Guild Wars 2

Aomine.5012:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Eponet.4829:

Upon testing, I can confirm that Maul procs Attack of Opportunity for you while in beast mode. Maul -> Beast Skill -> Autoattack -> Maul -> Beast Skill -> Autoattack Maul -> Weapon Swap seems like it might have the potential to be quite good in terms of damage over longbow.

Also, Sic’Em effects you as well, which should be a pretty significant damage increase, and while some of the traits were nerfed, you do get some of the bonus power/precision/toughness/vitality/ferocity that your pet would normally be given from the Beastmastery minor traits while in beast mode.

Awesome! Looks like Soulbeast Shoutbow will be a thing then if Sic Em stays like that…

Wow, that’d be a straight upgrade for my LB / GS power ranger XD

But may have to sacrifice marksmanship entirely because giving up on WS or NM is like suicide in wvw roaming.

MM/WS/SB should be pretty good, you have a lot of invulns available from MM + SoS and SB beast skills.

Substance E.4852:

…Ya, bird swoop is garbage. It’s also not a functional leap like Monarch Flight so you get stuck on any objects along your path. There’s no little hop like GS Swoop, you just sort of slide along the ground.

I tried to use it to leap off the cliffs in Alpine Borderlands spawn and you fall strait down when you reach the edge. It doesn’t generate any momentum at all.

I wish I could have seen that

AEFA.9035:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

AEFA.9035:

Swagger.1459:

And meanwhile we are pumping out mediocre melee damage…

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1WXn0jljaCE

holy kitten wtf? LOL

It’s just utterly absurd! ANet needs some malevolent testers.

Favoured classes by ANet: Warrior, Thief, Engi. Repeat.

You didn’t see the Firebrand doing 50k burn ticks then?

AEFA.9035:

Swagger.1459:

And meanwhile we are pumping out mediocre melee damage…

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1WXn0jljaCE

holy kitten wtf? LOL

It’s just utterly absurd! ANet needs some malevolent testers.

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.

Durzlla.6295:

Ubi.4136:

The new stat set I saw last weekend from the preview is Power/Healing Power for the high stat and Precision/Concentration for the low. That could be a really decent stat combo for druid.

Oh wow, so we can be absolute glass healers now too…. now if only they would give me menders

I’d murder for Vipers that had the Power swapped for Healing Power, so Healing Power/Condition Damage with Precision/Expertise.

Yeah, I agree the LRS could be quite nice with a stealth attack attached to it, we have several sources of stealth now so it would be functional. I actually suggested this several years ago when they made Remorseless refresh after stealthing. That would be a nice inclusion back to Remorseless too.

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.

There are at least 5 sets being added.

Eponet.4829:

Upon testing, I can confirm that Maul procs Attack of Opportunity for you while in beast mode. Maul -> Beast Skill -> Autoattack -> Maul -> Beast Skill -> Autoattack Maul -> Weapon Swap seems like it might have the potential to be quite good in terms of damage over longbow.

Also, Sic’Em effects you as well, which should be a pretty significant damage increase, and while some of the traits were nerfed, you do get some of the bonus power/precision/toughness/vitality/ferocity that your pet would normally be given from the Beastmastery minor traits while in beast mode.

Awesome! Looks like Soulbeast Shoutbow will be a thing then if Sic Em stays like that…

Shadelang.3012:

Allowing the ranger to operate in areas where it was heavily punished before? Like frontline in WvW or condi melee balls in PvP. Seems like it can fulfill a similar roll to dps warrior in WvW. It has the sustain and damage options for it now and it can combine with the pet when it gets hot and bring it back out to down leave hwen its no longer necessary.

Having your usefulness cut out at random times is rather painful. And the nature of pets dieing forces rangers to choose specific pets in PvP environments. Ones that are naturally more likely to survive assuming the player isnt running the 1 shot build.

But you probably already new this. Soulbeast for me seems like a fairly PvP based elite spec. Similar to the spellbreaker

As for not offering control options. Your flat out wrong. Being able to double up on wing buffet for breakbars as well as double canine leaps on top of our own hard CC makes soulbeast potentially a CC monster. There is also prelude lash which is an aoe pull. Offering another form of CC there.

From how you worded your post I have to assume your talking from a PvE perspective so lets go with that.

As said before soulbeast might as well be named controlbeast. Its got alot of it on near instant cast times which can be weaved in an out of combat rotations as necessary.

Soulbeast also has very high quickness uptime. Making it less reliant on a chronomancer for its damage which is nice. Especially if your pugging.

Soulbeast can also provide high burst healing. When combined with say a Jaccaranda. And all with near 0 healing power due to the flat 25% bonus to healing. Its not a healer. But it offers these tools with minimal loss on there offpet.

