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Druid: the rework imo it needs.


anduriell.6280

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Following the series about how i would rework the ranger class today i'd like to talk about Druid. Druid is in a weird spot, it goes from almost mandatory in raids and fractals to not wanted in other content like WvW group combat.I think this is how the spec end up, because although the core idea ( a healing concept in a game were no trinity was needed ) it didn't go all the way thru leaving a bland hybrid which is supposed to be all for healing spec but not really .So this changes would need some rework of how the druid is designed but in the end i think it could benefit the class in all gamemodes.

The core Design

Druid is a healing/support class based in the universal equilibrium, as such can use celestial (as astronomy) aspects of the universe to bring balance to the world around them. Mechanically it would differentiate from other healing classes as Druid would keep using the main design from the ranger:Using smart positioning the druids will be able to support their allies with healing and regeneration.

This would make the Druid to play different from other healing classes as the elementalist uses PbAoEs to heal and the revenant uses the tablet mechanic.

Building Astral force

The Druid only builds Astral force when healing directly allies. It does not build when the Druid heals himself or by boons. Only direct healing from skills can build up Astral force.It builds 1% por heal pulse, independently of the amount and independently if the target is fully healed ( explained below )

The weapon: Staff

The staff change how the targeting system works for the druid. Instead targeting enemies, when the druid equip the staff automatically the targets are swapped to allies. That's it, the staff targets are the allies, being other players, NPCs or the Druid's pet. When the druid is using and staff the objective should be healing allies and at the same time damage enemies caught on the way. This means while the druid is using an Staff to select an enemy will need to actively click on it as tab would select the next ally. As to hit enemies with the staff is more difficult the damage is increased. The druid will need to use allies or the pet to get the enemy in the cross fire.

  • Solar Beam: Target ally is healed. Allies which cross the beam are healed. Enemies which cross the beam are damaged and burned (2 stacks 3 seconds ). This skill can generate 1%/second of astral force even if the target is a full health. The skill is changed to be a continuous ray which pulses once every 1/2 second. The skill does no sound (the acute sonar sound become tedious in time).
  • Astral Wisp : Target is healed by pulse. The skill last 8 pulses. Each pulse damage and burn (2 stack 3 seconds) foes around the target (130 radius)
  • Ancestral Grace : CD is reduced to 15s.
  • Vine Surge : The condition effect is too weak for the difficulty to hit and the CD of this skill. This skill now cast Ancient Seeds on the foes trapped in the vines.
  • Sublime Conversion : Increase the duration to 10s.

Skills : Glyphs.

The original Glyph design forced the Druid to get into melee combat while the staff and use of the pet put them into the backline. This affects indirectly the uses of the Glyphs making them practically be less impactful as it would require the Druid to move excessively not being able to get advantage from good positioning. From now on to facilitate the job of a Druid as supportive spec now those effects can be placed around Druid or around the Pet as the glyph while active works as an switch.This is to provide more usability to the Avatar state glyphs as being gated behind avatar state make the use of them counter intuitive and a pain to use.

All conditions cleansed are instead converted : Damaging conditions are converted to regeneration (3secs) while Control conditions are converted to Protection(1sec). All ghyps have 5 targets (allies or foes)

To change the glyph to pet target the skill should be hold. All glyphs have a 1/2 sec cast on self but 1 second cast time on pet.

Elite:The original effect go against a healing spec, as it is focused in DPS while the spec have little use of that stats and should be focus in heal and conditions (Seraph set).

  • Glyph of Unity(self): Downed allies around the druid are resurrected by pulses (15% by second) Duration 6 seconds. Radius 450 , leash radius 600.
  • Glyph of Unity(on Pet): Damage done to the pet is distributed between foes linked. This skill takes the total damage done to the pet and distribute the total between the linked enemies. The less foes linked the more damage they each get from this skill. Radius 450, leash radius 600.

Traits

Minor

  • Celestial Being Astral Force is gained at 1% by direct outgoing heal applied by the druid. Regeneration is not included in this calculation. No Astral force regeneration by damaging enemies. While in celestial avatar form, your healing of others is significantly increased. Increased Outgoing Healing: 50%. The druid has still the Astral Force penalisation for leaving early the avatar state but now it does not need to fill up the bar to be able to enter into Celestial Avatar. The CD in Celestial Avatar is increased to 15 seconds in all game modes.

  • Live Vicariously

  • Natural Mender Regeneration applied is 20% more effective.

