Druid Reenvisioned: My Manifesto of Suggested Changes

[RainbowTurtle.3542]

As a druid main who likes having pets, HOLY CRAP this feels like a major improvement. I'd like to not be a sitting duck if I'm a support in pvp scenarios with staff, tyvm. Although I am a bit worried that some of these changes would kill druid's might stacking potential, thus reducing it's effectiveness in pve overall.

My other only complaint is that some of the glyphs feel like they lose a bit of their 'disruptiveness' that druid is supposedly really good at, but then again the current glyphs aren't that disruptive, except maybe glyph of the tides. Glyph of the stars does need a major buff to make really viable beyond slothasaur, though. 

[Arheundel.6451]

You need to stay the kitten away from Druidic clarity and Celestial Shadow , they are the only things that keep druid playable and competitive outside a simple might bot in a niche gamemode like raid, I am not a guardian and neither I am interested into playing a pseudo uselss varian. 

[Sansar.1302]

On 3/23/2020 at 5:06 AM, Za Shaloc.3908 said:

The new expac announcement has inspired me not to conceptualize a new elite spec, but to reconceptualize Druid, one of my favorite elite specs in the game that I feel has lost its way over the years. THERE IS A WHOLE LOT OF TEXT HERE SO THANKS IN ADVANCE IF YOU CAN GET THROUGH IT ALL! I tried to explain my thought processes throughout the post to better frame my ideas. Hope you enjoy : ).

PETS ARE NOW WISPS

Pets are replaced by wisps. Wisps are passive, untargetable entities that circle the Druid. Wisps have different F2 (renamed "Blessing" skills because why not?) effects that are determined by their archetype, using the Soulbeast's same classification system. You can have two wisps while in combat that you can swap between, but their F2 cooldown is shared (20-25s). Blessing skills are a 240 radius, 1200 range targetable AoE effect that create a combo field and pulse boons based on their archetype. In addition to the F2 abilities, wisp archetypes also determine additional effects from certain staff skills, taking inspiration from Revenant's trident. Wisps gain trait interaction and customization through the middle tier line. The goal is to remove the offensive capabilities from the Druid's pet mechanic in order to enable it to become a more fully-fledged support choice. While the offensiveness of the pet is removed, there is now the alternative option of creating an offensive-oriented (condition damage) spec through staff and the solar wisp. Due to the pet being removed and the wisp being unkillable, celestial force gain from self-healing would be increased due to no longer being able to gain it from healing the pet.

WISP BREAKDOWN AND TRAIT INTERACTION

WISP ARCHETYPE	FIELD TYPE	BOON GRANTED	NATURAL STRIDE EFFECTS	GRACE OF THE LAND EFFECTS
Ferocious > Solar	Fire FIeld	Might	10% Condition Damage Reduction	Additional pulsing might
Deadly > Lunar	Smoke Field	Swiftness	15% Endurance Recovery	Pulsing superspeed
Versatile > Astral	Ethereal Field	Vigor	10% Boon Duration	Converts X conditions to boons upon creation
Stout > Terrestrial	Poison Field	Protection	10% Damage Reduction	Pulsing stability
Supportive > Tidal	Water Field	Regeneration	10% Outgoing Healing	Converts projectiles to healing for X seconds

STAFF-WISP INTERACTIONS (See Staff changes for more detail)

WISP ARCHETYPE	ENCHANTED WISP EFFECTS	ANCESTRAL GRACE EFFECTS
Solar	Burn	AoE burn
Lunar	Blind	AoE dark aura
Astral	Slow	AoE boon removal (1)
Terrestrial	Weakness	AoE immobilize
Tidal	Chill	Additional AoE heal

STAFF CHANGES

Staff is probably my biggest pain point with Druid. I find it awkward, unimpactful, and outdated. This more than anything needs the most notable changes. And by changes, yes I do mean buffs, even in the era of reducing powercreep.

• Solar Beam: Now also heals allies in a 120-180 radius around the Druid.
• Enchanted Wisp: Renamed due to wisp now having an "Astral" archetype. Now a 240 radius AoE pulsing heal that applies a condition upon creation based on the wisp you currently have active.
• Ancestral Grace: No longer grants protection to the pet since we no longer have a pet. Instead, it gains unique effects if blasting within a Blessing field.
• Vine Surge: Has a reduced cast time, faster travel time, and is now a conal effect.
• Sublime Conversion: Has increased length and height so it can more reliably block projectiles from a higher angle. Not really sure if it would need changes after the other buffs to the kit.

