Kraitan.8476

Am I the only one who's hoping for any kind of instanced pvp that isn't on a tiny map fighting in tiny circles? Come on.

I'm sure Anet is aware of current balancing issues, that's not what concerns me. What does concern me is that if the next balance patch DOESN'T FIX it, knowing Anet it will take at least another 3 months to get 10 new lines of balance changes...

Yeah OP, PoF hasn't been rangers' greatest time to be alive.

See title, I think it would also make a nice addition for spectator mode as well. Thoughts?

To be honest I feel like this is the perfect time for a new pvp mode perhaps? I say this because some conquest maps (like Khylo) have really been hit by this. More often than not fights on midnodes are just a messy sh*tfest. The nodes are quite small and are just being spammed with a ton of aoe making it nearly impossible for the average player to dodge certain important abilities. What would be so wrong with a larger map (think bloodstone fen size?) and have multiple different objectives (NOT conquest circles) and perhaps even allowing mounts on it. I know this all sounds very vague and to be honest I haven't exactly come up with a perfect idea yet but just ANY other game mode with a LARGE map with MORE players, I think would be very much appreciated by quite a number of players who enjoy PvP, but hate being forced into conquest very single day. I know we've gotten stronghold with HoT and it's not very popular, but I think that's mostly because certain feedback was ignored & tbh I don't think the pvp devs are very much in touch with what the players prefer. Sorry about sh*t grammar. Thanks for reading!

Yeah some pets got interesting abilities but are just so so inefficient when they not merged. Almost like they've never seen a moving target before.

From a pvp/wvw perspective, stances are sh*t. Some of them need numbers adjusted, others just need a complete overhaul. Furthermore the elite is the second time rangers got an elite thats just not playable in any form of pvp (have you ever seen someone use the glyph elite in pvp? eehmm NO). Pet merging is cool, but to be honest when they announced it I got the idea that it was going to be a little more complex and it all seems pretty flavorless now, why doesnt the jaguar give a 3s stealth for example? What's with all weird animations on most pet abilities and why do so many pets have the same abilities, really way simpler and less interesting than I expected.

I dnno I've pretty much started playing other stuff because I just can't keep playing a boring staff-druid & soulbeast is anything but playable.

Can I just add that the current trait which makes all SB attacks flank, is bugged, and actually DOES NOT WORK reliably? Especially the SB 4 and 5 seem to bug out alot. Nice fake trait there Anet. Just another bug us rangers have to live with.

Anet gonna see this poll and be like: oh, everything is cool with soulbeast, many people don't even expect changes! Jokes aside: the fact that I voted for ' nothing will change' is purely based on 5 years of playing ranger & reading patch notes. It's salt, cynicism & previous disappointment that made me vote how I've voted :(

> @ArmageddonAsh.6430 said:

> > @Redfeather.6401 said:

> > **One Wolf Pack** could keep it's flavour, but be made more interesting.

> >

> > * Instant cast time if used in Beastmode. Increase it's duration by 4 seconds if not used in Beastmode.

> > * Reduce it's cooldown by 10 seconds every time the ranger enters Beastmode.

>

> Still be of little to no use for Support, Hybrid or Condi builds as the damage is pitiful. I think it should be removed and replaced with a new Elite, something that is actually worth using.

Yeah and what really stings me about the elite is that HoT gave a glyph which basicly is only used in raids, and even then not always. Now with PoF it seems like a DPS elite ability but it's just as dead as it can possibly be rightnow, 5 years of GW2 and rangers can pretty much pick from 2 elites: SOTP or Entangle depending on what traits you have. There is just so little room for costumization with abilities like these being added.

> @Redfeather.6401 said:

> **One Wolf Pack** could keep it's flavour, but be made more interesting.

>

> * Instant cast time if used in Beastmode. Increase it's duration by 4 seconds if not used in Beastmode.

> * Reduce it's cooldown by 10 seconds every time the ranger enters Beastmode.

That's a very interesting idea, that might actually make the elite playable (probably still not meta, but a bit more playable at least!)

> @Loopgru.1026 said:

> > @Arheundel.6451 said:

> > You're not supposed to camp beastmode

>

> One dev made one comment about pet weaving being interesting and people act like it was written in the stars. Things change based on how players respond to it.

>

> Remember, Reaper was "supposed" to be a power spec, too...

Just like revenant originally had no weapon swapping. Anyone remember? Wonder how long this joke continues before we get it. It's just not very enjoyable like this..

