Guild Wars 2

Ancient Seeds
Cast Entangle on target on crit (30s cooldown).

If they’re gonna nerf it, they better get rid of the CC requirement.

False advertisement. It was confirmed by ANet that it would work in WvW when they revealed it.

Just remove the combo field from Smoke Cloud and call it a day.

I’m only using Staff 1 and Staff 3. Extremely rarely might I use Staff 2, Staff 4 and Staff 5, but that’s usually just randomly.

Staff 2 has so much potential, but does absolutely nothing.
Staff 4 is extremely slow and can’t hit anything. When it does hit, it has no punch.
Staff 5 is ok because it’s a waterfield and a projectile destroy.

Everyone calm down, there might be more nerfs ahead :P

Lingering Light in beta was useless. The wisp theme was great though.
Lingering Light on release date was OP because of the blind spam.
Lingering Light post nerf is weak, but not as weak as it was in beta.
So on average it’s still buffed compared to beta, which to be honest, isn’t hard to accomplish.

The druid trait line is looking weak. Natural Mendor still forced and there is not an all-round good GM trait to be seen. All Druid GM traits are gated behind something else:

• Grace of the Land is gated behind Celestial Form
• Lingering Light is gated behind healing allies
• Ancient Seeds is gated behind hitting something that’s CC’d

The best all-round GM trait is still Lingering Light and that only because it can be applied to the pet. But it’s not strong enough to be called a GM trait and therefore the Druid trait line is weak. If it wasn’t required to equip staff I wouldn’t even consider picking it.

Yep, but I kinda like it

Do you have any videos of it constantly happening?

Earix.5684:

Holland.9351:

In what situation has smokescale covered an all-important field for you?

Well apparently you unlocked Smokescale a few hours ago (from another Thread). Play a few more hours with it in organized groups and you will experience a ton of these situations

“organised groups” as in dungeons/fractals and stacking on top of a PvE boss? Maybe don’t use it in that situation.

Tigaseye.2047:

I’m not comparing Ranger staff with Mesmer Staff.

I’m saying, if you like playing a class with a staff, you might as well play a Mesmer.

Not all Staffs are the same playstyle. Druid Staff is more like Mesmer Greatsword. Scrapper Hammer is a lot like Ranger Greatsword (but better).

It’s about the skills it has, not about the type of weapon it is. The class/skills/traits it’s attached to also matter a lot. I’m enjoying Druid Staff on my Ranger core class. It’s a small step to replace Longbow with Staff. It’s a huge step to completely switch classes where literally everything is different except the word “Staff” on the weapon.

In what situation has smokescale covered an all-important field for you?

Smokescale was OP. Lingering Light was OP.
Can we at least agree on that?

Smokescale is still good.
Can we agree on that?

I have no idea in what place Lingering Light is in. It doesn’t look too good.

Tigaseye.2047:

Holland.9351:

Tigaseye.2047:

Problem is, why play a Ranger with a staff, when you can play a Mesmer with a staff?

Didn’t you mean Mesmer Greatsword?

No.

IK that is supposed to be better than staff, but staff is OK too.

How can you compare Ranger Staff with Mesmer Staff? They’re completely different weapons. Ranger Staff is much more like Mesmer Greatsword.

Tigaseye.2047:

Problem is, why play a Ranger with a staff, when you can play a Mesmer with a staff?

Didn’t you mean Mesmer Greatsword?

40% condition duration was just ridiculous. Not on par with any of the other foods at all.

20% condition duration makes sense, since boon duration food has always been 20%.

alain.1659:

Can I ask something? I have been thinking on this subject since HoT release.

Why are there so many reflect skills? I mean reflect means you are immune to projectile damage, whic is the archetypal ranger source (longbow, shortbow).

Reflect is worse than immune to damage skill, because if it is properly applied it can destroy a lb ranger (fast reflexes and properly reading the game needed). And also after the reflect, opponent can use his “immune to damage” skills to bug the hell out of you again.

