Guild Wars 2

I’m not sure what you did to the Druid, but you made the Ranger 100% worse.

Why do you hate Ranged classes so much? Can’t we have something nice just once?

Ok. I was far from crying on forum about my personal feelings abut clas but here disappointment was so big i feel like a 5yo who dropped his ice cream straight on a Beach. Since 11 years i Play healers and support focused characters in many different Games. I bought GW2 just few months ago followed by lovely feelings how great gw1 was. I was just about to quit after shoutbow nerf when healing became useless when i heard about druid. Gr8! Chance for me! Awesome healer stuff! For me and as i think many ppl who Play supports in other mmos it was a nice step. But now what we have in game and state of current druid, his abilities his actual space in game shows it was a step of crippled disabled goblin. GW2 is very dynamic game, main fight on wvw or gvg consists of clashes and regroups. Now where is spot for druid healer? Nowhere! Ok sometimes on wvw it shines but requires a nice skill and communication as players will just move out of healing fields. Now Gvg are small scale Fights 10 15 sometimes 20 ppl. And here finding a place for a pure healer is almost impossible. When ele can make fields blasted by every1 and also make dmg than healer with no dmg becomes useless. Than you have to make a hybrid some healing and some dps. And it becomes kitten! Cause you deal crap dmg and charging AF is hard af… that means sorry, no druid baby. We all know that it is possible to make druid work, just give some spray type heals like guardian’s “recive the light” also add some boons and cc effects. We have rifles, asura robots and other hi tech stuff why don’t give ranger a trap launcher? So we still have mobility and can set traps without thinking how stupid and suicidal mission it is. Just give ranger som? feeling. It is great to have a dedicated healer but now it is useless so options are 2: change general game style or change healer mechanic. There are so many ways to improve druid and make it usefull even on this forum was plenty of them. Just start working on it not just turning on and off some random abilities.

Loving the druid, zerk druid, cele druid. Works great, just dont focus only on healing. As for topic starter, whats your intention with this topic, cause saying its useless and not working after beta, without even knowing why just makes me think you dont understand what you playing.

Yep, yet another person reinforcing the idea that the elite specs are mandatory upgrades.

I am coming to the same conclusion. Druid just isn’t that good. In WvW the pet is useless. The heals are aoe and too small range. You end up dropping light fields all over the place that nobody wants. With no stability you get bounced around like a tennis ball. I am playing full nomads just to try and survive the CC.

I might as well just be playing a vanilla guard and spamming lootstick because it is more effective.

Rangers got huge buffs with HOT, druid or not. New, better pets and might stacking capability.

Just use the classic WS/NM/BM builds(power or condi build) with rune of leadership and u’r good to go.

This again… ?
People. Newcomers or not.

This game is a different game than most of other MMOs. If you glue up the 1st nonsense build that comes into your mind so you can role-play don’t expect any results. What you are disappointed with is your lack of knowledge about this game and druid and his builds as such.
Not the druid.

Druid is perfectly viable.

Perfectly close to useless

The absolute worst part of Druid since beta is that you get kicked out of CA after a few seconds.

Just let Druids stay in CA for as long as they want. Balance the skills if needed, just don’t kick them out.

I once tried to use Lunar Impact (CA3) on a boss, but the game kicked me out of CA so I ended up using Ancestral Grace (Staff 3) instead.

Just treat it like water attunement. Tempest gets rewarded for staying in water attunement with Overload, but Druid gets kicked out.

I’m seriously sick of these type of threads. Druid is fine. The only place whare I feel my heals are unnecessary is fractal that’s all. And even there I can go with a spotter druid and do a great job. We got a great spot in pvp thanks to the druid spec. In WvW Druid is the best support class in my opinion. Since I started playing Druid with my guild they don’t want me to go back to my mesmer anymore. It is just amazing. Some people think that they have to play Druid pure support with nomads etc in WvW. Well that’s just wrong. Druid with a good hybrid build, gear and communication is a great addition to the group. You can do decent amount of damage, aoe cc, aoe heal etc. You just don’t know how to play it that’s all…

Wyrdfell.8327:

You just don’t know how to play it that’s all…

^

Incredible how people can claim Druid/ranger is fine, the mind boggles. Even the devs said that there were alot of work to do. Slamming down the “learn to play” card is simply kittened.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=K2ZHhJQn0B8#t=2356

Ronorra, thank you!

Yes, exactly.

I know the Devs have a lot on their plate right now and really must have worked themselves to death with everything leading up to now.

Forums are really a troubleshooting board. That’s the point.

Coming onto a forum and constantly going, “You noob! You don’t know how to play!” is effectively saying, “You noob, I don’t know what I’m doing here and I blame you EVERYTHING!” It’s mostly comical and really doesn’t contribute so much as a hint of a means.

