>We’re also looking to reduce the elementalist’s damage in high-level content, as this profession’s damage and utility mix currently crowds out other potential high-damage dealers.
Elementalist is the only class that has no survivability (other than the 2 dodges) and brings 0 utility to the team, especially with the Fresh Air Staff build that was very common until now. The only thing that they would bring is damage, and it required skill to stay alive as an Elementalist.
What is the place of an Elementalist now, after the patch from your prescriptive?
Just think it’s very sad that so much dev time has gone into something with so little to show for it. Really do hope you don’t throw out new legendary weapons and find a more suitable approach to releasing them.
As 6 devs working for 6 months for 1 legendary is laughable.
They had Nevermore since December 2013. One of the Devs working on the Legendary Weapons said on an episode of GuildChat pre HoT that they had HOPE and Astralaria for about the same time. They’ve been working on that Shortbow for at least a year (HoT announced with new Legendary Weapons on the 25th of January 2015)
It seems like we’re not gonna get any Legendaries other than the Shortbow anytime soon (2016). If you ever start making Legendary Weapons again, please follow this post and make something that YOUR community wants.
P.S. I’ve been playing since the Heart of Thorns announcement back in January 2015 and even though i’ve spent over 2 thousand hours in game the past year, i never had the chance to get any of these items. Please consider bringing some of them back.
Dungeon Rewards got nerfed more than they should have been. It’s fun doing Dungeons and teaching people but i don’t always have time for that, and currently it is extremely hard to find a group and almost impossible to find an experienced group.
Here’s a poll with some features that i think would be a great addition to Guild Wars 2. Vote for the ones you wish we had in game, if you come up with anything that i’ve missed please mention it in the comments!
I got very excited when i saw all the Guild Decorations for our Guild Halls during the livestream! Snow! Snow everywhere! Unfortunately, 2 days ago, our Scribe took a break from the game due to family issues. We all hope that he and his family are good but that brings up again the issue of Scribing not being Guild-wide. It would make sense being Guild-wide because people take breaks and change guilds. The Scribes are not exceptions! It’s quite hard to level another Scribe, especially if your Guild is not huge.
Seems like there’s an issue with LA. Every time i try to log into a character that was in LA, i get kicked out of the game. This is actually a huge problem for me since 8/9 of my character are “trapped” in LA. I was planning on Raiding with my guildies and leveling my Revenant this weekend but apparently that’s not happening.
My client crashes as soon as i get the first loading screen. I didn’t have any crashing problems before the last “crashes fix update”. Since that day i’ve been getting more and more crashes everyday. Today i cant even go past the first loading screen.
Healing builds have always been a part of the game, a small part but they did exist. Now that we are encouraged to run our favorite healing build with whatever class we choose to play, can we please get participation in events by healing the NPCs and the players who deal damage to the event mobs. I love healing and supportive my allies therefore i got myself a healing power set but most of the times i get Bronze or Silver reward from events because i’d rather heal than deal damage. This is a problem in events that take place in the new HoT maps (especially Dragon’s Stand) where heals are required to stay alive. I spent the same time working on an event like my dps friends, why should i get lower rewards?
Some suggestions for AF generation and CAF gating:
Have AF generate by a certain percentage in normal (non-CAF) mode; degenerate when in CAF mode. Wielding staff provides bonus AF generation in normal mode; decreases rate of degeneration in CAF mode. You can use this method to quantifiably set and normalize AF generation across players, instead of trying to tweak individual AF generation numbers on weapons/heals to reach desired target levels based on observation.
Start AF at a full globe (tied in with the proposed change from 1 above).
Unlike a DPS model, healers should not have to “build up” to enter into a pure defensive mode. You should be able to enter a fight between others and immediately go into CAF for some clutch healing; instead of joining the fight, DPS to build enough AF, and then go for some “clutch” healing.
