DC's main duty is healing and buff/debuff. Honestly, nature HR cannot achieve either of them. Here the reasons:
1- The most important - Healing: HR has only 1 healing over time skill ( Oak skin) which is totally suck right now.
2- Debuff: HR has root, which is just useless in PvE where people prefer knock mobs off some ledges or plainly nuke them as fast as possible. CW hates HR's root because it messes up their rotation (meatball/repel). That means it is better to have no HR in dungeon teams.
3- Buff: HR has 1 dodge buff (Fox cunning), 2 damage mitigation buff (Oak skin and Boar hide), temporary HP buff(Stag heart), extra dmg buff (Hawkeye).
-Fox cunning is one time use so it is useless for most of the time.
-Oak skin is so-so.
-Boar hide offers 10-20% damage mitigation, only lasts for 5-10 hits. Compare to DC's Astral shield which has not hit limit and heals at the same time, it is just meh.
-Stag heart is ok but again DC's version is much better.
-Hawkeye is currently bugged, offers a minimum flat damage buff. So it is plainly useless.
In my opinion, nature HR can replace DC in dungeons below 60. After that, sadly, it is a big NO. The new paragon path looks like being tailored for Nature HR. However, it is full of bugs right now so I cannot say anything about it.
Let's not forget that HRs also have a skill or two that can decrease enemy mitigation or make them stop attacking entirely.
We're getting more roots and more skills to increase the damage our party does in Module 3, as well as the ability to restore HP, AP and stam/guard via daily and an at-will.
So the answer to OP's question is definitely going to be "Yes" in Mod 3, provided the Nature HR knows what they're doing.
The answer is a definite no. HR has absolutely zero burst healing. None. It doesn't exist. And it's only heal heals for about 250-300 a tick on test after it was buffed by quite a bit. On live it doesn't tick for even that much. Recall that players have at least 20,000 HP.
I have tried Nature HR as a healing/buff class on live and test, and it is viable in neither. Pathfinder helps, but isn't actually released yet, and doesn't even need Oaken Skin to do it's healing.
If the team is excellent, they don't even need a DC; but if the question is 'if the group needs a healer will Nature HR suffice' the answer is a resounding unequivocal no. I have tried it. It does not 'heal' outside of one power. It gives unreliable mitigation buffs, not 'healing'.
People that tell you 'yes' to that question are simply trolling you. Lifesteal + regen by itself heals more than a Nature HR. Period.
MoF/Thaum CWSS/Thaum CWIV/Protector GFSW/Combat HRSM/Destroyer GWFWK/Executioner TRDO/Faithful DC
Why thank you, Grandmaster Spacejew, for clearly calling me out as a troll. You are quite definitely the ultimate and final word on all things Hunter Ranger and your opinions are indeed the factual and truthful teachings of a divine sage.
Why thank you, Grandmaster Spacejew, for clearly calling me out as a troll. You are quite definitely the ultimate and final word on all things Hunter Ranger and your opinions are indeed the factual and truthful teachings of a divine sage.
Oh wait... none of what I just said is true.
Oh? What skill outside of OS heals on the HR and how much does it heal for on your HR? If you quote the 30% mitigation off stag heart and boar's hide I'll explain why you're wrong but I probably won't be nice about it. If you include the 20% only you get from your feat tree I'll really not be nice.
Compared to DC burst OR heal over time? It's a complete joke to say otherwise. A CW with 1k lifesteal will out heal your entire dungeon healing. Guaranteed. No hyperbole at all.
In Module 3 the satchel heals for OS's entire duration in one go. And it stacks. But it's not Module 3 yet, it isn't even done. I'm not wrong about Live Server.
I wasn't even talking about your post and I apologize if you thought I was directing my comments at your Module 3 commentary instead of this guy:
Someone obviously doesn't know what being a troll is, but it's fun to see people misuse pop terms just to try to fit into the zeitgeist.
Anyways, as I said, don't listen to people that have never done it. You can absolutely carry a team through dungeons. Effective healing is a lot more involved than 'burst healing'. In fact, I can't remember the last time I DC'd for a group that needed burst healing. Everything is geared toward healing over time and mitigating the actual damage your team takes. If you are using a divine Forgemaster's, the party you are playing with needs to learn how to play. Even Val doesn't necessitate burst healing if your people are good.
