Guild Wars 2

I love it! Overall feels undertuned for most but I’m hopeful polishing and tweaking will be applied for release

I could only play the preview for a few hours (curse you, stupid job) but here’s some feedback based on what we had.

DAGGER MAIN HAND
Auto-Attack Skill Chain

• Attack speed is slow and feels like it’s been built around having a lot of quickness uptime – this is bad design if it’s the case. Needs faster chain
• I understand its meant to be a condi weapon more than hybrid, but feels very undertuned – changing base duration of all conditions should be raised from 3s 4 seconds
• If it’s meant to be hybrid, the power damage should be enhanced by at least 20% to make them compete with any other main hand really

Skill 2 – Double Arc

• I feel this skill is missing a little something – a short evade perhaps? Change the animation to the Daredevil’s Weakening Charge (spin-like animation) and make the skill an evade for 0.5s

Skill 3 – Instinctive Engage

• This skill feels in a good spot – the recharge time is a bit long but with traited ‘Ambidexterity’ 12s recharge is fine -maybe change base recharge to 12s ?

So basically, dagger mainhand feels heavily undertuned, doesn’t really compete with other mainhands and feels slow.

Dagger off-hand could also see some love – such as… Ammunition on the skill 5 (yes please)

STANCES
I’ll start off saying the Stance trait is both interesting and underwhelming – partial copy to allies sounds good, but there is no cooldown reduction to rather long CD skills nor any other effect. I’d really like to see something to affect either the stance duration on self OR lower the cooldowns.

• BEAR STANCE – Looks okay-ish if the numbers are tweaked OR it’d be interesting to see something like 0.5s resistance per pulse – not only conditions will be removed but also half effectiveness OR incoming conditions while on this stance heal you instead

• DOLYAK STANCE – Yeah. Broken for the duration of the preview weekend ahaha – On paper, it does look very interesting, but like other stances, rather lengthy CD – Otherwise, looks in a good spot – kinda sad the stability doesn’t pulse like Warrior’s Balanced Stance (8s duration, on 40s CD) – but hey, can’t have everything

• GRIFFON STANCE – Again with the cooldown – this one is VERY HIGH for minimal utility – I’d like to see tuning with either the CD or the duration, or both, feels heavily undertuned and the additional effect sounds minimal, as there are now plenty of self-might options for ranger

• MOA STANCE – I feel this one is in a very good spot – The boons applied have synergy with ranger traits and the 66% boon duration effect is nice

• VULTURE STANCE – This stance feels okay as well but I’m not sure in what situation I’ll use it – again, plenty of access to might and poison. Maybe add a +33% condi duration when in this stance to add more utility? Like moa increases boons, this one would increase condi durations

• ONE WOLF PACK – This stance feels very underwhelming unfortunately, especially with its rather long CD – I’d reaaally like to see a quickness aspect (due to all the quickness synergy now) – perhaps 0.5s quickness on One Wolf Pack Strike? There is a 1s strike delay on the effect. As it currently stands, I’m not sure under what situation I’ll use this elite skill either, competing with SotP and Entangle (…we don’t talk about Ranger Spirits.)

BEASTMODE BEAST SKILLS
First things first – The Beastmastery traits that proc effects on Beast skills SHOULD trigger on skill activation. Also currently when you’re interupted while casting an Archetype Beast skill, the skill goes on full cooldown.

• UNFLINCHING FORTITUDE – Love it – I think it’s in a perfect spot
• PRIMAL CRY – I don’t understand why the underwater version has a 2.5s cast time. I’d easily see it as a single blast finisher too
• PRELUDE LASH – It is a utility skill, but the damage values are pretty low – otherwise, good spot
• WORLDLY IMPACT – The leap finisher is good, as long as primal cry becomes a blast finisher! The CD is a little too long for its limited use (purely damage + leap finisher) – Base 20s CD would feel fair
• SPIRITUAL REPRIEVE – Since you gain access to this skill through supportive pet and therefore automatically gain +25% healing effectiveness, the numbers are really good (5293 heal with 0 healing power!). The CD is pretty long, so is the cast time, so one of the two needs to be balanced (1s Cast time would feel fair)

SOULBEAST TRAITS

• Fresh Reinforcement – In a perfect world, it’d also apply your boons to your pet upon leaving beastmode
• Live Fast – Currently doesn’t work with Pet F2 beast skills – a short CD would most likely required then (10s CD)
• Unstoppable Union – In a good spot, but I’d like to see an effect applied to pet when leaving beast mode?

