3 little tweaks to make Druid a legit option

[Avatar.3568]

- Reduce Celestial Avatar cooldown to 15 seconds.

Its Just stupid to Run Arround with füll celestial Avatar but still having 10 Seconds cooldown to wait until you can pump feels Not only odd, you can easily die and having 0 astral Energy again

- increase to heal Radius from healing glyph's from 300 to max 450

All Other classes have 600, Radius but also a way lower healing Output, this would make the 11k burst heal Not op since you need some coordination to heal your allys.

- give glyph of Stars 1 Stab of stability for 7 Seconds

The Skill is Not Bad, but you Expose yourself for 7 Seconds to either Rez or cleanse someone, since it isn't an insta rez you should have at least 1 defense when you activate it, 2 cc's or 1 corrupt shouldnt be hard to pull of in 7 seconds

Edited July 6, 2022 by Avatar.3568

[Avatar.3568]

+ add finally the Waterfield to glyph of Stars, its Missing for quite a while now

[Ragnar.4257]

To be honest, Druid doesn't need more healing, its healing is already pretty good.

What its lacking compared to Guard/Tempest is damage-prevention (CC, Aegis, Protection, Stability) and reliable cleansing. 

And yeah, it'd be nice if Glyph of the Stars would actually be usuable. The effect is good, but a SEVEN SECOND channel is just insane.

[Azure The Heartless.3261]

Reasonable enough, ye~ I'd even say you can add another stack of stab onto stars, but starting off with one to see if people go for it would be nice. 

Like all critical skills though, it needs to tick revealed for a split second so the cast cant be started in stealth without people knowing about it.

Edited July 5, 2022 by Azure The Heartless.3261

[Avatar.3568]

5 hours ago, Ragnar.4257 said:

To be honest, Druid doesn't need more healing, its healing is already pretty good.

Absolut, Druid has high healing Spikes already but the healing Radius is Very small, halfed compared to any Other Healer, 300 vs 600 Radius, which Makes it hard to be competetiv.

 

5 hours ago, Ragnar.4257 said:

What its lacking compared to Guard/Tempest is damage-prevention (CC, Aegis, Protection, Stability) and reliable cleansing. 

The defensives are the Problem, If you Take glyph of Stars you have 1 Stab of stability on 25 sec cooldown and that only in your celestial Avatar (ca5). Cleansing in Druid is kinda Fine, you either Go wilderness survival or you Go marksmanship+glyph trait, you get a Lot of light fields, that you can proc With warhorn 5, petswap, ca 3 and staff 3 (but you don't want to use staff and warhorn in marksman Druid). The field cleanse 2 condis and the explo proc another 3.

To stay alive in Druid is still kinda hard

[GuriGashi.5617]

I think these are awesome suggestions. Before EoD we had just support Guardians as viable support - now it looks like Anet is also trying to make the other ones viable like Support Tempest, Support Warrior or Support Vindicator - Druid should for sure join that list as well, it would make the meta alot more fun.

Ultimately every class should have a viable roamer, duelist & teamfight/support build

Edited July 6, 2022 by GuriGashi.5617

[Trevor Boyer.6524]

19 hours ago, Ragnar.4257 said:

To be honest, Druid doesn't need more healing, its healing is already pretty good.

What its lacking compared to Guard/Tempest is damage-prevention (CC, Aegis, Protection, Stability) and reliable cleansing. 

And yeah, it'd be nice if Glyph of the Stars would actually be usuable. The effect is good, but a SEVEN SECOND channel is just insane.

There are many problems to discuss with Druid.

But the #1 thing that keeps it an unviable option in pvp/wvw as any real support crutch to lean on, is that it has absolutely zero preemptive damage mitigation tools. Everything it does is reactive burst healing. It doesn't have Aegis, Doesn't have party Stab, can't even buff party Prot/Resistance/Reso, ect ect.

Same reasons why Firebrand/Tempest will always outshine it in pve as well.

 

But Druid is viable in pvp. It's just not the type of build people imagine to be running on Druid. It needs to be full condi burst now. It's actually quite strong in this meta.

