Guild Wars 2

Neutra.6857:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

We got some seriously great stuff this change, but there are also things I am upset about.

Pros:

• Muddy Terrain Change is great, finally it’s got enough to use it.
• Finally merged Opening Strike and Alpha Training after asking for it for 5 years.
• Stoneform is great, finally a viable alternative to Clarion Bond.
• Predator’s Instinct is finally gone and adding the cripple functionality to Opening Strikes is great. Hunter’s Gaze looks good too.
• Clarion Bond changes to sync with pet swap, we asked for this exact change a couple of years ago and finally got it. This tier now has 3 great choices!
• I’m kinda meh on Brutish Seals, the long duration Might was pretty great imo.
• MDG gone is amazing, they finally listened, or at least checked their metrics for it’s usage, I’d like to see those stats lol. Vicious Quarry looks great for DPS builds and Remorseless.
• Vigorous Training I’m on the fence about, more fury on pet swap is kinda redundant, it’s 3 sources of that we have now. I’d have preferred something else, like the Might from Zephy’s Speed back.
• Rugged Growth looks pretty cool, certainly more useful than Bark Skin.
• Rejuvenation, great, thanks for that… More Regen…
• Instinctive Reaction now gives a bit more sustain to Power Builds which I like, could be a higher % though.
• Zephyr’s Speed losing the Might is a big hit imo. Was especially good in WHaO/Shout builds, seems now I’ll be using survival skills quite a bit more than shouts. Although since it also grants Super Speed and has synergy with WK, so will grant Fury and remove conditions, I’ll call it a pro.
• Soften the Fall is a great change.

Cons:

• Removing the stability from SotW is a nerf in my book.
• The bleed taken off Companions Might is pretty annoying, it having a 1s ICD means it is only good for 6 might, maybe.
• Expertise Training is a straight up nerf, perhaps if it was scaled from power or condition damage, but vitality?
• Lingering Magic is a nerf.
• Empathic Bond I dunno, why couldn’t they just change the numbers so it actually removed more frequently and it would have been decent. Now, it doesn’t even remove them… I don’t know what the %’s are, can anyone enlighten me?
• Go For the Eyes. Nerf.
• Traps untouched, I simply cannot fathom that.
• SotP CD remains 75s, why?
• No pet changes or improvements, like making them take advantage of quickness.
• Opening Strikes could deal with the stack charge mechanic, since we have so many fury applications for Remorseless, make it stack up to 3 times like Adrenal Health or Berzerkers Power. Not intensity, but charges.
• They have added a TON more synergy with WK in this patch, further reducing the likelyhood of Poison Master being used when it could definitely use a buff itself. Also, since WK and Survival skills are so very good when built around now, I think Empathic Bond is still going to gather dust.

For the empathic bond I am not sure about that, at least with a current bug from staff 3. Staff 3 is now acting as a pet stow, which also removes condis on the pet, so it acts as a condi clear. So any condi transfer to pet with a staff is actually pretty strong. It actually might make using Primal Echoes really useful.

This is kinda a double edged sword though since swapping pets, and by extension bugged staff 3, is effectively a 4s stun on your pet where it’ll just sit there doing nothing upon coming in.

Also, Empathetic Bond is a 50% Condi duration cut on you, which is pretty fantastic tbh, now pair that with some melandru runes and you might forget what a condi is…

BloodMoonASURA.3564:

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

Here. Pets unresponsive and Staff3 cancels pet skills now.

staff 3 banishes your pet, it’ll lose all boons, condis, buffs, and heal up to full, and then be unresponsive for 4s when you finish the dash.

I don’t even notice that it’s not influencing my Avatar Juice generation, as much anymore, that being said I sure wish they’d added something to the trait instead of just straight up nerfing its CA generation, AND the pet healing power.

OGDeadHead.8326:

I can’t for the life of me understand how things like these happens, and onto live servers. How small is Anets quality assurance team really? I mean, really?

It’s not like it’s the first time either, and often it takes months, if ever, to fix.

Well, at least I’ll hold of buying the expansion until this is fixed, that’s for kitten sure.

Ironically buying the expansion may be more beneficial than waiting given the new mechanic of the soul beast.

Elcoyote solitaire.9052:

i noticed in WvW that ALL my pets have only 15.4k hp while i have 17k hp…plus i feel like my pets have no toughness at all..they die so easily.

