Guild Wars 2

This is really unhealthy what do you guys think its going to do if you constantly repeat yourselves on the forums? Everyone is aware of the many opinions now, this is just putting more doomsday negativity on the forums, and no offense but doomsday types tend to be irrational and the most vocal.

Here is what I do not understand, most people who play this game know that all classes are versatile in this game, and can do different things so please explain to me the logic behind ranger was not designed to heal? Guardians where not designed with longbow yet they are getting it, classes can be flexible to do anything if they add the skills but constantly saying a class is not designed to do this is getting really annoying, and makes no sense, people need to open there minds a bit more I am sorry that you constantly hyped yourself up to get druid but you know what? You do not get to make the game decisions and anet is not going to magically change it all for you. This is what they wanted to do and allot of people are happy to ok with it. This is not the be all end all I am sure more specs will come later, they are working on other changes as well and to be frank people need to get over it, I cannot fathom how anyone gets this stressed out over a video game and the concept theme of the class.

And I wont even begin to acknowledge people griping about the game not working for healing, anet would not do it if they didnt know what they where doing, they are professionals you know.

TJgalon.5012:

As someone who always partner with a ranger, and played it some before, They do damage pretty well. Just because some player believe one way is better then the other, does not mean it always like that.
Step 1 don’t listen to the meta, is how I play. I may check it out for dea, but in the end, I have to play my way, or I wont be playing well. I still manage to pull my weight and f that means it takes an extra minute to take down a champion then so e it.

I tend to fall asleep when I plays someone elses build.

Aomine.5012:

Rizo.9534:

Bad players will always Cry, even if their class will be most OP in game.
For me – Ranger was really powerful class. After Druid reveal, there born few very powerful builds. And it does not resemble the holy theme at all, and guardians are not holy lol.

And balance patch buffed some trait lines and skills, and that’s only the beginning.
More of that, Pets condition damage was finally buffed, and as we know, some combination of pets can keep u to 23 bleed on target. with 1000+25might + trait it’s 3300 dps from pet bleed only, so in pve pet will do close to 5-6k dps These will affect pvp also.

I’m really excited! i’m w8ing for Tuesday.

I love ranger because it’s ranger, not because it’s OP or not
Druid has nothing to do with ranger whatsoever, so I hate it very much.

There’s nothing about druid that resemble ranger a single bit.

Necro keeps his Shroud mechanic as Reaper
Mesmer keeps his shatter theme as Chrono
Thief keeps his evasive nature as daredevil
Warrior keeps his Adrenaline mechanic as Berserker
Ele keeps his attunements as Tempest

Druid’s entire design, focus, playstyle, emphasis, theme, none of them resemble ranger a single bit. (Before you say pet, there’s nothing about Druid that improves pet’s mechanic. Pet’s enhancement are universal to ranger, so it has nothing to do with Druid.)

Staff theme is more like Guardian’s holy theme. Glyph looks like some random ideas come out of nowhere, that has little synergy with ranger, and many of them looks subpar, and the animation is underwhelming. Traits are fine I guess. Celestial form is awful, no damage, no tagging, no AOE, no offensive/ defensive buffs, just healing and cleansing. Also, the entire design has nothing to do with ranger.

Some random other professions who play their classes only because they want to be the most OP class, they may like Druid because it excels in certain role.
However, as a ranger lover like me, not someone who play ranger only in hope of him being OP, I’m truly depressed, disappointed, and frustrated.

I think you may be exaggerating, it does not look that different then some of the spirits if you ask, I love the magic aspect of it, now instead of just shooting the same looking arrows for ranged I have another option for ranged. To be honest I only use shortbow anyways because lb is just boring to me.

Ramethzero.3785:

I have two rangers, and I love them both despite the problems the profession faces in the current state of the game. This is not going to change that.

The druid reveal? I like it. I think it adds a long-awaited flavour to rangers that I was happy to play during gw1, and the lore finally catching up to us now? I’m good with it.

The balance patch details? I’m ambivalent. As an older gamer, balance patches come and go and the evolution of the game changes. This is nothing new to me. The only balance patch that ever blew up my skirt were the condition changes during the last big drop. Beyond that, no matter what we’ve been given its always been an up and down process. I see no reason to white knight the ranger, and I definitely never saw a reason to blather on about hurt feelings about when they suffer dry spots. To me, its all the same. Maybe it makes me jaded, but the important thing is my rangers are gunna survive, and be what they are for me as long as I have them.

Pets reveal? I am one of the wierdos that actually doesn’t mind all the pets. They have their uses, like tools. And you can use the right tool for the right job. The more tools I have the better the craftsman I can be. Each of the pets have their good points and their bad, and the new pets are likely going to follow suit. The Bristleback kinda caught my eye, but we’ll see how that plays out.

The entire elite I’m going to add it to the list of things that are available to me, but are likely going to serve niche roles, like all the other builds. I find the term ‘elite’ spec is sort of ephemeral. Is it really elite? What’s so elite about it? Will it cost more than the regular specs? Why? Because after seeing what’s available the traits seem about as damp across the board as all the others. Has the elite specs widened the spectrum of possible builds? Maybe. Should it cost more than the others? I don’t think it should.

