Guild Wars 2

New Zealot’s Druid Raid/PVE Build

I’ve been using this build for the past 2 weeks of raids since the balance update. At this state of the game, I felt like Magi’s was overkill for healing and that I could contribute with some DPS output, especially given that the 5/5 team comp is naturally lower DPS than was 4/4/2. The only negative that I have encountered with the build is the loss of Vitality from Magi’s drops the Druid’s health pool from around 25k to 17k. So, if survivability is a huge issue for your personal playstyle, then the DPS gain is likely not worth the loss of group-wide DPS and healing if you cannot stay alive.

So, below is the build:

Equipment: All armor, weapons, and trinkets are Zealot’s. Infusions on all can be power or healing, but I prefer power since healing is more than adequate for all fights.

Weapons: Staff and Sword/Warhorn. For non-raid content I usually run Longbow instead of Staff.

Sigils: Superior Sigils of Force and Transference on each weapon set.

Runes: 6x Superior Rune of the Grove. This is where I tested several rune sets. The Rune of the Grove allows healing to be maximized (even though the 10% is lost from Monk runes) and for 99% Protection uptime for 5 members of the squad.

Food and Utility: Delicious Rice Balls with Superior Sharpening Stones

Current Stats: (With food and Utility but not in Combat or with any other boons. Also does not include the 10% outgoing healing effectiveness that come from the Transference Sigil or the 20% outgoing healing effectiveness from the Natural Mender Druid trait)

Power 2,536
Toughness 1,000
Vitality 1,000
Health 17,037
Precision 1,960
Critical Chance 49.71%
Ferocity 150%
Healing Power 1,259 (Up to 1,763 with sigil, food, and trait calculation, or 40% as additive increases, while in Combat.)
Boon Duration 20.00% base, 50.00% Protection

Healing Skill: Healing Spring or Glyph of Rejuvenation as stated below.

Utility Skills per Boss:

Vale Guardian – Glyph of Rejuvenation, Glyph of Tides, Frost Spirit, Stone Spirit, Glyph of Unity

Gorseval – Glyph of Rejuvenation, Glyph of Empowerment/Sun Spirit (Glyph for Updraft, Spirit for No Updraft), Frost Spirit, Stone Spirit, Glyph of Unity

Sabetha – Glyph of Rejuvenation, Sun Spirit, Frost Spirit, Stone Spirit, Glyph of Unity

Sloth – Healing Spring, Glyph of Empowerment, Search and Rescue, Signet of Renewal, Spirit of Nature
On Sloth, if your group does the middle/hourglass method, replace Search and Rescue with Frost Spirit.
In either case on Sloth, it might also be prudent to take Protect Me! instead of Signet of Renewal, depending on the remaining composition of your group.

Trio – Glyph of Rejuvenation, Sun Spirit, Frost Spirit, Stone Spirit, Nature Spirit

Matthias – Glyph of Rejuvenation, Sun Spirit, Frost Spirit, Stone Spirit, Spirit of Nature

Escort – Glyph of Rejuvenation, Glyph of Empowerment, Muddy Terrain, Glyph of Alignment, Entangle

KC – Glyph of Rejuvenation, Glyph of Empowerment, Frost Spirit, Stone Spirit, Spirit of Nature

Xera – Glyph of Rejuvenation, Sun Spirit, Frost Spirit, Stone Spirit, Spirit of Nature

General PVE – I like to run either traps or glyphs without the spirit trait depending on what I am doing.

Pet: Blue Moa primary with Electric Wyvern on bosses that need cc. Unless cc is necessary, I typically camp Blue Moa.

Traits:

I run Nature Magic 1/3/1, Skirmishing 3 (2 if not using Healing Spring) /1/1, Druid 2/2/1.

On Sloth and Escort, the only change is to run Nature Magic 1/3/3 (no use for spirit trait since no spirits are being run, unless you are doing Hourglass on Sloth.)

