Guild Wars 2

I’ve tried my druid in a raid tonight (my guild didnt have any other druids) and I have to say, I love it! I didn’t even notice the solar beam change (constantly had something targeted), and the heals I was able to keep up were amazing! Entering and exiting Astral Form felt natural and counted as weapon swaps so I could take advantage of traits/sigils! I didn’t do any damage (didn’t build for it), but I felt significant in keeping people alive.

Granted, I didn’t make it past the third phase of the first boss, but I have to say I had a ton of fun!

What do you guys think?

Enjoying it a lot so far, feeling like my heals actually help a lot and that it’s worth bringing a dedicated Druid healer. Hard to see kitten in all the particle effects, and it’s hard healing with only ground target skills unlike other MMOs. Wish I could move the squad UI or make ally health bars more visible.

i made some tries and i have to admit too healing is kinda fun! massive numbers even in zerk gear, of course it counted only to check the boss.

I’d like to gear full minstrel, but i have to check how DPS is really required to kill it!

I didn’t make it pass the first boss but I change from zealot to zerker without any real noticeable difference. Our fails were due to bad tanking and failing to get to circles.

I just use staff to fill up my astral force and only used CA when we made big errors.

what trinkets are you guys using im about to make a nomad set

I ran clerics trinkets and zerk gear, the heals felt great. I was able to contribute something more than just some dps. I ran almost full spirits, everything but the heal, and all the boons where useful and helped the party.

Prophet.1584:

I ran clerics trinkets and zerk gear, the heals felt great. I was able to contribute something more than just some dps. I ran almost full spirits, everything but the heal, and all the boons where useful and helped the party.

im tempted to go nomads armor and cleric trinkets

Azure.8670:

Prophet.1584:

I ran clerics trinkets and zerk gear, the heals felt great. I was able to contribute something more than just some dps. I ran almost full spirits, everything but the heal, and all the boons where useful and helped the party.

im tempted to go nomads armor and cleric trinkets

that’s probably too tanky, DPS is still needed for sure

You don’t actually need that much DPS. I think only 6/10 players ran full glass canon zerker/viper builds in my kill earlier.

I ran full clerics on my Druid.

Skill > Comp/Gear

I’m having an awesome time, full Clerics Gear.
First time healing, ever and had a lot of great feedback.

Using all the skills I can, I’ve found switching off of staff hurts the team.

Using Glyph of tides for the orbs plus Spirits of Sun, Frost and the Elite for “if” the team slips up with green circles and we get a mass down.

The raid DPS matters.
If the other people make sure that the rest can DPS safely and easily and more frequently – the raw DPS can hide in the corner.

Everything you do or build around is to increase the damage, but keeping people alive (possibly healing the tank up so the fight is stationary) or what not increases the raid DPS by a long run.

I myself was running Cleric trinkets with Magi armour, and Minstrel’s Staff. After figuring out the boss, we seemed to be able to take his phases down rather decently! I suppose most of my squad was zerk/sinister though.

How much healing power do you guys think is appropriate?

I’m in the process of crafting my ascended gear and I don’t know yet what to go for.

How important is survivability for you vs DPS and how much healing power is required? Is Cleric enough for all of them? Unfortunately, I don’t have money for Zealot(filthy casual here).

Thought about making full Crusader, but realized ferocity is pretty useless without precision, so I’m considering Cleric or a mix of both.

I went in with Apo Trinkets and Shaman Armor/Weapons. The Healing felt nice and the Nature Spirit is great for Mass Rezzes, but my Ventari Revenant with the same gear felt a bit more potent with the Healing.

My Lunar Impacts healed for about 4500 while the Tablet for about 3500 but that was easier to use than the constant F5 + Ground Targeting from the Druid.

Hah… They couldn’t escape the Trinity could they?

Oh well, looking forward to try healing again.

Honestly at this point it looks like it really doesnt matter what gear we use, it all comes down to individual skill among all 10 and how they synergize their skills. If ur everyone is dodging/avoiding blue and orange circles with right gear, ur job as a druid is a breeze. I have no exp with bosses after vale tho, i just hope i didnt waste all that gold into zealots for nothing

I’m really enjoying druid too.

I feel Ranger can contribute a lot more as a druid now.

Currently I’m running soldier gear with exuberance runes because I still had that laying around, cleric weapons, cleric trinkets and healing food, and am healing a ton!

