Guild Wars 2

Justine.6351:

Kitty.1502:

mistsim I think you hit on something in the other post with how to get around the lack of stun breakers and that is using Rune of the Trappers, but in this game as a bunker you can use them to put you in stealth to go into AF and heal up. I think this combo will be powerful and help us survive a great deal. In fact it might be powerful enough that we won’t need any more stun breaks then we already have for purposes of being a bunker. Though if ArenaNet does not want this type of bunker and a typical always in the open bunker than we will need better stun breaker options.

stealth to bunker would interact weird with capture point contribution/contest. I suppose with enough discipline someone could adjust to it.

Yes it could be weird but you only need 3 seconds to get back to full in AF, and you still have your traps dealing damage while you are in stealthed, so you heal to full then just drop out of AF and use weapons to hit so you drop out of stealth.

mistsim.2748:

Dolt.2731:

LR is amazing, even w/o ws.

Without WK, SoR is a better choice imo, because it also comes with a Condi cleanse. But the cd is too steep.

WK is great for kiting as it not only breaks stun, but also removes roots and provide vigor which is great for our dodging abilities.

mistsim.2748:

I’m worried about getting stunlocked in between evades, while out of stealth. A single interrupt mesmer could end this type of ranger with 2 consecutive stuns. Not to mention cc from multiple sources

Honestly until we see other things fix that we desperately need, I think this is on low priority I am willing to accept this as one of our weakness if other areas are fixed and brought to standard. That is one of the biggest issues since we have so many things subpar its hard to determine what our class weaknesses should be/are at times.

mistsim I think you hit on something in the other post with how to get around the lack of stun breakers and that is using Rune of the Trappers, but in this game as a bunker you can use them to put you in stealth to go into AF and heal up. I think this combo will be powerful and help us survive a great deal. In fact it might be powerful enough that we won’t need any more stun breaks then we already have for purposes of being a bunker. Though if ArenaNet does not want this type of bunker and a typical always in the open bunker than we will need better stun breaker options.

I think maul should get damage increase to be in line with other attacks in the 2 slot. Further more they should fix 4 to be block and upon block have ability to activate a knockback. 5 feels very wonky it should stun no matter what.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

anduriell.6280:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Actually, I meant Ventari/Glint Herald. Herald cannot maintain the boons from Glint and heal at the same time, Druid can. Not as much Might, but everything else as well as far superior healing.

Also, their DPS will drop significantly when maintaining those boons, because they will not be able to spam weapon skills.

Still, i think Druid will not be needed because up to the last update although it gets much better (thank Irenio) still stays with the only heal no other kind of support theme.
Ranger does not offer much support in boons: Spotter and Frost Spirit (after last change with 95% damage mitigation) being all of them. The other spirits have too many conditions to apply the very short passive to be reliable, you will see.
In the raid in BWE3 I didn’t see anything that could make the Druid a must class, the players that needed that much healing are the ones that keep dying most of the time (aka L2P). Other classes can not heal as fast as the druid but they can heal fast enough. And bring more support (boons and such) and DPS to the team.

This is my opinion with the actual state of the core ranger, if Irenio is able to balance the class to be in line with the rest druid could be awesome.

Why do people persist in thinking Ranger/Druid is not good at supporting through boons?
Why do people persist in thinking Ranger/Druid is not good at supporting through unique abilities?
Are you kidding me?
Look at this build. It’s miles better than Herald and Ventari.

15% additional direct damage
15% additional condition damge
30 burn ticks every 8s
10% damage 6/16s
10% damage 75% of the time 60/80s
+7.5% crit chance
Perma Swiftness, Fury, Regeneration and 11-14 might. 50% Vigor. Perma Protection if you want it, drop GoEmp for Stone Spirit.
Then the healing on top. Plus you can contribute decent damage with sword during burn phases.

How will that not be wanted? It will be outright mandatory because of the damage boosts and healing alone.

