Guild Wars 2

I’ll see your Bunny, and raise you an F2 skill.

In my experience, the SB&Axe/Torch “Bleed and Burn” druids do really well soloing champs.

There’s an NPC in HoT with an army of tamed rabbits following him around.

That’s what I want for a pet. A swarm of attack bunnies. Make it happen ANet!

Sounds a lot like the skill “Search and Rescue”, give or take a nerf in the last patch.

Silverwaste is basically a PvE version of Edge of the Mists.

Or has some strict timing requirement for mining that is definitely not a bot script.

Trapper Runes, for the PvE Ninja Vanish

Iron wards away ghosts. Stone walls do not. They built everything out of the only material that works to keep out the enemies of the Charr. They embed scrap metal into the ground because the ghosts are not limited to above-ground attacks.

We have Broomsticks and Flying Carpets.

Anything beyond that better include an entire PvP mode based around it.

Justine.6351:

It just hit me,

sword AA change + legendary shortbow inc = shortbow rework

What % chance do you give it?

Less than 5%.

Legendary is done by a different team than balance.

Balance guys already made a “major” change to Ranger’s via the Sword AA, and even if they had the time won’t want to rock the boat any more in a single patch.

Too many changes undoubtably summons the nerf bat.

If we were to keep waypoints for dungeons, and world bosses, and at least one waypoint at the entrance to each zone…. then the only thing this accomplishes is increasing the death penalty in lower level areas.

High level zones are already restricted to a small handful of waypoints, and in Orr you can’t even count on those.

In the first MMO I ever played, you had to ride a horse from the WvW areas to the end-game leveling areas. And I had an egg timer for the exact time of the horse route so that I could go get some tea, turn the burgers over on the grill, and take out the trash instead of actually paying attention to the game world.

I suppose it did made the world a bigger place. lol.

kurfu.5623:

What would they even gain from doing that?

I thought I read somewhere that pet-only kills give nothing in return…

You initially will get some coin/trash drops back, but DR kicks you in a matter of minutes if you kill the exact same 5 mobs over and over again.

If ANet was just to rebalance, the most we would see is some coefficient adjustments on the existing skills. An Elite spec means that fundamental changes to how the class works are not off the table. The fact that the Elite has synergy with the existing Nature utilities would just be gravy.

Besides which, the mutual exclusion sacrifice would be a matter of build customization. There’s 9 other traits to define, 4 utillities, and a new weapon. Surely there’s room for “Marksmanship 2.0” with the remainder of the specialization.

What would be interesting is if the rework came in the package of a new elite spec. Maybe bring Ritualist back, as a ranger variant.

Something like:
Minor Trait: Restless Spirits – Summoned Spirits that you control have 75% reduction in cast time for active abilities. Summoning spell recharge reduced by 30%.
Major Trait: Enraged Spirits – Summoned Spirits that you control can now attack nearby targets.
Master Trait: Grasp of the Mist – Sacrificed or killed spirits emit a fire/burning AOE before they die.

Elite Skill: Summon Spirits – Spirits that you control teleport to your location and are healed.

F2: Avatar of the Mists, Gated by Astral Force, charge replaces your weapon skills with offensive summoned spirits (Pain, Bloodlust, Shadow…)

This means that our Spring content/balance patch is only 19 days away.

glass half full

I wouldn’t mind a set of target golems in the PvP lobby and Lions Arch that reported back what your DPS and Spike damage are, similar to GW1. You could work on your build easily enough there, w/o incurring the chat idiocy that live raid stats would.

I’d be happy with a short burn component, so that the staff is more compatible with condition damage builds.

DGraves.3720:

Wait, Asura actually rodents?

I have no idea what you are talking about, and find your comment both racist and insensitive.

I’m not big on the directional arrows idea. I like the idea of flexibility, but if I’m hitting the GTFO button, I want to do so immediately.

Not to mention that they are invisible to most people. It’s kind of hard to conduct a census of invisible magical beings who don’t want to be found.

Ranger GS is primarily a Control weapon, rather than damage. It’s use comes through the ability to evade on auto, on demand projectile immunity, and capacity for chain daze. If you are looking for damage with a GS ranger, pretty much all you have is Quick Draw + Maul.

White Rabbit. And a Ferret w/ Mug.

Aww man. I came in this thread hoping to steal someones shiny new broken beyond all belief condition build, and all I got was a build that was old news even when it was posted. :/

kitten you forums!

P.S. & On-Topic: Plz unnerf rune of the trapper, ty.

I would so afk on a spawn point just to not have to deal with this.

I’ll take an invite please.

Thornwolf.9721:

I would like axes on the ranger to be brought up to par with the other weapons, as well for perhaps a mace or a hammer for something similar to a shaman or beast caller. I feel as though giving us a melee with alot of CC would be interesting as we would be smashing the ground and causing vines, or roots to lash up at our enemy’s. Perhaps giving us an anti cc build with totems we summon which are similar to banners, giving us a banner build that is not necessarily like the warriors.

