Guild Wars 2

Looks pretty much like what I would recommend as well.

I see why you didn’t take it, but GS is just so ridiculously good for zerg fighting. Automatically avoiding like a third of all the damage… sometimes just being a body is more useful than utility.

But why?
A magi/cleric,
Ele, guard and warrior setup with this gearing will feel far better.

Just an example I’m seeing is that you have almost none of your skills traited putting you behind these other classes right out the gate.

I’m all for making something from seemingly nothing but I’d hate to see someone run something they love that they would love and play even better on a different class. You deserve better for yourself.

If you are serious about healing I can post my warrior healing build I play on occasion.

I don’t disagree w/ Justine, except the part they’d love on another class more. That is totally objective. I HATE warrior – that’s me though :P I appreciate the effort for guide! And you CAN be effective, I may trade some specialization, and choose more healer not try to be too much. I LOVE GS, but now sw/wh is better imo and kinda need staff for heals.

Yeah, ele support/heals, guard and well, sorta warrior can do “better” in frontline heal/support role. Again, they play differently so I disagree that you may like them better. I did try Ele same role; and personally ended up liking it over Druid. I use my shout trooper build instead for Druid, more small/roaming but funnnn. :P

But, go try man if u can make it work for you or others who DONT want to be ele, guard, etc. then awesome!

I don’t think class is important for zergs. You represent like 0.2% of the zergs power, and as long as you are meaningfully contributing, which a druid obviously can, you’re good to go. It’s all about positioning and little about anything else.

I always point to a video some guy made back in BGs glory days of him running a front line guardian completely naked in massive zerg clashes to prove that point. He wasn’t leeching, he was throwing up boons, blocking attacks for teamies, etc. Just do your thing.

Fluffball.8307:

I don’t think class is important for zergs. You represent like 0.2% of the zergs power, and as long as you are meaningfully contributing, which a druid obviously can, you’re good to go. It’s all about positioning and little about anything else.

I always point to a video some guy made back in BGs glory days of him running a front line guardian completely naked in massive zerg clashes to prove that point. He wasn’t leeching, he was throwing up boons, blocking attacks for teamies, etc. Just do your thing.

doesn’t that exactly prove that class and what your bring does matter?

Justine.6351:

doesn’t that exactly prove that class and what your bring does matter?

I see what you’re saying, but everyone can do that. A naked druid would bring a bunch of water fields and condi clear and spotter or whatever. Zergs are all about being a body in the right place on TS.

I almost exclusively roam, but sometimes I’ll join a zerg in pure glass armor and I don’t feel bad about it. Especially now that the rallybot thing is gone, there is really no penalty for running around high on heroin doing nothing useful or whatever it is people like to do.

Justine.6351:

But why?
A magi/cleric,
Ele, guard and warrior setup with this gearing will feel far better.

Just an example I’m seeing is that you have almost none of your skills traited putting you behind these other classes right out the gate.

I’m all for making something from seemingly nothing but I’d hate to see someone run something they love that they would love and play even better on a different class. You deserve better for yourself.

If you are serious about healing I can post my warrior healing build I play on occasion.

I’d like to see that.

Jim Hunter.6821:

Justine.6351:

But why?
A magi/cleric,
Ele, guard and warrior setup with this gearing will feel far better.

Just an example I’m seeing is that you have almost none of your skills traited putting you behind these other classes right out the gate.

I’m all for making something from seemingly nothing but I’d hate to see someone run something they love that they would love and play even better on a different class. You deserve better for yourself.

If you are serious about healing I can post my warrior healing build I play on occasion.

I’d like to see that.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vJAQRBMdlG2IPHU5hdegLIQHihrgCDgEoA0cIFqhcFy6SA-TVyDABXp87p9HuR9niPIAAcCAQRrQe6Cg/JAQoSwAAIA8zf+zf+zfOKA/C-w

Focus on position and playing defensively while laying out easy 600radi heals, regen and condi removal. 4k shouts, 500tic regen. Has a little bit of hard cc for take downs.

I won’t pretend like it’s some uber face tanking healer but the ease of use is what really brings it into play wrather than trying to support people with a color pencil, this is like a 6" paint brush.

