druid info for more.

I agree – the solar beam may need a tweak. What distracts me the most is that it shares the same name as Pokemon move :P

I like your “array” idea. If Solar Beam was changed so that upon impact with the target enemy there were, say, 3 strands of light that bounced off that enemy and hit 3 other enemies in its vicinity (IDK, say 240 -300 radius?) it would be a nice touch. Those additional three strands of light might add random conditions instead of damage perhaps? Or both?

ORRRR – the additional light array may not hit enemies, but instead hit 3-5 allies surrounding your target enemy, providing random boons like vigor, protection, resistance and regen. You could then re-name Solar Beam as “Solar Array” or “Solar Dispersion” and escape looking as though you’ve copied pokemon :P

Yes I like this… so, so much potential.

Well that is one way they can do it. Personaly i would like to see them alter that skill to be more like guardians Receive the light(old Healing breeze). Mid range (600-900) cone attack which heals ally and damage enemyes, whitout need for taking target.

What if Solar Beam was a simple beam that hit the target enemy (No healing aspect), but then once it hit a foe, it split into rays that bounced to allies, and those rays applied the healing effect?

Even then druid need something to target and hit to make that skill do anything which make it less useful for damage dealing and healing.

Okay lets do this.The main thing to keep in mind is that we need to test druid so that we can give more reliable feedback.

First of all please if changing the staff stance is not big of a problem change it so that its like the other casters stance i think alot of us agree on this

Staff- from what i have seen staff skills are pretty good one thing i would add is some pet interaction maybe on the skill 4 make it so next few attacks on the pet do bleeds and why on number 4 it is because it clears movement conditions on pet and immobilizes the target so this way the pet can catch upto the target and put the bleeds on.

Blue power ranger mode aka Celestial transformation – okay this is where i think some stuff shouldbe added mainly some boons reason is we need to have some differens between this and staff skill because atm it seems its heals on staff heals on f5 skills and how i personaly think it should be is players should think about it like this okay i am on staff i do some healing and condi clears some projectile blocks if i go f5 i will still have heals and condi clear but i can also put some boons on my ppl.So i was thinking maybe put some vigor on skill 3 maybe some regen on 4 and lastly on 5 i really think it should give us either protection ,stability or ressistance , because we are stationary when we do the skill so we are vulnerable maybe ressistance is the best option and it still has counterplay by dazing the skill or just move out of it .
Glyphs- all i can say atm is maybe put some ground targeting on some of them but i need to try them first in order to say more
Traits- need to be tested for further information

Girion.5483:

Maybe I’m suffering from Blindness and Confusion at the same time, but I don’t see these ominous inter-build dynamics. The Druid spec tree (traits) features no real synergy with the pet (except for this one trait), neither our other weapons, nor the other traitlines. It looks as if the druid traitline was created with only the staff and CAF in mind.

“Live Vicariously” is a good minor if you use traited shouts, even without healing power, “Druid Clarity” is a strong trait in every Druid builds, If you use more than one glypgh “Verdent Etching” is mandatory, Natural Stride is a great GM in every builds and “Ancient Seeds” is a very strong trait for LB, SB and GS. You’ll still have BM for pet’s synergy.

CA is a game changer for solo, small scale roaming and pvp that bring you self and group sustain, even more with offensive spec, where Druid Clarity, Natural Stride and Ancients Seed offer a lots of combinations with different builds. I cant’ understand people who really fail to see how strong CA will be in pretty much every kind of builds. When in CA you’ll still have access to your pets, heal, utilities and elite, don’t
forget that.

Wolfey.3407:

1) The Staff Idle Animation.
The staff Idle Animation being shown for Druid is very awkward… it’s the same animation that Daredevil and Revenant are using… Both of which, are using that animation for melee attacks. The idle animation for Druid, should be the same one as Ele, Mesmer, and Necromancer. The reason I say this, is because of Druid being used as more of a healer it should be put into the spell casting idle animation instead of the “I’m going to smack you” animation that Revenants and Daredevil are using.

Honestly that’s what I care about the most. If only I can hug my staff like those lovely eles and mesmers and guards Q.Q Serious tho, holding them like a hammer is sooo weird and idk why they chose that. It wont fit magical theme at all!

adding some little dmg on healing skills (like celestial avatar ones etc.) would solve problem with rewarding players that wants to play support in wvw.

