Guild Wars 2

Okay so for the metabuild for this upcoming season, we’re defaulting a few things:
Mender’s Amulet
Staff/Sword+Dagger
Staff/LB
Staff/Sword+Warhorn
Nature Magic/Beastmastery/Druid

So, rune potential rune options are:
Dolyak
Water

Sigil Options (I apolize I don’t know the new names):
Energy (25% energy on swap)
Condition removed on hit
Boon removed on hit
Boons removed on swap
Might on hit
Might on swap
Cripple on Swap

So here’s my thoughts: there’s no real lack of benefit to running full condi hate, minus opportunity cost of potentially not needing it and wasting the slots. Boons are plentiful and you might see more mileage with them, as would the might sigils (especially with pet buffing), but conditions are strong and are worth countering.

Runes: these are going to have to cover the regen duration reduction, or provide a strong or unparalleled option.

Thoughts? Anything I missed?

Instead of meta staff/s+d you can use staff/s+w now. Take the warhorn trait in nature magic and the regen nerf is compensated. Plus you get an unblockable from warhorn #5. The most worrying thing still is however that stability doesn’t pulse anymore on SotP.

My observations so far:

Runes:

Most useful: Dolyak (which is a shame really as it’s a ridiculously boring rune. Without it, the risk is just too great to not generate enough CAF with the obscene amount of boon removal aswell as the reduction to Regen duration from shouts (running signet of the Wild is no option to me at the moment).

The other Runes, especially water might still be worth it once the meta settles some more.

Sigils

so far energy proves to warrant staying, might and boon remove on swap are too strong to pass up. The fourth I cannot decide on. Aoe cripple seems nice (considering that condi remove on swap counteracts with CAF removing all condis on swap anyway, might be able to play around that though, will see)

Weapons

As for weapons, the boon remove might make longbow be a decent pick now, however the nerf to ancient seeds is also a nerd to longbow. This one might require testing.

Other than that, staff sword/dagger

Overall observations

Damage got gutted in alot of ways this patch, condi runs rampant. So speccing nto condi hate is a good thing to do indeed.

The side node matchups, at least at the time of posting, appear to mostly be in the druids favor. Even eles can be pressured off point now

Woop de door.

Edit: Warhorn might indeed be worth testing, tho I remain doubtful of its use in a meta as boon hating as this one. If it proves decent tho, the runeslot will be freed up to something more useful.

As for sotp, yea, mainly a source of might generation for the pet now

@Frosty; Those are a lot of good points, especially about the Sigil of Cleansing. I’m going to add Energy and Remove Cleansing for the time being, and thin out the rune choices until the meta settles more.

My thoughts on LB are that with the pulsing Stability changes, there are a lot better potential matchups now for using it on sidenodes because with the new sigils you can strip stab and go for the knockback and neutral the point.
Beyond that my own thoughts on LB vs S/D still favor the S/D pick.

What to you think of Evasive Purity? Must have now or no?

@HeadCrowned; it’s a good point to bring up. I don’t have any experience with it so I’m in the field of needs testing, but I’ll make an edit to mention it as a potential option when I get the chance.

Edit:
OP edited.

@Frosty; do you still have any opinions on Mender’s vs Magi’s amulets? It was a worthwhile discussion prepatch and may be even more so now.

This is actually what i’ve tried:

MAGI BUNKER
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNAW8YnUqA1Ci9rAOsActglOBzJwFAKcwr0YaO9pFEqWYlI9zA-TpgNABxWGAg9HAA
Sigil of Courage/Cleansing on staff, and Escape/Energy on sword/dagger.
I’ve took Evasive Purity instead of Vigorous training just because this trait now is so useful (2 conditions removed on dodge 10 sec cd). With Evasive Purity, Signet of Renewal passive effect and cleansing sigil the condi removal is pretty good actually (4 conditions every 10 sec).

SHOUTBOW
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQJAWTnUqA1CiVsAOsActglZBzpqNnyaPBg603C+fWQfolI9zA-TpQARAg9HglBAA
Sigil of Cleansing/Escape on staff, sigil of Courage/Energy on longbow.
I’ve took Leadership runes because 50% boon duration feels really good, also dolyak runes are not needed cuz Signet of the Wild passive effect. Solid build, i can remove a lot of conditions only swapping to staff. Also the might stacking on longbow is pretty darn good.

