Guild Wars 2

What’s the reason your the most excited for soul beset?

For me I’m really really hoping I can mend with a bear and make a very viable sword and axe combo that’s pretty tanky. Not to excited for dagger as condition with axe and torch was sufficient enough for condition.

I am excited to get a elite that dont force me to play as support.

I am manly a WvW roamer and i like having duel and skirmishs potential. I like playing both power and condi ranger, but i dont want to be a heal bot lol.

As i can see by the utilitys/elite and traits, soulbeast will be very focused on duels. I would like the mainhand dagger dont be a condi-only weapon.

Im hyped to see how it will be to play a ranger petless. While idc having a pet, every1 knows the AI is slow and dumb.

It might be the first time since HoT that rangers are fun again. I hated the Druid, it really was a chump elite for the expansion that was only good for raids and other support roles. I could have saved a lot of headaches and frustration not getting the elite or trying to make it work in open world. I like my ranger though I’m going to need new gear AGAIN!! The one major complaint I have for the Ranger is the lack of ranged combat that isn’t a projectile. Another projectile hate zone like Lake Doric and I’m going to be done with it. So hopefully the new profession is friendly to ranged combat otherwise I’ll not waste any more time with a Ranger.

Egrimm Van Horstmann.7921:

I like my ranger though I’m going to need new gear AGAIN!!

What ranger build you play?

Power or condi? And what game mode?

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNAT3fnUqAVsgNsA2CCctgh9gyD+jP53bPAO7vDK3KokpNG-TBSBwAo0NQ5gAcV5nZlgPuAA3U/55+DAeCAAA-e

Axe is for groups and the longbow for single target. According to the tooltips the new elite is condi based, heavily condi based. So I’m going to work on Viper or Trailblazer gear, just not sure which will be best that and get used to a short bow again.

Power build do open world mostly. Liked the new zone it was fun just playing a ranger without the projectile hate.

I’m not excited. Last time I become excited, we get the unfinished druid. I will wait until release.
The soulbeast seems powerful for conditionbuilds. So I will try traps and shortbow first

I am a little excited. Mainly because of the higher skill counts and variety and the possibility to finally make a decent poison ranger.

I am not. I have my reservations about how it will work. I’m afraid after the firsts months of nerfs it will end up being a subpar and underwhelming class which players will keep tweaking to make it playable like it did happen to the Druid.

After the balance due next week depending on the final competitiveness of the core ranger I will see if I’m allowing myself to be excited.

Core pets becoming usefull make me excited for this spec. That’s probably the only real reason for me…

These

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/List-of-Soulbeast-F-Skills

I’m excited because my ranger is a Norn and I feel like this should be something within her skill set.

Also the possibility of them taking this opportunity to update core pets amd let me get some good use out of for example my boar.

I’m kinda excited and kinda not.

I’m excited, because fusing with our pets is interesting, and the stances also seem very cool.

I’m not excited, because our dagger is purely conditions, meaning any mainhand dagger using Soulbeast is going to be part of the ebola cancer that is condition builds, and thus, complained about the most and nerfed.

I much would have preferred the dagger just to give us evades/leaps sort of like combining a D/D thief and Sword mainhand warrior, but I guess I will need to see the build in action myself, and see how it is.

Dagger is not a condi weapon. It’s an hybrid weapon that can work on both pure condi build, pure power build and Ideally, the combination of the two. We see that among several POF, specialization that A.net is really pushing the hybrid role and even got a new stat combo for it. Poison and vulnerability are good for any build, you will put pressure with bleed stacking and the fast dagger attacks(4 attacks chain in 1.5 sec which you can bombo with quickness). The big burst and CC, you can get from F1-F3 skills with the right pet option. Some the soulbeast skills got better tooltips compared to full zerk maul.

I hope, i really hope, that we finally get petless ranger option. I mean perma petless, no just a few sec cd. Pet is the only reason that keeps me away from this profession.
As Necromancer i can easily play without a pet/s and doing just fine.