For guardian I would probably go with this:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQNAW5el8AhWhYpQwWIwPELPEV27NfZAWA0Adg8wf8NPA-TFyDQBA4CAgHdDPZ/BLp+jKVCCvnAQwU+VsDCQAAEA/8n/8n/8n9zf+zf+zfOKA/C-w
It brings more to the table than warrior but it’s not quite as simplistic and has channel times. Haven’t played it geared up though unfortunately.

Both builds at first glance are pretty sad looking but they have more heals and support (& variety of those) in them if you truely take a closer look and try them out for a few hours.

Dovkan.3519:

This is what I run in WvW. Comments?

Nice guide. I was not expecting it to be detailed and presented as such. Many kudos on that alone. Any plans to attach a short video show-casing the build?

I used to run something similar, but now use a more offensive block-buster Druid with Marksmanship and Beastmastery to disrupt Guards and Heralds in zerg clashes.

Just a question: As a front line druid in wvw zergs, trying to maximize outgoing healing, wouldn’t this be the rare occasion where Lingering Light would be a good option?

Hi OGDead.

Yes if your focus is maximizing healing output I would say lingering light is a good option. Grace of the land on the other hand gives extra dmg. The other grandmaster gives more cc. More a matter of preference I guess but if you only want to focus on healing I’d say go for it, the blind is a nice touch too

Your server doesn’t kick rangers out of the squad? Lucky you.

cafard.8953:

Your server doesn’t kick rangers out of the squad? Lucky you.

I don’t understand why druid is treated this poorly.

True that tempest is overall the stronger healer. But druid can do somewhat decent as well. Druid also has better mobility than tempest which means being easier to keep up and survive.

Any commander dictating profession comps in a PUG zerg is a total failure of a commander. I wouldn’t want to follow that guy.

So moving on passed that crap show of a thread in a different section where I feel like I made good comments only to have a really misinformed guy make 2 pages worth of nonsensical posts that the whole community can see, hurting ranger/druid reputations as a whole; glad to see you posted this here.

TL;DR of my other post is playing you’re role. My guild doesn’t pugmand or generally open invite, so we expect you to run specific builds because we’re running a specific comp and the build needs to flow with us, and you have to earn your stripes regardless of what you play, but especially on Ranger/Druid, because of the stigma created and reinforced by people like in that other thread.

My main question to you is whether or not you’ve tried picking up a the rooting utility in your build, no regearing required, since the patch. Since the boon meta no longer has the capability of maintaining a full uptime on Resistance, if you’re in a guild organized group and have your stab from them, you can run entangle and ancient seeds, and even pick up muddy terrain if you want to go all out on the immobilize utility.

To anyone else out there, I’ll extract my quote on the more general topic that I referred to so you’re working with all the information.

The detailed guide and time it took is a much appreciated addition, so thank you for taking the time and effort to do so!

Okay, misconceptions. First and foremost; players make the meta, not devs. Also, WvW is all inclusive, ANet has no control over player interaction in that gamemode though, let alone on community sites and VoIP, but you are capable of joining and playing WvW on anything and do anything you want.

Time to educate.

Organized guild groups are all running a boon meta powered by Durability Runes and how insanely OP their AoE proc is alone, on top of what the stats are.

Here’s the bread and butter party composition:

• 2 Guardians
• Glint/Mallyx Herald
• Tempest
• X

Essentially, Heralds maintain F2 and camp Mallyx as much as possible spamming resistance as much as possible. Guardians boon support, cleanses, some heals. Tempest CC, heals, damage. Whole group moves as one with no real concept of a “backline” anymore.

What is X? Reapers, Berserkers, Scrappers, or in rare circumstance Chronomancers. X is looking to maximize damage and unique utility in their position. Reapers are perfect at this role; high damage, can push with group, boon strip. Berserkers are like the harder to kill, higher constant damage version of that role, but don’t bring the strips. Scrapper works very similarly to Berserker but brings much more group utility with AoE heal/cleanse, water fields, gyros, etc. Mesmer is boonshare with veil/portal utility.

