Ranger Soulbeast - help

[Patryk.1269]

Hello ;)

I am writing here for some informations.

I am not old player, I have just started playing about 3 months ago. I am enjoy playing as Ranger but I have heard bad opinions about it, that he is very unusefull etc..

Could you tell me guys the truth of this profession? I wanna rush PvP/PvE and fractals. I have warrior and guardian too but wanna try something else.

[Glider.5792]

I cant say much about soulbeast, it does have some uses in fractals and pvp, but in the end, its druid where ranger is the best at, at least in PvE. Druid is a must when it comes to fractal and raid groups, meanwhile soulbeast is only used on some occasions in pve (can also be played as dps, but its not that great compared to others). When it comes to pvp/wvw though, soulbeast does quite a nice job though i belive.

[sokeenoppa.5384]

Build healer/buffer druid and you are the one person that every1 wanna have in their group.

 

Soulbeast on The other hand is deasent condi dps

[Eleazar.9478]

Got you fam,

 

for PVP go power and heres a solid dueler/bruiser build (I tend to go glassier but this is a good forgiving build) just stay the fuck away from mesmers and remember the diffrence between a good soul beast and a bad one is a good one will constantly merge and un merge comboing with his pet merge when you want to pressure un merge when your going on the defensive or on cds), a bad one will just camp soulbeast form and get demolished.

 

also note you can drop stone for dolyack stance or moa. And you can switch lightning reflexes for sic em.

 

**PVP**

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQJARTjUqQJL2yCOsAXLWmEsngwF4jl3bDuJ3mAQDYCci0teO-jpxHQBib/BAcIAY4RA4bXAA/9AAoXZAA

 

For fractals another power build (condi is meta but power is fine for fractals) so you don't have to change up your play style completely, I chose dolyack just cause when your learning fracs you want to have at least a stun break. If you have good support and no druid I'd take frost spirit

 

**PVE**

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQJARTnE8CtCiN8CWsAs8il9A7JOcEea5r34b+dpJEAGdncereD-jhBBABVq+zZKBzTXAAXBgAeEAYt/o8jMA6jB-e

[starlinvf.1358]

Also try to keep in mind that most "complaints" on the forums, usually stems from a "Power Potential" problem with the various classes. The game's build system focuses heavily on Trait Synergy, where most MMORPGss do damage bonuses or effect stacking. Skills in GW2 gain power through their interactions with other skills or abilities, allowing a chain of effects to amplify each other's impact. It some cases it can be raw damage multiplication, in others it can combine crowd control or debuffs to make a target vulnerable the rest of the chain. This concept also directly extends to team composition, though this area is less strict due to many classes purposefully having multiple overlaps in roles.

 

This is why so many arguments break out over specific mechanics, as the way something behaves has a huge impact on how it can exploited. For instance, Ranger has long struggled with its class mechanic is having a pet as baseline. The Pet acts as a minion, has its own set of skills, and can be killed independently from the player. However, the problem is the player has almost no control on how the Pet executes its actions... they can only tell it to start attacking, stop attacking, or use a special ability. Since the Pet is a minion (and a full entity in the game), it has to physically reach its target, it takes time to casts its skills, its susceptible to damage, it will aggro enemies when attacking, it lacks on-demand defensive abilities, it has trouble with path finding, and doesn't have speed (even when traited) to reliably catch fast or erratic moving enemies.

 

This might had been less of issue, if not for the fact it the Pet makes up 25% of the classes entire damage budget, has separate pool of stats and traits that do not directly benefit from Ranger's stats or personal traits; and as a result, scale independently, and yield less peak numbers when completely focused in one area. This makes the pet a diffusion of the Ranger's power, rather then being either additive or multiplicative as a single whole. Soulbeast's mechanic (aka the Pet-less Ranger) is a response to constant player complaints about how the Pet works against the Ranger in several areas of the Class's design, and now allows "Pet specific" skills and traits to directly benefit the Ranger. Now that Rangers have some control over how/when the Pet is deployed, there are now a huge amount of discussion about improving traits to take advantage of entering and exiting Beast Mode, so it can be used as a tactical tool in fights. Its definitely Ironic, though not surprising, that after trying to get rid of the Pet to get a pet-less option, we're now looking for ways to make having the Pet into a working advantage..

