Guild Wars 2

I’m wondering if anyone has really found a good Druid WvW/GvG role? specifically more around support mid/backline?
Metabattle is pretty thin on the matter… i hope that’s not the reality of it
Most of the things that would seem to make sense have limited range to be effective it seems, IDK, just haven’t found anything that really seemed to work and was looking for advice/tips?
Thanks

I’m not an expert when it comes to WvW but Gladomer has some nice ranger builds and videos. How about This one?

I’ve watched him and he is typically doing sPvP when ive tuned in. Dont think the same things would apply unless hes playing it as frontline. I prefer mid to backline so im hopeful there is something in that regard

What server are you playing WvW on? And, have you gone out recently, post HoT, and played at all? Reason why I’m asking is because just before HoT and since there is a lot of CC going on and it is a bit excessive in my mind. Front line commanders and those that support need stability and the clearing of conditions. Druid can do this and also play the CC role. The question to some degree is:

How do you play?
Solo, duo, or group?
What is your comfort level?

When I personally hear back line then I’m going long bow and zerker gear to burn down the target I’m assisting. Druid will still allow LB play and a bit of support but it really comes down to your comfort level. If I’m running Staff / LB then you need Primal Echoes for the soft CC. I also like Celestial Shadow for the stealth. Allows a bit of quick reposition if needed.

I’ve run clerics, zerk, and rabid. Main thing again is your comfort which helps determine gear and accessories. Back line is going to require range which means LB. Otherwise you can check out the WvW bleed build that is running SB. It is pretty fun.

I am on TC, recent transfer
Yes ,i have played though not as much with the Druid as my guild has needed me elsewhere Mostly Rev or Necro.. but im hoping to make inroads with this instead.
Most of my play is in groups for WvW and or GvG.. not really a roamer.
I was running staff / longbow for occasional dps punch/utility and staying at range, i think there are much better options to play melee or frontline so im not looking for a build for that. .
Yes, im thinking more range, backline… its my preferred style.

So, the first part is a general “what is WvW right now” as far as what, in general, groups will be running.

For the most part, organized groups are running high damage Revenant/Heralds now that have replaced almost all of the high damage caster roles. Necros are only there now for wells and chills, and are running as survivable as they are comfortable with (aka typically tanky). Tempests are the more typical option over frontline and even backline Druids, because they can pump out constant healing and support where Druids can only really spike heal, but that doesn’t make Druid irrelevant, as Druids themselves are being used to keep the group healthy when the group needs to reset.

Outside of those builds, you still get your gank groups running stealthy, high mobility classes, and if you are roaming, the only way to deal with this is roaming a group; group play dictates strict control over positioning to not get picked off. Mesmers that aren’t gank are running support Alacrity Well PvP style builds that haven’t lost their effectiveness in WvW. You’ll also see some Dragonhunters running Control/Pull heavy builds and traps to try to grab people who lack stability and cause instant deaths by forcing them into blobs of enemies.

So now, I mentioned Druid, but where does Druid really fit right now? You can probably run frontline, but Tempests are just flat out more efficient there, so really the midline/backline is the better place to play. Staff/X, camping staff in the right build usually puts out enough damage and the pierce of the beam allows for target focus with minimal effort.

What builds would I run/recommend?
Personally I run this: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQJAWTjUqQLLWxCOsAXLW6EMn+WAow90CCVLM4VaM9mWizTD-T1BFABaq+TN7PYlyPM1F4nSQAeCACcJAAA-w
and swap to GS against groups where we’re outnumbered, the enemies have reflects, or am roaming. Roaming, you would swap to Marksmanship over Nature Magic and run with slots 332 for big bursts.

Running regular Zerk or the new Marauder works just as well, if not better, especially if this setup is not affordable. The only difference is the quality of heals, and so I chose to build this way, not just because of the gear overlap with PvE content, but because you can more easily reset for yourself and groups without sacrificing a noticeable amount of damage in the grand scheme of damage output (aka in a group with max damage, yes, you might 1 shot a target, but a revenant squad can 1 shot large portions of players with coordinated spikes over and over, so your goal is more about contribution while not group support than actually being vital damage).

I hope this helps with, at the very least, your thoughts on how to build.

Hi.

Playing a lot of support/healing druid in WvW, GvG and zergfights 15+ people since HoT release.
This is a mid/front line build, but you’ll do fine in backline too, for keeping up with your commander/squadleader and heal him and the other frontliners, while still having decent damage.

