Guild Wars 2

I personally can’t stand the way resource building mechanics and gated “shrouds/forms/stances” were designed in this game. It is not fun to be gated from skills, nor is it “balance” in a positive way compared to the other “no resource required” designed elites, and puts a player at a disadvantage when locked out of these states.

Also, the ranger community has been waiting long enough for major improvements to pets, melee competitiveness, core skills and traits… and have spent the past 2 years fiddling with the less than stellar Druid staff skills, frustrating astral force mechanics and the most clunky healing skills ever designed in a game on celestial avatar.

If the team is currently sticking to the status quo in the above areas, then I suggest changing it before the next xpac is released, because I’m pretty sure many of us are tired of off-putting designs that kill the fun of playing a particular profession or build.

Edit- And I’m not trying to be rude, but I’m strongly getting the feeling this “soulbeast” design will be like a low budget d/d thief design (because we can’t step on the toes of thieves or outrage ensues), with awful pets (outside of being stowed when transformed into the “soulbeast”) and forced to fiddle with resource gating and a timed “shroud” to be on par in combat against other elites.

If you remember the state of ranger before druid…. we were garbage tier in 3/3 game modes excluding WvW roaming. Now we’re downright awesome.

I have VERY high hopes for the next epec. I think we’ll be just fine.

I don’t know Fluff, I am waiting for Anduriell to give us the real deal home feel Truth that only he knows.

Until then, I will wait.

Fluffball.8307:

If you remember the state of ranger before druid…. we were garbage tier in 3/3 game modes excluding WvW roaming. Now we’re downright awesome.

I have VERY high hopes for the next epec. I think we’ll be just fine.

I understand what you are saying Fluff, but the point is that there are better ways to achieve good results without introducing wonky mechanics and designs.

Also, as someone who primarily played support characters and roles competitively before esports and twitch were cool, the Druid team support design is not good. This is due to the resource gating, timed shroud mechanics and wacky reticle skills. It’s not good, and would prefer anet move away from designs like these.

I’m absolutely with you, the healing stuff from druid is not my cup of tea; it’s annoying that it’s required. If this “soul beast” is anything like druid though, we’re going to rock.

#delusional #hopeful #blessed

Celestial Avatar could so easily be made to feel better: if we loaded in with the AF bar at full, and it emptied as normal while we were in CA, and then it refilled passively as well as actively… these would be small fixes but they would make CA feel much more humane.

Sister Saxifrage.7361:

Celestial Avatar could so easily be made to feel better: if we loaded in with the AF bar at full, and it emptied as normal while we were in CA, and then it refilled passively as well as actively… these would be small fixes but they would make CA feel much more humane.

Yeah, the devs could make a lot of things feel and play better, but it doesn’t seem they care all that much.

I doubt that the issue is that they don’t care, it was more than likely a major design flaw. It does not appear traditional MMO/RPG healing or supporting roles were considered during launch and later added with the expansion pack for raiding. Thus a lot of the wonky mechanics and continued patching. This is just my opinion anyway.

Also there currently is no competition with regards to GW2 so no pressure or urgency to do anything. We are stuck with some seriously frustrating balance issues, gated grinds to play dress up Barbie (no disrespect lass), and broken metas (WvW) due to lack of funding and/or attention.

I think if you play PvE you are in a good spot. PvP more or less is a wash. You are not forced to play Druid/Ranger and there is not much of a gearing requirement. It is more focused on you understanding what you are playing. WvW on the other hand, well, it is out of hand…

Swagger – you should shoot me a PM of your pistol packing thief I’d like to give it a go. Seriously

I have doubts whether they care.
The pvp crowd is smaller than the pve crowd.

They seem to push a lot of content towards the PVE crowd but PvP and WvW are left high and dry.

And I agree abou the healing in game. I know this because I followed the game since development. It was not intended. They had no plans of making the pvp/wvw/pve dependent on the ‘Holy Trinity’.

They also had no plans of having mounts and reasons to NOT have mounts.

But as we can see, they have backpedaled on all these issues.

EnderzShadow.2506:

I have doubts whether they care.
The pvp crowd is smaller than the pve crowd.

They seem to push a lot of content towards the PVE crowd but PvP and WvW are left high and dry.

And I agree abou the healing in game. I know this because I followed the game since development. It was not intended. They had no plans of making the pvp/wvw/pve dependent on the ‘Holy Trinity’.

They also had no plans of having mounts and reasons to NOT have mounts.

But as we can see, they have backpedaled on all these issues.