LughLongArm.5460:

Dagger is not a condi weapon. It’s an hybrid weapon that can work on both pure condi build, pure power build and Ideally, the combination of the two. We see that among several POF, specialization that A.net is really pushing the hybrid role and even got a new stat combo for it. Poison and vulnerability are good for any build, you will put pressure with bleed stacking and the fast dagger attacks(4 attacks chain in 1.5 sec which you can bombo with quickness). The big burst and CC, you can get from F1-F3 skills with the right pet option. Some the soulbeast skills got better tooltips compared to full zerk maul.

This.

Plus, there is nothing saying you need to use the Dagger anyway if you do not want to play condi.

Excited because of many reasons.

- I really like that it’s nature-themed, because I’m really into that.
- Melding with your pet seems like a creative alternative/‘fix’ for people still disliking the pet AI.
- I can see better zerg/blob fighting build-options in WvW because of melding with your pet, instead of your pets dying all the time.
- I was hoping for dagger main hand or sword off hand, so I’m really happy with dagger main hand.

Dagger being condi focussed doesn’t mean you have to play dagger main hand to play soulbeast, just like you don’t have to play staff on druid to play druid, right?

From a PvE, primarily raids perspective: I’m guessing and hoping either ranger will get buffs to it’s power builds, I don’t think it has been unnoticed by Anet, it just only takes some time for Anet to react accordingly to it. Or maybe even power builds will become more on par with condi builds in general and not only rangers, by either buffing power or nerfing condi, not sure.
On the other hand, raid fights tend to last long compared to other fights in PvE, so it’s not a big surprise condi has the upperhand here, so following that line I’m hoping for a buff to powerrangers.

LughLongArm.5460:

Dagger is not a condi weapon. It’s an hybrid weapon that can work on both pure condi build, pure power build and Ideally, the combination of the two. We see that among several POF, specialization that A.net is really pushing the hybrid role and even got a new stat combo for it. Poison and vulnerability are good for any build, you will put pressure with bleed stacking and the fast dagger attacks(4 attacks chain in 1.5 sec which you can bombo with quickness). The big burst and CC, you can get from F1-F3 skills with the right pet option. Some the soulbeast skills got better tooltips compared to full zerk maul.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Soulbeast

Auto-attack chain: Vuln/Poison/Bleeding, plus “Multiple conditions”.

Weapon ability #2: Heavy bleeding (several stacks I am guessing.) and causes your pet’s next two strikes to inflict Poison.

Weapon ability #3: A leap that grants us Quickness, to undoubtedly ensure a follow up of the Auto-attacks chain of conditions, or transitioning into Beastmode faster.

So please, tell me, how those weapon skills even hint at them being, “Hybrid”, when they all inflict conditions.

My favourite job class in the Final Fantasy franchise is the Blue Mage and this elite spec is just screaming at me to play it.

1) Will pet traits affect the Ranger? If so, there are some very interesting old traits.
2) petless ranger mode: new F1,F2,F3 skills + higher personal stats

3) traits. maybe (why haven’t they told us the other traits yet?)

Odokuro.5049:

…So please, tell me, how those weapon skills even hint at them being, “Hybrid”, when they all inflict conditions.

Because the raw power damage is also decent, well it looks to be considering the only tooltips we have are from the PvP arena where the gear is equivalent to lvl78 exotic. Skill 3 doesn’t inflict a condition either.

I’m most excited for Soulbeast so I can play as a hybrid damage spec on my main instead of having to swap characters. I can not imagine it dethroning Druid as the best elite spec ranger will ever have (for me), but it’ll be cool and I think dagger/axe or dagger/WH would be fun.

1) Being able to be ’’petless’’
2) More flexibility and choices
3) Major buff to melee ranger playstyle

MH Dagger is meh, so are Stances. Beastmode is the savior of the spec.

Odokuro.5049:

LughLongArm.5460:

Dagger is not a condi weapon. It’s an hybrid weapon that can work on both pure condi build, pure power build and Ideally, the combination of the two. We see that among several POF, specialization that A.net is really pushing the hybrid role and even got a new stat combo for it. Poison and vulnerability are good for any build, you will put pressure with bleed stacking and the fast dagger attacks(4 attacks chain in 1.5 sec which you can bombo with quickness). The big burst and CC, you can get from F1-F3 skills with the right pet option. Some the soulbeast skills got better tooltips compared to full zerk maul.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Soulbeast

Auto-attack chain: Vuln/Poison/Bleeding, plus “Multiple conditions”.

