Guild Wars 2

Since alot of people seem to have forgotten how to just have fun in this game, be reminded that PvP isn’t just about winning and being the best. <3

Also, quality stealthing.

StickerHappy.8052:

Pvt Frosty.6973:

shadowpass.4236:

jcbroe.4329:

I just want to preface this by saying as far as this thread is concerned, this isn’t going to be some revolutionary build posting, just a refinement.

So, after stress testing some more builds, I think I’ve gotten to this version of all the builds as the one I like the best: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNBmYD7kQFoWQsfFwhFgrFsMJYOVuLXmrJA84mAw/0iaTtEjnG-TphIQB+7BAsj9HAwRA4YHEg3VGwgXAAA

I’ve found this build to have the most staying power and be the most capable of killing things in an environment where you need to constantly worry about being outnumbered and surviving/winning the outnumbered fight. As well as roaming and dueling and all of the other roles/strategy discussed previously.

Note:

• I’m still deciding between battle or energy on the sword set. I don’t know that the might stacks are significant enough to run them over getting dodge energy back.

I hope you guys get some good mileage out of it, I know I’m enjoying it.

Why do you recommend warhorn?

Sigh this has been said countless times. Warhorn is used because of the swiftness and regen it offers, the build lacks any form of those otherwise.

jcbroe.4329:

I just want to preface this by saying as far as this thread is concerned, this isn’t going to be some revolutionary build posting, just a refinement.

So, after stress testing some more builds, I think I’ve gotten to this version of all the builds as the one I like the best: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNBmYD7kQFoWQsfFwhFgrFsMJYOVuLXmrJA84mAw/0iaTtEjnG-TphIQB+7BAsj9HAwRA4YHEg3VGwgXAAA

I’ve found this build to have the most staying power and be the most capable of killing things in an environment where you need to constantly worry about being outnumbered and surviving/winning the outnumbered fight. As well as roaming and dueling and all of the other roles/strategy discussed previously.

Note:

• I’m still deciding between battle or energy on the sword set. I don’t know that the might stacks are significant enough to run them over getting dodge energy back.

I hope you guys get some good mileage out of it, I know I’m enjoying it.

I have considered protect me, it is good if you fear for survival, however, the build is already ridiculously tanky, so you should only ever consider going more tanky if you are playing with ppl that you know are above your level. The quickening zephyr offers a surprising amount of kill pressure on the build in competitive play, something don’t think im willing to give up jut yet

One thing I can recommend to anyone is trying out healing spring, it makes your teamfighting massive, something noone will expect.

I realise I’m often talking about competitive while most ppl here talk solo/duo queue. In queues I have been having a ton of fun on core ranger. So much fun!

would you still recommend healing spring if you don’t trait for skirmishing? I feel like it’s hard to survive on a 30 sec cd heal.

Yes I would, you lose a small amount of self sustain against power damage, that is true. Not nearly enough to be relevant tho

shadowpass.4236:

jcbroe.4329:

I just want to preface this by saying as far as this thread is concerned, this isn’t going to be some revolutionary build posting, just a refinement.

So, after stress testing some more builds, I think I’ve gotten to this version of all the builds as the one I like the best: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNBmYD7kQFoWQsfFwhFgrFsMJYOVuLXmrJA84mAw/0iaTtEjnG-TphIQB+7BAsj9HAwRA4YHEg3VGwgXAAA

I’ve found this build to have the most staying power and be the most capable of killing things in an environment where you need to constantly worry about being outnumbered and surviving/winning the outnumbered fight. As well as roaming and dueling and all of the other roles/strategy discussed previously.

Note:

• I’m still deciding between battle or energy on the sword set. I don’t know that the might stacks are significant enough to run them over getting dodge energy back.

I hope you guys get some good mileage out of it, I know I’m enjoying it.

Why do you recommend warhorn?

Sigh this has been said countless times. Warhorn is used because of the swiftness and regen it offers, the build lacks any form of those otherwise.

jcbroe.4329:

I just want to preface this by saying as far as this thread is concerned, this isn’t going to be some revolutionary build posting, just a refinement.

So, after stress testing some more builds, I think I’ve gotten to this version of all the builds as the one I like the best: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNBmYD7kQFoWQsfFwhFgrFsMJYOVuLXmrJA84mAw/0iaTtEjnG-TphIQB+7BAsj9HAwRA4YHEg3VGwgXAAA

I’ve found this build to have the most staying power and be the most capable of killing things in an environment where you need to constantly worry about being outnumbered and surviving/winning the outnumbered fight. As well as roaming and dueling and all of the other roles/strategy discussed previously.

Note:

• I’m still deciding between battle or energy on the sword set. I don’t know that the might stacks are significant enough to run them over getting dodge energy back.

I hope you guys get some good mileage out of it, I know I’m enjoying it.

I have considered protect me, it is good if you fear for survival, however, the build is already ridiculously tanky, so you should only ever consider going more tanky if you are playing with ppl that you know are above your level. The quickening zephyr offers a surprising amount of kill pressure on the build in competitive play, something don’t think im willing to give up jut yet

One thing I can recommend to anyone is trying out healing spring, it makes your teamfighting massive, something noone will expect.

