Guild Wars 2

Zenith.7301:

Gonna say it again, a measly 200+150 stat buff does not come even close to making up for the loss of dps from the pet.

200 power and 150 ferocity does not equal 2-3k DPS. This is pathetic.

Please try to get someone who knows math when designing elite specs.

What about 280 power, 80 precision, 300 ferocity, 10% Damage when above 90% health, +40% damage on a 32 second cooldown, Extra damage skills, and +50% damage on Maul?

Eponet.4829:

Zenith.7301:

Gonna say it again, a measly 200+150 stat buff does not come even close to making up for the loss of dps from the pet.

200 power and 150 ferocity does not equal 2-3k DPS. This is pathetic.

Please try to get someone who knows math when designing elite specs.

What about 280 power, 80 precision, 300 ferocity, 10% Damage when above 90% health, +40% damage on a 32 second cooldown, Extra damage skills, and +50% damage on Maul?

The 10%^90% doesn’t work, Sic Em will be nerfed, as will Maul consuming it’s own AoO.

The stats don’t really make up for the loss of the pet in a lot of cases either and you are assuming you can run beastmastery.

A single minor trait for Firebrand has +250 Toughness, Healing Power and Condi damage, Weaver has even better ones than that from a single trait or skill.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

More importantly, what would be gained is the idea that our pet selections and uses would be more impactful and fluid. Oh, you got lit up when you went for your damage pets Soulbeast skills and are now reeling to recover? Instead of having to drop Soulbeast, pet swap, twiddle your fingers a bit, go back into Soulbeast on the other pet, and use its utility, you could just swap and use it, and then you’d be locked into this Soulbeast mode for the duration of a pet swap (at which point you could unmeld and use the pets AI skills to your advantage or etc).
Thought that needed to be reiterated.

So, once we swap beastmode we’re locked in beastmode for 20 sec ? sure it will be much more fluid. Then if we exit beastmode we ‘ll have the second pet (we swapped beastmode) and we are locked with the second pet for another 10 sec before to enter beastmode again ? and what happens if i want the first pet’s F2 whe i swapped beastmode from pet 1 to pet 2 ? If i want to enter beastmode for pet 1 abilties and then exit beastmode and swap pet 2 to use the pet ‘s F2 it’s still clunky like it’s already.

I am melded with my pet 1, my second pet is the smokescale. What happens if i want to blast the smokefield to land my melded smoke assault from stealth ? Beatsmode swap doesn’t help at all here, i am still locked in 10 sec CD, this combo (pertty simple one) is impossible and will remain impossible.

I am tired of the simple beastmode swap argument, it’s not even half the solution. The main issue is the cooldown on beastmode, remove the coodown and we’ll have fluidity.

Also, being automatically switched out of beast mode and it being put on cooldown when I enter/leave water is really annoying…

borya.2964:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

More importantly, what would be gained is the idea that our pet selections and uses would be more impactful and fluid. Oh, you got lit up when you went for your damage pets Soulbeast skills and are now reeling to recover? Instead of having to drop Soulbeast, pet swap, twiddle your fingers a bit, go back into Soulbeast on the other pet, and use its utility, you could just swap and use it, and then you’d be locked into this Soulbeast mode for the duration of a pet swap (at which point you could unmeld and use the pets AI skills to your advantage or etc).
Thought that needed to be reiterated.

So, once we swap beastmode we’re locked in beastmode for 20 sec ? sure it will be much more fluid. Then if we exit beastmode we ‘ll have the second pet (we swapped beastmode) and we are locked with the second pet for another 10 sec before to enter beastmode again ? and what happens if i want the first pet’s F2 whe i swapped beastmode from pet 1 to pet 2 ? If i want to enter beastmode for pet 1 abilties and then exit beastmode and swap pet 2 to use the pet ‘s F2 it’s still clunky like it’s already.

I am melded with my pet 1, my second pet is the smokescale. What happens if i want to blast the smokefield to land my melded smoke assault from stealth ? Beatsmode swap doesn’t help at all here, i am still locked in 10 sec CD, this combo (pertty simple one) is impossible and will remain impossible.

I am tired of the simple beastmode swap argument, it’s not even half the solution. The main issue is the cooldown on beastmode, remove the coodown and we’ll have fluidity.

You’ve edited the quote incorrectly, only the last sentence is mine.

Anyway, my $0.02 laid out;

• Beastmode CD should be removed or made very low, like kits, 1s.
• Entering and exiting beastmode should count as a weapon swap.
• You should be able to swap pets while in beastmode.
• Swapping pets while in beastmode should count as a pet swap. Exiting Beastmode should count as a pet swap.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

You’ve edited the quote incorrectly, only the last sentence is mine.

Anyway, my $0.02 laid out;

• Beastmode CD should be removed or made very low, like kits, 1s.
• Entering and exiting beastmode should count as a weapon swap.
• You should be able to swap pets while in beastmode.
• Swapping pets while in beastmode should count as a pet swap. Exiting Beastmode should count as a pet swap.

Yep, sorry my bad.

1.) That’s my point, this change will resolve more issues rather than beastmode swap change alone.
2.) There is absolutly no way that Anet allow you to proc 4 sigils effects with one set of wepons + one melded pet.
3.) Yes, but this change alone is weaker rather than no beastmode CD.
4.) Let’s say yes, but how exactly you’ll be able to know when the pet swap effects would occur if it can occur in 3 differents ways ? You want to loose the ability do perfectly decide at any time when you want to use lesser quickening zephyr etc. I guess you have mental arithmetic skills, but not me (could be done with an icon).

borya.2964:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

You’ve edited the quote incorrectly, only the last sentence is mine.

Anyway, my $0.02 laid out;

• Beastmode CD should be removed or made very low, like kits, 1s.
• Entering and exiting beastmode should count as a weapon swap.
• You should be able to swap pets while in beastmode.
• Swapping pets while in beastmode should count as a pet swap. Exiting Beastmode should count as a pet swap.

