Some druid in wvw kicked my kitten and I need to know how the hell he did it. Help me ranger forums!
He was definitely a condition bunker druid because he was running axe and something else along with staff. After a full minute of me being completely unable to deal any damage whatsoever (d/d ele), like literally 0 damage, he perma cc’d me with non-stop knockdown and roots. I’m pretty confident he cc’d me probably at least 5 times within the last 30 seconds of the fight because I used 3 seperate stun breakers and used water attunement to free me at least once and was rooted or knocked down or both every time I broke free. Without fail.
Any idea what this build is? I’ve never encountered anything like it before and if this is legit, I need to get druid on my dusty ranger ASAP.
Also would like to add that at the risk of sounding arrogant, I’m usually a pretty good ele that has little or no trouble with rangers ever. I carry more than enough condi cleanse to win or at least stale mate trap rangers, enough mobility to close the gap on pew pew rangers, and enough burst pressure to pin druids. Usually.
TL;DR: can anyone identify this build? Staff and axe/x condition bunker with extreme cc
Don’t even know the off-hand? Can you give us other hints? Was it bleeding, poison, or burning damage that did you in? What did they use to heal? Pets?
Kinda sounds like off-hand axe combo with staff stun swap into glyphs.
Wasn’t burning so likely wasn’t torch. Definitely poison and bleeding so sword or dagger? Tough to say because my combat log was completely filled with conditions. And he didn’t heal, he never needed to. I couldn’t deal any damage at all, not even with the multiple instant casts of lightning on swap to air. Only ever saw wolf so I can see him using the wolf cc but the entire fight was me struggling to last more than a second at a time without being cc’d again. He definitely had stun as well so that sounds right
Sounds a bit like my Mad-seed. Shortbow has a really potent daze/stun and there’s CC on glyphs. Mad seed is more built for team fights than dueling, but the tools are there.
“You keep saying ‘its unfair.’
I wonder what your basis for comparison is…”
- Jareth, King of Goblins.
Sounds a bit like my Mad-seed. Shortbow has a really potent daze/stun and there’s CC on glyphs. Mad seed is more built for team fights than dueling, but the tools are there.
The description of that build seems pretty accurate. Definitely wasn’t using sb but I’m pretty sure it was staff and axe/dagger now. What’s the counter? As much stunbreak as possible and/or ranged attacks to avoid cc in the first place? I can’t even access more stun break than I had lol
Was it traps by chance? There are some nasty combo’s out there with trapper druid. maybe a poison/ bleed trapper?
Still unsure but from the gameplay you’re describing your best bet would be to kite. Druid skills are all pbaoe so staying mid-to far range is your best bet and reflecting staff abilities. axe/ dagger is also easy to avoid if at range. If they are full condi they are more than likely running ws.
Did you see troll unguent active? If this is true that means they likely have very little to zero stability.
Based on the title, I assumed it was gonna be another QQ post, but for once it is someone asking for actual help in a way to learn and counter this in the future rather than cry nerf…. i am confus
5 CCs within 30 seconds is something even a standard ranger can do pretty easily. You need to learn the tells more than anything else, because if a ranger or druid builds around CC, he’s not going to ever run out. Fortunately you for you, many of the tells are enormous.
Edit: I guess that’s a bit vague. I think you should just look at the CC available to rangers on the wiki (there is quite a lot) and then load up those skills and pets on your own ranger to see how they work.
The description of that build seems pretty accurate. Definitely wasn’t using sb but I’m pretty sure it was staff and axe/dagger now. What’s the counter? As much stunbreak as possible and/or ranged attacks to avoid cc in the first place? I can’t even access more stun break than I had lol
There’s a couple of things you can do to up your chances.
Most of the Druid stuns are point blank AoE – the glyph and the Staff swap, so if you can dance around the edge of medium range you can reduce his opportunities and possibly get him to waste some of his stuns. Untargeted effects like those don’t come with a safety net, you can pitch them into thin air and get nothing but cooldown for it.
While a stun break or 2 is common load out for any sPvP, I wouldn’t push for more than that. The stuns are annoying, but they aren’t what’s killing you. It’s almost certainly bleeds doing the heavy lifting on his DPS so a couple of cleanses will probably do more good (and be more generally useful) than 3+ stun breaks. (that’s true of most condition bunkers).
