Guild Wars 2

@Lugh, @Swag, @Beat – all good points and I agree. In fact, we just had this conversataion last night in one of the parties I was in. More than likely the sustain will be toned down or that is the thought. Honestly, I hope not because to me it seems other classes have it similar yet also more offensive power.

Ranger / Druid’s issue isn’t sustain but rather there is no balance or synergy and pets and player stats are not addressed. Once our pets become one with us this will go away and we’ll accept tweaks to the class.

Then again, it looks like right now that the devs are on auto-pilot…

You play well. I wish people would stop blaming it. The OP plays well, knows how to manage celestial force, use range, and the class. Some of the whispers back are just from players who can’t admit they got beat by someone better. So they blame the class or spew hate. That is the toxic part of the game though

Enjoyable. Thanks for posting it.

Personally I run:

Nature Magic: (2)Instinctive Reaction, (1) Evasive Purity, (2) Protective Ward
Beastmastery: (3)(Resounding Timbre, (1)Wilting Strike, (2) Zephyr’s Speed
Druid: (1) Druidic Clarity, (1) Celestial Shadow, (2) Lingering Light

Celestial ascended armor
Durability Runes
Power, Toughness, Healing accessories

Longbow/Staff
We Heal As One, Glyph of Empowerment, Equality, Protect Me, and Strength of the Pack. Pets are HoT’s Bristleback and Smokescale.

Armor starts at 3100 but with Sigil of Momentum it grows. Healing power ranges from 850 to 1100 which I find more than enough. I can pretty much solo anything but SM and a Keep It is a build for comfort not speed. Only class I typically have trouble with regardless of numbers are mesmers. That is a player issue, not build. If I duo or go small group then I’m there for ranged pressure.

Solo kills are really just a play style of sustain while lining up my Pets to do the damage. With about 540 – 600 condition damage it can wear them down especially with well time CC. Has long as I don’t freak out by some peoples burst or CC typically life is good.

Jim Hunter.6821:

Crapgame.6519:

Jim Hunter.6821:

borya.2964:

bigo.9037:

ah that’s not what I mean though.. I’m just trying to explain how and why, for pure dmg stats, zerker would still be better than this condi spec etc..

It’s kind of wierd to question the OP’s build that obviously works. The build she use seems to be effective in outnumbered fights when the one you actually use is not, or is maybe less effective (i also watched your vid), cuz in a pure power build, you have no damage while kitting.

Yup, the hybrid build works really well when fighting outnumbered and having to kite around for half the fight.
I flipped a camp, sat outside of bay and repeatedly killed groups of 2-4 players. It got to the point where they built a bali to….. I honestly don’t know what they thought the bali would do…

You on Ebay?

One of my accounts is but that account doesn’t have HoT so I run a vanilla power ranger on Ebay.

Roger, got it. I saw the guild tag. Some good people in that guild. Figured I’d ask

Jim Hunter.6821:

borya.2964:

bigo.9037:

ah that’s not what I mean though.. I’m just trying to explain how and why, for pure dmg stats, zerker would still be better than this condi spec etc..

It’s kind of wierd to question the OP’s build that obviously works. The build she use seems to be effective in outnumbered fights when the one you actually use is not, or is maybe less effective (i also watched your vid), cuz in a pure power build, you have no damage while kitting.

Yup, the hybrid build works really well when fighting outnumbered and having to kite around for half the fight.
I flipped a camp, sat outside of bay and repeatedly killed groups of 2-4 players. It got to the point where they built a bali to….. I honestly don’t know what they thought the bali would do…

You on Ebay?

Justine.6351:

3200 armor !?!?
Chop that down to 2800 max and put it into vita or healing or something offensive.

I know – I just like it. It is like killing them with kindness But seriously, it comes in handy while roaming/scouting/camp flipping etc. I think of it like built for comfort not speed. But yeah, it can be difficult to kill.

But on the other hand if I am paired up with something, it is pure goodness Celestial shadow is a lot of fun. It works and agree with you. I could tone it down but for me it seems to be a comfort spot at the moment.

