Guild Wars 2

Kailee.8790:

We asked to be in the meta…

What they gave us
“Come with us, sit in the corner over there, do your healing healing crap and we will let you know when you can leave. Oh and face the corner, and wear this dunce cap”

How did you get that from the livestream? What I saw was some good damage with a lot of support utility.

phys.7689:

Their Philosophy changed. They couldnt figure out how to build a raid without a trinity so they added a trinity

I’m going to bet these raids can still be completed without “healers/tanks” given time.

gavyne.6847:

Dradiin.8935:

gavyne.6847:

Druids got rangers to become a part of the meta come HoT expansion, and as far as I can tell, meta in WvW, PvP, and Raids. I don’t see how anybody could make a sad face about this change. That’s a huge change from being on the outside looking in currently.

The dev did say he’s got changes coming for Rangers as well, so expect other boosts to rangers. I mean looking at rangers currently, there’s already enough pew pew, and condi tanky rangers are already fairly solid. The thing that keeps rangers out of the current meta have more to do with the lack of group support than anything else.

With druids, you get possibly the best group support available come HoT expansion. Smile, it’s time to celebrate.

Not sure how you can separate the Druid from the Ranger.

I strongly doubt you main a ranger, cause as far as my experiences go i am generally shunned from groups on my ranger, but if i mention i have any other class cept maybe a Mesmer i am in the group.

In WvW, you’re shunned yes due to the current ZvZ meta. It’s because aoe is everything. Except when a blob is large enough where you are asked to be a part of a pick team. Surely you weren’t expecting to see a ranger be top tier single target dps and also good at aoe at the same time? They gave you a new identity to be wanted, no not wanted, but needed in HoT. I still don’t see how that’s a bad thing.

If you like being good at single target, like being a part of the pick team, you get to stick with your pew pew. If you want to be wanted and needed, you go druid and take on a support role.

THANKS !

You made my point exactly !

Warcry.1596:

According to ArenaNet, the Berserker meta will NOT work. Druid will be amazing because of this. Druid has the possibility to be the most used specialization… At least the most needed

loll no they didn’t say anything close to that….

They just said berserker meta won’t work IN RAIDS.

Everything else in PvE doesn’t look like it will need healing/support specs lol…. (unless fractal lvl 100 is OP as heck, but I doubt it)

Zerk will remain meta….everywhere outside of raids…so there you go, at least druid will be heavily wanted somewhere in PvE….

Olcon.9506:

And then, to top it all off, the developer that designed this legitimately overpowered specialization outright declares the death of the berserker meta at the hands of the Druid, announces that he’s been reading and taking note of the ranger forum’s criticisms for probably the last year (!!!!), and says he can’t wait to put down a red thread and interact with you guys, and that further details about the future of the base ranger class will be discussed later on during the balance segment of the presentation.

I think this is most of the problem. People don’t think that the zerker meta will die when HoT releases. Then…the super squishies will run into the new jungle, get their zerker selfs mowed down and complain that it’s OP. I am quite happy to let our awful ZERK OR NOTHING meta die already.

Thz.7569:

Kailee.8790:

We asked to be in the meta…

What they gave us
“Come with us, sit in the corner over there, do your healing healing crap and we will let you know when you can leave. Oh and face the corner, and wear this dunce cap”

How did you get that from the livestream? What I saw was some good damage with a lot of support utility.

You seem to have a skewed view of what good damage is and heal spam is not a lot of utility.

Screw the haters, ANYWAYS Iam so HAPPY TO BE A HEALER NOW! WHat GEAR WILL I NEED?

Thz.7569:

Kailee.8790:

We asked to be in the meta…

What they gave us
“Come with us, sit in the corner over there, do your healing healing crap and we will let you know when you can leave. Oh and face the corner, and wear this dunce cap”

How did you get that from the livestream? What I saw was some good damage with a lot of support utility.

Told you a long time ago thatDruid was going to be a supporter. It’s colled “druid” for a reason.

aside from that, I actually really like it. And yeah, you asked to be in the meta, and this will be in the expansion meta.

My main concern right now is that Druid can be so powerful to be mandatory. I don’t want that. I want it to be possible to replace by using Ventari or Guardian or Ele.