To create the “bursty” healing gameplay, use soft gating methods to encourage players to fill the AF bar instead of using hard gates, such as a 10 CD/max AF restriction. Hard gating methods, taken from DPS oriented models, are not flexible enough to deal with the time-sensitive and situational nature of a healing class. Some soft gating methods you can use instead to create a bursty healing druid are:
Add AF cost for entering CAF to discourage players from going in and out of CAF form unnecessarily.
Tie heal strength with how full the AF bar is when you entered CAF (e.g., 50% AF bar = 50% heals). This will encourage players to reach max AF before entering CAF but without the hard restriction/gate.
Add percentage bonus to DPS for every level of AF bar generated (e.g., 1% increase in DPS for every 20% AF bar generated) to relieve some of the anxiety players feel from having a full bar of AF but no reason to change to CAF. This will also help to alleviate some of the DPS loss perceived by Rangers when taking the Druid line (i.e., at least you’re getting a DPS bonus if you are not using CAF much).
While in CAF, have total healing done feedback into refilling AF bar for increased CAF duration. This will reward players who invest heavily into healing power which is traditionally viewed as an unfavorable stat.
With the above changes, a player can be the type of bursty player you envision Druid healing to be but you leave the choice in the hands of the player. They can choose to be suboptimal healers (balanced with other healing/support classes in mind) for more constant healing, if the need arises. The above changes should also be alot easier to implement/balance from Anet’s side, as opposed to trying to normalize every combination of weapon/heal/ability for AF generation.
I think it’s a good way to start improving Druid by letting us keep the energy out of combat even though it does not solve the in-combat problem which is not being able to heal your allies in need because your heals (since you can not auto attack allies to heal them directly) are gated behind 10 seconds cooldown and not having full energy to enter Celestial mode. I believe that these suggestions are necessary to bring Druid again at a decent level.
If regen were removed it would be in all modes. I’ve seen that in PvP it is also a pretty heavy gating, but in PvE it is appears worse due to the more frequent travel time between engagements.
Let’s hope that they let us gain energy by healing while we are in the Celestial Form again, simply because once you get in Celestial mode now, you dont have enough time to use enough skills (especially when you have your abilities + some glyphs that you wanna use).
I’m looking into the combat degen resulting in too heavy a gating of Celestial Avatar in PvE situations; from what I saw over the weekend it seemed overly restrictive in open world battles. If this continues it then the degeneration when out of combat is likely to be removed.
Celestial Form
1) 9s cooldown to enter Celestial Form
2) Reduced Celestial energy charging
3) Reduced time while in Celestial Form
4) Out of combat Celestial energy degeneration
5) Doesn’t charge Celestial energy while in Celestial Form
I would really appreciate a Dev response to see if Druid is gonna get back to “decent” or if i should just go back to playing Elementalist. Druid got me excited because i love healers in MMOs but right now, it’s not a healer or Damage spec.
What nerfs? So many people complaining about nerfs but on the update page on the wiki all I see is the nerf on the smokescale but there seems to be more.. I feel left out >.>
-Celestial Form now doesn’t charge energy from healing while you’re using it.
-It’s much harder to charge energy in general.
-It has a 9 seconds cooldown.
-You can use it only when it’s at full energy.
-Energy evaporates when out of combat.
Now that we have HoT and the Elite Specs, a lot of people are really disappointed on Druid. Huge nerfs for this Elite Spec came with the release of the expansion. Seeing a lot of negative posts and feedback in general, did Anet announce any changes they consider for Druids in the future? Buff the Elite Spec do be somewhere where you know whether you are a healing Druid or a Ranger cause really now it’s somewhere in the middle. From point 100 that it was in the Beta now its to point 1. Something in the middle would be ideal.
The Beam requires an enemy target, meaning you cannot point at an Ally (like with Combat camera) and heal them, as there will be no beam with a target.
I think this needs to be changed.
This needs to be a thing. I feel like if Druid was in the first Beta Weekend it would be completely different by now and much more enjoyable. See how the Reaper or other Elite Sepcs were at the beginning and how they are now.