Heimskarl Ashfiend had a build somewhere in ranger section he posted not long ago, which seems the ideal support build for raids too. It includes spirits.

I’m not running that build (yet), got something pretty similar though

nacario.9417:

Honestly at this point it looks like it really doesnt matter what gear we use, it all comes down to individual skill among all 10 and how they synergize their skills. If ur everyone is dodging/avoiding blue and orange circles with right gear, ur job as a druid is a breeze. I have no exp with bosses after vale tho, i just hope i didnt waste all that gold into zealots for nothing

Pretty much this, we’ve seen groups do it without a druid now, it all comes down to skill at the end of the day. Give it a couple of weeks and we will probably see more people opt for more DPS over a druid.

Sicarius.4639:

nacario.9417:

Honestly at this point it looks like it really doesnt matter what gear we use, it all comes down to individual skill among all 10 and how they synergize their skills. If ur everyone is dodging/avoiding blue and orange circles with right gear, ur job as a druid is a breeze. I have no exp with bosses after vale tho, i just hope i didnt waste all that gold into zealots for nothing

Pretty much this, we’ve seen groups do it without a druid now, it all comes down to skill at the end of the day. Give it a couple of weeks and we will probably see more people opt for more DPS over a druid.

that’s whats concerning me now, hopefully the deeper raid wings require more than just slight healing because raids are being cleared with or without a druid now.

Prophet.1584:

Sicarius.4639:

nacario.9417:

Honestly at this point it looks like it really doesnt matter what gear we use, it all comes down to individual skill among all 10 and how they synergize their skills. If ur everyone is dodging/avoiding blue and orange circles with right gear, ur job as a druid is a breeze. I have no exp with bosses after vale tho, i just hope i didnt waste all that gold into zealots for nothing

Pretty much this, we’ve seen groups do it without a druid now, it all comes down to skill at the end of the day. Give it a couple of weeks and we will probably see more people opt for more DPS over a druid.

that’s whats concerning me now, hopefully the deeper raid wings require more than just slight healing because raids are being cleared with or without a druid now.

I haven’t tried raiding yet but I can already say, I do not want healers to be a hard requirement. This is no the philosophy and they have always said that they did not want you to wait for that one person that plays healer to come online before you can go raiding.

With that being said, if I full dmg group can clear it that is good in my opinion. However, the full dps setup should not be the only way to beat it. Perhaps the full dmg group will do it faster, yes, but especially if you plan to pug a raid, having a healer in your group will certainly make things easier for all others. In fractals, easy as they may be, I manage to keep less good people up and running without them having to use their heal skill or needing to put much thought into surviving, thus they can focus on dps and dish out more.

And even if the “full dps” ends up being the meta, I still see druid having a place in it. Even without staff you still have glyph of empowerment and your spirits aid direct and condi dmg alike. Not to mention, you can use your Celestial avatar as a “okitten something went wrong and we need some extra healing” tool. Not to mention, grace of the land aint half bad at adding some dmg if you use verdant etching.

In short, I don’t think druids have too much to worry about.

I’m by no means an expert on this at all, but the setup I saw I liked the most was Brazil’s twitch kill of vale guardian. He had 9 DPSers and 1 full nomads druid. The druid worked as both tank and healer, which makes a ton of sense considering DPS specs typically cluster around a boss. Combined with sinister engis blasting waterfields on lightning circles, everything just made sense.

I have a baby fluffling due in like a day or so, so I’m not planning on getting good at raids for a very long time if ever due to obvious time constraints, but it’s fun to at least watch the progression. Can’t wait to see more people attempting the later bosses.

Fluffball.8307:

I’m by no means an expert on this at all, but the setup I saw I liked the most was Brazil’s twitch kill of vale guardian. He had 9 DPSers and 1 full nomads druid. The druid worked as both tank and healer, which makes a ton of sense considering DPS specs typically cluster around a boss. Combined with sinister engis blasting waterfields on lightning circles, everything just made sense.

I have a baby fluffling due in like a day or so, so I’m not planning on getting good at raids for a very long time if ever due to obvious time constraints, but it’s fun to at least watch the progression. Can’t wait to see more people attempting the later bosses.

congrats on the baby! I’ve raised 2 and that’s enough lol

I watched that kill and i’m thinking I want to gear that way with exotics, i’d rather not craft a whole new set of ascended for raids.

Prophet.1584:

congrats on the baby! I’ve raised 2 and that’s enough lol

I watched that kill and i’m thinking I want to gear that way with exotics, i’d rather not craft a whole new set of ascended for raids.

