Why oh why are you people whining?
Ele nerf? check
Ranger buff? check
Necro bad stuff buff? check
so on and so forth. It is a good patch.
CotW buff and icon to know when it will proc. Nice QoL change right there. The spirit changes seem nice. A good spirit QoL change would be to select a spot to summon them, like the warrior does with his banners.
Yes, the issue does seem to be with the more powerful boons like protection or quickness. But one can argue that for that much quickness up time you have to take 2 GM traits and burn a big CD utility that doubles as a stun break and condition cleanse and to put your heal on CD.
I am actually quite happy that there is positive interaction with the pet for the first time in a long time. It opens up a lot of build options.
Well, it is an educated guess that it is OP thus far. I think it is, but lets play for a few days first. Reflects and boon strips are a plenty and we are very vulnerably to being condi bombed if we spend all our CDs on boon up time.
Yes I agree, a Fortifying bond duration spread seems better. Stacking might is a non issue as it can be stripped. Permanent protection and insane quickness is completely OTT.
The druid and the upcoming changes to WHaO give us something that is sorely missing at the moment. A positive interaction with the pet.
The pet counts as an ally so it will fill up astral force. It will also count towards the Live Vicariously minor trait thus buffing up your sustain. Furthermore the staff auto attack and the no 2 ability will sustain your pet in combat even at long range, something that was previously not possible
So for example, a BM + Druid combo will have a tougher pet which will have a lot of healing tics per second on top of the heal and CForm burst healing.
For some people CForm might feel out of place and I agree that it can be made to fit any other spec, but it adds to the Ranger a play style that is sorely missing. I think that conceptually it is great, but in the end numbers will determine whether it is used or not.
For me, being able to go into CForm to cleanse all conditions, then use 4 and blast it with 3 and move out will make it invaluable.
No its not. You can run any gear with it.
Perhaps shouts as a whole become more usable now. What I am thinking is the WS,NM and BM core ranger build, or NM, BM and Druid build.
Marauder amulet, trooper runes, jungle stalker and wolf, LB/GS or LB/Staff build. HaO, Guard, LR, SoS and Entangle/SotP.
The difference from the current prevailing build would be taking Resounding timbre, Pet healing and Zephyr speed.
So the opening would be thus:
- your start off with a wolf
- as soon as you tag someone with LB auto attack, swap to jungle stalker and use f2. This is 8 might to yourself and 13 to your pet off the bat.
- Then use guard to send the pet forward, give it protection and stealth it.
- Use HaO to copy might and protection giving you and your pet 21 might stacks and permanent protection.
Guard can be swapped into QZ for more quickness instead of protection.
Enjoy!!
The druid can play so well into both damage and support builds. It amazes me how people fail to realize this and just whine that their favorite build has not been buffed… LOL
As for me, I love the druid!! I just hope the pet is not worthless in raid content
I am pretty excited about the Druid and even more so about the change to HaO. I suppose people expected their builds to just be buffed and they simply fail to see the worth of the astral form.
Great weekend overall.
First off, there is no telling how HoT open world, raids, adventures or Fractals will work. Perhaps the zerker meta will still be viable and desirable in Tyria dungeons, but I think it is outright foolish to dismiss supportive play before the game releases.
Secondly, the druid is not just a heal bot. It has excellent condition removal and daze spam, especially when traited with MoC.
Third, Irenio has sad that he is keeping a close eye on the ranger and that we can expect changes in the near future. The preview from Twitch con will be a major push for the ranger, I am still surprised people do not realize this.
While the Ranger physical DPS will remain mostly the same, pet condition damage will be given a major boost, which will go rather well with both berserker and sinister builds due to Skirmishing and BM both being taken all the time for PvE. Pets will be able to maintain stacks of bleeds with player equivalent condition damage. Also, a major plus is the fact that Ice Bow has been hammered and even though an ele will do more damage, a second ele will not be that big of a deal, imho. We will see what other changes are going to happen.
The biggest impact the druid will have is WvW. An AoE daze, heal and condition clear bot will be most welcome. There will be a point in running ranger in WvW now, which is a huge deal.
