Guild Wars 2

I really don’t think Anet thought the “you get their abilities” mechanic through unless that was hollow advertising.

Massively buffed DPS while under 6 seconds of perma stealth via “Stalk”?
5 seconds of perma evade via “Smoke Cloud”?

Either we aren’t actually getting our pet’s skills or some pets are about to get massive nerfs to their abilites.

Gonna post a bunch of screenshots so that the rest of you don’t have to suffer through the pain of the stream that I endured.

More skill tooltips.

More skill tooltips.

More skill tooltips.

More skill tooltips.

More skill tooltips.

More skill tooltips.

More skill tooltips.

More skill tooltips.

More skill tooltips.

More skill tooltips.

This is the last one I grabbed.

>Dagger is a condi weapon

RIP zerk ranger.

Yeah, so some things I noticed.

• Dagger is heavy condi.
• Heal Stance and Dolyak Stance look good, the rest, including the elite, look weak, especially for their cooldowns.
• Just a cooldown for “beastmode,” no resource mechanic attached.
• Beast skills seem to change drastically based on which pet is taken which is where are the skill variance is (those first few pics with healing and support are attached to a pet).

Huh I would have guessed it was going to be Power, I guess they figured 3 power melee weapons was too much. Some decent looking condi removal options, looks like poison master might get some use.

I was also hoping for some life steal

How many weapon skills are on the dagger?

Durzlla.6295:

How many weapon skills are on the dagger?

Looks like a chain of 4 on the AA, a first.

Krispera.5087:

Durzlla.6295:

How many weapon skills are on the dagger?

Looks like a chain of 4 on the AA, a first.

And then the lightning blast, and the leap, and the double slice thing

Durzlla.6295:

Krispera.5087:

Durzlla.6295:

How many weapon skills are on the dagger?

Looks like a chain of 4 on the AA, a first.

And then the lightning blast, and the leap, and the double slice thing

The Lightning Blast (Call Lightning) is a Beast Mode skill, I believe. It’s at 1200 range.

The Leap (Instinctive Engage) and the Double Slice (Double Arc) seems to be either #2 or #3.

Visually probably the most boring thing I’ve ever seen.

But maybe all the pet stances will offer some variety.

First impression: Meh.

Durzlla.6295:

Krispera.5087:

Durzlla.6295:

How many weapon skills are on the dagger?

Looks like a chain of 4 on the AA, a first.

And then the lightning blast, and the leap, and the double slice thing

Call lightning is likely a skill of one of the new plant pets since I believe one of them was an elementalist in Nightfall.

Substance E.4852:

Call lightning is likely a skill of one of the new plant pets since I believe one of them was an elementalist in Nightfall.

Ya that’s probably stormseed, they were air spike eles. That gives me hope the Iboga will be a “mesmer” which introduces some cool (and better yet, useful) ideas for a pet.

Irijia.6073:

The unused pets still won’t be getting a boost as you will only be using them to absorb their abilities…

Got a source for that?

As a whole, this spec is underwhelming. Specially the grandmaster traits which I may think some are placeholders because they are either utter crap or incredibly boring.

The dagger is heavily condi focused btw.

It would all depend on how those pet skills perform when fused with the pet and the rest of the traits. All in all so far, meh.

Fluffball.8307:

Ya that’s probably stormseed, they were air spike eles. That gives me hope the Iboga will be a “mesmer” which introduces some cool (and better yet, useful) ideas for a pet.

I think it’s the Iboga that gives you some projectile skills that inflict confusion.

The Soulbeast is designed as an evasive melee condition spec.

Khenzy.9348:

The Soulbeast is designed as an evasive melee condition spec.

That’s pretty much the antithesis of druid, which was mostly power, healing, and range. I think that’s a good thing… could perhaps see some trap play (??) or just different gameplay. I think a lot of us are sick of staff healing in PvP.

I took jcbroe’s screen shots and cut the tooltips out of them…

Thanks jcbroe and Heimskarl Ashfiend for the screenshots! I was hoping for an evasive condi spec, so I am cautiously optimistic. Khenzy, you say the grandmaster traits are underwhelming, do you happen to have a link to any vids/screenshots of Soulbeast traits? I have been looking for more on the spec’s traits but have seen nothing unfortunately.

