Guild Wars 2

“It’s Amazing.” Said Irenio Calmon-Huang, lead developer on the Druid Elite Specialization for the Ranger class, as he was describing a new skill called Sublime Conversion. “It turns something that would be doing damage to you, 100%, into the opposite.” He sat there at TwitchCon, in his chair throne talking with community manager Rubi with an almost smug arrogance to his demeanor. By perception alone, players alone knew that I.C.H. had done something amazing: He had revived a dead and stale class, managing to revitalize it and breathe new life into something long forgotten. Irenio had, in less than an hour, become the Savior of an entire sub-community within Guild Wars 2. For three years since it’s launch, those who played as a Ranger quickly figured out that the class was doomed from the beginning due to a multitude of issues plaguing the class. This was something self-evident simply by observing a lack of any tournament level PvP team to even consider allowing a Ranger into their fold.

Faithful players of the Ranger profession have stewed bitterly with their concerns seeming to fall on deaf ears watching as moderators of the forums continually overpass their devoted section as if it were a dark inner-city street corner too dangerous to venture to. A lack of developer communication even inspired a well known writer for popular MMO site Ten Ton Hammer, Lewis B. to write an article about the issue. This article was reportedly, asked to be taken down by the editor and never spoken of again. Then, at TwitchCon, everything changed. Even Rubi, dared ask Irenio the toughest question of all, asking how he plans to address the Ranger concerns on the forums. A question I personally never would have anticipated would be asked on a live stage. Calmly and without concern, Irenio confidently responded he was working on it. Over the next few days and during the final Beta Weekend before the release of Heart of Thorns, Irenio Calmon-Huang finally broke his vow of silence and made multiple “red posts” on the forums about the fact he was reading our feedback on the Druid and working on addressing problems with the core profession skills. His word was taken as gospel, the Savior of Rangers, the father of Druids.

The Druid isn’t perfect, and realistically no one expected it to be during its first playable Beta Weekend. But the framework is there, and the House that Druid Built has great bones. Great structure to improve upon. Immense potential. What will Heart of Thorns hold in store for the future of Rangers? No one will know until launch, but we do know they will be a much welcomed addition. So thank you, Irenio. Keep doing what you’re doing. We Rangers will be here to support and chastise guide you. Be sure to include your thanks in this thread as well.

I love your optimism but no.
Druid is far from being viable.

Darkness.9732:

I love your optimism but no.
Druid is far from being viable.

Darkness , do you even Read

>>>>> “no one expected it to be playable during its first Beta Weekend”<<<<<

which was also Bugged with some Traits like Quick draw.

and if you don’t understand the Core of Strong foundations then don’t Even Comment So Bluntly on a Postive Thread.

Keep your Opinions to yourself and your Doom Gloom im fed up of it.

Darkness.9732:

I love your optimism but no.
Druid is far from being viable.

Yet another pointless post from someone who does not know what viable means.

Zenos Osgorma.2936:

Darkness.9732:

I love your optimism but no.
Druid is far from being viable.

Darkness , do you even Read

>>>>> “no one expected it to be playable during its first Beta Weekend”<<<<<

which was also Bugged with some Traits like Quick draw.

and if you don’t understand the Core of Strong foundations then don’t Even Comment So Bluntly on a Postive Thread.

Keep your Opinions to yourself and your Doom Gloom im fed up of it.

Yeah sorry this isn’t a druid hugbox, this is a forum wehre we discuss Ranger.

Druid isn’t viable.

Is it not viable or just not what you wanted? Because there’s a difference, and most every tournament level competitor who plays Ranger has been voicing their appreciation for how positive this elite specialization is for the profession.

Agreed, with the negatives sadly enough.

Its not strictly Irenios fault however….

We have other devs spitting in and smashing our cake when it starts to look semi decent.

Druid need more potential of doing damage, but overall massive buff to healing power scaling on all heals

From a PvE stand point, outside of Raids, name me a spot where having such a healing focused spec is going to be absolutely necessary hmmm?

Now I’ll give you PvP/WvW – those 2 modes have a wide diversity when it comes to builds/playstyles and druid , along with most other specs, are completely viable….

But from a PvE standpoint…. I fail to see how a druid will be OPTIMAL (outside of raids)….Nothing at this point in PvE requires healing outside of raids….

I don’t think ANY other elite spec focuses on ONE thing like druid got…. Staff, traits , cele form are almost ALL healing focused outside a couple PBAoE CC’s/Condi cleanses….

In terms of support , its not good . period.
Can’t stack might
has little to no stability
has no aura/boonsharing capabilities
has no real good party buffs like other class
has no DPS utilties that buff your party (the original spotter/frost spirit is still better than what druid offers lol)….the list goes on….