“All this game has is Zerk, lame!”
Anet creates something different
“Y no dmg omg…”

…

Thz.7569:

Kailee.8790:

We asked to be in the meta…

What they gave us
“Come with us, sit in the corner over there, do your healing healing crap and we will let you know when you can leave. Oh and face the corner, and wear this dunce cap”

How did you get that from the livestream? What I saw was some good damage with a lot of support utility.

I was referring to how us rangers wanted to be in the meta. Rangers aren’t a healing class we were designed for mixed combat (ranged/melee).

Sure they brought us into the meta so they believe, but they threw that entire prior idea out the window and shot it enough times to make sure its dead

Dradiin.8935:

gavyne.6847:

Dradiin.8935:

gavyne.6847:

Druids got rangers to become a part of the meta come HoT expansion, and as far as I can tell, meta in WvW, PvP, and Raids. I don’t see how anybody could make a sad face about this change. That’s a huge change from being on the outside looking in currently.

The dev did say he’s got changes coming for Rangers as well, so expect other boosts to rangers. I mean looking at rangers currently, there’s already enough pew pew, and condi tanky rangers are already fairly solid. The thing that keeps rangers out of the current meta have more to do with the lack of group support than anything else.

With druids, you get possibly the best group support available come HoT expansion. Smile, it’s time to celebrate.

Not sure how you can separate the Druid from the Ranger.

I strongly doubt you main a ranger, cause as far as my experiences go i am generally shunned from groups on my ranger, but if i mention i have any other class cept maybe a Mesmer i am in the group.

In WvW, you’re shunned yes due to the current ZvZ meta. It’s because aoe is everything. Except when a blob is large enough where you are asked to be a part of a pick team. Surely you weren’t expecting to see a ranger be top tier single target dps and also good at aoe at the same time? They gave you a new identity to be wanted, no not wanted, but needed in HoT. I still don’t see how that’s a bad thing.

If you like being good at single target, like being a part of the pick team, you get to stick with your pew pew. If you want to be wanted and needed, you go druid and take on a support role.

THANKS !

You made my point exactly !

Except that if you think you got pigeonholded into playing a certain role now, wait until the lack of healers ends in:“Play Druid or gtfo.”

Time will tell.

Tragic Positive.9356:

Well… I don’t know. If you are talking about the ZerkMeta LB+S/A ranger that is outperformed by Sinister Ranger by a mile than you might very likely be correct

They are actually on par with each other, with Sinister being more selective due to content (condition immune objects and etc.). It’s a rare luxury for a class to have 2 DPS specs that are equally great since most of the other professions lose out opting for another build/weapon set. One of the shining positives of being a Ranger in PVE as far as diversity is concerned.

phys.7689:

They basically slapped the trinity on gw2

Trinity’s always been here. This is just the first time it’s ever been relevant.

You could always go cleric’s Guardian with a mace and shield. The only thing stopping you was that it had no use in pve (and limited to no use in pvp).

Stat’s and tactics that really only ever see use in WvW zerg combat are finally going to be utilized in other areas of the game.

I missed the livestream, but from what I can gather, the main focus on healing is a disappointment to me. Though, I’ll have to wait until BWE3 to know for sure.

The new pets do sound awesome though, as long as they don’t require the Druid to be slotted in order to be used.

The Glyphs don’t sound too exciting in my opinion, with the exception of the heal glyph, which could be quite useful as an all round skill for groups, and the Empowerment Glyph might be interesting for some support (although Warrior can passively give more damage output to their allies already).

Of course, I’m not held at gunpoint to use the Druid, but I don’t see it being that viable anywhere else other than Raids and occasionally WvW zerg fights, whereas all other Elite Specializations…

Odin of Ark.4860:

phys.7689:

Their Philosophy changed. They couldnt figure out how to build a raid without a trinity so they added a trinity

I’m going to bet these raids can still be completed without “healers/tanks” given time.

I doubt it. All they have to do is add unavoidable damage, then it becomes a mathematic equation of need x heals per second x mitigation.
With various dps checks.

The big thing wasnt so much the addition of a healer spec, but rather the talk of unavoidable damage, and them saying you will need tanks.

There may be exploits to get around it but they ll probably patch it

Substance E.4852:

Eponet.4829:

Clearly there’s a reason that they called it a celestial transformation. You’re not meant to invest everything into healing, you’re meant to use celestial stats. Don’t think of yourself as a healer, think of yourself as a jack of all trades. Just ask the elementalists.