I realise I’m often talking about competitive while most ppl here talk solo/duo queue. In queues I have been having a ton of fun on core ranger. So much fun!

EnderzShadow.2506:

There was an expansion since you were gone, Heart of Thorns. It introduced another Trait Line-Druid which can use staff and Druid skills, I’m sure you’ve seen these. z

Another expansion is coming soon. Currently we are in a odd period where they made some changes to the traits in anticipation of the coming expansion.

It looks like you stopped reading somewhere in the middle of the thread and are looking at those three specs. Ignore that—these 2 builds are mentioned later.

If you have Heart of Thorns the following 2 builds will work.

IF you don’t you could use the same builds with Longbow/Sword Warhorn and swap out druid for BM.

Any questions, I am sure that jc and frost could fill in the gaps

JC is running
http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNBmYDbkQFKZx+VwhF4axykg1EAecTA4faRtp6U5ucZuSk+YA-TpxHQB+Y/BldQAS4FAQelBAwRA4bPAAA

^Support mid and back cap.

Frosty is running lb/staff (similar setup)
http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQJATWjEqQJL2vCOsAXLWmEsmAwjbCA/TLqPVnKXFIzVylSD-TpxHQByrMw3eAAnZ/B/dBAS4hAAAHBAA

Just a quick addition, I only play the build you listed if I want to play longbow (which has its benefits especially if you are likely to face other druids and engis on nodes).

the more efficient is definitely sword/warhorn, i have been playing around with healing spring over troll unguent, its pretty strong and increases your teamfight presence by a TON

Also your pets cc just needs to proc your passive traits rather than just your cc proccing it

A daze would really be more beneficial, maybe even both like your pets attack dazes conditional on dodging an attack with the skill

terrorshard.3854:

mistsim.2748:

terrorshard.3854:

I really can’t justify subbing in WS for BM…I feel like you are giving up so much just to get a tiny bit more condition removal.

you get a ton more condi removal. TU interacts really nicely with Soften the Fall, so you never have to slot MT. Lesser MT just allows you to bunker a lot better. you get more prot, and more vigor. QZ increases our burst quite a bit.

BM does next to nothing for our damage output.

QZ seems pointless, what burst? Sword auto attack? Staff Autoattack?

Might as well run LR at that point.

Good questions terrorshard. jcbroe has answered alot of them already so ill just touch on a few more points.

As jcbroe says, with rugged growth WS got buffed so hard, that now it isn’t a question of whether to take WS or BM its a question of whether to take NM or BM alongside it, and in that regard NM wins by a longshot.

You might not think it possible, but the build actually has more pressure than the old NM/BM druid did. This is because of permanent poison uptime as well as the ability to facetank alot of damage by camping sword in any 1v1 without ever needing CAF or dropping below 50% hp. On top of that, WS/NM beats NM/BM by a long shot in a 1v1 (not by killing, but by making it a free +1). To cement my point, in our scrims yesterday I played against xomi who played the old build for a while (xomi is according to the power ranking supposed to be better than me), so I can tell you first hand that the WS/NM version is better.

As for QZ, you are right, the burst isn’t insane. But quickness helps in other ways by ensuring it is harder to get interrupted and the super speed is nice too. However, you dont have to play it. I personally would rather take the Daze Glyph or protect me over lightning reflexes since LR puts you off point. They are all valid substitutes though.

beatthedown.2651:

jcbroe.4329:

blips

Will definetely try this one out.
A few questions regarding one choice.

Why no Shared Anguish? That random scumbag safestomp seems way more valuable for carrying the average random pug than the poison trait. Usually I end up as the “stomper” when playing with randoms in platinum queue since I can sustain heavy cleave. Of course thats not ideal (also lots of RNG) but my usual teammate does not stomp or cleave. This trait is also extremely helpful against heavy opening strikes in the first midfight since you win a bit of time.

A few reasons: shared anguish interrupts pet actions, which may be crucial at times, especially with the wyvern itll put its skills on full cooldown. you could argue that by not going bm interrupting your pet is less impactful since its less of a dps loss. which is true, but the increased cooldowns is a thing too.

on top of that tho, no 1v1 really has a chance, you almost guarantee poison every heal skill, even engi and chrono. the new build is packed with aids condis, poison, cripple, slow, immob, vuln and weakness. ALOT of them. without the permanent poison, you lose alot of the pressure.

On a more unrelated note, I have tried out healing spring during scrims yesterday. It is certainly very awesome, definitely stronger vs condi comps and weaker vs power comps (if you will be 1v1 vs power and likely ganked by power too, take TU still for sure!)

EnderzShadow.2506:

If you don’t use druid, what weapons are you using?

Sword/warhorn – Longbow is what I mostly run

EnderzShadow.2506:

Grats on top 20.

warhorn *cough favoritism *cough :o

sigil of agility on staff— I thought that sigil would get used by CA, or is that the point?

Sigil of agility is mostly taken because it ensures 100% swiftness uptime when playing water rune. The quickness is good tho, but more so for your pet than yourself.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Do you think Muddy Terrain may be a good skill to include? If you have Soften The Fall traited, you can potentially keep the slow condition on the point permanently and it’s additional condi cleanse and Fury. Only issue is what to drop… QZ/SoS/SoR are so good.