• Furious Strength – In a good spot - though condition damage could benefit from a bonus too

• Second Skin – Adds even more synergy with protection, in a good spot - maybe 10% lower condition duration?
• Essence of Speed – The flat 2s increase is very interesting, didn’t get a chance to test this trait much though but on paper, looks interesting as we gain more quickness access. Added utility would be to gain short swiftness on quickness application?
• Predator’s Cunning – Interesting effect, but doesn’t quite feel Master-Tier – Maybe some damage bonus to poisoned foes? Something minor – like 5%

• Twice as Vicious – Although I kinda like the effect, feels redundant with Predator’s Onslaught – though the condition damage bonus is nice, and all the new CC from beastmode has great synergy

• Eternal Bond – Played a lot around this trait in WvW and PvP – better than people expect! A very interesting effect would be to grant a barrier to the player when falling out of beastmode Also seems theres a major bug – when you fall out of beastmode and then get downed, the lick wound skills doesn’t work… The pet doesn’t revive you
• Leader of the Pack – Needs an additional effect – Stance CD Reduction? Longer Self Stance Duration? Something! Otherwise the stanceshare effect is brilliant (although greatly reduced) – Maybe +1s to stance duration per allies?
• Oppressive Superiority – The only ‘problem’ I have with this Grandmaster Trait is that it simply has no effect if you have less health than the foe – Maybe add an effect related to that – when you have less health than a foe, gain -10% damage and condition damage from them? You are being oppressed, but have some form of superiority!

BEASTMODE EFFECTS AND SKILLS
Whew. I’ll try to make it short.
Most skills need a lot of tweaking – the way I see it, the burst skills should be interesting enough to entice you to use them or else they break DPS optimisation. if the skill’s goal is utility, it should also be rewarding.
I’ll eventually make an extensive feedback post about every skill but yeah – many feel undertuned.

Also there is a lot of work needed to ensure that while in beastmode, the effects that would otherwise apply to the pet applies to the ranger – Warhorn 5 doesn’t apply the unblockable to the ranger, some shouts have no effect to the ranger, and some traits don’t work

All in all, I actually really like the concept of the soulbeast – on paper it sounds amazing, needs a bit of polishing and tweaking, but I feel it’s headed in a good direction. The recent core traits rework was interesting, synergizes well.

Little Comment -
Strider’s Defense – We get some interesting synergy with Soulbeast now, but this trait still competes with 2 other strong Master Traits – Spotter and Hidden Barbs.

I’d like to see this trait have an additional effect, in the same vein as Guardian’s Stalwart Defender – this guardian trait competes with Strength in Numbers which grants extra toughness to neighboring allies, while Stalwart Defender is shield skill CD redution AND self toughness +240.

That being said, Strider’s Defense could have a similar change – Currently competing with Spotter (+150 precision to allies), Strider’s defense could also grant +200 precision to the ranger. The quickness on evade is aldo very interesting, and removing the necessity to wield a sword would make this trait VIABLE in non-sword builds – GS, Shortbow, Dagger OH, Dodge, etc as right now, this trait only has use with the sword – most other ‘weapon traits’ have other effects to make them viable when not using the weapon itself

Thanks for reading!

Also please do something about the irritating, near-provoking lingering soulbeast aura effect

I do love falling leaves a bit even though not too thematically correct, but the fart cloud gets old fast.

Quick suggestion

Fresh Reinforcement – In a perfect world, it’d also apply your boons to your pet upon leaving beastmode

In a perfect world, that would be baseline for soulbeast, imo.

It’s not like you have Weaver that loses half it’s boons everytime they switch attunements or Necro whenever they enter shroud or Holosmith whenever they enter photon forge or Berzerker whenever they go berzerk, it’s crazy that we do.

