Guild Wars 2

Seartch from reddit ‘’Soulbeast and Renegade traits’’ for more info

Seeing plenty of synergy with the core ranger in this, like the fury and protection tallents. It’s certainly a step up from the druid in that regard. Looking forward to spending some hours on build crafting next preview weekend!

And we were right, Eternal Bond has alower CD in PvE!
90s in PvP, 60s in PvE

I’d delete the link if I were you, posting links to datamined items is forbidden, I just had a post deleted an hour ago for it. Instead say it exists on Imgur etc.

Those are some really good traits and some really good synergy.

Thread on Reddit dug up Moas Stance.

Lasts 8 secs, 25 cd.

3 secs of Protection
6 secs of Fury and Swiftness.
Increases boon Duration by 66%.

Okay, ya, some of these aren’t making to release.

Live Fast giving 3s of quickness with every beast skill when some have less than 10s cooldown? Swoop is a 1200 leap on a 10s cooldown. Nevermind the quickness on dagger 3.

Unstoppable union breaking stun and giving 4s of unblockable attacks every 10 seconds?

Getting “no cooldown ancient seeds” flashbacks here.

These sound way too good to last long at all in pvp.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

I’d delete the link if I were you, posting links to datamined items is forbidden, I just had a post deleted an hour ago for it. Instead say it exists on Imgur etc.

Good point. Seartch from reddit ‘’Soulbeast and Renegade traits’’

Substance E.4852:

Okay, ya, some of these aren’t making to release.

Live Fast giving 3s of quickness with every beast skill when some have less than 10s cooldown? Swoop is a 1200 leap on a 10s cooldown. Nevermind the quickness on dagger 3.

Unstoppable union breaking stun and giving 4s of unblockable attacks every 10 seconds?

Getting “no cooldown ancient seeds” flashbacks here.

These sound way too good to last long at all in pvp.

Have you seen what other specs are getting?

Levetty.1279:

Substance E.4852:

Okay, ya, some of these aren’t making to release.

Live Fast giving 3s of quickness with every beast skill when some have less than 10s cooldown? Swoop is a 1200 leap on a 10s cooldown. Nevermind the quickness on dagger 3.

Unstoppable union breaking stun and giving 4s of unblockable attacks every 10 seconds?

Getting “no cooldown ancient seeds” flashbacks here.

These sound way too good to last long at all in pvp.

Have you seen what other specs are getting?

I’ve long stopped expecting parity from the Anet balance team. They’ve repeatedly hit the class with massive nerfs any time we even approached a functional state in pvp.

The only reason Druid lasted as long as it has is because it’s core healing mechanic was integral to the success of Raids and they only just recently finally went whole hog with game mode splits.

Fresh Reinforcement made me wonder do is it totaly new trait in soulbeast line or is it added effect on Fortifying Bond.

Zorpi.5904:

Fresh Reinforcement made me wonder do is it totaly new trait in soulbeast line or is it added effect on Fortifying Bond.

New trait, but being able to run Fortifying Bond and then copy the boons over when entering beastmode is exactly what we needed.

Lazze.9870:

Zorpi.5904:

Fresh Reinforcement made me wonder do is it totaly new trait in soulbeast line or is it added effect on Fortifying Bond.

New trait, but being able to run Fortifying Bond and then copy the boons over when entering beastmode is exactly what we needed.

Would have been ideal to do the opposite as well, copy your boons to the pet when you exit beastmode. Fortifying Bond won’t do that as it only copies newly applied boons, not the current ones.

“Whenever you enter Beastmode, your pets boons are copied to you. Whenever you exit Beastmode, your boons are copied to your pet.”

Levetty.1279:

Substance E.4852:

Okay, ya, some of these aren’t making to release.

Live Fast giving 3s of quickness with every beast skill when some have less than 10s cooldown? Swoop is a 1200 leap on a 10s cooldown. Nevermind the quickness on dagger 3.

Unstoppable union breaking stun and giving 4s of unblockable attacks every 10 seconds?

