Druid - Condition Eclipse Duelist

The community gave this build a rating, making it top-tier: Great

Focused on: Condition damage, Sustain and Control

Designed for: PvP Conquest

Expansions required:

Difficulty:

Easy

This build was last updated on September 12, 2024 and is up to date for the October 8, 2024 patch.

Overview

A high-sustain PvP condition Druid build made to win 1v1s and other smaller engagements while also bringing some group support to the table.

Skill Bar

Dagger/Dagger

Sword/Warhorn

Utility

Skill Variants

Weapons

• Mace/Mace over Dagger/Dagger - this is an equally viable, more tanky option that puts more emphasis on bunkering and CC. Take Survival Instincts and Carnivore on Wilderness Survival.

• Axe over main-hand Dagger - a decent alternative if you don't have the Secrets of the Obscure expansion.

Utility

For the optional slot:

• Signet of Stone - great defensive option against direct damage burst builds.

• Signet of Renewal - passive healing that also boosts Astral Force generation, and the active could help you deal with conditions and CC.

Pets

Fanged Iboga is a versatile pet that provides good condi variety, CC and even a combo field for Chaos Aura stacking, but there are other viable options too:

• Siege Turtle - defensive pet with Protection and an anti-projectile field.

• Spinegazer - good damage and boon corruption.

• Rock Gazelle - more focus on CC spam.

• Jacaranda - good AoE damage and some Immobilize.

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Specializations

Variants

• Survival Instincts adds another layer of damage mitigation to the build in exchange for lower condi damage and longer recharge on Dagger skills.

Equipment

Dagger

Dagger

Sigil

Sigil

Sword

Warhorn

Sigil

Sigil

Rune

Amulet

Relic

Equipment Variants

Relics

• Relic of Rivers - adds a significant amount of Alacrity to the build, reducing the CD of all your important skills including Celestial Avatar.

• Relic of Nayos - higher self-healing in case you want to maximize survivability and don't mind losing some kill potential.

• Relic of Evasion - gives you permanent Vigor uptime which also improves the effectiveness of several defensive traits tied to dodging.

Amulets

• - more tanky option with lower healing, could be considered against comps with Power-based burst builds.

Runes

• Rune of Mirage - good mix of defense and offense.

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 Protection via Rugged Growth 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 either by moving or weapon stowing, that way you get to use the Stability to cover other skills.

• Dodging grants Protection and Protection heals you.

• Smokescale's F2 ability is Smoke Cloud which could be used to combo Stealth with both weapon sets and Lunar Impact.

• Glyph of the Stars (Celestial Avatar) (your elite) is an extremely powerful group support tool when used inside Celestial Avatar, allowing you to revive allies much faster.
  • With proper timing and a little luck you could even rez yourself with this elite if you manage to use it just before you go into the downed state.

Damage

• Your goal is to win a battle of attrition, there aren't really any big burst combos in the build. You put on constant pressure with weapons, pets, and Celestial Avatar while primarily focusing on survival.

• If you're using Stalker's Strike for the damage and not the evasion, you should first make sure that your target is snared. Serpent's Strike has the benefit of allowing you to use Stalker's Strike as the first skill after swapping weapons.

• Eclipse makes Celestial Avatar amazing at applying cover conditions. While CA skills don't do a lot of damage they can apply a wide variety of conditions, if the target was already pressured this form can quickly overwhelm them by making it way harder for them to cleanse your more important conditions.

• In CA Lunar Impact is a source of ranged Immobilize, you could use this to set up skills like Natural Convergence.

• Seed of Life isn't very dangerous but an instant ranged poison isn't bad, and could be used while casting other skills.

• Fanged Iboga occasionally creates an Ethereal Field, you should try to use leap/blast finishers in it for Chaos Aura whenever opportunity presents itself.

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.

Stealth stacking rotation

You should consider doing this before fights especially if you're not alone. Giving your team the opener can decide teamfights, but this rotation's also good for moving around the map undetected.

1. Smoke Cloud (Smokescale F2)
2. Optional - Oaken Cudgel if you're playing the Mace variant of the build, then swap weapons.
3. Call of the Wild
4. Pounce
5. Serpent's Strike in the direction you want to go in after stealth stacking is done, as this doubles as a mobility skill.

Sustain

• Healing Spring and Glyph of the Stars are your best skills against conditions, constantly cleansing you as long as you're staying inside the AoE ring. They're also a Water Fields, Sword/Warhorn has 3 skills that could be used inside this field to combo extra healing while CA has Lunar Impact and Dagger's got Instinctive Engage.
  • You should always try to use as many of these finishers as possible if you're missing health in order to maximize healing.
  • The Glyph is also one of your best skills when it comes to dealing with CC as it pulses Stability.

• Even without using CDs you can managed conditions just by dodging thanks to Evasive Purity.

• Other great cleanses are Seed of Life in Celestial Avatar (somewhat spammable instant skill) and Sigil of Cleansing on both sets.
  • If you drop Seed of Life halfway through casting Lunar Impact you can combo an extra condition removal.

• Seed of Life is a somewhat spammable instant ranged Blind that could even be used while stunned, making it quite valuable if you know how to use it.

• Entering Celestial Avatar dazes nearby enemies. This is an instant way of lifting some pressure off of you and just like Seed of Life it could be used even while stunned.

• Both sets have skills with evade frames: Stalker's Strike on Dagger/Dagger and Serpent's Strike on Sword/Warhorn. These are especially handy when you're Immobilized, allowing you to avoid incoming attacks you otherwise couldn't.

• Signet of Stone is a great defensive skill against Power-based burst damage, with this you could facetank an entire burst combo and even cast healing skill or counterpressure enemies while it's active.

Related Builds

• Druid - Celestial Eclipse Roamer - WvW version of the build.