Astral shield is about regen and mitigation. Sound familiar? Astral seal debuffs. We debuff... Divine Armor provides mitigation and temp hp. Again, these are tools nature HR's have in abundance. So, what is it that HRs also bring to the party?
Well, back to Effective Healing - like many CWs will tell you, dead things don't need to be controlled. A Hunter Ranger, even Nature spec'd, will put out way more damage than a DC. Dead things don't damage your party. Effective healing.
There's really no use in arguing about it when you can try for yourself and see. I recommend going to the Legit community with your nature HR and forming a team.
*Legit Community*
Heather - Ranger
James - Paladin
Jet - Warlock
Royal - Cleric
Gray - Rogue
Red - Wizard
Ios - Barbarian
I really think even specc'd out for maximum party buffage, an HR's role is more of a compliment or augment to the other classes than a replacement for any of them, at least in pve.
Assuming otherwise optimal conditions, a good HR augments the other roles so well it should almost be indispensable in dungeons. But conditions are not optimal (see op cw), and I don't think most rangers play to augment the other roles so much as to top damage done and deaths suffered.
Nature HR will provide that Sweet mitigation, temp hp, dodge that a high end party needs in case you can't find a DC.
(Fox shift is excellent vs Valindra / Fulminorax.
It's will never be a replacement because DC's have Daunting Glow and that massively OP Hallowed ground.
Anyways, as I said, don't listen to people that have never done it. You can absolutely carry a team through dungeons. Effective healing is a lot more involved than 'burst healing'. In fact, I can't remember the last time I DC'd for a group that needed burst healing. Everything is geared toward healing over time and mitigating the actual damage your team takes. If you are using a divine Forgemaster's, the party you are playing with needs to learn how to play. Even Val doesn't necessitate burst healing if your people are good.
What this boils down to is that you admit that HR's are unable to effectively heal, and that decent groups actually don't need a healer period. Healing over time could, in theory, work out fine but it should perhaps be noted that the healing buff HR's are getting on test are over double those of live and are still insufficient. You can argue the insufficient point if you wish, but on live it would certainly appear that even the developers are admitting that it's not a currently viable path for HR's to be a primary healer.
Oakskin: Healing increased by 150%.
^ Verbatim from test server patch notes ^
Well, back to Effective Healing - like many CWs will tell you, dead things don't need to be controlled. A Hunter Ranger, even Nature spec'd, will put out way more damage than a DC. Dead things don't damage your party. Effective healing.
This is a rather misleading position to take in my opinion, as a nature spec. HR does damage comparable to a GF. It does not actually aid in the clear in any significant way. And as you say, a CW will tell you that a controlled creature also does not generate damage. This neatly explains how you 'carry' a team with your incredibly low heals and unreliable mitigation buffs (Or the even worse dodge mitigation). You aren't carrying anyone, you are quite honestly being carried.
Those same CW no doubt out heal you in those very same dungeons through the lifesteal that any PvE CW worth their salt has. (This also assumes that the group is geared, which I'll address below) Certainly Oak Skin stacks with lifesteal/regen, but sad to say simply the lifesteal is plenty and in those situations where it is not plenty Oak Skin does not make a large enough difference to replace burst healing.
There's really no use in arguing about it when you can try for yourself and see. I recommend going to the Legit community with your nature HR and forming a team.
It's true, you can respec to try it out but I can virtually guarantee you'll switch back within a week unless you're playing with a premade that can carry you. The legit channel is also chock full of bored fully geared 60's, which pretty much leads me to the conclusion that you've been carried a whole lot. The fact you seem to believe that burst healing isn't important for the primary healer to have doubles down on that theory.
In my experience the HR is incapable of filling the healing slot in any group that would actually profit from healing; and any group that does not need the healing will get far more use out of an actual DPS HR or some other damage dealer/CC class. Perhaps somewhat ironically I found this out by teaming with various people from the legit channel who were nice enough to let me test this out with them.