That build wouldn’t really work for 5 mans, but the premise isn’t off as there is a zerker build I put together keeps all the support with minimal dps loss. Also the boons you listed really don’t matter much as other classes generate them better with minimal loss in dps as well. Also the fact you don’t want pets with CC.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Kitty.1502:

Archon.6480:

We’ll just have to wait and see. They are reverting some of the changes to WHaO, so we should be able to self stack might on any of our pets to 25 stacks when we want to burst. I know it doesn’t seem like much, but most of our pets can hit for 6-10K with that much might and a little help from traits and such. That’s the same as a Mesmer shatter and we might have a higher up time on those kind of attacks…

really never understand why people like relying on a mechanic that barely hits >.>

It depends on what pet, where and how you are playing it as well as whom you are playing it against to determine whether or not the pet hits. Sometimes its rather effective, other times is horrendous.

but its unreliable that is the issue.

Archon.6480:

We’ll just have to wait and see. They are reverting some of the changes to WHaO, so we should be able to self stack might on any of our pets to 25 stacks when we want to burst. I know it doesn’t seem like much, but most of our pets can hit for 6-10K with that much might and a little help from traits and such. That’s the same as a Mesmer shatter and we might have a higher up time on those kind of attacks…

really never understand why people like relying on a mechanic that barely hits >.>

Prophet.1584:

So for PVE realistically would a better build be BM/NM/Druid for boon sharing and increased pet stats to allow the pet to dps while we heal or are we still stuck with skirmishing to provide spotter?

Ideally in a group with 2 or more rangers one could go full heal clerics while the other two either off-heal or DPS old school

potentially for raids, but not for 5 man groups. You will still be required to heavily dps in 5 mans.

Leave my people! Meanies all of you!

Aomine.5012:

Kitty.1502:

After running some numbers and looking at various builds I believe in high end meta PvE builds that druid will be meta for healing in raids, and as group support for buffs in 5-man fractals. They have the potential to buff every members dps by over 40% alone in a group, that is better than the warrior is able to do. Futhermore, sinister ranger is still VERY high dps and in high level fractals will shine still.

For core ranger in sPvP/WvW – I do believe they will not be viable in any situation with everything that is entering the field. They lack real burst damage and sustain damage due to pets locking away a good portion of their damage. As I have proved in videos I posted before dodging pet damage is very simple and easy to negate them. Pets are mostly a none factor in 90% of all situations. Until the multiple issues that plague pets are fixed core ranger will always be behind the curve in sPvP and WvW.

Read carefully.

His main complaint comes from ranger being shifted to Druid entirely as a mean to justify all the ranger’s stuffs leaving to rot, like sword, axe (both main and offhand have problems), warhorn (4), and stuffs.

They’d now focus on polishing Druid so ranger would become a true support class, while giving up other aspects of ranger because “Hey, now you have Druid to use over those crappy stuffs! Why not use Druid?”

Seems like he was complaining about druid being made useless too, as long as core ranger. I just provided various druid and core ranger specifics that are still decent. Though I do agree with the premise that core ranger needs a lot of love.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

How about if the forum puts in a picture of a kitten instead of the word kitten?

lol omg perfect

Can we change the filter, I find it offensive everyone uses my name as a curse word…

Shadelang.3012:

Heheheh not a bad change at all. When/if the core shouts get tweaked I think ill be pretty kitten set with my beast master build. This + the we heal as one shift is gonna make things better for my shout playstyle atleast.

please don’t use my character’s name in your speech.

Holland.9351:

I’m OK with pets being kill-able by players, but dead pets should only have a 30s cooldown tops, not 60.

should be 15 sec

Sarif.1827:

I’d love to see the dev post that states ranger pets are 30% of the profession’s overall dps, because I don’t think I have seen it yet, so if you could, please provide a link!

The videos are not very indicative of an actual fight situation. Although they are amusing and I enjoyed the music!

It mostly showcases the problem with AI pathing that effects us all and even some attacks we use.

I will see if I can find the post, this was said shortly after launch when people complained about pets. You are right that the video isn’t indicative of an actual fight situation because in that situation dodges/CC would be used meaning the pet most likely will miss more often.

Gaile Gray.6029:

I thought my fellow rangers would like this news.

