Are you guys happy for the upcoming love that Druids will be getting?

[anduriell.6280]

On 9/21/2022 at 7:21 AM, Mell.4873 said:

Hmm the duration is shorter maybe by 1/4 a second but the combo field is bigger

Another train of though i don't get. You play ranger, right?  Don't you? 

How matters how big is the field if it last less than half a second? 

[Mell.4873]

1 minute ago, anduriell.6280 said:

Another train of though i don't get. You play ranger, right?  Don't you? 

How matters how big is the field if it last less than half a second? 

More people in the Zerg can take advantage of it since the combo field is now large enough to cover them, 240 vs new 360. Honestly even now I don't even bother casting mostly due to cast time so that alone makes the lower duration worth it.

[anduriell.6280]

8 minutes ago, Mell.4873 said:

More people in the Zerg can take advantage of it since the combo field is now large enough to cover them, 240 vs new 360. Honestly even now I don't even bother casting mostly due to cast time so that alone makes the lower duration worth it.

What do you think happens when a player is inside a light field? 

[Mell.4873]

9 minutes ago, anduriell.6280 said:

What do you think happens when a player is inside a light field? 

Well as long as they don't over write it with there own they should be able to use finishers inside it. Before this you could not cover the Zerg in it, that and the cast time made it a useless skill.

I personally used the water field to heal and then just left Celestial Avatar.

[anduriell.6280]

11 minutes ago, Mell.4873 said:

Well as long as they don't over write it with there own they should be able to use finishers inside it. Before this you could not cover the Zerg in it, that and the cast time made it a useless skill.

I personally used the water field to heal and then just left Celestial Avatar.

Ok i see you are not really playing with druid.

Independently of other players blasting your fields, now you wont be able to blast them with Lunar impact, if i am not mistaken that skill has a precast of half a second. 

But again even if your skill doesn't allow you to play with druid to it's fullest, it is always better to have the option than not having it, Don't you agree? 

So the devs are going out of their way just to nerf stuff on the druid nobody asked. Really we really need somebody with real knowledge and experience with the class, this tone deaf balance choices done by the wiki are very tiresome. 

[Mell.4873]

19 minutes ago, anduriell.6280 said:

Ok i see you are not really playing with druid.

Independently of other players blasting your fields, now you wont be able to blast them with Lunar impact, if i am not mistaken that skill has a precast of half a second. 

But again even if your skill doesn't allow you to play with druid to it's fullest, it is always better to have the option than not having it, Don't you agree? 

So the devs are going out of their way just to nerf stuff on the druid nobody asked. Really we really need somebody with real knowledge and experience with the class, this tone deaf balance choices done by the wiki are very tiresome. 

Meh no mater what you say I will at least use the skill once before leaving Celestial Avatar. My druid is played with 100% bleed duration so you are somewhat right I'm not really playing Druid, rather I use all the inbuilt roots to immobilize people.

[anduriell.6280]

@Mell.4873that's fine, I think ancient seeds is a very unfun trait to play with or against and the effect should be moved to Vine Surge, but hey i am not in charge of the balance. 

[Gotejjeken.1267]

Seed of Life still has the combo field though? Check the Twitch stream, when CMC hovers over it, the skill still says light field. 

The only thing that has changed here is you no longer need to blast the seed to get the condi cleanse--you did before because it took forever.  That and you get one less condi cleansed than before--sort of--because if it leaves behind the light field, you just blast that and are pretty much back to how it is now.  The clear advantage is not having to blast it with lunar impact at all--you'll get 2 condi cleanse by just using it now.

I think Glyph of Stars is also a straight upgrade for the roaming Druid.  Stability is the one thing the build lacks; to beat immob Druid you currently chain CC it.  Now you can get stability from the elite on the same CD as Entangle is, and also don't need Entangle anyway because you have more than enough sources of CC/immob without it.  You'll be giving up 2 condi cleanse with WS trait, but that's it.  It's also a friggen' AoE/well type deal now--so you have crazy application ideas with this and something like healing spring.

Another advanced thing...the pet counts as an ally, so you can theoretically attach the wisp to it for more healing.  Can think of a few interesting applications for this.

Only kind of big nerf is the full condi clear on entering avatar, which is a slight bummer since mutate conditions exists and is a full condi clear if you swap weapons (or all but vuln if you don't).  Not sure this matters though because they bumped up Glyph of Alignment while in Avatar form--so you get 8 with a bit more APM (3 from enter, 2 from seed of life, and 3 from glyph usage).  Sure, you have to take up a slot to run the glyph but might be worth it anyway depending on what you are doing.

Edited September 22, 2022 by Gotejjeken.1267

[Mell.4873]

45 minutes ago, Gotejjeken.1267 said:

Seed of Life still has the combo field though? Check the Twitch stream, when CMC hovers over it, the skill still says light field. 

The only thing that has changed here is you no longer need to blast the seed to get the condi cleanse--you did before because it took forever.  That and you get one less condi cleansed than before--sort of--because if it leaves behind the light field, you just blast that and are pretty much back to how it is now.  The clear advantage is not having to blast it with lunar impact at all--you'll get 2 condi cleanse by just using it now.

I think Glyph of Stars is also a straight upgrade for the roaming Druid.  Stability is the one thing the build lacks; to beat immob Druid you currently chain CC it.  Now you can get stability from the elite on the same CD as Entangle is, and also don't need Entangle anyway because you have more than enough sources of CC/immob without it.  You'll be giving up 2 condi cleanse with WS trait, but that's it.  It's also a friggen' AoE/well type deal now--so you have crazy application ideas with this and something like healing spring.

Another advanced thing...the pet counts as an ally, so you can theoretically attach the wisp to it for more healing.  Can think of a few interesting applications for this.

