Shadowfall's Split Feedback

[shadowpass.4236]

I spent a few hours typing up my suggestions on the main thread and the separate one on the PvP subforums. I would like more feedback from you guys to see what your thoughts on are my perspective. I'll copy the posts below.

Just a warning in advance, it's really long. I spent a while on it. But I think its worth reading and I really want to see how you guys think these changes would affect Ranger in the meta.

[shadowpass.4236]

@"Gaile Gray.6029" said:

Ranger

Skills

• Seed of Life: Increased the cooldown from 1 second to 3 seconds in PvP and WvW
• Rejuvenating Tides: Reduced the base healing per pulse from 650 to 550 (-15%) in PvP and WvW
• Solar Beam: Reduced the power coefficient per strike from 0.3 to 0.25 (-17%) in PvP and WvW
• Signet of Stone: Reduced the duration from 6 seconds to 3 seconds in PvP and WvW. Reduced the cooldown from 80 seconds to 40 in PvP and WvW
• Celestial Avatar: Increased the cooldown from 15 seconds to 20 seconds in PvP and WvW
• Ricochet: Increased the power coefficient from 0.7 to 0.8 (+14%) in PvP and WvW. Increased Might duration from 5 seconds to 10 seconds in PvP and WvW
• Winter's Bite: Increased the power coefficient from 1.25 to 1.5 (+20%) in PvP and WvW. Increased the Bleeding duration from 8 seconds to 12 seconds in PvP and WvW
• Splitblade: Increased the power coefficient per axe from 0.3 to 0.4 (+33%) in PvP and WvW
• Instinctive Engage: Increased the power coefficient from 0.6 to 1 (+67%) in PvP and WvW
• Healing Spring: Increased the number of conditions cleansed per pulse from 1 to 2 in PvP and WvW

Traits

• Stoneform: Increased the cooldown from 70 seconds to 90 seconds in PvP only
• Shared Anguish: Increased the cooldown from 60 seconds to 90 seconds in PvP only
• Protective Ward: Increased the cooldown from 18 seconds to 30 seconds in PvP only
• Refined Toxins: Increased the cooldown from 5 seconds to 15 seconds in PvP and WvW
• Rugged Growth: Reduced the healing power coefficient from 0.245 to 0.1225 (-50%) in PvP and WvW
• Grace of the Land: Reduced the number of Might stacks applied from 3 to 2 in PvP and WvW
• Fortifying Bond: Reduced duration of shared Might stacks from 10 seconds to 5 seconds in PvP and WvW
• "We Heal as One!:" Reduced duration of copied Might stacks from 10 seconds to 5 seconds in PvP and WvW
• Fresh Reinforcement: Reduced shared Might duration 10 seconds to 5 seconds in PvP and WvW
• Ambidexterity: Increased the Condition Damage granted from 150 to 240 in PvP and WvW
• Two-Handed Training: Increased the bonus damage from 5% to 10% in PvP and WvW

Okay! Thanks to Cal Cohen's help, I'm going to give my suggestions on the proposed changes first, then on skills that weren't listed.

I've been a PvP ranger main since release so the changes I'm suggesting come from years of experience with this class. It's going to be a long read but I sincerely hope you guys take these suggestions into account. All of the changes I am suggesting will give EVERY single traitline and utility type ranger has, a spot in the meta.