Berserker vs. others – everything is fine and fun until a pistol packing dagger wielding thief jumps you Then you melt like butter more often than not and Lord knows those little kittens are hiding in the weeds just waiting to bite at your ankles…

OP – nice video, thank you for sharing. I run LB/Staff in WvW but run Nature Magic, Beastmastery, and Druid instead. I tried a build similar to yours trying to min/max conditional damage with toughness and healing, couldn’t get it right. So I ended up this route using Celestial armor and power, toughness, healing power accessories. So I play the heavier sustain/armor (3200) with healing and kill them with boredom

No, seriously. That pistol packing mamma / asura I mentioned above, I don’t fret over them anymore – lol. On the other hand, that Necro…. But at the end of the day it is all about managing Celestial Avatar then the rest falls into place.

Again, thanks for sharing. Enjoyable.

Tien.3865:

Awesome gameplay. Have you had trouble with reflects? I’ve been wanting to revisit the longbow but I’ve been told that it isn’t as effective against the increased reflect uptime that came with elite specs.

I can’t speak for the OP but I’ll say this – if you have good situational awareness reflects will not be an issue.

On the other hand, Druid / Ranger who use Rapid Fire blindly reap what they sow

Hi Biklen – Thanks for taking the time to put together, comment, and share. I think you summed up one of the key factors in using a Long Bow with a Druid/Ranger. In most of the fights, I think all actually, you are out numbered and used stealth and CA well. Again, good job. Some feedback if you are interested.

1. Collect more footage and pick fights with better players. Yes, I am probably nit picking but some of the players I’d say are not on the same skill level has you It is WvW and I did point out you are showing out numbered fights so maybe it is a moot point.

2. P.E.T.A does not approve the selective targeting and assassination of near by ambient creatures to gain stealth or an advantage of your fight club! Just kidding. That is a pro tip and glad you highlighted it. I’m sure those who chased you probably put their hands / palms on their forehead and let out a heavy and deep sigh – lol. Rule #2 in WvW – don ’t chase!

3. Pet management – couple times it looked like you didn’t trigger your pet to attack. I don’t think it mattered but a few times they could have finished the player off and let you swap targets.

Needless to say it was enjoyable and I think highlighted the style of play someone new to the game or trying a new trait/build could learn something from. So kudo’s to you.

I run ascended celestial armor, toughness/healing accessories, and run nature magic, beast mastery, and druid. This is what I roam or duo with and it works well for my play style. Runes of durability are key.

Sure, not the fastest pony in the race but it does just about everything I need. I did run into a enemy Druid the other day sporting a similar build but they are using apothecary armor which pushed their condition/healing higher than mine whereas I had more power for my longbow use. That and they used trapper runes. It worked well and the fight win/loss came down to who made the mistake first.

Anyway – WvW and Druid/Ranger is fine – key is finding the build / balance that works for you. And if you entertain the idea of joining the zerg then it becomes a different dance and you must bring food, join a party, and listen. Stability and endurance are key when fighting large groups to avoid the red circles of kitten on the ground that make the game almost unplayable…

Biklen.5490:

Hey guys some Ranked PvP with Zerk Ranger. In this video I am doing duo ques with Ariel on her Trap Guardian. This is the same build I ran to Legendary in season 1. It is a nice change of for those who are tired of running Staff Druids. Enjoy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCx8DC1BX4E

~BalougaPOD

You make any ad-hoc changes due to maps or team composition? I love running full Zerk ranger but found only a few maps worked with “MY” skill level. Comfort may be a better word I guess because I feel I play well.

Figured I would ask.

I get it Guss, no one likes to be correct let alone criticized. Especially after your first match of the day with no coffee!!!! In all seriousness, Swagger was very up front with his or her reply. Laid it out all right there and spoke without sugar. Few others chimed in and you know what, I’d probably say the same thing.

First and foremost – you won. I don’t really care much about who wins or loses because, well, someone has to. My question would be did you have fun? If so, then the rest is water off a ducks back. You know?

CA though, well, it is a mainstay of the Druid. At the end of the day though like I said – did you have fun? Next up is continue to learn and adapt. Continue to have fun. Don’t be a follower but be open to learn from feedback.

Just ran into a Druid out in WvW. Long fight between the two of us. He / She was running traps with Druid. Pretty solid player and used the build very well. We both sort of new it was going to be a who made a mistake first (fighting near a camp) fight but in the end they won. Hats off – so I partied up and said as much. My plan towards the end was to punt them off a very high cliff, and almost got it but they had very good, I mean most excellent, balance

They ran axe, torch, with staff. I fight on Ebay, they are on NSP.