You’ve said it yourself, if we had a 4th slot, it would be a strong contender for sure lol

jcbroe.4329:

Hey Frosty,

Just curious on your opinion since I’m trying to gauge where I sit on the topic. You’re basically of the opinion that BM is no longer as strong of an option as running the WS/NM combo, right?

Essentially, I’m back and forth on running WS/BM/Druid with shouts and either Trooper or Water Runes or WS/NM/Druid with Survival and Water Runes. I think that I’m getting my own bias as feedback when I evaluate how I felt playing as each.

Like, I feel like the passive offensive boosts, shortened pet swap time and additional tankiness from Natural Healing and stats, and active ability to get Protection from Protect Me and Dodging to benefit from Rugged Growth and then extend the duration with the Heal makes it a slightly more offensive but equally sustainable variant (you get condi cleanse from the Pet Swap too, and superspeed, which is nice).

Granted, there’s no might stacking without the warhorn, so without it the offensive difference is probably more slight than I expect and I feel S/D is wanted even more without Protective Ward so I can capitalize on the active defense portion of the build (although if warhorn would give it the boost it needs to make it competitive or offensively stronger than that’s the route I’d go).

Idk, I “like” both builds but that’s subjective and I want to be as efficient and competitive as possible.

(Bonus question; factoring in that sometimes swapping the sword set to a LB is needed for solo queue, on which build do you think it would compliment better? I like the defenses of WS/NM but I also really like the pet swap superspeed with bow and that I can still get swiftness which leaves the runeslot open).

I agree and unfortunately I cannot offer you a way out in terms of one being definitely better than the other.

I think you even place a little too much value on the might from warhorn. Personally speaking, both builds probably have their place. And in a condi comp, the beastmaster version probably has the upper hand too.

I am similarly conflicted between taking NM or BM as the third traitline (which is why I quite often just drop druid to be able to run both :>)

I think what it comes down to is taking the traitline where you lose the least, and to me thats NM right now because of the ability to still use the search and rescue trait without losing the regen/protection/swiftness uptime. However, using BM with protect me (and maybe even guard) does give you a very defensive setup as well. I did want to try to drop SoS and just take guard instead in a BM build since druid right now is already a very sturdy class.

kappa.2036:

@Pvt Frosty This is my opinion: druid can juke enemies A LOT with stealth and mobility. It’s a solid class, with very good support and also nice 1v1 capabilities. I think both engi and ranger are good in solo/duoq, don’t get me wrong
But, and i repeat, this is MY OPINION, in a 5 v 5 premade, the class can be countered easily. A thief can just remove your stab with 1 skill, engi has reveal. A good player can block/evade your attacks after your stealth so he can get the point. Dps got nerfed hard and now is even more difficult to get a kill since our personal dps is bad and our pet skills are easily dodgeable (or reflectable if we use bristle).
In my perspective, Engi looks more solid and has better impact in the game, atleast at higher levels with coordinated people. But hey, i’m not saying that ranger is bad, absolutely. Let’s say this, if ranger is 9/10, engi is 10/10. If you think the opposite, no problem, everyone has their opinions

That’s fair, I was merely curious as to why you would think that. As you say, everyone has their own opinion and this forum is merely for sharing our opinions with each other right?

Heres mine from playing at higher levels and with coordinated players:

Your assessment is not wrong, however you do come to the wrong conclusions.

Yes, assuming full cooldowns, engi is generally known to have a better time at dealing with thief outnumbers.

And yes, druid has had its damage nerfed with the removal of mightstacking and the removal of flat boon duration for the NM line.

However, it has also had its sustain buffed by a full tonne. What this means is that druid does not lose any 1v1, in fact it does not even need to use celestial avatar form to sustain its 1v1s because the sustain even without it is just unreal. This also means, that where before you had to swap to and camp staff alot, now you can camp sword for longer, which increases your effective dps and point pressure significantly.

This means that a) suddenly druid has a MUCH easier time dealing with thief and being outnumbered in general and b) druid loses no caps if played correctly (of course you cans till get knocked off point if you dont pay attention.

Having covered those 2 weaknesses and keeping in mind that druid is both more mobile and offers more support for its allies, I would consider that considering top tier competitive (meaning organised) play, druid is a solid 9/10 and engi falls somewhere in the 7/10 range.

Yes, this is just my opinion and experiences may vary.

beatthedown.2651:

Pvt Frosty.6973:

Very good summary overall. […]

I wonder if that WS/NM could work as condi bunker since I think the HP from Mender is still overkill.

[….]

It won’t. You lack the movespeed as well as the necessary condi application pressure and frequency to make any sort of investment into condi damage useless. The HP from mender’s is never overkill because there is no decreasing rate of return on scaling, and your healing values in caf scale very well with healing power

Kerivek.5740:

Pvt Frosty.6973:

Very good summary overall. […]

I’m curious Frosty…what would you consider a good carry build for solo ranked queue? I have been playing my ranger more in sPvP and I am a little bit torn on what role I should be filling as a ranger to carry in solo queue. I can do pretty well with an offensive LB build sniping out priority targets in teamfights and bursting in a +1 but I wonder if I could carry better by playing a more bunker/support type build.