CELESTIAL AVATAR CHANGES

I don't think the CA skills need a ton of changes if Druid as a whole sees overall general improvement. Biggest issues for the kit in my eyes are the difficulty in landing CA1/2. It is unfortunate to feel less of an impact in healing power investment, but I don't really know if any values need to be increased due to all of the other buffs I have suggested in addition to healing powercreep reduction being part of ANet's intended vision.

GENERAL: Reduce cooldown to 15s in PvP.

• Cosmic Ray: Either speed up the skill a bit or give it a slightly increased radius, ultimately with the goal of making it easier to successfully land.
• Seed of Life: Burst timer reduced by 0.25s while still maintaining the light field for the current duration.
• Lunar Impact: No changes.
• Rejuvenating Tides: No changes.
• Natural Convergence: Cast time reduced by 0.25-0.5s. Stability duration decreased accordingly. No longer pulses immobilize, but instead casts one singular application of it (1.5-2s). Now grants protection to nearby allies (not self) upon successful channel.

GLYPH CHANGES

Glyphs are where the supplemental support and utility should lie assuming that spirit skills remain in the horrid state that they currently are. My changes are meant to push value for both versions of the glyphs in order to make them more flexible choices. Yes, this means more buffs.

• Glyph of Rejuvenation: No changes.
• Glyph of Alignment: Now is a 900-range targetable AoE effect. Glyph of Rejuvenation and Alignment are too similar while in CA and need further differentiation.-Non-CA: Reworked. Now removes 2 boons and applies poison and weakness to foes.-CA: No changes. Heal strength would possibly need to be reduced due to it now being a very potent ranged AoE heal.
• Glyph of Equality:-Non-CA: No changes. Skill is solid.-CA: Radius increased to anywhere between 360 and 480. Should be more reliable like Eye of the Storm, which currently outpaces it and doesn't require CA gating.
• Glyph of the Tides: Now a 600-range targetable AoE effect. Cooldown increased back to 25 seconds.-Non-CA: Now pulls foes together.-CA: Now pushes foes away.
• Glyph of Unity: Cooldown reduced to 25s. Buffed a lot. Worst glyph IMO.-Non-CA: Now additionally decreases damage dealt by tethered foes by 15-20%.-CA: Now additionally increases incoming healing of tethered allies by 15-20%.
• Glyph of the Stars: No changes. Can't help but love this skill, even though I know I am a minority. Fix the bug that prevents the non-CA version from providing a water field though.

MINOR TRAIT CHANGES

All remain unchanged. I don't particularly see Live Vicariously or Natural Mender being too weak, strong, or otherwise problematic. Live Vicariously is close in power to Rugged Growth with no healing power investment, which I think is a fair number gauge for reasonable sustain per second. Natural Mender got a nerf as well, but the nerf is not unique to the class and Lingering Light still remains fully intact as a very potent tool for outgoing healing.

MAJOR TRAIT CHANGES

Each row of Druid's traitline now follows a particular theme or mechanic:I. Enhances Celestial Avatar skillsII. Interacts with the Wisp, the new mechanic that replaces the petIII. Grants unique effects upon leaving Celestial Avatar

Additionally, each grandmaster trait will modify how additional celestial force is gained, allowing for a more reliable way of entering the kit depending upon the chosen playstyle.

ADEPT TRAITS

I. Druidic Clarity: Rejuvenating Tides removes conditions from allies every other pulse.A commonly suggested idea that bolsters Druid's group cleanse potential. While this undoubtedly is a significant nerf to the Druid's self-cleanse, the goal is to push it towards being a more solid team supporter. While every other cleanse may not sound significant, the skill pulses 5 times, so it would still cleanse for 3. There is simply too much synergy with the skill and Quickdraw; the trait would overinflate its group cleanse potential.

II. Cultivated Synergy: Heal around yourself when using a heal skill. Using a Blessing (Beast) ability performs a blast finisher around your wisp.While this does remove a heal from the pet's location, I would like to see the healing values increased on the heal since it would be brought down to a singular heal. The trait is not currently underperforming, but I would like to see more interactive play involving the Wisp. Giving a blast finisher that procs at the same time as the Wisp's field allows for some unique combo field/finisher plays.

