Druid Roaming WvW

[Canidae Canis.2861]

6 minutes ago, Sahne.6950 said:

you should try the build that i posted^^ it has constant condipressure from the Hawk f2. REALLY REALLY insane pressure. Even if you have good cleanse you will run out of cleanses after a few seconds of fighting. its 5/5 rating for a reason^_^

I'll check it out, thanks! Hadn't thought too much about the hawk spam, but after looking at the talents it looks like it interacts nicely with Poison Master. I try to make fun druid builds because I like the spec thematically, but at the end of the day SB is just better across the board 😞 

[Sahne.6950]

18 hours ago, Canidae Canis.2861 said:

I'll check it out, thanks! Hadn't thought too much about the hawk spam, but after looking at the talents it looks like it interacts nicely with Poison Master. I try to make fun druid builds because I like the spec thematically, but at the end of the day SB is just better across the board 😞 

sadly thats true 😕

[Sebrent.3625]

On 6/19/2022 at 12:58 PM, Trevor Boyer.6524 said:

My bro you gotta Power on Soulbeast and Condi on Druid with Cele stats.

The player in that video would double to triple his performance value this way

Any exceptions to this in your mind? (Condi Soulbeast? non-Cele Druid?)

What about Core or Untamed?

[Trevor Boyer.6524]

1 hour ago, Sebrent.3625 said:

Any exceptions to this in your mind? (Condi Soulbeast? non-Cele Druid?)

What about Core or Untamed?

Not really.

What you're looking at are the traits provided in a specialization, which indicates what the specialization is good at.

1. Look at Untamed, everything it does amplifies power damage. Not a single thing it does amplifies condi play.
2. Look at Soulbeast, everything it does amplifies power damage. A small portion of what it does amplifies condi. Soulbeast also revolves around use the Smokescale merge "Smoke Assault" skill to be viable in pvp at all. The Smokescale is a power pet that amplifies power damage while merged, and all the merge skills are power based. Soulbeast works best when designed for power damage in pvp or wvw. It's not that condi is bad on Soulbeast, it's that power based builds just work a lot better on Soulbeast.
3. Druid works best with Celestial stats for obvious reasons. Druid is sort of like an Ele in the aspect that it can truly take advantage of Cele stats. It's best at being a hybrid everything, power dps, condi dps, burst heals, light support. In spvp Druid works best with Rabid Amulet/Shortbow play. There are so many options removed in spvp and so many skill splits, this is just the way it works.
4. Core Ranger is where the versatility & choice is at in terms of build structures because it doesn't have to take a specialization that pushes it into a niche style of play. Ranger can take Wilderness/Beastmastery and then choose between Marks or Skirm, to tip towards power or condi.

Click on the link in my signature. Lots of recently streamed Druid play/discussion in there.

[RainbowTurtle.3542]

2 hours ago, Trevor Boyer.6524 said:

 

1. Look at Soulbeast, everything it does amplifies power damage. A small portion of what it does amplifies condi. Soulbeast also revolves around use the Smokescale merge "Smoke Assault" skill to be viable in pvp at all. The Smokescale is a power pet that amplifies power damage while merged, and all the merge skills are power based. Soulbeast works best when designed for power damage in pvp or wvw. It's not that condi is bad on Soulbeast, it's that power based builds just work a lot better on Soulbeast.

Oppressive Superiority literally increases condition duration if you're at a higher health percentage. The additional bonuses from condi merged pets work wonders too.

[Trevor Boyer.6524]

3 hours ago, RainbowTurtle.3542 said:

Oppressive Superiority literally increases condition duration if you're at a higher health percentage. The additional bonuses from condi merged pets work wonders too.

The bolded is key to point out.

None of the condi pets bring anything mechanical to the table for pvp. They are great in pve but nothing as useful as Smokescale merge or say Gazelle merge in pvp/wvw. This is one of the reasons why Soulbeast is just better as a power spec. The F2 merge Smoke Assault skill is what makes Soulbeast viable at all in higher tiered play. Then of course it does a plethora of other irreplaceable things that only a Smokescale can do, such as providing smoke field for stealth stacking.

