Guild Wars 2

Aomine.5012:

If you like playing Druid alot in group, then Nevermore is your top choice.
The projectile effect is amazing.

So….you are supporting the continued deforestation of Tyria? Of course I am kidding but seriously close to 30,000 logs of various types to finish (rounding up of course). I always found it ironic that a Druid, in lore anyway, was found in forests or around oaks trees. Yet here was are in GW2 fantasy land cutting down trees to make this staff.

On another note it was the one I decided to make mainly due to camping staff a lot. Thinking it would get a lot of use. First four collections I had a lot of fun, thought it was worth it more or less. HoT + Mastery Points – not so much. Down to the last 27 mastery points and it isn’t that much fun when PvE isn’t your thing or you didn’t do much in HoT outside map complete.

The exalted requirement is a epic fail for gifts…but to topic Nevermore gets my vote unless we could use pistols.

jcbroe.4329:

Yeah in WvW I run very differently. Full Minstrels for my guild composition, and I swap the trinkets and weapons to Zealots for roaming, with Staff/LB.

Minstrels and celestial is what I run – fine tune with accessories.

I wish they would look at conditions and armor stat and find a balance vs. the number of opponents. I find it odd that we have to run everything under the sun to limit the effects of just as much as increase duration.

Interesting enough – thanks for the thread because I do not do much sPvP and these look like a starting point.

What format of play, or does it matter? I mean yeah, great – let’s do it!

WvW is in a wonky state due to the amount of conditions that are flying around and red circles of dog poo on the ground. Honestly I don’t know if I am playing WvW or a game of hopscotch /boggle. And I didn’t even mention the amount of reflects that everybody and their mother has now

StickerHappy.8052:

Wait.. During my [WIND] days.. Hepatolith was a guy….

Um – I didn’t mean it any other way – my apologies if it came across that way. Definitely not my intent.. I thought I typed his/hers because I don’t know and the title has Princess in it but didn’t want to assume Still blew it I guess…

Moods.9631:

Careful posting power builds, the meta crowd might get offended :P

I doubt that. But has several others already said with the other video highlight reel – better player and Soulbeast brought nothing to the table. GS/LB, etc. The Princess would more than likely still have won all of those fights because of his/her skill.

Now had those fights used melee / dagger it would be a different story. But again, everyone is more or less agreeing that it is a train wreck Still, thanks for taking the time, effort, and energy put into the video. Good job (outside music but that is subjective, right )

StickerHappy.8052:

SeranusGaming.7362:

Crapgame.6519:

I tend to agree, you play well enough (above average, very much so) that it wouldn’t matter. Soulbeast did nothing for you.

True statement here. Our OP friend is simply just that, “OP.” It’s not the build that makes him amazing, he’s just a great player.

As proof, I tried out a SB and to my surprise, I still suck! So clearly, the build isn’t what makes the class amazing, it’s likely the player.

Of course, now I’m depressed…

No offense but, I have no idea what your definition of great is for someone who spent 95% of the video camping Smokescale Beastmode.

Good, great, if you will, is good situation awareness, key binding, position, know animations, etc. You know how it is. Those players are usually good no matter what class they play.

Just my opinion anyway.

Zhuul.1759:

kurtosis.9526:

How do you stack rank all current RvR options? Eg:

there is no ranking because there is no other game with rvr worth mentioning.
thats why people keep playing the half completed gw2 wvw

Yup – you pretty much hit the nail on the head.

Kaim.5483:

If you have gold then just buy those ascended mats from the trading post.

Ignoring if the math is correct, it shouldn’t come down to buy. It should be the same across all classes. Same for armor, same for weapons, regardless of class.

Turk.5460:

Bragging rights are unhealthy and toxic for any gaming community. You wouldn’t believe how many people didn’t care.

People did care. Just like you have your leagues today in sPvP. If they didn’t, it wouldn’t exist. Toxic? Oh, you mean like cross server talking that is going on in todays WvW matchups?

I read the herald for news, not for who mez/PBAE’d the most or Crit Shotted/ zephyr’d the most people that week. You cannot argue that class and skill balance in DAoC was absolutely awful compared to today’s standards.

