Guild Wars 2

My take on a trait redux.

Dojo.1867:

Holland.9351:

Vavume.8065:

Holland.9351:

I’d just like Essence of Speed to give 33% movement speed while in beastmode.

The problem with that is you can already get 25% movement speed in beastmode from beastmaster traitline, so I think its unlikely unless they change that also.

There are so many things need changing with soulbeast and only a month to do it in, tbh I think it’s going to be unfinished at release.

The problems with Beastmastery Pet Prowess:

• It’s only 25% movement speed
• It limits choice by locking you into 2 trait lines (Soulbeast and Beastmastery)
• Beastmastery GM traits are all useless while in Beastmode (which you need to be in to get the passive speed boost)
• It can’t compete with Druid Natural Stride

I mean do we really have problems to obtain perma swiftness nowadays? Personally I think + movementspeed traits are a waste of space.

Agree, we already have a lot/enough of ways to increase movement speed.

Dojo.1867:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Dojo.1867:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Dojo.1867:

Ralkuth.1456:

While Holosmith has a smooth transition into Photon Forge (lulburst) and always-available utilities that interact with the F-bar mechanic…

Soulbeast has to manage pet swap and beastmode separately and it’s extremely clunky. Not to mention most of the melded skills don’t have any meaningful impact, with the Beast abilities having awkward animation locks or extremely long CDs.

We might need a smoother mechanic. Don’t want to fight my UI while I’m fighting people already.

---

Off topic, is Condi the only way to go for Soulbeast?

Most likely I haven’t figured out how to boonstack/use pet traits like the spec suggest yet, maybe that’s the new way to play Ranger.

Cant talk much about PvE but power got a lot of tools. Improved Maul is amazing. Sic em is a crazy damage buff. Free quickness/fury. With all that increased melee damage I wonder if Paladin is the best PvP stats now for a power build.

You can pretty much guarantee 99.99% that Maul applying it’s own AoO strike and Sic Em @ +40% will be nerfed man, seriously.

Why? I think there is a chance it stays. I don’t think they will change Maul. Sic’em will propably be adapted toonly giving 30% or something like that to Soulbeast.

Ok, because this.

Show Spoiler

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Damage = (Weapon strength * Power * Skill coefficient) / Armor

GS midpoint for damage = 1047.5
Power main stat with runes and food = 2784
Maul Co-efficient = 1.75
Let’s assume 2500 armor.

(1047.5 × 2784 × 1.75) / 2500 = 2041 damage.

Then add in the multipliers you can stack. Total multiplication will be Steady Focus 1 × 1.1 = 1.1. Remorseless 1.1 × 1.25 = 1.375. Critical Damage 1.375 × 2.5 = 3.47. Furious Strength 3.475 × 1.07 = 3.67. Twice as Vicious 3.67 × 1.05 = 3.86. Oppresive Superiority 3.86 × 1.1 = 4.24.

So that damage has gone up to 8655.40 now already. Then add in AoO.
4.24 × 1.5 = 6.36
2041.368 × 6.36 = 12983.10

Now add 40% Sic Em.
6.36 × 1.4 = 8.904
2041.368 × 8.904 = 18176.34 damage on a target with 2500 armor. From a single attack you can land 3 times every Sic Em duration. I didn’t even include 2HT or the additional stats from beastmode or beastmastery.

If you did that to a light armor target, it would be 23101.60 damage in a single hit. Rapid Fire will do 30k plus, easily.

TLDR; As much as I like it, it’s crazy OP. Nothing that can do that much damage is good for the game.

One trick pony claculations like this were always possible and never good. You will never connect a full rapid fire like that. Your build will be squishy, etc.

Like I said I anticipate a nerf to 30% or something like that but it isn’t that strong. SB needs to pull its weight in terms of dps to compete with druid. Maul is a well telegraphed skill (melee on top of that) and so is rapid fire so there is a lot of counter play.

It’s not a one trick pony calculation, it’s just a standard zerk ranger running around with the zerg. Rapidfire doing that is absurd, especially since you could trait it to pierce for a reduced damage multiplier. You are forgetting how fast RF is with Quickness.
You are forgetting that is only taking two traitlines, you still have a 3rd to build defense into and it’s only 1 utility skill too. I used to play zerk LB on the pheriphery all the time and done correctly, you can just nuke people. Sic Em applying to the Ranger as well, even at 30% is a HUGE damage increase. Don’t be surprised if it’s nerfed to lower than 20% while in beastmode.