Yep, sorry my bad.

1.) That’s my point, this change will resolve more issues rather than beastmode swap change alone.
2.) There is absolutly no way that Anet allow you to proc 4 sigils effects with one set of wepons + one melded pet.
3.) Yes, but this change alone is weaker rather than no beastmode CD.
4.) Let’s say yes, but how exactly you’ll be able to know when the pet swap effects would occur if it can occur in 3 differents ways ? You want to loose the ability do perfectly decide at any time when you want to use lesser quickening zephyr etc. I guess you have mental arithmetic skills, but not me (could be done with an icon).

1) Agree.
2) Revenant does that.
3) Agree.
4) I would just guestimate, you get pretty good at counting to 15 without actually counting. And yes, the icon would work, like Clarion Bond has.

borya.2964:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

More importantly, what would be gained is the idea that our pet selections and uses would be more impactful and fluid. Oh, you got lit up when you went for your damage pets Soulbeast skills and are now reeling to recover? Instead of having to drop Soulbeast, pet swap, twiddle your fingers a bit, go back into Soulbeast on the other pet, and use its utility, you could just swap and use it, and then you’d be locked into this Soulbeast mode for the duration of a pet swap (at which point you could unmeld and use the pets AI skills to your advantage or etc).
Thought that needed to be reiterated.

So, once we swap beastmode we’re locked in beastmode for 20 sec ? sure it will be much more fluid. Then if we exit beastmode we ‘ll have the second pet (we swapped beastmode) and we are locked with the second pet for another 10 sec before to enter beastmode again ? and what happens if i want the first pet’s F2 whe i swapped beastmode from pet 1 to pet 2 ? If i want to enter beastmode for pet 1 abilties and then exit beastmode and swap pet 2 to use the pet ‘s F2 it’s still clunky like it’s already.

I am melded with my pet 1, my second pet is the smokescale. What happens if i want to blast the smokefield to land my melded smoke assault from stealth ? Beatsmode swap doesn’t help at all here, i am still locked in 10 sec CD, this combo (pertty simple one) is impossible and will remain impossible.

I am tired of the simple beastmode swap argument, it’s not even half the solution. The main issue is the cooldown on beastmode, remove the coodown and we’ll have fluidity.

Hey man, I don’t actually care what the solution is as long as it’s the best solution.

My point wasn’t that it’s the best idea, it was that people should really stop saying “but you’re not supposed to be able to play petless” as an argument to why things should remain in their clunky state.

Soulbeast needs an improvement to it’s fluidity, I don’t care how it gets achieved lol.

My own personal solution was to just play Druid with the new pets. That Smokescale/Gazelle combo with Druid is super strong.

Ok this is strictly MY OPINION. I play mainly PvE and WvW.
After playing the soul beast for a bit I feel like I’m losing more than I am gaining. I love the idea behind it but I gain 200 of 1 stat and 100 of another to my main character but i completely lose my pet and his ENTIRE stats. Losing a meat shield and damage dealer on a class that is already struggling IMO in both areas is not good. I’m not sure what suggestions to make it just does not feel powerful to me.

jcbroe.4329:

Soulbeast needs an improvement to it’s fluidity, I don’t care how it gets achieved lol.

I know that, i don’t focus you especially. It was like a kind of cross over, the subforum is a big mess atm.

I just pointed the fact that a lot of people focus on shortminded and simple combos that beastmode swap would allow whereas it’s not a magical solution. There are also a lots of real rotations locked into the beastmode CD independently from beastmode swap.

Beastmode swap (alone, i mean if it were the only change), won’t resolve half of the fluidity issue and would bring beastmode campers and i know you don’t agree here, but well. I can perfectly see effective condi stealth trappers builds as an example, but even outside of troll builds, veteran rangers would fine effective builds without the need of real pet for very long. Anet didn’t designed the spec for it.

If you remove the CD on beast mode you would have the possibility to make melded skills combos, you’ll still have to go out beastmode, swap pet and enter beasmode, but it’s instant, it takes 3 sec. And on the top of that it opens way mores rotations (meld out from pet 1, swap pet, use pet 2 f2, meld with pet 2 etc). And it’s also what the spec is designed for, an in&out beastmode active play style.

Let’s face it, i doubt that we’ll have everything, that’s why i think we should focus more to remove beastmode CD, it’s a very simple change really.

Eponet.4829:

Zenith.7301:

Gonna say it again, a measly 200+150 stat buff does not come even close to making up for the loss of dps from the pet.

200 power and 150 ferocity does not equal 2-3k DPS. This is pathetic.

Please try to get someone who knows math when designing elite specs.

What about 280 power, 80 precision, 300 ferocity, 10% Damage when above 90% health, +40% damage on a 32 second cooldown, Extra damage skills, and +50% damage on Maul?

But those numbers do not exist STRICKLY from melding. They are proked by skills/traits already in existance. I gain 1k damage by losing 2k? I gain no extra health where my pet can tank it for me. I lose protect me and guard. I lose might generation from my pet crits. Strength of the pack is not as good. I lose a TON of CC. 1k extra damage is not worth the loss.

@Borya;

It’s actually not that big of a deal to me, I’d rather have the cooldown removed from Beastmode myself, it’d achieve the same result I’m looking for; quickly getting to the other pet for it’s Beastmode utility.

Just to address what I think of the pet swap, I just think it should be available, but when you press it, it pulls you out of Beastmode AND swaps to the other pet, if the petless Ranger thing really is such a problem right now.

My main issue is that without it working like that, if I need to quickly react to something that has me wanting to pet swap, I have to press 2 buttons to only functionally do 1 thing.

Maybe if leaving Beastmode had ANY function attached to it at all (for examples look at Holosmith traited leaving Forge mode or Druid traited leaving Avatar. Heck, even core necro leaving shroud lol) it wouldn’t be something I request at all.

Right now though, you really are just pushing 2 buttons to do 1 thing, and it bogs down gameplay.

