Guild Wars 2

DoogySnowStalker.2069:

Oh man, loving this thread

crusader amulet getting removed was the bigger deal this patch, but let the bristleback salt continue…

Anet will never make spirits move again, asking for this over and over again will make this like the sword aa argument. mobile buffing spirits where too good so they made them stationary.

I think the buffs provided could be better, rangers have a ton of sources for vigor and regen we didn’t really need others and swiftness in combat is basically useless.

active abilities shouldn’t kill the spirit unless the active abilities get buffed to the point where using it could sway a fight. right now the actives are a joke.

spirit passive range is ok as it is, taking it to 1500 would be too much, what would be cool is if they increased the passive cap from 5 to 10 traited to make them more useful in raids, even if the boon limit was still 5. Or use the trait to increase the usefulness of the active ability, to make it worth even using it.

Nature spirit active effect needs a huge speed increase, it’s so slow right now people are usually dead by the time it activates. it could also provide healing ticks to the downed similar to the necro trait.

it’s a fair nerf, no one else starts off with a full bar and it’s something we shouldn’t have had in the first place.

the 2 bug fixes are a bigger issue to me, i never even noticed these didn’t work…

put that in the bug forum if you haven’t already

nice vid, are you using spike trap for the cc or does it proc ancient seeds now?

I agree with Tragic and Heimskarl, whats sad is that the same way Rangers didn’t even know their own DPS potential pre-HoT way too many don’t understand how to play druid post-HoT. If you want to keep playing ranger the same way, play ranger. If you think DH is so much better than ranger, swap to DH.

One of the best things about this game is that it’s made with having alts in mind where other games stressed having a “main” and playing on it as much as possible. I have 9 different characters and rotate among them on a regular basis. 2 of those so far are in full ascended so i can fill different roles in raids/fractals and i’m working on a 3rd.

Thanks everyone, i’ll stick with my Zealots/Clerics setup for now. I need to get a condi class setup with ascended gear so that i can be available for multiple roles. I’ve got my ranger, a rev and now i’m thinking either a berserker or (most likely) a necro.

i’d run a few more condi than that, condi dps tends to outshine power in these long fights. if 5 rangers run 1 spirit each and natures vengeance you’d have perm regen, prot, stability, might and vigor and a couple extra frost would boost the might a lot. I think it could be done….

Transference isn’t worth the gold cost. Run Magi trinkets and zerk gear, asc or exotic whatever you can afford to get. Magi Staff for sure, you should be camping staff and healing the team, also GoL should be up as much as you can keep it up. Swap the Magi/Zerk with zealots as you gain more experience or gold.

edit: the problem won’t be gearing a toon, it’s going to be getting people to take you on raids with subpar gear tbh unless you’re running with a group of friends. If you’re pugging you will be the first person they blame if they fail even if you did no wrong.

Wondrouswall.7169:

Should send an invite to Irenio. Who better to have in an intel-sharing, theory-crafting Ranger guild than the man in charge of profession’s balance? Just sayin’.

>:}

Great Idea! and send me one as well!

Focus on how you want to kill stuff, conditions or power and then you can throw on any defensive stats you feel like you need after that. Condi is pretty nice and traps are great for tagging in events. ascended trinkets and weapons are pretty easy to get so really try to get those, the weapons and trinkets are the biggest stat increases, armor doesnt do much.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNUQNAV3fjMqQ3KWuCurAVLWYEMmCwlLA08A6cJN4n6VtreSsOPL-TxiAABVr+TLaQo4CAAwBBcABZcgCGT53S7PUpSwJeAACcAEiW3ApAWUZF-e

Tragic Positive.9356:

Prophet.1584:

Tragic Positive.9356:

Healer druid is more than welcome in higher fractals run for achievments.

Everyday dailies and speeds will do without heals (druid actually is one of the best DPS boosts for the party).
But having a healing druid in lvl 93 fractal and not is day and night difference.

Tragic, what are you running in 80+ fractals, condi or power druid? anet said they changed t he toughness scaling in those high fractals so they mobs aren’t such dps sponges but i’m not sure if i should stick with my power ranger once i get that high. I’ve been thinking of gearing a necro for 80+ if condi is the way to go.

It’s hard to say, actually.
For pugging, Condi is definitely better in DPS. If you are organized and have constant 25 might, banners and everything – I’d say Zerk still beats it thank to it’s “safe” pattern. You don’t have to worry that QuickDraw bug will postpone your rotation by 20 seconds in condi builds where Zerk still deals almost it’s finest on sword attacks regardless.