Where/how does or would Druid work in this equation? The damage Druid brings is honestly inconsequential at the end of the day (not useless, don’t wet noodle). It ends up having the same fate as chronomancers do; 1 or 2 with the absolutely perfect build and ability can have some useful utility, but stacking more than that is wasting the opportunity value of X’s potential role in party/squad compositions. What you bring as a Druid are CC/Heals and Superspeed (only Tempests and Scrappers can even offer this to party members besides you, it’s important).

You will work your kitten off to earn that spot as X in a party composition, and are a liability if you are costing your group too much damage. A good Druid that can roll with the group can be a valuable asset that assists with tons of sustain and the ability to provide some setup for the rest of the group to dish out damage and possibly add some meaningful cleave every once in awhile (yes you should be staff/melee). A bad Druid thinks their damage is amazing and contributes little to nothing to the team/squad dynamic, which is 99% of the other Druids I come across.

Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with running damage or LB or whatever else the heart desires. But given what the metagame is, at most you’re ganking for the main squad while the main squad does their thing, and at worst, well, you’re fodder, and a waste of a squad slot for any commander looking to run an organized group and not a pug group (recognize this when you join on commanders, guild groups tend to be very demanding of pugs or unaccepting entirely).

PS as a long time Ranger/Druid main and forum community member, I adamantly insist to my guild leader that he kick all Rangers/Druids from squad. I absolutely partake in the criticisms the community places upon the class, because 99% of the representation the class gets from the ingame population is useless pew pew rallybots.

If you take issue with that, then do what I had to do to earn my place amongst the guild I am in and people I play the game with, accept that skepticism and opinion people have of you being on that class, then go above and beyond what they have come to expect from it and prove them wrong.

PPS I don’t like coming across bad players, but I especially don’t like coming across bad rangers/druids. We wouldn’t have the reputation that people give our class if people didn’t live up to that reputation on a widespread level. Whining and crying about it on the forums won’t change that perspective; playing better and being better will. In the time it takes you to whine that people don’t like what or how you’re playing even though they could definitely be justified in their opinion of your skillset as a player, you could have been improving that skillset, changing peoples opinions, and proving people wrong.

For reference!!!

We run an organized guild group, not a pug group. Most of the time we aren’t even running open invite, because pugs not on VoIP are essentially wasting slots and giving them a squad slot would be reinforcing a counterproductive behavior.

So to get into our squad, you already have to be on VoIP, and then one of our party organizers asks what you’re running and will build parties accordingly to maximize the potential for the squad to be running as many effective meta groups as possible.

Generally, that means that most people get to stay in squad. At which point we ask kindly to bring a pug friendly class like Guard/Rev/Ele/Necro to maximize effectiveness potential without people having to micromanage you. If you don’t swap, again, you’re a pug on TS, so you won’t be kicked outright for being a different class, barring the situation where we’d have max squad members, which doesn’t happen (even if I tell my leader to kick people, he makes those calls, not me, he knows I’m just pointing out ineffective people).

You WILL get kicked though if you get 1-pushed constantly, don’t roll with the tag on movements in fights, or get caught doing something stupid like pew pewing into a reflect wall (pug rangers tend to be triple offenders on these things by the way). Does that make us toxic? Maybe. But we’re an organized guild group. Theres a level of expected competency, and anybody is free to tag up at anytime and take all the pugs we won’t.

There are 2 types of people; those that take criticism and use it to improve and get better, and those that reject critism and ragequit. We don’t care how many people do the latter, because we’re only looking to run with people with the former mindset.

Part 2 reference!!!

Good to read Jcbro. Seems you know what’s up in WvW lately.

Haven’t been playing of WvW for quite some time now, and I have done it a lot, interesting to see what it’s about nowadays.

I remember a thread not long ago someone asked for a good WvW ranger/druid zerg-build, and there were some pretty well known rangers in these forum, at least to me, that posted melee builds with no toughness and no stability and 1 stunbreaker, also not mentioning to depend on good squad compositioning, and saying that 1 stunbreaker was “very important!”. I was kind of shocked really, thought they really knew their stuff. Which they maybe do, but for sure not for WvW zergfights.

A good reminder, also for me, that these forums also holds players that are willing to help, which is nice, but maybe overrate themselves a bit about their knowledge of certain game types.