With new skills and professions, there are more reflects and some invuls in the game. People say rangers skill cap is low, but I object. Rangers skill cap is high if you want to survive the battle, not just pew pew.

Other classes have new computer systems while rangers (especially archers) have a rock, with a computer drawing on it.

That’s why I swapped my Longbow for my Staff. It’s a fun weapon, no worries about reflect/destroy and it does a constant stream of damage, so very sustained. Longbow does more damage at more range, but it’s more burst and weak to all sorts of things.

Reflect is completely overpowered. Reflect is as if Retaliation returned 100% of the damage and also gave invulnerability.

OGDeadHead.8326:

Holland.9351:

Please share what’s so great about them and why.

Lots of small things that adds up together, and also note I’m not using glyphs untraited – Verdant Etching is a must for me to use them.
Point blank aoe damage, the effects themselves, aoe condition cleanse, aoe healing, short cd.

The elite is performing a bit bad though imho. VS slow, hard hitting mobs, its almost useless. There are a lot of things they could consider when it comes to improving it, like duration, damage, add something more to it (taunt?).

I… am not convinced to change my build for them. But I can see the appeal because of their short cooldown.

Much of my survivability comes from the skillbar, but I don’t see glyphs being able to replace that and I don’t want to reduce my survivability. I also prefer Natural Stride over Signet of the Hunt, Rune of the Traveller and Resounding Timbre, so Verdant Etching would be too much of an investment.

I think it goes like this:

• ANet does not care about classes at all. All they care about is the general state of the game as a whole.
• They add new skills/traits and observe the results
• They nerf things they don’t like
• They add new skills/traits and observe the results
• They nerf things they don’t like
• Etc

They don’t care to bring skills on par with other skills nor do they care to fix bugs. All they care about is the general state of the game.

On the other side, players only care about their class and every single skill in it. If there is a buggy skill, or a skill that doesn’t work, they can be confronted with it many times per hour for months or even years on end, because they interact with the game through them and it’s all they have to work with. All they can do is to stop using a skill/trait/weapon/class that doesn’t work.

So the player gets frustrated and ANet congratulates themselves that the general state of the game is good. They see no incentive to fix skills that aren’t even used. And since ANet has all the power, that’s just the way it’s going to be. It’s not until ANet starts collecting feedback that things can improve, but it’s completely up to them and they have had no interest in it.

Please share what’s so great about them and why.

Irenio CalmonHuang.2048:

Going to be investigating this. It may require some change to Smoke Assault, since the active skills are intended to be a little stronger than the passive skills.

I want to change my “vote” to keep Smoke Assault on F2. I was finally able to unlock it today and it’s awesome on F2.

Lingering Light seems like a solid GM trait. I’ve only played with it in PvE, so I have no idea how annoying it is to face. But the combination of healing and blind is very welcome in almost any situation and build. It’s a good survivability GM trait, like Protective Ward. The other 2 GM traits are more situational, but bring their own punch in a different way.

So I hope Lingering Light stays the way it is and only get minor adjustments in blind duration or ICD rather than destroyed like We Heal as One.

Maybe this guy was right:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LhvuomaJaY

It just wasn’t true at the time because PvE had no endgame or didn’t appeal to many people. Now there is new PvE content that people are more interested in than WvW. For some WvW was simply endgame content.

However the PvE content won’t last forever. It’s too static for that. But it might take some people many weeks to get through and unlock all the new stuff they want.

The new borderlands aren’t good because of the new PvE events in it, which is just more static content. If people wanted that they would go do events in PvE maps.

The power of WvW is that it’s dynamic and not exactly the same every day like PvE events, so it makes for good endgame content.

Many people are playing the new PvE content and unlocking new stuff.

They should nerf Sic ’Em damage, so people who don’t use it don’t get their pets nerfed.

