Is Druid dead for PVP?

I have not tried yet, but I know that I was easily focused down before the healing nerf, I could avoid death with well timed signets, rolls and heals and using the environment. But with the healing nerf I just don't see myself surviving well enough to support my team. I just went with Firebrand bunker for today since that still works fine. What do people think? Is Druid still a viable bunker?

I haven’t tried it yet either, and haven’t seen anyone comment with anything more than speculation on its viability post patch.

But from what it LOOKS like, it doesn’t look good.

I've played druid today.

I've ended up with this setup (second pet is on your preference): http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNBmYDbkQFaZxSWwhF4axykg5U5ucZumAwjbCA/TLqN1Sk+ZA-jpxHQBK7IA8tHAAAOIAyrMQCvAAXY/BAPretty standard, but still solid. You can stalemate almost everything, but the killing potential is zero......this is why i've played soulbeast for the past 2 months.Ranger out of meta? Probably,yes :)

I stopped playing Druid seriously probably about Feb '17. But back then I ran Menders with Water, and use LB/Staff with Smoke Scale and Bristle. I was able to get kills easy. I tried it again for giggles last season and it still worked well. But who knows now with all the changes. Honestly other than to say I don't want Druid to be totally useless for others, and even though I liked Druid more than I ever thought I did (I never thought I'd play a support role, but it was fun in WvW while it lasted for me), Druid is a thing of the past for me. Fingers crossed for you Druid lovers.

But back in Feb I switched back to Core full-time and ran that and still run it once in a while. I do love me some SoulB though. So fun to play. IMO though, as far as trait-lines go, Core Ranger has the best Synergy across all three trait-lines. NM/WS/BM. The Aug PoF Pre-Update made it so.

I still play Druid in PvP. Is it dead ? No. Do you need to play better and more carefully ? Yes.Will you be or can you be the main support ? No.People need to have an attitude or opinion shift toward Druids that we aren't here to save a team fight anymore.

Druid has good mobility and will mostly be a decapper, average supporter and needs +1 half of the time.

I don't follow the meta and I'm not using Lingering Light, so I would suggest those that still want to play Druid in sPvP to look outside of NM or/and WS.

I only wish pets weren't so weak to condi and more reliable (looking at you E Wyvern and Rock Gazelle). SBeast has a way to ''revive'' their pets, Druid and Core Ranger has to eat the 45 secs cooldown, which is very punishing.

Pets def need survivability increased to keep up with the power creep, they are just always dead to random aoe.

It may as well be dead. The constant self-healing nerfs have done no favors for its role as a side-noder, and you have 0 pressure (save for the squishiest of targets) while getting chewed on by whatever engages you. It can roam, but you could use Thief, Soulbeast, or Mesmers to do the same. It can hold a side-node, but a Warrior or Mesmer can also stall them long enough to wait for a plus while potentially having enough pressure to force the enemy off node.You can use it, and hell, you could probably still win with it, but its sharply outclassed on all fronts.

For amateur players? Yes. For skilled players? No. But that'll be enough for some PvP players to continue to demand druids be nerfed even further. And if you doubt that, look at any of the threads that discuss these changes. You'll find those players already demanding more nerfs.

Druid is definitely not dead for pvp.

Dead is a harsh way of putting it I think.

A capable player can play a viable Druid and still offer something to a team. The reality though is that it's Ele/Rev tier now, so that even on the most well put together builds, it doesn't have a competitive place over other options.

The thing is, I genuinely don't think Soulbeast is better either. It hasn't been made any less garbage since it was released, and as either a tanky or glass DPS, it is heavily outcompeted by other classes for that role, even moreso than Druid to a degree because at least Druid can still be a secondary support which is still a niche role that Soulbeast lacks, regardless of however useful it may be.

I genuinely think Core Ranger is probably the best option to go with now. It offers that hybrid between Druid and Soulbeast where it has survivability and utility but less than Druid, at the benefit of more damage, and more utility and survivability than Soulbeast, at the cost of damage.

Is it still outclassed by things like Holosmith and Chrono? Definitely.

Gotta make the best of a bad situation though.