Vulture and Griffon stances look absolutely terrible (for pvp at least), not sure what to make of Wolf, and Bear and Dolyak are fantastic. some of the animal weapon skills look super strong.

a lot of things were missed in the above screenshot dump. i suggest everyone works their way through this: https://youtu.be/nqj-yOPEudA?t=1709

for instance, there’s a beast ability that pulls 5 foes to you and immobs them for 2s. and one of the Soulbeast’s GM traits literally gives you a second life if you get downed in Beastmode.

mistsim.2748:

https://youtu.be/nqj-yOPEudA?t=2120

One of the GM traits literally gives you a second life if you’re in beastmode when you get downed. looks like an incredibly powerful elite spec overall. as per usual ANet antics, there will be no reason to roll with any GM other than Eternal Bond in pvp.

For the GM traits from a different thread, thanks to mistsim. Can’t screenshot right now or I would.

Personally I think the stance sharing GM alone is incredibly strong support, especially given that some of the screenshots imply that you can bring AoE heals and boons with this spec too. Ultimately we’ll have to see how it works, but sharing out Bear, Dolyak, Wolf, and even Griffon stance looks like strong group utility, at least for PvP and WvW.

jcbroe.4329:

but sharing out Bear, Dolyak, Wolf, and even Griffon stance looks like strong group utility, at least for PvP and WvW.

as i said, Soulbeast will do just fine in zergs =)

Where are you guys getting traits from? All I’ve seen was the 3 GMs from Peachy’s crappy video.

jcbroe.4329:

mistsim.2748:

https://youtu.be/nqj-yOPEudA?t=2120

One of the GM traits literally gives you a second life if you’re in beastmode when you get downed. looks like an incredibly powerful elite spec overall. as per usual ANet antics, there will be no reason to roll with any GM other than Eternal Bond in pvp.

For the GM traits from a different thread, thanks to mistsim. Can’t screenshot right now or I would.

Personally I think the stance sharing GM alone is incredibly strong support, especially given that some of the screenshots imply that you can bring AoE heals and boons with this spec too. Ultimately we’ll have to see how it works, but sharing out Bear, Dolyak, Wolf, and even Griffon stance looks like strong group utility, at least for PvP and WvW.

yea that sharing stance sound useful, specially bear and dolyak. I imagine some zerg groups might take a ranger just for that even if the rest of the specialization kinda end up been garbage lol. Bear is probably the strongest IMO if shared, in this condi meta going on that might end up been a most. Again the GM trait say for a reduced duration, so it might end up not been that good. Other classes can probably give stability and remove condi better. We have to wait and see

imarah.7940:

Thanks jcbroe and Heimskarl Ashfiend for the screenshots! I was hoping for an evasive condi spec, so I am cautiously optimistic. Khenzy, you say the grandmaster traits are underwhelming, do you happen to have a link to any vids/screenshots of Soulbeast traits? I have been looking for more on the spec’s traits but have seen nothing unfortunately.

http://imgur.com/a/Iw6bI

Sharing stances (Leader of the Pack) can be interesting, but really, nothing that alters or improves your personal gameplay, meh. Eternal Bond is just an inferior version of the Berserker trait Dead or Alive… with tripple the CD and heals for LESS, and the Warrior’s one is not even a granmaster trait! It’s just THAT bad.

Thanks for sharing the screenshot, just saw the link to Aurora Peachy’s video as well and will make my way through it fully tomorrow.

It looks like right now the more interesting, and perhaps play-altering skills will come from going beastmode.

jcbroe.4329:

mistsim.2748:

https://youtu.be/nqj-yOPEudA?t=2120

One of the GM traits literally gives you a second life if you’re in beastmode when you get downed. looks like an incredibly powerful elite spec overall. as per usual ANet antics, there will be no reason to roll with any GM other than Eternal Bond in pvp.

For the GM traits from a different thread, thanks to mistsim. Can’t screenshot right now or I would.

Personally I think the stance sharing GM alone is incredibly strong support, especially given that some of the screenshots imply that you can bring AoE heals and boons with this spec too. Ultimately we’ll have to see how it works, but sharing out Bear, Dolyak, Wolf, and even Griffon stance looks like strong group utility, at least for PvP and WvW.

Same, I’m thinking stance sharing is going to be amazing. Even for raiding/fractals etc, if the condi spec turns out to do decent damage, this will be meta. Stance sharing, Spirits, Spotter and decent condi DPS? Would be pretty cool.