Only kind of big nerf is the full condi clear on entering avatar, which is a slight bummer since mutate conditions exists and is a full condi clear if you swap weapons (or all but vuln if you don't).  Not sure this matters though because they bumped up Glyph of Alignment while in Avatar form--so you get 8 with a bit more APM (3 from enter, 2 from seed of life, and 3 from glyph usage).  Sure, you have to take up a slot to run the glyph but might be worth it anyway depending on what you are doing.

I have to agree with the Roaming element Druid is a beast. I have had a lot of fun scouting for my Zerg and just surviving/Immobilizing enemies until my Zerg arrives.

In terms of the only clear nerf, I never really used Cultivated Synergy (seems like a sPvP trait). Primal Echoes was my trait of choice since the combo'ed really well with Shortbow; I could Root/Stun enemies then switch for a daze while chasing.

I did a lot of counter pushes during Zerg clashes which worked so well if the Zergs moved to quickly through each other and didn't secure kills.

[anduriell.6280]

1 hour ago, Gotejjeken.1267 said:

Another advanced thing...the pet counts as an ally, so you can theoretically attach the wisp to it for more healing.  Can think of a few interesting applications for this.

That deppends on the AoE of the healing, i bet is going to be 240 and the pets do not stay that close to the druid unless busy. 

1 hour ago, Mell.4873 said:

I have to agree with the Roaming element Druid is a beast. I have had a lot of fun scouting for my Zerg and just surviving/Immobilizing enemies until my Zerg arrives.

I never ever had any issues with druid roamers. Yes they are annoying because as soon as you target them they disappear  but you can ignore them most of the time. 

Druid is just a troll class and you admit that is all you can offer. Luckily this balance patch reduces the team support and a bit the self sustain, now you will melt to condis. 

[Mell.4873]

9 hours ago, anduriell.6280 said:

Druid is just a troll class and you admit that is all you can offer. Luckily this balance patch reduces the team support and a bit the self sustain, now you will melt to condis. 

I never used that trait so it wont be a nerf to me.

[JPUlisses.8756]

Made me play a druid. So I am happy.

 

But it's clear that is not enough to dethrone Firebrand meta.

[Za Shaloc.3908]

I think the changes are really wonderful, coming from the perspective of somebody who plays Druid only as a support in WvW (dont roam on Ranger much at all anymore). All the changes feel like wins for me, though I can understand why others may see some of the changes as nerfs to different playstyles. My internet can't really handle big zerg v zerg fights even on the lowest possible settings so I don't have the insight like @Soilder.3607does, but for the fun cloudy pug fights that I love, I am really excited to be able to give out some stab, lots of AoE prot, and more reliable cleanses. I've always hated Staff 2 with a passion but now I think I'm gonna love it (I've wanted allied targeting for it for years). Over the past few months I kinda lost all interest in the game, but the proposed changes have made me start logging on again. 

[Lazze.9870]

On 9/20/2022 at 4:38 PM, Soilder.3607 said:

Druid does not compete with firebrand. Neither does tempest, scrapper, nor heal Vindicator.

I honestly don't understand why people are having a discussion about the WvW when they aren't even aware of the fact that Firebrand stays no matter what because of its boons, the second slot is the pirmary heal/cleanse. Then again, people spammed me with confused emojies in the balance update thread for pointing out that scrapper has been the undisputed support build for a good while now.

Scrapper is dropping down because Anet finally put some restraints on it. Still good, but it's not gonna be uncontested anymore. Tempest will likely be the go-to in the meta, it's the easiest one to cleanse on and the auras are nice. Druid on the other hand will be a lot more competetive than what it is now, there is no reason a well played one can't step in for a tempest, unlike now where people would complain about superspeed uptime and such.

On 9/20/2022 at 7:47 PM, RainbowTurtle.3542 said:

Firebrand brings more than healing. Druid has a massive cost to do said healing, taking a full energy bar for CA, a 10s cooldown, and upon exiting you lose energy. Core ranger's healing skills aren't good enough to make up the difference in healing that firebrand can more consistently output, and druid glyphs aren't good enough to make up that difference either, with rejuvination being the only glyph that heals for a half decent amount outside of CA (2k to allies... whoopie), because every other glyph that can heal only heals in CA.

 

On paper, yes, firebrands heal less than druids. But in practice firebrands have so, SO much more.

 

Don't try and make your main seem worse.

No, it doesn't. A Firebrand runs a boon focused build with focus on stab and aegis. It is literally an aegis/stab bot. What little heal and cleanse it brings in its current metabuild are nothing compared to what a druid brings.

You can spec a firebrand to be more focused on healing, but that's at the cost of stab and aegis uptime. So you don't do it. And healing still isn't that great, it got massive nerfs to its healing output several years ago. It's not a one man support army anymore.

[Bigpapasmurf.5623]

I am and I am not.

The con for me is the loss of removing 13 condis on myself when I enter the CA state. As a DPS druid roamer in a world of burn willbenders, condi harbs and condi rangers, this was my saving grace...one of the biggest reasons I stuck with druid all these years despite not many people running it. This is a huge blow for me and while I will look for ways around this in my build, this one could potentially turn away from druid...esp where people foresee condi druids becoming stronger after the changes.

 

Guess we shall see if I can adapt properly and overcome (hope I do as I put a lot of time, and effort into my druid lol)

[Ashen.2907]

Not really.

[KeyOrion.9506]

Out of all the ranger classes, the Druid is the most sought after.  The rest still get nothing but disdain from majority of commanders in WvW.  Knowing that your only way to get WxP is to tag an opponant and let your team wipe the enemy, makes it feel more like a leach, than a boon.