EnderzShadow.2506:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Dojo.1867:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Dojo.1867:

Ralkuth.1456:

While Holosmith has a smooth transition into Photon Forge (lulburst) and always-available utilities that interact with the F-bar mechanic…

Soulbeast has to manage pet swap and beastmode separately and it’s extremely clunky. Not to mention most of the melded skills don’t have any meaningful impact, with the Beast abilities having awkward animation locks or extremely long CDs.

We might need a smoother mechanic. Don’t want to fight my UI while I’m fighting people already.

---

Off topic, is Condi the only way to go for Soulbeast?

Most likely I haven’t figured out how to boonstack/use pet traits like the spec suggest yet, maybe that’s the new way to play Ranger.

Cant talk much about PvE but power got a lot of tools. Improved Maul is amazing. Sic em is a crazy damage buff. Free quickness/fury. With all that increased melee damage I wonder if Paladin is the best PvP stats now for a power build.

You can pretty much guarantee 99.99% that Maul applying it’s own AoO strike and Sic Em @ +40% will be nerfed man, seriously.

Why? I think there is a chance it stays. I don’t think they will change Maul. Sic’em will propably be adapted toonly giving 30% or something like that to Soulbeast.

Rapid Fire will do 30k plus, easily.

No argument here, just curious, have you personally got 30k Rapid Fire on a Test Dummy?

I can do ridiculous dmg with GS—that’s a given and I could do that before the beta.
But I haven’t seen the same thing with RF.

Not on a test dummy and I have not played Soulbeast at all, I will not be able to log on until November.

Holland.9351:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Any build that uses those things I described and other boons benefits from the trait.

You didn’t understand what I said. The vast majority of builds have no beneficial master trait.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

How many builds are affected by any of the major traits? Brutish Seals only if you use signets, MoC only if you use GS, LB, SB or /Axe and only sparingly

But this line also offers Steady Focus, which could benefit any build right out of the box.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Striders Defense only with S/, Hidden Barbs only for condi builds that are not in group scenarios

But this line also offers Spotter, which could benefit any build right out of the box.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Ambidexterity only for dagger/torch in condi builds

But this line also offers Shared Anguish, which could benefit any build right out of the box.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Windborne Notes only if you have /WH, 2HT only if you have GS.

But this line also offers Evasive Purity, which could benefit any build right out of the box.

I don’t agree that those traits benefit any builds. Evasive Purity & Shared Anguish are never going to be used for PvE. Spotter never going to be used in a condi build unless you are in a group and the only Ranger. And Steady Focus is never going to be used in any PvP format. Every trait has it’s place, niche and trade offs.

Anyway, this is what I would personally do with the traits.

Chicksboy.8734:

I am glad I came back to this game and able to make a level 80 elementalist in the create a demo character.

I have been bored with warrior with only 5 skills. I did not know elementalist can be melee attackers with over 40 skills! What else is new?

It’s always been this way, they have always had access to 40+ skills at once, now it’s just a few extra.

Holland.9351:

Xaylin.1860:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Holland.9351:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

How about Essence of Speed makes Quickness 50% more effective?

That would be a much better effect than the current version, but you would still need to run quickness in your build.

Dagger 3, Zephyrs Speed, QZ, Live Fast, Sigil of Agility etc… OR, you know, when playing with a chrono or firebrand.

It might be the least versatile Master trait… but it sure is sexy with traited Sword.

Yes all 3 could be useful in certain builds, but that’s the problem. The number of builds that could benefit from a master trait is very limited.

Someone suggested switching Essence of Speed with Live Fast, which would at least be a step in the right direction. Any build can potentially benefit from Live Fast, even if they rarely use it.

Any build that uses those things I described and other boons benefits from the trait.

How many builds are affected by any of the major traits? Brutish Seals only if you use signets, MoC only if you use GS, LB, SB or /Axe and only sparingly, Striders Defense only with S/, Hidden Barbs only for condi builds that are not in group scenarios, Ambidexterity only for dagger/torch in condi builds, Windborne Notes only if you have /WH, 2HT only if you have GS.

Essence of Speed is actually very versatile for a Major, it’s just not particularly powerful. I just think they should add Furious Strength to Essence of Speed and then put Fresh Reinforcement in Furious Strength’s place. Then you could run Live Fast for Fury and quickness on beast skill use and Essence of Speed to increase the duration of your boons and give +7% damage.

FrouFrou.4958:

Holland.9351:

I completely agree.

We need to be able to swap pets while in Beastmode. I fear we can’t “because the tech isn’t there yet”, which would be the only valid reason, but then we need instant Beastmode switching without delay.

