Guild Wars 2

salogel.1869:

Snipped

Thanks a lot salogel.

Since I do not really play WvW at all I don’t have any knowledge about that particular area. I decided to use your builds for the list since both seem like good choices.

My particular guess would be the GS+Staff since the glorious mobility it offers.

I’ve already updated some of the builds I posted and will continue to do so in future. Thank you all for your suggestions and feedback. It really helps me keep the list updated and correct.

jcbroe.4329:

You’re going to have to remove the crusader build from the PvP section, it was confirmed by a red post that the Crusader amulet will be hotfixed out this week (along with the Vigilant amulet).

Personally for this PvP season, I’d run:
Paladin GS: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQJAWRnUqAlsiVsCOsActglOBDelOT3pOBuAQh7pFMAWYlMtzA-TZBGABBt/w+lBA4BAgwRAIhLBAA
Paladin LB: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQJAWTnUqAlsiVsCOsActglOBzJwFAKcPtgQ1CDelOT3plMtzA-TJBGABA8EA2vMQQ7PkwlAAA
Mercenary Sword/Torch: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNAW8fnUqAFsiVsCOsActglOB7pFEqWYOBuAQhDelOT3pl480A-TJRHAB1XGgn9HC4JAAwFBAA

Mender is too squishy, SoS can be replaced with a shout (SnR, Guard, Protect Me) for utility over tanking, and in general, I’d be surprised if anything else really gets all that popular this PvP season that isn’t just a variation of one of these builds.

Thanks a lot for these templates. I’ll definitely use the GS one.

Since season has started I’ll now have easier time keeping an eye on meta and which role a Ranger can take up on.
I’ll be updating the builds in near future.

Zenos Osgorma.2936:

and thats why you transfer the might to the pet , even if its just 1 second! the pet gains 10 might with Fortifying bond! which you GAIN from heal as one and that then restacks to the pet for 20might.

as in my post this Trait works best with Tanky offensive build types not the Glass stuff we are use to.

all it needs is a Defensive tweek/ addition.

or you should run Striders Defence (just try it and start evading!) you’ll be suprised how much might you can transfer and gain just through heal as one with a Boon duration increase.

I can get the same effect with 3 auto-attacks of MH axe, from range and I don’t have to suicide. Your argument either ignored this statement or is invalid.

Ranger doesn’t have to sacrifice 50+% of his HP just to get the same might as he could have gotten with a might-stacking build. (by running might you want to play hybrid which naturally includes Axe anyway).

bloodpyrope.8630:

Oh I meant that honestly. I’ve tried builds like that before and I’ve always ended up needing to cave and drop at least one trap for a stunbreak. Haven’t tried a trap druid yet, but I’d imagine the stun break on CAF would be something I’d take.

Ah, well, to be frank, I skipped the traits, didn’t really check them.
Yup, I’d change some traits. Most of them have already been suggested. Yup, Druidic Clarity is a must-have for any PvP environment.

bloodpyrope.8630:

No stunbreaks or any access to stability? You’re a brave soul.

There’s a lot of kiting and re-stealthing built in this build.
If he plays into perfection and is really good with awareness – he may be able to dodge the CC and stuff and lure enemies into his traps. It’s that kind of game-style. Not really the most efficient one but hey – it’s WvW – it has nothing in common with balance, so playing what people enjoy is the priority.

Shun Necromancers like Jesus would.

And with 3 utilities being offensive DPS traps – I’d 100% go for Sword + Dagger instead of Axe+Torch. You already have enough DPS for immobile targets (that will drop by 1 cleanse) – so you can’t go wrong with defensive weapons. You actually have no other choice but to dance around while your traps keep pulsing.

If you are extremely skilled to dodge all the CC and keep kiting – you will be fine in WvW even with 3 traps. I always swapped one out of Lightning Reflexes. It’s just way too good not to be taken. Escape, Stun Breaker, cleanses immobilize, what’s not to love (except it breaks stealth maybe)?