The only thing it does excel at over other classes is healing….. spin it how you want, fact is, the best thing druid does is the one thing that is not needed (outside of raids, as of right now… one can hope it will be more useful in the future in other aspects of PvE…)

Exactly as Skitz said, none of the others were exclusive to 1 thing only

Thats like since they wanted to bring back tanking a little bit

The tank class should have 1-2 actual dmg abilities (low dmg) but everything else draw aggro with 0 dmg… It just makes the option worthless

Levetty.1279:

Zenos Osgorma.2936:

Darkness.9732:

I love your optimism but no.
Druid is far from being viable.

Darkness , do you even Read

>>>>> “no one expected it to be playable during its first Beta Weekend”<<<<<

which was also Bugged with some Traits like Quick draw.

and if you don’t understand the Core of Strong foundations then don’t Even Comment So Bluntly on a Postive Thread.

Keep your Opinions to yourself and your Doom Gloom im fed up of it.

Yeah sorry this isn’t a druid hugbox, this is a forum wehre we discuss Ranger.

Druid isn’t viable.

READ "no one expected it to be playable during its first Beta " its not finished OF COURSE its NOT VIABLE but it is a strong foundation to be built on that was the whole Reason for the ops post.

the fact that the old PVE content is so Easy a spec Hp sustain healer is not needed just proves that the Core Game , is Thee core game , its ment to be easy!.

SkiTz.4590:

In terms of support , its not good . period.
Can’t stack might
has little to no stability
has no aura/boonsharing capabilities
has no real good party buffs like other class
has no DPS utilties that buff your party (the original spotter/frost spirit is still better than what druid offers lol)….the list goes on….

False.
False.
False.
False.
False.

You really know so little about Ranger/Druid, its a bit annoying that ignorant people keep perpetuating this rubbish. Ranger/Druid does all those except auras and the healing is icing on the cake.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

SkiTz.4590:

In terms of support , its not good . period.
Can’t stack might
has little to no stability
has no aura/boonsharing capabilities
has no real good party buffs like other class
has no DPS utilties that buff your party (the original spotter/frost spirit is still better than what druid offers lol)….the list goes on….

False.
False.
False.
False.
False.

You really know so little about Ranger/Druid, its a bit annoying that ignorant people keep perpetuating this rubbish. Ranger/Druid does all those except auras and the healing is icing on the cake.

Oh do tell, please show me the light as I am clearly ignorant to your superior knowledge….

I’m talking about the elite spec for druid….you tell me, what other spec solely focuses to the extreme on one thing – like druid does with healing….

Celestial form – 4/5 skills involve heal

Staff skills – 3/5 skills involve healing (4/5 if you want to include staff 5 for incoming projectiles turned to heals)…

BOTH Minor traits involve PURELY healing
ALL 3 Major trait choices have something to do with healing

Now I’ll give you glyphs – at least they are diverse…

Because you’re basically SkiTz and typically every post you make is negative and not constructive and you complain and throw a tantrum like a child until you get what you want. But when you come up with a realistic change that hasn’t been suggested before you are welcome to bring your new found suggestion to the table in a way that doesn’t make you appear so implacable.

Nicknobreak.7543:

Because you’re basically SkiTz and typically every post you make is negative and not constructive and you complain and throw a tantrum like a child until you get what you want. But when you come up with a realistic change that hasn’t been suggested before you are welcome to bring your new found suggestion to the table in a way that doesn’t make you appear so implacable.

I’m not asking to get what I want… I just wondering how ppl can logically say “druid is not about healing”…..

Call it what you want. Call a spade a spade. Doesn’t change anything. It’s still what it is. Bring some constructive criticism to the table instead of making complaints and full on blasting everything that Irenio his team have worked on for what must have been months of late nights and difficulties. Druid isn’t perfect, but adding and fixing a few things will make it a formidable specialization.

Lol druid is completely viable in wvw/pvp. This build that I run rekts everything except really good chronomancers. (which is understandable since they’re disgustingly OP atm on CI lockdown chrono build). For actual tpvp, I run trav runes. But for 1 v 1 dueling, I run Grove runes. Triple entangle build. It’s pretty lolzy. It has smokescale in there because that’s what I would run when HoT hits.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNAT8YnEqAlsiNsAWsCUtglMBDemuTHqPTuI3jrJZFAOAl8h0A-TpBGABL8AA8uMACHEgEOCAut/AAXAAA

It’s an insane cc build that does a lot of dps and area stomp denial. A teammate of mine yesterday got downed to 5% hp on the downstate bar, and I revived him to full by area denial cc’s with glyphs, taunt, etc. Then healed him back to full as soon as he rezzed by going into cele state and using the 4 > 3 > few 1’s on him. He healed nearly instantly to full hp on a marauder build. And troll ungent restores 75% on the cele state bar. So it’s needed.

