Hi, the bleeds are from pet’s criticals with basic attacks, not F2. The taunt is working, perheps is not written as the effect doesnt tied with the F2(it accours before), sometimes u’ll even c the taunt working and the F2 skill doesnt, or u’ll be able to activate the taunt while the F2 in on CD.
Hi m8,
1)What you saied about druid>core ranger got nothing to do with range or anything its the same for every profession in game ATM. Also, LB rangers while being good at 1v1v, always used to feel like they’r not adding enough value to team fights
2) you can play a druid with LB, you can even play a tanky druid with LB. Even pre hot, lots of players used to take WS/NM/BM with the old zerker amulet, it was a very tanky build(I c some ppl even play this version now).
3)What Tragic saied about t Celestial Avatar being the most rewarding while running 0 heal, got nothing to do with metabattle. He ment that because astral force being regenerated by ticks rather than by amount, you want the ticks to be as small as pssible, in order to regenerate the bar before your health pool(and your pet) is full. Most builds in metabattle focus on what druid is giving to pvp better than most professions(adding to the meta) which healing support, so ofc you will see healing power builds on metabattle.
4)Actually the key trait line ATM, if you ask me is not but the druid but rather the BM, I argue that a core ranger build(lets say with LB) with BM will be able to win vs a druid without the BM traitline or atleast force a draw. WS/NM/BM marauder lb ranger is actually a very solid 1v1 build, its just like before doesnt give enough value in team fights.
(edited by LughLongArm.5460)
Without these pets druid would never kill anything unfortunately.
Try to equip Berserk or Marauder amulet. It really helps.
If you follow ESL, you would have known that Eura is playing his druid with marauder amulet so he kowns a thing or two about that.
That saied, bristleback is bugged and should be fixed. We have 2 major pets bugs ATM as far asi’m aware of. 1) bristleback F2 shoots 20 spikes instad of the 15 wrriten in the tooltip. 2)wiki says that pets getting the Moment of clarity buff even without that trait -https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Moment_of_Clarity
It can lead to big undeserved spikes.
smokescale damage is fine, no one is taking this pet for its damage, we have much better option in that field. We take it for its tankyness and utility.
Well, it’s already 15 seconds on Bandit’s Defense and it’s also a stunbreak there too…admittedly the block isn’t as long though.
I’m just tired of getting locked into the animation by multi-hit attacks that simultaneously allows the caster to evade.
Utility > weapon skill.
Counterstrike – longer blocking uptime, better damage on kick, can change to a range attack(good damage+cripple).
Bandit’s Defense – Better control, stun break, better CC and range on kick.
Dont get me wrong, I would love to have better control on the kick, even if they will take away “Crippling Throw”, I just dont think they’ll ever make it so.
I would love this change but i dont think it will happend. I dont think they will give us 3 sec of pure blocking on 15 sec CD(un traited) with an option to Counterattack on demand.
Cheers man, keep on naking great videos. ^^ +1
Cool man, I wounder why you like revenant rune so much, doesnt seem like you are getting 2 much value out of it.
I wounder if somthing like this would suit your play style more,
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNAR8YjEqQLLWyCOsAXLG+DqufrhdYf9MIA+04HO6Sm2BA-TZBFABA8AAY4IAE/+DIcRAoqMAA
thoughts: Nerf specializations to be on par with old builds.
What would the sell points of the game be, then? I wouldn’t nerf the specs if it were me.
This is the solution I suggested on the pvp forum.
Just make the the old profassion mechanic traitline an “Elite”, becuase you cant run 2 elites trait lines this change to break most if not all, meta builds. We’r supposed to pay for extra content not fro power creep. We feel the power creep now becuase this is the first “Elite” traitline. next expansion when we have 2 elites trait lines, I dont think the new elite will be a power creep over the the current one, Just a different way to play your profassion. Making the old profassion mechanic traitline also an elite is enough to bring back pre-hot builds and reduce the effectivness of current elite builds.
Just think about druid without the BM trait line, Reaper without the soul reaping trait line, DH without the virtues traitline etc….
I think that the elite traitlines, while very strong ,by themselves are not as powerful as most think. Its the synegie with the old profession mechanic trait line which makes the builds very superior compared to non elite builds.
(edited by LughLongArm.5460)
Realy enjoyed your vid.
Does action camera helps ypur play style or just a personal preference?
@Lugh
Settler amulet no longer Exists. But I can follow your main idea.
Ho, LoL. well, not playing condies:) Sorry about that.
#Support / #Condi Druid
havnt played it myself(i dont like condi weapons), jsut i got reminded this this rune and thought to to twik the the meta healing druid around it.