I do like this news, now just fix pet’s ability to hit in combat and I will be sated. Is there any way you can get us word if the devs are working on fixing pet’s ability to hit in pvp?

Since people don’t know how useless ranger pets are in pvp, I will leave these videos here. Reminder ranger’s are balanced around pets doing 30% of their DPS:

Irenio CalmonHuang.2048:

This was the systemic change to help with pet survivability that I’d alluded to earlier.

I’ll be listening for feedback on the changes to see how the 95% damage reduction feels and whether we need to tweak the numbers some more.

Irenio – is there plans to fix pet hit rate in pvp? As of right now pets miss upwards of 70% of their attacks.

This is great for PvE, but are there any plans to fix PvP minions hit rate?

This is a fantastic step forward for pets. Now lets fix their hit rate in pvp!

Irenio CalmonHuang.2048:

The systemic change we’ve been working on to get in place for Heart of Thorns to help with pet and spirit survivability can be read about now

That is a great change for PvE and makes me very happy, is there anything in the works on fixing pets in PvP on their hit rate?

Photinous.4628:

Kitty.1502:

They have the potential to buff every members dps by over 40% alone in a group

Could you provide some more information on how you got 40%? Does this include the new grace of the land trait? Because if so, you are sacrificing 100% of your own dps to stay in CAF

You can get the 5 stacks in under 2 3/4 seconds, so do it while might stacking, and then every 8 seconds.

But everything:
-Glyph of Empowerment 10%
-Grace of the Land 15%
-Frost Spirit 7%
-Spotter 5%
-Sun Spirit variable between 5~10%

People who don’t use ascended are forcing others to pick up their slack. Be a team player get ascended it doesn’t make much effort to craft.

Puck.9612:

Kitty.1502:

Puck.9612:

Depends what you are trying to do, roam, skirmish or run with a zerg.

This is my go to roaming set up http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQJATRnUqA9CilsAusActgBGh6fiSol5w9bDgec3gQ4gVJeA-TFDEABLqOie6AuUlACeAAbpE0gLBATKzmUFjmUa0mmgk2fAgjAAhAENGA-w

For solo or small group stuff the extra vitality will come in a lot handier than toughness. You might also want to consider working some more mobility into your build, rangers generate a lot of hate and you will have large groups trying to chase you down.

I honestly find vit and other defensive stats as a waste in WvW zerg mainly because proper positioning and you will never have a need for them.

I absolutely agree. That’s why I said that’s my go to roaming set. With all the condi roamers you will run into the extra vitality helps a lot, not to mention how fast I can clear condi’s with my build.

Compare the stats on my build vs. the full zerk one you posted. The damage loss is negligible (actually quickdraw might give me the better dps) but the survivability is much higher for small scale fighting.

Yours is better for zerging where you will have help with condi clears, can avoid direct damage with SoS /positioning, and you can light people up with those piercing arrows.
Not sure why you would use predator’ instinct over the other options though.

I tend to play as pick. So isolating stragglers is a boon to picking people off.

Einlanzer.1627:

Thz.7569:

The argument Anet has made that it has huge implications in pvp due to stickiness is moot. The chain absolutely needs to be streamlined with every other MH sword.

An animation-locked auto chain has no part in this game.

This. Everyone’s pro-root arguments are just asinine.

There is a lot of ranger apologist in this forum. This is one of the biggest reasons this class has been broken for so long, I think.

Puck.9612:

Depends what you are trying to do, roam, skirmish or run with a zerg.

This is my go to roaming set up http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQJATRnUqA9CilsAusActgBGh6fiSol5w9bDgec3gQ4gVJeA-TFDEABLqOie6AuUlACeAAbpE0gLBATKzmUFjmUa0mmgk2fAgjAAhAENGA-w

For solo or small group stuff the extra vitality will come in a lot handier than toughness. You might also want to consider working some more mobility into your build, rangers generate a lot of hate and you will have large groups trying to chase you down.

I honestly find vit and other defensive stats as a waste in WvW zerg mainly because proper positioning and you will never have a need for them.