Weapon ability #2: Heavy bleeding (several stacks I am guessing.) and causes your pet’s next two strikes to inflict Poison.

Weapon ability #3: A leap that grants us Quickness, to undoubtedly ensure a follow up of the Auto-attacks chain of conditions, or transitioning into Beastmode faster.

So please, tell me, how those weapon skills even hint at them being, “Hybrid”, when they all inflict conditions.

Then you look at ranger’s sword’s skills and you realize that dagger’s direct damage are even better than the sword whom you would look at as if it’s a direct damage weapon.

This is how it is hybrid. If you gear for condition damage you’ll do fine and if you gear for direct damage you’ll do fine as well.

Don’t just look superficially, look at everything. Dagger’s direct damage numbers are more than decent, they top every other weapon of the ranger!

Krispera.5087:

1) Being able to be ’’petless’’
2) More flexibility and choices
3) Major buff to melee ranger playstyle

MH Dagger is meh, so are Stances. Beastmode is the savior of the spec.

1)True but only in some situations. Pet is so annoying when it randomly attacks stuff and slows you down or if it just eats the damage instead of having some sense to it that it at least evades the heavy hits or if your pets pathfinding is broken.
BUT: Pets are also the most amazing tool for soloing champions and stuff like that. Also the F2 ability of your pet is something you would completely lose if you decide to stow it for all eternity.

2)Probably true.
3)I personally didn’t choose ranger because I wanted to play in meele. But with axe/torch or your SB 2 you already have to be very close to the enemy, so that a dagger is probably not that much worse for me.

MH Dagger seems actually quite good.

I will probably ignore stances completely. (in PvE)

Beastmode is essentially just stowing your pet and then get some of its abilities. The entire “your soul merged with your beast” aspect was already completely gone, when the only visible effect that can be seen is a green aura. That doesn’t sound groundbreaking, or something that keeps me interested for another 2 years in this class. Seems like something they could’ve fixed in an interim patch because they’ve finally given up on their pet AI or to please the “petless” ranger crowd . Because that’s what we get. The completely same ranger we always had, now just controlling some of the pet abilities directly.

I still don’t see the exciting thing about that spec.

Not excited at all.
It sports a very poor mechanic that brings nothing to the table that we can’t already do.
And attempts to cater to players that don’t even enjoy playing Ranger.

Whiners for petless ranger need to understand that Ranger is pet class, and if they don’t enjoy it they need to reroll to any of the other 8 professions. Stop trying to take away the only profession us pet lovers can play.

Johnny.1634:

It sports a very poor mechanic that brings nothing to the table that we can’t already do.

Wha?, It brings a crazy amount of new skills and build diversity.

Johnny.1634:

Whiners for petless ranger need to understand that Ranger is pet class, and if they don’t enjoy it they need to reroll to any of the other 8 professions.

Or we can play Soulbeast.

Levetty.1279:

Johnny.1634:

It sports a very poor mechanic that brings nothing to the table that we can’t already do.

Wha?, It brings a crazy amount of new skills and build diversity.

Johnny.1634:

Whiners for petless ranger need to understand that Ranger is pet class, and if they don’t enjoy it they need to reroll to any of the other 8 professions.

Or we can play Soulbeast.

I don’t know whats the problem, SB is a toggle so pro pet and anti pet people has some middle ground. Everybody should be happy right?

I’m feeling a bit of apprehension from my initial introduction to soulbeast. It encourages melee, yet I don’t see many skills needed for condi/damage mitigation. In the skill sets including a meld with pet, I haven’t seen any skills which increase our armor, vitality (like nec health pool), blinds, evades, or additional stealth other than through worked combos (smokescale field unmelded still viable I assume). Maybe stat increases coordinate with the pet’s stats or are even buffed with pts. in beast mastery.

To my knowledge we don’t get the normal F2’s like panther stealth while melded. I guess we would have a defy pain on use of bear, but condi is the big killer I’ve seen w/ new specs, so where are all the condi-cleanses needed to compete with druidic clarity (bear stance is interesting but 25 sec cd and if I’m interpreting correctly a total of 8 conditions removed over 4 seconds)? Speed buffs (birds only?)? Evades like the current medium armor-wearing daredevil (griffon stance on a 45 sec cd doesn’t cut it imo)?