So really, anyone that has so far posted to say, “Hey, I said mean vacuum words!” …yeah, you’re being that Chihauhua the neighbor has.
Or to quote Patrick Rothfuss in Wiseman’s Fear:
Tempi to Dedan:
“You? Always talk. Chek chek chek chek chek chek .” He made a motion with one hand, like a mouth opening and closing. “Always. Like a dog all night barking at a tree. Try to be big. No. Just noise. Just dog.”

If you think a person is not playing well don’t walk over and take a crap in their lawn. Besides debasing yourself it’s really doesn’t accomplish your goal which would either be being mean… mostly… or actually making a statement with the means included in how you believe is proper and practical play… so if you care to take the time to make a post that has all the little ins and out in the math included… congratulations: you’ve redeemed yourself from the status of “yapping dog”. You might actually even contribute to something meaningful to this discussion. The means would be a good start… means. NOT MEANNESS.

I’ll say this and nothing else: if the druid is so ‘useless’, why are/were there so many tears about them in PvP then and now?

Yes, there are issues to be addressed. Yes, it needs some fixes. Yes, certain traits need a rework. But the class is far from broken and useless.

It may be that the druid isn’t something you’ll like for your playstyle, yet it’s hardly invalid. So I won’t say ‘learn to play’, but I will say, “Learn to adapt.”

ANet has never given ranger a free ride, and I don’t expect it to start now.

Ardenwolfe.8590:

I’ll say this and nothing else: if the druid is so ‘useless’, why are/were there so many tears about them in PvP then and now?

Yes, there are issues to be addressed. Yes, it needs some fixes. Yes, certain traits need a rework. But the class is far from broken and useless.

It may be that the druid isn’t something you’ll like for your playstyle, yet it’s hardly invalid. So I won’t say ‘learn to play’, but I will say, “Learn to adapt.”

ANet has never given ranger a free ride, and I don’t expect it to start now.

:) Must be that it is both useless and OP at the same time! Or maybe it is only useless when used improperly, and OP when used properly?

Eirdyne.9843:

I’m not sure what you did to the Druid, but you made the Ranger 100% worse.

Why do you hate Ranged classes so much? Can’t we have something nice just once?

If it’s objectively worse, why are there so many people enjoying it? Must they like pain?

(And this is the very definition of a non-constructive thread, BTW.)

(Must add, you are not “playing it wrong” if you aren’t using Berserker’s, as some may have hinted above. There’s no right or wrong gear, it all depends on what you aim to do with it.)

Provide proof that Ranger is “100%” on a “bad course”-valid reasons of how is it"doubly bad."

Maintain evidence that ANet “hates” ranged characters. Most Professions have a decent long-ranged weapon. Did you mean Rangers? For their name isn’t related to “Ranged Professions”, which is another classic RPG discussion altogether (my Druid currently uses Staff/Greatsword; not even LB, however good it is.) If anything, Rangers (not “Ranged”) have received lots of good changes, INCLUDING Druid abilities and traits.

What was the “nice thing” what was “given once” and is no longer there? Please explain, as first post only gives non-constructive criticism (and isn’t factual, by the evidence we have). Offering a valid complaint is much better than venting online-there’s nothing much ANet can do for the latter, save for closing the thread if it goes way out of hand.

And no, I am not telling you “learn how to play”, as I know nothing of your skill, nor am I calling you a “roleplayer”, as if the latter were bad at this game. But the Druid is working really great for me (and being quite fun at that), so at least gives us actual reasons of why it isn’t working for you, so this discussion could be more constructive to all.

Stating that an issue is “Learn to Play,” is not mean. That is not a personal attack. That’s an objective statement about your level of personal knowledge that you’ve communicated here on this forum. Now saying “Learn to Play,” is very direct. If someone isn’t ready for such direct communication that can often lead to hurt feelings. That still doesn’t make it an inherently mean thing to say. It’s not even close to being a personal attack in the way that calling someone ugly, or dumb or fat or worthless or any other such thing.

People can only be expected to DO as much as they KNOW. People can only be expected to KNOW as much as they can DO. I personally recommend that the players in this thread here take some time to increase their knowledge, so that they can then achieve more. Take the time to look through builds that people have posted. There’s a lot of good discussion there. Take the time to check out youtube videos folks have posted. Maybe go on Twitch and catch someone streaming Druid. Heck I’d even say that you guys should spend some time watching the videos Kuhrer has made over at QQmore.net. The videos are just general concepts for pvp play, but applying them to your Druid should get you waaaaaay more mileage.

Spend some time learning about what other classes can do as well! I’m still trying to sharpen my matchup knowledge currently. So much has changed with the expansion and some of the class matchups feel so radically different! You really have to use different strategies for different situations.

Personally I love the opportunity for learning that the expansion has created! It’s an absolute blast going in to the game, trying different builds, trying different strategies. There are so many AHA! moments in game for me now. So many AHA! moments when I’m just at work, thinking about the game, and something new clicks! Druid may not be 100% perfect, but it has added so much depth to the ranger class that I can’t help but say to you guys, please take so much more time to “Learn to Play.”

