Guild Wars 2

To be fair, if it was on a 10s cooldown it would indeed need a nerf.

Yep, Druid is very enjoyable and I missed it when the beta was over. Didn’t even have to use it as a healer.

The negativity and salt are probably because this is the first time in 3 years that a dev has been sent to communicate with Rangers on their forum and ask for feedback. There is also the rush of having to get everything right in only 1 BWE instead of 3 like some other classes have had.

lol I’m glad we figured out what the deal with this was. Shared Anguish has one of the longest cooldowns.

Really? Who cares about healing, even if that’s what druid is supposed to do? It has other advantages like Daze and Ancient Seeds and Staff autoattack hitting often from 1200 range and ignoring all the new reflect/destroy. If one trait can take advantage of multiple hits, it’s Sharpened Edges. Staff can just keep stacking bleed if you have a high enough crit chance and good bleed condi duration. Don’t even have to flank for it.

Got to take advantage of the strengths it has, but you don’t have to take advantage of all of them at the same time. You don’t have to use Celestial Form.

lol, Ranger pet isn’t enough of a handicap yet?

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

a single condi does not a condi build make.

:D

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

There was one Nike made called Druid Mad Seeds

Yeah that’s the one I meant. And I found the topic, but it didn’t use staff:
http://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/professions/ranger/Build-MAD-SEED-DRUID-a-selfish-druid

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQJAWVn0rClsiNrAWsCUtgl8AD+uuXHsLBgSwpjZD07OBlsi0A-TFSFABrpLYQlgLcBAab/BAeCAcfIAOU9nlU+RKA7WAA-w

Yep, this looks like a good condi staff build. Did you try something like this in the beta and did it work well?

Staff + Sharpened Edges + high crit chance might be considered a condi weapon. Staff auto-attack hits very often and can not be reflected/destroyed.

I just made another topic about this:
http://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/professions/ranger/Staff-with-Sharpened-Edges

Has anyone tried Staff with Sharpened Edges in beta?

It only just occurred to me, but if you have 100% crit chance, the auto attack should be able to stack quite some bleeds. Staff hits 3 times every 1.25 seconds and Sharpened Edges has a 66% chance to apply 3s bleed on crit.

Since this requires the Skirmishing line and it comes with Hunter’s Tactics, you’d still want to be flanking for the 10% more crit chance, but at least you’d still be stacking bleeds, unlike shortbow.

Staff + Shortbow could be a thing, especially with Ancient Seeds. So, Druid might already have access to a condi spec and doesn’t need things like burning on auto-attack.

I remember there being a topic about Shortbow + Ancient Seeds, but did that build also use Staff?

Druid spec is indeed healing and CC (daze and immobilize).

I do agree Druid needs to be able to deal damage as well. Staff is pretty great at dealing sustained damage, but the damage is too low, even with full ascended berserker stats. If Staff requires full ascended berserker stats just to get some damage out of it, then that’s what people will use for it.

In HoT, Longbow will have a ton of reflect/destroy it can’t deal with, making staff the only valid ranged alternative for power builds without killing yourself half the time. That’s the role staff needs to fulfill as well: A replacement for longbow. It loses range and burst, but gains immunity to reflect/destroy, however, it also loses much of the damage.

Irenio CalmonHuang.2048:

There’ll be more supportive damage for Celestial Avatar by launch… possibly from trait modifications or from skill changes.

Awesome.

Irenio CalmonHuang.2048:

Celestial Avatar healing is the best available by a decent margin right now. One issue that came up is that the healing coefficients are so insignificant that running with healing stats yields very little reward.

That’s mostly just an issue with all healing in the game. Healing power yields little reward. Druid has Natural Mender to deal with this. Up to 20% more healing on all outgoing healing is pretty great. It’s just a shame that it’s a forced trait and only affects allies, since not every Druid is surrounded by allies all the time.

Irenio CalmonHuang.2048:

The best healing in the game being available without using any healing power; this is not good for the game.