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Proposed Changes

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Ranger

Skills

• Seed of Life: This skill needs to cleanse 2 conditions again if the cooldown is going to be increased. I'd suggest having the Seed of Life blossom immediately after casting, then leaving a light field behind. This encourages more active play and increases its viability when using it on a moving target(s).
• Rejuvenating Tides: Don't nerf the healing coefficient. Instead, have the initial pulse lowered, but gradually increase the healing over the course of the skill with 2 conditions cleared on the last one. This would promote remaining in the channel for the entire duration. At the moment, the most effective way to utilize this skill in PvP is to receive the 1st or 2nd tick of healing then leaving CA as there isn't enough incentive to channel it fully.
• Solar Beam: This skill already has low damage. If the power coefficient is going to be lowered, adding a single stack of burning or might to the 3rd pulse would add more depth to this skill.
• Signet of Stone: I like this change a lot. I always felt that the 80 second cooldown was too long. I'd be happy with the halved duration/cooldown.
• Celestial Avatar: Increasing the cooldown to 15 seconds was too much in my opinion. Reducing the cooldown back to 10 seconds, but nerfing Druidic Clarity and Celestial Shadow in response, would be a much better change. This will increase the speed of gameplay, while retaining its effectiveness. I'll touch on these skills in the next section.
• Instinctive Engage: Add an evade to this skill. The lack of an evade on MH dagger and the slow auto attack speed are the only things holding this weapon back in competitive play.
• Healing Spring: I agree with the increased condition clears per pulse. However, it will remain unviable in PvP and WvW due to the fact that remaining in the same place for 10 seconds is extremely detrimental. I'd recommend cutting the cooldown to 20 seconds, the duration to 5 seconds, and increasing the initial heal to 6k to keep up with the likes of Troll Unguent and We Heal as One. This will reduce its overall effectiveness, but the reduced cooldown will let this healing skill see a LOT more use across every gamemode.

Axe

I believe axe as a whole needs to be reworked. Adding an evade to Splitblade or Winter's Bite would help this weapon out a lot. At the moment, it doesn't offer enough to be taken in a PvP setting. So, my suggestions will be to change the functionality of the skills, as I don't believe changing the numbers on them will do any good.

• Ricochet: Remove the bouncing mechanic. Just flat out increase the single target damage and have it continue to grant 1 might per attack.
• Winter's Bite: Remove the projectile. Change it to a 600 range leap that applies chill and weakness to nearby enemies and 3 seconds of swiftness to the player and pet upon landing.
• Splitblade: Shotgunning isn't a viable tactic with all of the AoEs and projectile hate in PvP. Making this skill a single 900 range axe that applies 4 stacks of bleeding and 1 stack of poison would be a welcome change.

Traits

• Stoneform: I don't believe a cooldown increase on this skill was necessary. I would leave the cooldown at 60 seconds, or change its functionality to cleanse a single condition on you and your pet when gaining Remorseless.
• Shared Anguish: Okay, this change was really bad. Shared Anguish has been extremely lackluster since release, as well as a poor choice when compared to other similar traits that activate upon being hit with a crowd control. Not to mention that the interrupt on our pet is also a drawback for taking it. A cooldown reduction to 30 seconds would increase this traits viability.
• Protective Ward: 30 seconds cooldown is way too long. This change alone will push Nature Magic out of the meta completely. I'd suggest reducing the cooldown to 15 seconds while removing the weakness application completely. Leaving the protection duration at 4 seconds and possibly adding 4 seconds of regeneration would reduce its effectiveness while allowing it to remain a viable option.
• Refined Toxins: 15 seconds is too long. This trait only activates if the ranger or his pet is above 75% health. Increasing the cooldown to 10 seconds would reduce its effectiveness but retain its viability.
• Rugged Growth: I don't believe this trait is a major offender. Reducing the healing coefficient to nerf Druid also hurts Core Ranger and Soulbeast in the process. Leave the healing alone but remove its ability to generate Astral Force. This will still reduce the survivability of Druid but doesn't affect the entire class as a result.
• Grace of the Land: This change is okay. Another option would be to leave the might stacks at 3 but reduce their durations instead.
• Fortifying Bond: Don't reduce the might duration. This just hurts the entire class across every gamemode.
• We Heal as One: Ditto. ^
• Fresh Reinforcement: Ditto. ^^
• Ambidexterity: PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE also give it Offhand Training's old functionality of increasing the range of our Offhand Skills by 300. This was such an amazing trait back in the day. Removing this trait single-handedly deleted the old shortbow/axe-dagger ranger from the meta. OH dagger hasn't felt the same since then. I would much rather bring the increased range back than increase the condition damage.
• Two-Handed Training: This change is okay. If this trait also increased Hilt Bash range by 200, it would be amazing.