Getting “no cooldown ancient seeds” flashbacks here.

These sound way too good to last long at all in pvp.

Have you seen what other specs are getting?

Don’t forget it’s classic Anet behavior to make things in expansions OP to give people yet another reason to buy them. It’s been like this since GW1, and I don’t think they will change that.

As ususal, expect heavy nerfs to anything you see, somethings prior to release, but most of them after a couple of days/weeks/months.
What’s quite annoying though, is the very long time it takes them to go back to something they overnerfed, like Lingering Light.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

I’d delete the link if I were you, posting links to datamined items is forbidden, I just had a post deleted an hour ago for it. Instead say it exists on Imgur etc.

No wonder many people shift their attention to Reddit now.

If you post here, you have to suffer from needless infraction, and severe limitation to what information you can get.

Apparently when in Reddit, Anet doesn’t care about datamining anymore.
Anet seems to be more friendly in Reddit too.

OGDeadHead.8326:

Levetty.1279:

Substance E.4852:

Okay, ya, some of these aren’t making to release.

Live Fast giving 3s of quickness with every beast skill when some have less than 10s cooldown? Swoop is a 1200 leap on a 10s cooldown. Nevermind the quickness on dagger 3.

Unstoppable union breaking stun and giving 4s of unblockable attacks every 10 seconds?

Getting “no cooldown ancient seeds” flashbacks here.

These sound way too good to last long at all in pvp.

Have you seen what other specs are getting?

Don’t forget it’s classic Anet behavior to make things in expansions OP to give people yet another reason to buy them. It’s been like this since GW1, and I don’t think they will change that.

As ususal, expect heavy nerfs to anything you see, somethings prior to release, but most of them after a couple of days/weeks/months.
What’s quite annoying though, is the very long time it takes them to go back to something they overnerfed, like Lingering Light.

I kinda think it’s better for them to overtune the spec initially, so incremental nerfs can be used to bring it in line. At least you don’t end up with something completely disappointing.

Lazze.9870:

Zorpi.5904:

Fresh Reinforcement made me wonder do is it totaly new trait in soulbeast line or is it added effect on Fortifying Bond.

New trait, but being able to run Fortifying Bond and then copy the boons over when entering beastmode is exactly what we needed.

Personaly i don’t think endles boon copying is good desing and ranger already have fortifying bond and heal as one for that. So why have one more when that space could be used something more unique or simple to add cooldown reduction trait for stanses

Substance E.4852:

I’ve long stopped expecting parity from the Anet balance team. They’ve repeatedly hit the class with massive nerfs any time we even approached a functional state in pvp.

The only reason Druid lasted as long as it has is because it’s core healing mechanic was integral to the success of Raids and they only just recently finally went whole hog with game mode splits.

And yet the druid is still functional in the highest tier in PvP after all the hits it has taken.

I see a couple of soulbeast traits that may get some cooldowns, but nothing that screams op after some small tweaks. Solid, for the most part. Twice as Viceous is kinda lame. The grandmasters seem undertuned.

Not saying I’m not afraid of Anet’s nerfbat…

Zorpi.5904:

Personaly i don’t think endles boon copying is good desing and ranger already have fortifying bond and heal as one for that. So why have one more when that space could be used something more unique or simple to add cooldown reduction trait for stanses

Eh. What? You’d rather have cooldown trait for stances than the ability to run Fortfying bond, use heal as one, enter beastmode and gain all those boons? You realize Fortifying bond is completely useless whenever we enter beastmode without a trait like this, no? Or even sharing boons to our pet at all before entering beastmode?

Soulbeast looks more in line with something like Berserker in its current state then the power creep that is coming with Weaver.

Lazze.9870:

Eh. What? You’d rather have cooldown trait for stances than the ability to run Fortfying bond, use heal as one, enter beastmode and gain all those boons? You realize Fortifying bond is completely useless whenever we enter beastmode without a trait like this, no? Or even sharing boons to our pet at all before entering beastmode?