If Healing Power yielding little reward is an issue, it needs to be resolved for the whole game. It would have a huge effect, since essentially you’d be removing stats from the game or nerfing the effect of healing for those that don’t have healing power. But beware, Celestial gear might enter a new era of overpoweredness (other gear only allows 3 stats). Also, by nerfing healing, people will die quicker to condition damage and power and precision, which might only make those stats even stronger. Personally I think it’s best to let it be for now and maybe have an internal discussion on the topic for the whole game.

Irenio CalmonHuang.2048:

Being able to run two more damage-focused weapons (if that’s your thing) and still have Celestial Avatar available should address some of your offensive concerns if you want to play a bit more offensively as a hybrid. If you want to focus on being the top offense then you probably shouldn’t be selecting the Druid specialization.

I think I’d rather see staff get a bit more offensive than Celestial Form. Maybe let staff scale with power a bit more. Astral Wisp (and Cosmic Wisp) have great potential to be something impactful offensively if they just did something that affects foes and became unblockable. Now the wisps are mostly just adding a theme rather than a use or a threat. Becoming a wisp with Ancestrial Grace could also share this effect when passing through foes.

Irenio CalmonHuang.2048:

That’s all I’m going to say on the subject for now (though I will continue to read constructive feedback here and elsewhere) as there is plenty to be done in order to address these and other issues. /me ducks back to work on Scrapper and Druid.

Druid has been great overal. It’ll be in good hands with you.

Maikky.8526:

When the elite glyph is just a kittenter version of retaliation on a class that doesn’t want to get hit, you know there is something wrong .

It could potentially be better than Retaliation since it deals damage to all tethered rather than only return damage to the one that caused it.

I think it’s very much a WvW trait where you wisp into a zerg and pop this together with signet of stone and some other Glyphs.

I’m not sure how effective it is, but it should work on paper.

Verdant Etching Seed of Life takes a very long time to clear conditions, which makes it a bad alternative to Wilderness Knowledge.
Maybe have it clear 2 conditions at the start and heal at the end.

Ancestral Grace is an excellent skill and not a buggy mess, but…

• Ancestral Grace can not move up stairs or slopes because it blocks line of sight.
• Ancestral Grace sometimes stops player movement at the end of the cast, eventhough the forward movement key is still pressed.
• Ancestral Grace takes equally long to reach a short distance as to reach a long distance.

• Cosmic Ray and Lune Impact hit where the mouse was at the start of the cast rather than where it is at the end. Making it impossible to hit moving targets.

Zatoichi.1049:

Holland.9351:

Zatoichi.1049:

and now suddenly our base healing is being nerfed in favor of leaving us to take heal stats

What did I miss?

irenio says base healing too high, so to compensate for lowering it, he watns to “reward” people for taking healing stats so they scale better

to translate: Healing too good, must nerf, but if you want it back, add healing power gear…

sounds like a sugar coated nerf to me…only possiblilty is its prpose is to give druid damage to compensate

Some low damage sources that scale well with power would be good. So you can choose. All druids have CF, not just those with healing power.

Zatoichi.1049:

and now suddenly our base healing is being nerfed in favor of leaving us to take heal stats

What did I miss?

Yes it’s basically just a projectile destroy field with a waterfield. 5s waterfield every 20s isn’t bad.

Padra.1678:

I know its a water field. Even so the skill is still pretty weak.

Sublime Conversion and Ancestral Grace together is about a 3k heal.

It’s also a Waterfield. The tooltip doesn’t say so and it also doesn’t show on the ground, but it still acts as one.

Therefore I think it’s fine.

Natural Mender
Make it increase and trigger on all healing, not just outgoing healing. This trait forces Druid to pick a trait that only helps to heal allies, which only rarely happens in many game modes. Having it also benefit the Ranger selfishly would make it useful in any Druid build.

Solar Beam
Good, but add a bit more damage to it. Make it fire a beam without a target and allow it to target friendly objects and allies.

Astral Wisp and Cosmic Wisp (from the Lingering Light trait)
Both need to become unblockable and do something negative to foes it passes through. That would make Wisps a whole lot more interesting and useful. 3s Blind, or 2s Weakness or 1s Slow for example. Astral Wisp should also apply it on-hit to the target.

