Guild Wars 2

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Sartharina.3542:

Keep in mind that when you enter Beastmode, you lose 30% of your physical damage, and a massive pool of health. So, Sic’em is just a brief 10% damage boost.

Pets are nowhere near 30% of your damage, unbuffed they do like 2k dps max.

Old myth. This “30% of your damage” may be related to our kitten weapon coefficients. Our pet might have been brought as an explanation back then, hence this reference.
Can’t remember.

Take the greatsword auto attack chain as an example:

Ranger:
Slash (½): 0.55
Slice (½): 0.55
Power Stab (¾): 0.72

Warrior:
Greatsword Swing (½): 0.7
Greatsword Slice (½): 0.7
Brutal Strike (½): 0.9

Guardian:
Strike (½): 0.8
Vengeful Strike (½): 0.8
Wrathful Strike (½): 1.2

Myxam.2790:

I made a Soulbeast
I put on a greatsword
I crit a skrub for 50,000
Soulbeast is a condi elite

Grade: A+

Played a lot of PvP, WvW pug Zerg and WvW guild raid (15 vs 50ish).

Dagger:
- Poor damage
- Feels very slow for a dagger
- I really enjoyed the #3
- Maybe increase the attack speed to provide more damage and feel more like a dagger

Stances:
- Bear stance is great
- Dolyak stance, stability applied to allies but not to myself. They enjoyed it. I died!
- Moa stance, great addition
- Elite stance… Poor damage, hardly worth it even if paired with Leader of the Pack
- Griffon stance… Almost useless. What about some resistance here instead?
- Vulture stance… Okish, wouldn’t slot it

Traits:
- Most of them were disappointing: boons, usual boons, more of the same boons
- Where is my reduction to stance CD? Where are my stance traits?
- Eternal Bond can be a great life saver
- Leader of the Pack is good, however it could benefit from an increased radius
- Pack Alpha (beastmastery) should also reduce SB pet skills CD
- Loud Whistle (beastmastery) should also reduce Beastmode CD

Pets:
- Gazelle’s damage is OP AF
- Worldly Impact is good and seems “balanced” (thanks to the cast time / animation)
- Spiritual Reprieve would be better with half the CD but half the healing
- Unflinching Fortitude and Prelude Lash are fine
- Primal Cry could benefit some extra damage (maybe Prelude Lash too)

General feeling:
- This Elite specialization has a great potential but feels rushed
- Apart from the one-shotting greatsword build, damage feels weaker than on core
- Being able to also switch pet while in Beastmode wouldn’t be that bad or imbalanced

anduriell.6280:

Ah well… If you are not to keep the damage boost, what do you propose?

Well… to begin with, Sic’em doesn’t need a nerf. The ONLY issue is the Attack of Opportunity (+50% damage on your next strike) you get from Maul.
1) It should NOT apply to its own Maul
2) You shouldn’t get it from a blank Maul (even out of combat)

Now if they were to nerf Sic’em for whatever reason, they should just lower the damage part of the skill. Keep in mind that Maul would still be a problem and you would witness yet another double nerf (remember the druid changes). Bad idea.

During the demo event, my Mauls were hitting for 12k5… on a 3.2-4 sec CD… without Sic’em… This is not healthy for the game.
On the other hand, a damage boost on a large CD is fine. It forces defensive cooldowns.

“Sic’em: changing it right for my personal WvW 1v1 usage”

I added some of them and arranged them on the wiki. I used the datamining info from reddit, screens from the preview and the leaked skill wheel.
Might not be 100% accurate so better wait till Friday

anduriell.6280:

IMO Soulbeast is going to be useless And you know why? because it will be an spec which will need to play like the thief actually does now but without all the mobility and stealth that class has. So mark my words: i pretty sure soulbeast will a be another disappointment.

Why would a core ranger perform better than a Soulbeast?
Why would you compare Soulbeast’s gameplay to a Thief?
Just curious.

I really like what they did with SoR and SotW. However, I already have Soulbeast in mind where Bear Stance and Dolyak Stance will cover condition removal and stability.
For a core Ranger, yes some of the changes may suck.