I would rather have cooldown trait for stances(or something else) than Fresh reinforcement. There should not be need for trait like that at all.

Finally! I’m happy we get to see what we’re going to be getting

On other other hand, Eternal Bond and Oppressive Superiority still seem underwhelming to me and not worthy of being GM traits.
__________________________________________________________________

Leader of the Pack should at the very least have 20% cooldown reduction on stances. If Anet is generous, the allies’ reduced duration removed as well.

Stance durations are as follows:

• Bear: 4s
• Dolyak: 6s
• Griffon: 8s
• Moa: 8s
• Vulture: 6s
• One Wolf Pack: 8s

Those durations are halved on allies when you take Leader of the Pack.
__________________________________________________________________

Also, for consistency, Fresh Reinforcement should copy the boons you have to your pet when you leave Beastmode. In the current state, we leave Beastmode with a weakened pet because every boon it had went to us and it receives nothing in return when it comes back out.
__________________________________________________________________

Furthermore, I can see One Wolf Pack being extremely underwhelming if it doesn’t function similarly to Reaper’s trait, Chilling Victory. Single attacks can activate this trait more than once before going on cooldown.

In WvW especially, One Wolf Pack won’t be worth taking if skills like Barrage, Rapid Fire, or shotgun skills such as Splitblade or Volley, only proc the damage once. Though, I believe that this change would be welcome in all gamemodes.

Zorpi.5904:

Lazze.9870:

Eh. What? You’d rather have cooldown trait for stances than the ability to run Fortfying bond, use heal as one, enter beastmode and gain all those boons? You realize Fortifying bond is completely useless whenever we enter beastmode without a trait like this, no? Or even sharing boons to our pet at all before entering beastmode?

I would rather have cooldown trait for stances(or something else) than Fresh reinforcement. There should not be need for trait like that at all.

Excuse me, but do you ranger at all?
We got one heal, one trait in nature magic and now one trait with soulbeast revolved around sharing boons with our class mechanic. You’re wrong when you’re saying Fresh Reinforcement is too much. You got two other traits to chose between. This trait is perfect in combination with Nature Magic. Period. It was needed.

There already is a stance trait. You can roll that boring stance cooldown suggestion of yours into that trait instead. Anet doesn’t do multiple traits for single type of utility skills anymore, except passives procs (and if its anything this game doesn’t need more of, it’s passive procs of defensive utility skills).

To be completely honest, aside from unblockable attacks and high quickness uptime, it looks more like a PvE spec.
It doesn’t have any form of condi cleansing aside from the heal skill, which is not good (look at Healing Spring), it also has really poor base healing.
I don’t understand this sudden emphasis on the protection boon, on average, rangers don’t really have high protection uptime unless heavily specced.

This spec is made so that it encourages you to enter and exit beastmode, some pets may have some good skills in beastmode, but don’t forget that outside of it, they are still bad pets.

Levetty.1279:

Soulbeast looks more in line with something like Berserker in its current state then the power creep that is coming with Weaver.

Pretty much. In terms of PvP, I’m a little mad the only decent condi removal from rangers comes from Wilderness Knowledge, Soulbeast as well as the other traitlines offer nothing in that regard. I’m slightly dissapointed.

Lazze.9870:

Excuse me, but do you ranger at all?
We got one heal, one trait in nature magic and now one trait with soulbeast revolved around sharing boons with our class mechanic. “Too much”, lol. You got two other traits to chose between. This trait is PERFECT in combination with Nature Magic. Period.

The way I’m seeing the traits, if you’re running a Nature Magic boon build, you can choose Fresh Reinforcement for a few seconds of each boon (Doesn’t look like it copies but gives a few seconds of each boon the pet has. Can confirm this next week for sure) or you can go for Live Fast for extra fury and quickness then pop out of Beastmode and restack your usual boons with your pet whilst you wait for the Beastmode cooldown.

