Druid is a real disappointment

[Mardane.8735]

Recently I returned to GW2 with the sole intention on leveling up a new ranger to experience it all again and ultimately get to be a druid.  It's always been my favorite class since D&D 2nd edition! It's always what i play in all games it's available. I didn't go and research anything about it prior to playing other than I knew it could heal like all games. After going through the leveling experience again and unlocking the class I couldn't wait to grab a staff, throw on a sword or axe, and be done with the bow. I had figured my damage would be a tad lower since I do have some heals at my disposal so my thought was to rely more on my pet and beast mastery more ( I've read now that Druids pet has reduced damage?!). Boy have I been thoroughly disappointed. I've tried different skill and weapon lines (staff with all melee weapons) and the damage is horrible! Not just a bit reduced because I'm a healer. I'm talking embarrassing. I was even struggling fighting an "elite" mob (the ones just a tad tougher than a normal mob). I fought one for what felt like 5 minutes and got close to death a few times. I left, put back on my longbow, and smashed that mob in a fraction of the time. It was like as a druid, I was equipped with a wet noodle! I'm irritated and disappointed and after going through the leveling process for this class, I'm already thinking of throwing in the towel. I'm not interested in the soulbeast or the other ranger elite specs, I want a caster with some damage and some heals. A hybrid like druids have always been. I'm debating an elementalist but it doesn't have all of the nature theme I need. Is there any hope that the druid will get some help in it's casting damage department or if I continue to play should I just put on a short bow, go condi,  and throw the staff in the lake? If there's any hope or something I'm missing, please let me know. Thanks and sorry for the rant. I'm just hoping I've missed something.

 

I wanted to add, I have not unlocked all of the druid's skills but from what I see now that are going to improve my staff skills damage.

Edited April 3, 2022 by Mardane.8735

[Ehecatl.9172]

I too am very sad with how druid turned out. Way back when it first released there was a pretty effective druid beastmaster build, but they nerfed that into the ground to the point of the build no longer existing.

 

That said, druid can still be playable in open world if you build right. I keep a cheap Cleric set on me for when I play druid and can usually take on encounters with it that I couldn't as a Soulbeast due to the sheer sustain. It kills significantly slower, but damage doesn't help much when you die in seconds.

 

I also play druid when I am running around with friends who play extremely squishy builds so I can help keep them in the fight and work as an anchor so the fight doesn't reset when they all die.

 

But if you want to do damage with the staff I wouldn't hold my breath. Anet seems to want that weapon to only be used for healing and control. That said they did promise a spirit update in the near future so that might, maybe, hopefully give druid more support options that are good outside of raids.

[Zhaid Zhem.6508]

Hope they won't make spirit 5 allies,you already need 5 of them to be competitive with others supports; otherwise with already all the nerfs (or max allies reduction etc) druid won't stay alive long.

[DragonMoon.6098]

You can make a druid that does a decent amount of dps...you just have to find the right build. Try out this one...it's what made me fall in love with my Ranger...really for the first time...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7W0YnAhB5s&list=PLOfk6sgX3hxvGuM0A4hz1018gNjXojuqd&index=17

Edited April 3, 2022 by DragonMoon.6098

[RainbowTurtle.3542]

13 hours ago, Zhaid Zhem.6508 said:

Hope they won't make spirit 5 allies,you already need 5 of them to be competitive with others supports; otherwise with already all the nerfs (or max allies reduction etc) druid won't stay alive long.

1. Druid doesn't need all spirits to be competitive with other supports. You often go down to 2 or 3 for fights where other utilities are needed, such as Soulless Horror using healing spring, stone and sun spirits, glyph of the tides, and spirit of nature renewal.

2. Druid actually gives good base heals. The only thing that really beats it out in direct healing are tempests, and tempests are... yeah.

[Crackmonster.2790]

14 hours ago, Zhaid Zhem.6508 said:

Hope they won't make spirit 5 allies,you already need 5 of them to be competitive with others supports; otherwise with already all the nerfs (or max allies reduction etc) druid won't stay alive long.

Tbh it would probably be healthiest for druid to definitively die so that it can eventually get attention and be revived.

[Rashagar.8349]

23 hours ago, Mardane.8735 said:

I want a caster with some damage and some heals. A hybrid like druids have always been. 

 

Firstly, I just wanted to say I'm sorry to hear you're not having fun with it. However, it sounds a bit like your expectations were a little off, I'll be honest.

A druid is just a ranger specialisation, so it's mostly going to still feel like a ranger, unless you're really specialising for instanced group content. 

The staff is a weapon that specialises in healing and support, so you wouldn't expect it to have comparable damage to a weapon that specialises in damage. 

However, in saying that, ranger as a base class has always had options that let you lean into the magical aspects of the trope, so between those base abilities, the celestial avatar, and glyphs, you should still have a lot to play around with to live your mystical nature mage life, you might just have to adjust your expectations slightly. 

Edited April 3, 2022 by Rashagar.8349

[Tukaram.8256]

I just got my first e-spec last week - druid.  So far it seems like a waste of effort. Well not much effort, I just noticed he had enough whatever points, so I used them.  Not thrilled with it, but no loss.  The ranger is my 2nd favorite avatar and gets played plenty.  Core ranger with longbow and pets. 