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Changes That Weren't Listed

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Core Ranger

Skills

• Smoke Trap: Elite Trap. When Smoke Trap is triggered, nearby foes are blinded and dazed. Smoke Field. 60 seconds cooldown. Can be triggered manually by recasting the skill.

Longbow

• Longbow: Arrows should pierce baseline in WvW. Currently, we're required to take Marksmanship if we want our weapon to function properly in large scale PvP. This change would improve Ranger's viability and effectiveness in WvW while maintaining the same overall power.

Traits

• Sharpened Edges: The bleed portion of this trait will now be applied only upon successful hits of instead of critical hits. Merged functionality with Hidden Barbs.
• Trapper's Expertise: Move this to Master Tier in Hidden Barbs place and bring back ground targetted traps.
• Trapper's Defense (New Trait): When a trap is triggered, nearby foes are blinded.
• Light on Your Feet: Renamed to Trap Mastery. Throwing a trap applies 2 seconds of resistance on you and your pet. Offensive traps now apply 1 stack of bleeding on each pulse.
• Strider's Defense: When you evade an attack, gain Quickness. Sword and Shortbow skills recharge faster.
• Empathic Bond: The previous changes to this trait made it completely useless. In its current state, it offers almost nothing to the player while potentially doubling the amount of conditions our pet receives. Instead, dodging grant 2 seconds of resistance to you and your pet.
• Nature's Vengeance: Spirits can move and follow you in addition to its current effects.
• Invigorating Bond: You and your pet heal each other for 120 health when striking a foe.
• Wilting Strike: You and your pet apply 2 seconds of weakness when striking a foe. 16 second cooldown.

Druid

Skills

• Cosmic Ray: This skill has been completely useless since HoT was released 3 years ago. Turn it into a bigger, cooler looking Solar Beam attack. Remove the healing, increase the base damage per pulse to 333, and apply slow on its 3rd pulse. Now we have a reason to stay in CA to do damage rather than heal.
• Seed of Life: Now blossoms immediately and leaves behind a light field.

Traits

• Druidic Clarity: Becoming a Celestial Avatar removes all movement impairing conditions from you and your pet. Leaving Celestial Avatar removes all damaging conditions from you and your pet. This will reduce the trait's effectiveness in burst condition clearing, while retaining the same overall power.
• Celestial Shadow: Reduced the stealth and super speed duration from 3 seconds to 2 seconds in PvP and WvW.
• Verdant Etching: This trait now applies 1.5 seconds of alacrity to the player and pet when casting a Glyph.
• Ancient Seeds: Reduced the cooldown to 10 seconds. Reduced root duration to 1.5 seconds.

Soulbeast

Skills

• Double Arc: Reflects missiles in addition to its current effects.
• Groundwork Gouge: Increase the speed of the auto attack chain by 50%.

Traits

• Predator's Cunning: You and your pet have a 33% chance to apply 1 stack of poison for 1 second when striking a foe in addition to its current effects.
• Leader of the Pack: Stance skills have 20% reduced recharge in addition to its current effects.
• Oppressive Superiority: You and your pet have a 33% chance to gain 2 seconds of fury when striking a foe. 5 second cooldown.

or

• Oppressive Superiority: You and your pet deal 2% more damage to foes for every 10% of their missing health.

[shadowpass.4236]

Celestial Shadow

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Explanation

Celestial Shadow is the real reason why Druids are so hard to kill. I left my suggestions on both the PvP/WvW Skill Split Release thread as well as in the ranger subforums, but Cal Cohen told me that Anet was more concerned with changing numbers than functionality. With that being said, I believe that these suggestions alone would solve a lot of the issues people have with Druid.

So, I'll start off by saying that the 3 seconds of stealth when exiting CA, coupled with Troll Unguent + base regen on the meta menders druid is 6360 uninterruptible healing.

Now, the healing isn't the issue here. Power and condi classes WILL be able to out dps that. The issue is the immediate stealth.

