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Mauti.3520

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  1. I'd say In Instanced Endgame PvE it's pretty bad (in comparison): It isn't bad or unviable on it's own it's just decisivly worse than pretty much any other pick you can make. It has cumbersome class mechanics, worst PvE group utility, bad reactive adaption, horrible gatekept CC, inherent squishness and hybrid-hybrid Weapons that sit between all chairs just providing numbers but don't shine in their roles even slightly. The only spec -to me- that feels somewhat okay and rewarding in Endgame PvE is Tempest. It's boon builds are pretty functional, deliver value, aren't jank to play and Tempest has at least some reactive Utility to shine, handle mechanics or fill gaps. It also features a very accessible potent Condition build now that, unlike many other Ele DPS Builds, isn't all that squish. Weaver and Catalyst in contrast just feel like borderline griefing yourself and your team. They have numbers that are theoretically on par, that's it. Rest of the kit is inferior to 80-90% of other E-Specs you can choose, be it staying power, CC, Range, Utility, gap filling, handling mechanics eca. They suffer greatly when not played relatively optimal by yourself AND if your party/raid doesn't play very good too. The story of "I started on Ele but rerolled XYZ and it's so much better now" I experience and hear about frequently is way more prevalent than with any other class. "Average Andy" drops this class like hot coals after stepping into Instanced Content the first few times. In PvP and WvW it's a somewhat different story. In WvW the zerg builds could maybe need a smidge help, but they are still pretty great at what they do. Roaming is great to typically cele-broken while the PvP builds on this class are also right up there too. Open World can also be good to great. Edit: Personally I think it's a great and fun class to play, I do so frequently in any sort of content, and have my Eles as my "beloved seconds" behind Ranger. But since PvE is the majority's interest and endgame performance serves as some kind of "percieved benchmark" to the state of a class, Ele is seen, somewhat deserved, as not to be in a great shape, no matter how many Catalysts completely melt faces in PvP and I still hope Anet someday can fix or at least mend that a bit.
  2. Traits are fine for Alacrity DPS Druid. No swap/change needed. It deals comparable DPS to other Alacrity Specs without Eclipse. The biggest gatekeeper to the existence of Alacrity DPS Druid however is and stays Celestial Avatar itself and in particular Astral Force as it makes the entire gearing, rotation and boon uptime incredibly volatile and unreliable. Celestial Avatar and Astral Force where designed for a pure Healer in mind only, and before Barrier as a mechanic even existed. Thus, it is cumbersome for a DPS and particular Boon DPS to consistently utilize Celestial Avatar in a coherent rotation, since they naturally don't have Regeneration ticks on their party and don't spam Staff and Healing Skills around. It's really hard to sit at 100 Astral Force once it's Cooldown is done if not playing a full or hybrid healer in a party without perma barrier or lack of damage pressure. The only way to consistently achieve that for non Heal Druids is by running Wilderness Survival, having Protection and getting non stop Damage ticks so Rugged Growth heals you and generates Astral Force. Thus Celestial Avatar already is a culprit to Condition DPS Druid but an almost straight up No-Go for an Alacrity DPS Build. It makes the boon access incredibly unreliable and finicky. Tweaks to how Astral Force is generated (a certain trait like Blood Moon could increase gains through damaging attacks greatly, while removing the healing aspect) or Celestial Avatar is tweaked as a whole (Like Necro/Specter don't need 100% Life Force to enter theirs) are likely to create way better results. Being able to consistently hop into Avatar every ~8-9 seconds, fire a few skills, generating Alacrity, and hop out again - similar as Alac Specter's rotation -, IMHO would improve the situation much more than giving Alac Druids access to Eclipse.
  3. Love to see Might with no Opportunity Cost for Quicktamed. We can bring fair Might now without anything or heavy Might with Sun Spirit + Jungle Prowler. Great boost. Also welcome back(?) greatsword and probably Arrow Cart Build.
  4. Hello! The biggest issue for Alacrity DPS Druid rn is not the trade-off between GotL and Eclipse - it does comparable damage without Eclipse as other Alacrity DPS - but the major inconsistency that is Astral Force generation and Celestial Avatar Alacrity generation to be used in a standardized, reliable dps rotation that also maintains the boon at all times everywhere. RN you can play Alacrity DPS Druid - you basically put on the Condi Quick Untamed gear but change the Weapons and Traits - but it requires knowledge of the kit and the encounter like short but frequent Avatar loops vs. longer and more stacking Avatar loops and so on. Extra BD on some fights vs lower on others. The fact that raids have ticking Arena damage, Strikes do not and the Barrier mechanic can gatekeep the healing generation of Astral Force, makes the issue even worse to be destilled down into an always applicable build and rotation for "the average player" that can keep Alacrity up reliably without having a lot of experience and forethought. In the end that's a lot to ask for a completely viable but not top tier Alacrity DPS and since there's a lot of angles and problems approaching such a spec, it just happened to not have an accessible, available build+rotation featured on many prominent build sites. Imho swapping Eclipse with Natural Balance won't fix that, as both traits are not the real issue here. Taking a look at Astral Force generation in general (I feel it's outdated in Barrier Spam PvE, especially when Revs will also do it) and the Alacrity Application from GotL could yield better results at making the Alac DPS Spec more approachable. Druid traits have been reworked to not be heal-centric, but the Spec's ressource to utilize it's class mechanic and Alacrity wasn't touched.