Just my 2c, the removal of the cooldown needs to happen regardless. The swap being available in that format would just be icing on the cake that makes game play that much smoother for me.

jcbroe.4329:

Just to address what I think of the pet swap, I just think it should be available, but when you press it, it pulls you out of Beastmode AND swaps to the other pet, if the petless Ranger thing really is such a problem right now.

Just my 2c, the removal of the cooldown needs to happen regardless. The swap being available in that format would just be icing on the cake that makes game play that much smoother for me.

This is a very good idea actually. I mean, it would be perfect.

borya.2964:

jcbroe.4329:

Just to address what I think of the pet swap, I just think it should be available, but when you press it, it pulls you out of Beastmode AND swaps to the other pet, if the petless Ranger thing really is such a problem right now.

Just my 2c, the removal of the cooldown needs to happen regardless. The swap being available in that format would just be icing on the cake that makes game play that much smoother for me.

This is a very good idea actually. I mean, it would be perfect.

Hmm, pretty smart. Might be confusing from a UI point of view, but a better solution gameplay wise.

Something is seriously wrong with the main-hand dagger auto-attack. The direct damage is low with very low power co-efficients. The majestic one stack of bleeding has 3 seconds base duration???? Even if I cap 100% bleed duration it will be only 6 seconds bleeding for one stack. I’d expect this kind of behaviour if it was a strong condition like burning but no, it’s bleeding…

Beastmode offensive skills are lacking as well. Is this normal for a ranger to be so low damage even without a pet?

One thing I don’t like is how Condi removal signit does nothing while in Beast mode.

My feedback for Soulbeast…

MH Dagger – It seems like Anet could have gone with any weapon for Soulbeast since none of the traits specifically affect this weapon, but at the same time, this weapon also relies on Soul beast traits for maximum effectiveness (and a trait from Wilderness survival). Conditions are great.

Stances
- I like Moa Stance, but that’s about it with this set of utility skills.
- Bear Stance needs to have a 20 sec cooldown or have instant activation like other stances.
- Dolyak Stance oddly worked the first few times I used it, then bugged out and never worked again. In Theory, the skill seems fine, but was never able to test it.
- Vulture Stance…..change the might to something else? How many other places can we easily get might, and other classes can easily get might? Still, not a bad skill.
- Griffin Stance has way too long of a cooldown (reduce by 10 seconds at least). It also grants might. Is this like a go to boon when no one can think of anything else?
- One Wolf Pack needs the most work. It doesn’t feel strong enough for an Elite Skill. It needs to either copy all damage with a shorter duration, have no 1/2 sec interval, or just plain last longer. Also should have instant activation.

Traits
- Not a huge amount of synergy with other traits, and some aspects of Soul beast seem to be partially dependent on traits from other lines as well (Daggers need Ambidexterity as it does affect MH dagger), Beast Skills need traits from Beastmastery or that one from Nature Magic, etc.)

- Essence of Speed should have a shorter cooldown or extend boons for another second longer.

- Move Predator’s cunning to Adept with no change. Make Fresh Reinforcement a Master and have it also copy your boons to pet when leaving Beastmode. The reason is that two traits related to entering and leaving beastmode are in adept, and the traits that give our dagger maximum effecitveness are in master.
This is not the case for other specializations. This would be like if Reaper had all their chilled traits in one tier, or if Spellbreaker had all full counter’s in one tier and could never take advantage of all of them at once.

- I like Second Skin, and I am noticing that only Rangers have traits that improve protection, but we should maybe have more sources of protection to make this trait more useful.

- Eternal Bond…..Meh. Not sure what the use of this is. (it has synergy with Second Skin and rugged growth from Wilderness survival, but if that is what was intended, make the amount of granted protection longer, like, much longer, like 10 seconds at least)

I’d rather it do something useful to a majority of builds out there, like, it just summons your secondary pet while in Beast Mode when you are struck below the threshold (90% or so). the Pet will use its F2 skill immediately, then proceed to use its other skills for 10 seconds or so before disappearing. Something like that. And give it a 60 second cooldown or so.

Beast Skills – As much as GW2 is based on movement and positioning, having all our Beast skills rooting us in place, or having odd movement (like the Swoop skill), is just….odd. The skills that have more utility than damage are the most useful currently. The F3 skills don’t seem that bad, but they also have their issues (that others have already explained here and in other threads).

Beastmode – Get rid of the cool down. If you have to, give Unstoppable union the 10 second cooldown instead so we can’t spam infinite stunbreaks and unblockable attacks.

Conclusion – 6/10, but I’m going to use it.

My take on a trait redux.

heres a little video of some plays. im not promoting Soulbeast in general is great as it is, but look at where a soulbeast swap wouldve benefit in some situations if ANet made it possible. Like I said Dagger/Axe with quickness then Whirling Defense, its nice but could be better.

I love the feel of soulbeast: I really dig beastmode and all of the new skills it gives you access to. My suggestions are echoed many times over on this post, but I figured I’d leave it here all the same:
-I absolutely agree that we should be able to pet swap in beastmode.
-I do like the green aura while in beastmode, but I would suggest having it last for only the first 1-2 seconds upon entering beastmode. I can definitely see myself staying in beastmode for extended periods of time, and having that green aura the whole time is distracting and not aesthetically pleasing.
-I agree that the utility skills are a bit lackluster…
-This is a specific thing I noticed about the beastmode smoke assault skill with smokescale pets: once the skill ended it didn’t automatically re-engage me with the my targeted opponent.

Overall though, props to the devs for a really cool elite spec.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

My take on a trait redux.

This give the actual feeling that you make strategic choice in your SoulBeast Trait and that those choice will be impactful on your gameplay much more than currently.

I feel like Fresh Reinforcement should share our boons to your pet when leaving Beastmode too.

I really like your idea for Leader Of The Pack, I can actually see it being really useful in Zerg or GvG especially with the dolyak stance (which might be a little too powerful combined with this trait).

