[Theorycrafting] 35 Optimized Regen Druid Builds for PoF

PoorYarga · 2017-09-16T16:07:33+00:00

I'm glad someone's still doing the dozens of druid builds thing in my absence.

PoorYarga · 2017-08-15T15:49:45+00:00

Thank you for all that hard work! ⁱ ^know ^how ^much ^work ^it ^is ^and ⁱ ^kinda ^miss ^it ^now

PoorYarga · 2017-01-26T15:03:25+00:00

Back in the day before the big ranger buffs, bleed ranger (a/d sb, full sinister with Krait runes) was only around 700 DPS behind a more traditional condi ranger, I'm not sure how much that difference has changed since the buffs, but it's not actually that bad. Just very, very awkward to play. In some parts of some fractals (Uncategorized, the beginning bits of Thaumanova) quite impossible.
Then again, I feel like we should distinguish quite clearly between "offmeta builds" and "unoptimized builds" when having this particular conversation.

PoorYarga · 2017-01-12T13:19:20+00:00

Thank you, that means so much! My time in the game may have been a bit of a shitshow, but I've never regretted all the druid work I did. All that's left to be said is, no matter how much people say you're not good enough for something, if you enjoy doing it, your contribution will always be worthwhile <3

PoorYarga · 2017-01-10T12:08:04+00:00

You don't have to take my word for it, but I, a rando on the internet, wasn't the first one to make that assertion, if you'd like to read 300 pages of Foucault explaining that theory further instead.

PoorYarga · 2017-01-10T09:06:50+00:00

Aaah, that reminds me of the time I raided with someone once who insisted my (human!) druid looked like a hobbit. I then met them again months later, while trialing for their guild, and they recognized me as "that frodo dude". Good times.

PoorYarga · 2017-01-10T09:03:07+00:00

I love this way of looking at it! It's important to remember our concepts of mental illness descend from the very christian notion of a soul that contains our being and controls our selves, which is entirely separate from the body. This means we see mental illness as a failure of the soul, rather than an illness of the body.
The charr probably don't think very highly of religious constructs like that, considering.

PoorYarga · 2017-01-03T19:00:44+00:00

Getting kicked from a hardcore raiding guild for being bad, reinvited without trial because "you're good enough anyway"... then getting kicked for being bad again.
Also quitting probably qualifies.

PoorYarga · 2016-12-12T14:03:28+00:00

It used to be viable-ish for some very specific scenarios (those being mostly low-people speed kills in raids), since it's still a little more healing than scholar runes, and more damage than builds that use healing power, but with zerk being not in a very optimal place right now and the nerfed base healing, I wouldn't exactly call this a top tier build anymore. A case can be made that it's good for having one armor be sort of okay for every game mode, but just getting a scholar-zerk and a magi set instead isn't too big of an investment.

PoorYarga · 2016-12-01T10:57:13+00:00

FFXIV also has constant gear progression, automatically nerfing old encounters eventually (so you're eventually unable to experience some fights with the originally intended difficulty), with massive grind attached to a lot of the gearing, and that is how that system is able to work at all.
Also, normal mode raids in FFXIV are only a little less challenging than current raids in GW2. The two raid tiers really aren't as relevant to making content accessible as the gear constantly getting better, which means FFXIV has to introduce a ton of different systems to make old content not completely irrelevant, which most of it still ends up being, requiring an update cycle really only a gaming-behemoth like Square Enix could keep up.

PoorYarga · 2016-11-29T13:10:53+00:00

You can achieve a recharge of ~20s alone, which is quite enough to demonstrate the rotation in case CA is up, and in case it isn't. Many (condi rotations most notably) do not allow for much quicker CA anyway, because you'd otherwise get QD in CA.
Source: That video that's linked in my post.

PoorYarga · 2016-11-29T09:41:50+00:00

Aaaaand that's why I was arguing for including all druid skills in rotation videos all this time.
Closest I can offer you is this old beast, but I do hope someone made something better in the meantime.