And GW2 classes are balanced? Or WoW’s? Or “insert any other mmo out today”?

Realm rank abilities was a flaw, not a feature. There is no reason that someone playing longer should be more powerful than people just getting into it. Titles are for prestige, Realm rank abilities were unfair.

So…how about GW2’s ranks in WvW – same concept. Masttery of catapult, flying, rams, supply, etc. Do you think a level 1 character playing WvW will have those abilities say of a Silver Squire or Platinum?

Darkness Falls was like the frontiers, PvE and a vast majority untouched for RvR, the remainder being a coordinated group ganking lowbies (for no realm points) at their entrance portal.

It was touched constantly for RvR. To deny other realms, for farming crafting materials (pre SI crafting was best source of armor/weapons), gold, and ganking. How is that different from what transpired GW2 launch and the jumping puzzles before PvE crowd got in a complained about how they couldn’t finish map complete?

You don’t think spawn camping isn’t happening today? It does, daily, across most servers. This isn’t a honor system…

Realm points are earned regardless of DF or Maps.

Alliances did nothing for the game other than being a slightly more exclusive LFG tool.

Guard Notifications were cool, yes, but GW2’s version of that is swords. And that is enough for anyone who cares to defend.

Had nothing to do with LFG – everything to do with guild management and allowing smaller guilds to exist beyond other things.

Climbing walls? Who would you like to have climb walls in GW2? Thieves? Sure, lets see how well that blows over :p

It was just a difference, among other things. Wouldn’t bother me, no different how some classes can port to places other classes can’t…

You see, you’re just like the other posters rating DAoC RvR as the best thing ever. Looking back at the nostalgia with rose-tinted glasses.

We disagree. You keep saying rose tinted glasses because we are not agreeing with you. It is ok to disagree, it doesn’t mean you are right. No more than it means I am right. DaOC set the standard. My opinion. .

You really need to be consistent in your argument and not just fall back to rose tinted glasses when people disagree. Because in GW2, today, WvW, gear matters. Time of play matters. Number of people matter. Server population matters. Tickets per week matter if you are going for ascended or legendary gear. The list goes on.

It isn’t about nostalgia…

Why have test data in a production system? If there is a bug or exploit or some unforeseen advantage a new elite could introduce why have it effect the score? One person doing it, ok no big deal. What if it grows to five or more?

The good news is that they got some data based on play in a open space and lots of people. The bad news is that it contaminated production data with test. That is a no no… Test realm should have been used…or only allowed on the mist map…

Just another grind, because, well, we are in grind wars 2…

If you want it faster then go to raids. I could be speaking out of ignorance but I’d wager you can get a set faster through PvE than anything in WvW. Personally if it was my design I’d nuke WvW PvE stats and make it align with sPvP. Throw in a template editor it would save everybody time and money.

But hey – since when does player quality of life matter, right?

Turk.5460:

Kitty.1502:

Lots of good RvR experiences if you can get past the often lower game quality. Most of the issues of these games were due to lack of game budget but here is my list in terms of most fun RvR:

1. Dark Age of Camelot
2. Star Wars Galaxies
3. Mortal Online
4. Darkfall
5. Guild Wars 2

You really think DAoC did RvR better than GW2? Whenever I see this I can’t help but think the poster is looking at the past with ultra-nostalgic rose-tinted glasses. I understand Mythic pioneered the game-mode, and it was incredibly fun at the time, but GW2 improved upon every aspect.

-DAoC 1v1 and small scale balance was 10 times worse than GW2.
-Its zerg v. zerg was simply Mez PBAoE/Melee Train vs. zombies standing there unable to react.
-90% of the action was either in Emain or the 20-24 BG (Thidranki).
-Have fun being PA’d out of the frontier keep.
-The RvR maps were far larger than GW2’s DBL, like over 4 times larger, and only a fraction ever saw anyone step foot on outside of people PvEing.
-buffbots – you were a coward if you used this “tactic”
-ToA gear stat modifiers making mage-classes obliterate you in less than 3 seconds
-ToA gear in general…

I loved that game. I spent so many years loving that game. It died, better games came along each step of the way. And even though those better games didn’t provide as much fun as I remember DAoC did, I can at least look back and realize just how terrible RvR was in comparison to WvW.

