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Let's Talk About Druid Competitively After Pet Nerf - And Buffs That CA Deserves


Trevor Boyer.6524

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The recent pet nerf was unwarranted. Druid already struggled competitively after they had recently granted most classes the ability to dish out and hold nearly 100% uptime of the important boons, like prot/might/stab/quick. They should have buffed something else on Druid to compensate for the pet nerf. The pet nerf wasn't just a 20% loss in pet damage, it was also a loss in the pet's sustain. Due to a loss in pet sustain, they die more often which ends up being a complete loss in pet damage.

In my opinion it's time that CA abilities receive buffs. If you really take a look at what Firebrand tomes are doing for a team competitively, or even Scrapper Support, or hell even Tempest Auramancer Support, CA abilities are pale in comparison. Right now competitively, there is no reason to use any CA ability beyond the big #3 burst heal, which counts as an attack that triggers the blind on Lingering Light, and can combo for more heal on Water Fields. The Druid needs to go into CA as often as possible to be able to break stuns and clean condis, and it needs to leave CA as soon as possible to trigger the Stealth & Superspeed disengage. So the Druid wants to preserve CA charge, not burn it on useless skills that have little to no impact at all. The #1 spam is useless competitively. The heals are so small and the damage in the game is turned up so high, that it's a waste of time and CA charge to attempt to heal with it. The #2 skill is mostly useless. The heal is too small and the single condi cleanse isn't enough to warrant any real source of reliable team condi cleanse support. The only thing it's good for is dropping it and comboing it with #3, if the Druid has a second to spare, for a source of small self condi cleanse. The #4 skill is now almost completely useless. The heal is way too small for how long this skill takes to channel, way too small. This skill is almost never worth using unless the Druid is hard up for a Water Field. The #5 skill is atrociously bad. The Druid goes into CA for defensive healing purposes, not to stand still and let players hit them while they channel an almost 3 second long cast immobilization, on a build that hasn't the damage to follow up on a CC like that. There is no greater waste of CA charge than the #5. It is rarely useful to even consider using. The only time it is useful, is vs. Spellbreaker if you get caught in CA with no Stabililty on when the Spellbreaker Rampages. In this case, the popping the #5 will grant 2 stacks of stability and allow you an escape from the CC train. Other than that, it's nearly 100% useless.

If it were up to me, here are the buffs Druid should receive to compensate for the pet nerf competitively. These buffs would modernize the Druid to the standards of other Side Node classes and Support roles, without buffing the Druid too much in terms of PvE Raiding/Fractal power. These changes may even render a useful Druid build that could be used in WvW grouping:

  1. https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Cosmic_Ray should also grant 1s of Protection on use.
  2. https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Seed_of_Life should also grant 1s of Resistance on use.
  3. https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Lunar_Impact can stay exactly the way that it is now.
  4. https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Rejuvenating_Tides should have its radius doubled and effect up to 10 targets.
  5. https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Natural_Convergence should have a 1s Stun added to its final pulse.
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I had made this video within the past month, to demo just about the most competitive Druid build that one could run in Conquest in this current meta. It was done before the nerf to pets and rune of the earth. Every option in this video is still the choice selections one would want to make, it's all still relevant. If you look at the parameters that this build offers though, it is in no way on par the current state of Firebrand Support or Scrapper Side Node Play. There are even other things that self heal themselves as much as a Druid, but they don't even run heal stats. Holosmith is an example of this. The point being is that while Druid has been receiving nerf bat treatment up side of the head ever since the HoT meta, other things have been greatly power crept when it comes to competitive aspects. Seriously guys, Druid needs some love at this point. Right along with Thief and Renegade.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEJwTjfSYlA

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The "tradeoff" and the lack of changes to anything relevant has taken away any hope I've had for Druid to be viable. Not without a sweeping rework, anyway (and not just druid, but ranger pets in general). Maybe in a year's time or so, they'll do something about it. Even that may be a pipe dream considering how long such things have been left to rot and the current mentality of the vocal playerbase (from an sPvP standpoint anyway) is just to continue to -nerf everything- until they're like this mess we have here. But hey, perhaps if everything is trashed, then Druid can shine as it is in the heap. :disappointed:

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What I can hope for...

