It is not just the shortbow, the whole skirmishing line is kind of wonky.
http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Druid_-_Shoutbow
The trick is to not linger in celestial form, but just go in cast 1-2 abilities and go out.
you are welcome
I agree that most of the balance to the usable stuff can be done with simple number tweaks, and as someone above has stated those include:
- Reaper shroud CDs to equal vanilla shroud CDs
- DH virtues to equal vanilla virtue CDs
- slight nerfing of scrapper hammer power coefficients
- slight nerfing of Rapid regen and Adaptive armor
- nerfing of bristtlebacks F2 damage
- so on and so forth…
We would however be left with some of the gaping flaws and inner imbalances with some of the classes, namely the warrior. But even that could be changed by one simple tweak making fast hands baseline
I cant wait for the next season to start. I cant wait to stop playing the cesspool that is Unranked. It has been a long while since I have seen people not have any clue as to what to do in pvp as much as I have in the last week or so. I have gained an entire new level of appreciation towards ranked play, no matter the faults of the leaque system.
There is nothing wrong in taking WS instead of NM or MM. The problem I see here is that he took Cleric, which simply will not give him enough health to survive a condi spike, which is incidentally the biggest threat to the druid at the moment.
I would suggest taking either Menders or Paladins amulet.
Also, there is no need for an intelligence sigil on your staff. Take generosity or purity instead, or both on staff.
Also, if you are using glyphs, Equality is more important then tides as it is a stun+breaker/aoe stun breaker.
I live HoT and i think it has made significant additions to the game. Elite vs Core balance is terrible but I am not sure whether its by design or sloppy balancing.
Guys, quite honestly, you need to look at it objectively. Alacrity is not THE chronomancer mechanic. The F5 is. Alactrity is something that was put in to make the chrono relevant in every game mode.
It is not a boon so it is not corruptible and it affects 5 targets. And you get it from a minor trait with the possibility to further improve it and spread it around more.
Looking at it in a selfish manner, it will reduce CDs of 5 F skills, weapon skills and utility skills. And to top it all off you have the F5 reset button.
Even with reduced alacrity intensity, the chrono is such a massive improvement over the core mesmer in every single sense.
Now, I do not know how it compares to the buffed thief and necromancer yet, but if there is a problem with it, it will probably be because the thief and necromancer will be revealed to be OP.
No clue as to why they buffed auto attacks. There was no need.
Sick em is fine, even if a bit niche. There was no reason to buff it.
Guard I feel is more of a skirmishing ability for 1v1s or 2v2s to try and redirect the burst towards the pet. It also works really well with any heal or druid AoE healing sills as it is a burst heal so the damage that is split can be covered twice as much.
Protect me is simply amazing. We already have an invulnerability to damage but we lacked stun breakers. Now we have 3 on fairly short CDs all with different flavor and niches. It is also an AoE stun break, a protection application and taunt which is simply very good.
SnR I have yet to test it and I am really confused with the 5 man cap. Does it teleport up to 5 people to you but the pet only starts resing 1? or all 5? or teleports 1 and reses 1?
The shout rework is nothing short of Amazing!! I mean they have added clear viability and utility, reduced cast times to combo them with shout based runes and they have made them a very nice ranger-pet interaction.
protect me is a great toolbox skill. Guard is a double edged sword but kind of nice in a 2v2 or 1v1 scenario and SnR is just…. wow. I do not know if they will be meta or not but I think some pretty insane things can be pulled off, especially in raid encounters.
Um, the LB default range is 1500 and overall it has the highest DPS of any physical ranged weapon. LtW is a massive improvement for the auto attack as well with its 10% increased fire rate.
I would not place it at the GM level. Perhaps at the master level.
I do not mind the MoC duration nerf. It used to be 50% as a GM trait. Now its a master trait in an already powerful line. We also got a new proc for taunt so thats ok.
Have they changed allies aid functionality? I mean, maybe it is still the old iteration of SnR. It would make sense too.
That Protect me!!! 30 second base CD…. WOW!!
There is only one attack from the current druid build that you need to anticipate. Everything else can be reacted to post cast. That attack is the bristleback swap F2.
New Legend – Pyre trueshot
Theme – mid ranged skirmisher and condition applier
Special F2 skill – Mist arrow
- Fire a line targeted (similar to deflecting shot) arrow from the mists that does damage and knockbacks foes. Max 5 targets. CD 30s.