My theory is that we might gain some of our pet abilities while in Beastmode and this one ticking on a Soulbeast player instead of a pet might have been perceived as too strong with a shorter interval.

I used to play it hybrid for fun vs zergs in my guild group. GS / Staff, a mix of Crusader / Celestial / Zealot or Marauder with Scrapper’s Rune and damage reduction/toughness food.

Since the patch, I would definitely go Marksmanship (everything up). Beastmastery if you want some regen / reduced CD from shoots or Skirmishing if you want reduced CD on weapon swap and extra crit / dodges. I would also consider some of the new Signets

Chokolata.1870:

Honestly guys, the only things we need to mad about are the bugs. The Staff 3 stowing pets and pets being idle after swap.

Everything else is pure gold:
- lesser signet of stone is amazing
- the new signet trait is better then the old one
- Clarion bond perfectly applies itself with every pet swap
- Zephyr swap actually gives super speed and can be traited to grant fury and clear conditions
- The pets actually did not JUST lose stats, they gained some and WE gain some via those traits.

But my favorite three changes:
- new bark skin healing under protection
- new Skirmishing GM trait providing extra 10% crit chance while under fury along with 250 ferocity
- Soften the fall being casted with heal AND using the trait

Do not fuss too much about losing 1 clear every 10 seconds. It was good a long time ago in sustained condi application meta, but now we are getting bombed and pets were dying outright on Renewal usage or EB procs.

This is better. It works with Druid better as it clears up a utility slot. We lost some auto might spam but we also got some of it back.

Also keep in mind!!

• PoF is going to be ANTI BOON meta** and even though we lost some of them, in PvP it will not matter as we have a lot of non-removable effects

This.

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.

[facepalm]

Next step is gonna be:
/set wvwGravity -20000

Well, it’s the actual skill name (screenshot)

Beastmode engaged

AEFA.9035:

I really wish ANet look into the forum, cause everyones been calling Soulbeast, Beastmode. LOL. Change of name before expac hits would be nice.

Well, it’s the actual skill name (screenshot)

Beastmode engaged

Wait at least for the public beta. Keep in mind that new stats and new food will be released and that a huge balance patch is on its way.
Don’t invest yet.

From the few details revealed so far, I can’t be any happier.

We lacked a melee condi/hybrid mainhand weapon. ANet delivered. The three skills look great, built with trait synergies in mind, some mobility and quickness as a bonus. Not boring at all. I honestly can’t complain.

We lacked an insta-cast stability, some of us even dreamed of group stability in WvW. ANet delivered. Dolyak Stance paired with Leader of the Pack looks quite promising. Something closer to a 600 radius on Leader of the Pack would have been better though.

We lacked a reliable condition clear on shorter cooldown. ANet delivered. Bear Stance looks great and pretty well balanced. I even suspect a first tier trait on the middle line which will reduce stances cooldown. Can’t wait to discover what’s hidden here.

We lacked more DPS / more gap closers / more condition clears / more mobility / resistance / [you name it]. Beastmode WILL provide. From the few pets revealed, I just love what they have been introducing with Soulbeast. More spells to choose from. More build options. More flexibility.

Regarding the Elite Spec and dropping your pet completely: I can’t agree yet. The spec may perform better with a rotation on your Beastmode cooldown. We will still have to use our pet in a traditional way between cooldowns and go Beastmode when it really makes sense to benefit from extra stats / skills / bonuses. Camping in Beastmode will lock you away from switching quickly to your second pet’s Beastmode when you need it. It may be funnier and more challenging than you would expect. Wait and see.

All in all, I feel like ANet is listening and did a great job with the Elite Spec. Of course we don’t know everything about it yet, but in my opinion it looks promising.

Hidden Barbs & Poison Master may be the reason behind this design decision.

Dagger mainhand doesn’t sound that bad. I would love a dagger offhand rework though.

Thanks, exactly what I was looking for <3

MacBook Pro 2017. First problem encountered:
Couldn’t type my email in the login screen, “@” key wasn’t working (Azerty keyboard, “@” is left of “1” on the upper row).