POISONER (still testing)
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNAV8YjEqQLL2vCOsAXLW4EMmg1dLvB3Snp90mhVfLAUyzSD-TpgNABAs/g3lBAA
Sigil of Annulment/Energy on shortbow, Fallibility/doom on sword/dagger.
The amount of poison that this build can do is ridiculous. It also have a lot of evades and perma swiftness by swapping weapons or shortbow #3. The condition cleansing is good, and the CA regen is solid (The new Troll Unguent is just fantastic).
Really strong fighter build since you use both power (mostly from pet) and condi damage. I don’t run staff now but i’ve alredy tested it instead of sword/dagger and works. I will work on this build these days. Only tested in unranked matches for now

As for evasive purity, I haven’t tested it yet. So far I do enjoy the vigor (even if it just acts as a cover boon, so regen isn’t stripped as often).
Might have to consider evasive purity tho, given the strength and possible reign of terror by condi classes. Especially with its own rework.

As for menders vs magi, the idea behind magis was to be able to stall out condi warrior (druids hardest counter) on node and still survive thief ganks. It’s definitely too early to tell, but considering overall damage got nerfed quite substantially, menders will probably become more worthwhile.

Makes sense.

I was thinking with the sustain reduction magis might be able to manage fights quick enough that it might be able to be a more unkillable dueling option that could also actually win points, but I don’t have much experience with it even prepatch, so I don’t have an opinion on it.

That might be true, though even before patch magis relied heavily on pet pressure (which got nerfed a little more this time around).

Considering the fact that you will always be at a disadvantage because of the constant stealthing, so far I would prefer menders simply to force your opponent off the point more often, alleviating pressure on yourself.

The only situation where I would see magis return is if the meta does settle on a veeeery condi heavy focus. Then the extra vitality and sustain from the healing power might be worth it

and @kappa. they appear solid builds, I definitely want to try some condi based variants (though I suspect for the role of side-node contestion, menders/tanky oriented builds will probably prevail, if not for the increased mobility from sword or greatsword.

The longbow will be an interesting call, it definitely does have more uses now with less stability and guardians/warriors nerfed hard. The nerf to ancient seeds I feel might be a bit TOO much, which would have the longbow fall back out of favor.

Ahhhh, that probably makes the most sense lol.

I still haven’t decided between Vigor or Evasive Purity and Dolyak or Water Runes (leaning towards Dolyak atm just cuz they’re the safe option).

For Runes though, I’m pretty set on:
LB: Agility/Annulment
S/D: Energy/Escape

I’ve had enough situations now where escape has saved me that I’m willing to vouche for them.

I STILL don’t really like the rune choices for Staff though. I’m having a hard time really liking or thinking that any of the sigils are all the effective with it.

I think this can be the future meta build, with few adjustments:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNBmYD7kSFoWQsfFwhFgrFsMLYw/zCaD1pqd1yaPBg603qEnnG-T5wHABA8EAEf/B5LDAA

Condi removal on hit/Energy sigils on staff; Cleansing/Energy on sword/warhorn.
I’ve took double Energy because with this build i dont have vigor from Vigorous Training – and also i have one less evade since i dont run dagger offhand. Maybe i’m wrong?
With Windborne Notes and runes of Leadership i can maintain fury-regen-might-swiftness permanently.
Unblockable pets is the way to go. A well-timed unblockable smoke assault or bristle f2 can turn the battle. The damage of the build is pretty high and the support is even better than the bunker s/d, although the build requires timing and positioning skills. No might sigils needed since with warhorn we can pump a lot of might. Pretty sure can work with some boon-removal sigil aswell.

Leadership/Lyssa/herald are all runes I still want to try. Warhorn could be good, though I’m worried it will make you too vulnerable in engi 1v1s. Definitely going to give it a try

Until now I like the warhorn variant the best, but I keep testing stuff. I also tested a Seekers longbow/staff build, with the new dmg per boon sigils and Bountiful hunter. Fun to play and surprisingly more effective than I would have thought. It doesnt seem to be that heavily impacted by boon steals.

