Guild Wars 2

I mean, reaaaallllyyyy?
Now think for a second before you answer yeh perma swiftness is really cool
If that trait could be in the place of Druid Clarity then yes, i would say no doubt
But the point is you have to choose between Verdant etching and this one.

And Verdant Etching bring much more to the table than Natural Stride.

• Extra heal. Now wait. Extra delayed heal. That means you can build faster the hateful AF.
• Blind.
• Cleanse 2 conditions, although the delayed mechanic is weird is very helpful for your team.
• Reduced glyphs CD. Which is obviously very welcome.
  
  What does NS bring? a 7% speed difference to SoH and reduced crippling conditions?

I think its more what your building for. In the VERY RARE occasions I run druid. I typically don’t run glyphs as my build has no issue with AF generation. In which case ill either take the aoe stealth or the reduced condi duration based on what im fighting.

Necros? Taking natural stride.

Revenants? Taking the aoe stealth to break UA.

NS is great in open world and a good option for WvW.
Raid you don’t need it and in PvP there are obvious better choices.

Actually i thought its kind of a waste for such a utility trait to be a master. It would be cooler if it would be a minor trait and natural mender on ots place or better: Natural mender combined with staff trait, the effect of primal echoes as stand-alone trait on weaponswap and natural mender as minor.

If you compare it to Chronomancer – they have the very same effect with 25% bonus speed only.
On a minor trait baseline for all chronomancers.

I’d say having Natural Stride as an option in 1st tier swapped with staff trait would be a good change.

Natural stride is fine for WvW and open world for sure. For other PvE and PvP sections it’s really not needed at all.

It’s a mediocre trait if you have swiftness in build and/or glyphs.
It’s a selfish trait if in a party that could use the stealth/super speed.
It’s an excellent trait if none of the above are true.

If it gets people to unslot something useless as Signet of the Hunt, then sure…

It’s for wvw or exploring stuff. It can have other niche uses too. It’s fine bc if you were in wvw you probably wouldn’t take etchings or shadow.

Pair it with sunless runes for 50% reduction on cripple chill and immob. This makes condi ranger vs condi necro an easy win.

This combo also helps get rid of cover conditions so you don’t clear trash conditions with things like healing spring.

The move speed bonus is just the sprinkles on top.

I adore this trait for my trapper build in Stronghold and open world where you spend a fair amount of time running.

Especially in open world where the only way my trapper build has perma high speed is if I use a specific and very expensive rune or slot Signet of the Hunt which is utterly useless to said build.

With it I can run Runes of the Trapper and take triple traps for maximum damage spread and another short cooldown access to stealth to easily escape mobs I don’t want to fight.

It might not be optimal in every game mode for every build, but it is fantastic for what I need it for.

i have to aggree with Ryan. I love this trait i Dont like glyphs that much for condi removal. but i love this trait for the reduction in soft cc the speed boost is just a nice extra.

I suppose it depends on which part of the game you are playing and what you are trying to acheve with your build

The movement speed alone is already good in its due situations, add the slow reduction and yes (or the other way around). I love it.