For example, there was the guy who ran a similar “support” build to mine. A full Daze Ranger for Fractals.

And I mean yes. What do you expect? I can put 14 seconds of daze onto 5 targets every 20 seconds. Of course, I won’t do any damage at all. But do you have any idea how that helps your party go through the content?

People just clearly have no idea what’s wrong with the Druid. They expect it to be something they would like to play instead of embracing things offered.

Druid has a lot of issues. Yes. But Quality of life ones. Bugs, Synergy, Game System interaction… That’s not balance issues.
If you feel that druid is useless – you are playing druid wrong. You can’t expect the game to knock on your door saying “Heeeey brought you the money you dreamed of!”. You have to search for it.

Keep playing those L2P cards guys, its not like the devs aren’t going to balance it in about three months because there is, in fact, an imbalance that exists. Its not like Balance and symmetry only exist in theoretically perfect math….right?

The question is… What is more probable to be correct?

A statement of player who wasn’t able to find a way…
… Or a statement of players who already play it efficiently?

Look, as I already said – Druid has issues. But it doesn’t mean it’s useless. Truth be told, I found more useless guardians in my runs than Rangers. But I won’t claim that Guardian’s useless.

Druid should be alk about healing, preventing group from being hit and CC. Buff those three areas, and I would be cool with Druid.

i dont care about dps. Nerf that if you have to buff the rest.

Knighthonor.4061:

Druid should be alk about healing, preventing group from being hit and CC. Buff those three areas, and I would be cool with Druid.

i dont care about dps. Nerf that if you have to buff the rest.

Why would the Druid specialization be like you want it to be? Can someone like it the way it is (conceptually) at the moment? You aren’t the only Ranger/Druid you know….

Knighthonor.4061:

Druid should be alk about healing, preventing group from being hit and CC. Buff those three areas, and I would be cool with Druid.

i dont care about dps. Nerf that if you have to buff the rest.

NO.

Dragon Hunter should’ve been a ranger spec.

That way I finally would’ve been able to dual wield longbows.

Sorry for the late reply…
Been moving (house wise irl) the last 5 days and I’ve finally had the chance to sit down.

I did get a reply back from Mark that the reports I’ve sent for Druid have been forwarded to the proper departments.

Sorry I don’t have more to say but that’s all I was told or know about at this time.

If i hear more back i’ll let you guys know o.o

I really enjoy my ranger with druid… but I’m not playing it as a dedicated healer. Still running dps with druid traits to augment my build. Occasionally swapping to CA to drop a heal bomb on allies or myself.

Tragic Positive.9356:

Wyrdfell.8327:

You just don’t know how to play it that’s all…

^

^

It’s not perfect, but it is FAR from useless. Using CAF/Druid traits as an augmentation rather than a focus yields incredibly good results. Why y’all acting like GW2 was going to change it’s entire design philosophy based on one class? PvP/WvW Druid is great (again, not perfect) and we haven’t even been able to play the PvE content that the Druid spec was designed for.

Chill out, kitten .

I’m about to go away for two weeks-ish. I want to update this before I do.

I’ve been playing the Ranger heavily this weekend. I really enjoyed how the Druid was going during Beta, but it was beta so the time to play was pretty limited.

I’ve got a few major concerns with the Ranger from my perspective.

The most significant issue I have with the Ranger is it really is not much of a class before Heart of Thorns.

This is a very important point, in my opinion, because it pretty much does not work outside of events.

Let me try to explain this because I’m still wrapping my head around it. It has bugged me for years and only really with the Druid am I seeing why it bothered me before.

The Ranger (Issues)
Issue 1: Our Immediate Damage Is Hard to Reach
It’s mechanically a real headache to play a Ranger. Most of the reasons for this come down to really having no way to do that up front damage that most other classes can put out there one way or another.
If you’re doing condition damage then you have to get pretty darned close to your target. What this means is that your target is going to see you coming and (if skilled) actually comprehend what’s coming and move. This leaves you with a lot of things on cooldown.

If you’re doing Axe, Longbow, or Shortbow, you’re faced with the reality most classes can dodge, block, or evade your everything which returns us back to the problem of moving around a lot while we wait for our cooldowns to expire.

In summary, we spend a lot of time fighting ourselves a maze of mechanical issues just to output some damage that’s high when it’s there, but isn’t there enough to be high reliably.

Issue 2: We’re getting killed too much by our own class
Most classes can move about when they do their abilities. More often than not a Ranger isn’t going to be moving about.
There are a lot of reasons for this, but most of them come down to our abilities effectively being a root against ourselves.