Those boons we trait and skill to apply to our pets are part of us and we don’t deserve to be losing them everytime we use a mechanic. Pet swapping I can understand, since it is changing the pet entirely. But exiting beastmode should absolutely be copying our boons onto the pet, otherwise we are hindering ourselves just by using it.

It is certainly not condusive to phasing in and out of the mode regularly.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Fresh Reinforcement – In a perfect world, it’d also apply your boons to your pet upon leaving beastmode

In a perfect world, that would be baseline for soulbeast, imo.

It’s not like you have Weaver that loses half it’s boons everytime they switch attunements or Necro whenever they enter shroud or Holosmith whenever they enter photon forge or Berzerker whenever they go berzerk, it’s crazy that we do.

Those boons we trait and skill to apply to our pets are part of us and we don’t deserve to be losing them everytime we use a mechanic. Pet swapping I can understand, since it is changing the pet entirely. But exiting beastmode should absolutely be copying our boons onto the pet, otherwise we are hindering ourselves just by using it.

It is certainly not condusive to phasing in and out of the mode regularly.

Yeah seeing that trait as a minor would be the actual best! I mean soulbeast has quite an affinity with boons too – Dagger 3, the stances, some beast skills… Would make sense

ProtoMarcus.7649:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Fresh Reinforcement – In a perfect world, it’d also apply your boons to your pet upon leaving beastmode

In a perfect world, that would be baseline for soulbeast, imo.

It’s not like you have Weaver that loses half it’s boons everytime they switch attunements or Necro whenever they enter shroud or Holosmith whenever they enter photon forge or Berzerker whenever they go berzerk, it’s crazy that we do.

Those boons we trait and skill to apply to our pets are part of us and we don’t deserve to be losing them everytime we use a mechanic. Pet swapping I can understand, since it is changing the pet entirely. But exiting beastmode should absolutely be copying our boons onto the pet, otherwise we are hindering ourselves just by using it.

It is certainly not condusive to phasing in and out of the mode regularly.

Yeah seeing that trait as a minor would be the actual best! I mean soulbeast has quite an affinity with boons too – Dagger 3, the stances, some beast skills… Would make sense

I think they should tack it onto Elevated Bond, makes sense thematically and it should be a base mechanic.

I have a question regarding stances as i was unable to join the spec testing weekend.
So the two things that itch me about stances but can’t answer them myself:

1. Do they affect my pet by default as well? So both me and pet get stance effects, or just me, if it’s baseline untraited stance?

2. When affecting allies with grandmaster trait on – whose stats does it use where applicaple? Mine or their own? For example if they got my vulture stance on against low health enemy – is it my condi damage & expertise or theirs that decide the damage of poison stacks their blows blows now inflict?

Also my feedback on stances (from wiki sadly):

1. Moa looks great!

Really liking it and it may be a big breath of fresh air in raids – it greatly supports burst boon casts. Take a herald + soulbeast and for 4s your party has 100% bonus boon duration! Imagine PS warr getting the boot and ppl blasting a fire field instead. Few would complain as fire fields are max dps in terms of whirl/projectile finishers, while blasting one under said boon duration is might for 40s!

2. Griffon looks horrid.
No idea why such a long cooldown on it. The might should be 3 stacks at least, if it’s on evade on a stance with such huge cd.

3. Vulture stance could really use longer duration. 20% uptime for a stance that provides a continual rather then bursty effect is kinda low.

4. Bear stance
It’s there cause they needed a stance on healing skill and that’s about it. No stance should have a cast time! It should be more like warrior’s heal – you gain aura (warning enemies that you’re in healing stance) and receiving major healing if you get struck/do damage. Could be combined some damage reduction for it’s duration.

5. Dolyak stance.
This one’s tough. It looks excellent, a lot of good stuff going on here. But it still lacks one thing, especially given it’s purpose – a non swifness movement speed buff. I can see it being used as panic button, when your regular movement increasing traits/boons are down, and you’re being crippled hard or kited to oblivion. You press that button to outrun them, one way or the other. That feature could be very useful.

Perhabs you could replace retalliation with that movement speed buff, and place pulsing retal on elite, so with some boon duration you could actually give party a lot of retal.

