Guild Wars 2

Hi Guys, I am a returning player. I bought GW2 when it first came out and played only for about a month. Came back now to check out the expansion.

I am really new to the game so I don’t know much.

I just wanted to know if Ranger/Druid is a good profession for PVE. I will mostly be playing solo but would also do some group content here and there. I love healing but also would like a viable damage dealing build as well.

Some basic questions:

1. How are druids in solo PVE content?
2. How are druids in group PVE content? Are they desired in groups?
3. Do druids have viable DPS and healing builds in PVE?

Thanks for your help.

As far as solo PvE content goes, you’re better off forgetting druid and focusing on the core ranger specs. Druid is a support line so, just by selecting you are sacrificing a lot of damage without much return.

For group PvE, I have been running a zerker offensive support build and it’s been fun. It’s based around buffs from glyph of empowerment, Grace of the Land, spotter and FS. It sacrifices personal dps to offer more group support, some heal and condi cleanse.

As for healing, currently it still doesn’t have a place in the game. You’re more effective by focusing on offensive support that trying to heal your allies which either way would have their health pools already high. Situation might change with raids but will have to wait until they come out to see the final result.

If you want to use a druid solo, you can use it as a backup heal for yourself and perhaps emergency ally healing in difficult events, and just use damage focused armor and traits.

They haven’t released the raids yet, which are the end-game 10-man PvE content where druids will supposedly be highly valued. So we can’t evaluate that yet, but presumably druids will be highly desired.

I’m looking for a good Power Druid build but I’m totally indecisive with my skill and trait choices. Recently I’ve been using LB/Staff with Marks/NM/Druid.

Thoughts?

I’m gonna point you at this thread for another alternative -

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Krisp-s-Poison-Druid/first#post5677546

I’ve been using a variation on that & having a blast.

Nicknobreak.7543:

I’m looking for a good Power Druid build but I’m totally indecisive with my skill and trait choices. Recently I’ve been using LB/Staff with Marks/NM/Druid.

Thoughts?

I’d drop NM for BM and get resounding timbre/WHaO, and take a sword/WH, jungle stalker, and RaO. The new WHaO is too good to pass up for might stacking in PvE.

Druid isn’t mandatory you know, and, for the most part as far as solo PvE goes, is not recommended. You’re not gonna be using staff (or at least you shouldn’t) so AF is gonna be rare, Ancient Seeds are okay, but they could use a CD buff, 10cd for a mediocre root and bleed is not great, but it adds up.

If you’re going with zerk, then drop druid altogether.

While I believe Druid is a failed endeavor as a whole (timed bosses and all), there are things you can benefit from.

Taking Druid’s natural stride gives you 33% increase speed when not affected by cripple chill, and immobilize; freeing up a utility slot in most builds.

Then there is ancient seeds with a lot of mobs having break bars this Gm trait is like applying 5 cc in 5 seconds.

Druid isn’t totally useless just the healing parts, so only 80 – 90 percent useless.

I dunno dude, have you taken a walk through Maguuma? Monsters hit like freaking MAC trucks. I see players go down frequently just fighting veterans. I think healing is going to have a place in this expansion if not immediately. Gotta think long-term here.

play a Druid as you would a Core ranger. Take MM and skirmishing but replace BM with Druid.

Berserker, sword axe/LB. Slot heal glyph, empower glyph, daze glyph and frost spirit. Trait the glyphs and take GoTLand. Each glyph cast will give allies a 3% damage, on top of 7.5% from frost spirit and 10% from empower for 6s.

Spotter and regular dps traits in MM.

Nicknobreak.7543:

I dunno dude, have you taken a walk through Maguuma? Monsters hit like freaking MAC trucks. I see players go down frequently just fighting veterans. I think healing is going to have a place in this expansion if not immediately. Gotta think long-term here.

Healing is only really useful if you have high toughness and vitality already, since if you don’t you’re probably getting one or two shot and healing beyond what you have already with traited WHaO isn’t necessary.

I got through all of the HoT story and the Dragon Stand event in full Berserker, LB/GS, without having major issues. I just had to learn all the telegraphs for the heavy hitting mobs (Shadowleapers and Guard Snipers in particular).