Arguably, sword/dagger is actually pretty brutal in WvW and PvP. It gives a ton of evades, visually looks as though we’re doing something else (like dodging rather than attacking) which is super helpful in psyching people out, and does good damage if you’re on top of your game.
The problems start when you need to stop doing that. The moment we need to move we can’t. Spam evade all you want you’re trapped watching your character flailing about uselessly and then you’re dead. At which point there is a quiet seething rage building against this mechanical limitation that really isn’t there in any other major mmo. Elementalist have this problem too, with Dagger 4. That dash works great… right up until it ends. Then suddenly you’re stuck, rooted in place, and that whole darn point of it has been negated because by then you’re opponent has closed ranged and you’re dead. With the Ranger it’s that much worse. At least with shortbow you can keep moving. With longbow you’re stuck and going to die. The only way to prevent this same problem with swords is to hit button 2 and try to keep it available.

Now, Druid Staff 3 doesn’t have this issue what so ever. You hit it, you move, and you’re still moving. Perfect fluid grace.

This is not just an aesthetic issue. It’s poor game design and it makes the class a real nightmare to play. We can’t rely on our abilities. Again, if we’re using sword abilities or dagger abilities, chances are it won’t dodge when we say dodge. SW:ToR has the same problem with the Smuggler vs Agent. Agents have a backstab ability that’s fluid: you hit the button, it does the damage, some animations happen and all of this without stopping your character so it can die for no reason. Smugger’s, by contrast, pull out a shotgun dramatically, take their time to aim, and then fire. You can’t do anything else until the animation is over. Thus, the Smugger is considered second rate to the Agent. Simple as that.

Longbow 5 is another example of this. There’s a real chance of still having some sort of damage source if we’ve just been blocked and dodged from Longbow 2. Except, there’s every likelihood if you are pressing 5 you’re going to watch someone dash that Range in a heartbeat, both be out of range of the aoe long before it even starts doing real damage, and then you’re dead.

Issue 3: We really have NO interesting abilities until Heart of Thorns.

The Ranger is one of the most appealing classes because it has a pet and people really get into minis pets and pets of any kind.
The Ranger is one of the least appealing classes because mechanically it’s a confusing mess of mostly unappealing, boring, skills that are putting nothing out visually onto the screen. What we do put forward visually is so incredibly counter intuitive it’s not just immersion breaking, it’s just weird to watch. We throw axes? Okay, but why for so low damage? Has no one ever chopped firewood? And why are we throwing axes as if they are being thrown from some sort of off screen dispenser?

The point with Issue 3 is that the Ranger presents itself visually in a very negative way. The mathematics of our abilities makes sense. Visually… not even remotely does most of anything we do make sense.

Issue 4: Condition Damage or Longbow/Greatsword

Sword
Dagger
Axe
Shortbow
Torch

Everything Ranger does is bent toward condition damage, close range, and at a fixed location.

Who wants to play this? No really? Play any other class and there are some options. For Rangers… not really. We’re just there… looking awkward and perceived to be even more awkward.

What this leads to is new players thinking “Oh ya, this is neat,” followed swiftly by getting slammed by a lot of frustration because everything they know how to do with a bow, sword, traps, and whatever else in Real Life is just not here. Instead the Ranger is a puzzle. It’s not a class so much as a bunch of if, then, else statements that never work anywhere all the time, but everywhere sometimes …sort of.

The Ranger was my first 80, but it just doesn’t do anything all that well and everything it does it does from a convoluted meandering that is just a few steps above how bad the elementalist used to be before the traits rework.

Summary, we’re getting killed way too much by our game mechanics that are not part of the game, but just some sluggish underwhelming development considerations toward our class.

- neglectful dismissal really.
- I am really not bashing on the Guardian in most posts lately by the way. Having a diversity in classes with longbows (ranger, warrior, guard) is a good thing. It’s just we’re still stuck with a 1/3rd functional class here.

The Druid (Issues)

Issue 1:
My biggest pet-peeve with the Druid is another mechanical issue.

Did I mention how convoluted our mechanics are? It’s a bloody maze to figure out the “if, then, else” if the Ranger. It’s not just one maze either. Every single encounter with anything is another variation on “how to fail because your mechanics are fighting you”.

__ Astral Force (Great in 5+ groups. Not even accessible in many other situations)

I’ve found that in places like Dragon’s Stand the Druid is fantastic. Positively brilliant. I ran Commander and killed mid lane boss with 10 people really fast using Druid. In this functionality it has some real potential… but only some.

The downsides start showing up when I needed to get close enough to use 4 to heal, but really just didn’t have the armor for it. This is not a major problem in large groups because if I go down I’ll just pop right back up again. However, there’s really not enough range on some of these aoe fields to be effective regardless because if we really want to get in there to help we have to cross really far into the danger range.

Much like the Adrenaline re-work on the Warrior, we just start to build up effective healing when we have to move. That’s fine, but then the Astral Force runs out and we’re left back building it up again.
In large parties this is no problem. Some sort of math there really fills this up super fast. Even a 5 or 10 person party can start to fill this the Astral Force again quick.
But we’re really not able to move, heal, move again, and… back to staff/Celestial Avatar is out. The Mordrem archers couldn’t care less about what Staff 5 says it does, they shoot right through it and there are always hordes of them. Longbow 3 doesn’t work on them either. They’ll shoot right through stealth.

