Guild Wars 2

Lazze.9870:

Fashion Mage.3712:

So what you’re saying is, you think it’s okay that rangers have an elite spec which spams blue healing light at people 24/7, and you think it’s okay that this somehow isn’t on guardians? Also, let’s not ignore the monk references or that over half of Celestial Form is stolen from Tome of Courage.

The druid’s role in Guild Wars lore outside of shiftning their shape into spirits hasn’t been very well established by Anet so far. Expect they had something to do with the healing nature of the Maguuma Jungle.

So people might wanna slow down a second or two before they start hitting the ceiling in anger of how little this might fit the ranger, or rambling about how it slightly resembles a dead guardian skill. Half of the warrior longbow are stolen Ranger skills from the first game, you don’t see people moaning about it.

Well i’ve heard that the devs are thinking to rename Celestial Avatar to tome of courage 2,0.
The only skill that is different between the tome and avatar is the best skill the tome had: full heal your party (avatar -5).

Why couldn’t they have to come up with more differentiating skills instead 10 heals? I think with Cosmic ray we have already enough clickfest and healing for the party….

Deth.4109:

Aomine.5012:

Deth.4109:

Mavander.3208:

No one made a Ranger to be a healer. NO ONE. No one invested hours or days of their life into building up a ranger so that it can be a healer. This is just a fact. No one did. It was not even an option. And we were okay with that.

This line of reasoning is nonsense. no one made a ranger to be healer because it didn’t use to exist….

It exist in Ele, and believed to exist in Guardian initially.

People who would like to play “HEALER” would initially sign up for Guardian 100% of the time base on class description and theme. (For those who don’t know the game well enough that is)

the point of elite specs was to give professions play styles that they didn’t have access to before. no one made a guardian to use bows and traps but that doesn’t have a thing to do with the class variations elite specs intend to provide. if you want to play a ranger you play a ranger, if you want to play a ranger that can heal you play a druid.

The customers (because we already paid for the product) her aren’t complaining because the Druid is mainly focused in healing, is because half of his mechanics is only and exclusively healing and the other half is subpar in range or effect.
And ranger has a core profession that is subpar is any sense

I know what all the white knights praising the druid master race are thinking : you get your meta zerk ranger and use avatar druid for healing.
Well use your brain and think again

• You bring supar damage from the zerker ranger.
• you bring no support or utilities fro your zerker ranger.
• You bring an occasional healing burst, and let me explain this: in the site is written you have to fill up to 100% the astral bar and from damage you get close to nothing.
  And again: Roy explained that druid is burst heal while Rev is sustained. Difference? Burst is not all the time think more about ONCE IN A WHILE

So unless the Ventari is really bad and Ele get nerfed the fields druid is going to be redundant. It is worst, is going to be subpar to other classes.

I like the healing theme, just give more than just healing. And make it significative the excuse of positioning is not good enough without the mobility needed. And not: perma swiftness (that we already can achieve) is not an answer: for positioning the druid needs teleports so it can get to the places it has to be.

Would be like giving the ele a specialization that is exclusively melee physical damage. You can do physical damage with your fist without weapon swap from 0 to 9. And call it Kung (seriously what is wrong with the forum corrector?) fú master.

Ashen.2907:

anduriell.6280:

Mcrocha.3891:

Wildfang.3271:

Just posting this on behalf of my friend, Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582 who got suspended.

“Apologies to all for my bad behavior. I will update the thread when my suspension is over which is currently the 13th of October, but I have contacted support about that duration. Thanks all.”

Brilliant lol, our thread leader got suspended.

That’s what you get for trying to help here?

I suppose it’s all a matter of what you consider help. Verbally abusing the moderators on the very boards they moderate might be the problem.

But where? Did i miss something here?
Because making that guy to apologize so he can get a shorter ban or banning for sport and some players congratulating the mods for doing it like if they get cookies I did not know it was a thing now ….

i can do that too.

Mcrocha.3891:

Wildfang.3271:

Just posting this on behalf of my friend, Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582 who got suspended.

“Apologies to all for my bad behavior. I will update the thread when my suspension is over which is currently the 13th of October, but I have contacted support about that duration. Thanks all.”

Brilliant lol, our thread leader got suspended.

That’s what you get for trying to help here?

Fluffball.8307:

Very basic stuff, but I’m pretty happy about everything.

+1

I like the fact Irenio already told us the balance were mostly about basic stuff but they are looking into it so i’m happy with this bug fixes for now.

It is a good sign Anet is balancing the game.