@jcbroe, yes making staff healing more effective would also be a great solution. Unfortunately, I don’t believe they will invest dev time on that kind of improvement while an expansion and some gem store items are currently the only thing left on the Table™

In my opinion, at the very beginning WvW was just another marketing decision from ANet: “let’s add some RvR maps to attract the players who have been waiting for a DAoC 2.0 since [insert date]”. The game, the mechanics, the classes, nothing here is properly designed for medium/large scale. I don’t think there is much design philosophy hidden behind WvW.

@jcboe Thanks for this analysis which is pretty accurate and very well written. While there isn’t a single druid in this thread who wouldn’t agree with the fact that DC and CS aren’t overpowered, it’s still a great addition.

Perception is the key. While a nerf wasn’t justified, perception generated complains (read forum whines). Complains were perceived as feedback. Feedback led to balance decisions. Balance decisions led to a cooldown nerf. Now the problem is that the complains and balance decisions were mostly/only about 1v1 or really small scale battles (sPvP and “roaming”). However it has been applied to two game modes: sPvP and WvW.

sPvP and WvW are very different game modes. sPvP has a fixed team size and the maps are built to split this team on 3 locations so it’s mostly really small scale battle and even 1v1 on some cp. To be successful here, you have to be able to rely on your own class. To balance it successfully, you have to consider mainly 1v1 and small scale battles.
WvW is very different. It’s closer to an old school RvR game (DAoC, Warhammer Online) where you will naturally encounter medium and large size battles. You don’t have to rely on yourself for every aspect of the fight (stability, etc…), people have specific roles and it’s about group work. Traditionally in a RvR game, you balance the classes with group play in mind, you hardly ever pay attention to the 1v1 balance because it’s irrelevant (when most of your RvR population is playing medium to large scale battles, you prioritize synergies).
That’s the main reason why I dislike PvP comparisons when it comes to WvW

Now keep in mind that in this thread we are talking about the 15 sec CD on Avatar in WvW and how it affects druids who play as healers in medium / large scale battles (15+).
Druid specialization has been designed for healing, it’s a great addition to WvW as it fits a specific role. So far, it has been doing great in medium and large scale battles, it has even earned its spot in WvW squads because burst healing matters here and some guilds even demonstrated that it can be a great asset in GvG.

So what’s the problem? Well, to be able to heal as a druid, you rely on your specialization mechanic which used to be up to 15 sec healing (or less if cancelled early) then a 10 sec lockdown. The flow was pretty natural and fitted the pace of most WvW fights.
Now 5 extra seconds might not seem like a lot but in fact it is. You will spend less time healing and more time waiting for a cooldown. If you do the maths, it’s actually a huge nerf to the global healing output. In addition, thanks to the latest tweaks to healing ratios, if you want to be effective enough at healing, you will have less room for offensive stats. So that’s basically 5 extra seconds spent staring at a cooldown doing sub-damage.

And what’s the reason for it ? Small scale and 1v1 complains regarding two traits, perceived as balance issues, then addressed with a Band-Aid modification affecting the whole specialization mechanic even in WvW. Sorry but it’s not an acceptable solution.

I don’t know about your server but on mine, I get instantly put in a melee group or the commander group on the rare occasions I’m following a PUG tag.
I guess the class might be useful, uh?

It’s not about wanting to be meta everywhere, it’s about not suffering from nerfs targeted at 1v1 heroes. The 15 sec CD was targeting them (DC/CS) however the medium/large scale druid are the one suffering from this change.

Cool video, would have been great versus good opponents. Next time I guess

Quick tip: if you only use your druid specialization for Druidic Clarity & Celestial Shadow (hurts but well not much use vs these guys), you should consider activating Natural Convergence while you go out of Avatar (don’t channel it, don’t even stop to cast it, cancel Avatar right away). That’s free stability to secure whatever you do next.

@Crapgame, see lol ___î

OGDeadHead.8326:

In short, focus on bringing down the reasons to quickly just enter/leave CA, and bring more reasons to stay in the form and actually use the abilities provided.