Also, currently it’s better for me to NOT use Beastmode at all because Beastmode doesn’t have the pet F2 skills. Why doesn’t it? It really blows my mind. It must be because of time constraints because Weaver already had 180 new skills to look at.

I’m guessing it’s intentional, the weaving kind of gameplay Anet mentioned in the preview so you don’t just camp beastmode but pop out of it to utilize the pet and go back in again.

Yeah, if the pet F2 skills were available in beastmode, there would be no reason to ever use your pet or swap in/out. I still think we should be able to swap pets while in though.

borya.2964:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

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

Anyway, my $0.02 laid out;

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

Yep, sorry my bad.

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

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

Dojo.1867:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Dojo.1867:

Ralkuth.1456:

While Holosmith has a smooth transition into Photon Forge (lulburst) and always-available utilities that interact with the F-bar mechanic…

Soulbeast has to manage pet swap and beastmode separately and it’s extremely clunky. Not to mention most of the melded skills don’t have any meaningful impact, with the Beast abilities having awkward animation locks or extremely long CDs.

We might need a smoother mechanic. Don’t want to fight my UI while I’m fighting people already.

---

Off topic, is Condi the only way to go for Soulbeast?

Most likely I haven’t figured out how to boonstack/use pet traits like the spec suggest yet, maybe that’s the new way to play Ranger.

Cant talk much about PvE but power got a lot of tools. Improved Maul is amazing. Sic em is a crazy damage buff. Free quickness/fury. With all that increased melee damage I wonder if Paladin is the best PvP stats now for a power build.

You can pretty much guarantee 99.99% that Maul applying it’s own AoO strike and Sic Em @ +40% will be nerfed man, seriously.

Why? I think there is a chance it stays. I don’t think they will change Maul. Sic’em will propably be adapted toonly giving 30% or something like that to Soulbeast.

Ok, because this.

TLDR; As much as I like it, it’s crazy OP. Nothing that can do that much damage is good for the game.

borya.2964:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

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

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

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

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

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

Anyway, my $0.02 laid out;

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

FYI 90% of pets are not affected by quickness.

They can just change the shout to function differently when in beastmode, meaning it still has it’s current functionality when you are not in beast mode, but is also useful when you are in beastmode. If they want us to swap in and out of the mode, the skills need to be useful for either.

Wondrouswall.7169:

…

Pets

• Replace the Swiftness on the Juvenile Cheetah’s Beast ability to Quickness for synergy with Essence of Speed.
• Change the Sand Lion’s Beast ability from a pulse-damaging area of effect blind to a non-damaging roar that grants nearby allies the new Sand Barrier mechanic as found on Scourge and Weaver. Would be interesting to have a feline with a defensive F2 for a change and justify its hefty cooldown.

Traits

• Fresh Reinforcement needs to work both ways, granting the player boons on the pet when entering Beastmode, and granting the pet boons on the player when exiting Beastmode. Being a minor trait would also help.

Stances

• Vulture Stance could use something unique, such as removing a boon on foes above 50% health and corrupting a boon on foes below 50% health. Would give Ranger a way to counter boons and up their value in WvW groups.
• Griffon Stance has a long cooldown and kind of wastes Vigor if it is applied at the same time. The effect can better serve if altered to grant endurance per second rather than the 100% endurance regeneration so it can stack with Vigor and traits.
• One Wolf Pack should be change so its effect can occur multiple times per interval to cleave targets. That would justify its current cooldown and make it useful beyond single-target encounters.

All excellent ideas here.

Griffon Stance could also be made to just bypass the endurance regen cap. It may be easier to program that.

Edit: Played around with some trait ideas

Eponet.4829:

Zenith.7301:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dojo.1867:

Ralkuth.1456:

While Holosmith has a smooth transition into Photon Forge (lulburst) and always-available utilities that interact with the F-bar mechanic…

Soulbeast has to manage pet swap and beastmode separately and it’s extremely clunky. Not to mention most of the melded skills don’t have any meaningful impact, with the Beast abilities having awkward animation locks or extremely long CDs.

We might need a smoother mechanic. Don’t want to fight my UI while I’m fighting people already.

---

Off topic, is Condi the only way to go for Soulbeast?

Most likely I haven’t figured out how to boonstack/use pet traits like the spec suggest yet, maybe that’s the new way to play Ranger.