With the new protect me with have good amount of stun breakers on a low CD. It is known by now that druids are a prime targets for CC. This build gives extra support from stun breakers.
The (6) bonus is not bad, with this amulet is ~2k aow heal for each stun breaker.
Watching it now – checked build out real quick. Ever consider the use of Runes of Durability? I was using runes of the druid for a while but recently changed. Probably wouldn’t make much use of the boon stuff but I really enjoy the protection, vitality, and toughness.
Then again I run a celestial tanky/healy build for solo or small group roaming. Thanks for sharing and watching now.
Durability runes:
(1): +25 Toughness
(2): +5% Boon Duration
(3): +50 Toughness
(4): 25% chance when struck to grant nearby allies protection and regeneration for 3 seconds and resistance for 1 second. (Cooldown: 20 seconds)
(5): +100 Toughness
(6): +15% Boon Duration; +125 Vitality
Durability is realy good with NM, the boon duration is statcked with the extra 20% boon duration from trait and you can double up the resistance/protection bonuses with FB/WHAO combo. Much less effective with builds without NM.
Nice man, you always coming out with cool and original concepts for builds. ^^
Hi man, great vid. How is it you and fox always coming out with great melee ranger roaming videos on the same week. ^^
Two things I wanted to ask, why Fren hound(your regen uptime is 100% without it), does its direct heal scale with your healingpower? Wouldnt it better if you drop one of your shouts for another glyph, considered how how much synergie your build has with glypghs?
Try somthing like this -
You dont have to even use sword AA, use it for evades and mobility.
Hi,
1)rune of evasion wont work as you think the (6 bonus) will “eat” the opening strike bonus.
2)Why go a damage spike build with a/h? s/a is much better option.
3)Both WS and skrimishing are much better that NM for remoresless builds.
4) there are also druid builds with same consept that offer much more utility and surivability.
5)tiger realy synergise with remoresless builds, take it over wolf.
6)take taunt over honed axes
(edited by LughLongArm.5460)
The solution is so easy its ridiculous. Look at all the meta builds out-there, they all share the same thing. 1.elite trait line 2.pivot trait line always the same, probably always the old “profession mechanic” trait line. 3. changeable trait line that most of the time crests the build diversity and flavor.
Solution is, make the “pivot trait line” as an Elite core profession trait line. Part of the A.net elite trait line system is that you cant take 2 elite trait lines. Ofc, in several cases some small modifications should be made for the pivot trait line that will make it also an elite level, but not much changes as the pivot trait line is usually very strong.
Just think about druid build without Beast mastery or a reaper without soul reaping , the paradox is that this limitation will actually create much more build diversity and room for variations, it also will make core profession builds a thing for players without HOT or players with HOT that actually prefers core professions builds.
Most support druid builds use Mender’s Amulet not cleric, as far as i’m aware of. druids are most afraid of condi bombs while in celec form. Also, Mender’s got better DPS.
Hey everyone. A guild mate suggest this spec. Tried it and it’s awesome! As with most druid specs, you can switch between a couple different traitlines, and sigils are always optional. It uses Paladin’s Amulet, which the Build Editor hasn’t updated to yet. It has no healing power, but the healing you put out is fantastic anyway because you have so much survivability through CDs, 560 toughness, protection on dodge etc. You’re teammates can be kept up mostly unless they’re focused by 2-3 and don’t have CDs. I haven’t tried GS with it yet, but I’m sure that could work. Longbow has a strong AoE with cripple and a short CD knockback as well as strong range burst. But GS is a bit more defensive. It’s preference. I’m having good luck as longbow because staff allows me to escape to range and nuke from afar if needed. Overall, I’ve had more success with this than my old spec. It’s not as supportive through healing, but it’s as survivable for yourself while putting out much more damage.
Something important to note is that even if you take GS, don’t take the trait. The one below actually generates AF through the passive 125 healing your pet receives every second, so this spec also gains AF VERY quickly.
Interesting build, so many new druid builds since last patch, “a golden age” ^^.
I think you should take CS over NS(you have swiftness all the time) also CS is an amazing survivability tool. WIth LB, Take marauder amulet, you need the damage, you have enough survivability tools from traits and utilities. Change sigils to air/fire on LB, air/boold in staff. Dont be 2 obssesed with condi clear(generosity), best way to play around a condi necro is to kill the kitten thing. Your builds puts tons of pressure on your pets(EB+BW+GUARD) not sure britsleback will be able to survive the heat, moreover, range pets are not optimal for the use of BW(perheps electric wyvern for the AS synergie).