Sublime Conversion acts as a Waterfield, but the tooltip doesn’t say so. Add it to the tooltip. It also doesn’t look like a Combofield visually. Add the visual indicator on the ground. I don’t think this skill needs anything else anymore, because the Waterfield will always give it a use, even if the opponent doesn’t use projectiles.

Vine Surge
Give it 2s immobilize or 4s cripple to give it a bit more punch.

Ancestral Grace
Just needs a fix where the Ranger stops moving at the end of the cast. It would be nice if it would become immune to CC for the duration (but not immune to conditions or damage). This would go well with the idea that Wisps should be unblockable.

Personally I’d be fine with this and would even call it an improvement:

• Natural Stride reduced from 33% to 25% movement speed
• Natural Stride no longer removed by Cripple/Chill/Immobilize
• Natural Stride swapped with Natural Mender

Making Natural Mender a choice rather than mandatory would be a vast improvement. I could suddenly pair movement speed with Glyphs or stealth.

However I also want to say that they don’t want all traits to be the same and this Ranger trait is far more interesting because it comes with 2 important downsides in exchange for the extra movement speed:

• cripple/chill/immobilize hits harder
• pets don’t get the benefit and become very easy to kite

The passive amount is still the same as swiftness and Rangers already have access to that if they want it and it even affects their pet.

“PolyMoa” autoattack is excellent. I’ve killed several Mesmers with it. It leaps forward with every attack, even if it doesn’t hit a target. It’s basically a movement speed boost by itself. Just target someone and press 11111 and he’ll be in trouble.

“PolyMoa” autoattack’s power also shows when cast on a pet. The pet won’t miss since it will leap towards the target with every hit rather than stand still.

If sword AA leaped forward with every swing, it would be awesome. Now it doesn’t leap unless you hit a target first.

@Phoebe

I’ve been playing druid myself as a non-healer. It gives me certain advantages that my old build didn’t have, but I did have to give other good things up for it.

• Longbow suffers from reflect and destroy, Staff does not.
• Greatsword Swoop is great for mobility in WvW, Ancestral Grace on Staff is a good alternative.
• Natural Stride gives me a utility slot since I don’t have to use Signet of the Hunt anymore. Or it will give you a rune set if you don’t have to use Traveller Runes anymore.
• Ancient Seeds gives a lot of utility to a lot of different builds that have any form of CC.

Just because Druid has access to Celestial Form doesn’t mean he should use it as part of their build. And some will use Celestial Form to heal themselves, which Natural Mender doesn’t help with.

The only bad trait is Natural Mender for non-healer builds. Non-healer druid builds are not far-fetched and healer shouldn’t be forced. Live Vicariously is fine since it also triggers off healing the pet and it’s a selfish trait, not a healer trait. Natural Mender needs to allow use in selfish builds.

Wrong thread Phoebe. This isn’t about Natural Stride at all.

If anything, this is an alternative to swapping Natural Stride with Natural Mender.

And I quote OP:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Now, my idea is that instead of swapping Natural Stride with Natural Mender, I propose that the Daze component in Primal Echoes be removed and replaced with the Natural Mender mechanic and the Daze become the GM minor trait which would be something like below.

Yes, either Ancient Seeds or Expert Focus getting a longer cooldown would be perfect. Under the condition that Natural Mendor ends up on the staff. I don’ want to see any nerfs while still being stuck with Natural Mendor.

I really like the idea and it makes complete sense.

However, the daze on weapon swap is really powerful in combination with Ancient Seeds and a Sigil of Hydromancy and Sigil of Geomancy.

I think the only reason it’s not OP on Staff is because Staff completely lacks burst. So you’re swapping to a weapon that can’t really benefit from an immobilized target other than using the time to run away with Ancestral Grace. All you can do is just zap it with Solar Beam for a bit and stand at a safer distance.

However, imagine running Greatsword and Longbow and applying immobilize on swap, instantly followed by Maul or Rapid Fire… every 10 seconds.

So, while your idea makes complete sense, I think we should look elsewhere.

