Druid rework idea : ethereal pets

[Arheundel.6451]

I had this idea for a while, the aim is to have a strong support specialization suitable for small and zerg scale , while not able to compete as duellist spec like a core build or soulbeast can , ofc it should still offer the same levels of self-sustain of a tempest or a scrapper, so here is the idea :

Ethereal pets

-When slotting Druid specialization , pets become "ethereal" , cannot do or receive any sort of dmg-Pet skill bar replaced with ward like skills and can have maximum 2 wards at time along with druid bar, wards will have 1200 range and 3/4s cast time at least-Pets are divided in "ward family"...a bit like soulbeast pet archetypes

• An offensive ward for birds,cats and other...defensive ward bears-pigs ...etc etc and finally an utility ward with other pets
• Now if you use a bird and a pig your druid would have an offensive and defensive ward to use

This would be the main idea then the devs could fill in with the detail (like replacing ancient seed with something else).

[Kodama.6453]

@"Arheundel.6451" said:I had this idea for a while, the aim is to have a strong support specialization suitable for small and zerg scale , while not able to compete as duellist spec like a core build or soulbeast can , ofc it should still offer the same levels of self-sustain of a tempest or a scrapper, so here is the idea :

Ethereal pets

-When slotting Druid specialization , pets become "ethereal" , cannot do or receive any sort of dmg-Pet skill bar replaced with ward like skills and can have maximum 2 wards at time along with druid bar, wards will have 1200 range and 3/4s cast time at least-Pets are divided in "ward family"...a bit like soulbeast pet archetypes

• An offensive ward for birds,cats and other...defensive ward bears-pigs ...etc etc and finally an utility ward with other pets
• Now if you use a bird and a pig your druid would have an offensive and defensive ward to use

This would be the main idea then the devs could fill in with the detail (like replacing ancient seed with something else).

Problem I see with this is that the ranger has quite an arsenal of skills and traits which trigger their effects on your pet's next attack. Which can't be used if your pet is not able to attack at all.

Unless your idea for the offensive ward would be that it acts like a turret, being an attacking stationary minion.

[kappa.2036]

I've always thought about something like this. Perma-immune pets are something that can't exist tho. Maybe they can become "ethereal" when druid goes into Celestial Avatar Form, that would be nice :)

[Arheundel.6451]

@Kodama.6453 said:

@"Arheundel.6451" said:I had this idea for a while, the aim is to have a strong support specialization suitable for small and zerg scale , while not able to compete as duellist spec like a core build or soulbeast can , ofc it should still offer the same levels of self-sustain of a tempest or a scrapper, so here is the idea :

Ethereal pets

-When slotting Druid specialization , pets become "ethereal" , cannot do or receive any sort of dmg-Pet skill bar replaced with

ward like skills

and can have maximum 2 wards at time along with druid bar, wards will have 1200 range and 3/4s cast time at least-Pets are divided in "ward family"...a bit like soulbeast pet archetypes

• An offensive ward for birds,cats and other...defensive ward bears-pigs ...etc etc and finally an utility ward with other pets
• Now if you use a bird and a pig your druid would have an offensive and defensive ward to use

This would be the main idea then the devs could fill in with the detail (like replacing ancient seed with something else).

Problem I see with this is that the ranger has quite an arsenal of skills and traits which trigger their effects on your pet's next attack. Which can't be used if your pet is not able to attack at all.

Unless your idea for the offensive ward would be that it acts like a turret, being an attacking stationary minion.

Was thinking more about ranged AoE skills and the traits for pet action could activate when the Ward land on the enemies, Ex: winter's bite weakness on pet next attack get applied to ward once activated say...Offensive ward 30s Cd 3/4s cast time, base 2k dmg and 3.5 coefficient -1200 range - "deliver an explosion of celestial energy on location" and now it's 2k dmg + 4s weakness from winter's bite

[Arheundel.6451]

@"kappa.2036" said:I've always thought about something like this. Perma-immune pets are something that can't exist tho. Maybe they can become "ethereal" when druid goes into Celestial Avatar Form, that would be nice :)

The pets would not attack though, they would no deal or receive any dmg, they're there to open access to wards and for the animation : the pet remains in ethereal form and when the ward activate the selected pet will teleport in the target area and become a ward

[Kodama.6453]

@Arheundel.6451 said:

@Kodama.6453 said:

@Arheundel.6451 said:I had this idea for a while, the aim is to have a strong support specialization suitable for small and zerg scale , while not able to compete as duellist spec like a core build or soulbeast can , ofc it should still offer the same levels of self-sustain of a tempest or a scrapper, so here is the idea :

Ethereal pets

-When slotting Druid specialization , pets become "ethereal" , cannot do or receive any sort of dmg-Pet skill bar replaced with

ward like skills

and can have maximum 2 wards at time along with druid bar, wards will have 1200 range and 3/4s cast time at least-Pets are divided in "ward family"...a bit like soulbeast pet archetypes

• An offensive ward for birds,cats and other...defensive ward bears-pigs ...etc etc and finally an utility ward with other pets
• Now if you use a bird and a pig your druid would have an offensive and defensive ward to use

This would be the main idea then the devs could fill in with the detail (like replacing ancient seed with something else).