[ChartFish.1308]

> @"starlinvf.1358" said:

> Now that Rangers have some control over how/when the Pet is deployed, there are now a huge amount of discussion about improving traits to take advantage of entering and exiting Beast Mode, so it can be used as a tactical tool in fights.

 

Honestly the slb traitline could use a lot of improvement when it comes to encouraging weaving in and out of beastmode like the devs seemed to want it to work like. Instead we get only two traits that benefit from doing this, fresh reinforcements and unstoppable union. Eternal bond even encourages players to stay in beastmode. While i like that beastmode doesnt have a specific duration and can be stayed in forever, it doesnt really encourage swapping in and out of beastmode :/ maybe if the personal buff (ferocious/versatile etc) only lasted for a set amount of time (10sec?) It'd encourage going in and out

[Lamassu.2503]

i use this with great success in sPvP

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNBlOD7kQFokFslFwhXglXsMJY552f7x1Jyd5ycNBgGwE4kWl+BA-jZxHQB0rMAAuIAf7BAku9HC4RAAA

or

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQRBMPdG2JhKQJLYLLgDvALvYZSwyzt/2jbTAoBMBcicXuM3Jt+t0A-jJxHQBpb/B6VGAAnEgA+EAAA

for smaller maps

[Turkeyspit.3965]

> @"ChartFish.1308" said:

> > @"starlinvf.1358" said:

e i like that beastmode doesnt have a specific duration and can be stayed in forever, it doesnt really encourage swapping in and out of beastmode :/ maybe if the personal buff (ferocious/versatile etc) only lasted for a set amount of time (10sec?) It'd encourage going in and out

 

Depends on your playstyle though. For example in WvW I usually run around merged with Owl for the screech / swoop abilities, but once we break down the walls and run up to the Champ, I'll swap out to Smokescale to drop a F2 smokefield around the boss, then merge with pet so I can hit F3 and buff my squad.

 

Its a bit of cooldown juggling though, so I'm glad I don't have to do it as part of a rotation. I much prefer running in beastmode as I don't have to worry about my pet's AI pathing.

 

 

[starlinvf.1358]

> @"Turkeyspit.3965" said:

> > @"ChartFish.1308" said:

> > > @"starlinvf.1358" said:

> e i like that beastmode doesnt have a specific duration and can be stayed in forever, it doesnt really encourage swapping in and out of beastmode :/ maybe if the personal buff (ferocious/versatile etc) only lasted for a set amount of time (10sec?) It'd encourage going in and out

>

> Depends on your playstyle though. For example in WvW I usually run around merged with Owl for the screech / swoop abilities, but once we break down the walls and run up to the Champ, I'll swap out to Smokescale to drop a F2 smokefield around the boss, then merge with pet so I can hit F3 and buff my squad.

>

> Its a bit of cooldown juggling though, so I'm glad I don't have to do it as part of a rotation. I much prefer running in beastmode as I don't have to worry about my pet's AI pathing.

>

>

 

Exactly. Because of what the pet is like without having control over its deployment, forcing Beast mode into some kind of rotation actively works against its potential. Druid Celestial Avatar has that exact problem with time pressure; and as a result the only way it can be used properly is through an upkeep rotation. Every other Spec with a Transform has a good exit strategy that allows the ability to be used either proactively or reactively, which makes makes its use in a rotation a lot more fluid. CA has a problem in that its designed to be fully committed to in order to get full use of it skills..... but the skills being so unwieldly, its like a whole profession mechanic being used like the old Ice Bow "Pop and Drop" strategy, because the other skills neither scale as good, nor offer enough utility compared to its main skill set.

 

 

The way I see it, skill combos, chains and rotations should be mostly modular in practice. Its a quantum observation applied to game design..... the idea that individual components can combine to form more complex things, yet still be built on very simple rules. Its how these rules interact that creates something greater then the sum of its parts. But another advantage is that complex things can become incredibly resilient (or insanely volatile) depending on how malleable its processes are. Some of the classes are designed well to do this.... and these very clearly show up repeatedly between metas. But the ones that don't, often built on, and made relevant by a single function, have their entire viability hinging on a couple of key traits/skills being able to carry a whole role. Chrono has been hanging by this thread since people realized it can pull double duty as tank and support at the same time. But if they crippled its potential for quickness sharing, could anything possibly take its place?

[Gotejjeken.1267]

Just stay out of WvW with it (unless you like pain).