SkyShroud.2865:

Some of you have a very big misunderstanding on something. As far as I have read, the dev team did consider possible solutions but the main problem here is community acceptance to the solutions. In other words, solutions that theoretically will solve the balance issue is not necessary acceptable by the community because such solutions will involve dissolving all servers. Thus, they have to explore ways to do it, ways that will not kitten off the community but let me tell you, those “ways” found will be much less effective. For example, the current world linking. It is great in some way but I am sure everyone agree it doesn’t solve the population balance. However, this is the result of a less effective method, a method that will not kitten off the community.

Some of you are asking to keep things and yet at the same time asking for population balance, do you realize that is contradictory in nature? You can’t achieve population balance without radical changes, not after 3 years.

Community isn’t always right. Could also be a small percentage replying in the various forum threads. People are talking obviously to the hypothetically asked question and we may not have all the right answers. In this case the developers and/or designers need to make a decision and make the change. Whatever it is. If they get it wrong the good news is that no one dies. Go back to drawing board and try again.

Edge of Mists was supposed to be the sand box to try new things. Maybe it is time to revisit that map rather than leave it has a karma or experience level train… But more to your point(s) is that from what I’m seeing in this thread the common theme or area of agreement is that no matter how you rack and stack the servers we will always run into the population vs wall clock wall. Those two distinct values directly impact the outcome of the match. The poster who said they can predict who comes in first, second, and third pretty much has it right.

No, this time around with all due respect the ball in in the developers court. They actually have to really think about the format of play, longer term goals, take into considering current and future technology, and expansion packs and give us a solution. They need to think outside of the box.

Sounds about high time we have a development / test server so we can make some quick ad-hoc changes without impacting production.

Swagger.1459:

Invest in making a 3 faction war, and give yourselves and players less headaches for the long run.

GW2 WvW won’t survive when CU comes out. Between nostalgia from the godfathers of RvRvR that brought DAoC, and the fact that top streamers are salivating for the game to come out, GW2 WvW hold up unless things change drastically in the mists AND with professions.

We had similar issues with DaOC. I recall 2 – 3 AM relic raids It doesn’t matter if we define it by server or faction at the end of the day people will move if it is an option and we can’t stop the 2×7 wall clock. We also don’t know what CU is planning with regards to servers or population and it isn’t due out in ’16. We will be lucky if it is even out in 17.

We need to stop looking at it at the server or faction level and invest in the technology or optimization to increase the player cap on a map. Not on the same level but think about Eve Online and how they handle the player base. We really need to open a world, server, or map and have no limits or constraints on the player base.

Then we can look at guilds, alliances, and player ports that provide other incentives to do everything we do in WvW.

Tyler Bearce.3427:

Since it’s seeming increasingly likely that World Linking is going to win the community vote and become a permanent Gw2 feature, the team has been discussing ways to improve the system, especially around further improving population balance, while still allowing players to reliably play with their friends and guildmates.

Hypothetically speaking, if we were to open some additional worlds (and at this point I still don’t know how much work, or how safe a change like that would be), but if we did, would there be player interest in transferring to these new worlds? The new worlds would have lowered population caps, be free to transfer to for a period of time and be immediately linked with existing lower tier worlds..

The ultimate goal of this hypothetical plan would be two-fold:
1) Give players/guilds that are too big for their ‘Full’ status world an opportunity to move to new worlds, enabling them to grow more easily again.
2) Achieve a larger number of smaller worlds that we can link together to achieve more balanced numbers for each team.

Again, this isn’t something we necessarily can or will do. The purpose of this post is just to quickly feel out community interest, to see if it was worth spending the time it would take to seriously investigate this option.

*Edit: Updated with some clarifications from below.

Honestly it is a nice thought but the problem isn’t going to go away. Having been around the block once or twice with regards to similar games and format of play this is a never ending problem. Game launches, players start picking servers, servers get queues, more servers released, transfers become available for free, then paid, players bounce around and servers start becoming less and less populated while people move for various reasons (friends, higher map population, PvP, etc). Anyway – nothing you don’t already know. My point is that there can only be one server ranked first, and one ranked last. In the middle are the servers that have forward/upward progression blocked due to reaching the proverbial population issues of lack of 24×7 coverage, numbers, etc. So in my opinion adding more is just doing more of the same.