Jephery.8915:

Nicknobreak.7543:

I dunno dude, have you taken a walk through Maguuma? Monsters hit like freaking MAC trucks. I see players go down frequently just fighting veterans. I think healing is going to have a place in this expansion if not immediately. Gotta think long-term here.

Healing is only really useful if you have high toughness and vitality already, since if you don’t you’re probably getting one or two shot and healing beyond what you have already with traited WHaO isn’t necessary.

I got through all of the HoT story and the Dragon Stand event in full Berserker, LB/GS, without having major issues. I just had to learn all the telegraphs for the heavy hitting mobs (Shadowleapers and Guard Snipers in particular).

I haven’t been using druid since it went live for real, but I used druid in the beta to heal others. I think what nick is saying is that OTHERS are dropping a lot, and healing them can save a difficult event. The stupid warrior that stands in a hylek poison field could use a helping hand.

I think full zerk with some random ally heals is totally applicable to HoT event chains, assuming it’s not a full on zerg.

If your getting one and two shotted healing is going to save you. A zealot druid will go down just as fast as a zerker Ranger/Druid.

The thing is for every 5 people events scale up so if you have 5 dedicated healers that means the event scales up and the damage dealers have to output more damage.

In event where menders put up shield and you have to dps the main mob before they respawn a dedicated healer isn’t helping and in fact its hurting the event a lot.

Other classes can dps and heal easily whereas Druids struggle. You can go heal mode if you want but your not really helping. If you want to heal be quick with the rallies.

Serraphin Storm.2369:

If your getting one and two shotted healing is going to save you. A zealot druid will go down just as fast as a zerker Ranger/Druid.

However a PVT warrior standing in a hylek poison field will benefit massively from druid healing. A zerk LB druid can absolutely work if you want to play a solo druid.

I’ve seen a lot of other professions advocating to start wearing non-zerk armor in the jungle. Rangers have no need for that since we have lots of evades in melee and the LB, but that means you have ample opportunity to heal if you want. I have been playing regular zerk ranger, but it is completely understandable if someone wants to use the new elite spec. It’s good practice for raids too.

Well, I have been experementing with Druid build a lot. It is a little lackluster, altho it can provide a huge benefit for a small party. Making HOTS kind of faceroll.

Yesterday I went all conditions and traps, it was ok but quite annoying. Now I am more into the glyph, poison, SB and pet as added damage. I am doing very well solo with condition stacking. Heavy CC is nice, as you and your party can just throw yourself in a group of mobs without problems.

Im going to try with Shaman for world PvE, should be really effective.

I agree with some others above. Last night I just respec’d back to good old fashioned Ranger. Even in the last PvE map of Dragon Stand I found no real benefit for the druid. This is also in pug and zerg scenarios, though. If you’re in a tight guild or organized group there might be a good role for the druid.

That tiger’s a pretty nice addition to the ranger as well.

What is your good old fashioned ranged build?
I really want the druid to work and be needed!

Chimp.7946:

What is your good old fashioned ranged build?
I really want the druid to work and be needed!

Same here, I would really like the druid to work and be needed. It seems like they aren’t doing too great right now outside of PVP.

Either way, thanks everyone for all the responses!

Right now, i haven’t found any need for a druid in the HoT PvE. I don’t need the healing personally, WS gives me more than enough survival options. From my experience, events (Tarik, Dragon’s Stand…) fail because of lack of numbers or bad organisation (nobody on one lane), not because of lack of healing characters.

So by going druid, all i’m doing is lower my damage, tag less, and end up with less lootbags and mastery progress, while not changing anything to the events outcome. I tried it for a little while once i got it fully unlocked, but went back to core ranger. The pet/spirit aoe damage mitigation did me wayyyy more good in PvE than the druid.

Fluffball.8307:

Serraphin Storm.2369:

If your getting one and two shotted healing is going to save you. A zealot druid will go down just as fast as a zerker Ranger/Druid.

However a PVT warrior standing in a hylek poison field will benefit massively from druid healing. A zerk LB druid can absolutely work if you want to play a solo druid.