6. One wolf pack.
8s duration on 60s cooldown. Really a-net? x_x

It’s effect looks good if not for the lousy uptime and 1/2s internal cooldown. If this is to be a real elite (and not another “who slots that thing ever?” like druid one) it needs a lot more duration or the icd removed.
Also i would put retalliation on it, be it a single long lasting cast or pulsing one.
As it is, even when shared it will lose to core ranger alternatives like SotP and Entangle.

7. Leader of the Pack trait

Given current stance durations, i think 50% duration for allies is too harsh. Even in organized raid runs not everyone will catch on when you share a stance in half a second and make the best of it for “amazing” 3s or less they got left.

Not to mention the nature of ranger stances which due to icd on some of them are defensive or sustained damage, not burst. This is horrible considering very small time windows for them which are a thing for burst not sustained damage.

Anywhoo things like elite, vulture stance and even Moa stance should last longer on allies when shared. Ergo 75%.

ZeftheWicked.3076:

I have a question regarding stances as i was unable to join the spec testing weekend.
So the two things that itch me about stances but can’t answer them myself:

1. Do they affect my pet by default as well? So both me and pet get stance effects, or just me, if it’s baseline untraited stance?

2. When affecting allies with grandmaster trait on – whose stats does it use where applicaple? Mine or their own? For example if they got my vulture stance on against low health enemy – is it my condi damage & expertise or theirs that decide the damage of poison stacks their blows blows now inflict?

1. They don’t affect our pets by default sadly, you need the trait for it.
2. I tested this with Moa Stance on my pet, my pet does not gain additional duration on Boons that I myself apply, so this makes me believe to think it acts as though the Stance effect takes its host as baseline (if you know what i mean). So it would not use your own condition damage stats on them with Vulture for instance.

This actually makes the most sence anyway, our Elite Stance skill has a power based damage bonus, meaning if this stance gets applied on an allie that has a power build, their additional strikes would do more damage. Same goes for Vulture stance being applied on condi allies.

Played a lot of PvP, WvW pug Zerg and WvW guild raid (15 vs 50ish).

Dagger:
- Poor damage
- Feels very slow for a dagger
- I really enjoyed the #3
- Maybe increase the attack speed to provide more damage and feel more like a dagger

Stances:
- Bear stance is great
- Dolyak stance, stability applied to allies but not to myself. They enjoyed it. I died!
- Moa stance, great addition
- Elite stance… Poor damage, hardly worth it even if paired with Leader of the Pack
- Griffon stance… Almost useless. What about some resistance here instead?
- Vulture stance… Okish, wouldn’t slot it

Traits:
- Most of them were disappointing: boons, usual boons, more of the same boons
- Where is my reduction to stance CD? Where are my stance traits?
- Eternal Bond can be a great life saver
- Leader of the Pack is good, however it could benefit from an increased radius
- Pack Alpha (beastmastery) should also reduce SB pet skills CD
- Loud Whistle (beastmastery) should also reduce Beastmode CD

Pets:
- Gazelle’s damage is OP AF
- Worldly Impact is good and seems “balanced” (thanks to the cast time / animation)
- Spiritual Reprieve would be better with half the CD but half the healing
- Unflinching Fortitude and Prelude Lash are fine
- Primal Cry could benefit some extra damage (maybe Prelude Lash too)

General feeling:
- This Elite specialization has a great potential but feels rushed
- Apart from the one-shotting greatsword build, damage feels weaker than on core
- Being able to also switch pet while in Beastmode wouldn’t be that bad or imbalanced

ProtoMarcus.7649:

• VULTURE STANCE – This stance feels okay as well but I’m not sure in what situation I’ll use it – again, plenty of access to might and poison. Maybe add a +33% condi duration when in this stance to add more utility? Like moa increases boons, this one would increase condi durations

This is something I can get Behind !

After some thinking,

Switching pet while in beastmode might be a tad too strong…

You get to heal with the Pig f3 (4.5~6.5K heal), You can knockdown with f2, assuming you land it, you can get a pretty big conversion. ex : Switch to gazelle/smokescale into wordly impact, f2 and Maul. If they use a breakstun you can just get out of beastmode and your pet pig/gazelle can still knockdown and you don’t loose much when doing so (still have swoop, hilt bash, and all your utilities including your heal).