  • Cosmic Ray cast time reduced from 0.5s to 0.25s.
  • Natural Convergence stability changed to apply 1 stack of stability (1s) on each pulse. Stability is shared with allies within range. The final pulse also heals allies within range. Healing: 1,000 (0.2) (from Cultivated Synergy).
  • Cultivated Synergy changed to heal an ally when removing a condition. Healing: 596 (0.2) (from Lingering Light).
  • Lingering Light blindness and self-heal on next strike after entering Celestial Form portion replaced with the ability to generate Astral Force while in Celestial Form (at reduced rates: 0.25% on hit & 0.50% on heal, 33% of Celestial Being's numbers).
  • Trade-off changed to: Pet outgoing damage and condition damage -20% and Pet incoming damage and condition damage -20%. (Similar to the GW1 Hearty Pet evolution. The pet loses damage but is more resilient to damage.)

It probably won't be enough to skyrocket its performance, but it's a start. :#

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Here are my suggestions.

STAFFSolar Beam: The beam inflicts burning and heal allies around your target on the final pulse.Astral Wisp: This attack becomes ground targeted, and send a wisp to the targeted area. The wisp heals allies that passes through, and can be detonated to inflict 3 stacks of burning and blind to nearby foes. This second effect also acts as a Blast Finisher.Ancestral Grace: This skill now grants Protection to nearby allies when you reach the targeted location.Vine Surge: Immobilize duration is increased from 1 to 2 seconds.Sublime Conversion: This skill now creates a ring (same Spectral Wall treatment) that causes enemies projectiles to heal upon impact.

CELESTIAL AVATARCelestial Avatar: The cooldown is decreased from 20 to 10 seconds in pvp.Cosmic Ray: The radius of this skill is increased from 120 to 300 (same radius as necro's staff marks). This skill now deals damage to up to 5 targets.Seeds of Life: This skill cleanse 2 conditions instead of 1.Rejuvenating Tides: This skill now cleanse 1 condition per pulse to you and nearby allies (5 conditions cleansed in total).Natural Convergence: The player is now able to move while channeling this skill.

SKILLSGlyph of Rejuvenation: This skill now also revives your pet.Glyph of the Stars: This skill no longer needs to be channeled. Instead, this skill now have 2s cast time and can be affected by quickness.

TRAITSDruidic Clarity: Becoming celestial avatar now cleanses 3 conditions from you and nearby allies. Still breaks stun.Primal Echoes: Instead of daze, this skill now cast Gliph of Equality when swapping to staff.Verdant Etching: Glyphs grant Stability (1 stack for 3s) to nearby allies when activated and gain 1 additional charge when you become Celestial Avatar. The additional charge will disappear after leaving Celestial Avatar form.

OTHER SKILLS"Search and Rescue": This skill gain 1 additional charge and grants protection and regeneration to nearby allies on use.

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@"kappa.2036" said:

OTHER SKILLS"Search and Rescue": This skill gain 1 additional charge and grants protection and regeneration to nearby allies on use.

Honestly the skill would be fine with just a range increase to 900 and a slightly lower cooldown. You already grant Regen with the Shout trait as well.

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The pet nerf needs to be reversed. Period. Any non-tank pet dies if an enemy looks at it. As a Druid, my damage was already negligible. I TRADED THAT TO SUPPORT OTHER PLAYERS! Plus the lore reason given for it is, IMHO, terrible. Druid is all about becoming one with nature and strengthening that bond. The nerf implies you’ve neglected your pets and they’ve weakened or something and that upsets me as much as the gameplay.Druid is now spirit shepherd. Not that I dislike the spirit mechanics, but this last nerf was terrible conceptually and in play and I refuse to play Druid now. :(

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When it comes to druid-y shenanigans, what I like doing is taking a trip to the Domain of Kourna and then getting Solar Beamed for 4k by Awakened Olmakhan Lifebinders. Although I do play glass and rightfully deserve to get hit that hard, I just have to think, ‘hawt dam, what would I kill to have this?’ :sunglasses:

Sometimes I cry when pve mobs get blatantly stronger skills than us players. At least name it something different, like ‘Greater Solar Beam’ :cry:

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I run a troll immobilization druid build these days in unranked, and it's an excellent 1v1 spec against classes..... that the old bunker druid could easily 1v3 back in the day. Admittedly the bunker spec was a bit overtuned, but I agree that the pet nerf is a bridge too far. I've managed to adapt to the CA nerfs, but the pet nerf seems much harder to overcome. I can only down targets that are otherwise harried by teammates, or those who depend so much on mobility that the constant immobs just throw them totally off guard and force cleanses. Otherwise there's just no way I'm hitting targets hard enough compared to how easily others can chew through my HP.

