Guild Wars 2

Aomine.5012:

Anet really really hate Ranger/Druid.

Staff auto being unusable w/o target makes it the ONLY WEAPON in the entire weapon that can’t try to spam Auto-attack out of combat, which is horrible.

If you worry about out-of-combat AF regen, TU already do this much better… Stop doing unnecessary changes..

Hate? I mean this patch was an overwhelming buff to druids… especially druids that don’t use staff. You can spend all your astral force and have a full bar by the time the internal CD is over now if you take SotW and do some light damage/healing.

This is the build I was running last night and I was nearly impossible to kill. http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQRAnf8YnMqAlrgVsCWsAUtgFGBDupeV7qNjraVGgpAc5CAlsizA-TJhHABPVGg2nAAAnEgM2fAA

The downsides of the healing spring trap (high CD, low health) are completely removed by having celestial avatar available to back up heal + it’s 13 condition cleanse and stun break (traited). What you’re left with is a water field, AoE condition removal and AoE regeneration application. It’s disgusting how well these work together now.

You still have spike trap + ancient seeds + entangle +bonfire + axe throws + daze + ancient seeds to completely control a fight while putting heavy condition pressure on someone.

I no longer have to sacrifice damage to be a bunker/guard type – I can build much more offensively while having just as much if not more defensive as last patch.

Skullface.7293:

If they thought the Astral Force gain was too much with the staff auto out of combat, then they simply need to tone down how much we gain from regen, natural healing trait, Signet of the Wild and Troll Unguent.

Last patch Regen and signet of the wild did not increase your astral force at all. That’s the undocumented change that doesn’t feel right. It’s WAAAAAY to much astral force gain.

Troll Unguent was higher than the other heals last patch as it filled 1/3 to 1/2 your bar/cast out of combat (which felt off). But that still took 60 sec or so to do. Now you just need SotW and some light healing/dps and it’s completely full before the CD on celestial avatar is back up.

Something different needs to be done – after the Nov. 17th patch. I was able to have Celestial Avatar up as soon as the CD was over in or OUT of combat… all you need is SotW and a short 6 sec regeneration to fill your astral force from 0-100% – or just wait a few more seconds and SotW fills it on it’s on – throw a bit of DPS in and it’s extremely trivial to raise now. They’ve essentially just gave it a, very short, CD – why is astral force even a resource now?

I’m not sure they realized what a stun break +13 condition removal + amazing group heals always available, between your normal heal cool down, would do to PvP. The only glaring weakness to a settler build (toughness, healing, condi) is someone else using conditions on you (low health, high toughness)… but we have so many ways to clear conditions you can effectively eliminate that weakness.

Last patch you had to decide between more offense or defense. More reliable kills vs bunker guard role. Now you can focus much more heavily on DPS while still maintaining just as much or more defensive utility. It’s nuts.

The Ace.9105:

Nerf druids condition damage to the ground. It’s too easy to access with 2 defensive stats and super heals.

All I’ve been doing since HoT is playing druid. I’m going to have to agree with you. With the Nov. 17th patch changing it so that Regeneration and SotW increase Astral Force it’s completely ridiculous. You can take our high utility but long CD low health trap heal, Healing Spring, and the downsides are completely negated by having our celstial avatar stun break/13 condition removal/ultra healing available as soon as it comes off CD.

If you build like I do – toughness/healing/condition damage the only real weakness is heavy condition damage builds that condi bomb you… but we have now have celestial avatar that completely wipes them and healing springs that cures them in an AoE field for you party in addition to other trait/ability options that make condi removal trivial.

I guess you can try to CC the druid to death – but we have stability, fear, daze, knockdowns, immobilize, etc. at our disposal too.

Last patch it felt like I had to build either more defensively to protect a node or more offensively to get more consistent KOs. No I can build much more offensively and be just as or more defensive than the most sturdy build last patch.

Something has got to change… this is coming from someone only interested in playing Druid. Maybe I should shut up and enjoy the buff… but it feels cheaper than a trap DH.