Dadnir.5038:

Honnestly, I think the druid spec will grant a near broken suvivability to the ranger. Yeah, I’m not considering the sporadic healing support to hypothetic team mate, just the obvious broken fact that the Druid will have 3 personnal heal (2 from celestial form and the regular heal skill), a lot of CC and still access to things like survival skill and stone signet. Basically, you will be able to gear as a glass canon, dish out awesome dps and double your survivability compared to the regular ranger.

So if he is bad at healing, he will still be good at being a very resilient DPS.

Mmm we still has to see how the avatar works. For what is written in the website you only can get into avatar state when the bar is full. and with the minimal recharge it has from damage maybe you are better off without it.
Also don’t forget that the DPS in ranger is already subpar and Druid will not improve it.

Also as i stated i think is a bad idea to allow the avatar state to be just and only the healing skill of a meta zerker ranger. It would be advantageous for me, sure, but i’m looking to make the Druid fun to play not make that class a joke we use only to heal our glass cannon ranger. That would become such a waste… wouldn’t be it ?

Ryou.2398:

And if you really like the ranger you would stop being so negative about it, being aware of its flaws and constantly focusing on it are 2 very different things.

I’m not being negative, i’m being realistic.
Being delusional about how bad things can get it will not help. It is better to see the shortcomings and warn about them than just behave like a sheep and follow what the dev says.

Also i’m entitled to complain as much as i feel as long that i have a reason for that.
It is you trying to contempt with a half baked class that is not helping the greater good.

If you allow it the devs most probably would try to follow the law of minimum effort, as the avatar state mechanics is no more than a Tome of Courage.
You should be asking for more, it is from the players that actually play ranger whose can give a lot of points to make the Druid the greatest and most fun class to play with.

All this whining about whining reminds me the time i told the ranger would be nerfed to oblivion with the balance changes and there were some that support them as brilliant like if Anet paid them to do it so.

The Druid is not fine how it is designed right now the same as the ranger is a subpar class. And that is a fact.

Now just curious how people will behave in one month or so after the release when they see its a bummer.

Everything Is Wrong

xev.9476:

anduriell.6280:

I do play WvW with healing spring ( a really obvious water field) and the only one blasting those is me.
I would say WvW relies in stacking might and fury more than burst healing. The only times i’ve seen a water ele is to drop the hamme.. i mean the icebow
Sustainable healing is the thing in WvW because usually you are not stacking when fighting another zerg.

I’ve played in NA t1 through t4 and in 3 years I’ve never been in a zerg, raid, or havoc squad where the leader/commander didn’t call for water regroups.

That’s the difference between NA an EU. I have yet to see a pirate ship. But maybe that is because my server is deserted and we are at most like 5-7 guys under a commander, so we can’t stack under a meteor storm.

xev.9476:

anduriell.6280:

ok, you are thinking the Druid as it is not. For sustain strong healing you have Ventari. Roy stated so. And sustained strong healing is what you need in PvP – WvW.
Druid is Burst healing and that is sporadically being able to heal you for 1000%.

WvW has always relied on burst healing. You know those regroups where everyone blasts a water field? That’s burst healing.

I do play WvW with healing spring ( a really obvious water field) and the only one blasting those is me.
I would say WvW relies in stacking might and fury more than burst healing. The only times i’ve seen a water ele is to drop the hamme.. i mean the icebow
Sustainable healing is the thing in WvW because usually you are not stacking when fighting another zerg.

nurse starwars theme

Ryou.2398:

anduriell.6280:

Kreed.2768:

Ashen.2907:

Is whining about whining really any better?

I’m just saying the excessive complaining isn’t going to change anything. We haven’t even had our hands on this elite spec yet and it’s already being condemned or outright rejected. If the Druid’s concept isn’t your thing, then fair enough, but you are not forced to use it, so I don’t see the point of repeatedly complaining about the fact that it might not fit your choice of playstyle. Those who complain about it being useless, weak, and whatnot should wait before making such statements, at least until after the Beta weekend, when they and everyone else have had the chance to test out the spec and gather information on it that can be used to back up those complaints. Or, better yet, use that data to give constructive feedback for the devs to use, so that they can adjust it and make it even better. Just look how much the other elite specs and even the Revenant as a whole has gained and are gaining from the propper feedback players have provided after last two Beta weekends.

We have too much experienced in being disappointed with the changes in ranger.
For what is shown in the twichtcon the Druid has all the votes to become another one and the lack of communication from Irenio does it not make us feel better.

The same as i foresaw the changes in the balance patch will make the ranger the pariah of GW2 and i was right then i foresee if the Druid stays with the exclusive healing path it will become the pariah child of the ranger pariah.
We will have the full set then.