I still think that gameplay wise it will be much more fluid this way and get even more combo options which is always great.

Swaping pet in BM is a bad idea. Making entering BM considered a pet swap is enough.

LughLongArm.5460:

Swaping pet in BM is a bad idea. Making entering BM considered a pet swap is enough.

I’d rather have swapping in BM, without entering BM considered a pet swap. But the Reinforcement trait needs to be baseline, and share boons both ways.

Yeah I’m actually fine with not being able to swap pets while in BM, its not meant to be camped

Though as others pointed out, entering BM would be interesting if considered a petswap, and maybe some effects on leaving beastmode from the soulbeast adept traits

ProtoMarcus.7649:

Yeah I’m actually fine with not being able to swap pets while in BM, its not meant to be camped

Though as others pointed out, entering BM would be interesting if considered a petswap, and maybe some effects on leaving beastmode from the soulbeast adept traits

I feel that the most awkward part is to leave beastmode, swap pet and wait another 9 sec to re-enter, when you want to use a utility skill from the beast mode kit.
I suggested it also in another thread:

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, don’t forget that all the “swap pet traits” got an ICD so they can’t be abused.

LughLongArm.5460:

ProtoMarcus.7649:

Yeah I’m actually fine with not being able to swap pets while in BM, its not meant to be camped

Though as others pointed out, entering BM would be interesting if considered a petswap, and maybe some effects on leaving beastmode from the soulbeast adept traits

I feel that the most awkward part is to leave beastmode, swap pet and wait another 9 sec to re-enter, when you want to use a utility skill from the beast mode kit.
I suggested it also in another thread:

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, don’t forget that all the “swap pet traits” got an ICD so they can’t be abused.

Hmmm

I think the perfect balance would be

• Removing beastmode CD
• Add ICDs to enter-beastmode traits
• but Keep pet swaps on actual pet swaps

With no CD on beastmode, petswapping would flow really well, and entering and exiting beastmode smoothly would add a lot to fluidity of combat.

I do see myself strategically melding and unmelding, rotating between beastmode F skills and pet F skill or pet skills and timing swaps for effects

ProtoMarcus.7649:

LughLongArm.5460:

ProtoMarcus.7649:

Yeah I’m actually fine with not being able to swap pets while in BM, its not meant to be camped

Though as others pointed out, entering BM would be interesting if considered a petswap, and maybe some effects on leaving beastmode from the soulbeast adept traits

I feel that the most awkward part is to leave beastmode, swap pet and wait another 9 sec to re-enter, when you want to use a utility skill from the beast mode kit.
I suggested it also in another thread:

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, don’t forget that all the “swap pet traits” got an ICD so they can’t be abused.

Hmmm

I think the perfect balance would be

• Removing beastmode CD
• Add ICDs to enter-beastmode traits
• but Keep pet swaps on actual pet swaps

With no CD on beastmode, petswapping would flow really well, and entering and exiting beastmode smoothly would add a lot to fluidity of combat.

I do see myself strategically melding and unmelding, rotating between beastmode F skills and pet F skill or pet skills and timing swaps for effects

Ya, I see your point. I added the “making entering beast mode to be considered as a pet swap” because I feel like we are missing a lot of potential cool interaction between beastmode and swap pet traits.

I’d like to see;

• Beastmode CD reduced to 1s.
• Unstoppable Union gets an ICD (Fresh reinforcement should be a minor trait).
• Entering Beastmode counts as weapon swap.
• Exiting Beastmode counts as pet swap.
• Exiting Beastmode copies your boons to your pet.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

I’d like to see;

• Beastmode CD reduced to 1s.
• Unstoppable Union gets an ICD (Fresh reinforcement should be a minor trait).
• Entering Beastmode counts as weapon swap.
• Exiting Beastmode counts as pet swap.
• Exiting Beastmode copies your boons to your pet.

Why Entering Beastmode counts as weapon swap if we don’t actually swap weapons, and we can just swap weapons to get the related traits while in Beastmode ?

why Exiting Beastmode should counts as pet swap if you can just use a pet swap while out of beastmode to get related traits(it will even be logical rotation move). Wouldnt you prefer to get pet swap related traits while in beastmode and for the effects to be applied to the soulbeast?