Special weapon – Shortbow
- The theme of the weapon would be mid ranged combat, of 900-1000, considering there already exists a long ranged power weapon. Short bow would apply single target condition pressure.
Skill 1 – flanking attacks inflict 3 seconds of Torment. Fire rate same as Ranger SB
Skill 2 – Rapid fire poison arrows for 2 seconds while gaining blur. CD 12 seconds. Attacks 5, poison stacks applied 5, duration 3 seconds.
Skill 3 – Shoot a frozen arrow onto your target chilling and crippling them, while appearing on the opposite side of them. Evade during it. CD 15 seconds
Skill 4 – Swing your bow in an AOE knocking down everyone for 1 second in an 180 AoE. CD 25 seconds
Skill 5 – Reatreat into the mists gaining invulnerability for 3 seconds and removing 3 conditions. Prevents cap contribution. CD 35 seconds
Utilities – Mix of Traps and Survival skills
Heal skill – Blink to an area while removing 3 conditions and healing for a small amount. Gain stealth for 2 seconds. CD 35 seconds
Utility 1 – mist infused trap Place a trap that immobilizes and slows enemies for 2 seconds and applies 6 stacks of bleeds for 10 seconds on activation. 35 energy cost
Utility 2 – resist Break stun and gain 2 stacks of stability for 3 seconds while converting 1 condition into a boon. Energy cost 30
Utility 3 – infused torment Apply 1 stack of torment for 3 seconds onto your next 5 attacks while gaining fury. Cost 35 energy
Elite – Maelstrom Lay down a trap that upon activation pulses blind and weakness to enemies and 2 stacks of might for 10 seconds to allies per pulse. 5 pulses. 10 second CD and 50 energy cost.
TRAITS
Minor traits:
- enable SB and Pyre skills
- gain 2 seconds of stealth when swapping legends
- gain 2 seconds of super speed when swapping legends
Adept traits:
- Gain 20% condition duration and 25% movement speed when wielding a Short bow
- Mist arrow transfers 3 conditions to the first enemy it hits
- Deal 10% extra damage to enemies beyond 600 range
Master traits:
- cast resist when stunned. 40 seconds ICD
- gain 2 stacks of stability for 3 seconds when casting mist arrow
- your trap skills apply 3 seconds of chill and cripple when activated
Grandmaster traits:
- heal 1000 hp/sec when in stealth. When exiting stealth gain 5 seconds of swiftness and regeneration. Only self cast stealth applies. ICD for boons 5 seconds.
- Mist arrow corrupts 2 boons on each enemy hit
- Condition damage taken is decreased by 25% when channeling Pyre. Toughness is increased by 150 when channeling Pyre
(edited by Chokolata.1870)
If King of fires will no longer give 33% burning duration, how will that impact the viper berserker DPS? Would taking a burning duration rune instead of berserker rune be better?
MM is very handy when you are PvEing in maguma… for example for the DS meta event. Helps you tag a lot of mobs for exp.
Um it depends. I think zelots might be optimal because you can always place in cleric trinkets if you need the extra toughness. Monk runes ofc.
As far as sigils go, since you will be camping staff, probably take the 10% extra outgoing healing and sigil of water.
Example of a good proc:
Clarion bond – the indicator is there on the UI when it is available and you control it by swapping pets
Example of a bad proc:
Self-regulating defenses – oh look! you got me to 25% hp… ill just run away carried by my random invulnerability proc…. weee
While more boon corrupt is a good thing, it being on an auto attack chain is simply silly.
While the Bristlebacks damage on the f2 ability might be a bit too much on a such a long CD the Smokescales assault is really not. It is solid 1v1, but when there are two or more entities it falls down considerably. And it is already far worse then the Revenants equivalent skill at less damage and kittens compared to 7.
It is not the same thing though. You cant play Sword/torch instead of GS.
Well, as far as PvP is concerned, you really do not need permanent swiftness self stacking. There are allies who will stack it at the start and team fights are hectic so you are bound to get some from a team mate.
In my case, as I would probably take PM instead of SoS, that would mean 4 shouts with one on a pretty low CD. coupled with Druidic clarity and traited glyphs it would mean more then sufficient condition removal, something that we are sorely lacking at the moment.