I said it before and I’ll say it again, that meta builds are sort of just another niche build. They work good in specific circumstances like all the others, but that one build that performs well against certain bosses well how many do they number? 3-4? 5+? Those mobs in those portions of the game represent a small faction of the whole. These elite specs I don’t think were meant to supplant all the other builds out there, and people who are flailing their arms crying about not wanting to be a healer? Well, you have a choice to not be. You can be the same ranger you always were. No one is forcing people to use these specs, and likely never should be.

What’s wrong with the specs is they are what they are, and they are going to change and evolve as the game progresses. They are not the problem. To my mind, its the thoroughly unhelpful vocal community that is the problem. There’s too much unrealistic expectation and ‘feels’, and not enough logical and critical discussion that is helpful to the community at large. Its true you have to dig through poop to find the gold, but if the unhelpfuls could stop kittenting all over everything, perhaps we can get to the meat of the issue a lot faster.

I do not think I have seen anyone type this better, this is a very constructive and reasonable opinion.

wolfpaq.7354:

Ryou.2398:

I just want to know how people get this info, not saying I do not believe you but just like the other guy who got the pictures of the drawing board lol.

I’m confused by what you mean. The youtube video I linked was to the presentation of the new ranger elite spec by an arenanet developer.

That’s right. That is an arenanet developer sitting there saying that dodge will not be enough to survive most of the expansion content.

Meanwhile another arenanet developer goes and designs our entire elite spec around dodge.

Just wait until tuesday and he said by dodging alone he didnt say dodge would be useless.
Also since dd gets more dodge capability maybe they meant most classes.

Stinja.9612:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGTsas99c_Q

you mean something like this : o

Oh kilik how he was my favorite character in soul caliber 1. How the mighty has fallen.

PopeUrban.2578:

Ryou.2398:

PopeUrban.2578:

Ryou.2398:

PopeUrban.2578:

Initiative.

Every time I play another class I feel like I’m forced to use skills just because they’re off cooldown or my damage sucks. When I’m playing a thief I feel like I use skills because I choose to use them. If I see something that 20% HP, i get to choose to use dagger 2 twice in a row in stead of hitting 3,4,5 because they’re the only skills off cooldown.

I can do loads more damage on my mesmer, but I just don’t have as much fun playing it, as the cooldowns-only skill system feels like the class is playing me rather than the other way around.

Like, every other class (except revnant, again because of the resource mechanics) I spend most of my time with everything but a few buttons on cooldown, so I don’t feel like I have all that many moment-to-moment choices in combat.

I dont know what class your playing but between weapon swaps, kits, and attunements I never had that issue.

I sure do. On non-thieves you run rotations not because it’s an efficient use of resources, but because you’re hard locked in to a system of cooldowns. There’s never any choice between “do I use my dash or my ranged cripple?” You obviously use the one that’s off cooldown, and if that doesn’t work you use the other one.

Playing other professions is essentially playing with a full bar of less powerful utilities. I cringe every time I use mesmer GS 4 and 5 for the DPS rather than the utility on a single foe. Sure, I could hold those skills, but in the end I’m just wasting damage because I can’t in stead choose to prioritize my character’s resources on single target attacks.

I’m not saying it isn’t skillful. Knowing when to hit buttons and how to prioritize the use of those cooldowns is still skillful play, but I like thief and rev because they’re more complex than choosing which order to hit buttons in, as I choose both what order to hit buttons in, how many times to hit the buttons, and what buttons to not hit at all based on the situation I’m in. In stead of being loaded with more buttons, the skill there is choosing when to use the buttons and whether it’s worth the cost compared to the other buttons.

I think you may be prasing thief a little more then what the truth is, I have played thief and you still have to utilize certain rotations for the situation and the same goes for many classes, and you still have to manage initiative, on my characters I do not use the same rotations either, it depends on the situation not to mention abilities can have many uses to the group and myself, I think if anything your only seeing more of an illusion of choice as there are no cooldowns but stop saying other classes do not have the same amount of choices because they do, and you do realize you lower cooldowns on allot of abilities once you spec right?

This isn’t a contest. It’s just a matter of how these classes feel to me personally. I prefer having a resource bar to track rather than multiple cooldowns. It just feels more intuitive and less limiting.

Calm down. You’re acting like I’m saying “all those other classes suck” I’m just saying I don’t like playing them.

I’m glad other people do! A game full of nothing but thieves and revnants would be pretty boring.

You did not state it was only your opinion you where implying other classes do not get as much choice, and I am calm sir, maybe your not calm?

wolfpaq.7354:

alchemyst.2165:

despite what others may say

Oh really. You mean despite what others, such as the developers of the content itself may say?

https://youtu.be/K2ZHhJQn0B8?t=67

Most of the content of heart of thorns where there’s gonna be a lot more pressure on the player that you simply can’t dodge to survive.

Do you know better than the people who are designing the actual content? Somehow I doubt it.

The daredevil spec was confirmed garbage at twitchcon this weekend.

I just want to know how people get this info, not saying I do not believe you but just like the other guy who got the pictures of the drawing board lol.