But lets look at damage. Currently the rangers main weapon is sword. Despite sword being a power weapon and our highest dps build being condi.

Its likely that having a condi mainhand weapon will offer a signifcant damage boost. Keep in mind the numbers we saw in the livestream were NOT from a condi build which I fealt was a little strange. Dagger will also be our first aggressive mainhand weapon. (All others this point are rather defensive in nature. A Ranged axe as well as evade heavy swords and greatswords.)

If your asking if it will replace druid? No. But its not supposed to. Well have to wait on numbers to see what SOULBEAST is actually able to do. But the pure versatility of it makes me doubt itl be useless.

Frontline in WvW is not a role though. It’s a play position. And yes, it will be far better option there for us purely because you can hide the pet from the AoE.

I didn’t realise the pet/beast skills had separate cds until I just started watching that twitch stream a few mins ago. More control options is great and was really surprised to hear that from Irenio.

Not just referring to PvE, my comment on support was more WvW oriented, I didn’t make that clear.

Not asking if it will replace Druid or suggesting it will not be good, or being negative, I’m just asking the question of what is it’s role? It doesn’t really seem to fit anything. It’s like it takes a Jack of all Trades class and makes it a Better Jack of All Trades.

Khenzy.9348:

Beastmode not being a pet-swap CD is GOOD. I don’t want it messing up my trait CDs when I swap pets to do a burst combo.

Please, pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeease DON’T make Beastmode affect those trait CDs.

If it was made a pet swap;
If your pet swap is on CD already, it wouldn’t proc.
If your pet is dead (and swap is on CD), it wouldn’t proc.

This will already happen;
When you exit form in combat, it will proc swap traits.
You can’t swap pets in beastmode.

If you are using the pet for the burst, you are not in beastmode, meaning you exited recently and triggered the swap effect or you were already out and the swap will be off cd, or it’s not off cd and you can’t use it anyway.

How will it affect your burst combo knowing that?

It can only help with burst combos, since you will know when entering beastmode that you’ll get those buffs for your beast skills and burst. Wait 15s in beastmode, then exit, getting the trait effects again.

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 more control options though 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.

Edit: Edited control options to reflect reality.

Edit: I think some people are taking this post as a negative, I’m not saying Soulbeast is bad, but asking the question of what role can it perform, since to me it seems as though it is not clear cut and is making a Jack-of-All-Trades class into a Better-Jack-of-All-Trades.

I don’t see why you can’t have entering/exiting soulbeast count as a pet swap. It would only proc the core pet swap traits if the pet swap is on CD. The Soulbeast traits that are triggered by entering/exiting would always function, but those like Clarion Bond, Spirited Arrival and Zephyrs Speed can only work if the global cooldown for them is at zero.

Weapon swap and sigils is in the same scenario, if you enter beastmode and trigger an on-swap sigil you can then swap weapons again immediately and get a different weapon swap proc from a different on-swap sigil.

To me it makes a lot more sense to have it function as a pet swap since you are not swapping weapons, the skill bar does not change, what changes is the pet, you are swapping from a pet, to no pet. The swap traits will function when you exit beastmode since the pet is being created (like you can trigger them from a stowed pet when entering combat) and getting the swap effects as you enter beastmode is exactly when you need them.

borya.2964:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Well, you can already do that, so what’s the issue? Making them proc on entering beast mode is only saving 1 button press.

No you can’t already do that, unless the addition of break stun, unblockable attaks, save/secure your pet, 3 entire new skills to the effects i listed (all in 1 skill) counts for nothing.

Like I said, you can already do that by pressing F4 to swap pets before pressing F5 and get those exact same effects. So it is only saving one button press.

borya.2964:

jcbroe.4329:

You guys might not be understanding my point.

There are all these traits that give and share boons to/with the pet. Then you go into Beastmode, and you WASTE these boons on your pet that you’ve built, and the pet comes back out of Beastmode boonless.

You’re shoehorned into a trait to even partially refund the boons that are otherwise wasted if you intend to use Beastmode, and realistically, those hard caps you receive are a bad tradeoff for “destroying” a fully booned pet.

Even moreso, in raid situations where you can expext to be fully booned as well as your pet, going into Beastmode removes those boons from the pet. That is a DPS loss, period.

The elite takes synergy the class has without it and punishes you by removing that synergy and gameplay effect.

It’s not okay, it’s not a wait and see situation, it’s functionally counterintuitive gameplay.

I don’t really care about pve to be honest. From my point of view you’re asking for beastgodmode. If entering beastmode would count as pet swap it’s :

- Instant fury, swiftness, might (4sec unblockable ?), break stun, 4 sec unblockable attacks, quickness and super speed with lower CD (MS / BM / SB)

- Instant fury, quickness, superspeed, 2 cleans, break stun, 4 sec unblockable attaks (WS / BM /SB) 10 sec CD

Coupled with weapons swap traits and sigils and utilities … Instant yolo, really ?

