Guild Wars 2

I see a lot of people in the forums complaining that the Soulbeast will be “petless” (we don’t know yet if the profession mechanic is permanent, or if it has a cooldown), but hey, guess what. Both druid and core ranger have pets. Permanently. If you don’t like the soulbeast, no one is forcing you to play it. Play a healing druid, or a condi ranger. Both are really good, AND they have pets. I think this elite specialization is exactly what part of the ranger community have been wanting for years. Not to mention ranger mains are privileged enough to still have viable options outside of Soulbeast (both healer druid, and condi ranger are strong atm). Unlike other classes (looking at you necro/reaper), didn’t really have much option but to play the elite spec, because other options were just awful in comparison.
Part of the ranger player base got super excited about the elite spec “druid” thinking we were getting animal transformations, just to get our dreams shattered by getting a healing spec. We’ve waited for years for something like this, but usually got the short end of the stick. But not this time. This time it was our turn to get our dream elite spec. Luckily the rest of ranger player base still have viable options if they don’t want to play Soulbeast, and they can use their pets if they want to.

From what I could see and hear in the different videoes, we will use our F5 to merge with our pets (I don’t know if you can perma merge, or if it’s “merge with your pet for 15 seconds” or has some other form of cooldown). But the videoes said that when you merge with your pet, you get their “unique ability” (F2) and the abilty of their archetype (felines, wyverns, spiders, etc.). From AuroraPeachy’s video you could barely see the action panel at the bottom of the screen, but it shows and image of the pet you are merged with, and three squares (probably the icons for the merged abilties). I couldn’t really gather much intel about the stances, but I’m guessing it might be something along the lines of “Dolyak stance: Take 40% reduced damage for 15 seconds”, “Wolf stance: deal 20% more damage for the next 10 seconds”. I don’t know. Mainhand dagger seems okay, getting two leaps at least. What I’m really wondering is what we will pair our MH dagger with. DD/ X? Will it be a condi spec or a power spec? DD/shortbow? DD/Longbow? DD/AT? DT/Shortbow might be really strong for a condi spec? What I’m most excited about is all the build craft possibilities we got now that we can get our pet skills on demand. Do we go for fury pounce of the tiger? Do we go for bleeds through our Lynx? Will we be a new tank class by taking our bear? Will the beast line trait taunt, taunt our enemies to us now (because we are merged with our pet), if so, would merging with a bird for taunt and weakness spam be an interesting tank idea? there’s just so many possibilities!!

LughLongArm.5460:

I don’t understand how any one can be disappointment about that. This is exactly what everybody been asking for years, a way to play without a pet. The animations looks amazing, especially the stances, It also seems like they took the old main hand sword AA movement ability and gave it to main hand dagger ability but made it more controlled.
On top of that, new pets.

I only hope core ranger skills/traits and glyphs will get some love.

1) The people who picked ranger specifically because it is a pet class do not constitute “everybody” and have no real reason to be excited outside of getting new (soon-to-be nerfed) pets.

2) Your last sentence is likely to happen right around “never”. Not when they are likely to try and funnel as many rangers into the new spec as possible to create their idea of “balance”. It’s cheaper for them that way since they don’t have to actually fix anything.

More Rangers asked for a perma stow on Pets then a poorly designed healer with a majority of filler utilities and traits.

mistsim.2748:

… Sure, they left the old pets and mechanics in the dust, but imo that’s ok. at worst, we’ll have two great elite specs to work with, and 7-8 decent pets. ….

Yeah, …. ehm … but what is the second great elite spec Oo

It’s not permanent. It’s like the CA form. It called “Beast mode”, you combine with your pet for new abilities/altar existing abilities. If you can swap pets, it means tons of utility options,(kinda like engi kits). You will probably also get passive buff based on your pet. Good chance that pet related traits and skills will also apply on you.

It’s exactly what rangers needed.

Levetty.1279:

More Rangers asked for a perma stow on Pets then a poorly designed healer with a majority of filler utilities and traits.

Yes…and? Getting what you want is nice. Getting what you want because the powers that be have decided not to fix what was broken at the core is not a good thing. I truly can’t drum up a bit of excitement for the new E-Spec. Good for the people who wanted it and didn’t want to re-roll to another class but disappointing nonetheless for someone who likes the pets and want them to be improved.