Issue 2:
Astral Force again…

It is a fight… literally… to get the darn thing to turn on in small groups of 5 people or less.

This is a major problem. I don’t care how much I hear otherwise, it is.

Why?

I went partying with some people I met the other night. We were honestly having a lot of fun, but being a Druid was really not a help to the party. Actually, it was a problem. I couldn’t heal enough with the staff abilities to help people. Even when I was doing everything with it the thing has to offer I was effectively blocked from really being a Druid by the darned Astral Force mechanic.
Look, I get it.
Astral Force makes us fair in PvP and WvW. Even, PvE arguably. But realistically If I’m playing a bloody healer class when my friends are bleeding to death and I can’t help them because some idiotic mechanic says I can’t heal right now for “reasons” I’m going to call BS. Straight up.
The simple function should be if I want to heal then I get to heal.

Easy fix? I don’t know. Probably not as easy I’m going to make it sound: really.

I don’t like this fix, but here’s an idea. In PvP and WvW we get a second way to swap over to Celestial Avatar so we can do the healy thing.

I don’t really like this idea. The only reason this would have value is so that people playing in a small party with one or two friends can reliably get some sort of use out of the Druid.
It’s fine for larger parties, but it’s bloody well a wall ornament in most situations. I have yet to find a way to charge Astral Force up enough that the fight I’m in with a small party this fight …right now …is going to be the one I can heal with.

So if I can’t heal what get over to my heals when I need them what the hell I am playing this class for? Really?

I know that Heart of Thorns is supposed to be that place for big groups and fair enough, but realistically we’re going to be using these classes for a long, long, time.

We really ought to be able to get that functionality out of them that is already there.

Now an argument AGAINST myself.

I have a lot… A LOT… of problems with what I’m saying.

First of all, I think that Astral Force getting an instant-access, always on, skill option should just not happen. Why? It’s a huge amount of healing that it can do. It functions as intended and very well in a large group. It’s just darned worthless except as a travel skill in small groups. Especially the lower level areas. It heals horribly low and generally just means we’re sacrificing a weaponslot for a ‘sometimes-maybe’ option. Healing Spring is more practical than all of Druid right now in roaming;.

Another issue I have with changing anything to do with Astral Force or how to get to Celestial Avatar is that this thing has to the potential to radically change how the game works: for everyone. Imagine what would happen if this thing was just “always on” with this much healing ability. It would be absurd and game breaking for WvW and PvP.

So, really I don’t think I have solved nor have the solutions to anything I’m complaining about.

I hate making posts like that.

I think the only real thing I have said in all of my ranting is that:
A)
I want to play my Ranger, but I’m sick to death of it killing itself.
B)
I think this class is very convoluted because too many of its abilities have been way too reliant on pets, pet damage, spirits, being rooted in place deliberately by the mechanic and unintentionally by the mechanics, and hoping you’ve sorted all this out properly every single time you’ve engaged in every other fight.
Now, all this may mean is we’re seeing the difference between a class that cannot be played well using muscle memory instead of some more cognitive related talent. Another way of saying this is Guardians are Starcraft I (release your units and see what they do) and Ranger is Starcraft II (you’re Korean and have god-skills for micro-management). If that’s really the only real thing going on with the Druid then it really is like the inverse of the mesmer.
Further, if this is the case you can take all of my complaints… all of them… and toss them right in the trash because I’m dead wrong about everything I’ve been saying.

So yep, that’s that.

CORRECTION!

I don’t like this fix, but here’s an idea. In PvP and WvW we get a second way to swap over to Celestial Avatar so we can do the healy thing.

nooooo bad

I meant to say in PvE we get a second way

… never for any reason should we get a second heal swap option in PvP / WvW

+1 to Eirdyne for a well written post. Even though I don’t necessarily agree with everything you said, it’s food for thought.

That said, I really like the druid spec!

Having seen the numbers a Revenant can pull out, I’m not sure druids can compete now with the 10s CD on CA…

arkealia.2713:

Having seen the numbers a Revenant can pull out, I’m not sure druids can compete now with the 10s CD on CA…

We’r talikng about herald builds right?
In terms of 1v1 from my experience is mostly even. Very hard for one to kill the other, this fight will go on for some time.

In terms of group support both give somthing different to the team that the other cant(unless they gi herald/ventari, very rare). I would take both druid/herald on my team.

Druid is fine in pvp.

http://metabattle.com/wiki/MetaBattle_Wiki

Press conquest.
See meta specs:

Daredevil – Dagger/Pistol
Dragonhunter – Meditrapper
Druid – Celestial Avatar
Herald – Power Shiro
Scrapper – Celestial Hammer.

@Yashuoa

If we assume that Druid is more powerful for former ZerkMeta than our former variation – where Ranger already was ZerkMeta member – we can gladly assume we are fine at PvE as well.