I see your points, but there is a timeline to the many faults. You want to know why it is better? Simple truth is the Camelot Herold. Plain and simple. Player portal, stats, by guild, by class, by alliance. Top 25, rest followed. A game that dates back years put a player portal first for bragging rights. We have – right, nothing even close. Ignore the portal then…

Darkness falls?
Alliances?
Claimed towers = guard notifications, alliance notifications, + exp, gold, etc?
Climbing walls?
Realm ranks?

Ok – that is just retail & launch rules. I didn’t go into any expansion because each one brought different things to the table both good and bad. Player housing? Yeah – we don’t have that. Mordred server / rules? Right – we don’t have that either. Like I said, I get your point. We had night capping issues, population issues, server transfer issues, you name it. The issue wasn’t the game though it was the two ton heavy thing in the room called WoW. It was taking off and everyone tried to catch up.

Enter Trials of Atlantis – their major push to PvE. Master levels are tough. Not everyone could do them. Few got to ML10. You and I both know it. Scrolls and artifacts are hard to farm. Crazy right? For those special weapons.

It set the foundation. You can’t change history. GW2 WvW has some nice things but overall it is stale. Server match ups based on a chess scoring system are not working without major input by devs. No rewards. No player portal. Claiming doesn’t do much. Server trolls can impact things (tacivators).

Heck – look at this past weekend. No PTR – new elites tested, and in some cases broke / bugged, yet allowed to run in WvW. You think that didn’t have an effect on a score? Noise in the system – shouldn’t have been allowed.

Midgard, Thane, Igraine – main. Also ran with my better half in a Pac Healer / SM suppression spiritmaster. So I know what sort of CC frustration you are talking about. But kitten was it fun. I have not seen anything in GW2 that comes close to some of the thrills I had in DaOC & Darkness falls. Just not here in WvW today.

GW2 is fun, but it isn’t DaOC and I don’t think it will be CU based on the alpha test(ing) that I’m currently in.

kurtosis.9526:

When GW2 first launched, WvW was commonly considered one of the best RvR implementations at the time.

This is an opinion, not an opening statement or fact. You also used RvR which is a term used by Mythic’s game, DaOC. Not GW2. Furthermore, GW2 took great strides to clone interesting parts of DaOC original launch rules and merge into WvW. Orbs for one example.

Most people who play this format of play tend to agree DaOC set the standard. It doesn’t matter how GW2 fairs it is pretty much the only game in town that allows the format of play.

GW2 is the main game in town for this format of play…not because it is the best or top number of your choice, just that it is playable, today. I’d put my money that it is a dying format. If nothing is changed (and nothing appears to be in the new exp pack) people will leave.

I tend to agree, you play well enough (above average, very much so) that it wouldn’t matter. Soulbeast did nothing for you.

You used what you are comfortable with. Long bow and great sword.

Looking at it in this light it is nothing more than a “its cool” video like you have in your title, a sports reel and/or music video. Nothing wrong with that at all but nothing that you played over the weekend will carry over upon the launch of the expansion. Not to be a negative Nancy, but change is coming at least from what I tested over the weekend.

Apologies if this sounded snarky or like the video is dog poo, it isn’t. I enjoyed it. In the end I didn’t see anything that I may have missed during my play that says this is a must have.

Hard to give feedback while in demo mode. The only good news is that they released everyone at the same time. Last time, as we all know, the Druid was last and suffered. Lots of quick changes and hot fixes.

Personally I am tired of masteries. The new stuff with our class isn’t bad but it also has not made me say ohhh, take my money. I think that is what I find rather interesting this go around. Mount isn’t going to do that much for me. It won’t be allowed more or less in WvW. I don’t see a WvW overhaul. I didn’t notice any new animations. I’m honestly wondering what would make me say:

“kitten , that was fun”.

I’ve just not seen it this time.