I’m leaning more towards Live Fast for the reliable quickness proc since on my boon Ranger I don’t exactly need an extra few seconds of each boon since I can reapply them quickly with shouts anyway.

Plus any build not using Shouts and boonshare would definitely run something other than Fresh Reinforcement.

Khenzy.9348:

To be completely honest, aside from unblockable attacks and high quickness uptime, it looks more like a PvE spec.
It doesn’t have any form of condi cleansing aside from the heal skill, which is not good (look at Healing Spring), it also has really poor base healing.
I don’t understand this sudden emphasis on the protection boon, on average, rangers don’t really have high protection uptime unless heavily specced.

This spec is made so that it encourages you to enter and exit beastmode, some pets may have some good skills in beastmode, but don’t forget that outside of it, they are still bad pets..

The Beastmastery/Nature Magic meta that has been going on for years now has a decent protection uptime. One of the stances got protection too. Then there are runes.

It’s a bit skewed towards PvE, but I see a lot of PvP use out of it.

Khenzy.9348:

Pretty much. In terms of PvP, I’m a little mad the only decent condi removal from rangers comes from Wilderness Knowledge, Soulbeast as well as the other traitlines offer nothing in that regard. I’m slightly dissapointed.

Druid line gives a large condi cleanse on entering astral form when traited.

Soulbeast gives (that we know of):

• Bear Stance – up to 8 conditions over 4 seconds.
• Spiritual Reprieve (pet F3 in Beastmode) – gives a few seconds of Resistance on a 40s cooldown.
• Photosynthesize (pet F2 in Bestmode)- removes 2 conditions on 20s cooldown

If you run Soulbeast with Wilderness Survival we can have a fair whack of condition removal.

psizone.8437:

Plus any build not using Shouts and boonshare would definitely run something other than Fresh Reinforcement.

Well, duh? It’s is one out of three adept traits. It’s not a forced minor trait. And I’ve been emphasizing on the useage of boonshare builds the entire time.

It’s literally there so you have the option depending on wether you run the standard BM/NM with shouts or not. Boonsharing with the pet is a thing. It would be awful if Anet didn’t see that when designing a spec where your pet is gonna go in and out of a merged state where it will loose all its boons.

psizone.8437:

I’m leaning more towards Live Fast for the reliable quickness proc since on my boon Ranger I don’t exactly need an extra few seconds of each boon since I can reapply them quickly with shouts anyway.

I lean towards both of the two other traits, but they are both less effective than this trait in a boonshare build.

And why argue and complain about a skill that is perfectly fine and has its clear useage when pretty much all our grandmasters looks undertuned at the moment. You want stance cooldown reduction? That GM stance trait clearly got room for it.

Lazze.9870:

Zorpi.5904:

Lazze.9870:

Eh. What? You’d rather have cooldown trait for stances than the ability to run Fortfying bond, use heal as one, enter beastmode and gain all those boons? You realize Fortifying bond is completely useless whenever we enter beastmode without a trait like this, no? Or even sharing boons to our pet at all before entering beastmode?

I would rather have cooldown trait for stances(or something else) than Fresh reinforcement. There should not be need for trait like that at all.

Excuse me, but do you ranger at all?
We got one heal, one trait in nature magic and now one trait with soulbeast revolved around sharing boons with our class mechanic. You’re wrong when you’re saying Fresh Reinforcement is too much. You got two other traits to chose between. This trait is perfect in combination with Nature Magic. Period. It was needed.

There already is a stance trait. You can roll that boring stance cooldown suggestion of yours into that trait instead. Anet doesn’t do multiple traits for single type of utility skills anymore, except passives procs (and if its anything this game doesn’t need more of, it’s passive procs of defensive utility skills).

No i dont play ranger. Only come here to get my daily ammount of salt.
Seriously speaking i don’t have problem with boon shearing as it is now. But in this case i don’t see eany point adding new trait to move boons from pet to ranger, when i would ben far more reasonable have fortifying bond to do same thing when enterin beastmode.