Did you use Go for the Eyes? If so that’d explain them losing toughness

I know I don’t want to play any PvP until this is fixed, and even high end PvE content makes me hesitant while I can quickly swap.

I was honestly hoping everyone was over exaggerating this… but nope, got home, swapped my pet in combat and after my pets dial up kicked in and the fight was over it started listening to me again…

This needs to get fixed ASAP

On the brightside the active effect for SoW looks very nice

Druid staff doesn’t need more damage, the goal of the weapon is to heal/support, not kill things. And I fail to see how Celestial Avatar is clunky, it sounds like you just need to manage your avatar juice better and learn to aim.

Substance E.4852:

GUFF.5692:

4 with TU if I am not mistaken….Problem is massive loss of stability

Sb has dolyak stance so I think we’ll be okay. It’s already going to be a better stab skill than Wild sig was.

Yeah, that’s great if you’re a SB, but if you’re a ranger or a Druid you’re kittened.

Well thank god WK got buffed, cause god knows we got ravagedly nerfed for it

I’m completely amazed that they nerfed Instinctive Reaction, and Compassion Training, two traits I use regularly, but I’d hardly call strong in their own right.

Pair that with blanket nerfs to everyone who wanted survivability and for once I can say I’m nothing but upset with the balance patch.

We got no ammo updates, no pet updates, signet of the Wild was just straight up nerfed, but thank god I can now take a trait to give my bear 347 expertise now, for all those condis it provides.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

duster.7013:

Lolno, its a cute anti bunker thats only good in birst. It’ll be about as scary as current power shiro; not scary at all. I mean war with infinite resistance isn’t scary at all, just walk away from them. I can imagine this war getting deleted by any condi build in the games second rotation.

in terms of upcoming CANCER levels…

guard > mesmer > engineer > necro > ranger > ele > thief > war
Rev is a question mark for now, but I have zero concern about war. I don’t know if they can even fully boonstrip rev + ele/druid.

Given their Elite will strip 20 boons per target? While preventing reapplication? Yeah, it will be completely capable of shutting down Rev+Ele+Druid+Guardian.

10 seconds of no boons at all is outright deadly to those classes.

Druids need booms to bunker? This is news to me

I would love to see the symbols of the elite specs, nothing is more annoying than just assuming a ranger is a healer only to find out they’re just a squishy damage dealer, or that the guy I thought was a dragon hunter is actually a bunker guardian -_-

It might, condi duration is a huge DPS increase for condi builds, you could always try dropping the adept major in skirmishing for the trapper trait, I know a lot of builds recommend that instead, granted I’m not sure if that would actually be higher DPS or not.

Does the “full buffs” option give you the spotter and other similar effects?

what build are you using?

@Swagger, I think it’ll make it more fast paced and kinda easier, it’ll allow you to do some sick bursty plays at the cost of a longer CD, or just kinda sustain it.

Way more excited for charges for PvP than PvE.

Swagger.1459:

Ohhh resource building mechanics… how about we lessen cooldowns across the board and tone down damage on some skills, and not kill the fast paced nature of the game by increasing cooldowns on our limited skills on the bar…

Why does this team think clunky stuff and resource management = engaging?

I mean, ammo would be cooler cause sure it’d have a “longer” CD in the grand scheme of things, but it’d have a shorter CD between skill uses which means it’s a shorter CD in short term, but longer CD overall.

Let’s say PoS has 3 ammo, you’d be able to PoS 3 times a lot faster than usual, but AFTER that 3rd use you’d be waiting longer before the next one due to having no charges.

mistsim.2748:

spirits, signets, and traps would be the obvious choices. they are so bad right now. regarding weapons, probably Path of Scars, MH axe, OH dagger, and some SB abilities could use charges.

I would LOVE spirit actives and traps, I also have a feeling Anet is going to give “thrown” skills charges like Dagger 5 and Axe 4 given what we know.

I don’t think anyone but the enemy team hates Druid in WvW.

OGDeadHead.8326:

Thanks Justine.

And how do you build up or earn these charges? Do you have a global ‘pool’ of them to spend on skills or what?

Some skills gain ALL of their charges at the same time like the deadeye elite, and then there’s other skills that build up the charges individually.