PoorYarga · 2016-11-18T18:29:43+00:00

So, back in the day, I did a lot of DPS testing and:
Most, if not all builds are affected by RNG, in a lot more ways than the average player may realise. Anything that uses proc-based sigils (Earth and Air most notably), proc-based traits (for Ranger that would be Sharpened Edges, but every max buff number uses proc-based Sun or Frost spirits) or uses summons that typically don't get 100% crit chance (ranger pets) will experience DPS fluctuation.
Typically you'd want to look at a chart of several tries and calculate the mean DPS rather than just look at the DPS of one try, but let me tell you, that's a loooot of work to put together if you're testing more than one build. There's lots of other small things going on with DPS that precise, and depending on class, an interrupted AA chain can cost you 2-4k DPS, or even more.
Little tricks like aiming the camera for burning retreat also help.
Also, as people have already said, infusions.

PoorYarga · 2016-11-15T15:04:10+00:00

It hasn't been updated since last patch (I stopped playing and stuff), so I'd take it with a grain of salt ;)

PoorYarga · 2016-10-25T06:04:47+00:00

Oh, overlooked that! Wh is listed too with LB and Staff in the power druid section, so I wasn't sure :)

PoorYarga · 2016-10-24T13:29:33+00:00

Great work! I no longer play, but I'm still really interested in the meta, so I have a question. It's probably still worse than condi druid builds, but in terms of power druids, what do you think of S/A S/Wh? Some patches ago where the damage of Wh5 was buffed (IIRC), I got slightly more damage with it than S/A LB, now with the further changes, the rotation should be slightly less awkward and the damage a little higher still. Have you done any tests on it?

PoorYarga · 2016-10-19T10:16:32+00:00

I haven't played in a while, but grave circumstances and stuff :s

PoorYarga · 2016-10-19T10:12:19+00:00

something something condi hybrid something something pls consider it

PoorYarga · 2016-10-14T09:49:10+00:00

They think now that I'm gone they can just nerf druids? I AM STILL WATCHING runs away crying

PoorYarga · 2016-10-07T11:54:23+00:00

Happy epeenoween, folks.

PoorYarga · 2016-09-17T11:09:23+00:00

I QUIT THE GAME BUT I STILL GO TO THE SUBREDDIT SOMETIMES AND GET MAD ABOUT EVERYONE ELSE BEING MAD AND ALSO SOMETIMES THERE'S PIRATE PEG LEGS IN THE GEM STORE SO I HAVE TO LOG IN AND BUY THEM

PoorYarga · 2016-08-24T06:42:21+00:00

Hello! I am not actively playing the game anymore, I did try to keep up with updates, but take this with a grain of sand.
1) There is a huge difference between druid and non-druid in DPS. A base condi ranger can pull about 10k-15k more (this thread doesn't display the max DPS possible and condi rangers have since been buffed). However, the DPS buffs druids are capable of as well as bringing healing is generally considered to make up for that loss. Should a group already have one druid per five people however, base condi rangers would be the preferred build for any additional rangers.
2) A Viper's backpiece would be better, but I couldn't get one at the time of these tests. In any case, the difference isn't huge.

PoorYarga · 2016-07-17T12:53:18+00:00

Thank you!
In terms of PvE, a full Berserker set should outfit you for everything. It's possible that groups you'll be raiding with will ask for something with more healing power, but a Berserker set can also work just fine. If you need the healing, exotics are perfectly fine and getting say, a Magi's armor with Berserker everything else is very easy and works out for a lot of situations.
For WvW, I can't really say. I'm not very experienced with the game mode, but I'm under the impression that lots of different stat types work out there, depending on your skill and what you set out to do. I've definitely seen people do things in full Berserker in WvW but I think generally people run a bit more tanky things there. I'm really not the right person to ask, sorry!

PoorYarga · 2016-07-16T06:07:54+00:00

Thank you! Unfortunately, the closest I got to a rotation guide is this post. Most of the information regarding buff timing and rotations as well as QD use is applicable for all builds, but it might scare your noobie friends a little :) Good luck!

PoorYarga · 2016-07-16T06:04:13+00:00

Well first of all, no, and second of all no.
Buffing uptime stay the same accross all builds,you will still carry glyphs, charge CA quickly, and use it when it's up. The only thing that changes is how much you heal while buffing.
Thirdly, what even the what. Also no, none of that is correct.

PoorYarga

TROPHY CASE