Levetty.1279:

LughLongArm.5460:

This guy is a thief

OGDeadHead.8326:

So, yet another thief complaining, who would have guessed?

Its always thiefs. They are by far the worst players in the game and the worst posters on the forums.

I never really felt like saying it out loud. This solved a lot of problems. Here I can simply second this post, give it a +1, take a sip of coffee and feel like everything has been explained and there’s literally nothing else to say about this thread.

“Next!”

Exciton.8942:

Just make it castable w/o a target.
Both guardian staff 2 and mesmer GS 2 can do that. I don’t see why this skill can’t.

This would be impossible to code mechanically. The Wisp travels through and pierces all targets even without stating so. At it’s current state it’s mechanically impossible to code which target should it glue onto.

I personally prefer wisp to be unable to be cast without a target. I know I won’t screw up my bar filler.

But if I got the bar filler on myself when no enemy is targeted – that would be cool indeed.

bearshaman.3421:

Or make it give retaliation? How about that idea?

We already have access to retal. A high uptime of it actually since glyphs.
I’m rather thinking of a build where you’d use Glyph of Unity, Retal and MDG. A build that would be countered by condis but would counter being focused by throwing damage back (which is currently our weakness to be hard-focused).

There’s no point in MDG.

In current meta you die in 3-5 seconds from 100% HP. The design is busted.
And having a GM trait just to have synergy with Nature Magic just to hope the pet would actually hit something is wrong.
It’s extremely wrong. The trait was somehow fine in previous bunker meta. Not now.

We have no real “I’ll stay alive” abilities. We were made healers. That means getting to 100% as often as possible. And once you drop below 50% you don’t think even for a single second about dealing damage.
And last but not least – we keep pet mighted via MH Axe that does the exact same thing, but better and isn’t restricted by practical suicide.

EDIT: Make it what I once proposed. When below 33% HP, reflect 75% of the damage taken back to the attacker. Conditions do not count.

Heibi.4251:

Ranger players never demanded the druid/healing spec. We wanted the sword animation fixed, pets fixed, ways to permanently stow pets, more dps output, better traps, stealth detection, better stealth(camo), etc…. No one ever was asking for the ranger to be given basically a nearly all healing elite.

Did you notice that the other classes all got combat boosts. Guardians got uber traps that make ours look like mouse traps. Mesmer got massive boosts in the gravity well and alacrity. Elementalists became damage absorbing machines along with damage output. Thief got damage output boost after damage output boost. Warrior got even more a damage output boost. Engineers finally got a lot of lovin’ from ANeT who actually listen for a change. Ranger got – healing. i.e. Ranger got kittened.

I’ve been here on forums for a very long time. A time that long that I saw at minimum of 3 threads before HoT asking for healing spec. Naturally, a lot of us disagreed with the idea because of the “every man for himself” design that disregards healing.
But a lot of healer fans wanted it. Just because you weren’t one of them doesn’t mean nobody asked for it. And since you don’t know that community asked for the stuff I mentioned while I do only means that I probably know more about what has been going on at forums.

Are you going to deny that people ever wanted Healing Spring to become a trap that is so overbugged and horrible for actual mobile combat like it is, too?

Of course we received the short side of the stick – but it made us viable and people asked for this side of the stick. We got what we asked for.

Oh, okay, managed to get in-game even at this late our to confirm.

It does cleanse the Ranger indeed. But WHaO has a delay on it (which I never waited for by checking my Condi Bar in PvP). Thanks for the reply.

This rune still doesn’t cleanse affected allies, that much I’m aware…
…
But am I correct about the rune not cleansing even the ranger himself ?
Can anyone second this? I’m 95% correct that WHaO doesn’t cleanse a thing upon use, neither do other shouts.
Confirmed. Works on Ranger and Pet, doesn’t for allies.