When it comes to conditions… Well… We don’t need druid for that. We cannot want druid to be best for every single freaking content.

If only more people had the general idea of how the game works… We wouldn’t have to go through topics like these.

Tragic Positive.9356:

@Yashuoa

If we assume that Druid is more powerful for former ZerkMeta than our former variation – where Ranger already was ZerkMeta member – we can gladly assume we are fine at PvE as well.

When it comes to conditions… Well… We don’t need druid for that. We cannot want druid to be best for every single freaking content.

If only more people had the general idea of how the game works… We wouldn’t have to go through topics like these.

I just threw in the pvp druid link to post something that shows how druid is at the very least, not useless.
I am not saying that they are useless in pve if you may have thought that I did so.
On the pve part I made no comment but I can imagine what you say about pve that its true.

Yeah it would help if people would take a bit more time to grasp how something works, before complaining and blaming it to early on the class, rather than improving a bit more themselfs. Similar to your sig.

Yashuoa.9527:

I am not saying that they are useless in pve if you may have thought that I did so.

Nope, I was just glad someone knowledgeable came who I can share the opinion with.

rather than improving a bit more themselfs. Similar to your sig.

Thanks for acknowledging. Hopefully we’ll get more people willing to try things out before crying out loud.

Wyrdfell.8327:

I’m seriously sick of these type of threads. Druid is fine. The only place whare I feel my heals are unnecessary is fractal that’s all

1) It’s ‘where’, not ‘whare’. Your inability to spell (or even spellcheck, since the forum has that built in) hurts my brain. Please cease this torture

2) Your opinion, based on your post, seems to matter but no one else’s does. I’m curious to know why this is, and why you seem to know how to play and the OP does not.

i can not understand what is wrong with a part (a PART not all meanwhile) of the ranger community
i just started reading here 10min ago and already read suggestions to buff CA#1/2, making the avatar form almost permanent and that the druid is “useless”
Its mental, the druid is one of the most overpowered specs in pvp
And thats not just my opinion, its the opinion of a lot of high class pvp players
U need atleast 2 players and a long amount of time to kill a decent druid, while our pets can do a good amount of crits (5K pet crit in a defensive healer build is just too strong)
The druid will be nerfed, thats for sure, maybe less healing for the druid itself and more for the allies

snow.8097:

i can not understand what is wrong with a part (a PART not all meanwhile) of the ranger community
i just started reading here 10min ago and already read suggestions to buff CA#1/2, making the avatar form almost permanent and that the druid is “useless”
Its mental, the druid is one of the most overpowered specs in pvp
And thats not just my opinion, its the opinion of a lot of high class pvp players
U need atleast 2 players and a long amount of time to kill a decent druid, while our pets can do a good amount of crits (5K pet crit in a defensive healer build is just too strong)
The druid will be nerfed, thats for sure, maybe less healing for the druid itself and more for the allies

The problem with your reasoning is that you are only thinking in the aspect of pvp (even though you’re right in that aspect). In pvp yea, druid is strong. OP, no, but it is strong.

In PvE, on the other hand, its not that great. We are still in a zerker meta (imo), and druid healing seems basically pointless. Heals are hard to land, ppl die faster than you can sustain them, AF is so slow to generate to continually sustain allies, and more. So in a sense of PvE, the druid needs some work. But in PvP its great. The hard part here is finding a balance where the druid works and is balanced throughout all aspects of the game.

I just hope raids fix this or make these issues more obvious to the devs.

Overall, Druids are in a good spot, but they can still be improved (not made stronger just cleaned up). My BIGGEST issue is that the druid overshadows the ranger, and now I feel like I HAVE to use the druid. So the standard ranger needs more fixing than the druid.

snow.8097:

The druid will be nerfed, thats for sure, maybe less healing for the druid itself and more for the allies

It will most definitely be tweaked.

From all you can see – druid has not been thought over. At all. It was scrapped together in few night’s time without proper testing. 2 out of 3 GrandMaster tier traits COMPLETELY REDESIGNED in the 1st balance update, anyone?

That being said – they decided to put us into “mass BWE” position where they decided to put the “beta” version of druid to live servers. They were exposed to much larger amount of feedback that way.

Irenio confirmed he’s been reading through forums and he has some changes in mind. Druid needs a lot of changes if it’s supposed to please more users than it currently does (even if it’s balanced).
Currently the heals are best in the field but are so restricted that even if you get to CAF it doesn’t feel rewarding. If specced into healing you’ll go to full HP in 3 seconds and you wasted your effort. If specced into hybrid or DPS you won’t get to CAF ever to make it a “sustain” mechanic.

All in all – we can assume it’s going to be changed. How – we’ll have to wait and see.

Tragic Positive.9356:

Irenio confirmed he’s been reading through forums and he has some changes in mind. Druid needs a lot of changes if it’s supposed to please more users than it currently does

Confirmed where? How do you know this?