Not to answer a question with a question, but have you ever considered:

1. Increased server, map, world population increase
2. Client side and network optimization
3. Dedicated server / world for only WvW

Underlying idea is to optimize or address client/server issues that require player caps and eliminate them. Truth be told in the year we are in we shouldn’t be facing player population constraints(definitely in compute/network infrastructure). If we get past this then this discussion is moot.

What is concentration stat supposed to offer in WvW? Instead of crafting Ascended Celestial armor I was considering Minstrel. Because it had concentration specifically mentioning Boons I said forget it.

Toughness, Healing, and Vitality was an interesting stat combo never the less but that concentration and WvW didn’t seem to make much sense. Although I did see another Druid running that armor combo and he was a beast.

Adjusted, not nerfed! We are rebuilding our confidence!

I do think these changes happen, and the overall priorities, are such because there are not any games with similar game play, on scale, out. Nor are there any due out this year. Yes, I’m aware of some MMO’s released this year or the two ton heavy thing still building expansion pack after expansion pack. But it is the combat style I’m talking about and open world PvP we call WvW.

I believe some things would change if there was a bit of competition to get our dollars or interest. Outside the short attention span of new titles or console games. Everyone flocks back more or less to the known thing regardless of beat down after beat down.

Justine.6351:

Crapgame.6519:

Thank you Fluff and Justin. Going to try the bloodlust and energy on the LB with Purity and Leeching on staff. I wasn’t sure if purity/cleansing could be used together or if one trumps the other.

You can use them together.

Cleansing is for controlled condi removal when you desperately need it.
Purity can be somewhat depended on as a “staff swap” condi removal because of fast, reliable attack hits. Is also better if you camp staff alot.

Thanks. Makes sense.

And yeah, I have staff out most of the time otherwise I struggle with AF. I’ll swap to LB after position and assist but it is the weapon out most of the time.

Thanks all!

Why does everyone read between the lines when someone posts? I mean seriously. Guardians didn’t get any worth while fixes or adjustments nor did they get neutered say like the Druid. I mean if you want attention I’m sure the dev’s can whack a trait or two like they did on the Ranger, you up for that?

Sure, they didn’t balance some of the more obvious offenders. But they did some and left the Guardian alone. Right or wrong, those are the cards dealt within the patch. If you are tired of being dealt kitten then only you can decide when to fold.

Personally I’d love some positive changes but this isn’t just about the Guardian if truth be told. It is more about the wonky @ss expansion pack and balance issues it caused. Rushed to market is an understatement.

But to each his/her own.

Thank you Fluff and Justin. Going to try the bloodlust and energy on the LB with Purity and Leeching on staff. I wasn’t sure if purity/cleansing could be used together or if one trumps the other.

Fluffball.8307:

I assume you mean WvW? Hard to go wrong with on crit sigils like blood, air, fire, and generosity. I’d probably take generosity and blood in your case. It sounds like your crit chance might not be too high though?

I like bloodlust on one weapon because it’s pretty easy to get max stacks in WvW.

Yeah, it is WvW – I made an edit Thank you for pointing it out.

You are also correct, crit chance is way to low so I already threw those out. I’ve been looking for some of the PvE / HoT sigils but not finding a good list and I don’t want to run around the zones to find the vendor and search (although the exercise would probably do me good!).

That is why I was thinking on swap or hit. Bloodlust – that is good. I’ve not had that for a while and didn’t consider it. Thanks!

For WvW – Sorry, forgot to mention.

Trying to find some reasonable non selfish sigils or at least something better than what I am using I just noticed last night that I’m running some funky sigils on my weapons so need to replace them. It is a lot like food buffs, right? Sometimes overlooked. I need to replace on LB and Staff:

LB: Hobbling and Chilling
Staff: Hydromancy/Intelligence

For the life of me I can’t remember why I have those on Power, Toughness, and Healing stat items. I’m running Celestial ascended armor, Power Toughness and Healing accessories with a solo roaming / duo build of:

NM: Instinctive Reaction, Evasive Purity, Protective Ward
BM: Resounding Timbre, Wilting Strike, Zephyr’s Speed
Druid: Druidic Clarity, Celestial Shadow, Lingering Light
Healing Spring, Glyph of Alignment, equality, protect me, Strength of the Pack.

Although I’m thinking of tossing LB but still rely on it a bit due to its range. I was thinking on weapon swap would be good (cleansing or renew) since I don’t have any major offensive power stats.