That being said, this immob build is really built on being an annoying teamfighter that can also 1v1 most classes fairly well, outside of warriors that are essentially immune to immob. I do have enough sources of immob to disrupt some of their burst (6 sources total), but with weak pets the best I can hope for is rooting someone off point repeatedly to make cap progress.

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@voltaicbore.8012 said:I run a troll immobilization druid build these days in unranked, and it's an excellent 1v1 spec against classes..... that the old bunker druid could easily 1v3 back in the day. Admittedly the bunker spec was a bit overtuned, but I agree that the pet nerf is a bridge too far. I've managed to adapt to the CA nerfs, but the pet nerf seems much harder to overcome. I can only down targets that are otherwise harried by teammates, or those who depend so much on mobility that the constant immobs just throw them totally off guard and force cleanses. Otherwise there's just no way I'm hitting targets hard enough compared to how easily others can chew through my HP.

That being said, this immob build is really built on being an annoying teamfighter that can also 1v1 most classes fairly well, outside of warriors that are essentially immune to immob. I do have enough sources of immob to disrupt some of their burst (6 sources total), but with weak pets the best I can hope for is rooting someone off point repeatedly to make cap progress.

Troll Immob Bunker Druid that gets killed in group fights and is a good decapper in Non-Competitive Unranked games.

I have an idea, Let's Talk About Druid Competitively After Pet Nerf - And Buffs That CA Deserves

You first ;)

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@EnderzShadow.2506 said:I have an idea, Let's Talk About Druid Competitively After Pet Nerf - And Buffs That CA Deserves

You first ;)

The thing is, I did, it was just not clear and organized - I just stayed too salty about pet nerf.

I actually thought CA was fairly usable in its current state, but then I realized I hardly use anything outside of CA3, CA5, and occasionally CA2 for a blind and head start on CA recharge.

CA1: I like the previously mentioned idea of reduced cast time, but I'd sooner take 1s of protection as Trevor suggested. Ideally in a boon corrupt situation we'd have both faster cast and protection application, but as a side noder I rarely deal with boon corrupt to an oppressive degree. I agree this would be good for being a side noder, while there are much smarter ways of spreading protection around in pve so this change alone doesn't seem like it would significantly unbalance game modes to require a split.

CA2: I actually like it as is. I use it for the blind, and rarely for the cleanse. Resistance would be nice, but I don't really feel it necessary with how I play.

CA3: Another one I'll take as is. As long as I don't waste it into stacks of stability, I find it does the job of interrupting stomps/rez/attack chains quite well, and it synergizes with my immob build.

CA4: Increase healing output, but start small and end big. I never had a problem with the radius, but it's just so weak as a heal. I get that you can trait into improving output, but even then it seems to fail me/teammates as a recovery option. I'm fine with having it heal little on the first tick, but building up to a meaningful tick at the end. This would require situational awareness to make sure you get the full heal out of it, rather than turning it into a one-push burst heal. Not sure if this will merit a skill split with pve.

CA5: Pulse stability, at least on the last tick. I already use the full channel in my immob build, with the proper preparation of course. I think it would give more of us a reason to try to set up a full channel, and it would especially help with our side node competitors who can throw out a ton of cc.

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@voltaicbore.8012 said:

@"EnderzShadow.2506" said:I have an idea, Let's Talk About Druid Competitively After Pet Nerf - And Buffs That CA Deserves

You first ;)

The thing is, I did, it was just not clear and organized - I just stayed too salty about pet nerf.

I actually thought CA was fairly usable in its current state, but then I realized I hardly use anything outside of CA3, CA5, and occasionally CA2 for a blind and head start on CA recharge.