I agree, staff-holding animation needs to change to that of a spellcaster

(please )

Brazzi.2045:

adding some little dmg on healing skills (like celestial avatar ones etc.) would solve problem with rewarding players that wants to play support in wvw.

What exactly is that going to do?? if you spec support, your damage is gonna be subpar. Thats how its supposed to be.

Now if you want to reward support druids in WvW… then you need to give them more tagging abilities… right now they don’t have a whole lot to go on in terms of tagging.

SkiTz.4590:

Brazzi.2045:

adding some little dmg on healing skills (like celestial avatar ones etc.) would solve problem with rewarding players that wants to play support in wvw.

What exactly is that going to do?? if you spec support, your damage is gonna be subpar. Thats how its supposed to be.

Now if you want to reward support druids in WvW… then you need to give them more tagging abilities… right now they don’t have a whole lot to go on in terms of tagging.

Well assuming you are in a party, minor damage will do to tag foes.

Sorry for my english

Personally I love the druid! I really like this celestial-themed specialization and think it goes well with the “nature theme” of the ranger.

But for what I have seen, I think that maybe it is a bit too much heal-oriented, for a game that was supposed to banish the “holy trinity” (DPS+healing+tank), and lack some damage. And i got the feeling that the pet is put aside from this specialization, even if the core mechanics of the druid is the celestial avatar. Druid are still Ranger and have to deal with them!

Suggestion:
The celestial transformation should be shared between the druid AND the pet! With the druid becoming some moon avatar, the pet could be like a sun avatar, irradiating enemies around with damaging ray of light! Or a more nature oriented avatar, becoming a groot-like version of the pet, not unlike the creature seen at the side of the druid on the art teaser. This way we got more synergy with the pet and more damage for the druid.
One stone for two birds!

Wuselknusel.4082:

Feedback:

The Druid may be a strong healer, but he has no other functionality. If you spec for the Druid, you have to ge healer or go home. Limited synergy with the core Ranger, almost no synergy with the pet.

I second this. I would like more synergy with the dps side, namely longbow and extreme range.

The Animation for Seed of Life looks really weird…more like a exploding Pustule, something disgusting/damaging. Since its effect is really great, and benefits my teammates heavily, can we have a more positive effect for improved readability?

I dread the moment where people run away from Seeds because they can’t see the blue circles anymore (overlap with other AoE) and just think “That looks bad, better dodge it!”

borya.2964:

“Live Vicariously” is a good minor if you use traited shouts, even without healing power, “Druid Clarity” is a strong trait in every Druid builds, If you use more than one glypgh “Verdent Etching” is mandatory, Natural Stride is a great GM in every builds and “Ancient Seeds” is a very strong trait for LB, SB and GS. You’ll still have BM for pet’s synergy.

Nice ideas and of course only the live test can truely tell, but I believe this is not how these traits are going to interact.

Live Vicariously only works with healing applied by corresponding skills, not the regeneration boon and neither any other forms of regen, such as SotW. So, it does nothing for traited shouts.

Druidic Clarity seems to be a viable option, but we don’t know much about astral force generation yet and the percentage at which we’re allowed to enter Celestial Avatar. So yeah, might be you’re not allowed to enter CA when you need it. Can be tweaked though.

Verdant Etching seems to be the go to trait for those who want the glyphs and the condi removal on glyph usage is certainly a step in the right direction. This trait is ok, I guess, though it might be difficult to benefit from the condi removal when you’re moving. Seed of Life needs a punishing effect for foes, so that you have a reason to stay near it. (Poison was suggested somewhere above)

Ancient Seeds doesn’t work the way you think it does. It does not root on interrupt, but rather only when you strike a previously interrupted foe. This may work with GS if you’re quick enough, but probably not LB.

Anyway, it’s not the majors that are concerning me, but the minors, which are forcing the “heal others” concept on every druid. If you’re not invested in group healing, these minors are useless to your build.

Ehecatl.9172:

I agree with Ronpierce about adding some conditions to staff. Ideally staff should be a hybrid weapon that can be used in either power or condition builds since it is so well tuned for support.