One thing about this part – Rangers/Druids already fill the melee/CC niche quite well, and really don’t need a new weapon to fit. “roots to lash up at our enemy’s” is an existing Druid Grandmaster trait, in addition to the Entangle elite skill. Between utility skills, pet skills, weaponskills… you could realistically keep a target either dazed, knocked down, or rooted indefinitely.

Qugi.2653:

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

Is gliding in Central Tyria now part of the core package or do you still need HOT for that?

Need HoT

Also need a level 80 character capable of unlocking glider mastery.

Your build seems either too defensive, or not defensive enough. Your primary stat is vitality, which isn’t doing you any favors in terms of partner play.

In terms of theorycraft, your Tempest needs to be self-sufficient. For most PvE play, it shouldn’t matter if you can heal your partner or not. They are required to have a healing spell on the bar, and they are the best person to realize they are standing in a big red circle of impending death, so use that as your first line of defense.

This isn’t really a modification of your build. This is a condition build that I mostly ripped off of other people on this forum, that I think is similar to what you’re trying to do.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNUQNAV3fjUqQNL2uCmrAVLWKEMmBQp7B80FydBA4uaYdteSsz6M-TRSAwAtVC6SDiYlf92fAwFBQo6Ps0I05JAUTTAhAWsCA-e

The idea is that you will be the one fronting the damage for the most part – charging into the fray in melee range while your partner lays on the burst damage. You’ll still have somewhat defensive armor (in terms of high toughness) and decent healing via resounding timbre and cultivated synergy. Keep your pet in close proximity of you as some of your healing will “bounce” off the pet. Use spike trap and then Entaglement to keep your prey stuck to your location.

On the offensive front, your job is to lay down bleeds. You have no power stats, so ignore autoattacks for the most part. Sharpen blades, use flame trap, and then focus on swapping weapons, poison volley, split blade, and bonfire.

Tragic Positive.9356:

Depends on what do you want to focus on.
For healer purposes, Staff+LB is the superior option.
For maximizing the DPS – LB+S/A
For roaming and mobility – Staff+GS

Just out of curiosity – why Staff+LB? The skills on longbow don’t really scream “support build” to me.

Would it still work for PvP if Pounce was a super-speed boon rather than a leap?

Cripple/Super still gives you the ability to chase down a target, and removing the leap would make the weapon more user friendly.

Panncakez.1290:

Don’t own a HoT myself, nobody in-game can give a clear answer, gw2skills often misses cooldowns on trait descriptions, thus – here I am with my questions.

1. How long does it aprox do gain full “celestial bar” with damaging charging only?
2. Can you exit “Celestial form” prematurely?
3. Does “Druidic Clarity” has a cooldown?
4. Does “Celestial Shadow” has a cooldown?
5. Does “Natural Stride” works both inside and outside the combat?

1. This varies situationally, so there isn’t really a hard number to give you.
2. Yes.
3/4. Not that I’m aware of, but Celestial Avatar transform has a cooldown, plus the energy gate, so it isn’t really needed.
5. Yes.

Fractals were originally balanced around a game that didn’t have a healer class. There isn’t a need for a healer in Fractals, and people are so used to polarized damage groups that it can feel slow. The upside is that the team as a whole can get away otherwise fatal mistakes.

In practice, healing at anything under fractal 20 is useless and boring. I’m certain others would argue that threshold is more like 40.

Make sure your team knows what you are doing. Otherwise you end up playing “Kite the Healer”.

Beyond that:
* ball & daze locking the trash mobs and eating boss break bars
* Damage buffs (Glyph / Frost spirit)
* “Guard!” incoming spike damage and/or fill time gaps in the reflect wall.
* condition clears / regen
* the very rarely needed spike heal to get a wounded party member back in the action.

Krispera.5087:

Staff 5 (Sublime Conversion) or CA 4 (Rejuvenating Tides) + Clarion Bond = Area Healing… Or Drakes, but it’s harder to do.

When I use CA for immediate heal, I do 3 first, since it’s faster and daze your enemies. Gives you more flexibility to do anything after.

Staff 3 is a blast finisher, as well as a decent area heal by it’s own right. At least for PvE applications it’s usually OK to drop Sublime Conversion, Ancestral Grace, and then Clarion Bond for 3 AOE heals back to back.

I’m assuming he means that the first ally to die within range, in excess of the ICD time, would instantly be teleported to the nearest Ranger, and then the pet would attempt to revive. This would be either completely automatic, or possibly tied to the Ranger healing skill.

How long does the guard effect last for?

You know… this is actually funny. We’re going to end up doing Jump Puzzles and then S&R’ing people to the reward chest like a ghetto mesmer.