Tragic Positive.9356:

Holland.9351:

Kinda sucks that they’re going to have to nerf a pet because some people will waste their entire build on buffing it. +25% and +40% damage from long cooldown utilities.

That’s why we can’t have a nice things. Maybe Sick Em should get a damage nerf rather than the pets.

You mean … That Sick’Em that increases Rangers DPS by 12% for 6 seconds with no DPS boosts and by 6% for 6 seconds with 25 might on Ranger on 40 second cooldown?
Nope, only over my dead body.

I meant for example:

• remove damage from Sick ’Em and make it apply 2s stun instead.
• increase base damage of all pet skills by 20% (except Smokescale)

We’re having weak pets because people can boost them by 40% and 25% for a few seconds and burst someone down.

Natural Mender needs a buff for selfish builds. Maybe make it increase all healing rather than just outgoing healing.

Not many people would pick this trait if it was a choice rather than a minor trait that comes with every single druid build.

Kinda sucks that they’re going to have to nerf a pet because some people will waste their entire build on buffing it. +25% and +40% damage from long cooldown utilities.

That’s why we can’t have a nice things. Maybe Sick Em should get a damage nerf rather than the pets.

Let’s instead compare the GM minor traits (everyone is forced to get it):

Time Marches on

• +25% movement Speed, -25% duration to movement impeding conditions.

Impact Savant

• +25% outgoing stun duration. -25% incoming stun duration

Natural Mender

• +2% outgoing healing, whenever you heal (10 stacks max)

Phoebe Ascension.8437:

Any druid, will for some reason try to burst heal. Even avatar only druids. Spam 1 or so. That will in the end give more healing and hence your choice to go druid will reward more. Healing is the reason to go druid and having a minor boosting that = most normal thing of world. There is no question it will work in any build, it’s not depending on anything since the first minor unlocks celestial form wich alone benefits enough from Natural mending.

I don’t think that’s true, unless I am wrong, but outgoing healing does not affect healing to yourself. It does not affect your heal skill for example. I’m not sure if it affects 1 on Celestial Form if you hit yourself with it.

So, it does not affect every build. Just those builds that want to heal allies. Also, not every druid is going into Celestial Form. I spent the fast majority of my time this weekend without it and not feeling like I should have. So to me Natural Mendor was a dead trait 99.9% of the time.

I don’t know what should take his place. Natural Stride looks obvious, but also that trait does not affect all builds since it doesn’t affect the pet.

So maybe it’s fine to keep Natural Mender as minor, in the end, it affects Celestial Form and all druids have access to it. Maybe it should give +% to healing, rather than just outgoing healing or have something selfish added to it.

I’ve changed my view. I think Natural Stride should stay optional. Because:

• It cannot affect the pet.

Let that sink in for a bit. Pets are easy to kite and take longer to reach their target unless you also pick up swiftness in your build (or Signet of the Hunt, or Pet’s Prowess).

So this is a very selfish trait to pick and at the cost of the pet. I’m personally fine with it, I think it’s a fair trade off, but not everyone will agree and might not like it forced on them if it was a minor trait.

So, I’m going back to my original suggestion:

• swap Verdant Etchings with Cultivated Synergy

It’s balanced because:

• cripple/chill/immobilize hits harder

When affected by these, you’ll be walking much slower than if you had swiftness or +25% permanently

• the 33% cannot affect the pet

The pet is a big part of the Ranger. Picking this trait as the only source of your movement speed will make your pets extremely slow and easy to kite.

Celestial Form has a problem:

• It’s currently impossible to hit moving targets with Cosmic Ray and Lunar Impact.

The skills should hit where the mouse is located at the end of the cast, not where the mouse was at the beginning of the cast.

I just noticed that Natural Stride doesn’t apply to the pet. I suppose that’s fine and maybe that’s the main reason it’s an optional trait rather than a minor trait.

But maybe Pet’s Prowess should be increased from 30% to 33%.

I don’t agree with adding damaging conditions to staff like burning. It should stay a power/healing power weapon. I don’t think a power/healing power/condition damage weapon would be good.

If it needs more damage, then just add more damage rather that conditions.