Well, you can already do that, so what’s the issue? Making them proc on entering beast mode is only saving 1 button press.

Aomine.5012:

anduriell.6280:

Aomine.5012:

Yeah, would take Soulbeast simply because of the better utility selection…
(Better heal, better utility, better elite)

I think WHaO will be still used more than Bear instance. Simply because it’s better. Traited with WK+runes you’ll cleanse 3 conditions on cast, it’s a great boon sharing utility which is mandatory for the ranger to do some damage + sinergies with the heals from WK and most importantly has reduced CD .

If you are in melee you’ll need more than just a heal every 25 seconds (no CD reduction available) .

I’d take 8 condition cleanse (pulsing cleanse too), stability + soft cc immunity over other heal/utility in wvw any day.

Bear Stance when traited with WK and StF is pretty epic too, 10 condis every 25s plus a decent heal and then a good heal over time with the muddy terrain effect is very very good imo.

Dolyak Stance is like the best WvW skill in the game! It’s such a shame that Leader of the Pack is 50% duration or Soulbeasts would be a mandatory inclusion for WvW.

IndigoSundown.5419:

…You can no more predict the future than I can.

Manasa Devi.7958:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Well, this is part of the reason for adding the unid items to the game.

If it is, it’s a massive failure.

First off, they don’t replace all drops so you will still get them off the other drops. Second, when you ID and salvage afterward, you still get them. Probably in amounts that’ll make you sick to look at if you saved more than a few unids.

But the option for salvaging them without IDing is there which provides more materials than when you ID and also does not create sigils/runes. How is that a massive failure?

Here’s my ideas for the Soulbeast traits. Some more synergy I think.

Major Adept

Find Their Weakness: Whenever you strike a foe with X or more vulnerability, you apply Poison for 2s.

Live Fast: Using a beast ability grants you offensive boons. (No change)

Unstoppable Union: Entering beastmode breaks stuns and causes your attacks to be temporarily unblockable. (No change)

Minor Master

Fresh Reinforcement: Entering beastmode grants you the boons affecting your pet. Exiting beastmode grants your pet the boons affecting you.

Major Master

Quick to Anger: Gaining quickness enhances the duration of other boons affecting you. Deal 7% more damage while you have fury.

Second Skin: Conditions inflict 33% less damage to you when you have protection. Whenever you have more than X conditions, gain protection for Xs every X second(s).

Predator’s Cunning: When you apply poison to a foe, steal some health from them. Entering beastmode poisons nearby foes for 2s.

Minor Grandmaster

Feral Agression: Gain a stack of “Twice as Vicious” for 5s whenever you enter beastmode or disable a foe.

Grandmaster

Eternal Bond: While in beastmode, if you would be downed you instead fall out of beastmode and recover health. Gain Protection for 6s.

Leader of the Pack: Stance skills grant their effects to nearby allies.

Oppressive Superiority: Gain a stack of “Twice as Vicious” whenever you attack a foe with less health than you. Gain additional stacks when your target reaches 75%, 50% and 25% health. Lose all stacks on foes death. (Would have icd to prevent more than 4 stacks.)

Gotejjeken.1267:

Not sure I get the fixation with applying these things on entering / exiting BM.

I mean, I get that BM kind of breaks a lot of ranger aspects, because most of our stuff is designed around giving the pet something. So if we ‘absorb’ the pet then half our traits go to waste.

But, some things like Twice as Vicious seem fine as is…because if that is on enter / exit then you take away other possibilities, like PBS or pet knockdown triggering it.

If you make traits apply upon entering/exiting, it means there is incentive to do it, rather than just camp beastmode 24/7. That way entering and exiting will work even better for burst setups since you will get a boon boost and the additional damage from TaV. Plus, all the pet swap traits are useless to you if you camp beastmode as are a lot of the other traits, there needs to be more synergy with existing mechanics, not less. Druidic Clarity and Celestial Shadow are examples of this and CAF counts as a weapon swap too.

I think entering and exiting beast mode should count as a pet swap and not a weapon swap, the opposite of CAF.

Pet interrupts and disables don’t count towards other traits like MoC so I don’t think TaV will count when performed by the pet either. There is also no reason TaV could not be rolled into another trait, it’s quite weak really and very situational.

One of the traits in Minor Adept really needs to apply poison or interact with poison, like making attacks apply 1s poison, when a boon ends in an aoe, in an AoE when entering or exiting beastmode, or tacked onto live fast as an aoe too.

