Warhorn Druid v. Minstrel Chrono

[Mold 43]

Maia brought this up more than a month ago, but given that it's all over reddit, atm, maybe we can talk about it.

The basic controversy is that the boon-bot minstrel's chrono is reducing the utility of druid's regen and/or is a redundant healer. Stealing the regen slot from druid would mean lower regen and significantly fewer gotl stacks. Healing a lot with mantras would also mean less hp for druids to fill up, which is also less gotl.

But there's something I'm confused about. I think regen application works like this (this is how quickness stacks work too, as I understand it):

• Up to 5 stacks can be applied, but only one is active at any given moment
• A stack that becomes active always proceeds to expiration; it cannot be overwritten
• Applied stacks sort by duration: the longest duration stack is always the next in line to be active
• Unless an applied stack is active, it will be bumped down the list by an incoming stack with a longer duration
• If a stack is bumped off the list, it is gone for good; if you try to apply a stack that's shorter than all 4 of the non-active stacks, it won't apply

If that's right, then the Call of the Wild stacks will always apply, since druids are wearing boon-duration runes and have traits. The max-duration regen stack that a chrono can produce is 10s (with 100% boon duration). CotW has a base of 10s (when traited). So, a druid with any boon duration will be applying a longer-duration stack than 10s, which will drop it into one of the 4 non-active slots. Nothing the chrono does will overwrite that.

Is this accurate?

This whole topic has me wondering if our druids are usually bringing warhorn. We haven't talked about this for a while. I admit that I don't fully understand what a druid is giving up to do this, but it seems appealing in many cases.

 

 

[Maia 85]

I don't routinely bring warhorn, but I have a setup similar to this and I have used it. I've tried it on Matt and Cairn, but I don't bother if I'm in a group with a minstrel chrono (I don't want them to feel like they wasted all that gold ). Let me just say my build is a little different because I run enough boon duration for the healing spring regen to exceed 10 seconds. Therefore, I overwrite more of the chrono regen stacks (hehe). I haven't tried the fern hound option. I'd want to make sure that it uses my healing power instead of its healing power. I've seen conflicting posts on that point.

What is a Druid giving up? I'm my opinion there are two considerations here.

 First, we lose off hand axe. That's an issue in fights where I use the axe 4 pull. However, there is always someone else in the group with a better option, so it's primarily back up. Examples: extra cc for Matt sacrifices, pulling adds or the orbs on Xera, pulling loose slublings on Sloth. This is why I haven't tried this build on Xera or Sloth (even though I was tempted).

Second, you have to pay more attention to internal cool downs and your rotation. Quick draw and weapon swap management matter. This maybe a practice/experience issue, but for me it makes emergency healing a little tricker. You have less tools at your disposal if you just swapped to sword/warhorn. Still doable of course. On the other hand you might not need as much emergency healing with high regen ticks.

 

Ill think about this a bit more. I reserve the right to edit this post. 

[Mold 43]

Gotcha; helpful info. For the record, we only run a minstrel chrono, currently, on VG and Xera. I'm planning to start out in that on Deimos, though. Every other encounter is zerk.

I guess the thing I'm most interested in is whether or not there's a way to ensure druids get CA up more often. Rapid CA regen seems ideal for sustain, burst heals, and gotl.

[Maia 85]

I wanted to leave the updated build this discussion is about here for future reference.