It can be done this way: 25 CD on Avatar (don’t scream yet!) AND start the CD as soon as you enter Avatar.
- Spend the whole 15 sec in Avatar, you have a 10 sec CD left
- Spend 10 sec in Avatar, you have a 15 sec CD left
- Spend 5 sec in Avatar, you have a 20 sec CD left
Even a 20 sec CD starting when you enter Avatar might actually work too. You would be gated by your resource generation most of the time anyway.

Of course, it would have to be WvW / sPvP only. It may affect PvE too much otherwise.

I know dumb idea, but at least it’s an idea ^^

If only it was as easy as “there shouldn’t be a nerf”. Most of the recent druid nerfs were l2p issues from sPvP and 1v1. But still, there were nerfs.
Should I accept a nerf to DC and/or CS? No. But I would accept it instead of a nerf to the whole class mechanic (which is what happened last patch and might happen again).

If they keep Avatar CD at 15 sec, a 20% reduction to this CD available on a trait which make you drop either Druidic Clarity or Celestial Shadow to access it could actually be smart. Nice suggestion as they wouldn’t have to revert their previous change.
However anything above 15 sec before this potential reduction and the specialization is dead. It’s already agonizing at 15 sec in WvW.
The thing is, they would have to normalize the 15 seconds CD even to PvE. Not sure how it would be received by the PvE crowd.

And yes, I also see a nerf coming to Druidic Clarity and/or Celestial Shadow. We won’t be able to dodge this one. Too much whining even after the “nerf”.

By saying to this poor guy “switch class to go Legendary”, you were just being an a*s to him and moreover with a quite poor off-topic example.
I also can’t agree with your statement. sPvP is far different from WvW.

The main difference here is the format: sPvP is about small scale battle. WvW is about medium/large scale battle (at least 15+ players per side – I obviously won’t take Stonemist duelists into account when it comes to WvW balance).
You can’t balance it the same way. It’s not even played the same way.

You want the same kind of healing post-patch at only 500-600 healing power, sorry but no. You can’t be good both at healing and damaging. You will have to choose.
Having to grab healing gear in order to heal was the right decision from ANet. Their healing ratio tweak was a smart move and in my opinion you should have to grab at least 1200 healing to be successful at it.

Keep in mind that the Druid specialization is about healing. I’m sorry but a 15 sec CD can’t be applied to WvW. A 15 sec CD is way too much when it comes to large scale battles. A 15 sec CD is out-of-sync with current combat flow in WvW (large scale again). I GvG a lot so I had the opportunity to test it since the patch both at 10 sec (Guild Hall arena) and 15 sec CD (classic WvW maps) vs very good guilds. Like I wrote earlier 12 sec CD would be the max considering the current meta and WvW combat pace. I talked about it with a few other GvG druids and they agree that the 15 sec CD is too much. I have seen some of them contribute to this thread, they spoke for themselves. And keep in mind it’s even worse in zerg fights.
In fact, I feel like most people who disagree with it are mainly roamers / duelists who don’t want to see their “panic button” nerfed (DC/CS). At least be honest about it guys.

And please stop spreading false information.
15k heal with Glyph of Rejuvenation, what the kitten? oO
I should start posting some videos to show how much is healed at 1450 healing / 50% healing efficiency. My Glyph of Rejuvenation heals for 10k5ish on allies (with the full bonus and without any malus) on a 24 sec CD. It’s obviously way less on self. The truth is it takes quite some time to heal 23k hp, even more with the damage taken in-between due to the current WvW meta. Add to this the poor healing prioritization. It’s far from the big “25k heal on a 10 sec CD” you claim.

“Focus on build variety and vanilla ranger”? Something has to be done here too but this is not what this thread is about. I know from your previous threads that you were highly disappointed by ANet’s choice to give ranger a healing specialization. It’s obvious that you still don’t accept it. But please, keep in mind the players who use it as something more than a stun break / condi clean / stealth / superspeed.

Criticism aside, why do you think that when it ONLY comes to healing, a 15 CD could be fine but a higher requirement for healing stats on gear might not be?
I feel like it’s the other way around and we need less healing but more avatar uptime (while something has to be done about DC and CS for a perfect balance).