Oppressive Superiority in my opinion, should be reworked,
I don’t really like this trait to begin with, should at least give condition damage, not condition duration.

HeavenSwordz.2813:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

My take on a trait redux.

This give the actual feeling that you make strategic choice in your SoulBeast Trait and that those choice will be impactful on your gameplay much more than currently.

I feel like Fresh Reinforcement should share our boons to your pet when leaving Beastmode too.

I really like your idea for Leader Of The Pack, I can actually see it being really useful in Zerg or GvG especially with the dolyak stance (which might be a little too powerful combined with this trait).

Oppressive Superiority in my opinion, should be reworked,
I don’t really like this trait to begin with, should at least give condition damage, not condition duration.

Ranger is in dire need for condition duration traits. Duration is much better than condition damage if you want to stay competetiv as condition class in PvE after the food change.

I will start off by saying that I was initially super hyped about testing the Soulbeast this weekend, and I’ve had a lot of fun playing Soulbeast in both PvP and WvW.
But I do have some concerns/criticisms. I think my biggest disappointment was the animations. My mom taught me I should only ever check my neighbors plate to see if they have enough to eat, but not to compare with my own plate. Sorry mama, but this is a video game, not a dinner table. When I look at the animations the Soulbeast got, and compare to say the Firebrand, and Holosmith, it makes me sad. I understand ArenaNet had 1.5 years to develop the elite specs, and I’m fairly sure a lot of that time went into engine/programming work for the Soulbeast to make the melding work. Still. When you look at all the effort ArenaNet put into their postergirl class, the elementalist, just look at the weaver, 40 new spells, new spell icons, new flashy animations, and it’s an absolutely gorgeous specialization. Then there’s the Soulbeast, which got a swirling green tuurd aura… Good job ArenaNet!
They divided pets into two main categories, Family and Archetype . Why not make it so that the the aura would take form after the family and color based on archetype ? ArenaNet said that silhouettes are important. When a green turrd is running at me, I have no idea what archetype, nor what family his pet merge is. Having some claws, fangs, horns, tail, fur, or just something else than the green kitten aura would be amazing. But I guess the Soulbeast isn’t worth the investment compared to other more popular classes.
Now I know I sound like a salty, whiny lil kitten, I know. But now, for some actual feedback tho. Soulbeast is fun to play, hands down. The merging, and pet abilities, and archetype abilities feels good. I found myself using birds and pigs as my pets for the first time in years (or maybe the first time ever). Stances are good, I think they’re in a good spot (dolyak stance is bugged, as I’m sure you’re already aware of). Dagger is a cool weapon, but it feels clunky. When I saw the d/d Soulbeast I thought it looked really cool, and I thought of the daggers as claws or fangs that the Soulbeast would use. So I thought it would either be swift striking attacks, or a bit more harsh, tearing attacks. As of now, the dagger feels like neither. The auto attack chain feels slow, too slow. And even with vipers or berserker gear, it doesn’t really pack a punch condi or damage wise. Camping short bow auto attack is a lot better as it’s fast, generates bleed stacks fast (so you can actually feel the damage only from the auto attack compared to the dagger), and it’s ranged, so it actually connects with it’s target.
The dagger 2 spell feels like a clunky auto attack. It literally does the same thing as your auto attack; bleed, poison, and it’s slow. I don’t really notice the difference between auto attacking, and using dagger 2. Make it pack a punch. Let the auto attack be fast swift strikes, and the dagger two be this powerful “tearing-your-opponents-to-shreds”-attack. Dagger 3 feels super clunky with the long precast and aftercast. I’m pretty sure I can travel faster by running with swiftness, than actually use my Dagger 3 for mobility. And the afte cast also makes it clunky to combo. For example dagger 3, into a dagger 4 could be really cool, but the aftercast just makes it feel really clunky.
Last thing I want to talk about, are the grandmaster traits. When I think of grandmaster traits, I think they should be something build defining. I think the Reaper Grandmaster traits did and EXCELLENT job of doing this. Faster auto attack in shroud (power/shroud focus), bleed on chill (condi/chill focus), and health on boon application (boon/healing focus). And these grandmaster traits truly affected your whole build. It defined what purpose you’re build were going for. When I look at the Soulbeast grandmaster traits, I think ‘meh, doesn’t really all that much of a difference what I go’. They’re not necessarily bad (although I do think all of them should be slightly buffed), but they don’t feel build defining or particularly meaningful…
Alright, end of salty whiny post. I will admit I had a ton of fun this demo weekend, and at the end of the day, I think you are doing a great job with the game ArenaNet, Guild Wars 2 is the best game I’ve ever played, hands down, you got my attention for at least another expansion. It’s only because we love this game we get all worked up over the game and it’s changes. Cheers guys

I actually really like most of the stances, specially since you can share them, thought I’d make their durations a bit longer. Moa is pretty nice, the boon duration increase works really well coupled with dolyak. You’re granting all your allies a hefty amount of boons with those two. The heal stance is also really sweet, although I wish it would heal a bit more even if it didn’t remove condis,but I guess that’s what the other heals are for. The dagger auto attack is WAAAAY too slow, this seems to be a trend with most of the new weapons. Their cast times and aftercasts make them feel clunky.
Dagger 2 also seems to struggle activating depending on what you’re doing before you use it for some reason. What the skills do is fine in and of itself, but the animations make them feel horrible.
The traits are also fairly good, but there’s an odd lack of condi support in them, considering dagger is a condi weapon (like the power scaling on this is attrocious). Soulbeast has some very interesting interactions with skills affecting you instead of your pet now which has buffed power damage significantly, this isn’t the case for condi builds though. The only trait with such interactions is Refined Toxins, which is great with dagger 2, but it competes with Ambidextry and I’d really like to be able to use both at the same time. The same line shouldn’t have competing traits that basically do the same. One gives more condi damage and reduces cooldowns on condi weapons, the other is more condi application which is basically more condi damage. Move refined toxins to the adept tier please! It works really well with soulbeast

beast-mode should have no CD. it makes it really difficult to swap pets, which is fundamental to the Ranger’s playstyle.