Also if you notice, the leader of the pack GM trait its just 360 radius, that is total garbage and useless. If i remember correctly the bad thing about venom share thieves was that the venom sharing radius was 360 and people never got buffed lol. They practically need to be hugging you to get the buff, meeeh total kitten, sound good on paper but will end up been useless. Eternal Bond will probably be the most used, best of them all.

mistsim.2748:

and one of the Soulbeast’s GM traits literally gives you a second life if you get downed in Beastmode.

When it comes to PvP, a pitiful 3.9k heal on the verge of death is absolutely nothing. Is up there as one of the worst GM traits in the game, in my humble opinion.
With that ridiculous CD, if it gave a hefty heal and applied rersistance or cleansed conditions it could be a worthy contender.

Khenzy.9348:

mistsim.2748:

and one of the Soulbeast’s GM traits literally gives you a second life if you get downed in Beastmode.

When it comes to PvP, a pitiful 3.9k heal on the verge of death is absolutely nothing. Is up there as one of the worst GM traits in the game, in my humble opinion.
With that ridiculous CD, if it gave a hefty heal and applied rersistance or cleansed conditions it could be a worthy contender.

yea i mean, its better than nothing i suppose but 4k like you said its just 1 hit from a warrior, ele, thief or 2 if you are lucky. Not to mention condis, we have to see how the skill end up been, if its a heal kind and conditions stay on you then its garbage. Now if is something like you die for a second and come back to live with 4k (close) to live, clean with no condis then might be ok.

NemesiS.6749:

Also if you notice, the leader of the pack GM trait its just 360 radius, that is total garbage and useless. If i remember correctly the bad thing about venom share thieves was that the venom sharing radius was 360 and people never got buffed lol. They practically need to be hugging you to get the buff, meeeh total kitten, sound good on paper but will end up been useless. Eternal Bond will probably be the most used, best of them all.

Eternal Bond is reeeeeeally crappy.

As a whole, I’d say our grandmaster traits are underwhelming to say the least. The stance sharing trait would be a lot better if they increased the radius to the size of a point in PvP and set priorty for party members and then the people closest to you.

Also, while Oppressive Superiority sounds great on paper, fighting a class with high sustain and constant damage pressure will mean it will rarely take effect. Don’t forget, we don’t have the same amount of sustain by dropping Druid in favor of Soulbeast. If it were something like “When you apply a condition, apply a random condition on the same target.” with a 1 second icd, it might be more interesting.

It’s also worth noting that Oppresive Superiority is basically useless in pve. By the time a boss is at 15k or less health, the fight is over.

Substance E.4852:

It’s also worth noting that Oppresive Superiority is basically useless in pve. By the time a boss is at 15k or less health, the fight is over.

It is probably going to be percentage based. If not, its going to be sooooooo bad.

shadowpass.4236:

NemesiS.6749:

Also if you notice, the leader of the pack GM trait its just 360 radius, that is total garbage and useless. If i remember correctly the bad thing about venom share thieves was that the venom sharing radius was 360 and people never got buffed lol. They practically need to be hugging you to get the buff, meeeh total kitten, sound good on paper but will end up been useless. Eternal Bond will probably be the most used, best of them all.

Eternal Bond is reeeeeeally crappy.

As a whole, I’d say our grandmaster traits are underwhelming to say the least. The stance sharing trait would be a lot better if they increased the radius to the size of a point in PvP and set priorty for party members and then the people closest to you.

Also, while Oppressive Superiority sounds great on paper, fighting a class with high sustain and constant damage pressure will mean it will rarely take effect. Don’t forget, we don’t have the same amount of sustain by dropping Druid in favor of Soulbeast. If it were something like “When you apply a condition, apply a random condition on the same target.” with a 1 second icd, it might be more interesting.

Leader of the Pack should be 600 radius like Tempest Auras and not half duration, that is just a complete waste.

Yup, Oppressive Superiority could also be completely useless just in PvE if the health is not a percentage, since it will be totally nullified on all bosses except the last 1 percent.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

shadowpass.4236:

NemesiS.6749:

Also if you notice, the leader of the pack GM trait its just 360 radius, that is total garbage and useless. If i remember correctly the bad thing about venom share thieves was that the venom sharing radius was 360 and people never got buffed lol. They practically need to be hugging you to get the buff, meeeh total kitten, sound good on paper but will end up been useless. Eternal Bond will probably be the most used, best of them all.