EnderzShadow.2506:

JcBroe Well thought out post as always.

Honestly, I hope you’re wrong. I bet you hope you’re wrong.
Maybe, there is something we all missed.

Then again…maybe Anet will repeat it’s mistakes.

/shrug Who would be surprised about that?
I mean, besides Heimskarl, the Anet apologist :P

Who me? Nah I don’t do that, except for things I agree with!

How about one of the giant tanks they have in the black citadel? OR, an airship!?

Weylin.6478:

They could add it everywhere if, and ONLY if they separate these things by rarity.

You can’t really sort them by rarity in their current form, because no loot roll has been performed for what loot will be contained in one yet.

It somewhat defeats the purpose though if they are sorted by rarity since there is no chance involved then, for rares at least.

I think because exotic drops are so rare anyway, that they could have their own unid item, since IDing exotics can be a great windfall or just 60s.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Fresh_Reinforcement

This trait should not only transfer the boons on the pet to the Ranger upon entering Beastmode, but also transfer the boons on the Ranger to the pet when exiting.

We all know why, not sure why they don’t.

I like Wondrouswall’s suggestion of combining it with Twice as Vicious which would apply upon entering beastmode as well, instead of on disable. This makes playing around entering/exiting instead of camping beastmode more attractive as well.

Then another minor adept could be created with some synergy, such as poisoning nearby foes when a boon ends on you or Apply Poison for 1s on all attacks. Something like that. Anything that works with conditions or ties in for some synergy with the other traits, something that is sorely lacking.

Are the boons shared with Leader of the Pack?

Boysenberry.1869:

Aurene mount confirmed*!

Coming Soon*

**2075

Soon™.

Just like Game of Thrones, it’s going to take 5 seasons for her to grow so don’t hold your breath.

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

^ Just to check, are they adding them to the whole game or just PoF maps? Because if the latter, the OP’s argument stands. And given the furor over the Id system currently, it doesn’t seem like they’re going to implement it wholesale.

Then again.. it’s anet. Anything is possible.

Well, only those in the know at ANet know that. I’m sure it will be just PoF for testing to begin with, but hopefully it becomes game wide. No clutter and much easier to adjust drop rates of materials then.

Wondrouswall.7169:

While I enjoyed it, I got a kick when they were on Renegade, and Irenio described their 7-shot shortbow skill. It starts spread then comes together at the end of their range.

He went on about how there are skills that are shotgunned where – even if the player were using a ranged weapon – would stand really really close to someone so that they might hit them more times. Then, went on to note he didn’t think that it was super healthy since it puts ranged characters with melee ones.

I am then reminded of Split Blade and Poison Volley….

Uugh IKR, why do these skills still exist in this form? Just make them a single projectile that has an AoE at the target.

Holland.9351:

Actually, I think exiting beastmode will count as a pet swap.

Yeah it should, since the pet is “spawning” at that point, assuming you are in combat it should trigger the traits.

And why doesn’t our pet swap count as a weapon swap as well, like Revenant Legends?

Rashagar.8349:

DeceiverX.8361:

Rashagar.8349:

Euthymias.7984:

My main concern is that its going to be heavily “requested” for nerfs simply because people wont know how to deal with the potential options it may present. Black Bear’s Endure Pain and other bunkering strats becoming prevalent would also get people whining about “too much sustain!!1”. =/

Can you imagine how heads would explode if “bearbow pew pew” becomes “meta”?

Now I just need to go take a long shower for using the phrase =P

I actually think it will, even for WvW blobs.

MMS Black Bear + Owl is 15s of power damage invuln, great cleanses, massive engage/disengage, a second heal, and roughly 12s of unblockable piercing attacks from 1800 range with longbow with great boon sharing and condition cleansing if all the traits work as they suggest. It’s basically the best you can do against guardians. This makes pin-sniping trivially easy and makes for a VERY tanky backline that if engaged on can pretty much just tank through the damage and fix a lot of the condition cleanse issues a lot of other backline has.

There’s some serious power in this spec. I think people are too fixated on the loss of meta BM bunker and the low damage coefficients on the BMode skills to really recognize the gains in utility this has.

It might not be a super aggressive PvE DPS spec – druids will probably still be better for organized raids – but to say the very least, it looks kitten ed strong for the PvP formats.

Out of curiosity, why is it that everyone seems to be saying Owl over any of the other birds? I’m guessing it’s something to do with the classification or F3 or extra stats or something but I have no clue of the details.

I mean, I’d be picking it because my norn ranger has always felt a deep connection to the sacrifice Owl made… but I should probably have some other reason in case the decision gets challenged by a nosy passer by/would-be party member =P

Owl gets the Spiritual Reprieve skill and it’s normal F2 is actually pretty good as well.