I suppose I should be more optimistic, but then reality usually gets in the way. Anyone else notice a lack of defense in this elite, or am I missing something. I want to like it.

Even though we know some skills will be altered, let’s make the quick assumption that the pets skills will be the same exact skills you can use in beastmode.

Here’s just an obvious combo with the meta pets; unmelded, smokescale F2, double dagger leap (assuming finisher) through smokefield, meld. Now you get a long stealth and stealth opener. Melded knockdown from stealth into melded smoke assault into dagger 2 then unmeld Smokescale AI smoke assault into knockdown while continuing to weapon combo.

I mean, that’s just 1 pet. There’s going to be so much combo opportunity.

Take what I just said with Bristleback as the other pet (assuming pet swapping will still work the same). Continued from AI knockdown; swap into Bristleback F2, meld, melded Bristleback sharpening stone into melded spike shotgun skill.

All the while being able to use weapon skills and utilities.

I mean, I can understand why people who spend most of their time in PvE might not be as hyped, but there is going to be so much depth and strength to our gameplay. Not to mention damage diversity.

Currently, people generally know which Ranger pets and weapons to watch out for and they can outplay us by waiting for the damage to come out, which is why Druid wins fights through long term attrition by sustain and capitalizing on mistakes.

Soulbeast on the other hand will have a larger set of skills being brought into the fight to begin with, but on top of that, the sheer amount of ways we can approach a situation and the number of things enemies will have to watch for has gone up so considerably that on paper it will make Soulbeast one of the strongest classes to play as/fight against in the game (Weaver is like this too). Compared to fighting games (not going to get into why it’s a good comparison but it is, and I will if someone asks); where some of the highest tier fighters have the best 50/50 mixups and combo options, and we see that as long as ANet didn’t botch anything up, Soulbeast will be one of the stronger fighting specs in the expac.

1. Seems viable for organized wvw play/Dolyak Stance/Stance sharing
2. Dagger seems real nasty and fun
3. Pets that are not dead
4. Lots of utility with F1-F3 skills
5. I like the new animations and effects
6. Potentially intricate and customizable playstyle, depending on which two pets you select (this one excites me the most)
7. Not sure about this one but: potentially viable shortbow builds?

mistsim.2748:

1. Seems viable for organized wvw play/Dolyak Stance/Stance sharing
2. Dagger seems real nasty and fun
3. Pets that are not dead
4. Lots of utility with F1-F3 skills
5. I like the new animations and effects
6. Potentially intricate and customizable playstyle, depending on which two pets you select (this one excites me the most)
7. Not sure about this one but: potentially viable shortbow builds?

Shortbow builds have a lot of potential. Let’s wait for the patch this tuesday.

jcbroe.4329:

Even though we know some skills will be altered, let’s make the quick assumption that the pets skills will be the same exact skills you can use in beastmode.

Here’s just an obvious combo with the meta pets; unmelded, smokescale F2, double dagger leap (assuming finisher) through smokefield, meld. Now you get a long stealth and stealth opener. Melded knockdown from stealth into melded smoke assault into dagger 2 then unmeld Smokescale AI smoke assault into knockdown while continuing to weapon combo.

I mean, that’s just 1 pet. There’s going to be so much combo opportunity.

Take what I just said with Bristleback as the other pet (assuming pet swapping will still work the same). Continued from AI knockdown; swap into Bristleback F2, meld, melded Bristleback sharpening stone into melded spike shotgun skill.

All the while being able to use weapon skills and utilities.

I mean, I can understand why people who spend most of their time in PvE might not be as hyped, but there is going to be so much depth and strength to our gameplay. Not to mention damage diversity.

Currently, people generally know which Ranger pets and weapons to watch out for and they can outplay us by waiting for the damage to come out, which is why Druid wins fights through long term attrition by sustain and capitalizing on mistakes.