Just for reference, a 50k hit (AoE or ST) will likely heal as much and more as the entire duration of your oak skin. Such hits are not uncommon, and regardless the heal over time from simple applied DoT's will still outheal your HR. I can say this with a high degree of confidence from personal experience. You can attack my overall skill as a healer if you wish, but it's not a terribly complicated thing to cast Boar's Hide/Stag/Oak while spamming Split Shot; and that is essentially what you suggest as a play style.
This doesn't even begin to talk about the actual functionality of Oak Skin, Boar's Hide, Fox Shift, or Stag. I'll enumerate below the downsides of each of the abilities in question.
Oak Skin - Low Sustained Healing, no burst healing. This is actually the best of the bunch in actual effectiveness, which isn't saying much.
Boar's Hide - One stack disappears on any damage taken, including DoT's and minor attacks. In DoT/minion heavy dungeons, you will never have it's full effectiveness and will often have zero stacks and rarely will you have more than 5. If you ever have ten, it's because your CW is pro and you are deadweight.
Fox Shift - The dodge, much like boar skin, is removed on any attack. This includes minor attacks, making it utterly unreliable in any PvE content as a form of actual mitigation.
Stag - The temporary HP are so paltry that the added mitigation is functionally only good for one hit. Even when combined with Boar's Hide, those HP are toast on virtually any attack.
You're welcome to argue these points, but it was my expierence when attempting a full nature spec healing/buff spec. It's also important to consider that most of the flip-side abilities you get when using any of these powers are almost universally useless in given content, and nowhere in HR will you find consistent AoE debuff that even slightly rivals that of a DC.
Essentially, the TL;DR version is that a fully geared and spec'ced nature HR using all their support abilities is roughly 1/3rd of a DC of equal gear and skill that just throws divinity astral shields. If the DC does more than just throw circles it falls even further behind to maybe 1/5th as good. Sometimes in highly geared entry level T2 groups that will be enough (Though far, far from ideal), but if you plan on ever getting into CN or even harder T2 dungeons you will very quickly find that it is not ever good enough.
MoF/Thaum CWSS/Thaum CWIV/Protector GFSW/Combat HRSM/Destroyer GWFWK/Executioner TRDO/Faithful DC
Fox Shift - The dodge, much like boar skin, is removed on any attack. This includes minor attacks, making it utterly unreliable in any PvE content as a form of actual mitigation.
Your overall post is spot-on I think but I wanted to address this one. FS is great for boss fights or any fight vs mainly aoe enemies. I think it is way under rated and combined with the upcoming improvements of its melee counterpart, is one of the best encounters in the game.
Your overall post is spot-on I think but I wanted to address this one. FS is great for boss fights or any fight vs mainly aoe enemies. I think it is way under rated and combined with the upcoming improvements of its melee counterpart, is one of the best encounters in the game.
In my opinion the only reason to use Fox Shift is because the other options are so bad that it doesn't really matter what you put on your bar; also Fox Shift at least does damage which Nature HR in particular is seriously lacking. So, considering that it doesn't really matter what's on your bar you're correct. (I tend to agree with your other posts on the subject as well Overdrive ^_^ )
Even considering that though, I would never call Fox Shift reliable (Although it certainly can save one's <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font>$ if you're lucky). It's something you put on your bar because it does some damage rather than it being any really reliable form of protecting your team. I fully admit that towards the end of my Nature testing I was using Boar's Hide/Oak/Fox simply because I found out the overall healing and buffing was mostly terrible and Fox at least hit hard.
You can use any combination of the buff powers, but all the combinations are terribly under powered; that was my ultimate appraisal of the Nature tree. The appeal of doing damage through Fox eventually made me abandon it all together as it became quickly obvious that damage is the HR's strongest role and it doesn't significantly matter one way or the other if the CD on Fox's 'buff' power is reduced.
(I.E. you can wear Royal Guard armor and still spam the Fox Shift 'buff' as Combat or especially as Archery for much the same effect with far, far higher damage. Prime Critical from Archery combined with Royal Guard is more than enough cool down reduction on their own. Amusingly, I don't use Fox on any spec but Combat anymore. Of course, I don't play anymore on the live servers at all...)
