oPvE Druid Help

Yes, I know anything (and everything!) works in open PvE, but I'm having difficulty understanding how I might best solo run my druid. Is druid really set in a support role that doesn't lend itself to solo play? So far, I've been able to manage in most areas but I just don't get the feel of how this class should work. I welcome help/tips/build suggestions.

Thanks!

Druid works really well for solo play, you can use your CA offensively to break bars and clear your condis.

For open-world PvE I'd recommend condi-druid, since it brings a fair amount of damage and is effective against both weaker mobs and champions alike. The current raid build works really well with a few tweaks to make it less team-supportive, here's an example.

The basic premise is that you can burst a ton of conditions onto weaker mobs and move on while it slowly dies. Stronger mobs you'll want to break their breakbar with your pet/CA3+5/Shortbow5, then proceed to melt them with condis. Rangers are somewhat broken for solo PvE since the pet can pretty much just tank everything. Even if the pet dies, you can simply revive it using any combat transform or tonic (The super adventure boomboxes work). Alternatively if you play Soulbeast, simply merging with a dead pet will revive it fully.

If you prefer to play power based builds with greatsword, longbow or sword/axe then I'd definitely recommend Soulbeast over Druid. Since Soulbeast brings some much needed power damage boosts that you'll lack with the Druid traitline. Condi-druid is fantastic though.

Druid is similar to Firebrand in that its power is made to reflect off of a group at the sacrifice of personal sustain and damage. You still have damage options, but its 15-25% less potent then a core/Soulbeast build due to how Ranger's trait and skill combos work. Celestial Avatar is also a little awkward, and requires learning some timing on when to best use it. Its best used reactively in openworld fights.... but because CE generation is low in damage builds, you want to save it for when you can heal and use the CCs offensively at the same time.
In Boss fights, especially the AOE heavy ones in POF, you swap from personal utilities to Glyph of Empowerment, maybe glyph of equality (for stun breaks), and fill the other slot/s with spirits. You also want to change up your healing and elite skills for AOE healing to boost CE generation; Spirit of Nature of awesome for its pulsed healing for stable CE income, and can act as a AOE Rez tool in a clutch, paired with Glyph of Rejuv, Water Spirit, or Healing Spring for Nature's downtime. Healing spring is heavily favored for condi heavy fights, as purge on groups...... but can be frustrating if people don't think to stand in it.

For personal damage, Condi SB/any builds only need 2 trait lines to be effective, making the most out of a trait shortage problem. For power builds its a battle between what weapons you want to run. Skirmishing is almost mandatory for any Ranger build- due to a toss up between its GM traits. Quickdraw, being the only answer to a lot of Ranger's long cool downs on important skills and CD misalignments. Or Light on your Feet to give Shortbow much needed piercing, or Vicious Quarry for Crit damage on power builds. Marksman is Mandatory for longbow, and ironically synergizes better with GS then Beastmastery (which has GS oriented traits) because Maul is the Ranger's only high damage, single hit skill that can fully capitalize on Moment of Clarity's damage bonus. Some builds may take Beast Mastery if they don't run Longbow, but the damage has to be more sustain oriented. As you can see, power based Druid gets a lot more complicated to break even on Damage potential. I'd say the one saving grace of power builds is how LB and GS are conceptually a great weapon pairing, and enables a type of dynamic play the ranger can't get with any other weapon set....... but its potential is hampered by the class's traits and trait layout. For Core Power Ranger, this combo is can work due to Beastmastery picking up the slack with additive sustain DPS, and two-handed training for even more reliable GS utility.

So to tldr it down, Core Ranger has spare traits to resolve its general dilution, while Druid trades personal damage for group damage output, and Soulbeast trades Ranger's self sustain utility for stronger offensive power. While each can be a solid option, the other classes still have much better internal flexibility that Ranger always feels like its struggling with. Which is a shame... because its only 2 things that gives the class such horrible footing in build craft. The Trait layout and awkward (or even conflicting) utility/mobility in its single handed weapons. If both of these were addressed, it would become one of the best classes in the game, with a full range of dynamic performance (and better balance opportunities), rather being forced to revolve around a combination of gimmicks to succeed in even one area.

Thank you both for your responses. These help me to understand why I've been struggling to understand the mechanics during solo oPvE. I'll tinker with the class a bit more with these points in mind and see how things work out. ;)

Another thing to recommend for Druid is due to you being a support build mainly (even if you go more offensive), is you still provide a lot of heals and offensive boosts, which means your pet will hit harder and live longer too, so feel free to bring a glassy offensive pet to help kill things faster.