SkiTz.4590:

Nicknobreak.7543:

Because you’re basically SkiTz and typically every post you make is negative and not constructive and you complain and throw a tantrum like a child until you get what you want. But when you come up with a realistic change that hasn’t been suggested before you are welcome to bring your new found suggestion to the table in a way that doesn’t make you appear so implacable.

I’m not asking to get what I want… I just wondering how ppl can logically say “druid is not about healing”…..

one line out of 3 , staff1 Beam with Sharpen edges + piercing it will apply Bleeds to Multipul foes and slot a sigil of earth to that , 2 bleeds per target on a pericing beam that reaches 5 people , this So staff 1 hits 3 times right? thats 6 bleeds per target per chain Auto (not including pet bleeds/poisons , sun spirits ect)

it could easly do Healing and Condi damage at the same time , but right now its in Beta traits are not finished , they are not Balanced and just because one Dev said its a healer doesn’t mean its Dedicated to that role , Elite Specialisations are a Choice for a different form of play style nothing dedicated about it , it gives you the option to use Druid as a Healer or in this case Health Support.

SkiTz.4590:

Oh do tell, please show me the light as I am clearly ignorant to your superior knowledge….

All over 60s fight, after that there is some downtime. 100% uptime on 11 Might, Fury, Swiftness, Regeneration and Protection. 60% uptime on Vigor. 60% uptime on Stability. Healing Spring heals for 25k. Spotter for 150 Precision. Frost Spirit for +10% damage x 5 people. Sun Spirit for 30 burn ticks every 8s. SmokeScale pushing out top damage.

Then you have the Druid healing on top of that.

Consider yourself enlightened.

Zenos Osgorma.2936:

Levetty.1279:

Zenos Osgorma.2936:

Darkness.9732:

I love your optimism but no.
Druid is far from being viable.

Darkness , do you even Read

>>>>> “no one expected it to be playable during its first Beta Weekend”<<<<<

which was also Bugged with some Traits like Quick draw.

and if you don’t understand the Core of Strong foundations then don’t Even Comment So Bluntly on a Postive Thread.

Keep your Opinions to yourself and your Doom Gloom im fed up of it.

Yeah sorry this isn’t a druid hugbox, this is a forum wehre we discuss Ranger.

Druid isn’t viable.

READ "no one expected it to be playable during its first Beta " its not finished OF COURSE its NOT VIABLE but it is a strong foundation to be built on that was the whole Reason for the ops post.

the fact that the old PVE content is so Easy a spec Hp sustain healer is not needed just proves that the Core Game , is Thee core game , its ment to be easy!.

There is a difference between not finished and the only way for this to be viable is if they introduce mechanics that discard the foundations the combat was built on.

Hey everybody!

Some people like druid, some people not.
Allot of people complain, that it’s buggy and not ready.
Some people complain, that they die too fast, BUT!

If you compare Druid and Scrapper with all other Elite specs, then you realize, Druid and scraper are TWO BEST specs for their 1st beta. Every other Elite on it’s 1st beta was awful, but Druid and Scrapper are more than playable! In some parts of the game, they are much stronger than other classes.

And i believe, that if Roy will continue to fix his OP revenant(focus on hes job) and will not interfere with our “Savior of Rangers, the father of Druids”, then we have Brilliant future.

I’m with you Irenio!

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

SkiTz.4590:

Oh do tell, please show me the light as I am clearly ignorant to your superior knowledge….

All over 60s fight, after that there is some downtime. 100% uptime on 11 Might, Fury, Swiftness, Regeneration and Protection. 60% uptime on Vigor. 60% uptime on Stability. Healing Spring heals for 25k. Spotter for 150 Precision. Frost Spirit for +10% damage x 5 people. Sun Spirit for 30 burn ticks every 8s. SmokeScale pushing out top damage.

Then you have the Druid healing on top of that.

Consider yourself enlightened.

If you drop one of those spirits other than frost for GoE you have another 10% damage modifier party wide.

Hold your ground! Hold your ground!
Fellow Rangers, Druids, my brothers,
I see in your posts the same fear that would take the heart of me.
A day may come when the courage of rangers fails,
when we forsake our pets
and break all invigorating bonds of fellowship,
but it is not this day.
An hour of scraps and shattered clones,
when our age ends, comes crashing down,
but it is not this day!
This day we fight (feedback)!!
By all that you hold dear in this good game,
I bid you stand, Ranger the best!!!

