Beastmode questions

[eldenbri.1059]

I'm working on a fun build idea and trying to understand a couple of concepts.

- For Supportive archetype pets, what does "healing increase per target: 25%" actually mean?

- Do hits delivered by "One Wolf Pack" count as hits by the player? I was trying to test whether these hits could proc poison in vulture stance (and therefore proc the Predator's Cunning trait), but it doesn't seem like that actually works.

- Bear Stance seems a little weak. Does it remove two conditions immediately on cast and then two at the end of each second?

- I seem to remember someone saying that being in beastmode grants a passive 25% runspeed increase. Is this only true if you have the Beastmastery trait line?

 

Thanks very much for the help!

[eldenbri.1059]

And two other question :)

- If you are always in beast mode, does the "on pet swap" part of the Poison Master trait ever do anything?

- If you are in beast mode, does the Refined Toxins trait add one or two stacks of poison (since you're pet can't hit)?

 

Thx!

[Professor Sprout.1560]

* **For Supportive archetype pets, what does "healing increase per target: 25%" actually mean?** Tricky question. In theory this effect should behave the same as most "%increase to outgoing healing" effects such as https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Rune_of_the_Monk. I don't use these pets, and would not feel comfortable speaking authoritatively on this subject without more extensive testing.

* **Do hits delivered by "One Wolf Pack" count as hits by the player? I was trying to test whether these hits could proc poison in vulture stance (and therefore proc the Predator's Cunning trait), but it doesn't seem like that actually works.** One Wolf hits that the _ranger itself_ lands are attributed to the ranger and seem to use the normal hit mechanics (one wolf hits use normal critical hit rules, cannot bypass damage immunity, etc.). As a result these one wolf hits will also trigger vulture stance provided the time interval limit on the vulture skill gives them permission to do so. Note that Vulture hits deal no direct damage and hence have no separate entry in the combat log - you can only see their effects by tracking how many stacks of poison are on the target or by guestimating stack count based on the poison damage tracker in the log. Would need to test more how these stances interact when shared with an ally.

* **Bear Stance seems a little weak. Does it remove two conditions immediately on cast and then two at the end of each second?** Working as intended, Bear Stance does not to me seem underpowered. Note however that the skill (which I admit I don't use much) seems to be bugged at the moment, at least according to his thread https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/24316/bear-stance-bugged

* **I seem to remember someone saying that being in beastmode grants a passive 25% runspeed increase. Is this only true if you have the Beastmastery trait line?** This is true only if you are using Beastmastery thanks to the "Pet's Prowess" minor trait. Note however that a soulbeast ranger has a number of sources of swiftness that can be combined together in order to have a 100% swiftness uptime.

* **If you are always in beast mode, does the "on pet swap" part of the Poison Master trait ever do anything?** Although there may be some tricks I am unaware of as I don't tend to run these traits, testing just now I was unable to trigger a pet-swap trait effect otherwise than by swapping pets. If you remain in merged form for the entirety of a fight then petswap is unavailable, and these traits do indeed do nothing.

* **If you are in beast mode, does the Refined Toxins trait add one or two stacks of poison (since you're pet can't hit)?** Testing just now I was getting one stack from my pet and one from myself whilst unmerged, and two stacks from myself whilst merged.

 

 

[eldenbri.1059]

Thanks much - super helpful!

[Professor Sprout.1560]

You're most welcome - your questions were interesting and I wanted answers to them as well. As for the first one, regarding the supportive pets, I ran some tests over the last few minutes and the results were quite interesting. I used my normal soulbeast build which has 0 healing power and tested recovery values on my own ranger and on the ranger's spirits in the fractal observatory against a combat golem. I got the following values for the following items. The first number given in each entry was the unmerged value and the second the value after merging with the supportive-type pig. The numbers for the outgoing heal effects did not seem to change whether they were applied to the ranger itself or to a spirit.

