Guild Wars 2

Hello Ranger Forum,

I’ve never played a ranger and have decided to make a druid to be my new main. I’ve always really liked nature-ey healing type classes/builds and am hoping the druid is as awesome as I’ve seen it look. I’m casual in terms of pve, primarily just open world and seeing what content I can 2-man with my friend. I like both pvp and roaming, with a preference for roaming.

What I’d like to do is have good sustain, I don’t really care about bursting people down (I can go play shatter mes etc. if I want to do that), what I really want is crazy heals for myself and friend and to be able to outlast. I don’t mind stalemating against tanks. I also really like the kiting play style, which of course means ranged. Heal and kite is something I used to love playing. So, goals are

1)rely on sustain rather than burst to win fights

2)heal friend in addition to myself

3)be able to kite very well (not in that order of importance).

I’ve seen videos where people do this, having crazy healing and good enough sustained dmg to win a fight. So basically I’d really appreciate some build advice. One question in particular is re. weapons: I see people play with GS a lot, either GS/LB or GS/staff. I’d like to play staff I think, but LB looks really awesome too; is LB/staff a horrible idea? Any comments to help give me some basic understanding in terms of weapon choice for the above bunker/healer/kiter type build would be great.

Thanks a lot rangers/druids, looking forward to joining your community!

Once the site gets updated I’ll be creating a list of Meta builds and Templates for people like you to browse through which playstyle they like most.

Till then I suppose you might like something like… This?
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNBmYD7kQFoXQskFwlFgrFskJYwz0c6QtJZFAOAOHuFXjrEnnG-TJxHABsv/ASlBA4iAEwTAAA
It’s my personal favorite, naturally has alternatives like BM instead of NM, so please think about it only as a template.

But this is a build that has absolutely everything in it. High Heals, sustained damage, tunneled spike, group utility (Stealth-reviving) and has very high sustain.
Lacks the “boom damage” of other builds, though.

Can you look through it and let me know if you like the overall idea or do you prefer a different approach?

Thanks a lot! I think I get the idea, the survival skills giving condi removal, and the warhorn for extra survivability (I think). I’m hoping to really play as ranged, I don’t really want to melee when avoidable; where does the dmg come from in this setup? Pet, or MH sword, or? Also (forgive me) what is the point in “Guard!”, is it to keep the pet alive if they start to focus it (do people do that?)?

NM and WS both seem good. Does anyone use glyphs, or are they bad? For roaming, does anyone take Natural Stride, or do we get mobility from other sources?

Thanks a ton for the help, not a ton of time to play so info from here helps a lot!

MSFone.3026:

Thanks a lot! I think I get the idea, the survival skills giving condi removal, and the warhorn for extra survivability (I think). I’m hoping to really play as ranged, I don’t really want to melee when avoidable; where does the dmg come from in this setup? Pet, or MH sword, or? Also (forgive me) what is the point in “Guard!”, is it to keep the pet alive if they start to focus it (do people do that?)?

NM and WS both seem good. Does anyone use glyphs, or are they bad? For roaming, does anyone take Natural Stride, or do we get mobility from other sources?

Thanks a ton for the help, not a ton of time to play so info from here helps a lot!

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/“Guard!”
The point is reducing damage. Damage come from pets specially Bristlebacks F2. My question would actually be why are you taking NM over BM. By taking WHaO, BM and soldier runes it should have more cleanse and build up CA faster IMO.

Ah ok so “Guard” keeps pet alive, which is your dmg, and staff and sw/wh are for heals and keeping you alive. Thanks.

Is that how it goes with most sustain druid builds, main source of dmg is pet?

How does BM and WHaO give better condi cleanse than what he had before?

MSFone.3026:

Ah ok so “Guard” keeps pet alive, which is your dmg, and staff and sw/wh are for heals and keeping you alive. Thanks.

Is that how it goes with most sustain druid builds, main source of dmg is pet?

How does BM and WHaO give better condi cleanse than what he had before?