The key traits that are different than the traditional healing/Magi’s build are Nature Magic entirely, Skirmishing 3 in the 1st line, and Druid 2 in the 1st line, even if running staff.

Nature Magic 1 in the 1st line is a DPS boost, and by my calculations, provides more damage than trait 2 because the average boons that are up in raids is 8, which is a greater percentage increase than the boost provided by trait 2. In regular PVE, I run 2 instead of 1.

Nature Magic 3 in the 2nd line is the key to the build. It, along with the Grove runes, allows the Druid to essentially replace all of the boons that were provided by the Revenant pre-patch when used properly with Quick Draw.

Nature Magic 1 in the 3rd line is also key to 99% uptime on Protection, and provides party-wide boons through the spirits.

Skirmishing 3 in line 1 is strictly for Healing Spring usage (and PVE trapping outside of raids). Use 2 if not using Healing Spring.

Druid 2 in line 1 is also a boost to the healing skill.

Playstyle:

Start in staff.

Get to the main point of the fight and drop the non-elite spirits you have. Be sure you re-cast spirits any time they go down in a place where the main fight is going on. This is key to maintaining protection.

Once in main combat, immediately weapon swap and use Call of the Wild for Quick Draw cool down reduction. Wait for Call of the Wild to come back up and use it again. DPS boss with Sword Auto until Call of the Wild cool down is between 10 and 12 seconds. If you have to use CA during the larger Call of the Wild cool down, stay on Sword/Warhorn so you can hopefully get Quick Draw for Call of the Wild Again. If Quick Draw does not proc after you come out of CA, then cast Call of the Wild, immediately switch to staff, and internally countdown the Call of the Wild cool down while you heal with staff and recharge your CA. After you can proc Call of the Wild and Quick Draw again, switch back to Sword/Warhorn and cast Call of the Wild, this restarts your rotation.

As a part of your rotation, use Healing Spring on the boss every time it is available if it is equipped. Otherwise, use Glyph whenever you can.

Lastly, every time your Moa’s F2 skill is up, it must be used to maintain protection uptime.

For bosses like Sloth, if you are fixated, you can use Sword 3 to dodge fire breath. So, there are some uses for the 3 and 4 skill on Sword/Warhorn on certain bosses. Staff is used as much as possible while keeping up Call of the Wild if the other druid dies or if pressure is high such as on Matthias or Sloth with conditions.

Obviously, the priority is healing and boon sharing still, and you can always restart your Call of the Wild rotation after you get sufficient healing to the group. Just keep up spirits and heals, and the boon duration of Call of the Wild should keep Fury, Swiftness, and Regeneration up at all times, even if you have to reset or interrupt your rotation to perform healing skills.

Spirit of Nature is the emergency button, as usual.

My actual rotation looks something like:

Fight Start:

1. Cast all non-elite spirits near boss point or at least within range of boss rotation point.

2. Astral Wisp if spirits near boss, Ancestral Grace if needing to move back to the boss.

3. Weapon Swap

4. Call of the Wild

5. Moa F2

6. Glyphs

7. Auto-Attack with Sword

8. Call of the Wild

9. Auto-Attack with Sword until Call of the Wild between 10-12 second cool down

10. Weapon Swap

11. Astral Wisp

12. Ancestral Grace if more healing needed, but save if you are on a boss that may need you to use a quick movement skill.

13. Astral Wisp

14. Glyphs

15. Moa F2 if available or as soon after as possible. Moa is what allows you to have enough uptime to maintain protection all the way through the spirit 20-second cool down.

16. Weapon Swap

17. Repeat going forward while watching spirit cool downs.

Again, you can use CA as needed for healing, camp staff if there’s too much pressure, and switch in and out of Wyvern for cc. If you are switching to Wyvern at any point, I recommend getting the Moa skill cast before swapping if you can. If cc is priority, then swap promptly and continue the rotation when Moa can be brought back.

Just keep spirits up, Moa F2 up, and Quick Draw with Call of the Wild as much as you can. There are many times in the raid fights that I will check my Fury and I will have over 2 minutes worth of duration left.