Suggestions

• The stealth should be removed completely from Celestial Shadow. Leave the super speed at 3 seconds but drop a Lesser Smoke Cloud (Smokescale f2) upon leaving Celestial Avatar. This allows us to stealth should we need it, but also gives enemies a chance to interrupt it.

• Overall, this change does reduce the amount of base stealth a Druid has access to. And although the lack of an immediate stealth increases the counterplay significantly (which is good), this change also adds more depth and potential for group play.

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  Celestial Avatar

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  Explanation

Again, my real changes to Celestial Avatar involve changing the functionality of the skills.

I'd recommend removing the healing from every skill in CA asides from Lunar Impact. With that being said, Celestial Avatar should keep its Water Field, either on 4, or through a reworking of Seed of Life.

Suggestions

Cosmic Ray

• Cosmic Ray should be turned into a stronger version of staff auto attack. Remove the healing, increase the base damage per pulse to 333, and apply slow on its 3rd pulse. This change alone would give a much higher incentive to remain in CA, in turn draining our Astral Force more should we choose to take the damage/control over healing.

Seed of Life

• Seed of Life leaving a Water Field behind would be a fantastic change. Not only would it help bring Glyphs back into the meta, but it would also help make up for the loss of healing, if the healing were to be removed from Rejuvenating Tides. This change would give us a reliable, blastable heal, which I believe would help Druid's out a LOT in WvW as well as increasing the potential for group play significantly.

• The amount of conditions cleared should be increased to 2, and the cooldown to 3 seconds as well. This would reduce the total amount of condition clears we have access to in Druid, while giving us more reliable access to it.

• Also, the Seed of Life should blossom immediately and leave the water field behind. This would give Druid's more viability in WvW when casting this skill on moving targets.

Natural Convergence

• Natural Convergence needs to be able to be cast while moving. The skill is pretty much only used for the short stability you gain upon casting it. In WvW, channeling this skill for 2.5 seconds is WAY too long to be stationary. This change would increase the power of the skill, but the stability application could be moved to the last pulse as a tradeoff. Moving the stability to the end allows people interrupt the skill to counterplay, whilst simultaneously increasing Druid's viability heavily in WvW.

Rejuvenating Tides

• If the Water Field is moved to Seed of life, Rejuvenating Tides gets freed up to be completely reworked into a new skill. I'd recommend a short 600 range teleport followed by stability on our pet, but I'll leave the details up to the devs.

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Please discuss!

[Eleazar.9478]

Already said it before I like the first half however I don't like CA form changes would delete druid from a pve standpoint (while it's lame in PVP/wvw) doing support with it during raids is really active and alot of fun. (The reflect on dagger would make melee ranger be pretty fun)

[anduriell.6280]

I love all your suggestions. I have an slightly different idea about the approach it should be taken for the Druid, but I think your changes would be fun and make the Druid interesting to play again.

[Sai Locke.7193]

I will come out from under my rock and say that I like most of the suggestions in the first part ( Proposed changes and changes that weren't listed). The second part might be too much or like Eleazar said it could screw up some of the good things we have in pve. I would like to see more pet changes or reworks. They are our most important tool/weapon and it could go a long way.As much as I would like to have more stability access or a port. I think putting it in some of our underused/terrible utilities might be a better option.

[Kovu.7560]

You definitely have some unique ideas. While I would not have gone in the direction with some of those skills that you have, I do see the merit with many of your suggestions.

If I may throw one of my own out there. Druids have issues with supporting larger groups in wvw in part (IN PART) due to their pet dying to cleave all of the time. This is hardly active play on the enemy's part, they're not intentionally targeting the pet. That said, this is not a new issue. It is not as much of an issue for core ranger or soulbeast as they're generally not right on tag -- so their pets might not die to cleave. This is an issue with Druids trying to support.

I was thinking a rework to the Natural Healing trait in Beastmastery might help alleviate that issue, (while potentially synergizing with Resounding Timbre). Right now its a small regen tick once every three seconds. Lets face it, the only reason a ranger would ever take that over either of the two other options is is they're roaming and need that extra bit of astral generation.