Guard kills the pet. It’s a 50% AoE damage transference (to the pet) with some might stacking for the pet, last time I checked if you swapped the pet it wouldn’t transfer the damage to the new pet (working as a damage reduction instead).

With BM you can trait for cooldown reduction on shouts (guard,SotP and WHaO) and it increases pet damage by a lot.
Runes of the soldier makes all shout skills cleanse a condition , It also improves sustain a bit more than runes of the scrapper.

The damage in this build comes from pet and in occasional spikes from Sigil of Air / Fire (which has always been the main source of damage in Power Ranger’s setup). Basically you get similar damage output from Staff and Sword but Sword helps you apply Poison which lowers enemy healing (I swap to sword only when I know the enemy can’t defend; SotP + Warhorn#4 + Quickness + Bristle F2 is a death sentence to most builds and naturally provides 25 might).
Guard still isn’t updated on site. What it does is make 50% of the damage to your allies be transferred to pet instead.

Reason why NM instead of BM is simple. I can get everything I need from BM (Quickness, Swiftness, AoE regen, pet damage in terms of Might that I couldn’t get in BM tree) but I get much more in terms of utility (AoE stealth via Horn + SmokeScale, technical immunity to blindness thx to Horn).

And while people do not realize this – The build is a Diamond Skin to Power Damage even with Offensive Stats. And since you are a healer – it’s not that hard to keep your pet alive.

But as I said – this build lacks the burst of other builds. It’s not an offensive one. It’s a tactical and strategical one. One that can slowly trade and sustain with his enemy and purge him down once the opportunity comes. But the highest power of this build comes in team play (which OP tends to do). The AoE heals, Damage mitigation, Blasts, Super Speed + Invis upon leaving CAF for safe stomps and revives, easy rotating…

If I decide to hit Troll Unguent (heal) and Protect me above 90% health, I will be stuck at 95-100% HP for 6 seconds. And there’s nothing a power class can do about it. And since this build has Vitality, cleanse and extremely easy access to CAF – there’s no way you’ll die to any Condi class.

BM traitline doesn’t offer more condi cleanse. It’s technically the community’s preference for Might Stacking (that you can do with Guard and SotP now regardless) and source of AoE regen (that you have in Warhorn in NM).

About the rune, I started this build with Rune of Lyssa (casting an Elite converts 5 condis into boons, which is quite awesome) but as I said – this is technically a template.

Thanks! That makes a lot of sense, really appreciate all the responses. Looking forward to trying out the build, Tragic, thanks. I can see the choice between NM and BM being pretty open, I’m looking forward to trying both.

A few questions remaining:

1)Are glyphs considered “bad”?
2)Is running LB as a druid dumb because you can’t build for both sustain and LB? In particular would staff/LB be bad?
3)Is primal echoes (staff trait) ever taken over Druidic Clarity, or does DC provide such condi cleanse it’s too good to pass up?
4)In wvw, what do people do in terms of movement speed? Take Natural Stride?

Thanks again.

MSFone.3026:

A few questions remaining:

1)Are glyphs considered “bad”?
2)Is running LB as a druid dumb because you can’t build for both sustain and LB? In particular would staff/LB be bad?
3)Is primal echoes (staff trait) ever taken over Druidic Clarity, or does DC provide such condi cleanse it’s too good to pass up?
4)In wvw, what do people do in terms of movement speed? Take Natural Stride?

Thanks again.

1. They aren’t. They are, however, almost always picked for melee combat. That’s why I didn’t include them for this build. They are of a great use in other builds.
2. It’s not. However, druid becomes much more utility oriented since you’ll have to sacrifice most of Healing Power for offense. Therefore only interesting CAF abilities for you are #3 and #5 and potentially leaving the form for Celestial Shadow
3. Not in PvP. We lack condition cleanse plus DC is a stun breaker. There’s no reason not to pick this trait.
4. They either go for Beast Mastery for perma swiftness and in most other builds – they use Natural Stride. I use NS for Open World PvE all the time. I haven’t been to WvW for almost a year now, though.