Non-damaging conditions are fine, like cripple, blind, weakness, vulnerability, etc, but just because those are support/utility conditions.

Knighthonor.4061:

Holland.9351:

patch notes I wish to see:

• Natural Stride and Natural Mender swapped places.

woo bud disagree there.

I like having heal bonus and glyph cool down reduction. Also making it a Minor ruins builds that dont use them, since its would be a useless trait for them.

I understand some builds use shouts for swiftness and don’t need Natural Stride, or are used in PvE and don’t need to be faster. However, I do think it’s the best trait that’s useful to as many builds as possible, so it would make sense to make it a minor trait.

Another suggestion I had was this:
swap Verdant Etching with Cultivated Synergy
Since that seems to have the least negative impact on trait synergies while opening up the possibility for combining Verdant Etching with Natural Stride in a build. Would you prefer something like this or would you have yet another alternative?

It may be best to add your input to this topic from yesterday and come up with a better alternative:
http://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/professions/ranger/Natural-Stride-and-Verdant-Etchings

LughLongArm.5460:

Holland.9351:

patch notes I wish to see:

Staff changes:

Solar Beam

• changed sound effect (no longer sounds like grape stomping)

Astral Wisp

• unblockable
• causes 5s blind to foes it passes through and on attaching.

Ancestral Grace

• will now try to find a valid path, but only when there is no line of sight.
• fixed an issue where Ranger sometimes stops moving at the end of the cast.
• immune to control effects for the duration.

Vine Surge

• increased immobilize from 1s to 2s
• reduced cast time to 1/4

Sublime Conversion

• foes passing through it lose 1 boon
• unblockable

Trait changes:

• Natural Stride and Natural Mender swapped places.

• Lingering Light
• causes 5s blind to foes it passes through.
• unblockable

I seem to like all your ideas(not sure about Natural Stride cahnge) , Dont you think staff also needs litle damage boost?

I do actually, but decided to leave it out because I’m not currently running it with full ascended berserker stats, so maybe it’ll be ok at that level.

We should also take into account that staff has more reliable sustained damage than longbow because it’s not affected by reflect and destroy and pierces by default.

However it does feel weak and boring as an offenive weapon because there is only really the auto-attack that deals damage. There is no burst skill like Rapid Fire or Maul for example. It would be cool if Astral Wisp would be more deadly and have a use offensively. Also Vine Surge could use an upgrade and Sublime Conversion is a dead skill in many situation.

patch notes I wish to see:

Staff changes:

Solar Beam

• changed sound effect (no longer sounds like grape stomping)

Astral Wisp

• unblockable
• causes 5s blind to foes it passes through and on attaching.

Ancestral Grace

• will now try to find a valid path, but only when there is no line of sight.
• fixed an issue where Ranger sometimes stops moving at the end of the cast.
• immune to control effects for the duration.

Vine Surge

• increased immobilize from 1s to 2s
• reduced cast time to 1/4

Sublime Conversion

• foes passing through it lose 1 boon
• unblockable

Trait changes:

• Natural Stride and Natural Mender swapped places.

• Lingering Light
• causes 5s blind to foes it passes through.
• unblockable

Vine Surge
Is a very weak skill. It has a long cast time and the vines move slowly making it miss most of the time. But even if it hits, it only does 1 second immobilize, which only lasts a fraction of a second in WvW with all the condi duration reduction. It’s damage is also very low.

2s immobilize would fix it. It would also be pretty epic if it was the only skill that could trigger Ancient Seeds on its own. So 1s daze/stun/launch directly followed by some damage to trigger the trait.

Ancesteral Grace (Staff 3) defeated by stairs (and slopes) and anything else that blocks line of sight.

They obviously can’t keep it. Was fun though.

http://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/professions/ranger/Natural-Stride-and-Verdant-Etchings

We seem to all overwhelmingly agree that Natural Stride should be swapped with Natural Mender in the Druid trait line.

Natural Mender is a bad trait to force on all Druid builds and we should be able to have both Natural Stride and Verdant Etching in a build.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

I would swap Natural Stride with Natural Mender, so that it is the GM minor. Then you are not wasting the GM minor if you want to run a DPS build, but can still select the healing ability if you need it.