EDIT:
Oh, I do stand corrected though. Fox is probably better than Oak depending on your gear and what spec you are. Still, it's the smartest idiot on the playground. The Nature spec itself is the problem.
MoF/Thaum CWSS/Thaum CWIV/Protector GFSW/Combat HRSM/Destroyer GWFWK/Executioner TRDO/Faithful DC
afraid not, nature is the worst spec for one of the least useful classes in game (which for the most part is getting worse in Module 3 all together with Split nerf+ Fox shift nerf breaking both range and melee options) Sad truth is HR could use a lot of reworking. The only point of nature is if you want to build a tanky HR build for kicks and giggles.
This is going to be long, but unless the responses bring up valid points it's my last post on the subject.
What this boils down to is that you admit that HR's are unable to effectively heal, and that decent groups actually don't need a healer period. Healing over time could, in theory, work out fine but it should perhaps be noted that the healing buff HR's are getting on test are over double those of live and are still insufficient. You can argue the insufficient point if you wish, but on live it would certainly appear that even the developers are admitting that it's not a currently viable path for HR's to be a primary healer.
^ Verbatim from test server patch notes ^
This is a rather misleading position to take in my opinion, as a nature spec. HR does damage comparable to a GF. It does not actually aid in the clear in any significant way. And as you say, a CW will tell you that a controlled creature also does not generate damage. This neatly explains how you 'carry' a team with your incredibly low heals and unreliable mitigation buffs (Or the even worse dodge mitigation). You aren't carrying anyone, you are quite honestly being carried.
Those same CW no doubt out heal you in those very same dungeons through the lifesteal that any PvE CW worth their salt has. (This also assumes that the group is geared, which I'll address below) Certainly Oak Skin stacks with lifesteal/regen, but sad to say simply the lifesteal is plenty and in those situations where it is not plenty Oak Skin does not make a large enough difference to replace burst healing.
It's true, you can respec to try it out but I can virtually guarantee you'll switch back within a week unless you're playing with a premade that can carry you. The legit channel is also chock full of bored fully geared 60's, which pretty much leads me to the conclusion that you've been carried a whole lot. The fact you seem to believe that burst healing isn't important for the primary healer to have doubles down on that theory.
In my experience the HR is incapable of filling the healing slot in any group that would actually profit from healing; and any group that does not need the healing will get far more use out of an actual DPS HR or some other damage dealer/CC class. Perhaps somewhat ironically I found this out by teaming with various people from the legit channel who were nice enough to let me test this out with them.
Just for reference, a 50k hit (AoE or ST) will likely heal as much and more as the entire duration of your oak skin. Such hits are not uncommon, and regardless the heal over time from simple applied DoT's will still outheal your HR. I can say this with a high degree of confidence from personal experience. You can attack my overall skill as a healer if you wish, but it's not a terribly complicated thing to cast Boar's Hide/Stag/Oak while spamming Split Shot; and that is essentially what you suggest as a play style.
This doesn't even begin to talk about the actual functionality of Oak Skin, Boar's Hide, Fox Shift, or Stag. I'll enumerate below the downsides of each of the abilities in question.
Oak Skin - Low Sustained Healing, no burst healing. This is actually the best of the bunch in actual effectiveness, which isn't saying much.
Boar's Hide - One stack disappears on any damage taken, including DoT's and minor attacks. In DoT/minion heavy dungeons, you will never have it's full effectiveness and will often have zero stacks and rarely will you have more than 5. If you ever have ten, it's because your CW is pro and you are deadweight.
Fox Shift - The dodge, much like boar skin, is removed on any attack. This includes minor attacks, making it utterly unreliable in any PvE content as a form of actual mitigation.
Stag - The temporary HP are so paltry that the added mitigation is functionally only good for one hit. Even when combined with Boar's Hide, those HP are toast on virtually any attack.
You're welcome to argue these points, but it was my expierence when attempting a full nature spec healing/buff spec. It's also important to consider that most of the flip-side abilities you get when using any of these powers are almost universally useless in given content, and nowhere in HR will you find consistent AoE debuff that even slightly rivals that of a DC.
