Guild Wars 2

I was already suspecting it when they announced it and I got even more suspicious with the hidden bar video of Aurora Peachy.

When the Warthog merges with the character, you don’t see Forage, you only see Maul, Brutal Charge and another one. Let’s call the last one, the BeastSkill for now.

Then, I’m reading the new post about Soulbeast on Reddit : https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/6r21vn/soulbeast_skills_mechanics/. It says :

• Beastmode: Lasts indefinitely, 10s CD to switch “modes”. Gain a leafy aura while merged, doesn’t seem to vary with pet type. F1-F3 become abilities that vary with pet. Only saw a few examples (see below).

• Treant pet (new) seems to grant healing abilities and a lightning storm

• Flower pet (new) has ranged condi abilities, and a PBAoE bleed + vuln + damage

Since we don’t know the new pets skills, we can’t speculate on it, but… :

• Krytan Hound gets cripple leap (5s cripple/10s CD), knockdown leap (2s KD / 20s CD), and a big splashy AoE stomp (2k damage PBAoE / 25s CD).

So they use Crippling Leap and Brutal Charge then a skill that is not their F2 ability. https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Juvenile_Krytan_Drakehound

• Warthog gets knockdown leap, bleed, and a PBAoE bleed + vuln + damage (same as 3rd ability on flower)

Gets Maul and Brutal Charge and a shared ability with Flower Pet. https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Juvenile_Warthog

So, no, what they say in the official videos is not 100% true. It’s more a white lie. ‘’When the Soulbeast merges with their pet, they gain its unique abilities, as well as the abilities of its archetype’’.

No wonder they didn’t go in depth and details with Soulbeast, because it’s not what we think it should be with their wording. Disappointing isn’t it ?

When you use ‘’unique abilities’’ it means their F2 and when you say ’’archetype’’ it means the skill they share, which could be Maul or Brutal Charge when it comes to the Porcine family. Apparently, it’s not.

The ‘’unique abilities’’ seems to be just new skills they created and that will be shared with some pets.

Or, we just jumped to conclusions about the wording and it makes perfect sense.

“Unique abilities”. Abilities, plural. That’s referring to the 2 “family skills” on the pet. The two abilities that it can activate on its own. It actually makes more sense if that’s what its referring to, because there’s only one F2 skill so the plural there would be meaningless.

Archetype ability is the last ability, the one that seems to depend on some category we’ve never really had associated with pets. The fact that they use “archetype” instead of “family” hints that its a new grouping, and the archetype is probably also what determines what buffs you get from the merge.

Electro.4173:

Or, we just jumped to conclusions about the wording and it makes perfect sense.

“Unique abilities”. Abilities, plural. That’s referring to the 2 “family skills” on the pet. The two abilities that it can activate on its own. It actually makes more sense if that’s what its referring to, because there’s only one F2 skill so the plural there would be meaningless.

Archetype ability is the last ability, the one that seems to depend on some category we’ve never really had associated with pets. The fact that they use “archetype” instead of “family” hints that its a new grouping, and the archetype is probably also what determines what buffs you get from the merge.

This.

I was initially perturbed about not getting the pet F2 skills, but upon further discussion I think it would be too hard to balance, because a lot of them would need to be adjusted to be player-centric.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

I was initially perturbed about not getting the pet F2 skills, but upon further discussion I think it would be too hard to balance, because a lot of them would need to be adjusted to be player-centric.

I agree, I’m a little upset by it, but understand why they made it that way. At least, it won’t invalidate the pets and we will still to use them for their F2 abilities.

Personally I’m pretty happy the F2 isn’t shared with the Soulbeast, it incentivizes using the pet still, and gives us more moves which is always cool.

Although I am very sad I won’t get an animation where I flap my arms and fly around the battlefield spitting fire onto the ground…

Durzlla.6295:

Personally I’m pretty happy the F2 isn’t shared with the Soulbeast, it incentivizes using the pet still, and gives us more moves which is always cool.

Although I am very sad I won’t get an animation where I flap my arms and fly around the battlefield spitting fire onto the ground…

Yeah, shoulder charging people into a launch would have been cool with the Lectric Wyvvy too

Very disappointing, but will first wait and see what the 3rd skills are.

So no on-demand stealth with Jaguar. No on-demand fury with Tiger/Red Moa.

At this point you’re probably better off with a pet than to enter beastmode.

Holland.9351:

Very disappointing, but will first wait and see what the 3rd skills are.

So no on-demand stealth with Jaguar. No on-demand fury with Tiger/Red Moa.

At this point you’re probably better off with a pet than to enter beastmode.

Just chill out, we know very little atm.

Holland.9351:

but will first wait and see

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Just chill out

Ok then.

Holland.9351:

Very disappointing, but will first wait and see what the 3rd skills are.

So no on-demand stealth with Jaguar. No on-demand fury with Tiger/Red Moa.

At this point you’re probably better off with a pet than to enter beastmode.

Or you’re better of merging and de-merging to use both your merged abilities AND your pets F2? That’s probably the idea. Or part of the idea anyway. They don’t want you to just be able to merge with your pet and that’s the end of it, they want you to actively be swapping between merged and separate.

Even without the F2 ability it could be surprisingly fun. I will have to wait to see which skills you get merging. One reason not to allow the F2 would be the fire wyvern, though it would have been fun it really would be a bit too much. Dagger main hand is my only gripe, the Ranger currently lacks a strong ranged attack that isn’t susceptible to projectile hate. Really wanted the rifle since I find it strange the Ranger can’t use one.