We agree – and I’m awaiting CU

EnderzShadow.2506:

I have doubts whether they care.
The pvp crowd is smaller than the pve crowd.

They seem to push a lot of content towards the PVE crowd but PvP and WvW are left high and dry.

And I agree abou the healing in game. I know this because I followed the game since development. It was not intended. They had no plans of making the pvp/wvw/pve dependent on the ‘Holy Trinity’.

They also had no plans of having mounts and reasons to NOT have mounts.

But as we can see, they have backpedaled on all these issues.

Actually and right now with the condi meta(wvw) that much healing seems kinda needed.

The energy thing from the revenant is ok thou, i wouldn’t mind to have that for the instances glint rev style for upkeep instead having the classics CDs.

Obviously i vote for the permastow option with the soulbeast. Having the main mechanic of the class under crazy constraints is frustrating as the druid already shown us.

Although i wouldn’t keep my hopes up, if it’s anything like HoT the class will be crazy OP in the preview\beta\first month and then it will get nerfed to the oblivion.

I never get tired of saying that, while the core class is underperforming it will be impossible to balance properly.

I’m personally 100% fine with it requiring resources, I think the biggest issue ppl have with druid tbh is that it requires healing to recharge CA quickly because honestly it’s almost always full if playing support and healing. This time it would just switch to damage and would almost pretty much be full on cd if it’s anything similar to druid, its just that the requirement would flip. If anything I would assume it would prob be easier to fill if it was damage focused so I don’t think theirs anything to be worried about if it does become a thing for the next e spec.

Swagger.1459:

It is not fun to be gated from skills…

Preach!

I couldn’t agree more. It’s why while thematically I like lots of professions I can’t stand playing most of them.

But if soulbeast is shapeshifting (please!) I could probably tolerate GW2’s infernal CDs on their ‘weapon’ abilities, provided there’s not some ridiculous jumping back and forth between regular weapons and shapeshifting to build up such resources.

here personally dont mind what kind of mechanic it uses as long as it becomes a competitive dps spec. i love my pet and ranger gameplay but i hate that we are forced to either healer or medium to lower tier dps

FYI – WvW perspective only:

I don’t mind if it has resource management, I just want something that has power spike damage potential along with un-killable pets (pet spirits?). It sucks always having to go with BM just to have somewhat durable/dangerous pets. Without BM ranger feels very subpar. Un-killable pet spirits or mechanics could allow us a spot in larger groups. However, if that does come to fruition I won’t lose sleep over it. I would still value additional DPS for Havoc/roaming.

I also really want a durable melee option because if you want to do damage right now you have to gear squish which does not work against opponents with brains. Our highest damaging melee weapon GS is quite easy to avoid. I do not know any serious players who consider rangers a threat, only nuisances. I am hoping that will change and we will be a feared threat on the battlefield.

All I really want from the soulbeast is the ability to rotate through three or four pets instead of two.

I’m hoping that instead of them being physical pets, they are like revenant legends. Not necessarily skill sets, but different flavors for each, like feline could make all attacks apply bleeds or bears give you +toughness/vitality. And the first minor trait reads; All traits that apply to your pets are instead applied to you.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

I’m hoping that instead of them being physical pets, they are like revenant legends. Not necessarily skill sets, but different flavors for each, like feline could make all attacks apply bleeds or bears give you +toughness/vitality. And the first minor trait reads; All traits that apply to your pets are instead applied to you.

Hmmm that is interesting. I feel like soulbeast utility might end up being illusions and glamor she like Mesmer illusions, but are pets instead.

We might see some variation of the “Petless Ranger”.
Beastlike transformations to allow you to run as a strong power DPS in PvE and a tanky brawler in sPvP and WvW depending on your choice of pet class.

Elite specs are supposed to change gameplay so petless ranger make sense.

I would hope that any petless option would just be that: an option.

Having both our elite specs ignore our class mechanic is a bit much.

I would be fine if as profession mechanic we would have something like the permanent stow and the ranger to get some buffs when the pet is stowed this way. So we can have the pet stowed or not depending on the situation.

I just hope this is not like a energy/timer which doesn’t allow the SB (SoulBeast) to have the pet permanently stowed at all times if the player chooses to. I would hate to have another hateful clunky gated mechanic.

I would be fine if the skills were to be like the Revenant’s ones so we get something like instances managed by upkeep and energy. I like that mechanic from the Glint instance.

Either case, and i’m never getting tired of remind this, i hope they fix the core ranger so it becomes a competitive class for all the content within the class limitations and role.