Druid - Power Daze Druid Roamer

The community gave this build a rating, making it second-tier: Good

Focused on: Strike damage and Mobility

Designed for: WvW Roaming

Expansions required:

Difficulty:

Normal

This build was last updated on July 08, 2024 and is up to date for the October 8, 2024 patch.

Overview

A CC-focused Power Druid build for WvW roaming. The build's all about keeping targets Dazed and Stunned for as long as possible while triggering Moment of Clarity procs to boost hard hitting abilities such as Maul.

Skill Bar

Hammer

Greatsword

Utility

Template Code

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Specializations

Specialization Variants

Wilderness Survival could replace Beastmastery for a more defensive build. The biggest tradeoff however is the mobility. Swiftness access is going to be significantly lower and the loss of Two-Handed Training forces us to run Relic of the Midnight King or else we'd lose Fury 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:

Equipment

Head
Dragon

Shoulders
Dragon

Chest
Dragon

Hands
Dragon

Legs
Dragon

Feet
Dragon

Backpiece
Dragon

Accessory
Dragon

Accessory
Dragon

Amulet
Dragon

Ring
Dragon

Ring
Dragon

Hammer
Dragon

Sigil

Sigil

Greatsword
Dragon

Sigil

Sigil

Rune
x6

Infusion
x18

Relic

Relics

• Relic of Isgarren - 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 .

Usage

Elite specialization basics

• Rangers with the Druid specialization gain access to Celestial Avatar (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 Regeneration and Signet of Renewal are great at building Astral Force.

General

• Celestial Avatar skill #5 Natural Convergence is a channeled ability that has Stability 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 Smoke Cloud which could be used to combo Stealth with skills like Swoop, Thump (untamed), Lunar Impact or even pet swapping to proc Clarion Bond.
  • Clarion Bond 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.

• "We Heal As One!", "Protect Me!" and pet swapping are your main sources of Swiftness here. This boon is extremely important for the build because with Relic of Speed 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 Fury application.

• With the combination of Remorseless and Precise Strike, gaining Fury refreshes Opening Strike and Opening Strike has a 100% crit chance as well as a 25% damage bonus.

• Whenever you disable an enemy with Daze or any other form of hard-CC you gain Fury from Two-Handed Training and a Moment of Clarity proc, which further increases your damage.

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

• The best burst skill in the build is Maul.

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

• Glyph of Equality 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 Thump (untamed) and Overbearing Smash while smacking them mostly with autoattacks boosted by Quickness while they are knocked down or dazed.
  • Overbearing Smash 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 Daze durations are quite long in the build, try not to override already applied dazes with other control effects.

• Celestial Avatar is mostly defensive, but if you want to use it to deal damage then cast Lunar Impact for the daze and immob followed by Natural Convergence.
  • Drop a Seed of Life too as soon as you can since it's instant and applies Poison for healing reduction via Eclipse.
  • Enemies being in range of Natural Convergence 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 Maul. Do the next step before Maul lands, while the animation's playing.
2. Pet swap for Quickness and Fury, or use Glyph of Equality. You could even do both for maximum effectiveness but that burns more CDs.
3. Hilt Bash to stun the target and refresh Maul.
4. Maul again.

Hammer

1. Thump (untamed) for CC, gap closer and to proc Quickness from Sigil of Superior Sigil of Celerity.
2. Wild Swing for damage.
3. Savage Shock Wave to root the target in place as the CC from Thump is running out.
4. Overbearing Smash for CC while they're Immobilized.
5. Spam autoattacks, pet swap for Quickness if you're running out of it.

Celestial Avatar rotation

While you don't have to follow this all the time, it's a good sequence for both damage and sustain.

1. Cast Lunar Impact and try to maximize the targets in its radius, both friend and foe. Enemies will be dazed while allies will be healed.
2. Place Seed of Life below your character near the end of the Lunar Impact cast, BEFORE Lunar goes off. This is an instant skill with a very brief combo field duration, you want this to be blasted by Lunar Impact for extra condi cleansing. If you don't need cleansing AND the enemy you're fighting isn't in melee range, place this under them instead for the Blind.
3. Natural Convergence - here you have a choice. If you want to pressure the enemy, continue channeling the skill. If you're low HP and healing is more important, interrupt the skill immediately and cast Rejuvenating Tides. You'll protect the cast with the Stability from Natural Convergence.
4. Both skills listed under step 3 have long cast times, Natural Convergence even roots you in place. If you're taking a lot of damage consider using some of your utility skills like Signet of Stone or "Protect Me!", or simply cut the skill short and drop out of Celestial Avatar so you can disengage safely.
5. Seed of Life once more then drop out of Celestial Avatar. Disengage with stealth and superspeed if you're still pressured.

Sustain

• Seed of Life in Celestial Avatar (somewhat spammable instant skill) and Sigil of Superior Sigil of Cleansing provide a steady stream of condi removal, use these to keep conditions at bay.
  • If you drop Seed of Life halfway through casting Lunar Impact you can combo an extra condition removal.

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

• Lunar Impact 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.

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

• Signet of Renewal 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 "Protect Me!" 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.