Druid - Power Daze Druid Roamer

Specialization Variants

Wilderness Survival could replace Beastmastery for a more defensive build. The biggest tradeoff however is the mobility. 迅捷 access is going to be significantly lower and the loss of 野性狂怒 forces us to run 午夜国王古物 or else we'd lose 激怒 procs on CC and the Marksmanship synergy that comes with it. This also means we also can't play movement speed relics. Replacing Greatsword with Sword/Warhorn is worth considering in order to ease the mobility problem, but Mace/Mace (which pushes the build even further into a bunker playstyle) could also work:

A CC-focused Power Druid build for WvW roaming. The build's all about keeping targets 晕眩d and 昏迷ned for as long as possible while triggering 醉生梦死 procs to boost hard hitting abilities such as Greatsword's 重击.

Elite specialization basics

• Rangers with the Druid specialization gain access to 天界化身 (CA) which uses a resource called Astral Force (AF).

• You build AF mostly through healing yourself and allies. The amount healed doesn't matter. Consistent sources of healing like 再生 and 新生纹章 are great at building Astral Force.

General

• Celestial Avatar skill #5 自然汇流 is a channeled ability that has 稳固 on it. When you're trying to heal under pressure you should interrupt Natural Convergence right away by moving or by weapon stowing, that way you get to use the Stability to cover other skills.

• Smokescale's F2 ability is 障目烟云 which could be used to combo 潜行 with skills like 猛扑, 碎地重击, 月色引力 or even pet swapping to proc 野性号角.

  • 野性号角 has the benefit of being instant. Since you're able to swap pets even while stunned, you could use this to stealth yourself even while CC'd.

• "同心治疗！", "快保护我！" and pet swapping are your main sources of 迅捷 here. This boon is extremely important for the build because with 速度古物 you'll have a much easier time sticking to targets or even kiting enemies when you're in trouble.

Damage

• There are 2 things which play a key role in burst combos: CC and/or 激怒 application.

• With the combination of 赶尽杀绝 and 精准出击, gaining 激怒 refreshes 先发制人 and Opening Strike has a 100% crit chance as well as a 25% damage bonus.

• Whenever you disable an enemy with 晕眩 or any other form of hard-CC you gain 激怒 from 野性狂怒 and a 醉生梦死 proc, which further increases your damage.

• Aside from using CC skills you can also obtain instantly by swapping pets. This also gives you to help with landing your burst.

• The best burst skill in the build is .

• resets the cooldown on Maul while also being the perfect setup for it.

• is often used offensively as an instant trigger for MoC, even in the middle of casting other skills.

• Hammer is much more about sustained damage. Your goal here is to keep the target CC'd with and while smacking them mostly with autoattacks boosted by while they are knocked down or dazed.

  • basically sets itself up, dazing targets and then following up with a 2nd attack that deals extra damage via trait synergy. It's also the hardest hitting skill on Hammer.

• CC effects don't stack in duration and durations are quite long in the build, try not to override already applied dazes with other control effects.

• is mostly defensive, but if you want to use it to deal damage then cast for the daze and immob followed by .

  • Drop a too as soon as you can since it's instant and applies for healing reduction via .
  • Enemies being in range of when it ends are immobilized, you could use this as a setup for Hammer and Greatsword burst combos.

Burst combo examples

Greatsword

1. Pre-cast . Do the next step before Maul lands, while the animation's playing.
2. Pet swap for and , or use . You could even do both for maximum effectiveness but that burns more CDs.
3. to stun the target and refresh Maul.
4. again.

Hammer

1. for CC, gap closer and to proc from .
2. for damage.
3. to root the target in place as the CC from Thump is running out.
4. for CC while they're d.
5. Spam autoattacks, pet swap for if you're running out of it.

Celestial Avatar rotation

• The standard opener is to do ⇒ - start casting Lunar Impact for CC and a blast finisher, and drop Seed of Life on the ground towards the end of the cast time of LI. Blast finisher + light field = condi cleansing, meanwhile you apply and , creating some breathing room for yourself.

  • Try to hit as many enemies and allies as possible with both skills. They each have positive and negative effects.

• If you need healing more than you need cleansing, use first, followed by and then . RT creates a pulsing water field around you, and you can use other skills while it's active in order to blast it. The light field from SoL will be gone by the time LI lands.

• Once you've used up skills 2-4, you can do skill #5 . This is mainly for the damage and roots you in place for quite some time - if you're heavily pressured, consider cancelling this skill after the initial cast with a weapon stow. That way you still get the portion of it and you can use that to protect other casts.

• Both weapon sets have combo tools to be used in , so dropping out of Celestial Avatar after an RT cast might also be a good idea. You could still grab the from NT, but you're losing time on RT if you do that.

• If you're using CA offensively, skip and instead go ⇒ ⇒ , hoping to enemies straight into Natural Convergence.

• Spam whenever it's available and doesn't interfere with your other desired combo fields.

Sustain

• in Celestial Avatar (somewhat spammable instant skill) and provide a steady stream of condi removal, use these to keep conditions at bay.

  • If you drop halfway through casting you can combo an extra condition removal.

• is an answer to just about any situation - heals, removes conditions, protects against CC, and you can combo extra healing with leap/blast finishers.

• Entering dazes nearby enemies. This is an instant way of lifting some pressure off of you that could be done even while you're stunned.

• should be the first skill you use while in CA, ideally try to get 2 casts of this skill off before leaving the avatar form.

• is a powerful blocking skill you can fall back on when you're taking heavy damage. Blocking an attack with it also unlocks to CC enemies with, which can quickly turn things around my giving you a proc so you can immediately them.

• should be kept for its passive for as long as possible. While it doesn't heal much on this build it's A) still better than nothing and B) instrumental for Astral Force generation which fuels Celesital Avatar. Use it only if you're out of options and need to break stun or do a mass cleanse.

  • Note: your pet must be within 600 range for the condition transfer to happen. The damage from the transfer itself can actually kill the pet rather quickly so you might want to swap pets shortly after using this signet.

• You're free to use for simple damage mitigation while the other utilities are not on CD, but if those are recharging then hold onto this in case you need to break a stun in the future.

Equipment Variants

Relics

• - damage boost if you don't mind losing out on mobility, but as a double melee build sticking to targets is extremely important which is why we recommend Relic of Speed.

Consumables

Food

• We suggest taking health regen food like (defense) or (offense) to build Astral Force faster, which is very important for the build.

Utility

• or , whichever is cheaper (note that the sharpening stone lasts twice as long).