Guild Wars 2

Hey there!

I’m pretty new to the game and I mainly play open world PvE with my wife (we’re still somewhat nervous about getting into WvW). I’ve designed this little offensive build for my Staff Druid:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQJAWWjEqQNLWyCusAVLWMEsm31JoFA3VHrpVmAworBMi0A-TRyCwAAuEAFM/pXXgRlHHVi5QJIO1fuv/wknAAhAWsGA-e

The idea is to constantly proc Ancient Seeds via weapon swaps and stack bleeds using the Sharpened Edges trait, Sharpening Stone and Entangle. It usually applies ~15 stacks of bleeding and ~30 stacks when bursting. And I also have great mobility and decent heals with Sublime Conversion+Ancestral Grace combos and celestial form.

So I do understand that Axe+Torch condition builds will surely outperform this, but I’d like to stick to the staff due to aesthetic reasons (I really do not understand a druid using an axe or a torch at all). How much worse my build is compared to the others, could it be somehow improved? Or should I go and respec into Power (https://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Druid_-_Shout_Trooper_Roamer)?

Compared to the meta condi ranger your damage is non-existent, it does way more than outperform, made even worse by the fact that staff is a mostly power weapon. However it looks like a cool theme build and if you enjoy it in open world then there is nothing wrong with it. Eventually you may get bored with the slow killing speed and want to swap to some more damaging weapons or swap to a power build.

Two notes:

Sigil of corruption doesn’t need to be on both weapons. Sigil of Earth would be a good alternative.

Since CC is not a big deal in open world, I’d switch shared anguish to refined toxins.

If staff is your thing, then I’d really encourage having a look at the power builds. Double staff is actually fairly powerful and should be much better for open world content where enemies tend to die before you’ve had chance to ramp up conditions.

As for the condi build, it should work but your damage wont be spectacular. Double staff condi is about half the damage of the Axe/Torch + Shortbow builds under ideal conditions. For open world you’ll be lacking crit chance, so sharpened edges will be weaker, furthermore ancient seeds doesn’t proc against champion tier mobs so you’ll lose a bit more against enemies where you really need the damage.

To improve the build, I’d strongly recommend getting some vipers gear for condition duration as that will help you out greatly against tougher monsters.

Thank you for your answers.

I don’t really feel that my dps is non-existant, everything melts fairly quickly with 20+ stacks of bleeding, but the ramp up time on trash mobs is significant. And yeah, after the recent Sharpening Edges nerf (proc chance 66%→33%) I don’t think I even need that trait. So I’ve sacrificed like 15% of crit for condi damage (had been running with 55% base crit before the nerf).

I’m not leaning toward condition builds, just the staff. That said, can you recommend a decent double staff power build?

Something like this should work pretty well for an open-world staff/staff power build. It works perfectly fine with exotic gear.

You could drop skirmishing for beastmastery when solo, but skirmishing is very nice to have for group events. Same goes for frost spirit, feel free to swap it out for anything if needed.

Power builds generally remain the best for open-world exploring since the mobs have low hp. That said, pretty much everything should work in the end. Since you’re not fully buffed the difference in damage between safer and more-DPS focused builds becomes much less.

TenebKel.4756:

I don’t really feel that my dps is non-existant

Sure, I said compared to the meta condi build. Vipers and burning really throw the damage through the roof. Burning is very OP.

Honestly for your themed build, if you really want staff/staff I’d probably stick with condi and try to get some vipers gear in the long run if you want to put in that much effort. Power staff is just hitting 1 and then doing nothing until everything is (eventually) dead. Your build is at least fun.

If there are any other weapons you feel fit your aesthetics of a druid, that would change things though. Staff has very low damage.