I’ve seen a lot of other professions advocating to start wearing non-zerk armor in the jungle. Rangers have no need for that since we have lots of evades in melee and the LB, but that means you have ample opportunity to heal if you want. I have been playing regular zerk ranger, but it is completely understandable if someone wants to use the new elite spec. It’s good practice for raids too.

Yep and together they are doing less damage than one zerker. They are just scaling the event up and making harder for the rest. Not to mention warriors have a lot of condition removal. Group resistance maybe of use but what you loose in dps for seconds of resistance isn’t worth it.

The argument that dead zerkers deal no damage is moot as having a dedicated healer is like having a player dead for 50% or more of the fight.

Although it’s expensive, no one is talking about zealot-geared druids. I’ve been having more fun with reaper, but at 1200 range, I’m not really finding that I’m less safe than other professions due to my pet soaking significant aggro while I keep it up and supplement dps. I do find it a bit disheartening that the best spec for druid is one of the least friendly to achieve though.

Lysander Freeman.4186:

Last night I just respec’d back to good old fashioned Ranger. Even in the last PvE map of Dragon Stand I found no real benefit for the druid.

I use Druid most of time, but change some stuff till towers. Before Towers of DS, I use double LB Quick Draw with Skirmishing and keep spamming Barrage for tagging and XP. I also use Glyph of Empowerment and Frost Spirit.

When I get to Towers, I use double Staff : Glyph of Equality + Glyph of the Tides + Primal Echoes (Staff trait) + Ancient Seeds + BM 1-1-1 to break bar, Ancestral Grace for mobility. Then CA Lunar Impact + Natural Convergence.

Druid is a bar breaker machine.

Serraphin Storm.2369:

Yep and together they are doing less damage than one zerker. They are just scaling the event up and making harder for the rest. Not to mention warriors have a lot of condition removal. Group resistance maybe of use but what you loose in dps for seconds of resistance isn’t worth it.

The argument that dead zerkers deal no damage is moot as having a dedicated healer is like having a player dead for 50% or more of the fight.

We’re talking about open world. You have zero control over party comps in open world. If you run into another player that is struggling, he’s either going to die or you can heal him. Running druid over one of the other specs isn’t going to hurt your damage much if you want to play it. It’s absurd to be that authoritarian for open world content.

True, druid tree is not mandatory, but I,ve been playing staff past few days and love it. It packs a pretty good punch, solar beam and astral whip. Not quite as high dps as long bow but instant casts is so nice. The circling heal from astral whip gives your pet a free heal as well. Im only half way through the traits so have limited usage of the the rest of the skills. Still a new class (druid) so a lot more to learn. Guess my point is, you got to play it to learn it! Have fun with your ranger and see what fits you.

I was talking about open world whether your partied or not, event scaled based on the number of people. More events are on timers. Dps and cc matter.

A couple days ago I was helping a warrior and a Mesmer kill a champion (one I had solo before). 3 druids join middle battle. The battle became a lot harder. The champs health bar was barely moving. The only thing that salvage the fight was that two of the druids died (kill by pocket raptors I think. ) with only 30 seconds on the timer. They way pointed and the boss just melted.

People can run what they like, but that doesn’t change the fact what your running does affect other more so in Hot then in open would core.

Even in games with the standard trinity players can solo bosses. A ranged healer will have to chose to heal themselves or heal an ally/allies. If this choice isn’t necessary, this creates more questions. Why? What are the exception? How necessary is Healing?

While I don’t like the central theme of Druid (healing), it has some nice traits. I do have my preferred play style. This doesn’t mean that because I don’t like a build or play style no one should use it. With that said if your play style can have a negative inpact on those around you, at minimum you should be aware of it.

It has been mentioned here bfore, that a druid gives 5 people a 25% damage buff, with glyph and Grace of the Land. So a condition druid for example, would make up that damage loss easy with those buffs. As condition druid damage output is also pretty good.

Druid is perfectly viable for PvE, both new and Zerkmeta.