EX: deadeye elite has a 2 charge elite, once you use the first charge it begins to “recharge” and then after the 45s or w/e it is you gain both charges back and it resets to having 2 charges. However if it worked the other way you’d only gain 1 charge back after the recharge timer is up.

“Even purely visual effects affect gameplay.” no, no they don’t, if I drink an endless embigoning tonic, or turn myself into a Kodan or a watch knight via tonic I DO NOT CHANGE ANY GAMEPLAY, because it’s a purely visual effect.

What you are asking for is NOT “purely visual” if it were it not only wouldn’t be a trait, but it also wouldn’t change anything other than appearance

Caeledh.5437:

Zoe.4830:

Are Fire Wyverns any good?

Their special attack is one of the coolest looking abilities in the game but making good use of it is tricky.

It takes a long time (5 seconds) to complete. During that time your pet is in the air, and not tanking. So you need to be standing in the area of effect or the mob(s) will most likely move out of it to get to you.

Actually, if you have beastly warden a lot of mobs will keep swinging at the Wyvern even after the taunt has worn off because it’s technically still there, it’s just evading.

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.

If we got charges on our traps, oh boy, I’d be happy, bring back the death pits from GW1!! And give me my dust trap and/or smoke trap!!

Adenin.5973:

dragonkain.3984:

We have laziest devs in all mmo market when it comes to customization, so no, not gonna happen.

I wouldn’t call them the “laziest”, especially when we already have so much customization in certain areas, so many transformation skills, potions, all with different animations, skills, attacks, mechanics, models etc, also think about all the transformations and unique skills and mechanics throughout the story.

That’s why I don’t understand that such a huge thing like an elite spec, that’s supposed to keep people for the next 2 years playing, gets so little attention in comparison.

I mean look at the weaver, they got 40+ new skills with insane effects etc. I guess every expansion they only pick one elite spec where they invest heavily in the visuals.

The soulbeast was clearly not picked this time.

We are getting 30 skills based on the family of the pet we fusion dance with, 1 new heal, 1 new elite, 4 new utilities, 3 new weapon skills, and then a new F2 depending on the “type” of pet we fusion danced with (let’s just assume there’s 4). Oh, would you look at that, we too have gained 40+ skills for our elite spec.

But you know, the devs are too lazy ignoring the ranger class because they didn’t give us shapeshifting kits.

Zoe.4830:

Durzlla.6295:

I like my wyverns for AoE damage + CC, and then I run a jaguar for my damage pet, sometimes I’ll run a Moa or fern hound or brown bear if I need more support

Do you use Fire or Electric Wyvern?

I normally use my lightning Wyvern because I like the CC, but I do occasionally use the fire one too. Probably like 80% electric 20% fire

I like my wyverns for AoE damage + CC, and then I run a jaguar for my damage pet, sometimes I’ll run a Moa or fern hound or brown bear if I need more support

I’m pretty sure it’ll work like spirits, where the skill won’t apply to someone already with the buff, and will instead look for another target to apply it to

Justine.6351:

Wondrouswall.7169:

Durzlla.6295:

Everyone keeps comparing culture stance to thief… but do we know how vulture stance works with AoE yet?

Not yet. It might work like Thief venoms where it counts as the player dealing the condition damage or granting might (preferable), or it might not and use the allies’ stats instead (such as how Spirits work, which is not preferable).

If it works like the latter, it will be definitely hindered. Also not sure if it’s stackable with multiple Soulbeasts using it in proximity with each other with the shared stance trait. It’s worth bringing up since it’s a unique buff with an ICD interval.

Think he is wondering if the icd is per target or global.

Was wondering about both honestly, like we don’t know if the ICD is per skill, per target, or for the unique effect (1 might or 1 poison period). Even if the ICD were per skill instead of per target it would make it far better than thieves venom because you could both be applying poison to the kill target and stacking might at the same time.

Everyone keeps comparing culture stance to thief… but do we know how vulture stance works with AoE yet?

What game mode is this? Because when thieves steal from a ranger/Druid their steal item is a heal that grows a tree

Dragon.4782:

Thornwolf.9721:

Still I feel like we have enough cat’s, its one of those “I want a new type of animal who makes me feel cool as well is useful”? We got a tiger last time? Im not really sure we need more felines two in one expansion is hurtful when they have those beautiful hydra’s. OR they could of brought back the native dune lizard who was really cool and would be good to see in GW2 just because I feel they would look so much better. Especially since they were essentially lizard like wolves who were meant for running/diving into the ground and chasing prey.