PopeUrban.2578:

Ryou.2398:

PopeUrban.2578:

Initiative.

Every time I play another class I feel like I’m forced to use skills just because they’re off cooldown or my damage sucks. When I’m playing a thief I feel like I use skills because I choose to use them. If I see something that 20% HP, i get to choose to use dagger 2 twice in a row in stead of hitting 3,4,5 because they’re the only skills off cooldown.

I can do loads more damage on my mesmer, but I just don’t have as much fun playing it, as the cooldowns-only skill system feels like the class is playing me rather than the other way around.

Like, every other class (except revnant, again because of the resource mechanics) I spend most of my time with everything but a few buttons on cooldown, so I don’t feel like I have all that many moment-to-moment choices in combat.

I dont know what class your playing but between weapon swaps, kits, and attunements I never had that issue.

I sure do. On non-thieves you run rotations not because it’s an efficient use of resources, but because you’re hard locked in to a system of cooldowns. There’s never any choice between “do I use my dash or my ranged cripple?” You obviously use the one that’s off cooldown, and if that doesn’t work you use the other one.

Playing other professions is essentially playing with a full bar of less powerful utilities. I cringe every time I use mesmer GS 4 and 5 for the DPS rather than the utility on a single foe. Sure, I could hold those skills, but in the end I’m just wasting damage because I can’t in stead choose to prioritize my character’s resources on single target attacks.

I’m not saying it isn’t skillful. Knowing when to hit buttons and how to prioritize the use of those cooldowns is still skillful play, but I like thief and rev because they’re more complex than choosing which order to hit buttons in, as I choose both what order to hit buttons in, how many times to hit the buttons, and what buttons to not hit at all based on the situation I’m in. In stead of being loaded with more buttons, the skill there is choosing when to use the buttons and whether it’s worth the cost compared to the other buttons.

I think you may be prasing thief a little more then what the truth is, I have played thief and you still have to utilize certain rotations for the situation and the same goes for many classes, and you still have to manage initiative, on my characters I do not use the same rotations either, it depends on the situation not to mention abilities can have many uses to the group and myself, I think if anything your only seeing more of an illusion of choice as there are no cooldowns but stop saying other classes do not have the same amount of choices because they do, and you do realize you lower cooldowns on allot of abilities once you spec right?

Lol where did you find this? Just sitting in the forums somewhere?

PopeUrban.2578:

Initiative.

Every time I play another class I feel like I’m forced to use skills just because they’re off cooldown or my damage sucks. When I’m playing a thief I feel like I use skills because I choose to use them. If I see something that 20% HP, i get to choose to use dagger 2 twice in a row in stead of hitting 3,4,5 because they’re the only skills off cooldown.

I can do loads more damage on my mesmer, but I just don’t have as much fun playing it, as the cooldowns-only skill system feels like the class is playing me rather than the other way around.

Like, every other class (except revnant, again because of the resource mechanics) I spend most of my time with everything but a few buttons on cooldown, so I don’t feel like I have all that many moment-to-moment choices in combat.

I dont know what class your playing but between weapon swaps, kits, and attunements I never had that issue.

Why does everyone think they are experts in mmorpgs? Maybe someone needs to come out with an mmorpg that encourages people to think they are. Just saying if people are constantly try tearing apart the mmorpg they play then why play it?

I think its safe to stop thinking healing will not be useful considering how much effort went into druid.

Zenos Osgorma.2936:

TheFantasticGman.9451:

Zenos, I’m not going to go round-and-round with you. Time in an instance is important to some, and some it’s not. It’s simple. I said that already. 10 minutes doesn’t matter to you but it does to me. I’m sorry you can’t wrap your mind around that concept that people value things differently. Some of us can and will run the high dps builds in HoT, some can’t and won’t. It is what it is. Birds of a feather will flock together and cut asunder those whom are different. That’s the way it has been and always will be as it is human nature. I will run raids with those of similar time value who don’t want to spend all day in an instance if they don’t have to. Hyper is right. Dungeons were thought to be incredibly difficult when first introduced, and now look. Those who don’t learn the content will fail regardless of gear or builds. Those who learn the content will move on to high dps builds because they can. Raids will be no different than dungeons, mark my words.

good luck with that bosses won;’t stand in one place long enough.

Bosses have patterns them moving has nothing to do with it.

Zenos Osgorma.2936:

Ryou.2398:

TheFantasticGman.9451:

Zenos Osgorma.2936:

TheFantasticGman.9451:

Oh, I’m not disagreeing… Again, what I am saying is that the only way a druid will be brought is that if it is required to have that much healing. Zerks bring just enough CC and support to get the job done (I think I said this already in the bolded parts above)… or they have fantastic DPS. Eles and guards can already bring fantastic healing… so… Yeah. Moot point.

right so you are compairing a STAT SET to a Druid skill set , thats not how it works , the class may bring lots of heal skills those skills also Damage so it won’t be a " required" thing it will be a Optional thing its up the group not if its Required! you are getting close to Zerker Elitism saying its only going to be taken because its Healing is Required get over yourself.