CA1: I like the previously mentioned idea of reduced cast time, but I'd sooner take
1s of protection as Trevor suggested
. Ideally in a boon corrupt situation we'd have both faster cast and protection application, but as a side noder I rarely deal with boon corrupt to an oppressive degree. I agree this would be good for being a side noder, while there are much smarter ways of spreading protection around in pve so this change alone doesn't seem like it would significantly unbalance game modes to require a split.

CA2:
I actually like it as is.
I use it for the blind, and rarely for the cleanse. Resistance would be nice, but I don't really feel it necessary with how I play.

CA3:
Another one I'll take as is.
As long as I don't waste it into stacks of stability, I find it does the job of interrupting stomps/rez/attack chains quite well, and it synergizes with my immob build.

CA4:
Increase healing output, but start small and end big.
I never had a problem with the radius, but it's just so weak as a heal. I get that you can trait into improving output, but even then it seems to fail me/teammates as a recovery option. I'm fine with having it heal little on the first tick, but building up to a meaningful tick at the end. This would require situational awareness to make sure you get the full heal out of it, rather than turning it into a one-push burst heal. Not sure if this will merit a skill split with pve.

CA5:
Pulse stability, at least on the last tick.
I already use the full channel in my immob build, with the proper preparation of course. I think it would give more of us a reason to try to set up a full channel, and it would especially help with our side node competitors who can throw out a ton of cc.

So perfectly upfront, to the point of possibly being mean and don't take this hard, but when I see the the following words put together"Bunker, Trolly, 8 forms of immob and Unranked"- I don't think it's team pvp and it's not competitive.

You seem 99 percent fine with the way it is now.

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@"EnderzShadow.2506" said:So perfectly upfront, to the point of possibly being mean and don't take this hard, but when I see the the following words put together"Bunker, Trolly, 8 forms of immob and Unranked"- I don't think it's team pvp and it's not competitive.

You seem intent on making sure you exclude me from and invalidate me in this discussion, which is fine by me. I'll stay as long as I feel like it, and if it bothers you on some level, even better. I'm glad you don't think the build itself is competitive, because I don't either. I'd never take it into ranked - not only because I quit ranked last season and I never crawl back to anything I officially abandon, but the build is a work in progress that might not even survive further testing. The thing is, I never tried to pass it off as anything other than a weird troll build. Not sure what triggers you so hard about it, but it's your problem, not mine.

You might be asking now, "well if you quit ranked, you for sure don't belong in any discussion about competitive druid." While I'll never touch ranked again, anything that helps druid in competitive would impact whatever I decide to mess around with in unranked as well. Again, I'll stay as long as I feel like it.

You seem 99 percent fine with the way it is now.

Really? Both your math and comprehension are a bit off here. Not sure how only keeping 2 of the 5 CA abilities as-is turns into "99 percent fine with the way it is now." I didn't even address the other suggestions about staff, pets, glyphs, and traits - how do you know I like druid almost entirely as it is? In fact, the entire troll-build exercise grew out of the need to move away from the classic side node setup that got nerfed, and I'm just trying to find some mix of fun and effectiveness within the tatters that remain of what we call druid pvp. So no, I'm not 99% fine with the way druid is now, and nothing I've said indicates otherwise.

I'll give you the benefit of the doubt, and read your mind. Perhaps what you actually meant was that all of the things I suggested as changes would not fundamentally change the way druid abilities and traits are used. To that, I might have to admit I'm guilty as charged. I don't necessarily want things to go back exactly to the way they were for the old meta bunker druid, but I feel it occupied a distinct place in the pantheon of side noders and I find it difficult to totally abandon the idea. Basically what I want is the old bunker druid back, but just a bit more susceptible to being pressured off point long enough to give up capture ticks. So if stalling a node is all you know how to pull off as a druid, there will be a natural expiration on how useful that behavior remains before rotating elsewhere becomes a smarter decision.

While extremely hard to pin down, an old meta druid under pressure on a side node might nonetheless have to give up ticks of node capture thanks to stealth reset. Granted, you could halt node capture quickly by scoring another hit immediately, but that basically turns a potential long heal and reposition into essentially just a detarget, a choice to be made with a lot of care. In contrast, in my last days of ranked my scrapper and spellbreaker in the new meta could, with patience, counter and mitigate most forms of damage while remaining unstealthed and on point. Even in its heyday, I found effective bunker druids had to move, know the capture point terrain, and reset more often than a true facetank sidenoder. I feel like that kind of side-noding is distinct from the dominant classes that we have in that role now, and therefore wouldn't mind seeing its return in a slightly diluted form.