@Pvt Frosty Permafury and unblockable pet actually hits engineers very hard Same goes for mesmers. I would say is not more a bunker, but a “buffer-support”. Grants a lot of damage in teamfights since boonspam is similar to herald.

That’s because at the moment, damage reigns supreme, and Warhorn just gives you alot more of that. However, I am always considering the 5v5 premade scenario. So the question isn’t, do you do better with Warhorn or Dagger, it’s whether you can survive coordinated focus well enough. That’s the reason Dagger is played, the dodge on 4 is just too good to avoid +1 bursts. However, it might be enough to force your opponent on the defensive which would give yourself more breathing room. But you can’t judge these questions so quickly because others need time to adapt to your changes all the same. Not just in terms of their builds but also in terms of gameplay (what to dodge etc)

@kappa I believe you, in most cases, however, it’s more about surviving pressure. And we’ll coordinated pressure in this meta just simply means no boons and no stability to cast more boons

PERSONAL OPINION HERE
Before the patch we could evade with s/d while refulling our CA. After this regen nerf, you can see how our CA bar refill so slowly cuz no perma regen uptime. Investing completely on bunkering maybe allows you to survive a few seconds more, but the impact on the game is not that good since both our damage and sustain got nerfed hard and other classes can simply bunker and do damage at the same time, and better than us (like ele/engi). Running classic staff-s/d would mean that we will be subpar to these classes. Warhorn #4 guarantees some hits so CA regen faster, and #5 gives perma regen and also its a blast finisher that can be used in combination with our smoke/light/water fields. I can escape just blasting my smoke field or the smoke field from my thief mate. Bunkering is not more a thing with druid because other classes can do it better so i prefer to trade a bit of survivability for more damage, but this is just my personal opinion

Well realistically, you don’t need permanent regen to maintain Astral Force gain, you only need roughly 10 seconds, which you still basically have with just traited shouts + NM.

I’d say the more pressing issue is still the likelihood that it’s going to be removed with the new boon stripping options and general lack of options competitive with them.

I see more value with the Warhorn in that it’s another source of Regen when traited and provides multiple boons. That’s a lot of boons to have to tear through for strips. It’s just a matter of what pans out as being more important in this meta as it settles (because the warhorn trait also competes with perma vigor and cleansing dodges).

I think that there is value in all 3 swap options for different reasons personally, and right now I think waiting for the meta to settle will be what determines the swap set I personally go with.

I’m secretly hoping Druid is in a place now where it doesn’t need sword to be competitive at a high level setting, because running damage/CC for picks/kills/potential decaps in this meta seems like it would be the strongest option if it proves capable against metagame scenarios.

Here’s my opinion on list of viable sigils:

• Energy
• Cleansing
• Courage
• Revocation
• Doom
• Fallibility
• Agility
• Annulment
• Exploitation
• Separation
• Compounding

jcbroe.4329:

Here’s my opinion on list of viable sigils:

• Energy
• Cleansing
• Courage
• Revocation
• Doom
• Fallibility
• Agility
• Annulment
• Exploitation
• Separation
• Compounding

extending this, heres mine and reasons:

Sigil of Stagnation: Cripple nearby foes when swapping to this weapon while in combat for 3 seconds in a 240 radius. (Cooldown: 9 seconds.)

Sigil of Opportunity: Deal 5% extra damage to movement-impaired foes.

Im not a pew pew Ranger or a conditard player and I use melee, specifically sword. Power build zerk my build revolves around Predator’s Onslaught and having lots of vigor regeneration. If I want to go all out, I also use Light on your Feet with Strider’s defense. But since meta is condi I need either Druids trait or Wilderness trait with the unusual axe/axe for secondary swap cause i like to toy around and just perma weaken warrior metas, dragonhunter meta, daredevil meta, and my favourite of them all reaper metas. Love kiting these guys.

@Kappa – every class had its durability gutted. the classes that could contest druids on point prepatch (warrior, engi and ele, and at times mesmers) all had their durability gutted. so it really isnt about the kill potential in a 1v1. like ive said before, its about surviving the inevitable +1.

That said, warhorn is proving to be a lucrative alternative to dagger, tho as with anything, testing is still ongoing.

@jcbroe that seems about right. energy i would judge the strongest of them all.