Cant talk much about PvE but power got a lot of tools. Improved Maul is amazing. Sic em is a crazy damage buff. Free quickness/fury. With all that increased melee damage I wonder if Paladin is the best PvP stats now for a power build.

You can pretty much guarantee 99.99% that Maul applying it’s own AoO strike and Sic Em @ +40% will be nerfed man, seriously.

Dojo.1867:

I really like them. What I dislike are more the adept/grandmaster traits.

Especially Predator’s Cunning feels great and heals for a ton in the right build. Judging from this thread most people lack the ability to test stuff properly. It actually heals almost 5k with a single Viper’s Nest (given that you hit 3 targets with 3 ticks but that isn’t that craszy hard on point). Just doing stuff like sword 3 and dagger 4 or shortbow 2 will still give you about 1k hp. This trait is good.

Just because a trait can work well in a specific build, under specific conditions, doesn’t make it a good trait. I have no doubt Predator’s Cunning can be good.

samanosuke asakura.6240:

if you become one with your pet shouldn’t fresh reinforcement be a base thing ? …

It should either be base or made a minor trait and not competing with Unstoppable Union.

The thing is, if you really want to take advantage of Fresh Reinforcement, you already need to take Nature Magic, otherwise you hardly get any effect since a lot of the boons you get will not be on your pet.

It also needs to place the boons on your pet when you exit beastmode, otherwise entering and exiting the mode is just handicapping your pet and you are better off rarely ever using the mode, or just camping it 24/7.

HeadCrowned.6834:

I think they still going to change quite a lot in terms of balance. Maybe Soulbeast/Ranger won’t get big buffs, but when other classes get nerfed its a buff to Soulbeast/Ranger as well.

When core Ranger can do better damage, no matter what they do to the other specs, Soulbeast will still be worse off. It also won’t make it fluid or fun to play.

Hyper Cutter.9376:

mintkola.3756:

I don’t even understand why it’s there to begin with you already have a very easely noticable buff on your bar to indicate you’re in beastmode (bright blue).

At this point all it does is make me not want to play soulbeast.

Every super form has a visual effect, this is no different.

Except that beastmode is not a form, your weapon skills do not change and you can stay in this mode indefinitely.

Except in this case your 1-3 are happening in the reverse order. Many thought it looked good, but as more details surfaced and people were actually able to test it for themselves, they discovered many glaring flaws.

Soilder.3607:

It’s a base heal of 182 I believe. However, what makes the trait good is that it has no ICD and triggers per stack of poison.

Take the trap Viper’s Nest for example. Each second the trap is active, it deals 3 stacks of poison to up to 5 enemies. You will siphon health three times from each of the five enemies. 3×5 = 15, 15×182 = 2730 HP gained per second.

That is an optimistic scenario, provided we assume five targets will stay in the AoE long enough. Nonetheless, it shows it’s potential, and it works on every skill which causes poison.

Then you can use Whirling Defenses to finish the poison field as well.

It’s a decent trait, but soulbeast needs another way to apply poison. Unless you build
around poison completely, it’s lacklustre and situational. Moving Fresh Reinforsement to a minor and then adding a trait that applies poison to Adept would improve the spec and give synergy imo.

momophily.3814:

…As for Soul Beast, I actually like the tool kit it provides. What I wanted was a PvP/WvW centric brawler and I got just that. Some of the traits and numbers could be tweaked, but its fine conceptually. This is what I wanted in 2015 when Druid was dropped on my lap instead. But I will use it almost exclusively in WvW.

That’s what I think too, it’s going to be a good eSpec, if they give it some real love. It’s a brawler for sure but it’s got a ways to come before it is good.

Hannelore.8153:

Quarktastic.1027:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

It’s absurd that you can’t swap, it makes something that could be fluid into additional hotkeys and cds for zero reason.

This. Pet F2s should have also been worked into the fused state. Maybe in place of the F5 skills we got. A couple of those are pretty good though. But worldly impact kind of sucks. It should be a blast finisher with a larger radius.

Lacking the pet’s F2’s really ruined trait synergy— imagine how much we could’ve done with this if we could proc all those F2 traits in beastmode.

Same for pet swapping in beastmode..

It feels to me like they just, intentionally kitten it as much as they could so that they could force people to stay out of beastmode when the skills are on cooldown, which doesn’t really make any sense from a player perspective.

Ranger just doesn’t play rotation well, its not built into the class like Ele, etc.

The F2’s will trigger on F3 in beastmode, but they trigger at the end of the skill, not at the beginning, severely limiting their usefulness.

It’s absurd that you can’t swap, it makes something that could be fluid into additional hotkeys and cds for zero reason.

