Guild Wars 2

Holland.9351:

Fluffball.8307:

Oh and they fixed wyverns (!!).

As someone who hasn’t played for a year and only recently started again, what changed?

Basically, they work. Before the update the couldn’t hit anything and now they can hit things. It’s a really good pet now because their skills were always solid, they just didn’t land.

FrouFrou.4958:

Fluff, I tried double melee few times after HoT landed and I also poked around with it during the pvp season 2 just for the sake of it (Nostalgia, really), but that combo doesn’t cut it anymore sadly. It’s lolsy for sure, but I can’t make it to work with a druid. Maybe it can be brought back to life with the next expansion and elite, fingers crossed.

It works extremely well still, but as always, ranged is going to be better for the size combat you do. Obviously in as small as 1v1, double melee is beast.

Tragic Positive.9356:

Are we still buff-bot condition PvE and Bunkers for PvP?

Yes. Although condi ranger is one of the highest DPS in the game at the moment (I’m told, I don’t do a lot of PvE.)

We are solid in all 3 game modes, surprisingly.

Oh and they fixed wyverns (!!).

That’s your epic return post?

OGDeadHead.8326:

Tip: Copy & paste the whole link, just clicking it won’t work since the _ at the end will be missing (at least in Firefox).

The link works for me, if you can fix it for me I’d appreciate it.

I do this every now and then:

https://www.twitch.tv/toymchne_

Dude is one of the best rangers I’ve ever seen. He full glass double melees multiple opponents as well as running a variety of other fun builds. Hope he doesn’t mind the shout out. I’ve been watching him for months and he deserves more viewers.

Also he’s beaten me every single time I’ve tried to drunkenly stream snipe him so props for that.

Jcbroe you have the single best knowledge of druid and ranger in GW2 (other than perhaps me.)

If you don’t personally use a build, weapon, or skill it’s garbage I’ve noticed. I roam with SoR because it’s an amazing skill. FrouFrou and I also both roam with double melee which is completely unviable in your eyes (although I think she hasn’t done that in a long time?)

Oh and I also use condi every now and then, which is also totally unviable garbage.

Edit: Oh and I forgot, I roam in berserker gear which is also unviable.

FrouFrou is one of the few people whose videos I actually enjoy. And SoR is one of the best skills in the entire game.

The 5 of you massacring that zerg was one of the funniest things I’ve seen in a long time. They should all feel bad about themselves.

Unbound magic can get you an awful lot of neat things. Lots of people farming those maps.

The WvW dailes veteran creature slayer, guard killer, land claimer, caravan disruptor, and master of monuments are also all basically PvE. If you do them right at reset there is often a group of people you can do them with. For example you’ll have like 20 people waiting around waiting for the veteran creature to spawn. All of those dailies barely require you to leave your home base and are often quicker than PvE ones.

Anyone else have their day made when the WvW potion doesn’t give them a chest? So much clicking. Just give me 50 copper or something and leave me alone. Every few minutes I have to click a thousand times to get rid of the kitten chests.

Am I stupid? What does it mean that people aren’t champions?? What????

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Fluffball.8307:

The really weird thing is it seems Anet doesn’t care about AFK farmers, and yet many people have recently resorted to using scripts to make them semi-randomly cast a variety of skills so as to appear not AFK. From apparently not bannable offense to blatantly bannable offense and it’s not even remotely convincing that it’s not a bot. Very weird.

Really weird thing is that despite ANet repeatedly pointing out that they do care and explaining why we are never likely to see immediate results of a report, some people keep thinking otherwise.

I know they care about the new script AFK farmers. I don’t think they care about AFK farmers though. You see the same guys doing it for years so the window for caring has sort of… there isn’t one, they don’t care.

The new script AFK farmers I suspect will be banned within like 4 months (still way too slow but whatever). That was my point.

I don’t believe anyone can give you advice for this. A main is the character you enjoy playing the most, unless you’re purely focused on rewards. Even then, the “most OP” for each game mode changes every few weeks/months. In that case, make all 9 and play the most currently OP one.

TLDR: All classes are very good at everything. Pick the fun one.

Edit: Also as to your other question, the actual role changes all the time as well based on what builds get buffed/nerfed. Ultra squishy classes often wind up as unbreakable bunkers in PvP for example.

The really weird thing is it seems Anet doesn’t care about AFK farmers, and yet many people have recently resorted to using scripts to make them semi-randomly cast a variety of skills so as to appear not AFK. From apparently not bannable offense to blatantly bannable offense and it’s not even remotely convincing that it’s not a bot. Very weird.

Assuming this will fall on deaf ears, but I’m curious about how vehemently you defend the insanely long intro…

What do you think the intro is adding to the video? Related, do you always watch commercials instead of skipping them on youtube? Your intro is longer than a commercial and is equally important to the viewer.