Khenzy.9348:

To be completely honest, aside from unblockable attacks and high quickness uptime, it looks more like a PvE spec.
It doesn’t have any form of condi cleansing aside from the heal skill, which is not good (look at Healing Spring), it also has really poor base healing.
I don’t understand this sudden emphasis on the protection boon, on average, rangers don’t really have high protection uptime unless heavily specced…

The heal is excellent if you remove the 8 conditions, that’s 8227 healing, so the best heal we have. That’s without any healing power and you can get +25% on top of that for melding with a supportive pet. So a possible 8 conditions removed and 10283 heal every 25s you call not good? If you are melded with the supportive pet, you get another 5k heal and 3s of Resistance for 5 allies in a 600 radius per 40s too.

They can’t give the SoulBeast any more condition removal, the core spec has enough to cover it, look at the changes to Survival skills and WK. Traiting Soften the Fall & WK with Bear Stance is 10 conditions every 25s… One skill.

Speaking of Wilderness Survival, that’s the reason for the Protection Boon focus, synergy with this traitline. Also see Protective Ward and Eternal Bond. As well as -33% condi damage when you have Prot.

D/T & S/A, Wilderness Survival (StF, RT, WK), Nature Magic (AA, VT, PW), Soulbeast (LF, PC, EB), Grove Runes, Sage amulet, Snow Owl & Bristleback, Bear Stance, MT, LR, QZ, Entangle. Think about it.

Lazze.9870:

Well, duh? It’s is one out of three adept traits. It’s not a forced minor trait. And I’ve been emphasizing on the useage of boonshare builds the entire time.

The way your comment came off was that there was no reason to use the other traits since Fresh Reinforcement seems to add onto Fortifying Bond. I mentioned other builds as a sidenote, but stand by Live Fast as a better trait even for boonshare builds.

Lazze.9870:

I lean towards both of the two other traits, but they are both less effective than this trait in a boonshare build.

The reason Live Fast may be more effective is that Fresh Reinforcement only gives you a few seconds of each boon your pet has at the time whereas Live Fast gives you 2 guaranteed boons (both very useful for a boonshare build) for a longer duration than if you qualified to receive them from Fresh Reinforcement. Plus you’d still have the boons currently on your character.

Lazze.9870:

And why argue and complain about a skill that is perfectly fine and has its clear useage when pretty much all our grandmasters looks undertuned at the moment. You want stance cooldown reduction? That GM stance trait clearly got room for it.

I’ll be honest, it was mainly your “Do you even play Ranger?” comment, it lured me into posting my opinion on the traits. You’re right though, currently the GM traits are awful and hopefully they rethink them after next weeks beta event.

Zorpi.5904:

Lazze.9870:

Zorpi.5904:

Lazze.9870:

Eh. What? You’d rather have cooldown trait for stances than the ability to run Fortfying bond, use heal as one, enter beastmode and gain all those boons? You realize Fortifying bond is completely useless whenever we enter beastmode without a trait like this, no? Or even sharing boons to our pet at all before entering beastmode?

I would rather have cooldown trait for stances(or something else) than Fresh reinforcement. There should not be need for trait like that at all.

Excuse me, but do you ranger at all?
We got one heal, one trait in nature magic and now one trait with soulbeast revolved around sharing boons with our class mechanic. You’re wrong when you’re saying Fresh Reinforcement is too much. You got two other traits to chose between. This trait is perfect in combination with Nature Magic. Period. It was needed.

There already is a stance trait. You can roll that boring stance cooldown suggestion of yours into that trait instead. Anet doesn’t do multiple traits for single type of utility skills anymore, except passives procs (and if its anything this game doesn’t need more of, it’s passive procs of defensive utility skills).

No i dont play ranger. Only come here to get my daily ammount of salt.
Seriously speaking i don’t have problem with boon shearing as it is now. But in this case i don’t see eany point adding new trait to move boons from pet to ranger, when i would ben far more reasonable have fortifying bond to do same thing when enterin beastmode.