Conditions would be especially helpful since the best offensive grandmaster trait, Ancient Seeds, is just begging to be used with a condition set up.

This, the only thing I was even upset about with Druid was its lack of condis, I thought for sure it was going to deal at least SOME condi damage.

Durzlla.6295:

Ehecatl.9172:

I agree with Ronpierce about adding some conditions to staff. Ideally staff should be a hybrid weapon that can be used in either power or condition builds since it is so well tuned for support.

Conditions would be especially helpful since the best offensive grandmaster trait, Ancient Seeds, is just begging to be used with a condition set up.

This, the only thing I was even upset about with Druid was its lack of condis, I thought for sure it was going to deal at least SOME condi damage.

i dont think condis are ideal for druid spec cause if you put condis on staff/f5 it can be used in condi builds but zerk buildz wont benefit from the condis thats why i think boons are better but who am i to say we will see.

The druid and the upcoming changes to WHaO give us something that is sorely missing at the moment. A positive interaction with the pet.
The pet counts as an ally so it will fill up astral force. It will also count towards the Live Vicariously minor trait thus buffing up your sustain. Furthermore the staff auto attack and the no 2 ability will sustain your pet in combat even at long range, something that was previously not possible

So for example, a BM + Druid combo will have a tougher pet which will have a lot of healing tics per second on top of the heal and CForm burst healing.

For some people CForm might feel out of place and I agree that it can be made to fit any other spec, but it adds to the Ranger a play style that is sorely missing. I think that conceptually it is great, but in the end numbers will determine whether it is used or not.

For me, being able to go into CForm to cleanse all conditions, then use 4 and blast it with 3 and move out will make it invaluable.

Initial thoughts…

Staff:

Well designed. Will benefit multiple builds (LB power, trapper, and healer/support builds)

• Ancestral Grace: needs evade like Swoop

Glyphs:

Most a little underpowered (won’t be used in current form). Reducing the cooldowns on some of them will push us more towards the masters of CC which can define our role more outside of healer

• Overall: Increase range to 450
• Alignment: Increase damage or add Slow
• Equality: Reduce CD to 30 sec. add Stun break
• Tides: Add stun break
• Empowerment: Increase duration by 3 seconds (not 20% damage is way too much burst damage for PvP). The celestial version of this Glyph is very underwhelming and seems forced (like you need it to make heals worth it). Change to incoming damage is converted to healing for 2 seconds
• Unity: Fine as is

Traits:

Really nice in general, but Seems like Natural Mender and Live Vicariously should be 1 trait.

Ready for the HOTNESS?

• New Minor trait.Celestial Insight: Allies in a 450 radius gain 1 stack of Celestial Insight (3 seconds: +1% to all stats) every second while you are in Celestial Form._

• Celestial Shadow: Superspeed when entering celestial. Stealth when exiting. Increase duration to 3 seconds each.

Celestial Form:

Healing. Healing…Too much healing…boring. Remember…nature is destructive too.

• Cosmic Ray: Its bad. Ground- targeted heal for an auto attack. Cant move during it. We need a damage option in Celestial form . Needs a rework, not sure what though.
• Seed of Life: Add 1 stack Stability for 2 seconds.

I may get burned on a stack for suggesting this, but what if staff #1 attack changed to a 3-step melee chain-skill?

To me this kind of makes more sense in regards to Astral Wisp, Ancestral Grace and the Glyph range. Get in with Ancestral Grace, cast Astral Wisp and benefit from it yourself while you’re swinging away with your staff in melee.

Put Solar Beam on the Celestial Avatar, drop Cosmic Ray and improve visuals on Solar Beam, so it looks more like an outburst of concentrated sunlight. Maybe let it hit up to 3 adjacent foes (like ele fireball). Dare I ask for a short blind on top of this? lol

Solves 2 problems in my book:
1.) more self-synergy on the staff
2.) Damage while in Avatar Form.

Also, what if Ancient Seeds worked with taunt? That would be totally awesome.

Q: Cele form changes staff skills or gives a new set of skills that will be the same even if at the moment I am using a GS/LB?