Essentially, the TL;DR version is that a fully geared and spec'ced nature HR using all their support abilities is roughly 1/3rd of a DC of equal gear and skill that just throws divinity astral shields. If the DC does more than just throw circles it falls even further behind to maybe 1/5th as good. Sometimes in highly geared entry level T2 groups that will be enough (Though far, far from ideal), but if you plan on ever getting into CN or even harder T2 dungeons you will very quickly find that it is not ever good enough.
Please visit preview on upcoming changes to fox shift, it will be nerfed to only hit a single target 2 times (up from 1 time on preview) and will gain dmg/CC immunity during shift. Basically dmg wise itll become useless while gaining a short immunity period
afraid not, nature is the worst spec for one of the least useful classes in game (which for the most part is getting worse in Module 3 all together with Split nerf+ Fox shift nerf breaking both range and melee options) Sad truth is HR could use a lot of reworking. The only point of nature is if you want to build a tanky HR build for kicks and giggles.
Do you mean "least useful" in pve or pvp? This being a game, the purpose being fun, it seems to me that the relative usefulness of HR to the intended purpose of the game (fun) is entirely subjective. It is "useful" enough that thousands of people play it. Its the HR parade in here, please don't pee on it. Thanks
Comments
1- The most important - Healing: HR has only 1 healing over time skill ( Oak skin) which is totally suck right now.
2- Debuff: HR has root, which is just useless in PvE where people prefer knock mobs off some ledges or plainly nuke them as fast as possible. CW hates HR's root because it messes up their rotation (meatball/repel). That means it is better to have no HR in dungeon teams.
3- Buff: HR has 1 dodge buff (Fox cunning), 2 damage mitigation buff (Oak skin and Boar hide), temporary HP buff(Stag heart), extra dmg buff (Hawkeye).
-Fox cunning is one time use so it is useless for most of the time.
-Oak skin is so-so.
-Boar hide offers 10-20% damage mitigation, only lasts for 5-10 hits. Compare to DC's Astral shield which has not hit limit and heals at the same time, it is just meh.
-Stag heart is ok but again DC's version is much better.
-Hawkeye is currently bugged, offers a minimum flat damage buff. So it is plainly useless.
In my opinion, nature HR can replace DC in dungeons below 60. After that, sadly, it is a big NO. The new paragon path looks like being tailored for Nature HR. However, it is full of bugs right now so I cannot say anything about it.
The actual answer is Yes, a Nature HR can replace a DC. I know because I have done so in every T2 dungeon successfully.
Grab a Plaguefire enchant and a lantern artifact for some added utility and you'll see dungeons runs can go VERY smoothly.
Don't listen to people that have never done it, I assure you, it's not only possible, but very fun.
Heather - Ranger
James - Paladin
Jet - Warlock
Royal - Cleric
Gray - Rogue
Red - Wizard
Ios - Barbarian
We're getting more roots and more skills to increase the damage our party does in Module 3, as well as the ability to restore HP, AP and stam/guard via daily and an at-will.
So the answer to OP's question is definitely going to be "Yes" in Mod 3, provided the Nature HR knows what they're doing.
A dungeon that doesn't need a DC isn't an actual successful; HR for DC replacement.
I have tried Nature HR as a healing/buff class on live and test, and it is viable in neither. Pathfinder helps, but isn't actually released yet, and doesn't even need Oaken Skin to do it's healing.
If the team is excellent, they don't even need a DC; but if the question is 'if the group needs a healer will Nature HR suffice' the answer is a resounding unequivocal no. I have tried it. It does not 'heal' outside of one power. It gives unreliable mitigation buffs, not 'healing'.
People that tell you 'yes' to that question are simply trolling you. Lifesteal + regen by itself heals more than a Nature HR. Period.
Oh wait... none of what I just said is true.
Oh? What skill outside of OS heals on the HR and how much does it heal for on your HR? If you quote the 30% mitigation off stag heart and boar's hide I'll explain why you're wrong but I probably won't be nice about it. If you include the 20% only you get from your feat tree I'll really not be nice.
