Guild Wars 2

There are times where smoke assault is amazing on the F2. There are times when smoke cloud is amazing not on the F2. That being said, it’s more amazing to have smoke cloud on the F2. I just SOO wish we could control all of our pet skills.

Unblockable ranged (cause teleports) aoe CC/burst damage.

I just can’t even.

You mean launches? As far as I’m concerned it should stay this way (despite the new tool tip saying otherwise). The reason being, I don’t think someone walking into something they can’t see (spike trap) only to get hit with not only 6 stacks of bleeds but also an entangling root is healthy for this game. Not to mention the possible consequences of immobilizing a launched player who may or may not be considered in the air (air immob).

I believe these two should draw. That being said, d/d ele has somewhat of an advantage as the druid heals have more counterplay imo (you can CC them easier). Still, if someone makes a significant error the other can win the fight.

There are things out there that can hard counter druids now. I don’t think any more nerfs are really warranted.

This! Definitely this. It’s not hard to deal with a dragonhunter… unless you can’t see that you are about to CC yourself for an indeterminate amount of time.

If you talk to the Asura on the left he says they recovered some writing on the golem, perhaps a model number, but all they can make out is O.X.

Add another smokescale that has smoke field F2! Wouldn’t even need the unrelenting assault to be honest. Doesn’t even matter what it is. Just a smoke field!

The best change would really be to let us pick the F2. If possible.

glaphen.5230:

Eurantien.4632:

That’s just not really a viable way to play it imo.

Well Smokescale knocks down every 16-20 seconds and there is no reason not to take that. Most people also take Electric Wyvern which launches every 20-25 seconds. You can also use ally CC.

So your s/x staff build is gonna entangle your target… then what? Your huge dps pressure is gonna kill them? I don’t think so. Sure it can be good for team play, but again, i don’t expect it to make any huge plays.

Also, it doesn’t work with launch, despite what the tool tip says (which I think is a good thing).

Unlike lingering light, this skill isn’t random, if you are cc’d and getting hit by a ranger it will probably proc, and there are a lot of ways to counter it, or even make use of it (necro condi transfer for one).

That’s just not really a viable way to play it imo.

Something to consider. To take full advantage of this trait a druid cannot run very defensive weapons. That means they are much easier to kill and lock down without evade spam. Is the stark difference in survival enough to justify Ancient Seeds? I am of course a little bias, but I kind of think it is. If another ranger is running this trait, running a longbow, that’s an easy target to call. I have no fear of my enemies running this trait.

You all know that you can just walk out of entangle with hoelbrak or melandru runes, or anything else that reduces immob duration. Many classes have traits that do this.

Still. A 5-10 second added cd might be worth considering.

Can always stow weapon or weapon swap before the “put in combat” part.

What does Tier 4 Verdant Brink mean, exactly? All the day time events are done?

It was probably s/t staff minstrel. Decap it and ignore it. When 2 of or more of you are there, CC and burst it. Expect nerfs for it soon though.

Should probably remove this amulet and tone down druid blinds.

La Goanna.8142:

That’s not actually Modremoth. It’s just a mental ascpect of Mordremoth that your character confronts in the sylvari Dream.

The REAL Mordemoth is the final open-map battle at Dragon’s Stand. And he’s HUGE. Bigger than Zhaitan by far. It’s incredibly challenging, requires a very organized map population, and it’s about 3 hours long – but THAT is the epic dragon fight you’re looking for.

This, the story instance is implied to be during this fight. The Commander attacks from the inside and everyone else from the outside. It’s actually really epic if you think about it.

Currently thinking of:

- Spirit of Nature
- Fern Hound
- Moas (Harmonic Cry)
- Invigorating Bond (Nature Magic GM)

Personally, I think they should. What do you guys think?

If you realize that you are technically fighting Mordy (from the inside) at the same time everyone else is fighting him outside (Dragon Stand Meta Event) I think it makes the whole experience quite impressive.

From the story. The final mission reward specifically.

Nevermore, Hope, and Astralasia are not yet in game. They are unlocked when raids are released “soon after launch”. So to answer your question, “soon after launch”.