@aefa sounds like we are playing a very different game or at very different levels

time for community to tell me how bad my builds are.
So since i detest the healbot role i made 2 variants of a marksman build, one of which can fulfill the support/far point assaulter role very well.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQJATRnUqA1CiNsAWsActgl/AD+s2WvrLvuFQA4JN8DOalI80A-TpQWABAs/AvlBAA
This is a offensive version of the build, the idea is to forego healing power for toughness so that you heal less but since your hp pool is smaller and you take less power dmg you heal a larger % of your total hp pool, which is not good enough to support allies BUT is enough to sustain yourself.
Has good sustained damage and superb burst (can do 20k rather easily and on a short cd). On this variant you should only ever cast rejuvenating tides when you can swap pets to gain quickness, most of the time avatar is used by going in casting lunar impact and exiting avatar, or if you are not under much pressure lunar impact followed by a full channel of natural convergence (this deals a lot of dmg with demo amulet).
sigils are cleansing and separation on longbow, energy battle on gs.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQJAWRnUqA1CiNsAWsActgl/AD+s2WvrPphfwRb51tACAlI80A-TpgNABAs/w2lBAA
This is more of a standard support build, difference to the previous go to metas is you have much more mobility and a much better burst that is harder to avoid (projectile deflection does not stop the 8k tiger hit)
Sigils are energy and cleansing on staff, escape and cleansing on gs. This build is somewhat weaker to conditions, but a good build none the less.

Astral force comes from regen effects that are not the boon so both builds are more resistant to corruption (especially the mender one).
Remorseless is mainly proced by tiger f2 and used to burst with it, but keep in mind that your heal will also almost always proc it due to your pets having high fury uptime. (also if you can get a buddy who is good with revenant the amount of damage you can dish out thanks to him pulsing fury is hilarious).

The basic burst combo is: start to attack from range with smoke scale → swap weapons to gs → swoop → as you get in to melee swap pets to tiger → f2 & maul (using maul slightly before f2 such that you land the hit before the tiger but early enough that you still get the fury from the f2 and thus get a remorseless proc on maul and apply 10 vuln as well as buff the tiger wit attack of opportunity for 50% more dmg on next hit…which is furious pounce) → hilt bash and maul again.
One interesting defensive option you can do is jump while channeling the gs block. Since skills and actions cannot be preformed while in mid-air if you block melee attacks while jumping you will not counter attack and continue to block for up to 3 sec depending on how good your timing is (it is super easy to get a full 3 sec block vs melee attacks when you are fighting 1 person).
Lastly both builds can self blast rejuvenating tides by swapping pets due to clarion bond which is a blast finisher (look for the icon on next to the boons to see if it is off cd), which gives more aoe healing.

So another update as I play more and against different people:

Runes:

• Dolyak

Sigils; I’m still working on these but staples:

• Staff: Courage and Fallibility/Revocation/Energy
• S/D and S/W: Energy/Cleansing (I know I said escape above but Cleansing is more generalist and procs more often)
• LB: Annulment/Agility but still need to test Separation and Exposure (personally I think I’d end up going with functionality over passive damage though).

Also, personally, not running Evasive Purity is hard to justify for me right now, but that’s due to the sheer amount of thieves/poison/condi builds at the moment.

I haven’t put as much time in on the sword sets as I have the LB setup so I’m working with that for the next chunk of time I play, but my only opinion on it right now is that the change to damage output from the loss of the prepatch sigil setup and the smokescale nerf is definitely more noticeable to me on the Sword builds.

foste.3098:

time for community to tell me how bad my builds are.
So since i detest the healbot role i made 2 variants of a marksman build, one of which can fulfill the support/far point assaulter role very well.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQJATRnUqA1CiNsAWsActgl/AD+s2WvrLvuFQA4JN8DOalI80A-TpQWABAs/AvlBAA
This is a offensive version of the build, the idea is to forego healing power for toughness so that you heal less but since your hp pool is smaller and you take less power dmg you heal a larger % of your total hp pool, which is not good enough to support allies BUT is enough to sustain yourself.
Has good sustained damage and superb burst (can do 20k rather easily and on a short cd). On this variant you should only ever cast rejuvenating tides when you can swap pets to gain quickness, most of the time avatar is used by going in casting lunar impact and exiting avatar, or if you are not under much pressure lunar impact followed by a full channel of natural convergence (this deals a lot of dmg with demo amulet).
sigils are cleansing and separation on longbow, energy battle on gs.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQJAWRnUqA1CiNsAWsActgl/AD+s2WvrPphfwRb51tACAlI80A-TpgNABAs/w2lBAA
This is more of a standard support build, difference to the previous go to metas is you have much more mobility and a much better burst that is harder to avoid (projectile deflection does not stop the 8k tiger hit)
Sigils are energy and cleansing on staff, escape and cleansing on gs. This build is somewhat weaker to conditions, but a good build none the less.