Daharahj.1325:

Tragic Positive.9356:

Irenio confirmed he’s been reading through forums and he has some changes in mind. Druid needs a lot of changes if it’s supposed to please more users than it currently does

Confirmed where? How do you know this?

One of the videos updated. Someone even linked the exact time in the video with him saying this in another topic but I can’t remember which one it was.
If I remember or find it I’ll direct you to it.

EDIT: This
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=K2ZHhJQn0B8#t=2356

We haven’t really gotten any core neither Druid concerning changes (except awful nerfs). So I suppose it’s still up to date (I hope).

I’ll put it this way, DRUID IS A BAD CONCEPT. Why?
Well it’s amazing in zergs, large groups bigger then 5 people, and open world events to heal people where no one cares.

Why is druid bad? Because if you are solo, or with 1 or 2 friends, it makes no sense, it doesnt scale well, because you are depended on healing others more then doing your primal job. And whats that? Progressing through content with your damage. Ranger damage on druid is useless, even though we said no holy trinity, we dont heal a lot and we don’t sync at all with our pet, we don’t get event attendance if we don’t damage anything, it feels like this was elementalist specialization but failed.

Ranger has one problem, he’s assassin, and assassins don’t support, they kill. This concept will NEVER have positive meaning because it will only work in zerging.

Why i don’t play druid:

• its clunky and it feels clunky, no synergy with pet and other skill, full potential of glyphs is wasted due to very poor AF generator.
• bad gaming experience because a lot of skills have huge cast for skills that are easily dodged
• a lot of skills feel and look clunky because they feel like you play with 400ping
• Druid Avatar form skill 1 is disaster should be insta cast with skill reuse
• Druid Avatar form skill 5 movement lockdown and long cast?? Works for pvp, and NO WHERE ELSE, it’s kittened.. U cant do that in smale scale fights like 8v8, you cant do that in zergs, you cant do that in events…. While Revenant in shiro form elite does the same with… faster cast, can move… but no.. ranger has to root himself just for rooting the enemy?? pardon me, that’s where my logic breaks, you risk your death in events just to root some one, while people have tons of stun breaks, All i have to say on this come and play WvW with us, or Events like DS, and u’ll see that this concept is one of the most depended on other people……..
• Druid Staff skill 4 clunky takes to long to cast, takes to long to aim
• Druid staff skill 5, if you compare it to reflection wall… reflection wall is nice and visible, ranger staff skill 5 wall is DISASTER TO NOTICE IN ZERGS.. we waste so many things because we dont see them
• Druid Staff skill 3 gives you in combat
• Druid Staff skill 1 has no dmg, pure sadness
• Ranger avatar form should offer at least 1 stack of stability
• Druid Astral Force cannot be recharged while in avatar form
• Druid Astral Force cannot be recharged fast enough if you dont have more then 2 players around you.
• Due to very bad druid mechanics, we are not even able to use ranger elite because we lack of stability

If you ask me, druid was again, rushed last, shame, pity, and sad to know.
EDIT: I TOTALLY FORGOT, DRUID and Celestial avatar, HAVE NO SKILL QUEUE. Please fix that?

Tragic Positive.9356:

Daharahj.1325:

Tragic Positive.9356:

Irenio confirmed he’s been reading through forums and he has some changes in mind. Druid needs a lot of changes if it’s supposed to please more users than it currently does

Confirmed where? How do you know this?

One of the videos updated. Someone even linked the exact time in the video with him saying this in another topic but I can’t remember which one it was.
If I remember or find it I’ll direct you to it.

EDIT: This
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=K2ZHhJQn0B8#t=2356

We haven’t really gotten any core neither Druid concerning changes (except awful nerfs). So I suppose it’s still up to date (I hope).

It’s not about pleasing the users, as developer, you MUST develop something that is fun and feels good. Druid feels like you play with 400 ping, nothing goes off on time, every thing is with huge delay. It’s a poor concept that needs hard rework, and Irenio knows that.

Firelysm.4967:

I’ll put it this way, DRUID IS A BAD CONCEPT. Why?
Well it’s amazing in zergs, large groups bigger then 5 people, and open world events to heal people where no one cares.

Why is druid bad? Because if you are solo, or with 1 or 2 friends, it makes no sense, it doesnt scale well, because you are depended on healing others more then doing your primal job. And whats that? Progressing through content with your damage. Ranger damage on druid is useless, even though we said no holy trinity, we dont heal a lot and we don’t sync at all with our pet, we don’t get event attendance if we don’t damage anything, it feels like this was elementalist specialization but failed.

Ranger has one problem, he’s assassin, and assassins don’t support, they kill. This concept will NEVER have positive meaning because it will only work in zerging.