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@voltaicbore.8012 said:

@"EnderzShadow.2506" said:So perfectly upfront, to the point of possibly being mean and don't take this hard, but when I see the the following words put together"Bunker, Trolly, 8 forms of immob and Unranked"- I don't think it's team pvp and it's not competitive.

You seem intent on making sure you exclude me from and invalidate me in this discussion, which is fine by me. I'll stay as long as I feel like it, and if it bothers you on some level, even better. I'm glad you don't think the build itself is competitive, because I don't either. I'd never take it into ranked - not only because I quit ranked last season and I never crawl back to anything I officially abandon, but the build is a work in progress that might not even survive further testing. The thing is, I never tried to pass it off as anything other than a weird troll build. Not sure what triggers you so hard about it, but it's your problem, not mine.

You might be asking now, "well if you quit ranked, you for
sure
don't belong in any discussion about competitive druid." While I'll never touch ranked again, anything that helps druid in competitive would impact whatever I decide to mess around with in unranked as well. Again, I'll stay as long as I feel like it.

You seem 99 percent fine with the way it is now.

Really? Both your math and comprehension are a bit off here. Not sure how only keeping 2 of the 5 CA abilities as-is turns into "99 percent fine with the way it is now." I didn't even address the other suggestions about staff, pets, glyphs, and traits - how do you know I like druid almost entirely as it is? In fact, the entire troll-build exercise grew out of the need to move away from the classic side node setup that got nerfed, and I'm just trying to find some mix of fun and effectiveness within the tatters that remain of what we call druid pvp. So no, I'm not 99% fine with the way druid is now, and nothing I've said indicates otherwise.

I'll give you the benefit of the doubt, and read your mind. Perhaps what you actually meant was that all of the things I suggested as changes would not fundamentally change the way druid abilities and traits are used. To that, I might have to admit I'm guilty as charged. I don't necessarily want things to go back exactly to the way they were for the old meta bunker druid, but I feel it occupied a distinct place in the pantheon of side noders and I find it difficult to totally abandon the idea. Basically what I want is the old bunker druid back, but just a bit more susceptible to being pressured off point long enough to give up capture ticks. So if stalling a node is all you know how to pull off as a druid, there will be a natural expiration on how useful that behavior remains before rotating elsewhere becomes a smarter decision.

While extremely hard to pin down, an old meta druid under pressure on a side node might nonetheless have to give up ticks of node capture thanks to stealth reset. Granted, you could halt node capture quickly by scoring another hit immediately, but that basically turns a potential long heal and reposition into essentially just a detarget, a choice to be made with a lot of care. In contrast, in my last days of ranked my scrapper and spellbreaker in the new meta could, with patience, counter and mitigate most forms of damage while remaining unstealthed and on point. Even in its heyday, I found effective bunker druids had to move, know the capture point terrain, and reset more often than a true facetank sidenoder. I feel like that kind of side-noding is distinct from the dominant classes that we have in that role now, and therefore wouldn't mind seeing its return in a slightly diluted form.

I thought about this last night, and I felt like I was the A-hole.Sorry about. I shouldn't try to post before I sleep.

At first glace the build you play reminds me of the same lack of respect some other builds get, like trap rangers, Pistol Pistol Thieves, Minion Mancer Necros, Flame Thrower Scrapper, trapThieves, sbow revenants". It sounded situational and gimmickyDruid, Ranger and Soulbeast as a whole, don't get respect.There is a "Good Ol Boys Members only PvP Club" and Ranger isn't in it.

I know the side noding you are referring to.It was a lot of fun.I can't quite do it justice now.Power burst is so UP thereI can't bring enough condi cleanse vs scourges and chronos

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to be completely honest druid needs a total overhaul. Celestial avatar was an after thought slapped on to ranger because at hot launch they needed a number of classes to fill the healer role. Avatar has nothing to do with core ranger and its profession mechanic and could have been slapped on to any other class (the only thing which sort of ties it to rangers is the abundant sources of the regeneration boon).What needs to happen is the same thing which occurred with berzerker; a redesign of the mechanic such that it is not a add on but a meaningful trade off where avatar would replace something else from core ranger. This could mean that core ranger gets a new class ability that would be replaced with avatar (exactly how revenant got a new mechanic which is replaced with elite specs) or avatar could replace pet swapping in which case entering & leaving avatar would count for pet swap traits and there would have to be major rebalancing with avatar skills and how pets work while you are a druid.the very least they can do is remove the whole astral force build up bs and just leave avatar as a cd gated mechanic.