Again, you don’t understand. It’s more than a stat set. Saying “zerker” is merely branding to a build that does, yes, use zerker stats… but sure, go ahead and believe whatever you want and remain ignorant and keep that straw-man to yourself.

By the way, those damages on those heal skills are utter garbage.

I don’t really care if you call me Zerker Elitist or whatever to make yourself feel better. Fact remains the goal of encounters is to kill things, just like it will be in raids. There are people like yourself who won’t mind spending many many hours in the same instance and then there will be people like me who want to get it done and over.

Where is the proof that meta builds save hours? As long as people find a balance of playstyle fun and effective then it should not be a big deal, this is an still an mmo/rpg therefor should be able to have the choice in freedom of your character instead if only choosing between 2 builds that someone else made and specific groups in the community approve of, isnt that partly what guild wars 2 is about anyways?

ironicly the fact is a speed running group of full zerkers (in old content) gets runs cleared in 5-10mins , vs other groups which take 10-20mins Not much difference at all! if you have time to sit and play a hour or two of gw2 a extra 10mins means nothing , its a game and should be fun the zerker meta makes thing feel like a flipping job grinding out money / gold every day doing these dungeons over inflating the TP ect its not Healthy for the game End point! every other MMO Failed due to over farming or TP prices going too high or having too much gold in the system , its not a matter of time / gold income or its a zerker or a druid at that , its the point that this guy thinks zerker meta will be the meta still when only 3-4/10 people will be running that Stat combo.

times change so should this guys point of view , killing things fast is not a Requirement and that is the problem with zerker meta too , it effects everything in game.

I completely agree and its the same for any mmo really, but I dont usually see people exaggerate to that extent by saying hours for example that does not even remotely make sense.

TheFantasticGman.9451:

Zenos Osgorma.2936:

TheFantasticGman.9451:

Oh, I’m not disagreeing… Again, what I am saying is that the only way a druid will be brought is that if it is required to have that much healing. Zerks bring just enough CC and support to get the job done (I think I said this already in the bolded parts above)… or they have fantastic DPS. Eles and guards can already bring fantastic healing… so… Yeah. Moot point.

right so you are compairing a STAT SET to a Druid skill set , thats not how it works , the class may bring lots of heal skills those skills also Damage so it won’t be a " required" thing it will be a Optional thing its up the group not if its Required! you are getting close to Zerker Elitism saying its only going to be taken because its Healing is Required get over yourself.

Again, you don’t understand. It’s more than a stat set. Saying “zerker” is merely branding to a build that does, yes, use zerker stats… but sure, go ahead and believe whatever you want and remain ignorant and keep that straw-man to yourself.

By the way, those damages on those heal skills are utter garbage.

I don’t really care if you call me Zerker Elitist or whatever to make yourself feel better. Fact remains the goal of encounters is to kill things, just like it will be in raids. There are people like yourself who won’t mind spending many many hours in the same instance and then there will be people like me who want to get it done and over.

Where is the proof that meta builds save hours? As long as people find a balance of playstyle fun and effective then it should not be a big deal, this is an still an mmo/rpg therefor should be able to have the choice in freedom of your character instead if only choosing between 2 builds that someone else made and specific groups in the community approve of, isnt that partly what guild wars 2 is about anyways?

Classes are getting changed for the good of the game like they said on twitch, many classes are suffering nerfs and honestly they make allot of sense guys. I do not understand why anyone wants broken skills anyways, its not fun cheesing your way through pvp, or pve.

Hey I just thought the song was funny they have others about the classes and even a wooden potatoes anthem song lol.

Cristobal.8640:

One of the games I remember most fondly, Ragnarok Online, had a class with an amazing pet mechanic, the Homunculus. You had to craft them and then raise them, keep them fed. On the Homunculu’s management window, you could select a file to give your pet AI, it used the .lua proramming language. You could also control your pet manually, order it to move etc. People made and shared fun and effective scripts.

Is anything even a little close to that possible for Gw2? Maybe just an in-game programmable AI with some options, like don’t stand there dying to AoE like a dumb lettuce, use skill X on Y conditions, etc.

Usually I do not like those korean style mmorpgs but I loved ragnorak for the time I spent as a ranger your right the pet mechanics where amazing. But anet does not need to go that much in depth for it, because this game in its classes then what ragnorak had.

But the nerf was neeeded.

Inflames.8026:

To me it looks like so people here think they are forced to run around and heal their allies now and lower their dps. And I’m also thinking to myself. Does rangers want MORE dps? Thats all you got at the moment and where does that take you? Are you welcomed into anything group related? Are you top tier pick for a team to bring along?

HoT is bringing diversity people. Its for those who enjoy doing damage and supporting themselves or their allies. You can still run the mindless zerker LB build that you’ve run ever since LB became relevant again.

You do realize there are builds for melee in dungeons to right? Longbow is kind of pointless since you can only spam a few moves from it without crippling your dps, and its not very fun.

Ashen.2907:

Purecura.1795:

Ashen.2907:

Purecura.1795:

Ashen.2907:

Purecura.1795:

Ashen.2907:

Purecura.1795:

Leo G.4501:

Hylox.9746:

my zerk longbow ranger does way more dmg than what the druid was shown on the stream. + my lb ranger has piercing arrows which lets me do a little bit of aoe consistantly. how will healing give me access to more drops?