Eternal Bond is reeeeeeally crappy.

As a whole, I’d say our grandmaster traits are underwhelming to say the least. The stance sharing trait would be a lot better if they increased the radius to the size of a point in PvP and set priorty for party members and then the people closest to you.

Also, while Oppressive Superiority sounds great on paper, fighting a class with high sustain and constant damage pressure will mean it will rarely take effect. Don’t forget, we don’t have the same amount of sustain by dropping Druid in favor of Soulbeast. If it were something like “When you apply a condition, apply a random condition on the same target.” with a 1 second icd, it might be more interesting.

Leader of the Pack should be 600 radius like Tempest Auras and not half duration, that is just a complete waste.

Yup, Oppressive Superiority could also be completely useless just in PvE if the health is not a , since it will be totally nullified on all bosses except the last 1.

It could be so good but with that radius is not going to be used, just a waste. Even with the 50% reduction in time, if they increase the radius it would kinda be useful but like its now, nope total waste.

Does someone have info on this, i havent seen much people saying this. When you merge with the pet do you get for example if its a dps pet, lets say some buff like +150 power +150 ferocity or something like that. Maybe toughness if is a tanky pet or some buff. If not then what is the point of merging with the pet if you are going to be losing damage, ranger dmg is already not that wow compare to other classes.

NemesiS.6749:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

shadowpass.4236:

NemesiS.6749:

Also if you notice, the leader of the pack GM trait its just 360 radius, that is total garbage and useless. If i remember correctly the bad thing about venom share thieves was that the venom sharing radius was 360 and people never got buffed lol. They practically need to be hugging you to get the buff, meeeh total kitten, sound good on paper but will end up been useless. Eternal Bond will probably be the most used, best of them all.

Eternal Bond is reeeeeeally crappy.

As a whole, I’d say our grandmaster traits are underwhelming to say the least. The stance sharing trait would be a lot better if they increased the radius to the size of a point in PvP and set priorty for party members and then the people closest to you.

Also, while Oppressive Superiority sounds great on paper, fighting a class with high sustain and constant damage pressure will mean it will rarely take effect. Don’t forget, we don’t have the same amount of sustain by dropping Druid in favor of Soulbeast. If it were something like “When you apply a condition, apply a random condition on the same target.” with a 1 second icd, it might be more interesting.

Leader of the Pack should be 600 radius like Tempest Auras and not half duration, that is just a complete waste.

Yup, Oppressive Superiority could also be completely useless just in PvE if the health is not a , since it will be totally nullified on all bosses except the last 1.

It could be so good but with that radius is not going to be used, just a waste. Even with the 50% reduction in time, if they increase the radius it would kinda be useful but like its now, nope total waste.

Does someone have info on this, i havent seen much people saying this. When you merge with the pet do you get for example if its a dps pet, lets say some buff like +150 power +150 ferocity or something like that. Maybe toughness if is a tanky pet or some buff. If not then what is the point of merging with the pet if you are going to be losing damage, ranger dmg is already not that wow compare to other classes.

I heard somewhere that 1/3 of our damage comes from our pet. (On our mender’s druid builds, its more like 80%). Here’s to hoping we get a 33% damage increase while in Soulbeast to make up for it!

NemesiS.6749:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

shadowpass.4236:

NemesiS.6749:

Also if you notice, the leader of the pack GM trait its just 360 radius, that is total garbage and useless. If i remember correctly the bad thing about venom share thieves was that the venom sharing radius was 360 and people never got buffed lol. They practically need to be hugging you to get the buff, meeeh total kitten, sound good on paper but will end up been useless. Eternal Bond will probably be the most used, best of them all.

Eternal Bond is reeeeeeally crappy.

As a whole, I’d say our grandmaster traits are underwhelming to say the least. The stance sharing trait would be a lot better if they increased the radius to the size of a point in PvP and set priorty for party members and then the people closest to you.

Also, while Oppressive Superiority sounds great on paper, fighting a class with high sustain and constant damage pressure will mean it will rarely take effect. Don’t forget, we don’t have the same amount of sustain by dropping Druid in favor of Soulbeast. If it were something like “When you apply a condition, apply a random condition on the same target.” with a 1 second icd, it might be more interesting.

