Za Shaloc.3908

Gonna add onto this topic since it's related to Druid and it got a dev response: Glyph of the Stars (non-CA version) finally has a working water field. This is great! However, there is no ring indicator for the water field. Just an FYI for you Double Tap.

How would you balance it in that direction without making it completely broken? The problem is not with Brutality being weak (it's not) but with the reapplication rate of AoE stab being too high. I don't think it's very reasonable to expect the trait to have a massive impact on a boonball when you are playing as a pug and therefore not coordinating its usage with anyone. Removing the ICD or doubling the stack removal would make it far too oppressive in other aspects of the game(mode). I hate the boonball too and would like to be able to have a bigger impact as a random pug, but ANet has to be very prudent in how they handle boonrip skills that prioritize stability.

*cries in Invigorating Bond*

From my perspective/experience, you never really ran the Glyphs for the baby Seeds of Life, but for the actual Glyph effects themselves. I think they are a bit underrated, but the small radius and the delay made them rather impractical. You are still gaining back a bit of AoE cleanse through the Druidic Clarity change as well as the Glyph of Alignment change, and Druid's cleanse output potential will still be on the high side, especially after the Scrapper/Engi nerfs. Also the addition of prot is really nice. I believe it was a 3s duration in PvP, so if that's to persist for WvW you'll get roughly 5s per glyph if on full Minstrel's (give or take a bit, depending on your rune/sigil/food/util choices). That's quite strong. If you run 4-5 glyphs that's some really high uptime. Will I miss the seeds? A bit, sure. But the prot will be really great to have as it's a boon that Druid can't really apply too much of very reliably or consistently in WvW.

Nice update. I think keeping Gyros mobile while making Defense Field a targeted cast is the correct choice; if there was one thing to change to be static, it was definitely Defense Field. A 5s mobile projectile denial that also gives stab on such a short cooldown that is so easy to rotate squad-wide made it incredibly unfun to fight against and *far* too valuable. Thank you for not backing down on this change. I also agree with your Purge Gyro change. Good stuff. Sneak Gyro though, may have been too heavy-handed? It has a target cap, no? So 3 seconds of stealth for only 5 players that *also* has a visual indicator...it seems a bit harsh. It seems like you are either trying to perhaps remove its usage in WvW. While I do agree that the skill is *far* too strong in its current implementation, I suppose I'm finding it hard to justify using it with these changes. Maybe you just want to see other elites played instead, which is fair, but perhaps for the future you could consider a redesign of the skill. IMO the previous iteration of Sneak Gyro was so good because you could get so much stealth from it, but it had a lot of clear counterplay (killable perma-visible AI, a bit jerky with its movement so you had to be careful with your positioning). The Gyro change admittedly made the skill pure kitten by eliminating almost all of its counterplay.

I think the changes are really wonderful, coming from the perspective of somebody who plays Druid only as a support in WvW (dont roam on Ranger much at all anymore). All the changes feel like wins for me, though I can understand why others may see some of the changes as nerfs to different playstyles. My internet can't really handle big zerg v zerg fights even on the lowest possible settings so I don't have the insight like @Soilder.3607does, but for the fun cloudy pug fights that I love, I am really excited to be able to give out some stab, lots of AoE prot, and more reliable cleanses. I've always hated Staff 2 with a passion but now I think I'm gonna love it (I've wanted allied targeting for it for years). Over the past few months I kinda lost all interest in the game, but the proposed changes have made me start logging on again.

I agree with you completely on this (I sympathize for any new players), but now that they've started, I'd prefer if they go full force with it to help remedy the balance issues that exist due to things having previously been across all game modes. They need to make it more clear for players though, like a (disable-able) giant popup in order to proceed to PvP/WvW that clearly states the vast difference in skill balance between game modes. Is their new approach messy, confusing, and unintuitive? Yes. But I'm actually happy that they're breaking their own rules because it means more accurate and game-specific balance for the future. One can hope, at least.

Ah I see what you're saying. TBH I'm kinda surprised that they made it instant cast considering they also buffed the radius, though I imagine they did it specifically to be able to blast.

What do you mean?

No I am still struggling to see the issue/your point because Sneak Gyro also provides a smoke field. If you are arguing in terms of cooldown comparison to other smoke fields, sure I can understand that. But at the same time, what class are you going to take that has access to a smoke field? Thief? Maybe in GvGs but I don't do those so I can't say, and I don't think that's what this thread is focused on. Specter? Still struggling to see it being relevant in zergs simply due to its design (and hey, they also have immobile wells that you have to also potentially sacrifice positioning for). Ranger Smokescale? Pets die really easily but I suppose you could just wait to swap to it until you need it (but then incur a large petswap CD for the next smoke field due to it dying). Mesmer (for Veil)? Heal Scrapper doesn't have a competing role with it and if you take Mass Invis you are sacrificing Grav Well. I'm not saying there's no truth behind what you are saying here because I agree with some of it, for what it's worth...I just think you are being overly dramatic and doomer-y with your points. I think at this point I'm just so fed up with people on this forum having the mindset of "my spec isn't the best so it's total trash". Am I happy Scrapper got nerfed? Yes I am, not going to lie on that one. Since they got their reworks that brought them into the meta, I've always considered them to be the superbatteries to zergs that enable really degenerate and toxic gameplay. Do I agree with how the nerfs were issued? Not particularly. I think it could have been partially solved by just numerical adjustments. I don't have a total issue with Scrapper having mobile wells because it fits with what they are trying to accomplish with the elite spec's identity, but I also think instant cast Gyros (Purge & Bulwark) should not exist and deserve a cast time. I think the Defense Field change that they did is 100% on point as that skill had *far* too much value and rotating them provided near perma projectile immunity to huddled zergs. I think Sneak Gyro in its current form is way too strong, but I think the biggest mistake they made was removing the visual indicator for it, and if I had it my way, I'd do that change instead (make the Gyro unkillable but increase the visual indicator so it'd be easier to see amongst a sea of VFX. Maybe bring down the duration by a second). That's just my two cents as a Scrapper non-enthusiast, though.