Astral force comes from regen effects that are not the boon so both builds are more resistant to corruption (especially the mender one).
Remorseless is mainly proced by tiger f2 and used to burst with it, but keep in mind that your heal will also almost always proc it due to your pets having high fury uptime. (also if you can get a buddy who is good with revenant the amount of damage you can dish out thanks to him pulsing fury is hilarious).

The basic burst combo is: start to attack from range with smoke scale -> swap weapons to gs -> swoop -> as you get in to melee swap pets to tiger -> f2 & maul (using maul slightly before f2 such that you land the hit before the tiger but early enough that you still get the fury from the f2 and thus get a remorseless proc on maul and apply 10 vuln as well as buff the tiger wit attack of opportunity for 50% more dmg on next hit…which is furious pounce) -> hilt bash and maul again.
One interesting defensive option you can do is jump while channeling the gs block. Since skills and actions cannot be preformed while in mid-air if you block melee attacks while jumping you will not counter attack and continue to block for up to 3 sec depending on how good your timing is (it is super easy to get a full 3 sec block vs melee attacks when you are fighting 1 person).
Lastly both builds can self blast rejuvenating tides by swapping pets due to clarion bond which is a blast finisher (look for the icon on next to the boons to see if it is off cd), which gives more aoe healing.

this is for your first link. I would say drop signet of the wild and get a condi cleanser and stun breaker like signet of renewal, you already have strength of the pack, im guessing you just want more damage right i get that. its a cover for burst condi like necro and engi who can drop a ton of condi in like 2 secs. im not really a fan of signet of stone but if thats your gameplay then go ahead, im guessing this is your panic button when you get burst down right? with more than a minute of cd, personally i would rather run guard for protection of 6 secs. protect me IMO probably the best stun break right now, with taunt on next foe who attack you, saved my skin countless times. everything else is pretty good, just get a different rune i guess if youre getting signet of renewal i personally prefer movement speed over everything else but thats just my gameplay. cheers.

Aite so I’ve had some time evaluating some aspects to the druid builds, having had scrims for most days since hte patch.

Warhorn/Dagger? – Dagger

While Warhorn is a nice offensive option – adding more pressure to the fights, offering an instant reveal to not lose cap progress from celestial avatar stealth etc. – the dodge from dagger you lose is HUGE in terms of surviving pressure. To top it off, most of the opponents I’ve faced, once wise to the tricks up the warhorns sleeve, would not fall for them anymore rendering the fights as long as with dagger. Which leads me to believe its more about not knowing what the warhorn even does rather than it being good.

Condi Druid – not worth it

With the buffs to the shortbow, traits and the wilderness survival line, i thohgt this might actually be decent. However, it is not. While it is strong in 1v1s, anything else it performs very poorly (rotation game/2v2+)

Evasive Purity/Vigorous Training/Windborne Notes – Evasive Purity
While the loss of vigor you lose is definitely difficult to get used to, evasive purity is just too good to pass up right now. To top it off, in almost every matchup, the vigor will get removed sooner or later, which can kill you quickly. the Good thing about evasive purity is that it helps in both power and condi matchups because of its versatility.

Sigils

So far, the sigils I feel are the strongest and almost mandatory to the build are:

Sigil of Energy – No real change to the old build here
Sigil of Battle – Battle now is just so good, 4 Might on you and 4 on your pet are just huge combined with all the other mightstacks you can get (swaps, elite, blasting pet fields, fireaura). Getting your pet to 25 might as much as possible is all the damage you will need.