I need a Stout devourer in my life. Please!

I dedicated 8 hours in WvW to soulbeast with a hybrid assassin/commander’s spec. I went marksmanship, skirmishing, and soulbeast. I took longbow and greatsword. Pets were tiger and smokescale.

The Result:
This spec is a very versatile roamer with ability to burst hard. Hitting mauls for 10k with 10 might or less. The movement is okay given the greatsword swoop and range of longbow. It was clear this was meant for a condition oriented build play, but also lended itself to maybe ally support. However, this build shines in selfish gameplay where you leap in and smash stuff hard.

I felt that worldy impact was slow and rarely hit unless I chained a CC in somewhere. One wolf pack should not critically hit because I can proc the skill 10 times in a single burst which hit for 1.2k a hit for 12k in total damage alone. Added to longbow 2, smokescale assault, worldly impact (if it landed), and 2x mauls. I could stack 50k in damage.

The condition clear in this spec was very lackluster which required very conservative play in terms of sitting in conditions or facing the condition reaper/daredevil.

There is no zerg play in this sepc. Don’t do it; you have better use of your time than getting mowed over in the mass of bodies. Play for picks and don’t be dumb. Pair this spec with a holosmith or deadeye, and you have a potent combo for pressure and instanukes.

I am starting to realize that no effort went into these stances.

And honestly, our elite is an essentially a cheap re-hash of the druid elite glyph.

Signet of Renewal was reworked in the balance patch in preparation for this expansion, and it is even more brokenly unusable than before. Signet of Renewal’s active effect does absolutely nothing while Soulbeast is active.

Every ranger ability needs to be functional without an active pet.

Eponet.4829:

Zenith.7301:

Gonna say it again, a measly 200+150 stat buff does not come even close to making up for the loss of dps from the pet.

200 power and 150 ferocity does not equal 2-3k DPS. This is pathetic.

Please try to get someone who knows math when designing elite specs.

What about 280 power, 80 precision, 300 ferocity, 10% Damage when above 90% health, +40% damage on a 32 second cooldown, Extra damage skills, and +50% damage on Maul?

Still not enough compared to what a Ranger with a beast out is doing, when you actually look at the combined contribution from the ranger’s pet and the ranger’s action, or what Thieves, Warriors, and Elementalists can do baseline.

“OH NO! WE’RE ALMOST COMPETENT! ANET NEEDS TO NURF!”

Everyone who says that the dps loss from not having the pet is too much to justify the stat increase should consider that the maximum dps you can lose from the pet is 3k and that assumes a golem with 25 vuln and a pet with all boons possible + sun and frost spirit buffs which are usually not granted to the pet as the spirits are capped at 5 targets. In PvE at least. If they make loud whistle work in beast mode, that alone should make up for the pet dps loss (assuming the overall power dps of soul beast is competitive which means > 30k).

What exactly is the point of the Feline Beastmode skill “Bite”?

Can somebody please explain what the deal is with the Gazelle? What is it about it that is so strong or broken?

What is it’s connection to Greatsword Maul hitting harder?

It has a charge attack that hits the same target multiple times which results in ridiculous damage (if it actually hits at all that is).
Maul gives an attack of opportunity (50% increased damage on the next attack) which is granted before the damage portion of the skill, thus it increases its own damage by 50% in beast mode. Might be too much damage for pvp/wvw, but it might also be what is needed to make power ranger viable in pve. The problem is that you have hardly any skills except maul that you could use the damage buff on to considerably increase your dps.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

My take on a trait redux.

this seems really nice, would really appreciate the poison duration on Predator’s Cunning, and I really like the idea of Oppressive Superiority improving as you weaken enemies, its nice thematically. the twice as vicious change would also be great. the poison duration especially would make me feel a lot better about Essence of Aggression not giving condi duration or damage, as atm there’s pretty much not a lot to choose for condi atm.

maybe LotP should have inbuilt CD reduction for stances though, as I’m sure many other people have said in this thread, ‘cus that’d help that trait feel more worthwhile.

my ocd is telling me Fresh Reinforcement should just do both the entering and exiting boon copy rather than it being on Elevated Bond, just for consistency/clarity though lmao.

Atros.9607:

I dedicated 8 hours in WvW to soulbeast with a hybrid assassin/commander’s spec. I went marksmanship, skirmishing, and soulbeast. I took longbow and greatsword. Pets were tiger and smokescale.

The Result:
This spec is a very versatile roamer with ability to burst hard. Hitting mauls for 10k with 10 might or less. The movement is okay given the greatsword swoop and range of longbow. It was clear this was meant for a condition oriented build play, but also lended itself to maybe ally support. However, this build shines in selfish gameplay where you leap in and smash stuff hard.

I felt that worldy impact was slow and rarely hit unless I chained a CC in somewhere. One wolf pack should not critically hit because I can proc the skill 10 times in a single burst which hit for 1.2k a hit for 12k in total damage alone. Added to longbow 2, smokescale assault, worldly impact (if it landed), and 2x mauls. I could stack 50k in damage.

The condition clear in this spec was very lackluster which required very conservative play in terms of sitting in conditions or facing the condition reaper/daredevil.

There is no zerg play in this sepc. Don’t do it; you have better use of your time than getting mowed over in the mass of bodies. Play for picks and don’t be dumb. Pair this spec with a holosmith or deadeye, and you have a potent combo for pressure and instanukes.

I don’t think it matters if you were to make this non-criticals or criticals, the elite is garbage compared to RaO and will never be viable other than being in some very specific build ideas.

8 seconds is not enough as I would know when you had it up and would just avoid the burst setups in this time period as I know you would need to dish out a massive amount of damage to get it to be worth the 8 seconds.