I understand your points and it worths a try but i also take BM for the extra stats on pets ,the+300 ferosity, the quickness and might on swap(better than panic quickness ^^) even the master traits while not great, offer some utility. With you setup u have like ~50%(down from 100% with BM builds) regenuptime which is important for astral force regen, you have no might stacking capabilities( with WHAO you also stack protaction,quickness etc…) your CD on shouts is longer(you use 2 shouts), I agree NM boost pet damage togather with BM thats why most top tier builds take NM/BM/DRUID.
But I do appriciate inovative builds and different play styles.
Cant say for sure but i think you rather go with the classic setups of WS/BM/DRUID or NM/BM/DRUID , why go NM if you dont take WHAO for the crzay boon stacking. Why would you take both NM/WS over the BM which give so much utlity and damage(bunker duids damage is being carried by pets). amulet and rube picks are solid( I also run lyssa on my builds). Not sure on sword/horn – you probably took only for the regen uptime(you main source of regen) you probably would rather go somthing else if had already swiftness/regen). the “faceroll” build I use when I want to relax is:
(edited by LughLongArm.5460)
I use a vriation of this build , Its not as strong as other meta druid builds but much more fun. I actually feel like a cheater everytime I use bristleback, and this build is giving me an excuse to take tiger over it.
Can you elaborate on why you feel like a cheater? Only reason why I’m asking is over the weekend I got some SALT about my pet insta-gibbing them. I mean it was a thief, who was probably geared/traits for max zerk/dps, and I sustained through his burst and the smokescale got him. Figured I’d ask what you mean.
I don’t have the tiger, is that from HoT? I should probably find it but though it was difficult to get based on map population.
I was reffering to bristleback only not smokescale . Bristleback has a known bug that makes its F2 shoot 20 porjactiles instad of 15. Also the dps of the pet is very high and can carry even the tankyest druid builds to almost insta kill an opponent with a lucky/well timed F2. I think smokescale is fine.
I use a vriation of this build , Its not as strong as other meta druid builds but much more fun. I actually feel like a cheater everytime I use bristleback, and this build is giving me an excuse to take tiger over it.
:/ it’d be nice if devs would just take another look at lingering light. Right now it’s useless in all gamemodes. Reducing the cooldown on it by just a little would be great…
Skill is very good it just kinda hard to grasp its effectiveness due to its rapid passive effect. In team battles 5v5+ pet, you heal for (600+)*6 and inflict 6 blindes every 12 sec. This is even not the best case scenario, if you allies have pets and staff it even inflicts more blinds. The old lingering light is useless now as it mostly got used to regenerate astral force while other sources were not avilabe.
100% core ranger build , very dangerous while keeping survivability( if you dont have HOT).
The editor is not updated with the recent changes for ranger. with this build you have all the tools to survive while able to spike crzy damage with MM trait line, full zerk gear and might stacking capability. While with max might stacking(you and your pet) can combo bird F2 with rapid fire for almost 20k daamge spike.
The new shouts with trooper rune will give you all the survivability you need(remember you can swap pet while gaurd is active).
HOT version no druid build –
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNBjYDbkSFaZxSWwhF4axQmQ91QqOxehnANensBwBcCTS/M-TVCFABIp8LNdDFq+T1HBAAeAAXpEchDCQbXAA23fgUAVs1C-w
More survivability no piercing arrows.
(edited by LughLongArm.5460)
Why should I test the build when you don’t have the decency to post it?
OP made a video guide on this this build. Check his youtube.
In this video he’s running the NM version.
WoW, Search and rescue is amazing now.
Its a grindy tanky build, was very effective vs burst squishy build but but so much vs other tnak builds(battle last ofever and end out in a draw). After last pathch i think new warrior builds could either kill him or end in a draw(no one can kill the other). I saw some very sustain builds now for warriors.
The trait should just add 1 second, rather than be percentage based.
This will open up stun builds with Sigil of Paralyzation and rune of the mesmer.
2sec base+ 1sec bonus +66% = 5 sec stun/daze on our druid abilities, not sure they want that(they want to cap us at 4 sec).
With this change+ bleed damage trait change, do you think we’ll c trap builds coming back?
Was thinking exacly the same thing. +1
…Staff is a great weapon and you can win fights with it. I wouldn’t be offended if you said it was our best weapon. But without checking the wikie I suspect it’s the worst damaging weapon across all 9 professions (shields and whatnot aside.)