Other sigils that have proven to be very strong are the on hit sigils. Mostly proving better than their counterparts. Sigils on swap (like annulment, removing 2 boons) can be dodged. Sigils on hit, cant, they’ll just apply on the next hit. So using Revocation is just alot better. However, not essential. Especially in the new druid/chrono matchup, sigil of Purging seems to be very necessary. Sigil of doom/revocation/courage good alternatives.

Generally, you want on hit sigils (purging, revocation, courage) on staff, because it has a much higher damage connection uptime. Which meant sword/dagger uses energy/battle most of the time.

All that said: I have not had the time to really put time into longbow variations, however, projectile hate is still way too readily available for longbow to ever really become a thing in my personal opinion.

I’ve ended up with similar conclusions as Frosty.

Running LB is fun, and from what I can tell with Annulment, it works similarly to the way steal on thief works (it removes Stability before Stability counteracts LB4 knockback) so it makes a decap style sidepoint build and sidepoint 1v1s entirely in our favor, but the build itself means we’re relegated to just that role because the amount of projectile hate in teamfights makes LB useless most of the time, while simultaneously making you an easier target to focus down because of the lack of S/D.

Not that it isn’t fun or viable; and with Solo Queue still being currently the primary supported format, somebody that understands how to use the build will easily carry games, but I don’t think it’s the optimal build in 5v5 or coordinated formats, Staff/Sword+Dagger is.

Besides adding my 2c on that, I think we’re in agreement on Sigils/Runes/Traits.

Alright so final update, I’d be curious if anybody else comes to the same conclusion:

Staff: Courage/Revocation
S/D: Energy/Cleansing
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNAW8YnUqA1Ci9rAOsActglOBzJwFAKcwr0YaO9pFEqWYl8s0A-TpgNABbXGAg9HAA

Staff: Energy/Courage
LB: Annulment/Battle
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQJAWTnUqA1Ci9rAOsActglOBDelGT3pO/tAQh7pFEqWYl8s0A-TpgNABbXGAg9HAA

@jcbroe
I ended up with the same conclusion. Sigil of Revocation is better than Annulment because, as Pvt Frosty said, Annulment effect can be dodged. Sigil of Cleansing is better than Sigil of Battle because we already can stack a lot of might with Sigil of Courage.
Evasive Purity > Vigourous Training.
Metabattle says runes of Water but Dolyak runes are better since they provide constant CA regeneration.
Pretty sure this Staff-Sword/Dagger build will be the next meta build.
I also think Staff/longbow or Staff-S/W can be good in some matchups.
Thanks all for the constructive opinions.

I agree on most points, tho right now i prefer my sigils to be

Energy/battle on s/d and purging/doom on staff, tho i will be trying energy/cleansing and purging/courage aswell, just because the new chrono matchup is still pretty impossible. I’d hate for it to become the old condiwarrior matchup. One you just cannot beat, so the extra bit of condiremoval from cleansing might be nice :>

Oh, I forget to mention: magi amulet might be back on the table FeelsBadMan

Kappa- Liking sw/Dagger way better than Sw/Wh.
So much easier to hold a point with that extra evade.

Magi….really? You played yet?

The reason why condi builds do not work in PvP is the same as it ever was. While the SB has been buffed significantly, there are simply no utilities that complete the build.

Traps offer zero utility. Traps have no stun breaker and only 1 condition cleanse in the form of healing spring. Furthermore, condi druid is a no no because your astral force regen is so bad without staff or mass healing ticks from regeneration or dolyak runes.

Also, for core ranger to have sufficient condition clear, he needs to take both wilderness mastery and emphatic bond, and he can’t do that anymore.

Well chokolata, you are quite right. Tho staff is a viable pick with the buff to sharpening stone. However, the #1 thing druid is lacking is trashcondis and Aoe condi pressure. That just makes necro or even warrior instantly 20x better.

Also @enderz I have been doin nothing else. Tho I’m still testing, but so far magis is proving once again to be able to sustain against the losing matchups of the new patch

Pvt Frosty.6973:

Well chokolata, you are quite right. Tho staff is a viable pick with the buff to sharpening stone. However, the #1 thing druid is lacking is trashcondis and Aoe condi pressure. That just makes necro or even warrior instantly 20x better.

Also @enderz I have been doin nothing else. Tho I’m still testing, but so far magis is proving once again to be able to sustain against the losing matchups of the new patch

Pvt, same build just with Magis?