Just saying its underwhelming when you look at it from a broader spectrum, We have had wargs since launch but cant tame them? Yet we can tame a smokescale who has the same model. We cant tame raptors and they have been here since GW1, rock dogs, bats and even grubs.

Plant creatures? Really and more specifically Trash mobs from guild wars 1 who were annoying but not entirely hard to deal with? Im not sure how to feel about it.

Honestly I feel like we could use more moas. Or at least bring back green and golden moas since they were going to be added initially. I mean imagine having a green moa that gave your allies regeneration, or a golden Moa that made allied mighty.

Gold gave vigor and swiftness, I miss him everyday

Thornwolf.9721:

Still I feel like we have enough cat’s, its one of those “I want a new type of animal who makes me feel cool as well is useful”? We got a tiger last time? Im not really sure we need more felines two in one expansion is hurtful when they have those beautiful hydra’s. OR they could of brought back the native dune lizard who was really cool and would be good to see in GW2 just because I feel they would look so much better. Especially since they were essentially lizard like wolves who were meant for running/diving into the ground and chasing prey.

Just saying its underwhelming when you look at it from a broader spectrum, We have had wargs since launch but cant tame them? Yet we can tame a smokescale who has the same model. We cant tame raptors and they have been here since GW1, rock dogs, bats and even grubs.

Plant creatures? Really and more specifically Trash mobs from guild wars 1 who were annoying but not entirely hard to deal with? Im not sure how to feel about it.

I mean I wanted an Iboga when I played GW1, but I wanted it at actual size (like 2 humans tall) lol.

Also, I think the new cat is a roaring ether https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Roaring_Ether_ so it might be its own animal type instead of another cat.

I was quite happy with the addition of actual support builds instead of “support” being zerker and “kill the enemies before they kill your team” being the best way to support.

Arricson Krei.9560:

And you can show your appreciation by buying the Ultimate Edition

Oh I know I definitely did!

Substance E.4852:

Durzlla.6295:

Even with Soulbeast looking like it’ll require constant dancing between the pet and no pet to be optimal, I think a lot of people who liked the Lone Ranger thematic GW1 allowed will really like Soulbeast since you can probably spend a majority of your time without your pet, and just use the mindset of the pet is a tool you’re utilizing every now and then.

Constantly vibrating between modes will probably depend heavily on whether pets have their own cooldown for their skills and our BM skills.

Can we fuse with a hound, use both leaps, pop out of BM and have the hound use it’s leaps?

If not, we’ll probably be in BM more often than not just because of how much more practical the pet skills will be (wing buffet in the teaser video or the brutal charge in the stream for example).

It probably also depends on how many “trigger when entering/leaving BM” traits we get. No resource and infinite BM duration makes me think we won’t be getting anything nearly as powerful as we got with the Druid.

True, if they share CDs you’d likely not dance between them as much unless having the two bodies is more beneficial.

Thornwolf.9721:

So we get stupid ass pets again, two plants and a rock deer.

They feel like they should of been in HoT’s with the other disappointing additions to our bestiaries. Christ and here I Was hoping for some beastly monsters to tame

What do you even want as a pet if you don’t want a kittening Wyvern or a plant snake that uses illusions?

Wondrouswall.7169:

Durzlla.6295:

Additionally Wyvern damage as a whole is on the lower end, so you’ll likely take a squishier higher damage pet instead (Cats are highest sustained vs immobile enemies).

Correction on that. Wyvern damage is upper-middle end. They fall behind felines, bristleback, and F2-spamming Hawk & Eagle.

Lower end are Hyena and Bears, which Wyverns deal nearly 3x as much DPS as those pets while providing excellent cleave. By no means are they lower end.

Oh wow, that Wyvern buff helped them out way more than I thought then, because they used to hover just about where canines did.

I’m more than willing to shell out $50 for GW2 xpac (yes, even HoT), but I will say PoF only being $30 is great, managed to get a few friends into giving it a try because of the low xpac price!

No problem! Have fun with the wyverns!

ArthurDent.9538:

Any high velocity movement can do it. I even had a friend surge of the mists himself into a wall.

You can also Ride the Lightning straight into a wall as well…

Loop.8106:

Can “Your parents are brothers” become the new “All is vain”?