If anyone has any specific questions about where I place spirits on specific bosses, etc…let me know. Also, if you have any comments or suggested modifications, let me know.

Thanks.

kwgrooms.6140:

Moa is what allows you to have enough uptime to maintain protection all the way through the spirit 20-second cool down.

I would suggest you stand somewhere use your spirit and instantly kill it (or wait till it dies), just see what happens. (Hint: look at your buffs / boons)

Also how good is your fury uptime? As far as I see you can’t give 100% on your own but is it enough with the fury that chrono gives with the signet? And what is the reason for taking healing spring over other healing skills (Glyph or water spirit)?

MrTJpwnz.4710:

kwgrooms.6140:

Moa is what allows you to have enough uptime to maintain protection all the way through the spirit 20-second cool down.

I would suggest you stand somewhere use your spirit and instantly kill it (or wait till it dies), just see what happens. (Hint: look at your buffs / boons)

Also how good is your fury uptime? As far as I see you can’t give 100% on your own but is it enough with the fury that chrono gives with the signet? And what is the reason for taking healing spring over other healing skills (Glyph or water spirit)?

Not sure if you are serious or what you are getting at with killing the spirits. Let me know if I’m missing something.

Fury is absolutely 100% through Call of the Wild. There are times I will have over 2 minutes of Fury.

Someone else on another site made the comment about Healing Spring and I have since converted the theory (including above) to incorporate Glyph of Rejuvenation in almost all of the fights.

He’s referring to the passive bonus and boons Spirits still apply after dying or sacrificed. Bonus to proc the effect linger 14s if sacrificed, 16s when they are killed or expire naturally.

Due to the % proc, the downtime of Protection can vary a second or two between intervals member-to-member with just Monk Runes. No downtime when there’s a Revenant present.

Because of that, I find Grove runes overkill. An extra 15% protection duration over an extra heal, 10% outgoing healing, and 15% overall boon duration doesn’t seem worth the trade off.

Especially when camping a Blue Moa for additional protection which covers the gaps of protection uptime with Monk runes on a 35% boon duration base.

To each their own though. I’ve seen Druids get away with Fern Hounds and Water Spirit (during a time when it was more broken than now), so, as long as it works – go for it.

kwgrooms.6140:

MrTJpwnz.4710:

kwgrooms.6140:

Moa is what allows you to have enough uptime to maintain protection all the way through the spirit 20-second cool down.

I would suggest you stand somewhere use your spirit and instantly kill it (or wait till it dies), just see what happens. (Hint: look at your buffs / boons)

Also how good is your fury uptime? As far as I see you can’t give 100% on your own but is it enough with the fury that chrono gives with the signet? And what is the reason for taking healing spring over other healing skills (Glyph or water spirit)?

Not sure if you are serious or what you are getting at with killing the spirits. Let me know if I’m missing something.

Fury is absolutely 100% through Call of the Wild. There are times I will have over 2 minutes of Fury.

Someone else on another site made the comment about Healing Spring and I have since converted the theory (including above) to incorporate Glyph of Rejuvenation in almost all of the fights.

I was serious, your spirits will keep giving the buffs (and boons if traited for roughly 15 seconds when they die, this will make the down time of your spirit roughly 10 seconds (or roughly 5 seconds with alacrity).

As for the healing I personally think that there are 3 decent heal options for druid, the glyph, healing spring and water spirit (only if traited though). As you are a healing druid and always have a staff and a high regen uptime through your traited warhorn 5, i think that the trap is a bit overkill for regen. Also the glyph gives a stack of grace of the land which is always nice.

The healing spring is in my opinion only worth it in fights where there are a decent amount of condi’s (like sloth or matt), and you don’t have access to regen and not playing with a staff (condi druid for example). Water spirit is good for fights where you also don’t play with staff and in fights with less condi pressure (or if it is taken care off already ofc). Sad that the water spirit requires the nature magic trait line causing it to be used less frequently. Sad cause I pretty much like the skill / effects.