Birds (ravens particularly) are very good at bursting a mob, as is the bristleback with its F2, and cats are good for sustained damage.

Other than that though just do what the other two posts said!!

@Durzlla.6295 said:Another thing to recommend for Druid is due to you being a support build mainly (even if you go more offensive), is you still provide a lot of heals and offensive boosts, which means your pet will hit harder and live longer too, so feel free to bring a glassy offensive pet to help kill things faster.

Birds (ravens particularly) are very good at bursting a mob, as is the bristleback with its F2, and cats are good for sustained damage.

Other than that though just do what the other two posts said!!

Thanks. I have been using the hawk a good bit. Haven't gotten this ranger down into HoT that far to get bristleback. ;) Will look at some felines as well.

So far, i'm not really feeling the axe/torch set working for me. Have been toying with shortbow and enjoying results so far. How do others feel about sword/warhorn? I've been using warhorn 4/5 to help me and pet hit harder. Again, oPvE anything should work I know. Just trying to get a better feel for druid.

I guess solo with staff is not all that great?

For any condition build (i.e. if you want to use the shortbow), you're going to want to run axe/torch. Sword/warhorn is an excellent combination, but it's most certainly a healing or power setup and you'd essentially have to give up on shortbow.

Although torch 5 has been nerfed, it's still fine for open world in combination with the Quick Draw trait. I think what you need is more practice with condi druid, it's quite versatile.

@voltaicbore.8012 said:

I think what you need is more practice with condi druid...Quoted for truth!

Thanks for the suggestions and information. I'm enjoying the added challenge of trying new builds while I'm waiting on new content releases.

@kharmin.7683 said:

@Durzlla.6295 said:Another thing to recommend for Druid is due to you being a support build mainly (even if you go more offensive), is you still provide a lot of heals and offensive boosts, which means your pet will hit harder and live longer too, so feel free to bring a glassy offensive pet to help kill things faster.

Birds (ravens particularly) are very good at bursting a mob, as is the bristleback with its F2, and cats are good for sustained damage.

Other than that though just do what the other two posts said!!

I solo everything with a typical support build running Staff + Sword/WH it works very well, it’s not the FASTEST kills, but it’s not too slow and it gets the job done just fine. Quick Draw + Staff 3 also makes running past stuff super easy

@Durzlla.6295 said:I solo everything with a typical support build running Staff + Sword/WH it works very well, it’s not the FASTEST kills, but it’s not too slow and it gets the job done just fine. Quick Draw + Staff 3 also makes running past stuff super easy

Would you be kind enough to post your build? Just the trait lines would be fine. ;)

Both MH Axe and Torch are kind of campy weapons..... designed to lazily kite around and spam skills on cool down. Sword is a sustained power damage weapon, but it designed mainly for use in PvP. Outside of PvP, sword just kind of sits there and auto attacks, while the 2/3 skills are made for getting out of melee range momentarily to avoid burst attacks. The only reason it shows up on so many meta lists is it have more basic damage on auto then the "Hybrid" that is the Main Hand Axe. Warhorn is an almost purely support weapon made for WvW. The problem though is other then being blast finisher, Call of the Wild doesn't do a lot for you personally. Further, its outmatched by Off hand Axe for power builds, with it doing way more damage and having access to a hard CC.

As for Staff... if you spend a lot of time in Karma training with a group around a map, the Mobility and utility may be worth it if you don't think you're in a good position to be doing enough damage. Even without investment in healing power, the Staff can generate CE pretty fast.... usually enough to keep using CA as it comes off cool down. That is unless no ones taking damage.... which is pretty rare. Like most of Druid's skills, the staff works best with lots of players around for it to capitalize on its mechanics. The staff would also free up your heal and elite skills, since you get plenty of CE off the staff heals..... although, you don't really have any consistently good offensive options in either of those. Strength of the Pack offers stability, but the might generation is kind of redundant with the near constant 25 stacks Grace of the Land will put out. Entangle is good for Area immobilize, but the long cool down is a bummer for what it does. The Druid elite...... we don't talk about the Druid elite skill. If you're Norn, one of the Transform elites is a fun filler; especially with Bear and Snow Leopard having a Charge attack similar to Flesh Golem. I would recommend Bear more, as its skills hit harder; though Leopard has slightly faster skills. Both are 30 second duration though, so other then opening with Charge so you can use it twice, theres not enough time to make good use of the other skills.

For a power build core ranger or druid are best. For a condi build go soulbeast. My condi soulbest melts mobs and the traits within SB compliment a condi build well.