[Mardane.8735]

Thanks everyone for the responses. Dragonmoon I watched that video and unfortunately he wasn't using a staff. I did try to use staff and axe/warhorn but my damage was still horrible. I would just like to be able to do overland pve with a staff and a melee type setup like axe or sword. I've played a hybrid type character in many mmos and I'm definitely fine with doing mid range damage and taking just a tad longer to kill a veteran mob Rashagar but the staff as it is right now isn't even mid tier. It's really bottom of the barrel when it comes to solo pve. I just wish I could I use it decently when I roam alone in overland and still have the capability to help out healing others when they are in trouble. Longbow, shortbow, and all the other ranger weapons are a lot better for everything unless I just want to be a healbot using a staff. Sad.

 

PS-Is it true the pet's damage is reduced when I spec Druid? If I could just spec more into my pet to pick up the difference of damage I'd be happy with that but even running beast mastery and a dps pet I still kill so slow.

[DragonMoon.6098]

6 minutes ago, Mardane.8735 said:

Thanks everyone for the responses. Dragonmoon I watched that video and unfortunately he wasn't using a staff. I did try to use staff and axe/warhorn but my damage was still horrible. I would just like to be able to do overland pve with a staff and a melee type setup like axe or sword. I've played a hybrid type character in many mmos and I'm definitely fine with doing mid range damage and taking just a tad longer to kill a veteran mob Rashagar but the staff as it is right now isn't even mid tier. It's really bottom of the barrel when it comes to solo pve. I just wish I could I use it decently when I roam alone in overland and still have the capability to help out healing others when they are in trouble. Longbow, shortbow, and all the other ranger weapons are a lot better for everything unless I just want to be a healbot using a staff. Sad.

The staff is definitely a heal-based weapon on Ranger, so you really won't be able to use it unless you're in group content and heals is your job. 

I'm trying to think of any other class where staff is a viable option and honestly...I'm not sure there is one? You can use staff with Elementalist and Necromancer, but even with them, it's far from "recommended". 

Edited April 4, 2022 by DragonMoon.6098

[Mardane.8735]

Thanks for the info on the elementalist! I had thought about trying it and going staff.. scratch that one too. Years ago my main was a Mesmer and I remember using staff some. I'm sure a lot has changed since then though lol. I appreciate the help! I guess I'll just play with bows and call it a day trying to make something work that isn't going to.

[Hagion.1086]

Yeah Staff has bad DMG... could be little buffed... but for me, the most disappointed feature of the Druid is the Avatar! Plz anet rework Druidic Avatar! The visual effects are really good but the mechanic are trash... it's similar to necro's shroud but only work on full charge and drain rly fast...almost couldn't use all skill before it's over...and skills are just heals, could be more CC and etc...

[The Boz.2038]

This was ANet's first effort at making an actual support. They overdid it. Sad that it hasn't been reworked.

[Trejgon.9367]

12 minutes ago, The Boz.2038 said:

This was ANet's first effort at making an actual support. They overdid it. Sad that it hasn't been reworked.

It's more like their first attempt at making a dedicated healer. We had alot of dedicated supports in vanilla, and what was setting druid apart was all tha juicy healing. On launch it also had a very promising condi dps for people wanting to be more offensive, but as time went AN decided that we can't have a dps on a healer class, it ruins PvP....

(also other balance changes over the years, that brought down what druid can do or is supposed to be doing, while "newer" supports got access to AoE alac/quickness, in which areas no ranger could ever compete)

 

[anduriell.6280]

I mean druid is being like this for years, this is canon at this point. 

I am just waiting for the spirits rework to delete the profession form the game as a whole. 

[Gotejjeken.1267]

I feel like all of this is from a PvE perspective--as I was ready to reply with a bunch of things and then realized all of them are competitive minded.  

Though, I use staff / shortbow in PvE even and am literally unkillable, so I dunno.  

I guess my advice is stop focusing on the heals and start focusing on what you can do with all the bleed / CC access you get, and can even expand that to other condis like poison.  I'd stay far away from power druid though, that's a soulbeast thing.  

[Lévis.5489]

Druid was in a good spot during Heart of Thorns, then got hit by several nerfs just before Path of Fire. The only place you will ever see a druid nowadays are in raids and strikes. Using druid in general PVE is suffering.

[Duglaive.5236]

On 4/5/2022 at 9:28 AM, Gotejjeken.1267 said:

I feel like all of this is from a PvE perspective--as I was ready to reply with a bunch of things and then realized all of them are competitive minded.  

Though, I use staff / shortbow in PvE even and am literally unkillable, so I dunno.  

I guess my advice is stop focusing on the heals and start focusing on what you can do with all the bleed / CC access you get, and can even expand that to other condis like poison.  I'd stay far away from power druid though, that's a soulbeast thing.  

 

Very much this in my experience. In OW PvE,  I don't even bother with a staff, and rarely use a short bow any more. Ancient Seeds, a couple of strong cc pets, axe/torch, a couple of choice utilities ... and you're off to the races. 