Carlin Sanders.3587:

Core/elite specs useless: RIP GW2

(every thread about this in a nutshell)

Did you play soulbeast much? Because it does less damage than core, feels hell clunky to play and 80% of it is bugged. Thats’ the general concensus.

EnderzShadow.2506:

Ghotistyx.6942:

Marks/Beast/Soul with GS, Black and Brown bears. With proper traits and utilities, you’ve got around 2 large condi removals, 3 stun breaks, 2 sources stab, 5 invulns. Soulbeast is frontline material.

You’re white knight material.

You managed to find one mediocre set of traits in one very specific form of gameplay and you’re satisfied?

Ashfiend, where are you? I found you a friend.

It will work there better than what we have currently, that is certain. Unless Leader of the Pack is made to share full durations, we’ll be on only mildy better.

Other than that tiny improvement in one area of the game, I can’t see a use for Soulbeast at all, ie, it is a downgrade over Core ranger.

Holland.9351:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

How about Essence of Speed makes Quickness 50% more effective?

That would be a much better effect than the current version, but you would still need to run quickness in your build.

Dagger 3, Zephyrs Speed, QZ, Live Fast, Sigil of Agility etc… OR, you know, when playing with a chrono or firebrand.

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Adenin.5973:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

I don’t actually know what you are saying here.

Does your beastmode aura visually change when you merge with another pet? Is it red, blue, whatever?
No.

The devs thought that visual representation of what pet you merged with does not matter. And now there are suddenly people that tell us that we can’t have a petswap in beastmode because people need to know what pet you’ve equipped, which they didn’t knew before either.

Ah, right, got you now. Agree completely. 100%.

In fact they talked about it taking a lot of development time to get it looking right, which makes me think they don’t intend on it being a tell, just to look good.

If Soulbeast can swap pets while in Beastmode I want to be able to enter Photon Forge with Holosmith without the visual tells.

You see how that could be a problem? It’s a good thing you guys don’t have any actual say in balance beyond slinging your shxt at walls and calling it art.

You didn’t notice the big blue icon below the health bar? Hmm.

jcbroe.4329:

I really don’t understand why people are so opposed to having a petswap available in Beastmode. It only adds gameplay options.

The argument “it isn’t supposed to be petless” is ridiculous, not because I have an opinion on what should or shouldn’t be the case, but because it’s a just a perception of how some people think other people will play the spec.

And even if people used the mechanic to decide to never leave Soulbeast, it wouldn’t be an optimized way to play. They’d lose out on pet versions of their skills and traits that affect entering/exiting Beastmode.

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

Because ANet decided that Soulbeast was going to be in addition to and not a replacement for pet swapping, it is absolutely needed for the sake of fluid gameplay.

Thought that needed to be reiterated.

How about Essence of Speed makes Quickness 50% more effective?

Adenin.5973:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

I don’t actually know what you are saying here.

Does your beastmode aura visually change when you merge with another pet? Is it red, blue, whatever?
No.

The devs thought that visual representation of what pet you merged with does not matter. And now there are suddenly people that tell us that we can’t have a petswap in beastmode because people need to know what pet you’ve equipped, which they didn’t knew before either.

Ah, right, got you now. Agree completely. 100%.

In fact they talked about it taking a lot of development time to get it looking right, which makes me think they don’t intend on it being a tell, just to look good.

I’d like to see Second Skin become another source of Protection. Like "Take 33% less damage from conditions when you have Protection. Whenever you have 3 conditions, gain 3s of Protection. 6s CD or w/e something like that.

Essence of Speed could give Super Speed too.

Wondrouswall.7169:

Predator’s Cunning could be better by changing it from “Steal life when you apply poison.” to “Steal life when you strike a poisoned foe.”

As well as that, add in “If your target is not Poisoned, Poison them for 1s”

Shining One.1635:

Justine.6351:

Another side idea had was to put the next raid into the mists as the next wvw map. That way pvers and wvwers could work together on their legendary armor. Maybe even have the ghost of scarlet as the main boss.

What about making WVW players part of the raid? Pit the raid party against an equal number of WVW players. If the raid party wins, they continue on to the raid boss, if the WVW players win, give them some raid currency. It will definitely add a new, variable challenge for the raid community.

Have the separate WvW and PvE teams enter from separate ends of the raid wing and complete the same content to reach the middle, then fight it out, winner takes all. HAHAHA!