Sometimes I wonder if posters here have any logic at all. Why would a druid that has access to a lot of group healing and support do as much damage as a longbow zerk ranger?

If you’re complaining that the devs didn’t introduce a spec that does more damage than any current ranger despite many complaints about the profession being unwanted because it can’t provide support…I’ll just let you reread that sentence out loud and maybe you’ll understand the lapse of logic here.

Not only that but that whole “Tether foes to you and deal damage to them that you suffer” is powerful as kitten. And you can still transfer damage that is reduced by boons?

Leo hon, Clearly he just doesnt get it. Him and many other ZERKER ZOMBIES are going to complain like salty nerds. With no sense of an open mind.

So tossing pejoratives at people because they don’t share your views is an indication of an open mind ?

Honey no, people who toss around negative opinions and comments about a ELITE SPEC they have never played, nor tried in any game mode PvX.

So you attack people for having an opinion about a video game ?

You have no more experience of the spec than they do and yet comment in support of it.

First of all no one is attacking anyone. Second of all, I support the fact that no one has played the spec yet, and should not bash it. I support the idea of giving it a chance before you knock it. Clearly your mentality is backwards honey pie sugar plum.

Ahh, so calling people nerds and zombies, and referring to them as mentally backwards, weren’t verbal attacks? Got it.

I haven’t knocked the spec, haven’t commented on its merits at all.

No one has played the spec and so no one knows whether it is good or bad. Praising something without experience of that something isn’t any better than criticizing without experience.

Your perception is your reality. If you want to take facts and turn them into personal attacks against you, then that is on you babe. Clearly I’am happy about the route ANET is going with their new ROLES granted by the elite specs, including the druid. Things are going in my favor along with many others who cant wait to HEAL.

I didn’t turn anything into anything. Calling people names is a form of attack. That is a fact.

For what it is worth I am glad that you are happy with the direction for the Druid. Anything that gives people more options to enjoy the game in a manner that they enjoy is a good thing.

I do wish that you could be happy about something without attacking others for having a different opinion about a video game though.

I am curious about one aspect of your post though. The option to HEAL has been present in game all along, why specifically have you felt the need to, “wait,” as you put it ?

I agree people get way to defensive over classes, if someone does not like the change that is there right to have and express that opinion as long as it is not insulting or constructive unlike many of the people who do like the changes have shown. I like the changes but you do not see me attacking people for not liking it geesh whats the big deal? Its not like they are taking away the druid from us.

I dont get how some of you can be so vile, everything is still in beta and you get one thing taken taken away so you complain about druids, why fan only one class? Everyone should try to play more then one anyways.

I wished people would stop making these topics, if anet believes this is natured themed then they do they have seen the complaints by now if they wish to change it in the future then im sure they will.

I think its natural enough, I didnt play guild wars 1 so I do not know much on druid lore within the game but your not going to make it change with thread after thread.

Ironwill.5389:

I think Anet was going for a slightly different slant on the nature theme:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FpY2KQbeQ0

there’s tonnes of lore that could support a nature based class and a celestial based class… I think they were drawing on the GW1 Factions nature/spirit model as their inspiration (come on.. the Revenant has Shiro!)

You guys are missing the obvious attempt to shoehorn Canthan lore into the game (aka… cantha confirmed..)

So where is my astral martial arts class dang it?

Iozeph.5617:

Ryou.2398:

Unholy Pillager.3791:

Iozeph.5617:

So are Druids going to be given the ability to blood sacrifice a party member, or a baby even, for a short duration boon during combat?

Say, a five-eight second channeled elite skill(after the fashion of the old guardian tomes) that summons an altar upon which any friendly player or NPC within range has a stone knife thrust into its chest by the Druid in order to create a field in the form of a slowly spreading pool of blood around them. Players standing in the pool receive the boon.

I’d be all for that -naysayers be kitten ed- you know… Seeing as we’re all so obsessed with verisimilitude here.

The whole human sacrifice thing was a fabrication by Caesar to garner support for his genocide in Gaul. Sorry to burst your bubble, but animal sacrifice is as close as you can get, and everyone did that.

Yep, totally made up crap, druids for what records are left have no evidence of doing any kind of sacrifices. I Do not think they even had evidence of animal sacrifices, that was something adopted later into celtic paganism I believe.

Actually the jury is still out one way or the other. With Strabo and Caesar it could be argued their writings are of a political nature but we just don’t know for certain. Even now we have only an incomplete picture/record of the Roman era.

Then you have the Lindow man, and the Alveston burials, both of which could be taken as evidence of sacrifice, a punishment, or in the case of Alveston, even cannibalism. Still, those are incomplete pictures.

What it comes down to is whether or not you want to go with what surviving written histories or accounts there are from the time, or whether, as has been done off and on with the Vikings, you choose to rehabilitate the Celtic and Druidic cultures to fall in line with whatever positive bias you hold.