Sandzibar.5134:

I agree this nerf seems justified. Put your best men on it monday morning and get these mechanic nerfed into the ground Roy style.

You realize they already nerfed it… right?

Edit: to clarify for everyone below me.

I’ve solo’d most of them… It came down to like the last second though. It was easily done as a group of two.

How does one look for invisible shoes?

Whak-a-mole balance?

The only explanation I have is there is some intern that snuck in this change and has no idea what balance is.

The argument of Smoke Assault vs Smoke Field F2 is HEAVILY weighted towards Smoke Field. There is WAY more utility from Smoke Field F2 than Smoke Assault. If you want to save Smoke Assault you swap, F3, buff pet then F1 and it uses it. If you want that on demand Smoke Field for stealth or for blind combo finishers? Good luck, can’t control it anymore.

I’m biased towards a potential game with the most options available. Being able to control the damage is the lowest amount of skillful play. The smoke field should be the F2, no doubt about it.

How do you deal with Revenant that has the same “10-16k” in a single skill on half the cool down?

Ancient Seeds does not work with launch. This is believed to be intended.

For PvP its no Troll Unguent = no Astral Force.

What is really strange is that when starting a match we have 100% Astral Force that immediately begins degenerating. I would be ok with Astral Force degenerating out of combat if there was like kitten delay after leaving combat. That way we could start the game using Celestial Form if we want to stack stealth or blast finish an allies field but still wouldn’t be running around with full Celestial Force all the time.

It takes away a TON of options since we can’t use CF when its not at 100% and we can’t use it outside of combat. What if I want to blast/stealth before a fight? Can’t anymore.

Saddest thing is that I was REALLY excited to do stealth openers with my team using Smoke Cloud → Lunar Impact → Leaving Celestial Form with Celestial Shadow. Now that can’t happen.

Yeah, makes me REAL nervous for pro league PvP viability.

Marksmanship is probably the most under used line and a staff druid will never kill anything anyway in PvP. There is no reason to nerf moment of clarity.

This is a learn to play issue. Sic em works fine.

The worrisome thing is not so much trying to deal with the changes but dealing with balance “mistakes”. One such example would be like the addition (or buff) of a celestial amulet, giving classes such as engineer and elementalist with their hybrid damage a vast advantage over other classes. Such a change would make something like celestial meta for an entire season and give other classes a severe disadvantage. Turns out, this is exactly what we’ve been subjected to for over a year.

ShinigamiRiper.6420:

i am gona try that but what is hotjoin :P

When you play sPvP that isn’t unranked or ranked queue.

You have to go into a hotjoin game and spectate a ranger in order to open up your pet UI. Once this is done you can choose your pets and your problem is fixed.

If you want to heal a bunch but still do decent damage then you have to go with Apothecary imo.

^

I think it will be pro league viable. Different strokes for different folks I guess.

Get Heart of Thorns?

Stilgar.6437:

yeah, this sounds very promising indeed. leagues, big tournaments, fancy prizes, growing playerbase, thats all cool, but what we all really want the most is better balancing. It seems they are taking steps to improve it. very optimistic.

HoT launch could be problematic, some things like alacrity or some scrapper traits are just way too strong and some existing builds are broken. hope its resolved quickly.

some great pvp news for once. kudos. though i still dont see ranger getting a quality pvp build for the foreseeable future

It’s called Druid.

Kraljevo.2801:

IMHO, this is wasted money.

- Pvp in this game is still a major clusterkitten
- Viewers have no bloody idea what’s going on (non-vets)
- Only one game mode (stronghold is for casuals)
- Game is not balanced well
- Bug fixes that need to be done

… etc.

Them priorities ArenaNet… Them priorities.

They went from $10k to $150k to $400k. There’s probably a reason why.

From a PvP perspective I am very happy there are no boons on Druid. Necromancers are pretty strong already and giving them more fuel for their boon corruption would just be silly.

Looks good so far.

They have counterplay? Wait…no turret engi didn’t. Guess I’m wrong.