Adept

  • Druidic Clarity: While in Celestial Avatar conditions are converted into regeneration and protection. 1 condition is converted by sec. All conditions converted : Damaging conditions are converted to regeneration (3secs) while Control conditions are converted to Protection(1sec).
  • Cultivated Synergy: All direct heals applied to the Druid heal the pet . Regeneration and protection applied to the Druid is copied to the pet (similar effect to fortifying bond)
  • Primal Echoes : Staff skills gain reduced CD (20%). Staff skills apply effects:Solar beam: Increased healing. Additionally apply cripple to foes.Astral wisp: Apply protection to target once. Additionally apply short slow to foes.Ancestral Grace: Apply 1 stab when cast (1 s)Vine Surge: Additional apply vulnerability.Sublime conversion: Healing projectiles also apply regeneration.

Master

Grand MasterThis traits are the ones in the most need of a change. Some actual traits make the Druid a must have (might from grace of the land) removing other classes from PVE, meanwhile other traits are completely unfun to play against

  • Grace of the Land: Improve the effect of some boons in nearby allies. Interval 9 seconds.Might : +10 power and condition damage by stackFury: +100 ferocityProtection: Reduce condition damage by 20%Regeneration : Reduce condition duration by 20%
  • Lingering Light: Every time an ally has a condition converted by the druid the ally is additionally healed.
  • Celestial alignment: Avatar state last longer. Avatar skills gain increased radius.

Celestial Avatar

All ranged skills are changed to PbAoE to keep the coherence of use. Ranged skills get increased effects to compensate.Cosmic Ray: The skill is changed to an small pbAoE. Radius 240. This skill also convert one condition of affected allies.Seed of Life : The skill convert 2 conditions. Once at the beginning of the cast, the other at the end.
Lunar Impact: The skill is changed to a PbAoE which knockdown for 1 second. Radius 360.Rejuvenating TidesNatural Convergence: To keep the purity of purpose the Power damage is changed to condition damage. Each Pulse additionally applies burning. At the end of the channel additional bleeding and knockdown (2 secs) is applied to foes.

Final thoughts

So those are the changes. The objective is to make a positional healer, with access to burst and constant healing so it can compete with other healers in the gamemodes where is not welcomed at the moment. Key traits and skills are changed so while still providing unique utility to the group don't overlap with roles in the group.

There is no difference there, to build the Astral Force consistently The Druid will still need the Staff, But now the staff is rewarding with significant effects although also more difficult to use.

However as the requirement to fill the bar is removed, the Druid does not need to camp staff. the Druid still will be using the staff when the situation requires it or to fill the bar nothing is happening, warming his pet with his kind solar beams.But if required is more free to use other weapons as does not need to camp the staff to access reliably to the Celestial Avatar if the Druid understands and manage the Astral Force intelligently

Finally the Druid get the ability to cast the old Celestial glyphs where the pet is located instead using the confusing in and out of avatar states, And this change should provide the missing synergy between the druid and the pet. As the pet becomes an extension of the Druid Abilities allowing the druid to keep the distance while being able to cast the powerful effects from those skills and fill the Astral Force by the way.

So, what do you think? I mean it is just how i would try to approach the Druid design so it keeps always an unique role without overlapping or destroying other roles in place.

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Making CF generation dependent on staff is a very bad idea in my opinion. While staff should provide the fastest CF generation potential, making it a required weapon to access the e-spec mechanic goes against build diversity. Also, having CF generation dependent upon healing allies and not self-healing further restricts its build variety and application. Forgive me if I misunderstood something from your post.

Adding those additional stats to boons via GotL would also go against comp diversity in PvE. Comp diversity is a good thing, they changed GotL to might generation for a reason.

Having ranged options for CA 1-3 is really helpful and I would hate to have that taken away. CA 1 and 2 are clunky and underperforming and need to be looked at, but the ranged potential for these skills adds to the spec's flexibility.

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I understand the concept is really strange to what we are used to but I still think this would be the best approach.

@Swagger.1459 said:No thanks. My idea is way better, way more fun, way more fluid and offers way more build options...I like your ideas but those are merely buffing an spec left and right which in my opinion is does not need any buffing to the offensive side. IMO what it needs is to do a better job as support as that was supposed to be it's objective.

@"Pterikdactyl.7630" said:Making CF generation dependent on staff is a very bad idea in my opinion.After this change the Druid is not forced to fill the energy bar, so there is no direct gating. The druid can still use many ways to fill the bar, however it will not be possible now with just one cast of Troll unguent (although it would still work). ressing downed, runes, sigils, traits (a new trait heal directly when a condition is converted) ... as such using the staff would mean it would be faster, not that is mandatory.

Which should not be a problem now because the intention for the staff is to be able compete in DPS with a shortbow or a dagger main hand. It's just made a little more tricky as the Druid with an staff now delivers damage thru it's allies instead directly. But it should feel good when the druid get to hit an enemy with the staff.

Adding those additional stats to boons via GotL would also go against comp diversity in PvE.On the contrary, removing the unique effect from GotL did nothing, the druid is still mandatory in raids.Adding the might did 2 toxic effects: Removed the necessity to provide the boons and buffed even more the roaming druid. From there we got the nerfs to the might duration in that trait.This change aims to let the druid still be useful in raid comps but only when the boons are present. Which means that there is an spot now for somebody which provided those boons. Also this special boon would be very useful for wvw havock or zergs.

