Are Druids really going to replace Scrappers after balance?

[Xenesis.6389]

Sneak gyro will be used for opening stealth push as usual, you know when you're usually stacked in one spot to blast it anyways, and veil(ground targeted) will be used in mid combat for mini stealth repositioning as usual, or to cover pugs on those first pushes. Sneak gyro is not getting replaced. Veil is also still on a horrendous 72s cooldown compared to sneak gyros 60s.

[HazyDaisy.4107]

I hope so, I'm looking forward to getting Ranger nerfed next.

[Jski.6180]

9 hours ago, Khenzy.9348 said:

 

Ah, yes. The good old "give every support stability uptime on par to firebrands" so these boon balls ramain 'uncceable' making boon strips mandatory, the realm of two specs at most, more widely accessible boons strips would feel like a back and forth which could father worsen balance. Instead of, you know, more healthy changes such as reducing CC immunity uptime as a whole (and other boons), making boons more of a strategic choice and giving CC skills diminishing returns. 

 

Let's further incentivize this horrendous boon spam stacking meta even father because it's oh so varied, fun and ultra engaging.

 

No wonder this game's balance has been getting gradually (and exponentially) worse for years.

EDIT: As to answer OP's question: No, Druids will remain a niche pick for as long as pets get insta killed in group fights without the druid being able to do anything to prevent it. Even if pets had 50k HP and 3k Armor, they would still amost instantly die because they can't dodge or properly reposition and they take full damage from AoEs. The CD penalty on swapping dead pets is extremely harsh and makes no sense in today's game balance. This will remain to be the case for as long as Anet keeps ignoring the issue.

The ideal is to have both add more stab so you dont have the same class be the end all be all support and add in boon strip so the curent boon strip is not the end all be all strip class. Things like this will keep druid out of the meta.

[Khenzy.9348]

10 hours ago, Soilder.3607 said:

The pet doesn't matter for support Druid in WvW. It doesn't do anything and nothing about support Druid needs the pet in order to work, whereas the same cannot be said for something like Untamed. The only downside to the pet is that it can reveal your squad when you guys stealth up if you cannot stow it.

 

They could remove the pet from Druid without giving it a replacement and it would not at all affect how much Druid can heal, cleanse, and give support.

 

First, flat out implying pets don't offer any support is just wrong. Second, lots of traits and skills either stop working or gain reduced effectiveness when your pet is dead effectively nerfing the druid as a whole and reducing build diversity. Also, Celestial Avatar skills are just not good (mostly subpar skills), and also the entire CA kit, which is gatekeeped behind a CD and a resource, gets vastly outperformed by Engineers medkit, a single healing skill from core engi. Engi doesn't even have to deal with a class mechanic that easily dies in an instant and gets disabled for a minute making many traits, skills and inner class sinergies almost useless. Can druids still provide some support? For sure. To its fullest potential? I doubt that. Will it be taken over other support options? I don't think so. Do I hope to be wrong? Yes! Druid deserves all the love it can get.

 

3 hours ago, Jski.6180 said:

The ideal is to have both add more stab so you dont have the same class be the end all be all support and add in boon strip so the curent boon strip is not the end all be all strip class. Things like this will keep druid out of the meta.

 

Oh yeah the good old 'whack a mole' balance style. More stability for you! Oh and to counter that, more boon strips for you! More power creep! Yes! Exactly what this game needs more of! Good! Good!

Edited September 20, 2022 by Khenzy.9348

[Sahne.6950]

Nope. But tempest will.

[Soilder.3607]

7 hours ago, Khenzy.9348 said:

 

First, flat out implying pets don't offer any support is just wrong. Second, lots of traits and skills either stop working or gain reduced effectiveness when your pet is dead effectively nerfing the druid as a whole and reducing build diversity. Also, Celestial Avatar skills are just not good (mostly subpar skills), and also the entire CA kit, which is gatekeeped behind a CD and a resource, gets vastly outperformed by Engineers medkit, a single healing skill from core engi. Engi doesn't even have to deal with a class mechanic that easily dies in an instant and gets disabled for a minute making many traits, skills and inner class sinergies almost useless. Can druids still provide some support? For sure. To its fullest potential? I doubt that. Will it be taken over other support options? I don't think so. Do I hope to be wrong? Yes! Druid deserves all the love it can get.

99% of the healing and cleanse done by a Druid comes from only the druid. The only good pets in a zerg are the Juvenile Brown Bear (cleanse) and the Siege Turtle (projectile block and group prot). Traits that rely on pets are of no use in a zerg and should never be taken. Any pet that has an offensive or CC oriented F2 skill is useless because it will never land it's ability.

 

Druid has as much cleanse as a scrapper and has more healing than both scrapper and tempest. When my pet dies when I am zerging, it has 0 effect on my ability to heal and cleanse, which is the only thing Druid does well right now aside from immobs.

[Kontrolle.3514]

This game gets worse every patch. Why not remove just all support and return to post release clown fiesta

[RisenHowl.2419]

druid was already strong before the patch. it's just not widely played because no one wants to put them in stab parties, which means players never learn how to use it to the fullest.

[TheGrimm.5624]

If the idea is more options in a zerg meta than you need to address the why is one class over another. As often has been said, why bring a Soulbeast to a zerg even if they bring boon share since others can do the same but better. So if the goal is to pit Necro versus Scrapper the playstyle differences in the wells one being mobile and the other being fixed location wouldn't a better change be to increase the size of stationary wells and keep them in the location dropped and reduce the size of the mobile wells so both have applicable and unique playstyles? Now whether zergs will want Druids....its a Ranger, or so the forums have said forever. That said with the SB changes will have to bring back out the all Ranger havoc for a short bit and see how mixing some Druids into a full SB group it can make for some fun up coming havocing.