One of the issues/troubles finding a hybrid / balance build that actually helps the team.

They got nerfed once they became available in sPvP.

How you use them in a player vs. player environments is typically kitting, position, and engage / disengage. Also for speed but that is typically a small bonus.

Another knee jerk balance to a rune that was provided for player tune ability. Dragon Hunters didn’t help any either but pre HoT the runes didn’t really cause too much of a ruckus. Post HoT, power creep, sPvP changes, and lack of proper balance they are now worthless more or less.

Guss – I think people have provided feedback, elsewhere, and several times but it would seem to be falling on deaf ears. I could be wrong, probably am.

It probably wouldn’t be that big of a deal if they balanced other classes in a similar pattern and frequency. I only play two with Guardian being the other. I’ve personally not see any other class fixed or adjusted as quick as the poor Ranger/Druid. But I could be biased.

GussJr.1643:

I guess I just don’t agree with you on the seeds of life thing, I actually love the way they work…if you don’t like the mechanic, then there are other options you can choose.

Your rant makes it seem like you expect your team to pause and wait for you to pop off a seed of life…well, that sounds more of a LTP issue…

There are options for condi-clear through your pet…not just seeds

If your team is moving, you have a very handy skill 3 on staff…get yourself in the middle of your team and use the seeds and then swap back to another weapon. The seeds literally take half a second, or less, to activate.

Druid is not just about healing…its about placement, movement, timing, and prediction.

You may not agree with the skill sets they have given you with Druid, and that’s ok, you can choose to adapt to them or switch them out for something else. Just because you don’t like them, doesn’t make them bad.

…anyway…just my 2c’s

True, somewhat. Team moves, area of effect or seed becomes stationary once set.

Are we Pvping, raiding or playing a game of Red Light / Green Light? /boggle

SgtWantCuddles.5284:

Anet: We want to get away from the “stack-N-whack” mentality. We’re even gonna punish stacking with agony at the highest level of fractals. BTW, here’s your healing elite spec – half of their abilities are centered on them with no targeting and a relatively small radius for how much we want you to spread out. Your fast-pop condi clear? Also centered on you and even smaller radius. Enjoy!

You know, I’m glad you mentioned this although not so much in this post. I don’t raid so take this from a WvW point of view.

I always thought to myself why on earth the area of effect / target is so small. PvP and in Raids (previous games I’ve played with large scale raids) no one is standing still. There is always some form of movement or people in different places at different stages of the fight. Rarely are people stacking and racking the whole time. And this isn’t just the Druid.

Guardians and symbols always bothered me for this very reason. It honestly makes no sense why they are symbols rather than an aura or something that pulses or radiates out. Or, in the case of the druid and you target, make the darn things larger or follow the target while they move.

This is when a game designed without a healing meta or tanking has difficulties adding it in later. Just my opinion anyway.

Last season I just ran LB and power and stayed in stronghold…range and pew pew seemed to work well for me. But have to say it got boring real quick…

FrownyClown.8402:

Ill try those suggestions. Condi warrior is destroying me right now

Warriors are broke. Bugged. Adjusted upward. Whatever you want to call it, Warriors are wrecking balls right now and almost unbeatable. They are destroying everyone, not just you.

I was going to suggest runes of durability due to shouts…then L2R ( ) and see you are talking about sPvP Yoke is on me – lol.

^^ I may give it a spin. Thank you.

May even try to adapt it in WvW since I’m at a loss now what to run. I’m one of the abusers I guess who ran with very heavy armor and healing accessories and managed my pet(s). Just not sure how I can use my celestial armor or if it would work.

Arcaedus.7290:

Ok, rangers deserved the kitten out of the bristleback nerf. Was gettin sick of fighting 3000+ armor druids doing all of their damage through bristleback f2 and smokescale. And it was about time smokescale’s takedown became blockable. Not really seeing why the other skills were nerfed. Were they a bit overtuned? Maybe, but ANET should have prioritized other things imo.

Kill the 3000+ armor wearing Druid’s pet…or better yet, cc/interrupt the Druid, ignore pet, same outcome. Dead Druid. Not sure why people struggle with this concept.

The Druid made a choice to run a high armor sustainable build while letting the pet handle most of the damage. It is a choice, not sure why the developers or designers put a choice in place then utterly gut it. Now that same 3,000 or so armor wearing tree hugging Druid won’t have any damage output at all yet still be locked down or condi bombed to hell-n-back.