Having ranged options for CA 1-3 is really helpful and I would hate to have that taken away.It is very helpful but it breaks the druid again, we got too many nerfs in lunar impact. You still need to get into melee when you wan't to use rejuvenating tides, but you don't have access to movement skill. Everything is out of place. Better not to have ranged skills in those and have more impactful skills.CA1 to convert conditions, CA2 to convert an aditional condition, CA3 to knockdown. Plus the increased +50% healing you get baseline.

It's all about, what do you want: a washed out druid which neither heal neither dps or a more specialised class which can provide interesting effects? Because we can't have both if we want a healthy game.

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@anduriell.6280 said:I understand the concept is really strange to what we are used to but I still think this would be the best approach.

@Swagger.1459 said:No thanks. My idea is way better, way more fun, way more fluid and offers way more build options...I like your ideas but those are merely buffing an spec left and right which in my opinion is does not need any buffing to the offensive side. IMO what it needs is to do a better job as support as that was supposed to be it's objective.

@"Pterikdactyl.7630" said:Making CF generation dependent on staff is a very bad idea in my opinion.After this change the Druid is not forced to fill the energy bar, so there is no direct gating. The druid can still use many ways to fill the bar, however it will not be possible now with just one cast of Troll unguent (although it would still work). ressing downed, runes, sigils, traits (a new trait heal directly when a condition is converted) ... as such using the staff would mean it would be faster, not that is mandatory.

Which should not be a problem now because the intention for the staff is to be able compete in DPS with a shortbow or a dagger main hand. It's just made a little more tricky as the Druid with an staff now delivers damage thru it's allies instead directly. But it should feel good when the druid get to hit an enemy with the staff.

Adding those additional stats to boons via GotL would also go against comp diversity in PvE.On the contrary, removing the unique effect from GotL did nothing, the druid is still mandatory in raids.Adding the might did 2 toxic effects: Removed the necessity to provide the boons and buffed even more the roaming druid. From there we got the nerfs to the might duration in that trait.This change aims to let the druid still be useful in raid comps but only when the boons are present. Which means that there is an spot now for somebody which provided those boons. Also this special boon would be very useful for wvw havock or zergs.

Having ranged options for CA 1-3 is really helpful and I would hate to have that taken away.It is very helpful but it breaks the druid again, we got too many nerfs in lunar impact. You still need to get into melee when you wan't to use rejuvenating tides, but you don't have access to movement skill. Everything is out of place. Better not to have ranged skills in those and have more impactful skills.CA1 to convert conditions, CA2 to convert an aditional condition, CA3 to knockdown. Plus the increased +50% healing you get baseline.

It's all about, what do you want: a washed out druid which neither heal neither dps or a more specialised class which can provide interesting effects? Because we can't have both if we want a healthy game.

“I like your ideas but those are merely buffing an spec left and right which in my opinion is does not need any buffing to the offensive side. IMO what it needs is to do a better job as support as that was supposed to be it's objective.”...

All profession builds were designed to do damage. That was the concept from Alpha.... Gear choices dictate what the number outputs are for the role a player wants. My suggestion clearly makes Druid do a better job at support if the user wants to play support, yours kills build options.

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  • 1 year later...

I think druid needs to be able to get in CA same as necromancer with same cd of 10 sec. With current traits which remove all condis on entering and stealth+superspeed aoe its kinda impossible because that would be op design. Why we don t get entering trait remove 2 condis aoe with 600 range with pet revive if he is dead. Exiting should be lower to 1 second superspeed and 1 second of stealth. I don t agree with CA granting regeneration with protection while converting condis because that would be op because of druid synergy with traits which bring nice passive health gain already with current amounts of regeneration and protection.

Now comes the part i really like and its mechanics change you said for staff. It would make staff feel active and would be kinda great new style and generetion of support build. I agree skill 1 should put burning but writing this after future balance change i think it should be 1 burn on end of the chain dealing dmg during the chain and yes damage should be 20% better than it is now. Skill 2 should also be targeted on ally and it should stay same in terms of heal but when it hits allies it should blind nearby foes (would be nice skill to smooth dmg on targeted allie when he is being call by enemie team. About staff 3 it should instead give aoe protection to allies (5 target) 300 radius on staff 3 and leave it that way instead of just giving protection for pet. Staff 4 is good idea but its op for ancient seeds and it already gives immobilize. What you think when it hits foes on way it summon seed of life for each hited foe (this way you use it vs hard focus on teamate and showing others where to take quick cover since its aoe heal blind and 2 condi remove now.