Here goes.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNAsXTn0rC1silsAuqActgl9ADOueX3rL3uAwoj5CEwGBn8kwNB-TZRBwAROEAP3fgcZgHnBAAPAAA

You’re welcome.

Tragic Positive.9356:

Druid is perfectly viable for PvE, both new and Zerkmeta.

Here goes.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNAsXTn0rC1silsAuqActgl9ADOueX3rL3uAwoj5CEwGBn8kwNB-TZRBwAROEAP3fgcZgHnBAAPAAA

You’re welcome.

Hmm don’t you think you’re giving up too much for just a glyph and some mediocre heals?

Also in PvE you’re giving up a lot of might stacks taking Rej over WHaO.

This same build with WHaO, Sic’ em and Beastmatery can provide much more DPS.

As a side note, i find Lead the Wind to be mandatory if you’re using a longbow in PvE, Predator’s onslaught is required in raid fights though.

Grave of the land only work in CA form with limit healing it will take forever to gain Ca form again In a DPS build. Ancient seeds is more value able and the amount damage bristlebacks and smokescales do is well worth the investment in the BM line.

Ok, I have been trying out so many things with druid now.
This is what I am running right now, I cant decide between skirmish and beastmastery.
But skirmish seems to do very well for me. Its very AOE heavy, so i usualy run around in HOTS and grab as many mobs that I can see and take them all in one go.

I love to destroy blue bars, ancient seeds help with that, but sometime I go with grace of land. With water sigil on the weapon, CA is constantly up. Like, all the time.

The builder does not have Shaman set, but I am full Shaman. I found health is better then toughness against all the poison and bleed and kitten. But, settler would do the same things.

The build work great solo but even better in a small party.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNAnfWnMqAVsidrAGsCUtgFGBD+pWVzqNjrOXSjpAc5CAn8syNB-TRxBABCqJgijAAf7PAwjAgZ9AAA-e

I take down a single veteran a little slower then my full berserker long bow. But I take down 4 veterans at the same time, much faster.

If I run in a party, I would consider taking empower glyph. With the CA constanly up and and empower, I would buff my buddies damage by 25% all the time. While doing good condition damage myself. Since its condition and stuff, it gives me time to throw in a couple of heals as well, to top em off, if they step into something unlucky.

Edit: This build just soloed the Champion Hero Point at Dragons Passage Waypoint.
I am sure with some help from the pro people, we can adjust it to be better.

Daharahj.1325:

Tragic Positive.9356:

Druid is perfectly viable for PvE, both new and Zerkmeta.

Here goes.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNAsXTn0rC1silsAuqActgl9ADOueX3rL3uAwoj5CEwGBn8kwNB-TZRBwAROEAP3fgcZgHnBAAPAAA

You’re welcome.

Hmm don’t you think you’re giving up too much for just a glyph and some mediocre heals?

Also in PvE you’re giving up a lot of might stacks taking Rej over WHaO.

This same build with WHaO, Sic’ em and Beastmatery can provide much more DPS.

As a side note, i find Lead the Wind to be mandatory if you’re using a longbow in PvE, Predator’s onslaught is required in raid fights though.

In which environment of PvE? 5-men content where you are constantly 25 might, fury, swiftness, banner and Frost Spirit capped, or solo content that you can run naked and no one cares one bit?

The only thing I “sacrificed” was dmg per boon for +10% PARTY damage, +6% PARTY damage from synergy of Verdant Etching with Lingering Light (the seed upon glyph activation is a CAF ability so it works).
Traded DPS from pet for Party-Wide damage modifiers.

From “Lead the Wind” statement I suppose you are not yet familiar with LB Frost Spotter build – so it makes sense you had hard time comparing them together.

LB+S/A Frost Spotter has been the most efficient build for a very long time and still hits the peak even today. Longbow is never used for anything else but opening with Barrage>Rapid Fire, than swapping back to LB every 30 seconds (with Rapid Fire>Barrage>Rapid Fire) only.
Vast majority of your time is spent in Sword+PoS DPSing which holds the top of our DPS possibilities.