Thanks.

I’m actually not sure which way I’m going with the equipment at all, because so many teams seem viable.

I have full ascended zerker on my ranger for obvious reasons, and full ascended cele for WvW purposes. I’ve been hoarding money wondering which way the raids go. I’m tenatively crafting sinister/viper ascended, but I have stockpiled a good 1200 gold to see which direction the meta rolls. I probably can’t do this with a guild group unless they’re all parents of newborns, so in 4ish months I’ll be pugging something with the best-in-slot gear and hoping not to get kicked.

Well, since I gained a new experience today – we beat the 1st boss without a druid. We had 2 elementalists and 2 Engineers (none playing healing power).
And we were able to hold our ground just fine.

Druids are an improvement for raid mechanics. Not a necessity.
From my point of view.

That was very much my feeling for vale guardian, druids were a luxury. I’m interested in the next 2, apparently they keep getting harder.

Haven’t seen the third yet, but the 2nd boss is much much much harder than Vale Guardian.

dps/support/heal hybrid specs all the way IMHO. full DPS too fragile, full heals too low DPS.

So yeah… don’t ranger sword during Gorseval final phase lol. I don’t know why I thought that was a good idea. I just killed Gorseval in 100% zealots gear, but I think clerics was equally viable/good.

it’s no longer usefull to speak about DRUID IN RAIDS cuz there will be no drood required in these contents now ( af doesnt pop so why take a heal spec if u cannot heal when u want)
thanks for attention

Roy Dreadstorm.2093:

it’s no longer usefull to speak about DRUID IN RAIDS cuz there will be no drood required in these contents now ( af doesnt pop so why take a heal spec if u cannot heal when u want)
thanks for attention

Maybe you should fight a boss other than Vale Guardian and then say that. Druid is fine and Astral Force generation is fine even after today’s hotfix.

thanks dude but i don’t play staff or healin druid. that’s just it , u can’t even create ur own build , u r totally forced to go in a certain way

Plenty of people have killed the first boss with a DPS ranger, you are not forced to go heals. There’s no class that’s so bad you can’t take them into raids as a DPS.

and btw the fundamental principles of gw2 is to not have this awfull trinity they said it times and times again …

im not complaining about the core ranger im complaining about the druid which i paid for going down like ben laden in a plane , i love the old power ranger , no prob with that , it’s just so sad u’r now forced to go heal gears to be usefull in a druid spec
it reduces A LOT the number of builds available in EVERY CONTENT not only raid , or ur “vale guard”

DPS druid is useful, i play DPS condi druid in fractals and have seen ppl play zerker druid in raids as well. There are druid builds other than healer that are PvE viable.

u want a druid ranger dps when any other specs of the game do more damages , that’s your choice , not mine .

Yes, but druids make up for it by buffing their party members atleast. Spotter, Frost, Sun spirit, Glyph and Grace of the Lands are all things a DPS druid can bring that massively buff party DPS.

u know what ? i was using grace of the land to maximise my dps and my allies dps , beside a basic LB/S/A spotter , it was just amazing , provided bit of heal for the party , good mobility , and WAS still not top dps in a solo content (even with grace of the land u r far away a 100B warr as exemple) , so do they necessarely have to nerf us like this ? i don’t think so , i’m totally aware this new AF gen was maybe a bit tooo easy , but in such a case , just reduces the heals on CA form or nerf druidic clarity to make it fit with pvp I WOULD UNDERSTAND , yet it’s just non-sense nerfing

thats the point!

lets see what we have.
dmg buff and heal

1. we dont do much dmg
2. buffs are cool
3. heals are cool

so we are with 2 main things. if you think one of those are too strong. why not nerf them. reduce the heal. reduce the dmg amount you get by the buffs.

but god kitten dont nerf the mechanic itself. you dont need to ruin a mechanic that is key for the spec if you can just reduce the dmg / heal or dmg provided by the buffs

SoftLight.2175:

thats the point!

lets see what we have.
dmg buff and heal

1. we dont do much dmg
2. buffs are cool
3. heals are cool

so we are with 2 main things. if you think one of those are too strong. why not nerf them. reduce the heal. reduce the dmg amount you get by the buffs.

but god kitten dont nerf the mechanic itself. you dont need to ruin a mechanic that is key for the spec if you can just reduce the dmg / heal or dmg provided by the buffs

exactly