Irijia.6073:

Levetty.1279:

More Rangers asked for a perma stow on Pets then a poorly designed healer with a majority of filler utilities and traits.

Yes…and?

Come complain about Druid with me.

LughLongArm.5460:

It’s not permanent. It’s like the CA form. It called “Beast mode”, you combine with your pet for new abilities/altar existing abilities. If you can swap pets, it means tons of utility options,(kinda like engi kits). You will probably also get passive buff based on your pet. Good chance that pet related traits and skills will also apply on you.

It’s exactly what rangers needed.

Source?

Druid is great. People still complaining about it can’t even be taken seriously as far as I’m concerned. It’s great at what it does.
Soulbeast got a lot of potential too.

LughLongArm.5460:

It’s not permanent.

Does it have something akin to astral force? Because from the look of the videoes (that all hid the UI), it looked like you could snap in and out of it whenever. Basically making it permanent if you wanted to.

I’d imagine you can swap between two pets still, with that comes a swap cooldown plus the skill cooldowns. I can’t imagine they would lock it down further with a F5 CD or degeneration. Or rather, I can imagine it, but it seems utterly stupid and potentially underwhelming.

Irijia.6073:

LughLongArm.5460:

I don’t understand how any one can be disappointment about that. This is exactly what everybody been asking for years, a way to play without a pet. The animations looks amazing, especially the stances, It also seems like they took the old main hand sword AA movement ability and gave it to main hand dagger ability but made it more controlled.
On top of that, new pets.

I only hope core ranger skills/traits and glyphs will get some love.

1) The people who picked ranger specifically because it is a pet class do not constitute “everybody” and have no real reason to be excited outside of getting new (soon-to-be nerfed) pets.

2) Your last sentence is likely to happen right around “never”. Not when they are likely to try and funnel as many rangers into the new spec as possible to create their idea of “balance”. It’s cheaper for them that way since they don’t have to actually fix anything.

No man, Even pet loving rangers like myself want to have an option to replace pet sometimes with a buff. LB rangers for example standing far away and shooting, putting pets on “non aggressive mod”. We can also still enjoy our new pets options on the druid for other play styles.

I think it’s great.

So heres a really cool thought, All the ranger pet buffs through traits, and pet synergy through our weapons, does this mean we get clarion bond? guys the COMBOS!!!

Like check this kitten out what if you ran marksmanship, mual with gs, swap pets and merge and burst for an unblock-able attack buffed with call of the wild and Moment of clarity, like holy kitten!,

Imagine casting Call of the wild with warhorn, and merging for some unblock-able craziness

How would heal as one work?,
what about the NM trait gain 1% damage for every boon on you, when you merge does that mean 2%? Does the damage reduction now stack? what about shouts?

What about the BM trait gain 10% and lower f2 cool down and speed for pet, does this now apply to you? Hell does that mean you gain might and bleeding on every hit?

If its a form whenever you merge you should get all pet/weapon swapping triggers

I really love the idea of Soulbeast!
Have they released any info on what the dagger skills actually do? I want to know if I should start crafting a legendary dagger or if I should continue crafting what i’m working on now.
Also, are you forced to use the dagger offhand in this mode? If that’s the case then I probably wont be using a dagger whatsoever.

Will Soulbeast allow ranger a spot in a zerg in WvW finally? I am ok with it not as I love to roam primarily.

If the stances/traitlines give some condi defense/direct damage defense and/or offensive capabilities this could be my go to E-spec.

- Source(1:15)

Notice he press F5 enter “beast mode” and it’s 10 sec CD. Which means in and out play style. Also how the weapons skills bar changes(you can see the icons being changed).

Levetty.1279:

Irijia.6073:

Levetty.1279:

More Rangers asked for a perma stow on Pets then a poorly designed healer with a majority of filler utilities and traits.

Yes…and?

Come complain about Druid with me.

LughLongArm.5460:

It’s not permanent. It’s like the CA form. It called “Beast mode”, you combine with your pet for new abilities/altar existing abilities. If you can swap pets, it means tons of utility options,(kinda like engi kits). You will probably also get passive buff based on your pet. Good chance that pet related traits and skills will also apply on you.