Ok I get that but if that is the case then why continue focusing on a class that is constantly disappointing? If you are not happy with it then maybe you should consider switching to something else and letting it go until it is where you want it to be, we are responsible for our own feelings after all.

Because of the human nature itself deem us to hope things will change when there is still a possibility. And because i’ve invested too many hours in that class and is really depressing to think it is waste.
Also because i like to win and make the ranger and the druid fun and rewarding classes to play is the win for me and win for all in this case.

Kreed.2768:

Ashen.2907:

Is whining about whining really any better?

I’m just saying the excessive complaining isn’t going to change anything. We haven’t even had our hands on this elite spec yet and it’s already being condemned or outright rejected. If the Druid’s concept isn’t your thing, then fair enough, but you are not forced to use it, so I don’t see the point of repeatedly complaining about the fact that it might not fit your choice of playstyle. Those who complain about it being useless, weak, and whatnot should wait before making such statements, at least until after the Beta weekend, when they and everyone else have had the chance to test out the spec and gather information on it that can be used to back up those complaints. Or, better yet, use that data to give constructive feedback for the devs to use, so that they can adjust it and make it even better. Just look how much the other elite specs and even the Revenant as a whole has gained and are gaining from the propper feedback players have provided after last two Beta weekends.

We have too much experienced in being disappointed with the changes in ranger.
For what is shown in the twichtcon the Druid has all the votes to become another one and the lack of communication from Irenio does it not make us feel better.

The same as i foresaw the changes in the balance patch will make the ranger the pariah of GW2 and i was right then i foresee if the Druid stays with the exclusive healing path it will become the pariah child of the ranger pariah.
We will have the full set then.

Hey let’s see if within the next decade we can have the ranger profession that is not a disappointment.

Meanwhile the druid forests are burning and there is a lot of green to burn…

Puck.9612:

Extra heals will be useful in PvP and WvW, I couldn’t care less about PvE. I just hope celestial form is something that can be used as often as death shroud. If it takes so long to charge it that I can only use it once in a PvP match I will be pretty kittened off.

ok, you are thinking the Druid as it is not. For sustain strong healing you have Ventari. Roy stated so. And sustained strong healing is what you need in PvP – WvW.
Druid is Burst healing and that is sporadically being able to heal you for 1000%.

Seriously i don’t see any reasons why would you choose Druid over Ventari.

Hey what about a Glyph that can give a boon to overheal?
An ally affected for the boon get the HP increased for all the heal he gets once the HP has reached the 100%.
That could be cool… wouldn’kitten

Nurse Space Nurse

I mean after all this time playing with a class that is plagued of crippling bugs, defective AI companions, being subpar in any area of the game (5th in damage output out of 6?) or
not asking or listening the community of players when changes were applied ending up even in a worse spot than before

After seeing all this disgust about some of the druid details… What would happen if Irenio just decided to go ahead with the exclusively healing theme leaving the druid role only for raid (until ventari comes around)?
Would the ranger sub forums and any opinion website about HoT become a radioactive zone with the angry mob grabbing the pitchforks asking for blood?

Not talking about rerolling another character but about the reactions of the people when they see the druid is another bummer.

The Astral energy is time based (it drains per seconds is active) also drains faster when any skills is used and depending on the skill it eats bigger chunk of energy.
Damage is not taken into account.

Ryou.2398:

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.

I agree. This always happens when there is 0 communication from the company for so long.
Now Irenio needs to be sensible and should try to keep the channel open as any comments about the direction the class is taking and if the feedback is being taken into account is needed to avoid the forums to revert to it’s previous state.

zinkz.7045:

anduriell.6280:

Personally i find boring and unappealing a dumbed down system where you only are able to do just one thing, but hey every person is entitled to have their own likes.

Yet you play GW2 PvE, which probably has the most dumbed down PvE in an MMO, and where there is zero variety, everyone does the same thing, DPS with a handful of skills like reflects, stealths, etc.

Assuming they design raids right druid actually adds some variety to this tedious one dimensional DPS fest, and guess what on druid you still have two other trait lines, another weapon, choice of pets, choice of utils/elite, choice of gear, plus some damage, CC & utility in Druid so can do some damage if you want, in addition to the healing.

But then the truth is most of those whining, don’t give a toss about the BS “justifications” they give, really the truth is they want to play DPS, so wanted the specialisation to help that either by giving ranger top tier DPS or by having some sort of support that doesn’t interfere with a DPS role, but makes ranger more desirable.

But very few have the balls to simply come out with it.

And WvW when there is player around. I agree with you PvE is already repetitive and boring, just think about it with a boring mechanic like is holy trinity. Exacerbating the tediousness to the extreme.