Tragic Positive.9356:

MSFone.3026:

A few questions remaining:

1)Are glyphs considered “bad”?
2)Is running LB as a druid dumb because you can’t build for both sustain and LB? In particular would staff/LB be bad?
3)Is primal echoes (staff trait) ever taken over Druidic Clarity, or does DC provide such condi cleanse it’s too good to pass up?
4)In wvw, what do people do in terms of movement speed? Take Natural Stride?

Thanks again.

1. They aren’t. They are, however, almost always picked for melee combat. That’s why I didn’t include them for this build. They are of a great use in other builds.
2. It’s not. However, druid becomes much more utility oriented since you’ll have to sacrifice most of Healing Power for offense. Therefore only interesting CAF abilities for you are #3 and #5 and potentially leaving the form for Celestial Shadow
3. Not in PvP. We lack condition cleanse plus DC is a stun breaker. There’s no reason not to pick this trait.
4. They either go for Beast Mastery for perma swiftness and in most other builds – they use Natural Stride. I use NS for Open World PvE all the time. I haven’t been to WvW for almost a year now, though.

Ah, ok thanks. That leads into another question I had: I’m guessing from your response to 2) that CAF is pretty dependent on healing power, how true is this of druid in general? Do the abilities scale in a way that makes not stacking healing dumb?

Also following up on 2), if one wanted to run LB, is marksmanship mandatory? Or is it only a difference in stat allocation?

For any roamers, what kind of stats are you looking at if you are not running glass? Or is glass the way to go even if you want to run healer with a partner? How important is healing power in wvw for druids?

MSFone.3026:

Tragic Positive.9356:

MSFone.3026:

A few questions remaining:

1)Are glyphs considered “bad”?
2)Is running LB as a druid dumb because you can’t build for both sustain and LB? In particular would staff/LB be bad?
3)Is primal echoes (staff trait) ever taken over Druidic Clarity, or does DC provide such condi cleanse it’s too good to pass up?
4)In wvw, what do people do in terms of movement speed? Take Natural Stride?

Thanks again.

1. They aren’t. They are, however, almost always picked for melee combat. That’s why I didn’t include them for this build. They are of a great use in other builds.
2. It’s not. However, druid becomes much more utility oriented since you’ll have to sacrifice most of Healing Power for offense. Therefore only interesting CAF abilities for you are #3 and #5 and potentially leaving the form for Celestial Shadow
3. Not in PvP. We lack condition cleanse plus DC is a stun breaker. There’s no reason not to pick this trait.
4. They either go for Beast Mastery for perma swiftness and in most other builds – they use Natural Stride. I use NS for Open World PvE all the time. I haven’t been to WvW for almost a year now, though.

Ah, ok thanks. That leads into another question I had: I’m guessing from your response to 2) that CAF is pretty dependent on healing power, how true is this of druid in general? Do the abilities scale in a way that makes not stacking healing dumb?

Also following up on 2), if one wanted to run LB, is marksmanship mandatory? Or is it only a difference in stat allocation?
For any roamers, what kind of stats are you looking at if you are not running glass? Or is glass the way to go even if you want to run healer with a partner? How important is healing power in wvw for druids?

Healing Power is useful but not required. The amount you want depends on your role for Zerg support you would want to get whatever you can for roaming celestial should work (but I’m not sure because I haven’t roamed with druid at all).
For raiding it’s common to stack as much as you can , but when you are in a experienced group with lots of off healing you don’t actually need any healing power (Condi druid is preferable).
Fractals can be done without healing power .
Druid heals scale well with healing power but most skills have a high enough base healing.

MSFone.3026:

Ah, ok thanks. That leads into another question I had: I’m guessing from your response to 2) that CAF is pretty dependent on healing power, how true is this of druid in general? Do the abilities scale in a way that makes not stacking healing dumb?