I think the greater question would be what separates classes these days? I mean any class can be anything vs. those that originally appeared to be support (Druid/Guard(example)) oriented.

These days the game design and/or balance appear to be designed after a game of Pick Up Sticks To me anyway. You know, the more tangled or disarray the sticks are the more challenging the game is perceived to be.

If that is the case they should just follow the versions whereas isolated sticks (laying alone) are removed (e.g. remove traits, classes, etc). Too many classes have abilities that overlap and do it better.

What ever happened to playing a class that did one thing. If you want what the other class has then go create it. What else are we supposed to use all those bloody tombs and character slots for. This isn’t zootopia or utopia

Zalani.9827:

(They were bigger in gw1 I swear)

I believe you – and that thing looks weird Have to give it a fair chance anyway, right?

Fluffball.8307:

Those plants don’t have roots, they’re from GW1 and quite mobile. The stormseeds even fly.

I don’t go that far back and it was really a joke. Well, joke on the stationary part. Not so much about a plant. That doesn’t seem like a normal pet but then again I’m not one for virtual pets. I’d rather a traitline that says pets, no pets, and manages damage that way.

Edit: Beastmastery = pets. Marksmen = no pets. Sort of easy.

Zalani.9827:

Looking at that video LongArm posted it seem we are going to be getting both the Iboga and Jacaranda as pets. Thats pretty neat since we haven’t had any plant pets yet.
https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Fanged_Iboga
https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Stormseed_Jacaranda

I’m not sure about the Soulbeast yet since i’m holding back judgement until I can play around with it. It looks interesting though.

Let us think about this for a minute. Pets already have a path problem, right? Now you want to add something that has roots, stationary by nature, has a pet???

I was hoping for pocket raptors…not a plant. Unless it is a 10’ tall Venus Fly Trap type thing that swallows zergs whole, I’ll pass.

Neutra.6857:

Durzlla.6295:

Neutra.6857:

What I am worried about is that it seems like we are losing our importance as a support build for things like raids and fractals. The Ele and the guardian both look to be getting the ability to do damage as well as support.

Ele and guard have always been able to damage while support, Druids will never truly lose their role as support because they bring unique buffs to the raid (grace of the land, spotter, frost spirit, sun spirit, glyph of empowerment) so they’ll always be an option for increasing your groups damage more, as well has having great healing.

Granted if you go Soulbeast over Druid I doubt you’re going to be supporting in the first place.

Frost spirit offers might,it isn’t unique. Sun spirit offers burning to everyone, it also isn’t all that unique. The unique one are GOTL and Glyph of Empowerment. However if those are worse then say then new guardian specialty what is the point of the druid anymore?

I don’t think the Guardians are all that happy at the moment – or maybe still trying to digest everything…something about tombs. /boggle

Aenaos.8160:

As for SLI support,please tell me of an MMO where this actually works.

EQ2 comes to mind.

Wtf?How can you even look at a screen bellow 4K?

You could if the UI scaled. Specifically text.

How or why you asked, because you can? I don’t know. Few days I’ve had my PC driving my 79" 4K display. Why not, it is eye candy and the game looks good. Lounging around relaxing, kicking it playing GW2. I’ve seen people playing on larger sets and sets of all sizes.

No matter to me really at the end of the day – they don’t work for me. I was just adding that it would be nice to have a scalable UI or font sizes

I am a bit skeptical about the new Elite. Look at how the pets faired since the introduction of HoT not to mention the Druid in general. We all saw the quickness in patching the class.

My question is simple. What makes you think it will be any different this time around? Pets are still not balanced and see adjustments. I think this is only going to complicate matters.

Lévis.5489:

Forget no 4K support no crossfire or SLI support.

Game supports 4K and beyond. That isn’t the issue per say. The issue is the lack of support / options within the UI. Specifically around text / dialogs. It is darn right difficult to read Adding a font option and sizing would pretty much solve this issue.

No Vulkan API and multi core support in 2017 is worst. Both would help performances by a large marging and developing for Vulkan is quite easy, too. It took ID Software two months to port DOOM to Vulkan. And vulkan, unlike Directx13, work on older GPUs and Windows.