Adenin.5973:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

I don’t know how anyone can see anything with the amount of visual clutter and auras and flashes, effects and explosions etc etc going off continuously, I don’t think there is a real need for a tell to let people know what pet is being used.

Also, remember that it were the devs themselves that decided that they would only give you one single aura for all the pets and archetypes. If they thought that your merged pet does not matter it can’t be brought up now as an argument against pet swapping.

I don’t actually know what you are saying here.

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

The thing a lot of people are forgetting here is that if you allow pet swapping while in Beastmode, you’re going to need visual tells for the enemy (PvP/WvW).

If ANet were to allow this, they would need something like an icon that shows what pet you’re currently attuned to (like Revenant and Legends) or some kind of animation like the spirit of the pet appearing above you.

You can’t just swap pets without allowing people to know what you’ve swapped to or it lacks counterplay.

I don’t know how anyone can see anything with the amount of visual clutter and auras and flashes, effects and explosions etc etc going off continuously, I don’t think there is a real need for a tell to let people know what pet is being used.

Durzlla.6295:

I fully agree with this, not being able to use Dolyak stance is frusturating since i feel like it’d make the spec signifcantly better than it is in PvP, that AoE stability and retal + the immunity to movement impairs for your team would be fantastic support.

Not only that, but in WvW it should allow your group to steam roll condi reapers, since you’ll be immune to the Deathly Chill spam. Be funny to see 5 Soulbeasts all sharing this for 100% up time hah.

Vavume.8065:

Just remove the aura completely, forcing this aura on me massively restricts anything I want to do visually with my characters, I should be able to theme them as I want and not be forced into themes that have to incorporate this green aura. Revenant was the first to introduce this PROBLEM, and it seriously kneecapped my revenant design, please do not do this again, I want total freedom for my fashion wars.

Just needs a check box on the pet management screen. Please.

Yeah, 1500 is too much for a SB, 1200 is good. Just make Poison Volley a single projectile that explodes at your target dealing the Poison in an AoE.

Dark.1823:

RedDeadFred.1256:

Danikat.8537:

According to the profession forums every single new elite is terrible and proof that Anet hates that profession. Yes, including the Deadeye.

I mean that’s just par for the course. People on these forums always think Anet is out to kill their class. Doesn’t matter how good the class currently is. It could be at the top of the meta and people would still complain.

According to Reddit, there’s some pretty ludicrous power burst with Soulbeast since one of your shouts just gives you 40% extra damage. There’s people mauling for 26k apparently. Yup, Soulbeast useless guys!

This is either a lie or you misread something. Maul cannot do 26k. It’s true that “Sic ’Em!” works on you (inb4 nerf) when you’re combined but even with “Sic Em!”, Maul does at most ~15k dmg or so which is not that impressive considering you only get 10sec of that sweet dmg boost. Right now it seems that a lot of pet traits and skills affect the player instead when you’re combined. Oh btw I was hitting for 30k+ on Thief Deadeye.

anduriell.6280:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

anduriell.6280:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

• Then make a Minor Adept trait that applies poison ala Sharpened Edges.

That could be used if they change the carrion\spider skills to work like the bristle sharpen spines should work but for poison (now the skill gives only 5 bleed charges), 30 seconds CD, for 30 seconds your attacks apply poison.

Thus if you get a carrion\spider and the trait you may have a poison\regen build. They may balance the healing gained although i think 150 heal by poison application is not that great (you could get 300 heal max per second).

We already have a trait which applies poison in WS trait line.

Poison Master is pretty rubbish and it’s only going to be worse with soulbeast since you need to swap pets to use it, plus two stacks of poison every 15s is pretty garbage. They could improve it a lot, but soulbeast should have more poison synergy in it’s own traits. It’s got nothing additional traitwise to offer condi builds except a tiny amount of lifesteal and some increased duration.

i mean refined toxins which apply poison once every 5 seconds while your health is above the 75%. Do no hope to get a trait better than that one as a minor.

Please understand i’m not bashing your idea which i think is fantastic. But i think it would be easier to give that attribute to a pet family which would allow much better gameplay and stronger effects than a trait, even if is a minor.

Something like Dagger Training is what I mean.

Refined Toxins is not that great for Soulbeast either, on Druid its awesome since you can stay abov 75% a lot of the time and also you have your pet out 24/7, on Soulbeast it’s a different story.

kappa.2036:

Actually dagger offhand can be used on many power builds. Dagger mainhand would be nice in a power build aswell, especially with a slightly buffed AA and #3. But yeah, right now the weapon is mostly condi damage based.

