GW2 [WvW] Zerg Support Druid (mace) - 35 vs 50

Main hand mace seems like an obvious choice for druid now - it synergizes well with Karakosa relic, as you get an additional blast (mace 3) which increases your healing even further.
I think my current build is in a sweet spot right now, providing a perfect balance between heals and cleanses - it's built around blasts for Karakosa, while still cleansing a shitton.
I don't focus that much on Force of Nature buff, especially not in short fights - extra heal from it is nice, but not essential. You get stacks from mace 2, 3 and last auto from aa chain (which takes forever, mace autos are slow af, especially that last one - also you rather want to be burst healing people instead of afking on mace auto waiting for stacks), so it takes a while to get to 5 stacks. If the fight lasts a bit longer then you will get stacks anyway as a side effect of your rotation, so you can enjoy your healing buff then. It was suggested to me to also run off hand mace (to get stacks faster), but I don't want to drop boons that warhorn offers (might, fury, swiftness, regen).
I'm also experimenting with White Moa as one of my pets for frost aura (-10% incoming damage).
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[@CasualElitist]

Small breakdown of how I play this build - it revolves around Karakosa relic which is triggered every time you blast any field. If you blast a water field, you additionally get heals from water blast combo.
Your blasts: CA3, staff 3, warhorn 5, frost and stone spirits (x2 because of Nature's Vengeance trait) + 1 more if you quick draw CA3/staff 3/wh5.
Your water fields: CA4, staff 5, Healing Spring, Glyph of Stars (non CA).
Your other fields: CA2 (light).
You can blast other people's fields to trigger Karakosa, but get into a habit of always blasting your own fields and always placing a field before a blast.
So the general idea is to blast as much as possible while keeping few things in mind. I try to blast every field 2-3 times. *Few things to keep in mind:*
1. don't overlap your water fields (so don't place Glyph of Stars and Healing Spring together) - try to spread them so you always have something up,
2. don't place both spirits together, one after another - you might want to split them to not use all of their 4 blasts together (because you will blast with other skills anyway) - aegis & protection are really nice boons to have before getting hit in the face, so it's a good idea to use stone spirit first when engaging, while resistance at that point should be provided by your firebrand or chrono, so keep frost spirit for later for more cleanses and resistance further into the fight.
*Example healing combos to quickly burst heal your group:*
1. Staff 5 (water field) -> Staff 3 (first blast) -> Warhorn 5 (second blast) -> Mace 3 (omg so many blasts)
2. Stone Spirit (first blast triggers with delay) -> CA4 (water field) -> Stone Spirit (second blast from Nature's Vengeance)
3. Healing Spring (water field) -> quick draw Staff 3 (first blast) -> Staff 3 (second blast) -> more blasts
4. Glyph of Stars (non CA - water feld) -> Stone Spirit (first blast) -> Warhorn 5 (second blast) -> Stone Spirit again (another blast from Nature's Vengeance) -> CA3 (omg so many blasts) -> CA4 (another water field)...etc
So....blast blast blast. Also, 2 of those blasts are your strongest burst heal skills (CA3 + Staff 3).
*EXAMPLE ROTATION:*
1. place Glyph of Stars (non CA) as a water field and cleanse AoE on the clash spot, blast with Stone Spirit (for defensive boons) and follow with another blast from Warhorn 5 (for offensive boons) - if you have time before you need to burst heal you can also add Mace 2 & 3 to start building Nature's Strength stacks
2. enter CA and use CA3 to burst heal, CC and more blast (cast CA2 in the meantime for cleanses and blinds), CA4 for sustained heals, spam CA1 and CA2 until CA3 is ready again, CA3, exit CA
3. place Healing Spring as a water field, blast with Frost Spirit (for defensive boons and more cleanses) and follow with Warhorn 5 (which should be ready again), Mace AA chain, 2 & 3 (at this point you get 25% healing buff because you just got to 5 stacks of Nature's Strength)
4. swap to staff, quick draw Staff 3, place Staff 5 on the group, Staff 3 again, enter CA....
5. rinse and repeat, during downtime use your smaller heals skills

[@maggyinahat]

I need to do more testing to see how I feel about this for sure, but the one thing I don't personally like is burning Glyph of Stars so early in a fight. I tend to run with open tags and tend to need the save potential when people tail too hard and it has come in clutch to keep us from being ripped apart.
Other than that, I like this in concept. IDK if I like it more than the previous build other than the fact that I love Lingering Light over Grace of the Land, but that is also basically a non-issue since they STOLE alac from us. >:|
Thanks for the info

[@CasualElitist]

@@maggyinahat if you don't like early stars you can place for example staff 5 instead (or any other water field)

[@kaizureki]

does the second slam on the frost spirit cleanses again? or it just refreshes the resistance buffs? And btw, ty so much for the lil notes you add in comments and such, i've learned so much on how to heal on WvW thanks to you!!

[@CasualElitist]

@@kaizureki second slam cleanses and blasts, but doesn't give boons

[@SomnolentBliss]

Thanks for sharing. Not a druid expert but I really like the white moa for frost aura...that would be very annoying to play into!

[@maggyinahat]

This looks great but it's a massive departure from my normal build.
Any hope of a guide type video or a breakdown of skill priorities and/or timings?

[@CasualElitist]

I'm thinking of making one for my guild so maybe I'll just make a public one, just have to find time...

[@CasualElitist]

I added a quick breakdown in the pinned comment - check it out if you want to try this build :)

[@maggyinahat]

@@CasualElitist tyvm I'll check it out

[@whocaresjustdoit]

Good play! The current comps in NA servers are so condi heavy that Druid can’t heal as effectively as before since if you stand in one place, you’ll get melted by all the necros lol. Druid isn’t as good as Scrapper in this meta but still one of the most effective healers in the game.

[@CasualElitist]

@@whocaresjustdoit It's the same on EU which is why I use a different build now that has more condi cleanse and still outshines scrappers (in heals, cleanses and boons) in the groups I play with (but no idea if those scrapper players are playing well). But scrapper is definitely the flavor of the month lately, especially that it also has easy access to super speed, some stealth and barrier.

[@Zyddu]

​@@CasualElitisthey, can you please share your current build?

[@CasualElitist]

@@Zyddu I am currently running this gw2skills.net/editor/?POwEkEmpsCGCbhxwKxyVyrVWir3D-DWJYjR3fhkUCkZoWdVp71hQEg/WafzCA-w - if I need a bit more healing then I swap Druidic Clarity for Cultivated Synergy, and if I need more protection then I swap Celestial Shadow for Verdant Etching

[@Zyddu]

@@CasualElitist thank you very much

[@ekarolak]