Beating Spellbreaker on Point as a Druid [Serious Tag]

[Puunji.3109]

This thread is not about whether you think Druids, SBs, (insert XXX spec), is overpowered and I am not claiming to be someone who is extremely talented at this game; I am simply looking for information. Please, do not post inflammatory responses in this thread. If you don't have anything constructive to contribute, please refrain from posting (I'm asking nicely out of respect for the community). I will also be posting this in the Profession section for increased visibility.

Question (sort of): I haven't played in a couple of days but the last time I logged in I was 1600+ and ranked in the top 100. I, however, am having issues beating Spellbreakers on point. I know that I could always just rotate off but I was wondering if there was any way that other know of for beating good Spellbreaker players while not completely leaving the point. I included my league and rank so you could have a better idea of what I would consider good.

A bit more background: I currently play Staff + Longbow with what most people would consider to be the current meta of Druid talents/amulet/runes (minor variations at times) and run Lightning Reflex, Renewal, and Stone for my abilities with Bristleback/Smokescale as pets. I would like to keep this as my primary set up since I find it fun and it gives me decent killing power against non-bunkers but would be open to changing things if I notice a matchup that is SB heavy or lacks soft targets. I have tried Sword Warhorn but not GS and also tried using Lightning Wyvern for the knockdowns it provides in place of Bristleback (neither worked very well). Additionally, I tried to switch out Nature Magic for Marksmanship to see if Call of the Wild in T1 would give me a bit more killing power to get through blocks on pet swap w/o having to bring a warhorn but I didn't feel like it made the matchup any better (It didn't affect my survivability as much as I though it would though since regen and protection get corrupted pretty frequently anyway).

TLDR: How do I beat Spellbreakers on point as a Druid?

Thanks in advance for any assistance provided.

[Master Ketsu.4569]

As a Druid you have more mobility than a spellbreaker and thus should never die to them. Not being able to fight them on point is the tradeoff.

[Mr Godlike.6098]

Pay attention to both endure pains and don't waste your burst

Try to trigger their stability before main burst

When they on gs - this the time when you spike them

Don't ever get hit by their burst skills

If point is yours you can bunker him almost forever if he's trash so you don't need to try kill him.

[shadowpass.4236]

Beating a Spellbreaker is about applying enough pressure constantly to outdamage their passive healing while pretty much completely avoiding all of their attacks (to the best of your ability).

• In order to lower the threshold of dps you have to apply, putting permanent poison on them from Refined Toxins is extremely important. With this, for example, it would make a 1000 dps threshold only 667.

  ---

A Spellbreaker has more than enough damage and cc to completely 100-0 you if you mess up or get hit by a cc. In order to prevent this, you're going to need: a lot of evasion, super speed, cc, and boon removal.

• When a Spellbreaker is in Dagger/Shield, you want to be kiting extremely hard to stay out of range of their autoattacks while dodging or super speeding away from Aura Slicer, Disrupting Stab, Shield Bash, and Breaching Strike.

• When a Spellbreaker is in Greatsword, dodge the Whirlwind Attack and Arcing Slice.

• The entire duration of the fight, pay extreme attention towards Full Counter. When a Spellbreaker activates it, stow your weapon and call your pet back insantly to avoid proccing it. Only resume attacking when Full Counter wears off.

• Do not spam your autoattacks when a Spellbreaker is using Shield Stance. It gives the Spellbreaker 1 stack of Might for every attack blocked. You're basically giving them extra damage.

  ---

I use this build:http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNAT8YjUqQLLWyC+rAXLWmEM4faRdp2EAecTgngQt6jVi0PD-jZxHAByXGw/HAgP7PAwFB47jAAA

• I do not like Nature Magic as many of my attack rotations over the years have gotten used to the timing and feel of Beastmastery's cooldown reductions for your pet. The build I linked has adequate condition clear for the majority of Meta builds while dealing increased damage from a higher uptime of Quickness and through your pet. Nature Magic's damage comes through the form of boons, both on yourself and your pet, to gain the benefit of Fortifying Bond. However, with so much boon hate in the current meta, I feel like Beastmastery offers a lot of damage without the risks of corruption/boon strip.

• This build also has a lot more Super Speed and Evasion compared to its Nature Magic counterpart, making it a lot easier to avoid a Spellbreaker's attacks.

  ---

I would recommend checking this thread out:https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Ranger-Questions-Ask-here

I made this in the hopes of passing on a lot of my knowledge to anyone who wanted to improve and learn more. There is a lot of good information there in regards to playing Ranger in general. If you're interested, I'd definitely recommend taking a look.

---

If you have any other questions, feel free to ask!

Best of luck!

[Soilder.3607]

A druid cannot beat a spell breaker on point, assuming equal skill. The best thing to do is set your pet to passive, stow your weapon, and kite around on point, using dodges and warhorn #5 to Regen health and Astral Force.

I can survive indefinitely on point against any spell breaker using this method. However, the point may become decapped as I will need to enter CA to heal, and thereby will gain stealth when leaving it.

Keep in mind I run Mender's druid. Avatar's longbow will have an even tougher time on point.