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@"jcbroe.4329" said:It's really just time for an entire overhaul of Druid. The spec lacked an identity when it was introduced (Core was a sustainable 1v1er, Druid was a sustainable 1v1er - PvP standpoint), and has been repeatedly nerfed because of how it performed at the role to the point where no matter how many numbers changes it gets to half-implemented role concepts, it's nowhere the scope or weight of change to make Druid desirable over other Ranger specs and other classes (outside of Raids).

There's a million of these that have a million good ideas so I'm just going to add to the pool here; Druid rework:

Staff

  1. Guardian treatment: replace this with the current 2 skill. New auto casts at the rate of Necro staff auto, sending an orb that passes through allies and healing them before attaching to the target for a brief time and healing allies that contact the orb. Total animation for Necro staff and therefore this attack is a hair longer than 1.25 seconds, so orb should persist on the target for 1 second. Alter damage/healing to compensate. This attack can be cast without a target; doing so will leave it unable to attach to enemies it contacts.
  2. New skill. "Steal" the Rev offhand sword 4 animation. This skill heals the player and allies in a wave, while damaging and weakening enemies. 5 total hits/heals, maybe ~200 damage and healing per @ 0.5 coefficient healing and adjust from there.
  3. The current iteration is actually fine. Maybe add a smaller area healing component to the travel path to heal allies you pass through and/or a blind to the end of the skill.
  4. New skill. 1200 ranged cast AoE, 240 radius. Immobilize enemies on initial cast, then pulses respectable damage and bleeds/cripple. Pulses grant allies in the AoE 1s of Resistance per pulse.
  5. In addition to its current functionality - allies passing through it are healed a small amount and gain regeneration (2-4s range) (Make this work like Mesmer focus 4). Enemies passing through it are damaged slightly and chilled.

Celestial FormNormalized the cooldown to 15 seconds across all gamemodes.

  1. Reworked to mimic Firebrand tome 1 skills. Start with healing @ 300 base with 0.5 scale coefficient, adjust accordingly.
  2. New skill/functionality. Applies a unique "Seed of Life" effect, lasts for 2 seconds, 240 AoE radius, 1200 range. 2 second cooldown. On initial cast, does nothing. When the effect ends, heal and remove 2 conditions. Taking damage ends the effect, receiving the effect from another source ends the current effect and replaces it with the new. If it is prematurely ended in either way, the conditions removed and healing received are halved. Start with healing @ 1200 base with 0.4 coefficient, adjust accordingly.
  3. This skill is fine as is.
  4. In addition to the current effect, each pulse also provides 1s protection per pulse.
  5. This skill can now be cast while moving. The stability is now applied per pulse, and as an AoE effect.

Glyphs

  1. Glyph of Rejuvenation - this skill is probably okay now but may need more number tweaks.
  2. Glyph of the Tides - reverse the current Normal and Celestial form effects so that it pulls normally, pushes in Celestial Form.
  3. Glyph of Equality - Normal: added effect - breaking a stun with this skill causes the skill to stun instead of daze. Celestial: Fine as is.
  4. Glyph of Unity - Normal: Added effect - Gain Protection on cast for 4 seconds plus 1 additional second for each tethered enemy. Celestial: Added effect - gain regeneration for 4 seconds plus 1 additional second for each tethered ally.
  5. Glyph of Alignment - Normal: New effect - Deal damage in an area, immobilizing enemies and copying 3 conditions from yourself to enemies hit by the attack. Celestial: Fine as is.
  6. Glyph of the Stars - Both versions: Remove ranged component. The player now channels this skill. Reduced the channel duration to 5 seconds. Condense the effect into that time frame. Normal : Fine as is. Celestial: added effect - Astral Force drains 50% slower while channeling this skill.

