Guild Wars 2

this is a good compromise between original buff and the super nerf…color me pleased/

that seems quite impossible. just using staff skill 1 hitting through your pet while soloing fills up the bar pretty fast. hitting through a blob of fellow players shouldn’t be slower.

i’m actually pleasantly surprised there’s that many….was honestly expecting less.

9 is a decent amount considering having to deal w/ racial body differences and clipping issues with other armor sets

this was discovered last beta. one of the issues the dev said he would adddress was our inability to enter form through other weapons. this is why he highlighted the 240% increase on attacks (considering how small the oiriginal was, this “buff” was clearly ineffective).

so to do an about face and then say “nevermind, you’ll use staff and TU and like it”, seems pretty lame.

balancing in general is this game’s weakest link.

DON’kittens

garbage.

if its a bug….even worse, as those take YEARS to get fixed.

Phobos.3197:

I posted this in a similar thread, but this is how warriors feel with berserker stance. Adren decay sucks just as much as this.

Getting to enter your elite mode once per fight when the fight is 75% over is not a fun mechanic.

but warriors build adren much qiucker and with all their weapons.

druid must use staff to have any chance of using CF even once.

Chicho Gosho.6507:

Lets just hope that they address the problem quickly.

they only address buffs quickly. this will stay as is for another 4+ months until the next balance patch.

4 months of useless elite spec.

LegallyBinding.4937:

So…. why was there no mention here of CF dissipating out of combat? Everyone would have told you that was a terrible idea.

in conjuction with all the other gates to celestial form, this change is so bad it should have never made it out of internal testing. we should never have had to tell them it was a stupidly terrible idea.

you left AF decay out of combat off your list…..on purpose.

you have destroyed any excitement or desire for a ranger player to make a druid by ONCE AGAIN surprising them with a monumental nerf..

thanks again.

awful, chicken kitten nerf……having ill thoughts on whichever dev decided this.

this nerf is complete BS. funny how the dev left that out of the preview….no wonder he was silent for so long

getting druid when from 3rd priority, to last.

on the two characters w/ world completion (guardian/mesmer), i have198 and 196 respectively. my other 8 lvl 80’s average about 120.

sadly, i only have 116 on my necro….which it the one i want to play the most.

i’m sorta with the OP on this.

while it’s bad for revenant….it’s really not that big a deal for the other classes. not that its actual proof (things can change)…but i read in one of those threads that it was datamined that roughly half of those 400 HP are spent on cosmetic skins/ items related to the elite spec.

so you only need about 200-ish to have a fully functional elite spec. most will have a few fully functional elites on day one.

Kulvar.1239:

@Nyth
Unfortunately, I wasn’t there during BWE1, I missed all but one beta weekend.
So, I wasn’t able to test the not spammable version of Gravedigger.

then maybe you shouldn’t start an unnecessary nerf thread if you are ignorant to the various reaper trait and skill iterations.

Zenith.7301:

Roy, will this affect mesmer’s Continuum Rift in PvE as well? It was dying immediately to AoE so this would help a lot.

ooh…really good question. hope that wasn’t overlooked

better late than never……this is GREAT news for pve.
my ranger thanks you.

Devata.6589:

Gaile Gray.6029:

Halloween is coming to Tyria! We’re really looking forward to the return of everyone’s favorite pumpkin-headed monarch, Mad King Thorn, and his motley mass of mischievous minions.

While many of us at ArenaNet will be joining the game often during the Halloween festival, team members are going to make a special effort to join players in the game on Friday, October 30. We’ll be hanging out in Lion’s Arch, joining with players in a few rounds of “Mad King Says” or other seasonal activities, and hopping into a few of the many player-organized events that take place on that date.

If your guild or group is holding an event in Lion’s Arch on October 30, let us know by posting in this thread. Provide the group name, time (with time zone), your game world, and a few details about your planned activities. If we’re able to do so, we’ll stop by and visit with you for a bit!

We also wanted to mention that we’ve scheduled a new episode of the Community Showcase Live livestream for Wednesday, October 28 at Noon Pacific Time (17:00 UTC). The show is presented in English, but art is “the universal language” and we feel that everyone will enjoy the visuals no matter what language they speak. If you’re an artist, crafter, or other creative sort, please consider posting your creations in our Community Creations Forum. Lizzie and I may be able to feature them in a future show!

Get ready to celebrate Halloween, Tyria Style!