Nicknobreak.7543:

“It’s Amazing.” Said Irenio Calmon-Huang, lead developer on the Druid Elite Specialization for the Ranger class, as he was describing a new skill called Sublime Conversion. “It turns something that would be doing damage to you, 100%, into the opposite.” He sat there at TwitchCon, in his chair throne talking with community manager Rubi with an almost smug arrogance to his demeanor. By perception alone, players alone knew that I.C.H. had done something amazing: He had revived a dead and stale class, managing to revitalize it and breathe new life into something long forgotten. Irenio had, in less than an hour, become the Savior of an entire sub-community within Guild Wars 2. For three years since it’s launch, those who played as a Ranger quickly figured out that the class was doomed from the beginning due to a multitude of issues plaguing the class. This was something self-evident simply by observing a lack of any tournament level PvP team to even consider allowing a Ranger into their fold.

Faithful players of the Ranger profession have stewed bitterly with their concerns seeming to fall on deaf ears watching as moderators of the forums continually overpass their devoted section as if it were a dark inner-city street corner too dangerous to venture to. A lack of developer communication even inspired a well known writer for popular MMO site Ten Ton Hammer, Lewis B. to write an article about the issue. This article was reportedly, asked to be taken down by the editor and never spoken of again. Then, at TwitchCon, everything changed. Even Rubi, dared ask Irenio the toughest question of all, asking how he plans to address the Ranger concerns on the forums. A question I personally never would have anticipated would be asked on a live stage. Calmly and without concern, Irenio confidently responded he was working on it. Over the next few days and during the final Beta Weekend before the release of Heart of Thorns, Irenio Calmon-Huang finally broke his vow of silence and made multiple “red posts” on the forums about the fact he was reading our feedback on the Druid and working on addressing problems with the core profession skills. His word was taken as gospel, the Savior of Rangers, the father of Druids.

The Druid isn’t perfect, and realistically no one expected it to be during its first playable Beta Weekend. But the framework is there, and the House that Druid Built has great bones. Great structure to improve upon. Immense potential. What will Heart of Thorns hold in store for the future of Rangers? No one will know until launch, but we do know they will be a much welcomed addition. So thank you, Irenio. Keep doing what you’re doing. We Rangers will be here to support and chastise guide you. Be sure to include your thanks in this thread as well.

Unfortunately it’s the last beta for the druid as well. But i chose to believe in the cosmic powers of Irenio to fix the druid and the core profession.

Irenio CalmonHuang.2048:

Thanks for the tremendous amount of feedback regarding the Druid. I’ll be modifying swaths of the druid (and scrapper) to fix bugs and account for your feedback this week and reviewing things like glyphs effectiveness, celestial avatar skill differentiation, astral force charging rates and some of the staff skills.

In general the Celestial Avatar form’s base heals feel a bit too high and heal coefficients didn’t feel rewarding enough to go with healpower stats. The heals themselves seemed to be working at decent values, so I’ll be tweaking the base heals down and coefficients up some in order to better reward selecting healing power stat combos as a druid.

Irenio CalmonHuang.2048:

The animations for staff are getting looked at.

Seriously, this guy though, AMIRITE? How dang good is he? His especs are clearly head and shoulders above the rest.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

SkiTz.4590:

Oh do tell, please show me the light as I am clearly ignorant to your superior knowledge….

All over 60s fight, after that there is some downtime. 100% uptime on 11 Might, Fury, Swiftness, Regeneration and Protection. 60% uptime on Vigor. 60% uptime on Stability. Healing Spring heals for 25k. Spotter for 150 Precision. Frost Spirit for +10% damage x 5 people. Sun Spirit for 30 burn ticks every 8s. SmokeScale pushing out top damage.

Then you have the Druid healing on top of that.

Consider yourself enlightened.

Thanks for helping me out with killing the thrashtalk, Heim.
You have no idea how I appreciate your doing.

I think zerk ranger is fun the way it is, and Druid is boring as kitten.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

SkiTz.4590:

In terms of support , its not good . period.
Can’t stack might
has little to no stability
has no aura/boonsharing capabilities
has no real good party buffs like other class
has no DPS utilties that buff your party (the original spotter/frost spirit is still better than what druid offers lol)….the list goes on….

False.
False.
False.
False.
False.

You really know so little about Ranger/Druid, its a bit annoying that ignorant people keep perpetuating this rubbish. Ranger/Druid does all those except auras and the healing is icing on the cake.