Can we get those huge Exalted Guards as a Guild Decoration please?! They could drop from raids as a reward or buy them from the gem store. I already see myself buying a ton of them even if they cost 800 gems. Please Anet?
Anet please make Animation packs. Animation packs would change the way your character poses when in combat or out of combat. That wait you could have a Druid with the “classic” staff animation or the melee staff animation that previously had.
I have a couple of male characters that use staff and since the Druid staff animation changed back to the normal animation i thought it’s a good time to address that. Why females with staff get to have a very elegant animation while in combat but male characters need to bend their knees? It just seems weird. If you were holding a staff in real life, would you need to pose like that? Probably not so why does that animation exists?
I would suggest changing the male staff animation while in combat to something similar to the female one but a bit less elegant (?) or maybe holding the staff with just one hand instead of two.
I know its a minor thing but im sure people with male characters and staff will agree with this.
This is what Colin said about unlocking the Elite Specs, Please read it before complaining about grind.
“It works just like any other training line – except all the skills, traits, skins, abilities, etc. are all inside one full training line that costs 400 points to get everything in the entire line. It costs 60 points to unlock and be able to play as the elite specialization itself.
Currently anyone who has done all the hero points in the world has about half of the entire elite spec line unlocked on day one. Hero challenges in the jungle are worth 10 points each, so you’ll only need to do about 20 hero challenges in the jungle [or via the new WvW system] to have everything related to your elite spec trained.
There are enough hero challenges in the jungle to train your entire elite spec and not do the challenges in core world if you wish – they simply speed you up if you’ve already got them.”
You can read that in 2 ways:
- You unlock all traits and skills with 60 heropoints and the skins with the remainder of heropoints.
- You unlock the very first minor thing in the training line, most likely a minor trait.
It was data mined that we would need 270 Hero Points to unlock the Elite Specs and now that they give us the base of the Elite Spec (traits and skills) for only 60 Hero Points people are crying on the forums asking for refunds.
You can keep claiming that you will unlock the traits and skills for 60 heropoints, but Colin didn’t confirm this at all. He said you need to have 60 heropoints to be able to play the elite spec. This could mean that it could only unlock the first minor trait which gives us the weapon and and the traitline. It makes us being able to play as the new elite spec, but it doesn’t mean we have all skills and traits unlocked.
So playing without your gyros is playing as an Elite Spec? I disagree with that.
And you would have worked toward the unlocks differently than getting the HPs in the game now… how exactly????
The point is had I known, I would have spent time working to unlock those I don’t have so that come Friday I would have cleared them all on the current map. currently I’ve saved what I had not knowing I’ll need to fully train everything else before training a spec I actually want to use. Color this anyway you like it should have been mentioned a long time ago so people actually had a chance to work towards it KNOWING what they’ll need.
This. I think a huge part of the problem with this announcement is that it’s come 3 days until launch. If this had been revealed weeks ago, it likely would have just been a small little disappointment and blown over quickly. Now it’s likely to spill over into launch if ANet doesn’t give more details on it.
It seems like it’s very hard for people to do 6 Hero Challenges in the jungle to get their Elite Spec (skills and traits).
And like I said the last time you spouted off the 60 HP’s: Source?
Because I highly doubt they’ve got it so that you can get all traits and skills within 60 points. Especially with the picture posted earlier in this thread:
Clearly shows the elite skill very near the end of the line. With 400 points being from beginning to end, I highly doubt 60 points gets you to the elite skill.
So, please post a source that explicitly states that it’s only 60 points to get from 0 traits and skills for an elite to all of them.
This is what Colin said about unlocking the Elite Specs, Please read it before complaining about grind.
“It works just like any other training line – except all the skills, traits, skins, abilities, etc. are all inside one full training line that costs 400 points to get everything in the entire line. It costs 60 points to unlock and be able to play as the elite specialization itself.