LughLongArm.5460:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

I’d like to see;

• Beastmode CD reduced to 1s.
• Unstoppable Union gets an ICD (Fresh reinforcement should be a minor trait).
• Entering Beastmode counts as weapon swap.
• Exiting Beastmode counts as pet swap.
• Exiting Beastmode copies your boons to your pet.

Why Entering Beastmode counts as weapon swap if we don’t actually swap weapons, and we can just swap weapons to get the related traits while in Beastmode ?

why Exiting Beastmode should counts as pet swap if you can just use a pet swap while out of beastmode to get related traits(it will even be logical rotation move). Wouldnt you prefer to get pet swap related traits while in beastmode and for the effects to be applied to the soulbeast?

Because entering beastmode already counts as a weaponswap, like forms. Makes it work nice with the on-swap sigils. You would also get weapon swap procs while in beastmode on the CDs when you swap actual weapons.

Exiting beastmode should count as a pet swap since the pet is being created, just like entering combat with a stowed pet.

And yes, I would prefer to be able to get pet swap traits to trigger while in beastmode and be able to swap pets, I just can’t see it happening.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

LughLongArm.5460:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

I’d like to see;

• Beastmode CD reduced to 1s.
• Unstoppable Union gets an ICD (Fresh reinforcement should be a minor trait).
• Entering Beastmode counts as weapon swap.
• Exiting Beastmode counts as pet swap.
• Exiting Beastmode copies your boons to your pet.

Why Entering Beastmode counts as weapon swap if we don’t actually swap weapons, and we can just swap weapons to get the related traits while in Beastmode ?

why Exiting Beastmode should counts as pet swap if you can just use a pet swap while out of beastmode to get related traits(it will even be logical rotation move). Wouldnt you prefer to get pet swap related traits while in beastmode and for the effects to be applied to the soulbeast?

Because entering beastmode already counts as a weaponswap, like forms. Makes it work nice with the on-swap sigils. You would also get weapon swap procs while in beastmode on the CDs when you swap actual weapons.

Exiting beastmode should count as a pet swap since the pet is being created, just like entering combat with a stowed pet.

And yes, I would prefer to be able to get pet swap traits to trigger while in beastmode and be able to swap pets, I just can’t see it happening.

I think the weapon swap thing is a bug. Forms are considered a weapon swap because they actually change your weapon skills. It’s not the situation the beast mode. I will trade-off this perk any day for swap pet traits to trigger while entering beast mode.
Regarding swap pets coming out of beast form, If I remember correctly, the stew pet thing messes up your CD on F4. I want the the entering beastmode effect to trigger pet swap without effecting the F4 CD, Same way, your new F2 wont trigger the CD on pet F2 skills.

Thinking about it, I guess I could be fine with petswap in beastmode as long as the pet swap cooldown/timer is exactly the same as out of beastmode – would also kinda help me time my on petswap traits ahaha

ProtoMarcus.7649:

LughLongArm.5460:

ProtoMarcus.7649:

Yeah I’m actually fine with not being able to swap pets while in BM, its not meant to be camped

Though as others pointed out, entering BM would be interesting if considered a petswap, and maybe some effects on leaving beastmode from the soulbeast adept traits

I feel that the most awkward part is to leave beastmode, swap pet and wait another 9 sec to re-enter, when you want to use a utility skill from the beast mode kit.
I suggested it also in another thread:

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, don’t forget that all the “swap pet traits” got an ICD so they can’t be abused.

Hmmm

I think the perfect balance would be

• Removing beastmode CD
• Add ICDs to enter-beastmode traits
• but Keep pet swaps on actual pet swaps

With no CD on beastmode, petswapping would flow really well, and entering and exiting beastmode smoothly would add a lot to fluidity of combat.

I do see myself strategically melding and unmelding, rotating between beastmode F skills and pet F skill or pet skills and timing swaps for effects

Guys, you can use some imagination here.

I think the best way to solve the beastmode issue is spread the cd between entering and leaving beast mode.

Enter beast mode → beast mode go on 5 sec cd.
Leaving beast mode → beast mode go on 5 sec cd.