I’ll most probably be adding new builds for the “other builds” section in a few days.
So if you guyz have any preferences of favorite game-styles of something that you really really like but it’s not competitive (e.g. Water Spirit <heh>), please let me know so I can probably squeeze the most out of it to find it a viable role.

(to be removed later: Some builds that I plan on adding is full-evade troll, full melee, Open World tagger, open world Chill-out Saver inspired by GussJr…)

Miles Smiles.8951:

On a PvP Beast Master build you run “Verdant Etching” trait for some reason though the build itself doesn’t utilize any glyphs.

Thank you so much for the notice!
I guess I’ll have to go all over the builds again since it seems I made some mistakes… And here I really tried my best. <sigh>
But your help with these notifications is amazing. Thanks a lot.

@bearshaman
Glyph of unity is a solid choice for DPS healer. I haven’t found myself (not even for 2 seconds) in a position of AA-ing with LB and Staff doesn’t have restrictions for melee. So the glyph is perfectly usable in melee range; even though the most important use is GotL distribution.
In a party scenario – it’s not Ranger’s duty to bring 25 might or fury. Warriors and Revenants come with this primary role – that makes SotP redundant.

At dedicated Healer build there already is 100% regen uptime (no need for windborne; blast is used on Quick Draw anyways). It doesn’t use glyphs because damage mitigation > healing (that also explains why AoE vigor is better than overcapping regen that is over 100% uptime already). And it’s not worth taking any glyph instead of either AoE 90% Protection Uptime or emergency 50% damage reduction for the party (that can prevent wipe from Green AoE of VG).

Yep, I tilted about the Daze build… Thank you very much for correcting me. Going to make it right in a moment.

@GussJr
Thanks for your suggestion. I will definitely list some of the builds like yours into the “other builds” section.
The builds that I posted belong to the category of something that people call “meta” but I like to call it efficient since stuff that becomes “meta” isn’t usually the best a player can find (from metabattle). It’s just as you said – Those builds naturally bring as much healing while bringing as much damage at the same time. DPS is one of the most valuable forms of support, after all. The faster your target dies – the less damage all of you take.

Greetings fellow Rangers!

I’m so delighted to have this chance to share the list of most successful builds I’ve been testing for the past few weeks all thanks to your help and feedback. Please, do think of the builds as templates and feel free to adjust them to your play-style.

I’ll keep updating this thread as much as possible, so new builds might appear as well as adjustments on the already existing ones will be made. My priority will be testing around and adding different Weapon sets that people might like to play (e.g. double bow or full melee).

This list is supposed to serve as an overlook of what everything is the Ranger capable of doing out there in both PvE and PvP with peak efficiency and results for everyone to choose from. So, without further ado – Here’s the list:

While it does provide a technical immunity to blindness for the ranger, it also makes you take more damage than you deal if the target has retaliation.

I think it still doesn’t do it’s job that well when it comes to being a utility weapon. I personally think it should have yet another utility mechanic glued onto it.

Cripple? Blindness? Boon Strip? Numbers can be adjusted afterwards but now it still feels like an incomplete weapon.

And most importantly, Druid has been told to be the best healer in the game. While even now we are stuck with the most toxic design for a healer (not being able to heal when you need to but rather only after you finished a tutorial level of Astral Bar minigame).

And that is wrong. Almost all players don’t like the design because the healing pattern is absurd. You have to heal as little as possible until you get your CAF and then you have to heal as much as possible and leave as early as possible to be able to enter the form when you need it again.

Literally doubling the CD is ridiculous. You haven’t even thought of PvE point of view. And no, I refuse to accept this nerf while we have Insta-gibbing thieves that have mobility unmatched to anybody else while being able to evade around for the same time as a tank druid can sustain himself (while thief is being berserker).
PvP should be balanced around results. Not ideals. And while powerful classes get buffed, weak/mediocre classes like druid get constantly nerfed for no objective reason.

If a player is forced to build around a certain mechanic and play according to a certain mechanic at the same time – he is supposed to be rewarded by doing so.