Necromancers have a trait called Parasitic Contagion which heals the necromancer for 10% of their outgoing condition damage. You don't actually see the numbers because generally its a whole bunch of tiny ticks that add up.

Why not rework Natural Healing to grant the pet health restoration based on the amount of outgoing healing the ranger produces?

• It would help a druid's pet sustain in a zerg situation by helping to counteract some of that cleave.
• It would not have much if any of an effect while solo roaming or fighting 1v1, which is okay because the opposition should have the option to kill the pet if that's the strategy they wish to employ.
• In small group situations (pvp) it would likely be about as effective as the trait is now.
• It encourages active play on the part of the Druid, its not just a passive tick.
• It would not count toward astral force generation for obvious reason, not that that's an issue for a Druid in a large group situation.

Food for thought.

~ Kovu

[Shadelang.3012]

Mmm. I like the majority of these changes. I will say that what im about to say comes from the perspective of someone who greatly dislikes fighting druids in their CURRENT form. I also dislike playing it in general as well so remember that as I type on.

I don't have a whole lot to add really. Just my own perspective on druid. The reason I and alot of other people HATE druid is because of how easy it is for druids dominate side nodes through their prescence. Not even their impact in a fight. Just the fact that if a druid is there you either have to successfully take and hold the other two nodes while keeping the druid occupied. Or Completely leave someone there to deal with that druid, someone who can sustain indefinitely against something that has the entire kit of tools necessary to kill as well as a massive amount of sustain and disengage.

Druid rewards people for doing what on other classes would be incredibly stupid moves. Over pushing, sticking around way too long, intentionally becoming outnumbered. Combine with abusing terrain to break teleports/ai a druid can circle around henge and there is very little any two people can do to stop a GOOD druid from just running around until one of them has to leave. And by that point you have lost the rest of the map. He can then hop down and almost freely kill the person remaining (aside from one MAYBE two builds currently in use). This is INCREDIBLY frustrating. And thats not even counting their REDICULOUS 1v1 potential. Their damage isn't high sure. But it doesn't NEED to be high when you are going to outlast your opponent due to steady difficult to avoid damage and near permanent poison uptime. A 1v1 against a good druid either ends with you getting a lucky cc and crit combo. Or him wearing you down slowly but inevitably until you just die or you get plussed. If he gets plussed odds are he is going to survive. Because hes a druid.

Some of the changes you have mentioned do address some of these problems. I will say I don't want the cooldown increase on refined toxins to get reverted. It is simply way to strong a skill for how easy to apply it is. You talk about how the trait only activates if the ranger or his pet is over 75% health. But that is INCREDIBLY easy to do on a druid. As missing one part of your pressure rotation results in him regaining 30-40% of his health and you bogged down by cripple/immob/slow/weakness and or poison.

The might duration reduction hurts. Hell it will hurt MY build more than it will most peoples. But I understand the thought process behind it and I am ready to adjust I don't LIKE it. But if it goes hand in hand with not dealing with near immortal druids in 1v1s? Im game. It just means I have to be better at timing my damage and my merges.

I will say that all I said previously is based on the CURRENT itteration. I won't make guesses about what it will be like after the next balance patch.

The majority of your changes look interesting. Id be interested to see them go live. My biggest concern though is that after the patch druid can still do the same stuff it can now. Because it simply isn't fun for those that have to deal with it.

[Za Shaloc.3908]

I think your ideas are interesting and well thought out. I don't really play much Druid, but when I do, I like to play a full healer (just for fun, not competitively). If CA were to change as you suggested this would nerf its group healing capabilities, but if they changed glyphs to function better, I would be okay with it. Personally, I would still like the AA to apply a heal, but to have it be more reliable. Maybe just have it pulse in a PBAoE 180-240 radius? Anything is better than its current implementation.