Problem I see with this is that the ranger has quite an arsenal of skills and traits which trigger their effects on your pet's next attack. Which can't be used if your pet is not able to attack at all.

Unless your idea for the offensive ward would be that it acts like a turret, being an attacking stationary minion.

Was thinking more about ranged AoE skills and the traits for pet action could activate when the Ward land on the enemies, Ex: winter's bite weakness on pet next attack get applied to ward once activated say...Offensive ward 30s Cd 3/4s cast time, base 2k dmg and 3.5 coefficient -1200 range - "deliver an explosion of celestial energy on location" and now it's 2k dmg + 4s weakness from winter's bite

Skills in GW2 don't have base damage, just power coefficients. Having a skill with such a long CD replace the pet attack mechanic could also prove problematic, since there are many effects like this. A pet can constantly make use of them, since their AA has no cooldown, using the spawn of the wards for this purpose makes it hard to use all these effects efficiently.

My suggestion: Instead of a single big hit, you could make these wards pulse a weak attack regularly and that pulsing effects applies the pet "on attack" features. That way you still get to constantly use this stuff. Also, Druid shouldn't really have huge burst spells in their base mechanic in my opinion. The spec is supposed to be a healing support, not an AoE nuker.

[Arheundel.6451]

@Kodama.6453 said:

@Arheundel.6451 said:

@Kodama.6453 said:

@Arheundel.6451 said:I had this idea for a while, the aim is to have a strong support specialization suitable for small and zerg scale , while not able to compete as duellist spec like a core build or soulbeast can , ofc it should still offer the same levels of self-sustain of a tempest or a scrapper, so here is the idea :

Ethereal pets

-When slotting Druid specialization , pets become "ethereal" , cannot do or receive any sort of dmg-Pet skill bar replaced with

ward like skills

and can have maximum 2 wards at time along with druid bar, wards will have 1200 range and 3/4s cast time at least-Pets are divided in "ward family"...a bit like soulbeast pet archetypes

• An offensive ward for birds,cats and other...defensive ward bears-pigs ...etc etc and finally an utility ward with other pets
• Now if you use a bird and a pig your druid would have an offensive and defensive ward to use

This would be the main idea then the devs could fill in with the detail (like replacing ancient seed with something else).

Problem I see with this is that the ranger has quite an arsenal of skills and traits which trigger their effects on your pet's next attack. Which can't be used if your pet is not able to attack at all.

Unless your idea for the offensive ward would be that it acts like a turret, being an attacking stationary minion.

Was thinking more about ranged AoE skills and the traits for pet action could activate when the Ward land on the enemies, Ex: winter's bite weakness on pet next attack get applied to ward once activated say...Offensive ward 30s Cd 3/4s cast time, base 2k dmg and 3.5 coefficient -1200 range - "deliver an explosion of celestial energy on location" and now it's 2k dmg + 4s weakness from winter's bite

Skills in GW2 don't have base damage, just power coefficients. Having a skill with such a long CD replace the pet attack mechanic could also prove problematic, since there are many effects like this. A pet can constantly make use of them, since their AA has no cooldown, using the spawn of the wards for this purpose makes it hard to use all these effects efficiently.

My suggestion: Instead of a single big hit, you could make these wards pulse a weak attack regularly and that pulsing effects applies the pet "on attack" features. That way you still get to constantly use this stuff. Also, Druid shouldn't really have huge burst spells in their base mechanic in my opinion. The spec is supposed to be a healing support, not an AoE nuker.

For offensive ward we could some sort of disabling like increased rate of attack for allies caught in the ward ..or something else, so yeah the pulsing dmg idea would work perfectly

[Kodama.6453]

@Arheundel.6451 said:

@"kappa.2036" said:I've always thought about something like this. Perma-immune pets are something that can't exist tho. Maybe they can become "ethereal" when druid goes into Celestial Avatar Form, that would be nice :)

The pets would not attack though, they would no deal or receive any dmg, they're there to open access to wards and for the animation : the pet remains in ethereal form and when the ward activate the selected pet will teleport in the target area and become a ward

Want to point out: I love this idea thematically. Especially if the wards look like totems designed after the pet family you are currently using to activate them.

[Za Shaloc.3908]

I too like the idea of a change in the pet's functionality like this that would give the Druid a proper tradeoff while still providing a niche that makes more sense for the e-spec and its intended role. Been working on some ideas myself and I have a similar thing going.