I have been playing as an Auramancer (D/W) for a while now. Recently have been playing on other classes but now I am returning to my Ele once again. I would like to try playing as a staff healer in www. Can someone tell me more about the rotations and how/when to use what powers?
Thanks!
Interesting…
How about hybrid? Viper? Or any mix’n match stats to that effect?
Thanks for the advice!!
For high end PvE and casual www: Burn or Power?
Hello all,
Recently I have been trying a number of burn builds on my Guardian for PvE and casual WWW. And it appears that Zeal (331) – Radian (121) – Virtue (xx1) with Scepter/Torch has a higher damage than any combination with DH.
Am I doing it right? Any suggestion?
I have played with a Berserker build long ago. Now I just want to try something else for a change.
Thanks!
Give engie more kits to play with instead
Is there any way I can re-craft, breakdown, respec, etc. those extra ascended trinkets I have?
I bought some of them a while ago and some of the stats combinations now are not useful to me any more. I know I can use them on any of my characters but I don’t think I need some of them.
Is there any way to recycle them in to something I may need/useful?
Thanks!
Hello all,
I have just come back from a year long break. Since then I am having fun in all game modes (except high ends Raids and Fractals). I am just curious to find out which build(s)/class(es) has/have the best CC?
I always like playing a CC-support class but in the past I never had the chance to try it on GW2. Much have changed, I suspect. Is it possible to make a good CC build(s) for the current game?
Thanks!
Any suggested build?
Thanks!
Mainhand Dagger! Condi, 600-900 range (similar to ranger mainhand axe)
With that build it looks like you pan on tanking? If that is the case I wonder if taking sword/shield would be better than hammer.
Check out Rune of the Monk.
Well, yes and no.
Yes, it is a dps/tank setup. But it is mainly because Minstral’s are a bit too expensive at the moment. Besides, I do want some reasonable dps. I do not need much precision because of that 40% fury. So Crusader ended up to be a good fit.
No, tanking is more like a side effect. But still it seems to be a good set up for a tanker/healer with acceptable dps. So I am running with it to see how it goes.
I have actually a hammer, a staff, a sword and a shield. I do change around depending on if need to be staying at range or not. But yes Staff-Sword/Shield is a good tank/healer combo: two group heals one of which is a condi cleanse, one self-heal with block, two evades, protection, blind and projectiles destroy.
This is mine for the time being:
Runes and Sigils are undecided. But when I can afford it, I will get myself a Sigil of Transference
I think the summoning of the tablet is a good example of over-designed: what else would one do after switching to Ventari? Of course is using the tablet. But why having to summon it is a must? Most practised players these days just press F1 and 6 immediately.
I do not mind the moving because the rationale behind it is not the act of moving the tablet: it is the positioning of it. So remove the summoning silliness and keep the rest of it as it is except if you run out of range, a new tablet will resummon itself automatically right next to you.
The Elite skill is to be remained the same, except once the old tablet is destroyed, a new one will resummon itself automatically right next to you, as it is described above.
(edited by Oh My God.8423)
10% – 15% increase in damage averaging over time?
But you don’t want to use Glyph of Empowerment on boss fight: you save it to boost healing output when in CA form.
You probably won’t take all Glyphs: you would have one or two Spirits instead.
So by my rough calculation, and some instinct, about 10% – 15% increase averaging over time.
Combining that with Druid’s healing capabilities, does it still head-and-shoulder better than the other two, which can provide steadier (and might be more) Protection, Might and Fury, and higher personal DPS?
Druid does have it merits; don’t get me wrong. But the more I think about it, I think the class it best serve as a part-time healer and a full-time dps buffer instead, or a classic Spirit-Spotter with some Glyphs and CA form for one of those “brace for impact” moment.
(edited by Oh My God.8423)
I like Ventari.
Actually I hate Druid these days even though I LOVE my Ranger. So I turned to Ventari for some healing fun. It turns out to be a pleasant surprise.
Anyway, you can do well as a healing Ventari.
The only thing that put me off is the constant warning notice when I am not targeting anyone while trying to use Staff 1.
Actually how much damage buff (average over time) do Glyph of Empowerment, Spotter, Frost Spirit and Grace of the Land combined?
It seems that one of the “Druid is the best healer” arguments is that it provides the above buffs. I am interested to see how much a percentage an increase do all those buffs bring…
Please, is someone good with math?
I use Crusader weapons and gears and Cleric trinkets. Since I can have 40% Fury already, I don’t think I need that much precision to begin with. Besides there will be others to buff your crit chance to ~50%. Personally I am happy with one in two chances.