Other (non-condi) ranged weapon auto attacks that are lower than druid staff (0.66/s dmg coefficient) are:
ranger axe AA (0.5/s)
guardian staff AA (0.6/s)
thief shortbow AA (0.58/s)
warrior longbow AA (0.55/s)
warrior rifle AA (0.63/s)
necromancer staff AA (0.47/s)Plus a bunch of condi weapons like mesmer scepter, mesmer staff, engineer pistol, thief pistol, etc.
Ranger shortbow is 0.74/s for comparison, similar to ranger longbow (0.7-0.9/s), necro axe (0.81/s), engi rifle (0.77/s), revenant hammer (0.76/s), etc. So, like Fluffball was saying, ranger shortbow dps > staff dps, even without any added conditions.
Anyways, I agree that shortbow needs some love. How would you guys fix it? Personally I’d like SB3 to give 3s of superspeed, SB4 to immobilize instead of cripple, and somehow SB2 needs more oomf.
Hi, perheps I missunderstood somthing, druid ‘s staff base damage is 121 with 0.3 damage coefficient. I think its the lowest weapon’s damage coefficient in the game. But it shoots very fast(one of the fastest in the game) , 1200 range, no projectile and pierce targets on base. So ya, staff AA is fine.
There is no such thing as “base damage” for power damage. The staff hits 3 times in 1.35 seconds, and each hit has a damage coefficient of 0.3. That yields a damage coefficient of 0.666/s. You can compare that value with all the other values listed in my post above.
Got ya.
…Staff is a great weapon and you can win fights with it. I wouldn’t be offended if you said it was our best weapon. But without checking the wikie I suspect it’s the worst damaging weapon across all 9 professions (shields and whatnot aside.)
Other (non-condi) ranged weapon auto attacks that are lower than druid staff (0.66/s dmg coefficient) are:
ranger axe AA (0.5/s)
guardian staff AA (0.6/s)
thief shortbow AA (0.58/s)
warrior longbow AA (0.55/s)
warrior rifle AA (0.63/s)
necromancer staff AA (0.47/s)Plus a bunch of condi weapons like mesmer scepter, mesmer staff, engineer pistol, thief pistol, etc.
Ranger shortbow is 0.74/s for comparison, similar to ranger longbow (0.7-0.9/s), necro axe (0.81/s), engi rifle (0.77/s), revenant hammer (0.76/s), etc. So, like Fluffball was saying, ranger shortbow dps > staff dps, even without any added conditions.
Anyways, I agree that shortbow needs some love. How would you guys fix it? Personally I’d like SB3 to give 3s of superspeed, SB4 to immobilize instead of cripple, and somehow SB2 needs more oomf.
Hi, perheps I missunderstood somthing, druid ‘s staff base damage is 121 with 0.3 damage coefficient. I think its the lowest weapon’s damage coefficient in the game. But it shoots very fast(one of the fastest in the game) , 1200 range, no projectile and pierce targets on base. So ya, staff AA is fine.
Used to be a SB ranger pre HOT. The only thing SB got going on ATM is the synergie with our new might stacking capabilities, making you able to run full celec. Sword/dagger will also work very good in this build as second weapon.
Given its a stunbreak, has no tell, and a lower cd protect me is better because of how tanky bristle back and smoke scale are. Only drawback is point capture but you can cancel protect me so that shouldn’t be an issue. Of course this will all change on the 26th.
What’s going to change?
Protect Me – Now will break stun on nearby allies, giving you protection and cause the next foe that attack you to be taunted by your pet.
Not sure if they’re adding these onto the old Protect me, or if this is what the new Protect me will be from now on.
It SOUNDED like an addition. Usually when its a heavy rework they mention it. And I didn’t hear any of the wording theyv used to describe them in the past. However anythings possible >.<
I have a feeling it’s replacing the Shouts current function. Because giving the caster Protection is redundant if it negates all raw damage. Unless it works in such a way that the 33% damage reduction goes towards the reduction in the pets health as well.
What your saying is true. Atm all damage taken by the pet is (Through Protect Me) “True” damage. Meaning it ignores all toughness and boons. Its just the pure raw damage you would have taken.
On that note if it becomes just protection, aoe stun break, and a taunt. It isn’t really a buff. Oh itl work better in certain circumstances. But it will also fail COMPLETELY in others. Won’t do anything against a condi reaper for example. Or even a warrior with stab. Or a thief that just used steal while you have rampage as one going. Theres alot of situations where the skill would actually have 0 benefit. So I kinda hope your wrong. Because it would push protect me into a rather tiny niche into who it is actually beneficial to use against.
Especially since the wording they used implied it would only taunt ONE person throughout the duration. It is kind of worrisome. Protection up time after all isn’t exactly anything rangers have had a problem with. Sure we don’t have it up 100% of the time. But we usually have it more than long enough barring boon strips and boon steals.