It’s exactly what rangers needed.

Source?

Added source.

Soulbeast screamed basically “depends on how it works” as my first impression. As a solo PvE gamer I don’t care much about min/max potential or can’t talk about balancing issues and that stuff (but can understand its importance, of course), but care more about how the spec “feels” in the sense of flair. Like, my main reason for choosing Druid spec is Natural Stride and for some reason Condi Druid clicked with me more than Condi Ranger; maybe because it had been the first one I played. I’ll try to be cautiously optimistic as new specs to play around with is for my rare gaming style one the bigger joys.

LughLongArm.5460:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nflQFIFnpVo

- Source(1:15)

Notice he press F5 enter “beast mode” and it’s 10 sec CD. Which means in and out play style. Also how the weapons skills bar changes(you can see the icons being changed).

I could be wrong, but could it be similar to how the druid get different versions of it’s glyphs when it enters into CA. With soulbeast, we get different versions of our stances based on whether we are in beast mode or not? just a thought

LughLongArm.5460:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nflQFIFnpVo

- Source(1:15)

Notice he press F5 enter “beast mode” and it’s 10 sec CD. Which means in and out play style. Also how the weapons skills bar changes(you can see the icons being changed).

That only means you can’t go in, out and in within 10 seconds. It says nothing about how long it lasts.

Lazze.9870:

LughLongArm.5460:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nflQFIFnpVo

- Source(1:15)

Notice he press F5 enter “beast mode” and it’s 10 sec CD. Which means in and out play style. Also how the weapons skills bar changes(you can see the icons being changed).

That only means you can’t go in, out and in within 10 seconds. It says nothing about how long it lasts.

Yep, that’s what I think too. It has a cooldown of 10 secs after getting out of it, I suppose. It’s how Necro’s DS/RS works.

Now, what we need to know is do the Pet and the Character get a shared cooldown on the skills they share, or not. Or will you need to get out of the Merge to swap pet ? This will change the playstyle. Of course, if someone wants to sit in one pet merge, they can too.

Lazze.9870:

LughLongArm.5460:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nflQFIFnpVo

- Source(1:15)

Notice he press F5 enter “beast mode” and it’s 10 sec CD. Which means in and out play style. Also how the weapons skills bar changes(you can see the icons being changed).

That only means you can’t go in, out and in within 10 seconds. It says nothing about how long it lasts.

You can re-click on F5, it says “separate from your pet”. SO if you want it will last only 1 sec. You can use the special skills as a combo.

Krispera.5087:

Lazze.9870:

LughLongArm.5460:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nflQFIFnpVo

- Source(1:15)

Notice he press F5 enter “beast mode” and it’s 10 sec CD. Which means in and out play style. Also how the weapons skills bar changes(you can see the icons being changed).

That only means you can’t go in, out and in within 10 seconds. It says nothing about how long it lasts.

Yep, that’s what I think too. It has a cooldown of 10 secs after getting out of it, I suppose. It’s how Necro’s DS/RS works.

Ya, I just can’t figure out if it’s the skill bar that is being changed or just the F1-F4 buttons.

Ackzar.9156:

LughLongArm.5460:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nflQFIFnpVo

- Source(1:15)

Notice he press F5 enter “beast mode” and it’s 10 sec CD. Which means in and out play style. Also how the weapons skills bar changes(you can see the icons being changed).

I could be wrong, but could it be similar to how the druid get different versions of it’s glyphs when it enters into CA. With soulbeast, we get different versions of our stances based on whether we are in beast mode or not? just a thought

I think that’s what being changed is the weapon skill bar or the F1-F4 buttons. You can see in the video they show all stances while in “beast mode”(you see the beast mode aura animation). eagle, bear,dolyak, wolf , elite

I like the concept a lot but I really hope they can improve the visual effects of the skills because they look kind of the same to me when different pets merge with the character. That’s comparing with other elite specs, they all have really stunning visuals which makes soulbeast’s seem underwhelming.

kappa.2036:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhFrgfUw2c4

SUMMARY
New weapon: Dagger mainhand.
New skill type: Stances.
New profession mechanic: Soulbeast will be able to gain the abilities of their pet.

Opinions?

We also get the abbility of the pets archetype. This means smoke assault and snoke field on smokescole for instance. Or poisonfield from spiders etc.