  5. I am excited for the pet changes. - Only Takedown should be renamed to Letdown. It's a bit sad.
  6. Just why nerf Untamed in WvW.
  7. tbh, I feel like with the infestation that Heal Scourge is about to become and Power Reaper/Power Scourge being as popular as usual it's just a kitten show sometimes. It felt okay when only Reaper's had it as part of their utility that Scourge had not but with Necro GS now core and Necro being even more a blight to WvW it's just too much. 900 Range,.5 Targets lmao. Why strips/corrupts when you can just melt stab anyway. Guard basically drops Stab for 1-2 secs and the pull ping pong fiesta starts. Roll the dice who get's caught. Not that much fun. Not talking about randoms getting snacked off a wall, bc whatever. - It's ArenaNets part to decide whether they like the idea of walls being more like death traps and noob bait than actual defenses nowadays.
  8. May I genuinely ask what is so great about a resource generation become kitten as soon as your group contains scourges? It's bad, and the class gets progressively and measureable worse the more barrier it has in group. The dps build is below average rn and the alac dps is a pile of trash since it's inception. only heal druid is good.
  9. What is this trend of giving them blunt names of trees (male) or flowers (female)? Is there a catch about it I just seem to miss or overlook? So far I have found only 'Healer Wren' bearing a name that roughly fits typical Sylvari names stemming from insular celtic languages. The names I have found so far are: Narcisse (f) Hortensia (f) Oakly (m) Daisy (f) Begonia (f) Cedar (m) Wren (f) Idk? What's up with that?
  10. My take is: Because Cata could trigger it's stupid Vicious Empowerment trait and thus it's attribute stacks several times with it per target. Internal CD is only 1/4s The CC of any WH build is grief tier now and Ele was consistently slacking in CC across the board already before. Well played.
  11. It becomes more and more apparent that the way Astral Force is generated and Celestial Avatar is used is the lynchpin in PvE Druid's design, playability and viability. One thing that is especially staggering is the big Anti-Synergy the system has with barrier. Druid hates it, Druid doesn't want that yellow layer, Druid needs them and their allies to constantly recieve red damage to generate Astral Force. It's manageable on the heal build, it's incredibly obnoxious on the DPS build and a straight up deal breaker for the Alac DPS build (which is kitten to have good Alac Uptime+DPS with even without any barrier in the group). The way Astral Force is generated no longer fits the way Guild Wars 2 is played in 2023 imho.
  12. I noticed that on Storm Spirit too. It's oddly inconsistent Water Spirit Slam: 3k Heal on 5p 2nd Slam 3k Heal on 5p Storm Spirit Slam: Full Damage - 200 Defiance/2secs Daze 2nd Slam: 50% Damage - 200 Defiance/2secs Daze Sun Spirit Slam: 3x6s Burn 2nd Slam 3x6s Burn Stone Spirit Slam: Crippled, Weakness 2nd Slam: Crippled, Weakness Frost Spirit Slam: 3xCleanse on 5p 2nd Slam: 3xCleanse on 5p Nature not tested.
  13. Spirited Arrival should be on Pet Ability not swap in my opinion. The boons on it are debateable, though I would keep Might. I really like Nature's Vengeance and Invigorating Bond and Regen coming from Beast Abilities and possibly Healing Skill. CD on Invigorating Bond is debateable. Overall I like the direction we are going in. It's becoming a better support traitline overall.
  14. I don't think so. It sounds neat, useful and tempting as a but ultimately baseline. 5 player Quickness on a Core Skill is not a good idea. 1. It would give an Alac Heal, Alac DPS and DPS builds access to 5 player Quickness for barely any downside (Storm Spirit is only little behind in damage compared to Trap/Spores - It is stricly better when running Nature Magic AND Nature's Vengeance). And we see how problematic that is (Catalyst, Bladesworn, Chrono). None of them ever could maintain quickness alone in a party when playing DPS. But they well could when stacked. With a base duration of 5 that would also mean an Alacrity Heal Druid could have ~50%+ of Quickness uptime on it's party as well. There is no way that is going to happen. 2. Ultimately it would add to the Power Budget and would have to be balanced accordingly. The problem with "backup boon" utilities for Quickness/Alacrity is that rotations and gear setup would be built around strictly including them - If they are worth it dps wise and Storm Spirit clearly is - so in the end the Quickness Build wouldnt gain much except some bit of dps at the cost of a permanent Utility slot. I can understand where you are coming from, but it is indeed too much and not a good idea. Storm Spirit rn is already pretty good.
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