It really depends on the people you play with. Personally I often queue with dps (rev/thief) which means that someone who can hold 1v1s is the most complimentary, so i go for something like this most of the time: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQJATWjEqQJL2vCOsAXLWmEsmAwjbCA/TLqPVnKXFIzVylSD-TpxHQByrMw3eAAnZ/B/dBAS4hAAAHBAA

When I’m solo, I just base it off of the comps/the people I know from each specific game.

kappa.2036:

I think right now ranger is just subpar to engi.

I wonder why you would say that? I’m not saying either isn’t viable, but to quote Thijsken (one of the best engis in EU next to Zan) word for word: “What the kitten is the point of taking any sort of engi, when you can just take druid instead”

Very good summary overall.

The only thing I would add is that the ws/nm variant is 100% ahead of the others in terms of efficiency, but in terms of queueing and carrying ranked, there may be better options that utilise longbow, depending on the situation

I will be doing a big stream on Sunday trying to figure out soulbeast and the new meta

www.twitch.tv/BowmanFrosty

@Kishandreth Grace of the Land will certainly not be the optimal choice considering its suboptimal uptime without glyphs and their trait

@fluffball the 2 spirits proposed by op actually cover one of the 2 weaknesses the new tank-druid has (stability) I do quite like the thougt process here. The stability actually allows use of the res trait aswell. They also offer another way of support for allies which the druid lacks if it does not go beastmaster /shouts. While I am uncertain about a few facets of the proposed build (warhorn/res trait/lightning reflexes/the tunes and sigils ), overall I think the proposal of spirits is intriguing, one I look forward to play around with myself.

@mistsim any old menders build has been nerfed into the ground and longbow is far from the best and only option for druids, regardless you can play the proposed build with longbow too

@op, good thinking I sure am intrigued to play around with these ideas

Please for all that is holy in the gaming world, fix our unresponsive pets.

Most importantly: undo staff 3! Please please please!!! You made any beastmaster druid absolutely useless by removing the pet during the staff 3 channel! Not only do pets lose all their boons, you also mess with every pet swap trait that you so just changed to have cooldowns removed, artificially increasing them if you staff 3 while petswap is off cd!

I am very curious how pet-traits may change in Beast Mode.

Many questions to be answered with the playable weekend coming up.

Does F5 count as a pet-swap? How many beast mode skills did they design? Where do they start repeating? I’m assuming the passive secondary mechanic from the pet – family will become an active beast-mode skill which would be sick (hello wyverns). What about the other tho. Also from the looks of it you will get a second autoattack on f1 or did i just see that wrong? maybe it has a small cooldown.

Overall very excited for it. I just hope anet realizes how important proper balance is this time around

beatthedown.2651:

Pvt Frosty.6973:

Staff 2 is really strong in pvp ^^

Can you explain how? Hitting multiple targets in the first midfight with staff one seems way more efficient. You may start off with 2, but it’s still a very very forgettable skill. Reflects suck too.

Staff 2 is strong for its astral force generation potential, especially in side node skirmishes (which is what a druid should focus on).

Of course it falls off in team fights because your options for af regen multiply. But druid as a whole false off in team fights.

Now I understand that most druids in pvp, not really knowing any better, run build variants that overinvest on astral force regeneration. These builds are great because they generaly have a lower skill floor. In these builds, yes, staff 2 is rather useless. For an example of a build that relies on staff 2 alot more, look at the the build I played vs r55 in the last ugo finals (you can even hear misha complimenting it on Sindreners vods).

Don’t get me wrong, I am not against a small buff (reveal /including burning/transferring conditions from allies it touches to the target are all good suggestions). I just wanted to point out that the skill itself is massively undervalued by the greater share of the druid population ^^

Lol, cookie my boiii withh them exploitz, I like the Idea about the archers oneshotting everything though

beatthedown.2651:

While they love throwing in buffs for core skills, I still don’t know what the hell Staff 2 is supposed to be. Also elite glyph sucks since beta…

Staff 2 is really strong in pvp ^^

Also the elite glyph should reveal since technically it is a tether <shrugs>. Maybe they’ll fix that, probably not tho

Guys please relax and understand Jebros position here. Either decision (letting them play or not) will have caused an outrage with some people.

Understand tho that this is temporary, “until all accusations have been cleared”, which to me is very reasonable.

stick.7258:

if you would like to give some detail about that in the mesmer match up. for instance i always have my pet passive so it attacks the real mesmer but im not sure if thats a smart thing to do.
Also i’d like to know if there is a way i can prevent the f2 from totally missing target.
thanks in advance

Just have your pet on agressive to ensure a high dps uptime, make sure you time your Smokescale burst when the chrono is isolated (no clones / very little clones up) so that the smoke-assault hits only the chrono and make sure to deny as many clones as possible.

If you can, stop attacking when he uses shield 4 the first time, to deny the second proc (dont forget to call back your pet) and dodge the phantasm spawn.

as for hitting lightning wyverns f2, the best way so far seems to be if you hit Wing Buffet and then use headbutt (which combined is pretty strong cc)

Huskyboy.1053:

Oslaf Beinir.5842:

I demand to have you put camera shake back on! The immersion is ruined now!

btw care to explain why Electric Wyvern over Bristleback? does its attacks hit more than a single target?