You can’t have a core spec trait interact specifically with an eSpec.

Zorpi.5904:

Seriously speaking i don’t have problem with boon shearing as it is now. But in this case i don’t see eany point adding new trait to move boons from pet to ranger, when i would ben far more reasonable have fortifying bond to do same thing when enterin beastmode.

This would be a good QoL change to Fortifying Bond. I support this. It would have no effect on core ranger/druid, but it frees up a slot for a new trait in Soulbeast.

‘’Traits that affect your pet may affect you differently while in beastmode.’’

I was definitely hoping for some condition removal traits, but these seem pretty interesting. Second Skin may not remove conditions, but the affect is potent; especially for those of us running both WS and NM (Protective Ward.)

Unstoppable Union is really interesting by design because it gives us a reason to not camp Beast Mode, I like it. The stun break is pretty sweet, too.

Predator’s Cunning looks really fun as well, provided there’s no ICD. Does Poison Volley count as 5 procs if shotgunned into a single enemy? What about using the spider’s Poison Gas while in Beast Mode on a group? That’s a LOT of ticks.

Sevans.4619:

I was definitely hoping for some condition removal traits, but these seem pretty interesting. Second Skin may not remove conditions, but the affect is potent; especially for those of us running both WS and NM (Protective Ward.)

Unstoppable Union is really interesting by design because it gives us a reason to not camp Beast Mode, I like it. The stun break is pretty sweet, too.

Predator’s Cunning looks really fun as well, provided there’s no ICD. Does Poison Volley count as 5 procs if shotgunned into a single enemy? What about using the spider’s Poison Gas while in Beast Mode on a group? That’s a LOT of ticks.

UU confirms that we can enter and exit Beastmode instantly, which is a good thing.

Most are boring and uninspired traits. I can see lots of synergy, no doubt in that, but nothing is an eye catcher. All meh.

Then I look at Renegade traits, which are creative, and notice that they have a Shortbow piercing trait that will also give them 25% bleed damage. If traited, it means the Renegade SB AA is an AoE piercing bleed. Meanwhile, Ranger has to trait Light on your Feet, Hidden Barb and Sharpened Edges to keep SB relevant (3 traits), Renegade just has to trait one. Do you know Renegade has an AoE sharing ‘’Sharpening Stone’’ ? Now you do. Better AoE, better traits, better utilities.

everything looks alright, now one of the biggest question is dagger damage, if its going to be worth it to use it in power builds. One question tho, i see a trait to use dagger in the mainhand, apart from the one which say you gain beastmode. So that means we need to use another trait just to use dagger main hand? my guess is not because that will be mess up but who knows

Sevans.4619:

I was definitely hoping for some condition removal traits, but these seem pretty interesting. Second Skin may not remove conditions, but the affect is potent; especially for those of us running both WS and NM (Protective Ward.)

Unstoppable Union is really interesting by design because it gives us a reason to not camp Beast Mode, I like it. The stun break is pretty sweet, too.

Predator’s Cunning looks really fun as well, provided there’s no ICD. Does Poison Volley count as 5 procs if shotgunned into a single enemy? What about using the spider’s Poison Gas while in Beast Mode on a group? That’s a LOT of ticks.

yes, i think if you shoot poison volley at close ranger the opponent gets poison depending on how many arrows hit them, 1 poison for every arrow if i am not mistaken. Same with MH axe 2 n bleeds

Not impressed at all from a PvE stand point. A bunch of redundant boons that are obsolete in raids and dungeons with a chrono or warrior around.

Only good thing I saw there was 7% damage increase under fury and 10% extra damage when at higher % health than the target.