Traits

  • Staff proficiency and Celestial Being fine as is
  • Druidic Clarity: Removed the stunbreak component. Changed the effect to be "Entering Celestial Form removes 3 conditions."
  • Cultivated Synergy: Fine as is.
  • Primal Echoes: Swapping weapons casts Lesser Glyph of Equality - the Normal version of the glyph with no stunbreak component. Reduces the recharge of Staff skills.
  • Live Vicariously: Fine as is.
  • Celestial Shadow: Replaced with Celestial Shephard (or whatever name): Entering Celestial Form provides 3 stacks of Stability for 5 seconds, 240 effect radius.
  • Verdant Etching: Fine as is - it casts the new form of the skill explained above on Glyph use.
  • Natural Stride: Fine as is.
  • Natural Mender: Reduce stacks to 5, increase outgoing healing percentage to 4%. Added effect - reduce damage received by 1% (per stack).
  • Grace of the Land: Fine as is.
  • Lingering Light: Outgoing healing is increased by 20% and Astral Force drains 20% slower in Celestial Form. Swap the trait position with Grace of the Land (this is a minor OCD type thing - doing this will make top row enter/celestial form effects, middle row skill modifying effects, and bottom row conditional/combat effects).
  • Ancient Seeds: Replaced with Ancient Magic: Enemies you or your pet inflict with movement impairing conditions are also inflicted with Weakness (short duration, ~2 seconds, no ICD, adjust from there).

Essentially, give Druid the ability to group support on a level that compares with the other supports in the game while reducing any emphasis it may have had on dueling/pushing kills.

No intention of highjacking or this becoming a "post your ideas" thread. I like where your head is at. Just not sure in the current gamestate that shaves and minor buffs are enough.

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So this was on my mind after recently really feeling the pet nerfs competitively again.

Druid & Berserker were given these downfalls for their specialization, but where are the downfalls for the other specializations? I mean.. some of the other specializations are just completely stacked in comparison to Druid, but Druid deserved a weird super nerf? Even Soulbeast doesn't have any added in drawback, so why aim something like that at Druid?

I dunno, the longer this has gone on, the more I really see it as not only unfair and ill flavored, but just an imbalanced decision to make. The pet nerf in no way did anything positive for the game at all. It just pissed a lot of people off and made Druid significantly weaker in ways that it shouldn't be.

Pet nerf needs to be reverted for competitive aspects. That or lower this drawback to -10% stats only or something. The damage loss from -20% is substantial. Then the defensive values of pets being at -20% is too much. They die too fast in this power crept meta, and this results in even more damage loss because the pets are dead more often now.

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@Trevor Boyer.6524 said:So this was on my mind after recently really feeling the pet nerfs competitively again.

Druid & Berserker were given these downfalls for their specialization, but where are the downfalls for the other specializations? I mean.. some of the other specializations are just completely stacked in comparison to Druid, but Druid deserved a weird super nerf? Even Soulbeast doesn't have any added in drawback, so why aim something like that at Druid?

I dunno, the longer this has gone on, the more I really see it as not only unfair and ill flavored, but just an imbalanced decision to make. The pet nerf in no way did anything positive for the game at all. It just pissed a lot of people off and made Druid significantly weaker in ways that it shouldn't be.

Pet nerf needs to be reverted for competitive aspects. That or lower this drawback to -10% stats only or something. The damage loss from -20% is substantial. Then the defensive values of pets being at -20% is too much. They die too fast in this power crept meta, and this results in even more damage loss because the pets are dead more often now.

The pet nerf is just wrong from both a game play and lore / story / RP perspective as well. :( I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; Druid already had a trade-off of DPS for support, plus with mechanics like needing to fill the CA bar to use, it really wasn’t unbalanced. If they wanted to remove Glyph of Empowerment so that Druid didn’t have a unique buff, okay. The super-long cast time of Glyph of Stars was disappointing, but it was the pet nerf that made me stop playing my favorite class. :cry:

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@Trevor Boyer.6524 said:So this was on my mind after recently really feeling the pet nerfs competitively again.

Druid & Berserker were given these downfalls for their specialization, but where are the downfalls for the other specializations? I mean.. some of the other specializations are just completely stacked in comparison to Druid, but Druid deserved a weird super nerf? Even Soulbeast doesn't have any added in drawback, so why aim something like that at Druid?