Crapgame.6519:

But then again, this is what happens when you release new elites without proper testing. Most classes had more than one open beta weekend of play. Druid got one and suffered. If I was part of their team the first thing I’d do is create a public test / patch server….

True. At least they managed to release something creative with the druid, too bad it lacked some testing (and communication).

@anduriell what the kitten?

anduriell.6280:

Anet publicly stated they needed to nerf bunker builds because the the combat is too stale.

ANet quote regarding sPvP? It’s about one year old if I remember well. I don’t understand how it is supposed to be relevant to this WvW thread but… well.

anduriell.6280:

You couldn’t kill a druid simply because it had a full 25k heal every ten seconds.

25k heal (??) every 10 sec (?!), what are you talking about? Would love to understand what you meant here. Maybe “being able to heal to full” but it would be quite some time spent in avatar therefor not a 10 sec CD.

anduriell.6280:

That’s why they nerfed not only the CD in CA but also the heals itself.

Nah, most of the new healing ratios weren’t a nerf for a dedicated healer. It’s only a nerf if you play with less than 1000~1200 healing (or something in this range). I actually heal for a little bit more post-patch. The only nerf is the Avatar CD (or DC/CS cooldowns to be more accurate). And it’s a huge one for a healer.

anduriell.6280:

Druidic clarity is fine as it is, and celestial shadow as well with the new CD.

Read “please don’t nerf my panic button”. That’s you choice, you don’t play a dedicated healer and I can understand this but don’t try to make it look like you care about healing druids (or “healbots” as you love to call them) or have much experience playing one. At least be honest about it.

anduriell.6280:

Now stop complaining because your ultra cheese build don’t work anymore and you have to actually deal with the class. Otherwise this season thief, DH and chrono are the hottest and lowest skill floor to be carried to legendary (in this order).

Sounds like a good WvW advice. Seriously, why are you talking about Legendary rank in a WvW thread?

I’m gonna quote you (from another thread): “problem with Druid it is not a support option it’s just a healbot that got nerfed enough to not to be able to do it’s job anymore..”
I’m confused, is it fine or did it get “nerfed enough to not be able to do its job anymore…”?

At least your troll post asking to lock elementalist in one attunement while in combat was fun. This one is not (wait was it a troll post?).

BlaqueFyre.5678:

The change is perfectly fine move on. It’s kind of ridiculous when a class that doesn’t need or rely on stealth has higher cheap stealth access than the class That has stealth as a class mechanic.

So in your opinion, it’s fine to nerf a whole specialization mechanic because of a single trait providing an advantage in 1v1? “Problem with a trait? Fine, nerf the whole spec”

For all I care they could just replace the stealth from Celestial Shadow with a 300 radius smoke field and revert back to a 10 sec CD Avatar, I would be happy (and don’t get me wrong, I use it a lot).
Holy kitten, they could even remove the full condi clean from Druidic Clarity and replace it with a 2 sec group resistance boon + self break stun (Pain Absorption like), I would still be happy (it would actually promote group play, crazy uh?). Whatever is the problem needs to be addressed and the CD needs to be reverted back in WvW.

Yes, this 10 sec CD on Avatar is just that important.

Shipwreck? Wait, could it be? Guys, it’s the Table™ sinking below us!
Let’s cast Entangle all together, don’t let it go.

I’m gonna pull this ship back with my underwater glyph… oh wait!

Druid resetting a zerg fight on a 10 sec CD with Celestial Shadow. Interesting.

Again, I’m sorry but you are talking about 1v1 or roaming builds and issues here. That’s only a small percentage of the WvW population. 1v1 shouldn’t be prioritized regarding balance. That’s a mistake very few game editors make and there is a reason for it.

You are also talking about Druidic Clarity and Celestial Shadow being the problem with a 10 sec CD. That’s the reason of most whines, yes (tip: good players know how to deal with it). But it’s a trait problem! The mechanic shouldn’t be nerfed due to trait issues/whines. The traits should be nerfed instead (and I guess that’s what you want to avoid here).

Druid is more than a break stun / condi clean / stealth / superspeed.