The heal is good; roughly about 75% of someone in full heal spec. The 75% estimate is BEFORE factoring the out-going heal modification of a Ventari. It is good enough for me anyway. However, at the moment, I am still unsure whether to take Nourishing Roots or Tranquil Balance.
Runes and Sigils are undecided at the moment. I use consumables to boost my boon duration.
Out of combat, Natural Harmony on its own, can be used 3 times before you run out of energy. I nonetheless managed to use it continuously yesterday in WWW without problem – but I was attacking and did not move the tablet all that much. Energy management is the key. Just remember: you cannot do everything at once – much like other classes really.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vlAQJASmnLbkInEJqkZqEqpEIsklhlhdiM2YVADYPbt7C-TBhZABnq+TLKBvUXAAK/AA-e
(edited by Oh My God.8423)
Penguins, or more specifically: Skipper, Kowalski, Rico and Private
Flying condi daggers! 600-900 range!
…a range condi pistol to go with my shield…
One more thing: I have more fun with a Ventari than a Druid (and I LOVE and main a ranger). Besides, most good heals of a Ventari can go beyond 1200 range; whereas those of the Druid cannot.
People are still learning the mechanic of the Raid. It is good to have someone who have easy access to the “Oh Scheiße!” button. It is a comfort in mind. Once people are more comfortable with Raid, other classes will find their way back.
Well, the ticking clock of Mesmer was toned down; and those effects only lasted a few seconds at best.
Any day now…
Well, I only wish there is something on which, or somewhere where, we can practise on how to handle the new mechanic without time limits…
I myself have a Druid and Ventari and I have been investigating, testing and generally asking around for opinions regarding their effectiveness in being a healer.
First and foremost, however, is that, unlike other MMO, neither of the healers can provide constant stream of healing non-stop. That is to say there will be down time between each healing session. So the debate about which is the best healer usually comes down to: who can heal most during each session, how readily available of each healing session, how long is each session, and what else a healer can do outside the healing session.
Outside CA, a Druid can use Staff 1, 2 and 3, Healing Spring and traited Glyphs to maintain a basic level of healing as well as regen. It is more like a top-up than an “emergency rescues”, which appears to be the most sought after feature of Druid. Note that the current stage of Staff 1 is so fiddly to use and I personally hate the constant reminder on the screen if you are not targeting at someone within range.
The major heal comes from Celestial Avatar, which only lasts 15 seconds. If you use Glyph of Empowerment during that time, your heals will be rather significant. After that, it will go on a 10 seconds cooldown, during which you have to rebuild your Astral Force again. How to build Astral Force has become a mystery to me these days after the recent changes. From my experience, if you have Natural Healing and Signet of the Wild equipped, you may have a chance of having CA ready as soon as it comes of cooldown. Suffice to say that building towards CA is not as easy as BW3 any more and you have to work for it.
On top of the basic “top-up” heal and the “emergence rescues” heal, Druid also offers DPS buffs in, most commonly, four unique ways: Frost Spirit, Glyph of Empowerment, Grace of the Land and Spotter. The advantage of these four buffs are that they are fire-and-forget buffs, meaning they have very low maintenance and will be running at the background freeing you to do other things meanwhile.
Of course, there are the pets. They offer various functions but the one that is most important is DPS of course: after all raid is a DPS race against the timer. The reality is that, even though pets DPS may not be that high, they can still contribute some of the damage while the Druid is healing elsewhere.
After all, after you have got over with the frustration of building up and using CA (or perhaps staff as well), you will find that Druid can offer 3 things to a team, namely Heal, Buffs and DPS all in one neat package.
Ventari relies on its tablet, which is a dedicated healing item with a number of healing functions. The basic is that you can have it traited for providing constant stream of regen, which I find it rather useful when combining with Project Tranquility and Ventari’s Will for “top-up” level of healing. But I would advise choosing Tranquil Balance for an extra 20% out-going heal instead. It is because, combining with Invoking Harmony (a bit fiddly for my liking) and Selfless Amplification, and together with Rune of the Monk and Sigil of Transference (a luxury item for the time being, I know), your out-going heal is significantly higher.
Natural Harmony is the “emergency rescues” level heal that is available to Ventari. On a single use, it is nowhere near the burst heal level of a Druid in CA with Glyph of Empowerment on. But you can use Natural Harmony a few times before you run out of energy. Together with the “top-up” heal already running at the background, the total heal output works out more or less close to (or could even be equal to) a Druid on its burst healing phase although I strong recommend someone runs the number to confirm this.