GUFF.5692:

Decent stat allocation with gear. However, I would be running double bird’s for the nice swoop gap openers since a double bow build is slow as molasses in February. Stealth is not enough. Would also drop clarion bond for stoneform trait with SOS on bar too. LR will also be a must and I’m sure you will take Doly Stance right?

Not sure if I agree with building around MOC with such low damage attacks commonly found on bows. Instead I would concentrate more on might and vuln stacking (helps both power and condi). Some of the new SoulBeast traits will also help both pow/condi.

Yeah condis could still be a prob without second skin and good protection up time or more clears.

Good work so far let us know how testing goes!

Ah, I should have said that another goal was to use as few boons, just tossing ideas around for builds if the boon hate is absurd or if Spellbreaker really punishes their use. Clarion was mostly for the swiftness. I think you’re right though, SF is a good choice.

I’ll keep mucking around with this one until it becomes obvious it’s crap or I make it work

mtpelion.4562:

Here’s a thought:

What if Spirits were updated to use the new Ammo system?

Using the skill places the spirit at your location.

The icon switches to the Active skill and ammo is added (2-5 uses, depending on the spirit).

Using the Active will then:
1. Consume 1 charge of ammo,
2. Teleport the spirit to your location, and
3. Cause the Active effect

Alternately, steps 2 and 3 could be swapped so that the effect triggers and then the teleport happens.

In this version, Spirits DO NOT DIE when using the active, only when their life timer expires.

In this version you:
A. Get more uses of the Active making Spirits much more useful and
B. Can move the Spirits to you on demand, preventing them from going out of range while their life timer still has time on it.

Thoughts?

I reckon ground targeting for placement as well as active skill use with a couple of shots via the ammo system would go a LONG way into making them better.

Carighan.6758:

IndigoSundown.5419:

Essentially, while this feature might benefit the player who is cynical about loot in GW2, it kittens the player who likes loot.

Completely honest here: I hope that no one likes the loot system in GW2. It’s so annoying to the player, it really shouldn’t get any praise. Basically any other MMORPG has handled loot-to-inventory better than this.

That’s not to say that it is unusable. Clearly we play the game. But it’s the low point of MMORPGs, and it really is difficult to make it worse.

Removing a good 75% (or so, felt like 75%) of trash loot drops in favor of a currency I can “trade in” for either crafting mats or a gamble on skins would… be pretty cool?

Are you asking for the exact thing that this thread is discussing? It looks like it.

Ferelwing.8463:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Djinn.9245:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Djinn.9245:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

You’re just thinking about this from the wrong end. It’s just a different system. Rares and exotics are not mixed into the bunch, they do not exist until you ID the trophies. Imagine they are a chest that has a random item inside and a better chance at getting a rare than you do from drops and that it costs you 1.68s to open them. The beauty is that if you just want materials, you can salvage them directly and get a lot more materials than you do usually, like a LOT more.

This is not how people think. People want to know what is in the bag. And if there is a chance that what is in the bag is something good, even if the chance is small, people will want to know even more. That is why gamble chests and grab bags in stores work.

The developers are counting on this very thing for BL chests and the new gamble boxes. So they obviously understand exactly how this new UnID Gear will work. So a large number of, if not most, people will want to ID the gear. New players will not have good Magic Find and so will probably not even break even from the cost of ID. So as I said the new players lose. Just what GW2 needs…

No, they will still end up with luck to increase their MF as well as comparable loot drops to just playing normally.

It’s interesting that you are consistently presenting your ideas as fact. Do you work for Anet and you’re just hoping they don’t figure out that you’re answering questions? If you don’t work for Anet you actually have no idea.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

They already have low MF so don’t get a lot of rares regardless. The 1.68s cost will be more than equalled out by material rewards, that’s how these gold sinks work, its not trying to steal anything from you, it is you exchanging some silver for more materials and skins. That’s it.

Yes, they have to PAY 1.68s to get the “comparable loot drops to just playing normally”. So they ARE stealing from us if you are correct about the “comparable loot drops to just playing normally”. We have to pay $ and time, as Whitworth and others have pointed out, to get the “comparable loot drops to just playing normally”.

I meant comparable drops and value after you take out the cost to ID. They want to remove gold from the economy, not materials.

Gold generation is already a pain point for new players because the “bonuses” to that generation 1% I believe per achievement level and I think monthly you get around 1 or 2%. So new players have to play quite a while before gold starts to really be a thing they have. …

So, sell the unid and make coin. It’s not hard.

Daddicus.6128:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Have you seen how many more materials are created when you salvage the unid gear? it’s significantly more (over double) than salvaging weapons/armor and all tiers are created, meaning the supply of the lower tiers will be increased significantly. I’d say they want to reduce the cost of materials because that’s exactly what salvaging the unid gear will do.