If you feel the intro is presenting over half a minute incredibly important info, I’d suggest moving it to the end, where people can care about it or not after judging your content worth caring about or not. They also don’t need to fiddle around trying to find the start of the actual content, they can just close the video if they don’t want to watch anymore (which is what I do if someone has a more than ~3 second intro anyway.)

There are nearly 100 million videos on youtube; the competition is way too high to turn off viewers at the very start.

Are you less than level 5? You don’t access the ranger mechanics till then.

Also, to ask the obvious, are you sure you’re a ranger?

Justine.6351:

This is actually the 2nd thread, he deleted the first one to removed negative comments about the intro and speedy.

Are you friggen kidding me? That’s hysterical. Talk about sensitive.

penelopehannibal.8947:

Fluffball.8307:

Clearly you’ve never done a HoT meta event.

Yes I have, I just don’t farm them.

Doing a single chain will fill your inventory several times over. That’s not my opinion that’s a fact.

Katastroff.1045:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compulsive_hoarding

What would you throw away in Archon Wing’s screenshot? The siege because you don’t play WvW? The armor because you only use one set in one game mode? More than half my inventory is full before I even leave LA with stuff I use regularly.

And then the bag within a bag plagues the rest of my experience.

Even if you’re not a PvEr, just float around in Bloodstone Fen and mine the nodes for 3 minutes to get a full stack of the stuff.

The next Bag Wars expansion will obviously give us bigger bags.

penelopehannibal.8947:

In my opinion, having to empty your inventory every now and then is the price you pay for farming. Don’t know if OP farms a lot or not, but it’s often the case people who want bigger bag slots are the ones who spend hours on end doing farm runs.

I have all bag slots unlocked with 20 slot bags and I run out of inventory space daily by just playing the game casually with a glass of wine. Clearly you’ve never done a HoT meta event.

You could also make the ascended bow and then use the mystic forge to change to viper.

Condi LB ranger isn’t really a thing since LB does zero damaging conditions. You can use viper for a condi berserker (warrior) though.

I’m not mad in the slightest, I was literally trying to help and he got really defensive. I don’t care if he doesn’t want to change it, and I doubt he cares that I’m not going to watch it. If I find it unpleasant enough to not watch, I imagine others feel the same . Whatever. This is boring.

Take it easy on the liquor. Be safe.

So much for constructive criticism, just trying to help, I’m a professional designer so badly edited stuff is tough for me to watch.

Constructive video criticism: Get rid of the intro, literally zero people want to see that. Also the superspeed footage is off putting for me. I get why you did it, but it’s just… unpleasant. Perhaps try to edit footage to important stuff rather than zoom past everything.

All professions’ condi builds are bad in leather farming, it doesn’t even have anything to do with druid, and it has absolutely nothing to do with WvW roaming.

I think you just want to write angry dramatic things, anduriell.

Yes they happen all the time. Just check the 3 main HoT maps in the LFG while you do something else like dailies. You’ll find one sooner or later.

Also you can fully unlock your elite spec just by doing the channeled HPs that are all over the place. I often run newbies through and get them their elite spec in mere minutes. You can check dulfy.net and just look at the channeled HPs.

Edit: By “all the time” I mean “often”. You could go hours without seeing one, so do something else while checking the LFG every now and then.

I dunno if I’d consider permastealth thieves “meta”. And if even a single person at anet has a brain it’s going to be nerfed in 4 or 5 years.

Jeez, an awful lot of hostility about what you guys are calling a “slightly suboptimal” build.

Krait runes, CC lock, burning, bleeding, poison, chill, cripple, immob…. and basically unkillable at the same time. It’s extremely forgiving because even if you totally miss a dodge it’s barely going to scratch you.

Once you reduce the drama, it’s really not a terrible spec. It’s not the best possible option, but you guys are acting like people don’t have near 100% success rate running condi druid. I enjoy running it for a change of pace and it does well.

Edit: Also anduriell in another thread you were advocating for roaming with a tank druid. If a tank druid can be successful then dire obviously can. Dire is going to put out a hundred times more damage than tanky staff.

Running from zergs isn’t a big deal. If they want to chase a roamer I think that’s a huge win for your team. Most are smart enough to run past, and if a few drop off to hunt you, well good look killing a dire druid. Beside that’s what you’re probably looking for anyway.

They also do enough condi burst to kill anyone that is killable to begin with. Berserker mesmers and thieves will explode from a condi burst. Many professions are running obnoxious builds that can’t be kill by a power druid as well, and there is no point worrying about those. They won’t kill you either, so just wander around until you find a friend or they get bored.

You guys make it sound like condi builds are totally obsolete rather than sub optimal. Many people, myself included, occasionally run condi druid and do absolutely fine. Glad still wins like 95% of his encounters despite usually playing half afk.

SB also solves ancient seeds and swiftness problems.

Anything not using staff is slightly hampered, but slightly hampered still obliterates most roamers.