I did hear Halloween would only be 2 weeks. Can you consider leaving it in a 4 weeks? It’s the best GW2 festival there is, great atmosphere. Just leave it in 4 weeks, after that it’s gone again for another year.

agree. really enjoy the event/atmosphere…..and its actually rewarding in terms of: loot, earn-able rewards,and rng items (for those that like that kinda thing).

considering it overlaps the launch of HoT, extending it longer than 2 weeks would be really nice.

very fine with the LI change (2 sec daze instead of 3)….as long as MoC trait remains unchanged.

Irenio CalmonHuang.2048:

Hey all,

Since the third beta weekend there’s been a lot of great feedback – thanks!

Below are some of the more solid changes to the Druid since the beta weekend that were made to address some concerns regarding net damage loss in a raid, celestial avatar form feeling gated by staff and glyph reward scaling.

• Grace of the Land: This trait has been re-worked. Instead of its former behavior, allies affected by your celestial avatar abilities gain 3% damage and condition damage increase for 8 seconds. This buff stacks 5 times.

• Lingering Light: This trait has been re-worked. Instead of its former behavior, when you heal an ally their next outgoing attack will heal them (based upon your healing) and blind their target.

• Glyph of Unity: This skill now has a 400 initial effect radius and a 600 radius leash.

• Glyph of Empowerment: The radius for this skill has been increased to 600.

• Glyph of Alignment: Increased the weakness and cripple duration on this skill from 3s to 5s. Reduced the cast damage by 66%. This skill now applies 3 stacks of poison.

• Ancestral Grace: Is now an evade and will immediately end upon reaching your destination.

• Celestial Avatar Form: Entering this form now has a 10s CD. Charging of Astral force by healing has been reduced by 40%. Charging of Astral force by outgoing strikes has been increased by 200%. You now retain half your current astral force if you decide to break form early.

• Celestial Avatar Form: Skills that heal have had their base heals reduced by 15-25% and increased their healing coefficients from 100-145%. This should leave base heals solid while really rewarding players who elect to use healing power stats.

• (Celestial Avatar) Lunar Impact: Reduced the daze on this skill from 3s to 2s. This skill is now ground targeted and will blast finish correctly.

Well wishes,
~Irenio

Bonus: Bristleback Pet F2 is no longer the Sharpen Spines ability. The F2 is now Spike Barrage to give you more rewarding control.

big thanks to getting these out for us to preview!

ancestral grace revision is really nice

grace of the land rework is GREAT…but needs 600 radius. this will help make druids more wanted in group play that doesn’t need healers

glyph changes are extremely weak…..they still have no use in pve. not that they all have to, but at least glyph of empowerment……the dps bonus to a group is less than 3%., so who cares about its range? it stinks. also glyph of tides still has the same illogical normal/celestial functions…..why won’t you reverse them?

the rest seams fair.

can’t wait to test it out MoC style

since they explicitly said they are nerfing the gold reward from dungeons and moving them to other content (fractals and raids), fractals might be more worth it after HoT launches.

they are revamping fractals so that you only have to do one (not 4) to get a reward, so i can see fractals becoming the “new dungeons”.

meh, i don’t see the problem…..soloing certain dungeon paths/open world champs (if you can find a lonely open world champ) works if you want challenging solo content……otherwise personal story and living story episodes are there if you want instanced solo content.

the entire open world…instanced story missions….and certain “group content” is totally solo-able. for an MMO, its pretty decent in terms of catering to solo players.

mistsim.2748:

^that’s what I’m saying, decrease LI to like 2.5s base. MoC is too important for us.

sorry, i was referring to the original post that started the thread. totally agree w/ you.

why do you want to nerf the trait because one skill in astral form is OP w/ it……..instead of nerfing that one skill? increase that skills CD or lower the daze length. daze isn’t even OP.

ICD’s are kitten! no more ICD garbage on a balanced trait that allows for an incredibly fun, but niche, skill-based playstyle.

if they kitten up MoC, they are literally removing any reason to be a druid outside of dedicated healer…which as of now (including raids) is unnecessary in any content………………………..and yet there is NO DOUBT in my mind that they have already destroyed this trait, because the devs think like the OP: murder the trait….it’s easier than looking at all the individual skills and balancing them.

sadly…not in optimal groups…..and never will, unless: chill has some “slowing” effect on bosses……massive boon removal/corruption becomes necessary…..or a passive damage-soaking tank becomes necessary (damage too consistently delivered for “active defense” to be effective).

that said…it is a pretty awesome soloing class.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

I’m ok with the heals base being reduced and them scaling well with healing power, because that makes the Druid less healing centered. As long as the healing minor traits are also placed into Primal Echoes and the minors can be something generic that works with any build, for example daze on weapon swap could be the GM minor.