Does that make up for the precursors you will never get? How about ectos? Dark matter? Runes and sigils?

Yes it does, what % of your drops has been precursors? You can still ID them into precursors if you so wish, if you realise how futile that is, don’t and then salvage for extra materials and craft one. Fyi I have had two precursors drop in the past.

Daddicus.6128:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

They will sell like hotcakes because they salvage into a lot more material than ordinary green weapons, people who don’t understand are going to list them and those tho do understand are going to buy them and salvage. Or, those that have high MF will buy them, get tons of rares and then salvage into ectos.

So, it’s a good thing to profit from other peoples’ ignorance?

Yes it is, especially when I’ll continue to tell everyone how good this system is and explain it to people so they can profit themselves as well. There are those, though, that do not listen or understand and sadly, they are the ones missing out.

Daddicus.6128:

JustTrogdor.7892:

There are a lot of good arguments for and against.

I’m still waiting to hear the first “good argument” for this.

Just gotta read more of the posts then mate.

Tekey.7946:

Rauderi.8706:

Tekey.7946:

Otherwise, they could just give us bags that contain crafting materials and skip the unnecessary blue and green armor/weapons in lvl 80 zones.

I feel it necessary to adjust this statement slightly. We get enough bags. Just go straight to the crafting mats or Exotic+ rewards.

Even better, seems like I couldn’t even imagine GW2 without bags

And then, people would complain there are no actual item drops.

Toolbox.9375:

Corwin.6397:

(bear gives 8sec of invulnerability for example)

It’s not nearly that potent, I’m afraid, at least according to the Wiki’s information. It’s 3 seconds of immunity to physical attacks; conditions and crowd control can still slam you. You can get another damage-immunity ability by taking a Stout pet (in this case, Black Bear), but it’s 4 seconds of the same thing.

Don’t down-play that…

Wondrouswall.7169:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

I like this logic. Any suggestions for other effects?

Nothing specific, but if the swap is not the sensible move, then SotW needs a new active that also applies to the pet.

Some of you Rangers probably forgot that it was suggested for 2+ years after launch for Signet of the Beastmaster to become baseline, and after almost 3 years, we now have 1 signet nerfed and its pet interaction lost on activation.

If there’s going to be any suggestions moving forward: it needs to involve the pet.

Every trait and skill that does not include “…and your pet.” or words to that effect, are poorly thought out for us.

OP buyers remorse.

/thread

Galactic.6453:

Djinn.9245:

“comparable loot drops to just playing normally”. So they ARE stealing from us if you are correct about the “comparable loot drops to just playing normally”

Why do you presume that Unid gear is worthless unless identified? Everything we know so far points to it being worth more in gold as a regular salvage material. Even if the 85 is a statistical irrelevance it is the only data we have on the matter right now and thinking it’s significantly wrong is a pointless assumption to make.

Greens and blues are worthless as actual gear and they just stopped pretending it isn’t and just consolidated them all together into one item and added a sink for it to gamble for rares (Which is exactly what we have but better because you don’t have a major risk of loss). I’m working off the presumption that rares and exos drop regularly regardless, as said in the thread linked before, with a few unique exotics ones being locked behind the identification, which lets admit it, they would have locked behind something else regardless.

It’s not actually the only data available, it’s just the only data presented in this post.

Holland.9351:

+1

I use it on a power build for a tiny bit of extra damage and to keep them in combat a bit longer.

I think it should give 5 or 10 seconds of vulnerability on crit without a cooldown. That will increase damage on both condi and power builds and has synergy with crits and will keep people in combat for 5 or 10 seconds.

Yup, even on a power build with might it’s the better choice for maximum DPS. I just feel it would be FAR better being combined with Hidden Barbs and then another useful trait added in it’s place. Your idea of vuln on crit with no CD would be fine in it’s place then, or you could make it on hit instead of crit, so we could run without precision.

TexZero.7910:

How many definitions of casual are we up to now ?

Eleventy hundred.

Ayuruk.3980:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Serious? This game has more rewards for doing nothing than anything I have experienced, it’s literally inventory filling with loot every 20 mins.

And items do not inflate currency, only coin rewards do that.

I think you just need to look into how you can take better advantage of the loot you are getting.

Yea it fills ur inventory with trash. Nothing of value or use

Do you want a precursor every kill? What do you actually expect?

ScottBroChill.3254:

If I’m in a level 80 zone I shouldn’t be getting a bunch of useless greens and blues, especially underleveled gear. Just give me silver and copper at that point. And the stupid chests around maps should actually have a chance for good drops, not a blue pair of gloves and 3 empyreal fragments.