On Glyphs:-I am actually a big fan of Glyph of Alignment's heal, but it is a bit underwhelming considering our other options. I think it would be helpful to have it be ground-targetable with a 900-1200 range (both in and out of CA). Glyph of Rejuvenation is already PBAoE. [Edit: With my suggested change to Verdant Etching, the condi removal for this skill should be brought up to 3.]-Glyph of Unity needs a complete overhaul, or just a removal of the damn ICD; skills like Soulcleave's Summit now exist, so I don't think it would be game-breaking.-Glyph of Tides needs a functionality switch. I think most of us agree on this.-Glyph of Equality is solid out of CA, but I think it would be cool to have it apply stability to nearby allies too while in CA form.-Glyph of Empowerment is fine as is, both in and out of CA.

I would like to see Verdant Etching played around with, so I appreciate your approach to it. Alacrity could be snazzy, or quickness. Or for something different, I've had this idea floating around in my brain for a while that I thought I'd share:-Using a Glyph while out of Celestial Avatar form increases Astral Force generation by 100% for 2 seconds. Using a Glyph while in Celestial Avatar form decreases Astral Force degeneration by 100% for 2 seconds. Glyphs gain 20% reduced recharge.

Why? It could potentially allow for a more group-oriented healer spec in both PvP and WvW. The cooldown reduction on the glyphs is also a little clunky in regards to the CA duration and cooldown. For example, the CD on both Glyph of Alignment and Glyph of Empowerment is 16 seconds when traited, yet Celestial Avatar only lasts for 15 seconds. So if you are slotting those glyphs specifically for the CA version, the cooldown reduction is kinda pointless considering how different in functionality glyphs are whether in or out of CA. Furthermore, if the CA cooldown gets increased (as is a possibility from the notes), it means you'll have to wait around for even longer despite the glyph CDs being up. It feels clunky and unfortunate to me. Alacrity could essentially solve this, but I think that something affecting Astral Force regen/degen would be really interesting and make it a more competitive trait choice.

[jcbroe.4329]

I read through the suggestions and thread. They're elaborate and well thought out.

I'm going to throw out now that as a person who has shifted entirely away from playing Druid in PvP and competes with Core at the same level I do with Druid, the cleanse on Druidic Clarity isn't so insanely powerful that it needs to be weakened. Core Ranger has more than enough cleansing to deal with the entirety of the metagame, so I genuinely don't think it's the problematic part of Druidic Clarity.

The thing that makes Druidic Clarity strong is it's stunbreak property. It makes Avatar so ultra forgiving that removing it and leaving all else as is would be such a large alteration to most Druid players ability to duel/fight/survive that it alone as a nerf would probably suffice.

Celestial Shadow.... probably just shouldn't have either stealth or superspeed. To avoid functionality/usage overlap with Zephyrs speed, I'd prefer to see the superspeed go, although the drop target is what makes it powerful and so the stealth should honestly be what gets removed.

[shadowpass.4236]

Thanks for the feedback everyone!

I edited in a suggestion to longbow in the first part. I think that change is one of the most important QoL fixes to help Rangers in WvW. Let me know what you guys think. :)

[Sai Locke.7193]

@jcbroe.4329 The stunbreak on druidic clarity is indeed very strong but I would rather not lose it with the amount of low cd ccs and stability access some other classes have access to. @shadowpass.4236 I would rather not see longbow get more stuff at the moment. It has received a lot of attention over the years. I would rather shortbow/axe/dagger/sword and our pets get some love. That being said I do think piercing arrows by default is fair game.

[jcbroe.4329]

@Sai Locke.7193 said:@jcbroe.4329 The stunbreak on druidic clarity is indeed very strong but I would rather not lose it with the amount of low cd ccs and stability access some other classes have access to. @shadowpass.4236 I would rather not see longbow get more stuff at the moment. It has received a lot of attention over the years. I would rather shortbow/axe/dagger/sword and our pets get some love. That being said I do think piercing arrows by default is fair game.

I'd rather not lose anything but with the amount of continous crying people keep doing about Druidic Clarity AND Celestial Shadow, it's an eventuality that it gets nerfed.

[Sai Locke.7193]

I would rather Celestial shadow stealth/superspeed take the hit than druidic clarity or maybe make the other choices in those trait lines better. I wonder if they take the splitting of condition removal on leaving and entering avatar idea would we get a stunbreak on entering and leaving as well ( like shadowstep)? lol Pipe dream. I wouldn't mind if they made the condition removal less but also on allies like a lesser signet of renewal thing. 3 - 5 condtions? 600 aoe?