I would probably replace GS with Sword/XX if I am not taking MM. Otherwise the burst damage is non existent.
I wonder how protect me is gonna work and what the CD will be. Furthermore, depending on the prevalence of necromancers and whether or not the boon corrupt on scepter auto 3 goes through, boon spamming might become a liability and not an advantage.
I am actually thinking a similar build but with Protect me instead of SoS due to a lower CD and added stun break.
Also, taking one of the new amulets and the Trooper rune. SnR as a major adept in NM all the way thugh, the extra 1% per boon damage is worthless for a defensive build.
I disagree that the bunkmes is dead. Why would it be? Sure you cant quickness stomp or res, but you can still spam boons and stuns like a MF. And you still have portal. I am worried about the thief buffs however…
Is it just me or has nothing been done to disincentivize the use of Elites compared to Core specs. I mean, for the most part the Elites do everything better then the Core classes and are simply an upgrade. Where is the trade off? Please note that everything i write here is not about balance but about balanced design
The two closest Core vs Elite specs are Necromancer/Reaper and Guardian/Dragon hunter. They do not get anything extra. They get their 5 or 3 buttons replaced with another 5 or 3 buttons. The problem is that these replacements are much stronger. But this is not a design flaw, it is a numbers issue.
It is a question of the F skills having parity. But these two are the easy part.
What about the rest of the field?
DRUID:
I will first talk about druid, seeing how Ranger is my main class. Quite honestly the Druid is an upgrade and there is no reason not to take it in any game mode at the moment.
My suggestion would be to remove weapon swap when choosing a druid. Having said that, some things need to be done to give the Avatar form a bit more utility and not just be a healing mode. Add burning and damage to the Astral 1. Add some damage and some confusion to Lunar impact. *
WARRIOR:
While the Warrior is in a pretty sorry state at the moment when it comes to balance in PvP, it is pretty badly internally balanced as well. As with Druid, the Berserker is an upgrade design wise. Simple suggestion is to when using Berserker simply replace F1 with Berserk mode.. i.e. no more F1 and F2
SCRAPPER:
Replace the F5 the normal engineer gets with the Gyro function. This way the Scrapper is not an upgrade design wise. Everything else however, is a mater of balance.
CHRONO:
This one is difficult. On one side, the chrono needs all the 4 basic shatters, especially if he is to go glass mode. On the other hand, design wise, it is a major upgrade to the core class.
My suggestion would be to add a harsh penalty. Using Continuum puts all shatter skills on a very long CD. It would still refresh weapon and utility skills.
DAREDEVIL:
-Perhaps a nice penalty here would be to have a passive -1s or -2s to stealth duration when you take Daredevil.
My 2c
bad players easy builds bonanza!
Reapers weak? What the hell.? I am having Dhummfire flashes all over again. 3 clicks and you are condi overloaded. The fact that diamond skin tempests exist in the current form is another issue entirely. Also alacrity… who thought this up needs a slap xD
Even with a full glass amulet like Marauders or Vipers, Revanant and Engi are insanely survivable. Then you have bunker specs like Mesmers and Tempests which put bunker guardians of old to shame.
No, I really cant say that there has ever been a worse meta then this. The builds simply do way to much of everything.
double click the weapon and you will get a drop down menu on it. You can select any stat set for a legendary weapon.
They should nerf all of those, and in the order they pop up as OP in the metagame. What is the most OP at the moment? start with that
Raids were not built for the general population and no one is expecting the majority of the players to continue playing them. It was even stated in the official statement.
Having said that, it is not like you need l33t skilz to beat it… geez
Yep, Druidic clarity is the top trait for pvp in the adept tier
The foremost issue is Celestial amulet. It offers way to much stats compared to anything else, 30% extra to be exact. Nerf that by 10-15%.
Then start looking at traits that can turn a glass into a bunker and a bunker into an immovable rock.
The Class wins do not count towards it, but they do count towards an aggregate achievement that counts towards the meta. That is why probably.
I want Shortbow and Pyre Fierceshot
As stated by the developers, the Raids are not for everyone and that they expect only a small percentage of players to complete it.
Like, 99% of the game is extremely casual friendly. WvW, Fractals, open world PvE, dungeons… before that kittened gold nerf. Even in PvP everyone can participate.