Sadly soulbeast isnt any better. Dagger as a mainhand weapon is close to completely unplayable in pvp. Traitwise there still are too many bad pick pushing everyone into 33% condi reduc and stances or a boring 10% dmg. Let’s not get started on utilities because the majority is outperformed by core ranger utils and tl;dr soulbeast may look or appear better in light of druid nerfs but compared to actual meta, it’s a very very sub par specialization, only second worst to renegade..

@Kraitan.8476 Interesting. Thank you for posting your experience. Very informative.

@Ardenwolfe.8590 it would find a better place if mesmer wasnt so cheesy, if thief didnt have to press 2 buttons to be effective, if warriors didnt have 1000 bonus toughness trait and a visually buggy full counter. If necros didnt shit out condis by looking at you (why did they design stances to be so boon dependent anyway?? sb could have been a kind of counter to boonstrip with those stances:( ) and maybe if holo didnt have perma all boons with huge dmg & cc. Maybe then soulbeast would genuinely be fun to play but vs somewhat skilled players it’s 99% frustration and wondering why I even bother still :(

Core Ranger is turning out to be very effective with the slight damage buffs and great trait line synergies. It does a ton of gnarly burst and has pretty decent 1v1 potential, though it still can't touch a chrono with a brain.

Better than spellbreaker? Eh. Decent to good? Yes.

I don't think druid is worth it to run anymore. It has no kill pressure and can't pressure holo, spellbreaker, or mesmer on a sidenode. It's mostly just there to troll and there are other specs that troll better.

@Evolute.6239 said:Core Ranger is turning out to be very effective with the slight damage buffs and great trait line synergies. It does a ton of gnarly burst and has pretty decent 1v1 potential, though it still can't touch a chrono with a brain.

Better than spellbreaker? Eh. Decent to good? Yes.

I don't think druid is worth it to run anymore. It has no kill pressure and can't pressure holo, spellbreaker, or mesmer on a sidenode. It's mostly just there to troll and there are other specs that troll better.

TLDR: Druid is in a good enough position to do what all of my builds have done since the games launch. Be tanky enough to bunker and support the team, but lack any and all kill potential.

@Evolute.6239 said:Core Ranger is turning out to be very effective with the slight damage buffs and great trait line synergies. It does a ton of gnarly burst and has pretty decent 1v1 potential, though it still can't touch a chrono with a brain.

Better than spellbreaker? Eh. Decent to good? Yes.

I don't think druid is worth it to run anymore. It has no kill pressure and can't pressure holo, spellbreaker, or mesmer on a sidenode. It's mostly just there to troll and there are other specs that troll better.

Core ranger can actually win vs spellbreaker. Depends a bit on the build, but with my build its quite often a favourable matchup. Spellbreakers are tankier though, and more suitable for 1v2.

@HeadCrowned.6834 I don't know what's so great about that build you keep mentioning.

as for druidI can't really tell a difference, for worse or better.I switched up to Lingering Light for the +heal.

Druid is completely fine, ranger is a solid class....comparing ranger to ele/rev is absolutely ludicrous , obviously one or two dev play ranger because all changes are tailored and not shots in the dark, there are multiple playstyles available to the class...be glad ranger doesn't rely on gimmicks to remain competitive, that guarantee your safety whatever the future may hold

~ a ranger main ~

@EnderzShadow.2506 said:@HeadCrowned.6834 I don't know what's so great about that build you keep mentioning.

Just 1v1 some spellbreakers and druids, and you'll see.

@HeadCrowned.6834 said:

@EnderzShadow.2506 said:@HeadCrowned.6834 I don't know what's so great about that build you keep mentioning.

I’ve had a number of 1v1s as soulbeast vs ranger and Druid since patch. Pretty much just just destroy them... at best Druid can try to run away..?

If you were anywhere close to playing with top players of the current PvP scene, druid is dead and no longer provides side node viability - it was on the line in this regard before the nerfs to it - now it was basically cancelled out as a side node competitor with this patch.

It was never truly great at support to begin with - put on a marauder pre-patch and you would known this immediately and AoE clear compared to other supports is no where close or comparing also stealth from CA would almost guarantee no assistance on capping a node as support and you need it as a druid so it's support capabilities were never truly good.