Your build seems all over the place, I think first you need to determine what is more important do you want to do raw damage or condi damage. Condi means you have to be up close raw damage means you can sit behind your zerg and fire your bow. Either way the armor you will want will be zerkers or sinisters. A properly played ranger in WvW doesn’t need to worry about defense with proper strategy and use of abilities to escape pick.

Here is the build I use:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQJATRjEqQLLWwCOsAVLGyDqNAKh1+n+o/57EOIOiCWVA-TFCFABAt/ACHBAAeEAFq+zVKBRS5nAXAg00FAA-w

After running some numbers and looking at various builds I believe in high end meta PvE builds that druid will be meta for healing in raids, and as group support for buffs in 5-man fractals. They have the potential to buff every members dps by over 40% alone in a group, that is better than the warrior is able to do. Futhermore, sinister ranger is still VERY high dps and in high level fractals will shine still.

For core ranger in sPvP/WvW – I do believe they will not be viable in any situation with everything that is entering the field. They lack real burst damage and sustain damage due to pets locking away a good portion of their damage. As I have proved in videos I posted before dodging pet damage is very simple and easy to negate them. Pets are mostly a none factor in 90% of all situations. Until the multiple issues that plague pets are fixed core ranger will always be behind the curve in sPvP and WvW.

Sword takes practice def in high level fractals. Lets face it Condi > Power puts on fire protection cloak

The one to Rule.2593:

Kitty.1502:

The one to Rule.2593:

Kitty.1502:

The one to Rule.2593:

Are you seriously complaining? Guardians are getting shafted and rangers are getting the druid as an elite spec meaning they will be wanted in the new meta without a doubt, guardians are getting default ranger as an elite spec… No one is going to take a dragonhunter over druid for raids.

O utside of you know guardian still is the best support class in the game. No one comes close to the amount of projectile hate that guardian can administer. Furthermore, Dragonhunter adds a lot of PvP offensive to the class, will it be PvE amazing? no but guardian already is amazing in PvE as support and will have a place in raids as nothing matches it.

PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT

I main guardian lol, I know what I’m talking about

Reflects are useless in raids, and revenent can reflect them more often since it has a 12 second cooldown and not 40, plus revenant provides permanent teamwide protection, swiftness, and fury. Plus can generate their own might. Also carries traits that give everyone an extra 150 ferocity.

Revenant support is superior in nearly every way to guardians.

Obviously you don’t know your class well enough. Shield of the Avenger, Wall of Reflection , Protector’s Strike, Zealot’s Defense, Shield of Wrath, Sanctuary, and with Dragon Hunter will have Shield of Courage.

Oh guardian has access to all this without having to use a skill that limit its ability to do damage like revenant, protective solace drains -8 a second, while it has a 5 second cool down, regenerating energy will take a while and limit their ability to use other skills.

Yeah, I’m pretty sure I know my class, I’ve only been playing it for 3 years now. Guardian is a sinking ship and I for one, won’t be on it when it goes under. Sanctuary is complete garbage in almost any pve setting, Zealots defense is a skill thats not even used because it’s not meta. protectors strike is mildy useful but again, pales in comparisen to revs perma protection as is. Sheild of wrath is useful only to yourself and offers no party utility, Wall of reflection and sheild of the avenger so far are the only two you’ve listed of any real value to a party, which again, projectile reflect isn’t that useful in raids and rev can pull off just as well while doing far more dps than guardian and increasing overall team dps and survivability.

You obviously need to learn your class better, I have ran with and have ran as a guardian to for over 1000 hours, and all these skills are great in the right situation. Are they always perfect? No, but the fact is, they are the best projectile hate class in the game currently and will continue to be so come post launch and will still be vital to PvE groups success in fractals and raids. You won’t have a group without at least one guardian.

Guardian got a much needed aspect of their game in Dragon Hunter, will it make it meta dps in PvE? No, but it will buff up their sPvP, which they have slipped a lot recently in. In WvW guardian will still be required, right now most front line groups need 2 guardians per group because guardians are the best form of stability and will continue to be so come post HoT.