1) The feast of mango pie’s biggest benefit is being effectively free it’s so cheap.
2) 700 extra health is nothing to laugh about.
3) People always look at small health regen and discount them. I’m going to use druid staff in PvP as an example, people discount staff skill 2 entirely. Yet it’s not just the staff skill 2, it’s also regen and live vicariously and dolyak runes and virtues and soothing mists etc. You add this stuff together and it gets to be extremely significant. If the regen from mango pie is useless, then basically so is healing signet. It’s not the main benefit, but it sure as hell has kept me alive.

Example: Tonight I survived a burst with 26 health and zero cool downs left and made it out alive.

I think this is the only one I have yet to solo on something other than a druid, I die too quickly dodging the wrong things to learn the mechanics. Can someone give me a walk through of what to dodge to solo this? Obviously I am not interesting in stealthing or joining a HP train.

It feels like this is easy to solo, I just am missing the tells.

I’m not sure how wealthy you are, ascended armor is very expensive and barely gives you any stat boost at all. If you don’t mind some mild PvE, the dungeon CoF runs are insanely fast and easy and after — I’m randomly guessing 20 runs? — you get enough tokens for a free set of exotic berserker armor that you can “ruin” with dolyak runes or whatever. It’s a lot less PvE than the HoT armor stats.

Ascended trinkets are where it’s at, and those are really easy to swap if you want more survivability or damage or healing.

Easiest thing would be to customize it with trinkets. If you already have PvE berserker armor you could use that, or get the “free” CoF dungeon armor (and even stick dolyak runes on it if you want.) Then just add healing power or more damage via trinkets as you like.

If you mostly solo roam I doubt you’ll want much if any healing power. With 3 easy ways to stealth you can get most of your healing from just WHaO. And it’s easy enough to top off with CA or staff.

If you want a super cheap option, mango pies are decent.

Kerivek.5740:

Is the PvP Shoutbow build viable for WvW roaming? I have been using it in PvP and I really enjoy the build but I haven’t made gear to try it in WvW yet.

Yup. You don’t want to go bunker though, you won’t be able to kill anything. Bunker is only good for PvP. The build itself is very strong though.

I’d recommend as glassy as possible where you still feel comfortable, although some people in another similar thread recently suggested tank-ish. With stealth spam you’re really not going to be in trouble in full glass though, you can easily 1vX.

Helseth has a video on his youtube channel. But basically it’s a long winded way of saying “make sure you can reach every single key you need without moving your hand out of place.” You can’t do fast combos if you need to move your hand.

Don’t forget you can use key combos as well, for example “shift-R” or etc.

It’s definitely viable, probably not optimal for anything.

However now that DPS meters are widespread, I have been seeing some pretty hysterical reports that people running meta max DPS builds of all professions are failing miserably. So if you’re going to run a DPS build, make sure you’re actually doing top notch DPS and know your rotations in a practical setting. The main priority of druid is to maintain all the damage buffs as much as possible (or keep the party alive for healer obviously.)

I am neither a raider nor run a DPS meter, just my view from the outside.

I wasn’t going to say anything since it’s supposed to be a super basic guide, but I think angrypastry makes a good point that this could be reworded. My success rate and understanding of PvP hit a major breakthrough once I realized fighting on point was not a good idea. I had to reinterpret this advice that is constantly told to new plays.

I think it should be stated “for FOR a point” not “fight ON a point”.

If you watch the old tournaments, proleagues, or any top streamer (not many left) you’ll see they prioritize staying alive, keeping teammates alive, getting kills, and THEN holding the cap. If you have a point neuted and your opponent is limping away at 5% health, go kill him and come back to the point rather than let him go +1 another fight at full health. If your ally is 1v2ing slightly off point, go win that fight and then cap the point. If he dies, you die and lose the point. Etc., etc., etc.

Staying alive and helping your teammates is almost always going to give better results than idling on a point or dying. Especially with the prevalence of trap dragonhunters.

You don’t have to go tank to play something other than longbow. Source: I don’t ever play tank builds and do fine.

We do little enough damage, the tankier you are the more likely you’re going to run into someone you are flat out unable to kill, namely warriors, tempests, and scrappers. Tank druid versus any kind of scrapper is a stalemate, glass druid has a chance.

I had never seen anything other than the preview images for the HMS Divinity, so I just looked it up on youtube. Wow that thing is awesome! I wish any professions used rifles for anything, I’d make it in a heartbeat.

The report button works like the pedestrian crossing buttons when they’ve been turned off. Doesn’t do anything but it makes people feel like they have some control to keep pressing a useless button.

anduriell.6280:

don’t go all zerk if you roam.

I’d say don’t roam if you aren’t going full glass. It’s boring and no one has fun fighting someone in tank gear.

Zodin.6517:

Wtf are you even talking about? I quickly make an example of how a consensus doesn’t make it correct, that makes me uneducated, and that I somehow brag about it? And how is that the reason I think dh counters warrior? Absolutely nothing of what you said makes sense.

Consensus has always been the earth is round and DH is bad 1v1.