How long does it take to kill though?

I take it, that’s not the point and Magis leans the druid more to a full Support/Hold point build.

So far I feel pretty strong. There isn’t much burst but if someone is stupid enough to try and contest the point with me, and they can’t secure a quick kill, I can sit there all day long—- even in a 2v1, it feels strong for a time. Usually strong enough to hold till I get help or I choose it’s not worth to stay. -Just my opinion in a limited amount of play time.

Yes exactly enderz. The consideration of magis comes about because in our games (scrims and the like) I have to endure chrono +thief 1v2 eventually. Just because it’s a thief. And once that situation arises, I have to survive. Menders does not survive that as easily as magis

Slight alterations;

I’ve ended up with Courage/Battle and Energy/Cleansing on Staff/Sword+Dagger setup, with Courage/Energy and Annulment/Agility on my Staff/LB setup.

However, to me it’s worth discussing that I peeked at both the builds on Metabattle and was shocked to find Annulment for BOTH builds on staff. Is there something that I’m missing here?

Also, I personally think any of the %damage modifiers are too conditional in nature to use, especially because of the boon sharing aspect of the builds. So when I saw the listed Staff/LB setup it made me wonder what people were thinking when they designed these build setups.

Im tired of druid … not ranget ofc but im being “pushed” by the meta in spvp .
Tried condi without traps , condi with traps … u die very quick without the druid tier .
Gonna try power ranger ( atleast i know i will die quick or kill quick)
Any new good builds without any druid kitten in it ?

The main problem I experienced with non-Druid builds is the obligation to pick wilderness survival to at least get some condi removal. Maybe you could try something with nature magic and evasive purity in combination with some condi removal sigils, but I didnt test that yet.

When you run Menders, you hit like a wet noodle. Even when you get 25 stacks of might, using staff/or sword isn’t earth shattering damage.

When it’s suggested that the same build be used with Magi’s instead of Menders, gaining no Physical or Condi dmg for the build via Runes/Amulet, I am seriously confused as to how one would play this build.

Is it full support?

How do you play this build?
Do you ever 1v1, are you always with someone, can you hold a point solo vs +1’s?

Second thing I am curious to get some opinion on, have you noticed the rise in popularity and overpowered nature of Condis?

Me and a friend duo que and we are noticing more and more that no one is power.
The whole team runs condi and it can be overwhelming.

Because Conditional Damage is easy mode. We can’t blame the players when the developers created the current mess. Enders – not sure when you played DaOC but it also ran into similar issues before SI was launched. Midgards spiritmasters with PAC healers and their rediculeous AOE maze was a deadly combo hard to counter. Then it was fixed, then it was the next thing, then buff bots, etc.

Everyone is running conditions in this game because it is the only way to compete. Personally I don’t like it but then again, solo or small group roaming in WvW sort of requires it these days. Tomorrows patch won’t change anything other than provide some easy kills from all the PvE players…

Yeah, it’s easy mode. As a Druid I find a 1v2 more mangeable vs power players than I do condi specs. Vs condi specs they only need to land a couple skills and their work is done for them. It’s automatic after that….just wait. Vs power players they have to actively dmg me. I’ll stop there, I’d say more but I know I’m already preaching to the choir.

I am still interested as how one would play the following spec that Frosty is playing
http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNAW8YnUqA1Ci9rAOsActglOBzJwFAKcwr0YaO9pFEqWYl8s0A-TpgNABbXGAg9HAA

It’s a bit difficult to explain without writing a full dissertation, but basically because druid relies on the pet for most of its damage, the switch to magis means druid does not lose as much of its damage output as other classes would while it gains all of the defensive benefits(especially strong Vs condi heavy comps) . It’s 1v1 and 2v2 matchups are unchanged compared to menders (and one could argue is a little stronger in teamfights). It is used as a side node defender rather than aggressor (since neither menders nor magis really kills anything) and especially versus thief comps it could be used to soak up alot of the thief time without dying which frees up the rest of the team to pressure the map.

Arguably back then we used it almost exclusively to deal with obindos warrior, who I was able to stalemate on magis and stay healthy enough to survive the thief gank. The new meta is rather different and favors momentum differently now which is why I’ve switched back to Mender’s.