I use the sword for encounters that can be stacked relatively safely, ie if its a proper group that is nearly all the encounters. Though greatsword is for the fights where I am moving a lot because bad stack group and what you.

The one to Rule.2593:

Kitty.1502:

The one to Rule.2593:

Are you seriously complaining? Guardians are getting shafted and rangers are getting the druid as an elite spec meaning they will be wanted in the new meta without a doubt, guardians are getting default ranger as an elite spec… No one is going to take a dragonhunter over druid for raids.

O utside of you know guardian still is the best support class in the game. No one comes close to the amount of projectile hate that guardian can administer. Furthermore, Dragonhunter adds a lot of PvP offensive to the class, will it be PvE amazing? no but guardian already is amazing in PvE as support and will have a place in raids as nothing matches it.

PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT

I main guardian lol, I know what I’m talking about

Reflects are useless in raids, and revenent can reflect them more often since it has a 12 second cooldown and not 40, plus revenant provides permanent teamwide protection, swiftness, and fury. Plus can generate their own might. Also carries traits that give everyone an extra 150 ferocity.

Revenant support is superior in nearly every way to guardians.

Obviously you don’t know your class well enough. Shield of the Avenger, Wall of Reflection , Protector’s Strike, Zealot’s Defense, Shield of Wrath, Sanctuary, and with Dragon Hunter will have Shield of Courage.

Oh guardian has access to all this without having to use a skill that limit its ability to do damage like revenant, protective solace drains -8 a second, while it has a 5 second cool down, regenerating energy will take a while and limit their ability to use other skills.

The one to Rule.2593:

Are you seriously complaining? Guardians are getting shafted and rangers are getting the druid as an elite spec meaning they will be wanted in the new meta without a doubt, guardians are getting default ranger as an elite spec… No one is going to take a dragonhunter over druid for raids.

O utside of you know guardian still is the best support class in the game. No one comes close to the amount of projectile hate that guardian can administer. Furthermore, Dragonhunter adds a lot of PvP offensive to the class, will it be PvE amazing? no but guardian already is amazing in PvE as support and will have a place in raids as nothing matches it.

Honestly WvW should be merged into just 3 separate sides. For most tiers there is just one dominate server. Evenly merge servers together based on average population sizes making sure to merge good fits ie. server with lots of EU and low NA merge with low EU and high NA etc and go from there.

I wouldn’t mind banning abusers, but there will need to be reset, sometimes people lose internet connection etc, stuff happens and they have to leave having a legit reason. They shouldn’t be punished for this, so if you reset the counter like on a daily basis it will be fine.

Unless you are going with a full meta group you trust and that does what they are supposed to you will be forced to pull back to ranged on some fights, Archdiviner is one of them. You should have a longbow for this reason. Generally in a good group Archdiviner is stunned the whole burn duration allowing you to stack.

I still don’t get why spiked trap has a 45 sec CD

Just so you know its spelled rules, not rulez, when you spell things improperly like that, you lose credibility and no one will take you seriously no matter how good the message is.

ArenaNet will not do anything about this, it has been there stance since launch.

mistsim.2748:

^good, but then you have no mobility and u cant stack might.

SoR is a stun break.

BM is for taunt, shouts, and big pet damage.

With natural stride and your 3 survival condi cleanses you have enough access to keep it up for most of the time, very rarely will you be left without it.

You can’t stack might, but you gain access to stun breaks, and have access to the CC to burst with your traps + bonfire more reliably. So you can be a bit more offensive.

I don’t think using the WHAO trick as a bunker is wise as it will leave you vulnerable even if you can jump into AF since AF form shouldn’t be used as a supplement to your heal (as you would with WHAO stacking) instead it should allow you to survive bursts and greater numbers as bunker. In theory.

On pet damage, I tend to not like relying on a mechanic that isn’t reliable with its damage. Though, I will concede, that personal preference.

