Druids in dungeons, fractals, and open world?

[Kichwas.7152]

I keep seeing people running druid in dungeons, fractals, and open world content.My understanding of this elite was that it was solely useful as a healer - and so pretty much a raids only elite spec.

Am I missing something, are there builds that are good in other content, or am I just seeing people who don't know better? Last time I made heavy use of Druid was back in Heart of Thorns when raids first came out (guild raid didn't last long, left the game for a while, and guild was dead when I got back, so never got into raiding again and shelved my druid build).

[Shiyo.3578]

You shouldn't play druid outside of raids as a healer in full harrier gear(I 'd argue you don't even want to do that if you have 2 soulbeasts already in your raid) or WvW in full trailblazers. The elite spec is useless in any other situation.

[SoftFootpaws.9134]

It carries newer players easily, they struggle with alot of basic content. I don't have the numbers but the devs once said that experienced players are something like ten times more effective than inexperienced players.

So one seasoned veteran is equal to about ten newbies, give or take.

The reason to take Druid specifically is on purpose, to not just destroy everything and ruin the story or learning experience for newer players. This is why veterans will often remove their trinkets, etc. to make things easier for the newbies, even though it makes the content take longer. Its very common in lower level open-world events, dungeons, and lower-tier Fractals for these reasons.

For example, Firebrand also carries players easily but deals too much damage unless you change alot of things. Players can't learn how to play if you're too busy vaporising everything with your hardcore skillset, basically.

Also, Druid is the best healer to take for full support because gear doesn't affect pet damage. Being a Druid lowers it compared to Soulbeast but still does significantly more damage than a player of any other class in gear with no damage stats would do.

Even a full support Druid can still solo (slowly) in open-world, while a Guard, Ele or Rev can't.

Be careful of being funneled into meta ways of thinking, most of it doesn't even apply outside of raids and T4 Fractals. Players who think that way are the ones who destroy all the mobs in 1sec in "Queensdale Event Completer".

[Kichwas.7152]

@Shiyo.3578 said:You shouldn't play druid outside of raids as a healer in full harrier gear(I 'd argue you don't even want to do that if you have 2 soulbeasts already in your raid) or WvW in full trailblazers. The elite spec is useless in any other situation.

That's about what I expected.

@Hannelore.8153 said:It carries newer players easily, they struggle with alot of basic content. I don't have the numbers but the devs once said that experienced players are something like ten times more effective than inexperienced players.

The reason to take Druid specifically is on purpose, to not just destroy everything and ruin the story or learning experience for newer players.

The intention of slowing things down makes some sense. Because my initial thought on your first paragraph was that newbies already do low enough damage as it is, and Druid is exceptionally bad at damage... but since I keep seeing it on both newbies and people with way past 100 mastery (often 200-300+)... I was really wondering if my understanding of the spec was way off somewhere.

[kharmin.7683]

I am a very casual open world PvE player who mains ranger. I've only recently delved deeper into the druid spec. I have found it ... challenging to solo, but when traveling with a few guildies or a pug, it holds its own at least for what I want/need it to do. Sometimes for me, it is nice to hang back and toss healing into the melee mess. I'm still not sold on the spec -- I believe that it was really intended for group play like frac/raid -- but it's a break from the usual game play for me.

I use sword/dagger for my main weapon set and staff for when I feel the need to hold back and heal the group. I'm sure it's not META or probably even the most viable build, but as a casual player it works for me for now.

[Cragga the Eighty Third.60]

Just saying, my main is a Druid, mostly in PVE, with double axes. I have a mish-mosh mix of stats, but heavy on power and healing. My druid is pretty durable and pretty reasonably able to take on a LOT solo. No huge DPS, but easily good enough to get by. I like being able to throw some heals to my allies in group content, but my main goal is just to have fun soloing through the world without dying a lot. I have even done some WVW roaming, and find the character a heck of lot more sustainable than some of the other, more meta, builds. (Of course, being super casual, I probably don't play those meta builds right.) Not super-faceroll, you definitely have to be ready to dodge a bit, but I am still having a blast playing this character.

[Durzlla.6295]

I run druid almost exclusively, but that's because the general playstyle is fun, and i find it's better to just pick up the bad players and carry them on my back with heals and buffs, than to try to make up for their damage and support when they die.

[Aaron Forestman.4758]

Take whatever you want in dungeons, they're old content so they're not balanced to elite specs at all. Druid isn't meta in fractals, so you won't usually see them in CM groups, but for regular t4s they work fine. You can run it in open world, but pretty much only if you want to carry others in meta events. Open world druid is just slowing things down for yourself when you could be doing much more damage on soulbeast.

[KeyOrion.9506]

There is quite a number of Druid roamers in WvW. No it's not useless outside raids, and unless you "experiement" your not even going to understand what a Druid can do...offensively or defensively. You don't know what your missing until you have tried it.

[mizaru.1385]

@"KeyOrion.9506" said:There is quite a number of Druid roamers in WvW. No it's not useless outside raids, and unless you "experiement" your not even going to understand what a Druid can do...offensively or defensively. You don't know what your missing until you have tried it.

Yup, they are good roamers. Open space WvW gives them alot of kiting space, esp for builds like condi/immob druid.