Actually there is quite a bit of evidence out there on this, just like how almost all native americans where viewed as savages there is allot of mis info on them as well as other cultures out there because of historic figures.
http://druidnetwork.org/what-is-druidry/beliefs-and-definitions/articles/sacrifice/druids-and-human-sacrifice/
And this is not from another source.
Sacrifice" means “to make Sacred”, it does not mean “to kill”.

“Druids” were, and are, members of a Caste system in the Celtic Culture, and, while they are educated in a great variety of skills, including Ritual, they are not just Priests, but Doctors, Judges, and Teachers.

The Romans killed many, many people in their thousand year rule-some as burnt offerings to their Gods, some burnt just for fun. Celtic Culture has existed at least since 3000 bc. and still exists, and, while we are not afraid of War and Battle, we value Life, and the Gifts of Nature.

idontnoso.9850:

Ryou.2398:

idontnoso.9850:

Ryou.2398:

Sigh druid actually means other names to, they where not religious that is the modern pagan/druid stuff you see today, they never worshiped but only connected/respected, and understood to them it was natural existence. And by insulting others by accusing people of qquing is not helpful or constructive and no one will listen, it is an immature phrase as a whole and people really should try to stop using it. And everyone is going to have different opinions, not everyone has to like the direction the druid is going, and people have a right to express there thoughts as long as its not rude and if its constructive. I really think you do think your in the right here tc. Now I dont have a full opinion on the druid yet I like it, but we have not seen all the balance changes yet, I am sure we can use some of the druid stuff into dps specs to, personally I find the astral stuff cool. But I do not know much about the guild wars 1 druid lore.

Edited, thx for feedback.

I appreciate the edit, but almost is still off man, if you understood the things they did you would see.

Think I got it this time. I left it as a general idea of what a druid is based on the website. If you have a better example based on your personal knowledge, just post it and I’ll edit the main post.

One of the most striking characteristics of Druidism is the degree to which it is free of dogma and any fixed set of beliefs or practices. In this way it manages to offer a spiritual path, and a way of being in the world that avoids many of the problems of intolerance and sectarianism that the established religions have encountered.
http://www.druidry.org/druid-way/druid-beliefs
https://prezi.com/mphawtwhhd3a/the-celts/ the bottom part
https://books.google.com/books?id=ldF340rfFCMC&pg=PA93&lpg=PA93&dq=druids+do+not+worship&source=bl&ots=FoTgnH0Sio&sig=sTIPwt7IPDXcINoCDUFMtaekfi4&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CE4Q6AEwCGoVChMItfP4hrmVyAIVi86ACh043wBz#v=onepage&q=druids%20do%20not%20worship&f=false
There is plenty more info out there if your interested I hope this helps.

idontnoso.9850:

Ryou.2398:

Sigh druid actually means other names to, they where not religious that is the modern pagan/druid stuff you see today, they never worshiped but only connected/respected, and understood to them it was natural existence. And by insulting others by accusing people of qquing is not helpful or constructive and no one will listen, it is an immature phrase as a whole and people really should try to stop using it. And everyone is going to have different opinions, not everyone has to like the direction the druid is going, and people have a right to express there thoughts as long as its not rude and if its constructive. I really think you do think your in the right here tc. Now I dont have a full opinion on the druid yet I like it, but we have not seen all the balance changes yet, I am sure we can use some of the druid stuff into dps specs to, personally I find the astral stuff cool. But I do not know much about the guild wars 1 druid lore.

Edited, thx for feedback.

I appreciate the edit, but almost is still off man, if you understood the things they did you would see.

Guys I think they do this so they can more easily read the feedback really which shows they are trying.

They mentioned they will be looking into the ranger so this could mean the pets to.

Sigh druid actually means other names to, they where not religious that is the modern pagan/druid stuff you see today, they never worshiped but only connected/respected, and understood to them it was natural existence. And by insulting others by accusing people of qquing is not helpful or constructive and no one will listen, it is an immature phrase as a whole and people really should try to stop using it. And everyone is going to have different opinions, not everyone has to like the direction the druid is going, and people have a right to express there thoughts as long as its not rude and if its constructive. I really think you do think your in the right here tc. Now I dont have a full opinion on the druid yet I like it, but we have not seen all the balance changes yet, I am sure we can use some of the druid stuff into dps specs to, personally I find the astral stuff cool. But I do not know much about the guild wars 1 druid lore.

Unholy Pillager.3791:

Iozeph.5617:

So are Druids going to be given the ability to blood sacrifice a party member, or a baby even, for a short duration boon during combat?

Say, a five-eight second channeled elite skill(after the fashion of the old guardian tomes) that summons an altar upon which any friendly player or NPC within range has a stone knife thrust into its chest by the Druid in order to create a field in the form of a slowly spreading pool of blood around them. Players standing in the pool receive the boon.

I’d be all for that -naysayers be kitten ed- you know… Seeing as we’re all so obsessed with verisimilitude here.

The whole human sacrifice thing was a fabrication by Caesar to garner support for his genocide in Gaul. Sorry to burst your bubble, but animal sacrifice is as close as you can get, and everyone did that.