Staff itself provides two heals as well: Rejuvenating Assault and Renewing Wave, which also remove 2 conditions. Those are also useful heals with short cooldowns. Also, most people often forget about the Ventari’s Elite skill, which also does a reasonable amount of healing and is a blast finisher too. I often use it when I am low on energy and is about to switch Legend. My rationale is that: I am losing the tablet anyway, may as well make the most of it before it disappear.
Druid has the painful hassle of building up Astral Force; Ventari also has its own trouble to deal with, namely energy management. Personally I do not thing it is half as annoying and all-consuming as building up Astral Force. Once you have a good tempo of your heal rotation, you can actually keep going for a while. Besides, switching Legend will guarantee a 50% energy back and it is only on a 10 second cooldown; whereas there is no guarantee a Druid will get its CA ready as soon as it comes off its 10 seconds cooldown. To achieve a 10s CD-15s CA-10s CD-15s CA… cycle requires a lot more work. Good thing is that most of Druid other buffs, and its pets, are fire-and-forget.
Ventari does have a host of offensive buffs as well: Glint. If you really exhausted all your energy in Ventari, just switch to Glint. Glint’s buffs, if properly applied, will last a long while covering your team when Ventari is on cooldown. It is noteworthy that Roiling Mists with Facet of Darkness will give a 40% crit chance instead of the regular 20%. Bolster Fortifications will certainly be helpful in Ventari as well. So overall, Ventari/Glint is no worst off than a Glyph/Spirits/Spotter Druid.
That said, a Ventari does have to work harder for keeping up with its personal DPS contribution though. Druid has a pet that can maintain a basic level of DPS even when the Druid is doing nothing. When a Ventari is not doing anything, it is not contributing even a little damage. So even though Ventari has a easier time healing, offers a plethora of offensive and defensive buffs (could be better than a Druid), it falls short on the DPS department. That said, Revenant does have a good choice of damage dealing weapons – just have to be more pro-active with them.
So, these are my impressions on Druid and Ventari. I will keep testing them because I too love to be a heal/support player and am in the process of finding the right class and setup for myself.
(edited by Oh My God.8423)
So Druid vs Ventari is essentially Burst vs Sustain… Health maintenance vs Emergence response…
Has anyone played a Ventari Healer in raid? If so, how was it?
Thanks!
signet of the wild used to give AF even out of combat… now… sigh…
Yes, I agree. My experience is that Druid is more or less a “brute-force” healer. Another good thing is that Ranger no matter what can still maintain a baseline level of damage via pets.
Other healers offer something slightly different each, which makes brute-force healing unnecessary. But in order to do so, they lose out a bit more dps, comparing to Druid.
Druid seems to be a better deal since dps is rather essential against the timer.
I have just tried using Ventari in WWW (he is not geared up for raid yet). Ventari is a rather interesting case since, if your fingers are fast enough, you can actually heal AND still actively use your weapon for steady dps at the same time. If energy runs out, swap to Glint for Regen, Protection, Fury and Might boons whilst again maintain weapon dps. But it is slightly more hectic than Druid. May be that is why I do not see that many Ventari around…
So… anyway, these days how best to generate enough Celestial Force in order to use CA as soon as it comes out of CD?
Ideally CA is ready to be used in every 10 seconds. Is it possible?
Thanks!
To be fair, I can never understand why can’t we have both: F1 DS, F2 RS. Both will be sharing the same LF pool and CD timer, of course.
I have tried to love Druid but the latest Celestial Avatar is just… …nevermind… (I really did tried)
Anyway, I know Druid is rather good as a healer, particularly in the Celestial Avatar form. But it is more of a burst heal, from what I can tell so far. So in terms of healing-per-second, it might be just as good as some other classes using dedicated healing gears.
So, which other classes can fill in the role of a healer in raid?
Many thanks!
I do not have enough Nightmare Runes to test it yet. But it is better to have 4 Nightmares and 2 Trappers or 5 Nightmares and 1 Blackdiamond?
To Shroud, or Not To Shroud…
Deathly Chill seems to be the winner in all cases.
For a Condi build you lose DPS by using Shroud 1, and Deathly Chill will be ticking whether you are in Shroud or not.
Really? Oh, I kept thinking Dhuumfire is a good source of condi damage…
It’s not. It never was.
Why AA in shroud when you can AA with Scepter?