Ignorance on the player != nerf. To any class.

Substance E.4852:

anduriell.6280:

I don’t know id the dude in charge of the ranger is simply testing our patience with those continuing nerfs with no real improvements (and no the new sword animation chain is slower than older (worst DPS) and is still bugged not cleaving up to 3 targets).

Anet doesn’t have specific people in charge of each class. It’s just a small team of like 2-4 people if I recall correctly.

Everyone they brought on for the elite specs are now doing other content. Possibly even the new elite specs at this point.

It’s why they did such a reasonably good job with the elite specs but do a kitten poor job with regular balance passes.

Many a guardian would disagree with the “reasonably” comment…just saying

You know what I find rather ironic in all of this? There are a few on this forum who are just better players. I mean above average. You can trait the way you want, you play any class, all with equal skill. You are just better, you know what I mean?

And then you see these patch notes, say ok, yeah, I’m freaking upset and don’t agree. But you charge on. Now the rest of the world is saying YEAH,kittenDruids, take that man! And we are like, yeah – this totally blows. But you guys and gals, you know who you are, are like this won’t stop me, bring it on.

And the bodies start to hit the floor. Come on, sing it with me community.

Beaten why for (why for)
Can’t take much more
(Here we go, here we go, here we go)

One – Nothing wrong with me
Two – Nothing wrong with me
Three – Nothing wrong with me
Four – Nothing wrong with me

At each cadence you are finishing a player off. Smiling the whole time with this tune in the back of your head. When the dust settles and the corpses that stayed behind refusing to acknowledge what happened (WTF I THOUGHT A.NET NURFED YOU GUYS) you put the icing on the cake and deploy siege or throw toilet paper on them.

Wish I was one of you all and I’m the first to say there are many many better players and I just get beat. It is why I play, the challenge. The fun. The friendly and respectful banter. Meet many a good in-game player across servers this way.

Arena Net – I don’t need you to balance the class based on player population perceptions. I need you to balance it around factual data you store in your databases. And if you balance that way then don’t be shy and present the data so we can say yeah, the data doesn’t lie…

Jcbroe – sorry, I didn’t mean to imply anything negative in your response. It was actually in line with an other poster and I honestly had no idea. You provided it and I sort of went off from there – lol.

My apologies.

jcbroe.4329:

Crapgame.6519:

Only way this would ever get reverted is if people stop playing the class. That just isn’t going to happen.

I don’t know the answer but was Druid even represented in any recent sPvP tournament or whatever we call these things here?

Yeah, it’s either the 3rd or 4th most represented class, even moreso than usual with the recent Scrapper changes.

Regardless, any dev worth their salt would know that overused =/= overpowered. We use the pets because we have to since they are the only pets worth a kitten , not because we want to, although this patch reminds me of the old “death of the BM” patch where every pet worth using got a 25+% damage reduction.

I guess ANet logic: make every pet useless, and then they’re all balanced.

3rd or 4th?

Did the 1st or 2nd get adjusted? I mean numerically speaking there are what, only 9 classes (um, revenant, warrior, guardian, engineer, ranger, thief, elementalist, Mesmer, and necromancer)? Did I leave any off?

Following this logic they should buff the bottom three classes, leave the middle tier alone since they are balanced, and adjust / nerf the top three merging top and bottom to the middle. Then next season see who is in what position and start again. Yeah, I’m over simplifying but who really cares what position or rank the classes end up.

If it was easy street then there would be a higher number represented but what I’m hearing we are 3rd or 4th out of 9! And for crying out loud this is just a small percentage of the population (i.e. a limited sample we call esport/tournament). How is the druid represented out of the current player base…

Only way this would ever get reverted is if people stop playing the class. That just isn’t going to happen.

I don’t know the answer but was Druid even represented in any recent sPvP tournament or whatever we call these things here?

Archon.6480:

Well, not to be the harbinger of bad news but the nerf to ancient seeds is going to put us firmly under the boots of necro, warrior, Mesmer, and rev. That’s about a 50% nerf to our condi removal. CA got gutted because LI got nerfed as well as skill 2. Think about it, the seed will only remove 1 condi now.

Don’t even get me started on the pets, I am renaming pooky to toothless… Or maybe spineless… Whatever.