Hello!

After playing soulbeast for quite some time in different game modes, I've come up with a few questions/remarks which I will all try to list below. I'm hoping some of you can give me some insight on. Let's begin with the stances.

1. Bear Stance: It's somewhat ok, although I dont really see the need to put a casting time on this stance (0.75s like troll unguent). While running soulbeast as a traitline, most people will also take wilderniss survival + something else, making troll unguent usually the preferred pick here due to faster cleansing, a 5s lower cooldown and a larger heal most of the times. In general it's a decent skill, but unless you have 8 conditions on you + the 4 seconds of time to wait them out while they are cleansed by Bear Stance, it's just outclassed by its alternatives. Another example, A soulbeast running beastmastery traits, will in general benefit more from using shouts with the heal as one elite which has a lower cooldown, way more utility to it, and unless you have 8 conditions on you, it heals better than the Bear stance.

2. Dolyak Stance: Of all the new stances I like thisone best. This is because this skill has a clear purpose, no strings attached and can serve in any build without it being crippled too much. Does this mean I think it's a good skill & I've replaced another to use it? No. Personally I prefer Lightning Reflexes over this.

3. Griffon Stance: 45s cd, 8s of 100% endurance regen + might on evade + 25 endurance. Really? this comes down to 2.5 dodges on a 45s cooldown. Now you could say, but you get might on evades aswell! yes this is correct. Sorry to say the 2-3 stacks of might you might get from this dont make up for having a 45s cooldown just so you can dodge 2 additional times. I personally don't know why this was designed the way it is and what purpose it serves. I've got a ranger with legendary gear, tried many different statsets, tried dodge runes/sigils/whatever I could find but eventually I always end up dead thinking: why didnt I take signet of stone over the 2 dodges? I just cant find any reason to use this anywhere..

4. Moa Stance. 66% boon duration, 25s CD. Interesting skill, it has clear synergy with existing traitlines and serves a clear purpose. It's not a skill I personally like because I'm not into stacking boons (which is becoming less rewarding in pvp with the boonhate;) but that's not the point, I think this skill has purpose and a place to be used. Especially when sharing with allies, it might get quite interesting but realistically I don't see this becoming meta anytime soon.

5. Vulture Stance. gives might if you hit a target above 50% hp, gives them a stack of poison if they are below it. Another interesting stance, when shared it could be fun but here's the issue I'm having: how do I use this effectively, there's 2 scenario's I see with this. 1. the target is above 50%, which means I will only gain some might of this util. Might isn't special or hard to come by, why would I sacrifice a util slot for some might in the case that I happen to land some attacks. 2. the target is below 50% and you inflict poison with your attacks. Sounds good but that means you have to get your target below 50% without touching this utility and once they are, better hope they don't block/run/invuln/port because only then it will actualy do something noticeable.

6. One Wolf Pack. Sadly my least favorite. It's on a 60s cd, has a cast-time and an ICD making sure you don't proc it too often. On top of that, the 'second hits' you apply aren't even full force, they're reduced packs of damage. In theory it seemed pretty cool to me, like the ultimate soulbeast ability right? No. the fun would be sharing this insane elite with your team right? Nah, revenant will do that, but better. Then there is pvp or wvw but sadly there is no universe in which taking this over Entangle or SOTP is beneficial. In terms of surviving One Wold Pack offers nothing, and in terms of dealing damage: you're gonna have to hit the enemy a WHOLE lot in those 8s to make this worth it in any way whatsoever. And that's not happening, people will block, evade, invuln, teleport, stealth, cc you etc. I feel sad that even with the best possible usage of this skill, it's still pretty weak compared to older elites and other classes' elites.

So when is this post getting constructive? Soon.

For one, I'd say remove the cast times on the heal & elite stance. They aren't used in their current form and even without a cast time on these stances, they will not be used much, but it's a start. Secondly, Sharing stances with allies. make this standard on all stances, and change the trait to: stances on allies last 100% instead of 50%? I'm not sure where the sweet spot will be with this but the Soulbeasts options for grandmaster traits are kinda meh at the moment. The upper one (Eternal Bond) is good if you fuck up and die, but a 4k heal and some protection won't save you much if you we're getting rekt to begin with. The middle one (Leader of the Pack) really only makes sense if you're creating some kind of stancesharing build, problem here however is, allies only get 50% and taking that trait means you'll be wanting to take some stances. This is literally the only reason I can think of to run a stance, but running a stance just in order to share it with teammates and not because the stance is good or interesting to begin with feels bad man. Then there's the last grandmaster trait of which im sure the majority of soulbeasts ends up using. It's a DPS increase as long as you % have more health than your enemy. It's decent, but in the end its just a little DPS increase and I thought maybe the grandmaster traits would have more prominent effects, like for example the Light on your Feet grandmaster trait from skirmishing. It works in multiple ways, it enhances damage after dodging, makes arrows pierce and hit like they were hit from behind & reduces shortbow CDs. That's what I meant, it works on mulitple levels and can actually influence the way you play.