Since it also has an activation time that also means you would need to stop mid-combo and activate it after a CC , not a realistic situation as you would give me ample time to break it or lose a portion of time involved in causing dmg to proc the dmg from the elite. If it were an instant cast like Berserker Stance/Balanced Stance or some of the other stances then I could see it being a proper implementation but probably still wouldn’t use it.

So many people seems to want to have pet swap in Beastmode. I don’t think we will get it for two (good) reasons; Pretty sure Anet doesn’t have the tech to be able to do it. And the devs seemed really clear that you are not supposed to camp beast mode. They want you dance in and out, and between pets. And that’s a cool concept I think. BUT… As many others point out, the problem is we want to be able to react and adapt quickly. There is nothing quick about a 10 second Beastmode cd, and a 20 sec pet swap cd. I think the easiest solution, and probably what Anet wants to go for, is to really bring down the Beastmode cd. Make it a 1 sec cooldown (so we can’t accidentally double tap it). Make the ‘enter beastmode’ count’ as a pet swap, and we would have real incentive to swap pets. Our traits gives us a lot ‘activates on pet swap’ traits. But with beast mode those are super clunky and 90% of the time, you won’t be seeing those traits in action, because this ‘dancing’ between pets and beastmode is really slow and clunky. Reducing the Beastmode cd will make swapping pets feel a lot more fluid (which is what the playerbase wants), but it still encourages us to actually swap between pets, and go in and out of beastmode a lot (like Anet wants us to), and we get the added bonus of proccing more off our traits. I really hope this is the solution Anet decides to go for…

I enjoyed Soulbeast overall, but it did have a few shortcomings.

Dagger was very disappointing. I don’t especially like daggers aesthetically, but the attacks felt weak and the ultra short range meant I rarely hit anything (latency issues).

Stances are pretty boring. I liked the heal well enough because we really needed a condi cleansing heal that didn’t rely on a trait and wasn’t Healing Spring. The rest seem pretty straight forward. The elite shout is interesting when combined with Rapid Fire, but I’m unsure if the damage boost is worth an elite slot.

I’d like an ability to swap my pets in Beast Mode. I already switch between beast mode and normal to utilize my pets independently when needed and to set up my might spam combo, so this isn’t about camping Beast Mode. When I pick a pet for defensive reasons I can’t get to the pet when I need that defense as it stands, which means I may as well not be using a defensive pet at all. Nobody plans their condition cleanses 7+ seconds in advance. I was excited to see my old friend the Marsh Drake gave resistance, but then quickly realized I’d never get to use it.

Some pet abilities are pretty weak. I’m not sure why I’d ever use Chomp or even Tail Swipe as it stands. Long animation for the payoff I could get from an auto attack. Speaking of animations, it would’ve been nice to get something like chomping spirit jaws when using Bite or Chomp rather than… Throwing a punch? That’s a pathetic animation and doesn’t make me feel like I’ve channeled the beast at all.

I love the synergy with the Beastmaster line and how much selfish damage boosts you can push out of the spec. Though I expect that will be severely nerfed in later versions of the class, which is unfortunate. A remorseless Soulbeast with Sic’em is a pretty strong combo.

I wish the elite stance cooldown can be shorter. I don’t mind if the duration is shorter.

CETheLucid.3964:

Quick and dirty feedback of my time with Soulbeast. Main hand dagger is a lot of fun. But yeah, in PvP/WvW off-hand dagger is pretty much mandatory.

You need that evade.

I could see maybe dagger/warhorn for blast finishing and finishing off low targets trying to run with hawks, but I felt safest with another dagger.

I would consider adding an evade to MH dagger 3 leap. It’d be in line with GS and Sword all having an evade in the weapon. Dagger/Axe might be fun in PvE.

The stance skills felt very weak, with exception to the heal. Bear Stance is pretty good.

But the star of the show and probably the reason why we lost stability on SoTW (though I’m okay with the replacement) would be Dolyak Stance and… it doesn’t work. It’s broken.

Soulmerging with your pet is a cool mechanic.

I like that I can combo with my pet more reliably and then soul merge to unleash a new torrent of skills, though some of these need an honest looking at.

Some pets could use more variety in the special skill they offer.

The few supportive pets that give you the support skill while merged is really good in melee for saving yourself and/or your friends in melee.

But in general it feels like most pets are deadly type and the special skill they give is often the same. But maybe that’s just me and the pets I pick.

I also like that I can use soulmerging to save a pet that’s critically low.

Soulmerge/demerge, pet is a-ok again. Or merge and use the situation and the added traits and skills to change your strat on a dime.

I love the versatility it offers.

Soulbeast has potential, it’s a lot of fun and dagger main-hand is a good addition for a melee condi spec or a condi/DPS hybrid. It just feels incomplete right now.

I’m sure it’ll be cleaned up before launch.

Also, please don’t change the aura you get when soulmerged. I like it a lot. If you based devs clean it up a bit to make it more soul-ish, sure, but please don’t get rid of the aura.

I like looking like a super saiyan.

For the feedback thread. Didn’t know there was a place where we’re throwing all our feedback into.

Soulbeast was a lot of fun to play this weekend! One thing I’d really like to see changed is the noise from the beast skills…PLEASE! I was using eagle beastmode for the constant swiftness and leap to move around WvW. I was stuck listening to what sounded like someone snoring LOUDLY with a whistle in their nose…seriously. Every 5sec it was a whistle breathing in or out. The pitch was piercing compared to the rest of the noise in the game…. It drove me nuts, it drove my wife nuts and I’m sure it drove somebody else nuts.

Other than that the stances seem pretty situational. They fill some niche areas on the ranger but non were very exciting. Soulbeast was fun to play besides that. The maul/sic’em combo seemed crazy but all in all you lose utility slots and only have one chance to pull it off each encounter using a very animated skill people are used to avoiding. The dmg increase would be Greatly appreciated in PvE.

Ehecatl.9172:

I enjoyed Soulbeast overall, but it did have a few shortcomings.