[Arheundel.6451]

Oppressive superiority

1) Why would I need a 2s fury rng trait as GM choice? Right now the trait is not the greatest but still better than your first suggestion, your second suggestion would be a straight nerf, you'd need to wait for the target to reach -50% to have 10% dmg bonus, I'd rather keep the trait as it is

Axe

2) There is enough to choose from in PvP, instead axe should be reworked for pve/wvw...what about a spin animation to splitblade adding 3/4s evasion on top of current effects?

[shadowpass.4236]

@Arheundel.6451 said:

Oppressive superiority

1) Why would I need a 2s fury rng trait as GM choice? Right now the trait is not the greatest but still better than your first suggestion, your second suggestion would be a straight nerf, you'd need to wait for the target to reach -50% to have 10% dmg bonus, I'd rather keep the trait as it is

Synergy with Remorseless. It becomes a 5 second cooldown Remorseless proc/decent source of fury uptime. Also, one of my proposed changes to Stoneform was to have it cleanse a condition when gaining Remorseless.

Axe

2) There is enough to choose from in PvP, instead axe should be reworked for pve/wvw...what about a spin animation to splitblade adding 3/4s evasion on top of current effects?

I mean, WvW is fairly similar to PvP. I don't know much about PvE but I don't see how adding a leap and a more reliable, damaging auto attack and Splitblade would be a bad change.

I think Greatsword, Shortbow, Torch, Warhorn, and OH Axe all need changes. Greatsword is largely okay, but the block needs to last for the full duration with the option to counterattack after blocking. Warhorn is meta, but I personally find the weapon really clunky and poorly designed. The other 3 simply aren't good enough to be taken at all in the current meta.

[EnderzShadow.2506]

I like seed of life--change all those blooming/blind effects to a instant and you're on to something.

Light field? golly gee thanks shadow

[Arheundel.6451]

@shadowpass.4236 said:

@Arheundel.6451 said:

Oppressive superiority

1) Why would I need a 2s fury rng trait as GM choice? Right now the trait is not the greatest but still better than your first suggestion, your second suggestion would be a straight nerf, you'd need to wait for the target to reach -50% to have 10% dmg bonus, I'd rather keep the trait as it is

Synergy with Remorseless. It becomes a 5 second cooldown Remorseless proc/decent source of fury uptime. Also, one of my proposed changes to Stoneform was to have it cleanse a condition when gaining Remorseless.

Axe

2) There is enough to choose from in PvP, instead axe should be reworked for pve/wvw...what about a spin animation to splitblade adding 3/4s evasion on top of current effects?

I mean, WvW is fairly similar to PvP. I don't know much about PvE but I don't see how adding a leap and a more reliable, damaging auto attack and Splitblade would be a bad change.

I think Greatsword, Shortbow, Torch, Warhorn, and OH Axe all need changes. Greatsword is largely okay, but the block needs to last for the full duration with the option to counterattack after blocking. Warhorn is meta, but I personally find the weapon really clunky and poorly designed. The other 3 simply aren't good enough to be taken at all in the current meta.

Then you'd force people to take MM to give any value to the GM...I can't agree with that and about axe I still don't know why we would need a leap, evasive action? About splitblade , the shotgun effect is great for pve , in my opinion what Axe need are faster animation and an evade...maybe an additional condition if that doesn't break anything but generally speaking the current effects of Axe don't need changes.

I like all your other suggestions , I just don't agree on OS and axe changes....ok maybe axe 1 and 3 changes would still be ok, it's that leap on winter bite that stinks ..what about

• forward axe spinning with evade, weakness and bleed to foes you hit on the way, max 3 targets..and end animation with a chill blast hitting 5 foes
• 450 range

Thoughts?

[OGDeadHead.8326]

Your proposed changes to remove almost all healing from CA would kill druid for raids. Considering the fact that druid was introduced as a healer archetype, I can't for the life of me understand the reasoning behind this.