I hope dagger is kinda power based but the spec itself is capable of being played hybrid. I always wanted poison ranger and boooooii i am gonna get it, it seems.

InsaneQR.7412:

I hope dagger is kinda power based but the spec itself is capable of being played hybrid. I always wanted poison ranger and boooooii i am gonna get it, it seems.

Just think about the Spiders wannabe Thief’s Venom + Poison Gas !

Justine OP Devourers will get a play with Poisonous Cloud and Retreat. Use 2 Devourers, get 2 Retreats (Evades) ! Now, not even adding Evades from SB and Lightning Reflexes !

Stealthy LB Ranger ? Use Jaguar and Siamoth !

EDIT : I just watched Aurora Peachy video again closely and we don’t seem to get the F2. I see MAUL and BRUTAL CHARGE icons from the Warthog, but not Forage when you get in Beast Mode.

The third skill has the same icons on all the other pet she merged with after. Maybe the ICON is a place holder, but it is shown that you get a ’’Beast’’ skill from the third skill, from the new plant pet : https://puu.sh/wYXNZ/455f975904.png.

I guess we will really know how it all works next weekend…

What I am worried about is that it seems like we are losing our importance as a support build for things like raids and fractals. The Ele and the guardian both look to be getting the ability to do damage as well as support.

I am a bit skeptical about the new Elite. Look at how the pets faired since the introduction of HoT not to mention the Druid in general. We all saw the quickness in patching the class.

My question is simple. What makes you think it will be any different this time around? Pets are still not balanced and see adjustments. I think this is only going to complicate matters.

This is so funny, people are now complaining about possibly being petless.

If anyone remembers the ranger CDI, you should remember this elite spec since it was your (our) idea In the first place. I personally can’t wait.. also to see the new pets Elona has to offer!

Neutra.6857:

What I am worried about is that it seems like we are losing our importance as a support build for things like raids and fractals. The Ele and the guardian both look to be getting the ability to do damage as well as support.

Ele and guard have always been able to damage while support, Druids will never truly lose their role as support because they bring unique buffs to the raid (grace of the land, spotter, frost spirit, sun spirit, glyph of empowerment) so they’ll always be an option for increasing your groups damage more, as well has having great healing.

Granted if you go Soulbeast over Druid I doubt you’re going to be supporting in the first place.

All professions have mechanics.
Necromancer has shroud, Elementalist has attunements…etc
Ranger has pets. Like it or not that’s their mechanic.

Elite specilizations are supposed to improve on these mechanics, from what I understand.
Necromancer got an advanced shroud, Elementalists were now able to overload their attunements.
Rangers got Druid. A specialization that did nothing with our mechanic. It didn’t empower pets, it didn’t help pets, it didn’t interact with our pets what-so-ever.
While I love support, it was a huge disappointment how your pet played literally no role in your new found power.

And now? We get Soulbeast! Oh what a cool sounding name, it surely has some major influence on our pets?
Nope.
A specialization that LITERALLY takes our only mechanic away?
Not only that, but it renders many of our skills such as “Guard” and countless talents utterly useless…

While we still don’t know much about the capabilities of this new specializations its clear its a disappointment already.

LughLongArm.5460:

Lazze.9870:

LughLongArm.5460:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nflQFIFnpVo

- Source(1:15)

Notice he press F5 enter “beast mode” and it’s 10 sec CD. Which means in and out play style. Also how the weapons skills bar changes(you can see the icons being changed).

That only means you can’t go in, out and in within 10 seconds. It says nothing about how long it lasts.

You can re-click on F5, it says “separate from your pet”. SO if you want it will last only 1 sec. You can use the special skills as a combo.

I know. What I was talking about was whether or not it has a duration limit. If it doesn’t, you could stay in it as long as you want. Which is what it should be like, and what I hope it’s like. That CD might aswell just be there to prevent trait trigget spam and whatnot.

CountzuCrytus.7256:

This is so funny, people are now complaining about possibly being petless.

If anyone remembers the ranger CDI, you should remember this elite spec since it was your (our) idea In the first place. I personally can’t wait.. also to see the new pets Elona has to offer!