On that note. If it DOES work the way your saying. Then hopefully it will infact get rid of the “causing the pet to do NOTHING for 6 seconds” as well as getting a lower cooldown.
If its a replacement instead of an addition. And it still cancels upon giving the pet an order. Then Im going to have an issue with it haha.
This spesific build actually lack protaction as it probably using MM/BM/DRUID , the updated protect me offers somthing different to SoS which still a viable option. The pet doing nothing and taking damage thing(and breaks on command) is very unreliable and doesnt stand heat of SPVP, i think the new version is much better and more consistent. In the examples you gave like “condi reapler” also the old protect me(or even SoS) wont help much, we have other condi defences., if anything the taunt will do more vs condi fights compared to the nothing of the old protect me did.
With so much armor/healing and condi removal, my survivebility was as good as ever. Lysaa is actually great with builds that uses crusader but dont go for remorseless as it probably the best precision rune.
It was mostly that I was using Lyssa runes in place of druidic clarity, like we talked about in another thread. Once I gave up on primal echoes — it still works and is very fun, I just felt not as strong as DC — I didn’t need so much condi removal. Warrior runes are just an experiment, but I like what they give me. Everything they add fits very nicely with what I’m doing, which I can’t say about every rune (even Lyssa has that random 5% boon duration.)
Ya, the 5% boon duration is annoying and also the nerf to some boons on pvp(like 5 sec protection and not 10 sec).
@OGDeadHead.8326
A.net wish some rangers will go MM over one of our defensive traitlines/BM. The remorseless build while strong, still suffer from lack of surivavibility compared to more meta builds. If anything, the shouts re-wrok is the thing that might make this build shine, playing one glyph and 4 shouts with trooper rune, we’ll c.
@Fluffball.8307
This week I also switched my build with celec amulet to crusader, also with lyssa rune, havn’t felt at all the effect of the hp removal. With so much armor/healing and condi removal, my survivebility was as good as ever. Lysaa is actually great with builds that uses crusader but dont go for remorseless as it probably the best precision rune.
And it is already far worse then the Revenants
Not at all. With the upcoming nerf this skill pet is actually far better than ua in terms of damage without mentioning other stuff as insta cast. Just for science
Smokescale UA – 844/926 x5 (4220/4630 total) . 20/16 cd, 750 range, 300 radius, no windup animation
Rev UA – 663×5 with berserker ammy+str runes (3315 total), 12cd, 450 range&radius (easier to make it useless in teamfight), 3/4s casttime, interrupted goes on full cd.
I guess pet is supposed to deal more damage with my own skill than me as a player. Yep, seems legit
Your caculations are bad. Smokescale got ~30% crit chance with 150% crit damage. Rev with ith berserker ammy+str runes is 47%crit chance + 210% crit damage. it’s 35% damage difference. Not to mention rev can have much more traits synergie possibilities compared to what we can trait for pets. Yep, seems legit.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WLZppw3QMAk&rdm=1us9zu6t2&client=mv-google
Check the video above and see how cheesy mode and lame playstyle that druid has.
all he does in the video just runs kite and massive heal repeat rotation and his pet doing all the work. And no, dont compare thief to a ranger because thief require skills at least to play effective and more likely d/p and s/d are the only competible weapon set.
and, Why not nerf those 2 pets (not the whole pets and the mechanics) and buff other ranger stuff because pet is just there to support u in combat but look at that video lol funny that pet > ranger. Half of the time in that video all he does as ranger = heals and run.Working as intended
I have to agree with Midori, this fights are really lame to watch and I don’t understand the druids attitude like he would be a great player…. actually he got carried by druids extreme healing potential paired with the high damage of the 2 new pets.
It seems to really need no skill at all to play like this. I don’t know about smokescale, anet already nerfed it and it seems ok for me, but bristleback should get its damage reduced.
This video got nothing to do with Midori’s thread. The druid build shown in this video is obviously a hard counter to zerk warriors like most grindy bunker builds. You could have same results with bunker chrono, bunker tempest, herald revenant, scrapper etc…
When this build is up for 1v1 vs another bunker build, the fight will last forever and will end in a daw. Every profession can create immortal build that cant kill anything.
This thread is about the pets and notice the last batlle, the ranger(no druid) is using same pets and loses after 10 min fight from lucky rooting at the right moment.
Now, in pvp match can you afford to run around like an idiot? If cant cap and stay on points you ar useless. In real game standarts this play style is useless. Nothing to see here.
Though staff over longbow is probably better in retrospect.