Both its active skill and one of its passive skills are CCs. Bristleback has the strongest F2 burst but otherwise is pretty weak and is completely controlled by projectile denial spells. Druids with Bristleback are pretty weak versus an ele/engi combo. Even necro shroud 2 can (if the necro’s lucky or very observant under pressure) absorb Bristleback F2 lol.

Basically this. The electric wyvern has the potential to lockdown someone for a few seconds (wing buffet —> headbutt is also the most surefire way to guarantee headbutt wil hit at all at the moment)

Apart from that, the main reason I even took it in the first place was because of zans new engi build bringing enough reflects to be a full hardcounter to bristleback.

Crinn.7864:

Huskyboy.1053:

Even necro shroud 2 can (if the necro’s lucky or very observant under pressure) absorb Bristleback F2 lol.

Reaper’s Shroud 2 does not destroy projectiles. The tooltip is wrong.

Hmmm, I honestly don’t know the exact interaction here, but Shroud 2 has definitely absorbed projectiles before.

stick.7258:

THanks for posting this, just a question upfront, can you maybe explain the reasoning for the wyvern pet in particular in the match up vs mesmer.

What exactly do you want to know? How I played the wyvern in a mesmer match up ? or whether I took the wyvern for the mesmer matchup?

I did not take the wyvern for the mesmer matchup, I actually only started playing with it because of zans power scrapper build, which has 12 seconds of reflects on a shorter cooldown than should be allowed. Then I started getting used to the pet and now I think I generally prefer it (even though you can argue that bristle is just as useful in many situations). Miaz has been playing that pet for way longer tho

If you want to know how I use it in the mesmer matchup, I can go into detail about that

Some good plays, some terrible mistakes. My microphone was turned up way to much for shadow play, turn down your volumes boys and girls!

Any questions, just ask.

Enjoy:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrGWKtjQJdfvsepXvyKJTj8yjE1CC1lgJ

Sup Guys!

Figured we would share our POV with you all, see what its like from the perspective of one of the other teams.

Mistakes were made but I’d like to think we played pretty well overall.

my mic is set super loud in shadowplay for some reason. so turn down your volumes caus kittens getting loud.

Anyway, heres the playlist (2 videos still processing)

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrGWKtjQJdfvsepXvyKJTj8yjE1CC1lgJ

Ralkuth.1456:

I quote Shadowfall: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Ranger-Questions-Ask-here

shadowpass.4236:

As for 1v1ing a condition mesmer, use the terrain to your advantage. Clones can’t jump so they have to path around obstacles you as a player can jump over. Stealth as often as possible because clones can’t track you in stealth and they will end up standing around doing nothing until you appear again. If you stealth and move when the mesmer shatters, the clones will explode at the position you were at the moment you entered stealth so use this to your advantage.

Chronomancers generally have a lot of evades/invulnerability/blocks/distortion so target a clone for easier stealths with longbow because they can’t dodge.

shadowpass.4236:

Mesmer – stealth off clones, dodge the shatters

Not exactly the best advice, considering you will already be losing by the time you should consider using terrain against shatters.

My advice:

1) learn how to dodge shatters (have a chrono friend generate clones and shatter so you understand how and when they shatter into your dodge)

2) deny as much clone and phantasm generation as possible (don’t trigger second shield block, dodge every clonegeneration you can or bait clone generation onto your pet then swap them). depending on the build, you can use caf 5 to destroy clones aswell.

LanternHTD.5601:

shadowpass.4236:

LanternHTD.5601:

I haven’t played druid in pvp since they nerfed the glyphs.

Now I am using the bunker build from metabattle (I like s/d much more than longbow) but I find that I am not able to neutralize the point fast enough in 1v1 now and lack of cc in teamfights.

Any tips for me? Should I just play the bunker build with two glyphs instead of the build on metabattle?

And sorry for my english.

No worries! If you are going glyphs, use this build:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNAW8Yn0rCVsilsCGsCEtilEBzJ1lCadPBgk1MDequVHrl8s0A-TZxHAB+/AAkvMA67PAwFB47jAAA

• I played it a lot during one of the PvP seasons and it worked very well. It has high healing, good damage, and a lot of crowd control and mobility.

---

If you have any other questions, feel free to ask!

Best of luck!

Thank you for the build, it is fun and I enjoy it a lot.

It feels a little bit hard to deal with condi though. Without AF, it takes time to wait for the seed to grow and it only clear one condi.
How can I do better when facing condi with this build?

Also, I still wish to learn to play without glyphs. How to decap faster in 1v1 without longbow?

Scratches head, i must be getting cynical with age. If oyu want to improve the builds condi remove: a) blast your light fields. b) use this: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNAW8Yn0rCVsilsCGsCEtilEBDequVHrOpuUQr7JAksmZlI9zA-TZRHQBkb/B6VGAAXAABcQAW4TAAA. It’s slightly more optimised.