@anduriell we are talking about the impact of a 15 sec CD on medium (15-20) and large (40+) scale WvW battles, you are talking about 1v1 (and balancing for 1v1 oO). I would suggest reading again.

Wondrouswall.7169:

Give it a duration boost for those few (or one) Druid(s) that like to use it in zergs. Received it a few times in WvW zergs before, so someone out there brings it. ¯\(~~)_/¯

Duration on GotL is fine imo. It rewards druids who spend time in Celestial Avatar and actually heal (purpose of the specialization).

I understand there are some rangers around Stonemist who only use the druid specialization as a stun break / condi clear / stealth / superspeed. But please understand that there is more to it than a few “OP traits”

There are druids who heal in WvW zergs and in GvG. I have been playing it this way for more than a year. I have even won the EU GvG Tournament as a healing druid almost a week ago. I have seen a lot of other druids play this way. More players are getting interested in this role are asking for advice. I know that some GvG guilds are currently experimenting with it. Expect even more healing druids in WvW soon imo.

Now back to the topic, Avatar on a 15 seconds CD is inadequate considering the current combat pace in WvW. Some CDs tend to bring a natural rhythm to WvW fights and allow commanders to go aggressive on the enemy. With a 15 seconds CD, Avatar is out of sync with this “natural rhythm”. From what I have been experiencing lately, it’s about 3 seconds. It might not seem like a lot but in fact it’s HUGE when you have to deal with this amount of damage. That’s one of the reasons why I believe 12 seconds would be ok and 10 seconds was perfect.

Druid is great in large scale battles and even more in GvG. The issue here is that a 15 seconds CD is too much considering the combat pace and amount of damage in medium/large scale WvW battles. On the other hand, a 10 seconds CD was manageable.

You are right about Druidic Clarity and Celestial Shadow being the root of the issue. Therefor why would they nerf a whole specialization mechanic instead of the faulty traits?
It may have been easier to do/code but the result is almost game-breaking. It hurts the ones who actually play the specialization and use its spells.
The funny part: it hardly even hurts those who grab the spec only to abuse the traits.

15 seconds is way too much. They should have tested it before going live. 10 seconds was fine, 12 seconds could even be okish…

atheria.2837:

Earix.5684:

Yes, group stability would be a good way to promote ranger/druid in WvW.

However, I’m tired of reading “druids only have 2 stability sources on a 60ish seconds CD”. If you look closer at druid spells, you will notice that we also have a stability source while in Avatar. It doesn’t solve the group stability topic but it might help you.

Natural Convergence (2 sec stab, 10 sec CD)
1) Start channeling Natural Convergence
2) Stow weapon immediately
3) Run around and enjoy your stab

You’re saying open or keep open the Hero panel and try to stow a weapon while fighting?

You really don’t WvW much, do you?

Nah not much. I’m one of the only druids included in the GvG line-up of one of the current top 3 GvG guild EU and I have been playing it in GvG since druid was released

Back to the topic: stow weapon (keyboard bind) = cancel current spell casting which means 2 stacks of stab from Natural Convergence you can use for something else.

Yes, group stability would be a good way to promote ranger/druid in WvW.

However, I’m tired of reading “druids only have 2 stability sources on a 60ish seconds CD”. If you look closer at druid spells, you will notice that we also have a stability source while in Avatar. It doesn’t solve the group stability topic but it might help you.

Natural Convergence (2 sec stab, 10 sec CD)
1) Start channeling Natural Convergence
2) Stow weapon immediately
3) Run around and enjoy your stab

Pretty much every skill could be implemented underwater, that’s just a design decision here.

Eleazar.9478:

man that 10 CD get out of jail free card was broke as kitten

FYI your Avatar CD is even more than a break stun! If you keep it long enough you will notice there are also 5 skills. And some druids actually use those skills to heal in a squad group. 5 extra seconds on this CD hurt them real hard.
Seriously, the druid specialization is more than a free break stun / condi clean / stealth / superspeed / extra CC.

Eleazar.9478:

Things like glyph of unity and alignment being almost completely usless.