It would be nice to take advantage of next generation of G/CPU compute and their respected libraries. However, someone has to pay. I get it. In fact, I’d love to see it in all of its glory. Seems easy enough to fork the code or add some logic which path to follow based on a preliminary check during update / install. Or use something like Nvidia’s GeForce Experience – it scans computer for supported games.

Would be nice – but not a deal breaker for most. And the PvE content still looks good having a 4 or 5 year old engine to boot. Not bad (but agree, could be better).

Obtena.7952:

MMOStein.3872:

Honestly, unless they remove about 50-75% of the waypoints in this game, I can’t take mounts seriously. Why would you EVER need them besides to get pass some cheesy mechanic that will be in the new zones? (Hint: you won’t)

I’m not sure but if you examine the trend in the LS3 maps, that’s exactly what has been happening … Waypoints just don’t get you around as easily as they did in core .. or even in HoT! There has been a steady decline in the ability to get around using waypoints. I guess that’s a way to force interaction with the world or something. To be fair, they have introduced other ways to allow you to get around and if the trend continues, mounts will add to those ways.

Because you can glide. Then factor in extended gliding based on masteries. WP become a moot point.

If map or story completion is tied to mounts which are then tied to masteries, well, this is a bad idea. I get some people like gates or other forms of road blocks. But when it becomes a road block for those outside that format of play (WvW/sPvP for example) it pretty much ruins the game. And before you say don’t play story, or buy expansion, those players need elites or may want the shiny object tied to those gates (mastery point system). Point is needing a new mastery to get a vista or mastery point is a horrible design. And it has been raised countless times.

I would be perfectly fine ignoring all of that if the development team provided similar things in sPvP or WvW. HoT maps added, then removed, then added again – yeah, great system. WvW reward tracks – sure, not really relevant compared to say legendary armor, right?

Doesn’t mean people will/won’t buy it – just leads people to question the continued time investment. My guess is they will get a pass this expansion pack. However, next year there is at least one major WvW themed game due out that will take everyone away from GW2 if it is any good.

Mahou.3924:

The meh and whatever:
- Mounts: While it sounds neat that each mount has its own ability, being tied to the VERY tedious mastery grind makes the whole deal for me a “wait and see” thing.

A concern of mine as well. Not a huge fan of the mastery grinds.

Ranger looks strongly to be a “it depends on how it works” deal. Rifle Thief might be neat. Warrior sounds more PvP relevant, but that’s not my playground. Hopefully, it won’t be the Scrapper of PoF.

Hard to say really. Rangers in general, and pets, have been a tough nut to crack with the devs. New pets upon release are too strong and have since been adjusted down much to the Ranger/Druids disagreement. Pet classes in general but more or less Ranger/Druids have had a rough going since HoT…

So this is a neat elite granted, but the balance is going to be a huge concern. It could be here we are again with a nice idea but difficult to balance

Are mounts tied to masteries? If so, another bad idea.

Note for those of you who play PvE content mainly, but for those who are playing WvW or Spvp masteries are a burden. The fact some legendary items are tied to PvE gates it is pretty frustrating. For example Nevermore. The four collections, great idea. Honestly, perfect. Not so perfect is the requirement of HoT and map completion. Ok, we can get past that. Everyone should get map complete. Fair enough. The deal breaker is the requirement for exalted status to buy the last gifts. More or less forcing you to have over 100 mastery points to navigate through to buy. That is a deal breaker.

So as you see people say what about WvW or sPvP, or dress up Barbie stuff for those folks, well, there you have it. Some people don’t spend time in PvE. We will deliver at a later time after the pack drops isn’t that great of a selling point.

Could be the WvW/sPvP crowd is small and of no concern…

11k hits – hmm…I don’t recall hitting that high – now I’m going to have to pay attention.

Video made me giggle.

Fluffball.8307:

it’s like arguing with a rotting dead fish in a tree, trying to explain to it that water is good. It’s already decomposed.

Lol – that is a interesting analogy there Fluff

Because there are a metric ton more players across every map? I can’t vouch for this specific issue but when I see it maps are full and we have 30+ deep queues on every map. I see it happen when solo, duo, group of 5, and zergs. No one can be around yet you feel it on your comp.