Except that you need a ton of condi damage investment for the condition damage to equal the damage from just 1000 power and zero precision, it’s definitely not 100% condition weapon. It’s trying to be hybrid, but it’s just bad at everything currently.

Strider.7849:

You forgot to mention the new pets.

The lion/deer seemed pretty bad. The worm thing was really nice though with its confusion stacks.

Yeah, 50k Gazelle attacks are pretty bad

Miellyn.6847:

kappa.2036:

considering the hybrid theme of the dagger

There is no hybrid theme of the dagger. Everything screams condition.
Why do you thing it is a hybrid weapon?

Because it has power damage, but the base condi durations are not long enough for it to focus on being condition damage. Take a look at Necro Scepter for a condi weapon by comparison. Dagger needs either way more power damage or way more condi stacks at those durations.

I would actually far prefer more stacks at short duration than long duration condis, so it is more of a condi burst weapon and you need to keep attacking to gain the full benefit.

anduriell.6280:

OGDeadHead.8326:

How come Anet yet again brings their new stuff for public testing so short before the acutal release will take place? When we see so many things in need of fixing, and this right here is just for our class? Why do they keep making the same mistakes over and over again?
If they don’t want to have a public test server, they for sure needs to get a much bigger QA team, and they need to have more time to actually test and balance things.
The expansion is in a alpha/beta status right now – do they actually believe they’ll be able to fix all of this before release?

what they need it tomtake some of us and make them quality\beta testers.

Obviously the people is testing now the classes (as a whole) do not use\take ranger ro simply they don’t care.

Some of us would do a greater job to point out deficiencies or improvements when they can be done, so the class can be pushed to be enjoyable. Now it seems like a complete waste of time because it requires a lot of work to save face. I mean oh come on, some astoundingly obvious bugs like the pet swap shouldn’t had being transferred to production systems like never.

My gosh with he lazy development….

They need more destructive/malevolent testers ones who purely try and break the game with combinations, otherwise balance is impossible. Either that, or actually utilise the forums because we will find these combos in 10 mins.

anduriell.6280:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

• Then make a Minor Adept trait that applies poison ala Sharpened Edges.

That could be used if they change the carrion\spider skills to work like the bristle sharpen spines should work but for poison (now the skill gives only 5 bleed charges), 30 seconds CD, for 30 seconds your attacks apply poison.

Thus if you get a carrion\spider and the trait you may have a poison\regen build. They may balance the healing gained although i think 150 heal by poison application is not that great (you could get 300 heal max per second).

We already have a trait which applies poison in WS trait line.

Poison Master is pretty rubbish and it’s only going to be worse with soulbeast since you need to swap pets to use it, plus two stacks of poison every 15s is pretty garbage. They could improve it a lot, but soulbeast should have more poison synergy in it’s own traits. It’s got nothing additional traitwise to offer condi builds except a tiny amount of lifesteal and some increased duration.

• Leader of the Pack needs full durations.

• GFtE, Wilting Strike, Beastly Warden and Invigorating Bond need to proc at the beginning of the cast of the beast skills.

• Oppressive Superiority should provide more benefit the lower the targets health, not just a flat 10%. 10% below 100%, 15% below 66%, 20% below 33%. Executioner, Bolt to the Heart, Close to Death, Swift Termination all have 20% more damage to foes under 50% health, so this would be pretty close considering it includes condition duration as well.

• Make Fresh Reinforcement apply the boons to the pet when leaving beastmode in addition to current functionality, give it an ICD so it cannot be spammed and move it to a minor.

• Then make a Minor Adept trait that applies poison ala Sharpened Edges.

Obtena.7952:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Obtena.7952:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

So, after seeing the damage numbers with the dagger, I think it’s pretty safe to say it is not a DPS spec, it’s got no more control options that we already have and the support options it provides are quite limited (assuming 50% duration on Leader of the Pack) and we already have the Druid as a healing support spec.

So what is the point of the Soulbeast? What role can it perform that we cannot already do? I’m not seeing it.

Whatever role you want to play it in. Is that a glib answer? Not if you consider that Anet doesn’t make elite specs based on ‘filling a role’ to begin with; no elite spec exists with the sole purpose to do any particular thing in any particular game mode. They simply decide on a concept and implement it. If players find that concept good for a particular role in a certain aspect of the game, they use it.

If by glib you mean thoughtless and insincere, then yeah, it sure is. Most of the eSpecs exist to perform a role the class didn’t have previously or focus moreso on one they did poorly.