The pet heal is just to help on Celestial Force regen because and the other two (master beastmastery) traits don’t do anything for the build. SotW is just to make sure I get to use Celestial Form as soon as possible for the stunbreak/condi clear/stealth.
If you change LB to staff you would probably also change amulet, no reason for marauder with staff. Do you find stealth a good trait for top tier pvp? always thought its causing to much unintantional decaping.
Remember the d/d condi build with plex rune? that was kinda immortal annyoing troll faceroling build.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WLZppw3QMAk&rdm=1us9zu6t2&client=mv-google
Check the video above and see how cheesy mode and lame playstyle that druid has.
all he does in the video just runs kite and massive heal repeat rotation and his pet doing all the work. And no, dont compare thief to a ranger because thief require skills at least to play effective and more likely d/p and s/d are the only competible weapon set.
and, Why not nerf those 2 pets (not the whole pets and the mechanics) and buff other ranger stuff because pet is just there to support u in combat but look at that video lol funny that pet > ranger. Half of the time in that video all he does as ranger = heals and run.
I know his build intimately and i can tell ya, this build is only good for solo roaming and nothing more. Even 1vs1 its not always good as it cant kill bunker builds of reventant,chrono,scrapper,tempest, you just end up with a draw. Aslo, the comments suggsets that hizen didnt put his loses(vans says he killed him lots of times). We’r talking about pvp here, this build/ play style wont do in pvp as you cant cap or be helpful to team while running and stealthing and healing yourself. In WvsW most professions can make bunker grindy builds. And BTW this play style also works with birds and cats.
(edited by LughLongArm.5460)
To continue on my above post. Moving the functionality of Bark Skin to Guard as I suggested above in order to lower the survivability of pets that SHOULD be killable would have a couple effects.
First. It would force a player taking guard to chose between higher dmg from there pet or higher survivability. As guard cancels once you press the F2 firing the skill would actually leave it more open to damage. Like swapping from a defensive stance to an offensive once. Meaning that when the pet is firing would actually be a golden opportunity to kill it.
Second. It would put the survivability of the pet into a seperate mechanic apart from a druids self healing. Meaning that the benefit a druid and ranger would gain from this effect would be identical. Causing its worth to be balanced between the ranger and the druid. Meaning it could be further balanced without being held between druid and non druid builds.
It would also mean that druids (or rangers) that wanted to maintain there bristleback under DIRECT pressure would have to give up a utility slot. Something that only a few players would be willing to do.
Infact this would go further to support pet based builds than any other. A playstyle that has been incredibly weak since the death of the cruise missile pet builds.
Hi, don’t like your guard idea at all.
1)In order to solve a problem you first need to prove that a problem exists. Even with bark skin, bristleback melts in group fights and in 1v1 vs condi players that know what they’r doing.2)While druids find a place in the meta, i dont see them overpreforming espically in top tier pvp. The amulet changes (celec removal)will reduce some of the “defensive synergie” you were talking about.
3)You dont change trait lines just to deal with one “over preforming” pet.
4)making gaurd = barkskin as an activate button to mintain a passive buff is boring, utilities supposed to be active and scenario based.
5)It will give the BM traitline to much of an adge. Now that protect me seems viable, giving us another defesnive shout will just make BM all in one tait line, as it is probably one of the best offensive traitline with so much defence and utility(best heal and elite) you can skip completly WS(protect me for the protaction, gaurd for bark skin, soldair rune for condi removal).
If you ask me, guard should be a utility that after activation replaces the utility slot with the pet’s special ability, making the pet to preform that skill on activation(with seperate CD) . While not 100% fits thematicly, it will make the skill very interesting and will bring back lots of pets(dogs for KD, drakes for blast, moas for aoe heal, birds for out of combat swiftness, etc….)
Good to see well thought out replies for once. Ill address your points in turn.
1) Whether we think there is a problem or not as the users frankly does not matter. It is largely up to the community to decide if there is a problem or not. We have seen evidence of this in the past. I believe that as it currently stands bristleback will be nerfed into the ground eventually. I’m expecting an eventual reduction of atleast 40% on its f2 damage as well as an increase in cooldown. ANY time where a AI source deals high damage it has been destroyed… In EVERY previous example up to this point. The only exceptions have been when those damage sources practically melt in combat. I have no doubt the pattern will repeat. And I don’t want to get turret engineered. We all know how THAT went.