But you are wrong about most of the players wants more DPS. We want the pets fixed so we get the DPS lost with them back, yes.
But most of the players wants the druid to have more support than 10 heals. TRanger do not have any utility we hope the druid to give that sort of new gameplay.
To make it easier this is my intake on the druid:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Druid-Reveal-Feedback-Thread/page/2#post5537037

Bryzy.2719:

Tip your fedoras harder, won’t change anything.

Enjoy Druid.

We all hope so. Hopefully Irenio would have read the forums and will change the druid to give more support alternatives than just healing, and some damage drop in the mix for rewards.

Although would be good if he just could post anything about the druid like: sorry guys we are going for the only healer and holy trinity thing or hey we have listen and giving an spin to the druid concept.

borya.2964:

nacario.9417:

Itll be fun to see how the celestial avatar works on a traditional lb gs ranger, it could basically be like a free third weaponset/semi deathshroud in some ways depending on how effective ur healing is on a marauder amulet. I would def try MM BM druid as the condi clear in WS can be covered with druid, making us less dependant on wilderness knowledge trait for survival skills. Potentially more durable 1v1/onpoint, but we’ll see.

Im also very excited to see the new pets useful/responsiveness

Roy Cronacher.1576:

Druid is more about burst healing in key moments as it takes a while to build up astral force to enter celestial avatar, Ventari is more about sustain healing.

Question is what’s “a while” ?

So Ventari is better than Druid in healing too? Because we all know sustain is better than occasional burst…

Tapioca.9062:

snip

Don’t bother, that dude is just happy because GW2 could become potentially a classic MMO with the holy trinity forced onto us.

Personally i find boring and unappealing a dumbed down system where you only are able to do just one thing, but hey every person is entitled to have their own likes.

Bryzy.2719:

Kaiyanwan.8521:

snip

Good job the Druid traitline isn’t designed for old world content then

That’s right, As Irenio pointed out Druid is for Raids and only for that. You will not need that many healing skills anywhere else not even wvw.
The is no place for the holy trinity in this game.

Bryzy.2719:

And like I said, if you don’t want to play healer, don’t play it.

The only potential “pressure” from others would come from the Raid content: you’re forgetting the game modes that are far more significant than Raids: WvW, PvP and open world PvE, in all of which there is nobody to kick you for not being a healer.

Also, you’ve played Ranger for this long while we’ve always had kick-threats, what’s changed? We actually have an option now to be useful in a different way. And that’s all it is – an option. If you don’t want to be a healer then roll a zerker frost spotter Ranger.

You’re whining about how you feel about it. Constantly.

If you want it to change how about offering constructive feedback and suggestions as to what you want to see, instead of boo-hooing like a child who hasn’t got what he wanted.

Ok here is the problem you have: you want the holy/forced trinity to be applied in this game, almost from the beginning.
That’s a foul quest IMHO.

No player in GW2 wants that, get it thru your thick scull. Otherwise we would be playing another MMO. Holy Trinity = Extremely dumb and boring gameplay

Ranger is a class where every single skill has a purpose, you don’t find in GS 5 skills to DPS DPS DPS like you find in warrior or guardian or ele.
We are used to have to use our skills depending in the situation and some aspects of the druid are just warrior DPS 1 to 5 but even worst: They heal so you won’t get any credit/rewards for doing so.

Ranger playerbase wants a support class like the Druid is intended to be, just no exclusively focused in burst healing. Because this means this:

• Raids have artificially increased the difficulty to making you taking unavoidable damage, same as 1 hit bosses. We all already know we want smarter bosses and increase their HP to millions and making them 1 hit kill you is not the solution.
  Example of this: the wyvern in HOT is simply bad. Another fixed hitbox where all you have to do is avoid the cheese portions like fire patches.

• If you need burst healing to mitigate unavoidable damage Raids are going to be annoyingly simple.

• Bosses are going to be just as dumb and the ones we find in GW2 already.

• Ranger will not have a place other than raids.

The druid class is a symptom of something much worst that could be arriving.
And again:
Mainly healing is good, only healing is bad

Bryzy.2719:

Levetty.1279:

Tapioca.9062:

snip

snip

It’s ironic because it’s actually the critics like yourselves who have the single-track mindset, not the Druid traitline.

You know that this game consists, and will consist of more than just Raids right?

Open world PvE, and in particular WvW and PvP are two bigger components of the game than Raids. That’s three additional game modes in which the druid traitline and its healing aspects alone will be useful.