Leader of the Pack should be 600 radius like Tempest Auras and not half duration, that is just a complete waste.

Yup, Oppressive Superiority could also be completely useless just in PvE if the health is not a , since it will be totally nullified on all bosses except the last 1.

It could be so good but with that radius is not going to be used, just a waste. Even with the 50% reduction in time, if they increase the radius it would kinda be useful but like its now, nope total waste.

Does someone have info on this, i havent seen much people saying this. When you merge with the pet do you get for example if its a dps pet, lets say some buff like +150 power +150 ferocity or something like that. Maybe toughness if is a tanky pet or some buff. If not then what is the point of merging with the pet if you are going to be losing damage, ranger dmg is already not that wow compare to other classes.

the teaser videos from anet seem to imply that we get their skills as well as “their abilities”. I’m assuming we will get a stat buff based on the pet family but all we know for certain is our F skills get turned into the pet’s auto skills.

The video shows the ranger merging with a pig and then having access to maul and brutal charge for example.

Her presentation was terrible though so it’s not clear if we also get their F2 ability or not nor do we know if we get any kind of damage boost.

I’m half expecting Anet to just give us the pet’s auto attack ability and expecting us to spam F1 rapidly to get the dps to equal out.

shadowpass.4236:

NemesiS.6749:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

shadowpass.4236:

NemesiS.6749:

Also if you notice, the leader of the pack GM trait its just 360 radius, that is total garbage and useless. If i remember correctly the bad thing about venom share thieves was that the venom sharing radius was 360 and people never got buffed lol. They practically need to be hugging you to get the buff, meeeh total kitten, sound good on paper but will end up been useless. Eternal Bond will probably be the most used, best of them all.

Eternal Bond is reeeeeeally crappy.

As a whole, I’d say our grandmaster traits are underwhelming to say the least. The stance sharing trait would be a lot better if they increased the radius to the size of a point in PvP and set priorty for party members and then the people closest to you.

Also, while Oppressive Superiority sounds great on paper, fighting a class with high sustain and constant damage pressure will mean it will rarely take effect. Don’t forget, we don’t have the same amount of sustain by dropping Druid in favor of Soulbeast. If it were something like “When you apply a condition, apply a random condition on the same target.” with a 1 second icd, it might be more interesting.

Leader of the Pack should be 600 radius like Tempest Auras and not half duration, that is just a complete waste.

Yup, Oppressive Superiority could also be completely useless just in PvE if the health is not a , since it will be totally nullified on all bosses except the last 1.

It could be so good but with that radius is not going to be used, just a waste. Even with the 50% reduction in time, if they increase the radius it would kinda be useful but like its now, nope total waste.

Does someone have info on this, i havent seen much people saying this. When you merge with the pet do you get for example if its a dps pet, lets say some buff like +150 power +150 ferocity or something like that. Maybe toughness if is a tanky pet or some buff. If not then what is the point of merging with the pet if you are going to be losing damage, ranger dmg is already not that wow compare to other classes.

I heard somewhere that 1/3 of our damage comes from our pet. (On our mender’s druid builds, its more like 80%). Here’s to hoping we get a 33% damage increase while in Soulbeast to make up for it!

seriously, i know pets are kitten but if we also lose that damage then wtf are we going to do lol. This is bad, honestly this is looking worse than i first tough. I hope i am wrong but this specialization is so lacking right now. If we dont get a buff for merging then the specialization is useless. Sad day for rangers, once again of many, like i said hope all this i am wrong but so far everything we know is either useless, garbage or underwhelming compare to others.

Aleksander Suburb.4287:

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

This link shows some more of the specialisation mechanic of the soulbeast
After melting you get the unique ability of the pet and the abilities of its archetype

I wonder what Howl of the pack from Hyena will do? Summon another Soulbeast similar to Mesmer Phants?

Sort of feels like this should have been accomplished by, e.g., shapeshifting into a more powerful version of that creature rather than resorting to a mere glowy aura. Would feel more in line with what you’d thematically expect from a ranger/druid.

But, I guess, it would also be a lot of work. So… shrug.

With all the GW1 nostalgia lately, they should give us a vampire beast pet with close range lifesteal.