Soulbeast on the other hand will have a larger set of skills being brought into the fight to begin with, but on top of that, the sheer amount of ways we can approach a situation and the number of things enemies will have to watch for has gone up so considerably that on paper it will make Soulbeast one of the strongest classes to play as/fight against in the game (Weaver is like this too). Compared to fighting games (not going to get into why it’s a good comparison but it is, and I will if someone asks); where some of the highest tier fighters have the best 50/50 mixups and combo options, and we see that as long as ANet didn’t botch anything up, Soulbeast will be one of the stronger fighting specs in the expac.

I am really curious on how the f2 pet traits and the passive ones interact with soulbeast. Well I’m saying, I hope they do interact one way or the other.

So lemme get this straight, melding only restricts the pet f2 right? and the AA. But you do get 2 controllable skills + the passive + the archetype f3?

So in order to use the f2 you have to unmeld right?

Lastly, what if you are in un-meld form, and your pet uses the other 2 skills, and then you meld, would those 2 skills be on cooldown then?

jcbroe.4329:

Even though we know some skills will be altered, let’s make the quick assumption that the pets skills will be the same exact skills you can use in beastmode.

Here’s just an obvious combo with the meta pets; unmelded, smokescale F2, double dagger leap (assuming finisher) through smokefield, meld. Now you get a long stealth and stealth opener. Melded knockdown from stealth into melded smoke assault into dagger 2 then unmeld Smokescale AI smoke assault into knockdown while continuing to weapon combo.

I mean, that’s just 1 pet. There’s going to be so much combo opportunity…

Yeah, then you can throw in WH/Clarion Bond blast too, or Swoop on GS.

We have some pretty great combos available.

Fire field on Wyvern F2, Double blast from WH and Clarion (9 might + Fury + Swiftness), Meld (3 might + quickness from Zephyrs Speed), Hunter’s Call, Dagger leap for Fire Aura & more Quickness), Wing Buffet to knockback, leap again for more quickness, swap weapons to D/T, drop Bonfire with Quick Draw, drop out of BM, Electric Wyvern F2 to knockdown, wing buffet again, leap lightning field for Daze & quickness, Bonfire again… etc etc etc.

I’d definitely prefer to have shapeshifting but having just watched AuroraPeachy’s soulbeast footage, I have to admit that I love the soulbeast aura, the two new plant pets, and the abilities you get when you merge with those plant pets.

It looks like it might give me the option to play ranger as a nature-themed caster.

Wouldn’t say I’m excited by that yet but I’m possibly warming up to the soulbeast spec.

• No more dead pet
• Control over pet family skills
• Higher self DPS or self Utility
• The dagger main hand looks pretty cool
• I’m a sucker for Celestial gear, with archetype attribute bonuses, it’ll still make good use of it!
• Stances look interesting, especially the sharing trait

Longbow + Sharpening Stone + Sharpened Edges + Refined Toxins + Vulture Stance + Sharpen Spines + Griever Stats

Condi Longbow Meta.

Levetty.1279:

Longbow + Sharpening Stone + Sharpened Edges + Refined Toxins + Vulture Stance + Sharpen Spines + Griever Stats

Condi Longbow Meta.

+ Runes of the Mad King
+ Entangle

I think it’s gonna be really fun.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

jcbroe.4329:

Even though we know some skills will be altered, let’s make the quick assumption that the pets skills will be the same exact skills you can use in beastmode.

Here’s just an obvious combo with the meta pets; unmelded, smokescale F2, double dagger leap (assuming finisher) through smokefield, meld. Now you get a long stealth and stealth opener. Melded knockdown from stealth into melded smoke assault into dagger 2 then unmeld Smokescale AI smoke assault into knockdown while continuing to weapon combo.

I mean, that’s just 1 pet. There’s going to be so much combo opportunity…

Yeah, then you can throw in WH/Clarion Bond blast too, or Swoop on GS.

We have some pretty great combos available.

Fire field on Wyvern F2, Double blast from WH and Clarion (9 might + Fury + Swiftness), Meld (3 might + quickness from Zephyrs Speed), Hunter’s Call, Dagger leap for Fire Aura & more Quickness), Wing Buffet to knockback, leap again for more quickness, swap weapons to D/T, drop Bonfire with Quick Draw, drop out of BM, Electric Wyvern F2 to knockdown, wing buffet again, leap lightning field for Daze & quickness, Bonfire again… etc etc etc.