Edited June 22, 2022 by Trevor Boyer.6524

[anduriell.6280]

On 6/21/2022 at 2:29 PM, Canidae Canis.2861 said:

And Anduriell - of course other classes can do it better 😛 Ranger's not in a great competitive spot in WvW, our skillset is outdated, we lack flexibility, and we have very little to offer in terms of party support. But we have to work with what we got! 

Well then simple enough play soulbeast (this worked before the expansion thou): cele/grieving ( depending on your skill) soulbeast with crow and traps, trapper runes. 
Get close to anything, pull with crow which triggers the quickness in trait and sigil, put venom, fire trap, stun shortbow, immob shortbow, shotgun shortbow, jumpy  shortbow so you put some distance. 

you get 5 downs ez, less hassle, still can escape with heal trap if needed. You can use entangle if you want to keep them in place but not needed.  This build you can play it with double bow(longbow / shortbow) because the runes and crow are the ones providing the mobility. 
 

stop wasting your time with druid, the damage is not there by far and has no impact in the team fight. Anet does no want the class to belong to any pvp mode. 

[anduriell.6280]

12 minutes ago, anduriell.6280 said:

Well then simple enough play soulbeast (this worked before the expansion thou): cele/grieving ( depending on your skill) soulbeast with crow and traps, trapper runes. 
Get close to anything, pull with crow which triggers the quickness in trait and sigil, put venom, fire trap, stun shortbow, immob shortbow, shotgun shortbow, jumpy  shortbow so you put some distance. 

you get 5 downs ez, less hassle, still can escape with heal trap if needed. You can use entangle if you want to keep them in place but not needed.  This build you can play it with double bow(longbow / shortbow) because the runes and crow are the ones providing the mobility. 
 

stop wasting your time with druid, the damage is not there by far and has no impact in the team fight. Anet does no want the class to belong to any pvp mode. 

Before I forget: as extra bonus shortbow has lower cap to tags, which means you get more bags with this build if you equip the shortbow gm. 

[Gotejjeken.1267]

44 minutes ago, anduriell.6280 said:

Well then simple enough play soulbeast (this worked before the expansion thou): cele/grieving ( depending on your skill) soulbeast with crow and traps, trapper runes. 
Get close to anything, pull with crow which triggers the quickness in trait and sigil, put venom, fire trap, stun shortbow, immob shortbow, shotgun shortbow, jumpy  shortbow so you put some distance. 

you get 5 downs ez, less hassle, still can escape with heal trap if needed. You can use entangle if you want to keep them in place but not needed.  This build you can play it with double bow(longbow / shortbow) because the runes and crow are the ones providing the mobility. 
 

stop wasting your time with druid, the damage is not there by far and has no impact in the team fight. Anet does no want the class to belong to any pvp mode. 

 

No offense, but if people are playing this way in WvW no wonder there's no challenge left.  

Traps are just bad--everytime I see a trapper rune ranger I just *sigh* and wonder where they were in 2015 when that was a viable build.  Now? If you want to beat a trapper ranger, just watch where they lay traps and move backward.  They'll inveitbely try to 'sneak up on you' in stealth and you can just body them--without ever touching the traps.

Prelude lash is fine, sure--but much better on power burst IMO.

Also it would help to stop being facetious about Druid just because you cannot play one (from your own admissions above).  In WvW you destroy breakbars, stall like no ones business, can CC chain even the most slippery classes (I've been thanked many times for this), and yes, a well timed ancient seeds destroys a lot of people.  Also you can run traps (but please for the love of god don't).

 

[Zyreva.1078]

33 minutes ago, Gotejjeken.1267 said:

 

No offense, but if people are playing this way in WvW no wonder there's no challenge left.  

Traps are just bad--everytime I see a trapper rune ranger I just *sigh* and wonder where they were in 2015 when that was a viable build.  Now? If you want to beat a trapper ranger, just watch where they lay traps and move backward.  They'll inveitbely try to 'sneak up on you' in stealth and you can just body them--without ever touching the traps.