The entire staff and nearly all the traits are meant as active defensive support.

Krall is right. Anet’s goal was never to have classes that could only do X, no more Monks only healing or Warriors only DPS’ing.

3 years of kittenty healing power scaling and no need for dedicated defensive support builds has made people think Anet never wanted these kinds of play styles which was never the case. If it were, thing like the Guardian Mace would have never passed muster.

They are simply moving toward making party member roles more specialized which is a good thing in a game where stats are fluid and builds can be changed in a matter of minutes.

On the other hand, none of the other ranger weapons are healing oriented (Except potentially the sole blast finisher of the warhorn which can be used in a water field, which leaves you with an offensive main hand weapon), and you have two weapon slots, meanwhile, healing power is just a single stat to invest in.

I wouldn’t call celestial elementalists dedicated healers, despite their ability to enter water attunement and heal an entire health bar, because that’s only one part of their kit.

Personally, we don’t know how things have been tuned. I’m personally going to be testing out a celestial skirmishing/beastmastery/druid shortbow/staff.

Intuition tells me that zealot’s would be the best, but, I don’t believe the beta gear gives you that option.

Zalladi.4652:

The new pets do sound awesome though, as long as they don’t require the Druid to be slotted in order to be used.

They don’t.

I don’t like where this is going. Required healers means that forming groups will be harder, and more people will be excluded. Several classes have no viable group healing options, and this brings me back to the days when I played WoW, when pure DPS classes were stuck in one overpopulated niche no one wanted when forming groups.

Here is a link to the druid reveal on dulfy…
http://dulfy.net/2015/09/25/gw2-druid-ranger-elite-specialization-livestream-reveal/

You’ve probably already seen it. I never thought what the expansion had to offer was going to be worth 50$, but seeing the direction they are taking ranger I’m glad I didn’t financially support that nonsense.

Will Druid get rangers a spot in Raids and GWEN?

Sure.

Did most rangers want to become forced into group healer just to be invited? Nope.

Making spirits damage immune (or at the very least something that can survive in dungeons and raids) and giving us access to resistance boon for the group wouldve been more than enough.

What the heck does “celestial avatar” have to do with druids? Ugh. This whole thing. Gross. I feel like this should’ve been the guardian elite spec. There is nothing “nature” “druid” or “ranger” about Celestial Avatar.

The worst part? Lack of synergy. Staff doesn’t fit into any non-healer type build that we have. And maybe I’m reading them wrong, but every single glyph looks like it would be a terrible choice for any existing build. Druid looks like a full package, this stuff goes well together but not with anything else.

Edit: If there are other aspects, I hope they manage to stick to the ranger/druid theme, and that they do something to make it so druid does not equal healbot. Please, please, think about WHY people play the classes they play. Rangers did not pick their class expecting to become the primary healer. Guardians, Elementalists, maybe.
Edit2: looks like just one aspect, “celestial/moonkin form”. well this is terrible. not even animal/nature related. maybe HoT comes with space suites and solar panel armor.

The Celestial skills do no damage. So if you like standing there healing yourself over and over, occasionally getting interrupted and getting stacks of confusion put on you by someone with full HP, enjoy! Eventually the stalemate will end and you will die from cooldowns.

Substance E.4852:

phys.7689:

They basically slapped the trinity on gw2

Trinity’s always been here. This is just the first time it’s ever been relevant.

You could always go cleric’s Guardian with a mace and shield. The only thing stopping you was that it had no use in pve (and limited to no use in pvp).

Stat’s and tactics that really only ever see use in WvW zerg combat are finally going to be utilized in other areas of the game.

Trinity isnt so much about the idea that you can build that way, but rather encounters that require you to use them

This is done mostly through unavoidable damage. The biggest tell was them saying you wont be able to avoid all damage any more.

Thats the thing that requires healers and makes mitigation required.

BlusterWolf.2103:

Some of my long time concerns have been addressed and Solved by Druid

[…]

2. WvW zerg role
Now we can proudly bring our Druid into a WvW zerg and not thinking about that if I bring a guardian or warrior I can contribute more, the Aoe CC and healing Druid provide may shift the current meta in WvW a lot.