Man I hope so!

Zoe.4830:

Durzlla.6295:

Zoe.4830:

Durzlla.6295:

Zoe.4830:

Hi everyone, I wanted to ask about the new HoT pet, the Wyvern. The two fire and electric ones seem pretty cool but I would like to know which of them are the best/most effective in PvE, I’ve seen each of their skills and I’m a bit confused as to if the fire pulse damage or straight up electric damage is better, if anyone could help that’d be great.

If your goal is damage/pet survivability than you’ll want the fire wyvern, it also works quite nicely if you have blasts for might, and if you take beastly warden since it taunts enemies to stand in the fire field and attack it while it’s evading.

However, the electric wyvern is generally more useful in PvE because wyverns as a whole are tanky so you don’t need to worry about them dying so the fire evade isn’t super useful, additionally the Electric Charge is a very strong CC and just ruins breakbars, making it very useful in group PvE content.

Additionally Wyvern damage as a whole is on the lower end, so you’ll likely take a squishier higher damage pet instead (Cats are highest sustained vs immobile enemies).

TLDR: Electric Wyvern is more useful in the meta because it does a lot of CC with its F2, and Wyvern have a low damage output so their CC is what matters. However, if you don’t care about that the Fire Wyvern imo is way cooler, provides a fire field, and does more damage overall than the electric one, and still has decent CC due to the Wing Buffet.

So Fire Wyvern for Dmg and Electric Wyvern for Tank…

They can both tank, electric Wyvern for shut down/interrupt, since it leaves a lightning field you can also daze if you leap at an enemy through the field it leaves IE sword 2, GS 3

Ahhhhh so Fire for dmg and Electric for interrupt?

You got it!

Just remember fire Wyvern damage isn’t the HIGHEST pet damage, but it’s not too bad and it is AoE.

shadowpass.4236:

If anyone in this thread wants an invite to Favorable Winds [Wind], an all ranger guild, in preparation for the new expansion, let me know here until I can bump the old thread or make a new one.

Best of luck!

Darn, guess I can’t join since I’m a Druid…

Zoe.4830:

Durzlla.6295:

Zoe.4830:

Hi everyone, I wanted to ask about the new HoT pet, the Wyvern. The two fire and electric ones seem pretty cool but I would like to know which of them are the best/most effective in PvE, I’ve seen each of their skills and I’m a bit confused as to if the fire pulse damage or straight up electric damage is better, if anyone could help that’d be great.

If your goal is damage/pet survivability than you’ll want the fire wyvern, it also works quite nicely if you have blasts for might, and if you take beastly warden since it taunts enemies to stand in the fire field and attack it while it’s evading.

However, the electric wyvern is generally more useful in PvE because wyverns as a whole are tanky so you don’t need to worry about them dying so the fire evade isn’t super useful, additionally the Electric Charge is a very strong CC and just ruins breakbars, making it very useful in group PvE content.

Additionally Wyvern damage as a whole is on the lower end, so you’ll likely take a squishier higher damage pet instead (Cats are highest sustained vs immobile enemies).

TLDR: Electric Wyvern is more useful in the meta because it does a lot of CC with its F2, and Wyvern have a low damage output so their CC is what matters. However, if you don’t care about that the Fire Wyvern imo is way cooler, provides a fire field, and does more damage overall than the electric one, and still has decent CC due to the Wing Buffet.

So Fire Wyvern for Dmg and Electric Wyvern for Tank…

They can both tank, electric Wyvern for shut down/interrupt, since it leaves a lightning field you can also daze if you leap at an enemy through the field it leaves IE sword 2, GS 3

LughLongArm.5460:

AEFA.9035:

ProtoMarcus.7649:

It would seem that the F1 and F2 Soulbeast skills (when melded) are the last 2 pet family skills, and the F3 is based on one of the 5 pet archetypes (which also affect the attribute bonuses)

That said, here’s a quick list of all the F1 & F2 skills for the melded Soulbeast (alphabetical order)
Note that while the skills are based on pet family skills, some may and will act differently for balance purposes