Dojo.1867:

Why do you guys think healing power would fill AF faster and this would promote going berserker? It is the opposite. Currently healing power does nothign to fill AF faster because the whole thing is tick based. The current (!) system promotes berserker.

And seriously how do you think a more or less 10 second cd (and yes people do just toggle for druidic clarity) is okay for a stunbreak and full condi cleanse. Even 20 seconds would be questionable here.

If I’m running on a healing power build I want to use Regen and staff.
On berserker builds, I usually swap staff out. The only build worth using staff in Power Setup is the one using S&R to get your ally into ranged. You loose a lot of strength if you spec for staff for mobility only.

So if a player decides to sacrifice offense and other utility (like stealth, poison, evades, CC) for having that cleanse and stunbreak on 12 sec CD (there is a prevention for double-tapping) not being able to retaliate during that time is fine by me.

It’s one of the very few cleanse mechanics we have, and frankly, if I should compare our cleanse/stunbreaks/stability/survival and damage mitigation to other classes, we are still inferior even with a full-cleanse and stunbreak on 10 sec CD.

I don’t agree that CD should be anywhere near 20 seconds.

I personally think it should be accessible more often and on demand (Yes, I’d welcome a complete redesign; It’s not worth using glyphs in this form whatsoever). Even before having 100% astral bar filled. Reasoning? You stop your damage for sustain. It’s a trade off that doesn’t need any nerfs.
If you compare it to Elementalists and their Water “form” our CAF is inferior. We need to do useless staff to be able to enter it, we can’t do anything but defend in it and most importantly – 3/5 abilities are unreliable and horribly designed, naturally missing a lot of time.

If you think about it – if the druid just casts CAF for cleanse and stunbreak only – he can’t fill the bar fast enough in 10 seconds (more like those 20) because he isn’t playing any healing power (which means it’s wrong to assume he’s playing healing traits or weapons). If he uses healing power – he wants to spend some time in CAF which makes the CD exactly those 20-25 seconds.

Kaz.5430:

I don’t know if it’s ‘dead’ but it’s certainly not up there with other guilds post HoT, no Guild Hall for example. There are still 96 members, of whom 90% have been online in the last week.

I can’t tell …
… There was a member who said he’s glad that WIND got created since the former guild does no longer exist in terms of activity.

I didn’t really question it and rather than invading the guild that I have literally zero privileges in and no contacts from – I decided to support a project that I had some control over and I could be of help to others.

If anyone from Favorable Winds says they want to merge or I got a word they are active that might be a completely different matter.
If I get a word they want to merge even now – I’m cool with it. Reason why WIND was born to life is because even up till now there hasn’t been a single body to say a word and I got nothing but positive feedback.

Kaz.5430:

Out of interest, why create a new Ranger guild rather than promote the existing one?

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Favorable-Winds-Wind-Ranger-Guild/first

That said, I’ve got an open slot so I guess I can be in both

Post from a month ago

I’m pretty sure this guild is dead. I’ve talked to people who applied.

Infusion.7149:

@Tragic Positive , Ascended weapons & armor were also a terrible idea.

The minor stat boost outside of fractals (I.e. infusion slots) has made more player discrimination against those that are new to the game and do not have the resources or time to make a set. It is far worse now for the armor due to the change to damask patches.

It’s actually quite easy to gather Ascended jewellery.

Doesn’t it mean having Ascended items in general is a bad idea? If you think about it – we are the only class that doesn’t scale throughout the whole gaming progression. Pets included. While other classes get full benefits of going offensive, we are stuck with pets that won’t scale regardless of effort.

We do not scale from Alacrity on Hybrid builds (main source is Quick Draw on Bonfire), we do not scale from Quickness because Axe attacks do not deal anything, we do not scale from boons because our pet doesn’t get those…

Being stuck on armor quality is also an issue with the pet.

I’m against this proposal.