Also, if the heals are going to have to require a lot of healing power to be as effective as they are now, then the skills need to also scale FAR better with power to do more damage. Having skills that do no damage and or do not scale well with power is also not good for the game.

If the heals in CAF require more healing power to be effective, and the minor traits are not reshuffled, its basically saying that Druid requires Zealots or Cleric armor and a staff and it has no other playstyle other than healing. Bad. Not good for the game or Ranger. It would leave Ranger in a worse spot.

If that is the case, you may as well delete all the traits that have nothing to do with healing because they will never be used.

agree 100%……putting the on swap daze on all weapons (and improving glyphs) would open up some nice druid lockdown variants to current “core” ranger builds

its kinda bland, but i enjoy it in solo pve and wvw roaming. i like having a true ranged weapon…and traps are fine in melee and range (if the mobs get to you…they’re dead), though i certainly wouldn’t fill my bar w/ them.

Daddar.5971:

Unfortunately I need to sleep, and then get up and go to work for a living.

this…….keep it open until tuesday

depends on game mode…….massive aoe spam will kill your pet (instanced pve + wvw blobs), but when that isn’t an issue, druid will keep pet alive much easier and almost by accident.

lxghostxl.5097:

Most players are not aware but the highest dps build for rangers is Longbow Condi, A/D or A/T. and this build can compare about the same to an Ele burst combo/Guard just not require to be up close, and have allot of cleanse. even tho we can do this, rangers are still not liked in dungeons.

thought it was sinister A/T with quickdraw for bonfire and frost/sun spirit

Conner.5803:

People are not used to fight these classes yet, so it may look very OP at this moment. Give it time. People will start making counter builds against them.

this.
this “power creep” would only affect pvp…give pvp time to adjust/react

reaper and chrono are gems….Mr. Gee kills it.

Bhawb.7408:

And like Vydahr’s build does, you can swap Death Magic for Spite, which is probably more potent overall as Death Magic is a little bit on the weak side, but I just like the tankiness.

prefer spite, but either way….great builds…and super effective.

not in terms of meta…..not unless raids introduce a reason to corrupt boons…or have a true tank (reaper elite spec)

but if you don’t need to be “meta”, sure it’d viable…….and fun

that is awesome!

Tragic Positive.9356:

Relshdan.6854:

infantrydiv.1620:

I agree that there probably will be a place for a dedicated healer druid running clerics or whatnot, but it just seems like many people don’t understand that it would be entirely possible to play druid as a hybrid and only go into the form for 5-10 seconds to use the 3/4 skills once or twice on your party and then go back to DPS focus. This would be even more possible if changes are made to up the Astral Force gain from damaging skills and regen, then a Druid could play BM/Skirmishing with the standard condi stacking rotation while being tanky and being able to do heals on demand.

yep…..it’s weird to see so many sleeping on this.

I actually already play it this way, but the other way round.
The only faulty atm is that Astral Force is literally glued to nothing but staff.
If the astral meter is build in 6-10 seconds by doing Zerk DPS, that would become a viable solution. It currently takes ages.

I was totally consumed by Crusader (power,tough>healing,ferocity) gameplay where I baited all the cooldowns of the enemy, playing defensive and when I saw the opportunity, I left Astra/Staff formation and swapped to GS>Sigil of Intelligence+Maul, stun, pressure.

If this worked the other way, as well… Now that would be all and exactly what the druid needs.
Some numerical tweaks like Glyph of Unity or Staff skills would be welcome but core changes like DPS Astral form access need to get to live.

i like the hybrid/condi version using quickdraw for bonfire on torch…and just using troll ungent when your pet is low-ish on health works well for building AF…but yeah, nothing is as good as staff auto currently in non-group play. i don’t mind staff, in that skill3 and 4 are quite useful, and twhen traited MoC the 2 sec daze on swap is pretty sweet…but i would love AF generation on attack skills to be bumped up enough to not need staff. it would certainly help augment other builds with less drawbacks

infantrydiv.1620:

Relshdan.6854:

infantrydiv.1620:

Believe it or not but it’s entirely possibly to run Druid with Marksmanship/Skirmishing and do high damage while being able to go into healing form whenever necessary. I understand lots of people don’t like math but it’s easy to tell Druid’s healing hardly scales with healing power.

agree (although healer druid will likely have a place in stronghold and maybe raids, simply due to having so many).
not to mention the insane daze/cc/interrupts that you can add to a maul or bonfire quickdraw build, or to a trapper build

I agree that there probably will be a place for a dedicated healer druid running clerics or whatnot, but it just seems like many people don’t understand that it would be entirely possible to play druid as a hybrid and only go into the form for 5-10 seconds to use the 3/4 skills once or twice on your party and then go back to DPS focus. This would be even more possible if changes are made to up the Astral Force gain from damaging skills and regen, then a Druid could play BM/Skirmishing with the standard condi stacking rotation while being tanky and being able to do heals on demand.

yep…..it’s weird to see so many sleeping on this.