What legends are you running?

It is instant cast now so I believe that means it can be cast mid-Lunar Impact. But that's just speculation since there's no way of testing it yet.

How is "literally any smoke field" better than Sneak Gyro when all other smoke fields also...don't move? And also don't passively pulse stealth? It doesn't move with you now, so it is "totally useless"....right. Your whining is so hyperbolic it almost feels like you're trolling.

I think the removal of Glyph of the Stars' condi immunity is fair considering how they buffed it. To my understanding it will still pulse cleanse outside of CA (CMC only spoke about removing the condi immunity aspect of it), but now you don't have the chance of being interrupted so easily and can multitask while the AoE is pulsing. I really loved the unique mechanic of having the no-condi zone, but playing against people who know how to interrupt it--or especially in WvW where a random CC or dredge turret shot interrupts you as soon as you pop the skill--felt really horrible. Is it a nerf in certain contexts? Sure, it is. But as a whole I'd say its general usability and versatility went way up. Personally I'm excited in particular to be able to hand rez people WITH stab while the elite is pulsing rez juice too. With that said...they really need to give the non-CA version a water field like the tooltip has stated since the skill's inception. CMC used the skill on stream outside of CA and I saw no water field. Especially with it being a casted skill and no longer being channeled, being able to combo in the water field would bring it some great value. I think these changes were definitely a push in a good direction (most notably for WvW), but the CA cooldown in sPvP seriously needs to be reduced to 10s if ANet ever wants Druid to be a contender for a viable support in the gamemode. 20s CD is horribly long.

Between the Ventari changes this year and the Druid changes in these patch notes, I can't tell you how happy I am. My favorite support choices finally gaining relevance! Feels like Christmas honestly. Am I misunderstanding part of your post, part of the balance notes, or is this sarcasm? What increased group stability is it getting? The only increase in group stab it is getting is an increase in reliability thanks to the LotP radius buff. Druid is getting group stab through Glyph of the Stars, though.

They mentioned they are looking into this near the beginning of the stream. So if I had to take a guess, you'll probably see something next balance patch at the end of November. I don't think it's guaranteed to be 2 dodges, but they at least acknowledged that it's an issue.

Loved the stream, love (most of) the changes. CMC and Roy work really great together. Please keep this going for future patches.

Biggest issue that still stands out to me is how Pain Absorption, and to a lesser degree, Mallyx as a whole, functions post-resistance rework. Also hammer. Rev didn't get a massive amount of changes but I'm a really big fan of the patch as a whole.

🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡

Honestly I'm gonna buy into this conspiracy. It's a bit of a stretch but I can get behind the logic and after them doing it to staff AA so recently, I can see this being the next logical step. I want it so badly I'm gonna believe it. Alt+T really does seem like an oddly specific keybind when everything else is keybound to default keys. It's definitely a sign 🤓.

Congrats CMC, eager to see the notes and what direction it'll show the game to move in for the future. Although the Feb 2020 patch soured me a bit to the game balance, I agree with most of the principles behind it. As it has been echoed by many, it was the lack of follow-up that really killed my hope for the future. My two cents as a primary WvW player: Moving away from oneshots by doing a general nerf to damage was a positive thing, but not being able to kill players is a residual problem that still remains from the Feb 2020 balance patch. Generally speaking, there is an overabundance of sustain in the game mode, and it is exponential when in groups. In my eyes, it should be approached by bringing down sustain (both self-sustain and group sustain) and not by bringing up damage. I speak on course on a general level as individual skills can always be re-evaluated.

Personally I think Impossible Odds is very strong for the build. While it doesn't add any condi damage... -It increases the ramp up for your might stacks quite significantly via Vindication. More might stacks equals more damage, both power and condi. -Power damage is still a decent portion of your outgoing damage so it's not wet noodle damage by any means. -Shortbow has a naturally very "easy to apply" synergy with IO. Going off of hypotheticals. I try to use it after CCing somebody, when I have quickness up, and when I'm generally trying to hard pressure somebody. Since it has an ICD of 1/4s the more packets of damage you can inflict, the better. The damage on the build is decent but when fighting against higher sustain builds, Impossible Odds will bring that extra level of damage that's needed to actually secure kills. Aside from its damage, it is also very helpful for helping proc Charged Mists.

Nice fights and music. I know a couple of these guys you are fighting and they wreck me in duels so respect to you for the wins.

The build that is posted is still really good and I don't think there's any outdated choices on there despite the recent changes to Salvation. I fluctuate my sigils on shortbow but otherwise I run the same stuff. You can also mix and match your Salvation traits depending on if you want to offer more team support. I wouldn't say the build lacks CC at all. It actually has a lot of it between staff 5, shortbow 5, Jade Winds, and Energy Expulsion. IMO its biggest weaknesses are being vulnerable to CC and really high melee pressure while in Ventari. Solutions to that are being smart with your positioning and managing your energy and legend swap cooldowns well so you have defensives available if necessary. The Ventari/Salv changes made the build stronger and it blends offense, defense, and support quite well since it capitalizes so highly on all the stats from Cele. It's like a sidegrade from the Shiro/Jalis build, which you can always run if you end up not liking Ventari.

Yup, this. There is very very little reason to run it in WvW anymore. Only place I could see it gaining any potential value is in duels. The other legends are too good to give up.