What is this obsession that if you cant finish the raid, then the whole concept must change. The raids are not that hard in the first place.
And as far as ascended gear goes, the main path to ascended rings has always been fractals, to amulets laurels and to trinkets guild missions. The drops from raids are just nice bonus really…
Harder PvE content was something GW2 was lacking since its release , and even it became farmable after 2-3 weeks.
Raids have not been made for casual players with a casual attitude. They were made for people who are willing to spend tens of hours on a single boss fight learning it, improving and eventually defeating it.
Considering that you can pretty much pug any of the three bosses, and even get The Eternal title, the raid bosses are far from impossible as you make them out to be.
The problem with GW2 PvP has always been a complete lack of distinct roles when it comes to builds. Every single time the meta game becomes cluttered with self sufficient builds.
Now we have builds that are mobile, tanky, sustainable and do damage.
Simple question. Why does a game, that is a 4v5 from the beginning, count as a normal ranked game?
I have just lost 2 pips in a 4v5 where my team mate DCed before the game even started.
Just WOW…
Both Revenant and Chronomancer have been heavily over tuned across the board.
Regen, Elite spirit, SotW.
Orion, that is not really true though. DH traps are perfectly fine without trapper runes. So it would be fine if ranger traps were solid without them.
A brown bear?!?……. No spotter?!?
The issue with traps is not conditions coverage, it is the lack of utility. The DH traps have shown that traps can both have damage, be it power or condition, and utility.
Buffing SB range would be a step in the right direction. Another issue is the conflicting sharpened edges and trap trait. You should be able to take both. Also, hidden barbs is kind of crappy.
Since everyone is fairly occupied at discussing Druid I would like to bring Traps and the Skirmishing line into attention.
The Dragonhunter has shown us that traps can have added defensive perks and utility while still remaining true to fluff, AoE denial skills. However, by very old design, the Ranger and to some degree the Thief traps are rather one dimensional and are, simply put, just bad. It is not that they do what they do poorly, it is just that they do too little to mandate a place on the utility bar in any sort of serious environment.
There are two major issues with traps, as I see it:
- extremely niche roles
- conflicting trait slots for traits that were always mandatory for a successful trapper build
To start off with the niche roles…. We have actually only two good traps that see proper use be it PvP, WvW or PvE. The healing spring and the Fire trap. While there is nothing complicated about them they are fairy good at fulfilling those roles and I feel that neither deserves a buff. HS is a long water field and provides condition cleanse AoE and regeneration and burning is such a strong condition at the moment and the Fire trap provides it on a very short CD.
My focus is primarily on Vipers nest, Frost trap and Spiked trap.
- Vipers nest is a pretty solid skill, but I feel it needs to be improved. Poison is nowhere near the potency of burning even with its reduced healing effect. Furthermore the trap has a longer CD. My solution would be to add a 1s AoE pulsing weakness effect to the trap. It also makes thematic sense, being bitten by snakes and all that.
- Spike trap has 3 issues in my mind. First, its base damage is super low and thus you are pigeon holed into condition. So the first order of busyness would be to increase its activation damage to reasonable levels. Nothing fancy just reasonable, perhaps to the level of Glyph of the Tides.
The second problem is that its CD is long. 45 seconds is way too long for the effects it provides and thus should probably be reduced somewhat. I feel 35-40 seconds would be reasonable.
And lastly, the KD effect does not get improved by MoC. Quite honestly they could change the KD into a stun and thus allow synergy with MoC.
All 3 changes I have suggest would make a power trapper build a reality by virtue of changing the Spike trap.
- Frost trap – The biggest offender here. It does absolutely nothing. A long time ago when chill was rare one could argue that it is ok..ish. But the trap does nothing and it provides nothing and there is zero reason to take it on your bar. I think this one is a prime candidate for the defensive utility slot in the trap family. I think all of these need to happen to it.
a) Cast time removed
b) Made into a stun breaker
c) Added a pulsating resistance boon, 2s on activation and 1s from the second pulse onward. *
These changes would round up the trap family like pretty much all skill types are rounded up across every class, Core or Elite. It would open up power play to traps and it would also add the needed synergy between traps and a myriad of other traits and skills.
More on the Skirmishing line later..
Beastmastery gives the pet another 150 power and 300 ferocity. It also gives the pet 10% more damage when you are above 90% health.