I’d rather make pets scale with quality of item level.
So if I have all ascendeds, it’s damage will increase by an amount(how much was it? 16%?) in comparison to full exotics.
It would promote people into gathering the best gear in the game rather than spending time doing useless stuff.

It wouldn’t affect PvP. Just the PvE and WvW where rangers need the love in terms of damage, don’t you agree?

Coconut.7082:

Crenth.1852:

Tragic Positive.9356:

Also, have you found out whether the boss refreshes the Stripping boon every 10 seconds or does he refresh it after 10 seconds of last strip?

I already killed VG this week so I can’t test this myself right now, but a test shouldnt be too hard to pull off – I’d go to blue guard with my rev, strip the boon, and time it. I can use Glint heal to survive the first green circle, hopefully thats enough time, if not, ill figure something out.

Also, to maximize damage, I think all rangers should be running melee builds; if greens are spotted early enough, there is enough time to walk to them, especially since we should have a lot of swiftness. Of course, people on green will be ranging the boss while on green, but no one should really camp range IMO.

I’m personally on NA. It would be cool though if the EU folks also did this.

Either way, 2 people with null sigil should be enough (one could probably keep it on his second set and only switch when needed), it shouldn’t take more than 30 seconds to kill him.
Also I think that it would be best to bring as many condis as possible (4~?) because their damage is usually superior.
If you guys need a zealot druid I’d love to join. (also working on my viper set but that depends on some RNG from daily fracs so it could take 2 days up to 2 years.. :p)

Boss pulses protection everytime it pulses immunity (if I remember correctly). So you definitely need at least 3 players with the sigil.
2 for stripping the boon and 1 as a reinforcement.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

You could get 25 might on a full Ranger party if everyone brings a Jungle Stalker. Two traited Frost Spirits would cover for overlap. If everyone was to bring the Tiger as well, you’d have an application of Fury every second, so Remorseless may end up better than PO.

I’ve theorycrafted on this before.
And while it might be true, it’s not achievable in practice. Reality will look in a way where 4 players will apply fury at the same time and remorseless would go to waste.

Remorseless is not really worth for PvE ever since PO got buffed in the last patch. If Remorseless was to be better, it would have to proc 7/10 hits which is hard to achieve since a lot of Ranger abilities are multi-hitting ones.

Matt Stacey.7415:

Tragic Positive.9356:

snipping all this out…

Again, clearly you disagree with this thread and you are a strong proponent for druid. The two options here are you can accept that not everyone enjoys druid and want to discuss the fact they dislike it, or you can hijack my thread and defend every aspect of druid until the end of time. Please, move on.

I disagree with your attitude. Not the thread. There’s a difference.
You are saying that druid doesn’t offer something that it actually does.

It’s like saying you can’t play Power builds with Wilderness Survival traitline because it has 2 bloody traits for Condition DPS.

And you can see that there’s more people who are telling that you are wrong. If you don’t enjoy druid – don’t blame it on the illusion of role you are blinded by.
Blame it on the design and user-unfriendly mechanics we are stuck with. Those points make sense.

If you were here since the beginning you’d see how many thread about what’s wrong with druid I created myself. But your reasons are illogical.
Taking my leave now.

MSFone.3026:

Ah, ok thanks. That leads into another question I had: I’m guessing from your response to 2) that CAF is pretty dependent on healing power, how true is this of druid in general? Do the abilities scale in a way that makes not stacking healing dumb?

Also following up on 2), if one wanted to run LB, is marksmanship mandatory? Or is it only a difference in stat allocation?

For any roamers, what kind of stats are you looking at if you are not running glass? Or is glass the way to go even if you want to run healer with a partner? How important is healing power in wvw for druids?

1. You don’t really have to stack healing power with it. It will result in a completely different play-style, though.
2. MM isn’t mandatory. Lead the Wind trait is a nice help to LB but it isn’t a necessity. I find Quick Draw much beneficial to LB playstyle than MM by a long shot.