The damage difference really isn’t that high.
Condi is the peak of DPS but has restrictions of movement and you can’t really do the magic in pugs because spotter competes with Hidden Barbs and Trapper’s Expertise competes with Sharpened Edges and might from Axe is wasted regardless.

If the encounter is immobile like Bloomhunger – condi is better for sure regardless of situation; buffed or not.
If you intend to play other fractals as well, Zerk would be as good as condi.

Thanks! i’ll stick with my zealots/zerker setup for fractals then

why not just slot guard for the might instead?

same gear, different traits/skills.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQJAWTnUqA1siVsAuCCctglEB7JAksedOluj1NAuq2V/qlI9zA-TxDBQBtQDyK0QMFlIA4QKcKdAaUZwVUClK1fkwFAUCygHUQK0EAl9HegJuGcEAwiSjAAIAsxNuxQKgVkZB-e

NM>WS unless your playing condi, you shouldnt need those defensive traits very much at all but more dps ends fights faster. your gear is a bit of a mish-mash of stats, it’s better to focus in on how you want to do your dps(or healing now) and gear yourself that way.

Tragic Positive.9356:

Healer druid is more than welcome in higher fractals run for achievments.

Everyday dailies and speeds will do without heals (druid actually is one of the best DPS boosts for the party).
But having a healing druid in lvl 93 fractal and not is day and night difference.

Tragic, what are you running in 80+ fractals, condi or power druid? anet said they changed t he toughness scaling in those high fractals so they mobs aren’t such dps sponges but i’m not sure if i should stick with my power ranger once i get that high. I’ve been thinking of gearing a necro for 80+ if condi is the way to go.

Mouse.3608:

Fractals were originally balanced around a game that didn’t have a healer class. There isn’t a need for a healer in Fractals, and people are so used to polarized damage groups that it can feel slow. The upside is that the team as a whole can get away otherwise fatal mistakes.

In practice, healing at anything under fractal 20 is useless and boring. I’m certain others would argue that threshold is more like 40.

Make sure your team knows what you are doing. Otherwise you end up playing “Kite the Healer”.

Beyond that:
* ball & daze locking the trash mobs and eating boss break bars
* Damage buffs (Glyph / Frost spirit)
* “Guard!” incoming spike damage and/or fill time gaps in the reflect wall.
* condition clears / regen
* the very rarely needed spike heal to get a wounded party member back in the action.

what he said, although i’d say 50 or higher (and only on certain fractals) before worrying about healing. I also will toss out a few heals periodically for GotL, it adds up with GoE and Frost.

edit: took out the kitten

Druids always been viable for raids and fractals, your setup would just be different as fractals doesn’t really require healing

i’ve played something similar and like it, it can be very strong in 1v1 and druid gives good support in team fights. i’ll usually take GoL to provide buffs to my team in teamfights or my pet and self in 1v1s. Why not entangle over SotP? it would give you another condi cleanse and immob. also wolf > wyvern? Lightning Assault is pretty telegraphed as well but i guess so is the wolf.

it’s still viable, i would personally drop the glyphs and run SoS, Protect Me and Guard. Durability runes are gone but you could run soldiers for cleanse, scrappers for more defense or some other toughness runes.

I change builds around in pvp a lot and have run something like this

Kam.4092:

Quarktastic.1027:

Stay away from metabattle and just play the game. You’ll wind up finding builds that work.

I usually change things anyway, but when you’re new to a class, builds can explain the play styles of the class and how to succeed at doing your job the best.

Ranger comes off as a support/DPS class. It seems pretty active. I currently play a Guardian, so I wanted to make Ranger my second class.

I guess the only thing I wonder is if pets are really as important as people say they are. Like, I’d want to use a Snow Owl.

I’d like to use the Greatsword with Longbow, but it’s whatever. Might find a build like that.

Yes that’s a good build on metabattle, that’s our dps setup for core ranger.

pets are very important, they count for 25-30% of our dps so if you don’t see huge numbers for yourself that’s why. Birds and Cats are good for dps, drakes are decent dps with more survivability and bears are low dps but high survivability.

savacli.8172:

Mapisto.2154:

And another question – can i change its stats later in the mystic forge?

Well, in a sense, yes. Yggdrasil, along with the other 8 Spec weps are just ascended weapons with a fancy skin on it. So if you throw it in the mystic toilet you’ll won’t get back Yggdrasil with new stats but rather an entirely new ascended staff with the stats you want. In other words:

Yggdrasil + Cleric’s Inscription + 5 globs + Book =/= Yggdrasil with Cleric stats.
Yggdrasil + Cleric’s Inscription + 5 globs + Book = Thedosus’ Spire

The only way to maintain the original item is to select from its 3 predefined stats. Though, if you toilet it you can technically just slap the skin back on it through your wardrobe.

this can actually be useful if your missing ascended weapon skins of a certain type. I got a few viper’s skins this way.