Currently anyone who has done all the hero points in the world has about half of the entire elite spec line unlocked on day one. Hero challenges in the jungle are worth 10 points each, so you’ll only need to do about 20 hero challenges in the jungle [or via the new WvW system] to have everything related to your elite spec trained.
There are enough hero challenges in the jungle to train your entire elite spec and not do the challenges in core world if you wish – they simply speed you up if you’ve already got them.”
You can read that in 2 ways:
- You unlock all traits and skills with 60 heropoints and the skins with the remainder of heropoints.
- You unlock the very first minor thing in the training line, most likely a minor trait.
It was data mined that we would need 270 Hero Points to unlock the Elite Specs and now that they give us the base of the Elite Spec (traits and skills) for only 60 Hero Points people are crying on the forums asking for refunds.
And you would have worked toward the unlocks differently than getting the HPs in the game now… how exactly????
The point is had I known, I would have spent time working to unlock those I don’t have so that come Friday I would have cleared them all on the current map. currently I’ve saved what I had not knowing I’ll need to fully train everything else before training a spec I actually want to use. Color this anyway you like it should have been mentioned a long time ago so people actually had a chance to work towards it KNOWING what they’ll need.
This. I think a huge part of the problem with this announcement is that it’s come 3 days until launch. If this had been revealed weeks ago, it likely would have just been a small little disappointment and blown over quickly. Now it’s likely to spill over into launch if ANet doesn’t give more details on it.
It seems like it’s very hard for people to do 6 Hero Challenges in the jungle to get their Elite Spec (skills and traits).
This is what Colin said about unlocking the Elite Specs, Please read it before complaining about grind.
“It works just like any other training line – except all the skills, traits, skins, abilities, etc. are all inside one full training line that costs 400 points to get everything in the entire line. It costs 60 points to unlock and be able to play as the elite specialization itself.
Currently anyone who has done all the hero points in the world has about half of the entire elite spec line unlocked on day one. Hero challenges in the jungle are worth 10 points each, so you’ll only need to do about 20 hero challenges in the jungle [or via the new WvW system] to have everything related to your elite spec trained.
There are enough hero challenges in the jungle to train your entire elite spec and not do the challenges in core world if you wish – they simply speed you up if you’ve already got them.”
Is that 400 points in total or 400 points just for the skills and traits?
The reason I ask is because I think someone said before that the weapon and armour skins were at the end of the track to be unlocked so all the functional stuff could be gotten first (I think it was a PoI, but not too sure), in which case it wouldn’t be 400 points to unlock the track, skills and traits.
400 with everything, but everything’s in the same line and we only know that the weapon skin is the final unlock. We don’t know where the other skin and non-trait/skill items are located or how many points those are worth.
The traits and skills are in the first 60 Hero Points. “Such a grind”
Can I make a suggestion? Either make that warning more visble(change to red?) or put it at the top instead of the bottom of the mail we get.
I absolutely agree with this. New players don’t know how Anet works and if they send mails in-game or not. I, as an inexperienced mmo player, almost fell in that trap, because i didn’t notice the message that says it’s not from Anet, when i first started playing Guild Wars 2. Luckily, i was smart enough to click around the website before i give any of my information. That fake website is well designed and everything seems normal except when you click the “Login” button and takes you to a Chinese page.
I absolutely love the fact that Druids hold the staff like it’s a melee weapon. They are medium armor, not light and that difference between the armor classes is great. Plus the animations of the Druid staff match the way he holds it. I think Anet did a great job separating medium and light armor classes this way. Changing the way Druids hold the staff is enough to make me just play my ele that i’ve been playing so far.
Current Druid Staff Stance: – I don’t mind this stance with the staff. From a lore point of view, Druids are MAGES of the forest. They arent going to hold the staff elegantly like a Mesmer, ele or necro. The scholar classes are mages that you;d def find in cities or towns versus a Druid who prefers nature. So the stance to me works well, it gives it that WILD look. Look at the Druid art for example.