I completely agree. I think this would be a better way.

Yep it works

Does anyone else think you should be able to have both Natural Stride and Verdant Etchings traits in your build?

So I propose to swap Verdant Etchings with Cultivated Synergy. I think this way it would least impact trait synergies.

Let me know if you agree or disagree and why it would be a good or a bad thing and if you have a better alternative.

Edit:
Other suggestions:
Swap Natural Stride with Natural Mender

Glyph Feedback:
Most of them are pretty great when traited for condition removal, but they’re not too useful without the trait.

Glyph of Rejuvenation
The self heal is far too weak. Maybe give it something else to compensate. Instant cast time for example.

Celestial Form feedback:

Cosmic Ray
Doesn’t seem to do much and takes too much effort. Would be much better if it did damage instead of healing.

Seed of Life
Fine, but you can be knocked out of it. Maybe have it remove 1 condition at the start and 1 at the end.

Lunar Impact
Can permanently daze a target when traited. 2s daze, 6s cooldown seems more fair.

Tidal Surge
Great skill. Does everything Cosmic Ray is trying to do, but in a better way.

Natural Convergence
Pretty good. It’s a shame that it’s the only skill that does damage (give damage to Cosmic Ray).

Pet Feedback:
Awesome stuff.

Wyverns
Don’t really like the Wyverns, but I don’t expect any changes on it.

Tiger
Treads on Red Moa territory by giving Fury to allies. Maybe have it give quickness instead. I’m not too worried about it.

Bristleback
Great. It did seem to have some problems with tracking moving targets with Spike Barrage however.

Smokescale
Awesome.

Traits Feedback:
All great.

Lingering Light
Fun little pet wisp, but maybe have it deal damage to nearby foes every second.

More Staff feedback:

Solar Beam
This needs to do more damage. Even on full berserker it didn’t seem to do all that much and it’s the only real damaging skill on the weapon. Great plus that it pierces and isn’t a projectile though. Maybe make it apply vulnerability, since that’s a party support condition.

Astral Wisp
This needs to do damage to the foe it’s attached to and those it passes through. Doesn’t have to be much, just some damage every second.

Ancestral Grace
Needs a bug fix where it can’t be used up stairs or slopes.

Vine Surge
This needs to do more damage and the immobilize needs to be 2 seconds. Maybe add a longer duration cripple to it as well. It would also be fine if it did 1s immobilize and 6s cripple.

Sublime Conversion
Make it do something to foes that pass through it. Maybe strip 1 boon? It wouldn’t make sense if it did something for allies that pass through it since they are supposed to be staying behind it. It’s currently very one-dimensional, which is bad for a (forced) weapon skill with a long cooldown.

Wisps
Lingering Light(Cosmic Wisp) and Astral Wisp should probably deal damage to foes in melee range. Not all content and all fights involve allies, which wastes this trait and staff skill.

Solar Beam (Staff 1)
Great. Sound effect is a bit odd. It sounds slimey. Animation also a bit odd (would also prefer ele staff animations), but ok. Pierce by default is great. Damage seems fine for sub-optimal beta stats.

Astral Wisp (Staff 2)
Would be nice if it did more damage. Or damage to enemies it passes through.

Ancesteral Grace (Staff 3)
Bugged. Can’t move up stairs nor slopes. Seems to be tied to line of sight or something. Also sometimes stops movement at the end of the cast.
Great candidate to replace Swoop with some practise. I’m not sure if it evades. Maybe it shouldn’t evade but be immune to conditions and CC for it’s duration (but not damage).

Vine Surge (Staff 4)
Good. It’s a bit of a skill shot, but thats fine.

Sublime Conversion (Staff 5)
Cool to have, maybe a bit too much aimed at a specific role, but I suppose all projectile reflects/destroys are like that.

Ancient Seeds
Awesome, knockback can trigger it.

Lingerig Light
I thought it would be terrible, but there is something funny about having a wisp orbit you almost constantly. Maybe it should heal the ranger? Should it damage enemies near it?

That’s all for now. I’m not sure what to do with Celestial Form.