LughLongArm.5460:

Tapioca.9062:

Druid feels like it was bolted onto Ranger at the last minutes. With things like Reaper, Chronomancer, Tempest, Berserker, Scrapper, Dragonhunter and so on, you can see how the spec is a clear extension of the base profession. You could take Druid and give it to Elementalists, Guardians or Necromancers and it wouldn’t feel out of place. There is no thematic underpinning between Druid and Ranger because Druid doesn’t tie into any of the Ranger’s core mechanics.

Druid feels like a new one weapon profession created with the single-minded purpose of having a healer for raids and then strapped onto the back of Rangers because where else can you jam it in? Even if I thought this was a good thing, and I don’t, what happens when Anet abandon raids like they abandoned dungeons and fractals? We’re the ones stuck with the gimmick spec designed for a specific purpose that’s become obsolete. As it stands Druid is way too over-centralised with its focus on healing. Seriously? It has like eight different heals and no real synergy or interaction with other trait lines or core Ranger mechanics. And at this point, can Druid even be adjusted in a meaningful way considering we’re under four weeks out from launch and we don’t even begin testing until next week? You could have given this spec to Thieves and it would have fit just as well.

I think its opposite, one of the reasons druid in its current form came to be, is due to the limitations of our pet mechnic(they didnt know how to make it survive raids and zerg fights) So they made you an healer insted(this way you wont cry over missing dps) So the lack of pet synergie in celce form, glyphs and staff skills is actually an answer to the limitations of the pet mechanic.

Lol what??

So instead of fixing pet issues or making an extension of the Ranger class they make an almost separate standalone class which doesn’t directly link to the CORE class?

I play Necro/Guard/War/Ranger, Necros Reaper fits very well into the power Necro build which is cool as it synergizes. Guards Dragonhunter is a bit meh largely because I don’t like traps but it still links into the rest of the class. Wars berserker is just uninspired but obviously works with it very well. Druid on the other hand does feel like its been thrown onto the Ranger. I get the good points of it, I’m ok(ish) that I don’t feel it fits my build enough to use it (while I wish it did). The elite is exceptionally horrendous. Ascetics aside, you turn into something and everything you do heals. Why not take away all utilities and abilities and use one massive heal button so people can just mash 1 until everything is bursting with hit points.

To say that their way of fixing the Rangers issues is to spam heals until everything is at full health is ridiculous. In fact one fix shouted for ages now is adding a -X% aoe damage to all pets, but that must be too much of a Blizzard pet fix for them to do.

I don’t like the Druid because it appears to incentivize others to require you to stay in Druid form and heal everyone. I can only imagine people going “Oh gaud that Druid is being a Ranger again.” The content that is coming is a big mystery as well but if they feel that they need this big healer class to exist, slapping it onto one class is a poor choice.

Just Wanna add these here again:

• Healing power Stat on Pets
• Please Add A Stun Break on The glyphs So rangers are not forced to get the base stun breakers again
• Please add Conditions on the Staff and Astral Form, so that it is not pigeonholed into super HEALING perspective.
• Change Invigorating Bond Radius to Atleast 450 to make it worthwhile traiting.

I thought the Druid overall was pretty cool. I really liked the 1200 yard mist teleport skill with the blast finisher. I thought the new Celestial Avatar mechanic was fine. Druid thematically fits the ranger class so even if the mechanic is different, I don’t see a problem with that.

My biggest concern is that Druid healing won’t have a role. I accept and understand that you may not want to choose Druid for soloing world content, but in PvP or Raids…if healing doesn’t play a big role there, then I’m not sure what else Druid brings.

In PvP it’d be nice, but do you want to sacrifice one person on a 5 man team to just do team support? I’m just not convinced yet that this will be the case.

So…either I guess I’d like to see Druid more diversified or to please explain a little more about how content is changing so that healing and mitigation will play a more active role.

Thanks!

What worries me is that all Druid skills that affect allies have a radius of 240 or 300. This includes Glyphs, Traits , Staff and Celestial Form.

I know the druid was “healing through positioning” but that radius sounds extremely small for regular gameplay.

If Druid only works in highly organised groups, then Druid could easily be a failure in all other aspects of the game and maybe even in most organised groups.

Invigorating Bond (GM trait) also has 300 radius, and it’s never used because of it. Harmonic Cry (Moa) is great, but it’s as good as worthless because of its 240 radius. Druid only expands the number of these skills that noone ever uses because of the extremely short radius.