Compared to DC burst OR heal over time? It's a complete joke to say otherwise. A CW with 1k lifesteal will out heal your entire dungeon healing. Guaranteed. No hyperbole at all.
In Module 3 the satchel heals for OS's entire duration in one go. And it stacks. But it's not Module 3 yet, it isn't even done. I'm not wrong about Live Server.
I wasn't even talking about your post and I apologize if you thought I was directing my comments at your Module 3 commentary instead of this guy:
Anyways, as I said, don't listen to people that have never done it. You can absolutely carry a team through dungeons. Effective healing is a lot more involved than 'burst healing'. In fact, I can't remember the last time I DC'd for a group that needed burst healing. Everything is geared toward healing over time and mitigating the actual damage your team takes. If you are using a divine Forgemaster's, the party you are playing with needs to learn how to play. Even Val doesn't necessitate burst healing if your people are good.
Astral shield is about regen and mitigation. Sound familiar? Astral seal debuffs. We debuff... Divine Armor provides mitigation and temp hp. Again, these are tools nature HR's have in abundance. So, what is it that HRs also bring to the party?
Well, back to Effective Healing - like many CWs will tell you, dead things don't need to be controlled. A Hunter Ranger, even Nature spec'd, will put out way more damage than a DC. Dead things don't damage your party. Effective healing.
There's really no use in arguing about it when you can try for yourself and see. I recommend going to the Legit community with your nature HR and forming a team.
Heather - Ranger
James - Paladin
Jet - Warlock
Royal - Cleric
Gray - Rogue
Red - Wizard
Ios - Barbarian
Assuming otherwise optimal conditions, a good HR augments the other roles so well it should almost be indispensable in dungeons. But conditions are not optimal (see op cw), and I don't think most rangers play to augment the other roles so much as to top damage done and deaths suffered.
Jugger Conq GF
....
(Fox shift is excellent vs Valindra / Fulminorax.
It's will never be a replacement because DC's have Daunting Glow and that massively OP Hallowed ground.
What this boils down to is that you admit that HR's are unable to effectively heal, and that decent groups actually don't need a healer period. Healing over time could, in theory, work out fine but it should perhaps be noted that the healing buff HR's are getting on test are over double those of live and are still insufficient. You can argue the insufficient point if you wish, but on live it would certainly appear that even the developers are admitting that it's not a currently viable path for HR's to be a primary healer.
^ Verbatim from test server patch notes ^
This is a rather misleading position to take in my opinion, as a nature spec. HR does damage comparable to a GF. It does not actually aid in the clear in any significant way. And as you say, a CW will tell you that a controlled creature also does not generate damage. This neatly explains how you 'carry' a team with your incredibly low heals and unreliable mitigation buffs (Or the even worse dodge mitigation). You aren't carrying anyone, you are quite honestly being carried.
Those same CW no doubt out heal you in those very same dungeons through the lifesteal that any PvE CW worth their salt has. (This also assumes that the group is geared, which I'll address below) Certainly Oak Skin stacks with lifesteal/regen, but sad to say simply the lifesteal is plenty and in those situations where it is not plenty Oak Skin does not make a large enough difference to replace burst healing.
It's true, you can respec to try it out but I can virtually guarantee you'll switch back within a week unless you're playing with a premade that can carry you. The legit channel is also chock full of bored fully geared 60's, which pretty much leads me to the conclusion that you've been carried a whole lot. The fact you seem to believe that burst healing isn't important for the primary healer to have doubles down on that theory.
In my experience the HR is incapable of filling the healing slot in any group that would actually profit from healing; and any group that does not need the healing will get far more use out of an actual DPS HR or some other damage dealer/CC class. Perhaps somewhat ironically I found this out by teaming with various people from the legit channel who were nice enough to let me test this out with them.
Just for reference, a 50k hit (AoE or ST) will likely heal as much and more as the entire duration of your oak skin. Such hits are not uncommon, and regardless the heal over time from simple applied DoT's will still outheal your HR. I can say this with a high degree of confidence from personal experience. You can attack my overall skill as a healer if you wish, but it's not a terribly complicated thing to cast Boar's Hide/Stag/Oak while spamming Split Shot; and that is essentially what you suggest as a play style.