Umm, you claim someone false without giving ANY examples.

If you’re talking about spotter, frost spirit, call of the wild, pets, it has NOTHING to do with Druid though. Plus other classes still buff the party better in general.

Btw, ppl said Druid is needed in Raid, but I think people are just new to raid and not familiar with Raid that they might need a healer for compensating their mistakes.
Otherwise I don’t think an Aegis that blocks 15k damage (fotm 50 anyone?) is worse than heal from Druid.

Smokescale will get a nerf too, and it has nothing to do with Druid too. Any ranger can use it without using Druid.

Edited: Saw your build. Everything you posted, aside from holding a staff, has nothing to do with Druid. You posted something that even the current ranger can do.
That explains enough right? That all the utilities of Druid are trashes and need buffs.
The staff is useless aside from generating Astray bar, which is kinda sad.

Lettuce.2945:

Lol druid is completely viable in wvw/pvp. This build that I run rekts everything except really good chronomancers. (which is understandable since they’re disgustingly OP atm on CI lockdown chrono build). For actual tpvp, I run trav runes. But for 1 v 1 dueling, I run Grove runes. Triple entangle build. It’s pretty lolzy. It has smokescale in there because that’s what I would run when HoT hits.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNAT8YnEqAlsiNsAWsCUtglMBDemuTHqPTuI3jrJZFAOAl8h0A-TpBGABL8AA8uMACHEgEOCAut/AAXAAA

It’s an insane cc build that does a lot of dps and area stomp denial. A teammate of mine yesterday got downed to 5% hp on the downstate bar, and I revived him to full by area denial cc’s with glyphs, taunt, etc. Then healed him back to full as soon as he rezzed by going into cele state and using the 4 > 3 > few 1’s on him. He healed nearly instantly to full hp on a marauder build. And troll ungent restores 75% on the cele state bar. So it’s needed.

Astray 3 and smokescale are something that are obviously going to be nerfed no question.

If by then they haven’t fixed the other issues Druid has (no stability, bad cleanse when not in Astray, useless glyphs, clunky staff), this class is ruined.

Nicknobreak.7543:

Irenio CalmonHuang.2048:

Thanks for the tremendous amount of feedback regarding the Druid. I’ll be modifying swaths of the druid (and scrapper) to fix bugs and account for your feedback this week and reviewing things like glyphs effectiveness, celestial avatar skill differentiation, astral force charging rates and some of the staff skills.

In general the Celestial Avatar form’s base heals feel a bit too high and heal coefficients didn’t feel rewarding enough to go with healpower stats. The heals themselves seemed to be working at decent values, so I’ll be tweaking the base heals down and coefficients up some in order to better reward selecting healing power stat combos as a druid.

Irenio CalmonHuang.2048:

The animations for staff are getting looked at.

Seriously, this guy though, AMIRITE? How dang good is he? His especs are clearly head and shoulders above the rest.

Oh my god. Irenio makes my day! He already made my weekend.

Thank you for the repost. I missed this and wouldn’t of found it so soon otherwise.

I also agree in its current form Druid isn’t viable, but that can all change with a lot of work…(cough)

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

SkiTz.4590:

Oh do tell, please show me the light as I am clearly ignorant to your superior knowledge….

All over 60s fight, after that there is some downtime. 100% uptime on 11 Might, Fury, Swiftness, Regeneration and Protection. 60% uptime on Vigor. 60% uptime on Stability. Healing Spring heals for 25k. Spotter for 150 Precision. Frost Spirit for +10% damage x 5 people. Sun Spirit for 30 burn ticks every 8s. SmokeScale pushing out top damage.

Then you have the Druid healing on top of that.

Consider yourself enlightened.

The druid does not complement this build at ALL…. so idk what you are talking about…

ALL your main support/Group utility/DPS is coming from RANGER CORE…. not DRUID….

Staff has NO synergy with this build AT ALL…in fact, i’m not even sure why you took druid… it doesn’t complement the other part of your build at all…. and thats the problem with this elite spec… healing focus at the cost of everything else…..you don’t get ANYTHING useful outside of some PBAoEs and an UNNECESSARY amount of healing…. if they focused just a few less skills/traits on healing, this spec could be amazing, but when the majority of its PURELY healing, its going to run into synergy problems….

You can actually have a better all around build there if you didn’t use druid/staff…with that you automatically have bad synergy…

Praise based deity Irenio!

Zatoichi.1049:

I also agree in its current form Druid isn’t viable, but that can all change with a lot of work…(cough)

I disagree. It is viable in it’s current form but could use a little tweaking. I think the Ranger community gave some great feedback and am looking forward to seeing what happens.