To be fair, that CDI was a mess. We had a split between Rangers wanting to be petless and those that wanted pet improvements. The developers took a liking to an “Aspects” suggestion, and it seems to have come into fruition as Soulbeast.

The others that wanted improvements on pets, came about 3 years later, or 6 months ago if using now as a point of reference. What Rangers ended up gaining from that CDI was an evade on Swoop and Poison Master, which was later reduced in favor of Thief.

If the pets were fine, there would be a lot less fuss about Soulbeast’s reveal. Some Rangers enjoy the pet, and even though they are not forced to play as a Soulbeast, it sure does sting a bit knowing your other half has wonky AI and pathing issues.

Johnny.1634:

A specialization that LITERALLY takes our only mechanic away?
Not only that, but it renders many of our skills such as “Guard” and countless talents utterly useless…

No, it doesn’t render those skills useless. Pets dying however do – which reminds me, this might be an excelent way to save your pet aswell: use it when it’s about to die, then pop out of it a bit later. It literally adds to the mechanic. It gives us workarounds in sitations where pets will die. And no, that trick wouldn’t be a bandaid, it’s an extension of the mechanic.

Not that it surprises me how people refuse to understand that. You’re also wrong about druid doing anything for our pets. Any healing and buffing the druid do, helps the pet aswell. Could traits like Natural Stride and Druidic Clarity affect the pet too? Sure, probably should too. And it that regard, the druid ignored the pet. But it wasn’t like it did nothing for the pets.

Johnny.1634:

All professions have mechanics.
Necromancer has shroud, Elementalist has attunements…etc
Ranger has pets. Like it or not that’s their mechanic.

Elite specilizations are supposed to improve on these mechanics, from what I understand.
Necromancer got an advanced shroud, Elementalists were now able to overload their attunements.
Rangers got Druid. A specialization that did nothing with our mechanic. It didn’t empower pets, it didn’t help pets, it didn’t interact with our pets what-so-ever.
While I love support, it was a huge disappointment how your pet played literally no role in your new found power.

And now? We get Soulbeast! Oh what a cool sounding name, it surely has some major influence on our pets?
Nope.
A specialization that LITERALLY takes our only mechanic away?
Not only that, but it renders many of our skills such as “Guard” and countless talents utterly useless…

While we still don’t know much about the capabilities of this new specializations its clear its a disappointment already.

Your idea of elite specializations is flawed, it’s not supposed to IMPROVE our mechanic, it is supposed to alter and change our mechanic, equipping an elite spec is SUPPOSED to be the equivalent of changing your class slightly, they’re supposed to be horizontal change I.E. not better or worse overall, just different.

Druid certainly achieved this, it wasn’t better, because taking Druid at all is a huge damage nerf, but you gained a ton of support.

This new spec though I’m unsure, it’s going to definitely have a lot of utility by absorbing your pet, but you also lose out on having the other body, which contrary to popular belief is a huge advantage in a lot of situations.

I felt like that they gave very little attention to the ranger in the video, and it doesnt seem to be so exciting as other classes. However, we shouldnt judge too fast. Although I can easily say that I was more hyped for druid with a staff than for soulbeast with one dagger.

Lazze.9870:

Johnny.1634:

A specialization that LITERALLY takes our only mechanic away?
Not only that, but it renders many of our skills such as “Guard” and countless talents utterly useless…

No, it doesn’t render those skills useless (pet dying however do – which reminds me, this might be an excelent way to save your pet aswell, then pop it out a few seconds later), you just pop out of the beast form. And it doesn’t take it away. It literally adds to the mechanic.

Not that it surprises me how people to refuse to understand that.

Ok then, since I clearly cant understand. Explain how the pet is going to grant might to my group when he’s gone. How is my pet going to hit faster and harder with “Sic ’Em!” while he’s no where to be found? “Search and Rescue!” with an invisible pet? Maul ain’t gonna do much when my pets inside of me.

Johnny.1634:

Ok then, since I clearly cant understand. Explain how the pet is going to grant might to my group when he’s gone. How is my pet going to hit faster and harder with “Sic ’Em!” while he’s no where to be found? “Search and Rescue!” with an invisible pet? Maul ain’t gonna do much when my pets inside of me.

All valid points and concerns. Guess we’ll see on the 11-13th.