I’m not 100% sure but I’ve heard Condi (trapper) builds had a great success in WvW. My guildie usually plays Cleric when they are out on a WvW guild mission.

MSFone.3026:

A few questions remaining:

1)Are glyphs considered “bad”?
2)Is running LB as a druid dumb because you can’t build for both sustain and LB? In particular would staff/LB be bad?
3)Is primal echoes (staff trait) ever taken over Druidic Clarity, or does DC provide such condi cleanse it’s too good to pass up?
4)In wvw, what do people do in terms of movement speed? Take Natural Stride?

Thanks again.

1. They aren’t. They are, however, almost always picked for melee combat. That’s why I didn’t include them for this build. They are of a great use in other builds.
2. It’s not. However, druid becomes much more utility oriented since you’ll have to sacrifice most of Healing Power for offense. Therefore only interesting CAF abilities for you are #3 and #5 and potentially leaving the form for Celestial Shadow
3. Not in PvP. We lack condition cleanse plus DC is a stun breaker. There’s no reason not to pick this trait.
4. They either go for Beast Mastery for perma swiftness and in most other builds – they use Natural Stride. I use NS for Open World PvE all the time. I haven’t been to WvW for almost a year now, though.

I like it, too.

Zenith.7301:

So rangers who rolled the class not wanting to play support got screwed, as EVERYONE got a power spike from elite specs except ranger, who was shoved into being a heal/buffbot.

…

Ranger had nothing but selfish stuff so we received support.
Do you understand that CC is the most valuable support for PvP one can get? And how much of it the druid has? How can you claim Mad Seeds with LB#4 is not an improvement? A single trait changes the whole life of Berserker Ranger for PvP.

It’s not like you can’t play druid offensively. It’s just that you chose to hate it because it isn’t Dragon Hunter. And that’s not a problem of the game, the spec or anyone else. That’s you.

Druid has flaws of design and QoL.
You keep talking about “no other option but to be a buffbot”. This is where you are miserably wrong. It’s about efficiency. Your Personal DPS is higher in comparison to core Ranger thanks to buffing which you hate so much. Do you understand this?

For christ’s sake! Ranger currently has the highest burst in the whole game if you trait for it. Ranger currently has the best support in the whole game if you trait for it.

But why in the world would anyone sacrifice 4K party DPS for personal DPS loss? That’s an illogical way of thinking and the roots are that you wanted something you didn’t get. There’s no connection to reality.

OGDeadHead.8326:

I like the idea, but not the blind spam. Think some more about #1, and I’m sure you would be able to come up with something a bit more balanced, while still useful. Maybe put a debuff on affected target, that which will allow #1 to deal increasingly higher damage for each following hit from #1 or something.

I had some, naturally.
I was just too sad to let go of the blind. I really find the 1sec CD on #2 strange. But I know removing the CD would make it ridiculously strong.

I was also thinking that #1 could apply minor damage but remove boons. I don’t think it would be that OP considering you’d have to sacrifice healing and it is quite difficult to hit with the ability.

The damage in this build comes from pet and in occasional spikes from Sigil of Air / Fire (which has always been the main source of damage in Power Ranger’s setup). Basically you get similar damage output from Staff and Sword but Sword helps you apply Poison which lowers enemy healing (I swap to sword only when I know the enemy can’t defend; SotP + Warhorn#4 + Quickness + Bristle F2 is a death sentence to most builds and naturally provides 25 might).
Guard still isn’t updated on site. What it does is make 50% of the damage to your allies be transferred to pet instead.

Reason why NM instead of BM is simple. I can get everything I need from BM (Quickness, Swiftness, AoE regen, pet damage in terms of Might that I couldn’t get in BM tree) but I get much more in terms of utility (AoE stealth via Horn + SmokeScale, technical immunity to blindness thx to Horn).

And while people do not realize this – The build is a Diamond Skin to Power Damage even with Offensive Stats. And since you are a healer – it’s not that hard to keep your pet alive.