Beside that soulbeast has 2 more traits (Fresh reinforcements & Essence of speed) which exist in order to completement boonbuilds. The thing about it is, if you wanna run those traits, it has to be some kind of boonbuild right? Which means beastmastery & shouts, heal as one for a healing skill and SOTP for elite. Which basicly means you're playing a druidbuild, except you have no staff, celestial avatar or the effects that go along with it, and you're basicly a boonsharing powerranger with LB/GS or take it the condi route and create some kind of condi boonbuild or w/e. I'm drifting away here, my point being, I personally didn't enjoy the HoT pvp meta as a ranger, it basicly forced me to take druid and the shoutbuild that goes along with that. Now a few years later PoF is released, with a ton of classes with a TON of boonrip, but soulbeasts gets traits promoting boonbuilds? Seems like a bad idea to go full on boons with that much stripping around these days. Which brings me to the TL;DR because this post is draining my soul already.

TL;DR, Pof brought us cool pets, and a fun mechanic of merging with pets. However, stances might need a second look, Dolyak + moa can find a place (bad place, but a place) but griffon + vulture stance seem completely vague and have no real purpose as far as I know. Secondly the elite stance seems cool but really is another skill which is just never gonna be used in any game mode. As for the traits, some of them work, but some seem to work around a 2015 meta and in general they're kinda passive & straightforward. There is no real option to pick between different ones since their effects are hugely different and serve completely different game modes/purposes. Don't take that last part as a compliment, being that unique isn't necessarily a good thing.

I'd love to hear what other peoples' impressions are and get some discussion going because honestly I feel disappointed and was wondering what other rangers' experiences with soulbeast are. (played ranger for almost 3k hours btw)

Final note, please let us stay merged while we mount/dismount and also please please please let us swap pets while merged!

Inb4 Legacy mid becomes Khylo mid 2.0 Kappa

I love soulbeast I just think the stances need polishing and elite.. just rework it please. It's barely useable/viable in any kind of pvp. I Love the spec & would love to be able to use the new skills alongside it. For example: the griffon stance, gives half a dodge, 8s of +100% endurance regen and might on evade. This basicly comes down to barely 3 dodges and a few stacks of might on a 45s cooldown. You would think: Hhmm, but maybe there's a way to use it in combination with certain traits? No. The only trait interacting with stances is the grandmaster one allowing it to be shared. Final note: Since they are stances, and the elite + heal are already outclassed by old skills + their AVAILABLE traits, why is there a cast time on them? Just not making sense here imo, without a cast time on these skills (which would make sense for a stance right?), they still would not be meta in any way shape or form. TL;DR Love the spec, disappointed with utils + elite.

PS. HoT gave druids an elite which was basicly used in pretty much only raids, With PoF. the elite seems to be another somewhat dead skill. I really hope they take another look at these skills.

The stances I can't get to work in any game mode, in pvp, there are better alternatives in every situation, in wvw, same case, in pve? irrelevant (does anyone know)? Also, why add a cast time to the heal and elite stance? Wasn't the whole thing with stances that they in fact, weren't spells and didn't have cast times? Like, the new elite stance from soulbeast lasts only 8 seconds with a 60s CD and shit damage output. Anyone any clue why they felt the need to then: add an internal CD AND add a cast time? Feels like the second expansion where ranger gets shit for an elite, useless in every single aspect except perhaps raids. Good thing is tho that unlike HoT, this time around our utilities appear to be useless aswell! In general I'm in LOVE with the pet melding and all that stuff, but the stances for utilities are boring, lackluster, shallow, don't fullfill any role in any area of the game that I enjoy (which is nearly all parts of the game) and I feel fairly disappointed that my class got new skills which I'm already probably never going to touch again...

Yeah it's first time editing so the green wasn't exactly how I liked it either but went with it, will go a little less on major effects like that in future stuff, glad you enjoyed!