It is viable.
People want you for Party Buffs and not personal DPS so getting Spirits, Spotter and GotL is what you might have to change. The rest is perfectly fine.
It’s wrong to ask what’s viable, though. Even full nomad Ele is viable in raids if the party goes 10 full nomad Eles. There should be a video as in the longest Vale Guardian kill. 17 minutes or so? But they did it. So it was viable.
The question should always be efficiency and setup of party you are in.
I’m not OP to say this but …
… All builds in forums (including this one) are technically suggestions.
In Tyria and maybe even Maguuma – Berserker should be dominant because it has it’s spike at the beginning of rotation unlike Conditions that have slow beginning and ramp up with time.
If we really wanted to peak efficiency we’d have to calculate every single mob’s toughness, every single buff or aura you get from people around, duration of the encounter… you’d technically want to kill yourself.
But this bleeder druid has fine damage and is viable for casual content. For Tyria, Maguuma, WvW… And with slight changes even Dungeons and Fractals.
I’m not OP to say this but …
… All builds in forums (including this one) are technically suggestions.
In Tyria and maybe even Maguuma – Berserker should be dominant because it has it’s spike at the beginning of rotation unlike Conditions that have slow beginning and ramp up with time.
If we really wanted to peak efficiency we’d have to calculate every single mob’s toughness, every single buff or aura you get from people around, duration of the encounter… you’d technically want to kill yourself.
But this bleeder druid has fine damage and is viable for casual content. For Tyria, Maguuma, WvW… And with slight changes even Dungeons and Fractals.
Ancient Seeds: Fixed a bug that allowed multiple triggers of this trait on a single target.
It is no longer nearly as effective (instant 25 bleed + 5 poison stacks with GoT + PV) but still good. The Bristleback bleed pet nerf (again) didn’t help either.
Last night i gave this build a shot and let me tell you it does behave good at wvw roaming/havoc (gvg or zerg is different atm because of the heavy projectile hate there is).
I’ve been playing a tanky/support build lately, which i found i felt really comfortable with, but this felt refreshingly sweet. Making those daredevil roamers run in panic alone made the money worth.
It does suffer a bit of (lack of) sustain, so i reccomend saving CA form as a second heal (the stun helps here) because it does not build astral force so fast as a “traditional” druid does. Troll Unguent may help with that, but i don’t like that heal and never will.
PVE is more forgiving, specially in open-world content, and i still have to take her to fractals, but thank you for sharing and congratulations: you’ve made a really strong build here
Hi all, I just returned to the game after many years of being gone. What is the best way to get gear for this build so I can get started? (I have purchased HoT and have a level 80 ranger)
Hi all, I just returned to the game after many years of being gone. What is the best way to get gear for this build so I can get started? (I have purchased HoT and have a level 80 ranger)
I think you are still able to get Rabid armor through Dungeon tokens.
If not, I believe you can get a set of exotic equipment for a few gold from Trading Post. So you technically want to grind money from fractals, dungeons and trains…
If you’re thinking of ascended Vipers’, then your best option is to get exotic insignia and inscription from HoT maps (Tarir if I remember right), a set of cheap ascended armor of any choice (rampager/cleric) and then change the stats of the equipment in Mystic Forge.
I ran something quite similar in WvW. Focussed a bit more on toughness since it was WvW, so I ran dire back then. I focussed a bit more on lockdown(cover)conditions too via sigils and pets. Other then that it’s almost the exact same, a matter of preference I think.
I loved that build too, the only thing I missed was stability, being knocked around like a pinball messed up my rotation/lock down of the enemy. Ofc you can switch up 1 utility for SotW, but I found it hard to let go one of my utilities
If I may offer 1 suggestion, is swapping out heal as one for troll, it synergizes better with your traits
go for shared anguish if you’re being bounced around too much by your opponent
goal: lock down your opponent with all your CC skills and elite, drop a fire field in it. And kinda just drop everything you have on them/him/her. Melts like a charm.
As many have said, Mix in Viper’s gear with the build. A mix of Viper’s and Rabid works incredibly well. I choose to run mostly Rabid for the toughness, but Vit and Power are always nice stats to have when I dont have a Rabid or Viper piece of gear. Not sure what’s wrong with the tooltip but I run the increase to bleeding duration on my weapon, and a Viper bow, my sharpening stone last 17+ seconds without veggie pizza’s.
I’m not entirely sold on this being a druid spec. It looks to have a bit more survivability then A similar spec with Markmanship 3-2-2 or 3-3-2 which turn your wilderness survival skills into an on demand crit (also fury). Without needing spike trap for the knockdown you can use flame trap which has a much shorter recharge, and clarion bond would turn it into AoE Might (and give you a free crit). Lightning reflexes can always be swapped out for Zephyr at the cost of recharge time, but you will stack more bleeds with your Auto attack. Troll unguent should be used, there’s no debate. Troll unguent will give you more condi cleanse, and fury. Without needing to trigger Ancient Seeds you can switch between SotP and Entangle (for AOE/ Mobs). Also the trap can be switched out for little cost to any utility depending on the fight ahead. My biggest issue with this is that Ancient Seed will rarely trigger on boss fights, however for WvW or regular mobs it will be a silly amount of easy bleed.
If I was going to take this as a druid spec, I would switch to pets with knockdown abilities to increase the trigger rate on Ancient Seeds. Possibly take Refined Toxins over Shared Anguish depending on the situation.
Either way, going to give it a try, I just see little advantage to being druic spec instead of marksmanship as far as DPS output.
Quickdraw works great with hunter’s call for bleed stacking, or call of the wild for ooc mobility (hit an ambient, hop off a ledge, etc.). In combat swiftness is 100% without trying.
With quickdraw, celestial shadow, 2 blast finishers, and a leap finisher it is very easy to stack stealth.
Regen from shouts + natural healing keeps your CA available on cooldown.
Tiger + furious grip gives you perma fury.
Sigil of strength, call of the wild, zephyr’s speed, sword auto+ whao makes might stacking pretty easy as well.
Multiple stun breaks, interrupts, and evades. This build is glassy but slippery as hell.
And of course warhorn gives you access to that unblockable pet burst.
The downside of this build is it isn’t great for chasing people that choose to run. You have to run from 1vX’s against condi heavy and/or retal heavy groups.
Also known as Puck when my account isn’t suspended
LGN