Still finetuning, but comes down to this build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNUQNBmOD7kSFoiVsgVwmVgrFsUIYMvr21DAurOWTrPdhcXA4EXemFA-TVCBABWq+TeaGGUHgYK/ie/BAOCAPqEMhHAwGXEgAAIAO6RP6RP6R73+23+23+mUA+NzC-w

Little explanation build, maybe not nescessary for you but still:

Staff is main, I run this primarily, to heal and build up Astral Force (AF).
Axe/WH as second and just before the fight, to use warhorn #5, I switch to Axe/WH when I feel like we’re on top in a fight and I want more lootbags, and/or if the group needs damage.

Pop celestial avatar (CA) once you can to burst heal everyone around you with the appropriate skills (#4, #3, #1, repeat), I also save up my glyphs to use when in CA, because of the stunbreaker and +heals, unless you’re fighting a lord or need more dmg, then the normal glyphskills.

Why Heal as One and Rampage as One, instead of more glyphs? Because I have it combined with the appropriate trait which gives you and allies +regen and swiftness and reduced recharge. Regeneration from this trait will have your AF regenerate faster, and I like a bit more sustained healing over the burst heal which a druid is.
RaO gives you stability, which is a must in groupfights, especially when you don’t have a guardian in your party/group.
I tried switching HaO and RaO for glyphs, and swap 1 glyph out for signet of the wild for stability, but it made me play worse, not sure why, just didn’t work out for me.

Tanky ranged pets, other pets die way too soon in +15 people fights. Sometimes I do take the sylvan hound for more regen if we fight smaller groups. I tend to swap it to bristleback too late sometimes because I’m too focused on who/where to heal and positioning myself, which is just behind the commander and frontliners.

I find it a really fun build to play, because you’re not only healing a fair amount, you do decent damage because of exuberance runes.

If anyone has some feedback on this build, always welcome, don’t feel like missing something but you never know.

Guys power with the staff is really cringeworthy.
Why don’t go full condi? Dire for tanky or Rabid to more glassy is fun. You can get some bleeds in there with a condi weapon, and even with the staff you can do some damage.

I think the druid should focus in conditions because the power damage is really bad iif you go for staff.
And it doesn’t worth to invest in healing at the moment.

anduriell.6280:

Guys power with the staff is really cringeworthy.
Why don’t go full condi? Dire for tanky or Rabid to more glassy is fun. You can get some bleeds in there with a condi weapon, and even with the staff you can do some damage.

I think the druid should focus in conditions because the power damage is really bad iif you go for staff.
And it doesn’t worth to invest in healing at the moment.

I kinda agree with the first sentence. Power doesn’t scale well with staff. I wouldn’t invest more than 1800 in this stat. After this value, I would rather add crit chance and crit damage (gear could be a mix of crusader and celestial for the extra stat values).

I strongly disagree with the last sentence. If you wanna play GvG (the OP asked for GvG builds), healing and heal efficiency on allies are great stats. There is a significant difference in value healed between a +750 healing and a +1500 healing set. There is also a significant difference between +20% heal efficiency and +50% heal efficiency on allies.
Currently, I don’t even invest in Power, Precision or Ferocity anymore. I would never trade my +1525 healing +50% heal efficiency and extra survivability for +150 dmg per staff hit ;)

Earix.5684:

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Currently, I don’t even invest in Power, Precision or Ferocity anymore. I would never trade my +1525 healing +50% heal efficiency and extra survivability for +150 dmg per staff hit

I also find that true with P, P, and F. Although if solo I’d probably sport those stats.

BTW – how in the heck are you managing 1500+ healing power and heal efficiency?

Crapgame.6519:

Earix.5684:

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Currently, I don’t even invest in Power, Precision or Ferocity anymore. I would never trade my +1525 healing +50% heal efficiency and extra survivability for +150 dmg per staff hit ;)

I also find that true with P, P, and F. Although if solo I’d probably sport those stats.

BTW – how in the heck are you managing 1500+ healing power and heal efficiency?

With a full ascended nomad/minstrel mix, healing infusions, 10 Natural Mender stacks, Superior Sigil of Transference, Superior Runes of the Monk, Delicious Rice Balls and Furious Tuning Crystals.

I use this build for all group content now…not sure if it will fit your taste.

I went from a fully ascended sinister set prior to HOT to a fully ascended cleric set after HOT…

This is what I run now… the almost constant bursting of the seeds when using a glyph means I very rarely have to go into Celestial Form…as long as my party members are in the radius of the burst. I constantly swap weapons and pets for their F2’s and try to stay away from camping one single weapon.