[shadowpass.4236]

@OGDeadHead.8326 said:Your proposed changes to remove almost all healing from CA would kill druid for raids. Considering the fact that druid was introduced as a healer archetype, I can't for the life of me understand the reasoning behind this.

Yeah I have no idea about PvE. All of these suggestions are coming from a PvP/WvW standpoint.

These changes would help Druid a lot in PvP/WvW but I have no idea how they would affect PvE.

[Durzlla.6295]

@shadowpass.4236 said:

@OGDeadHead.8326 said:Your proposed changes to remove almost all healing from CA would kill druid for raids. Considering the fact that druid was introduced as a healer archetype, I can't for the life of me understand the reasoning behind this.

Yeah I have no idea about PvE. All of these suggestions are coming from a PvP/WvW standpoint.

These changes would help Druid a lot in PvP/WvW but I have no idea how they would affect PvE.

As someone who plays all game modes to varying degrees based on my mood, I can safely say what your proposal for PvP/WvW, although great there, would destroy it in PvE.

However, I think that could be fixed by instead of trying to give Druids damage/mobility in CA to just double down on the support aspect.

Lifeseed proposal would be fine, id keep, if not up the overall healing on the 4 skill (as well as the water field) but make it start out as a horrible heal, and increase in potency on, maybe having a majority of the overall heal even on a final blast at the end (that’d blast your water field) that way most the healing a Druid could do could be interrupted and shut down, but if they don’t we’d keep that large healing amount.

I’d actually straight up remove the healing on the 3 and replace it with something else, maybe like protection, or resistance, or some barrier?

Auto change would be fine, since as you said, literally no one uses that thing.

[shadowpass.4236]

Welp, since the updated list to the PvP/WvW Skill Split Release thread is out... it is safe to assume that Druid will now be stupid and annoying to use. It's also really nice to see that not a single suggestion of mine was taken into account. RIP

This is why I don't bother with putting effort into these things anymore.

[Durzlla.6295]

@shadowpass.4236 said:Welp, since the updated list to the PvP/WvW Skill Split Release thread is out... it is safe to assume that Druid will now be stupid and annoying to use. It's also really nice to see that not a single suggestion of mine was taken into account. RIP

This is why I don't bother with putting effort into these things anymore.

Not a single suggestion any of us made was taken into account, god forbid they fix the two problem traits, nope would rather just nerf druid as a whole instead.

At least they're not gutting something from base ranger this time like they did with resounding timbre though.

[OGDeadHead.8326]

@"Durzlla.6295" said:At least they're not gutting something from base ranger this time like they did with resounding timbre though.

For starters:

• Refined Toxins: Increased the cooldown from 5 seconds to 15 seconds in PvP only
• Rugged Growth: Reduced the healing by 50% in PvP only <- This is a HUGE f..kin nerf, especially considering the fact that the trait relies on a secondary effect to even trigger
• Fortifying Bond: Reduced duration of shared Might stacks from 10 seconds to 5 seconds in PvP only
• "We Heal as One!:" Reduced duration of copied Might stacks from 10 seconds to 5 seconds in PvP only

[Durzlla.6295]

@OGDeadHead.8326 said:

@"Durzlla.6295" said:At least they're not gutting something from base ranger this time like they did with resounding timbre though.

For starters:

• Refined Toxins: Increased the cooldown from 5 seconds to 15 seconds in PvP only
• Rugged Growth: Reduced the healing by 50% in PvP only <- This is a HUGE f..kin nerf, especially considering the fact that the trait relies on a secondary effect to even trigger
• Fortifying Bond: Reduced duration of shared Might stacks from 10 seconds to 5 seconds in PvP only
• "We Heal as One!:" Reduced duration of copied Might stacks from 10 seconds to 5 seconds in PvP only

I don't know why all of those but the rugged growth one went over my head... they did say the Rugged Growth is supposed to be a 50% coefficient nerf, which sucks, but wont really hit base ranger/soulbeast that hard since you don't normally take healing power.