Not convinced about that. There’s one glaring thing lacking for a WvW support role, and it’s called Stability. Add Aegis and Protection and i’d still pick guardians rather than druids in my zerg.

rabidsmiles.5926:

Olcon.9506:

And then, to top it all off, the developer that designed this legitimately overpowered specialization outright declares the death of the berserker meta at the hands of the Druid, announces that he’s been reading and taking note of the ranger forum’s criticisms for probably the last year (!!!!), and says he can’t wait to put down a red thread and interact with you guys, and that further details about the future of the base ranger class will be discussed later on during the balance segment of the presentation.

I think this is most of the problem. People don’t think that the zerker meta will die when HoT releases. Then…the super squishies will run into the new jungle, get their zerker selfs mowed down and complain that it’s OP. I am quite happy to let our awful ZERK OR NOTHING meta die already.

Ok, here is something that might be new for you: Zerker isn’t about easymode. Zerker is about being most effective by being as quick as possible. People who facetank stuff die and they deserve to die because zerker was never about facetanking stuff. The game has just been so stupidly easy until now that you could facetank everything. Will the new content stop some people from running zerker gear? Probably. Will it “kill” the zerker meta? No.

Purecura.1795:

Screw the haters, ANYWAYS Iam so HAPPY TO BE A HEALER NOW! WHat GEAR WILL I NEED?

ZERKER GEAR!

Zalladi.4652:

Of course, I’m not held at gunpoint to use the Druid, but I don’t see it being that viable anywhere else other than Raids and occasionally WvW zerg fights, whereas all other Elite Specializations…

I think it will see a fair bit of sPvP play. It is looking to bring a metric kitten ton of PBAoE CC.
For generic PvE….ehhhhh. I don’t know. It seriously depend on how much redbarring will be necessary.

Raven.9603:

Here is a link to the druid reveal on dulfy…
http://dulfy.net/2015/09/25/gw2-druid-ranger-elite-specialization-livestream-reveal/

You’ve probably already seen it. I never thought what the expansion had to offer was going to be worth 50$, but seeing the direction they are taking ranger I’m glad I didn’t financially support that nonsense.

Will Druid get rangers a spot in Raids and GWEN?

Sure.

Did most rangers want to become forced into group healer just to be invited? Nope.

Making spirits damage immune (or at the very least something that can survive in dungeons and raids) and giving us access to resistance boon for the group wouldve been more than enough.

What the heck does “celestial avatar” have to do with druids? Ugh. This whole thing. Gross. I feel like this should’ve been the guardian elite spec.

The worst part? Lack of synergy. Staff doesn’t fit into any non-healer type build that we have. And maybe I’m reading them wrong, but every single glyph looks like it would be a terrible choice for any existing build. Druid looks like a full package, this stuff goes well together but not with anything else.

Everyone has an opinion. Sorry to see you so upset about the DRUID. Its totally everything I WANTED! I am now switching mains to druid!

Theme wise. It totally works. Druids are one with Nature and some may even call them shamans. Mages who align with the cosmos, and all that is celestial and of nature.

The theoretical HPS + situational burst healing has been pretty high for various professions for a while which only got better now that straight HPS boosting food was introduced with chinese new year. No one here ever heard of Skady Valda? and she only covers the guardian.

In current GW2 introducing a healer in a group along with strong dps is extremely capable in FotM 50 not just for reduced downtime and situation stability but overall TTCO, we’re talking sub 25-30 with your brain turned off with proper skill management.

I almost feel like the people that complain that there is no healing role don’t even play the game. There is one its just not mandatory which it shouldn’t be. The act of being a straight hard support/healer should be optional but still be extremely competitive, obviously this requires a huge change of various core objectives in instanced PvE content.

People have slowly started to recognized what it brings to the table, but there are still people who godwin the very subject making it very hard for the overall populace to understand its core mathematical capabilities in overall TTCO so that they may themselves decide whether to utilize its capabilities when they want to or for the sake of just doing so. How many people here still think vitality, toughness, and healing power are still “training wheel stats” in pve when now it has been officially stated that your stat makeup is part of your role?

My concern with the healing though, is how would a Druid get credit for an event/kills/loot if they are solely focused on healing others?

This is especially crucial for WvW fights as an example – those on the Druid would receive significantly less credit for doing more work.

Remember he didn’t say Druid is a dedicated healer just that Druids will be more useful as a Healer/Support spec.