That brings us onto your next QQ – healing. The Druid traitline is forcing nobody to be a dedicated healer. I’ve said this time and time again. I made a thread showing 4 other potential build focuses using the Druid traitline other than to just be an all-out healbot, and they’re just the beginning.

The Druid traitline has been created with a specific purpose and direction: to provide its user with more sustain (whether selfish or outward) and CC capabilities. This is why it’s called a ‘specialisation’. What if the Druid had specialised in pure physical damage? Pure condi damage? you’d be QQing just the same because the direction it had taken wasn’t the one you wanted.

Anet have picked a solid direction for the Druid, and that in itself is a positive thing for the Ranger – regardless of what that direction is – since we’ve been lacking clear direction from day one.

You are wrong and i think we had this conversation in other thread. Players are complaining about the Druid being exclusively focused in burst healing not that they wanted a DPS oriented class (well most of them anyway).

I play ranger from almost the beginning and i love he druid concept.
Druid staff? nice.
Druid glyphs? almost there. Some tuning with the range/mechanic and some of them seems subpar. Personally i don’t really like the shout like mechanic, does not give many options for strategic game while the hard CC in those utility skills could make the game so much fun.

Avatar state? heal heal heal from 0 to 9. Dumb play to smash all the buttons.
The ranger has so many mechanics to help your party: boon coping, resistance aoe, damage mitigation… There are a lot of redundant effect inside the Avatar state like avatar#2, Glyph Alignment and Grace of the Land.

I love the druid concept i love the avatar idea all we are asking is more diversification within the druid utilities so we don’t have a plain dumbed down specialisation.
I do not want the avatar to become the i play my meta zerk and i use the avatar to heal myself

Knighthonor.4061:

anduriell.6280:

Knighthonor.4061:

anduriell.6280:

snip

snip

snip

Mainly heal is good, only heal is bad

My point is that it’s optional to only heal. You dont have to take Glyphs or Staff f
to play a Druid.

I don’t need to use anything from the Druid to play the Druid, right?
My point is having an spec focused exclusively in burst heal and nothing more is a dumb class concept.
I know you are thinking i play my meta zerk and i use my avatar as my heal bot to heal myself when I needed .
I don’t want the druid to became the zerker meta healing sustain. I’d like the druid to be a support class oriented to healing but that can offer more support than just heal so it will not be redundant once the other players learn to use the revenant or the scrapper.

NOT COOL BRUH, NOT COOL.

Again:

Mainly healing is good, only healing is bad.

Knighthonor.4061:

anduriell.6280:

snip

Druid generate energy from damage and heals. So you dont even have to use Staff to get some major heals from the new form, while dishing out heavy damage.

you did not read my comment.
I’m not talking about astral regeneration, because we know nothing about how that work.
We know we generate half astral from dmg than from healing, but nothing more.
I’m saying and i quote myself:

Mainly heal is good, only heal is bad

being a healing oriented class : nothing wrong.
Being an only burst healing class : boooorrriinggg……

You bring me a druid with more group support applications other than exclusively healfrom 1 to 0 and hard CC like is already present in the glyphs and i will believe unicorns exists.
Enough damage application to keep tagging when in Avatar state also so heal does not became a punishment or a burden for the druid.

Players here are complaining about the Druid being only heal when ranger lacks in any kind of support. Also heal from 1 to 9 is boring and does not fit with the average ranger player used to play with weapons where every skill is different and has purpose other than smash.
Also the shout wannabe mechanic for the glyphs does not convince because it seems too lacklustre in range and not offering any situational control. We already have shouts for what it matter.

Mainly heal is good, only heal is bad

Actually i posted this suggestion long time ago in the forums, you can follow the link in my signature about the trait changes to read more about that.

Honed Axes trait should be changed because now is underwhelming, and move it to WS trait line.
Empathic Bond should be placed in BM line where the honed xes is right now. Reasons other than common sense:

• The BM trait line has 2 weapons traits while WS has none.
• Empathic Bond is a pet trait, it’s a no common sense to not to be in the trait line for pets.
• To have all the cleanses in WS lock you in that trait line. It does not promote different builds or experimentation.
• Empathic Bond should changed to work like the plague sending trait. More explained in my thread but this is to remove the RNG factor and make the trait actually worth a GM slot.

Yes this is a crazy idea. The idea of the specialisation is to give the class another way to play it. That’s why the dragonhunter is selfish, reaper is melee and druid is support.

I love the druid concept for my ranger. with some fine tune in could be one of the most fun class to play with.

Exciton.8942:

Actually ranger is good against those long-stealth duration mesmer.
Just take sic’em. Really put them into panic mode.

Longbow also works great as long as your 2 hits the target, it will continue hit even if target goes stealth.

