[PvP/WvW] It's been over 5 months now. There are still no meta builds for Soulbeast.

[kappa.2036]

Almost half a year has passed since the release of PoF. Despite all this time, soulbeast still can not find a place in a pvp team or in a wvw squad.

Don't get me wrong, it is USABLE. But there is a substantial difference between what is usable and what is OPTIMAL.

 

 

In pvp, we all know, druid reigns.

Of course, you can also climb the leaderboard with your soulbeast, or core ranger, but in a team composition context, druid remains mandatory for any ranger that approaches a competitive pvp event.

In wvw, rangers have always been a hated class and famous for not bringing enough utilities to the group. If you run ranger, soulbeast or druid, doesn't matter: you are not optimal.

 

In all this time, arenanet has made some minor changes to soulbeast, like bug fixes or some irrelevant buffs here and there, but nothing that can actually make soulbeast a competitive spec. So what is preventing the soulbeast from being used in a team?

 

**REASON #1: Pet choice**

It seemed that soulbeast was able to make useful even old pets. This is not true. Right now you are basically forced to play Smokescale and a supportive pet, like jacaranda or snow owl. Gazelle is not bad if you want to go full damage, but yeh, apart these pets, the others are all disgustingly bad. Some pets have nice skills but they are not able to hit anything, others have good damage but their beastmode utilities are not good enough. So that's it, Smokescale + Jacaranda/Owl/Gazelle.

 

**REASON #2: Beastmode**

Here comes the real point. The Beastmode mechanic, for how it works now, is punishing the ranger. The fact that you can not change the pet while in beastmode prevents soulbeast from being able to adapt to various situations. In fact, in some circumstances it's possible that we need Spiritual Repreive and after 1 second we need Unflitching Fortitude. At the moment we can only use one of the two abilities and for the other one we have to wait 10 seconds: this puts the player in a situation where he must be able to predict what will happen in the next seconds. Sometimes is possible, other times instead, the fact that you can not change pet in beastmode means that you are f****d, especially in WvW.

 

**REASON #3: Group utilities**

One of the main reasons why soulbeast doesn't find a spot in a team is that it doesn't bring enough group utilities. Stances themselves are not that bad, but they can not compete with other classes utilities. Stances cooldowns are also very very high and the radius is too short, the effects are boring and not much impactful in a fight.

 

**REASON #4: Power weapons > Condi weapons; Power pets > Condi pets**

Ranger power weapons (longbow, greatsword, sword, axe offhand, warhorn) are much more useful than condi weapons (dagger mh, shortbow, torch, axe mh, etc) in terms of utilities and being able to do damage on moving targets. The reason why nobody uses dagger mh is because the weapon doesn't have enough utilities to allow us fight in melee range.

 

Same problem is for pets. Condi pets are faaar weaker than power pets in terms of utilities and mobility. Jacaranda for example has a good power damage, cc, and can heal at the same time, while iboga has only damage and cc.

 

**MY SUGGESTIONS**

 

* Beastmode cooldown increased to 12s. Cooldowns become separate for each pet, which means you can go in beastmode with your smokescale, then you can leave beastmode, switch to jacaranda and immediately go in beastmode again since each pet have its own beastmode cooldown. I know that sounds kinda clunky, but if anet don't want petswap in beastmode, this is better than nothing.

* Dagger mainhand "Double Arc" : If your target is using a skill, this attack daze for 1 s. Cooldown increased to 10s.

* Dagger mainhand "Instinctive Engage": This skill now evades for 1/4 s.

* Griffon Stance: This skill now breaks stun. Gain endurance. Your endurance recovery is greatly improved. You lose a condition and gain might when you evade attacks.

* Eternal Bond: Whenever you leave beastmode, your pet pulls 2 conditions from you on himself. While in beastmode, if you would be downed you instead fall out of beastmode and recover health.

* Live Fast: This skill now gives boons when using your pet F2. Added 10s internal cooldown.

* Leader of the Pack: Stance skills gain increased duration on you and grant their effects to nearby allies for a reduced duration. Your Stances gain additional recharge reduction for each ally affected. Recharge reduction x ally: 5%. Stance radius increased from 360 to 400.

* Predator's Cunning: When you hit a poisoned foe, steal some health from them. Life Siphon Damage: 200 (0.006)? / Life Siphon Healing: 200 (0.012)?

* Harmonic Cry (soulbeast): Radius increased from 240 to 360. Healing increased from 1,750 to 3,250.

* Soulbeast Canine skills range should be fixed.

* Devourer Retreat (soulbeast): This skill now is ground targeted.

* Soulbeast Feline skills should grant more damage and mobility.

 

I probably forgot something, but that's pretty much it.

 

I do not know if you agree with me, I would like to know your opinions about this. Let's make soulbeast good, this time!

 

[InsaneQR.7412]

Its not bad. I am more for the petswap in beastmode but uts something.

I would add that versatile pets should give condition duration instead of health.

That you can swap beast natures between the same family members.

That sandlion gets a stout nature my default and that its active gives blind and blocks attack.

Spiders should get their F2 and the poisonfield swapped. So you can control the field and get the quickpress "sharpening stone" like condition application in beastmode, similar to bristlebacks beastmode skills.

Core skills regarding poison should be improved.

Rewards for leaving and entering beastmode should be better implemented in the traits and the pet stat bonus should stay outside beastmode for its CD duration. So you dont loss something if you unmerge.

 

 

[Eleazar.9478]

Man you you've got some interesting ideas. Maybe that pet CD per beastmode would be a good middle ground. On a side note I'm pretty intreaged by everyone's suggestions hope Anets maybe tossing some around

[Za Shaloc.3908]

I am curious to see how Soulbeast will fare after this upcoming patch. With other classes/specs getting nerfed more than it, I think it could potentially carve out a spot for it in the meta. It's hard to say though, as it's all speculation and I don't set foot in sPvP much anymore.

 

From a skirmishing perspective, it's hard for me to say that I feel the spec needs buffs. When I run soulbeast, I feel like I am playing a pretty balanced spec. This is speaking in terms of power, at least; condi is a different story. However, most of your suggestions are reasonable and address underperforming aspects of the specialization that wouldn't really bring it to an overpowered state. Dagger, Griffon Stance, and as some beastmode skills are what stand out the most for me as needing help, and I think your ideas help address that. It would also be nice to see some of our core weapon kits polished up a bit.

 

I don't know how I feel about swapping in beastmode anymore. When I first started playing Soulbeast, it felt like the spec really needed it, but after playing it so much in WvW now, I feel like I have adapted and it doesn't feel clunky anymore. However, I think a lot of that has to do with taking BM and Zephyr's Speed. It's similar to how Arcane makes Weaver feel smoother. But should an elite spec really require another traitline to make it feel more functionable? I don't think it should. I am torn on this. I appreciate that there is thought involved in pet/beastmode management, but I do understand that allowing a more forgiving mechanic would make the spec feel a lot more fluid.