Cyninja.2954:

Dradiin.8935:

gavyne.6847:

Dradiin.8935:

gavyne.6847:

Druids got rangers to become a part of the meta come HoT expansion, and as far as I can tell, meta in WvW, PvP, and Raids. I don’t see how anybody could make a sad face about this change. That’s a huge change from being on the outside looking in currently.

The dev did say he’s got changes coming for Rangers as well, so expect other boosts to rangers. I mean looking at rangers currently, there’s already enough pew pew, and condi tanky rangers are already fairly solid. The thing that keeps rangers out of the current meta have more to do with the lack of group support than anything else.

With druids, you get possibly the best group support available come HoT expansion. Smile, it’s time to celebrate.

Not sure how you can separate the Druid from the Ranger.

I strongly doubt you main a ranger, cause as far as my experiences go i am generally shunned from groups on my ranger, but if i mention i have any other class cept maybe a Mesmer i am in the group.

In WvW, you’re shunned yes due to the current ZvZ meta. It’s because aoe is everything. Except when a blob is large enough where you are asked to be a part of a pick team. Surely you weren’t expecting to see a ranger be top tier single target dps and also good at aoe at the same time? They gave you a new identity to be wanted, no not wanted, but needed in HoT. I still don’t see how that’s a bad thing.

If you like being good at single target, like being a part of the pick team, you get to stick with your pew pew. If you want to be wanted and needed, you go druid and take on a support role.

THANKS !

You made my point exactly !

Except that if you think you got pigeonholded into playing a certain role now, wait until the lack of healers ends in:“Play Druid or gtfo.”

Time will tell.

Exactly!

They have to give all classes ability to heal/tank/dps or one will be pigeon holed into having to use the new spec. As it is normal necros will be a thing of the past once HoT comes out due to having to give up our new stability for it. As you said time will tell, but if you make certain classes MUCH better at certain things it will make anyone that tries to veer from the norm sadly shunned.

Wuselknusel.4082:

Purecura.1795:

Screw the haters, ANYWAYS Iam so HAPPY TO BE A HEALER NOW! WHat GEAR WILL I NEED?

ZERKER GEAR!

hahahaha. perfect answer. Well played sir.

Harper.4173:

Thus began the end of what was once a glorious game.

It is a glorious game but how about using some different stats than zerker in PVE or finally let these guardians and warriors make any actual use of their shields.

I was already maining ranger and i’ll definitely play druid being salty is ok and it can happen but hit a pillow instead of whining pls. The druid is really awesome, let’s hope it isn’t clunky

The druid looks amazing, but what’s the synergy with the rest of the profession? I don’t see a reason for a ranger to swap the staff whatsoever.

Purecura.1795:

Screw the haters, ANYWAYS Iam so HAPPY TO BE A HEALER NOW! WHat GEAR WILL I NEED?

NOMAD DRUID META FTW!

phys.7689:

Substance E.4852:

phys.7689:

They basically slapped the trinity on gw2

Trinity’s always been here. This is just the first time it’s ever been relevant.

You could always go cleric’s Guardian with a mace and shield. The only thing stopping you was that it had no use in pve (and limited to no use in pvp).

Stat’s and tactics that really only ever see use in WvW zerg combat are finally going to be utilized in other areas of the game.

Trinity isnt so much about the idea that you can build that way, but rather encounters that require you to use them

This is done mostly through unavoidable damage. The biggest tell was them saying you wont be able to avoid all damage any more.

Thats the thing that requires healers and makes mitigation required.

Except this isn’t remotely the same as requiring healers for all content.

Raids are touted as basically un-pug’able at release and are intended for guild groups of 10 people to do.

What guild out there has 10+ people but not one person who has a ranger at 80 or is willing to play healbot and has a stack of tomes? Probably not many and most of the guilds who are looking at Raiding have many more people.

Raids are clearly meant as a completely different kind of PvE experience from the rest of the game and one that isn’t going to spill over into the rest of the game until we get new fractals or new dungeons.

That the way things are. Some people love it others don’t.

Agreed. Going from unwanted to mandatory means that it will be “Druid or kick” for all group content. Rangers wanted a spec that would make us useful, instead we are going to be pigeonholed into a healer role that NO ONE HAS EVER ROLLED A RANGER TO PLAY.

cafard.8953:

Purecura.1795:

Screw the haters, ANYWAYS Iam so HAPPY TO BE A HEALER NOW! WHat GEAR WILL I NEED?