I was fighting another Druid oddly enough by Quentin Lake and while movement was somewhat fluent both of our skills just didn’t trigger. Point blank, staff, whatever. Then skills would work but then there was one that wouldn’t. We both ended up disengaging, partied up, and tried to figure it out. Later had it not working on a guard. So for me, it doesn’t seem to be sentry specific or guards but more network in general.

Now we have more full maps (those not on T1 anyway), queues, and map chat with people talking about latency (both client and network). Prior to WvW patch I didn’t have these issues nearly as much outside heavy Friday resets.

Hi Fluffball – I’ve seen it happen in general out in WvW but assume it is skill and network lag.

@Bearshaman, @Fluffball, that is true. Very underrated set unless you are into min and max type stuff. I also use celestial. The only time I have personally run into some minor trouble is when I want to go more into conditional damage but that is because I don’t have enough ascended weapons (for whatever reason) so that limits my choices at the moment.

Symbol design is bad for most fast paced game play. In order to have support specific roles that needs to change. Then there is the passing of boons and what not, well again, those can get taken and removed in most cases. Again, not in favor of support.

Shield, well, overlooked by developers when focus in most cases one could argue is better, same with mace, and then finally others utilities that block and/or reflect. I don’t know, gee devs, a wall of steel or wood and it can’t block – rollseyes. Seems an oversight.

Lastly, the game wasn’t launched with any form of healing / supporting role / tanking meta. It was added late in the game which is also why some would argue other classes can do support better.

Why all that work, just tie it back to legendary and/or map complete and the problem is solved. Lots of forums posts by PvE and casuals complaining about those treating it like a PvP zone. They never could figure out the mystic wells for stealth, the dark room, let alone navigate a call for help to get past people playing in there. I’ve not even factored in the log or spike traps (maybe they didn’t play frogger has a kid).

Remove siege. Remove need for map complete. Game grew stale over time. Then the whole duel drama and the devs made the place the so-called goto place for GvG. We see how happening that is now, right? NOT.

I rarely see anyone in there and I visit it a few times a week. Nice map, love the traps, and on a rare occasion I find someone in there and we dance. Just saw one today – unfortunately for them, they lost But Lord knows I’ve had my fair share of molly whopping. It needs more attention, just not guesting.

Not that it matters, most MMO’s do not allow this form of communication. Outside of that, and this isn’t most other games, ignore is the typical remedy. Besides, it isn’t like an easy task to just communicate – it takes some effort.

More often than not in my situation when I communication or receive it has gone well. There are only one or two times whereas the other players was an @sshat and both parties kept the block going.

It really doesn’t matter to me one way or another because there are ways to handle it at the player level and we both know the devs have higher priorities. I see the reasoning behind the OP’s post though.

Edit: I’ll go a step further though because I do feel sPvP is more toxic. Be glad I’m not designing a game because I’d make account names your real identity. That would cure at least 90+% of the bullying going on in our fantasy world…

Because Conditional Damage is easy mode. We can’t blame the players when the developers created the current mess. Enders – not sure when you played DaOC but it also ran into similar issues before SI was launched. Midgards spiritmasters with PAC healers and their rediculeous AOE maze was a deadly combo hard to counter. Then it was fixed, then it was the next thing, then buff bots, etc.

Everyone is running conditions in this game because it is the only way to compete. Personally I don’t like it but then again, solo or small group roaming in WvW sort of requires it these days. Tomorrows patch won’t change anything other than provide some easy kills from all the PvE players…

EnderzShadow.2506:

I have doubts whether they care.
The pvp crowd is smaller than the pve crowd.

They seem to push a lot of content towards the PVE crowd but PvP and WvW are left high and dry.

And I agree abou the healing in game. I know this because I followed the game since development. It was not intended. They had no plans of making the pvp/wvw/pve dependent on the ‘Holy Trinity’.

They also had no plans of having mounts and reasons to NOT have mounts.

But as we can see, they have backpedaled on all these issues.

