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Ranger multitasking?


LegitName.3127

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My first character, a ranger, just hit level 80, and I'm contemplating the elite specializations and where to go. My main view of the character was originally just use a longbow and deal lots of damage, but now I am intrigued by the healing aspect of Druid, and I have a few questions.

Is druid healing worth it (for events/dungeons/other things involving multiple people)?If I also want to be able to do more solo stuff (map completion, for example), should I have some sort of alternate weapon (like a longbow) or should I keep a full set of gear for traditional ranger longbow / greatsword and just swap between the two builds?

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Keep in mind that Soulbeast is just as effective at healing as Druid. This is because Celestial Avatar has a limited uptime, so its strictly burst healing, while Core Ranger and Soulbeast can have better healing over time (Health Per Second - HPS) to allies. Staff makes up for this gap, but only if you camp it and don't switch to other weapons, which can be inefficient depending on the kind of content you're playing.

Druid is mainly taken for its ability to enhance allies' damage, as it excels at stacking Might and %damage modifiers.

The truth is that these days most people are playing Soulbeast, because its not restricted to Staff, has better uptime on most boons that Ranger has access to, and Stances provide additional buffs for allies beyond just heals or boons.

Druid is still common in raids and other very high-level content, though.

Take a look at MetaBattle for some quick examples of what's possible:https://metabattle.com/wiki/Ranger

But as a strict answer to your question, there's many stat combos that support Power-builds with healing, like Harrier's and Marshal's, that you can still use to deal damage while healing whenever CA is up, (again, this means not camping Staff, and using GS etc.).

Play around with the build editor if you want to do some buildcrafting of your own:http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/

As a new player I recommend a mix of Wanderer's and Harrier's, and transition into Harrier's (full glass), as you become experienced.

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Play soulbeast you won't regret it.

Soulbeast has a massive damage bonus over druid and if you want the low heals from staff on druid, renegade can do it without having to sacrifice damage while tempest does more overall. Druid hasn't been as relevant ever since the 10% ally damage bonus of glyph of empowerment was removed in the April 23, 2019 patch.

With soulbeast you can still run spirits so all you really lose is celestial avatar because staff isn't spectacular.

Also if "lots of damage" is your goal , don't camp longbow and if you're doing instanced content run mainhand axe as ranged weapon.

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@Hannelore.8153 said:Keep in mind that Soulbeast is just as effective at healing as Druid. This is because Celestial Avatar has a limited uptime, so its strictly burst healing, while Core Ranger and Soulbeast can have better healing over time (Health Per Second - HPS) to allies.

Please show me the soulbest build that heals as effective as Druid, with better healing over time. I'd like to see it.

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@OGDeadHead.8326 said:

@Hannelore.8153 said:Keep in mind that Soulbeast is just as effective at healing as Druid. This is because Celestial Avatar has a limited uptime, so its strictly burst healing, while Core Ranger and Soulbeast can have better healing over time (Health Per Second - HPS) to allies.

Please show me the soulbest build that heals as effective as Druid, with better healing over time. I'd like to see it.

@Hannelore.8153 said:Keep in mind that Soulbeast is just as effective at healing as Druid. This is because Celestial Avatar has a limited uptime, so its strictly burst healing, while Core Ranger and Soulbeast can have better healing over time (Health Per Second - HPS) to allies.

Please show me the soulbest build that heals as effective as Druid, with better healing over time. I'd like to see it.

It's BM, WS and soulbeast traitlines. BM has a trait that makes pets heal over time. While merged, this trait then heals yourself. I believe it's about 130~ hp/s.Then ofc theres WS healing /sec while you have protection, which you have lots of already.

The case to be made is that soulbeast has more dmg reduction and a better rotation for avoiding dmg, therefore not needing to heal as much as druid does to stay alive in the first place.

Dolyak stance provides 33% dmg reduction which stacks with protection for a total of 66% dmg reduction for about 9 seconds.

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@"OGDeadHead.8326" said:Ty bigo. I thought he was talking about outoing heals (to allies), so got a bit confused there.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Spiritual_Reprieve heals for 13k on allies by itself.

You can also take Invigorating Bond with it, and that's not counting other sources of healing such as Regeneration, blast finishers on Healing Spring(or other water fields), Bear Stance, Water Spirit, Nature Spirit, etc.

Core and Soulbeast have strong passive healing, Druid sacrifices it for burst and utility for the most part (in most meta builds). Druid's CA always tops people off every 15sec, so it doesn't actually have more HPS. Once you top people off your burst heals are useless, so there's a ceiling that quite a few classes can reach (even Tempest) that is similar to Druid.

I don't know why this seems shocking, the limitations of burst healing in this gave have been well-known since HoT. Druid is and always has been taken for damage and versatility, with heals as support, less so after the nerfs to Glyphs.

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@Hannelore.8153 said:

@"OGDeadHead.8326" said:Ty bigo. I thought he was talking about outoing heals (to allies), so got a bit confused there.

heals for 13k on allies by itself.

You can also take Invigorating Bond with it, and that's not counting other sources of healing such as Regeneration, blast finishers on Healing Spring(or other water fields), Bear Stance, Water Spirit, Nature Spirit, etc.

Core and Soulbeast have strong passive healing, Druid sacrifices it for burst and utility for the most part (in most meta builds). Druid's CA always tops people off every 15sec, so it doesn't actually have more HPS. Once you top people off your burst heals are useless, so there's a ceiling that quite a few classes can reach (even Tempest) that is similar to Druid.

I don't know why this seems shocking, the limitations of burst healing in this gave have been well-known since HoT. Druid is and always has been taken for damage and versatility, with heals as support, less so after the nerfs to Glyphs.

Oh yea I completely forgot about that one lol.

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