Scholar Profession Staff Stance: – While male light armor professions hold the staff less elegant, the female character models hold the staff in a elegant fashion IMO. This look does not suit Druid imo. Male stance is alright but female is to sophisticated for a Wild Druid. I dont mind the Staff stance on my male sylvari, but im sure some will not like it on their female chrs.
I agree and i like having a variety of animations and stances between classes in the game because that’s a part of what makes a class special. I’ve also had a male Ele in the past. I don’t really like that males have to bend their knees while holding the staff and i would like to see that being reworked at some point. An animation similar to the female on, but holding the staff with just one hand, would be great!
I absolutely love the fact that Druids hold the staff like it’s a melee weapon. They are medium armor, not light and that difference between the armor classes is great. Plus the animations of the Druid staff match the way he holds it. I think Anet did a great job separating medium and light armor classes this way. Changing the way Druids hold the staff is enough to make me just play my ele that i’ve been playing so far.
I’m glad that the base healing has been reduced but is it really enough? I mean, Druid in BWE3 could really do a ton of healing even in Berzerker’s gear, i feel like by reducing the base healing by such a small amount Druid will still be able to keep everyone safe in zerker gear. If that turns out to be correct (when we finally get to see the changes on the 23rd) what is the point of playing in Healing power gear? Even if it does much more healing, zerker druid will still be able to save his teammates and do more damage. There will be two kinds of Rangers, the ones who want to do damage and the ones that want to heal. I don’t want to see a zerker Ranger specialized as Druid that can do really high damage and a satisfying amount of healing. I think it’s great that a Ranger can be damage or healer (as Druid) but not both at once.
Since Guild Wars 2 has a quite big community and it’s getting even bigger with HoT i honestly think that Anet should show some support to their Canadian and Australian players which as far as i know they are quite a lot (including me).
I think the solution would to start creating mobs that don’t reward you for killing them as fast as possible but for killing them according to their mechanics.
Pretty much this but even they want to go that way, you will always see peoples QQ there the game is changing in a wrong direction when its not.
Anet just needs to do what they think it’s best for the game and we already know that they don’t really like the zerker meta. People will always rage whatever they choose to do with the game, it’s just how people act on the internet.
I think the solution would to start creating mobs that don’t reward you for killing them as fast as possible but for killing them according to their mechanics.
I really wouldn’t want to wait for a Druid to come and heal us all. My point is, since most (if not every) classes can support their team in different ways it would be nice to make Supportive builds (not only healing) more viable. Builds like Clerics Guardian, Druid, Ventari Revenant, Healing power Ele. I don’t think it would be difficult to find someone to support the team when there are so many supportive builds and supportive gear is accessable by everyone. Again, i don’t want to wait for a healer but i don’t want to have a full dmg party either.
I’m not sure if this is the right place to post this, hopefully it is.
Currently the “zerker meta” is all that is acceptable (in a way) to play in content such as Dungeons and Fractals. There are a lot of people in the community that really enjoy playing supportive/healing builds and you can see that according to this survey (http://strawpoll.me/5582761/r) Druid got many people excited. I got the change to try the raid during the Beta and i could really see how two Druids managed to keep alive a 10-man squad ( especially the second time that the Raid was available for testing which felt much harder than the first time and it was really enjoyable!) But still, players are not encouraged to play their supportive builds in the current content because it’s not currently needed. My solution would be to nerf every single personal healing skill in the game by a small amount ( so it doesnt affect much the people who play solo in the open world) and fix the healing power to scale properly. I can see that Druid and Ventari two of my favorite Specializations in the game (not just Elite Specs) have no place in Dungeons or Fractals.
I really wanna see what you guys think and hopefully someone from the dev team notices this post.
Edit: Most mobs in the game currently have their heavy damage attacks when their health gets at like 50%. Thats why people prefer zerkers, “kill it before it kills you”. Another solution would be to make mobs with heavy attacks at the beginning so you need someone to support you.