I used the following Remorseless Druid in PvP and found it extremely effective. A few well planned dazes can set up some amazing combinations with MoC. Glyph of Equality is a fantastic addition. This build has nice advantages against DD Elems and Mesmers. Daze is a particularly nasty control effect for them to deal with.

Currently its ALMOST viable for PvP. If it gets nerfed in anyway though… it might not be able to stand up to the competition unfortunately.

Siwo Sowa.6982:

Hold your ground! Hold your ground!
Fellow Rangers, Druids, my brothers,
I see in your posts the same fear that would take the heart of me.
A day may come when the courage of rangers fails,
when we forsake our pets
and break all invigorating bonds of fellowship,
but it is not this day.
An hour of scraps and shattered clones,
when our age ends, comes crashing down,
but it is not this day!
This day we fight (feedback)!!
By all that you hold dear in this good game,
I bid you stand, Ranger the best!!!

Haha! Nice one!

Aomine.5012:

…
Edited: Saw your build. Everything you posted, aside from holding a staff, has nothing to do with Druid. You posted something that even the current ranger can do.
That explains enough right? That all the utilities of Druid are trashes and need buffs.
The staff is useless aside from generating Astray bar, which is kinda sad.

Yes, it does explain a lot. Same response as below, whats the point of adding more of what we already have?

SkiTz.4590:

The druid does not complement this build at ALL…. so idk what you are talking about…

ALL your main support/Group utility/DPS is coming from RANGER CORE…. not DRUID….

Staff has NO synergy with this build AT ALL…in fact, i’m not even sure why you took druid… it doesn’t complement the other part of your build at all…. and thats the problem with this elite spec… healing focus at the cost of everything else…..you don’t get ANYTHING useful outside of some PBAoEs and an UNNECESSARY amount of healing…. if they focused just a few less skills/traits on healing, this spec could be amazing, but when the majority of its PURELY healing, its going to run into synergy problems….

You can actually have a better all around build there if you didn’t use druid/staff…with that you automatically have bad synergy…

The fact that all the support boons and effects come from core Ranger is kinda the point. They didn’t need to add more of that to Druid, what would be the point of adding more of what we already have? Now, that would be something to whine about. They added healing, which we were lacking, and now you can make a build that is totally support oriented. All you need is 14 Might stacks, a bit more Vigor and Stability from the party with a Mesmer to provide Quickness and you have all the support that is possible. When you put the masses of healing in there, it makes us the best support class in the game.

I find that the glyphs work better for other builds, ofc, not support ones. More selfish ones. Staff needs a bit more damage, but its synergy with a build like this cannot be ignored, its spam healing charges CAF quickly and provides good healing at a distance, the Water sigil at this healing power is healing AoE for 1000 extra every 5s. If the healing is required for more content moving forward, this is a different playstyle we can have.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

All over 60s fight, after that there is some downtime. 100% uptime on 11 Might, Fury, Swiftness, Regeneration and Protection. 60% uptime on Vigor. 60% uptime on Stability. Healing Spring heals for 25k. Spotter for 150 Precision. Frost Spirit for +10% damage x 5 people. Sun Spirit for 30 burn ticks every 8s. SmokeScale pushing out top damage.

Then you have the Druid healing on top of that.

Consider yourself enlightened.

So I don’t know anything about playing support classes, but if the sigil of benevolence works like bloodlust, you should only need it on one weapon set + underwater for it to apply. At least it frees up a sigil slot for something else.

Zenos Osgorma.2936:

Darkness.9732:

I love your optimism but no.
Druid is far from being viable.

Darkness , do you even Read

>>>>> “no one expected it to be playable during its first Beta Weekend”<<<<<

which was also Bugged with some Traits like Quick draw.

and if you don’t understand the Core of Strong foundations then don’t Even Comment So Bluntly on a Postive Thread.

Keep your Opinions to yourself and your Doom Gloom im fed up of it.

LOL and what are this core foundation you’re talking about? what will be the difference in HoT? are there some weird alien maze dungeon or will GW2 change everything? there is a core foundation of the game and Druid is entirely a new thing that will never work. will you ever chose a class that does not do much damage in dungeon beside heal when you can just heal your self? or will you chose a buffer and defensive buffers that can do damage? would you actually trust someone to help you survive in a boss fight when you already have the tool to do it on your own? please we have a BWE and it gives us an IDEA on what we can expect in HoT unless they suddenly change it to a different theme and or make an entire new game.

Archon.6480:

Zatoichi.1049:

I also agree in its current form Druid isn’t viable, but that can all change with a lot of work…(cough)

I disagree. It is viable in it’s current form but could use a little tweaking. I think the Ranger community gave some great feedback and am looking forward to seeing what happens.