We agree – and I’m awaiting CU

I doubt that the issue is that they don’t care, it was more than likely a major design flaw. It does not appear traditional MMO/RPG healing or supporting roles were considered during launch and later added with the expansion pack for raiding. Thus a lot of the wonky mechanics and continued patching. This is just my opinion anyway.

Also there currently is no competition with regards to GW2 so no pressure or urgency to do anything. We are stuck with some seriously frustrating balance issues, gated grinds to play dress up Barbie (no disrespect lass), and broken metas (WvW) due to lack of funding and/or attention.

I think if you play PvE you are in a good spot. PvP more or less is a wash. You are not forced to play Druid/Ranger and there is not much of a gearing requirement. It is more focused on you understanding what you are playing. WvW on the other hand, well, it is out of hand…

Swagger – you should shoot me a PM of your pistol packing thief I’d like to give it a go. Seriously

Well Fluff, I shall seek out a sword and dagger and give it a go. Pre HoT I did run traps with a double melee sword/torch and axe/dagger but that was a while ago. No idea what condi builds are now for WvW but will give it a go.

I need something different anyway. Thanks

CETheLucid.3964:

Sword + Dagger is evades for days, but that one takes practice VS GS. Fantastic in PvP/WvW though if you get it down.

I’ve never had that luck, but then again with sword I seem to fall on my face, or off a cliff What sort of sustain build for WvW would this be btw?

Pack of pocket raptors or go home. That is the way I see it…

Interesting, I run something similar but push 3200 armor and 1100 healing 200 condi, LB, staff using Celestial armor and power toughness and healing accessories. We run similar trait lines but I picked lingering light in Druid, wilting strike in BM, and instinctive reaction and evasive purity in NM.

Protect me, and glyph of empowerment round out mine. Durability runes are great, I use them also. I strive for more outgoing healing, stealth to reset, and staff for mobility. Rest to me is just dumb luck since this game wasn’t really designed with support play style in mind.

Conditions and CC rule in WvW…

WvW point of view, not many, very few, use SB. Even fewer use any form of melee.

WvW point of view, too many conditions, CC, daze, or other things leaving red circles on the ground that trip up Druids healing ability.

Let us be honest here. Healing was not really designed into the game in a traditional sense of play. Just like tanking and raids. It is more of a band aid trying to keep players interested in the game.

Substance E.4852:

ZhouX.8742:

I think overall, it’s not too bad given that a lot of other classes got shaved and they’re slowly trying to reduce the burst / passive skill gameplay but just feel , like always, they are not approaching ranger balance the right way in terms of PvP.

The problem is that I can pretty much guarantee you that this is them setting us up for a new wave of power-creep with the next Elite Specs.

If you thought we put out a lot of daze, just wait till the Spellbreaker drops…

Depending on game format / choice of play, daze and conditions are already game breakers. No idea why they refuse to address this issue.

HotHit.6783:

October 2015: Say hi to the Druid and our new pets! Which opens up huge new avenues for our condi builds. And y’know, viper’s gear is more relevant to us than most.
January 2016: Hidden Barbs got a huge buff and Honed Axes now grants slightly more ferocity (ooo, so game changing), but every point of damage matters.

Not sure what your intent is here but you missed a metric ton of hot fixes on the Druid between this time frame. I know you are focusing on “balance patch” specifics but you can’t really do that when the Druid was patched almost daily there for a while. That is why you see a lot of hostility.

I personally don’t see balance. I see ad-hoc changes being made and traits being blurred between classes. At some point classes must be distinct and bring something to the table someone else doesn’t. Sigils and Runes along with food are supposed to balance or tweak the rest. My opinion.

HotHit.6783:

Crapgame.6519:

Obtena.7952:

For instance, has it ever occurred to you that Druid has ‘awful’ damage for a reason? Perhaps that’s intended?

I have no dog in this fight but I do have to question what reason could that be or intent?

I guess it depends on the format of play but I do not see a reason for “awful” damage say in WvW. Just one example. Maybe that isn’t fair because, well, I think most of us know that format is broke…

How does the Druid’s sustain compare to other classes? Is balance there all things being equal, if possible, outside the player skill?