2) The druid isn’t super over performing against the other meta builds true. However it does preform significantly higher than any non druid ranger build. To put it simply a Druid just has more base potential than a ranger. And as it stands that isn’t going to change. A part of that is how a druid synergises with pets like the birstleback. It becomes a case where they can maintain all 3 dynamics of our combat system. Damage Control and Support. The changes to amulets will not change them. What it WILL do however is when they go for support they have less sustained damage. However the burst damage they get from the bristleback will be identical. And there synergy with barkskin in keeping the bristleback alive will stay exactly the same. Meaning that a druid WILL benefit far more form this minor trait than a ranger ever could. Hell even for a longbow power ranger retaliation is enough to take us under the health threshold leaving our pets vulnerable.
3) But people HAVE changed trait lines to deal with overperforming synergies in the past. In our case it just happens to be our class mechanic. There has been cases of trait lines being altered to change how a class mechanic works. It just hasn’t affected us yet in a massive way. The fact that its a pet has 0 connection in this case. Its a tool just like our weapons.
4) If you read what I said you would realize that this would actually make it MORE active. As the player would have to chose whether or not to use the F2 due to the fact that using said F2 would leave the pet without the bark skin effect.
I have used shouts since the release of the game. And im fairly certain I am the only 5 shout non druid ranger in legendary tier at this time. (Because no one else is stupid enough to go from amber to legendary as a 5 shout non druid ranger >.<)
Guard cancels upon receiving ANY other order. f1-f4 or any other utility shout. Meaning that it would be a toggeled defensive mode. (My pet is in fire so I am going to leave it under guard but once the fire is out im going to activate its f2 leaving it vulnerable to deal more damage). That is a FAR more engaging decision making process than a largely accidental byproduct of a purely passive mechanic. Its ALREADY passive. I wan’t to make it active.
5) The BM traitline having an edge has nothing to do with this change actually. In its new form it would ONLY affect the pet. Meaning it would give no defensive edge to the ranger. Its not like you could use protect me and then cast guard to turn your pet into a super sponge. It would infact cancel it. It would simply become an effective defensive option for your pet in its own right. It would however give a pet based build the tool it needs to maintain the pet under pressure. Which im sure we can agree is necessary. Right now protecting the pet relies heavily on Situational Awareness and luck. Unless your a druid with bark skin. Im not suggesting shout rangers have on demand bark skin for themselves. That would be bloody insane and so horrendously overpowered the mandatory nerfs would gut the mechanic entirely.
Your concept of guard sadly would be useless with most pets. It would only be effective with a few families in fact. Making in inherintly flawed for a pet based utility. Would it bound to the pets base cooldowns? Would it allow you to BYPASS cooldowns? The varying levels of performance there is insane from pet family to pet family. Some would gain massive benifit form it. Others would gain borderline 0. (Why would a shout ranger give a flying kitten about making his bird produce swiftness….hes already got 2 and a half minutes of it).
Thanx for the immersed reply.
I do expect a 25% damage nerf on brist F2(bug fix) and perheps increase CD. I’m Ok with such nerfs. Most elite specialisations out class core professions, I think its by sesighn and will only be balanced after the release of more elitle specialisations (as you can only chose one at a time). I dont think druid/pets got overpreforming synergie, from what I can remember, druid got alot of criticism for being unsynergetic with pets. I do agree that brist and smoke out shine the other pets.
When I was talking BM as a defensive trait line i ment the new protect me and guard as barkskin for you as well and your pet(like the WS trait). barkskin for pet only will never see play and its a small upgrade from what we have now, as it now gives almost prema protaction to pets.
As a shout lover you should realy hope that all the “cancels upon receiving any other order” BS will be removed like they did with Sice’m and probably with the new protect me.
The concept I gave is unrefined true, but i do think it can improve the current situation where you mostly sees 2 pets only playable. Regarding birds, one might want to take it without the RT trait or just to denay this skill being for being used by the brid, as it is a dps drop(there is an active thread on this subject). I think it will be nice with drakes moas dogs and spiders and perheps bring them back. A.net sis say they want to “explore ways to improve on the ranger’s ties to both their pets and nature”.
To continue on my above post. Moving the functionality of Bark Skin to Guard as I suggested above in order to lower the survivability of pets that SHOULD be killable would have a couple effects.
First. It would force a player taking guard to chose between higher dmg from there pet or higher survivability. As guard cancels once you press the F2 firing the skill would actually leave it more open to damage. Like swapping from a defensive stance to an offensive once. Meaning that when the pet is firing would actually be a golden opportunity to kill it.
Second. It would put the survivability of the pet into a seperate mechanic apart from a druids self healing. Meaning that the benefit a druid and ranger would gain from this effect would be identical. Causing its worth to be balanced between the ranger and the druid. Meaning it could be further balanced without being held between druid and non druid builds.