Thees a ton of other small things, but in favor of not writing so long just discuss stuff in game with me, ^^

I feel like that menders staff/longbow is quite strong in SoloQ. Versus certain classes you have lower surviving capabilities on point, but on the other hand your decapping and burst options are improved. The Ancient seeds nerf was quite bad for longbow, but its not something you can’t overcome. Overall s/d might be more effective, but when you want to mix up your ways of playing or when you want to try something different effectively, longbow is quite the way to go.

Alright Fluff and Pvt—- How goes it in ranked?
Any changes you’ve made to the builds you list?

EnderzShadow.2506:

Alright Fluff and Pvt—- How goes it in ranked?
Any changes you’ve made to the builds you list?

I think you used the wrong name, I’ve been mostly WvWing lately and have only been absorbing the thread.

Still playing mostly the same. Though not going to touch magis in queues. This season the only golden rule that needs following is kill and don’t be killed. Considering that sustain got nerfed quite substantially, I try to take as much damage as possible without straying from the core of the build /affecting 1v1 matchups too negatively.

Currently top 20 (or was yesterday), queues are frustrating simply because most of the time, the game is decided out of your hands

What would you run in place of Cleansing on the S/D set Frosty, since I saw you talking about it?

If you are playing dolyak+signet of renewal I most often either go for doom or battle.
However recently I have been enjoying guard +soldier rune. For this set, the cleansing sigil is actually pretty good since you want all the condi remove you can get (I have even been using it on both sets, replacing courage on staff, this is probably ridiculously inefficient as of yet, but it did pretty decent in ats yesterday. I’m still testing it tho=) going to test double purging since that’ll be slightly more efficient and cleansing on staff)

I feel water is too strong not to take with the extra healing and the boon duration. I havnt come across a condition heavy enough team yet to warrant taking revenant runes however I only queue i dont play 5 man pre-made, I’ve been playing warhorn this season and the damage is bonus from warhorn is a good addition to the 1v1’s in which the dodge isnt needed.
with cele nerf and the stab nerf im finding warhon better in teamfights as well, the high vulnerability on warhorn stacks very fast for the target and can apply poison to ranged foes with doom on downed enemies.

Thief is still so strong (even more with terrible stab) that i cant take evasive purity with warhorn as i need the vigor to keep dodges ready for the +1 on me.

Water is decent, though you lose quite some astral regen with all the boon hate and the nerf to regen. In a 1v1 its not as noticeable but as soon as you get outnumbered is where it matters. Its similar to the chrono builds, the disenchanter is strong in 1v1, but has less survivability and less moa burst.

Also toughness on the rune scales ridiculously well with the menders loadout.

I agree with you on the revenant runes, theres just too many other good options for druids now. The sigil changes basically giving many options for condi cleansing.

As for warhorn, well I don’t like it compared to dagger. It has the surprise factor, but aside from that it falls off pretty hard. The cooldown untraited is too big to actually catch someone with the unblockable (especially once people figure out what warhorn does), the fury and might is nice, but not significant enough. the #4 is actually pretty weak in most matchups (engi/chrono) because you hurt yourself alot more than your enemy. What it can allow you is to quickly pop into caf and back out without losing cap progress. Overall though, if I go sword, i always prefer the dagger offhand to warhorn. (if warhorn 4 gave reveal tho. that might be super awesome)

Personally I’ve settled for 3 builds at the moment:

s/d soldiers – ideal vs less condi heavy and more power heavy comps. Good damage due to might stacking gallore.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNAW8YnUqA1Ci9CCOsActglOBDelGTzpOBuAQh7pFEqWYl8s0A-TZxHQBK7CAkwHCAAOCA6Y/B5VGAA

s/d dolyak – very well rounded build, slightly better vs frequent condi spikes

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNAW8YnUqA1Ci9rAOsActglOBDelGTzpOBuAQh7pFk4WYl8s0A-TpRHQBC4IAswHAQG2foAHEAAcBAoXZAA

lb dolyak – slightly more offensive and risky than s/d dolyak, but able to carry games where you cannot afford getting locked in 1v1s

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQJAWTnUqA1Ci9rAOsActglOBDelGT3pOBuAQh7pFk4WYl8s0A-TpRHQBA4QAkh9HEwFAYhPAA6VGIcHBAA