Dagger was very disappointing. I don’t especially like daggers aesthetically, but the attacks felt weak and the ultra short range meant I rarely hit anything (latency issues).

Stances are pretty boring. I liked the heal well enough because we really needed a condi cleansing heal that didn’t rely on a trait and wasn’t Healing Spring. The rest seem pretty straight forward. The elite shout is interesting when combined with Rapid Fire, but I’m unsure if the damage boost is worth an elite slot.

I’d like an ability to swap my pets in Beast Mode. I already switch between beast mode and normal to utilize my pets independently when needed and to set up my might spam combo, so this isn’t about camping Beast Mode. When I pick a pet for defensive reasons I can’t get to the pet when I need that defense as it stands, which means I may as well not be using a defensive pet at all. Nobody plans their condition cleanses 7+ seconds in advance. I was excited to see my old friend the Marsh Drake gave resistance, but then quickly realized I’d never get to use it.

Some pet abilities are pretty weak. I’m not sure why I’d ever use Chomp or even Tail Swipe as it stands. Long animation for the payoff I could get from an auto attack. Speaking of animations, it would’ve been nice to get something like chomping spirit jaws when using Bite or Chomp rather than… Throwing a punch? That’s a pathetic animation and doesn’t make me feel like I’ve channeled the beast at all.

I love the synergy with the Beastmaster line and how much selfish damage boosts you can push out of the spec. Though I expect that will be severely nerfed in later versions of the class, which is unfortunate. A remorseless Soulbeast with Sic’em is a pretty strong combo.

Basically all of the above, nicely put.

-We really need the ability to change our pets while in beast mode. I will give you an example: lets say you just pet swaped and merged with a damage pet (rock gazzele or smokescale) suddenly the situation turns and you are under heavy pressure, most of your defensive skills are on CD and there is no way to access your other pet (defensive) to use Unflinching Fortitude. Even if the pet spaw is ready, it would still take another 8 sec to acces that ability (jump out of soulbeast->pet swap->waith another 8 sec till you can use soulbeast again->Unflinching Fortitude); which in a pvp situation is way too much time. A defensive skill like that should be possible to be accessed reactivly; simmilar as signet of stone/endure pain, etc. etc.. Same goes for the condi cleanse. I totaly understand and get the pros of swaping in and out of soulbeast; making use of the pet abilites, while beast ones are on cd is jut one of them.

Why not give those of use who want to make the best use of the ranger (soulbeast) the ability to do so, and to those that want to stay in soulbeast forever, also the ability to do so.

-The dagger, it really is way too weak AA and Dobule Arc lack the damage (the gap closer is also somehow bugged, pressing the skill once, trigers the skill 2 times, one after another, same as pressing the button twice).

-Alot of pet abilities are also way too weak. I will give a few examples of those that I remember:
-Bite (feline) is just another sword AA (first in chain->the weakest), basically no real reason to ever use this skill. The damage should be upped by ALOT.
-The bird “Swoop” ability doesen’t go the 1200 range (more like 900 range) and it has a a long aftercast at the end. This makes the ability useless as a gap closer.

So far, my experience with Soulbeast was very good, in most cases. I’m very bothered though with this suggestion that we NEED to have pet swapping in beast mode. It feels to me, after reading through all of these threads, like the vocal complaints of the “petless ranger” crowd, who just can’t seem to get out of the mindset that BM was not designed to be camped.

After playing many hours, the elite seems very solid, but seems to be best played as if BM is there to augment core ranger, not replace it. Playing core ranger skills, then swapping into one of your two equipped pets (ie. becoming more tanky when needed, unleashing a burst of dps, or becoming a buffer/hearler for a period) is what the new elite is all about. It’s very powerful and versatile.

I agree in some ways that the actual “command” to swap pets could perhaps be available in beast mode. As some have pointed out, that might be an interesting tweak to the existing design, if by initiating the swap, it broke you out of BM and swapped pets, all in one motion. The only really awkward part of swapping at the moment is that it’s basically two keystrokes for one action, which isn’t ideal.

Otherwise, a serious kudos to the designers behind the new elite, I really love it so far and I’m excited to play it on release.

Hawken.7932:

So far, my experience with Soulbeast was very good, in most cases. I’m very bothered though with this suggestion that we NEED to have pet swapping in beast mode. It feels to me, after reading through all of these threads, like the vocal complaints of the “petless ranger” crowd, who just can’t seem to get out of the mindset that BM was not designed to be camped.

Gonna just copy/paste what I wrote in your thread about this.

It seems more like a group wants to be able to swap whilst in Beastmode and people like you are being irked by the thought of giving people that choice.
Letting people swap whilst in Beastmode doesn’t take away your gameplay style, it just adds more options in.
Really, who cares if someone camps Beastmode? People are going to do that regardless if Anet add the swap in or not. Adding it in just gives Soulbeast more of an appeal for other people.

Hawken.7932:

can’t seem to get out of the mindset that BM was not designed to be camped.

For this quote specifically, you’re misunderstanding what they said.

They said, “I’m hoping to see players realising it’s not JUST ‘ok I’m just gonna camp Beastmode’…”, meaning they want to see people go in and out but it’s okay to camp it as well. Never did they say they never want people to just camp it.

At around 1:10:56 if you want to hear the quote.

Hawken.7932:

So far, my experience with Soulbeast was very good, in most cases. I’m very bothered though with this suggestion that we NEED to have pet swapping in beast mode. It feels to me, after reading through all of these threads, like the vocal complaints of the “petless ranger” crowd, who just can’t seem to get out of the mindset that BM was not designed to be camped.

After playing many hours, the elite seems very solid, but seems to be best played as if BM is there to augment core ranger, not replace it. Playing core ranger skills, then swapping into one of your two equipped pets (ie. becoming more tanky when needed, unleashing a burst of dps, or becoming a buffer/hearler for a period) is what the new elite is all about. It’s very powerful and versatile.