 

Healing Spring 4920, 6150

Regeneration 130, 163

Water Spirit Passive 805,1006

Rugged Growth 259, 324

Sigil of Draining 965, 1206

Beastmastery (works on ranger whilst merged but effects are not listed in log) 375, 469

Troll Unguent1062, 1328

Invigourating Bond 2580, 3225

Eat Egg 2132, 2665

Nature Spirit 192, 240

Bear Stance per condition (heal numbers do not seem to correlate with number of conditions cleared as these values were tested with just poison) 408/1890, 510/751/1020

Tropical Peppermint Cakes 85, 106

Minberry Swirl Ice Cream 325, 406

 

These results show that the supportive pet buff consistently improves healing effects which are applied to or by the ranger by 25%, including those which do not normally benefit from healing power.

 

Conclusion: promising. I doubt any meta PvE composition will begin running support soulbeasts anytime soon, but there may be room in PvP/WvW for a bunker soulbeast that can take advantage of this buff somehow. Certainly in solo PvE I would regard Supportive as a very competitive alternative to Stout for a soulbeast's second non-DPS pet.

 

EDIT I forgot the most ~~useless~~ important statistic!

Self-Repair (Summon Power Suit 5) 2827, 3634

That's right: even though the Asura racial elite transformation overrides the ranger's class skills it does not remove the soulbeast's merged pet buff; and even though the heal is expressed in percentage terms it still benefits from the additional heal multiplier of the supportive pet. The skill remains underpowered compared with One Wolf Pack, but I can't resist gimmicky options like this and so I may run around as a Power Suit in non-serious content from now on ::D

[AEFA.9035]

> @"Professor Sprout.1560" said:

> You're most welcome - your questions were interesting and I wanted answers to them as well. As for the first one, regarding the supportive pets, I ran some tests over the last few minutes and the results were quite interesting. I used my normal soulbeast build which has 0 healing power and tested recovery values on my own ranger and on the ranger's spirits in the fractal observatory against a combat golem. I got the following values for the following items. The first number given in each entry was the unmerged value and the second the value after merging with the supportive-type pig. The numbers for the outgoing heal effects did not seem to change whether they were applied to the ranger itself or to a spirit.

>

> Healing Spring 4920, 6150

> Regeneration 130, 163

> Water Spirit Passive 805,1006

> Rugged Growth 259, 324

> Sigil of Draining 965, 1206

> Beastmastery (works on ranger whilst merged but effects are not listed in log) 375, 469

> Troll Unguent1062, 1328

> Invigourating Bond 2580, 3225

> Eat Egg 2132, 2665

> Nature Spirit 192, 240

> Bear Stance per condition (heal numbers do not seem to correlate with number of conditions cleared as these values were tested with just poison) 408/1890, 510/751/1020

> Tropical Peppermint Cakes 85, 106

> Minberry Swirl Ice Cream 325, 406

>

> These results show that the supportive pet buff consistently improves healing effects which are applied to or by the ranger by 25%, including those which do not normally benefit from healing power.

>

> Conclusion: promising. I doubt any meta PvE composition will begin running support soulbeasts anytime soon, but there may be room in PvP/WvW for a bunker soulbeast that can take advantage of this buff somehow. Certainly in solo PvE I would regard Supportive as a very competitive alternative to Stout for a soulbeast's second non-DPS pet.

>

> EDIT I forgot the most ~~useless~~ important statistic!

> Self-Repair (Summon Power Suit 5) 2827, 3634

> That's right: even though the Asura racial elite transformation overrides the ranger's class skills it does not remove the soulbeast's merged pet buff; and even though the heal is expressed in percentage terms it still benefits from the additional heal multiplier of the supportive pet. The skill remains underpowered compared with One Wolf Pack, but I can't resist gimmicky options like this and so I may run around as a Power Suit in non-serious content from now on ::D

 

I've tested support Soulbeast in pvp just basing it on the end result of pvp for healing done not testing like you did which seem accurate it's on par with druids I'm thinking because of the stance share and Regen you can do 418K healing at the end of my game is the best number I got. But when I was playing Soulbeast I traited for stance my support are moa which BTW only works on the player when merged with pet. I use warhorn for buffs. I run nature and wilderness. To add, you can use Stone spirit yes I know spirit sick etc but if youre thinking of ultimate support with rugged growth and second skin stone spirit can dish out up to6 second of prot on Ranger without any trait boost from pet. You need to be mindful of placing the spirit and when to place them though.