Yep, totally made up crap, druids for what records are left have no evidence of doing any kind of sacrifices. I Do not think they even had evidence of animal sacrifices, that was something adopted later into celtic paganism I believe.

Eric.7813:

The druid has an amazing new mechanic. I feel that the celestial form fits very well with the theme of traditional/historical Celtic druids. this whole thing about turning into an animal is merely a WOW interpretation. A real druid was similar to a priest, even comparable to a east Asian monk. having a higher state of being is perfectly illustrated with the celestial theme

I am really HAPPY how the druid turned out. It is truely unique and probably one of the better representations of what a real druid would thematically be like.

All this shape shifting into an animal crap would have been very disappointing. Transforming into a higher being is awesome.

Exactly how much druid research have you done? This is not rude but a serious question. There are stories of them turning into animals that is not just a wow, they also believe in channeling different forms of nature in general like trees even or beyond just the earth, then there is even things like teleportation and many other reality bending legends they have.
http://druidsegg.reformed-druids.org/newslughnasadh10-16.htm
Just google it there is allot of info out there on this.

Azure.8670:

The reason why this post is so ridiculous is because the druid is going to be mandatory for so many things. Rangers are going from being lol get out of here to wow please join me, and people are complaining. REALLY? youre NOT going to be top DPS; not every class can be top dps. Dont you want to be more helpful, rather than just doing knockbacks and kicked? Youre going from bearbow to healer/bow or healer/friggen dragon tamer.

wow. we are all very happy you didnt preorder, trust.

Not everyone is irrational when it comes to another having a different opinion, I am just saying not everyone cares as much as you do about people not preordering.

xarallei.4279:

Ryou.2398:

xarallei.4279:

zinkz.7045:

xarallei.4279:

Particularly if you want to go dps in pve.

LOL, and there we have the truth, some people are QQing basically because they want to DPS in PvE which Druid is not going to help, so it doesn’t fit your personal playstyle in your specific bit of the game so it is “kitten”.

Way to ignore everything I said and take stuff out of context. Nowhere did I say it was “kitten.” In fact I said I look forward to trying it out. I already explained, MULTIPLE times that the big problem arises when you don’t want to be a healer in pve. Druid is great for support, but is unusable for pve dps because of the lack of synergy. Now if the core profession was in great shape, then this wouldn’t be a problem. That’s not the case. Ranger has issues. Now the balance patch stream is coming up, maybe it will address these problems, who knows.

Please stop being so rude, everyone is allowed to have an opinion on there view of a ranger, honestly I do not see the other classes with such a big change, personally I think this is a good thing but at the same time I can understand why people will not think it is appealing considering rangers in dnd are more inclined of not using staffs. But a variety of weapons however ranger also means versatility allot so it can make sense for a ranger to use all forms of weapons which includes a staff and since rangers are closer to druidism in guild wars it does actually make sense.

Anyways it is not constructive to insult anyone here so everyone just needs to stop and instead try to help others see how it might actually be fun for them and they did they if you watched the entire video they said they will be looking into balancing the ranger.

I’m not sure why you are quoting my post. The person I was quoting was the rude one calling people “QQers” and taking things completely out of context. Nowhere did I insult that person.

Sorry it was meant for the other person and the rest being that way, my apologies.

As a mesmer I agree with this nerf, our stealth was a bit to much, and we arent the only stealth class.

If classes are being changed maybe I should wait to play at all, leveling is part of the fun for me and I would really be excited for changes to classes like the ranger.

angan.6572:

I don’t like it. It feels like there is not synergy with the other trait lines.

The new druid skills offer zero damage output. Go full healing bot = good group sustain but zero damage output thus dragging the fights longer. HoT has no new dungeons and the existing ones can still be done fast and smooth without a healer so i see no point in dragging along a druid in fractals / dungeons.

I feel Druid will only be needed to raid contents, since in the rest of the open world content is pretty much unnecessary to have one.

This is not how i imagined my beloved ranger to be. When i rolled ranger as main when i started GW2 i was intrigued by the the whole hunter / trapper aspect using pets as companions. I felt Guardian / Elementalist were best suited for the “healing” part of the game. I would be more than happy if they just fixed the pets AI and offered some minor changes to fix the so many problems of the class, not being forced to be a healing bot.

I guess people who really wanted a dedicated healing class are pretty exited about it, and i get the feeling the people celebrating in this forum have never played ranger before. They just saw “OMG DRUID HEALER SO COOL” and just flood the forums, but for me the whole hunter theme is gone now.

I guess the whole events thing need to be revamp now for people that opt to go full healing bots…. else they’ll stack in seeing bronze for the rest of their lives.

tl;dr Dissapointed by the Druid line.

Its one spec however its not like there are 3 healing specs, and I am sure there is some way to work damage specs with the druid, or atleast able to use the staff as a dps spec. They also said they will be looking into balancing ranger. If anything we gotta stop jumping to assumptions and wait and see, I get what your saying really, a ranger should be able to be a ranger and I think we will still be able to but all we can do is wait.

Mystic warriors to me is something along the lines of battle mage, the only real magic I saw was chains and teleporting.