Traps are another useful tool against stealth gankers. They usually lack condie cleanse. Being hit by a trap is hard for them to recover.

Last but not least, you can use stealth disrupt trap to troll them.

In practice Sic’em is not actually useful against a mesmer for the amount of clones. Is really difficult to target the real mesmer when there are a lot of those around and is a 35 seconds CD shout.

For the the rest of advises actually i play a LB trapper ranger still i can’t burst them down. actually that is the only build that needs 4 players playing hide and seek to hunt one mesmer.

The trap seems my only option i’ll look into it for when a mesmer is inside a castle.

PS: i usually don’t die against a PU mesmer, Axe is a very effective weapon against the illusions clones. Also i have enough condition cleanses to not to be worried about the confusion.
The problem is that is a build i can’t counter in anyway, is not about player skill, it’s about the mesmer stays visible for a second or two and the rest can stay stealthed while healing and such. It reminds me somehow to the turret engi and those fights were boring as hell

Any reveal AOE for the Druid within any Glyph would be warmly welcome.
Sick’em it’s not actually useful in it’s current state.

in my signature you have 2 link s to different approach one for the pet and another one for the traits to bring the ranger to the strength of the other classes in game.
OP is right there s a lot of comments that do not give anything but also there a lo of feedback with how we would solve the problems that plague the ranger.

With the amount of invisibility/stealth that is in game right now ranger still don’t have any kind of reveal skill.
Sick Em is very clunky and and somehow preemptive which make the shout mostly useless in WvW where you are shifting targets continuously.

Will the ranger get some sort of an actual reveal with the balance changes? Will the druid?

Lately i’ve seen too many perm-invisible mesmers in WvW. It’s ultimately super annoying when you have to play hide and seek with a mesmer that neglect to confront you and keep casting invisibility and hitting you from there.
The amount of time the spend visible is not enough to burst them down and that makes the fights really boring and artificially extended.

With the ranger that i usually i play it’s impossible to counter that build. Is there a class in game that could somehow counter the massive invisibility that build has?

Eric.7813:

I actually think thats a problem in this game. professions have these random 1 heal skills.
This whole idea that you can throw in a single heal skill and say you have a support role is a joke.
The tempest was revealed with a whole mosh-pit of skills. i feel like thats a big mess. I’d rather see a common theme with a specialization.The guardian is excellent at protecting and providing boons. However, there is really no class or spec that can come out and just provide noticeable healing. So changing the celestial avatar to be more support based, other than healing, would be kinda silly because we have tempest, guardian and ventari to fill that role.
" Thank gosh that water ele saved me" said no one ever.’
I think the game needs some noticeable healing niche.

Obviously you are misinformed as in the actual game Ele can blast enough healing in water to not need any druid around. you can not heal for more than 100%.
Ventari is quite strong as well.

I agree Druid shouldn’t be the same as the rest, simply work out the kind of support it’s not yet there.
Resistance is a boon is underused yet. Druid would be the perfect place to have it.

In this line changing Grace of the Land to work all the time while in combat spotter like would give us a differentiating point.
We have so many possibilities: Boon copying, Resistance, damage mitigation… Could make the Druid so much interesting than spam 1 to 0 to heal.

Edit: being thinking about Glyph of Empowerment. Some points made here are very valid, we already have frost spirit that gives the same boon. Even if we can place the spirit anywhere the glyph feels really meh and underwhelming. Insta DPS for the maul Quickening Zephyr like is not enough.
What about, and this is just for the sake of being unique, give for example 10 stacks of bloodlust like buff for 20 seconds. Each action executed (hit or not) will drain one stack of those, so the power of the attacks diminish with the use.

Eric.7813:

Mincsk.6028:

I am disappointed with this Druid as a spec for Ranger. I feel the art and roll would fit better with another base profession. I solo play mostly (not very healer friendly) so I guess I get to use my old Ranger to farm with.

I was hoping for a “fight fire with fire” Mordrem style nature (dps, support) caster using the staff.

Smiles lol

I would say that the theme is actually a pretty good fit for the druid. The idea that the druid is all plants and animals is not really in line with a historical druid.

ranger does have dps. It can be argued that its not so good, but that’s a fit-it-up problem. they shouldn’t have to make the elite spec do more dps just to cover up what the ranger already has access too.

so if you want a dps/support build, you can do that with druid.

build:
celestial avatar (your defensive option)
longbow
another weapon
any utility skills you want, you don’t have to take the glyphs
two additional trait lines to pick from

ranger is arguably the most under-powered profession in the game
the druid will give the ranger a lot more options for builds and play styles.
my opinion.