This is of course, again, against top tier players and at the ceiling of what you would require as skill and map awareness in players of PvP in this game at the moment - monthly AT winners, etc.

Anything below that, it might still be viable due to opponents just not having good game mechanics, understanding rotations so your matchups are less crucial in picking a specific class to do something specific.

I think for most of the community, in their perception druid is fine, because chances are you're most likely playing against semi-decent or just very bad players in general so the things that make druid lack against top tier players are not being shown.

Soulbeast / Core ranger is more viable at this point , even though we're not entirely sure what roles both of these provide outside of roaming , again I would say holo just does this way better and with much more capability.

@Dralor.3701 said:

@HeadCrowned.6834 said:

@EnderzShadow.2506 said:@HeadCrowned.6834 I don't know what's so great about that build you keep mentioning.

In the topic devoted to that build I explained why core ranger can have some advantages over Soulbeast. One of them is cleaving for example. Druid can just stall it a bit and then run away yeah.

@HeadCrowned.6834 said:

@Dralor.3701 said:

@HeadCrowned.6834 said:

@EnderzShadow.2506 said:@HeadCrowned.6834 I don't know what's so great about that build you keep mentioning.

@Dralor.3701

He was replying to me and my comments about the Core Ranger build he plays. He wasn't talking about Druid or Soulbeast.

@HeadCrowned.6834 Honestly, I wasn't blown away by the build.But I will admit we all have different play styles and builds that we get used to.And maybe it's a matter of you getting a lot more out of the build than I did.Or on the other hand, it could be a kooky build that 'you' make work. I am open to both possibilities.

@EnderzShadow.2506 said:@HeadCrowned.6834 Honestly, I wasn't blown away by the build.But I will admit we all have different play styles and builds that we get used to.And maybe it's a matter of you getting a lot more out of the build than I did.Or on the other hand, it could be a kooky build that 'you' make work. I am open to both possibilities.

Yeah, you're right mate. I was just sharing the build for players that wanted to try an alternative for Druid. It did cost me some time to get used to the build as well, but I'm having fun with it while its a different style of playing than basically any other ranger build. I'm not saying its the holy grail or anything, but I definately encourage ranger fanatics to try it out. Maybe the GS/LB build is better overall, maybe not. They're both fun to play and they both have their own merits.

I'd agree that bunker druid, as a solid 1v2 or 1v3 far node troller, is pretty much dead at mid-plat and above. I've found a way for me to make druid workable for my teams in low plat, but it's nothing like the old bunker meta, and I'm much eager to relog based on enemy team comp.

Pre-nerf: it was almost always a good idea to run my bunker druid in any match. It essentially guaranteed that I could stall far indefinitely (and possibly even land a kill and full cap, if the home-taker was bad) while my team took home and began to roll mid as scared opponents trickled to far one by one to get stalled by me in a 1v2 or 1v3.

Post-nerf: I cannot delay cap for nearly as long as I used to, at least against many of the more favored classes this meta cycle. Very often I have no choice but to let the contender take the cap bit by bit, as I have to fully reset more often. Just like the pre-nerf bunker meta, once the enemy has the cap and is standing on it, it makes no sense for me to troll it in 99.9% of situations.

I've actually gone back to running longbow/staff, much like the old shoutbow build. With rage runes, a marauder amulet, high fury uptime, and the ability to chain 4 immobilizes (one of them being unblockable), I find myself doing better as a teamfight druid. I reserve CA mainly to stealth myself for resets when alone, or to interrupt stomps and stealth rez when a teammate is downed. I do have the annoying task now of hunting freecasting deadeyes, and it's hard to shake the habit of standing right in the action on point like the glory days of bunker druid.

I'm starting to find that blood scourges are more than enough for rez purposes, and am considering dropping druid for another core line, perhaps beastmastery or marksmanship. Even with marauder and pretty much every combat shot I take boosted by fury, I struggle to get high dps output. While I've had moderate success so far just being a 1500 range disruptor and stomp-securer, I get the feeling my current compromise build would get torn to shreds by almost anyone deserving to be in the plat 2 range.