I dunno, the longer this has gone on, the more I really see it as not only unfair and ill flavored, but just an imbalanced decision to make. The pet nerf in no way did anything positive for the game at all. It just pissed a lot of people off and made Druid significantly weaker in ways that it shouldn't be.

Pet nerf needs to be reverted for competitive aspects. That or lower this drawback to -10% stats only or something. The damage loss from -20% is substantial. Then the defensive values of pets being at -20% is too much. They die too fast in this power crept meta, and this results in even more damage loss because the pets are dead more often now.

Honestly I haven’t felt the damage nerf, like at all, but I’ve always gone with CC pets over damage pets so 20% less of nothing isn’t really noticeable.

But the durability loss is absolutely hurting in PvP, and honestly that aspect I don’t agree with at all. If anything a Druid should have tankier pets rather than squishier ones given the whole nature magic thing.

I think it’s be nice if they went ahead and just shifted the Druid pet nerf so it was like -20% to damage stats but +10-20% on defensive stats. Or at the very least something like entering CA revives the pet and makes it invuln for the duration, or even a trait or something that lets glyphs occur around us and the pet or something.

I like that they’re starting to roll out the draw backs, but if they weren’t gonna ease up on Druids previous nerfs, or do any sort of reworking Druid honestly should’ve been one of the last they slapped a drawback on. It already is lower on the power scale than most other specs in every aspect of the game (even PvE nowadays)

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  • 3 weeks later...

@Durzlla.6295 said:

@Trevor Boyer.6524 said:So this was on my mind after recently really feeling the pet nerfs competitively again.

Druid & Berserker were given these downfalls for their specialization, but where are the downfalls for the other specializations? I mean.. some of the other specializations are just completely stacked in comparison to Druid, but Druid deserved a weird super nerf? Even Soulbeast doesn't have any added in drawback, so why aim something like that at Druid?

I dunno, the longer this has gone on, the more I really see it as not only unfair and ill flavored, but just an imbalanced decision to make. The pet nerf in no way did anything positive for the game at all. It just pissed a lot of people off and made Druid significantly weaker in ways that it shouldn't be.

Pet nerf needs to be reverted for competitive aspects. That or lower this drawback to -10% stats only or something. The damage loss from -20% is substantial. Then the defensive values of pets being at -20% is too much. They die too fast in this power crept meta, and this results in even more damage loss because the pets are dead more often now.

Honestly I haven’t felt the damage nerf, like at all, but I’ve always gone with CC pets over damage pets so 20% less of nothing isn’t really noticeable.

But the durability loss is absolutely hurting in PvP, and honestly that aspect I don’t agree with at all. If anything a Druid should have tankier pets rather than squishier ones given the whole nature magic thing.

I think it’s be nice if they went ahead and just shifted the Druid pet nerf so it was like -20% to damage stats but +10-20% on defensive stats. Or at the very least something like entering CA revives the pet and makes it invuln for the duration, or even a trait or something that lets glyphs occur around us and the pet or something.

I like that they’re starting to roll out the draw backs, but if they weren’t gonna ease up on Druids previous nerfs, or do any sort of reworking Druid honestly should’ve been one of the last they slapped a drawback on. It already is lower on the power scale than most other specs in every aspect of the game (even PvE nowadays)

It's mainly because they slapped down the hard nerf on CA, and then not so many metas later they began super power creeping the sustain departments of almost every other class. I mean look at how much self boon support and random waterfield/leap/blast healing that a Holosmith has. Its defensive mechanisms and self heal factor are on par with a Druid, but the Holo gets to run a damage amulet instead of a dedicated heal amulet to achieve that.

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Honestly, I would be happy if we could negate the pet nerf with the Grace of the Land trait. I understand the general lore concept of the pet nerf. But like the Berserker’s Toughness nerf, we should get a chance to negate the pet nerf with a GM trait.

The only other really big change I would like to see for the Ranger is to remove most of the healing support that exists with the SoulBeast. Picking any specialization should have a unique flavor and play style to it. Healing, support, and protection intuitively belong with the Druid and Nature Magic trait lines. SoulBeasts should have more in common with Beastmasters and Skirmishers.

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