So… condi build does not really need to use shroud…
Deathly Chill seems to be the winner in all cases.
For a Condi build you lose DPS by using Shroud 1, and Deathly Chill will be ticking whether you are in Shroud or not.
Really? Oh, I kept thinking Dhuumfire is a good source of condi damage…
This is my general PvE (part-time www) condi build:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQNArdWnMbCV2gtbCebCs3gliBLeHOER9EmC3qoAw3KBA-TBBZgA+q/ArEMUfAgyPA-e
Weapons and Armour will eventually be changed to Trailblazer’s once they fix the Mystic Forge receipt. (I know Viper/Sinister mixed does more damage but I am aiming to be more tanky at this stage.)
I think there have been discussions on whether Reaper’s Onslaught or Deathly Chill will be better for condi build in terms of damage. I can’t seem to find it any more. Could someone help me to find it or help me to decide which of the Grandmaster to take?
Thanks!
Apart from being nice to look at and good for general AoE trash and has 1200 range, Staff is slightly weak. I use Scepter these days for heavy duty condi damage.
I agree that Scepter with 2 offhands is a better deal.
They both good in their own ways and can do the same job equally well in their respective own very special way.
How about… Trailblazer’s? Yes, you do lose a bit of power damage but you can tank and maintain decent condi output.
Is it better to use Giver’s or Viper weapons?
I have been playing a Carrion (PVC) condi reaper not much different from yours. I used to use Sinister gear on the same Necro but HoT has been to challenging to me at first. Even to these days, TD and DS still a bit of a pain getting around.
Do you have survivability issues using a Viper/Sinister setup?
I see now
Thanks for all your testing!!
Actually traited Staff generates LF super quick.
I was thinking to use Scepter+X / Staff as my condition weapons and Reaper as my power damage. Some kind of hybrid at the end.
How did you get a full set of Trailblazer’s gears?
No bad at all. I quite like the build.
Would I be losing too much DPS if I use Scepter+Focus/GS instead; as GS being the Power damage option?
I know GS is not really a condi weapon. But it is fun to look at…
I am using Staff/GS on my Condi Reaper at the moment. I know that if I really want to make the build better, I have to ditch the GS and use Scepter and Dagger…
I’ve never seen any other profession stack chill like we can so more often than not it’s me overwriting everyone else’s Chill. Also, I guess I’m confused on the stacking of intensity because when I cast staff 3 it’ll tick for 500 dmg first then every time I crit inside that field it’s increasing the chill damage up to having seen 1,011 today.
Are you sure the extra damage didn’t come from might stacks or other sources increasing condi damage?
When I did testing on Deathly Chill it didn’t matter how many stacks of duration were applied. As long as one of the max. five stacks ticking at a time was applied by me, it was ticking for damage. Having other people also applying stacks at the same time (I was testing how the overwrite works) did not change the amount of damage, unless they overwrote my stacks completely of course.
Edit: Just for clarification, when I say “damage”, I mean damage per condi-tick, the number that shows up on screen in the condition floater and in your combat log. Having more of your duration stacks applied to a target will of course increase the total damage dealt over time and caps at the point you keep a target perma-chilled (unless your stacks get overwritten).
I do not quite understand…
For example: a target has received 5 stacks of Deathly-Chill Chill from me, and (for the sake of argument) 5 stacks only, that target will take 5 stacks of Chill damage from me for the duration of those Chills.
Now, what if I apply a 6th Deathly-Chill Chill to the same target BEFORE the first 5 stacks have run for their full duration? Would:
a) the 6th Chill join the queue until one of the previous Chill expires; or
b) the 6th Chill overwrites one of the previous Chill and starts its damage immediately?
Now, what if an Engineer join the fight. My Necro has already applied 5 stacks of Deathly-Chill Chill onto the target; and 5 only. The 5 stacks are still ticking. Before any of those 5 stacks expire, the Engineer apply a Chill. Would:
a) his non-damaging Chill overwrites one of my previous Chill; or
b) his non-damaging Chill queues up until one of my previous Chill expires?
Now, what if an Engineer has already put 5 stacks of non-damaging Chill on a target before my Necro arrives. Those 5 non-damaging Chill are still running for the length of their duration. Would:
a) my next Deathly-Chill Chill overwrites one of his previous non-damaging Chill; or
b) my next Deathly-Chill Chill queues up until one of his previous non-damaging Chill expires?
Thanks!
(edited by Oh My God.8423)
This is my slightly silly chill build with Druumfire for good measure. Not sure how good it is…