Do we know for sure if melding is considered a “pet swap” to gain Zephyrs Speed from the BM traitline?

GUFF.5692:

…Do we know for sure if melding is considered a “pet swap” to gain Zephyrs Speed from the BM traitline?

I just assumed…

1) Because it’s not Druid. My first thought on trying druid out during the HoT preview weekend was ‘this looks like it will probably be a powerful spec, but I just don’t find it enjoyable myself’.

2) Dagger, to me, looks like it could be a more interesting melee weapon option to sword and greatsword, neither of which I’m really enjoying on ranger at the moment.

3) More reactive playstyle in general. The stances look like good choices to react to situations that historically rangers have been poor at reacting to, and being able to beastmeld in order to actively use their skills grants more options.

4) While I’m not a person who’s been crying for petless ranger, I have to admit that there are some situations in which pets are dead weight, and it will be good to have an answer to that.

I’ll note that 1-3 are entirely subjective… but ranger has dropped to my least-played profession since HoT, and soulbeast offers the potential to revert that.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Levetty.1279:

Longbow + Sharpening Stone + Sharpened Edges + Refined Toxins + Vulture Stance + Sharpen Spines + Griever Stats

Condi Longbow Meta.

+ Runes of the Mad King
+ Entangle

I think it’s gonna be really fun.

^This stuff, I’m looking forward to trying out different builds in the 2nd beta.

It also looks like your going to be switching in and out and comboing with your pet a lot and that sounds really neat to me.
Not to mention I’m pretty tired of Druid now and since I like dps ranger a lot more I’m looking forward to PoF.

Viva la Shortbow!

I get to ditch my pet and have even more stuns for my lelthisisfun GS/LB ranger. Let’s see Deadeye compete with perma stun in your face arrow pwnage! 720 no scope bish!

Pip Squeak.3418:

I get to ditch my pet and have even more stuns for my lelthisisfun GS/LB ranger. Let’s see Deadeye compete with perma stun in your face arrow pwnage! 720 no scope bish!

perma stun? What have I been missing?

Holland.9351:

Pip Squeak.3418:

I get to ditch my pet and have even more stuns for my lelthisisfun GS/LB ranger. Let’s see Deadeye compete with perma stun in your face arrow pwnage! 720 no scope bish!

perma stun? What have I been missing?

Essentially the plan is fusion ha, pet stun, into the F2 stun, in fusion, pet stun, into another stun, into like a foot or w/e

Dagger/Torch + Dagger/Torch. Noone will ever reflect my conditions back onto me ever again.

With the training traits gutted it’s unlikely, but I’m excited to see if non/minimal beastmode Soulbeast is viable. Because I like playing Ranger and all I really want is to not kill myself whenever I attack things in melee.

Lastly, I just wanna experiment with skills like Poison Gas

Honestly, I don’t see that I’ll ever even use the new elite spec. I play a hybrid power LB/GS build using the druid skills to gain quick self-healing followed by stealth as an escape. My build and play style are centered around small groups in WvW or 1v1. It’s fun, produces a ton of damage, and has enough regen/survival that if I can’t win the fight in the first few seconds, I can easily stealth and heal back for another round.

From what I’ve seen of the soulbeast, I can’t see anything in that spec adding to what I already have working. In fact, I think the soulbeast would be a a significant disadvantage against my current setup.

So i’m a bit confused on why there is so much salt for Condi Ranger. I’ve been playing this game since beta and put the game down like 2 weeks after Hot was released and just came back to the game a month ago due to RL. My point is before HoT the meta was zerk/power w.e you wanna call it for YEARS. I come back to the game to find the community had finally accepted Condi in other activities other than PvP. I was extremely happy to play ranger again. Why so much salt?

Jav.8439:

So i’m a bit confused on why there is so much salt for Condi Ranger. I’ve been playing this game since beta and put the game down like 2 weeks after Hot was released and just came back to the game a month ago due to RL. My point is before HoT the meta was zerk/power w.e you wanna call it for YEARS. I come back to the game to find the community had finally accepted Condi in other activities other than PvP. I was extremely happy to play ranger again. Why so much salt?

Basically because people are flawed irrational creatures. =P