Tragic Positive.9356:

Relshdan.6854:

Dradiin.8935:

Relshdan.6854:

a really nice wvw/ stronghold class.

Ummm have you looked at your sig ?

i assume that’s an insult, but pls explain?

He might have been referring to the lack of Ranger Main in your signature. Just ignore it. Lots of people tend to get aggressive due to the Elite spec reveal.

It’s to be expected since not everybody got what he wanted.

Ah….well that would make sense.

anyway…i kinda like a bunch of what is current druid and with the right changes to some staff skills and glyphs, it can be a pretty nice elite spec.

lack of betas/iteration will make them weaker than other specs that have had 2 or 3 betas to tweak, but i don’t think druid started out as kittenome of the other ones, so you can hope one more pass before Hot will be enough to at least make them solid at their intended role, and mesh better with existing core traitlines.

Dradiin.8935:

Relshdan.6854:

a really nice wvw/ stronghold class.

Ummm have you looked at your sig ?

i assume that’s an insult, but pls explain?

infantrydiv.1620:

Believe it or not but it’s entirely possibly to run Druid with Marksmanship/Skirmishing and do high damage while being able to go into healing form whenever necessary. I understand lots of people don’t like math but it’s easy to tell Druid’s healing hardly scales with healing power.

agree (although healer druid will likely have a place in stronghold and maybe raids, simply due to having so many).
not to mention the insane daze/cc/interrupts that you can add to a maul or bonfire quickdraw build, or to a trapper build

a really nice wvw/ stronghold class.

Mirage.6754:

So not being a frequent forum poster immediately makes any feedback I give worthless?
Really?

On-topic, I created this thread because as a Ranger, the sheer damage difference between the smokescale and other pets felt huge. As much as I’d love for things to stay the way they are FOR THE SMOKESCALE, I believe such a high damage shouldn’t be exclusive to one pet. I said I was fine with the a 10% nerf, FOR THE SMOKESCALE.

I will also state, right here and right now, that this power level is something I would like for all “Damage Dealer” pets to be able to achieve.
Not a nerf without anything else in return; Rangers DESERVE nice things, and to me, a Smokescale-like damage (-5 or 10%, MAYBE) on damage-dealer-focused pets would be like a birthday present from someone I didn’t know: unexpected, but incredibly appreciated (though kinda creepy in that scenario ;P)

your input isn’t “worthless”, but the conclusion you came to shows no nerf is needed….yet you asked for a nerf?

honestly, what is more likely:

1) they slightly nerf smokeskale, and buff a few other pets to their level
2) they nerf smokeskale to the level of all other “dps pets”

you know it’s #2….so even starting your thread is detrimental to ranger

prefer smokeskale and bristleback. but definitely prefer elec to fire. wouldn’t use either in pve, tho…….uncontrollable knockback is a killer

human male, female norn

Carighan.6758:

Caine.8204:

It’s heavily overtuned. Wait for the nerf.

Read: Is actually able to feel useful in a group. Not just balanced around some 1v1 PvP whiner’s comments.

this x1000

its an incredibly well crafted mmo “class”…kudos Mr. Gee.

i think the empowerment one would be better at 20% at 5 sec w/ quickness removed and make these ground targeted at 900 range, and i’m sold. instant amazing group support class.

Zenos Osgorma.2936:

LughLongArm.5460:

I didnt c any nerf request for Smokescale , where is this coming from?

“the Smokescale could afford being nerfed by about 10%, " if the pet is ok , there is no need to even Suggest this.

this.

which leads me to believe OP actually does want it nerfed. Anet almost exclusively over-nerfs…..

there’s been no uprising over the power of smoke skale, so pls leave it be.

while i’d like more boons/utility/dmg on staff as well, if gylphs were ranged GT and buffed a bit (in radius and effect), druids would have a place even without the boons on staff/CF. glyph of empowerment, as is, is pretty bad……but if you doubled the duration for more sustained group dps (or doubled the dmg% for coordinated spikes) and made it ground targeted, that would be a very welcome group buff. add some spirits for other buffs/boons, ad you’d have a pretty good support spec

also,

glyph of empowerment needs its duration doubled (or dmg% doubled if you inteded this to be for coordinated spikes)) for it to be useful. as is now, it calcs out to a 3% dps boost…..