Armor Fish

• F1 – Protection
• F2 – Chomp

Bear

• F1 – Bite
• F2 – Defy Pain

Bird

• F1 – Swoop
• F2 – Quickening Screech

Canine

• F1 – Crippling Leap
• F2 – Brutal Charge

Devourer

• F1 – Tail Lash
• F2 – Devourer Retreat

Drake

• F1 – Chomp
• F2 – Tail Swipe

Jacaranda

• F1 – Call Lightning
  Calls lightning to small area (15s CD, Five hits, 1 vuln per hit, ground targetted)
• F2 – Photosynthesize
  Restore health, gain regen and remove (2) conditions
  (20s CD)

Fanged Iboga

• F1 – Crippling Anguish
  Launch a projectile that inflicts conditions
  (6s CD – 3 confusions, 1 torment)
• F2 – Narcotic Spores
  Spit a glob of confusing spores at a foe, inflicting confusion for a while at that location.
  (15s CD, AoE 6 pulses, 1 confusion per pulse)

Feline

• F1 – Bite
• F2 – Maul

Jellyfish

• F1 – Healing Cloud
• F2 – Dark Water

Moa

• F1 – Harmonic Cry
• F2 – Frenzied Attack

Porcine

• F1 – Maul
• F2 – Brutal Charge

Saurian

• F1 – Sharpen Spines
• F2 – Rain of Spikes

Shark

• F1 – Charging Bite
• F2 – Fear

Smokescale

• F1 – Takedown
• F2 – Smoke Assault

Spider

• F1 – Entangling Web
• F2 – Poison Gas

Wyvern

• F1 – Tail Lash
• F2 – Wing Buffet

---

F3 (Beast) Skills

• Deadly Pets – Primal Cry
  Tap into your primal essence and unleash a debilitating roar._
  (20s CD 3 Bleeds, 9 Vulns – 3 pulses, 1 bleed per pulse, 3 vulns per pulse)
  This is the Condi? Archetype – Attribute bonuses are Extra Precision and Extra Condition Damage

• ??? Pets – Prelude Lash
  Pull foes toward you and bind them briefly
  (25s CD)
  This is the Control Archetype

• ??? Pets – Spiritual Reprieve
  Restore health to your allies and grant them a reprieve from conditions
  (40s CD – mega heal burst + resistance 3s for 5 allies in a 600 radius)
  This is the Healing Archetype

• ??? Pets – Worldly Impact
  Jump up and slam the ground beneath you, severely damaging nearby foes.
  (25s CD, high damage, leap finisher, 240 radius, 5 targets)
  This is the Power? AoE? Archetype

are these pet skills F1-F2 legit? its the actual skills that we will be getting per pet family when in beastmode? then F3 would be Beast skill depending on the pet family youre in, is that how it works?

More or less, I commented here some differences between the pets core skills and the Soulbeast version. The F3 skill is not based on the pet family, but rather the pet “archetype” which will also determine the passive buff you are getting while in beastmode.

Apparently Fern Hound is classified as a support pet, where the other canines (maybe not hyena?) are classified as Power or Control.

Zoe.4830:

Hi everyone, I wanted to ask about the new HoT pet, the Wyvern. The two fire and electric ones seem pretty cool but I would like to know which of them are the best/most effective in PvE, I’ve seen each of their skills and I’m a bit confused as to if the fire pulse damage or straight up electric damage is better, if anyone could help that’d be great.

If your goal is damage/pet survivability than you’ll want the fire wyvern, it also works quite nicely if you have blasts for might, and if you take beastly warden since it taunts enemies to stand in the fire field and attack it while it’s evading.

However, the electric wyvern is generally more useful in PvE because wyverns as a whole are tanky so you don’t need to worry about them dying so the fire evade isn’t super useful, additionally the Electric Charge is a very strong CC and just ruins breakbars, making it very useful in group PvE content.

Additionally Wyvern damage as a whole is on the lower end, so you’ll likely take a squishier higher damage pet instead (Cats are highest sustained vs immobile enemies).

TLDR: Electric Wyvern is more useful in the meta because it does a lot of CC with its F2, and Wyvern have a low damage output so their CC is what matters. However, if you don’t care about that the Fire Wyvern imo is way cooler, provides a fire field, and does more damage overall than the electric one, and still has decent CC due to the Wing Buffet.

Even with Soulbeast looking like it’ll require constant dancing between the pet and no pet to be optimal, I think a lot of people who liked the Lone Ranger thematic GW1 allowed will really like Soulbeast since you can probably spend a majority of your time without your pet, and just use the mindset of the pet is a tool you’re utilizing every now and then.