Durzlla.6295:

Neutra.6857:

What I am worried about is that it seems like we are losing our importance as a support build for things like raids and fractals. The Ele and the guardian both look to be getting the ability to do damage as well as support.

Ele and guard have always been able to damage while support, Druids will never truly lose their role as support because they bring unique buffs to the raid (grace of the land, spotter, frost spirit, sun spirit, glyph of empowerment) so they’ll always be an option for increasing your groups damage more, as well has having great healing.

Granted if you go Soulbeast over Druid I doubt you’re going to be supporting in the first place.

Frost spirit offers might,it isn’t unique. Sun spirit offers burning to everyone, it also isn’t all that unique. The unique one are GOTL and Glyph of Empowerment. However if those are worse then say then new guardian specialty what is the point of the druid anymore?

Neutra.6857:

Durzlla.6295:

Neutra.6857:

What I am worried about is that it seems like we are losing our importance as a support build for things like raids and fractals. The Ele and the guardian both look to be getting the ability to do damage as well as support.

Ele and guard have always been able to damage while support, Druids will never truly lose their role as support because they bring unique buffs to the raid (grace of the land, spotter, frost spirit, sun spirit, glyph of empowerment) so they’ll always be an option for increasing your groups damage more, as well has having great healing.

Granted if you go Soulbeast over Druid I doubt you’re going to be supporting in the first place.

Frost spirit offers might,it isn’t unique. Sun spirit offers burning to everyone, it also isn’t all that unique. The unique one are GOTL and Glyph of Empowerment. However if those are worse then say then new guardian specialty what is the point of the druid anymore?

I don’t think the Guardians are all that happy at the moment – or maybe still trying to digest everything…something about tombs. /boggle

Lazze.9870:

LughLongArm.5460:

Lazze.9870:

LughLongArm.5460:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nflQFIFnpVo

- Source(1:15)

Notice he press F5 enter “beast mode” and it’s 10 sec CD. Which means in and out play style. Also how the weapons skills bar changes(you can see the icons being changed).

That only means you can’t go in, out and in within 10 seconds. It says nothing about how long it lasts.

You can re-click on F5, it says “separate from your pet”. SO if you want it will last only 1 sec. You can use the special skills as a combo.

I know. What I was talking about was whether or not it has a duration limit. If it doesn’t, you could stay in it as long as you want. Which is what it should be like, and what I hope it’s like. That CD might aswell just be there to prevent trait trigget spam and whatnot.

Even if it does not has duration limit, it’s probably got a downside. I think the new abilities which is the main gain of the transformation, got seperate CD from thatt of the pet. So basically, after using new abilities, while on CD, you are just losing the pet DPS.
Also, you probably have the option to swap pet for new set of skills(let’s say for example, one offensive and one defensive) , so you will want to go in and out in order to swap pets. Combo example – smokescale use smoke assult→ go beast mode→ now you sue smoke assult+ take down→ go back normal ranger mode.

Not only you are getting new interesting ranger+pet game style, it will open pet option for you wouldn’t have done before. Going bear for example for the endure pain or drake for the tail swipe etc..
It’s got a lot of potential, we shall see the implementation.

Looking at that video LongArm posted it seem we are going to be getting both the Iboga and Jacaranda as pets. Thats pretty neat since we haven’t had any plant pets yet.
https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Fanged_Iboga
https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Stormseed_Jacaranda

I’m not sure about the Soulbeast yet since i’m holding back judgement until I can play around with it. It looks interesting though.

Zalani.9827:

Looking at that video LongArm posted it seem we are going to be getting both the Iboga and Jacaranda as pets. Thats pretty neat since we haven’t had any plant pets yet.
https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Fanged_Iboga
https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Stormseed_Jacaranda

I’m not sure about the Soulbeast yet since i’m holding back judgement until I can play around with it. It looks interesting though.

Let us think about this for a minute. Pets already have a path problem, right? Now you want to add something that has roots, stationary by nature, has a pet???

I was hoping for pocket raptors…not a plant. Unless it is a 10’ tall Venus Fly Trap type thing that swallows zergs whole, I’ll pass.

Those plants don’t have roots, they’re from GW1 and quite mobile. The stormseeds even fly.

Fluffball.8307:

Those plants don’t have roots, they’re from GW1 and quite mobile. The stormseeds even fly.