This can make the beast mode transition and swapping pet much more fluid.

I actually found soulbeast to be extremely underwhelming in PvP. My main gripe with it is that merging does nothing: the extra damage you gain if you picked a ferocity pet is basically the damage your pet would do.

I didn’t check the new dagger too much because I dislike condition builds and the little I did see felt underwhelming as well. Dagger is a main dps power weapon for every profession that has it, with the exception of now Warrior and Ranger, which just felt like a giant slap to the face. Also, another condition build? Hasn’t condi ranger outperformed since forever?

My suggestion would be to reword the pet boons, as most are utterly useless. Seriously, vitality and concentration? No one’s gonna want that. On top of those nigh useless boons, depending on which pet category you merged with, gain vanilla boons on an interval: might, protection, fury, etc. That’s one. Two: make pet swapping possible while merged, because anything else feels too clunky. At the very least, swapping pets while merged should take you out of form and swap pets rather than doing nothing. Ideally, you could just swap while merged, remain merged, and thus change your boons/skills; now that would make soulbeast far more appealing.

Overall, I don’t feel it adds enough to ranger playstyle to really warrant it being an elite specialization. It basically ads three skills, and your choice there is quite limited because of how utterly useless the boons while merged are. So you either go with meh boons and okish skills, or terrible boons and good extra skills.

Also, condi cleanse and stability is lacking. Signed of whateverness (condi transfer) needs a rework. Compared to other elite specialization and their power creep, soulbeast is lacking substantially. So much so, that I even wonder if it’s worth playing over a vanilla build.

This is mainly from a power ranger PvP perspective, mind you.

I’ve got to second Savvy’s opinion – SB is hardly worth it over Vanilla, and Druid seems superior for almost everything ( this is taking into account that I expect a Sic’ Em nerf ). So sad, I can’t even express it properly.

Both Soulbeast and Spellbreaker (Heh, SB and SB) feel like they have dagger skills built around having high quickness uptime to have ‘okay’ DPS, they both feel slow and underwhelming – Only 20 days to know what’s changed and tweaked since the Preview Weekend!

After trying a bit more Soulbeast during the stress test I think there should be an incentive to going in and out of beastmode, otherwise we’ll just become Warriors.

I think the statistics increase from beastmode should carry over for 5 seconds after leaving beastmode, in order to make using the pet not so punishing, there is also the need for the pet condition scaling issue to be fixed, because since 2012 when a pet inflicts conditions, those conditions scale on the pet statistics, but if you swap (or go beastmode), those conditions will scale on nothing, which means a Soulbeast doesn’t want to go out of beastmode to use the F2 to quickly go back to beastmode, because the condition will scale on nothing.

Second Skin – gain light aura when you gain protection. using protection to reduce condi dmg is so limited since protection can be corrupted/removed.
or
You and your pet take less damage from condition while your health is above the threshold.

Twice as Vicious – think should grant furry along with it’s current effects.

Live Fast – doesn’t work with pet’s f2 why?

The other traits are ok , no pet boost / effects for leaving beast mode guess the plus is reviving dead pets.

Hydrolysis.6810:

Second Skin – gain light aura when you gain protection. using protection to reduce condi dmg is so limited since protection can be corrupted/removed.
or
You and your pet take less damage from condition while your health is above the threshold.

Twice as Vicious – think should grant furry along with it’s current effects.

Live Fast – doesn’t work with pet’s f2 why?

The other traits are ok , no pet boost / effects for leaving beast mode guess the plus is reviving dead pets.

The more I think of Second Skin the more I like it – it really feels like an ‘evolution’ of the Protection boon – while typically only covering power damage, this trait basically makes it cover all forms of damage. Rangers are the only profession in the game that have traits that enhance protection, and we have a healthy amount of access to it.

Twice as Vicious really feels lackluster, fury on disables would have excellent synergy, I love this idea

Live Fast is most likely bugged, I highly doubt it’s by design, feels like an oversight

ProtoMarcus.7649:

Hydrolysis.6810:

Second Skin – gain light aura when you gain protection. using protection to reduce condi dmg is so limited since protection can be corrupted/removed.
or
You and your pet take less damage from condition while your health is above the threshold.