This is exactly the first thing I saw, the 50% number. It is huge and to my knowledge can’t be made up with accessories, traits, runes, sigils, or even food.

Worse than what they did to trapper runes.

So back on topic, now I have to find a decent way to extract my runes of durability, insert trapper runes into my "probably not so smart I crated ascended celestial stat) armor and find condition/toughness accessories.

And go conditional with SB and probably melee of some sort which I’m sure I’m not very good at.

P.E.T.A connection = hilarious

Yes, even when down the Ranger community comes through with golden bombs of light and love. That, my fellow GW2 players, is what makes us great.

FrouFrou.4958:

I did few rounds of spvp with my usual power build and I just.. Felt so useless. I didn’t think it would be this bad but ouch, this feels bad. I just want to curl up into a ball and cry under my table.

That is what I’m wondering – not having time to test the changes just seem to really bobble my mind. What options are there now from a sPvP or WvW point of view (not ignoring PvE/Raids)?

If I lean on support traits and gear I’m relying on my pet to make up my damage loss. So the dance is sustain and pet management. On the other hand if I am leaning towards DPS (conditional or berserker/maximum) then I’m forgoing survival traits with the exception of transferring to my pet for a bit of sustain.

Do they believe our pets are part of the ‘dress up Barbie’ META or are they supposed to play a vital role based on our choice of supporting or damage?

Wow, these changes actually surprised me.

I don’t know if I should just swap out my current back piece to a mattress or change classes. I honestly don’t like being a baby about change but this one seems to really neuter the Druid.

Celestial Ascended armor.
Runes of Durability.
Toughness / Healing accessories.

Can do just about anything I want with those stats and darn near unstoppable while providing support should I join zerg or roam with friends ala HAVOC.

Sadrien.3470:

Go back to the silverwastes….

Can you give me directions? Please respond.

Kill them or die trying. Easy has that. Non negotiable. It isn’t about being a kittenford but rather a few clear reasons:

1. Obsidian Sanctum was neutered for a reason – that is the place to duel or G v G
2. Red is dead
3. Field of battle – there are no coffee breaks, golden bombs of light and love, etc

It is no different than when the Zergs/Blobs roll over those who scout, solo roam, or HAVOC. It is what it is and the train rolls on.

Like everyone said, there are really no bad Druid traits just need to find your comfort level. Because I’m lazy and got tired of carrying around 3 or 4 different sets of armor (same holds true with my Guardian believe it or not) I ended up crafting Celestial Ascended and said done. Now all I do is accessorize I have enough accessories to max the stats I want based on playstyle for the day and off I go.

LB and staff.

Tragic Positive.9356:

Dolyak (Greenz)
Mad King (Birds)
Pirate / Rock Dog (Zoo)
You also might be able to spawn the mist wolf yourself with Rune of the Pack (+WH +Clarion Bond) – not tested, just an idea crossing my mind.

Care to enlighten me with regards to Pirate / Rock Dog (Zoo). Seriously no idea what you mean. Then again, I only WvW…

Ghotistyx.6942:

I personally define roaming as pvp in wvw. Flipping camps and sentries is playing wvw, just solo.

Ultimately it depends on what your intention is. I personally am not a fan of the roaming concept, so I can understand Obtena’s position. I mean, there’s nothing saying you can’t do both either, but roaming is demonstrably not considered in balance changes. So being upset at roaming imbalance is a bit empty.

I didn’t take his comment with regards to balance at all. Just saw the weirdo comment and found it out of place. Then again, I could just be splitting hairs.

Obtena.7952:

In otherwords … how well your class performs has less impact as the size of the group you are roaming with increases in WvW.

Therefore, the only people in WvW that are most significantly by individual class changes are the weirdos that run around by themselves.

Right. Got that, but why are you saying weirdos? Are you suggesting that people running solo back capping or flipping sentries and NPC/mercenary camps are weird? I guess it doesn’t matter but solo roaming is a valid playstyle and not really weird.

I think most heavy armor classes are boring and easy to level in the end. Guardian just depends on how you are playing it. PvE map complete I think I used most builds to entertain me. GS was always fun. Sword/torch also had its moments. Just depends on what you are doing. I think in the end I leveled with GS/Mace/Focus. Staff when I was out in Orr with GS.

Boring was leveling my Ranger Pew Pew LB with Bear…