Sigil of Purity or Sigil of Generosity should SERIOUSLY crimp his style.
If you can endure/survive the swap to staff, he gonna be sitting there with a crap offensive weapon for a few seconds and will have to do all his damage with utilities. That significantly limits his options and should help you counter once you’ve figured out what he’s following up with.
Some of the CC may be coming form the pet. Stay mobile and strafe a lot to leave Fluffy snapping at empty air.
“You keep saying ‘its unfair.’
I wonder what your basis for comparison is…”
- Jareth, King of Goblins.
The description of that build seems pretty accurate. Definitely wasn’t using sb but I’m pretty sure it was staff and axe/dagger now. What’s the counter? As much stunbreak as possible and/or ranged attacks to avoid cc in the first place? I can’t even access more stun break than I had lol
I’d say probably stability to get started. It’ll spare you all the soft cc, and therefore prevent Ancient Seeds (immob+bleed when applying cc to target). Then use those stability stacks to get up close and get your own cc to connect first. After that, it’s like with another ranger: scare him enough while saving your hardest-hitting cooldowns so he burns his Signet of Stone, survive that yourself or apply plenty of conditions, and finish him…
Staff + Traited Primal Echoes & Ancient Seeds = 5 second immob on staff weapon swap (every 18 seconds)
Glyph of Equality/Spike Trap/Entangle = all 5 second immobs (the first 2 due to Ancient seeds again)
Staff4 – 1.5 second immob
And both Wolf and Drakehound have knockdowns = 2 × 5 second immobs (Drake hound f2 also has 2 second immob)
And he/she may have popped into Celestial Avatar and used skill 5 for another 5 second immob
So basically in melee it’s immob central v.s this kind of druid…so staying at range would help (Not ideal with D/D Ele I know). I’d imagine the reason that you didn’t inflict any damage was that your damage was targeting the immobilising roots…
Counter to condi-cc-druid is stability. Stability means no knockdowns or dazes which in turn means no roots from ancient seeds.
Rock solid + harmonious conduit + imbued melodies + runes of leadership is more than enough stab uptime without even using armor of earth traits or util (60% boon duration without food).
SBI | Oceans | Ranger – Thief – Ele – Eng – Nec – Guard – Rev
Celestial Avatar is like an old man: Takes forever to get up and is spent in 4 seconds
Apart from what others have mentioned above, don’t forget you can CC the Druid pretty easily. If he/she’s running Entangle, that means AT MOST he/she has about 8-10 (depending on build) seconds of stability from Signet of the Wild (which is easy to spot—that’s the Enlargement buff) and a couple from CAF 5 (the long channel with the swirling galaxies). Use stability when starting an engagement so the Druid wastes his/her AoE Dazes. Use your own CCs (Shocking Aura is very effective, especially in Tempest Defense, and synergizes beautifully with Lightning Rod and the Tempest elite specialization).
Keep your distance or CC quickly when you see the Druid enter CAF, because you know he/she is going to use Lunar Impact. It’s got a 3/4 second cast time and serves a dual purpose (healing the Druid and CC’ing you), so keep your distance/keep moving to prevent the Druid from using it both offensively and defensively. Keep strafing back and forth while you’re fighting to avoid additional damage/CC from the pet—pets are notoriously poor at attacking moving targets, but are somewhat strong when they connect.
If you didn’t know, you can kill the roots from Entangle and Ancient Seeds. They have very little HP, so they should go pretty quickly when you attack them.
Counter to condi-cc-druid is stability. Stability means no knockdowns or dazes which in turn means no roots from ancient seeds.
Rock solid + harmonious conduit + imbued melodies + runes of leadership is more than enough stab uptime without even using armor of earth traits or util (60% boon duration without food).
My current d/d build is entirely dependent on armor of earth for stability since I’m using air/water/arcana instead of earth and am cautious of tempest. I have a lot of cleanse which is great but it didn’t do much for that fight. I suppose that with a completely melee build I’d have to use tempest and perhaps earth against this cc heavy ranger. I hate to lose one or especially two of my favorite trait lines though.
Also thanks to everyone who replied! I’ll either have to invest in more stability or maybe try out s/x for a while, maybe even with tempest for the stability as an added bonus. This has been a very helpful thread so you guys rock!