And for PvP druid will be amazing. Quite possible very OP, but we cant say before we play it.
Stop whining and try to look beyond your builds.
Looking at the Glyph family I see that there is no stun breaker. Perhaps the Equality one could be made into one.
My proposal for the Glyphs:
-Increase all radii to 360 up from 300, the standard AoE
-Glyph of the Tide also becomes a blast finisher. Makes sense because it is an explosion of waves that pushes foes.
-Glyph of Empowerment. As I have mentioned earlier in the topic, 20% up from 10% extra damage for 5s when activated, 20% reduced damage taken in its inverse form
-Glyph of Equality is made into a stun break. Perhaps a bit lower CD.
-Rejuvenation and Alignment seem fine and with a clear purpose.
On a side note, I have a question for the Live Vicariously minor trait interaction with the Regeneration boon and other heals :
- How does it interact? Is it only with the initial application of the boon or is it with every tick?
- Does it proc once per second or can it proc from all allies affected like altruistic healing does?
- Are the pet and the ranger counted in the ally pool? I suppose they are, I would just like some confirmation.
Ty
I would like to add the ability to copy back guards pet protection onto yourself via HaO. That would be so sweet xD
Even if pets get 2000+ condition damage, their condition application and spread is bad. You would have to stack 3 lines just to get some stacks of bleeding up with an additional condition from the F2.
The point of the change is for the pets that apply conditions to not be absolutely worthless and to contribute to damage, but not be the be all end all condition appliers.
Its CD got increased and its duration decreased. It has a small 15s window to do damage and requires a team setup. Rampage is fine.
Also, you need to understand that the Revs abilities are sort of toned down due to the fact that it has 2 sets of utilities.
No one is discussing the possibility that the Ele will be OP even after these nerfs…
I personally do not know if it will be OP, UP or just right, but this is why you have an iterative process, no?
With the information that HaO will now share boons between you and your pet I feel like sharing the emergence of a new might stacking combo.
The requisite for such a combo would be to take Nature Magic and Beastmastery, and the Jungle stalker pet.
So, having fortifying bond, lingering magic and zephyrs speed alongside the pet the combo would go as such:
- start off with a different pet and as soon as you enter combat swap to the stalker and use F2
- this will give you 8 might stacks and the pet 13
- use HaO
- The ranger will end up with 21 might stacks within 2 seconds. I am not sure if the pet will get up to 25 stacks or 21 because I dont know if FB will proc off of HaO boon share**
There, we went from the worst to the best self might stackers in the game!!. Enjoy
Quite honestly, the QoEmp should be a 20% damage boost and a 20% reduced damage taken in its inverted form.
What are you smoking? The staff is the best part of the spec…. Solid auto attack that cant be reflected, 1200 range movement + blast finisher and a projectile block. Also an extra situational heal with f5 then 4+3 and out of form will work great in any build.
Some of the Glyphs could definitely use something extra, perhaps a blast finisher. Glyph of empowerment seems bad and the knockback one does have quite a long CD.
But one has to consider the Glyph trait which does make them quite a bit more potent with the AoE heal and condition cleanse.
I think that Glyph of Empowerment is the number one candidate for an upward tweak.
I also think that there should be more synergy towards the pet overall.
What made DD Ele OP was the combined effort of damage and sustain. They decided to nerf the might stacking and damage part. They probably want it to remain a bruiser and a bunker but not dish out so much damage.
If you want a damage Ele, I suppose going for the scepter fresh air build is the way to go.
Druid has CC to prevent stomps. It has a lot of dazes and it has slow. It can also apply immobilization.
What about a stun bot? Considering we have MoC the druid might turn out to be a stun lock machine!!
Why does the Ranger carry the weapon as it would a hammer? I can understand the melee incarnations of it for the Rev and Thief, but why not use the standard spellcaster animation for the Ranger?
It is fine either way, You do not spam the shout, you use it for a quick stomp or a res, something that is very tactical in nature. Also, in PvE you can usually use it just once in a boss fight.
I think a kitten CD is ok.
They do if they are off CD.