NOMAD DRUID META FTW!

YAY! FOR THE ULTIMATE I-STAND-IN-A-CORNER-AND-COMPLETELY-RELY-ON-OTHERS-TO-KILL-STUFF-FOR-ME FEELING!

Wuselknusel.4082:

cafard.8953:

Purecura.1795:

Screw the haters, ANYWAYS Iam so HAPPY TO BE A HEALER NOW! WHat GEAR WILL I NEED?

NOMAD DRUID META FTW!

YAY! FOR THE ULTIMATE I-STAND-IN-A-CORNER-AND-COMPLETELY-RELY-ON-OTHERS-TO-KILL-STUFF-FOR-ME FEELING!

It’s gonna be sad really – our pets will be out dpsing nomad druids lmao

Eponet.4829:

Substance E.4852:

Eponet.4829:

Clearly there’s a reason that they called it a celestial transformation. You’re not meant to invest everything into healing, you’re meant to use celestial stats. Don’t think of yourself as a healer, think of yourself as a jack of all trades. Just ask the elementalists.

The entire staff and nearly all the traits are meant as active defensive support.

Krall is right. Anet’s goal was never to have classes that could only do X, no more Monks only healing or Warriors only DPS’ing.

3 years of kittenty healing power scaling and no need for dedicated defensive support builds has made people think Anet never wanted these kinds of play styles which was never the case. If it were, thing like the Guardian Mace would have never passed muster.

They are simply moving toward making party member roles more specialized which is a good thing in a game where stats are fluid and builds can be changed in a matter of minutes.

On the other hand, none of the other ranger weapons are healing oriented (Except potentially the sole blast finisher of the warhorn which can be used in a water field, which leaves you with an offensive main hand weapon), and you have two weapon slots, meanwhile, healing power is just a single stat to invest in.

I wouldn’t call celestial elementalists dedicated healers, despite their ability to enter water attunement and heal an entire health bar, because that’s only one part of their kit.

Personally, we don’t know how things have been tuned. I’m personally going to be testing out a celestial skirmishing/beastmastery/druid shortbow/staff.

Intuition tells me that zealot’s would be the best, but, I don’t believe the beta gear gives you that option.

I’m seeing Great Sword as the best sidearm for a clerics/zealots Druid. The damage is decent, 1hs glue will be suicide in raids, and the GS has movement and block/evades on it.

It won;t benefit from healing power at all but it will be of other good use.

IllegalChocolate.6938:

The theoretical HPS + situational burst healing has been pretty high for various professions for a while which only got better now that straight HPS boosting food was introduced with chinese new year. No one here ever heard of Skady Valda? and she only covers the guardian.

In current GW2 introducing a healer in a group along with strong dps is extremely capable in FotM 50 not just for reduced downtime and situation stability but overall TTCO, we’re talking sub 25-30 with your brain turned off with proper skill management.

I almost feel like the people that complain that there is no healing role don’t even play the game. There is one its just not mandatory which it shouldn’t be. The act of being a straight hard support/healer should be optional but still be extremely competitive, obviously this requires a huge change of various core objectives in instanced PvE content.

People have slowly started to recognized what it brings to the table, but there are still people who godwin the very subject making it very hard for the overall populace to understand its core mathematical capabilities in overall TTCO so that they may themselves decide whether to utilize its capabilities when they want to or for the sake of just doing so. How many people here still think vitality, toughness, and healing power are still “training wheel stats” in pve when now it has been officially stated that your stat makeup is part of your role?

The big news isnt the existence of healing, its that you will no longer be able to avoid all damage. That basically makes healers a requirement

Especially when you add they mentioned needing
Tanky players,
And longer fights you cant burn down

Ok so i have been rather vocal about my dislike of the new druid elite for rangers.

My bigger issue will be if i come around to this healing state of mind, what will happen to those of us in WvW and PvE/Dungeons who are trying there darndest to heal and keep there fellow adventurers alive ?

Last i checked, if you did not contribute to damage you really did not get credit for the kills.