As for playing without glyphs. You wont decap without longbow. The only situations where you do is veeeeeery sloowwwllyyyy in 1v1s vs chrono/guard/necro/rev/thief if they play meta. vs engi/druid/ele as well as players that are better than you you will never get the decap. (which is why you should also never push into a 1v1 on their node)

shadowpass.4236:

Malek.7830:

Thank you for offering your experience and knowledge, I think it’s invaluable. My question ; how do you make it so that the ranger’s 3rd great sword skill (swoop) takes you away from opponents when running away, as appears to making you leap towards them. I’ve seen other rangers using it to create distance when kiting, but even with auto targeting off, my ranger will dash towards the fight whenever I pop it.

Malek.7830:

I meant to say ‘as opposed to making you leap towards them’

Thank you for the feedback!

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You have to untarget completely in order to Swoop in the direction your character is facing. If you are in combat and have a target selected while using Swoop, it will move in the direction of that enemy.

Just click a blank part of the screen before you use it so you don’t leap directly back into the fray while you’re trying to escape. Even knowing this, there have been times where I’ve accidentally charged right at the person I was trying to get away from! It happens to the best of us, haha.
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If you have any other questions, feel free to ask!

Best of luck!

Or just go to your options and dedicate a Keybind to “Lock Autotarget”. Pressing this key, will always drop your current target. (Keep in mind, that without going into too much detail this key will also give you back a target if you have no target selected)

Fluffball.8307:

I’m only skimming this thread but IMO its rarely ever NOT appropriate to use staff 2 on someone other than like a mesmer or necro. If you’re fighting a thief or warrior, put a dang autoheal bot on them. You have what, a staff auto to lose? Oh lord forbid you lose 400 damage@!!

I’ve beat many a staff + s/d druid using staff + lb using staff 2, and that’s a fight I’m supposed to lose.

In pvp 100% super strong skill. Especially vs melee classes. So many druids disregard its power to top off astral force at the start of the match.

Your playing menders lb? Then you shouldn’t be losing against s/d. Menders s/d doesn’t kill anything that also uses menders

I suppose you are right to some degree. I just want people to think critically. Which is why I always get so annoyed when people just play metabattle builds without ever trying to improve on them

RedCobra.7693:

Pvt Frosty.6973:

This whole discussion is kind of moot, considering there is no esl hence there is no esl players ^^

There are a few druids who were / are as good if not better than Rom was mechanically (pretty difficult to pinpoint it exactly) but none of that really matters. It’s like you’re comparing misha to helseth, no one was strictly better mechanically, they are just different.

its not really that hard to pinpoint, while not being the most important in competitive play (helseth bringing animation extending to shield block to beat misha who was mechanically better in 1v1’s ti win) it can be seen quite clearly in the complexity of moves used in difficult and tense situations. ESL was just a model and originally run by GW2 marketing budget and department. while ESL has been discontinued for GW2 it most certainly doesn’t eliminate the unlikely possibility of large tournaments in the future should they decide to push this again.

All the ESL players, or should i say the people in game that play to win and have tangible evidence of playing so. still retain high power and authority over the meta and playerbase. All this means is now these top players that have a far better evaluation over what is needed to win at high level play will now much more likely share information.

Funny examples, helseth never brought animation extending anywhere, it was actually what we would call a random chrono that did that(MapKo). Until that point everyone actually thought the phantasm spawn after shield 4 happened randomly if you jump (so everyone, helseth included) focused on spawning on pets or clones. Helseth just made it his because he had a much bigger followerbase and was a pretty big streamer.

Regardless of the argument on who did what first, the point im trying to make is that most people here get their information from streamers and take it as gospel, forgetting that they are just people afterall who are biased towards themselves and their friends.

I agree with you tho that right now sharing information is actually pretty lucrative and worthwhile (since there is no advantage to hiding theory craft to get an edge, something we still did for groucharoo to a small extent ^^)

This whole discussion is kind of moot, considering there is no esl hence there is no esl players ^^

There are a few druids who were / are as good if not better than Rom was mechanically (pretty difficult to pinpoint it exactly) but none of that really matters. It’s like you’re comparing misha to helseth, no one was strictly better mechanically, they are just different.

He said tooltip error. I. E. The text changes the numbers wrong, but the actual damage you do increases by 5%

Well it’s the only way I would play guard (with soldier rune). Astral force generation is fine as long as you have permanent regen ^^ that is exactly why you can pretty much play it against power heavy comps nonproblem (they don’t have necros). Might be able to pull of against necros too but haven’t tested yet

RedCobra.7693:

My question is about astral force generation. theres one mechanic which im unsure of. the 0.75% generation from attacks (power). is there an internal cooldown to this.

if there isnt i would expect to see it fly up when using Hunters call and bristleback special at the same time but i dont notice it.

from both attacks you get 26 hits so it should recharge in combat about 20% but it looks more like 10% to me

Pet attacks do not count

RedCobra.7693:

EnderzShadow.2506:

I know exactly what you mean. 1v1 with a menders build hits like a wet noodle.

Might stacking galore on menders shout? How?
Not how to might stack, how is it any more “might stacky” than the other builds.

I don’t care about getting to plat or legendary.
I’m tempted to go marauders, gs/lb- and light some people up.
Eat a tiger/gs burst and make people cry on the forums.