This game is 90% about dynamic movement and staying mobile. 10% is about stacking on top of eachother, but only in highly organised groups in WvW and PvE.

I fear all these skills will end up on the garbage heap simply because of the radius. I’m sure in-house testing by ANet makes it seem great and awesome, but the general public is not interested to try and make these skills work.

I have a feeling the first raid will be forced to use these Ranger mechanics of short range support, just so they can say: “See, we told you Invigorating Bond is great”.

The only thing that make Invigorating bond bad is it’s 20s internal cool down. remove it and it become somewhat ok.

I won’t argue on the rest, I still think that most of the community focus to much on the horrible spamable heal in celestial form skill#1 with the dream of camping celestial form and spaming it. At the moment, in wvw when a raid need to heal itself, you stack everybody, drop a water field and blast in it. From my point of view, the celestial form is the same thing, without the need to blast a waterfield. The sustain heal is done via the staff attacks but I don’t think it’s worth a soothing mist or a shared virtue of resolve + heal on auto attack. The druid will most likely be slightly better a burst heal and slightly under this 2 other professions at sustained heal.

Tapioca.9062:

Druid feels like a new one weapon profession created with the single-minded purpose of having a healer for raids and then strapped onto the back of Rangers because where else can you jam it in? Even if I thought this was a good thing, and I don’t, what happens when Anet abandon raids like they abandoned dungeons and fractals? We’re the ones stuck with the gimmick spec designed for a specific purpose that’s become obsolete. As it stands Druid is way too over-centralised with its focus on healing. Seriously? It has like eight different heals and no real synergy or interaction with other trait lines or core Ranger mechanics. And at this point, can Druid even be adjusted in a meaningful way considering we’re under four weeks out from launch and we don’t even begin testing until next week? You could have given this spec to Thieves and it would have fit just as well.

I just want to second this.

Its a shame that Rangers once again get the shaft this time by having to be the class that carries the new ‘Hey WoW players come play our game’ spec.

Dadnir.5038:

The only thing that make Invigorating bond bad is it’s 20s internal cool down. remove it and it become somewhat ok.

The radius is too small believe me, Its a really good trait but making it to atleast 450 would be more desirable.

Lawrencii.1356:

Q: Cele form changes staff skills or gives a new set of skills that will be the same even if at the moment I am using a GS/LB?

Cele form gives the same set of skills no matter the weapons you have, it works like necro’s death shroud

Belzebu.3912:

Lawrencii.1356:

Q: Cele form changes staff skills or gives a new set of skills that will be the same even if at the moment I am using a GS/LB?

Cele form gives the same set of skills no matter the weapons you have, it works like necro’s death shroud

Ok, thanks.

Spartyr.6795:

I thought the Druid overall was pretty cool. I really liked the 1200 yard mist teleport skill with the blast finisher. I thought the new Celestial Avatar mechanic was fine. Druid thematically fits the ranger class so even if the mechanic is different, I don’t see a problem with that.

My biggest concern is that Druid healing won’t have a role. I accept and understand that you may not want to choose Druid for soloing world content, but in PvP or Raids…if healing doesn’t play a big role there, then I’m not sure what else Druid brings.

In PvP it’d be nice, but do you want to sacrifice one person on a 5 man team to just do team support? I’m just not convinced yet that this will be the case.

So…either I guess I’d like to see Druid more diversified or to please explain a little more about how content is changing so that healing and mitigation will play a more active role.

Thanks!

You probably didn’t look enough at those CC and immobilize options.

Celestial form is crazy strong. How new druid will perform in PvP will depend on how often you can go in that form.

Staff also great utility weapon. The teleport skill on that weapon alone can justify its use. I have high expectation of this specialization. I think it will not only be viable in PvP but has the potential of being OP after some clever theorycrafting.

Ground targeting: Please keep ground targeted skills to a minimum. For a game like GW2 which heavily focuses on quick movement and repositioning, ground targeted skills are clunky to use. Please keep this in mind for the game in general.

Forum bug fix…

OGDeadHead.8326:

Ground targeting: Please keep ground targeted skills to a minimum. For a game like GW2 which heavliy focuses on quick movement and repositioning, ground targeted skills are clunky to use. Please keep this in mind for the game in general.

GT skills don’t get reflected though.