Jack of all trades classes always existed in mmorpgs, usually they can fill any hole in a group on the spot and thats what made then liked in groups but they would also offer a few unique buffs as well, anyways I do agree with you, but every mmo has a self sufficient class that does not need to rely on others.

Ehecatl.9172:

The thing about the GW1 druids is that we know next to nothing about their practices, rituals, or magic. All we know is their ultimate fate of becoming one with Maguuma.

Beyond that we don’t know what sort of magic they had. Were they rangers? Were they monks who worshiped Melandru? Shoot, for all we know they could’ve been necromancers.

Now we have a general idea. Like druids in real life and several other fantasy settings they used magic that reflected their view of nature. Contrary to what most people think “nature” is not limited to Earth/Tyria. Nature is all that exists naturally, which includes the sun, moon, and stars and all the celestial bodies of the universe.

Historic druids paid close attention to the celestial bodies. They watched and charted the stars and kept track of important celestial events like the equinox which was considered a deeply spiritual event. Druids in Tyria seem to have had a similar reverence for the world beyond ours and used it’s power to help defend Maguuma. And as they grew more and more powerful with the celestial magic of nature they finally reached a point where their mortal bodies were no longer useful and shed them, becoming spirits of nature.

You have no idea how happy it makes me you did not confuse druidism with pagan druidism, where they worship gods.

Defiling Treekiller.1632:

the original Ranger was Strider(Aragorn) who was reknowned throughout Middle Earth as a great healer as well as warrior………………………………………..the basis of all fantasy sword/torch longbow wielding bad mofo that will bring you back from the dead with herbs and care of spirit

I know this but strider also meant a master of the area, from my understanding in the books it was kind of presented this way, so they are not limited to only what arogorn uses in combat. And just because the name is ranger there does not mean it was not under other names previously just saying.

xarallei.4279:

zinkz.7045:

xarallei.4279:

Particularly if you want to go dps in pve.

LOL, and there we have the truth, some people are QQing basically because they want to DPS in PvE which Druid is not going to help, so it doesn’t fit your personal playstyle in your specific bit of the game so it is “kitten”.

Way to ignore everything I said and take stuff out of context. Nowhere did I say it was “kitten.” In fact I said I look forward to trying it out. I already explained, MULTIPLE times that the big problem arises when you don’t want to be a healer in pve. Druid is great for support, but is unusable for pve dps because of the lack of synergy. Now if the core profession was in great shape, then this wouldn’t be a problem. That’s not the case. Ranger has issues. Now the balance patch stream is coming up, maybe it will address these problems, who knows.

Please stop being so rude, everyone is allowed to have an opinion on there view of a ranger, honestly I do not see the other classes with such a big change, personally I think this is a good thing but at the same time I can understand why people will not think it is appealing considering rangers in dnd are more inclined of not using staffs. But a variety of weapons however ranger also means versatility allot so it can make sense for a ranger to use all forms of weapons which includes a staff and since rangers are closer to druidism in guild wars it does actually make sense.

Anyways it is not constructive to insult anyone here so everyone just needs to stop and instead try to help others see how it might actually be fun for them and they did they if you watched the entire video they said they will be looking into balancing the ranger.

Ark Bladesteele.2943:

Can I have your stuff?

No, seriously, complaining about something that you didn’t preorder and are supposedly never going to buy (you will!) is the lamest crap ever.

To be fair so is posting in the forum your complaining about.

Ok I am confused how are elite specs not part of the core class, its just a spec not a individual class guys regardless of what you think, can druid not switch to ranger weapons or something in the avatar form?

Kodiak.3281:

The point:

1. Defensive Frost aura and Regeneration for self.
2. A heal on swapping to Water, even if we swap right out of it.
3. 10% damage boost while above 90% or super defensive Cantrips
4. Colossal condi management with Condi removal on Regen give our massive sources of Regen

Elementalists don’t sit in Water and just heal. None of that functionality changes because another class gains healing abilities. All this shows is when they want a class to be healing oriented, such as Druid, you will really see a proper healing setup.

Hopefully this will show people that Tempest is an Aura bot and nothing more.

This is what I was thinking with my short time as an elementalist when I tried this game before it seemed like you can heal some while still doing crazy damage and some cc, what is so bad about this? A druid has to transform and has healing abilities enchanced in the form itself.

Kodama.6453:

I think the opposite direction. Druid is one of the best designed elite specs this far. Especially the animations you are complaining about. A healing blossom, I totally love it. They couldn’t have made it any better.

I like some of the animations I just wished they where a little flashier and bigger but I do not have an issue with the spec.

But some the visuals of the staff needs more umph and maybe bigger animations, they look less then other classes, I do not think they are bad just a little small but I have not played it so maybe it will feel different when you play it, but celestial form looks awesome. Being the only true healing class will make rangers very useful. I think this was needed.
And if you guys watch to the end of the video he talks about how he reads forums in his spare time and will focus on balancing the ranger better and etc.

http://dulfy.net/2015/09/25/gw2-druid-ranger-elite-specialization-livestream-reveal/
And the pets are just amazing.

Druid will be used if anything people will prefer druid specs since it will be the only true healer in the game.