In WvW if i am up front at the head of the pack i will be focused and melted super fast, but if i stay at the back and try to provide support i will not get the credit others closest to the front of the battle. My contributions to the fight is just as significant, but i will get hardly the reward for it.

I did not hear any talk of this being addressed, i think that it would make me happier being a Range/Druid if i knew i would be compensated for doing my new role.

I hope that a dev could pop in and make a comment on this subject… might make a few of the disgruntled Rangers embrace this new role we have been thrust upon.

were people really expect something called “druid” to be dps oriented?

Couldn’t you simply research what druids are in gw lore?

And by the way, Druid is 10000 times more awesome then I imagined. Can’t wait for the sound effects.

And dude, you can have pet wyverns, come on.

mtpelion.4562:

Agreed. Going from unwanted to mandatory means that it will be “Druid or kick” for all group content. Rangers wanted a spec that would make us useful, instead we are going to be pigeonholed into a healer role that NO ONE HAS EVER ROLLED A RANGER TO PLAY.

Now that you mention it, I really didn’t picked the Ranger to be a full support character. ^^

I have mixed feelings. To be honest when I heard our spec was called “druid” I was kind of expecting it to be very heal oriented, so this did not surprise me at all. However, It’s kind of disappointing. No improved AoE, no strong dps support except for that one glyph. Druid as it is would not be very useful in the current state of PVE. However, Anet seems to keep saying HoT is going to change things up. So I suppose we can’t really judge the druid until the actual expansion is out. It could be very interesting. I mean I used to be a feral/resto druid in WoW so having a role doing some healing support would be nice. It’s definitely worth trying.

But, I am concerned with the total lack of synergy of the druid traitline with the rest of the core ranger. There are no damage modifiers or anything that would help buff damage. Many of the other elite specs allow you to spec into the elite spec and still maintain some of your playstyle. For instance, you can still be a death shroud focused reaper if you want. Or you can still be a shatter based chronomancer or a phantasm based chrono. There are things in the elite spec lines that are still useful for those playstyles. That’s just not true of the ranger. If I want to be a sword/axe power ranger or a remorseless greatsword ranger there is literally nothing for me to really take in the druid traitline. I suppose I just won’t take druid at all if I want to be dps.

It just feels like you would only ever take druid if you wanted to be heal support in pve. Or for pvp, the spec does seem like it might have some nice things for wvw and spvp.

However, Irenio did say that he was watching the forums and was aware of a lot of issues we’re having with base class. Suppose we can look forward to that balance stream and hope that it addresses our problems.

mtpelion.4562:

Agreed. Going from unwanted to mandatory means that it will be “Druid or kick” for all group content. Rangers wanted a spec that would make us useful, instead we are going to be pigeonholed into a healer role that NO ONE HAS EVER ROLLED A RANGER TO PLAY.

This! Rangers to Druids will now offer something never before in GW2. Its groundbreaking! And I’am so happy!

Since it’s mainly for raids, they can award credit to anyone in the instance like how they do dungeons.

Substance E.4852:

phys.7689:

Substance E.4852:

phys.7689:

They basically slapped the trinity on gw2

Trinity’s always been here. This is just the first time it’s ever been relevant.

You could always go cleric’s Guardian with a mace and shield. The only thing stopping you was that it had no use in pve (and limited to no use in pvp).

Stat’s and tactics that really only ever see use in WvW zerg combat are finally going to be utilized in other areas of the game.

Trinity isnt so much about the idea that you can build that way, but rather encounters that require you to use them

This is done mostly through unavoidable damage. The biggest tell was them saying you wont be able to avoid all damage any more.

Thats the thing that requires healers and makes mitigation required.

Except this isn’t remotely the same as requiring healers for all content.

Raids are touted as basically un-pug’able at release and are intended for guild groups of 10 people to do.

What guild out there has 10+ people but not one person who has a ranger at 80 or is willing to play healbot and has a stack of tomes? Probably not many and most of the guilds who are looking at Raiding have many more people.

Raids are clearly meant as a completely different kind of PvE experience from the rest of the game and one that isn’t going to spill over into the rest of the game until we get new fractals or new dungeons.

Uhh many players needed challenging content. That was a major selling point of the expansion.

Few people were asking for healers many were asking for challenge. So where do all those who wanted challenge but not trinity go?

The dev hinted at balance changes to be revealed as well (for ranger as well judging by his smile).