It’s always those pet buff burst builds that ruin it. Signet of the Wild + Sic ’Em and you get 25%+40% more damage on your pet. Then they make a video about how OP it is (because it is), but the problem is not the pet, but Sic’ Em damage. So they have to balance pets based on the idea that you WILL run it with Signet of the Wild + Sic ’Em and burst people down.

Now running Smokescale barely does any damage without Beastmastery, Signet of the Wild and Sic ’Em.

Pick Sharpened Edges instead of the trapper trait, I’m sure you’ll be pleasantly surprised in combination with Staff.

Interesting, I didn’t know that either.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Holland.9351:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Holland.9351:

The problem with traits with ICDs is that they’re invisible, so you have no idea when they’re ready. So I think having CA on a cooldown would be much better for that.

You mean like Clarion Bond?

Exactly, it’s terrible to have traits ruined because of ICDs.

My point was that Clarion Bond places an icon on your bar when it is recharged and ready to use. So, not invisible at all, meaning you know exactly when it’s ready.

It does? I didn’t know that.

However, I don’t think having even more icons on the buff bar is very useful. I consider it generally a mess.

Yep, it’s been pretty great. There is finally a chance of being heard after 3 years. I’m worried that Rangers come off as being too rude sometimes, even to Irenio, but there is a 3 year backlog on their minds and they all want it fixed right now

There have been some very pleasant surprises and improvements since Irenio showed up, so I’m not worried. The only thing I’m worried about is if ANet gives Irenio other stuff to work on.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Holland.9351:

The problem with traits with ICDs is that they’re invisible, so you have no idea when they’re ready. So I think having CA on a cooldown would be much better for that.

You mean like Clarion Bond?

Exactly, it’s terrible to have traits ruined because of ICDs.

The last event where the mordrem attack Tarir is extremely ridiculous. I don’t think you could make it any stranger.

• turn into a tiny mushroom
• find a way through a bunch of randomly mindlessly charging mordrem with infinite health
• suicide bomb an “Octovine” (that looks like an octopus) with mushroom poison 15 times that somehow attached himself to a doorway together with 3 others.
• other players are turned into exalted as if exalted are nothing more than suits of armor.

It’s just weird an stupid and ridiculous on so many levels. I can understand humorous events like the one with Faren, those were good, but this is just stupid and I really dislike it a lot. And to top it off, it’s the final event of the whole map. It’s supposed to be the pinnacle, but it’s possibly the most ridiculous event in the entire game.

The problem with traits with ICDs is that they’re invisible, so you have no idea when they’re ready. So I think having CA on a cooldown would be much better for that.

movement buffs don’t stack. Only the highest counts.

natural stride: 33%
swiftness: 33%
signet of the hunt: 25% (but also 25% to the pet)

Awesome. That’ll go a long way.

I still think AF generation should be looked at and maybe even removed.

CA is terrible, unless your role is a healer of allies. So, if I want to take on that role, it should allow me to stay in it indefinitely without being forced back into another weapon set.

Therefore I still think it should be a toggle with a 10s cooldown, but you can otherwise switch back and forth at any time, like how you can swap weapons/attunements.

Also, CA1 and CA2 are impossible to hit moving targets with and CA5 doesn’t deal any damage, even in full ascended Berserker stats. Only CA3 and CA4 are worthy skills.

The pet menu has “beta placeholder” written all over it in 24 different languages. We’ve been expecting improvements that allow us to tweak our pets.

Even the pet selection list is a complete mess.

Another solution would be:

• allow us to choose which of the 3 skills is activated by f2
• allow us to disable any of the 2 remaining skills, so the AI doesn’t use them at all.

Been waiting over 3 years for this. 1 week after initial release I was expecting this to be improved any time now…

I love playing Druid Staff. I gave up my longbow for it and that’s saying a lot. Staff deals very consistent and sustained damage because it can not be reflected/destroyed and hits instantly. It might seem a bit boring to only use auto-attack, but you are constantly re-positioning yourself to line up more targets in the beam, both foes and allies.