In terms of Lore, a Fractal of the Mists portal would be exactly the kind of thing you would need to break back into UW/FoW, wouldn’kitten

I expect:
* Search and Rescue recharge time reduced. Healing bonus is lowered to bring it inline with the announced changes to quickness.
* Guard now gives your pet celerity in addition to existing boons. Note this does not reduce the recharge time of F2 skills.
* Protect Me, recharge time increased. Existing damage deflection removed. Instead it now provides 1 pulse of Aegis to 3 nearby allies.
* We Heal As One recharge time increased, to encourage use of other healing skills as an alternative.
* Sic Em now shadow steps your pet to target. This will consolidate the combined bugs of Shadow Step and Pet Pathing, and remain completely broken for the next 6 weeks..

Spirits, at the very least, need to have the cast time on the active effects removed and the recharge time reduced. Ideally we would have a major trait that reduces the recharge if the active effect was used. Since they lack mobility, they need to have a relatively short recharge to compensate.

Shouts have always been in a weird place. Resounding Timbre is great, but the base effects of the utility shouts have always been kind of kludged together. I’d like to see more support abilities here – i.e. effect allies near you or your pet, rather than beastmaster centric abilities.

On the Druid side, I’d like to see a little bit of condition damage on Staff AA, and maybe on wisp as well. Lingering Light and Celestial Shadow could use some tweaking, and it would be nice if Grace wasn’t as gated on CAF.

Tragic Positive.9356:

If you want to have fun and progress that way to lvl 100 – you really want to carry your team through. I have a spare set of Cleric just for this purpose. The build that can make any fractal a success is this one:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNAW8XnMqAVsilsCeqAEtgl/Aj5Dkv2ALvuMQAAet+WnrnccTyB-TpRBABWcBAErMg+PAAAOIAZt/wDHBAA
It carried us through to lvl 100

You allow your team to stack, and … well… Did I mention you have unlimited permanent AoE daze potential? Which means that you can perma-daze any stack of mobs and make any fractal a walk in the park?

What kind of rotation are you doing that pulls a perma-daze?

I’ll wait for the patch notes. I’ve heard this message repeated enough times to know I shouldn’t read too much into it, one way or another.

If you have the resources, and your end-goal is fractals, you should probably just skip to the Ascended Earrings off of the Merchant. You’ll want them soon anyway.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Guild_commendation_trader#Ascended_Gear

Healing/Support builds would use WH for the blast finisher. You can combo it into a fire field for might stacking. You can also use it as a spike heal + Regen by combo St5→St3→Wh5→PetSwap

BadSanta.6527:

As much as I love the Druid, I think druid traits are nice but they are kind of useless unless you gear for it, and even then only in raids or fractals. Compare this to every single class in the game.

For an extreme case, look at reapr/necro. Shroud not only gives the necro new skills, but it gives the player another hp bar as well. In my opinion Astral Force should do the same. In the case of the Tempest, every overload gives a different effect and can also save the Tempest and can do a good amount of dmg.

Druid Astral Force is just for healing, and kind of affective if you set your traits for it, but most of other mechanics do this as well for their class.

My suggestion is to give Astral Form some amount of attack or condi stun break. Some thing besides healing, that every druid can enjoy. Your opinion?
p.s
sorry for bad english

Celestial Avatar has more use than simply spamming heal.

Setting aside the healing, you have an AOE daze, a blast finisher, and an AOE cripple/imob, Condition cure, and a water field. Setting your traits offensively, you also get a ranged imob, Stealth, and possibly the best condition clear in the game. It also reverses the effect of any glyphs you have equipped.

Now what could one possibly do with all those toys?

Has anyone done any testing / modeling to see how this compares to % outgoing healing?

This looks like a PvE build?

I personally find Heal as One w/ Resounding Timbre and Cultivated Synergy a such a good combo of skills with this spec selection that I couldn’t see that blind trait being worth it.

For utilities I usually go with Sharpening Stone and Flame Trap. It fits a little better with Hidden Barbs. Alternately, if you really needed that much poison in your build you could switch to Wilderness for Poison Mastery.

FriendlyInvader.3126:

Ardenwolfe.8590:

Sometimes, it’s not the class, but the player behind the screen. I know a lot of rangers don’t like to hear that, but ranger is the easiest class to play . . . but by far the hardest to master.

ehhh I disagree. Every class is easy to play [in open world].

There are other classes with a minimum viable skill floor of “afk and my bear killed it”?

Shadow.6834:

I tried it and it is working very well. But now i dont know what to do with my Ascended Berserker Armor. Should i change it to Viper or to something else. And can i change it anyway as described in the wiki. Because its not listed on this page:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Gossamer_Insignia

You should keep your zerker armor and make a complete new set for condition. And a third healing set isn’t that bad of an idea.

It’s always good to keep your options open.

IIRC, didn’t ANET remove the internal cooldown from the Frost Sprit tooltip, because it doesn’t actually exist?