Changes in your build are an improvement slightly, with getting rid of staff, but you are diversifying into BM, which completely splits your builds focus into 3 major areas, which your stats don’t justify being able to handle. Without access to spider/wolf in this you will be lacking in valuable CC. Furthermore, by taking BM spec over WS you are losing out on vital condi cleanses this build and ambidexterous which is vital for keeping up your condi’s as you have a limited number of them so you need to be able to keep applying them after they are cleansed. Furthermore, the lack of stun break means once you are stunned, you will most likely be burst down, having lightning reflexes is a must a minimum.

Here is how I would do this build going settlers:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQRAnY8fjEqQLLWuCurAVLWcEM4k6UNr28tiVdAmAwkryVylqA-TJhHwAPLDM4hAA4MAIZ/BA

OMGimAnoobLOLOL.4730:

Kitty.1502:

OMGimAnoobLOLOL.4730:

Since people are suggesting things like Magi and Celestial: Why not Nomad’s? If it’s dedicated raid Healer and you want toughness for Aggro, then Nomad has more reliable aggro. Vita+Tough gives you good +Heal scaling from consumables to make up for the +Heal secondary stat.

You basically function as the group’s tank and healer, leaving the raid with 9 people for zerk team and condi team.

You can basically be the raid’s tank AND the healer. Add in a zerk group and a condi(sinister) team and you’re good to go.

Interesting idea, but can you actually effectively heal your group while tanking? I don’t think you could mainly due to small radius of heals and need to move a lot as a tank.

Why wouldn’t you? Druid healing is mobile and with how much complaining there is about healing people that move, the Druid knows where they’re going to go before anyone does. That means they can reliably land the heals.

Why not?

Raid will most likely need to be disjointed from the tank, such as being behind the boss while the tank it not within melee range of the boss kiting him. The radius on Astral Form 4 would hit, which is their biggest/best heal and 1/3 would hit but if healing is really needed more healing than that one skill would be needed. Furthermore there might be points where the tank might be fully out of all heal range. Not saying its impossible, just that I can see situations that can be common enough for it to not be useful.

OMGimAnoobLOLOL.4730:

Since people are suggesting things like Magi and Celestial: Why not Nomad’s? If it’s dedicated raid Healer and you want toughness for Aggro, then Nomad has more reliable aggro. Vita+Tough gives you good +Heal scaling from consumables to make up for the +Heal secondary stat.

You basically function as the group’s tank and healer, leaving the raid with 9 people for zerk team and condi team.

You can basically be the raid’s tank AND the healer. Add in a zerk group and a condi(sinister) team and you’re good to go.

Interesting idea, but can you actually effectively heal your group while tanking? I don’t think you could mainly due to small radius of heals and need to move a lot as a tank.

Aomine.5012:

Currently all bunkers in the game do MASSIVE damage. (Either by condition burning spam or using Sigil of Intelligent to set up spike) None of them requires healing power main stat to be effective bunker. (Celestial is enough in most cases)

If Druid can’t give comparable pressure while healing, it has little point to exist in PVP.
During BWE3, Druid can go maurader while keeping high healing power, but Irene nerfed the base heal by 25% (from 5000 -> 3750) and add an ICD of 10 secs for transform, so we’ll see.

I think there might be a way to work in a good dps into the mix for druid, but ultimately the issue is that druid lacks good access to low CD stab or stun breaks and blocks.

Gotejjeken.1267:

Kitty.1502:

The issue with going shouts in pvp is that they really don’t do anything for you, or when they do they can cripple you in other ways. Examples:

Protect Me!: Can end with your pet being killed and now you have a long time on pet swap.
Sick ’Em!: The bonus will go away if you use a shout or tell your pet to do anything, basically blocking you from your pet for 10 seconds or waste the skill.
Guard!: Takes up a spot in your utility slot
Search and Rescue!: Why ever take this in pvp.

You are also left with determining what staple defensive skills you are willing to lose. If you drop survival you lose a lot of condi skills and ability to get out of being ensared. If you drop signets you lose out on the best turn off damage skill we have.

In general shouts just don’t do enough and against majority of meta builds you will end up being a free kill if the player is competent.