HeadCrowned.6834:

The main problem I experience when I use traps in my build, is the fact that you have too less condi cleanses. The skirmishing traitline, which you need for traps, does not involve any condi cleanse traits. We don’t have any utility that removes condi’s directly without traits, except healing spring.

SoR does

a quickdraw trapper running OH torch and flame trap works alright in pvp, you can focus on 1 or 2 traps or conditions and build from there.

cleric. minstrel or nomad are far too bunkery to be very useful in pve

Love that staff!

cleric, magi, zerker, or zealots. i’d only use minstrel if you run zerg trains in wvw a lot.

thanks all for showing off your rangers, think i may go with a norn female, she’ll look great with nevermore!

sylvari med cultural is pretty nice, any of the others have skins that aren’t the usual trenchcoats?

so i’ve had an asura druid since i first started playing 3 years ago and i’ve never found a great med armor skin that fit both the flavor of ranger/druid and asura. the best i’ve found so far is asura t3 and it doesnt really fit the nature theme at all. so what race is everyone playing and what armor/skins do you use? I’m thinking of making a new ranger now, maybe a norm female?

i’ve been running something similar with Menders

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQJATRnUqAlsi1CCWsCctgl/AD+s+WnrLvuMQA4JN8DOalMtzA-TZBFwAQuEAF3fAxRAYaZAAPAAA

lots of cleanses and stun breaks for all the mesmers and condi classes out there.

cele can work but you end up slightly less focused on certain stats, besides it’s really time intensive to craft. i’d rather go cele asc trinkets and magi or zerk armor.

Rome.7124:

hi all,

I have tried to do a search on the forum and reddit, but I got limited answers to my concerns and questions so I decided to post the question here.

I am looking to make my first ascended set, mostly a PvX player looking to play more on druid after Anet nerfed my main Mesmer to the ground.

Here are my questions:
- I know Zealot set is best for druid that wants to do raid (only killed first boss on Mesmer), would it be possible to achieve the same with Berserker set + cleric trinkets?
- Alternative to Zealot set: Berserker, Marauder, Cleric, Magi, or Celestial?
- How much healing power to aim for?
- Staff + GS or Staff + LB?
- What runes or sigils (I’ve read monk is best, but dont think I will go through AC to get them)

thanks in advance.

a lot of this depends on the group you run raids with and how organized they are or if you plan on pugging. for the most part your stuck with cleric trinkets unless you get the zealot amulet and/or 2 magi trinkets.

watch your toughness and make sure you check with the raid tank on how much they are running you might have to swap trinkets to get below the tank.

zealots or magi is best for gear, it gives you the healing power you want without additional toughness.

i try to keep around 1k healing power including food oils etc, and i also like having any +% healing modifiers i can get

in raids you’ll mainly be camping staff, bring x/WH for a few additional buffs but the offhand set really doesnt matter much. in general pve/fractals i still run lb+s/a or lb/gs depending on the content and group.

i play core ranger in pvp quite a bit if i want to go all dps, it lets me pick up mm/nm and bm or ws for a bit of defense.

if i want more defensive utility i’ll slot druid and ws and 1 dps line

it works well with lb/staff but gs is better as it provides some defense.

condi revs and necros are still ripping me apart in team fights, 1v1 it all depends on how good they are.

burnzerker is effectively dead after this patch so the next in line would be the viper engi for condi spots in raids. the only thing in the ranger kitten nal that even comes close to the engi is the quickdraw torch build. unless shortbow gets some serious buffs it won’t make it into the meta. the ferocity buff for axe should actually bring a bit more dps to the sinister/viper ranger build.

Tragic Positive.9356:

Aomine.5012:

Actually you have to control the pet well to get the best result.
It’s not passive game-play at all.

Plus Druid survive = easy mode under currrent Meta?
Guess someone didn’t participate in season 1 much.
Reaper and Revenant can explode Druid within seconds if Druid doesn’t pay attention and got cc once.
One gravity well when your stability is not up while a Revenant is hitting you = gg.

A well played Shatter Mesmer can get a Druid down by himself. Pretty quickly.

any tips on playing against mesmers? they’re the class i have the toughest time against. so many cc, evades blocks and they still have a ton of dps while being pretty tanky.

the only place this will matter is wvw in a few hours since gliding will be available in most parts of pve.

besides who cares, it’s not like its a mesmer who can port in the entire zerg

EnderzShadow.2506:

Prophet.1584:

ppl are using smokeskales and bristlebacks because they’re fairly tanky and able to dish out good burst. cats and birds are still just as viable as they used to be and so are canines.