The fern hound adds extra regen…the blue moa provides a damage reduction…you cant buy the furious tuning crystals but I have an alt that makes them…just kind of expensive to make.

Its really a “Heal all the things” build… the downside is that alone you can hardly kill a fly – definitely for group play.

The superior sigil of life almost always is maxed at 25 stacks, and might is stacked the majority of the time just as an offshoot of group play. When the stacks are on, my healing power sits a little under 2100

I use it in the backline, mid, or right up on whatever we are fighting.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNBmOD7keVomVskVwgVgoVsgJYw30e6Q1Jx14qZNLrBQAoi3eA-TBSDABOcRAMUJYWK/0T3wlq/gxRAAgHAgK7PEAABYjbMNWjBjckjckjckNyROyROyRWKgv1bB-e

Earix.5684:

Crapgame.6519:

Earix.5684:

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Currently, I don’t even invest in Power, Precision or Ferocity anymore. I would never trade my +1525 healing +50% heal efficiency and extra survivability for +150 dmg per staff hit

I also find that true with P, P, and F. Although if solo I’d probably sport those stats.

BTW – how in the heck are you managing 1500+ healing power and heal efficiency?

With a full ascended nomad/minstrel mix, healing infusions, 10 Natural Mender stacks, Superior Sigil of Transference, Superior Runes of the Monk, Delicious Rice Balls and Furious Tuning Crystals.

Nice setup, and expensive. I actually saw a fellow player on Ebay rocking a minstrel set. I’ve not seen anyone with such staying power before. I’m sure he was a great player but there was no toughing him at all.

Thanks btw.

I don’t know if I’d go down the road of longbow for mass wvw. For small scale skirmishes and solo play in wvw it’s definitely a winner but for mass fights there’s too much retaliation for a longbow to be effective without killing yourself quickly.

For the larger scale fights, I would drop the longbow and invest in a GS or S/WH combination to provide some escapes if you get caught and need to make it back to the main group.

I run something along these lines for the larger scale fights: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNUQJAWRnUqA1siVsAOsActgFPB7ZFEASYwp0XaN1pv1pGcnMtzsA-TlyDQBA4IAgOdBAU9HsZ6BhK9g3FA4KKDK2jAIe7P0FlgkCwvlRA-w. The healing is quite insane both for staff and avatar.

When in avatar, you can pop the glyph, swap pets and then use lunar impact and rejuvenating tides very quickly for some serious burst healing. By doing so you’ve also provided your party with grace of the land for some additional damage. If you hit heal as one thereafter you can extend the quickness with another 3 to allow for casting of convergence.

I like the tankiness of the build and the insane healing that comes with it. It allows me to run in the front line due the the relatively short down time of avatar and the escapes for getting out of sticky situations.

Floplag.4032:

I’m wondering if anyone has really found a good Druid WvW/GvG role? specifically more around support mid/backline?
Metabattle is pretty thin on the matter… i hope that’s not the reality of it
Most of the things that would seem to make sense have limited range to be effective it seems, IDK, just haven’t found anything that really seemed to work and was looking for advice/tips?
Thanks

Well, I for one play LB Druid… but I literally only enjoy and do mass pvp.

I run full Zerk, Ranger Runes and Fire/Accuracy Sigils.

And my build/skills are here:
http://i.imgur.com/sbuSljp.jpg

As a 2nd weapon, I use a Staff for “bailing out” purposes. With Sigils of Energy and Agility. You can use ‘3’ to dash and ‘4’ to cleanse.

If you play it well, you can carry blobs by yourself. Specially in choke points and tight spaces.

Play it bad and… well… you’re on full zerker, you can guess.

Might not be everyone’s thing, but it’s mine. And I love pew-pewing like this.

Edit: I dont get people saying that LB might be good for soloing… I’d say LB is the last thing you should use solo. Hell, I’d probably not even use it in small scale. But I can see it working there.

Edit2: There are probably tweaks I could do to this… but I’m neither rich or often have the patience to.

Katsuragi.4026:

Well, I for one play LB Druid… but I literally only enjoy and do mass pvp.

But clicking on your image I see a greatsword. Should that be a LB? since you said your 2nd weapon is staff

Bast Bow.2958:

Katsuragi.4026:

Well, I for one play LB Druid… but I literally only enjoy and do mass pvp.

But clicking on your image I see a greatsword. Should that be a LB? since you said your 2nd weapon is staff

Just ignore it. I use it when going around PvE events instead of the staff (it is also what I used before I got Druid spec and used staff) but I had only gone into EB there to screenshot the build so I didn’t even change weapons.