Unity can be good for WvW healers if you know how to play with it, alignment is a good burst heal on allies, but you would have to stay long enough in Avatar to see it

Eleazar.9478:

We’re actually meta for a year

oO

atheria.2837:

Druids are misunderstood and underutilized.

So true.

Gotejjeken.1267:

For all those saying DC is the problem…how? DC isn’t enough to get us out of WK or BM + Trooper Runes. A condi clear every 15 seconds is fine, but you’d be long dead without some other form of clear as well.

I think the CD increase was to stop bunker druids from being able to stalemate an enemy for like 5 minutes at a time. Could have accomplished that with just the healing decrease IMO.

I don’t think DC is a problem but that’s what the Avatar CD nerf was about imo.
Now the new 15 sec Avatar CD is a problem if you play heal/support in large scale WvW and that’s what this thread is about.

Regarding bunker druids, it may be an issue in 1v1 or small scale if people are too weak to adapt. But in Eternal Battleground for each server, you will find 5 guys dueling around Stonemist, maybe 10 guys roaming around the map and 50+ guys following the current commander tag.
Do you really think that WvW should be balanced with these 5/15 guys in mind instead of the 50+ guys fighting the other 50+ enemies?

15 sec CD in sPvP might be ok. 15 sec CD in WvW is wrong.

Yes, I know that it would be out of sync and I do agree that out of sync ICD are counter-intuitive BUT 15 sec CD on avatar is way too much for anyone who plays support/heal in large-scale WvW.

The initial “community” whines were about Druidic Clarity and Celestial Shadow. Were they justified? I don’t think so…
However Druids who choose to heal in WvW/GvG shouldn’t have to suffer from these 1v1 whines. WvW shouldn’t be balanced around 1v1. And a whole class mechanic shouldn’t have to suffer from it.

And yes, an explaination from ANet would be nice.

Dear ANet Team,

In a recent patch, you decreased base healing on our Avatar spells and increased our healing stat contribution. You made it clear that we would have to choose and gear up for healing to be effective at it. That’s fine and that’s the way it should have been from the beginning.

However, you also increased Avatar cooldown to 15 seconds while in WvW. As you may already know from your personal playtime, 15 seconds feels like ages in a large-scale WvW battle. For someone who choose to gear up for healing according to the latest patch, that’s 5 extra seconds waiting for a CD to be able to play his role.

The way I understand it, you mainly increased the cooldown to deal with two issues:
- Druidic Clarity (break stun and full condi clear on a possibly “short” cooldown)
- Celestial Shadow (stealth and superspeed on a possibly “short” cooldown)

I do agree that these traits could be abused, especially in a 1v1/small-scale environment. But the way you addressed it, you decreased the viability of a specialization/role which is already questioned in WvW squads (see the recent thread in the WvW subforum).

Main question:
If Druidic Clarity and Celestial Shadow were the issue, why wouldn’t you add a 25/30 sec cooldown on these traits instead of on our main specialization mechanic?

Thank you for your answer

Dovkan.3519:

(Earix, I’ve seen your video, you actually inspired me to build my druid for healing/support and I couldn’t be happier. )

Thanks, great to hear. Old video with some average gameplay but I’m happy to know it inspired someone

Yes, a bear/longbow ranger won’t bring much to a WvW squad.

However thinking that a druid is not worth a squad slot is a mistake. With the right gear, druids are currently the best burst healer. Burst healing is what really helps in WvW, even more in ZvZ. If I were you, I would educate my commanders, the 2013 meta is over guys…

Imho, if you wanna bring something useful to your zerg, a full heal druid is the way to go.

Nerfing a specialization mechanic in a mode intended for group play because of 1v1 issues is such a dumb move in so many ways.

Totally agree with the OP.

Someone from ANet should play a support druid in a WvW zerg from times to times. A 15 seconds cooldown is way too much in the current meta. 10 was fine, 12 could have been fine, 15 is a big fail.

Let’s face it, Druidic Clarity and Celestial Avatar were the main targets here. Then why wouldn’t they add a 15 sec internal cooldown to both these traits in WvW instead of nerfing the whole mechanic?