I don’t go that far back and it was really a joke. Well, joke on the stationary part. Not so much about a plant. That doesn’t seem like a normal pet but then again I’m not one for virtual pets. I’d rather a traitline that says pets, no pets, and manages damage that way.

Edit: Beastmastery = pets. Marksmen = no pets. Sort of easy.

Crapgame.6519:

Neutra.6857:

Durzlla.6295:

Neutra.6857:

What I am worried about is that it seems like we are losing our importance as a support build for things like raids and fractals. The Ele and the guardian both look to be getting the ability to do damage as well as support.

Ele and guard have always been able to damage while support, Druids will never truly lose their role as support because they bring unique buffs to the raid (grace of the land, spotter, frost spirit, sun spirit, glyph of empowerment) so they’ll always be an option for increasing your groups damage more, as well has having great healing.

Granted if you go Soulbeast over Druid I doubt you’re going to be supporting in the first place.

Frost spirit offers might,it isn’t unique. Sun spirit offers burning to everyone, it also isn’t all that unique. The unique one are GOTL and Glyph of Empowerment. However if those are worse then say then new guardian specialty what is the point of the druid anymore?

I don’t think the Guardians are all that happy at the moment – or maybe still trying to digest everything…something about tombs. /boggle

I am sure that is true. It just worries me as far as ranger being a part of things like raids, dungeons, or anything group related.

Crapgame.6519:

Zalani.9827:

Looking at that video LongArm posted it seem we are going to be getting both the Iboga and Jacaranda as pets. Thats pretty neat since we haven’t had any plant pets yet.
https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Fanged_Iboga
https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Stormseed_Jacaranda

I’m not sure about the Soulbeast yet since i’m holding back judgement until I can play around with it. It looks interesting though.

Let us think about this for a minute. Pets already have a path problem, right? Now you want to add something that has roots, stationary by nature, has a pet???

I was hoping for pocket raptors…not a plant. Unless it is a 10’ tall Venus Fly Trap type thing that swallows zergs whole, I’ll pass.

I dunno if it can swallow zergs whole but at least it matches the 10’ tall Venus Fly Trap? :P
(They were bigger in gw1 I swear)

Zalani.9827:

(They were bigger in gw1 I swear)

I believe you – and that thing looks weird Have to give it a fair chance anyway, right?

Neutra.6857:

Durzlla.6295:

Neutra.6857:

What I am worried about is that it seems like we are losing our importance as a support build for things like raids and fractals. The Ele and the guardian both look to be getting the ability to do damage as well as support.

Ele and guard have always been able to damage while support, Druids will never truly lose their role as support because they bring unique buffs to the raid (grace of the land, spotter, frost spirit, sun spirit, glyph of empowerment) so they’ll always be an option for increasing your groups damage more, as well has having great healing.

Granted if you go Soulbeast over Druid I doubt you’re going to be supporting in the first place.

Frost spirit offers might,it isn’t unique. Sun spirit offers burning to everyone, it also isn’t all that unique. The unique one are GOTL and Glyph of Empowerment. However if those are worse then say then new guardian specialty what is the point of the druid anymore?

Frost spirit isn’t brought for the might, it’s brought for its damage buff, and sun spirit gives your group burning stacks, which nice for a lot of condo builds.

That scary thing Zalani posted were actually mesmers in GW1. It will be interesting to see what kind of skills they give it. Hopefully not just typical chomps, but something mesmery would be awesome…. interrupts, some sort of hex, boon removal, etc.

The stormseeds were air elementalists with incredible spike damage.

Both of those sound like potentially sidestepping the typical pet AI problems. Can’t casually walk away from a lightning strike like you can a porcine charging the wrong direction.

Fluffball.8307:

That scary thing Zalani posted were actually mesmers in GW1. It will be interesting to see what kind of skills they give it. Hopefully not just typical chomps, but something mesmery would be awesome…. interrupts, some sort of hex, boon removal, etc.

The stormseeds were air elementalists with incredible spike damage.

Both of those sound like potentially sidestepping the typical pet AI problems. Can’t casually walk away from a lightning strike like you can a porcine charging the wrong direction.

Hah, walking being required to dodge a porcine charge, that’s funny