 

Healer wise, however, druids are, the strongest for raids where they are the only healer option. Otherwise, a healBrand in conjunction with almost any other support is the better choice. And the spirits rework could go either way for Druid; though, I'm certainly not holding my breath on that one.

Edited April 8, 2022 by Duglaive.5236
clarity

[RainbowTurtle.3542]

On 4/5/2022 at 12:28 PM, Gotejjeken.1267 said:

I feel like all of this is from a PvE perspective--as I was ready to reply with a bunch of things and then realized all of them are competitive minded.  

Though, I use staff / shortbow in PvE even and am literally unkillable, so I dunno.  

I guess my advice is stop focusing on the heals and start focusing on what you can do with all the bleed / CC access you get, and can even expand that to other condis like poison.  I'd stay far away from power druid though, that's a soulbeast thing.  

Many things can work in most open world. Condi druid is really scuffed either way, and honestly gets old pretty quick because it's just using shortbow for damage and then spamming staff for panic heals/projectile blocks. From an actual competitive PvE standpoint druid is only worth using as a healer.

[RainbowTurtle.3542]

On 4/8/2022 at 7:46 AM, Duglaive.5236 said:

Healer wise, however, druids are, the strongest for raids where they are the only healer option. Otherwise, a healBrand in conjunction with almost any other support is the better choice. And the spirits rework could go either way for Druid; though, I'm certainly not holding my breath on that one.

Druid is still a monstrous healer, and can solo heal raids still. It does enough overflow heal, along with water spirit. If you can manage to get 2 alac and 2 quick in the group druid is definitely still the best individual healer for raids, and pretty high up on support too. It also can clear many mechanics in raids, from red seekers in VG, stopping big spirits in Gorseval, pushing orb in Keep Construct, druid skip in Twisted Castle, pushing Tormented Dead in SH, kiting and greens on Dhuum, and more.

 

To say it's better to take other supports is ignoring a huge part of what still makes druid so strong. Sure, you can take something else to do mechanics, but then you end up taking a chrono for something like SH with gravity well, where you lose out on DPS when you could have just taken a boon healer that doesn't provide rare boons while also having higher DPS from switching that chrono into a mirage or virtuoso.

[Sahne.6950]

I only do PvP/WvW content... so i am not really sure about PvE.

Over here a Bleed-focused-Druid is one of the strongest builds you can encounter. The bleed damage is completly nuts and you keep your enemy in place with numerous root skills.

maybe try a Condibuild!

https://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Druid_-_Stealth_Trapper

something along those lines. I advise you play Shortbow / Staff. You also have quite a bit of healingpower with this build and a wagonload of damage^^ Try and boost your Bleedduration with sigils. This way you get alot of extra damage from your bow 1

Edited April 14, 2022 by Sahne.6950

[kharmin.7683]

On 4/7/2022 at 9:27 PM, Lévis.5489 said:

Druid was in a good spot during Heart of Thorns, then got hit by several nerfs just before Path of Fire. The only place you will ever see a druid nowadays are in raids and strikes. Using druid in general PVE is suffering.

IMO, this is the content that druid was originally designed for.  Also, IMO, all of the HoT specs were designed for group content since that's when raids were introduced.  For OWPvE, there are better alternatives to HoT specs.   IMO

[JunkJunk.8971]

PvP my Druid is rocking.  All the immobilizations and dps from bow.   1 v1 just fine.   Got some healing also for team support.      Open world I run full celestial and it rocks.   

[The Boz.2038]

50 minutes ago, kharmin.7683 said:

For OWPvE, there are better alternatives to HoT specs.   IMO

Scrapper and Reaper absolutely rock in OW.

[Mardane.8735]

After digging up, reading, watching, and playing  more on the druid class, I feel now my title of this thread should have leaned more on my disappointment of the staff abilities. Knowing the staff should be less damage than the other weapons for the druid, it still should not be so terrible that a player who wants to play as a druid cannot use the staff as a main weapon for overland. Right now it seems to just be put on a back bar for heals and that's it. People seem to be running druid but maining a bow or axe. If I wanted to main one of those weapons I feel I'd just stay as a ranger. In no MMO since my days of playing UO have I played a healer class that could only heal. Now my healers (have never been uber dps but I could at least kill mobs at a decent pace. Using staff on druid here is super painful and even worse than my Daoc druid. At least my Daoc druid could fall back on some additional dps from my pet. From what i read here, the druid pet takes a 20% hit?! I mean that's nuts! You'd think if they wanted the staff to just be a total wet noodle as it is now, the least they could do is actually buff the pet to be your damage. Allow me to spec an ability under the druid tree to do that (so other specs wont be pushed into an OP position). Anyway, sorry for my rant. I just wish I could play my favorite class fantasy druid with a staff all the time so I could play some overland and still be able to heal other players on the fly. I'm currently trying some new ideas to make staff a little more viable in solo overland but Its still  doesn't seem like it will be my main weapon. Just gimping me on my backbar. Unfortunately I might be better off running overland support as an Elementalist with a staff. Sad thing is I'd miss all of the nature theme (at least the vines, spirits and pet).

Edited April 15, 2022 by Mardane.8735