Guild Wars 2

What do you think about this trait?

Zephyr’s speed seems superior?

Haven’t really tested it yet.

I’m speaking from an spvp viewpoint:

My reactions to this skill are mixed. My experience with it and dogs (krytan drakehound & wolf) is that you don’t need it over the CC the dogs provide. Add to the fact that the aoe is pretty decently small and it becomes pretty difficult to actually hit someone with it. I’ve heard people say that it’s really good with birds and I’m tempted to agree, but I haven’t personally tried this.

That being said, Zephyr’s speed has been pretty useful for me. It’s really great on stomps (like, really really great) and, if you’re running Allie’s aid you can generally get someone from dead to full in about 2 seconds tops.

Overall I just like Zephyr’s speed more.

Also PvP standpoint:

Zephyr Speed is better because it is way more reliable. Pet got more useful in the recent changes but it is still a major weakness of ranger by not being reliable enough. Beastly warden shifts you more towards this weakness. You will miss this. The AI will mess up, you will just time it wrong or the enemy will evade it. The AoE is small.

Compared to that you can also time ZS wrong but that’s about it. It will always speed up your burst or stomp or rezz or even your heal cast.

Ive been using it on celestial trapper with Jaguar pet a decent amount. Its nice since the F2 on it is instant

100% hell yes to BW. Many of the builds I’ve been experimenting with involve both RT and WK so QZ isn’t out of the question for quickness if that’s something critical to your concept.

I posted this in another thread: since the taunt is instantaneous, you can use it as an interrupt and cancel cast your pet F2 (something you’d want to do to get 3 controllable interrupts out of your wolf).

The taunt itself is also very powerful effectively turning every pet into a wolf. It can be doubled up to land the pet F2; for example everyone just runs slightly away when they see a drakehound howling, but the taunt brings them into the immobilize. The 2 second taunt times nicely with many of the insanely long pet cast times.

Finally, related to the previous note, something I’ve been talking about for over 24 hours but have still not tried, but am totally sure it will work; you should be able to land pet cone attacks now. For example taunt someone into a pink moa daze for massive CC.

Beastly Warden works amazing for birds based on how it works.

You see it goes off at the start of your Pets F2 ability…Meaning your pets have to get to the target first and use their F2 ability.

Spiders for Example aren’t very good with Beastly Warden because they can pop the taunt anywhere and not have to be next to the target to pull them.

Since the Birds F2 requires them to be next to the target they’ll wait to pop it right when they’re next to the enemy.

Cats with Pounce woudn’t be good either, because they won’t be close to the target when they pounce (unless you’re next to them when ya swap)

Marsh and Swamp Drake wouldn’t be great either…same with Wolf Unless ya swap next to them.

You want pets with Melee Range F2’s basically

Bestial Warden is my choice. I love Zephyr’s Speed too, but the control that Bestial Warden gives you is excellent. I like options, and that’s exactly what Bestial Warden gives you. Options in what pet you want to take to benefit your playstyle. You don’t need a wolf for the control anymore. Any pet can be given this trait and be effective crowd control.

Birds have become amazing because you can taunt enemies into their burst or use them as an interrupt in a sticky situation. You can’t have to give up the high pet damage for control anymore.

My River Drake is able to reliably land his F2 now. It’s a lot of fun, and I can only imagine the frustration of my opponent as they rush me only to pause, turn around, and stare directly into my drake’s mouth as he charges up his lightning.

I actually hate that we have to pick.

Might stacking works so nicely with a BM build. And BW obviously makes your pets F2s easier to land.

Between Quick Draw on LB3 and Beastly Warden, I’m not missing Hide in Plain Sight as much as I thought I would be.

I miss it in principle, as in I hope druid get’s stealthy stuff, but I’m really impressed with the synergy and general target kittenery you can pull off on your foes.

It’s a contender for worst GM ever.

240 range… Well that leaves out any pets with range over 240… which is most of them. The point of pet F2 imo is to pres F@ and have it run into range and use the skill… not drop the 240 the second you press.

If you use this with a melee pet that has a ranged F@ ex: wolf, you need to wait for the wolf to be on top of the person to use it. This is far too much effort to make it worth it.

So let’s say you use a full melee pet like a bird. Unfortunately you need to time it perfectly and it still fails most of the time vs anything that is moving. I even tested on centaurs with a bear and it failed standing still lmao.

Then there’s the fact that assumign you do land it, it causes the enemy to attack your already glassy pet which dies to auto attacks and wayward aoe anyway.

FAIL.

vespers.1759:

It’s a contender for worst GM ever.

240 range… Well that leaves out any pets with range over 240… which is most of them. The point of pet F2 imo is to pres F@ and have it run into range and use the skill… not drop the 240 the second you press.

If you use this with a melee pet that has a ranged F@ ex: wolf, you need to wait for the wolf to be on top of the person to use it. This is far too much effort to make it worth it.

So let’s say you use a full melee pet like a bird. Unfortunately you need to time it perfectly and it still fails most of the time vs anything that is moving. I even tested on centaurs with a bear and it failed standing still lmao.

Then there’s the fact that assumign you do land it, it causes the enemy to attack your already glassy pet which dies to auto attacks and wayward aoe anyway.

FAIL.

Whatever you say boss. Your definition of too much effort and mine are very different things, but I’ll agree it’s more effective when you’re in melee with a melee pet.

Screwing with people’s targeting is something I value myself. Your mileage may vary?

I like it but I’m still not sold on it yet. What I mean by that is that in instances where I’m not running it, I haven’t found a situation yet where I think to myself “if only I had taken Beastly Warden.”

Like, I totally acknowledge it’s value and utility, I just don’t see it as out-competing any of the other overall specializations I could take, except maybe Marksmanship on certain builds. At least not to the point where it’s a clear choice at the current moment.

Right now it’s just in a position, along with Quickdraw, where I can’t actually tell if I like it better or not.

I have for certain decided it on it as the more offense oriented alternative to a power build for sure though, the two best power setups I’ve played with and seen other rangers run being 6/0/6/6/0 and 6/0/6/0/6.

Thanks for your thoughts guys. I assumed that results will vary depending on which pet you use.

Birds it is!

It saved my kitten in a fight today that’s for sure.

Beastly warden in my eyes is to good not to have is an instant CC. I love it against thieves. Thief uses shadow refuge DENIED because if you have a wolf he now has to dodge the taunt and the fear. If the taunt gets him thats a instant reveal. It is also great for team fights and peeling for another or yourself.

So many useless for Beastly Warden.

I’ve been testing it out with Power Build
Wilderness Survival + Skirmishing + BeastMastery
Its been working out very well for me.

I’d go with nay if you fight stuff with a ton of cleave and aoe like engi medi guard etc since pets will be dying at a quicker rate than before

unless you use something tanky like drakes/spiders etc since pets will eat all the aoe.

Beastly Warden is good on a pet that doesn’t have a CC skill for F2, like hawks / snowy owls. In fact, the snowy owl might be the best Beastly Warden pet due to the fact that it applies chill.

I see BW becoming pretty much a must, if the ranger is to be on an organized team. interrupting heals, stomps, rezzes; taunting to focus the target and burst it down; quick defense against thieves and shatter mesmers which can easily turn the fight around…the applications are near limitless. BW also gives you more choice with pets.

I was pretty hyped on quickdraw as well, it’s a tough decision (not for me though).