Guild Wars 2

I tried necro/reaper, guard/dragonhunter, mesmer/chrono in WvW, but still found it backline healer druid has most fun to play.

But yet, why is everybody hate druid?

Why?

I don’t think anyone but the enemy team hates Druid in WvW.

Druid Isn’t hated because its druid. Druid is hated because its attached to ranger. Which has a very bad reputation in WvW (and in the game in general)

Rangers are a fairly easy class to pick up. This makes it pretty common for newer players to choose it as there first character. But very few rangers take the time to actually master it. Causing a very large number of “Mediocre” rangers to be around.

These rangers are often caught out and killed. Or seen plinking away from walls when they could be off flipping a camp or in the field outside of the wall trying to snipe off singles.

This combined with a class mechanic that is rather poorly suited for WvW’s primary combat (Our pet dies and can’t dodge) caused ranger to have limited effectiveness in some aspects of WvW.

There is also the general stigma against any pet based classes. Pet classes in general are an easy target for salt. As its easier to dismiss someones skill level if they are a player “being carried by A.I”.

Druid Healing is also a little bit less reliable compared to say a frontline ele. As we don’t synergise as well with the typical frontline party comp. And many people aren’t willing to give up there spot in a frontline party for a druid. Regardless of how good the druid is. So the druid is often confined to a backline,random party where they receive limited boon support and are MUCH More likely to get caught by soft CC and killed. Offering further “proof” of there uselesness.

These all combined cause people to look down on rangers and druids respectively.

The funny part is. Spiritbeast (the upcoming elite spec) addresses many of these flaws in ways that may allow us to operate WITHOUT a frontline party. So the hope is opinions will start to change.

But ranger will always be the “go too” class for new players alongside warrior. So the stigma will probably always be there to some degree.

To put it simply. There is a lot of separate factors contributing to a stereotype that rangers and by extension druids are inherently bad players. Many people are incapable of thinking for themselves so they see a ranger/druid and think "oh god a kittenter’ and as soon as the player dies regardless of HOW they die they feel vindicated in there opinion and thus get to enjoy there .025 cm kitten boost.

Ignore them. Play what you want. But play it to the limit of its effectiveness. Get good enough at what you decide to do that you can do it RELIABLY in nearly any situation. And eventually the opinions of the people that actually matter will change.

Regardless just play and enjoy the game. kitten da haters.

Thanks for your detail explanation Shadelang. I will continue my fun druid, and may be Soulbeast in near future. Cheers.

I agree with the majority of what Shadelang has said, it is well said, but he left out an important point. A well played Ranger/Druid is amazing to watch and insanely frustrating to fight. We have all the tools at our disposal, you just need to learn how to use them effectively, as he said, few take the time since you can also play it as a brainless bearbow bot.

I love playing Minstrel Druid healer in WvW, in open field it is not awesome, you won’t get lots of bags, but it really comes into it’s own when you are trying to bash open a gate, you are virtually invincible, you can put down some very serious PBAoE heals, tons of long Regeneration applications at near 500/s heal and condi removals on those operating the rams and then when pushing though the choke.

Do a good job and people will notice.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

I agree with the majority of what Shadelang has said, it is well said, but he left out an important point. A well played Ranger/Druid is amazing to watch and insanely frustrating to fight. We have all the tools at our disposal, you just need to learn how to use them effectively, as he said, few take the time since you can also play it as a brainless bearbow bot.

I love playing Minstrel Druid healer in WvW, in open field it is not awesome, you won’t get lots of bags, but it really comes into it’s own when you are trying to bash open a gate, you are virtually invincible, you can put down some very serious PBAoE heals, tons of long Regeneration applications at near 500/s heal and condi removals on those operating the rams and then when pushing though the choke.

Do a good job and people will notice.

Heim you don’t need to go full minstrels to do that. You only need to have around 800 healing power, staff and regen from shouts.

I don’t even run shouts on my Druid , well the elite for stab.
QD Staff 5 and AF 4 gives so much water field uptime. Regen from Healing Spring and traited Warhorn. gg.

Because most of them are useless staff campers that spam laser beam at 1200 range.
I put them in the same bin as reapers that also camp staff at 1200 range.

Then there are the longbow rangers whose damage is so pathetic that it’s pretty clear they are running too much toughness/vita/healing power, while again camping at 1500 range.

It doesn’t help that the thing druids do best is run away. Not even being sour about that, it literally is what they do best and so attracts those who camp at range and contribute nothing and either runaway early in a bad fight or just get ganked.

anduriell.6280:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

I agree with the majority of what Shadelang has said, it is well said, but he left out an important point. A well played Ranger/Druid is amazing to watch and insanely frustrating to fight. We have all the tools at our disposal, you just need to learn how to use them effectively, as he said, few take the time since you can also play it as a brainless bearbow bot.

I love playing Minstrel Druid healer in WvW, in open field it is not awesome, you won’t get lots of bags, but it really comes into it’s own when you are trying to bash open a gate, you are virtually invincible, you can put down some very serious PBAoE heals, tons of long Regeneration applications at near 500/s heal and condi removals on those operating the rams and then when pushing though the choke.

Do a good job and people will notice.

Heim you don’t need to go full minstrels to do that. You only need to have around 800 healing power, staff and regen from shouts.

Well, you don’t need any healing power really, but I prefer to have 1500, 100% boon duration with +50% outgoing healing because it just works better. No need to deal any damage, so may as well focus on healing. I also do not use shouts for the Regeneration because I use glyphs for the heals/cc/clears and light fields.

Guys, thanks for the idea sharing.

I am currently trying Cleric / Soldier druid with around 1000 healing and power – I love the feeling of killing while healing.

Druid in WvW performs well as a burst healer. It helps pushing harder, longer and deeper. To use it properly, it requires good team coordination, good communication and a commander who knows how to use it at his advantage (aka aggressive af).

In pug zerg, there is a lack of team coordination and hardly any communication. Add to this some poor knowledge of druid as a burst healer. No way it’s gonna be successful. Your best bet is to join a guild group who usually plays with a druid in their comp.

Earix.5684:

…pushing harder, longer and deeper…

The more of that the better, I say.

The main reason Druid is general not seen as particularly good in zergs is because the ele’s in the group provide most of the healing you could ever need. Even the Guardians can put out some solid AoE healing if they all remember to detonate thier staff orbs right as they cast them.

Druid’s not terrible, but when the zerg’s already got 7 front line ele’s, you’re contribution is that much less and are often better off bringing something else, if if it just means ditching staff for a longbow.

We’re likely to see more impact after PoF comes out with SB and Druid may see more of a desired role if people start rolling Weaver instead of Tempest.

Most ranger/druid skills offer absolutely nothing to wvw gameplay and most rangers/druids seem to be newcomers to wvw based on their overuse of LB4 (counter intuitive to wvw gameplay) and LB5 (which essentially roots you while doing almost no damage to anything). Most are overconfident in their abilities and easy to kill. Too many rangers/druids in a zerg will usually get the entire zerg killed, and most of the better commanders will usually just kick them from the squad.