Put simply, game balance. Every playstyle should have a weakness in a game like GW2. If a build is too mobile, damaging, survivable and supportive all at once then there is no reason to play any other build. This doesn’t mean that every build should be able to compare itself to another, trading off a point of damage for a point in survivability and the like at a one to one rate.

The druid traitline focuses on healing and amplifying allies, as an elite spec, that should make the traitline definitive of what your build is supposed to do. As an elite spec, the goal is to dedicate yourself to support, by the nature of having more healing abilities you are more survivable so that means you have to pay in mobility or damage. Since rangers have good mobility and it’s difficult and more against theme to reduce that with Druid, damage has to the part that suffers.

It’s not that your damage is reduced for being a druid either, but that you miss out on damage options by taking Druid, are encouraged to take healing options over damage or active defence options for better astral force gain and results in basically no damage output in celestial avatar form. Damage output seems like it was always intended to be the weakness of a druid.

Interesting take, not that I disagree but I guess my point is that other classes have more sustain. Warrior and Ele come to mind. Be that has it may I don’t see much balance regardless of class.

Just my opinion anyway. No big

Obtena.7952:

For instance, has it ever occurred to you that Druid has ‘awful’ damage for a reason? Perhaps that’s intended?

I have no dog in this fight but I do have to question what reason could that be or intent?

I guess it depends on the format of play but I do not see a reason for “awful” damage say in WvW. Just one example. Maybe that isn’t fair because, well, I think most of us know that format is broke…

How does the Druid’s sustain compare to other classes? Is balance there all things being equal, if possible, outside the player skill?

Amazing. To be truthful I haven’t been paying attention so the “balance” patch came as a surprise. Then I visited the forums to see what it was about for our Ranger/Druid and, well, not surprised. Nothing.

Perplexed maybe am I because I have no idea what the developers are trying to solve. But I have to question how one can say there is any “Balance” in this patch for the Druid/Ranger.

More pets equals more balance issues when we start talking about any form of different or unique attack. If they went with some form of common attack or buff then it could be possible.

If nothing else, how about granting us the annoying but wondering pack of pocket raptors That is what I’m after. Or give us a trap that we can lay, that is a small crate and when triggered BAM – little guys attack.

EnderzShadow.2506:

Really nice fights.

Great timing, you move through the weapon sets to astral form and into stealth so smoothly.

Some of the best ranger gameplay I’ve seen, period.

-The fight vs the engineer was annoying. People who fully reset fights over and over (and that looks what that little bastij was tryin to do) is so frustrating. Getting someone to 10 percent and then they block, go stealth….. ughhhh, glad you finished him. (that warrior though…)

ps-lol 7 day old post and the forums are acting like Im necroing an ancient thread.

It was a good vid.

Funny thing you mention the frustration over resets. Someone partied up angry earlier this afternoon out in WvW. Some sPvP engineer running a similar playstyle which allowed them to get away or rest. Mind you, I personally don’t care – you play to win, right? S/He didn’t like me tossing siege on him once we did kill him ( ) fair enough, I didn’t have eggs or toilet paper so it had to do. Anyway they want to duel – ok, sure whatever. Guess what, I’m running a solo roaming sustain build and the lad can’t kill me so proceeds to do nothing but yell, say cheese build, what have you. People.

Anyway – my point – you can’t please everyone and builds are build. They are frustrating but to me water off a ducks back And thank you for posting otherwise I wouldn’t have caught the video

Melee Druid/rangers are rare and in my opinion one of the more difficult to play. So well done OP.

I’d go out on a limb and say double melee builds have a higher skill level than most other Ranger/Druid builds. Pre HoT that was pretty much my go to build along with traps and trapper runes. Solo roaming, small parties like HAVoC, I can see it working. That was a bit more forgiving with trapper runes at 3 seconds of stealth. I’ve gone back a few times since and just do not find it has reliable. Especially the heavy conditions and rate of application solo, small group, or be it Zerg.

But typical run of the mill zerg I would pass but that is just me. I prefer Toughness / Heal for most encounters camping LB and Staff.