Ranger and pet should be like mesmer and illusions anyways, stat changes to ranger from boons should transfer over to pets without the ridiculous reliance on traits.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Khenzy.9348:

To be completely honest, aside from unblockable attacks and high quickness uptime, it looks more like a PvE spec.
It doesn’t have any form of condi cleansing aside from the heal skill, which is not good (look at Healing Spring), it also has really poor base healing.
I don’t understand this sudden emphasis on the protection boon, on average, rangers don’t really have high protection uptime unless heavily specced…

The heal is excellent if you remove the 8 conditions, that’s 8227 healing, so the best heal we have. That’s without any healing power and you can get +25% on top of that for melding with a supportive pet. So a possible 8 conditions removed and 10283 heal every 25s you call not good? If you are melded with the supportive pet, you get another 5k heal and 3s of Resistance for 5 allies in a 600 radius per 40s too.

They can’t give the SoulBeast any more condition removal, the core spec has enough to cover it, look at the changes to Survival skills and WK. Traiting Soften the Fall & WK with Bear Stance is 10 conditions every 25s… One skill.

Speaking of Wilderness Survival, that’s the reason for the Protection Boon focus, synergy with this traitline. Also see Protective Ward and Eternal Bond. As well as -33% condi damage when you have Prot.

D/T & S/A, Wilderness Survival (StF, RT, WK), Nature Magic (AA, VT, PW), Soulbeast (LF, PC, EB), Grove Runes, Sage amulet, Snow Owl & Bristleback, Bear Stance, MT, LR, QZ, Entangle. Think about it.

It’s all about Wilderness Survival, with protection boon even more. That’s exactly why I don’t like it that much. Noone likes an over reliance on one trait line. All professions have incredible condition removal if they fully focus on that, some seemingly bad skills also become really strong given proper context, that’s not the point of my post, too many ‘ifs’ in your post. Rangers still have to use super defensive traits(lines) to remain even slightly viable.

Bad pets outside of beastmode are still bad pets.
This elite spec doesn’t change the playstyle of the Ranger all that much either (compared to Druid even less so).

I also said that I’m only slightly dissapointed, more choices is always better.

Marksmanship – Glass cannon line
Skirmishing – versatile DPS line
Wilderness Survival – Durability line
Nature Magic – Utility line

It is a good thing that you need to decide what you want to take. Considering that most Elite gen 1 specs have fallen off a bit, I think it will not be that uncommon to see Core specs competing for slots as well.

I saw the traits in the wiki just now.

And so died the hope that shapeshifting might be one of the unrevealed ones.

That’s two for two in disappointing elite specs for ranger.

Caeledh.5437:

I saw the traits in the wiki just now.

And so died the hope that shapeshifting might be one of the unrevealed ones.

That’s two for two in disappointing elite specs for ranger.

Considering how many different pets we already have and will get in the future, shapeshifting would have been too huge an undertaking to achieve visually. And why are some people so hung up on the whole shapeshifting thing anyway? I’m honestly curious here.

Kreed.2768:

Caeledh.5437:

I saw the traits in the wiki just now.

And so died the hope that shapeshifting might be one of the unrevealed ones.

That’s two for two in disappointing elite specs for ranger.

Considering how many different pets we already have and will get in the future, shapeshifting would have been too huge an undertaking to achieve visually. And why are some people so hung up on the whole shapeshifting thing anyway? I’m honestly curious here.

They want the game to sacrifice it’s identity so that they can play a ripoff WoW shrugs

Caeledh.5437:

I saw the traits in the wiki just now.

And so died the hope that shapeshifting might be one of the unrevealed ones.

That’s two for two in disappointing elite specs for ranger.

For me it’s two for two in great ones that add a lot of variety to our core spec.

I’m not sure I’m excited for this elite spec. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of synergy between the GMs and the functionality of the rest of the traits within the line. None of the traits themselves seem particularly strong either.

I mean, aside from some of the more obvious interactions, like building for a pet swap offensive build to take advantage of the unblockable trait, going into beastmode and going for the big burst, and F2/beast skill based build, or the condi DPS spec that will probably see more PvE use than anything else, I’m not really seeing how this elite spec competes well with Druid, outside of PvE (and even then people will still want Druids.

