Well, there’s plenty of posts detailing bugs so I won’t go into that here AS MUCH but I will get through to why I think Soulbeast just doesn’t provide any additional asset to ranger over the previous core and druid specs.
I will start by saying I’ve been a ranger main since the game released , I’ve always been a dueler/PvPer/WvWer and have met many other good rangers on that path in this game some of which still play the game and testing this very soulbeast spec out with me.
Soulbeast was a massive let down for me , don’t get that confused with the spec not being a nice idea, because I actually think the spec is a great idea it was just poorly executed.
Keep in mind below is in reference to Soulbeast only, not Core or Druid:
This test phase was riddled with bugs that didn’t allow a complete , successful test of the class in the manner I’d hoped for. I suppose that is the point (although I still don’t understand how some of these bugs made it through internal testing if there is any) so hopefully they get squashed in due time.
It seems like with Soulbeast, a lot of these things should have been pushed into core from the very beginning and it seems like they might have had plans to along the way but never did, so they took those ideas , put them together and created Soulbeast as a way to compensate for that.
I would like to talk trait synergy with Soulbeast and how conditions and damage mitigation is handled along with amulet combinations in PvP. It seems as if that if we want to be bursty with Soulbeast to have an impact you would need to run Marksmanship and Skirmishing to provide enough damage to pressure as a soulbeast.
This leaves you with no virtually condi management outside of shout runes (forces you into a shout role) and condi removal sigils (forces you into not being able to run offensive sigils , which I could understand a little bit).
You can then have the option to run a defensively specced ranger with Soulbeast’s cool utility, but you don’t provide enough combo damage to make a difference against specific classes. You will have high defensives , but your damage isn’t pressuring enough (even with Marauder) to make a difference. You would essentially be somewhat tanky, but provide no value outside of that. I suppose as a point contest role this would “do the trick” , but again leaves other classes suited for it – or you could just go druid which handles this role nicely when done right.
With demolisher I can pressure an immense amount on several classes. Why doesn’t this hold true with ranger’s soulbeast? Only if I force myself into 2 entirely power dominant trait lines which leave no survivability do I have even a portion of the power output some classes have running with defensive lines (Warrior example: Defense, etc) and still have enough pressure to make a difference.
Between all of this, there is no middle ground in top tier , you cannot run 90% of the amulets with success with the new spec, it doesn’t open up much , if any build diversity because Soulbeast forces you even further into a narrowly specced pathway in terms of traits and really doesn’t offer many QoL improvements outside of Druid. Core and Druid seem to be better, no , they ARE better than Soulbeast in it’s current state.
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My question to devs is, what route do you plan on continuing Soulbeast with , amongst the bugs and once they are fixed in time – after this, is there any other adjustments you see that you would be implementing outside of the feedback people are testing with right now?
My other question would be, what was your idea for implementation of the mainhand dagger. What role did you see this as being in the sense of PvE / PvP or Condi / Power?
I would urge you also to reconsider the flow of the dagger with other weapons and not the weapon itself. Adding an evade on 3 would allow synergy with offhands like torch and axe and still be really useful in offhand dagger combinations. Add more damage coefficients to the 1 and 2 attacks to give it more life and allow it to be a useful weapon for both power and condi variants to help pressure for the risk of being in such melee range as a ranger. Currently the MH dagger offers very little damage, and no utility to justify going into such close range especially with the burst of classes like Holo , and Full Counter of Spellbreaker.
It’s funny because Spellbreaker’s dagger seems like what ranger MH dagger SHOULD have been, but again, I’m used to other classes having better weapons than us (thief shortbow, dh longbow, etc) so this isn’t rather new or surprising to me to see this.
I hope devs take a look at this and reconsider some of the other thing mentioned by a good friend Shadowfall as well , his post highlights a lot of the other issues with the class.
Thank you