Actually i think the disappointment in general is that the avatar state is solely focused in heals with redundant skills all over the place. The Druid brings a lot of CC and support which is a nice change against the selfish ranger mechanic.

To keep the healing theme would be enough just with the spamming of #1. And that’s actually good. The other avatar skills could be something more support oriented and somehow damage for rewards tagging purpose.
Also the Glyphs in avatar state would benefit alot from different mechanics than just heal heal heal.
To change the Avatar to be more group support instead just heal i think would make everyone happy.

Onne last point. The GM trait that reduce condition damage 33% when in Avatar State. Someone pointed out that is redundant to Seed of Life.

I agree. Could it be an permanent aura from the druid Spotter like? Although i would test it with 33% to see if it works, if it’s too overpowered it could be reduced to 20%.

evilunderling.9265:

Aomine.5012:

Ranger has sub-par damage (5th)and subpar offensive and defensive support.

I specifically addressed that in the post you just quoted. It doesn’t affect my point.

Bring in Druid doesn’t change any of that.

None of the playtesting by theorycrafters etc. that you’d need to justify that claim has happened yet.

There will not be much beta testing neither so better try to get it right from the beginning. If Irenio listen i hope the modify the Avatar to become more of a group support and hard CC like the druid is.
Also i hope the somehow fix the glyphs design.

Another Aspect to choose from would be nice also.

It’s not even about the time. Zerker meta also gives something to the players: high damage, high numbers.
That is a kind of rewards in itself because the game in general rewards damage. You never get rewards for critically heal yourself for 10K.

So when you play and you see you chain a 20K attack on a boss is somehow a kind of reward. That’s why players always tend to be damage oriented with the least of vitality/armor your skill allows you to play with.

There is a clear example of this: Tome of Courage (the Avatar is Tome of Courage 2.0) was depreciated and scrapped because it had no use. It did not work then and i foresee it will not work now.
Avatar will be a popin – Drop skill#5 – popout.
Maybe some #1 to heal all around.

Raids are supposed to be difficult. That means the raid will need healer but also DPS. And Rev and Ele are better balanced than Druid for that task . Even guard can be also and strong healer with a decent DPS output.

The complains are not about the healing theme, they are because it is only a healing theme.

The Druid trait line is fine guys… It brings a little bit of everything and i love it.
The main concern i see is with the design of the skills, too focused in healing while dropping any other kind of support or damage.

For the AoE radius they bring i think Glyphs would be better to be used as the old ranger traps, ground targeted and Ally/foe activated.
300 is ridiculously small unless your team is stacking on you you will not be able to use it efficiently. They have an small radius because they bring a lot of hard CC and that can be difficult to balance. We don’t need the perma-daze AoE druid 2.0

Avatar state has 10 heals. It’s like playing warrior but with heals: spam 1 to 0 and repeat. I love the healing concept but i think the druid would need more support to give than that. As soon as the raids are know there will not be a need for a druid; ele, engi or rev can pull enough heal but also do a bunch of more things.

The avatar should bring more support than just heals. And also keep doing damage to keep tagging otherwise Avatar will become F5 – Avatar#5 – Drop avatar . Same as happed to the Tome of Courage (that almost seems the same) . It’s a temporary state that we have to build up, it should be it should be something rewarding to use and feel powerfull.

I would like to have more aspects than just healing, just like there was a tome of wrath so when you see a druid you don’t know if he will bring a massive group support or open the gates of hell.

Irenio CalmonHuang.2048:

Hey all.

I just returned from San Francisco and am going to crash hard from the busy weekend at Twitch Con very soon, but first I wanted to clarify something:

During the skill balance stream on Friday we weren’t able to go into depth or even talk about the reasons and expected results for changes we did reach due to time constraints[sub]1[/sub]. Because the June 23rd patch was mentioned during the stream many people seem to expect a patch of that size and magnitude.

This coming patch is NOT that big.

Tuesday’s patch will have those changes we discussed in the livestream, some bugfixes, and more, but it is a step in the right direction. It is not the end-all.

There shall be more.

—

1. (Although maybe Ice Bow 4 changes didn’t really need explanation)

Thank you for the tip!! So we won’t expect many changes but is good to see there will be more fixes and balance changes for the ranger!!

So happy to see red post around the ranger subforum.

Don’t worry Gaile, there so much going on and excitement about the Druid i’m pretty sure this will be visible.
Here my intake all condensed about some changes in druid.

Avatar state seems to have too much healing. I mean really too much.
I’d like to see some changes in the avatar to be more support in a different way because right now it seems to have almost 10 healing skills that do almost the same.
Avatar state should be available at any charge in the astral bar.