I used the following Remorseless Druid in PvP and found it extremely effective. A few well planned dazes can set up some amazing combinations with MoC. Glyph of Equality is a fantastic addition. This build has nice advantages against DD Elems and Mesmers. Daze is a particularly nasty control effect for them to deal with.

not really sure why you needed to quote me specifically to state your opinion but ok… yeah ive played that build, almost exactly…its just “ok.” I put in like 20 hours this weekend with druid, its just not there atm. I can be, but it has some significant weaknesses that need to be addressed

Currently all we know is that irenio is planning on nerfing base healing, to add “supportive damage” (whatever that mean). Changes are coming.

Overall I was happy with druid at first, but to be honest when I went on my auramancer tempest I kind of liked that better. But I think I just need more time on the druid. Wish we had another BWE to practice with it again.

Zatoichi.1049:

Currently all we know is that irenio is planning on nerfing base healing, to add “supportive damage” (whatever that mean). Changes are coming.

Terrible ones from the sound of it but I suppose it was inevitable that the class would be nerfed in pve/wvw to appease the spvp minority as it always has…

lxghostxl.5097:

Zenos Osgorma.2936:

Darkness.9732:

I love your optimism but no.
Druid is far from being viable.

Darkness , do you even Read

>>>>> “no one expected it to be playable during its first Beta Weekend”<<<<<

which was also Bugged with some Traits like Quick draw.

and if you don’t understand the Core of Strong foundations then don’t Even Comment So Bluntly on a Postive Thread.

Keep your Opinions to yourself and your Doom Gloom im fed up of it.

LOL and what are this core foundation you’re talking about? what will be the difference in HoT? are there some weird alien maze dungeon or will GW2 change everything? there is a core foundation of the game and Druid is entirely a new thing that will never work. will you ever chose a class that does not do much damage in dungeon beside heal when you can just heal your self? or will you chose a buffer and defensive buffers that can do damage? would you actually trust someone to help you survive in a boss fight when you already have the tool to do it on your own? please we have a BWE and it gives us an IDEA on what we can expect in HoT unless they suddenly change it to a different theme and or make an entire new game.

xd open your mind already , this first Bwe obvously it lacks Damage atm , ps Dungeons can be finished by a Trained Monkey so thats not a reason.

and yes i would Trust someone just from confidence in my own Experience, after 10years in a guild you soon understand that playing for Selfish reasons (not selfish builds) doesn’t get you anywhere but a dead end in your own Limits.

the core foundation is that it is a new playstyle that can be built upon , as in your case Damage can be added, conditions can be added , changes to Healing stat scaling , lowering Base healing and increase the co-eds to gain more healing sustain also most of the skills on a druid don’t even heal the ranger that much its mostly Group anyway, so is most of the games support is Group , this is just a different type of support rather than relying on a Age old Active defence (which is the core of the Games mechanics) this sustained healing adds a extra layer to its foundation and things can only change or get better , trying to say to others that " things won’t change is just short sighted" all i see in your post is QQ , because right now No one can Decide what to do because it is unfinished so stop with the Random QQ questions.

SkiTz.4590:

From a PvE stand point, outside of Raids, name me a spot where having such a healing focused spec is going to be absolutely necessary hmmm?

Now I’ll give you PvP/WvW – those 2 modes have a wide diversity when it comes to builds/playstyles and druid , along with most other specs, are completely viable….

But from a PvE standpoint…. I fail to see how a druid will be OPTIMAL (outside of raids)….Nothing at this point in PvE requires healing outside of raids….

I don’t think ANY other elite spec focuses on ONE thing like druid got…. Staff, traits , cele form are almost ALL healing focused outside a couple PBAoE CC’s/Condi cleanses….

In terms of support , its not good . period.
Can’t stack might
has little to no stability
has no aura/boonsharing capabilities
has no real good party buffs like other class
has no DPS utilties that buff your party (the original spotter/frost spirit is still better than what druid offers lol)….the list goes on….

The only thing it does excel at over other classes is healing….. spin it how you want, fact is, the best thing druid does is the one thing that is not needed (outside of raids, as of right now… one can hope it will be more useful in the future in other aspects of PvE…)

You never know that AI changes and dynamic events may hold in the future. They may stick to the “cooperative playstyles” philosophy for things even outside raids (doubtfully old Dungeons/content, though.) We honestly don’t have the whole picture ahead of us, so criticizing Druid ’s healing focus based on the current base game, even taking account of the beta events, is a bit off, IMHO.