It would also mean that druids (or rangers) that wanted to maintain there bristleback under DIRECT pressure would have to give up a utility slot. Something that only a few players would be willing to do.
Infact this would go further to support pet based builds than any other. A playstyle that has been incredibly weak since the death of the cruise missile pet builds.
Hi, don’t like your guard idea at all.
1)In order to solve a problem you first need to prove that a problem exists. Even with bark skin, bristleback melts in group fights and in 1v1 vs condi players that know what they’r doing.
2)While druids find a place in the meta, i dont see them overpreforming espically in top tier pvp. The amulet changes (celec removal)will reduce some of the “defensive synergie” you were talking about.
3)You dont change trait lines just to deal with one “over preforming” pet.
4)making gaurd = barkskin as an activate button to mintain a passive buff is boring, utilities supposed to be active and scenario based.
5)It will give the BM traitline to much of an adge. Now that protect me seems viable, giving us another defesnive shout will just make BM all in one tait line, as it is probably one of the best offensive traitline with so much defence and utility(best heal and elite) you can skip completly WS(protect me for the protaction, gaurd for bark skin, soldair rune for condi removal).
If you ask me, guard should be a utility that after activation replaces the utility slot with the pet’s special ability, making the pet to preform that skill on activation(with seperate CD) . While not 100% fits thematicly, it will make the skill very interesting and will bring back lots of pets(dogs for KD, drakes for blast, moas for aoe heal, birds for out of combat swiftness, etc….)
(edited by LughLongArm.5460)
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/pvp/Bristleback-dmg-output/first
Check this thread there are so many people already asking for nerf on bristleback.
Bristleback + smoke scale is kittenedly strong and its just unkillable which is OP.
1) On pvp forum ppl just crying about everything. I even sometimes see some warriors OP threads.
2)Rnger community reported Bristleback F2 in the bug list as it apparently shoots 20 times up from the 15 times mentioned in the tooltip(developers will decide if the F2 should be changed or rather just the tooltip).
3)Few skills in the game had been looked at as much as smokescale’s smoke assault. Developers nerfed it like 3-4 times, its very easy to nerf it to the level of uselessness.
4)Bristleback is very fragile if you just focus fire it.
5) I will agree that it seems that Bristleback and smokescale outshine most of our other pets. Belive me, lots of rangers would love to replace Bristleback and smokescale with other pets, but while traits and skills abre being changed, balanced and developed over time, most of the ranger’s pet abilities are outdated mechanic wise and numbers wise. Just look at the thread above you on how ridiculous it is to have a dps fragile pet with an uncontrollable “speical ability” to stop dpsing for like 2 sec in order to give aoe 10 sec swiftness, in a game state that everyboudy have prema swiftness always.
The only reason to pick a bird pet is for the burst on demand. The F2 attack of the bird is the best way to activate traits like “wilting strike” and “beastly wardn”. Making the strange swiftness move an F2 will just make this pet usless. We have so many ways to get movment speed out of combat….
…
We have anti-stealth mechanics like Sic’em/taunt/rapid fire/spike barrage(brist F2).
…Obviously you have read that somewhere and didn’t bother to test it.
Obviously you dont know how to use your ranger efficiently.
I think that ranger is one of the professions that is most suited to deal with thives burst rotations. Thives atack style is very “in and out” oriented with fair intervals. Even pre HoT, thives had big issues to break through bark skin+ protective ward as they both activates on the initail attack, and while on the thief combo points charging intervals, we used to re-heal for full hp and grind the thief down. Evasive purity also is superb vs thives as it clease all of the thives main 3 condis(poison/blind/cripple), vs thives Evasive purity is probably one the most efficient condi removals.( I’m not even talking about the druid defensive capabilities and other active defences).
We have anti-stealth mechanics like Sic’em/taunt/rapid fire/spike barrage(brist F2).
So if you ask me, thives despreitly needed a buff, and you can be sure that if rangers will suffer hard from thives, many of the other professions are insta dying.
(edited by LughLongArm.5460)
Your build is going over the top with thoughness stacking, remember that after 3k armor ,the damage reduction values suffer big “diminishing returns”. Also celec amulet used to give this build the extra vitality needed to fight condis(glyphs builds already were weaker vs condis compared to survival druid builds, and now necros got tons more boon corruptions). I think my adjsments will help your build to face the upcoming meta.
Chnged heraled rune to trooper rune and SoS to "protect me. this setup will balance abit the toughness-vitality ratio while mintaining the extra protection(instad of heraled from protect me) and giving you extra 3 aoe condi removlas and aoe stun break. The taunt from protect me will help alot vs the upcoming thives burst.