[Infinity.2876]

a few changes

Staff:

1: 2 skill long attack chain that does astral wisp except is short duration and grants might

2: add regen

3: fine as is

4: fine as is

5: quickness instead of regen

Astral form:

1: should do damage

2: grants resolution

3: grants resistance

4: should create water field and do A LOT of healing (like I'm talking geyser(elementalist staff) about of healing

5: more stability stacks

        In astral form.    Outside

                         ^        ^

Glyph of stars: ().   (resolution)

Glyph of the tides: () ()

Glyph of equality:(resistance) ()I

Glyph of reguvenation (regen)(regen),

 

 

[Trevor Boyer.6524]

You guys getting too weird with Druid change ideas.

Also suggesting buffs to skills that no one will use no matter how good they are, because the mechanics of things like Glyphs are just poorly designed for pvp usage.

All Druid needs are a few slight changes like this:

1. Put the ICD of CA Kit back down to 10s, same as it is in pve and wvw.
2. Give Ancestral Grace "Staff #3" its evade back. Staff #2 should deal 1 stack of burn so it's worth casting. Staff #4 should also lay down a stack of bleed.
3. Buff the CA Kit skills with some boons that the Druid desperately needs. However it's allocated, those skills should be granting even just small sources of: Regen, Prot, Resistance, Resolution, CA #5 Stab pulse should be an AoE party Stab pulse. This way CA Kit can somewhat compete with Firebrand Tomes.

It's that simple. That's all it needs, just the obvious.

Edited July 6, 2022 by Trevor Boyer.6524

[Koensol.5860]

8 hours ago, Trevor Boyer.6524 said:

There are many problems to discuss with Druid.

But the #1 thing that keeps it an unviable option in pvp/wvw as any real support crutch to lean on, is that it has absolutely zero preemptive damage mitigation tools. Everything it does is reactive burst healing. It doesn't have Aegis, Doesn't have party Stab, can't even buff party Prot/Resistance/Reso, ect ect.

Same reasons why Firebrand/Tempest will always outshine it in pve as well.

 

But Druid is viable in pvp. It's just not the type of build people imagine to be running on Druid. It needs to be full condi burst now. It's actually quite strong in this meta.

What "condi burst" build would you run then? 

Edited July 6, 2022 by Koensol.5860

[Trevor Boyer.6524]

1 hour ago, Koensol.5860 said:

What "condi burst" build would you run then? 

You wouldn't have to run condi on it. The extra small damage output on Staff would matter regardless. But truth be told, condi is best on Druid builds nowadays. However most condi burst builds wouldn't even run Staff. You'd want to go Rabid Shortbow & Axe/Torch for an actual condi burst. Axe/Axe & Staff is your more classic bunkery Druid, which is good with hybrid stats like Celestial or Sage or old Marshal stats.

I recently had about 8 hours of great footage demonstrating these Druid builds but it recently expired on twitch. I saved the guide explanation for the builds though. Here you go -> GW2 - Druid - My PvP WvW Methods - Twitch

Ask anyone in NA who plays against that Rabid Druid Shortbow Axe/Torch. It very seriously counters everything in 1v1 except Eles. It's a slow build compared to other things in the meta but it will kill you if you aren't an Ele.

If they made the changes I suggested, the Axe/Axe Staff would be playable again in spvp.

[Avatar.3568]

4 hours ago, Trevor Boyer.6524 said:

You wouldn't have to run condi on it. The extra small damage output on Staff would matter regardless. But truth be told, condi is best on Druid builds nowadays. However most condi burst builds wouldn't even run Staff. You'd want to go Rabid Shortbow & Axe/Torch for an actual condi burst. Axe/Axe & Staff is your more classic bunkery Druid, which is good with hybrid stats like Celestial or Sage or old Marshal stats.

I recently had about 8 hours of great footage demonstrating these Druid builds but it recently expired on twitch. I saved the guide explanation for the builds though. Here you go -> GW2 - Druid - My PvP WvW Methods - Twitch

Ask anyone in NA who plays against that Rabid Druid Shortbow Axe/Torch. It very seriously counters everything in 1v1 except Eles. It's a slow build compared to other things in the meta but it will kill you if you aren't an Ele.

If they made the changes I suggested, the Axe/Axe Staff would be playable again in spvp.

1vs1 condi Ranger Always strong, but It dies Very fast when you get +ed.

But i have another Idea, Ally targeting With staff 1 With some increased heal modifiers maybe.