I think that moving forwards, the “play how you want” idea will be better implemented, whether you like all-out DPS, hybrids, support, etc. There will be a place for every bias, including ye olde DPS-can’t relate to “Druid-bashing” just because what it has to offers is CURRENTLY not “meta” in the slightest. Hopefully ANet has learned how to make their non-traditional gaming system work better for all of us.

I am personally happy that the old “healing/toughness gear is only good for WvW/PvP” or “training wheels” for the “pro” Berserker gear has finally been proved wrong by ANet themselves. It’s partly their fault, but to be fair to them, they never stated these things that many in the community took as undeniable facts.

(Their comment that they want to make the Druid healing scaling better, as it should be, is further proof that it was never intended that one gear set was to rule them all, once you “mastered” the PvE game. They DEFINITELY do not want all players to go for Berserker’s gear, which is not to say that it’s a bad set or that it won’t be a great choice any more.)

Actually, my one fear is that they make Druid Rangers too essential (and I did like Druid), at least in the mind of the community, so that other good “healer” options are not as desired. Though the Druid will be the “best” at group healing, there are other older builds that did provide additional and nice “side-healing” when you specced for it.

Finally, for similar reasons, it would be a pity if the base Ranger is hated on raids if he/she doesn’t go for the Druid specialization (much as some people ignorantly do even now for instanced content with their anti-Ranger and other “minority” Professions bias)-the ideal is that they find ways to make each base Profession and Specialization good for Raids, depending on builds, etc.

Star Ace.5207:

Actually, my one fear is that they make Druid Rangers too essential (and I did like Druid), at least in the mind of the community, so that other good “healer” options are not as desired. Though the Druid will be the “best” at group healing, there are other older builds that did provide additional and nice “side-healing” when you specced for it.

Finally, for similar reasons, it would be a pity if the base Ranger is hated on raids if he/she doesn’t go for the Druid specialization (much as some people ignorantly do even now for instanced content with their anti-Ranger and other “minority” Professions bias)-the ideal is that they find ways to make each base Profession and Specialization good for Raids, depending on builds, etc.

That right there is the glaring issue….. druid PIDGEONHOLED rangers….

judging from the raids so far – DRUID is the only reason ranger is useful in raids.
No one is using ranger other than for the druid because of its TOO GOOD healing prowess….

I don’t think a single ranger was non-druid in raids lol… its 100% required for ranger to run druid if they want to be useful in the raid….that’s why I had problems with this spec… if you want it to be healing focused, fine, but this is what you get -

its either “bring your ranger with druid spec’d for amazing heals – or change your class and bring something more useful to the party”…. because a ranger without druid…is well, see the past3 years lol….granted, its a step up from the 3 years at least… where it was always "change your class and bring something more useful " lol

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

SkiTz.4590:

Oh do tell, please show me the light as I am clearly ignorant to your superior knowledge….

All over 60s fight, after that there is some downtime. 100% uptime on 11 Might, Fury, Swiftness, Regeneration and Protection. 60% uptime on Vigor. 60% uptime on Stability. Healing Spring heals for 25k. Spotter for 150 Precision. Frost Spirit for +10% damage x 5 people. Sun Spirit for 30 burn ticks every 8s. SmokeScale pushing out top damage.

Then you have the Druid healing on top of that.

Consider yourself enlightened.

which is great if you like standing in one place…if you’re roaming around or in an aoe heavy area it’s useless because the spirits are immobile and die.

I think you meant to say; “Irenio, the Changer of the Forgotten Huntsmen”.

Because Druids are not Rangers/Hunters.

They are something else entirely.

They may turn out to be good, or they may turn out to be bad, but they are definitely not huntsmen.

“Forgotten Huntsmen” is (still) about right.

khani.4786:

which is great if you like standing in one place…if you’re roaming around or in an aoe heavy area it’s useless because the spirits are immobile and die.

Outta curiosity, do you know how much damage NPCs under a player’s control actually take in raids?

Rutee.1058:

khani.4786:

which is great if you like standing in one place…if you’re roaming around or in an aoe heavy area it’s useless because the spirits are immobile and die.

Outta curiosity, do you know how much damage NPCs under a player’s control actually take in raids?

No because I didn’t get to try the raids. (didn’t have time)

He didn’t “save” rangers, he papered another class on top of them and called it a day. Druid doesn’t even interact with our class mechanic at all (even Tempest, the most hated of the elite specs, does that much)!

Well at least if a Druid is barely needed in the content new players and those who don’t wish to do much but feel like they’re helping have a class. It’s a casuals dream and also Anet’s if they’re also buying skins by the bucket load.