Some of the glyphs look like they could be blast finishers. Would be cool if they were.
Speaking of glyphs, I feel they become much better with the trait. Considering most of them are low CD, having an AOE heal and condi cleanse seems good.
Guardians have a very nice mix of blocks, reflections, boons and healing. Druid is heavily weighted into healing and daze, but is very poor at distributing boons.
Why do people think that you need to spec defensively to play druid. Why not kitten to the wallz damage with marauder.
I mean, If you payed attention to the staff auto attack in the stream you would have noticed that it actually does quite a lot of damage and is probably non reflectable, like the Mesmer GS auto.
The spec will also give us innate condition removal and sustain which has great base values thus making it very usable even with DPS stats.
For example:
You play a LB/Staff or GS/Staff marauder with WS, BM/NM and Druid.
Standard WS utilities TU, QZ, LR, SoS and Entangle. But for the Druid line you take Druidic clarity trait, Celestial shadow and Ancient seeds.
So you have the standard ranger setup with a twist. Oh you got condi bombed and/or brought down to low HPs. Go into celestial spirit mode, condi cleanse, cast the water bubble, blast it with the 3 skill and go out of it while gaining stealth and super speed to relocate. Seems good to me.
Celestial mode is a very good tool towards more combos and more play. And people outright dismiss it because they do not want to be healers. You do not have to be a bunker, you just got some innate sustain!!!
They toned down burning, dealt with the obscene might stacking and reduced blinding procs. They have also addressed scepter DPS concerns.
I think this is a good patch for the Ele. DD was toned down but it was not gutted.
Did Irenio do that or was he just the delivery guy?
Seeing how they will make so that Guardian shield 5 is a moving projectile block bubble while it used to be a stationary skill, I have high hopes for axe 5 to be given the same treatment.
This would make the skill infinitely more useful.
Alternatively let it pulse protection and stability to allies…. the defense part.
Water magic is one of 4 stances. You use the skills up and swap out of there, so it does have a function… stop whining.
Good!! It has ruined PvE for the past year.
The Druid looks awesome. Freekin bearbows….
Smoke scale had taunt proc, so in the video it had BM.
Actually, I find the Druid a very interesting spec. And I have 4k hours on my ranger. It offers synergies with every line.
Plenty of dazes – good with MM moment of clarity
Staff 3 movement ability – great with Skirmishing QD and greatsword for amazing mobility
You need boons? – get BM and NM
Also, it has synergies with already existing weapons. I am especially exited to see how staff works with LB or GS in actual combat.
See, you guys are missing the point here. The Druid, as with any Elite spec, is a change in how a class plays. The Ranger core is not used, not because its worthless, but because other classes are stronger. This is a balance issue.
The Druid is a means towards different play styles. It is overloaded with healing and dazes with some condition cleanses, but it offers no boons.
I am actually quite impressed with the reveal. We now have a secondary class mechanic but at a cost of some pretty good trait lines and utilities. As for the final verdict, I will wait for the patch notes. They do not even have to buff Rangers that much, if they fix some of the other OP classes like Eles…
The weapon is not only auto attacks.
I agree with a high HP ranger. I also want pets to have the PvE HP in WvW and PvP.
Since when are torment and confusion burst condition damage? oh yes, since PU condition mesmer became the troll god.
If PvP is the highest growing part of the game then it deserves more attention, especially in the form of balance. Yet, nothing happens……
Asura Ranger that can ride a Charr into battle!!!
It is quite funny. If you allow classes that can infinitely troll a 1v1 match with perma stealth you will end up in situations like this.
Quite honestly, there is no point to a tournament like this, because even if you ban OP specs/amulets/traits, you have Mesmers and Thieves, and we all know that they have a huge advantage in 1v1 duels simply due to stealth.
Well, you chain lock him and kill him.
Question: why couldn’t the ranger use WS and NM together?
Power mesmer yes, PU condition no.
I think that you should look at the utilities as a whole with the tool belt skills. Also the hammer looks insane and the traits are good.
But quite honestly, I think the healing turret will be used always as it is simply the best.