But as I said – this build lacks the burst of other builds. It’s not an offensive one. It’s a tactical and strategical one. One that can slowly trade and sustain with his enemy and purge him down once the opportunity comes. But the highest power of this build comes in team play (which OP tends to do). The AoE heals, Damage mitigation, Blasts, Super Speed + Invis upon leaving CAF for safe stomps and revives, easy rotating…

If I decide to hit Troll Unguent (heal) and Protect me above 90% health, I will be stuck at 95-100% HP for 6 seconds. And there’s nothing a power class can do about it. And since this build has Vitality, cleanse and extremely easy access to CAF – there’s no way you’ll die to any Condi class.

BM traitline doesn’t offer more condi cleanse. It’s technically the community’s preference for Might Stacking (that you can do with Guard and SotP now regardless) and source of AoE regen (that you have in Warhorn in NM).

About the rune, I started this build with Rune of Lyssa (casting an Elite converts 5 condis into boons, which is quite awesome) but as I said – this is technically a template.

Varezenem.2813:

You might not know this but you are perfectly capable of tagging while in CA. All it requires is you doing any amount of damage beforehand and actually healing others. You can even tag better than you normally would.

This was add with the Jan 26 patch.

I do know this but if I’m in WvW or in a plain open world PvE I have to leave CAF to tag stuff because I there’s literally no way for me to do it while I’m in CAF.

you must still be actively attacking targets to receive rewards from them.

- this was made to prevent Revenants from AFK farming with auras.

Hmmh…

Point taken. That, indeed, makes sense.

I guess the CD could be thrown onto it. You know, just swapping the CD and blind from Seeds onto Cosmic Ray.
For as selfish as it may sound – I find the lack of tagging options from CAF just wrong. A lot of CAF feels wrong and I’m just trying to think about ways how to improve this situation.

Once the site gets updated I’ll be creating a list of Meta builds and Templates for people like you to browse through which playstyle they like most.

Till then I suppose you might like something like… This?
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNBmYD7kQFoXQskFwlFgrFskJYwz0c6QtJZFAOAOHuFXjrEnnG-TJxHABsv/ASlBA4iAEwTAAA
It’s my personal favorite, naturally has alternatives like BM instead of NM, so please think about it only as a template.

But this is a build that has absolutely everything in it. High Heals, sustained damage, tunneled spike, group utility (Stealth-reviving) and has very high sustain.
Lacks the “boom damage” of other builds, though.

Can you look through it and let me know if you like the overall idea or do you prefer a different approach?

Matt Stacey.7415:

It is undeniable that the druid is aimed towards healers, and though it can be used offensively it means you still sacrifice heavily for it. For a non-healer, the minor traits are worthless. The major traits themselves are again clearly catered towards support/healing. Yes, there are some combinations that are somewhat offensive, but the opportunity cost of taking druid over a different traitline is too high to be worthwhile.

Druid is aimed at “supporting”. Both offensive and defensive. Personal included.
What exactly do you heavily sacrifice for it? Bountiful hunter which is like 5% damage increase in PvP and roughly 8% in PvE? Beast Mastery that increases your overall DPS by roughly 6% and is only taken as a Swiftness/Regen bot for druid into PvP?

Am I mistaking anything? Or are you probably talking about Wilderness Survival ? I don’t know. For this whole time I didn’t have to sacrifice anything.
I could become a dedicated Beast Master. I was granted reposition tool and CC for Marksman Zerk game-play. I gained new options of being an extreme utility support for PvP. I was able to gain a lot more sustain for Condi Builds.

You sound like a spoiled Gamer to me. Because you didn’t get a sniper elite specialization. Even though your beloved marksman got buffed by druid in every aspect.
If you don’t like it – don’t play one. It’s not a class you have to play.

What bothers me is it’s absurd and horrible design, bugs, clunky mechanics and core mechanic without a single second of thought or logic put into it.
It made us competitive and better in every single game mode but it’s not really enjoyable – is what my concern is.