This mechanic still stays with the druid, and the differences are:
Signet of the Wild > Glyph of Empowerment
25% dmg (Self Boost) > 13% (16%) dmg (5 people) …
60 sec CD > 16 sec CD

Sacrificed NM / BM for much higher success of staying alive at difficult phases.
NM always provided better DPS than BM. Depending on which you played you basically traded either 20% of your pet DPS or dmg per boon and Pet Might for the huge Party boosts that are mathematically way past 20% of your pet DPS (which is like 6% of your total DPS). Druid achieves the goal way better than any other former build.

The one I posted naturally offers +25% party damage peak, and rounded it means around 8% constant party DPS. For 5 people.
Having sacrificed 12% of our personal DPS is something I can handle for that benefit.

Nicknobreak.7543:

I dunno dude, have you taken a walk through Maguuma? Monsters hit like freaking MAC trucks. I see players go down frequently just fighting veterans. I think healing is going to have a place in this expansion if not immediately. Gotta think long-term here.

I traited into Druid and use the Druid as my third line. I carry a staff in my pack so I can switch it with my axe/wh at a moment’s notice. I did that last night when I found myself gliding into a big boss fight up in the canopy. So what I did was start with LB, swapped to staff (be sure you are not in the middle of the swarm), and strafed around using my healing skills to help the players in the middle of the battle.

Sorta wish I had a third weapon slot so I could use my axe/wh in mid-range for damage but LB did well enough to help the damage out. However, I did notice staff skills #1 and #2 were decent range damage while offering some heals to my allies.

Dulfy has a decent overview on her webpage for this. I had to write it down on a sticky note so I could refer to it when I needed a reminder of what it did. At least until I learned what they did by using them.

http://dulfy.net/2015/10/05/gw2-druid-ranger-elite-specialization/#Staff_Skills

Chimp.7946:

It has been mentioned here bfore, that a druid gives 5 people a 25% damage buff, with glyph and Grace of the Land. So a condition druid for example, would make up that damage loss easy with those buffs. As condition druid damage output is also pretty good.

Got a good build for that? Been wanting to do conditions with my Druid but I haven’t found anything really good yet.

Posted it a little bit higher up. Also, some notes on what to switch in what situation.

Druid Celestial Avatar form I found to be rather a short duration. So I started looking at the skills offered in it and found that the most useful would be #3 because it heals for 2,948 with a range of 1,200 and a radius of 360.

I have to actually work with the other skills in different scenarios to see how effective they can be, but I feel hamstrung with the short duration of this form option.

I just posted this to Metabattle earlier today →http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Spirit_Support_Druid

When things settle down with Druid being changed, I’ll start adding the builds the community comes up with to the thread linked in my sig.

I am using Ascended Zealot’s with an ascended Cleric Amulet (swapping to ascended Berserker’s amulet if in need for more dps) and Ascended Berserker’s trinket. My staff is ascended Zealot’s and my longbow is ascended berserker’s. I can dish out damage while having around 1100 healing power with food and maxed life sigil.

It appears that ascended gear will be the wave for the raids. I have a slew of recipes for ascended stuff in my bank. I decided to wait to see what stats would work best before using any of them.

At present my exotic gear is working just fine, but I will start stockpiling mats for the ascended stuff now.

I think waiting is going to be the best option for the decision making on the needs for Druid gear.

Chimp.7946:

Posted it a little bit higher up. Also, some notes on what to switch in what situation.

Definitely works man, tried it in PvP while doing the dailies. Only enemy that gave me a problem in the fighting was a Revenant.

Kinda hoping for them to introduce Crusader’s as well into PvE, so I could mix it with Zealot’s to find a good balance betwen the two. Don’t mind mixing in Cleric’s and Berserker’s but would imagine I would prefer this way more. Only question is how would be obtain them.

Edit: Nevermind, didn’t realize that you could get the recipe off of regular NPC’s.

Crusader’s insigne are already in the game just go to your craftmaster and buy the recipe.

So Pra Mim.2506:

As far as solo PvE content goes, you’re better off forgetting druid and focusing on the core ranger specs. Druid is a support line so, just by selecting you are sacrificing a lot of damage without much return.