Personaly i rather Go marksmanship valk on druid

 

 

[Koensol.5860]

8 hours ago, Trevor Boyer.6524 said:

You wouldn't have to run condi on it. The extra small damage output on Staff would matter regardless. But truth be told, condi is best on Druid builds nowadays. However most condi burst builds wouldn't even run Staff. You'd want to go Rabid Shortbow & Axe/Torch for an actual condi burst. Axe/Axe & Staff is your more classic bunkery Druid, which is good with hybrid stats like Celestial or Sage or old Marshal stats.

I recently had about 8 hours of great footage demonstrating these Druid builds but it recently expired on twitch. I saved the guide explanation for the builds though. Here you go -> GW2 - Druid - My PvP WvW Methods - Twitch

Ask anyone in NA who plays against that Rabid Druid Shortbow Axe/Torch. It very seriously counters everything in 1v1 except Eles. It's a slow build compared to other things in the meta but it will kill you if you aren't an Ele.

If they made the changes I suggested, the Axe/Axe Staff would be playable again in spvp.

Thanks for the link. Some nice info in there. Didn't know about the sharpening stone burst when used with a 5x ability 🙂 My only gripe with rabid is that you get almost nothing substantial out of your celestial avatar skills. 0 power dmg and 0 healing power makes all of its abilities kinda lackluster. All you'd really use it for is the cleanse + stealth and superspeed, which in turn means all that avatar generation from dolyak isn't even needed. I suppose carrion/sage with signet of stone would give you adequate toughness as well and more umph from your celestial 5 skill, or healing abilities. Also better axe auto's.  

[Trevor Boyer.6524]

2 hours ago, Koensol.5860 said:

Thanks for the link. Some nice info in there. Didn't know about the sharpening stone burst when used with a 5x ability 🙂 My only gripe with rabid is that you get almost nothing substantial out of your celestial avatar skills. 0 power dmg and 0 healing power makes all of its abilities kinda lackluster. All you'd really use it for is the cleanse + stealth and superspeed, which in turn means all that avatar generation from dolyak isn't even needed. I suppose carrion/sage with signet of stone would give you adequate toughness as well and more umph from your celestial 5 skill, or healing abilities. Also better axe auto's.  

In pvp you have an extremely limited selection to work with for Druid setups.

Here is what ends up happening:

1. Avatar & Sage has no toughness and +Dolyak isn't enough. Avatar isn't even enough heal output to make CA Kit skills worth using outside of #3 onto a water field. You can't use Altruism or Monk with those amulets because then you have no toughness at all and +Protection isn't enough. If you're rolling around in 2022 with a 0 toughness Druid, you can get one-burst from things like a Bladesworn. It just doesn't work.
2. When you compare heal value output from nerfed CA Kit values that has 20s ICD in pvp to the sheer damage mitigation that rolls off toughness, you'll see that toughness is healing more than heal stat on a Druid in pvp, so to say. You don't have to worry about condi cleanse. You always have enough cleanse on Druid with Druidic Clarity & a stack of Wilderness utilities.
3. You can't run power on a Druid. Druid builds that run power simply have absolutely zero damage output nowadays. The problem is that you can only take Marks/Beast/Druid or Marks/Wild/Druid, and either way you're missing out on incredibly functional pieces of the build to even make power work at all. If you don't have Wilderness you don't have Fury buffs and lose all your sustain. If you don't have Beast you lost GS trait and Lesser Quick Zephyr to make Marks Mods work on pet swap. None of it is practical to use. If you try to use Wild/Beast/Druid well then you have no Marks Mods. No matter what you do with power setups, they suck in pvp. Too many options have been removed for power Druid to work in pvp.

At the end of the day in pvp, Druid has to run condi because it's literally the only option that's even viable at this point. It has to be Skirm/Wild/Druid. Skirm for the DPS output, Wild for the sustain you need, Druid for that extra cleanse sustain stealth disengage and Ancient Seeds. You could try to run amulets like Sage or Sinister, but I'll 100% guarantee you that once you've really done your homework and paved out a lot of testing, you'll see that Rabid amulet is the way to go for every mentionable reason. For example, you don't even have much power damage output on a Shortbow to begin with. You lose barely any DPS output going from say Sinister to Rabid. Like 80% of your DPS on that build is rolling off bleeds alone. The stacked Toughness value is worth so much more. Again, the stacked Toughness is what makes your heals actually worth something. Adding stacked Toughness heals more Druid proportionately, than stacked Healing in pvp.

Go do some testing yourself. You'll see what I mean.