I agree in some ways that the actual “command” to swap pets could perhaps be available in beast mode. As some have pointed out, that might be an interesting tweak to the existing design, if by initiating the swap, it broke you out of BM and swapped pets, all in one motion. The only really awkward part of swapping at the moment is that it’s basically two keystrokes for one action, which isn’t ideal.

Otherwise, a serious kudos to the designers behind the new elite, I really love it so far and I’m excited to play it on release.

The problem with not having pet swap in beast mode is you lose a lot of the punch you get from your pet swap traits, Clarion Bond, Spirited Arrival and Zephyrs Speed, since if you want to use those with the build and you have to exit the mode to swap pets, you need to wait 10s before you can enter again, even if you don’t want to use the swap traits and just want to drop out of the mode to use the pet F2, 10s wait to get back in does not make for in/out play. It may be the case they didn’t intend people camping the mode, but that is exactly what will happen by having a 10s CD on it. Also, the pet never getting your boons when you exit the mode is not condusive to in/out play either, it’s a hinderance.

I think I’ll make a new mouse keybind for Soulbeast that will be F5 on the down press and F4 on the release as well as my usual F4 and F5 keybinds.

psizone.8437:

Hawken.7932:

So far, my experience with Soulbeast was very good, in most cases. I’m very bothered though with this suggestion that we NEED to have pet swapping in beast mode. It feels to me, after reading through all of these threads, like the vocal complaints of the “petless ranger” crowd, who just can’t seem to get out of the mindset that BM was not designed to be camped.

Gonna just copy/paste what I wrote in your thread about this.

It seems more like a group wants to be able to swap whilst in Beastmode and people like you are being irked by the thought of giving people that choice.
Letting people swap whilst in Beastmode doesn’t take away your gameplay style, it just adds more options in.
Really, who cares if someone camps Beastmode? People are going to do that regardless if Anet add the swap in or not. Adding it in just gives Soulbeast more of an appeal for other people.

Hawken.7932:

can’t seem to get out of the mindset that BM was not designed to be camped.

For this quote specifically, you’re misunderstanding what they said.

They said, “I’m hoping to see players realising it’s not JUST ‘ok I’m just gonna camp Beastmode’…”, meaning they want to see people go in and out but it’s okay to camp it as well. Never did they say they never want people to just camp it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhBf1Q6gTnY

At around 1:10:56 if you want to hear the quote.

I’m sorry, I missed your reply if you posted it in another thread.

It’s not that I’m misinterpreting anything Anet themselves said, I’m simply observing how the elite has been presented to us. I do take issue people immediately demanding that the spec me something that it’s not, yes. Particularly after a couple days of testing (or within hours, in some cases). Time will tell how viable it is.

For my own part, I believe that swapping in beastmode is so obviously going to be too overpowered. Playing from the point of view of a core ranger, who can – when needed – invoke a boost to dps, tankiness, or healing, I think it’s fine, because you are basically limited to that particular boost for a period of time. On the other hand, being able to flip, within beast mode, back and forth between dps and tankiness, or tankiness and healing would be overpowered. From a balance point of view, this seems so blatantly obvious, it’s exhausting that people complaining about this can’t see it immediately. That is why the timer is there, when swapping out of beast mode.

The solution is easy. They should get rid of the entering beast mode ICD. The traits related to entering beast mode(like Unstoppable Union) should get the ICD.
They may consider making entering beast mode to be considered as a pet swap instead of a weapon swap which doesn’t make scene anyway. The parts of “pet swap” traits that effect pets, should effect the soulbeast while in beastmode.

LughLongArm.5460:

They may consider making entering beast mode to be considered as a pet swap […]

This is a bad idea to me. As i see things, pets are our main mechanic and pet swap our first side mechanic with core ranger. With CA as a Druid we have access to a second side mechanic that doesn’t compete with the first one, that’s why playing Ranger and Druid is pretty much the same thing.

The issue with Soulbeast is that we have access to a second side mechanic (enter/exit beastmode) that compete with the first side mechanic (pet swap). It makes people confused, most o them ask for pet swap in beastmode whereas they are talking about beastmode swap. If we could swap beastmode or if we had pet swap effects on entering besatmode the two side mechanics would compete each other even more.

We need to be able to enter/exist beastmode the way it is right now, we also need to be able to swap PET while in beastmode (exit beastmode and swap pet in the same time) and we need a reduced CD on beastmode. It’s the only way to make the two side mechanincs work together.

borya.2964:

LughLongArm.5460:

They may consider making entering beast mode to be considered as a pet swap […]

This is a bad idea to me. As i see things, pets are our main mechanic and pet swap our first side mechanic with core ranger. With CA as a Druid we have access to a second side mechanic that doesn’t compete with the first one, that’s why playing Ranger and Druid is pretty much the same thing.

The issue with Soulbeast is that we have access to a second side mechanic (enter/exit beastmode) that compete with the first side mechanic (pet swap). If we could swap beastmode or if we had pet swap effects on entering besatmode the two side mechanics would compete each other even more.

We need to be able to enter/exist beastmode the way it is right now, we also need to be able to swap PET while in beastmode (exit beastmode and swap pet in the same time) and we need a reduced CD on beastmode. It’s the only way to make the two side mechanincs work together.

CA and BM can’t be compared, CA cant be camped and is very limited in terms of functionality. I don’t understand how My suggestion makes the mechanic compete? If anything It’s much more aligned and consistent to the beast mode core concept and mechanics. The thumb rule is that every trait or skill that effects pet should be applied to the soul beast while in beast mode. Making entering beast mode considered pet swap, could activate related traits(while off cooldown), the effect makes the related traits go to ICD, but not the the actual pet swap command(F4)- The same way beastmode abilities(F1-F3) dont effect the pet F2 ability ICD but will make related traits(like Beastly Warden) to get the ICD. What do they care to let me go in and out of beastmode freely, if I cant abuse related traits? It will give us much more control and Interesting play style.

In my opinion Soulbeast should be quicker and with more evading abilities. Main hand dagger is too slow.