For group PvE, I have been running a zerker offensive support build and it’s been fun. It’s based around buffs from glyph of empowerment, Grace of the Land, spotter and FS. It sacrifices personal dps to offer more group support, some heal and condi cleanse.

As for healing, currently it still doesn’t have a place in the game. You’re more effective by focusing on offensive support that trying to heal your allies which either way would have their health pools already high. Situation might change with raids but will have to wait until they come out to see the final result.

I’m running a burn shaman/apothecary druid. getting like 6-7k+ aoe burn ticks while supporting and healing. and I don’t seem to get two-shot like the majority of players running zerker or something similar. i don’t know if this is good or bad, i just started pve with HoT, but I’m enjoying it immensely.

Sounds about the same as me, but Im going more poison. Mind sharing your build?
There are some options in the build that I can not seem to decide around.

mistsim.2748:

I’m running a burn shaman/apothecary druid. getting like 6-7k+ aoe burn ticks while supporting and healing. and I don’t seem to get two-shot like the majority of players running zerker or something similar. i don’t know if this is good or bad, i just started pve with HoT, but I’m enjoying it immensely.

I was getting those numbers with Balthazar’s Sinister ranger.
I really am interested in what this build is myself. Could you make a build of it? I haven’t found any to reliably keep refilling astral bar, yet keep the condi DPS high.
I mean… Can Splitblade potentially fill 5(hits)x5(targets)x0,75% of the astral force? I’ll be frank – I haven’t yet tried Condi Druid. But the idea now makes sense.

yeah sure, here’s what I’m running. not bothering with gear. it’s shaman armor, apothecary trinkets and weapons. balthazar runes. smoldering sigil on sword/torch.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQRAsf3YjUqQ7K2sCmrARLGYEKf0HhY4fiVvl5C4yDgTm2JmA-TpgMgAA7PMXGAA

it can also stack 25 might. when i unlock druid, i’ll just be getting rid of the BM line. my stats are roughly:

1600 toughness
21k HP
1200 condi damage
1100 HP

again, I’m no PVE guru, but it’s been a blast running this in the starting zone. if we’re killing champs/wyvern bosses, i’ll swap out spike trap for frost spirit. if you guys can think of another way to get more burning, let me know.

mistsim.2748:

yeah sure, here’s what I’m running. not bothering with gear. it’s shaman armor, apothecary trinkets and weapons. balthazar runes. smoldering sigil on sword/torch.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQRAsf3YjUqQ7K2sCmrARLGYEKf0HhY4fiVvl5C4yDgTm2JmA-TpgMgAA7PMXGAA

it can also stack 25 might. when i unlock druid, i’ll just be getting rid of the BM line. my stats are roughly:

1600 toughness
21k HP
1200 condi damage
1100 HP

again, I’m no PVE guru, but it’s been a blast running this in the starting zone. if we’re killing champs/wyvern bosses, i’ll swap out spike trap for frost spirit. if you guys can think of another way to get more burning, let me know.

And… Where’s the Druid ?
Condi Rangers are cool. But… It has been here for a long time and this isn’t a druid build as OP asked for. I was so eager to see another build I haven’t found
<sad>.
Thanks anyways.

i said replace BM with druid. BM is completely extraneous and unnecessary, I’m using it as a place holder.

oh sorry, i forgot to mention. replace a/d with the staff. and go axe/torch instead =)

Here:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNAnfWjUqQ7K2sCmrARLWYEM4n6VNr6M6GBxAmCwlLAcy0OxE-TJhAwAw2fgzDAYcZAAnAAA

i don’t know what sigils to put on staff.

Solo Druid is quite viable. You can trait for 33% movement and reduced CC, which frees up a utility slot or a rune set. The extra healing can keep you up for hours.

@mistsim
I believe it would just end up being a weaker version of Heimskarl’s spirit Ranger. That stuff is amazing with supporting and deals the right amount of DPS.
I’d definitely stay on the standard condition-damage (Viper>former Sinister) route for your setup.

@Wanderer
Yes, druid makes solo content much more comfortable. Even though I prefer more aggressive melee relentless approach. I get 100% Swiftnes from Shouts.
I do miss the Staff>GS travelling, though.