Why i don’t play druid:

• its clunky and it feels clunky, no synergy with pet and other skill, full potential of glyphs is wasted due to very poor AF generator.
• bad gaming experience because a lot of skills have huge cast for skills that are easily dodged
• a lot of skills feel and look clunky because they feel like you play with 400ping
• Druid Avatar form skill 1 is disaster should be insta cast with skill reuse
• Druid Avatar form skill 5 movement lockdown and long cast?? Works for pvp, and NO WHERE ELSE, it’s kittened.. U cant do that in smale scale fights like 8v8, you cant do that in zergs, you cant do that in events…. While Revenant in shiro form elite does the same with… faster cast, can move… but no.. ranger has to root himself just for rooting the enemy?? pardon me, that’s where my logic breaks, you risk your death in events just to root some one, while people have tons of stun breaks, All i have to say on this come and play WvW with us, or Events like DS, and u’ll see that this concept is one of the most depended on other people……..
• Druid Staff skill 4 clunky takes to long to cast, takes to long to aim
• Druid staff skill 5, if you compare it to reflection wall… reflection wall is nice and visible, ranger staff skill 5 wall is DISASTER TO NOTICE IN ZERGS.. we waste so many things because we dont see them
• Druid Staff skill 3 gives you in combat
• Druid Staff skill 1 has no dmg, pure sadness
• Ranger avatar form should offer at least 1 stack of stability
• Druid Astral Force cannot be recharged while in avatar form
• Druid Astral Force cannot be recharged fast enough if you dont have more then 2 players around you.
• Due to very bad druid mechanics, we are not even able to use ranger elite because we lack of stability

If you ask me, druid was again, rushed last, shame, pity, and sad to know.
EDIT: I TOTALLY FORGOT, DRUID and Celestial avatar, HAVE NO SKILL QUEUE. Please fix that?

• Why is it that I do more damage with Druid in PvP than with core Ranger, if Druid’s attacks are so weak? I keep trying to tell peeps that even with the healing component, it out damages core Ranger. Period.

Honestly, the damage calculations are based solely on potential, and not reality. Reality is more relevant than Potential. The science gamers use to guesstimate damage is bogus. Do some real, in combat, tests and see for yourself.

@Archon

You outdamage others by what? Pets that everyone else has or Might Stacking that Hitzer buried flat with his version of Celestial Ranger?

If so – what does it have in common with Druid, again?

Justine.6351:

Yep, yet another person reinforcing the idea that the elite specs are mandatory upgrades.

Every other class got an elite spec that made the class better, gave them QoL changes, added new interesting, useful and varied roles and gave them fun new twists on their mechanics.

Ranger got a broken mechanic stuck on top of their broken base mechanic with zero synergy and zero use anywhere with only one very niche build in mind.

I don’t think its unfair to ask that Ranger gets a good upgrade like everybody else.

Levetty.1279:

Justine.6351:

Yep, yet another person reinforcing the idea that the elite specs are mandatory upgrades.

Every other class got an elite spec that made the class better, gave them QoL changes, added new interesting, useful and varied roles and gave them fun new twists on their mechanics.

Ranger got a broken mechanic stuck on top of their broken base mechanic with zero synergy and zero use anywhere with only one very niche build in mind.

I don’t think its unfair to ask that Ranger gets a good upgrade like everybody else.

Are we talking about the same Elite Spec that has made core ZerkMeta ranger better, made us one of those king of the Hill specs in PvP and gave us literally everything rangers asked for ever since I can remember such as not forcing us down the pet path or being viable just like Remorseless is the only way you can make use of opening strikes?

Yes, Druid doesn’t feel good. I get it. But it’s absolutely viable and made Rangers more powerful than before. And you can’t deny that.
If your argument is going to be: “But I see druids suck” or “I suck as a druid” that means absolutely nothing. There will always be people who won’t even be able to play PS warrior properly. But claiming that Druid sucks because of players is absurd.

The mechanics we are offered are amazing and potentially powerful. The things we need are quality of life changes. The Build/Drain/CD gates on CAF need changes, synergy with other weapons than Staff …
… But that’s pretty much it. While all of you who complain about druid are so trying to make it sound – you haven’t really specified a single domain of the topic. What part of druid is wrong? No synergy with pets that no one wanted or asked for? No synergy with specifically Remorseless? MoC synergy is not a synergy?
If so… Is there a way to improve it without making it one-sided change (good for both rangers and their enemies)?

There are some ideas on how to improve the druid. But a lot of you just sound like you are mad about getting a cookie while wanting a cake.

Yakubyogami.7586:

Wyrdfell.8327:

I’m seriously sick of these type of threads. Druid is fine. The only place whare I feel my heals are unnecessary is fractal that’s all

1) It’s ‘where’, not ‘whare’. Your inability to spell (or even spellcheck, since the forum has that built in) hurts my brain. Please cease this torture

2) Your opinion, based on your post, seems to matter but no one else’s does. I’m curious to know why this is, and why you seem to know how to play and the OP does not.

1) I’m glad I was able to hurt your brain with just an incorrect letter.

2) Because I can see how succesful I’m with the druid while he is crying here about the same druid being useless.