I do play it with full ascended Berserker stats however That’s what I used to squeeze every last bit of damage out of the Longbow and now I do the same for the Staff. It does maybe a bit less damage, but it’s just very reliable and sustained.

The only thing lacking is that the auto-attack doesn’t fire a beam unless it has a target. Which is kind of sad, especially with the addition of the action cam.

CA should simply be a toggle like death shroud, but with a 10s cooldown after leaving because of traits. No astral force generation at all. You can just swap forms at any time.

If your role is to be a healer, then you should just be able to stay in CA and not be forced back into your other weapon sets.

So CA should be like a 3rd weapon set with its own weapon swap cooldown of 10s.

Azure.8670:

ive been telling you guys for 3 years

Ranger will never be good

It’s much more fun to win with a class that everyone says is bad.

I love playing Druid Staff. I don’t see me play another class any time soon.

CA might be a failure anyway.

The aiming of the skills is still horrible. It can only heal, daze and remove conditions on targets that stand still (CA1, CA2, CA3).

Only CA5 deals damage and it’s just terrible. The damage is extremely low, even in full ascended Berserker stats, and you are immobile and can easily be interrupted while doing it. I’m starting to wonder if the damage scales with healing power or something.

The only great skill on it is Rejuvenating Tides (CA4). Which is exactly what I use as a secondary heal for myself and to heal allies. Yes I’ll mash 1, 2 and 3 while CA4 is on cooldown, sure.

Being in CA leaves much to be desired. Again, CA4 is excellent. CA3 is ok-ish and the rest is just terrible.

I don’t even consider it an option to heal allies unless I am right next to them so I can use CA4. But I can’t tell who needs a heal because there are no health bars for allies in open world play, so I never use it.

• smokefield on-demand
• pet invulnerability on-demand

Is better than having the burst on-demand.

They should update the pet menu already and let us decide which of the 3 skills we want on F2 and allow us to disable skills as well, which we don’t want, like bird swiftness and spider AoE poison.

I prefer smokefield+invulnerability on F2 rather than just another damaging ability you want to use as soon as it comes off cooldown.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

The other issue with it being semi-random now is that it can mistakenly stealth thief team mates who were +1ing and will then be revealed, preventing them from entering stealth again.

Good point.

I think the smokefield is better on F2.

• make pet invulnerable on-demand when he most needs it
• smoke field on-demand, which you can combo.

The pet can burst fine on its own. It’s just another attack.

It was nerfed because it was on the Ranger bug list on the bug forum.

yep only try it on things lower than you, but it can go quite far.

The truth is, we should have 0 pet skills on our weapons. So Staff is actually an improvement. Not more power wasted on the pet.

edit: Also,

• Solar Beam heals the pet
• Astral Wisp heals the pet
• Ancestral Grace heals the pet
• Vine Surge removes Cripple/Chill/Immobilize from pet

My thoughts? Give it at least a week or a month.

You have to use the Druid trait line to be allowed to use staff and glyphs and Celestial Form.

You can only select it as the bottom trait line. (No idea why)

Sandzibar.5134:

reaper runes chill on shout apparently…

that seems pretty good for a shout ranger build no?

unintended WHaO / Guard buff? lel.

And Chronomancer rune of Necromancers

Reaper Runes only have 1s chill though… but probably worth a try. Removing 1 condition sounds more useful.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

mistsim.2748:

Holland.9351:

lol, including yourself?

meaning that when you heal yourself, you blind on next attack and heal for 600 without any healing power. same applies to anyone receiving your heals. I don’t think many understand how strong this is.

That is the best trait Druid has for PvP/WvW, by far.

That does sound pretty excellent. A solid trait for all kinds of situations. Ancient Seeds has a more powerful effect, but it doesn’t always work.

I wonder what the protection duration is on the Herald rune. It should only be like 3 seconds, but you never know.