This doesn't even begin to talk about the actual functionality of Oak Skin, Boar's Hide, Fox Shift, or Stag. I'll enumerate below the downsides of each of the abilities in question.
Oak Skin - Low Sustained Healing, no burst healing. This is actually the best of the bunch in actual effectiveness, which isn't saying much.
Boar's Hide - One stack disappears on any damage taken, including DoT's and minor attacks. In DoT/minion heavy dungeons, you will never have it's full effectiveness and will often have zero stacks and rarely will you have more than 5. If you ever have ten, it's because your CW is pro and you are deadweight.
Fox Shift - The dodge, much like boar skin, is removed on any attack. This includes minor attacks, making it utterly unreliable in any PvE content as a form of actual mitigation.
Stag - The temporary HP are so paltry that the added mitigation is functionally only good for one hit. Even when combined with Boar's Hide, those HP are toast on virtually any attack.
You're welcome to argue these points, but it was my expierence when attempting a full nature spec healing/buff spec. It's also important to consider that most of the flip-side abilities you get when using any of these powers are almost universally useless in given content, and nowhere in HR will you find consistent AoE debuff that even slightly rivals that of a DC.
Essentially, the TL;DR version is that a fully geared and spec'ced nature HR using all their support abilities is roughly 1/3rd of a DC of equal gear and skill that just throws divinity astral shields. If the DC does more than just throw circles it falls even further behind to maybe 1/5th as good. Sometimes in highly geared entry level T2 groups that will be enough (Though far, far from ideal), but if you plan on ever getting into CN or even harder T2 dungeons you will very quickly find that it is not ever good enough.
Your overall post is spot-on I think but I wanted to address this one. FS is great for boss fights or any fight vs mainly aoe enemies. I think it is way under rated and combined with the upcoming improvements of its melee counterpart, is one of the best encounters in the game.
Jugger Conq GF
....
In my opinion the only reason to use Fox Shift is because the other options are so bad that it doesn't really matter what you put on your bar; also Fox Shift at least does damage which Nature HR in particular is seriously lacking. So, considering that it doesn't really matter what's on your bar you're correct. (I tend to agree with your other posts on the subject as well Overdrive ^_^ )
Even considering that though, I would never call Fox Shift reliable (Although it certainly can save one's <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font>$ if you're lucky). It's something you put on your bar because it does some damage rather than it being any really reliable form of protecting your team. I fully admit that towards the end of my Nature testing I was using Boar's Hide/Oak/Fox simply because I found out the overall healing and buffing was mostly terrible and Fox at least hit hard.
You can use any combination of the buff powers, but all the combinations are terribly under powered; that was my ultimate appraisal of the Nature tree. The appeal of doing damage through Fox eventually made me abandon it all together as it became quickly obvious that damage is the HR's strongest role and it doesn't significantly matter one way or the other if the CD on Fox's 'buff' power is reduced.
(I.E. you can wear Royal Guard armor and still spam the Fox Shift 'buff' as Combat or especially as Archery for much the same effect with far, far higher damage. Prime Critical from Archery combined with Royal Guard is more than enough cool down reduction on their own. Amusingly, I don't use Fox on any spec but Combat anymore. Of course, I don't play anymore on the live servers at all...)
EDIT:
Oh, I do stand corrected though. Fox is probably better than Oak depending on your gear and what spec you are. Still, it's the smartest idiot on the playground. The Nature spec itself is the problem.
Jugger Conq GF
....
Please visit preview on upcoming changes to fox shift, it will be nerfed to only hit a single target 2 times (up from 1 time on preview) and will gain dmg/CC immunity during shift. Basically dmg wise itll become useless while gaining a short immunity period
Do you mean "least useful" in pve or pvp? This being a game, the purpose being fun, it seems to me that the relative usefulness of HR to the intended purpose of the game (fun) is entirely subjective. It is "useful" enough that thousands of people play it. Its the HR parade in here, please don't pee on it. Thanks
Jugger Conq GF
....