• Cosmic Ray: Needs damage component.
• Seed of Life: Some resistance applied also?
• Lunar Impact: This one looks cool. Hard CC
• Tidal Surge: Also cool. Brings some utility with the water field.
• Natural Convergence: Also very cool. Right now the only damaging.

Glyphs needs to be ground target 900-1200 units. AoE area too small. I would even go to make them trigger in ally/foe contact trap like. The only exception the Glyph of unity changing the range to 600. once tethered the tether itself should have a greater range to allow the skill to be useful. If the foe/ally will break it just walking away tow steps to be able to come back untether is not really useful.

Avatar state:

• Glyph of Rejuvenation: This one is cool.
• Glyph Alignment: Clear conditions and heal. Okeish i guess. Redundant with seeds of life thou… Could be better give might and swiftness.
• Glyph of Equality: Cool. Need to be instant thou.
• Glyph of Empowerment: another one that is stange/unclear uses We already heal for all the team, even more healing? What about increased boon duration, affecting also the active boons? like 20% for 6 seconds maybe?
• Glyph of the Tides: Nice. need a range of 600 at least, within 300 you do not need to pull anything. Ground targeted so we could do a pull to a warrior casting 100 blades.
• Glyph of Unity: Another one healing? we have enough healing just with astral#1 what about sharing boons? Boons between the allies are shared in the same fashion as the shout We heal as one. That could be massively cool and would give so much game play.

Out of avatar state:

• Glyph of Empowerment: Players are worried the 10% damage is weak and something we already have with the frost spirit. What about give a X stacks of an stack boon that improve damage and lose one stack per attack. Max duration 20 seconds so it will not stack again on itself.

Traits

• Grace of the Land seems redundant with Seed of Life. In avatar state we don’t need more condition mitigation, we cleanse conditions every second.
  What about spotter like aura, when in combat up to 5 allies (us included) get a 33% condition damage reduction.

Is this trash thread already 1600 comments?? Who in it’s right state of mind would read all this mash up?

I think i glyphs would work as old ranger traps would be much better and make so much sense.
Ground targeted skills that trigger when an ally/enemy (we as well) step on it. No need to check out conditions/health or whatever, just trigger if the simple condition of ally/foe is on the Glyph.
No need to change any mechanic about th glyph.
This could bring the lost trapper ranger gameplay and would make so much sense with the small AoE range.

It wouldn’t change much when playing solo but it would bring a massive support role when used correctly, you could do a pull to a warrior casting 100 blades, or a pushback/daze to keep the ele channeling an skill.

It could be a very interesting way to play support with hard CC skills, something that none of the other classes has thus making our niche in raids/dungeons and everyday content. Healing for itself is not enough were all the classes can support themselves.

actually druid as shown in the preview do hefty damage with the staff. so we could say with the nomal attack we get also the healing bonus.
So very nice, thank Irenio for the amazing druid.
The only thing that worries me are:

• Avatar state being only healing. That really lock out the avatar into popin – heal -drop like the guardian tomes but ireno said they were looking into diversify the transform.
  I hope they bring some damage we could use as AA while healing so we would not lose rewards while being supporting, otherwise would feel like a punishment.
• We don’t know how fast the avatar burns out and how often can it be cast.
• Glyphs very short range. I hope the change them to be like the old ground trageted traps were for the ranger.

So glyphs have really small radius. I think the reason is because most of them are hard CC and being larger could create rivers of QQing all around.

Right now glyphs mechanically are like shouts. Without the synergy shouts have.
Small radius even the reaper has 600 radius and the reaper is supposed to be played i’m so close you can smell my breath like.

But glyphs are supposed to be inscriptions so guard an area. Seals for magical purposes.
With o change in the radius, what about being ground targeted and trigger when an enemy goes thru? Now that we lost ground targeted traps, the druid getting back a kind like functionality would bring back the gameplay lost with the balance patch.

So glyphs would became seal like ranged ground target skill that triggers when an enemy/ally stands in the top depending on the role of the glyph..

What do you think?

Mmm i would love the idea but be realistic that’s a hell of change that also would bring more problems than solutions.
The pet doesn’t need an skynet level AI only to be aware of it’s surroundings.

In my signature there is a link i point out some ways to improve the pet AI in a simple way that could make the pets actually feel helpful with their utility skills.

I see in the snapshots the glyphs have a range of 300. That’s definitely too short you have to be in melee range.

Wouldn’t be better for them to have a range of 600? Keep in mind they still have the cap of targets.

Also the pull from the glyphs could greatly benefit of the extra range. At 300 you don’t need to do any pull.