Twice as Vicious – think should grant furry along with it’s current effects.

Live Fast – doesn’t work with pet’s f2 why?

The other traits are ok , no pet boost / effects for leaving beast mode guess the plus is reviving dead pets.

The more I think of Second Skin the more I like it – it really feels like an ‘evolution’ of the Protection boon – while typically only covering power damage, this trait basically makes it cover all forms of damage. Rangers are the only profession in the game that have traits that enhance protection, and we have a healthy amount of access to it.

Twice as Vicious really feels lackluster, fury on disables would have excellent synergy, I love this idea

Live Fast is most likely bugged, I highly doubt it’s by design, feels like an oversight

Tempest makes their protection -40% damage, which is an enhance version of protection already.

The difference is Tempest utility grants protection from itself, while Soul Beast’s whole package does not grant protection at all. You have to grab other trait-line to get protection for Soulbeast because it doesn’t function on its own.

Aomine.5012:

…The difference is Tempest utility grants protection from itself, while Soul Beast’s whole package does not grant protection at all. You have to grab other trait-line to get protection for Soulbeast because it doesn’t function on its own.

Well, there is 3s from Eternal Bond, when you are at 5k health….. lol

Second Skin should grant Protection itself, when you have 3 conditions or X, whatever number.

Nah, we should be able to swap pets without leaving beastmode. That’s a basic thing for the functionality of the ranger.

Entering/leaving beastmode should work as a weapon swap same as it works now for the druid.

That should be the easiest way to make this new spec actually no weird or clunky. It doesn’t matter what whoever think Sbeast is to be camped or not, if they don’t add the pet swapp and mark my words we will end up camping in one pet only as we already can see the players did in the beta.

If anet feels the Beast abilities (F3) are too strong ton be casted twice (a very small pbaoe of 4K around the ranger or healing for 4K + 3 secs resistance it is not if we compare that to any other class) they can share the CD. But i don’t think it would be fair just to keep hindering the class.

anduriell.6280:

It doesn’t matter what whoever think Sbeast is to be camped or not, if they don’t add the pet swapp and mark my words we will end up camping in one pet only as we already can see the players did in the beta.

Was talking about it with my friend and YES ! So much this ! Most of players will camp a pet with Unflinching Fortitude or Spiritual Reprieve, just in case they will need their F3 in a bad situation.

It’s actually a bad idea to swap pets around, because of pet swap cooldown to come back on your initial pet. So, it makes sense to camp a pet, just because of ‘’what if?’‘. Will I need to choose 2 same archetype pets so I’m sure to have Unflinching Fortitude whenever I want ?

Also, another camping situation is that if you’re fused, exemple the Jacaranda, will you take the risk to unmerge and gets slapped a 10 secs cooldown ? ‘’What if’’ you need the heal ?

It’s bad for active gameplay and won’t promote pet swapping.

anduriell.6280:

If anet feels the Beast abilities (F3) are too strong ton be casted twice they can share the CD. But i don’t think it would be fair just to keep hindering the class.

That would be fine to me.

anduriell.6280:

Nah, we should be able to swap pets without leaving beastmode. That’s a basic thing for the functionality of the ranger.

Entering/leaving beastmode should work as a weapon swap same as it works now for the druid.

That should be the easiest way to make this new spec actually no weird or clunky. It doesn’t matter what whoever think Sbeast is to be camped or not, if they don’t add the pet swapp and mark my words we will end up camping in one pet only as we already can see the players did in the beta.

If anet feels the Beast abilities (F3) are too strong ton be casted twice (a very small pbaoe of 4K around the ranger or healing for 4K + 3 secs resistance it is not if we compare that to any other class) they can share the CD. But i don’t think it would be fair just to keep hindering the class.

You have to wonder if ANet has looked at the benchmarks for the DPS in this game, they could literally double the Rangers DPS with Soulbeast and it would just beat Tempest, who also incedentally has a lot of sustain like Ranger.

anduriell.6280:

Entering/leaving beastmode should work as a weapon swap same as it works now for the druid.

I’m fine with entering/leaving Beastmode not counting as wep swap

Entering/Leaving CAF makes sense as it changes skills 1-5 and synergizes with Primal Echoes