 

While i can understand your point, since i have very similar experiences when facing other trap rangers - a properly build and played cele trap slb might be one of the more underrated wvw builds right now, at least for outnumbered solo and small scale fights. Druid is better for xv1 due to the single target lockdown potential - but lacking something like dolyak stance is huge when outnumbered. And ultimatively outnumbered fights are the true test for a build. Outnumbering is easy after all (so is jumping some lonely zergling). Just don't go for some double bow nonsense ...

Also power burst and (condi) traps aren't neccessarily a contradiction. No reason to choose one when you can have both 🙂

Edited June 22, 2022 by UmbraNoctis.1907

[Trevor Boyer.6524]

1 hour ago, anduriell.6280 said:

Well then simple enough play soulbeast (this worked before the expansion thou): cele/grieving ( depending on your skill) soulbeast with crow and traps, trapper runes. 
Get close to anything, pull with crow which triggers the quickness in trait and sigil, put venom, fire trap, stun shortbow, immob shortbow, shotgun shortbow, jumpy  shortbow so you put some distance. 

you get 5 downs ez, less hassle, still can escape with heal trap if needed. You can use entangle if you want to keep them in place but not needed.  This build you can play it with double bow(longbow / shortbow) because the runes and crow are the ones providing the mobility. 
 

stop wasting your time with druid, the damage is not there by far and has no impact in the team fight. Anet does no want the class to belong to any pvp mode. 

None of this is true.

Cele Druid is so much stronger than what you suggest here, in every mentionable way.

Edited June 22, 2022 by Trevor Boyer.6524

[anduriell.6280]

9 hours ago, UmbraNoctis.1907 said:

While i can understand your point, since i have very similar experiences when facing other trap rangers - a properly build and played cele trap slb might be one of the more underrated wvw builds right now, at least for outnumbered solo and small scale fights. Druid is better for xv1 due to the single target lockdown potential - but lacking something like dolyak stance is huge when outnumbered. And ultimatively outnumbered fights are the true test for a build. Outnumbering is easy after all (so is jumping some lonely zergling). Just don't go for some double bow nonsense ...

Also power burst and (condi) traps aren't neccessarily a contradiction. No reason to choose one when you can have both 🙂

Druid last longer just because of the stealth and full cleanse and in WvW they can run away and don't need to fight. It is not better because it lacks the impact to do anything on its own. As soon as pressure it needs to go into stealth. 

Otherwise Druid would be meta in PVP where the point is to hold point against different enemies. 

As i said Druid is boring to play with and against it. 

Edited June 23, 2022 by anduriell.6280

[Trevor Boyer.6524]

6 hours ago, anduriell.6280 said:

Druid last longer just because of the stealth and full cleanse and in WvW they can run away and don't need to fight. It is not better because it lacks the impact to do anything on its own. As soon as pressure it needs to go into stealth. 

Otherwise Druid would be meta in PVP where the point is to hold point against different enemies. 

As i said Druid is boring to play with and against it. 

No.

1. Soulbeast can make a better 1v1 in wvw, but Druid is always a better 1vX.
2. Druid is a better 1vX not only due to on-demand full cleanse & stealth disengage "that doesn't require hitting with LB3 or stacking in a Smokescale field" but also because it can use Axe off-hand AND Staff, which both provide anti-projectile fields. <- This is mandatory to have if you plan on doing 1vX. It doesn't matter how good your Soulbeast 1v1 build is, if you can't stealth on demand and eliminate most of the incoming projectile DPS while kiting, you will die and you will die fast to any 1v2 where the opponents are even decent, or say 1v3+ even if the opponents are bad. Projectile ranged spam will kill you if you can't eliminate it, when enough goons are chasing you.
3. The footage in my stream clearly shows the strength of a Celestial Druid. It is quite impactful on its own. You need to wake up my dude. It has plenty of damage and more than enough lock down.
4. The reason why Druid is not meta in pvp is because they skill split CA Kit CD to be 20s CD in pvp, whereas it is 10s CD in wvw and pve. Upon this, they removed too many options in pvp to run the kind of stats/sigils that you'd actually want on a Druid. The best you can do in pvp on a Druid nowadays, is to run Rabid/Shortbow full DPS.