Also following up on 2), if one wanted to run LB, is marksmanship mandatory? Or is it only a difference in stat allocation?

For any roamers, what kind of stats are you looking at if you are not running glass? Or is glass the way to go even if you want to run healer with a partner? How important is healing power in wvw for druids?

1. You don’t really have to stack healing power with it. It will result in a completely different play-style, though.
2. MM isn’t mandatory. Lead the Wind trait is a nice help to LB but it isn’t a necessity. I find Quick Draw much beneficial to LB playstyle than MM by a long shot.

I’m not 100% sure but I’ve heard Condi (trapper) builds had a great success in WvW. My guildie usually plays Cleric when they are out on a WvW guild mission.

This has been a ton of help getting the basic lay of the land for druid play, thanks a lot.

Is it true that pet dmg and stats are independent of yours? As in no matter how I gear the pet will do the same dmg?

MSFone.3026:

This has been a ton of help getting the basic lay of the land for druid play, thanks a lot.

Is it true that pet dmg and stats are independent of yours? As in no matter how I gear the pet will do the same dmg?

pets have independent stats , you can trait into beastmastery oto buff the pet with boons / extra stats then share the boons over and over using heal as one /MDG with nature magic to make sure the pet is supplied with more than enough might + boons to transfer through heal as one.

so it doesn’t matter what gear you use but again going this route just means you’ll have to balance your personal damage with the pet and Self sustain to stay alive long enough to benift from the built up boons.

just going Zerkers+using a squishy pet won’t get you far on a druid as you pretty much give up Damage immunities like SoS or need to choose between a extra glyph or Guard for a 50% damage reduction (but taking guard also means you’ll need a pet with enough hp or a druid Gear with enough healing/protection ect to take the extra damage , and in doing so reduces damage output which the druid will have to compensate for)

after working out how pets and the druids combat cycles its more about Power balance between pet and druid working as one rather than the Focus on large numbers.

if the druid puts too much investment into the pet , the druid suffers vice versa.

MSFone.3026:

This has been a ton of help getting the basic lay of the land for druid play, thanks a lot.

Is it true that pet dmg and stats are independent of yours? As in no matter how I gear the pet will do the same dmg?

Yes pet stats are completely independent from your own.
Taking BM gives it an increase of 150 in pow, pre, vit, tough; 300 ferocity; 10% damage while you are above 90% health and 25% move speed.

Traits that increase pet stat are Natural mending , Go for the eyes , Expertise Training and Lingering Magic .
There are other traits the improve pets like Fortifying Bond.

For more information about pets click here .

Wow, well that is pretty awesome (coming from mesmer main :P).

Here’s another if anyone is still interested: In a power setup for wvw (where e.g. you can get boon duration from food/gear), is there ever a reason to take NM over BM if you are not using warhorn? Looking at the two trees, I just can’t see how NM is superior, almost due to resounding timbre giving almost as much sustain by itself. Or does NM compete more with WS? Even there, I can’t see how NM would be taken over WS, again without using warhorn also. Any comments appreciated

MSFone.3026:

Wow, well that is pretty awesome (coming from mesmer main :P).

Here’s another if anyone is still interested: In a power setup for wvw (where e.g. you can get boon duration from food/gear), is there ever a reason to take NM over BM if you are not using warhorn? Looking at the two trees, I just can’t see how NM is superior, almost due to resounding timbre giving almost as much sustain by itself. Or does NM compete more with WS? Even there, I can’t see how NM would be taken over WS, again without using warhorn also. Any comments appreciated

NM is taken for pet buffing and a bit of sustain AFAK, WS is taken for condi cleansing and some sustain. WS used to be a required trait line but druid can replace it with verdant etching.
You can take NM over WS when you have Druid with verdant etching or (if you feel comfortable) druid with shouts and runes of the trooper/soldier.

For raids you take NM over BM because of the amount of boons you get making it easy to fully buff your pet through Fortifying Bond.