What do you mean by ‘viable’? They aren’t ideal. Anyone who doesn’t take 2 of the big three are at a disadvantage.

Smokescale, Bristleback and the Tiger are all better pets than anything in game.

Yes, better pets. HANDS DOWN. They are able to stay with their targets better than anything else in game. Low F2’s, slightly tanky, and they do great dmg.

Really, all the other pets need buffs. The other pets need to be made viable.

I agree with you, these pets are better than the old ones but if you want CC a canine is still good. If you want DPS the other cats or birds are still good. no they aren’t AS good as the smokescale and bristleback but it’s always been that way with ranger pets. at one time all most ppl ran where birds for dps or canines/spiders for the cc.

I guess what I meant was that the meta isn’t a hard and fast rule.

ppl are using smokeskales and bristlebacks because they’re fairly tanky and able to dish out good burst. cats and birds are still just as viable as they used to be and so are canines.

Miaze.8631:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KBFKj2uJcc

any pvper who doesn’t know the mechanics of the classes and builds currently in the meta is just a troll. Everyone that plays high level competitive pvp should know by now that with the current bunker build you can almost completely ignore the ranger and focus down the pet. The ranger does like 0 damage in the current meta, their major role is to keep the pet alive and buffed. kill the pets = kill the ranger.

the problem is people have gotten so used to just completely ignoring the pet that they can’t change there tactics. to me personally this is just a bad pvper, you HAVE to know what you’re facing if you want to compete at a high level.

that being said some of the healing in pvp could be toned down a bit so that the druid can’t self sustain so easily. maybe making them heal themselves less with CAF heals or something but even that i wouldn’t recommend. i’d recommend ppl l2p.

oh and no bearbow pls

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNEQNAsYTnUqAtCilsAGsActgh9givgAeE2bPAO7POK3nuEatF-TBSBQBlR5XEOEAJU9nO8AAAwZA4K7PkP9BNSJIA-e

if you like being somewhat tanky but still dealing damage. The thing is it’s more about playstyle than gear. if you’re trying to maximize dps LB shouldnt be used for its auto attack. LB#5→lb#2→weapon swap and atk with sword till the lb burst skills are off cooldown. i’d start slowly replacing the celestial trinkets with zerk as you feel more comfortable. in pve WK is useless unless you’re running a condi build, and if you’re running with a group spotter is a really big buff to the groups dps. quickdraw is also a dps gain by reducing cooldowns. NM and BM are basically interchangeable imo, i don’t know the math but i think NM is a bit better for overall dps but i like my pet stronger.

why is this even a discussion still, i’m sorry i ever fed this troll….

l2p if you think pets are OP

I run LB/GS all the time in pvp, you just need to know when not to go pew pew crazy

PVE should be sword/axe if you’re running sword. axe OH dps is higher than dagger by quite a bit. pvp dagger is a good choice for evades

they did say the changes discussed weren’t all the changes, before jumping to far to conclusions wait for the patch notes. those are supposed to come soon (lolol)

Search and Rescue sounded good from a flavor perspective, not sure how much better it’ll really be since they didnt go into details. Protect me is a tiny bit better, the damage modifier buff is nice but not much.

they where only giving a preview so I guess we wait for the blog post or w/e to get the full story.

Tragic Positive.9356:

AlbertoUlkesh.4517:

Tragic Positive.9356:

What build are you searching for? Efficient one? One that can solo fractals (I soloed lvl 72)? A DPS one?

What would a solo build look like?

I made it with Cleric stats, MoC build, swapped skirmishing for Beast Mastery.

was it a perma-stun build? soloing fractals feels like a real challenge!

It’s the redundancy of some of these healing traits that makes druid so strong in pvp as a bunker right now, multiple sources of healing to keep us alive.

spirit actives need a change, none of them are worth the death of the spirit right now. frost and sun are ok for pve but sun could use at least 1 more stack of burning or more duration to make it good.

2 things will probably never change, sword AA and shortbow range. Anet has set them to where they want them and we need to work within that system. shortbow could use some love though as it is subpar as both a condi and power weapon at the moment.

AF generation from damage needs to be increased or damage from staff needs to be increased. either of these will keep us from being as locked into staff just to charge AF.

staff NEEDS to be a hybrid weapon if those changes will not be made, as it is now we’re locked into power-type builds only when really condi healing builds would be much better.

Of the traits you posted I agree these could use some changes:

Strider’s Defense
Light on your Feet
Most Dangerous Game
Invigorating Bond
Honed Axes

and add Nature’s Vengeance to the list