III. Primal Echoes: Staff skills gain reduced recharge. Gain increased recharge reduction while in celestial avatar. Cast Enchanted Wisp (Staff 2) at your location upon leaving celestial avatar after a [0.5s] delay.Primal Echoes has never really been a particularly popular trait, but in my eyes that is due to two reasons: Druidic Clarity massively outshining it, and staff being an overall lackluster weapon. With staff seeing significant buffs with my ideas, I believe this trait would increase significantly in value. Additionally, an instant-cast daze is a mechanic that it appears ANet is trying to move away from. I agree with this vision. Ultimately, I would like for this trait to bolster staff into becoming a standalone support weapon while outside of CA, rather than just a strong kiting weapon that provides mediocre support and clunky weapon skills.
MASTER TRAITS

I. Verdant Etching: Glyphs gain reduced recharge and cast Lesser Seed of Life. Seeds of Life gain increased radius (240).This change is rather straightforward: simply enhancing the effectiveness and reliability of Seeds of Life (both normal and lesser). Between the radius increase from this and the 0.25s bloom duration reduction, Seeds could easily become a very reliable means of cleansing allies.II. Natural Stride: Gain increased movement speed (25-33%). You gain a passive bonus based on your currently active wisp.As far as I understand, this trait doesn't see much play at all. The core class has ample access to swiftness and the utility from the other traits currently outshine this one. Admittedly I don't know if this would really bolster the trait enough to have it see use competitively.III. Celestial Shadow: Grant superspeed and stealth to nearby allies when leaving celestial avatar.An iconic Druid trait, I did not change this one at all. With that said, this trait errs on the cheesy side and I could see it becoming problematic. Although I did not change this one, a way of perhaps reducing its potency would be to grant stealth duration (0.5s) based on the number of allies affected.
GRANDMASTER TRAITS

I. Ancient Seeds: Immobilize inflicts damage over time. Natural Convergence can now be channeled while moving. Gain celestial force when inflicting conditions on foes.I admit that the desire to change this trait is partially due to my own frustrations with fighting against it. I have always personally found Ancient Seeds to be the epitome of toxic unskillful trait design. With that said, immobilization is an important component to Ranger's and Druid's identity, so the change to Ancient Seeds was made to push for a more active playstyle. Does this go against their whole vision of CC ≠ damage? Possibly, yes. I could see it being problematic, so I am not particularly confident in this idea. But still, I would like to see building deep into immobilization being a viable option for an offensive-oriented Druid, without the passiveness of the current Ancient Seeds proc.II. Grace of the Land: Your Blessing (Beast) abilities gain increased radius and duration and grant additional effects. Gain celestial force when granting boons to allies.This trait has seen a major rework, completely changing its functionality. While this may be a controversial change to the PvE crowd, I wanted to still maintain its potential as a might-bot trait through using the solar archetype wisp while also allowing for a better diversity in playstyle approaches depending upon the wisp chosen. This is the go-to utility trait and also the one that favors boon generation to help fuel celestial force. Note that duration increase would be field-specific as there are varying power levels (wouldn't want huge smoke field uptime for example) III. Lingering Light: Gain increased outgoing healing while in celestial avatar. Leaving celestial avatar casts Lesser Glyph of Unity (CA, 2s). Gain additional celestial force when healing allies.This trait will remain the go-to healing potency trait and a now more significant sacrifice for utility. Its current blind effect is rather clunky and unfitting for the role that this trait fulfills; adding lesser Glyph of Unity helps bridge the gap between healing while in and out of CA. As it is the healing trait, it naturally makes sense to have healing grant increased celestial force.
 

POTENTIAL ISSUES

There is of course the concern of me including far too many buffs. Hey, that's valid, but like I said in the beginning, the point of this was to push the spec in a different direction. It's impossible to conceptualize a perfectly balanced spec.

Other issue is that I would hate to have it eclipse Soulbeast in terms of offensive and skirmishing capabilties. Sic 'Em brings up the biggest issue for me, but frankly I'd rather see this skill reworked to become more akin to "On My Mark" while still preserving a damage bonus while in PvE. The solar wisp and Ancient Seeds would allow for a burn-oriented variant to arise, but ideally I would not like it to have any sort of threatening DPS in comparison to Soulbeast.

My hope is that the Grace of the Land change would not affect Druid's mightbot capabilities as I would like it to still allow for perma 25 stacks, and have the target cap at 10 instead of 5 in PvE. I originally wanted GotL's astral wisp to offer alacrity, but I did not want to disturb the PvE meta too much as it is admittedly not my game mode of experience.

I did not include issues related to the core class because that is a topic for another day. There are certain traits and skills that I believe could definitely be improved upon. I already have enough to digest here though.

THAT'S ALL

Thanks for reading : ).

Dont think these changes are any good for my style of playing duid (would destroy my way of playing if and make me only play core ranger )

Edited March 20, 2022 by Sansar.1302

[Za Shaloc.3908]

Oof, I posted this nearly two years ago. Please let this old thread rest, I gave up on any hope of ANet improving it (though I still do admittedly like my ideas a lot).