Those drops are worth silver and copper at that point, sell them on the TP or salvage them and sell the mats. They can’t just keep adding gold to the game.

Shiraya.4012:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Not a bad stat set for sure. I’m dying to get Healing Power/Condition Damage, Precision/Expertise.

Druids everywhere would rejoice I’m sure

Mmmhmmm.

Ashen.2907:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Ashen.2907:

Djinn.9245:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Excellent Name.9574:

Galactic.6453:

Excellent Name.9574:

Mystic or Master Kits to salvage Blue or Green gear

Yeah that’s why I said it makes no difference because you get the same basic mats either way.
Green sigils could gain to rise a bit in price because they’re worth jacks- at the moment. And it’s not like PoF will be the only content ever to exist now, plenty of people will still be doing the HoT map metas and world bosses and whatnot. Regular greens and blues will still be abundant.

If Anet planned this to solve the inventory problem, which I seriously doubt as it does not, it will go live in the entire game, not just PoF otherwise what would be the point? Not only green sigils and rune will rise, all of the materials that I mentioned will escalate. UND gear is just blue until identified.

It’s the “best of both worlds” because it solves inventory issues while out playing the game, meaning you only need to deal with your loot once per play session. Green sigils and runes are worthless atm, none of the materials will go up in cost since the supply is going to increase dramatically. Unid gear is NOTHING at all, until you id it, the loot does not exist until you get it ID’d which is essentially trading in your green unid tickets for loot.

It doesn’t matter what Unidentified Gear is because it doesn’t come from nowhere. It REPLACES gear that you would have received. Is the number of green salvageable trophies worth as much as all of the other drops I would have received before this replaced them? Including the rares and exotics? I don’t know and neither do you.

You speak as though your opinion on what will happen is fact. You don’t actually have any relevant evidence about what will happen.

Honest questions here,

Do we know for a fact that unid gear is replacing anything as opposed to being an addition?

Do we know that unid gear, if it is replacing something, isnt replacing a blue or green drop that couldnt have been salvaged for any more than the unid can? In fact, since green gear can not produce ectos, precursors, etc do we know for a fact that unid gear isnt actually replacing something of potentially significantly lower value?

We know that you still get other drops while also getting the unid. It may be replacing some drops or it may be in addition. I believe it is replacing some.

The unid drops are not replacing any tier of gear. They are trophies that you pay a silver price to turn into other loot that has a better chance of being rare. When you salvage the unid gear, you get a lot more materials than you would by salvaging blue or green gear and you don’t get the sigil/runes from them. I think the range is up to 20 of a random material, 18 iron has come from them several times and that is 1g value from a single unid. You are right that unid is usually replacing someting of lower value.

My questions werent meant to be leading or taken as an statement. I really dont know, but want to. I did not spend much time in the demo and so had little experience of the drops.

Still, it seems possible that if the total number of drops remain the same, an unid drop means that drop slot didnt go to something else, hence the term replaced.

To me, if the unid drop is replacing something else (a roll of 9999 on the table instead of 9998), the real question is what did it replace? Replacing a piece of blue or green gear with something that is at minimum worth as much as said piece of gear and potentially more is in the players’ favor. Replacing a rare or exotic with something with a minimum worth significanly lower may not be.

Look at it this way. The chances of gettting rare or exotic drops from mob loot is very low. Mostly it is blue/green. If the unid is replacing drops from mob loot, then from the data we have currently from several sources of people who have tested this, then we are far better off with the unid. On average, we will be far better off. It will cost us come gold to be better off, but we will still be better off. Gold is removed from the economy and the supply of all materials is increased, Magic Find is given value, inventory management is easier, new players can earn increased gold or materials, veterans can earn even more ectos and gold. This is a Win-Win for everyone.

Serious? This game has more rewards for doing nothing than anything I have experienced, it’s literally inventory filling with loot every 20 mins.

And items do not inflate currency, only coin rewards do that.

I think you just need to look into how you can take better advantage of the loot you are getting.

Axl.8924:

Durzlla.6295:

Axl.8924:

So i saw the quantify build for power druid and it says that dps is still lower than condi Druids even after the nerfs, is that true?

I thought power druid builds were viable.

Condi is more damage due to condis ticking while you’re in the avatar state and thus can’t deal any damage, where a power Druid would go into the avatar state and lose all damage but what their pet is dealing.

That being said, power is still viable, it just won’t bring as much damage, but if you’re a Druid your damage is gonna suck compared to anything else anyway so it’s really irrelevant you’re bringing less damage. Your goal is to heal and buff, the damage is just the bonus.

So druids are pure healers? What kind of gear do i want for healer? i was told by guildy i want magi gear.