Key to might stacking on druid is with “heal as one”. it copy’s any boons that your pet has and gives them to you (predetermined values though not an exact copy) might has the best duration from this if i recall correctly. combining this with pet swapping and your SotP can get some really good might stacks. maintaining anywhere between 15-25 stacks of might. ill list the sources below.

Sigil of courage (staff) – keeps 3-5 stacks of might
Sigil of battle (sword) – optional but gives a burst of 4 stacks might
pet swap (zephyrs speed) – keeps 3 stacks of might with overlap
Critical hits you do give might to your pet – keeps around 3 stacks of might to pet
Sotp – you and your pet grant might to each other. likely value 10 stacks might burst.

As with a lot of builds that stack might through passives your APM matter a lot, the fast you can get off your skills the better, healing often is key aswell. make sure you’re swapping pet right at the end of the cast bar for heal as one to benefit the most from quickness.

Well in a way your answer is right. Tho critical hits don’t give might to your pet ^^ and apm doesn’t really make much of a difference (for example you might want to wait with the heal until after your smokescale has done its revenant thing). Also sigil of battle really gives 8 stacks of might (4 for you and 4 for your pet)

What I really meant with the menders shout might stacking is that you have all the might stacking explained above plus the might generated through the utility guard (which generates 2 might stacks every time you are stuck, 1 for you and 1 for your pet)

Fluffball.8307:

None of the really top tier guys stream druid — and as a die hard ranger fan — I think it’s in large part because it’s not interesting to watch. I mean someone having awesome pet control is not exactly glamorous like hitting that perfect CR on a chrono.

Being good at druid is mostly about hitting your dodges and restraining yourself from using CA like a lunatic.

Edit: On the other hand there are a bunch of WvW druid streamers and people that post YT videos. WvW is so much more open as to what you can run. Melee druid is never boring.

It’s basically why I don’t stream regularly. I just feel like there is no demand in watching a druid play PvP, so whenever I could stream I decide not to because it’s too intricate and not flashy enough for twitch

If people want they can check the past broadcasts on my twitch or YouTube and if there actually is a demand for this sort of thing I can definitely stream more regularly

EnderzShadow.2506:

Pvt Frosty.6973:

Personally I’ve settled for 3 builds at the moment:

s/d soldiers – ideal vs less condi heavy and more power heavy comps. Good damage due to might stacking gallore.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNAW8YnUqA1Ci9CCOsActglOBDelGTzpOBuAQh7pFEqWYl8s0A-TZxHQBK7CAkwHCAAOCA6Y/B5VGAA

s/d dolyak – very well rounded build, slightly better vs frequent condi spikes

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNAW8YnUqA1Ci9rAOsActglOBDelGTzpOBuAQh7pFk4WYl8s0A-TpRHQBC4IAswHAQG2foAHEAAcBAoXZAA

lb dolyak – slightly more offensive and risky than s/d dolyak, but able to carry games where you cannot afford getting locked in 1v1s

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQJAWTnUqA1Ci9rAOsActglOBDelGT3pOBuAQh7pFk4WYl8s0A-TpRHQBA4QAkh9HEwFAYhPAA6VGIcHBAA

Hey PVT, you knew it was inevitable I was going to pick you’re brain

What do you mean when you say “lb dolyak – slightly more offensive and risky than s/d dolyak, but able to carry games where you cannot afford getting locked in 1v1s”

It seems…almost contradictory. How can someone carry a game without 1v1’s?
Or do you mean….fights that take too long to win?

Or are you just playing off point, moving with the momentum of the fights and +1’ing?

I mean that on s/d it’s easy to be locked into a never ending 1v1. If it’s a druid or anything halfway sustainable, you won’t kill unless they are very very bad. But if it is a game where you really need to roam/apply more pressure for your team, longbow allows that. However it gets worse the more good players you play against, because it is not as slippery or mobile as s/d.

Difficult to explain here just add me in game if you want more precise answers

I was thinking about something along those lines anyway. Can’t really tell you what is going wrong n your fights considering I haven’t seen any myself. Might try record some 1v1s /work through my footage.

We can also go through your vods at some point and I’ll try point out a few things, considering my recordings will be on Dagger. (could also be that Warhorn just doesn’t beat necros)

RedCobra.7693:

Pvt Frosty.6973:

RedCobra.7693:

Necro still beats ranger 1v1.

What makes you say that?

I actually find it funny how delusional some people are on the forums.
The current condi necro meta beats druid support on point 1v1 (not in an arena like most plebs here think 1v1 means).

Druid relies heavily on their ability to stack might during a 1v1 to win it. ofc i easily beat most necros because they dont understand what they need to be doing to win and telegraph their skills to make them so much easier to dodge. but some better necros that ive come across this season posi/farrorz/prototype i cant beat 1v1. the only thing worth taking from it is understanding that the necro is in a losing scenario for his team to be 1v1ing on homepoint.

You can gladly ask posi proto or imda (farror is an ele main as far as I know), necro should lose to druid. Any of the condi or power builds do. That’s not to say they cannot win, considering our strategy was actually to push imda into druid / engi at times ^^ many druids play it wrong. but I can tell you with certainty, necro should be losing that matchup (especially after the sigil patch)

Thanks for all the feedback guys. Will keep it in mind next time around

Fluffball.8307:

RedCobra.7693:

Necro still beats ranger 1v1.