Wondrouswall.7169:

Anet has been steadfast in making blinds less effective in the past year or so, even increasing the cooldown on Lingering Light because players thought it was too much blind-spam. Now, you want re-introduce more blind-spam and possibly more hate towards Druid?

How would that be true?
For blinds to be applied you’ll have to sacrifice any healing you’d be able to pull off. In the current state – you have been doing the very same thing but with #2. Difference? 0,5 cast against 1 sec CD while trading heals for it.

But what happens is that passive blinds from Verdant Etching would disappear. Which is an overall reduction of Blind Spamming.

At least that’s what I think.

Belzebu.3912:

I still have divided feeling about Druid.
It made ranger meta for raid and really good in PvP and that is great, but … just like other players, I made my ranger to be an offensive class and I expected druid to be an offensive support, kinda like herald is, but we ended as a full healer.

And this is where people constantly get wrong…
…
Druid has become a serious DPS boost even in personal DPS compared to previous meta builds we had.

I enter CAF in daily fractals … maybe once per fractal. If you are grouping with inexperienced people who cannot break the content without heals (raids included) – then you might as well wonder if the reason behind it is not that people play what they like and how they like it rather than what they should.
Am I wrong?

Not to mention that both DPS boosting Ranger and Healing ranger have a place in meta. Just pick one and play it. If people now kick a ranger from group – it’s because of a person. Not the class anymore.

The idea how to make CAF more user-friendly is plain and simple:

Seed of Life (#2): Effect takes place instantly, cleanses 2 conditions. Cooldown removed. Blind removed.
Cosmic Ray (#1): No longer heals. Now deals damage to 5 targets, applies blind. AoE increased to match Seed of Life.

I’m aware it’s an indirect nerf to Verdant Etching but I’d be willing to trade it for this. I could use CAF to it’s fullest and I would feel that every ability has a purpose.
Right now it doesn’t matter which one of them you use. They feel literally the same.

I feel confused.
What happened here?

The only problem why Rangers are not competitive as personal DPS assets is because pets do not scale with buffs and boons.
And trying to use pets as “trait activators” on pet swap didn’t work. People are still punished by DPS loss by doing that.

So rather than balancing or at least addressing this issue they decided to make us buff-bots (both best offensive and recuperative) on a competitive level. Which is not bad, actually, but it’s extremely community-unfriendly.

anduriell.6280:

Guys a little bit of sense of humor. The guy obviously forgot to use the /s(sarcasm) tag. Like Justine usually also forget.

He clarified it with precision, though.

Justine.6351:

lol @ the hypocrisy.

Zenith.7301:

Tragic Positive.9356:

Zenith.7301:

Core range is terrible, so sadly in raids you are forced into the druid healbot role.

Funny thing is a berzerker Tempest can put out similar healing as a berzerker druid and yet the Tempest does SOOOOOOO much more DPS.

Ever heard of Berserker Healer?
Tempest doesn’t beat this role. It’s an illusion because you see more personal DPS rather than 30% party-wide DPS boost. Tempest is just more comfortable. Not more powerful.

You’re just a buffbot, much like a Chronomancer. On an individual level, solo scenario or roaming PvP this makes no difference.

It’s also 15% more damage (3% for 5 stacks), not 30% DPS boost how the hell do you even get that math?

PvE.
It was not specified. So in PvE you get pretty much that. For PvP you bring much more CC than any elementalist and you can keep your damage nukes from pets while being more tanky than elementalist.

You can’t compare classes on equal levels. Some bring X, some bring more of Y.

EDIT: For Berserker-type builds in PvP you get something that no other class can do. You can call out a downed ally out of cleave range which (again) an ele can’t do. For the 1st time in history of GW2 I’ve never found being ranged so useful as it became.

+1
And here I’ll put some random letters so that my message isn’t too short for posting.