I think Sic Em is the least offensive of those, as it still provides regen when traited and a reveal. More helpful when roaming though then in groups, and obviously more helpful against a class that stealths a lot.

It isn’t useless, but for a slot skill to deal with thieves/mesmers it is something you should only slot if you expect heavy thief/mesmer use

Rising Dusk.2408:

Kitty.1502:

At the cost of a lot of dps. Going into Astral Form means you aren’t dpsing, meaning that is a significant dps loss. Going into druid in general is a loss in dps.

You can fully charge the GotL bonus in less than 4 seconds in astral form. Enter form, use Rejuvenating Tides, leave form. Now everyone has 15% damage bonus for the next 8 seconds, which definitely counterbalances the loss from entering in the first place. You could even do this before entering combat in the first place while running to the boss, meaning it’s no DPS loss at all.

Interesting point, will need to run the numbers on it. that plus the 10% damage buff, could see a 25% damage increase stacked with frost spirits for a total of 32% damage increase and spotter + sun spirit.

Rising Dusk.2408:

TheFrighteningFrenchFry.3275:

wait druid? What’s good with druid?

gin.7158:

Interesting, I don’t play ranger. Why do people want it? spotter and frost spirit, CC bot?
Or preparing druid for hard encounter? is druid better than the base ranger?

Kitty.1502:

Ranger’s support is inferior to other support, though they can be good dps, but they are not meta material.

In response to all of these, let’s revisit what changes they made to Ranger and Druid that make it in-kitten-credible.

• Glyph of Empowerment: +10% teamwide damage for 6 seconds every 16 seconds.
• Spotter: +150 precision to the whole party.
• Frost Spirit: +10% damage 70% of the time when attacking, no ICD.
• Sun Spirit: If you have anyone with condition damage, namely a Sinister Engineer, this becomes huge. It’s still a big DPS bonus even without a condition class, though.
• Grace of the Land: Everyone you hit with an Astral Form skill gains 3% a damage and condition damage increase for 8 seconds. This buff stacks 5 times. Note that Rejuvenating Tides pulses in an AOE 5 times, so it’s really easy to stack this and bail Astral Form to save DPS.

This is comparable to what a Warrior brings to a party, and overlaps exceptionally well. I would be very surprised if a Druid doesn’t get brought considering all of these buffs and everything else a Ranger already brings.

At the cost of a lot of dps. Going into Astral Form means you aren’t dpsing, meaning that is a significant dps loss. Going into druid in general is a loss in dps. While all this will most likely be great for raid, for fractals and other group content not so much when there are options that don’t require such a loss in dps and have equal or better support.

I like druid, and think its pretty good with a very minor issues, but it won’t be meta for 5 man group content.

Puck.9612:

Sina.9208:

stale.9785:

I love how this still comes up. What I love even more is that some people believe the broken functionality of the sword to be a “feature”.

You’re all aware that at one point, this was a bug we were told would be fixed, right?

Immediately after release, it was noticed that the “leap” animation in the AA made it impossible to dodge. We actually provided video proof that this was the case, and were informed it was a bug and would be addressed.

Like every other ranger bug, it persisted for ages, and now has become so entrenched that it’s no longer a bug, but a feature.

Stockholm syndrome.

People simply amaze me.

I mostly agree with this. I also find it funny that most of the sword lovers are wvw, not spvp players *scratches head *.

I think it’s more the people that like dueling, which is where the sword really shines. I used to use it for roaming but I don’t run into solo roamers nearly as much as I used to and it doesn’t do nearly as well as GS in 1vX’s.

Solo Roaming is more like playing a game of frogger, can you dodge all the zergs/big groups.

Renn.8241:

I think Zealots is ok
But honestly think that Raid Partys are going to want a dedicated Healer that will stay alive.
So sacrificing some Damage for Main stat Healing and a secondary stat Toughness or Vitality.
Thoughts?

I think for the best raid parties they will want zealots a healer who can heal and do damage when possible. For the middle of the road raids I believe you are right in this regard.

Probably guardian due to them being organized and about helping one another to succeed. Though, there isn’t really one class that embodies Roman Legionaries like druids.