CA should be able to use without full astral force is most needed along with faster build up and faster drain of life force inside of CA (more active use of it defninitly)For CA skills i would like it to stay same except skill 5 is not rooted which is maybe too much to ask and skill 1 giving quick aoe regen on top of heal which should differ it more from staff 1.

Glyphs should not proc seed of life anymore traited it should instead give 2 seconds of stability aoe (this is making elite glyph worth casting atleast for 2 seconds of stability to gain benefit from it since its easly interupted after).Radius of glyphs outside of CA will be around you and glyphs in CA would be ground targeted and same have 1200 range. You are right about glyphs feeling separated from rest of mechanic when its about heal .Glyph of alignment especially would be nice to use from range fitting more druid mechanics and being able to fast react and maybe save someone from range would feel good i would even give it mechanics like loose half of the astral force so you heal for each point of astral force more...for example having full astral force when casted will half it but heal for like 8k which would be nice life saviour if you manage it that way.Glyph of equality would also fit nice with current meta shift leaving alot of hard cc ingame but removing some stunbreaks (druidic clarity aswell), so stun remove for allies from 1200 range would fit nice. It should even keep daze and loose self stunbreak inside CA, since outside CA it stays same and it makes sense if glyphs traited give short stability 2 seconds (as i mentioned above about verdant eching change).

Nice ideas and i like alot mechanics you writed down about staff targeting only allies and ground targeting glyphs. Would definitly enjoy class where i play 2 weapons totally different (probably would run somehting for self defence on second set maybe even gs because of mobility and block). Some things you said would be op but i think this is some midline i tried to give since you also writed this before new balance patch notes.

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Druid should feel and be categorized as healer (with some regen and prot) and guard fb should feel like prot in first place (with some heal added to it). Having both in same team in 5 vs 5 conquest won t be a deal (in wvw zerg it would) but each one would provide unique support and would fit potentially different team builds....still many things have to be done for build diversity...

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Here's a fun idea :

When a Ranger specs Druid, they lose their pets.

Instead, pets are replaced with Spirits.

Spirits skill line revamped into something else.

Spirits in this case will feature :Indefinite aura buff as long as they are currently summoned.Can't be targeted and killed.Empowers the Auto attack of the Druid with an extra hit, inflicting condition based on the current Spirit summoned.

Spirits consolidated into :

Spirit of Calm (Water and Frost Spirits combined)Spirit of Wrath (Storm and Sun Spirits combined)Spirit of Eternity (Stone and Nature Spirits combined, also the highest cooldown for their activated skills)

Trade off : Rip pets.

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@Yasai.3549 said:Here's a fun idea :

When a Ranger specs Druid, they lose their pets.

Instead, pets are replaced with Spirits.

Spirits skill line revamped into something else.

Spirits in this case will feature :Indefinite aura buff as long as they are currently summoned.Can't be targeted and killed.Empowers the Auto attack of the Druid with an extra hit, inflicting condition based on the current Spirit summoned.

Spirits consolidated into :

Spirit of Calm (Water and Frost Spirits combined)Spirit of Wrath (Storm and Sun Spirits combined)Spirit of Eternity (Stone and Nature Spirits combined, also the highest cooldown for their activated skills)

Trade off : Rip pets.

That would be great mechanic for renegade kalla utilities since it doesn t rq much change while on druid it will need to shift core and druid and won t be a big deal.

Stone spirit needs stun break on active use. In pve it won t be a big deal but in pvp it will, precasting the spirit and having stunbreak ready with delayed aoe protection+imobilize would fit druid nice. Also Verdant eching changed to give aoe 2 sec stability instead of seed of life would help other spirit especially elite. I guess all utility sorts should have 1 skill with stunbreak so give stone spirit stunbreak on active and its viable.

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@Yasai.3549 said:Here's a fun idea :

When a Ranger specs Druid, they lose their pets.

Instead, pets are replaced with Spirits.

Spirits skill line revamped into something else.

Spirits in this case will feature :Indefinite aura buff as long as they are currently summoned.Can't be targeted and killed.Empowers the Auto attack of the Druid with an extra hit, inflicting condition based on the current Spirit summoned.

Spirits consolidated into :

Spirit of Calm (Water and Frost Spirits combined)Spirit of Wrath (Storm and Sun Spirits combined)Spirit of Eternity (Stone and Nature Spirits combined, also the highest cooldown for their activated skills)

Trade off : Rip pets.

That would be interesting... <3

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Man would you mind if i make another druid discussion based on my comment in this discussion because i want to use your ideas on staff rework and ground targeting glyphs. I think you rly made best deal for druid from everything i read so far. Still some things would be op you writed because of incoming balance. I would like to try push your idea mixed with my vision of druid so it gets more recognition. Most ppl won t understand what you write about staff aswell but if anet reads that part maybe it gets some mechanic change since it makes so much sense and brings unique aspect of weapon and probly new mechanics for support classes aswell.

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