Magi if you want maximum healing, otherwise you can spec into condi and have more damage. Magi is literally the lowest damage set you can have. I think Seraph has some serious potential for Druids and am playing around with builds atm for it. It’ll only have 900 healing power compared to 1500, but you over-heal a lot with 1500. It’ll have +62% outgoing healing though and lots of buffs for the party. I have Zealots gear that I use now and it’ll definitely out DPS that.

Maybe something along these lines I’ll make armor to try this out at some point, but I think it’s a pretty good compromise.

Just mucking around with some ideas here. I’ve always wanted a dual bow build to work and it may be viable with Soulbeast, hybrid stats seem to play into it pretty well.

Taking both bow GMs is a large investment and due to that the condition removal is not as good as I would like it to be. With Bear Stance it is not terrible, but what suggestions do you have for this setup? It’s based around interrupts primarily through PBS, Concussion Shot, Takedown, Brutal Leap and the shocking aura from Rune of Surging to proc MoC. Could possibly run Asura to take Technobabble as well. My goals with gear selection was 40% crit chance, 2k power, 1k condi damage, 20k health, 2500 armor and 300 healing power, I am pretty close but the condi removal has me second guessing.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQJATFEMEqN0XgomDgRv0LR6TA-TlCFAB5pLQ9HAAAXBAKVVxKlHDrWRxKx8TJYAHCA33fIAACw9tP23+AO6RP6RP6R77G9oH9oHtMA+jB-w

Not a bad stat set for sure. I’m dying to get Healing Power/Condition Damage, Precision/Expertise.

Durzlla.6295:

I think the bigger problem is that SotWs active, although looks very nice, is utter crap, if I wanted an AoE immob why wouldn’t I just slot muddy terrain, or entangle, or stone spirit, or use staff, or bring a drake Hound? If there’s one thing we are drowning in, it’s AoE immobs, we don’t need another one.

Personally I think SotH should keep its new active, you’re trading your chase potential for kill potential, which imo is a good trade off and is fitting for a diner of the hunt

Sig of the Wild needs its effect changed, not transferred… unless they wanted to make the new active our staff 2 or something… that would be nice, and then I could bathe in the animation more often.

I like this logic. Any suggestions for other effects?

How about a Stun or Daze in addition to the immob, to work with MoC? Protection to work with Rugged Growth? Stability and stunbreak would be lovely. How about Poison with your next 5 attacks or grant an AoO to allies?

Ashen.2907:

Djinn.9245:

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Excellent Name.9574:

Galactic.6453:

Excellent Name.9574:

Mystic or Master Kits to salvage Blue or Green gear

Yeah that’s why I said it makes no difference because you get the same basic mats either way.
Green sigils could gain to rise a bit in price because they’re worth jacks- at the moment. And it’s not like PoF will be the only content ever to exist now, plenty of people will still be doing the HoT map metas and world bosses and whatnot. Regular greens and blues will still be abundant.

If Anet planned this to solve the inventory problem, which I seriously doubt as it does not, it will go live in the entire game, not just PoF otherwise what would be the point? Not only green sigils and rune will rise, all of the materials that I mentioned will escalate. UND gear is just blue until identified.

It’s the “best of both worlds” because it solves inventory issues while out playing the game, meaning you only need to deal with your loot once per play session. Green sigils and runes are worthless atm, none of the materials will go up in cost since the supply is going to increase dramatically. Unid gear is NOTHING at all, until you id it, the loot does not exist until you get it ID’d which is essentially trading in your green unid tickets for loot.

It doesn’t matter what Unidentified Gear is because it doesn’t come from nowhere. It REPLACES gear that you would have received. Is the number of green salvageable trophies worth as much as all of the other drops I would have received before this replaced them? Including the rares and exotics? I don’t know and neither do you.

You speak as though your opinion on what will happen is fact. You don’t actually have any relevant evidence about what will happen.

Honest questions here,

Do we know for a fact that unid gear is replacing anything as opposed to being an addition?

Do we know that unid gear, if it is replacing something, isnt replacing a blue or green drop that couldnt have been salvaged for any more than the unid can? In fact, since green gear can not produce ectos, precursors, etc do we know for a fact that unid gear isnt actually replacing something of potentially significantly lower value?

We know that you still get other drops while also getting the unid. It may be replacing some drops or it may be in addition. I believe it is replacing some.

The unid drops are not replacing any tier of gear. They are trophies that you pay a silver price to turn into other loot that has a better chance of being rare. When you salvage the unid gear, you get a lot more materials than you would by salvaging blue or green gear and you don’t get the sigil/runes from them. I think the range is up to 20 of a random material, 18 iron has come from them several times and that is 1g value from a single unid. You are right that unid is usually replacing someting of lower value.