When they decide on a concept, it is likely the role that is decided first, that is crux of the concept. Druid is a healer, Tempest is support (hence the recent nerfs to help that portion work better) Deadeye is going to be ranged DPS, Firebrand is support and condition damage, Scourge is support etc etc.

Soulbeast seems to not have taken this route and is simply a straight upgrade of core ranger, changing gameplay little. This is not a bad thing, necessarily.

No, they fill a role. That’s different than existing to be something. People make especs more than they are; they are simply an option to play the class differently. Anet definitely gives them a focus, but the intention isn’t to have a specific purpose for especs for specific aspects of the game.

That difference is subtle but significant; it’s the difference between Anet saying “here is a spec for doing this content” vs. giving players the option to play how they want. You’re illustrating that difference perfectly … you don’t see what Soulbeast is for, so you have the option to not use it as opposed to Anet saying "Soulbeast is your <<THIS ROLE>> in <<THIS CONTENT>> … and having people complain it’s insufficient as well as making the spec difficult to adjust for content outside of that role in that content. Don’t overthink this.

We are making the same point. Yes, they fill a role. I’m not saying they are existing to do something specific. I never said their intention was to have a specific purpose for especs for specific aspects of the game.

They are saying “Here is a spec that is good at doing X, go play.”.

What I can’t see for Soulbeast is what that X is. The X being it’s role.

I think it should go after 2s. Imagine this thing continually farting every time you want to swap in and out every 10s, I really wish we could turn it off client side.

anduriell.6280:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

ProtoMarcus.7649:

… Go for the Eyes, Wilting Strike and Beastly Warden DO proc on the Soulbeast F3 skill, but at the end of the cast. But yes, Live Fast doesn’t trigger on Pet F2

What? At the end of the cast? Crazy. The taunt would be great to ensure you get your Worldly Impact to hit, but no it taunts after… lol

i pointed it out yesterday in the feedback thread and then i went back to wvw in my druid.
yep, taunt from beastly warden, weakness fro whiting strike and quickness from live fast are applied after the cast instead doing it before like it works with the pet.

Which makes those traits mostly useless. The long cast from F3 in beastmode would benefit greatly from live fast quickness and the other traits are too obvious to explain.

Yes, it’s ridiculous that they don’t and ruins any trait synergy there may have been.

I figured Worldly Impact had that cast time so things like this would work; Live Fast fury applied immediately to proc Remorseless and Beastly Warden doing off at the beginning would help you land it. But at the end of the cast, it’s utterly useless.

Talsi.1469:

Hi,
has anyone been able to try what happens when you combine Beastmode aura with Aurora effect?

I wouldn’t rule out Epilepsy.

ProtoMarcus.7649:

… Go for the Eyes, Wilting Strike and Beastly Warden DO proc on the Soulbeast F3 skill, but at the end of the cast. But yes, Live Fast doesn’t trigger on Pet F2

What? At the end of the cast? Crazy. The taunt would be great to ensure you get your Worldly Impact to hit, but no it taunts after… lol

mistsim.2748:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

mistsim.2748:

Wondrouswall.7169:

mistsim.2748:

Aomine.5012:

Dagger is ok, but I think Beast F3 cast time is so long that it breaks the fluidity completely, considering you’re ROOTED in ground when you use those skills.

we’re rooted while casting the F3’s? what a disaster.

Only one that roots is Worldly Impact. The other 4 can be used on the go.

phew, that’s sounds better. the cast-time on Worldly Impact didn’t seem to bad in one of the earlier clips tbh. and quickness would make it relatively unnoticeable. it being a leap finisher is a bit silly imo, should be blast.

And you can use Beastly Warden to make sure you land it. Combine that with Remorseless and Live Fast and hope the Live Fast applies immediately upon skill use and the Remorseless triggers before the cast time is up.

Wait, Beastly Warden triggers on our F1-F3? o.O

It should on the F3, I’m not sure of the others.

Fluffball.8307:

I’m insanely bored by this spec and won’t even play the rest of the preview.

Hypothesis: Because elite specs are meant to change the playstyle, they turn off players who chose the original profession UNLESS they are purely upgrades like tempest or reaper were, which didn’t change the class at all but merely upgraded them.

Because SB and druid are distinctly different, they are also incredibly unpopular amongst ranger mains.

What do you think could help mate?

I think having the pet swap traits proc from entering/exiting and making the skills more fluid would help a lot, from what I have seen, have not played it at all myself. Hopefully by the time I can, it is improved somewhat. That said, it still looks pretty good to me personally.