Maybe I need to get my hands on it but from the level of information we have, the mechanics are carrying the appeal, and the functionality in the traits is lacking.

jcbroe.4329:

They want the game to sacrifice it’s identity so that they can play a ripoff WoW shrugs

Was getting that impression, yeah. I’d rather not GW2 become a WoW clone of any kind.

jcbroe.4329:

Maybe I need to get my hands on it but from the level of information we have, the mechanics are carrying the appeal, and the functionality in the traits is lacking.

SLB mechanics will like revolve around boon procs like fury, quickness, and prot, and maximizing ferocity. I also see it as a versatile e-spec whose playstyle will drastically vary depending on which pets you choose. I think you’re having a hard time imagining it now because we haven’t tried the different pet combinations. It seems that the ranger sort of becomes the pet while in beastmode.

Two things will affect the playstyle: the F3 of the pet category, and the F1-F2 which will depend on the pet family. I thought this was very clever design. What I like the most is that all 5 F3’s are quite powerful, if not game-changing, and the choice of these will decide how the spec feels.

Condi-based builds will get us to specialize into bleeds and poison. I see the torch completely disappearing from our repertoire. Sb/d/d looks strong for dueling and skirmishing. GS/d/x looks appropriate for power burst builds. I am worried about a few of our weapons falling by the wayside, like MH axe and sword.

SLB will also complement and enhance our other trait lines in a much bigger way than the druid did. so I expect to see a new variety of LB builds. it will also open up new support builds that are different from the druid, which is what excites me the most.

jcbroe.4329:

I’m not sure I’m excited for this elite spec. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of synergy between the GMs and the functionality of the rest of the traits within the line. None of the traits themselves seem particularly strong either.

I mean, aside from some of the more obvious interactions, like building for a pet swap offensive build to take advantage of the unblockable trait, going into beastmode and going for the big burst, and F2/beast skill based build, or the condi DPS spec that will probably see more PvE use than anything else, I’m not really seeing how this elite spec competes well with Druid, outside of PvE (and even then people will still want Druids.

Maybe I need to get my hands on it but from the level of information we have, the mechanics are carrying the appeal, and the functionality in the traits is lacking.

While I am excited for Soulbeast, I agree there is little synergy within the traits (in the Soulbeast line), it seems as though each of the traits was picked to work with other core lines and not provide a great deal of synergy with the others in the SoulB spec.

With Druid, a complaint was that none of the traits played into our other traitlines, this time we have that but the eSpec traits don’t seem to work into each other, apart from one or two examples.

@Mistsim;

It isn’t that I don’t get it and don’t believe it’ll be strong, I just don’t think it’s strong relative to the traitlines of the other classes.

Also if the wiki is correct, all of the traits you’d want to take together compete with each other. You’d want to be able to take the boon sharing with the boons on beast skill use and the unblock/stun on entering beastmode, but all of those traits compete for a slot unless this is wrong, which I really hope it is because the boon copying on beastmode NEEDS to be a minor: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Soulbeast

There is some great looking combinations, don’t get me wrong. I just don’t like how bland that traits in themselves are. I mean, Firebrand is going to be a quickness bot machine that enhances core guardians Aegis theme, Spellbreaker gets a straight up extra mechanic in their tether added to their burst skills, and Weaver is Elementalist on Steroids that rewards the most mechanically and APM oriented players.

Mechanically, Soulbeast is great. But those tooltips on 90% of the pets aren’t offering up impressive numbers, and Stance Sharing is carrying the uniqueness of the traitline. The traits on top of that don’t really seem…. Coherent in their combinations.

Sure, Druid functionally could have been stapled to any other class and it would have ended up working. But the traits were and are mostly unique and powerful options.

And I just don’t get that impression from Soulbeast traits. The seem weak and scattered in their effectiveness.

I mean, time will tell, but I’m finding the traits for this spec the least impressive out of almost every other spec so far with this expac, and those tooltips from pet skills are NOT inspiring damage numbers.