The main issue i have with this build is that untill your group needs a heal, you’re truly useless, and you can’t be useless for so long while in frontline.

jcbroe.4329:

My main question to you is whether or not you’ve tried picking up a the rooting utility in your build, no regearing required, since the patch. Since the boon meta no longer has the capability of maintaining a full uptime on Resistance, if you’re in a guild organized group and have your stab from them, you can run entangle and ancient seeds, and even pick up muddy terrain if you want to go all out on the immobilize utility.

While keeping the bunker/healer idea, i also think that it’s the way to go (and it works pretty well) :

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNBmYD7kSFokFsWQwjFgqFswJYwt0aaP95Fs4aYNDr+WAoENmG-TlSNABe+AA0W9HA0BM+BB4zjAQ+KBVX53y7Po7FAQZNDBAQAM0hO0hO0h2O35O35O3ZpAubXF-w

@Bast Bow;
Good to see you! Yeah I’ve been in a WvW guild for a few years now with the same guys. I had to work my kitten off on Ranger/Druid to prove the point that we have a use in WvW, so I started multiclassing on everything to understand the classes in every gamemode, on top of just WvW to see how they work.

I’m at the point right now where I won’t Druid if I’m not in a stab party. I can’t push on tag without stability on heavy pushes, and organized guild groups alternate reflects so there is a reflect wall covering their position relative to the other group at all times, so being a gank/bow player, while still effective, essentially boils down to you fighting enemies in the same role as you, and because groups roll as one, it’s unlikely that you get any caster picks with a bow anymore if they’re part of the organized group. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still an effective way to play and most Commander’s worth their salt will appreciate you, but guild groups probably won’t extend an invite to you if they’re building a particular composition, which shouldn’t be taken as a slight in any way, because people rolling with the organized group, peeling freecasters and enemy gank is invaluable.

But yeah lol, I don’t think it’s fair to anyone to just say “run this” and not explain it’s role and how to go about playing that role, ESPECIALLY with the community perception, even when most organized guilds that I’m aware of run 1 or a few Druids for heals and rooting potential and/or as a source of high fury uptime (stacking too many brings down group kill potential, even when running damage gear. It isn’t lack of damage, it’s lack of AoE, same old story).

borya.2964:

The main issue i have with this build is that untill your group needs a heal, you’re truly useless, and you can’t be useless for so long while in frontline.

jcbroe.4329:

My main question to you is whether or not you’ve tried picking up a the rooting utility in your build, no regearing required, since the patch. Since the boon meta no longer has the capability of maintaining a full uptime on Resistance, if you’re in a guild organized group and have your stab from them, you can run entangle and ancient seeds, and even pick up muddy terrain if you want to go all out on the immobilize utility.

While keeping the bunker/healer idea, i also think that it’s the way to go (and it works pretty well) :

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNBmYD7kSFokFsWQwjFgqFswJYwt0aaP95Fs4aYNDr+WAoENmG-TlSNABe+AA0W9HA0BM+BB4zjAQ+KBVX53y7Po7FAQZNDBAQAM0hO0hO0h2O35O35O3ZpAubXF-w

I change my build a little bit literally every night I play Druid as far as traits/utilities go, but it almost always look like this. Since the last patch, I’ve been playing around with the glyph heal and traited glyph stunbreak, muddy terrain, and SoS, sw/wh vs gs, and whether or not I need to be traiting Survival skills.

Part of the problem is that I’ve ended up with too many stat options on my Ranger and can experiment at will lol. It’s been making settling on an exact build setup take longer that I intended it to….

Dovkan.3519:

This is what I run in WvW. Comments?
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FaJjn6kHb6V7QDjcbwvMEczwRAcf_g-nbXJhD2PGGoE/edit?usp=sharing

I’d like a link to the build editor as well as the great google doc.

The detail in that doc is what more need to be doing to help mentor others.

jcbroe.4329:

snip

Nice to read. I haven’t WvW-ed much since HoT, was wondering whether druid would function as a healing bot, was aware of the snare capabilities. Always fun throwing them all out and seeing that enemy mini blob getting a bit less organized.