I don’t have high level (or even medium level) experience with every profession, but I’m pretty sure necro is unfavored in every single 1v1 in the game. Even their old hard counter of engis will kill them now.

The idea that necros can survive based purely on health pool has gotten kind of silly when most build are pooping out invulns, dodges, evades, blocks, ludicrous amounts of healing that isn’t a 6 skill, stealth, interrupts, stability, etc. etc. Most of which the necro has 0 or very little of.

Not that reapers got left behind, they’re just… different.

I think a big issue here is the fact that many necros play a build that is unsuitable for 1v1s. Shout necro for example can play can 1v1 very well, vs druids and engis alike. It’s even the best class to Tank out a thief gank in such a case. Druids should still win the matchup, but many don’t.

The main shutdown to a necro is the danger of the chrono moa.

angrypenguin.1839:

Only class that really worries me right now is Mes. I can beat a bad mes and find them not too much trouble in a team battle, tough in a 1v1.

The rest are usually stalemate worst case and some I can just roll. Of course I run against better players at times that wipe me, but that’s to be expected.

The main issue with the chrono matchup is that many druids don’t actually know how to properly play it. It’s the most fun matchup for druid considering all the small nicks and tricks each opponent can employ. Generally though, druid beats Mesmer. But the exact outcome and prediction depends and is ridiculously complex!

The big threat is the crazy scaling chrono has with thief.

I can try summarise just all the nuances surrounding the druid/chrono matchup but not sure I even got them all down anymore ^^

Bigpapasmurf.5623:

RedCobra.7693:

Necro still beats ranger 1v1.

On equal skill level, ranger/teef should always beat necro.

Pretty much, yea. Necro can kill both druids and thief, but the odds are against him.

RedCobra.7693:

I’ve come and gone from gw2 pvp a lot, and i always find playing a high dps low hp variant a good and quick way in unranked to learn the meta, after about 15 games you’ve got a solid grasp on the basics of what each class is playing and what your ranked games will entail. I’d definitly take druid+staff as its what makes us viable in the current meta game. it’s also good for new players to learn what the dangerous move are that they should be avoiding same goes for condi removal.

I find that most players are usually carried by their cooldowns and high sustain to keep them to the next fight. its at the higher levels that players will bait your cd’s and call out utilities used to their teammates. for example, in high tier pvp using signet of stone completely forces me to change the way i think and play until it is back off cooldown. in hotjoin though i could use stone to carry me in a fight. and suffer no consequences from it.

Very true

Water is decent, though you lose quite some astral regen with all the boon hate and the nerf to regen. In a 1v1 its not as noticeable but as soon as you get outnumbered is where it matters. Its similar to the chrono builds, the disenchanter is strong in 1v1, but has less survivability and less moa burst.

Also toughness on the rune scales ridiculously well with the menders loadout.

I agree with you on the revenant runes, theres just too many other good options for druids now. The sigil changes basically giving many options for condi cleansing.

As for warhorn, well I don’t like it compared to dagger. It has the surprise factor, but aside from that it falls off pretty hard. The cooldown untraited is too big to actually catch someone with the unblockable (especially once people figure out what warhorn does), the fury and might is nice, but not significant enough. the #4 is actually pretty weak in most matchups (engi/chrono) because you hurt yourself alot more than your enemy. What it can allow you is to quickly pop into caf and back out without losing cap progress. Overall though, if I go sword, i always prefer the dagger offhand to warhorn. (if warhorn 4 gave reveal tho. that might be super awesome)

Personally I’ve settled for 3 builds at the moment:

s/d soldiers – ideal vs less condi heavy and more power heavy comps. Good damage due to might stacking gallore.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNAW8YnUqA1Ci9CCOsActglOBDelGTzpOBuAQh7pFEqWYl8s0A-TZxHQBK7CAkwHCAAOCA6Y/B5VGAA

s/d dolyak – very well rounded build, slightly better vs frequent condi spikes

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNAW8YnUqA1Ci9rAOsActglOBDelGTzpOBuAQh7pFk4WYl8s0A-TpRHQBC4IAswHAQG2foAHEAAcBAoXZAA

lb dolyak – slightly more offensive and risky than s/d dolyak, but able to carry games where you cannot afford getting locked in 1v1s

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQJAWTnUqA1Ci9rAOsActglOBDelGT3pOBuAQh7pFk4WYl8s0A-TpRHQBA4QAkh9HEwFAYhPAA6VGIcHBAA

RedCobra.7693:

Necro still beats ranger 1v1.

What makes you say that?

Yea I would agree to just start out with the metabattle build. Once you get comfortable with the game and the class and everything surrounding pvp, you will start to notice potential for improvement.

My tip is to always look to improve your build in tiny steps.

As for Auto attacks, I actually have them turned on. Staff requires it because it has a long autoattack cast and I just got used to autoattack on sword (with the option stop autoattacking on target change and stow weapon, you get the same result). But autoattack on sword isn’t necessary as it is on staff

It’s already ridiculously strong as it is. No idea why it would need any buffs